Swift's style Hume was no admirer; he even spoke of it as having no harmony, no eloquence, no ornament, and not much correctness." "b

His labour, however great it may have been, is always happily concealed. His reader is never offended by any. thing forced or affected; he exercises his art so successfully that no man perceives that it has been exercised. All seems easy and unstudied. His "careless inimitable beauties," says Gibbon, "have often forced me to close his volumes with a mingled sensation of delight and despair."

But his style is not faultless; and, as it has always been thought a useful part of criticism to point out the defects of a great author, that succeeding writers, whether able to reach his excellencies or not, may at least avoid his improprieties, I shall think no apology necessary for bringing to notice the defects and inelegancies in his language. I shall likewise take the same liberty with the styles of Gibbon and Robertson. If any of my remarks shall be thought minute, let it be remembered that no blemish is too small to be noticed; that equal freedom has been used by the Guardian in pointing out the faults of style in Lord Bacon's History of Henry VII., a freedom which has hitherto passed uncensured; and that Hume himself has observed, that no criticism can be instructive, that descends not to particulars, and is not full of examples and illustrations."

d

Hume's chief deficiency is a want of vigour and energy, such as distinguishes the style of some of our earlier English authors, who wrote when neatness and polish of language was less studied; such as forces the reader onward with an irresistible impulse; such as compels him that begins, to proceed. Hume's periods are elegant, but not vigorous; they flow with smoothness, but not with rapidity.

His other faults are of a minor sort; such, for the most part, as affect, not the general character of his style, but the beauty or elegance of particular sentences or passages. Like many other writers, he was not always cautious to keep his own composition

b Letter to Robertson, in Stewart's Life of Robertson, sect ii.

c Miscell. Works, vol. i. p. 122.
d Essay on Simplicity and Refinement.

19

free from those blemishes which he disapproved in that of others. To the sentence which he censured in Robertson, This step was taken in consequence of the treaty Wolsey had concluded with the emperor at Brussels, and which had hitherto been kept secret," saying that it should have been "which Wolsey," &c., and adding that "the relative ought very seldom to be omitted, and is here particularly requisite to preserve a symmetry between the two members.' Many sentences similar in inaccuracy may be found in his own pages: "These advantages, possessed by the church, and which the bishops did not always enjoy with suitable modesty,'

ވ

Froissard, a contemporary writer, and very impartial, but whose credit is somewhat impaired by his want of exactness in material facts,"s" Williams, bishop of Lincoln, a man of spirit and learning, a popular prelate, and who had been lord keeper." h He also objected to Robertson's adoption of the word wherewith, but allowed himself to use thereby, which to a nice ear is equally offensive. He cried out against the fancy which Robertson had taken of saying an hand, an heart, an head, yet could not keep himself from saying an union, an unity; expressions which are surely not less reprehensible.

It is somewhat strange that a writer who criticised thus minutely should not have rejected from his pages the expression you was: "You was my counsellor and assistant in all my schemes: you was the director of my conscience."! Equally unaccountable is his admission of the phrase besides that: "But James, besides that he had certainly laid no plan for extending his power, had no money to support a splendid court, or bestow on a numerous retinue of gentry and nobility."k

Of the phrase_now that: Now that the aids of France were withdrawn. "Of whether that: "Whether that such were his real sentiments, or that he hoped." m And of whence ever: 'They cast their eyes on

all sides, whence ever they could expect any aid or support." Nor will his frequent use of the phrases to wit, any wise, and no wise, or his adoption of the participles creeped, sitten, gotten, and outed, add much to his character for elegance and taste in the judgment of readers of the present day.

Expressions of the following kind: "On account of his being born among them;" "The stories of his accusing her, and of her justifying herself;" "A reason for their supporting his measures, "' q "We perhaps admire the more those beauties, on account of their being surrounded with such deformities;' "[ "The coming to any dangerous extremity;" "The taking prisoner in battle the bishop of Beauvais;" t "Her offence was not the having laid her hand upon the crown, but the not rejecting it with sufficient constancy;"u" This princess's espousing a person of his power and character;" w - he considered, I suppose, with many other writers, that the genius of the language admitted; but it would certainly be much to the advantage of the language if they were wholly excluded from it. The only writer that seems to have been solicitous to exclude them is Johnson.

