Repeal. But whether the stability of British | the chief avenues to distinction; and the rule be owing to the solid common-sense acquirements of the lawyer and the divine character of the people, to the excellence of tempt both to production in the graver walks the constitution, or to the superior address of literature; and though to the lawyer the and wisdom of our statesmen, or to the com- essay be fraught with peril, and endanger his bined effect of all three elements, admits of professional reputation, it is sometimes venconsiderable question. It will not be however tured with success, and the hardy venturer denied, that the statesmen of Great Britain not unfrequently achieves the coveted woolhave, with rare exceptions, in all ages, been sack. The mitre, too, "in the good old men of high moral character, politically, as times," was not unfrequently the reward of well as in private life; rarely deficient in classic taste and literary merit, while now classical attainments; frequently brilliant and it seems to fall on studied dullness and obripe scholars, and often well versed in con- scurity, or crowns the flippant and iconoclasstitutional and international law, as indeed tic zeal of professorial rashness. It may be might be expected from the studies usually questioned whether the "belles lettres" have pursued by young men of our Universities, not, upon the whole, impeded rather than aiming at legislatorial honor and advancement. accelerated the progress of the lawyer to the Yet we are not aware that any instance can woolsack, and the divine to lawn sleeves; be found of a "Literary Premier”—of a but it is quite certain that literary attainments prime minister of Great Britain who can lay in this country, so far from being even cæteris claim to that title-unless the character be paribus, an advantage, are prejudicial to the conceded to the authors of smart epigrams, candidate for political power. Instead of political pamphlets, and "vers de société". paving the way, they render the path more the "nugæ canora" of an idle hour. It is rugged, if not ipso facto inaccessible. They not to be expected, that in office, while occu- place their possessor under a species of pying that exalted and responsible station, "taboo"-an anomaly difficult to explain. the pursuits of literature could be largely if at all indulged, nor is it probable that out of office they would be seriously resumed, while the taste and capacity for public life remained. It would argue but an imperfect acquaintance with human nature to look for the abandonment of the fascinations of political activity, the agitation of stirring interests of state, the charms of the senate, for the more peaceful and less exciting exercises of the intellect in the paths of literature and science. And though a Grenville and a Wellesley may, in their retirement, have indulged in the amenities of scholastic lore, their tuneful labors may be appropriately likened to the fabled lays of the dying swanthe last emanations of minds severed for ever from the abstractions of the political arena; and as filling up the brief void between time and eternity by the harmless indulgence of an elegant taste, rather than as the serious productions of a literary life. That there have been British statesmen, whose grasp of soul partook of universality; that there still is one, of whom it must be admitted, even by his enemies, that his versatility of genius defies all limit; the names of "Bacon" and of "Brougham" attest. But though both statesmen, they were not prime ministers. Their rise to political eminence was through a channel widely distinct in its nature, and wholly different in its termination. The bar and the church have ever been, doubtless, In other countries, even in these times,— times fraught with stirring incidents, big with events remarkable for change, demanding men of especial aptitude to guide the national councils from knowledge based on the soundest foundation of practical experience, and not upon closet learning and theoretic wisdom,-men like Guizot, Thiers, Lamartine, have been raised to the highest political eminence. But for his literary fame, Guizot might have drudged his life away, a "chef de bureau." Nor would Thiers have worked his way to the first place in the councils of his sovereign, and for a time have swayed the destinies of France, but for the literary abilities which distinguished his career as an historian and political essayist, or rather journalist, a branch of literature more successfully though not more ably cultivated in France than in this country. It would be leading us out of our way to comment upon the remarkable contrast between the two countries in this respect. We cannot help, however, contrasting the career of a popular "Rédacteur” in France, and the favorite editor of an English journal. The one is feted and caressed in all societies, reaches to the pinnacle of political greatness, even to be Prime Minister, or President of a Republic,while the other remains to the end of the chapter pulling the strings and moving the wires which direct, control, and fire the passions of the whole nation, which pull down and set up ministers, make and unmake cabinets,—an unseen and often unknown private individual. Again, if we direct our eyes to Germany, where the prejudices of rank and aristocracy are, or perhaps we should say till lately were, pre-eminently strong, we can cite a numerous list of names illustrative of the triumph of literary and scientific learning. In Saxony a Lindenau, in Prussia a Humboldt, both prime ministers of their respective sovereigns, raised by literary and scientific reputation; to say nothing of the Savignys, the Bunsens, the Niebuhrs, who have held portfolios, or been invested with the highest diplomatic functions. While the despotic states of Russia and Austria confine the rewards of literary and scientific excellence to a professorship, a bit of ribbon at the buttonhole, or