The Sun.
London, England, 1835-04-27 00:00:00

THE ST.I-4", LONDON, MONDAY, APRIL 27, 1835.

LITERAT URE.

QUARTERLY REVIEW. No. CVI. J. Murray

London, 1835.

The most characteristic article in this Number is the
one " On the Essays of Fisher Ames," who, it seems,
was one of the founders of the American Republic ;
and who because he shortly afterwards—long before the
experiment could possibly have had a fair trial, or in-
ded any trial at all—thought fit to express his doubts
of the beneficial tendency of a democracy, is held up
by the Quarterly Reviewer as a statesman of consum-
mate sagacity. If this be so, how is it we have not
heard his name before ? We are familiarly acquainted
with Washington, Maddison, Jefferson, Franklin, and
a host of others who figured hi the camp or in the
senate, during the American struggle for independence;
their names are "as household words" with us ; but
never till now did we happen to hear of Mr. Fisher
Ames. We suspect, indeed, that this gentleman is
almost as much unknown in the New World, as the
Old, which assuredly would never have been the case,
had he possessed one tithe of the statesmanlike quali-
ties which are here imputed to him. We suspect
that he was one of those half-informed, over-discreet
little busy-bodies, whom stormy times are apt to raise into
undue importance ; but who never fail to descend to their
fitting level, when, the ferment in men's minds allayed,
they are enabled to discuss at leisure the merits of
those who have taken part in the hubbub. At any
rate, Mr. Ames—from the specimens of his reasoning
adduced by the Reviewer—shows that he is wholly
unable to grapple with, such a comprehensive question
as that of democracy ; he shrinks from it as if there
were pollution in its touch, which, of course, is the
reason why he is here so warmly praised. His essays,
however, are soon dismissed, in order to make room for
some attacks on the Melbourne Administration, in
which nothing is so remarkable as a fierce bitterness,
perpetually bursting out, in spite of the writer's endea-
vours to keep it under. This rancour so completely
clouds his better judgment, as to involve him in con-
stant contradictions. He laments, for instance, the
favour with which the Reformed Cabinet was looked
on by the people; yet asserts, at the same time, that
" the well-informed public, considering it, from its
origin, as a mere temporary expedient, were perfectly
indifferent about it." This absurdity needs no com-
ment. It is sufficiently refuted by the glaring fact
that, notwithstanding the late dissolution, and the des-
perate efforts of the Tories to obtain a Parliamentary
majority, they were in a minority on every great po-
pular question. With the Reviewer's remarks on Sir
Robert Peel, we feel less disposition to quarrel. They
are over-laudatory, to be sure ; for Peel is no Pitt, as
is here implied ; still we are willing to grant that he is
the only statesman of anything like ability that the
Tories can now boast of. It is gratifying, however,
to find, from the express' declaration of their organ,
that this party have at length discovered that they
stormed the Treasury too soon. The times were not
ripe, hints the Reviewer. No, nor ever will be.
" English Charity" is an ingeniously argued article ;
but, as the subject is not just now before the world,
we shall refrain from any further comment, than that
it exerts considerable powers of sophistry to make the
worse appear the better reason.
In the " Georgian era," we have one of those sa-
vage, slaughtering criticisms for which the Quarterly
was so notorious in the clays of old Gifford. The
work is undoubtedly a dull, and what is more, a care-
less one ; but being so, it scarcely deserved that so
much valuable sarcasm should have been thrown away
on it. The chastisement should have been reserved
for higher offenders.
The criticism on " Hope's History of Architecture.'
does no more than justice to the merits of one of the
most accomplished men that modern times have
known. It is introduced by some pertinent observa-
tions on the low ebb to which architecture is reduced
in England. Rightly does the Reviewer say, "it is
impossible to speak of the buildings of Brighton, or of
some of the new quarters of London and Edinburgh
with too much reprobation." Yet if our national taste
be degraded, who has been the main instrument in ef-
fecting it ? Unhesitatingly we reply—George the
Fourth I It is to his mertricious fancies that we are
indebted for that strange, florid mixture of all sorts of
Orders which are now so universally adopted. To him
we owe those twin deformities, the Palace at Pimlico
and the Pavillion at Brighton. He it was, who by
his disastrous patronage of a Nash, inflicted on us a
Regent-street. He gave us a pepper-box for a
church-steeple : and when we looked for a stately
dome, put us off with a suet pudding.
There never lived a man whose tastes were so wholly
false as those of the late King. In paint-
ing, his ideas could not rise above the coarse realities
of the Dutch school. In architecture, he could ima-
gine nothing more perfect than his pet-palace at
Brighton. Even the well-known Virginia Water, the
most approved specimen of his taste, is a sad jumble
9f incongruities, where Gothic ruins blend with
Chinese temples, in a style that sets all propriety at
defiance. It is greatly to Mr. Hope's credit, that he
has done his best to purify the public taste in this
respect. His book is a Manual of the Art, and de-
serves all the praise that the Reviewer has bestowed
on it.

