The Sun.
London, England, 1849-05-30 00:00:00

EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND TWELVE.
Translated from the German. By Mary Norman
3 Vols.
A t the Literary Fund anniversary dinner, the other
day, the historian Alison very modestly disclaimed
any praise on the ground of the popularity of his his-
tory of Europe, by observing that he had been fortu-
nate in the selection of his theme. lie had written,
he said, " concerning a period when truth had become
romance, when courage had merged into heroism,
and when, to be interesting, the historian had only
to be faithful." Whether in all respects the speaker
himself possessed that necessary qualification of
"faithfulness" we will not now stop to consider, but
the passage we have just quoted may be indeed
applied to the theme of the novel above- mentioned.
Was not the year eighteen hundred and twelve the
year of all others during that momentous period when
truth and romance, courage and heroism, historical
and interesting became synonymous terms ? In
penning any narrative of the events of the Russian
campaign it might have been supposed that the ima
gination of the rotnancist would he little taxed, but
the author of this, in all respects most interesting
work, thought otherwise., Ile has endeavoured in this
instance to make fiction as strange as truth. The
historical and the imaginary contents of " 1812" are
both marvellous and enthralling. The only fault we
could find with the work as a whole is that it gives us
too much an embarras de richesses. Its heroes and
heroines are of all nations, Russian, German, French,
&c. Europe is the field of action, and the
terrible retreat of the French army one of its most
important incidents. To give a resume of such a
work would be almost a matter of impossibility. As
an evidence of its historical attractions, let us say that
the account here given of the retreat is in many re-
spects a counterpart of the heart-thrilling, but, as
Gourgaud has triumphantly proved, the very exag-
gerated narrative of Count Segur. The incidents of
that terrible journey are many of them too painful
to peruse. They are described with a naturalness
and minuteness which of course heightens their
gloomy interest. The battle scenes are painted in a
vivid, dashing manner ; the author is a soldier
we are told, and that is enough to assure us
they are depicted con amore. One of the
heroines of the tale is the daughter, or
rather the supposed daughter of a Russian noble of
harsh and arbitrary character. The Russian house-
hold scenes thus introduced give an idea of the hor-
rors of the serf system. One of the most marvellous
fictitious incidents is rendered peculiarly startling
from the fact of its being (though the most improbable
thing in the world) not actually improbable. A
French soldier renders some important service one
dark night to two travellers, a young maiden and her
father ; in order to know them again he changes
rings with the lady, and, to his dismay, finds, after
her departure, that he has not changed the rings after
all, but in the confusion has put his own
back on his finger. So he thinks; but some time
after, when his ring is examined (as it is the only
clue he possesses to the discovery of a lost sister), it
appears that it is not the same—the young stranger
was his sister, and they had changed rings without
knowing it—the rings being almost alike. This little
incident loses much in the abbreviation. In the
novel its effect is startling, from the fact, as we have
already said, of its being morally, but not actually
impossible. With wonderful incidents of all kinds
" Eighteen Hundred and Twelve " abounds. The
best definition we can give of its character is ex-
pressed in the word interesting. It is interesting
in matter, both fictitious and real, and it is interesting
in manner, for it is well written and full of animation
and energy.

ROCKINGHAM; or the Younger Brother.
3 Vols. Colburn, 1849.
The author of "Rockingham" is, we believe, a
new candidate for literary honours, and he has
no reason to be displeased with the fate of this, his
first venture. He has produced not only the novel
of the season, but a book that will outlive the season
and become a standard work. We consider
"Rockingham" as the new " Waverley" of a series of
fictions destined to expose the social evils of which
the higher classes of society in this country are
the victims, and we look forward to the day
when the Rockingham Novels will take their
place on the bookshelf by the side of the
Waverley series. The object of " Rockingham"
is to expose the misery inflicted by the law of primo-
geniture upon those very families for whose benefit
that most unnatural law is supposed to be enacted ;
and after the perusal of this most interesting tale, we
believe that the firmest upholder of that law will be
inclined to admit that the sacrifices made to maintain
it are greater than its maintenance is worth, and that
for the sake of the aristocracy themselves it would be
well that it should be, if not repealed, at least greatly
modified. The hero of the story, Lord Edward
Rockingham, is the younger son of the Marquis
of Arlingford, and as all the attention of the
family is devoted to the nurturing of the eldest
son Lord Elmswater, the heir to the title and estates,
Rockingham is left to follow the bent of his own
inclinations until the time arrives for his being seLt
to school. And in the description of Rockingham's
school life our author exposes another social evil for
which it will be more easy to provide s. remedy
than for the evils arising from the law of pri-
megeniture. lie is sent to a public school, in
which (as in all great public schools to this hour)
the beastly, the degrading, the shame destroying
punishment of flogging seems to be the only means
adopted for preserving discipline. The effects
of this punishment are most vividly pour-
trayed by our author the boy who has
never been subjected to it maintains his self-respect,
and leaves no effort untried to endeavour to avoid
this chastisement ; but once flogged he feels him-
self degraded, and he invariably becomes subject to
the lash again and again until the sense of shame
is deadened, that which he had formerly shrunk
from he now almost courts as affording him an
opportunity of showing his superiority to physical
pain, that which had been a degradation has become
a martyrdom, and that which had been dreaded as a
disgrace is gloried in as a triumph. The effects pro-
duced by this school discipline upon the man in after
life are admirably pourtrayed by our author.
