The Sun.
London, England, 1840-01-14 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

'~ k

EDINBURGH REY lEVV, No. CXo47;'''''''''.;:-.. -11;
I
Longman, London, 1840. - ' ..fte.,.,:,...:.,,- __.
Sir John Malcolm's life of Lord Clive;.:',Ae,
founder of the British Empire in India, fotittlie‘
subject of the first article in the present Number. iii, ‘,..:
is lightly and spiritedly dashed off, much in the
manner of Macauley ; and contains the most graphic
sketch of Clive's public and private character that
has yet appeared in . print. The Reviewer is no
flatterer, but neither does he allow himself to be
biassed by the strong prejudices against the subject
of his sketch that were so general in England some
sixty or seventy years since. At that period the East
Indian Nabob—as he was called—was exceedingly
unpopular in this country ; he was frequently some
desperate English adventurer who had gone to the
Ei
nacsrtedtio publyssh short
ort his f
spaocretuiorefs, and
titne with
hurneed in anlwrinous
wealth, which the mass of the unreflecting commu-
nitycra cruel
vlteoasoi: k(al
nii.o.iitr.pp
agoctr
iatoilituitg.se dm
el
ai had
—b eseuici
hmaasde p l byun
plundering
n, 1, ntohset
them to the torture, in order to
make them gi%;e tifi their treasures. The Nabob's mode
of living, wiien he returned to his mother-country,
increased the popular prejudice against him. He
was proud—vulgar—and ostentatious ; affecting
equality with the aristocracy, yet discountenanced
by them, and. those over whom they exercised
any authority. Foote, in one of - his lively,
ad captandant comedies, has left us a gra-
phic sketch of a Nabob, which adroitly em-
bodies the popular idea entertained of him in
the days of our great-grandfathers. Lord Clive,
as being the Coryphxus of this class of clever
English adventurers, was visited with general odium
accordingly ; but most unjustly, as the Reviewer
makes it appear, for, with the exception of one or
two acts of doubtful character which he committed
in his first Indian campaign, he wasasincere friend
to justice, resolute and uncompromising ; and
effected many salutary reforms in that part of
the East over which he presided. He was, it
seems, a man of strong. passions, of inflexiNe
determination of purpose,' and. subject to such.
deep fits of gloom, that .in `early youth, when
scarcely escaped from his teens, he made two at-
tempts to commit suicide. Ultimately, he destroyed
himself, in 1774, when he had just completed his
forty-ninth year. We subjoin some characteristic
details of his boyhood r— -' .
" Some lineaments of the char'ac-ter of the man were
early distinguished in the child. , There remain letters
written by his relations when le:jvas in his seventh
year ; and from these it appears. that, even at that
early age, his strong will, and his fiery passions, sw-
tained by a constitutional intrepidity which sometimes
seemed hardly compatible with soundness of mind, had
begun to cause great uneasiness to the family. ' Fight-
ing,' says one of his uncles, 'to which he is out of
• measure addicted, gives his temper such a fierceness
and imperiousness, that he flies out on every trifling
occasion.' The old people of the neighbourhood stiil
remember to have heard from their parents :how Blb i'
Clive climbed to the top of the lofty steeple of Market
Drayton, and with what terror the inhabitants saw him
seated on a stone spout near the summit. They also
relate how he formed all the good-for7nothing lads of
the town into a kind of predatory army, and com-
pelled the shopkeepers to submit to a tribute of apples
and halfpence, in consideration of which he guaranteed
the security of their windows. He was sent from
school to school,. makinc, very little progress in his
learning, and gaining for himself every where the cha-
racter of an exceedingly naughty I.n)y. One of his
masters, it is said, was sagacious enough to prophesy
that the idle lad would make a great figure in. f.he
world. But the general opinion seems to have been
that poor Robert was a dunce, if not a reprobate.
His family expected nothing good from such slender
parts and such a headstrong temper. It is not strange,
therefore, that they gladly accepted for him, when he
was in his eighteenth year, a writership in the service
of the East India Company, and shipped bin:
o ff
make a fortune or die of a fever at Madras. Far dY.-
fercnt were the prospects of Clive from those of ti:e •
to
youths whom the East India College now annually sends
to the Presidencies of our Asiatic empire. The Com-
pany was then purely a trading corporation. Its terri-
tory consisted of a fee' square miles, for which rent was
paid to the native Governments. Its troops were
scarcely numerous enough ,t-o man the batteries of three
or four ill-constructed forts, %chief' had been erected for
the prOtection.of -the warehouses."
The triumphant military and diplomatic career of
Clive is briefly glanced at, and the article concludes
with a just estimate of his talents as a Warrior and a
statesman. " Douglas on the PhilosopbY of the
Mind" is an ably reasoned metaphysical es,'-'B,Y, .in
which one or two of the author's, fallacies .11; in
section on 'Morals are pointed out.: In the article
headed " Revenue System of British India," the
Reviewer insists on the improving condition of our
colonial possessions in the Easr, especially in the
great province of Bengal, Where, it seems, a variety
of important public works are in a state of active
progress. • " Wealth of Nations" is a treatise on
the lively and refreshing subject •of political
economy. Speaking of Dr. Adam Smiths well-
known work, the Reviewer pays :—" Smith's very
success has proved an obstacle to the continuance
of his populariv,. Much of - his reasoning is no
longer needed, and the greater part of his illustra-
tions antiquated ; while on the other parts of his
sehject, he has been superseded as an at:thority by
newer writers. Yet since Dr. Smith, we love had
no popular writer on political economy. M. Ri-
cardo investigated the fundamental truths of the
science with singular profoundness ; his theories,
while they have led many astray, have nevertheless
penetrated thoroughly into all subsequent lucubra-
tions on the subject ; and he may be regarded more
justly than any other, as the real founder of the
school which at present exists in England.
But he is not read, nor expected to be read,
except by . the few who master him for the
sake of the subject ; his dry and abstract
disquisitions have no attraction whatever for the
general reader." The " Life and Discoveries of
, A ..,_
JUIPICS Watt! ..va
'is -a, notice, of ...arago, s recently
published memoir of this celebrated man, wherein
the Reviewer asserts
steam-engine
the true inventor of Ole
, .. , •
stea-engine ‘‘';as-*- Captain Savery,, who, previous
to the year 1691, had not only carried into effect,
and extended the crude ideas of the Marquis of
Worcester, but had constructed a real engine, in
which the pressure of the atmosphere and the
elasticity of the steam acted in succession as inov
ing powers.
Of the remaining articles, the best is that on
" Lord Roden's Committee on Irish Crime," whose
whole case, as the Reviewer truly observes, from
‘,o last, utterly and disgracefully broke down.

