26 AUGUST 1854, Page 17

LORD lianoVs. /Lis - FURY OF ENGLAND..

THE': seventh volume'olthe history of Eneland from the Peace Of :Utrecht to the close Of the American W as' completes an able work. In largeness of grasp and comprehension, in prefoundlieSs of thought, in weight of style, and in that native originalitref mind which throws new light "upen old subjects by :penetrating to the " heart's: core of things, Lord Mahon may be deficient he has great pleasantness of manner and great clearness of did- Lion. Ills opieion of men. anti. actions, is judicious, and, (espe- cially for a writer in • his position) of rare impartiality. Ile lies messed the subjects or periods lie treats.Of so-as to present them to the reader in the wanner easiest to a full *prehension. He sinotithly exhibits the salient features of his periods, always with an easy fuluess-of particulars; occasionally with some well-selected de- tails; which distinctly bring the manners of the qige or the (dia- meter cif the pdrson before us. Perhaps it is rather going over the subject than penetrating below it.; partaking partly .of .the modern d article," partly of the memoir.' The entire work may therefore be more. properly classed among those ti,ew publications of merit, which according :to Gibbon are after. a curtain age the sole food a 'the many,-,than a history which shall:maintain a permanent .plaoe in the well-tisedlibrary of the student; The length alone militiitOs against perinauent_perusal (for arenot speaking of .mere Da duration). Weight of thought and terseness of style. are in- dispensable for a' work that is to become a common book with 'posterity ; and these arahardly to be ekpected from seen Volumes

for seventy years. r

The:Subjeets of the present volume are the disastrous closing years of the American War, with its two creditable episodes of Rodney's'naval victory autLElliot's defence of Gibraltar' the in- ternal affairs of the nation chiefly consisting of the riots ofLendon, the -political contests assuming varions. shapes of: Parliamentary Or economical reform and the conduct of the war or the desirableness _of peace, but in reality, we fear, involving no loftier end than ".41--" or " out." JJy a judicious arrangement to preserve continuity„the affairs of India are treated from Clive's second government, to the conclusion of that of Hastings ; for although Hastings did not return till 1785,bis. peace with TiPpoo in 1783 may be said to have terminated the difficulties of his rule. A Bri.nl eluq4er takes an agreeable if not a very thorough review of the many things that go to make up ." life and manners." The position and conneriOns.of Lord Mahon gave him access to original information, 45 well in the form of documents as of tradi- tion or conversation, which bestow a contemporary Value On kits work. He cannot' be• said to have set the example of introducing into history notices of the people, their condition, modes of life, manners and Morals • but he has carried the -idea further than other historians. We think, -too, he has introduced more of bio- graphy into history—given ampler accounts. of the life, character, and behaviour of the persons who figure upon the public scene, and that without suspending his narrative so completely as Mac- aulay does in his'Essays. The account of Francis in India will furnish 'an example of the mode of composition we allude to ; the inherent interest being. heightened :by the idea so widely enter- tamed, that this arrogant and unprincipled adventurer was the author of "Junius."'

"He had not been many weeks at Calcutta ere he obtained the common surname of 'King Francis,' or 'Francis the First.'

"The arrogance of Francis, both then and afterwards, was indeed almost boundless. It is only, as I conceive, his consciousness of the authorship of Junius that can in any degree explain, though not excuseit. How else does it seem possible that,' fifteen years later, when that great man Edmund Burke was in the zenith of his fame, he should be addressed as follows in a private letter from Philip Francis ?—' Once for all, I wish you would let me tea& you to write English.' And then follows, in the same letter, a striking sentente, not inferior perhaps to any in Junius : it most felicitously applies to writings the same principle acknowledged to be true of wood and

stone. Why will yeti net allow yourself to be persuaded that polish is ma- terial to preservation ?' •

" Another point in the character of Francis—well according with what we may presume of the author of the reply to Juuia—was his taste for profligate amours. It was from these at a somewhat later period, that arose the per- sonal and bitter estrangement between himself and Sir Elijah Impey. 113y Means of a ladder of ropes; Francis had one night climbed into the chamber of Mrs. Grand,' a lady of Scottish birth, the wife of a' Calcutta barrister. After be had remained there- for three-quarters of an hour, an -alarm was given, and Francis descending in:haste from the apartment of the lady was seized at the foot of the ladder by the servants of the husband. • Hereupon an action' was brought- by Mr: Grand against Mr. Francis in the Supreme Court of Calcutta. It was usual for the Judges of that Court to assess the damages in civil actiotur without the intervention of a jury. Sir Elijah al. pCy in this ease fixed the sum to he awarded at fifty thousand rupees: Yet an the opinion of his colleague, fir Robert Chambers, and still more atrongly, no doubt, in the opinion of Francis hiMself, a lesser sum would have sail, ficed ; since, hoWever suspicious the ladder of ropes and the nocturnal risi4 no positive act of guilt was premed. Up to that time the Chief Justice arid the Member of Council at Valeutta had been on civil, nay familiar tem* but from this transaction may bedated the commencement of the active and persevering animosity with which Francis ever afterwards continued to pur- • fIl; story of England, 'from the Peace of Utrecht to the Peace of Vereattlea, 171317133. By Lord, Mahon. In seven volumes. Vol. vii. .iiso—u783. PUb- fished by Murray.

true Sir Elijah Impey. Mr. Grand succeeded in obtaining a divorce; and Mrs. Grand took refuge with Francis, by whom, however, she was soon after- wards forsaken. She returned to Europe as the companion of another gentle- man, Mr. William Macintosh ; and, by a far more surprising turn of for- tune, closed her adventurous career as the wife of a celebrated foreign states- man, Prince Talleyrand."

