The Sun.
London, England, 1840-09-30 00:00:00

LITERATURE

HORACE WALPOLE'S LETTERS—VoL. 5.
Ber#44l, London, 18-10.
The fifth volume of this delightful work, which
has just appeared, contains Walpole's correspond-
ence from the year 1765 down to the July of 1778
At this period he had passed the meridian of life,
and was treading on the borders of old age, symp-
toms of which are easily discoverable in his letters,
notwithstanding that they still cont'nue to be cha-
racterised by all their wonted ease and vivacity of
manner. An occasional captiousness of remark—a
peevish tone of remonstrance when speaking of
some of his friends' remissness as correspondente--
a growing distrust of all public changes—and an
exchange of the laugh, for the sneer, at the various
follies of the day, together with a tendency to dwell
longer on the history of his own physical ailments,
than perhaps the exactest good taste would war -
rant, though even here his egotism is neither offen-
sive nor wearisome ;—these are indications not to
be mistaken, and denote the period of life which the
writer had now attained, with quite as much cer-
tainty as the date prefixed to each letter.
Another characteristic feature of the present
portion of Horace Walpole's correspondence is the
utter distaste every where expressed for anything
in the shape of politics. So frequent and so
pointed is the expression of this dislike, that we
are not without a suspicion that it originated in
disappointed hopes ; but if this were not the case,
then it was most flagrant affectation in a man, si-
tuated as the writer wks, to ridicule or profess in-
difference to that froth which his father had dt-
rived all his influence, and he himself, in conse-
quence of that influence, his incerne. Had it not
been for politics, the elder Walpole would have
lived and died a private country gentleman ; and the i
son, instead of enjoying himself at his Gothic
show-box at Strawberry-hill, entertaining princes
and dukes, and corresponding with all the celebra-
ted men of his day, would have been, perhaps, a
mere drudging lawyer, unknown beyond the pre-
cincts of his Court.
It is curious to observe, in the letters before us,
how sensitive Walpole is on the score of ridicule,
and how morbid is his apprehension of it. Hie
correspondence, during his stay at, and after his
return from, Paris in 1766. is full of allusions to
Madame du Deffand—a blind old French lady,
who had taken a great fang to him, and expressed
her penchant after the fashion of the day, in such
ardent terms, as he seems to think will subject him
:o the derision of the fashionable and literary cote-
ries. Hence, in writing to his friends, he is anxious
to impress on them the fact that he himself is an
old man, and his fair Parisian admirer a still older
woman ; and that her wit, good-humour, and ready
conversational talents are the sole causes of his ad-
miration of her. How absurd is all this solicitude,
and how strangely at variance with Horace
Walpole's usual shrewdness and knowledge
of the world ! Who would ever have dreamed
of suspecting him of a Itaisoa with a blind
Frenchwoman of seventy, or attributed his
preference to any but the right cause—namely
that he had found in her much of that vivacity and
quick-wittedness which he himself possessed in such
high perfection ? But the truth is, a fear of ridi-
cule was his chief weak point, as is often the case
with those who are remarkable for their skill in using
this powerful weapon.
The Parisian Letters, in which this amusing
trait of character is developed,
.form decidedly
the most entertaining—and we may add, the
most valuable—portion of the present vo-
lume. They are penned in Walpole's liveliest
and most pointed manner, and show that
he had all his wits about him. The diverting
anecdote—the arch repartee—the scandalous gossip
—in short, whatever set the Parisian salons laugh- 1
ing and wondering, while he was in the capital, are
noted down from day to day with an eagerness and
I piquancy that show how thoroughly he enjoyed
his task. How felicitous in its terse sarcasm is his
account of the enormous wolf which, after having
been the scourge of a French village, had been
killed, stuffed, and sent to Paris, where its fame
had arrived before it !—" It is as like a wolf," says
he, .‘ as a commissary in the late war, except,
notwithstanding all the stories, that it has not de-
voured near so many persons. In short, now it is
dead and come here, a wolf it certainly was, and
not more above the common size than Mrs. Caven-
dish is. It has left a dowager and four young
princes." In a similar spirit he alludes to the
Prince de Caraman, who, he observes, " wrote
from the country to excuse his not coming to see
me, as his wife was on the point of being brought to
bed, but begged I would come to them. So I
would, if I was a man-midwife ; but though they
are easy on such heads, I am not used to it, and
cannot, make a party of pleasure of a labour."
Here is \\'alpole's description of his presentation
at Court, which is full of life and archness. The
passing allusion to " Abraham's bosom" is a ready
touch of humour that will call to mind some of
the smartest things in Congreve :
" You perceive that I have been presented. The Queen
took great notice of tee ; none of the rest said a sylla-
ble. You are let into the Kin's bedchamber just as
he has put on his shirt ; he dresses and talks good-
humouredly to a few ; glares et strangers ; goes to
mass, to dinner, and a hunting. The good old Queen, 1
who is like Lady Primrose in the face, and Qiseen
Caroline in the immensity of her cap, is at her dress-
ing-table, attended by two or three old ladies, who are
languishing to be in Abraham's bosom, as the only
man's bosom to which they can hope for admittance.
Thence you go to the Dauphin, for all is done in an
hour. He scare* stays a minute ; indeed, poor crea-
ture, he is a ghost, an 4 cannot possibly last three
months. The Dauphiness is in her bedceaniber, but
