The Sun.
London, England, 1827-01-03 00:00:00

WILLIAM GIFFORD, ESQ.

(LATE EDITOR OF THE QUARTERLY REVIEW.)
The late Mr. Gifford is a striking proof how much mat
be done by perseverance, when properly directed. Bore
of humblest parentage, in one of the obscurest nooks or
Devonshire, he yet contrived to distinguish himself in the
first literary circles as a poet, a translator, a politician, a
journalist, a critic, and a commentator, in which last de-
partment of intellect, he stands confessedly unrivalled.
His memoirs (prefixed by himself to Juvenal) though
barren of incident, and even tame to the amateurs of rc-
mance, are fraught with interest to those who love to see
the human mind gradually working its way in a sort of sub-
terranean channel through gloom and anguish, till it finally
springs up invigorated and matured into the broad sunshine
of prosperity. Such a spirit was Mr. Gifford's, he was one
of the happy few, who at an early age formed a correct
estimate of his powers, and thus self-assured, even when
sickness and sorrow, those night-mares of the mind, most
combined to depress him, looked boldly abroad into the
future; convinced, that the hour must arrive when dark-
ness should roll off his hopes, and leave their horizon un-
clouded. From earliest childhood he distinguished him-
self by his love of letters, principally the Classics, and
lucky accident having thrown him into the war of the
late Lord Grosvenor, he obtained a situation at Oxford,
from which place after duly taking his degree, he removed,
a declared author, to London. His first, (we believe) and
must successful work was a satire, aimed at a certain
school of poetasters, entitled the " Della Cruscan" then,
about thirty years ago, in high vogue. The effect was
instantaneous, electrical. The masqued rhymesters could
not stand the touch of this critical Ithuriel, bat shrunk
back each into his proper nature ; when the public were
surprized to learn, that those whom they had so long
looked upon as lions, were in fact nothing more nor
less than a genus of that respectable quadruped, the ass.
About this time, while his name was " up" in town, Mr.
Gifford commenced the conduct of the " Anti-Jacobin,"
to which he contributed the caustic prose, while Mr. Can-
ning supplied the poetry. But the period demanding
more important aid, he was called on to start
a quarterly publication in opposition to the Edinburgh
Review. This task he executed, we need not say with
what ability, suffice it to observe, that under his auspices
the work in question became, not merely the organ of a
party, but the source at which enlightened men of all
classes slaked the thirst of their mind as at a fountain of
healthful waters. The reader would naturally conclude
that such labour would of itself be sufficient to monopolize
Mr. Gifford. But no ; his mind, ever persevering, com-
pleted during this interval not only a translation of " Ju-
venal," but also editions of " Ben Jonson,"" Maseineser,"
" Ford," and " Shirley," which two last were on the ere
of appearing, when their talented author died. It is not
generally known, we believe, that in youth Mr. Gifford
was a poet ; a few stray snatches, however, of his rhymes
still remain, one of which, entitled " Anna," is full of a
certain simple tenderness, of which the sarcastic Editor of
the Quarterly Review would scarcely hare been suspect-
ed. Who could fancy Junius a sentimentalist ? In his
literary character Mr. Gifford was all that perseverance,
ourage, and shrewdness, could make him : his mind was
an acquired one, and owed little to Nature beyond an ap-
titude for receiving ideas. Of that divine faculty, ima-
gination, which colours all things with its own glorious
hues, and sees in others but the reflection of its own in-
spired character, he wax altogether deficient. His taste, in
like manner, was restricted; but when political antipathies
did not cloud it, was invariably correct. In answer to
those who cavil at his want of sympathy with modern li-
terature, it should never be forgotten that he was born at
.a time when genius, trammelled by art, proceeded on what
Mr. Bowles would eayi " the invariable principles" of the-
Augustan age. He was linked in thought with the Swifts,
Popes, Johnsons, Paleys, of former days, and could conse-
quently have little in common with the gifted, but unregu-
iated spirits of a more peculiar period. As a critic, it can-
not be denied that, however celebrated, he wanted both
