The Sun.
London, England, 1844-05-22 00:00:00

LITERAT URE

FOREIGN AND COLONIAL QUARTERLY
RE VIE IV. Ne. VI.
Smith and Elder,Lrudon, 1844.
The article in this Number which will be most ac-
ceptable to the generality of readers, is the one on
"Modern German Poetry," chiefly, however, by
reason :of the translations which are executed with
censiderable elegance and spirit, and are well selected
in point of subject. The Reviewer, after enumera-
ting some of the most eminent names that have
figured in German literature for the last half century
and upwards, proceeds to observe that the majority of
them have now passed away from the stage of exist-
ence, and that the successors of these giants are for
the most part a mere race of dwarfs, with few or no
pretensins to superior intellect, but making up by tact
what they want in talent. The German poets of the
present day, he adds, with the exception of some two
or three, have but one string to their lyres—it is that
of Byronic despair and infidel despondency, and
consequently they are, as a matter of course, dull,
common-place, and wearisome in the extreme.
" Greatly is it to be regretted that that mi-
serable doubting and despairing spirit which
prompted Byron's poetry, should be still
the be-all and the end-all of German lyric writers.
Nothing is more wearisome than the languid satiety
which this tone of thought and feeling produces. It
is a frost which nips all true greatness in the bud, and
creates an atmosphere that stifles all the nobler feel-
ings of our nature." The tone of these remarks is a
very healthy one, and nothing can be more true and
just. The " Highlands of }Ethiopia" is a careful
digest of Major Harris's late work on this subject.
Theßeviewer is very laudatory in his comments—but
not too much so, for the volume is full of exciting in-
cident—and successfully defends the author from the
recent attacks made on him in the 'Westminster Re-
view. " Galileo"—the " starry Galileo," as Milton
calls him—is an account of some of the chief disco-
veries of this great astronomer, and the reception
they met with at the bigoted Court of Rome. " Hayti,
its Past and Present State" is an historical sketch of
this fruitful but distracted island from the period of
the reign of Christopher down to the present time.
The Reviewer is sangnine of its future prospects,
provided France will act generously towards the Hay-
tian Government, and remit a ;portion of the large
pecuniary claim which she professes to have
on it, and which at present it is wholly
unable to liquidate. The " Laws of the
Currency" is an essay penned in a rational, temperate
spirit, and contains several serviceable practical sug-
gestions, more especially as regards the Bank of Eng-
land system. In the article on the " History of
France" occur some critical remarks on the great
works of Gibbon, Hume, and Robertson. In general,
they are correct, with the exception that the Re-
viewer speaks in warm terms of praise of the " poet's
fire" possessed by Gibbon, and states that "Hume's
reputation is undiminished." Now he is wrong in
both these remarks. Gibbon possesses eloquence,
but certainly not poetry ; in fact, he never approaches
nearer to it than stately, rhetorical declamation ;
while, as respects Hume, his fame of late years has
sustained considerable diminution--though the charms
of his style are still as warmly admired as ever—and
he is now generally acknowledged to be a partial and
somewhat careless historian, who was by no means
remarkable for pains-taking research. We quote the
Reviewer's critical opinions of Hume, Gibbon, and
Robertson :

" Gibbon united the philosophy and general views of
one age to the brilliant pictures and impassioned story
of another. He warmed with the narratives of the cru-
saders or the Saracens—he wandered with the Scy-
thians—he wept with the Greeks—he delineated with a
painter's hand, and a poet's fire, the manners of the na-
tions, the features of the countries, the most striking
events of the periods which were passed under review ;
but at the same time he preserved inviolate the unity
and breadth of his picture,—his lights and shadows
maintained their just proportions, and were respectively
cast on the proper objects. Philosophy threw a radiance
over the mighty maze ; and the mind of the reader,
after concluding his prodigious series of details, dwelt
with complacency on its most striking periods, skilfully
brought out by the consummate skill of the artist, as the
recollection of a spectator does on any of the magic
.scenes in Switzerland, in which, amidst an infinity of
beautiful objects, the eye is fascinated by the calm tran-
quillity of the lake, or the rosy hues of the evening glow
on the glacier. We speak of Gibbon as a delineator of
events ;. none can feel more strongly or deplore more
deeply the fatal blindness—the curse of his age—which
rendered him so perverted on the subject of religion,
and left so wide a chasm in his immortal work, which
the profounder thought and wider experience of Guizot
has done so much to fill.

