The Sun.
London, England, 1848-05-25 00:00:00

THE QUARTERLIES.

THE EDINBURGH REVIEW. No. CLXX VI.
THE QUARTERLY RE VIE W. No. CLXI V.
THE WESTMINSTER REVIEW. No. XCVI.
THE BRITISH QUARTERLY REVIEW. No.
XIV.
THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND REVIEW.
No. XLVI.
7HE NORTH BRITISH REVIEW for May.
Several bulky volumes by Caxton or Wyokin de
Worde would scarcely furnish such a mass of writing
as is here contained in these quarterly publications--
publications which form only a single phase in our
periodical literature. Of itself this circumstance
alone would be significant of the spread of intelli-
gence, but the marvel of the thing is strongly
enhanced when we consider the diversity of the
subjects and the brilliancy (in some instances) of the
style which are lavished in their production. In
biography we have sometimes the compactness of
Southey and the analytic skill of Plutarch. In
criticism the subtlety of Dacier and the precision of
Gifford. In metaphysics the depth of Coleridge and
the imaginativeness of Richter. In papers of a
humorous character, the terseness of Swift, the sly-
ness of Sterne, the eccentricity of Rabellais, and the
homeliness of Smollett. We shall not be accused of
having here pronounced any very exaggerated pane-
gyric upon the Quarterlies when it is remembered
that among the contributors to those publications
have been numbered within the last forty years such
men as Brougham, Jeffrey, Macintosh, Walter Scott,
Sydney Smith, Lockhart, Macaulay, Robert Southey
himself (one of the most exquisite prose writers in
the language), Chalmers, Leigh Hunt, and a multi-
tude of others. Latterly, however, we cannot pre-
sume to speak in terms so unconditionally eulogistic,
although the sparkling mannerisms of Mr. Charles
Buller and the scholastic diction of Lord John
Russell have embellished the Whig organ at intervals.
In the number for the April quarter of the Edinburgh
is a noble and scholarly disquisition on the " Genius
of Plato." After mentioning the unsatisfactory
translation of Floyer Sydenham and the almost
insane paraphrase of Thomas Taylor, the writer
laments that England has not yet given birth to a
creditable translator; of the great disciple of Socrates
—whereas France has long since done so in the
person of Victor Cousin, and Germany in the person
of Schleierrnacher. This reminder should be enough
to arouse the industry of some man whose acquaint-
ance with the Greek tongue may approximate in
strikingsee u
familiaritym e thisofarPtiCrl
imme-
diately followed by delightful and gossiping remi-
niscence of "
nay gladly—for the Coleridge
and Southey." Willingly,
publisher of Bristol, and
dnsotiiilrl of Joseph Cottle, the
more for the honour of
Southey, for whose memory
little sympathy and politically none we have individually but
transcribe the following beautiful
whatever—do we
and noble-hearted
letter. It is in answer to aregret expressed by
Cottle that on retiring from business
returned the copyright of his
workstehe
S bad not
Here it is—and let those who read it
remra
e bouthey.
Robert Southey, now dead and turning to duster that
had
heart that throbbed warmly, and eyes that looked
a
kindly, and a hand that had a frank and cordial
for those he loved when living : grasp
My dear Cottle,—What you say of my copyrights
affects me very much. Dear Cottle, set your heart at
rest on that subject. It ought to be at rest. They were
yours; fairly bought and fairly sold. You bought them
on the chance of their success, which no London book-
seller would have done; and had they not been bought,
they could not have been published at all. Nay, if you
had not published Joan of Arc,' the poem would never
have existed, nor should I, in all probability, ever have
obtained that reputation which is the capital on which I
subsist, nor that power which enables me to support it.
" But this is not all. Do you suppose, Cottle, that I
have forgotten those true and essential acts of friendship
which you showed me when I stood most in need of
them? Your house was my house when I had no other.
The very money with which I bought my wedding-ring,
and paid my marriage fees, was supplied by you. It was
with your sisters that I left my Edith during my six
months' absence; and for the six months after my
return, it was from you that I received, week by week,
the little on which we lived, till I was enabled to live by
other means. It is not the settling of our cash account
that can cancel obligations like these. You are in the
habit of preserving your letters, and if you are not, I
would entreat you to preserve this, that it might be seen
hereafter. Sure I am, that there never was a more
generous nor a kinder heart than yours; and you will
believe me when I add that there does not live that man
upon earth, whom I remember with more gratitude and
more affection. My heart throbs, and my eyes burn
with these recollections. Good night, my dear old friend
and benefactor. " ROBERT SOUTHEY."
This letter deserves to be remembered when the back-
slidings, the bigotry, and the tergiversation of the
writer is forgotten. Another attractive contribution
to the Edinburgh is the one devoted to the "French
Republicans ;" it is a rapid but careful narrative of
the labours and the consistencies of those indefatiga-
ble democrats. Among the more characteristic effu-
sions in the Quarterly, the very foremost is certainly
the one respecting "Count Montholon and Sir Hudson
Lowe." It has all the dogmatism of the political
fanatic in its manner, all the petulance of a declaimer
ill at ease in his conscience, all the implacability of
the partizan, and all the elaboration of the special-
pleader. A hint or two is thrown out incidentally as
to the revelations which are to be expected in the forth-
coming memoirs of the infamous Sir Hudson Lowe.
