The Sun.
London, England, 1855-11-07 00:00:00

TIIE Q UARTE RUES.

The Quarterly Review. No. CXCIV.
A thoroughly genial and exquisitely appreciative
notice of Mr. Thackeray is, to our thinking, the
charm of the present number of the Quarterly.
The reviewer considers, as we ourselves have long
done,that "The Newcomes" must be regarded as our
great novelist's masterpiece. Justice is accorded to
that most masterly creation—Colonel Thomas New-
come—henceforth to be cherished in remembrance
as one of the glories of our national literature.
Scarcely enough, however, is said in commenda-
tion of Monsieur Paul de Florae, Prince de Mont.
contour—pink and pattern of French gentlemen.
More than enough is added in praise of the skill
revealed in our satirist's excruciating portraiture
of Mrs. Mackenzie—fiend rather than woman, and
yet, though displayed as such, an actual callo type
rather than an extravagant caricature. The passages
extracted from " The Newcomes," in justification
of the panegyrics here lavished upon the writer by
the critic, are one and all of them precisely those
we ourselves hare, from time to time, specified
accordingly as the numbers of the serial story is-
sued from the press periodically : passages so spe-
cified by us as brilliantly demonstrative of the wit,
the pathos, the sarcasm, the eloquence, the
humour, the tenderness, squandered by the
affluent hand of genius upon this one inimitable
masterpiece. Among these, for example, must be
remembered the celebiation of the little ills of
life as those by which existence is for the most
part embittered ; the sarcastic inculcation of sel-
fishness as the primum mobile ; the droll memorial
of the political principles of the East India Colonel,
the real hero of the tale ; the humorous eulogium
pronounced upon evil tempers, as exemplified by
the Black Dog of Lady Kew ; the memorable disclo-
sure of the skeleton hid away somewhere orother, in
a dark cupboard, in every household in the land; the
pathetic affectation of sternness towards the woman
who falls, and the yet more patlivtio truthfulness
of her career as depicted afterwards ; the life-like
sketches of the vulgar Potters of Rosebury Green,
of the delicious De Florae as an English country
gentleman, and of that horrid little group typical
of men of the tuft-hunting and toad-eating
genus, as exemplified in the presence of Mr.
Bowman, the valet, by honest Jack Todhunter
' and the ever-faithful Captain Henchman. Enough:
having alluded thus far in detail to this
very delightful criticism upon " The Newcomes,"
we may now content ourselves by referring
every admirer of Mr. Thackeray to the entire
panygeiic itself as pronounced upon the Field-
ing of our ago by the authoritative voice of the
Quarterly Reviewer. The article on " Pitt
and Fox," though undoubtedly clever as it is„
would have been still better had the writer con-
fined his attention more immediately to the
twin subject nominally under his considera-
tion, instead of allowing his comments to
wander away so very discursively upon the Earl
of Shelburne ant the Marquis of Rockingham.
We begin, formally enough, with the birth of Wil-
liam Pitt, the second son of the great Earl of Chat-
ham, on the 28th of May, 1759—we attend to the
record of his home tuition under his father's care
from six tofourteen—we follow him to his entrance,
in 1773, at Pembroke Hall, in the University of
Cambridge, and thence to the date of his being
called to the bar in 1780, and of his going the
Western Circuit—we mark his unsuccessful attempt
to be allowed to represent the University of Cam-
bridge in Parliament during the ensuing autumn,
incl of his ultimate entrance into the House of Com-
mons in the January of 1781, as M.P. for the bo-
rough of Appleby—and then we are all at sea
floundering about in a chaos of loose commentaries
upon the position of parties towards the end of the
eighteenth century, hearing little or nothing about
Pitt, or about Fox, but a very great deal about
Lord North, and Lord Shelburne, and Lord Rock-
ingham, and Lord Thurlow, and the Lord knows
who else besides. The paper wants condensation.
It is altogether too long and too straggling. There
is one passage, however, of a wholly epi,odical, or
rather parenthetical, character, which we cannot
resist the satisfaction of quoting precisely as it
stands here in the old Tory Quarterly. It occurs
where the reviewer is speaking of Lord Shelburne,
afterwards Marquis of Lansdowne—of whom the
writer observes that in his less amiable and attrac-
tive attributes he is—

"Favourably indeed contrasted by the son, who ulti-
mately succeeded to his honours, and who yet lives to
command the affectionate veneration of all, who, what.
ever the differences of party, can appreciate the nature
in which a rare elevation and an exquisite suasity ad-
mit of no enmities, while cementing all friendships—
and which, gracing by accomplished culture a patriotism
not embittered by spleen nor alloyed by ambition, har-
monises into classic beauty the character of one with
whom Lnlius would have eagerly associated, and whom
Cicero would have lovingly described—'Ad initationens
sui vocet alios ; ut sere splendove aninace et vita sum,
sicut speculum, pwibeat cisibus.'"
Against one observation pronounced by the Quar-
terly upon the intellectual incapacity and minis-
terial fatuity of Lord Rockingham we must protest,
as against a view in every way monstrously unde-
served. It is where the writer says-.." We question
whether Lord Rockingham, take him altogether,
was not the dullest man whom England ever saw
in the rank of First Minister." An opinion alto•
gether, we repeat, monstrously undeserved, when
it is remembered that in these later times we have
had the calamity to witness at the head of affairs
a dull man—