"Considered as calm and philosophic narratives, the
histories of Hume and Robertson will remain as standard
models for every future age. The just and profound re-
flections of the former, the inimitable clearness and im
partiality with which he has summed up the arguments
on both sides, on the most momentous questions which
have agitated England, as well as the general simplicity
and occasional pathos of his story, must for ever com-
mand the admiration of mankind. In vain we are told
that he is often inaccurate, sometimes partial ; in vain
are successive attacks published on detached parts of his
narrative, by party zeal or antiquarian research ; his
reputation is undiminished ; successive editions issuing
from the press attest the ,continued sale of his work ;
and it continues its majestic course through the sea of
time, like a mighty three decker, which never even con-
descends to notice the javelins darted at its sides from
the hostile canoes which from time to time seek to im-
pede its progress. Robertson's merits are of a different,
and, upon the whole, of an inferior kind. Gifted with a
philosophic spirit, a just and equal mind, an eloquent
and impressive expression, he had not the profound sa-
gacity, the penetrating intellect, which, have rendered
the observations of Bacon, Hume, and Johnson as en-
during as the English language. He had not enjoyed
the practical acquaintance with man, which Hume ac-
quired by mingling in diplomacy ; and without a prac-
tical acquaintance with man, no writer, whatever his
abilities may be, can rightly appreciate the motives, or
probable result of human actions."

SELECTION FROM THE SPEECHES AND
WRITINGS OF THE LATE LORD KING.
Longman, London, 1844.

The late Lord King, though not possessed of any
brilliant or commanding qualities of mind, was, never-
theless, one of the most useful, and—on all questions
connected with finance, statistics, &c.—one of the
most influential public men of his day. There were
few practical subjects with which he was not ac-
quainted, and on all which he discussed in Parliament
he brought to bear a strong, unclouded judgment, a
quick, intuitive perception of the truth, and a variety
of pertinent arguments, drawn from the copious store-
house of a richly cultivated intellect. Hence his
speeches were always listened to with respectful at-
tention, even though they might fail to convince the
Tory-ridden House to which they were addressed;
and they were read by all the more thinking and
liberal portion of the community with that deep
interest which their sterling merits were so well cal-
culated to excite. In politics, his Lordship was a
Whig—perhaps we might say, "a Whig and some-
thing more"—and on all questions of moment he was
invariably found voting with the advanced guard of
the Liberal party. Of Churcl reform, in particular,
he was, from the first to the last year of his public
career, the zealous, consistent, and determined advo-
cate ; and he was in consequence, held in great awe
by the bench of Bishops, who shrank from his apt and
cutting sarcasms, and seldom had the boldness to venture
on a direct reply to them. Though he possessed wit
and humour in no ordinary degree, yet these quali-
ties were always under the control of his judgment,
and he never allowed them to lead him astray from
the main track of his :reasoning. Strong, homely
well-wearing sense was the chief staple of his mind ;
he had no fancy—no earnest, impassioned powers of
eloquence such as carry away an audience in spite of
themselves, but won his gradual way to public notice
by the practical strength of his logic, the luminous-
ness and simplicity of his diction, and the manly
courage and straightforwardness of his views. Had
he possessed more active ambition and fiery energy of
temperament, he might, with his natural and acquired
abilities, have raised himself to a commanding rank
among the statesmen of his age—for it' was an
age which he thorougly understood and which was
well able to appreciate him—but he was fond of cul-
tivating lettered ease in the retirement of the country,
and cared little for political celebrity—that brilliant
ignis fatuus which leads so many men astray—that
fatal rock on which so many characters are ship-
wrecked. In the volume before us, which is edited
by the Earl of Fortescue, we have a selection from
some of the most successful of Lord King's Parlia-
mentary speeches, together with a few unimportant
extracts from a meagre private diary which he kept
for three weeks, and then suddenly laid aside, and a
brief memoir, from which we extract the following
passage, relating to the earlier portion of his Lord-
ship's life :
Lord King was born in 1775, and at the age of
six was sent to Eton, where ho remained nearly
twelve years. Being early impressed with the defebcts
.
in the system of education then in use at our public
schools, he never sought to acquire more of classicalil
learning than was necessary to carry him creditably
aby
through his school exercises, but applied himself
assi-
duously to various branches of more pranctdicdr
drw-
awing;,
and particularly mechanics, geometry,
wasa thea n'ilankk-,
and among his early amusements atf Eton,
ing a detailed survey and map
.o ountr
imme-
diately round it. He was distinguishedamong his
school-fellows for the cheerful ease of his temper and
the kindness of his disposition, of •allich the writer of
this memoir (himself sent to Eton at the age of ten
years) received many proofs during the short period
that they were there together in 1793. Ile still recol-
kets witlf grateful pleasure the happy hours which he
spent at that time in the society of his older friend, to
whose protection he had been recommended, and in
whose room he always found a refuge from the little
annoyances, which in those days, more than at present,
younger boys at public schools occasionally encoun-
tered from their seniors. Then were laid the founda-
tions of an intimacy, which was cemented afterwards by
family ties into brotherly affection, had continued with-

