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

itt

viibißs OF COUNT GH.4MiIIONT AND

CtiA FILES IL
In this additional vOloine u: his " .4tandard Library,"
Bohn, has presented his readers with a work more
intoresting than any romance, more moralising in the
lessons wnich it inculcates toan any polemical discourse,
lind more fraught with worldly wisdom and experience
than any book of adventures. There are assured:y few
ihnlrs of Eiglish literature, ard especially of that rich
Lein of our native lit,ra:ure—our biographical library—
hut have already familiarised themselves with the
blemoirs of Graatmont. Supposing this to be the case, a
rtPierusal of them will not prove unacceptable, seeing
that they tend to illustrate the most romantic passage
in the history of Great Britain. Through its pages
they may recognise how " the Merry Monarch". dallied
with the capacities for good which he possessed, how

" Villiers flaunted and how Sedley sung."

They will make their introduction, or renew their ac-
tlitaintance (according 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 disc lays 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 destiuits
bf their country were at one period resigned, their sym-
pathies will be excited, even in favour of King Charles,
by the frequent evidences given by him of a natural
goodness ( f temperament and of a healthy character
of intellect. Loving these traits of gentleness,
they will lothe the more the habitual profligacy,
With which they were covered and a'reoet ob-
literat• d. It is scarcely po.eibl• cot to receenise the
AA that profligacy is rather atttibutalle to the enc t
mauls to viciousness which were born of the events tf
the age, to the decoying guise of his familiar associates,
Buckingham, Rochester, Sir Charles Sedley, 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 al kingdoms
I'Md in all generations. In England the recall of the
Stuart dynes!), to the throne, after the decease of the
Protector, was a signal for the utmost laxity in the
national morals, the seat of government being itself the
bead-quarters of sin. Just in the setae inant&r that upon
the ineuguration of the Directory in France, after the
execution of Robtspierre, the most loathsome immo-
?'ality, not only in manners but actually in dress, rioted
in the Tuileries and the streets of Paris. Oliver had
embed by a steady rule and a vigorous genius what
araximillian
had only managed by the most devilish
-cruelty and the most sullen despotism—namely the
read of vice ; the English were awed into virtue, the
each were frightened into it. And directly the un-
eetutal restrair ts 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
hilt by the King hinaselt;" and a rieht extraordinary
series of tilir-briaith escapes from discovery is this docu-
ment. It is infinitely snore dramatic than the escape of
Caleb Williams, and infinitely more thrilling than the
escapes of Gil Blas—because sounded upon fact, and be-
cause of the more remarkable character of the incidents.
while we are following Charles, disguised as a servant,
11 the town of Burport, the bveways and court-yards of
which are crowded with round-head soldiers ; and while
the monarch goes blundering in among the troopers,
leadingci his horse by the bridle, our heart is (to use an
old country phrase) "in our mouth." The volume
we altogether is a rare one for interest and instruction.
mcommend it with confidence for its union of ro-
ance and reality, if not for its uncommon likeness of
Pretty witty Nell Gwynne."