The Sun.
London, England, 1862-02-17 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

The Private Diary of Richard, Duke of Bucking-
ham and Chandos. 3 vols. Hurst and Blackett.
Second Notice.
The noble duke who was the author of these in-
teresting volumes was the father of the late and
grandfather of the present holder of the title. The
financial perplexities of the house of Buckingham
have unfortunately been long existing and gene-
rally known. It was owing to the state of his
affairs that the writer of the diary before us was
compelled to travel for a time in order to facilitate
the necessary retrenchments in his splendid esta
blishments. How the embarrassments commenced
under which the ducal resourses finally collapsed,
says the preface, it is not necessary to explain in
the present work, but the editor goes on to remark
that they unquestionably existed before the writer
of this diary acquired his title. " His father had
lived with princely magnificence; his expenditure
in the luxuries of art and literature was enormous ;
and the munificent spirit with which he main
tained the ltoyal Family of France and its nume-
rous followers, during their residence on one of
his estates, not only drained his exchequer, but
burthened him with debt. Neither Louis XVIII.
nor Charles X. took the slightest notice of the ob-
ligation they had incurred—apparently regarding
such imprudent generosity as the natural acknow-
ledgment of their exceeding merit. But with their
benefactor the evil of pecuniary embarrassments
increased year after year, till it became imperative
that his expensive establishments should be re-
duced, and that he should go abroad till his large
estates could be nursed, so as to meet the heaviest
and most pressing demands. The duke was a mem-
ber of the Yacht Club, and now had a new yacht
built, named by him the Anna Eliza, in which he
purposed taking a long voyage. No member of
his family accompanied him, and his suite, inde-
pendent of the officers and crew of the vessel, con-
sisted only of his secretary, chaplain, surgeon, and
a few domestic servants." On this solitary and
melancholy journey the Duke set forth with no
very cheerful feelings. He describes his last visit
to the gardens of Stowe with the Duchess, whose
grief at quitting the old family seat was more de-
monstrative, though not deeper than his own. A
I few days later he bade farewell to the spot, endeared
to him by so many recollections, and makes the fol-
lowing mournful entry :—" July 11th. This is a
very heavy day with me, people pressing me on all
sides with business, and my heart longing to be
alone, God's will be done !—but my mind is very
low, and I cannot look at the scene of my child-
hood, manhood, and age, for perhaps the last time,
without a very, very bitter pang. Some feelings,
too, of sorrow swell in upon me and help to over-
whelm me. But although I have cause for regret,
I have none for self-reproach. My country and my
neighbours have been the better for my money.
No unworthy pursuit has consumed it. With a
little management, and the blessing of God, I may
yet recover and pass what age God gives ire in
comfort' My reason tells me all this, but my feelings
fight against my reason and prostrate my strength.
Reports from London state the situation of the
Ministry to be anything but as satisfactory as
Ward asseverated it to Chandos, at the Quarter
Sessions, to be. Canning and Lansdowne are said
to be at war, and that Canning cannot redeem his
pledge about the Catholic Question. If this be so,
the whole Government will fall to pieces. Both
parties are trying to get the Duke of Gordon. He
is nibbling at my house. I close the evening by a
melancholy drive and visit to all my dear scenes.
Adieu, dear, dear Stowe !-12th. My grandchildren
took leave of me, and the little girl was deeply
affected and cried. Even the little boy repeatedly
bade me good-bye. My old servants could not
speak, but grasped my hand in silence as I passed :
and thus I left my poor dear old residence of my
fathers." This ancestral home seems to have
been much cherished by the Duke, who
mentions the mournful impression made on
his mind while on board his yacht in the
Mediterranean by a strange and startling dream.
He thought that he once more revisited Stowe,
and found all deserted—every room as he had left
it, but desolate and uninhabited. The precision
and fidelity of the dream haunted him for long, and
net without reason, for the vision was realised,
though not in his own time. The traveller lingered
in London to take leave of the King, and intro-
duces sundry comments on the political manoeuvres
then going on, which, to confess the truth, were not
very creditable to those engaged in them. It was
during the time of Canning's Premiership, when
selfish opposition and unpatriotic partisanship were
embittering his brief tenure of the high seat he had
so long sought and was so well fitted to fill. The
Duke's sympathies, however, were not for the
harassed Minister, or for the baulked ambition of
the noble Duke, whose finessing had lost him the
game. It was for his own disappointment that he
felt most keenly. He had hoped to have been
offered a high post in the Government, which
would have enabled him to combine the inevitable
absence from England with the dignities and emolu-
ments of office. The rulers of India and Ireland,
however, were both appointed without any regard to
'the House of Buckingham, and the consequent
disappointment added another pang to the Duke's
defeature. But though such painful thoughts
must have saddened all his voyage—and mourn-
ful reflections often arise in the midst of his
I. graphic descriptions—it was impossible for a man
of the Duke's intelligent mind and cultivated
taste not to be somewhat distracted from his
troubles by, the interesting scenes he visited.
After leaving England his first landing place
was Gibraltar, and among his descriptions of the
port we find the following anecdote :
VIE " TARING OF GIBRALTAR "
I always thought that to have defended Gibraltar as
Heathfield did was the greatest achievement of which man's
life is capable; and now I found myself upon the spot
where all that glory had been achieved, which in the early
spring morning of my days had filled my young mind with
admiration. I remember, too, how often the present King
of France, Charles X., had told my father and rue the story
of his being summoned to meet almost all the Catholic
princes of Christendom, and all the flower of the French
and Spanish armies, as to a party of pleasure, to see the
" taking of Gibraltar," where various amusements, and
bull-fights, and balls, were provided to while away each day
of anxious expectation, when the propitious morning at last
arose which was again to plant the flag of Spain upon the
walls of Gibraltar. So certain did they consider them-
selves of conquest, that dinner and a ball was prepared at
Algesiras for General Elliot and his officers when made
prisoners. At length the Spanish batteries moved down,
constructed with all the care that science eguld bestow and
art invent. The Academie Francaise contributed its labours
to improve upon these mighty engines of destruction—and
they moved down, the monuments of the combined science,
as well as anger of Europe, united against this one object
so near to the vanity, so dear to the interests, of the parties
engaged in the attempt. The princes witnessed the scene
from the first parallel, and the surrounding hills were
crowded. with the population of the country, fancying even
the reality of the visionary existence of the Queen of Spain

