The Sun.
London, England, 1856-07-17 00:00:00

companion anecdote illustrative of Talleyrand's
nameless whimsicality being introduced in an
earlier page of these amusing memoirs. The anec-
dote, related by Dedel, of the Duchesse de Gram-
tnont (sister of the Duo de Choiseul) coming to
dinner, and on her passing through the ante-room
where Talleyrand was standing, he looked up and
exclaimed significantly, " I" In the course of
the dinner, the lady having asked him across the
table why he had uttered the exclamation of oh !
on her euirance, Talleyrand, with a grave, self-vin-
dicatory look, answered "Madame, je it'ai pas dit
oh ! j'ai dit ah ! " To which adds Moore—" Co-
mical, very, without one's being able to define why
it is so." Bon mots, grave and gay, are recorded
by Moore of others beside Taileyrand. Mention,
for example, is made of the late heroic Sir Charles
Napier writing very beautifully and touchingly to
a lady, upon the eve of his great victory at Meanee,
—" If I survive I shall soon be with those I love ;
if I fall, I shall be with those I have loved !" Turn •
ing at a glance from the sublime (as this may be
called without much exaggeration) to the ridiculous
—what a provocative of mirth there is, in that allu-
sion to Scroope Davies calling some person who
had a habit of puffing out his cheeks when he spoke,
and was not remarkable for veracity—" The .Eo-
lian Lyre." Or, better still, that anecdote related
by Kenny about Charles Lamb being once bored
by a lady praising to him " such a charming man !"
&c., ending with "I know him, bless him !" On
which Lamb exclaimed—" Well, I don't, but d—se,
him at a hazard ! " A gentleman resembling this
unfortunate lady, in one respect at least, is alluded
to elsewhere by Moore as the victim of one ofLord
Pluukett's punning sarcasms. " Mentioned," he
writes, " Plunkett's joke on some one saying
Well, you see —'s predictions have come true.
' Indeed,' said Plunkett, I always knew he
was a bore, but I didn't know he was an augur.'
Sundry old friends we fancy we recognise here and
there with new faces. Take that comical definition
blurted out by Dr. Currie (hot both by name and
by nature) when teazed by a frivolous Blue to tell
her the precise meaning of the word idea (about
which she said she had been reading in some meta-
physical work, but could not understand it).
" Idea, madam," at last angrily exclaims Dr.
Carrie, "Idea, madam, is the feminine of Idiot,
and means a female fool." The very counterpart
in its way of Douglas Jerrold.'s witty definition
somewhere of Dogmatism,—" Dogmatism ? flog-
9natism ? Why, it's, of course, ruppyism arrived
at full maturity 1" Again—Mercer's mention of a
punster who had so much the character of never
opening his mouth without a pun, so that one day
upon his merely asking some one at dinner fur a
little spinach, the person stared, looked puzzled,
and said, Je vous, demande pai•don, Ji onsieur, mais
pour cette fois, de ne comprends pas !—is only an-
other version of that about Theodore Hook being in-
vited out under the like circumstances as a wit to
be lionised, and after remaining dumb during the
first course (amidst general expectation) asking his
neighbour at last to pass the salt, whereupon
everybody in company burst out a laughing, and
said "it was too bad !" Two capital Twits are
mentioned by Moore in his Diary as having been
uttered by Madame de Coigny. One in which she
remarked about a woman who had red hair and all
its attendant consequences (some one having ob-
served in addition to this that she was very virtu-
ous)—Oui, elle est commas Samson, elle a toutes sea
forces law sea cheveux! The other, in which Madame
de Coigny said in reference to her own bad voice,
Je qu voix contre moi—c'est le tnienne !
Quite as epigrammatic in its way is the reply said
to have bean made by the Prince Liguy, who had
been trying unsuccessfully to make a piece of water
in his grounds, and who told him there had been a
man drowned in it C'etait 112?, flatteur ! Con-
spicuous among the facetite preserved for us by
Moore in his Diary aro the subjoined. The epitaph
on the man who was very fond of oysters, and who
died from a surfeit of them :