" The child is father to the man,"
and so long as those classes from whom our army
and navy are officered, our legislators taken, our
priests ordained, our magistrates appointed, shall be
subjected in their boyhood to these disgraceful,
debasing, soul-hardening punishments, so long
must every attempt to improve the moral
condition of our soldiers and our sailors, to
reform the inmates of our goals, or to give a higher
moral tone to social legislation be abortive. The men to
whom the carrying out of these reformatory measures
is entrusted are incompetent to do so; they were in
their younger days slaves governed solely by the lash,
they can appeal to no higher motive of conduct than
fear, they know of no other. Can we be surprised
that the slave emancipated becomes a tyrant ? Talk
to him of exciting feelings of shame in the mind of
an evil-doer as a means of reformation, he understands
you not, the feeling of shame is dead within him—he
has acquired at school a habit of degradation. " I
was devilishly well flogged at school myself," said
Colonel White, at the inquest on the soldier who was
flogged to death at Hounslow. The Colonel was
evidently not aware at the time of the importance of
the admission. From school Rockingham enters the
navy, and is at the battle of St. Vincent, and at the
attack on Teneriffe with Nelson, and nothing can exceed
the vigour and spirit of the descriptions of those
actions, they are quite equal to the best of the nau-
tical descriptions of Cooper. He is wounded at
Teneriffe, and is nursed and tendered by Donna
Dolores, a young and lovely Spaniard, who possesses
all the warmth of affection and romance which are so
characteristic of her countrywomen. The character
of Dolores is admirably drawn. From Teneriffe he
takes passage in a merchant ship for Lisbon, is
wrecked, escapes alone on a rock, forms a raft, puts
to sea, and is picked up by a French frigate. Ulti-
mately he returns to England, when all had
considered him dead, save and except his
cousin, Sophia Waldegrave, between whom
and himself the most tender affection had subsisted
from childhood. During his absence the Mar-
quis had become embarrassed, he had, to maintain
the family dignity, expended enormous sums in
supporting his eldest son, Lord Elmswater, in
contesting the county, and his estate deeply mort-
gaged before, becomes still more heavily encum-
bered. In order to relieve the estate, the Mar-
quis and his son bad previously to the return of
Rockingham endeavoured to bring about a marriage
between Elmswater and Sophia Waldegrave, whose
fortune would pay off all the incumbrances. Not-
withstanding the cordial affectione sdtuoignobtsiiststyaicn orgiffibeteeht:th'aeenei;
Rockingham and Sophia the scheme is persevered in, and
appealedathffeecltoivoenrssinaroerdseepratroatmelayintainth
cient house of Arlingford. They agree to wait for
two years, which Rockingham is to spend at sea. We
will not detail his adventures in the Mediterranean,
which constitute one of the most interesting portions
of the book, but hasten to the conclusion. his letters
to Sophia are intercepted—reports reach England of
his misconduct, of his arrest, and of his being about
to he tried by court-martial; and Sophia at length,
wearied out by the importunities of her relations,
consents to become the wife of Elmswater. Rock-
ingham, wearied of life, seeks danger where-
ever it is to be found, and is killed at the
battle of Trafalgar, and Sophia lives a life
of misery. We have merely in this outline given so
much of the tale as is necessary to point out the
moral which the author seeks to inculcate, but the
novel is replete with portraits, each of which is so
individualised that we at once become acquainted with
the individual, with all his idosyncracies. They are
spuocrhtraairtes ind
the
poi
ry
ti
rdaui at
sl s , notof
th e mere
b r
asykee, t ch es
magnanimous,
o f classes;
Imatou, Airs. Went-
high-sogled cbgries