Hume has fallen, like most other English authors of his day, into the absurd use of the past tense of the infinitive for the present: "John intended to have hanged the governor and all the garrison;' Wolsey intended to have enriched the library of his college at Oxford." It may appear singular that the absurdity of such phrases did not occur to every man who formed them. John did not intend to have hanged the governor, nor did Wolsey intend to have enriched his college; John's intention was to hang, and Wolsey's to enrich. A man intends or resolves to do a thing, not to have done it. Equal inaccuracy, though of a different kind, is seen in the sentence, "It might prove extremely dan

gerous for Suffolk, with such intimidated troops, to remain any longer in the presence of so courageous and victorious an enemy;" propriety certainly requires it might have proved.

In defence of the phrases expelled, banished, dismissed the kingdom, in the use of which Hume and Goldsmith equally indulged themselves, nothing can be alleged; nor has any one, believe, so far departed from common sense as to attempt to allege any thing in their defence.

He sometimes descends, through too great a love of simplicity and ease, to familiar and mean phraseology. Henry VIII. learned that the Duke of Guise's daughter was "big made;" a "Two sons of the Duke of Norfolk by a second venter;" "b"We shall be better able to comprehend the subject, if we take the matter a little higher." c His use of the words no wonder that, at the beginning of a sentence, without any words preceding them, is not much to be commended: "No wonder that during the reign of Henry VII. these matters were frequently mistaken." d

He frequently exhibits, I know not whether to say a strange want of skill in connecting the last part of a sentence happily with the first, or a perverse desire to give an example of a stiffer construction of period than any preceding author had ventured to give. "Profound capacity, indeed, undaunted courage, extensive enterprise; in these particulars, perhaps, the Roman do not much surpass the English worthies;" "The narrow streets of London, the houses built entirely of wood, the dry season, and a violent east wind, which blew; these were SO many concurring circumstances; "Royalist, republican; churchman, sectary; courtier, patriot; all parties concurred in the illusion ;"g" Severe, but open in his enmities, steady in his counsels, diligent in his schemes, brave in his enterprises, faithful, sincere, and honourable in his dealings with all men: such was the character with which the Duke of York mounted 2 Ch. xx. vol. 3, p. 149.

Ch. xxxii. vol. 4, p. 201. b Ch. xxxv. vol. 4, p. 161. e Ch. xxix. vol. 4, p. 23. d Ch. xxvi. vol. 3, p. 397. e Ch. liv. vol. 6, p. 388. f Ch. Ixiv. vol. 7, p. 415. 8 Ch. lxvii. vol. 8, p. 74.

1832.]

ar

the throne of England;" "Broken mies, disordered finances, slow and irresolute counsels; by these resources alone were the dispersed provinces of Spain defended against the vigorous power of France;" "Slow without prudence, ambitious without enterprise, false without deceiving anybody, and refined without any true judgment: such was the character of Philip;" Headstrong in his passions, and incapable equally of prudence and of dissimulation: sincere from violence rather than candour; expensive from profusion more than generosity; a warm friend, a furious enemy; but without any choice or discernment in either: with these qualities, he had easily and quickly mounted to the highest dignities;' "By what arguments he could engage the prince to offer such an insult to the Spanish nation, from whom he had met with such generous treatment; by what colours he could disguise the ingratitude and imprudence of such a measure; these are totally unknown to us;" m "When we consider Charles, as presiding in his court, as associating with his family, it is difficult to imagine a character at once more respectable and more amiable: a kind husband, an indulgent father, a gentle master, a steadfast friend; to all these eulogies, his conduct in private life fully entitled him;" "The eager expectations of men with regard to a parliament, summoned at so critical a juncture, and during such general discontents; a parliament which, from the situation of public affairs, could not be abruptly dissolved, and which was to execute every thing left unfinished by former parliaments; these motives, so important and interesting, engaged the attendance of all the members." " The reader contemplates these sentences, and wonders why the author chose to give them so awkward and unpleasing a form.

