The Sun.
London, England, 1837-03-30 00:00:00

LITERATURE

MEMOIRS OF SIR J. SINCLAIR. 2 Vols.
Blackwood, Edinburgh, 1837.
Those who imagine, from the title of this work,
.hat it is merely the domestic biography of a well-

known statistic and agricultural wrier, will find them-

selves agreeably disappointed ; for there is scarcely a
name of any eminence here or on the Continent, for
the last half century, of which it does not contain
some characteristic record. We have rarely met with
a book—we will scarcely except even Boswell's
Johnson—that is fuller of various, piquant anecdote,

and those brief gossiping reminiscences which consti-
_ . .

ute the charm of the old French memoirs. Here we

find cursory details of the private life of the well-

known Dundas, afterwards Lord Melville—of the
notorious Catherine of Russia—Joseph of Austria—
Stanislaus of Poland—Gustavus of Sweden—in fact,

personal recollections of half the crowned heads of
Europe. Descending in the scale of society, we find

mecdotes of Johnson, Wyndham, Adam Smith, of
,hat eccentric humourist—now nearly, if not altoge•

they, forgotten—Old Bosville, Warren Hastings, and
the celebrated Macdonald family. Sir John Sinclair
seems, throughout his long and valuable life, to have
been smitten with a rage—a truly laudable one by-the-

bye—for knowing all the celebrated folks of his time ;
and his tastes, as appears by this interesting biography,

were gratified to the fullest extent. Without being a
man of any extraordinary reach of intellect, he was yet
shrewd, well-informed, acquainted with all the various
forms of society here and abroad ; and being " of gentle

blood," and irreproachable character, he was ever a
welcome guest at the tables of the Illustrious. In
early youth Sir John was intimately acquainted with
many personal friends of Dr. Johnson, and was of
course full of anecdotes respecting the " whims and
oddities" of that great man. The Majority of these
have found their way into Croker's late admirable
edition of Boswell ; but the following are new, and
therefore we extract them :
" A young friend of my father travelling one night to Lon-
don by the Devonshire mail, found a talkative old lady by the
side of a stout old gentleman in a large wig, whom she tried
to engage in conversation, but who discouraged all her attempts
by answering in monosyllables. At last she desisted, and the
trio journeyed on in silence during the remainder of the night.
When morning appeared, the old gentleman pulled out a
small pocket volume, and placing it close to one of his eyes,
began to read. His tormentor seized the opportunity to in-
terpose a salutary caution. Sir,' says she, won't reading
with so little light be apt to give you a headache ?' Her gruff
fellow-passenger replied with a loud voice, ' There are some
people, Madam, to whom reading always gives an headache.'
The tone and manner of the speaker could not be mistaken,
and the young traveller at once demanded, ' Pray, Sir, have I
not the honour to be in company with Dr. Samuel Johnson ?'
" When the Doctor, during his Scottish tour, reached St.
Andrews, he was much put out of humour by observing the
dilapidated state of the ancient ecclesiastical and collegiate
buildings, formerly among the noblest specimens of Gothic
architecture in North Britain. After inspection of the ruins,
he dined in company with the professors, to whom he stated,
in no measured terms, his indignation at the sight of these
neglected monuments, ' faithful witnesses,' as he termed them,
of the triumph of Reformation.' Overawed by the frow❑ of
the great English moralist, the professors hardly ventured to
open their lips. After a distressing pause, the youngest of
them took courage, and expressed a hope that Scotland had
answered his expectations. Sir,' replied the Doctor, with
great vehemence, I came here expecting to see savage men
and savage manners, and I have not been disappointed.'
I may be allowed to add one further anecdote, in which
my father took great pleasure. Dr. Johnson, descanting upon
the bleak and treeless aspect of Aberdeenshire, remarked to a
native proprietor, that if he searched his whole county he
would not find a single tree older than the Union. 'At all
events," replied the Aberdonian, we have no such era in
Scotland as the Conquest.' "
Sir John Sinclair, on his first entrance into public
life, was honoured by the acquaintance of Lord North,
one of the most kindly-natured of men, but as a Mi-
nister, incompetent to his office, by reason of his too
ready subserviency to the crotchets of George the
Third. His Lordship was, it is well known, remark-
able for his ready wit, as the subjoined diverting story
will show :

