man, &c. .66 litical creed, and, at the same time, to give | and which are at the same time a fair samindications of having sounded, if not quite ple of the whole. fathomed, some of the depths of political and constitutional economy, yet this cannot be said of all his works; for it is to no one branch of literature that the noble writer has confined himself, tragedy, history, biography, essays, from the ephemeral pamphlet to the ponderous quarto, swell the varied catalogue. It is difficult to say upon which of his works Lord John Russell would feel disposed to stake his literary reputation; and we do not know how far we are justified in taking notice of some, which, though published anonymously, are attributed to his pen, and, indeed, whose authorship is now no longer a secret. Such gross mistakes have occurred to the keenest critics in the filiation of literary performances, that were the works in question less currently recognized, or were they the least favorable to his pretensions, we might hesitate to include them in our survey; for we agree with Dr. Johnson, "That when a man of rank appears in a literary character, he deserves to have his merit handsomely allowed." And in this spirit we are disposed to deal with the claims of the noble littérateur of the House of Bedford. The noble writer once upon a time perhaps thought with Junius, "That a printed paper receives very little consideration from the most respectable signature.' However that may be, the first book of Lord John's is a collection of Essays and Sketches of Life and Character, by a gentleman who has left his lodgings; published under the euphonious pseudonyme of Joseph Skillet, and bearing date May 24, 1820, when his lordship had just attained his 28th year. Essays of a Gentle- Vanity, which every one blames, is the most universal of all motives of action et qui de contemnendû many characters so slightly built as to be capagloriâ librum scripsit nomen affixit.' There are ble of no higher or more noble incitement: were they without vanity, they would be indolent in affairs, uncivil and rude in society, selfish in their actions and behavior. It is to a desire to conciliate public opinion that we owe all the virtues of weak characters, and even many great men have been sustained in their career by the same useful passion. [Vanity and Love of Fame.]" There is no motive which ends in self more noble than the love of fame. This is one of the passions which has, in an extraordinary degree, a good and bad side. the besoin de faire parler de soi, which animates There is nothing more silly and contemptible than The wearing a particular dress, or driving an unso large a proportion of the candidates for fame. common carriage; writing quarto books about nothing, or making a speech to every mob that can be collected; are generally proofs of a desire to obtain distinction without the qualities which deserve it. But there is a love of fame that is the most powerful instrument of which nature makes use to produce discovery in science and eminence in art. A man of genius feels himself alternately impelled to perform great actions, and deterred by the difficulty and labor of the enterprise. In this struggle the desire of exertion would gradually become less violent, and would generally, in the end, be stifled by pleasure and indolence, did not the love of fame furnish an auxiliary incitement to action. Pushed on by such an impulse, the man of genius overcomes every obstacle; he investigates, weighs, and provides against the most minute blot in his plans; he passes the night without repose, and the day without recreation; he forgets the wear of continual thought, the labor which perfection requires, or the dangers which an unThese essays, consisting of 248 octavo patried enterprise may offer; till at length he bursts ges, are ushered into public notice by a rather forth in splendor, like the sun through a mid-day fog, the poet, the philosopher, or the hero of his humorous preface, as to how the MS. came age. But his glory is not complete. In centuinto the hands of Joseph Skillet, and theries still to come his verse shall fire the bosom, or why and the wherefore he determined to put awake the tear; his discovery shall exalt the mind them into print; a style of introduction much of the student or guide the rudder of navigation; in Vogue at that time, and which the author his example shall animate the breast of patriots, of Waverley seems to have made fashionable. and keep alive the love of immortality. Having The subjects treated of are various in their mentioned this subject, I cannot but notice the cold objections of some metaphysicians. It has been kind; not in themselves destitute of interest, argued that posthumous fame is an unreasonable but briefly handled, and though with evi- object of desire; as no man can obtain it till he is dence of some reading, not with the ability incapable of enjoying it. To this I shall answer, to justify the aphoristic and dictatorial style that himself living in the future, he foresees the affected by the author. There prevails homage that will attend upon his name. It would throughout a dogmatic tone, which disposes be easy to show that almost every great poet and the reader to rebel against the rather bold philosopher has foreseen his own immortality. If it be objected that this foretaste of fame, being opinions advanced, and extravagant criticism. unaccompanied by any homage, must be an airy We have selected those portions which we and unsubstantial pleasure, I shall briefly reply think may be most