In his character of James I. he gives us a sentence without a verb; a liberty which no writer before or since, except Robertson, who once copied him,

21

"Of

has ventured to allow himself. a feeble temper more than of a frail judgment; exposed to our ridicule by his vanity; but exempt from our hatred by his freedom from pride and arrogance." He presents us with another sentence similarly deficient in another place: "What security either against the farther extension of this claim, or against diverting to other purposes the public money, so levied?" q

He is occasionally too little regardful of accuracy of expression, using a phrase without attaching any meaning to it, or at least without making it apparent to his reader that he attached any : "He bestowed pensions, to the amount of sixteen thousand crowns a year, on several of the King's favourites; on Lord Hastings two thousand crowns; on Lord Howard and others in proportion."r What does he mean by in proportion?

There is also a want of exactness in saying, "A prince whose character, containing that unusual mixture of dissimulation and ferocity, of quick resentment and unrelenting vengeance, executed the greatest mischiefs." We never say that a man's character executes either good or evil, but that the man himself executes it.

The following sentence is of a kind that has too frequently disgraced the pages of elegant writers: "It must be confessed that nothing could equal the abject servility of the Scottish nation during this period, but the arbitrary severity of the Administration." The abject servility of the Scottish nation might be equalled by other things. It must be acknowledged, however, that such absurd language occurs but seldom in Hume.

A few other inelegancies in his style remain to be noticed, of which these may be thrown together without any remark: "The goods which he laid hold of ;"u" Such weapons as country people are usually possessed of;" w "The liberty of private judgment is not in reality accepted of;" "Events

210.

P Ch. xlix. vol. 6, p. 154. 9 Ch. lii. vol. 6, p. 316. r Ch. xxii. vol. 3, p. 256. 8 Ch. xl. vol. 5, P. Ch. lxx. vol. 8, p. 237. u Ch. xvi. vol. 2, p. 489. w Ch. xxvi. vol. 3, p. 373. * Ch. xxxi. vol. 4, p. 127.

which might, all of them, have been foreseen before the embarkation ;" y "Men of education in England were, many of them, retained in their religion more by honour than by principle;" z They had, all of them, been previously disgusted;" Complaints rose as high against the credit of the Gascon as ever they had done against that of the Poictevin and Savoyard favourites.' "" b "Laws which he made be enacted for the government of his subjects. "As much as the bold and vivid spirit of Montrose prompted him to enterprising measures, as much was the cautious temper of Hamilton inclined to such as were moderate and dilatory.'

In the following sentences, the word what is ungracefully, if not ungrammatically used with a noun and verb in the plural. "But what threatened more immediate danger to Mary's authority, were the discontents which prevailed;" e "What rendered the King's aim more apparent, were the endeavours which he used to introduce into Scotland some of the ceremonies of the Church of England." f mark nearly similar may be applied to the word whoever, in this passage: "It was required, that whoever had borne arms for the King, should forfeit the tenth of their estates." Such phraseology seems to convict a writer of a want of absolute command over his language.

A re

In two or three places he has used words for which he had no precedent, and which do but little credit to his taste: "The intolerating spirit of that assembly;' The affrightened and astonished mind:"i "Introit to the communion service." k

"h

piety;" " Universally to be the stan.. dard of belief to all mankind;” m "All men remained in silence and mute astonishment." This last piece of tautology he seems to have admired, for he inserted it without variation in a subsequent passage." "Sheerness was soon taken, nor could it be saved by the valour of Sir Edward Sprague, who defended it." This reminds us of a remark of Hawkesworth in hisVoyages, that "the sailors could not find anchorage, nor could anchorage any where be found."