dressed and standing ; looks cross, is not civil, and has
the true Westphalian grace and accents. The four
Mesdames, who arc clumsy, plump old wenches, with
a bad likeness to their father, stand in a bedchamber in
a row, with black cloaks and knotting-bags, looking,
good-humoured, not knowing what to say, and wrig-
gling about. This erretnony, too, is very short ; then
you are carried to the Dauphin's three boys. who, you
may be sure, only bow and stare. The whole concludes
Kith seeing the Dauphin's little girl dine, who is as
round and fat as a pudding. I saw the Duc de
Richelieu in waiting, who is pale, except his nose,
which is red." COMMISSION oF LuN AM—Yesterday morn-
Though Walpole, like a true man of the world, ing a commission of lunacy sat in this town, for thtsperewe
was tolerant of the fashionable fooleries of the salons of inquiring into the state of mind of Miss Frances Mary
nl'aarrs,on)sr,ero%si.,l,ifnginastanAitbyinrhteonfolilno"tlits cowuenrtcy...
ad
arc gall ;.; st
of Paris, and associated with the wits and phi-
losophers on the most familiar terms, yet. lie never Upon
severall 1
a thatl k ing
pirnintchee
Albert room,
the
occasions she asserted that the house was
allowed his judgment to be hood-winked ; but, faihng, and sent for some of the village carpenters to prop
piercing below the surface, detected in the mock-
ittlacupL;ortdhatCil:aensc'eullor‘v:raen'
get-
liberalism and infidelity of the day, the germs of a tang at the top of her bed; that she was gain to meet
found in her room, written by herself, addressed to Messrs.
Qieet! had invited her to go to Court. A note was
Johnson when he visited the French capita
future revolution, which escaped the observation
ouotf
1,1 trtlock wiMin,, them to • • 1 "
to the aril- t ' black' pay 4 . lawful coin of the
Burke's false and flashy remark, applied. . realm"o a.man, Ramee, whom she had sent for it ;
ten years later. What a conclusive answer to
lost half its evil by bu'. (according to the witness) she had no blackabout
is by
furnished Horace her, and at the Ihne she wrote the note man
she was not
losing all its grossness," banking cracy of France, that " vice,,
ertlockss, but at Fisher's. She used to assert
that she
were remarkabl heard several distinct voices in the room, and that
people I According to him, they
its e, the . ,• ) Atte conveyed to her through tubas ; that her brother
. .
Walpole s description of
.t i social habits. of these "nking at M
shoot her, although at the time she
• fidels in the most comprehensive and repul.. said so be was in the West Indies. Upon other oeca-
not for the refinements of vice, hut grossnesses , was trying to
stotis she has been heard to pray for her self-destructioN„
were in , libertinesof the coarsest
a mere spirit of bra- and has several times been seen at the window, addressing
order ; anti-monarchists from the Duke of Wellington, as though he were present to
sive sense of the term ;
deceased
hear her harangue. It appeared that, under her
civil institutions which bind society together. mother's marriage settlement, she was entitled
vado ; and holding in barefaced contempt all those
ti is not greater than their unity of 83/. a-year, !o anf atbne-
besides a third of_ an.a,nnarvu.ityofoom.
says
elilre'ph do s oph es ate insupport- Indies,
In short, they arc another people from same amount left her by a. brother, and I fi.
what they wore. I worth from •)001 to 300/. a-year, but which has
'tie
IT
clai heir gaiety,
beariner and f •of her bee-
able, superficial, over 0, fanatic ; they not been p lid these 10 years, in consequencet or.
left her by a distant relation, and an estate in the West
Bond,
n•each incessantly, and their avowed doctrine is tiler representing that it was not
71(7,1%i:0 attend her,
'Atheism, you would not believe how openly. Vol- physician, of thiA town, i
faire himself does not satisfy them. One of their and was answering them
is quite out of fa-lady devotees said of him—ll est bigot, c'ese un raosoLiu-,tl. there were so many persoos present. 110 had
werec seven voices in the
'ng that her ease was olio
iiiste,"— Again, " laughingd c p o s c d that she tohledwhaswnthh,och,weer:e'
not Ohw Aightest hesitation,in sap
ecision thatter
shion here. Good folks, they have no t. Iserr.A of the domestics were
cucc there did not appear
d from whose clod
There is God and the Kin(* to 1 'I Ithen examined from
n m: pui ea down first ; .doubt but that she TIN lady
t:.-• slightest
severalih s insane.
and men, women, one and all, ar d s .1 employed then brought in, andquestions put 4,
e ,!,,ou, y !
i herself was to which confirmed the evidence as to I
in the demolition. They tl • k tithe to laugh •of confirmed., insanity.
lore came to the d lin me quite profane !her, the an7tver,s_ury , f,
for having any belief left."—<, Do you know who ien'alliNtYia'y. 183 g. she has been insane, and incapable of
the phdosophes are, or what the means here. al)ra ‘•
' 'h
• ffairs —Cambtidge Chron.ide. -
term managing el a •
In the first place, it comprehends almost every j tiler,'
FATAL RAILWAY ACCIDENT.---We und,4...
body ; and, in the next, means men who, avowing stand that two rnen were. killed on Friday afternoon, by a
in the railway tunnel at R
war against popery, aim, many of them, at a sub- fall of earth, °dwell End, near
Ilebdonßrim ge.
Their names
version of all religion, anti, still many more, at the vi •
ma one thirty andthe
are Joseph Roberts sad
know litlis , or . , other twenty-five years
destruction of regal power. How do you of ace.-11,14fas Express.
this ? you will say --yon who have been but six
DIVINITY CHAIR, (-
;—you iLASGOW.—it is said
• n have been
weeks in France, three of which yo . , that the gift 'if Oh; Cr,ai 1
r G,pends now on the casting-
f,tie ; but in the first vote of Sir .I,m, s Grahtarg The j • • and N
confined to chamber ''' '
your . atrusiorost.4. -o-
nd heard nothing else ; latrJsiouists .te alt on 1
period I went everywhere, and he qui eive.—Reformers' Gazettc

