The Press.
London, England, 1854-06-17 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

was invariably erect, and she bore her head rather thrown
back, and with an air of dignity. Her countenance, in her
later years, lost much of that fire which once irradiated it;
but the expression was more pleasing, softer, more tender,
and loving. Her eyes were especially charming ; there
was in them an ardour mingled with gentleness that
bespoke her true nature, and occasionally they were raised
upwards with a look most peculiar and expressive, when
her sympathy was more than usually excited. Her com-
plexion was fair, and the kindling blush mantled in her
cheek, betraying any passing emotion ; for, like her friend
Lafayette, she " blushed like a girl to hear her own praises."
Altogether she attracted you, and you drew near to her,
and liked to look into her face, and felt that old age, iu her,
was beautiful and comely.

Notwithstanding the professed humility of
the Society of Friends, we have often seen
Quaker beaux and belles, Brummels under
broadbrims, and " Lady Amaranths" in lilac
satin and point lace. The foregoing descrip-
tion of finery is suggestive of the inconsis-
tency of the Quakers. But wo pass on to
some of the anecdotes recorded by Mrs. Opie.
She was in London in the stirring season of
1814, when it was crowded with remarkable
persons. Amongst others whom she met was
the late Lady Sarah Napier, who is thus intro-
duced at a party at Westmacott the sculp-
tor's :

When most of the company was gone Lady C. took the
seat vacated by Lady Mornington, that mother of great
men, and it was next a venerable•looking blind woman,
whom Lord C. had previously pointed out to me as the
once celebrated beauty, Lady Sarah Lennox. She is now
grey, blind, and seems both by her voice and manner to
be bowed by various cares; but perhaps I fancied this.

The compilers of this ill executed work ovi •
dently do not know anything about the history
of Lady Sarah. If they were acquainted with
her story they might have remarked that the
mother of the conqueror of Scinde was a fit-
ting person to sit next the mother of the
Wellesleys. They publish tho following re-
ferences to Lady Sarah without any note or
comment:—

Now to go back to Lady Sarah, who, as I said before, is
blind. • • • Lord Tullamore came to me and said,
" Now almost all the company is gone, you will sing a
little ballad." I rose, and went to Lady Charleville.
" This," said she, " is Lady S. Napier, will you sing her a
ballad?" and, recollecting how ill I once used Lady C. in
not answering a letter of hers for three years, and eager
to make amends, I said I could not sing anything worth
hearing, but I would try. " Surely," said Lady Sarah,
"that was injudicious ; Mrs. Opie would rather not have
had the attention of the company so loudly solicited."
" Very true," replied Lady C., " but your ladyship is always
the best-bred woman in the world, and I the worst, and I
never see you without taking a lesson in manners."
a • • Well, after having beguiled my fear a little, by
inquiring of Lady S. after her sister, Lady Louisa Cottony,
I begun, and. sung, "Nay, take it, Patty," and decently,
considering. By Lady Sarah was one of her suns, who,
with his brothers, was wounded in every engagement
abroad, and one of them taken up for dead. 1 never saw
a handsomer man! I could not help looking at him!
He is very black, with black moustachms, that make him
look like a picture of some young Venetian by Titian,
and his manner was so pleasing ! Ho has his mother's
outline, enlarged into manly beauty, and he has such line
dark eyes
The brilliant and once beautiful woman al-
luded to in these passages was the Lady Sarah
Lennox of Horace Walpole and the " Grenville
Papers." Some remarkable proofs of her lite
rary ability are to be found in Moore's "Life
of Lord Edward Fitzgerald," and the pen of
Mrs. Opie has now added another to our
printed illustrations of one of the most highly-
endowed women of the last century. The
mother of the Napiers was a far more interest
ing personage in society than the mother of
the Wellesleys.