in her chair, who had vowed to remain there until she saw
the standard of Spain float upon the walls of the fortress
she called her own. In a few hours all was dust and
ashes, and the few survivors amongst the assailants owed
their lives to British generosity and humanity. On the
next day the Spanish and French princes got into their
carriages and returned home. parceque l'agair (malt
manque. He attributes the burning of the floating batteries
very much to the tin tubes which were inserted in their
sides, "like veins in the human body," and which were
intended to communicate with reservoirs of water, which,.
pumped through them by forcing pumps, would, as they
calculated, keep a strong stream of water meandering
through the sides of the vessels, and thus prevent the hot
shot from breaking out into a flame.

Of the island of Malaga he does not give a very
pleasing picture. The system of the Government
was then one of comprehensive prohibition, and the
frequent quarrels found a reaiy arbiter in the
knife. When the French were in possession of the
island they checked this evil by forbidding the
Spaniards to wear the large dark cloaks, which so
effectually screened the murderous weapon. When'-
ever an assassination was committed they seized.
the assassin and the first Spaniard of the low*
class whom they met, then throwing a noose over
the culprit's head, made his unexpected executioner
hang him to the first tree. The proud Spaniards
consequently found the use of the knife less satis-
factory and abandoned it. The traveller touched.
at several other places on his route to Italy, and
then landed at Palermo after some difficulties owing
to the quarantine regulations. A boat kept guard,
by rowing round the vessel, whose owner shrewdly
suspected their intentions with regard to the pro-
visions hanging over the stern. At Palermo things,
were then managed in a curious fashion.

A WEALTHY LARDER.

