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

LITERAT URE.

FOREIGN AND COLONIAL QUARTERLY
REVIEW. iM,. VI.
Smith and Eller, Lyndon, 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 tho stage of exist-
ence, and that the successors of these giants are for
the most part a mere race of dwarf's, with few or no
pretensins to superior intellect, but making up by tact
what they want in talent. The German poets of the
print 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 he 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 sanguine 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 " Huine's
reputation is undiminished." Now he is wrong in
both these remarks. Gibbon possesses eloquence,
but certainly not poetry ; in fact, he newer 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 prodigibus 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.. Ho 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—perhaiis 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 Church 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 humorous-
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 quote 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 he remained nearly
twelve years. Being early impressed with the defects
in the system of education then in use at our public
schools, he never sought to acquire more of classicalttal
learning than was necessary to carry him creditably
y
through his school exercises, but applied himselfdrawing,
and to various branches of more practical
know-
ledge, particularly mechanics, geometry, and _
t
and among his early amusements at Eton, was hemak-
ing a detailed survey and map of the countrymme-
diately round it. lie was distinguished amongi
his
school-fellows for the cheerful ease of his temper and
the kindness .of his disposition, of which 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. He still recol-
lects with 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, and continued with-