On this page
-
Text (2)
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
tureto mere references of his own name . Whatever the intention , the effect is that of ostentation , anl the pages are rendered almost unsightly . But the value of the edition is by no means impaired by these little indiscretions on the part of its editor . A complete collection of the Walpole Letters , chronologically arranged ; Is an inestimable contribution to the library of eighteenth century English literature , and although most mature readers affect to have done their Wsilpole long ago , the truth is that this
exquisite correspondence may be taken up again and again without becoming wearisome . Age cannot wither it . Its freshness is perennial . It is like an ancient satire ; you read it first for enjoyment , and then you re-read it that you may ^ not forget its point and . richness . We will venture , without lengthening our researches , to quote a series of passages which to many are familiar , but > vhich , nevertheless , no one will think of passing over without reviving in his mind the impression of their admirable felicity . From Strawberry Hill Horace Walpole writes , after the-ttikiiig of Havannah , his burlesque of patriotic magniloquence : —«
I am here quite alone , and shall stay a fortnight longer , unless the Parliament prorogued lengthens my holidays . I do not pretend to be so indifferent , to have so little curiosity , as not to go and see the Duke of Newcastle frightenedybr his country—the only thing that never yet gave him a panic . Then I am still such a schoolboy , that though I could guess half their orations , and know all their meaning , I must go and hear Caesar and Pompey scold in the Temple of Concord . As this age is to make such a figure hereafter , how the Gronoviuses and Warburtons would despise a senator that deserted the forum when the masters of the world harangued ! For , as this age is to be historic , so of course it will be a standard of virtue too ; and we , like our wicked predecessors the Romans , shall be quoted , till our very ghosts blush , as models of patriotism and magnanimity . " What lectures will be read to poor children on this
dia ! Europe taught to tremble , the great King humbled , the treasures of Peru reverted into the Thames , Asia subdued by the gigantic Clive ! for in that age men were near seven feet high ; France suingrfor peace at the gates of Buckingham House , the steady wisdom of the Duke of Bedford drawing a circle round the Gallic monarch , and forbidding him to pass it till he had sighed the cession of America ; Pitt more eloquent than Demosthenes , and trampling on proffered pensions like—I don ' t know who ; Lord Temple sacrificing a brotlier to the love of his country ; Wilkes as spotless as Sallust , and the Flamen Churchill knocking down the foes of Britain with statues of the Gods ! — Oh ! I am out of breath with eloquence and prophecy , and truth and lies : my narrow chest was not formed to hold inspiration ! I must return to piddling with . my Painters : those lofty subjects are too much for me . Here are two anecdotes of character , forming a singular contrast : —
This account of a Twickenham festival is perfect in its way : Strawberry , whose glories perhaps verge towards their setting , has been more sumptuous to-day than ordinary , and banqueted their representative majesties of France and Spain . I had Monsieur and Madame de Guerchv , Mademoiselle d Nangis their daughter , two other French gentlemen , the Prince of Masserano his brother and secretary , Lord March , George Selwyn , Mrs . Ann Pitt , and my niece Waldegrave . The refectory never was so crowded ; nor have any foreigners been here before that comprehended Strawberry . Indeed , everything succeeded to a h " A violent shower in the morning laid the dust , brightened the green , refreshed th ' roses , pinks , oratige-floivers , and the blossoms with -which the acacias are covered A r ich storm of thunder and lightning gave a dignity of colouring to the heavens ' and the sun appeared enough to illuminate the landscape , -without basking himself over it at his length . During dinner there were French horns and clarionets in the cloister and after coffee I treated them with an English , and to them a very new , collation a syllabub milked under the cows that were brought to the brow of the terrace . Thence they went to the printing-house , and saw a new fashionable French song * printed They drank tea in the gallery , and at eight went away to Vauxh . aH .
