The Press.
London, England, 1854-06-10 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

ance enlisted under his banners Canning, Jenkinson, Hus-
lagooni and Castlereagh, all men of the same standing, for
the first three were born in 1770, and the last in 1708.
We see here a very clumsy enumeration of
Mr. Pitt's opponents, in which " Nicholls "
and " Courtenay" have precedence of the Pre-
mier Duke of England, and the Duchess of
Devonshire for the first time is assigned the
worst place in the company. The assertion
that Mr. Pitt was " always anxious " to secure
" whatever available talent presented itself" is
not historically true. We could quote several
high Tory authorities to show that Mr. Pitt
neglected too much the means of influencing
popular opinion through " literary " organs.
He was not himself fond of literary society,
though, if he pleased, he might have excelled
in it, and the tendency of his nature was to
rely too much on parliamentary numbers. As
an instance of his comparative carelessness
in recruiting talent to his standard we may
cite his neglect of young Mr. Henry Brougham
when brought under his special notice by
Wilberforce, whose repeated attempts on that
point are recorded in his printed correspon-
dence ; and other cases might be named.
But the principal defect of this edition is,
that Mr. Edmonds seems to have followed the
selections made from the Anti-Jacobin in the
reprint of 1800. We have in our possession a
copy of those selections, which belonged to one
of the most distinguished diplomatists of that
day, bearing also " second edition " on its
titlepage (pp. 240), and issued by Wright, the
original publisher. For political reasons in
that republication several curious bits from
the original Anti-Jacobin were omitted. Mr.
Edmonds appears to have followed it, interpo-
lating its pages with matter borrowed from
some past and living writers of no great au
thority in political history, amongst whom we
would particularise Wraxall, whose informa-
tion at best was only secondhand, and not
beyond the value of club gossip. Undoubt-
edly the most important part of Mr. Ednionds's
work is the index to the authorship, reliance
on which we are not disposed to accord. He
thus begins:—
The following notices of the writers of the " Poetry of
the Anti-Jacobin" are derived from the copies mentioned
below, and each name is authenticated by the initials of
the authority upon which each piece is ascribed to parti.
ruler persons :
C.—Ce.nning's own copy of the poetry.
B.—Lord Burghersh's copy.
W.—Wright the publisher's copy.
V.—lnformation of W. Upcott, amanuensis.

The editor does not say where Canning's
" copy of the poetry" is to be seen. Nor does
he choose to investigate what may be the
worth of Upcott's testimony, of an amanuensis
making unpermitted revelations. We should
like to see the grounds on which these asser-
tions are made so boldly, when it appears, on
coming to the end of this " contents with the
" names of the authors," that, after all, there
is still room for conjecture on the matter.
Let us, for example, turn to the well-known
poem of " New Morality," which has been
always emphatically ascribed to the united
talents of Canning and Frere. Mr. Edmonds
thus undertakes to assign the special author-
ship of that celebrated piece :
PAGE.

225 From Mental Mists Frere, W.
Yet venial Vices, &c.
226 Bethink thee, Gifford, &c. These
lines were written by Mr. Canning
some years before he had any
personal acquaintance with Mr.
Gifford.
227 Awake ! for shame I Canning, W.
230 Fond Hope ! Frere, W.
231 Such is the liberal Justice
{Frere
235 0 ! Nurse of Crimes
G. Ellis
236 See Louvet
237 But hold, severer Virtue j Frere jI W.
1 Canning
{ Frere
238 To thee proud Barras bows Canning }W.
Ellis
239 Ere long, perhaps { Gifford Iw.
Ellis j
Couriers and Stars
i Canning J. "
240 Britain, beware
241 So thine own 0ak,.... attributed to W. Pitt.
Here are five authors assigned to a poem of
four hundred and sixty-five lines, and in this
edition there is no numeration of the verses,
although it was made with great care in the