But to return to Horace Walpole, We had
already spoken—in our no:ice of the fourth mitre
of his Letters—of his happy knack of pourtraying
character by a few apt touches, which seam to
escape him, as if by accident. Here is an instance
in point. Alluding to the elder Pitt, he says,
" from this moment I date the v%ane of his glory ;
lie will want the thorough-bass ril. drums and 7 rim-
pets, and is not- made fur peace." The words
which we have marked in italics, are admirably
characteristic of Chatham as a statesman, and des-
cribe his qualifications as efrectually as could be
done in a volume. He was essentially a wai-
minister, anti never so great as when directing the
storm of battle, and sounding the drums and trum-
pets of detilnce against France and Spain. But
in tranquil times his energies were apt to flag, for
want of an em larged and bustling sphere of action.
As a proof of the grace and sprightliness which
Walpole knew how to impart to the merest
trifles, we quote his account of the French
method of training tre‘s:—'• The Academy de
Belles Letters have even offered a prize for
the man that shall recover the long lost art
of an ancient Greek, Orpheus, who in -tituted
a dancing- school for plan's, and gave a magnifi-
cent bail on the bit th of the Dauphin of Thrace,
which was performed entirely by forest-trees. In
all France there is no such thing as seeing a tree
that is not well behavel. They are first stripped
up, and then cut down ; and you would as soon
meet a man with his hair about his ears, as aim oak
or ashi. As the weather is very hot now, and time
soil chalk, and the dust white, I assure you it is
very difficult, po,,vdered as both are all orer, to d s-

