the merits of Wordsworth, Coleridge, and Crabbe were brought into comparison, and Lord Holland cut jokes upon Allen for his enthusiastic admiration of the " De Moribus Germanorum," it was not that I had not read the poets or the historian, but that I felt I had not read them with profit. (Vol. iii. pp. 126, 127.) would induce me to underrate him, but I take vanity and self-sufficiency to be the prominent features of his character, though of the extent of his capacity I will give no opinion. Let time show; I think he will fail. [Time did show it to be very considerable, and the volvenda dies brought back our former friendship, as will hereafter appear; he certainly did not fail.] And so they discussed poets; “Philip van He came into Parliament ten years ago, Artevelde," Madame de Staël, Sappho, spoke and failed. He had been a provincial Quintus Curtius, and Klopstock. Two hero, the Cicero and the Romeo of Yorkshire days after this he again dines there: and Cumberland, a present Lovelace and a September 7th. At Holland House again; future Pitt. He was disappointed in love (the only Bobus Smith and Melbourne; these two, and retired to digest his mortifications of particulars are of no consequence), married with Allen, and Lord Holland agreeable various kinds, to become a country gentleman, enough. Melbourne's excellent scholarship and universal information remarkably display patriot, reformer, financier, and what not, themselves in society, and he delivers himself always good-looking (he had been very handwith an energy which shows how deeply his some), pleasing, intelligent, cultivated, agreemind is impressed with literary subjects. able as a man can be who is not witty and who After dinner there was much talk of the is rather pompous and slow. After many years Church, and Allen spoke of the early re- of retirement, in the course of which he gave formers, the Catharists, and how the early to the world his lucubrations on corn and curChristians persecuted each other; Melbourne rency, time and the hour made him master quoted Vigilantius's letter to Jerome, and of a large but encumbered estate and member then asked Allen about the 11th of Henry for his county. Armed with the importance IV., an Act passed by the Commons against of representing a great constituency, he started the Church, and referred to the dialogue be- again in the House of Commons; took up tween the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Joseph Hume's line, but ornamented it with Bishop of Ely at the beginning of Shake- graces and flourishes which had not usually He succeeded, speare's "Henry V.," which Lord Holland decorated such dry topics. sent for and read, Melbourne knowing it all and in that line is now the best speaker in the by heart and prompting all the time. Lin- House. I have no doubt he has studied his gard says of this statute that the Commons subjects and practised himself in public speakproposed to the king to commit an act of ing. Years and years ago I remember his spoliation on the clergy, but that the king delight on Hume's comparison between Desharply rebuked them and desired to hear no mosthenes and Cicero, and how he knew the more of the matter. About etymologies Mel-passage by heart; but it is ne thing to attack bourne quoted Tooke's "Diversions of Purley," which he seemed to have at his fingers' ends. (Vol. iii. pp. 130, 131.) strong abuses and fire off well-rounded set phrases, another to administer the naval affairs of the country and be ready to tilt against all comers, as he must do for the future. (Vol. ii. pp. 90, 91.) In another passage he says that John Allen told him that Melbourne being a very good Greek scholar had compared Their early friendship was afterwards the Evidences" and all modern theo-renewed and ripened into mutual confilogical works with the writings of the Fathers. The man who could acquire so much solid knowledge, living as he did the life of an easy man of pleasure and society, must have had powers and capacity which should have made him more than prime minister of England. dence, and Sir James Graham exerted himself more than once with great vigour and effect in matters touching Mr. Greville's interests. The description of the part he bore when Lord Stanley left the Liberal ranks is more respectful to his ability, but by no means so to his political character. But Mr. Greville might be pardoned for not foreseeing the very distinguished position which Sir James Graham afterwards gained. He acquired it slowly; and even after he had become one of the most formidable debaters in Graham's elevation is the most monstrous the House he owned, and it was true, alof all. He was once my friend, a college inone who heard him would timacy revived in the world, and which