My apartment is splendid as all the palazzi are; but this
is furnished with a degree of English taste and comfort
which seldom attends Italian splendour. The town presents
a melancholy scene of splendour and misery : nothing can
be finer than the fronts of the palazzi, nothing more
wretched than the interior. The nobility live entirely in
Palermo, except just at this moment, when they are in
Villagiatura, but have not the means of repairing the
houses they live in. Almost all let part of them. Few
keep any servants, except the footman and coachman, who
are hired by the day or week, to convey them to the man-
sion : even the Viceroy contracts with a cook to furnish his
table, at about half-a-crown English per head ; and when
he gives a splendid dinner he increases it to 3s. 6d. each.
The cook enters, brings the dinner in a fiacre, warms and
shakes up his casseroles, serves it up, and carries off every-
thing in the hackney coach the moment the dinner is over.
The Consul was dining with Prince Belmonte at his
magnificent palazzo, about a mile from Palermo. Dinner
was just over, when it Baron Somebody, who had been ex-
pected, and who had been unavoidably detained, arrived.
" Ah, caro Barone—have you dined r
tc
" Oh, ring the bell I Cook, any thing in a minute for it
Barone. Make haste I"
In came the maestro della casa :—" Scuta mi' Signora
Princessa, but the chef is gone and nothing can bedressed."
" Well, but then some cold meat ?"
" Signora Princessa, scurate me, but the cook has taken
away everything."
And not a morsel could be got or was got for it Barone I
—and this at the house of the riceest man in Sicily. Such
is their mode of living.
A lengthened account of the lunatic asylum which
was conducted by a Baron Pisoni on philanthropies
principles, is very interesting. He discriminated
carefully between the unhappy patients, and adap-
ted even the furniture of their rooms to their
peculiar tone of mind. Each lunatic's fancy, if
harmless, was indulged; if a man thought himself
a king he was allowed the insignia of royalty, if a
poet he was permitted to scribble, if a soldier he was
put into uniform. The Baron, when he entered on
his duties as superintendent, found every inmate
heavily chained and violently treated. One victim
was bent double by wearing chains for five and
twenty years. Under the new regime he walked
about happy and harmless. The success which fol-
lowed this treatment was surprising, and the system
pursued is worth the attention of the physiologists;
of the present day. The duke, who was no insigni-
cant zoologist, gives the following curious account
of an unpleasant neighbour :

THE DEVIL FISH.
I have seen what has quite confirmed my belief in the
old story of the diver drawn under when diving into
Charybdis, by sucking-fish. The sucker, or devil-fish,
which is caught here, is the most disgusting animal, and
at the same time the most dangerous in the seas. His head
and body are like a toad in shape and colour. His eyes
prominent from his head, with a head somewhat like a
turtle's. This animal is in the centre of a large gelatinous
web, full of suckers and feelers, and from this extends long
arms in every direction, which twist and twirl and secure
their prey. The arms are studded with sinkers, from which
it is very difficult to withdraw the finger when applied to
them. By the web this monster adheres to the rocks, and
by its arms it encircles and drags down its prey. it has
the power of crawling with considerable velocity, and of
rising to the surface. They are common here, of a small
size, and I have seen them of four feet in circumference.
But they are to be found much larger. They are the great
terror of bathers. Many stories are on record of men being
drawn under water by their power. Since my stay here a
dcg belonging to one of the officers of the garrison was
swimming, when one of these animals enveloped its head
in its folds and carried it down. A diver on shore imme-
diately plunged in and brought up both dog and fish, and.
rescued the former from otherwise inevitable death. The
animal has the power of throwing out a quantity of black
inky liquor all round him, like the sapia, and thus to hide
it-elf in the turbid water for the purpose of concealment
from enemies or of avoiding attack. The very idea of being
touched by the devil-fish would throw a swimmer into con-
vulsions and make him quite unable to save himself, and
entirely destroys all my sentimental ideas connected with
Mediterranean bathing.
The Two Sicilies were at that time rejoicing hi the
paternal sway of King Francis 1., the condition of
whose State prisons were so eloquently denounced
by Mr. Gladstone. The disbursement of the na-
tional finances was conducted on very original prin-
ciples.