He often gives an unpleasing stiffness to his periods, by omitting, after the manner of Sallust, but, I think, with somewhat less art than the Roman author, the connective particles : "Overcome by the fond love of life, terrified by the prospect of those tortures which awaited him, he allowed the sentiments of nature to prevail over his resolution ;" "The Lords Boyd and Ochiltree, Kirkaldy of Grange, Pittarow, were instigated by like motives."r

He occasionally, though but seldom indeed, uses, after the French mode, the present tense for the past: "The Commons send Shirley to prison; the Lords assert their powers. Conferences are tried, but no accommodation ensues. Four lawyers are sent to the Tower by the Commons, for transgressing the orders of the House, and pleading in this cause before the Peers. The Peers denominate this arbitrary commitment a breach of the great charter, and order the Lieutenant of the Tower to release the prisoners: he declines obedience." $ In this manner he proceeds for some lines farther; a manner always ungrateful to English ears.

Such are the defects in the style of Hume; but what is to be blamed in it is very trivial, in comparison with what is to be praised. When all his faulty passages are considered, the general character of his periods will still be, that they are well constructed and modulated; and of his diction, that it is select; and, what is always

1 Ch. xi. vol. 2, p. 73.
m Ch. xxxii. vol. 4, p. 205.
n Ch. xl. vol. 5, p. 107.
o Ch. xlii. vol. 5, p.
320.

P Ch. lxiv. vol. 7, p. 420.
9 Ch. xxxvii. vol. 4, p. 429.
Ch. xxxix. vol. 4, p. 90.
Ch. lxvi. vol. 8, p. 14.

1832.]

I HAVE transcribed, from the original, a List of the Boys at Eton in the years 1779—1780, upwards of half a century ago. Your readers will recognise among them the names of many, highly distinguished in after

life in their different characters of Statesmen, Judges, Generals, Ambassadors, and men of learning. It would be matter of curious inquiry to ascertain how many out of the number of these three or four hundred boys are yet alive. I have marked with an asterisk some of the names of those believed to be now living; of others, your readers may be better informed.

Yours,

&c.

A. D. 1779-1780.

Zo.

23

Prize, 1788, and 1789; Browne's Medal
for Epigrams, 1783, for the Greek and
Latin Odes, and Epigrams, 1785, and for
the Greek Ode in 1786; Craven Scholar
in 1785.

Myddelton. Of Chirk Castle.
*Manby, ma.- -Vicar of Lancaster.
Luxmore.

Roberts. Rector of Spawl, co. Norfolk.
*Grey.-Earl Grey, the Premier.

Dyson, ma.-Son of the Clerk of the House of Commons.

Anguish.-Prebendary of Norwich.
Edmonstone.-Sir Archibald E. Bart.
Saunders.- -Pawlet.

*Leycester, ma.— Chancellor's Medallist, M.P. for Shaftesbury.

Bayley, ma.- Fellow of St. John's, Camb.
Townsend.-The late Lord Sydney.
Squire.

Mr. Fitzroy, Henry.-Son of Lord Southampton.

Bayley, mi.-Baron of the Exchequer. *Smyth.-Professor of Modern History, Cambridge.

Price.-Vicar of Evesham.

*Hunt. Barrister-at-Law; Assessor of Cambridge University.

Moore. Barrister-at-Law; Senior Bachelor's prize-man in 1792; Browne's Medal for the Latin Ode, 1786, and Greek Ode, 1787.

Lowndes. Barrister-at-Law.

*Fancourt.-Incumbent of a Church at Leicester.

Mr. North, Francis.-Son of the Earl of Guilford.

Grove. Wasted a good estate, and was reduced to poverty.

Eden. Sir Frederick E. Bart. Mellish, ma.-Dean of Hereford. *Lord Downe.

Sandys.-Sir Edwin S. Bart.

Pott.-Son of the celebrated surgeon.

*Lord Blandford.-Now Duke of Marlboro', Mr. Montagu.-Eldest son of the Earl of

Sandwich. *Evans.-Under-Master of Harrow School; Chancellor's Medallist. Cooper. Sir Grey Cooper, Bart. Pocock.-Sir George Pocock, Bart. Waller, ma.-descendant of the Poet.