" Harassed by the increasing difficulties of the war with
America, Lord North was sometimes heard to wish that Con-
tinent had never been discovered. He in part escaped the
sarcasms of his opponents by falling asleep during a long de-
bate, leaving to Sir Grey Cooper the task of noting down
what he would afterwards be called on to answer. During a
debate on ship-building some tedious speaker entered on a
historical detail, in which, commencing with Noah's ark, he
traced the progress of the art regularly downwards. When
he came to build the Spanish armada, Sir Grey inadvertently
awoke the slumbering Premier, who inquired at what era the
Hon. Gentleman had arrived. Being answered,' We are now
in the reign of Queen Elizabeth ;' Dear Sir Grey,' said he,
why not let me sleep a century or two more ?' "
In the year 1786, Sir John Sinclair set out on his
travels, and visited in succession almost all the Courts
of Europe. He visited Russia, where he had an in-
terview with that Northern Messalina, Catherine the
Second ; Sweden, Denmark, Austria, and many of the
minor German Principalities ; and took up his abode
for some time at Warsaw, where he attended many of
the debates of the Senate. Here is an amusing sketch
of the old Polish method of bringing noisy Members to

order : .
.1 When Sir John attended the Diet, he observed that each
of the four Grand Constables had a long and powerful baton.
When the Diet assembled in a ball, if any disorder arose, they
used to beat the floor so violently with their batons, that nut a
word could be heard. and thus they enforced silence. But
when the Diet assembled in the fields, two of the Grand Con-
stables with their batons knocked down any refractory member.
Our traveller procured a baton which had been used in 1786,
and sent it to Mr. Speaker Addington, to show bow different
were the means employed in maintaining order in the Polish
from the British Legislature."
We recommend this instructive anecdote to the
particular attention of Mr. Speaker Abercombie. It:
would be a capital practice to introduce into the House
of Commons, and would soon put an end to the Tory
brayings and cock. crowings. Imagine a vociferous
Conservative knocked down at once by the butt. end of
Mr. Deputy Sergeant's baton ! Such a broad hint
would be attended by the most useful consequences ;
and as Reform is just now the order of the day, we
see no earthly reason why this Reform also should not
be introduced. There are many more attractive bits
of gossip in these volumes, which we shall extract as
occasion may offer ; but at present, being pressed for
space and time, we must content ourselves with saying,
that the work well deserves perusal, for it contains
scarcely one dull page.

SPAIN IN 1830.
BY HENRY DAVID INGLIS.

In 2 Vols. Second Edition. London, Whittaker and Co,

Few of the ordinary ills of life affect good men so
sensibly as the early death of persons greatly distin-
guished for philanthrophy, literary ability, or a success-
ful prosecution of studies, tending to the advancement
of the liberal arts and sciences. Setting altogether
aside the feelings which originate in vague and fanciful
estimates of the loss sustained by society—in the dreamy
musings on what a long life might have effected—every re-
flecting mind is in some sort conscious to itself of a void in
its very affections, as if the grave had robbed it of some
greatly admired, though personally unknown, relative.
We cannot dt all times readily reconcile with our no-
tions of the Divine economy death in the prime of life ;
and, without the aid of revelation, it would be quite
impossible to do so, when the morning of that life has
been passed in giving the world an earnest of a mature
age of benevolent usefulness—as was that of the highly
gifted author, now no more, of these volumes.
Mr. Inglis's Travels in " Spain," in the " Tyrol,"
and through " Ireland," are imperishable records of
his great powers of observation, his keen insight into
character, the maturity of his judgment, and the good-
ness of his heart. As the volumes before us were the
subject of a critical notice in this journal on their first
appearance, we must confine our announcement of
their having reached a second edition to the making
of a few extracts from them. Our first is descriptive
of the ceremony of " Taking the Veil," that sole ro-
mantic incident in the life of a Spanish nun :
" How many strange, wild, and romantic associations are
connected with taking the veil I' The romances of our
earlier days,—the tales, that professed to reveal the mysteries
of the cloister, crowd upon our memory : we see standing be-
fore us the creatures of our imagination—the
_inflexible lady