AN ECONOMICAL HOUSEHOLD.
The King's expenses are dreadful, and he does nothing
for his money, and never gives a dinner. When he came'
to the throne he was offered the Civil List, which Murat.
enjoyed, of 100,000 ducats per month—each ducat 3s. 2d.
of our money, which he refused, saying that it was too
little, and that La Casa Reels must be unchecked and
unlimited in its expenditure. Accordingly he draws for
whatever money he wants, and gives no account. I have
taken some pains to verity my information upon the
point, and I am inclined to believe that I am not deceived.
No one is responsible for the Royal expenditure. The
Ministre Secretaire d'Etat della Casa Reale is at the head
of the palace, and receives the expenditure money en gr?*,
and distributes it to the Superintendent and the Major
Domo, who are officers of state, much too important
to
look into their own concerns, or those of the King their
master. They distribute it to those under them in their
respective departments ; and at length, after being filtered
and dribbled through all the veins of the body cc,:rportie of
the palace, which differs from the human body in this re-
rsepteucrnt, that t
—some
dof wthhei chm
money
ys
infromquestion the hearth
re a
edo
ee: sotth. e
King. But as all take their share of the plunder before it
reaches him, I have reason to believe that he is robbed to
the extent of from 70 to 80 per cent.
The duke tells an amusing story of his dining with.
the Viceroy of Sardinia, at Cagliari, when his host
entertained him during the repast with a discourse
on the liberal institutions of Sardinia and the im-
portance of the oath, which he was compelled to
take, to preserve the constitutional laws inviolate.
The duke, who knew the truth a little beiter, was.
at length provoked to observe that the taking of
this oath was doubtless very grating to a man of
his religious and liberal feelings after he had take,n
the previous oath at Turin to execute the King'
commands, whatever they might be. " I never,
says the diarist, "saw a formal gentleman so com-
pletely thrown off his balance. He stared at ine
for a moment, and then, in a low voice, exclaimed
" Comment diable saviez vows cela t" And then
bursting out laughing, talked no more about the'
liberal institutions of Sardinia." The oath referred
to was regularly taken, the duke tells us, by every
new Viceroy. Rome and Venice were of course
among the places visited by the noble traveller, and
his descriptions of them are amongst the most
interesting pages of his diary. He lingered long
at the Eternal City and mixed freely in its society,
which welcomed him eagerly. There he met many'
members of the exiled Bonoparte family, who,
strange to say, notwithstanding his well known
opinions and the shelter his housc had siren to rho
Bourbons, received him most con:tally. Queen
Hortense invited him to her home and showed him
every attention. On the chimney-piece of one of
her rooms stood a beautiful white marble bi:st of a
child. It was the likeness of the young Kinje'
Rome, which had been sent out to St. Helen-`1'
The Duke recognised it, but would not seep
to do so. Ile admired its beauty, when the,
ex-Queen briefly assented to his praises, and then
turned the subject to a neighbouring picture.
Doubtless that bust was fraught to her mind with
many mournful associations of various kinds. The
Princess of Canino (the wife of Lucien) was also ill
Rome with her family. The anecdotes then env'
. rent Roman society are often introduced, and the
Duke's shrewd comments on men and things are
full of interest. He frequently makes a passing'
allusion to the aspect of English politics. At the'
close of February, 1829, he receives the news of the
King's speech recommending the removal of the
Catholic disabilities, and forgetting all personal
vexations in the triumph of the principles he bad
so consistently maintained, be enters the
gence in his diary, with the ejaculation, "God be
praised that I have lived to see this day !" We can
understand the Duke's feelings when a King's mes-
senger arrived, charged by Wellington with
orders to collect all the Peers' proxies he could fled,
and brought the news that the Iron Dilke,
vowed the expulsion of any Government official
who voted against the measure. After the Great
Duke's previous conduct such a change was sonic'
what startling. The election of a new pope to
ofthe
tiara gave an additional interest to the Duke 1
Buckingham's stay in Rome, and he gives a fa'
account of the plots and counterplots about the
election. The works of art both above and under-
ground are discussed with much criticril
His visited the studios of Thorwaidsen and Canc):"°
and compares their styles and merits. Ile I.re-
quently met with Rosa Taddea, the celebrated on"
provisatnce, and was much struck by the readinesse
and originality of her talent, which his knowledg
of the language enabled him to appreciate. -`4"