temper and liberality. His mind, blunted, perhaps, by
early sorrows, and still more by constitutional infirmities,
lacked that tine perception of the beautiful, for which his
rival, Mr. Jeffrey is so conspicuous. His judgment, too,
was purblind; it could glance over the broad beaten track
of intellect, could look dawn, as from an eminenes, en the
hackneyed road to fame, prepared to applaud all who
pressed orthodoxly forward to the temple, but could not
penetrate those hidden recesses on eithee aide, in which the
modesty of genius, aloof from the crowd, so often loves to
nestle. Hence his opposition to poor Keates, whose strange
wayward fancy perplexed him, and was consequently rated as
illegitimate. Hence his hostility toHazlitt,who,however mean-
lywe may estimate his politics, has given a new impulse to
the thinkers of the age, by impregnating with truth and
freshneee, and feeling, what was before eold,barren, and in-
definite in metaphysics. As a commentator, MI:, Gifford
was the first of his own, perhaps of any age. He brought
to his task, not merely exhaustless learning, keen research,
severe scepticism (that useful adjunct of truth), and un-
daunted diligence, but also a love of his author, enthusias-
tic even to absurdity. In his edition of Ben Jonson, for
instance—with whom, perhaps, he had some few points in
common—it is really amusing to see how he impales on a
short pointed note, or stretches on the rack of a tedious
philippic, all those unliscky, commentators who have been
hardy enough to underrate his hero. his translations
Mr. Gifford was at best but tolerable. The coarseness of
Juvenal certainly loses nothing in his he.nds, it is even gi-
ven with additional foree ; but the dignity of the Roman
poet's invectives is degraded into vulgar vent:we—and
the unequalled grandeur of his versification, majestic as a
Cathedral organ, is transformed into a slip-shod diction,
prosaic, diffuse, and inharmonious. As a politician, Mr.
Gifford, though severe, was unerring in sagacity. His
mind could look for a short distance into futurity, though
St could not speculate on remote probabilities, and was pe-
eui:serly fitted for enforcing those small truths of which pass-
ing evente, except in some few striking instances, are made
up. He has been accused of a leaning towards Aristocracy ;
if this be a defect, it is a defect that he shares in common
with the enlightened of all ages or all climes, for who (if
he must bow), would not rather bow to those above
than to those beneath him. Far better to look up to
the mountain than down into the mud. But we deny
the fact ; Mr. Gifford associated with mea raised above
him by the mere accident of rank, on terms of the strictest
equality ; he spurned all ideas of sycophancy, and enforced
and preserved his independence by the commanding in-
fluence of talent. It is someiailat singular, that while, as
an author, he was all venom and irritability, as a man, he
was remarkable for the unassuming gentleness of his man-
ners. Though an invalid from youth, his temper in private
society was uniformly tranquil. His acerbity exhausted
itself in print, to his friends it was altogether unknown.
He suffered agony at times (chiefly from an inveterate
;asthma), yet his tortures only displayed themselves by
,that wasted smile, occasionally so characteristic of his
kounteuance. He was, in fact, a striking instance how far
;he mind can trample down and rise superior to the intir-
enities of the body. Such was William Gifford, whose
life inculcates this homely, but useful moral, that perseve-
rance backed by rectitgsle, is the sole key that unlosks the
, door to success.

Mr. KEAN,--On Tuesday evening this eminent
actor made his last appearance to a New York audience before his
departure for England. After the ballet which succeeded the
pixy, he came out and made a sort of a speech to the American
nation. There were a few passages in it very happily expressed.
He intended to be particularly severe upon his enemies, and men-
40ned the " town of Buckingham" with ineffable contempt. He
received a good deal of applause for some of his sentiments, but
not a great deal for his contempt to his opposers. We have
always been friendly to Kean, and think he would have done is
Stone, and the Bostonians alone. After
well to let Bucking am.,
retreating to, the side door, he returned, and told the audience
;that he had a fine boy in England, whom he meant to bring
out is two years v 4 ikc an American citizen."—New York
Adsweate, Dec. '7.