The Press.
London, England, 1858-03-20 00:00:00

he was writing from his own resources. Other
instances cf the same kind could be adduced.
We shall doubtless find some worthier op-
portunity of discussing the great Scottish
Cavalier at length than any that a book like
the present can afford. But we cannot part
from the hero, even on an occasion when

curru servus partatur eodem,
without a few words of, we hope, suggestive
remark on his career.

In the first place, it is curious that in the
most Puritan of the two countries the greatest
Cavalier should have been produced. Presby-
terianism is fundamentally Radical in its ten-
dencies; and what a generous soul must that
man have had who, born a Presbyterian noble,
in that age could leave the hopeful for the des-
perate cause, and that without the personal
attraction having been brought to bear on him
which has so often won over men of generous
sentiment ! The change which has been ob-
jected to Montrose is precisely what proves
him to have been conscientiously excellent.
He was for the " Covenant " when it only
meant Scottish nationality of faith. He was
against the " Solemn League and Covenant "
when it showed itself to carry in its bosom
political and social revolution. He changed
just when a low fellow would have become
more bigoted ; left the Kirk militant, not, like
a rat, when he thought it sinking, but like an
eagle when ho thought the air too foul to
breathe. Had he used his great talents and
great name for mere personal advantage, what
might he not have been ? Had he intrigued
like the false Hamilton, or the still falser,
darker, and meaner Argyle, what was not open
to his ambition ? But he risked everything
for the King ; raised armies where no man
else would have looked for them ; poured over
Scotland like a torrent,—winning victories
with blows like thunderbolts, and making
marches through regions considered at all
times impenetrable, in seasons when the
thought of a Highland mountain makes the
blood almost freeze. For a parallel to his
mere exploits we must go to the most wonder-
ful campaigns in ,his tory. But, along with all
this, no man of his age was a more thorough
gentleman in the best sense—accomplished,
wise, graceful, lettered. His presence was a
sort of inspiration, and the air and manner of
the man produced a ilatural belief in his
capability for greatness. This completeness of
character within and without—this perfect
correspondence of body and soul—is one of
the surest marks not only of a great man, but
of one who comes from a fine race. It is a
feudal characteristic especially, and therefore
peculiarly becoming in the Chief of the Gra-
hams. And nothing else can explain the fact
that, with a Presbyterian Church and an im-
mense modern development cf trade,* the
Scottish people should still look so kindly and
reverently on ideas of blood and race, but this
production of such men as Montrose by their
ancient aristocracy. He fell as others fell,
and failed as others fail ; but he neither fell
nor failed in vain. Many who disapproved
his principles have yet profited by his example :
and there are sound Presbyterians who know
in their most reflective hour that that cause
must have had something nobler in it than
bigots fancy, which could be the inspiration
of such a life and such a death.

Seaside Studies at Ilfracombe, Tenby, the
Scilly Isles, and Jersey. By George Henry
Lewes. London : Blackwoods.
As we are unfortunately to be ranked among
those benighted individuals who do not know
the difference between a ga.steropodus mol-
lusc and a compound ascidian, we have been
able to derive only a moderate degree of plea-
sure from the perusal of the present volume.
But it is saying a great deal for Mr. Lewes
that he has been able to display any vivacity
at all on such a subject. He moves easily
among his hard names, and handles his slimy
booty with as much tenderness as a ratcateher
does a ferret; rattling on all the time with an
odd kind of humour, half-affected, half-natural,
as if to try one's confidence in him. Of the
substantial merits cf his work there are various
opinions. Some say it is too instructive to be
amusing; others, that it is too amusing to