out an hour's interruption or abatement up to the period
of Lord King's lamented death.
" From Eton he was sent to Trinity College, Cam-
bridge, and shortly after succeeded to his title on the
death of his father in 1793. After spending the usual
time at the University, he made a tour through such
parts of the Continent as were then open to British tra-
vellers, including Switzerland, Germany, and the north
of Italy, and returned home as soon as he was of age.
On taking his seat in the House of Lords he joined the
small band of Mr. Fox's Friends, of which the chief
leaders in that House were Lord Holland and the Duke
of Bedford ; the former of whom, in a letter written to
Lady King shortly after her husband's death, thus re-
fers to the friendship which subsisted between them :
In addition to the pleasure of his intercourse, and of
an early, long, and uninterrupted friendship, I have to
look back on repeated. obligations, as well as uniform
kindness, experienced from him. And if concurrence
of sentiment in politics confirms and strengthens affec-
tion, I believe I can say, that from the period of our en-
tering public life (and, if I mislake not, we attended for
the first time on the same day), we never differed twice
in our votes for more than thirty-six years.' By Lord
Holland he was probably introduced to the acqamtance
of Mr. Fox, who, justly appreciating his character and
talents, showed him many marks of friendly regard; and
as the neighbourhood. of their respective homes at OA-
ham and St. Anne's Hill afforded frequent opportuni-
ties of intercourse, some of the most delightful hours of
Lord King's life were spent in the society of Mr. Fox."

LIFE : a Romance. Newby, London, 1844.
The chief defects of this tale, which is in the form
of an autobiography, are, first, a want of bold, vigor-
ous, dramatic incident, and secondly, a uniform senti-
mental tone that at times approaches to the maudlin,
and is certainly not in keeping with nature, though
it may possibly suit the tastes of circulating li-
brary readers. One or two of the scenes in the
first volume are graphically enough pourtrayed ;
we allude more especially to those which occur
in the course of the episode, entitled "My
Uncle's Tale," where Squire Thornley relates to his
nephew, the hero of the narrative before us, some par-
ticulars connected with his earlier days, when he was
driven from his family possessions by the intrigues of
a cunning unprincipled housekeeper and her conge-
nial confederate, a knavish attorney, by name Smart.
The whole of this incident, with the attempt at
murder made by the woman on the rightful
heir at law, in conjunction with some of the servants
whom she has won over to her interests, contrasts
strikingly with the tame, and, we may add, lackadai-
sical, tone that pervades the rest of the work, and is
no where more conspicuous than in the conception
and development of the character of Perkins—a deli-
cate, interesting, studious youth, who wears his shirt
collar turned down, a la Byron, and his hair hanging
over his shoulders after the most approved fashion of
romantic sentimentalists, and dies in the flower of his
youth of consumption, in the two hundred and
eleventh page of the third volume, while his lady-love,
Ellen Fanshawe, dies of a broken heart upon his
grave, in the two hundred and thirteenth page of
ditto. The language of the tale is generally chaste,
and sometimes even eloquent, but, as we have already
observed, it is much too effeminate in its tone.