The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-07-22
IHlcEERlr,s LECIuREs on THE efuReEs.
GE0RGE THR THIRD.
FCoptinued from the last Issue Of THE EvENrN


minutes. To read the mere catalogue OF cb A
acters who figured during that long perlo
would occupy our allotted time, and we sbouI
have all text and no sermon. England had |
undergo the revolt of the American colonies, I
submit to defeat and separation; to shake unde
the volcano OF the French Revolution: 1
Rrapple and fight for the life with her eipanti
enemy Napoleon; to grasp and rally after tina
tremendous struggle. The old society, with IT
courtly splendors had to pass away; generI
lions OF statesmen to rise and disappear; Pitt L
follow Chatham to the tomb; the memory o
Rodney and Wolfe to be superseded bv Nelson
and Wellington's glory; the old poets, who unit,
us to Queen Annes time, to sink into thei
graves; johnson to die, and Scott and Byron tC
arise; Garrick to deheht the world with his
dazzling dramatic genius, and Keau to leap on
the stage and take possession of the astonished
theatre. Steam had 10 be invented; kings to be
beheaded banished, deposed, restored Napoleon
70 be but an episode, and George III is to be
alive through all these varied changes, to &C
company his people through all these reyolu-
tions of thought, government, society-to sur
Viye out of the old world into ours.
When first saw England she was in mourning
for the young Princess Charlotte, the hope of
the empire. / came from India as a child, and
our ship touched at an island on the way home,
where my black servant took me q long walk
over rocks and hills until we reached q garden
where we saw man walking. THAT is he,'
said the black mau; that is Bonaparte. He
eats three sheep every day, and all the little
children he can lay hands on ~ There were
people in the British dominions besides that
poor Calcutta serving-man with an equal horror
of the CorsCan ogre.
With the same childish attendant / remember
peeping through the colonnade at Carlton House,
and seeing the abode of the great prince regent,
can see yet tie Guards pacing before the gates
OF the place. The place? What place? The
palace exists no more than the palace of Nebu-
chadneZzar. 1t is but name now. Where be
the sentrles who used to salute as the royal
Chariots drove In and out? The chariots, with
the Kings inside, have driven to the realms OF
Pluto; the tail Guards have marched into dark
ness, and the echoes of their drums are rolling
IN Hades. Where the palace once stood hun
dred little children are padding up and down
the steps to st. James Park. A score of grave
gentlemen are taking their tea at the Atheneum
Cluo; as many grlsly warriors are garrisoning
the United Service Club opposite. Pail Mall is
the great social Exchange of London noW-the
mart of news, Of politics, of scandal, of rumo--
Inc English forum, SO TO speak, where men dis
cuss the last despatch from the Crimea, the last
speech Of Lord Derby the next move of Lord
John. And, now and then, to few antiquarians
whose thoughts are with the past rather than
with the present, it is memorial of old times
and old people, and Pail Mall is our Palmyra.
Look Above this spot Tom of Ten Thousand
was killed by Konigsmarcks gang. In that
great red house Gainsborough lived, and Cul-
!oden Cumberland, George HIS uncle. Yonder
is Sarah Marlborough's palace, Just as it stood
Mhen that termagant occupied it. At No. 20
walter Scott used 10 live; at the house now No.
~, and occupied by the Society for the Propaga-
ton OF the Gospel in Foreign Parts, resided Mrs.
Eleanor Gwynn, comedian. How often mas
queen Carollne's chair issued from under yon-
Ger arch! All the men of the Georges have
passed up and down the street. 1t has seen
Malpole's chariot and Chatham's sedan; aud
FOX Glb6on, Sheridan, on their way to Brookes';
and stately William Pitt stalking on the arm of
Dundas; and Hanger and Tom Sheridan reeling
out OF Raggets; and Byron limping into Wat
Lier's; and Swift sriding out of Bury street; and
Mr. Addison and Dick Steele, both perhaps
little the hqtfar for 1iOnnr. anH hn prinpa NJ
Wales and the Duke OF York gathering over the
pavement; ana Johnson counting the posts
along the streets, after dawdling before Dods-
ley's window; and Horace Walpole hobblng
into his carriage, with q gimcrack just bought
out at Christie's; and George Selwyn sauntering
into Whites.
In the published letters to George selwyn we
get mass of correspondence by no means so
brilliant and witty as Walpole's or so bitter and
bright as Hervey's, but as interesting, and even
more descriptive of the time, because the letters
are the work of many hands. You hear more
voices speaking, as it were, and more natural
than Horace's danoifed treble, and Sporus'
malignant whisper As one reads the SelWyn
Ietters-as one looks at Reynolds noble pictures
illustrative of those magnificent times and vol
Uptuous people-one almost hears the voice of
the dead past; the laughter and the chorus; the
toast called over the brimming cups; the shout
at the race'course or the gaming-table; the
merry Jokes frankly spoken to the laughing iue
lady. How fine those ladies were-thOse ladies
who heard and spoke such coarse jokes! no v
grand those gentlemen
fancy that peculiar product of the past the
line gentleman, has almost vanished OFF the face
of the earth, and is disappearing like the beaver
or the Red Indian. We can't have fine gentle
men any more because we can't nave the society
in which they lived. The people will not ODE v;
the parasites will not be as obsequious as for
merly; children do not go down on their knee;
to beg their parents blessing; chaplains do not
say grace and retire before the pudding; ser
wants do not say your honor and your worship
at every moment; tradesmen do not stand hat
IN hand as the gentleman passes; authors do
not wait for hours in gentlemens ante.rooms
with fulsome dedication, for which they hope
to get tive guineas from his lordship, In the
days when there were nne gentlemen, Mr.. Sec
retary Pitts under-seCretaries did not dare TO
sit down before him; but Mr.. Pitt, in his turn,
went down on his gouty knees to George ii; and
when George Ill spoke few kind words to him,
Lord Chatham burst into tears of reVerential
Joy and gratitude; so awful was the idea OF the
monarch, and so great the distinctions of rank.
Fancy Lord John Russell or Lord Palmerston
on their knees while the sovereign was reading
despatch, or beginning TO Cry because Prince
Albert said something civil
At the accession of George III the patrcians
were yet at the height of their good fortune.
Society recognized their superiority, which they
themselves pretty calmly took for granted.
They inherited not only titles and estates, and
seats in the House OF Peers, but seats in the
House of Commons. There were a multitude OF
government places, and not merely these, but
bribes Of actual f5O0 notes, which members OF
the House took not much shame in assuming.
Fox went into Parliament at 20; Pitt was Just OF
age; his father not much older. 1t was the
good time for patricians Small blame to them
If they took and enjoyed, and over-enioyed, the
prizes of politics, the pleasures OF social life,
In these letters to Selwyn we are made ac-
uuainted with whole society of these detunct
fine gentlemen, aud can watch with curious
interest life which the novel-Wiiters OF thai
time, think, have scarce touched upon. TC
o.. I,Ak Hirnfr a a lnlns