interesting to the reader, that it is of the same nature with many others which have always been appreciated. If it is a pleasure to contribute to the happiness, though without receiving the thanks, of an unknown beggar-if it is a pleasure to be read and admired by distant nations, though they transmit no testimony of their admiration-if it is a pleasure to be loved by persons in England even when on a voyage across the Atlantic-it may also be a pleasure, and one of the highest degree, to be conscious that we shall obtain the admiration, the blessing, the love, of future generations." [Men of Letters.] "There is no class of persons, it may be observed, whose failings are more open to remark than men of letters. In the first place, they are raised on an eminence, where everything they do is carefully observed by those who have not been able to get so high. In the next place, their occupation, especially if they are poets, being either the expression of superabundant feeling or the pursuit of praise, they are naturally more sensitive and quick in their emotions than any other class of men: hence a thousand little quarrels and passing irritabilities. In the next place, they have the power of wounding deeply those of whom they are envious. A man who shoots envies another who shoots better. A shoemaker even envies another who makes more popular shoes; but the sportsman and the shoemaker can only say they do not like their rival; the author cuts his brother author to the bone with the sharp edge of an epigram or bon mot." [On Plays.]"The dramatic art, when carried to perfection, may be defined to be that of exhibiting human nature in a point of view, either affecting or amusing. If we adopt this definition it will not appear wonderful that the English should have succeeded best in tragedy and the French in comedy. The English, fond of deep emotion, and reflecting long upon their own sensations, have portrayed, with a truth which seemed scarcely attainable, the character and conduct of individuals whom fortune placed in the highest rank and exposed to the most stormy trials. But in proportion to their success in this branch of art, has been their failure in the department of comedy. As they are little accustomed to display their feelings in society, authors have been obliged to supply, by extravagant plots and eccentric characters, the want of accurate portraits, and to borrow from fancy the interest which observation could not afford. tions which involve the immediate happiness, perhaps the very existence of millions of the people by rules of science which change from day to day. It is not a matter of very urgent or pressing necessity to know whether oxygen gets the letter of phlogiston, or chlorine is a better founded name than oxy-muriatic acid; but it is of another kind of importance to know whether a silver currency, of a certain standard, will prove a considerable benefit or a certain ruin; whether an overflowing abundance of foreign corn is a blessing or a curse tions are to be decided by reference to the authorto the nation which imports it. Yet these quesity of men, who, with all their talents, do not, I must confess, inspire me with perfect confidence." "It is very true that England would sell more cotton if her manufacturers got cheap corn from Poland. But a statesman is bound to think, whether it would be better to have a million more people in the manufacturing towns at the certainty of losing half a million of farmers and laborers. And he must place before his eyes the picture of such half million starved out of existence; dragging along with them, for a time, the people employed in every branch of industry which depends upon their demand, clamorous for a pittance which the inflexible spirit of science denies; shaking, perhaps, the pillars of the state, and menacing the whole order of society, before they suffer themselves to be extirpated by famine." The Life of Lord William Russell: with some account of the Times in which he lived. 2 vols. 1820. The noble essayist, casting aside the plebeian mantle of Joseph Skillet, makes his début, in propria persona, as a biographer, animated by the wish to rescue the memory of a distinguished ancestor from the reproaches of preceding writers. In a preface modest to the abilities of Hume, the giving forth to but naïve, and passing a high tribute of praise the world this Life of Lord William Russell is justified on the ground of Hume's partiality to the House of Stuart, which prejudiced his narrative, and further, by the new light thrown upon the transactions of that period by the despatches of the French minister by Sir John Dalrymple, which were not pubThat the political "The other fault which I mentioned, that of mixing comedy and tragedy, has been often de-lished when Hume wrote. fended. It is, in fact, the merit of relieving the mind oppressed by too long a succession of sad scenes, and makes a tragedy palatable to ordinary minds. It is like the gas in mineral waters, which makes steel supportable to weak stomachs. But does it not also interrupt the interest? and does it not prevent the existence of any strong emotion? Shakspeare has best answered these questions by diminishing the number of such scenes in Othello, Lear, and Macbeth." [Political Economy.] "Political economy is an awful thing; it is appalling to think that the legislature is often called upon to decide ques bias of Hume may have betrayed him into a culpable partiality, and that it did so, to a certain extent, is readily conceded. Few are the composers of personal history