SATURDA'

original Anti-Jacobin. But the marking wttb
a show of accuracy the portions of such va-
riorum authorship at once suggests doubt to any
critical mind. We are forced to think of the
affectation of minuteness in repeating hearsay
tales so well described in The School for
Scandal, how Charles Surface's bullet, " what
" was very extraordinary, after passing through
" Sir Peter, struck against a little bronze
" Shakspeare that stood on the mantelpiece,
" glanced out of the window at right angles,
" and wounded the postman who had just
" come to the door with a double letter from
" Northamptonshire." The reader will have
observed that the letter " W " stands as the
authority in the table for those " names of
" the authors." Yet after his previous liner.
tions we are surprised at the end of his "con.
tents " to find the editor thus disparaging
Wright :

With regard to Mr. Wright's appropriation of particular
passages to different authors, it is obviously mere conjec.
ture. Both Canning and Gifford professed not to be able
to make such distribution, but the farmer's share of
"New Morality" was so very much the largest as to entitle
him to be considered its author.
Then what did Mr. Edmonds mean by
telling us of " Canninq's own copy " and the
" authority of Wright, ' when at the close he
throws Wright over, and undertakes flippantly
to settle the question himself ? A passage in
his own preface registers under his own hand
the perspicacity of Mr. Edmonds as au editor.
He says :
Bat Mr. Canning's greatest power is shown in " New
Morality," which, being the last of the series, seems to have
been reserved as a concentrating medium fur his pent-up
scorn and contempt of the Whigs and their adherents. So
that his blows fall thick he cares little who suffer from
them, and the modern reader is surprised to find Charles
Lamb and other non-intruders into politics figuring as
congenial conspirators with Tom Paine ! In this poem
occur many often-quoted lines, and among them that of
"The Derby Dilly with its six Insides."
Here he treats Canning as the chief author
of " New Morality," and falls into the gross
blinder of asserting that it contains the
erby Dilly " passage. A reader would be
long searching for it in that place; but, if Mr.
Edmonds opened his eyes, he would find it in
the "Loves of the Triangles," alt p. 137 of his
own edition! But, even where not positively
erroneous, his references are not sufficiently pre •
cise. Thus in the mention of Horne Tooke's name
we are told " an elegant memoir of him was
" contributed to the Quarterly _Review, vol. vii.,
"by the late Lord Dudley." In the records of
periodical writings there is scarcely a more
mordant piece of incrimination than the essay,
not "memoir," referred to, and few articles that
ever appeared in the critical literature of
England caused more sensation in social
circles than that "elegant memoir," with its
excruciating use of the scalpel.
The following ten lines of the " New
Morality " are, says Mr. Edmonds, attributed
to the pen of Mr. Pitt
" So thine own oak, by some fair streamlet's side,
Waves its broad arms, and spreads its leafy pride,
Tow'rs from the earth, and rearing to the skies
Its conscious strength, the tempest's wrath defies:
Its ample branches shield the fowls of air,
To its cool shade the panting herds repair.
The treacherous current works its noiseless way,
The fibres loosen, and the roots decay ;
Prostrate the beauteous ruin lies ; and all
That shared its shelter perish in its fall."
We should like to see it stated by whom these
lines are ascribed to Mr. Pitt. There is, cer-
tainly, a sonorous swell and rhetorical tone in
the verse not dissimilar from what one might
have expected from Mr. Pitt if he had been a
poet, but we doubt that he ever wrote them. The
only evidence that could be assigned for such
a statement is of a slight and circumstantial
kind, not alluded to by Mr. Edmonds. W. e
know, from a variety of sources, that Mr. Pitt
was fond of declaiming passages from Lucan ;
and we have little doubt but that the spiritel,
lines in the first book of the " Pharsalut
(ver. 136), alluding to Pompey,
" stat magni nominis umbra,
"Quails frugifero quereus," rte. &c.,
were favourites of Mr. Pitt ; and if he had
chosen a theme for exercising his powers of
anglicising from a favourite classic it might
have been from " Lucan's Oak."
Mr. Edmonds thus concludes his introduc-
tion :
Nor have Prime Ministers and Secr-tories of State, in
general, left much of a sportive character behind them;

