New-York tribune., 1907-06-09

coaIescence, tne people would have dragged the,
to punishment or abandoned them to disgrace
There Is nothing like coalition in politics 70
liberate angry passions. and this outburst Is
then. comprehensibIe But the reader can onIy
smile when an innocent allusion OF Trotter's To
the warm and impetuous youth OF Fox leads
Landor to say: His youth was very well
known to have exceeded in every kind Of
proiigacy the youth OF any Englishman his
contemporary. To the principles OF French
man he added the habits of Malay. In idleness
drunkenness and gaming The odd thing Is
that there are frequent moments in which Ian
dor is drawn to Fox as though against his VIII
After all Fox was lover of books; that alone
was a trait calculated to appeal TO Landor. and
in addition the poet seems always to have had
a vague conviction that the man he hated was
a gentleman "a part OF his heart. IN spite OF
dissipation and politics. was generous ard
sound" he says In another place he quantity
distinguishes between Fox and Pitt, Observing
that certain species OF haseness would have
been uncongeniaI with the character OF the
former but was imaginable possible under
the frozen temperature of such a soul as Pitts
In fact Landor sometimes drifts into some
thing like amiability toward Fox A bOokish
episode In the statesmdn's life viii turn u in
Trotter's record, and in the discussion OF clas-
sical poetry or what not the necessity for damn
ing Fox will be momentarily forgotten But let
the political motive be reintrodUced and Lan5or
is Immediately off upon his hobby. srnitIug the
foe with renewed ardor. The record in Trot.er
of FOx's determination to attend a Ieyee OF
Bonaparte's. produces In tho Commentary
these furious sentences:
Any EngHshnan who could sanction By his prs
ence such atrocious despotism is unworthy OF
breathing the air of his free ancestors. and de-
serves universal and eternal eXeCratiOn BE should
be banished not only from the society Of his coun-
trymen but from the sight Of his fellow creatures
acknowledge with gratitude and transport
the interpositiOn Of Divine Justice than when
after the people OF England had received tho
grossest insult in the person Of their ambassador.
If Landor tires of drubbing Fox he drubs
some one else, preferably Pitt or Bonaparte. OF
the latter he says. for example, that "he WIS
chosen to fill his office thief takers are chosen
for theirs: from knowing the haunts and habits
of the abandoned and desperate" But this book
is not all invective There are numerous pas
sages In which Landor ranges freely over de-
hghtfuI subjects. passages marked by the
thusiasm and the insight Of the born poet that
he Here and there. too general ideas
on society. government and on history, which
refreshing enough in the midst OF the
thor's fury against Fox Sometimes he mods,
in some strangely unsympathetic remarks on
Dryden But always he is himself a creature II
genuine passion. Of unfaggins energy. original.
and fun Of a kind Of stormy charm. The CON
mentary,' as We have said. is 4 work Of SOLID
historical value, and from any point Of view It
remains an essentially miscellaneous volume
But it is good TO have it It brings US once more
into contact with = brave spirit and powerful
mind