who come to their task with that independent spirit of impartiality, that inflexible regard for the distribution of equal justice, without which the very end and aim of this species of writing must fail of being accomplished. Preeminent as is the rank of Johnson, incontrovertible as are his merits in this department of literature, and high as his moral character undoubtedly stood, yet the moment his religious or national prejudices found an opponent in the character under examination, then his candor and his judgment utterly forsook him. But we must naturally be prepared to encounter the same defects in the present work, and in a degree, we fear, more than sufficient to counterbalance the advantages of fresh sources of information. The tenderness of reputation of an ancestor, though remote the feelings of family pride-are motives for sparing which is a great impediment to true biography. This, however, concerns the fidelity of the life, and bears little on the question of its merits, in a literary point of view, with which alone we are interested. ac ing together of those opinions on government and freedom, which the noble author loses no opportunity of parading, interlarded with quotations, some not very interesting letters, and a few sayings and anecdotes, without any relief from polished style or the smallest display of feeling. A more cold, uninteresting, and fragmentary performance could hardly be written by a dull schoolmaster, paid by the sheet. "The political opinions of Lord Russell were those of a Whig. His religious creed was that of a mild and talented Christian. If, as it must be admitted, he showed a violent animosity to the Roman Catholics to an extent which cannot be justified, it must be recollected that his hostility For though the treatment of the subject was almost entirely political. The attack which may be partial, it cannot fail to disclose the was made upon our Constitution appeared in the presence or the want of the qualities of the colors and with the ensign of Popery, and it was biographer. Copious materials and the strict- only by resisting the Romish Church that civil est impartiality would be of little avail if the liberty could be secured. He wished our own inmethod of composition be wanting in perspi- in other words, for a larger comprehension of stitutions to be more favorable to dissenters; or, cuity. A collection of unconnected particu- sects. Had his wish been gratified, the Proteslars, the most sedulous accumulation of " tant Church of England would have been strengthta, dicta, consilia, scripta," of all that could ened, both against the see of Rome and against be gathered together, does not constitute bi- future schism, with the loss only of some slavish ography; a task requiring no small pains in doctrines and a few unimportant ceremonies which the preparation, and no little effort in the our early reformers never adopted. It must be performance. To avoid a tedious prolixity owned that the violence of Lord Russell against on the one hand, and vague generality on the It was the fault of honest men in that age; and it the Roman Catholics betrayed him into credulity. other, to escape being a mere dry narrator of is singular, that absurd as the story of the popish facts, and yet not to err by over lavish de- plot avowedly is, we have more respect for those duction, demands a mind of the first order of who fell into the delusion than for those who esintellectual power. The Life of Lord Will-caped it. But whatever blame may attach to iam Russell is certainly one well calculated to Lord Russell for an excess of political and religious display the biographic spirit. The conduct zeal, it cannot be denied that his firmness and of a man laboring under misfortune, strug-try in a most critical period of her fortunes, and perseverance were eminently useful to his coungling with persecution, wounded by ingrati- that his example contributed to the establishment tude, must ever afford the material for inter- of those liberties which he died to vindicate." esting delineation. How far then has Lord John succeeded in The simplicity of this contradictory sumthe important and responsible office of delin-ming up of Lord William Russell's political eator and expounder of his ancestor's person- character requires no comment; to define his al history? Our expectations of any singu- creed as that of a mild and tolerant Christian, lar excellence were not raised very high by and to paint him a credulous and excessive the noble lord's notion of the nature of bio-political and religious zealot, unjustifiably graphical interest-"What most contributes violent when opposed to the Roman Cathoto render biography amusing, is a certain sin- lics, is a blunder Lord John only could gularity and some degree of forwardness and commit. presumption in the hero." The noble writer's own life will, upon this theory, be amusing in the highest degree; but his ancestor having been a plain, sober, unaffected person, who never originated any measure of importance, the reader is prepared for a tolerably large dose of dullness. We find some difficulty in making an extract, for there is scarcely an entire page of the author's own composition. It is, in fact, no life at all, but a string Pursuing our inquiry in the order of time, we must next pass in review, An Essay on the History of the English Government and Constitution, from the reign of Henry VII. to the present time,' [viz. 1821.] This also bears upon the title-page the noble writer's name, who, in some prefatory remarks, announces his