The Sun.
London, England, 1846-06-18 00:00:00

MEMOIRS OF COUNT GRAMMONT AND
CHARLES IL

In this additional volume of his " standard Library,"
Mr. Bohn has presented his readers with a work more
interesting than any. romance, mere moralising in the
lessons which it inculcates than any polemical discourse,
and more fraught with worldly wisdom and experience
than any book of adventures. There are assured:y few
lovers of English literature, and especially of that rich
vein of our native literature—our biographical library—.
but have already familiarised themselves with the
memoirs of Grammont. Su7,-posing this to be the case, a
reperusal of them will not prove Unacceptable, seeing
that they tend to ili...tstrate the most romantic passage
in the history of Great Britain. Through its pages
they may rec:Koiee how " the Merry Monarch" dallied 1
with the capacities for good which he possessed, how
1 Villiers flaunted and how Sedley sung."
T.l.ley will make their introduction, or renew their so-
taaintance (arcording as the records are familiar or
strange unto them) with the most profligate Court, the
most bewitching concubines, the most licentious volup-
tuaries, the most insolent displays of vice and de-
bauchery the world perhaps ever witnessed in a palace
of Christendom. And while their hearts will revolt at
the reflection, that to such polluted hands the destinies
0f their country were at one period resigned, their sym-
pathiea will be excited, even in favour of King Charles,
by the frequent evidences given by him of a natural
a'oodness of temperament and of a healthy character
bf intellect: Loving these traits of gentl.ness,
they will lothe the more the habitual profligacy
with which they were covered and almost ob-
literat( d. It is scarcely po.siblk not to recognise the
fact that profligacy is rather attributable to the eneti-
ments to viciousness which were born of the events ( f
the age, to the decoying guise of his familiar associates,
Buckingham, Rochester, Sir Charles Sedlev, and Sir
George Etheridge, rather than to any predisposition to
debauchery in the Sovereign. There is a curious re-
action in society immediately upon the re-establishment
of authority after any revolutionary or republic n
movement ; and this fact is traceable in all kingdoms
and in all generations. In England the recall of th.
Stuart dynasty to the throne, after the decease of the
Protector, was a signal for the utmost laxity in the
itlational morals, the seat of government being itself the
bead-quarters of sin. Just in the same manner that upon
the inauguration of the Directory in France, after the
execution of Robespierre, the most loathsome immo-
rality, not only in manners but actually in dress, rioted
in the Tuileries end the streets of Paris. Oliver had
curbed by a steady rule and a vigorous genius what
Maximillian had only managed by the most devilish
cruelty and the most sullen despotism—namely the
!Tread of vice ; the English were awed into virtue, the
French were frightened into it.. And directly the un-
natural restraicts both of puritanism and of terrorism
Were removed, the popular spirit recoiled with three-
fold violence in the opposite direction. There is one
fragment in the present volume which of itself is worth
seven times the cost of the entire collection—we mean
the reprint from Pepys's account of the Escape of
Charles the Second from Worcester, "as dictated to
him by the King himself," and a right extraordinary
series of hair-breadth escapes from discovery is this docu-
ment. It is infinitely more dramatic than the escape of
Caleb Williams, and infinitely more thrilling than the
escapes of Gil Blas—because founded upon fact, and be-
cause of the more remarkable character of the incidents.
While we are following Charles, disguised as a servant,
in the town of Burport, the bveways and court-yards of
whi,e,h are crowded with round-bead soldiers ; and while
tae mon ,rch goes blundering in among the troopers.
leading his horse by. the bridle, our heart is (to use an
old country phrase) "in our mouth." The volume
altogether is a rare one for interest and instruction.
We commend it with confidence for its union of ro-
mance and reality, if not for its uncommon likeness of
, pretty witty Nell G wynne."