"Tom

Lies in these cloisters ;
If at the lait trump
He should not jump,
Cry Oysters !'"
The notion of Jekyll at Merchant Tailors' Hall, on
being asked by one of that body to translate the
motto, " Concordia res parvw crescunt," saying it
meant, " Nine tailors make a man !" The iucittent
of the Englishman giving a carte of a restaurateur
(which he happened to have in his pocket) instead
of his passport, and the gend'arme maliciously
reading it and looking at him—" fete de veau ;
pied de cochon ; ca suffit, Monsieur, c'est vows !"
Enough, however. We have justified to the full,
we cannot but think, the title given by us to these:
" Memoirs of Thomas Moore" as a really delight-
ful Repertory of Anecdotes. As such alone we
might commend them heartily to the lovers of light
literature as an unfailing source of entertainment.
We can eulogise them with reason, howbeit, for
qualities much more commendable, for qualities of
larger and more enduring worth ; namely, as con-
stituting for their author very brilliant and charac-
teristic memorials of his exquisite sensibility and
sparkling intelligence, of the humour of his wit, it
not of the Celtic music of his poetry, or the Orien-
tal splendour of his imagination. And so, close
we here our notice of these agreeable and volumi-
nous Memoirs of Moore, with a Hail and Farewell!

LIfhiIATIJRE.

The Young Lord. By the Author of the " Disci
pline of Life," " Clare Abbey," &c., &c. 2 vols.
Hurst and Blackett.
Those who have appreciated the former works
by this authoress will welcome the appearance of
these volumes. Nor will they be disappointed, as is
too often the case, when previous promise is unful-
filled by present performance. This novel is the
production of one who takes high and exalted views
of life, and at the same time fully acknowledges
the influence of softer sympathies, while she advo-
cates the claims of stern principle and uncomprt.-
mising rectitude. The characters are natural, we
do not find ideal perfection, or imaginary crime ;
on the contrary, the chief purport would seem to
be the dangers which surround the path of the
good and excellent. These difficulties are skillfully
depicted, and the reader cannot fail to be struck
by the force and appositeness of the remarks made
upon them. It is impressive to behold both sides
of the question, not always to suppose mankind
divided into two cliques, one for ever improving,
the other as sensibly retrograding. The bad may
make many approaches towards virtue, and the
pure in purpose actually approach the wrong path.
The hero is an admirable character, possessed of
many advantages, with an upright mind, a kind
heart, a noble spirit, thatjearless of obstacles, and
scorning paltry motives, pressed on untiringly
towards a high and holy end. If one thing more
than another occupied the thoughts, propelled the
actions, and inspired the soul of Hugh Beauchamp,
it was the work of benefitting his humbler neigh-
bours. "He fought for his love when he fought
for the poor." A casual observer m'ght ques-
tion how he could be wrong, but the calm vo
of reason, and the sober reflection of truth,
showed that he erred in his motive. He did not
do right because it was right, he did not benefit
his fellowmen, from the consideration that
they were also his fellow-heirs of immortality, and
that nothing he did for their good, their spiritual
and moral advancement, but would turn to account
either for their immediate benefit here, or be finally
reaped by them in blessings in the harvest of here
after. He desired to please them now, and to be
pleased by their thanks. If he worked for them,
he expected them to praise his labours ; if he im-
proved them, he thought the first fruits of their
improvement should be exhibited in gratitude to
him. It is not necessary to say that suoh is not,
never has been, and never will be the result of
doing good on earth. The state of society is too
imperfect, the passions of men too violent, and the
circumstances of life too trying, to admit of a simi-
lar conclusion. If the worker toil with that idea,
he will find with the " young lord" that all is
vanity and vexation of spirit. Not that Hugh
Beauchamp was a profitless labourer in the human
vineyard : the good he did was incalculable, and
the influence of his known principles was grea.
But he suffered himself from his own pride and
presumption. Then is seen the best part of the
narrative, when the proud nature that scorns to
learn of earth is taught of Heaven. Not that it is
suggested that the misfortune that came upon the
proud heir of all that this world can offer to the
young, to dazzle, to fascinate, and to delight, was
to be considered in the light of a judgment or a
retribution, such as often comes down in terror, as
the thunderbolt of the skies, upon the head of the
presumptuous offender against right and reason.
It is more the intention of the authoress to show
that the good must suffer as well as the evil,
and that the sharpest sting of adversity for the
conscience of the just is the knowledge that
prosperity has been abused. The young heir of
the Beauchamps overrated himself in supposing
that be should be the primary object of all around
him. He was taught a very different lesson when a
season of distress arrived, and poverty—that touch-
stone of the feelings—knocked at the doors of \h,
people he had striven to serve. It was not only
in a public capacity that this highly gifted, well-
intentioned, yet mistaken man, committed errors ;
in private he was also unfortunate. His father
had been appointed guardian to a young lady, by
her father, who was abroad, and entertained a high
sense of the superior qualities that distinguished
the Beauchamps.
He arranged that if Lord Sin-
gleton died before himself, the trust should devolve
up )n his son, in whom, though young, he felt im-
plicit confidence. All came to pass as had been
foreseen, and Hugh, then Lord Singleton, became