object to have been the illustration of "two very plain but somewhat neglected truths," viz. : Besides dissertations upon the lives and "First, that the continental monarchies of Europe require complete regeneration before their sub-governments of the successive sovereigns, jects can become virtuous and happy. Second, that the Government of England is not to be included in this class; for that it is calculated to produce liberty, worth, and content amongst the people, while its abuses easily admit of reforms consistent with its spirit, capable of being effected without injury or danger, and mainly contributing to its preservation." It is, however, with the latter of the neglected truths in question that the present volume deals. The first not being finished, we have therefore the second volume first, a kind of "orspov pórspov" process which we should have thought fatal to the argument except in the hands of an Irish chronicler. The reason why this latter portion is thus prematurely published "without sufficient concoction or correction, is to be attributed to the vanity of imagining it may at this period be of some service. It may at least provoke the wits and excite the thoughts of other men to a more happy attention, in which every member of this free community has an interest of the deepest importance.' It is not our design to combat the doctrine of monarchical regeneration, which the noble lord insists upon, in foreign lands, before the population can become a happy and virtuous one, since a quarter of a century has not only changed much abroad, but much at home; and amongst other things which have undergone mutation, Lord John's opinions are not the least remarkable. For our own part, with all his freedom, we fear that John Bull is not much more virtuous than the Austrian or the Dutchman, and rather incline to the opinion that he is less happy. Whether this "pellet" from Lord John's literary popgunprovoked the wit" or "excited the thoughts" of Prince Metternich, and other quondam important personages, or whether it failed to do so from want of the "concoction" so herbalistically lamented, must remain an unsolved problem until the late Arch-Chancellor of Austria's memoirs are given to the world. If it failed in awakening foreign governments to the importance of completely regenerating their systems, perhaps "it did not fail in being of some service," that is, to the noble author himself; for though he was too modest to say so, he alone can supply the information as to who was the object of such service. That the essay, or rather collection of essays, was intended as an advertisement of the noble lord's political creed, no one can doubt, who reads the ninety-one chapters into which the said volume, of 305 pages, is divided. from Henry VII. to George III., we have Poor Laws,"" National Debt," "Liberty of the Press," "Parliamentary Reform," "PubCriminal Law," "Influence of lic Schools," the Crown," and a sufficiently piquant and diversified "bill of fare." At the head of each chapter is placed a quotation from some celebrated writer, as a kind of text upon which the noble lord spins his discourse. And at the tail we find some aphoristic deduction, enunciating the author's political notions. We shall pass by the introductory chapter on the first principles of the English government and constitution, for it is neither more nor less than Blackstone mystified, and shown up in masquerade. The pith or climax, which, as in a lady's letter, is to be found in the postscript, though not remarkable for elegance of expression, explains the old tinkering propensities of Lord John to mend the constitutional kettle; but would provoke a severe comment upon his more recent doctrine of finality, and the stationary policy of his administration at the present crisis. "There was a practical wisdom in our ancestors, which induced them to alter and vary the form of our institutions as they went on; to suit them to the circumstances of the time, and reform them according to the dictates of experience. They never ceased to work upon our frame of government, as a sculptor fashions the model of a favorite statue. It is an act now seldom used, and the disuse has been attended with evils of the most alarming magnitude." cussion of the political character of Lord Our present object, however, is not a disJohn Russell; we confine ourselves to his position as un homme de lettres. [Liberty of the Press.] "Before I proceed to give a short view of the advantages of the Press, let us again recall to our minds that it is nonsense to talk of liberty without its licentiousness. Every attempt to curb its licentiousness otherwise than by the application of the law after an offence committed, must likewise restrain its liberty. To do the one without the other, were as difficult as to provide that the sun should bring our flowers and fruits to perfection, but never scorch our faces. Many have a mistaken notion of what the Press is: they suppose it to be a regular independent power, like the Crown, or the House of Commons. The Press does nothing more than afford a means of expressing, in good and able language, the opinions of large classes of sociey. For if these opinions, however well sustained, are paradoxes contined to the individual who utters them, they fall as harmless, in the middle of sixteen millions of people, as they would do in a private party of three or four. Nor is it the sentiment of A, the editor of one newspaper, or of B, the editor of another, which controls the course of Government. These men are little, if