Four Generations of a Literary Family : the Hastitts in
England, Ireland, and America, 1725 —1896. By W. Carew Hazlitt. With Portraits. 2 vols. (Redway.)—Mr. Hazlitt declares that he is indifferent to the opinions of the Press, and with regard to the present volumes it is well, perhaps, for his peace of mind that he should be. We have sometimes met with as bad specimens of book-making before, but we do not know that we have ever met with a work so loose and incoherent and at the same time so offensive. Mr. Hazlitt's sneers and inuendoes are scattered lavishly and indiscriminately throughout these pages, and it matters not to him whether the objects of his sarcasm are among the living or the dead. The scandalous stories he relates of dis- tinguished men may be true or they may not, but the authority upon which they are retailed can scarcely be pronounced trust- worthy. The author tells what he has heard, and has apparently had a ready ear for such gossip. His former colleagues at the War Office may bear with equanimity his sneer at their lack of ideas and qualifications, since statesmen, judges, and distinguished men of letters are treated in the same fashion. Mr. Hazlitt has had some experience, for he is no longer young, and it is strange he does not see that his shallow ani contemptuous remarks on men whom all Englishmen delight to honour must do him more harm than they can possibly inflict upon them. Moreover, his odd medley of scandal and gossip tells us little of the only Hazlitt in this "literary family" about whom the world cares to hear. A few pages or a brief magazine article would contain every fresh incident with regard to the author of "The Plain Speaker" that is of any value. Mr. W. Carew Hazlitt has ability and great industry ; it is a pity that he should have wasted time and trouble on a book that does him no credit. It may be added that the volumes, which are beautifully printed, contain portraits reproduced from miniatures by John Hazlitt.
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