a diamond snuff-box, France, Prussia, and Saxony make ministers of their poets and historians, ambassadors and envoys of their scholars and their "savans." In England we may search in vain for such examples. Successful commanders, naval and military, recruit the peerage, it is true, and a red ribbon and a baronetcy now and then is doled out to a Banks, a Herschel, or a Bulwer; but where is the solitary instance of a man who, since ministerial responsibility was more than nominal, since premiers were something more than the mere blind instruments of the sovereign will, and tools of faction, has grasped the helm and piloted the vessel of state, whose intellectual claims alone, irrespective of birth, fortune, or aristocratical connections, have raised him to that position? Of thirty premiers since the Hanoverian dynasty, three at most have leaped the bar of aristocratic prejudice; and they not on a literary Pegasus, not from their achievements in literature or in science, but by the force of party zeal, the intrigue and warmth of political hostility. How feelingly does Canning allude to this rigid system of political exclusiveness ! “I know (he says) there is a political creed which assigns to a certain combination of great families a right to dictate to the sovereign, and to influence the people; and this doctrine of hereditary aptitude for administration is, singularly enough, most prevalent among those who find nothing more laughable than the principle of legitimacy in the crown. To this theory I have never subscribed. If to depend directly upon the people as their representative in Parliament; if, as a servant of the crown, to lean on no other support than that of public confidence--if that is to be an adventurer, I plead guilty to the charge; and I Canning, though not a literary man, certainly distinguished himself by his poetic taste. His Oxford prize poem, the "Iter adMeccam," was reckoned one of the most elegant specimens of classic taste. No one can forget his "Needy Knife-Grinder," his " Friend to Humanity," the most exquisite morsels of literary trifling; nor his powers of satire, so frequently exercised on behalf of his friend and patron, Pitt, in the "New Morality." 66 To what taunts again was Addington exposed on account of his low birth! Who forgets the sneers of Sheridan, in his paraphrase of Martial, "I do not love thee, Dr. Fell," in allusion to the lucky accident which first brought him, the Doctor's Son, into notice! And who can doubt that Peel's double first, at Oxford, would have been as little cared for as a senior wranglership at Cambridge, which leads to the high reward of an obscure college living, but for the forty thousand a year which backed the honorable baronet's claims to ministerial rank! We are not going to make a disquisition on the peculiar fitness of literary and scientific men for high office, or to urge academic fame as the test of superior aptitude for statesmen. But we could not help noticing the fact, that while in France, Prussia, Saxony, and other Continental States, literary and scientific men have been purposely selected to fill the highest offices in the State, in England high birth has ever been and still is considered the first criterion of ministerial fitness;-the_indispensable and often sole quality of a Premier. Whether Lord John Russell be entitled to the character of a "literary man or not, can have but little influenced his chances of official success. Third son of a Duke of Bedford, the prestige of high family, which in his case none can gainsay, joined to an assiduous attendance upon parliamentary duties, and ordinary acquirements, lead to the highwould alone in time, with moderate capacity Nevertheless it is not est official station. without interest to ascertain Lord John's rank in the Republic of Letters, to measure his excellence as a literary man,- -a title he may or may not be worthy of, but one he has written, he no doubt speculated on which, if we may judge from the quantity obtaining. For though some of his productions were evidently designed as a vehicle for conveying to the public the noble lord's po litical creed, and, at the same time, to give indications of having sounded, if not quite 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. and which are at the same time a fair sample of the whole. man, &c. Essays of a Gentle- Vanity, which every one blames, is the most universal of all motives of action 'el qui de contemnendâ 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 noble writer once upon a time per- the difficulty and labor of the enterprise. In this haps thought with Junius, "That a printed struggle the desire of exertion would gradually paper receives very little consideration from become less violent, and would generally, in the the most respectable signature." However end, be stifled by pleasure and indolence, did not that may be, the first book of Lord John's is the love of fame furnish an auxiliary incitement a collection of Essays and Sketches of Life to action. Pushed on by such an impulse, the man of genius overcomes every obstacle; he inand Character, by a gentleman who has left vestigates, weighs, and provides against the most his lodgings; published under the euphoni- minule blot in his plans; he passes the night withous pseudonyme of Joseph Skillet, and bear-out repose, and the day without recreation; he foring date May 24, 1820, when his lordship had just attained his 28th year. pa These essays, consisting of 248 octavo ges, are ushered into public notice by a rather humorous preface, as to how the MS. came into the hands of Joseph Skillet, and the why and the wherefore he determined to put them into print; a style of introduction much in vogue at that time, and which the author of Waverley seems to have made fashionable. The subjects treated of are various in their kind; not in themselves destitute of interest, but briefly handled, and though with evidence