lasted though no six months, when, thinking he could do better, have thought so, that he never addressed he cut me, as he had done others before. I am it with entire self-possession. He was not a fair judge of him, because the pique bold and clear in thought, but nervous which his conduct to me naturally gave me in action, and more a leader of men Of Sir James Graham when he first took office the author formed an absurdly low estimate, as he himself afterwards confesses. The passage is so curious that we quote it entire : in private than he was in public. As an administrator of a department he had few equals. thoughts, and the perspiration burst from every pore in my face, and yet it was impossible not to be amused at the idea. It was not One of the men whom Mr. Greville dis- till Macaulay stood up that I was aware of all the vulgarity and ungainliness of his appearparages in his earlier notices, and to whom at last he yields his tribute of un-countenance; a lump of more ordinary clay ance; not a ray of intellect beams from his feigned admiration, is Macaulay; and it never enclosed a powerful mind and lively is interesting to observe, as the journal imagination. He had a cold and sore throat, proceeds, how his impressions change. His first meeting with him is amusingly described: the latter of which occasioned a constant contraction of the muscles of the thorax, making him appear as if in momentary danger of a fit. His manner struck me as not pleasing, but it was not assuming, unembarrassed, yet not easy, unpolished, yet not coarse; there was no kind of usurpation of the conversation, no tenacity as to opinion or facts, no assumption of superiority, but the variety and extent of his information were soon apparent, for whatever subject was touched upon he evinced the utmost familiarity with it; quotation, hands for every topic. Primogeniture in this country, in others, and particularly in ancient Rome, was the principal topic, I think, but Macaulay was not certain what was the law of Rome, except that when a man died intestate his estate was divided between his children. After dinner Talleyrand and Madame de Dino came in. He was introduced to Talleyrand, who told him that he meant to go to the House of Commons on Tuesday, and that he hoped he would speak, "qu'il avait entendu tous les grands orateurs, et il désirait à présent entendre Monsieur Macaulay." (Vol. ii. pp. 245-47.) This was the first - here is the last a comparison between Brougham and Macaulay in 1836: February 6th.-Dined yesterday with Lord Holland; came very late, and found a vacant place between Sir George Robinson and a common-looking man in black. As soon as I had time to look at my neighbour, I began to speculate (as one usually does) as to who he might be, and as he did not for some time open his lips except to eat, I settled that he was some obscure man of letters or of medi-illustration, anecdote, seemed ready in his cine, perhaps a cholera-doctor. In a short time the conversation turned upon early and late education, and Lord Holland said he had always remarked that self-educated men were peculiarly conceited and arrogant, and apt to look down upon the generality of mankind, from their being ignorant of how much other people knew; not having been at public schools, they are uninformed of the course of general education. My neighbour observed that he thought the most remarkable example of self-education was that of Alfieri, who had reached the age of thirty without having acquired any accomplishment save that of driving, and who was so ignorant of his own language that he had to learn it like a child, beginning with elementary books. Lord Holland quoted Julius Cæsar and Scaliger as examples of late education, said that the latter had been wounded, and that he had been married and commenced learning Greek the same day, when my neighbour remarked "that he supposed his learning Greek was not an instantaneous act like his marriage.' This remark, and the manner of it, gave me the notion that he was a dull fellow, for it came out in a way which bordered on the ridiculous, so as to excite something like a sneer. I was a little surprised to hear him continue the thread of conversation (from Scaliger's wound) and talk of Loyola having been wounded at Pampeluna. I wondered how he happened to know anything about Loyola's wound. Having thus settled my opinion, I went on eating my dinner, when Auckland, who was sitting opposite to me, addressed my neighbour, "Mr. Macaulay, will you drink a glass of wine?" I thought I should have dropped off my chair. It was MACAULAY, the man I had been so long most curious to see and to hear, whose genius, cloquence, astonishing knowledge, and diversified talents have excited my wonder and