The Sun.
London, England, 1844-03-14 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

WESTMINSTER REVIEW, No. LXXX.
Clarke, London, 1844. .
The opening article in the present Number of this
periodical, entitled " Shaksperian Criticism and Act-
ing," is devoted to a consideration of the character
of Macbeth and his wife, both' of whom the Reyiewer,
seems to think have hitherto been misunderstood.
His object is to show that the royal • usurper has not
the slightest claim on the sympathy of his readers;
that he is intensely selfish, physically -courageous, but
morally an arrant coward; and that instead of being
the victim of fate and supernatural agency, he is the
victim only of his own evil passions. This view of
Macheth—which by the bye is wholly opposed to that
taken by Hazlitt and Charles Lamb—is maintained
with considerable ingenuity, though we cannot say
that the Reviewer has made us a convert to his rea-
soning. We admire his skill and boldness, but we
dissent from his conclusions, more especially as, in his
eagerness to make out his case, he proves too much,
and adduces the testimony of certain passages which
all must see militate against his own view of the cha-
racter of Macbeth. There is some truth in the fol-
lowing remark respecting Mrs. Siddons, though we
fear it will not he very acceptable to her admirers :
" It is not a statue-like simplicity, to quote Mr.
Campbell's phrase, that makes the essence of the
Shaksperian drama, but a picturesque complexity,
to which Airs. Siddons's massive person and sculp-
tured genius were as essentially repugnant as
they were akin to the spirit of the an-
tique. Her genius, it has been somewhere well ob-
served, was, in fact, as she herself seems to have
been conscious, rather epic than tragic, rather didac-
tic than dramatic, rather Miltonian than Shakspe-
rian." " Strafford" is a critical notice of Mr. Ster-
ling's late tragedy on the subject of this celebrated
renegade, which is highly eulogised, but not beyond
its deserts. In " Practical Considerations for the
Promotion of Architecture" we find many service-
able suggestions, chiefly of a matter-of-fact character,
and the article is embellished with several apposite
illustrations—one of which, a view of Wollaton Hall,
Nottinghamshire, exhibits evidences of great skill
and pains-taking. " Earl Spencer and the State of
Parties" is a vigorous political diatribe, in which the
Tories and their leader, Sir Robert Peel, are handled
with little ceremony, and the knout is applied to the
monopolists w ith the heartiest good will. Alluding
to the Premier's policy, when he first took the reins
of Government, the Reviewer says that history will
not fail to record the damning fact, that, during
twelve months of unexampled distress, he had the
power but not the will to legislate for the relief of
the poor. From an article on the subject of the
" Progress of Art," we quote the following strictures
on Mr. Barry's plan of the new Houses of Parlia-
ment :

" The Parliament houses are, however, the great ar-
chitectural undertaking of the present day. Since the
rebuilding of St. Paul's nothing so splendid has been
attempted in Britain, and indeed, since Versailles, scarce
anything on the Continent can compare with them. We
have also the satisfaction of knowing that the design is
the best of our best architect, and that instead of the
grudging economy that is said to have spoiled so many
of our undertakings in art, the expenditure here has
been not only liberal but lavish ; for had we been con-
tent with a plain, honest brick building, with stone dres-
sings, such as would have satisfied our fathers or our-
selves a few years ago, we might have had all the ac-
commodation the present one will afford, and better ar-
ranged, for 150,0001. or 200,000/., whereas the estimates
for this one already amount to 1,200,000 L, and it will not
be finished under a million and a half. Here, then, is at
least a million of money spent on pure esthetic orna-
ment, a sum that would have restored to their pris-
tine beauty (if we wanted Gothic) every cathedral or
church in the kingdom, or would have established
schools of art and design, with collections of art, in all
the principal cities in the kingdom ; this it has been de-
termined to expend in realising the design of one archi-
tect, and already the nation are beginning to tire of
their bauble before they have got it, and to think they
have paid too much for what they begin to find out will
not be satisfactory when finished. The river front is
now nearly completed, and as Mr. Barry declares it to
be the best part of the design, we may safely assert that
the new buildings, though clad in the very prettiest and
best selected Gothic detail, will, when finished, be as
much like the bold, meaning, purpose-like buildings of
our ancestors as the very pretty Swiss peasant girls and
very polite brigands and Albanians of our ball rooms are
like the rough originals. Every building of our ances-
tors expressed in every part the purpose for which it
was erected, and with a degree of richness or simplicity
suited to its destination ; here, with the idea of produc-
ing a grand uniform whole, every part has been made
externally to look exactly alike. The Speaker's house
is the counterpart of that of the Usher of the Black Rod,
and though the latter is obliged to share his residence
with a librarian, that is not to be discovered from the
exterior ; and equal magnificence is displayed in the
apartments allotted to the clerks of the House and all the
interior offices. Indeed, whether it is the great confer-
ence hall or the public libraries or committee rooms,—
whether it is the Queen's robing room or a librarian's
bedroom, each is externally the same ; and whether the
room is fifty feet by thirty, or only fifteen feet square,
the stories throughout are of the same height, unless in-
deed, as has been suspected, some of these fine looking
windows are to be cut into two by concealed floors, a
falsehood no Gothic architect ever was guilty of, and a
meanness which two honeit windows would never ex-
hibit."

FLUCTUATIONS OF CORN, CURRENCY,

CONSOLS, from 1790 to 1840.
A new edition of these Tables (which appeared
several years ago) is published by Brooks, 8, Baker-
street, in a small quarto page as before, but with
many dates added to the collection.
" Judicis officium est, ut res, ita TEMPORA reruns
Noscere."
Canning doubted two things—facts and figures ; and
Sir R. Walpole, when his son took down a book to
read aloud, exclaimed, " Not history ! That I know
to be false." But the span of human life being short,
a comparison of dates insures accuracy by dividing
history into minute compartments, as an artist re-
duces a picture. In the good old days a perfect in-
difference prevailed as to facts, when Gower, for ex-
ample, instructed our forefathers that Ulysses was a
" clarke who learned rhetoryke of Tully, magic of
Zoroaster, and phlilosophy of Plato." Hitherto mo-
netary economists, and even the League, have ne-
glected this crucial test of dates. Surely it is worth
observing that the Bank restriction preceded all ap-
preciable " depreciation " by at least nine years ; but
the year when guineas sold at 245., was the very same
when gold was paid by license to French Marshals
for 800,000 quarters of wheat. Also guineas sold at
283., the identical year when 20,000,0001., mostly in
gold, was sent to Portugal and other subsidiaries. So,
in every case, high price of wheat has ruled with
Manchester riots, and its low or falling price contem-
poraneously with one Bill to enforce rent by removing
land-marks in Ireland, and another Bill for mulcting
labourers of hire (of keep) in England (all for the
benefit of Parliamentarians), yet a reference to
" Bank notes " shown that, if the various corn-laws
failed to keep up prices, it was because, for want of
one-pound and half-pound notes, there was not prac-
tical money and national cash wherewithal. The
American Gold Bill, which preluded their Specie
Order of 1836, is not given in the Tables ; this point
of chronology should be settled, for the " operation"
derives a high tragic interest, as being the cause in
which Sydney " bled."