Peering , one of our noisy fools , called out , " Mr . BaTreV' The latter seized th " thought witli admirable quickness , and said to the Speaker , who , in pointing to him tad called him Colonel , " I beg your pardon , sir , you have pointed to me by a titlo T have no right to , " and then made a very aitful and pathetic speech on his own ser vices and dismission ; -with nothing bad but an awkward ' attempt towards an excn £ io Mr . Pitt for bis former behaviour . Lord North , who will not lose his bellow -though he may lose his place , endeavoured to roar up the courage of his cornrado but it would not do . - '
To the Rev . William Cole he confesses how the story of The Castle of Otranto was suggested : — J When you read of the picture quitting its panel , did not you recollect the portrait of Lord Falkland , all in white , in my gallery ? Shall I even confess to you what was the origin of this romance ! I waked one morning , in the beginning of last June from a dream , of which all I could recover was , that I had tliougbt myself in an ancient castle ( a very natural dream for a head filled like mine -with Gothic story ) and that on the uppermost banister of a great staircase I saw a gigantic hand in armour . In the evening I sat down , and began to write , without knowing in the least ¦ what I intended tc say or relate . The work grew on my hands , and I grew fond of it—add , that I was very glad to think of anything rather than politics . In short , 1 was so engrossed with my tale , which I completed in less than two months , that one evening I wrote frora the time I had drunk my tea , about six o ' clock , till half an hour after one in the morning , when my hand and fingers we re so weary that I could not hold the pen to finish the sentence , but left Matilda and Isabella talking , in the middle of a paragraph .
We "will extract , for the sake of contrast , two paragraphs on the French : — In their dress and equipages they are grown very simple . We English are living upon their old gods and goddesses ; I roll about in a chariot decorated with cupids , and look like the grandfather of Adonis . ¦ . ¦¦ ¦ .. ¦ ... But this is the summing-up after a short residence in Paris : — The cliarms of Paris have not the least attraction for me , nor -would Jcecp me an hour on their own account . For the city itself , I cannot conceive where my eyes were : it is the ugliest , beastliest town in the universe . I have not seen a mouthful of verdure out of it , nor have they anything green but their treillage and windowshutters . Trees cut into fire-shovels , and stuck into pedestals of chalk , compose their country . Their boasted knowledge of society is reduced to talking of their suppers , and every malady they have about them , or know of . These are well-known passages , but the test of Walpoie as a letter-writer is , that his elegant levity never grows stale .
You say you have seen the North Briton [ No . 2 ] , in which I make a capital figure . Wilkes , the author , I hear , says , that if he had thought I should have taken it so well , he would have been damned before he would have written it—but lam not sore where I am not sore . The theatre at Covent-garden has suffered more by riots than even Drury-lane . A footman of Lord Dacre has been hanged for murdering the butler . George Selwyn had great hand in bringing him to confess it . That Selwyn should be a capital performer in a scene of that kind is not extraordinary : I tell it you for the strange coolness which the young fellow , who was but nineteen , expressed : as he was writing his confession , " I murd " he stopped , and asked , " How do you spell murdered ?" To these we find , a few pages on , a companion : — I have told you of our French : we have got another curious one , La Condamine , qui se donne joourphilosophe . He -walks about tlie streets , with his trumpet and a map , his spectacles on , and hat under his arm .
But , to give you some idea of his philosophy , he was on the scaffold to see Damien executed . His deafness was very inconvenient to his curiosity ; he pestered the confessor with questions to know what Damien said : " Monsieur , il jure horriblement . " La Condamine replied , " Ma foi , il n ' a pas tort ; " not approving it , but as sensible of what he suffered . Can one bear such want of feeling ? Oh ! but as a philosopher he studied the nature of man in torments ;—pray , for what ? One who can so far divest himself of humanity as to be , uncalled , a spectator of agony , is not likely to employ much of bis time in alleviating it . We have lately had an instance that would set hia philosophy to work . A young highwayman was offered , his life after condemnation , if he would consent to have Iris leg cut off , that a new stj'ptic might be tried . " What ! " replied he , " go limping to the devil at last ? no , I'll be d d first " —and was liangedl
The best bon mot recorded in the volume is Lady Townshend ' s . She had taken a strange little villa at Paddington , near Tyburn . People wondered at her choice of such a situation , and naked , her ironically what sort of neighbours she had . "Oh , " she said , " some that never tire me , for they are hanged every week . " When Walpole falls moralizing he is about as cynical as Lady Townshend : — Go , turn to your Livy , to your history of Atliens , to your life of Saclioverel . Find upon record what mankind has been , and then you will believe what it is . We are poor pigmy , short-lived animals , but we are comical . He is also unscrupulously malicious in his personalities : — Next week will bo the reign of gold and silver stuffs , for besides the marriage there is the Queen's birthday ; but Mr . Wilkea will spoil half the solemnity , if he does not return to be sacrificed . Bishop Warburton has whetted ready a classic knife , which ho would swear came from Diana's own altar in the Clieraonesus , whose religion he believes as much aa that he professes , except that the Archbishopric of Tauria is at present inpartibus iqfidelium ; and the Turks liave sequestered the revenues .