admiration for such a length of time, and here I had been sitting next to him, hearing him talk, and setting him down for a dull fellow. I felt as if he could have read my Brougham, tall, thin, and commanding in figure, with a face which, however ugly, is full of expression, and a voice of great power, variety, and even melody, notwithstanding his occasional proxity and tediousness, is an orator in every sense of the word. Macaulay, short, fat, and ungraceful, with a round, thick, unmeaning face, and with rather a lisp, though he has made speeches of great merit, and of a very high style of eloquence in point of composition, has no pretensions to be put in competition with Brougham in the House of Commons. Nor is the difference and the inferiority of Macaulay less marked in society. Macaulay, indeed, is a great talker, and pours forth floods of knowledge on all subjects; but the gracefulness, lightness, and variety are wanting in his talk which are so conspicuous in his writings; there is not enough of alloy in the metal of his conversation; it is too didactic, it is all too good, and not sufficiently flexible, plastic, and diversified for general society. Brougham, on the other hand, is ail life, spirit, and gaiety "from grave to gay, from lively to severe dashing through every description of folly and fun, dealing in those rapid transitions by which the attention and imagination are arrested and excited; "The The always amusing, always instructive, never te- thing in the mind of the one which bears an ... What are we to think of the necessary connection between intellectual superiority and Duke of Richmond invited to be a member of official eminence, when we have seen the the Cabinet, while Mackintosh was thrust into an obscure and subordinate office- Mackintosh placed under the orders of Charles Grant! Well might he regret that he had Sixteen years afterwards Mr. Greville not been professor, and "with safer pride thus moralizes on the career and fate of content," adorned with unusual glory some one whose promise had been so bril-academical chair. Then while he was instructliant : ing and delighting the world, there would have been many regrets and lamentations that We dined at Burghley on the way [to Don-such mighty talents were confined to such a caster], and got here at two on Sunday; read narrow sphere, and innumerable speculations Mackintosh's Life in the carriage, which made of the greatness he would have achieved in me dreadfully disgusted with my racing métier.political life, and how the irresistible force of What a life as compared with mine! passed his genius and his eloquence must have raised among great and wise men, and intent on high him to the pinnacle of Parliamentary fame thoughts and honourable aspirations, existing and political power. (Vol. iii. pp. 314-18.) amidst interests far more pungent even than those which engage me, and of the futility of It is as difficult sometimes to say why which I am forever reminded. I am struck a man succeeds as why he fails; but the with the coincidence of the tastes and disposi- reason in both instances lies, in the large tions of Burke and Mackintosh, and of some-proportion of cases, in the man himself. The race-horse may have speed, but if he cannot "stay" he cannot win. The rewards of political life do not always fall to the brilliant or the learned. Mr. Greville says very truly, speaking of Brougham:-"The life of a politician is probably one of deep mortification, for the race is not always to the swift, nor the battle to the strong; and few things can be more galling than to see men far inferior to ourselves enabled by fortune or circumstances to attain what we tried after in vain, and to learn from our own experience how many things there are in this life of greater practical utility than splendid abilities and unwearied industry." Mackintosh probably wanted vital energy, decision, and that adaptability which enables a man not only to say the right thing, but to say it at the right time, and above all, not to say it at the wrong time. But all must regret that his vast powers produced so slight an effect on his times, and have left so little which is commensurate behind them. December 6th. The chancellor called on me yesterday about getting young Disraeli into Parliament (through the means of George Bentinck) for Lynn. I had told him George wanted a good man to assist in turning out William Lennox, and he suggested the abovenamed gentleman, whom he called a friend of Chandos. His political principles must, however, be in abeyance, for he said that Durham was doing all he could to get him by the offer of a seat, and so forth; if, therefore, he is undecided and wavering between Chandos and Durham, he must be a mighty impartial