I

JUNE 10, 854.

but, we believe, there is no .work which exhibits so brilliant
an exception as the preSetil; or pay
,so truly be called a
volume of " Cabinet " poetry.
He is probably nut acquainted with the very
considerable merits of the New Whig (hide, to
whose pungently-pleasant pages a late Prime
Minister, a present Secretary of State, and
a living ex Secretary to the Admiralty were
constant contributors.
Critical commentary on the merits of the
Anti-Jacobin would be superfluous. Its satire
is distinguished few the terse language of its
poignant personality, which was often exces
sively stinging, but seldom offensively coarse.
Its best contributors, Canning and Frere, were
not mere pamphleteers in verse, like the writers
for the Rolli.ad They had poetical inspiration
and a sprightly joyousness springing from a
genial play of the mental faculties. They were
" Conservatives" not only in their politics but
in their loyal adherence to the ordinances and
traditions of classical English literature. False
sentiment, tumid diction, and mawkish cant
were chastised by them with exemplary effi-
cacy. On the fourth edition (2 vols. Bvo.l of
the prose and poetry selected from their
journal they placed the epigraph, "Sparsosque
recolligit ignes," and in the very last paper
(No. 36) of their orginal publication the motto
on discontinuance was exquisitely happy (it
is not alluded to by Mr. Edmonds) :

" We shall miss thee;
" But yet thou shalt have freedom.
' Bo to the elements
" Be free: and fare ye well I "
And these lines, taken from The Tempest (pro-
bably by Canning), have been prophetic of
the popularity of their witty verse, still quoted
and admired by all lovers of the genius that is
airily elegant and strong.

A Hero of our Owls Times. From the Russian

of Lermontor London : Bogue.
IN the preface to this volume the author, cha-
racterised as a Russian Byron, is represented
as a victim to the brutality of the Emperor
Nicholas. For the offence of having published
some verses in honour of the poet Pouchkin
he was banished to the Caucasus—a proof of
the Czar's " hostility to literature." When
Nicholas heard of his death in a duel he ex-
claimed, "He has lived like a dog, and has
died like one !" The authority for this story
is not given. It must be received cum grano.
Prejudice is always credulous. We smile at
the simplicity of our fathers who, half a cen
tury ago, believed that Napoleon in his play-
ground at Brienne amused himself by skinning
cats alive ; yet perhaps we have not much
reason to pride ourselves on superior candour.
The " Hero of our Own Times " is a young
Russian prince of semi-diabolical nature, with
an active head but dead heart. Amid the
vicious dissipations of the capital he lost all
faith in goodness, and from the furnace of
passion " came out cold and hard as iron,
" with noble instincts for ever quenched."
This hardened, intellectual voluptuary, with a
beautiful person and great wealth, wanders
through Southern Russia, as an " axe of
destiny," gaining the love of women only to
degrade and destroy them, and exercising over
men a kind of satanic superiority. He is a
fatalist from finding no one able to resist his
will. The author has borrowed some traits
from "The Ghostseer " to make the adventures
of his hero more startling. Some of the scenes
in which he figures are revolting from the
misery occasioned by his intense selfishness;
but one of the tales—the first in this volume—
is written with extraordinary power, and con-
tains passages of beauty and pathos unrivalled
in modern fiction.
The hero, who is always thirsting for adven-
ture, visits a Russian station in the Caucasus,
where he meets with a veteran captain, one
Maximus Maximitch, the ideal of an honest,
rough moustache, brave as a lion and tender-
hearted, as a girl. It is lie who relates the
story to the author, when they meet as travel
lers. The prince carries off the lovely daughter
of a neighbouring Circassian chief, and, piqued
by her coldness, sets himself seriously to win
her heart. She is proof to his persuasions
and presents ; so, after a time, he decides on a
final measure:—

" Bela,' said he, ' when I resolved to carry you away, I
did it in the hope that when you knew me you would grant