We meet some very amusing proofs of bad
editing in this volume. We select one as
the passage is highly illustrative of the vanity
of " Chancellor Ego," the great advocate
Erskine. Neither Mrs. Opie nor her editors
appear to be aware of his ridiculous propen-
sity to talk constantly about himself :

Consequently, great was my impatience till the day of
the dinner came, and the great orator arrived ; but though
he again talked most pleasantly, and on law subjects too,
not one single allusion did he make to the Huntingdon
cause. In vain did I try to take courage, and remind him
of his promise; I was not then a married woman, and
fancied it would be presuming to do so ; but, when I
heard his carriage announced, and saw him about to
depart, made valiant by despair, I exclaimed, "Oh ! Mr.
Erskine, you have not fulfilled your promise 1 you have
not told us the particulars of the Huntingdon cause ! "
" True ! " he replied, starting and turning back, " but you
shall not be disappointed," and, leading me to the sofa, h'•
seated himself beside me, and went through the whole of
the proceedings. lie gave ue the evidence on both sides,

567

told us what his opponent had said for the plaintiff, and
he for the defendant; and, warming as he proceeded,
he soon grow as much interested in the details as we
were, and when he came to the verdict of the jury, which
was in favour of his client, his countenance beamed with
animation while he described the general plaudit with
which the verdict was received in the court, and tune shouts
which were heard outside the walls from the assembled
multitude !

Mrs. Opie fails to give us a lively sketch of
Erskine "on his legs," though she attempts
it, and in lieu of doing so refers us to the
monody of Sheridan on Garrick, which really.
does contain some lines that depict Erskine a
style of delivery. Of another celebrated orator
she has given us a much better picture, and
we regret that it is too long for us to extract
unbroken. When George Canning was an
Eton boy he visited Norwich, and even there,
it appears, he was looked on as a prodigy.
Along with some of his friends he disturbed
by loud talking a concert at Norwich, but the
grace of his apology charmed those whom he
had annoyed, and, after describing the scene,
Mrs. Opie proceeds :

From that time he possessed a higher t the in my
esteem than his successes at Eton could have given him.
Many years elapsed before I saw hint again; for, though
I became rather intimate with his aunt, he never visited
at the house while 1 happened to be one of the guests ;
and at an early period of my life the family quitted
Norwich. But I saw him soon after he obtained a seat
iu Parliament (1793), and when the Pitt Administration
had won the young orator from his early political friends
and ranked him amongst their adherents. At the time to
which I allude he was standing on Windsor-terrace, bare-
headed ; his cheek evidently flushed with pleasurable
emotion, and listening to George the Third, who, with the
Queen and the Royal Family, was taking his evening
walk there. The royal party stopped sonic time before
the young member, and it was with an e►uotion of
pleasure that I saw him thus publicly distinguished by his
Sovereign.

The last time I beheld him was in the hall of Bucking-
ham-house, when the Queen and Regent received at that
palace, and he was returning from a levee. With what
increased interest did I then behold him ; he was then in
middle life, but I saw the same character of face and
features as when I was interested in the Eton boy. How
different was now his bearing; how different the character
of his person altogether! There was a degree of dignity
in his mien, and a loftiness in the carriage of his head
which a well-founded consciousness of his importance in
the scale of society would naturally give, at the same
time there was a slight expression of sadness in his
smiles; yet he might be justly called the child of prosper-
ous ambition His talents had raised him to the highest
offices of the State ; his eloquence was the delight of
his friends, and the terror of his enemies ; he had formed
a high and happy connection in marriage ; he was ad-
mired by his opponents, and loved by his intimates; anti
it seemed as if this world could bestow on him nothing
more.

Among his mourners none was more sincere than
myself, and rarely, even yet, do I pass his statue without
breathing a sigh to his memory, and exclaiming, as I gaze
on that sculptured form, " Oh rare George Canning! "
Parts of the foregoing passage read to us the
verses of Mr. Hookham Frere on Canning's
character, but we do not suppose that Mrs.
Opie ever saw them. What Nlrs. Opie has
said of him, along with Mr. Newton's recollec-
tions in the "Early Days of George Canning,"
will assist the future biographer of that
famous orator, if his life can bo adequately
written.

The reputation of Mrs. Opie as an authoress
belongs so completely to the past that wo need
not enter on its discussion. With much pathos
of manner, her power of creating character was
feeble. She excelled in strong situations, and
was fluent in a sentimental style. Her letters
and diaries in this volume are feebly penned,
but she found surer grounds for happiness
than in trying to grow enduring literary lau-
rels. She was a Sister of Charity " unat-
tached," was pious without superstition, and
exemplified her religious faith by active works
of spiritual mercy. She abandoned "the
world " for the last many years of her life,
and soothed by affectionate solicitude the de-
clining years of an aged parent. Scrupulously
tender in dealing with the reputations of
others, her religious serenity of soul gave her
the happiness of content. A believer in the
Atonement, she worshipped her Maker sin-
cerely, and seems to have found as much hap-
piness as can be looked for in this lower scene
of trial.

