The Sun.
London, England, 1833-07-29 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

ENGLAND and the ENGLISH, 2 VoLs.
LoNDo.v, 1833.
This book will be popular, for, both in style
nd substance, it is in strict accordance with the
pirit of the day. It combines the useful
vith the entertaining, though the useful
Aredominates. As may be surmised from
he title of his volume, Mr. Bulwer—for it is to
he lively author of " Pelham," and that still cle-
terer work " Paul Clifford," which shows con-
iderable fertility of invention, that we are
ndebted for them—expatiates at large over a
aide field of speculation ; not so much putting
Forth novel truths, as amplifying, regenerating,
And enforcing old ones, with all the elegance of
a scholar and all the subtlety of a metaphysician.
We are not quite sure, but we think we trace
many of Godwin's opinions in this production,
and recognise the presence of many a great
moral truth drawn from an acquaintance with
the philosophical researches of Mill and Ben-
tham. Nervously apprehensive (apparently) of
being thought tedious and prolix in his more
serious disquisitions, Mr. Bulwer has relieved
his subject every now and then—to say nothing
of the varied graces of his style ; which is
now swelling and sonorous as Johnson, now
richly enamelled with metaphor like Burke, and
now quaint and sententious as Charles Lambe,
particularly in his sketches of classes of cha-
racter—Mr. Bulwer, in addition to all this, has
here and there heightened his subject by the
introduction of characteristic anecdote, brief,
pertinent apologue, gossip, and all those showy
and attractive requisites which tell so well with
readers of the present age, and without which no
book will sell. His nain plebecula garde&
From the title it would reasonably be anticipated
that Mr. Bulwer's book was, what is termed
by the cunning in such matters, " heavy."
Nothing of the sort. It is light, airy, and readable
to a degree. The author is constantly on
the wing. He dwells long on no one
subject, but hops from field to field of
speculation with all the ease and vivacity of a
swallow. Common-place will, therefore, proba-
bly object to him that he is not profound—as if
dullness and prolixity were the necessary—the
inseparable adjuncts of profundity. However,
no matter what be the objections, one fact is
certain—the book will sell, and it would not at
all surprise us if it were to surpass " Pelham"
(whose conventional tone is unintelligible twenty
miles out of London) in popularity. The more
superficial reader will prefer the chapter entitled
" Supplementary Illustrations of Character,"
whose style is modelled somewhat closely upon
" Elia ;" but the more apprehensive and discri-
minating one will ground his approbation of the
work on the two masterly—masterly, because
they are minutely analytical—chapters on " Con-
versation and Literary Men," and on the
" Social Habits of the Population." There is
as much shrewdness and sagacity in the follow-
ing remarks, as in any that we have yet met with
in modern works :
" In nearly all states, it is by being the tool of the great
that the lowly rice. People point to the new Sejanus, and
cry to their children, " See the effect of merit !"—Alas,
it is the effect of servility. In despotic states, the plebeian
has even a greater chance of rising than in free. In the
east, a common water-carrier to-day is grand vizier to•
morrow. In the Roman Republic the low horn were less
frequently exalted than they were in the Roman despotism.
So with us—it was the Tories who brought forward the
man of low or mediocre birth; the Whigs, when they
came into power, had only their grand seigneiurs to put
into effice. The old maxim of the political adventurer
was invariably this: To rise from the people, take every
opportunity to abuse them ! What mattered it, then, to
'be plebeians that one of their number was exalted to the
Cabinet ? He had risen by opposing their wishes ; his
very ch iracteristic was that of contempt for his brethren.
A nobleman's valet is always super eminently hitter against
the canaille : a plebeian in high station is usually valet to
the whole peerage !
" The time has long past when the English people bad
any occasion for jealousy against the power of the Crown.
Even at that period in which they directed their angry
suspicions against the King, it was not to that branch of
the legislature that the growing power of corruption was
justly to be attributed. From the date of the aristocratic
revolution of 1688, the influence of the aristocracy has
spread its unseen monopoly over the affairs of state.
The King, we hear it said, has the privilege to choose
his Ministers! Excellent delusion ! The aristocracy chose
them ! the heads of that aristocratic party which is the
most powerful must come into office, whether the King
like it or not. Could the King choose a Cabinet out of
m. n unknown to the Aristocracy—persons belonging
neither to Whig nor Tory ? Assuredly not ; the aristocratic
p trty in the two Houses would be in arms. Heavens,
what a commotion there would be ! Imagine the haughty
indignation of my Lords Grey anti Harrowby ! What a
prelection" we should receive from Lord Brou2ham,
" deeply meditating these things !" Alas! the King's
Ministi y would be out the next day, and the Aristocracy's
Ministry, with all due apology, replaced. The power of
the King is but the ceremonial to the power of the mag-
nates. He enjoys the prerogative of seeing two parties
4glit in the lists, and of crowning the victor. Need I cite
exatraples of this truth ? Lord Chatham is the dread and
:.I;sgost of George lll.—the stronger of the two factions
for the time being f Tee his Majesty into receiving that
Minister, The Catholic question was the most unpalata-
ble measure that could be pressed upon George IV.—To
the irritability of that Monarch no more is conceded than
e'as granted to the obstinacy of his royal father, and the
catholic Relief Bill is passed amidst all the notoriety of
iris repugnance. In fact, your Excellency, who knows
well the juggling with which one party in politics
fastens its sips upon another, may readily perceive that
the Monarch has only beta roasting the chesnuts of the
Fisoicracy ; and the aristocracy, cunning creature, has
rely affected to look quite shocked at the quantity of
chesnuts roasted.
" In a certain savage country that I have read of, there
is a chief supposed to be descended front the gods; all the
other chiefs pay him the greatest respect; they consult
him whether they should go to war or proclaim peace;
but it is an understood thing, that he is to be made
acquainted with their determination beforehand. His
consent is merely the ratification of their decree. But the
chiefs, always speaking of his power, conceal their own ;
and while the popular jealousy is directed to the seeming
authority, they are enabled quietly to cement and extend
the foundations of the real. Of a similar nature have
been the relations between the English King and the Eog.
fish aristocracy ; the often odious policy of the last has
been craftily fastened on the first ; and the sanctity of a
King has been too frequently but the conductor of popular
ightning from the more responsible aristocracy.
We regret that our very limited space pre-
vents us from insisting on the merits of these
volumes, as we could desire ; we must, there-
fore, content ourselves with observing that their
great recommendation is, that they comprise not
the crude and hasty, but the deliberate and care
fully digested opinions of a writer who perfectly
understands the temper (moral, literary, and
political) of his age, and the peculiarities of the
class of readers to whom he addresses himself.
In a word, the book is the very One most likely
to he in demand at the present feverish and spe-
culative season. It has hit the bull's eye. Its
writer is neither in advance, nor yet in the rear
of his age, but marches boldly side by side with