" Dull—beyond expression—dull,"
like my Lord Aberdeen. After whom we cannot
conceive to ourselves the possibility of any further
bathos ministerially. Half-a-dozen other articles
yet remain to rejoice the readers of the Quarterly.
Foremost among these in position, and perhaps in
value, is the biographical and critical paper on the
subject of Peter Daniel Huet, his life and opinions.
Huet, the editor of " Origen," and better still and
far more memorable, the originator or projector
of the famous Delphin Classics !—the originator or
projector of them at least in companionship with
the Duke of Montausier. A contribution upon
the subject of " School Sermons," together with
one upon the recently published "Cald well Papers,"
a sort of minor sequel to the celebrated " Pastore
Letters," known so well and valued so highly by
every student of English historic literature, follow
in duo course. Subsequently to which come—s
philanthropic disquisition upon " The Charities
and the Poor of London ;" an ingenious criticism
upon certain lately compiled "latin Dictiona-
ries ;" and, to close our catalogue of the contents
of the current number of the Quarterly, a brilliant
essay apon " Men of Science," as sketched by the
master hands of Arago and Brougham.

MARKET NEWS.—(This Day).

~;

Spirit of the Public Jounials.

( From the Times of this day. )

Hardly a day passes nut there is found in some
part of our foreign correspondence a statement, or
a rumour, or an allusion to a rumour, or an answer
to a rumour, or a statement that the rumour is
without any foundation, all about certain amiable
projects of mediation supposed to be entertained
by Austria and Prussia, with more or less concur-
rence from Russia. At one time it is a Russian
Grand Duchess' then an Austrian Archduchess,
then something the King of Prussia has said, then
an aide-de-camp of the Czar, then the arrival of a
new attache, then the journey of a Prince, then an
imaginary letter, then some words in an official
newspaper, and every fortnight a cloud of smoke
and dust descends on the whole fabric, and it is
autb oritatively announced to be an absolute delu-
skill. The whole prcCess is that which is continu-
a':ly in operation in our own country towns of the
'second or third class, where there is always some
nest of reports, seething, and festering, and fuming,
all about people who are simply doing what such
people might be expected to do—nothing very bad
or very good, or at all important to anybody but
themselves. Had our hopes really hung on any
prospects of peace from the neutral Powers, the
British people would have been fifty times in trans-
ports of joy, and as often plunged into the abyss
of despair, in the course of the last three
years, and would have to undergo the same
vicissitudes of emotions all the time between
this and New Year's-day. Our correspondents, of
course, do no more than their duty in transmitting
these reports. Indeed, in Austria and Prussia
there can now be nothing else to talk about, just
as an old woman, no longer capable of work, and
therefore unable to do anything, or intend any-
thing, or even to think anything, takes it out in
talk, which must, in the nature of things, be about
nothing at all. How the matter stands at this
moment it does not very much signify, for, as one
wave of gossip has just broken and dispersed in
this country, it is probable that another is starting
from Vienna or Berlin, so that it would be prema-
ture to say there is no rumour of Austria or Prus-
sian mediation. Indeed, if there is not a rumour
in one place there is in another, like the flying
rumours one reads of in old medical books, that
were only expelled from the stomach to take refuge
in the head, or suppressed in the foot to reappear
in the loins. So that, if we put any faith in these
wandering and volatile existences, we might at any
one time be sanguine or desperate, according to the
particular quarter of the compass to which our at-
tention was directed.