first t

1 the

following; as the writer's opinion of Richard Cobden-
We copy ftort—i—a---- periodica.
Esq. ;--" gentleman will offer hiniscif as a cah. ndi-
date for the liocour of representing the horoug of
Stockport in the British House of Commons, Pp on the
first vacancy, therefore a ;ew remarks upon his. preten-
sions and qualiticatior:s will not be deemed imp.' pa
at
the present critical juncture, Mr. Cobden is endowed
with extraordinary industry, a strong, inflexible deterrni-
nationin the prosecution of any great orhazardous under
taking. 'As an orator, he is earnest and convincing.
As an advocate for free trade, he will one day stand
pre-eminent. His writings arc full of vigour, And hew
statistical and historical research of no ordinary caste.
As a politician, he. is "thoughtful, independent, and
liberal Avoiding the rudeness of physical' force on the
one hand, and repudiating the finality' doctrine on
the other. He will speak his real opinions, how- "1 i
ever unpalatable they may prove, whether his
auditory consists of republicans or aristocracy. As a
member of the British Senate, be would soon become
distinguished, and prove a powerful ally in supporting
the claims of the working classei of this realm, with-
out '•
encroaching upon the rights
.Of others. Any
borough would do itself honour by. returning such a
.
Member, and a future period will show lb:
t. our prog,
nostications are not vaguely founded,• but the result of
long-continued and honest observations of one • who is
destined to occupy a brilliant situation amongst:- .Dg-
land's benefactors and statesmen."
DISTRESS IN LEICESTER.—From a Corres-
pondent.—Having heard several persons remark that
the distress in Leicester was not so. great as. many 1
people thought it was, I think the following fact will
prove them to be wront. It was told me yesterday
by a gentleman who actually saw it, that as be was
looking out of his window into the yard behind his
house, he saw a man standing over his swill tub into 1
which was thrown the wash, &c., for his pigs, and
taking several pieces of something out and eating them
with a voracious appetite ; he called to him and asked
him what he was doipg,,but the man did not speak ; he ,
then went to him asked if he would like sonic
bread to cat, and the man.with a tremulous voice said-
" he should be very thankful for it."—Leicestershif e
Mercury. •
SHIP 13UILDING, AT SUNDERL A Nl:l.—During
the past year-no fewer than 310 vessels have been built
and registered at the port of Sunderland,, but some of
them were for other ports ; almVe4o, ,ire are quite
ready on the tide surveyors' list. to be measured.
Many of them are from 300).to upwards of 600 tons
burden.—Port of Tyne Pilot:
The Duke and Duchess of Bedford have re-
turned to Oakley House from a visit to Lord and Lady
de Grey, at Wrest lurk. • .•