personage. I don't think such a man will do, though just such as Lyndhurst would be connected with. (Vol. iii. p. 170.) One or two more passages, taken nearly at random, may interest our readers : Taylor I saw the day before yesterday a curious letter from Southey to Brougham, which some day or other will probably appear. showed it me. Brougham had written to him to ask him what his opinion was as to the encouragement that could be given to literature, by rewarding or honouring literary men, and suggested (I did not see his letter) that the Guelphic Order should be bestowed upon them. These are mere casual sketches. Before going on to the author's more elabo-but rate and finished portraits, we may extract the following incidental notices : Jan. 2nd, 1830.- At Roehampton; William Howard, Baring Wall, and Lady Pembroke's son, the best sort of youth I have seen for a long while" (vol. i. p. 261). This was Sidney Herbert, whose life and character, as the editor says, did not belie the promise of his youth. He was too early lost to the party with whom his lot was ultimately cast, and had he lived was destined to have played important part in public affairs. But the author seems to have forgotten his early impressions, for we find him grumbling over his appointment as secretary to the Board of Control in 1835. He says: in a style of suppressed irony and forced politeness, and exhibited the marks of a chafed spirit, which was kept down by an effort. "You, my lord, are now on the conservative side," was one of his phrases, which implied that the chancellor had not always been on that side. He suggested that it might be useful to establish a sort of lay fellowships; 10,000l. would give 10 of 500l. and 25 of 200%.; but he proposed them not to reward the meritorious, but as a means of silencing or hiring the mischievous. It was evident, however, that he laid no stress on this plan, or consid anered it practicable, and only proposed it be cause he thought he must suggest something. He said that honours might be desirable to scientific men, as they were so considered on the Continent, and Newton and Davy had been titled, but for himself, if a Guelphic distinction was adopted, "he should be a Ghibelline." He ended by saying that all he asked for was a repeal of the Copyright Act, which took from the families of literary men the only property they had to give them, and this "I ask for with the earnestness of one who is conscious that he has laboured for posterity." It is a remarkable letter. (Vol. ii. p. 112.) Southey's reply was very courteous, Peel has just made Sidney Herbert secretary to the Board of Control, an office of great labour and involving considerable business in the House of Commons. He is about twenty two or twenty-three years old [he was twentyfour], unpractised in business, and never spoke but once in the House of Commons, when he made one of those pretty first speeches which prove little or nothing, and that was in opposition to the Dissenters. He may very fit for this place, but it remains to be proved, and I am surprised he did not make him begin with a lordship of the Treasury or some such thing, and put Gladstone, who is a very clever man, in that post. Praed is first secretary to the Board of Control, and will do the business. (Vol. iii. p. 194.) be with Henry Taylor to meet Wordsworth; the I am just come home from breakfasting same party as when he had Southey-Mill, Elliot, Charles Villiers. Wordsworth may be wrinkled, with prominent teeth and a few bordering on sixty; hard-featured, brown, scattered grey hairs, but nevertheless not a disagreeable countenance; and very cheerful, merry, courteous, and talkative, much more so than I should have expected from the grave The following is the only notice of the and didactic character of his writings. He present premier in these volumes: held forth on poetry, painting, politics, and met aphysics, and with a great deal of eloquence; would have probably played a great part in he is more conversable and with a greater flow the world. He died of a premature decay, of animal spirits than Southey. He mentioned brought on apparently by over-exertion and that he never wrote down as he composed, over-excitement; his talents were very conbut composed walking, riding, or in bed, and spicuous, he was pétri d'ambition, worshipped wrote down after; that Southey always com- the memory of his father, and for that reason poses at his desk. He talked a great deal of never liked his mother; his thoughts were Brougham, whose talents and domestic virtues incessantly turned towards France, and when he greatly admires; that he was very generous he heard of the days of July he said, "Why and affectionate in his disposition, full of was I not there to take