If our readers have not already taken this coun-
sel for themselves, we would advise them to dis-
miss utterly from their minds all thought of Aus-
tria or Prussia ever mediating for any purpose ex-
cept for some object of their own. They can hardly,
indeed, be said to pretend to any higher policy,
and till there presents itself some object which the
German Powers can believe to be chiefly for their
own interest, and in some lesser degree for the
interest of Europe at large, there is no chance of
their ever taking any serious steps towards an
amicable adjustment. Of course, if we are to go
on expecting and inviting their mediation, it must
be with the idea that the mediation, when it comes,
and when it really takes effect, will be of a disin-
terested character. But nobody in his senses can
imagine this for a moment. It is, indeed, quite
possible that after a few years Russia may be glad
of a loophole to get out of her difficulties without
much loss or disgrace, and may try to devise such
a loophole with the assistance of her two neigh-
bours. It is quite possible that the Western
Powers may listen to such suggestions. But when
that hour comes Austria and Prussia will only hail
in it the long desired opportunity of making their
own harvest out of the war. However they may
wish to deal with Russia in that hour of need, they
certainly will not think it for their advantage to
strengthen the relations of England and France in
the East, establish and perpetuate our right to in-
terfere for the protection of Turkey, or to suffer
the presence of the Western Powers in the East at
all longer than can be helped. We have only
to look to former settlements to acquire a just
dread of one initiated by mediators of this sinister
class. It would indeed be a cruel termination
of the war that Prussia and Austria should be able
to dictate the peace, and, as we are certain, rob us
of all that we have won by our arms. Then, why
are we to go on for ever catching at this or that
flying rumour of mediation ? It is Russia we are
at war with ; it is with Russia, if with any, that
we are to make peace ; it is Russia and ourselves
that we have to consult in the terms of that peace ;
and none but Russia and ourselves can make a
peace that is at all likely to endure.
The final mediation of the German Powers is not
likely to be more disinterested, more sincere, or
more beneficial than the specimens we have already
bad of it. Hitherto it has been invariably treacher-
ous, dilatory, equivocal, and mischievous. It has
invariably ended by some flagitious attempt to put
the Western Powers in the wrong, by making
them seem to appear the more obstinate. After
much delay and more or less success in compro-
mising our representatives, the result has been to
procure a certain apparent ventilation of a con-
ciliatory proposal, of which the Western Powers
had not really the option, but which they were
to have the odium of refusing. The last " media-
tion" ended in damaging the British Minister,
who had previously appeared honest enough in
the prosecution of the war—in poisoning and
detaching a portion of the British Cabinet—in
giving a miserable little clique among us a leg to
stand upon, and in furnishing a text for Mr.
Gladstone's speeches and Mr. Cobden's letters. At
this moment the rumours to which we have already
adverted have the effect of encouraging all who
a private interest in the speedy termination of the
war, and who permit that private interest to qua-
lify their patriotism. Every man who has shares
which he wants to be more valuable, or specula-
tions for which he wants money, or objects for
which he wants public attention, or a business for
which he wants the removal.of the blockade, lends
a ready ear to the rumour that messengers of peace
are flying between the capitals of our foe and the
two neutrals. An influence of this sort cannot but
be injurious even among our own stout-hearted
people, for there always will be those who think i
peace to be purchased at almost any cost, and who
shrink from the responsibilty of rejecting it, be the
terms ever so unjust or unsound. We must say,
then, that it behoves the public opinion of this
country to take a more decided line with regard to
these illusive offers of mediation. Common sense
rejects them as mere frauds and seemiugs. We
see, then, no reason why this opinion should not
bo expressed, and why England should go on dal-
lying with what it knows to be a mischievous
im-
posture.

(Prom the Morning Herald of this day.)
We need scarcely say that this journal has not
concurred in the views upon the war which hav
latterly been put forward by our respected weekly
e
contemporary the Press. We deal with that paper
as we would with any other journal in the empire
—as a journal ; and do not trouble ourselves with
the accuracy or inaccuracy of the notions which
invest the articles of the Press with almost the
dignity of state papers. The views to which we
advert have been put forward with an ability suf_
ficient in itself to command for them the most
respectful consideration—and while we are com-
pelled to dissent from these views, while we believe
their promulgation unfortunate, both for the in-
terests of the nation and of the Conservative party,
we are far, very far, from joining in that vulgar
appreciation of them which attributes them to
any desire to catch any
class of liticians, or to
arty other motive than an honest, although, as we
n o
think, mistaken notion of the course which the
interests of this country demand.
An article in the Press eof lastn Saturday, which
we copy in another column, appears to indicate a
consciousness that however well meant may be the
efforts for peace, they will prove hopeless ; and
that, after all there is nothing for it but boldly
and determinedly to prosecute the war, to the re-
duction of the overgrown power of Russia, by
W her
resting from the provinces which she, has ac-
quired by robbery,
If this is to be the practical result we can very
well afford to forgive sentimental longings
after peace in the abstract—,any vague generalities
about not forcing upon Russia unreasonable terms,
and not prosecuting a war that or revenge.
utmost if we are to
But let us'say, at the same Um':
tif import-
ance
go into such a contest it is of the
that we should go into it with
con-
sciousness that we are in the right—that full
is a necessary and a righteous one, and thaet warthie
objects at which we aim are justifiable.
We have long since expressed our opinion that
this war could not end in any safe and honourable
peace while Russia retains her present territorial
dominions. Of men who hold the rank of high
statesmen in this country, Lord Derby, if we mis-
take not, iscourage
the only one who has had the
' openly •
111 his Place in Parliament to express this
Let
opinion. '
us concede that the object of the war
is the limited
integrity of the
of securing the independence and
ingMoEfssias. DE LISLE AND CO '
Deß
yet suggested ethOettoman empire—no man has ever ,
the inspectors of Messrs.
KLRisuPle,refa.n—vrAinni, and
by which this is to be 1
dolie while we leave Russia in possession of the
De Lisle was held yesterday, when it was resolved that
in addition to that of ss. already paid,
territories which she now holds upon the Euxine.
d for the first week in December next.
It was in the
otftoc reconcile these con tradic- :hdoiuvliddebneddoefelte,
tions that the jargon of
By the latest advice, from Canada. it appears that the
covered with ridicule the solemn blockheadismnoef
been
eurities belonaing to the firm in that country have all
the diplomacy which was fabled by them. , properly registered in their namei,and that timber
moment the capture of s
ol justified us in Iwe placed proembpatslty°Pard at , to the value of 25,0001. is at present entirely under the
the demand,
once before ' control of their agents.