" Dr. Meyen's Voyage round the World" is an
amusing notice, chiefly by reason of its extracts. As
for the subject, it has no longer that mysterious in-
terest which it possessed in the days of Anson. We
are all travellers now, and think no more of a trip to
the Antipodes, than of a trip to Calais by the steam-
boat. We are as familiar with the Steppes of Tar-
tary—the heart of Russia—and the flats of Australia
(our last great discovery), as with France or Switzer-
land. We have penetrated even the sanctuary of the
Harem, and discussed the question of steam-boats
and rail-roads with Ali Pacha at Cairo. Earth no
longer contains a mystery for us. The last vanished
with Captain Hall's discoveries among the Loo Choo
islands. .The world, in shot, is fast becoming one vast
family of Reformers. The Turk wears breeches and boots;
the Negro on the banks of the Senegal—vide Lander—
inquires the latest political intelligence from Europe ;
and even the Russian boor is awakening from ages of
barbarism to a sense of his rights as a member of the
great community of Liberals. Still, despite its want
of novelty, we have perused the review of " Meyen's
Voyage" with interest, for it contains many piquant
accounts of the customs of the Chili women, and cer-
tain natural pluenomena observed in the neighbour-
h'bod of Valparaiso.
" Beaumont on the Americans" seems chiefly to
have been taken up as a subject for notice by the Re-
viewer, because it enabled him to indulge in disparaging
insinuations against the United States. Surely it is
high time that these splenetic feelings were given up I
America presents a far fitter theme for the speculations
of the statesman than the humour of the caricaturist.
But she is a republic, and this constitutes an unpar•
donable offence in the eyes of a Quarterly Reviewer.
She is flourishing too, despite all. his prognostications,
and this aggravates her delinquency. Then again her
example is a dangerous, and may be an infectious one ;
how, then, can she expect favour from one who sees
no merit in any institution that is not based on an
aristocratic foundation ? We subjoin a specimen of

the manner in which the article is written, with Which
we must conclude our notice : •

" 111, de Beaumont gives us several amusing anecdotes il-
lustrative of some apparent inconsistencies which have often
been satirized by European travellers in the United States,
and remarked upon with good-humoured surprise by those
who have met Americans in society here and on the continent
of Europe. He dwells particularly on their passion for titles
qf nobility. Whether you shall be received with enthusiasm
in America, very well, decently well, or coldly, depends whe-
ther you are duke, marquis, count, or nothing.'—vol. ii. p.
287. The meanest driver ea diligence styles himself a gen-
tleman—and no one who has attained a position the least above
the mass of men ever fails to take the title of esquire.' He-
raldic insignia are much affected. One gentleman displayed
his seal, on which he had engraved, above the escutcheon, the
date 1631—a proud monument of primeval distinction. They
are fond ton of blazoning those vanities on the pannels of their
carriages, and so forth—though their notions of what such
things really are and mean appear to be vague enough. An
English diplomatist, not long ago, carried out a London car-
riage and harness to New York. Some accident, shortly
after his arrival, required that he should send his set-out to a
coachmaker's ; and calling by-and-by, what was his astonish-
ment to find the people imitating his shield and crest on half a
dozen gigs and dog-carts belonging he knew not to whom !
The cor.chmaker, on his asking some explanation of this, made
answer that the patterns seemed to be much admired.'"