Walpole is admirable in his descriptions of parliamentary scenes . The following refers to an affair of Mr . Wilkes : — Crestfallen , the ministers then proposed simply to discharge the complaint ; but the phunea which they had dropped Vitt soon placed in hia own beaver . He broke out on liberty , and , indeed , on whatever he pleased , uninterrupted . Kigby sut feeling the viee-treasuroship slipping from under him . Nugent was not leas pensive—Lord Strange , though not interested , did not like it . Everybody was too much taken up with his own concerns , or too much daunted , to give the " least difiUirbanco to the Pindaric . Grenville , however , dropped a few words , " which did but heighten thu
flame . Pitt , with leas modesty than over ho showed , pronounced a panegyric on hia own administration , and from thence broke out on the dismission of officers . . This in creased the roar from ub . Grenville replied , and very finely , very pathetically , very animated . Ho painted Wilkes and faction , and , witli very littio truth , denied the charge of menaces to oflicers . At thut moment , General A'Court walked up the Ilouao—think what an impression such an incident must make , whon passions , hopes , and foara were all afloat—think , too , how your brother and 1 , had wo been ungenerous , could have added to theso sensations ! There was a man not so delicate . Colonel Barro * rose—and this attended with a striking circumstance ; Sir Edward
Untitled Article
AST UNCLE TOM NOVEL . The Garies and their Friends . By Frank J . Webb . Routledge . Mb . Webb is ' a coloured young man , born and reared in the city of Philadelphia . His book has two prefaces—one by Mrs . Harriet Beecber Stowe , the other by Lord Brougham , and both gently laudatory . Mrs . Stowe tells us that the novel will aid in solving the question whether the race at present held in slavery is capable of freedom , self-government , an < l progress . In Philadelphia , whence comes Mr . Webb , there is a large population of the mixed and African community located on . the frontier between free and slave territory , and swelled from time to time by fugitives and emancipated slaves . They have increased in numbers , wealth , and standing ; they constitute a peculiar society of their own ; and Mr . Webb ' s illustrations as to their wealth and education are stated by Mrs . Stowe to be perfectly reliable . Indeed , the incidents described are mostly facts , the web of fiction enveloping them being extremely slight . With such credentials , the story is sure to attain a considerable circulation . We h « ve rend it with sonic
curiosity as the bond . Jide work of ' a coloured young man born and reared in Philadelphia . ' It opens well and characteristically . A Southern family arc gathered around a table , and are enjoying the dainties regarded by their class as necessaries of life . Sugar and strawberries , limes floating in syrup , peaches steeped in brandy , and corn-ilappers fill the dishes of cliased silver . At the head of the table sits Mr . Garie , a gentlemanly man , resembling other gentlemen . Near him , at the tea-tray , is a semi-African beauty , witli black eyes and hair , a light brown complexion with the faintest tingo of carmine , a lovely face , and faultless form ; Mr . Gavie bought her ten years before for two thousand dollars front the auction block at Savannah . She is now the mistress of his household , the mother of a chcsnut-hiureu and blue-eyed girl and of a mezzo-tint boy . A diirlc-complcxjoiied g « nt'c " lived
mam is of the party . Ho has been a slave , has worn a tow-shirt , has on a peck of corn a week , has seen his mother sold by auction , has been manumitted , and is about to enter upon commercial speculation beyond the limits of the United States . We are now in the presence of the central personages in the Ktory . Next , the Ellis folk nre introduced , and form a contrast to the Garies . We have a good many neutly-sketclied and animated descriptions of family ami boyish life before we actually start upon the narrative , which , however , when once in motion , glides on p leasantly enough acros 3 a panorama of free-coloured life . Mr . Garie , yielding toll " wishes of his wife—the dark Emily—removes to tlie North , mid advertises for an overseer . l Great bony New Englandinen' and ' mean , wcasenJnceU Georgians' present themselves ; the man of the kindest countenance i « se ' lected , and thus Mr . Webb docs justice to the best of the slaveholders in
Untitled Article
908 THE LEADER . [ No . 391 , September 19 , 1857 .
-
-
Citation
-
Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 19, 1857, page 908, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2210/page/20/
-