tinguish a tree from a hair-dresser ! Lest this
should sound like a travelling hyperbole, I inns: ad-
vertise your Lordship, that there is little difference
in their heights ; for a tree of thirty years' growth
being liable to be marked as Royal timber, the pro-
prietors take care not to let their trees live to the
age of IL.ing enlisted, but burn them, and phut
others, as often almost as they change their
fashion." Haw lively and graceful is all this tri-
fling—the fairy frost-work of the fancy, as it may
be called I But, as Johnson observed of Gold-
smith, Horace Walpole touches nothing that he
does not adorn. In his hands, the veriest cominon-
place assumes an aspect of novelty ; and he throws
a sunny spirit of joyousness over the dullest details
of every-day life, though his vivacity is not the re-
sult of a kindly, cordial nature ; it has glitter but
not warmth ; and satisfies us that Walpole, like
Voltaire, was wholly deficient in strength and ear-
nestness of feeling. Nevertheless, wanting, as they
are, in healthy sensibility, his Letters will always
command the attention of the world, for their mat-
ter, not less than for their manner ; and we consider
this edition of them—which besides being illus-
trated with terse, explanatory notes, contains several
hundred letters never before published—the most
entertaining and instructive work that has typeared
for many years.

THE PRINCIPA h BATHS OF GERMANE
aker, , London, 1S 40.

As yet, the first volume only of this work is
published. and is confined to an account of the
Baths of Nassau-Baden, and the adjacent districts,
which just now are much in fashion with those of
our English travellers who are—or fancy that they
are—valetudinarians. Mr. Lee, the author, a mc-
dical gentiefflan of some experi,ntee, enters into
minute accounts respecting the qualities of these mi-
neral springs, and patticularizes the maladies in
which they will he found efficacious, and those in
which they will be apt to have an injurious effect.
Of the Wisbailen Baths he speaks in terms of the
warmest approbation, observing that mo.it chronic
rheumatic affectiJns will be removed or greatly re-
lieved b.y them.

THE JOURNEY-BOOR OF ENGLAND.
Knight, London, 1840.

A work illustrative of the different counties of
England, and which, we suppose, will be issued in
monthly Numberi. The one before us contains a
general description of Berkshire, its physical topo-
graphy, history and antiquities, its civil and eccle-
siastical divisions, roads, post•towns, markets and
fairs, &c. ; and is embellished with twenty-three
en,rayings on wood, and an illuminated map of the
county. So far as we can judge, the work seems
carefully enough compiled ; but, considering its
size, rather too much space, we think, is devoted to
details respecting Windsor and its Castle.

THE LAW OF PERSONAL PROPERTY.
Tyas, London, 1840.

All the laws relating to personal property, such
as right by occupancy, title by prerogative, forfeit-
ure, or custom, right through grant or gift, by con
tract, bankruptcy, marriage, and so forth, are enu-
merated and explained in this cleverly digested little
work, which forms one of a series of publications
entitled " The Legal Handbook."