of some reading, not with the ability to justify the aphoristic and dictatorial style affected by the author. There prevails throughout a dogmatic tone, which disposes the reader to rebel against the rather bold opinions advanced, and extravagant criticism. We have selected those portions which we think may be most interesting to the reader, gets the wear of continual thought, the labor which perfection requires, or the dangers which an untried enterprise may offer; till at length he bursts forth in splendor, like the sun through a mid-day fog, the poet, the philosopher, or the hero of his age. But his glory is not complete. In centuries still to come his verse shall fire the bosom, or awake the tear; his discovery shall exalt the mind of the student or guide the rudder of navigation; his example shall animate the breast of patriots, and keep alive the love of immortality. Having mentioned this subject, I cannot but notice the cold argued that posthumous fame is an unreasonable objections of some metaphysicians. It has been object of desire; as no man can obtain it till he is incapable of enjoying it. To this I shall answer, that himself living in the future, he foresees the homage that will attend upon his name. It would be easy to show that almost every great poet and philosopher has foreseen his own immortality. If it be objected that this foretaste of fame, being unaccompanied by any homage, must be an airy and unsubstantial pleasure, I shall briefly reply 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. “The other fault which I mentioned, that of mixing comedy and tragedy, has been often defended. 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 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 better 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 to the nation which imports it. Yet these questions are to be decided by reference to the authority 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 exist ence; 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 but naive, and passing a high tribute of praise to the abilities of Hume, the giving forth to 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 lished when Hume wrote. Sir John Dalrymple, which were not pubThat the political 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 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. undoubtedly stood, yet the moment his religing together of those opinions on government ious 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. ас "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 the Roman Catholics to an extent which cannot be be admitted, he showed a violent animosity to justified, it must be recollected that his hostility was almost entirely political. The attack which was made upon our Constitution appeared in the colors and with the ensign of Popery, and it was only by resisting the Romish Church that civil liberty could be secured. He wished our own inin other words, for a larger comprehension of stitutions to be more favorable to dissenters; or, sects. Had his wish been gratified, the Protestant Church of England would have been strengthened, both against the see of Rome and against future schism, with the loss only of some slavish doctrines and a few unimportant ceremonies which our early reformers never adopted. It must be owned that the violence of Lord Russell against the Roman Catholics betrayed him into credulity. It was the fault of honest men in that age; and it is singular, that absurd as the story of the popish plot avowedly is, we have more respect for those who fell into the delusion than for those who es For though the treatment of the subject may be partial, it cannot fail to disclose the presence or the want of the qualities of the biographer. Copious materials and the strictest impartiality would be of little avail if the method of composition be wanting in perspicuity. A collection of unconnected particulars, the most sedulous accumulation of " ta, dicta, consilia, scripta," of all that could be gathered together, does not constitute biography; a task requiring no small pains in the preparation, and no little effort in the performance. To avoid a tedious prolixity on the one hand, and vague generality on the other, to escape being a mere dry narrator of facts, and yet not to err by over lavish deduction, demands a mind of the first order of intellectual power. The Life of Lord Will-caped it. But whatever blame may attach to iam Russell is certainly one well calculated to display the biographic spirit. The conduct of a man laboring under misfortune, strug gling with persecution, wounded by ingratitude, must ever afford the material for interesting delineation. How far then has Lord John succeeded in the important and responsible office of delineator and expounder of his ancestor's personal history? Our expectations of any singular excellence were not raised very high by the noble lord's notion of the nature of biographical interest-" What most contributes to render biography amusing, is a certain singularity and some degree of forwardness and 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 Lord Russell for an excess of political and religious zeal, it cannot be denied that his firmness and try in a most critical period of her fortunes, and perseverance were eminently useful to his counthat his example contributed to the establishment of those liberties which he died to vindicate." The simplicity of this contradictory summing up of Lord William Russell's political character requires no comment; to define his creed as that of a mild and tolerant Christian, and to paint him a credulous and excessive political and religious zealot, unjustifiably violent when opposed to the Roman Catholics, is a blunder Lord John only could commit. 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.] the no This also bears upon the title-page ble 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. :— |