Rumour already begins to mutter dark inuendoes as
to the disclosures preparing for the world in this very
veracious production. It is said even (not, be it ob-
served, in the Quarterly, but in the whispered conver-
sations of society,) that documents are there to meet
the light betraying the existence of a conspiracy on
the part of the Whigs during the days of Bathurst--
a conspiracy in which are implicated such important
members of the present Administration, as the Lord
President of the Council, the Marquis of Lansdowne,
then Lord Henry Petty—a conspiracy between the
Whigs and Bonaparte for the liberation of the latter
from Saint Helena! As Thersites exclaimed in a
paroxysm of ironical indignation----" Lo, 10, 10, 10,
what modicums of wit he utters !" A Whig con-
spiracy for the liberation of Bonaparte from Saint
Helena! If it were for the alleviation of the martyr-
dom of greatness, glory, say we, be to the memory of
those Whig conspirators ! But manifestly the com-
plicity of Lord Lansdowne in the supposititious scheme
is alluded to by the deceased Gaoler of Longwood,
for the purpose of raising a suspicion of Whig
patriotism, and of gratifying his own base avidity for
vengeance even in the darkness of his ignoble tomb.
It is but of a piece with his despicable career that the
after-thought of the life of Sir Hudson Lowe should
be that of posthumous slander. Repeating, however,
the words already uttered by one of our contempora-
ries, we turn from the contemplation of the career of
Sir Hudson Lowe to some more savoury theme,
with one simple ejaculation—" Peace to his
infamous remains !" In a criticism on Alfred
Tennyson's " Princess " ---- a criticism which
has the advantage of being neither a pa-
negyric nor a hyper-criticism, but a judicious
mixture of praise and •
exception—the character of
Ida is brought by one simple comparison thoroughly
to the comprehension of the unreading few. The
comparison is this, that the Princess bears a strikin
resemblance to Dannecker's A
riadne—that ' matchless g
creation of the sculptor—that soulless form of beauty
carved in marble, to which Dk in his ld
annec e r o age
used and his madness
to send " his love." There
are two delightful chapters on antique lore in the
very commencement of this number of the
e Oc Qua ter y•
—chapters such as would have puzzled Edir hil-
tree more than the Roman encampment. These are
articles on "Antiquarianb Club Books," and on
" Scotch Topography and Statistics." Those who
records of antiquity and " the old historic
in tombss of
which preserve the evanescence of the past
delight in grey dust and yellow parchment,
will
papers
so fraught with venerable facts and
recollections.
" Eastlake on Oil-Painting " is a fair
artistic mement Establishments—Artillery," .o, and the disquisition on " Our Mi-
litarypr lehments—Artillery,' is not the less
attractive
mu being preceded by the pacific
speeches of Mr. Cobden, and the warlike move-
ments
on the C •
ontinent. At the conclusion
of the present instalment of our old Con-
servative contemporary there is a biographic
commemoration of Lord Hervey,
followed by a
copious narrative
of the "French Revolution of 1848."
From the multiplicity of the accounts of this great
political explosion, however, which 'have appeared
since the three
into days February, it is idle to enter
a new of description of events now patent to every-
body's understanding. It is impossible not to detect
a restrained •
joy on the part of the Quarterly at the
down fal of a
P parvenu dynasty, and especially at
which has fallen upon the head of the
stng ill
_
of the bourgeoisie. Another, and if possible, a
more elaborate statement of the rise, progress,
nd asodof consequence of the Paris Revolution is given as a
appendix to the Westminster Review. The
paper
which is addressed to M. Albert Ouvrier, in
another part of the same periodical, reads like a satiric
burlesque, now that we think of Albert confined as a
conspirator in pirator the dungeons of Vincennes for his dis-
graceful and treacherous
the 15th of M
participation in the riots of
Again, the somewhat eulogistic
notice of Louisay.Ag nationto his or
Blanc in reference gani-
avazl is of a very mock-heroic cha-
racter when we bear in remembrance the
. cowardly
conduct f this ° i eccentric little gentleman on the
evening
of
that same deplorable but glorious day.
A better judgment on the part of the editor of the
Westin'
znster Reviezv is displayed in the remaining
contributions the ver of which is the memoir of the career andcharacter of Lord Sidmoutli. Among the
foreignof works reviewed, in the supple-
mental pages
o Sicilian Histo the
Foreign Quorterly, are Aniarf,s,
“rit,•l'.Cotta's "Doctrine of Education,
and Lewald's
lan. Picture Book." Three men
of a very different calibre of intellect, of a very diffe-
rent reputation, and of
a very different disposition,
obtain their due d mee of eulogitim in the British
Quarterly Review. Sir James Brooke, the. Raja of