The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1904-11-27

| was gratified to ma III. oIepHeFu
recognizing the extraordinary gifts
of Lord Macaulav, and SAYING OF
| his style that it ''is the supreme out
| come of the critical school, In anoth-
er place. he says that 1.-The training TO
which our language was subjected
| during the seventeenth and eighteenth
| centuries, has probably exhibited It's
richest results in the golden cadence
| of Macaulay. One of the pleasaht
| tasks / have selected for myseI1 Is
discussion of Macaulay as essaylst, ms
| torian, orator. statesman, poet anu
| son and brother-to show his most
engaging personality, and his very
| distinguished qualities. He was De-
yond fair question one of the greatest
| Englishmen of the prolific nineteenth
century. That 1 hope to show.
/ Capt. Robert E. Lee, youngest son
| of the greatest of Amerlcans-has pub
lished an octave volume of AIS pages
entitled "Recollections and Letters OF
| Gen. Robert E. Lee" 1t Will interest
| readers, particularly in the South. He
was par excellence the foremost mill
tarv genius of the greatest modern
war, unless Gen. Bedford Forrest be
his rival. Three eminent British Off
GERS have in their writings given him
| the first place among American com
manders General Lord Wolsely puts
him even above the Duke of yelling
ton. But Yankee doodle Dan ana NOT
think him fit to be placed in the
Temple of Yankee greatness with such
soldiers as Grant, Sherman and Sheri-
| dan So far as | feel it was humllia-
/ ton to see the Incompatible, peerless
Southron subjected to such company,
such indignity. Among all Northern
writer's Gen Dom Piatt estimates
those three soldiers, with Lincoln, al
their proper valuation. If some En-
elish soldier of the rare abilities of
Lieutenant Colonel Henderson-alas!
dead-would write two volumes on
Lee as he wrote on General Thomas j.
, Jackson, it would be indeed great
boon to the world But is there an
Englishman now living who could
write such a work of supreme merit:
An able legal friend of this town sald
to me, that it was the greatest book
he ever read. If the overpoWering
North does not degenerate in brain
power and scholarship as 1t has in po-
litical sagacity information, sense of
right real wisdom and love of liberty
and Justice and integrity, the time viii
come when General Lee will be esu-
mated correctly as the Hottest charac-
ter among all the leading men Of this
country They are very far from
such capabflity now as they are from
devotion to treat constitutional liberty,
and real Democratic Republican
principles.
1t is almost assured that Mrs. Roger
A. Pryors "Reminiscences of Peace
and War" is destined to be widely
read. She is the gifted wife of Mr.
Justice Pryor, of New York city,
Virginian by birth, and Brigadier
General of the Confederacy, who
fought CALAMITY in many battles, and
had rather romantic history as
soldier. Mrs. Pryor is the Southern
lady of whom the eminent and very
able DR.. James McCosh, president of
Princeton University, said to the late
Rev DR.. Joseph NJ. Atkinson, fer a
quarter of a century perhaps pastor
of the First Presbyterian church, at
Raleigh, that she was 1.-The ablest wo-
man he had met in America" Dr.
McCosh was a native of Great Britain
The able editor of the New York
Saturday Review" in the issue of
18TH November wrote of it that
within its range of incident con sid
ering its restricted scope, Mrs. Pryors
book has had no superior, probably no
equal 1t commends itself for imme-
date reading, as it is full of entertain
ment and edification for the present
hour" There is also a review of the
work in the same number of the New
York literary weekly by another hand.
She wrote quite an inviting
and successful work not long before
on 1.-THE Mother of Washington and
Her Twins" which was we'll received
by the critics in the North. In her
last work she gives her own personal
recollections of Washington City be-
fore the Civil War, and treats of Vir-
GINA Jfe during the great four years
conflict. The reviewer writes that
things are set down precisely as they
were heard and seen and felt (espe-
cially as they were felt) by q woman
gifted with keen powers Of observa- |
ton and a remarkable gift of literary
expression" / nc not know her age,
but suppose she is quite seventy.
The reviewer says: Mrs. Pryorsl
picture in the frontispiece makes 1t
easy for us to understand her happi-
ness. With so much beauty, gayety
and wit and charm. she could not fail
to be a social favorite, to enjoy her
life and see things in rosy light.
We have 50 generally conceived Presi-
dent Pierce as political abstraction
that it is good to be assured of his
captivating voice and manner and the
genuine kindness of his heart. To be
sure, those who have read any good
life of Hawthorne need no further
proof Of this
l think from what is said, that I'M
just censure is given to President
Davis, who / have no doubt made as
able, safe and wise a President as
any man then living in the South
would have made. She makes Gen
eral Lee responsible for the failure at
Gettysburg, as he assumed it. But
General Longs life of the peerless
American soldier, shows that the third
days failure rests upon General Long
street, as the first days failure rests
upon General Ewell. Mrs Pryors
husband was captured and sent to
Fort Lafayette. Secretary Stanton
threatened hanging, but Lincoln had