This complete edition of Poems by the late Honourable Wil-
liam R. Spencer, with a Biographical Memoir, if not wanted, is at least exceedingly welcome. The author had a character of his own: he was one of the best of a race now almost if not quite extinct—the polished gentleman of the old school. Cour- teous, accomplished, good-natured, liberal, virtuous in a way— save perhaps in the matter of debts: taste and wit he doubtless possessed, but he was too polite for sneering sarcasm or coarse banter: it is the fashion now-a.days to doubt his learning,—and deep in the exact or physical sciences he was not; but he was It well-read classic, and versed in the elegant literature of our later ages. The defect of character which unfitted the class for any thing great, was an incapacity for severe thought, especially if coupled with drudgery. Born for pleasure, he was like the lily and toiled not : the end of his life was to please himself and others. He wrote, if he wrote at all, merely pour passer he temps., or to vary the amusement of a party. Hence his subjects were fortuitous ; their matter slight, but their execution happy, and luckily laboured; or, which is quite as likely, abortive attempts fell dull upon the audience, and died on the day they saw the light. Of these men WALPOLE and SPENCER are the I,siders; the first the man of practical shrewdness and observation, the second the poet. Upon the peculiar merits of the verses before us, it is now un- necessary to enter into any detailed criticism. The happiest are known by heart; of the others we may say, as CRABBIC did after he had met and been charmed with their author—that their merits "are far beyond that implied in the character of vers de societi." The biography is rather an elegant piece of writing, but very meagre as regards information. The author appears to have been in the same rank of life as his hero, but how unlike him ! The old school might be trifling, but they were not slipshod—super- ficial, perhaps, but rarely vague.
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