There are a few characteristic anecdotes
scattered through these pages that we may
possibly find room for on another day.

568

Transcaucasia. Sketches of the Nations and
Races between the Black Sea and the
Caspian. By Baron von Haxthausen.
London : Chapman and Hall.
BARON HAXTRAUSEN is a Prussian subject, born
in Westphalia, and by choice—we might almost
say by profession—a student of political and
social science. While in his own country his
attention was chiefly turned to questions of
land tenure and those affecting the condition
of the people. Some publications by him on
these subjects attracted notice ; and in 1842
he was invited by the Czar to continue his
researches within the Russian dominions. Of
these the present work is the result, printed
in Germany as early as the year '47, and there-
fore valuable as the testimony of a witness
unbiassed by the dispute now raging It
refers exclusively to the Caucasian provinces,
in which the author passed many months, and
concerning which it contains a mass of infor
million for which we might look in vain else-
where. To such a work it is impossible that
any notice of ours should do justice, inasmuch
as it embodies, not a single leading idea, but a
vast variety of separate and disconnected,
though interesting, facts.
The Russians boast much of their activity
in stopping the Circassian slave trade. Here
is a singular instance of ingratitude, showing
how little reforms are appreciated by those
whom they benefit. A Turkish vessel had
been seized, with girls on board, bound for
the Constantinople market. As they were
subjects of a friendly power the Russian au-
thorities ordered them to be released, a pro-
position less acceptable than had been sup-
posed :
In announcing to the girls their liberation, the general
ordered them to be informed that the choice was open to
them, to be sent back to their homes with the prince of
their own race ; to marry Russians and Cossacks of their
free choice ; to return with me to Germany, where all the
women are free ; or lastly to accompany the Turkish captain,
who would sell them in the slave market at Constantinople.
The reader will hardly credit that, unanimously and with-
out a moment's consideration, they exclaimed, " To Con-
stantinople—to be sold ! " There is scarcely any people
more proud and jealous of their liberty, and yet this was
the voluntary answer of these women
The baron argues very ingeniously that this
decision was, according to Eastern ideas, rea
sonable and wise. A Circassian girl is little
better than a slave at home; the purchase of
wives is as common among their tribes as
among the Turks ; it involves nothing servile
or disgraceful; they are certain at Constan-
tinople to meet hundreds of their country
women, and not unfrequently their kindred
also; their treatment is in general good; the
social rank to which they may rise depends
on their own beauty and attractions. The
emigration, therefore, is in a great measure
voluntary, and it is contemplated as a natural,
perhaps as an inevitable, destiny.
Transcaucasia, our author thinks, is to the
Russian empire rather a burden than a benefit.
It requires to maintain it two armies of 25,000
or 30,000 men each, on which the annual loss
is one-sixth of the whole, or more than 16 per
cent. No present advantage derivable from
its occupation counterbalances this enormous
charge, which is endured solely with a view to
future, and possibly far-distant, results. The
strength of Russia lies in her prescience and
the unchangeable nature of her policy.
One of the most curious histories related in
this volume is that of the Suabian colonies
settled near Tiflis. Their founder had reason
to complain of certain religious innovations
attempted by the Government of Wirtemberg
about 1818, which being unable to resist and
unwilling to suffer, they moved off in search
of religious freedom to Russia! At Odessa,
their first settlement, they failed; at their own
request they were assisted to migrate again
beyond the Black Sea ; and, despite many
hardships, they now form a flourishing, peace-
able, and unmolested community, being al-
lowed entire self-government in matters of
public worship. But their enthusiasm has
gradually assumed a deeper dye : most of
them believe that the end of the world is at
hand, and some actually prepared to act on
this conviction, by selling their worldly goods,
establishing a community of property, and
marching to Jerusalem, the holy city, where
they might await the course of events. The