The duel between Francis and Hastings, though perhaps hardly worth the place it occupies in the history, is a neat exposition of very pretty quarrel." It took place in consequence of Hast- ings alleging a breach of faith against Francis in allowing the Governor's colleague, Barwell, to return to England, and then taking the opportunity to outvote Hastings on a question which Hastings asserted that Francis had pledged himself to refrain from.

"The Governor-General, on this occasion, lost, or laid aside, his custom- ary calmness, and in reply to a minute of his rival, placed on record, in Council, the following words—' I do not, trust to Mr. Francis's promises of candour, convinced that he is incapable of it. I judge of his public con- duct by his private, which I have found to be void of truth and honour.' After such expressions, Hastings may be justly charged with the entire blame of the scandal which ensued. When the Council broke up, Francis drew the Govetnor-General into another chamber, and read to him a chal- lenge; it was accepted by Hastings, and they met on the day but one after —on the morning of the 17th of August. It was between five and six o'clock, and the sun had not yet fully risen on the sacred river and the boundless plain ; but there was already the stir of life among the dusky races of Bengal. "I am ashamed,' thus afterwards wrote Hastings, to have been made an actor in this silly affair; and I declare to you, upon my honour, that such was my sense of it at the time that I was much disturbed by an old woman whose curiosity prompted her to stand by as a spectatress.' He adds—' A scene so little comprehended by the natives of this part of the world, attracted others of the same stamp from the adjacent villages to par- take in the entertainment.' With surprise, indeed, they must have gazed. None of their own moat barbaric rites—neither the zealot who rushes for- ward to be crushed by the car of Juggernaut, nor the widow compelled to share the funeral pile of her dead lord, nor the whorshipper of Siva, deem- ing that he gains the favour of the idol if he sheds the blood of an innnocent wayfarer—none of these, when first beheld, could have more greatly amazed the island-strangers than were the Hindoos to see two members of that Council, sent over for their governance, engage in single combat, according to certain fancied rules : each seeking, as he would explain it, not to destroy the other, but only to clear himself; each taking a careful aim at his anta- gonist, yet each ready, should he see that antagonist fall, to express a gene- rous sympathy, and to staunch, to the utmost of his power, the wound which he haa made.

"Hastings and Francis fired at nearly the same instant ; Hastings was un- harmed, but Francis was shot through the side. He was conveyed to an adjacent house, where the surgeons found, that although his wound was severe, his life was not in danger. In the course of the same day Hastings sent his secretary with a message to the sick man, expressing his concern, and offering to call upon him when his health should be sufficiently restored. Francis coldly acknowledged the civility, but said, that after what had passed, the Governor-General and himself could meet only at the Council- Board.

Some remarks on the growth of London and Edinburgh will il- lustrate the agreeable character of Lord Mahon's pen, and the su- perficial nature of his matter : for a little trouble would have col- lected far more striking instances.

"Of both Edinburgh and London at that period, we may note how far either was as yet from its present size. Sir Walter Scott, where in Guy Mannering he treats of the close of the American War, says of his own ro- mantic city, that the New Town on the North, since so much extended, was then just commenced. But the great bulk of the better classes, and particularly those connected with the law, still lived in fiats or dungeons of the Old Town.' In London, the whole space West of Buckingham Gardens —that space now covered with stately squares and streets surpassing of them- selves, in wealth and splendour, several whole cities and capitals of Europe —was, in 1765, no better than a line of marshy fields, The entire front of it was then offered for sale to George the Third, at the price of 20,000/. and might probably have been still cheaper to a private man. In 1780, Mr. Romilly, writing to his sister from Gray's Inn, complains of the cold North winds, and remarks that between himself and Hampstead or Highgate there was only one row of houses. But while masses of new tenements began to shoot forth on every aide, the Goverement of the day took no thought or heed of reserving open spaces in the midst of them—either as parks for air and recreation, or as sites for future public buildings. A few thousands or even hundreds of pounds would then have sufficed to make the purchases for winch at a later period hundreds of thousands would be needed.

"As in Edinburgh, the tide of fashion turned from the Old Town to the New, so in London, though from other causes, the change was equally de- cided. Many of the favourite resorts of the rich and great in the last age have since been relinquished wholly to the middle classes. It may suffice to give as proofs the two chiefs of the last administration of Queen Anne. Bolingbroke, a man of the world no less than a man of business, lived in Golden Square, and Harley, till he became Lord Treasurer, in Buckingham Street, Strand."