my chance?" He duty and attention to his mother, and had evinced great affection and gratitude to his adopted and provided for a whole family of grandfather, who, while he scrupulously obhis brother's children, and treats his wife's served all his obligations towards Louis Phichildren as if they were his own. He insisted lippe, could not help feeling a secret pride in upon taking them both with him to the draw- the aspiring genius and ambition of Napoing-room the other day when he went in state leon's son. He was well educated, and day as chancellor. They remonstrated with him, and night pored over the history of his father's but in vain. (Vol. ii. p. 120.) glorious career. He delighted in military exercises, and not only shone at the head of his regiment, but had already acquired the hereditary art of ingratiating himself with the soldiers. Esterhazy told me one anecdote in particular, which shows the absorbing passion of his soul overpowering the usual propensities of his age. He was to make his first appearance in public at a ball at Lady Cowley's (to which he had shown great anxiety to go), and was burning with impatience to amuse himself with dancing and flirting with the beauties he had admired in the Prater. He went, but there he met two French marshals-Mar Johnson liked Fox because he defended his pension, and said it was only to blame in not being large enough. "Fox," he said, "is a liberal man; he would always beaut Cæsar, aut nullus;' whenever I have seen him he has been nullus." Lord Holland said Fox made it a rule never to talk in Johnson's presence, because he knew all his conversations were recorded for publication, and he did not choose to figure in them. (Vol. ii. p. 316.) January 22nd. - Dined with Talleyrand the day before yesterday. Nobody there but his attachés. After dinner he told me about his first residence in England, and his acquaint-mont and Maison. He had no eyes or ears ance with Fox and Pitt. He always talks in a but for them; from nine in the evening to kind of affectionate tone about the former, five the next morning he devoted himself to and is now meditating a visit to Mrs. Fox at these marshals and conversed with them withSt. Anne's Hill, where he may see her sur-out ceasing. Though he knew well enough all rounded with the busts, pictures, and recollections of her husband. He delights to dwell on the simplicity, gaiety, childishness, and profoundness of Fox. I asked him if he had ever known Pitt. He said that Pitt came to Rheims to learn French, and he was there at the same time on a visit to the archbishop, his uncle (whom I remember at Hartwell). (Vol. ii. p. 344.) September 10th. At Gorhambury on Saturday till Monday. Dined on Friday with Talleyrand, a great dinner to M. Thiers, the French minister of commerce, a little man, about as tall as Sheil, and as mean and vulgar-looking, wearing spectacles, and with a squeaking voice. He was editor of the "National," an able writer, and one of the principal instigators of the Revolution of July. It is said that he is a man of great ability and a good speaker, more in the familiar English than the bombastical French style. Talleyrand has a high opinion of him. He wrote a history of the Revolution, which he now regrets; it is well done, but the doctrine of fatalism which he puts forth in it he thinks calculated to injure his reputation as a statesI met him again at dinner at Talley, rand's yesterday with another great party, and last night he started on a visit to Birmingham and Liverpool. (Vol. iii. p. 31.) man. Prince E terhazy told me a great deal about the Duke of Reichstadt, who, if he had lived, the odium that attached to Marmont, he said to him that he was too happy to have the opportunity of making the acquaintance of one who had been among his father's earliest companions, and who could tell him so many interesting details of his earlier days. Marmont subsequently either did give or was to have given him lessons in strategy. (Vol. iii. pp. 374, 375.) These are examples, and almost every page would furnish others equally interesting, of the varied contents of these volumes. As we have shown, the author is not always right; but at least he speaks his mind, as he formed it at the time, and photographs vividly the lights and shadows as they passed. The more studied descriptions are those of Canning, Wellington, Peel, Brougham, Grey, Lyndhurst, Stanley. and O'Connell; and of his estimate of these distinguished men we shall say a few words. In regard to all of them there is an infusion of the cynical in the style in which he writes of them; nor does he spare hard words to express his disfavour. But when all the passages are put together, as forming his ultimate opinion, as we have already said, they |