it all, known; with one or two exceptions, their names are never mentioned. It is their skill in embodying in a daily journal the feelings and reasonings which come home to the business and the bosoms of large portions of their countrymen, that obtains for their writings fame and general acceptance. But it would be vain for these persons to endeavor to make the people discontented with laws which they loved and a minister whom they revered. They would not be dreaded nor even read. Equally vain would it be for a vicious, oppressive, and odious government to suppress the liberty of printing. It was not the Press which overturned Charles I., nor could the Inquisition preserve to Ferdinand VIII. his despotic power-the dark cabal, the secret conspirator, the sudden tumult, the solitary assassin, may all be found where the liberty of printing has never exis ed. And were a government to suppress it where it does exist, without taking away the matter of sedition, more crime and less security would probably be the result of their foolish panic and powerless precaution. No one has yet seen the newspaper or pamphlet, which openly defends the venality of judges or the infliction of torture, any more than the tragedy which holds up cowardice to admiration, or endeavors to make envy amiable in our eyes; even the worst men love virtue in their studies. In ordinary times it is evident the exercise of this censorship must be beneficial to the country; no statesman can hope that his corrupt practices, his jobs, his obliquities, his tergiversations, can escape from a vigilance that never slumbers, and an industry that never wearies. Nor is it an important obstacle to truth, that the daily newspapers are the advocates of party, rather than searchers after truth. The nation, after hearing both sides, may decide between them." [The National Debt.] "There can be little doubt that, for a certain time, a national debt is beneficial in its effects. It promotes a rapid circulation of money; it brings new capitalists into the market with more enterprise and more invention than the old proprietors of land. It obliges the laborer to work harder, and, at the same time, produces new demands for labor. But when the national taxes have increased to a certain amount, these effects are nearly reversed. Prices are so prodigiously increased to the consumer, that all prudent men retrench both their consumption and their employment of labor. The greater proportion of the general income of the country, is transferred from the hands of men who have the means of laying it out in agriculture or manufactures, into the hands of great merchants, whose capital overflows the market, and returns in the shape of mortgages. There is, at the same time, a great want of and great abundance of money. Such are the effects of a great national debt upon individuals. But there is another view in which The this debt is an unmixed evil; I mean, as it impairs and exhausts the resources of the State. expense of former wars renders it at last difficult for a nation to raise taxes for its defence. So much of the rent of the landholder is taken from him, that the minister dares not ask for more, as it would be equivalent to the confiscation of the land itself." The premier here digresses into a retrospect of various epochs of distress; commends the corn laws, as preventing the abandonment of agriculture in England; reviews the monetary crisis of 1813, and takes occasion to eulogize a nostrum of Lord Lauderdale, that guineas should be coined of the value of the twenty-one shillings paper currency, a proceeding his lordship seems to think very highly of. "Perhaps the fundholder would have had reason to bless the day on which such a measure was adopted, for it would have retarded the period which, some time or other, will in all probability arrive, when the payment of the full dividend, and the safety of the State, shall be found incompatible.' In a second edition, enlarged, we find a rather long dissertation on the sources of patronage in the crown. The bar and the church both get roughly handled. [The Bar.] It is the tendency of this profession to give men a rooted attachment to the institutions by whose rules all their decisions are made. But their attachment, it must be confessed, is seldom of a very discriminating nature. And if, on the one hand, they kindle with indignation when the ancient rights of the people are trampled upon, on the other, they fire with almost equal zeal if an attempt is made to moderate the cruel spirit of ancient legislation. Generally speaking, however, the first disposition of a lawyer, it must be confessed, is to inquire boldly and argue sharply upon public abuses. They are not apt to indulge any bigoted reverence for the depositaries of power; and, on the other hand, they value liberty as the guardian of free speech. But the close of a lawyer's life is not always conformable to his outset. [Is a premier's?] Many who commence by too warm an admiration for popular privileges, end by too frigid a contempt for all tongues for the hour, and by a natural transition they enthusiasm. They are accustomed to let their sell them for a term of years, or for life. Commencing with the vanity of popular harangues, they end by the meanest calculations of avarice.” The bar must feel flattered by Lord John Russell's exposition of a barrister's career. The noble premier has, however, painted a portrait of the divine in not much more pleasing colors. [The Church.] "The church has not to reproach itself with the same tergiversation in its |