SPECTATOR'S LIBRARY.

Memoirs of the Reign of George the Third. By Horace Walpole. Youngest Sou of Sir Robert Walpole, Earl of Orford. Now first published from the Original MSS. Edited, with Notes, by Sir Denis he Merchant, 'dart. Volumes I. and II-Bentley. Thema,

• Journey from Naples toJerusalem. by way of Athens. and the Peninsula of Sisal; including a Trip to the Valley of Fayoum; together with a Translation of M. Linaut Be Bellefond's Memoire stir Is Lac Mceris." By Dawson Borrer. Esq. Madden and Co.

Adventures of an Officer in the Service of Runjeet Singh. By Major 11. M. L. Law • retire. Bengal Artillery ; British Resident at the Court of Nepaul. late As,istant to the Political Agent iu charge of British Relations with Lahor. In two volumes.

[Warn.

HOR•CE 'WALPOLE'S MEMOIRS OF THE REIGN OF GEORGE THE THIRD.

THIS work is a continuation of the Memoirs of the Reign of George the Second, which, after remaining the fated time in the chest where it was deposited, was some years ago presented to the world under the editorship of the late Lord HOLLAND. The present work was designed to appear under the same auspices ; but after Lord HOL- LAND'S accession to office, in 1830, he was unable to find leisure for the task. On his death, Lord WALDEGRAVE the possessor of the papers in the original box, proposed the office of editor to Sir DENIS La MARCHANT ; which he undertook con amore, and has ably executed in his general plan—doing without overdoing.

The period embraced in the Memoirs is the first twelve years of GEORGE the Third ; but the two volumes before us occupy little more than half the period-1760-1767. 'WALPOLE avowedly wishes his work not to be regarded as history in the strict sense of the word, but merely, as its title expresses, Memoirs; though he falls into the gentleman's error of supposing that history is not " profit- able" reading—not by any means so profitable as memoirs by those who know some of the " secret springs." This is a common error amongst courtiers, second-rate politicians, and sciolists of all sorts: it is in principle the same as if the walking gentleman or second fop of the company should arrogate the power of judging of the re- sults of the genius of SHAKSPERE and GARRICK because he had at- tended rehearsals and his vocation carried him behind the scenes. A great commander estimates his opponent by his military plans, and his troops by their military conduct : how a favourite officer misled his general, how the whole batch of officers postponed their duties to their interests, and how the rank and file went through their exercise on parade, may be entertaining details, but are not largely instructive for we can only be instructed in pro- portion as we can deduce general conclusions. The political, like the military moral, must be drawn from whole results, which are generally obvious to those who can see them. After all, if personal knowledge is necessary to history, a good deal of this work, and not the least valuable parts of it, are de- rived from the information of others; whilst the predilections and personal feelings of the author, not to mention the feelings of the age, influence his judgments of men and his conclusions upon mea- sures. In those parts where he was directly engaged, vanity has induced him to exalt unduly both the events and his own agency. His description of his own conduct and motives may indeed be safely trusted ; and a very strange exposure it is. Management and circumvention—intrigue that could only have produced effect upon the meanest of public men, swayed by the meanest of personal mo- tives—were his object ; and falsehood his chief mode of effecting it, if it be falsehood to put forward as our true opinion views invented for the nonce.

But though the inferior performer may be incapable of criticizing the higher efforts of poetic or dramatic genius, he would be quite capable of another kind of exhibition, more entertaining, and in a moral sense perhaps as instructive. He could tell us how the actors quarrelled about their parts discoursed in the green-room, and de- meaned themselves behind the scenes; and how the cunning of the manager tricked them all; and how sad the difference between the private conduct and public performance of the corps dramatique. In this point of view, to say truth, we suspect the players would have the advantage over the politicians, if we could abstract our minds from the notion of the superior greatness of the Court and Parliament stage. The duplicity, treachery, and falsehood of GEORGE the Third—the servile submission of Parliament to the Court Minister—the shameless corruption of public men—the want of political principle and purpose in the best of the only existing party, the young or Rockingham Whigs — and the sordid trafficking of the Bedford faction, nicknamed the ' Bloomsbury Gang —would be painful were they not ridicu- lous. The individuals who figure conspicuously as stars fur- nish variety, not relief. The asserted connexion between Lord Bora and the Princess Dowager, with frequent allusions to gross and scandalous profligacy, might be matched well enough in the annals of the green-room, but are not very appropriate to a de- mure court headed by a pious prince. The elder Fox appears with all the rapacity and corruption which have rendered him in- famous as a politician, without the good-nature and heartiness that somewhat redeemed his character as a man. Even the elder PITT comes out poorly—touches of the mountebank mingled with the great man, and an impracticable or dog-in-the-manger feeling, which would neither do himself or let others. Towards the close of the story, he is shown in a still worse light, if the suppression of the gout by Dr. ADDINGTON (father of Lord SIDMOUTH) had not so injured his system and affected his nerves as really to have shaken his intellect. Lord ROCKINGHAM, indeed, appears as a high-spirited nobleman ; but GRENVILLE, though very disagree- able, and in WALPOLE'S pages hateful, shows the most manly. His intellect was narrow, and his acquirements did not extend beyond the ledger ; he might be proud, sullen, obstinate, and tyrannical ; but he had that respectability which attends upon consistency and resolution. He is too, the only politician that had anything approaching to a plan—a definite end by definite means. His end was indeed large—to restore the finances dilapi- dated by PITT'S Continental wars. His means, the fatal American Stamp Act, were insufficient for his purpose, and impolitic in themselves : but, though his fatal scheme of taxation cost the country, or at least is said to have cost the country, her American Colonies, (for some other ground of quarrel would doubtless have sprung up,) it must be remembered that we are judging after a series of events, and a series of events miserably mismanaged: so generally did people agree with him at the time, or such little atten- tion was paid to Colonial subjects, that the Stamp Act excited but small attention. So thoroughly was any other party or person without a system of government, or even a Parliamentary line, that GRENVILLE furnished to his opponents and successors their chief measures and matters of debate. It was theirs to reverse his Stamp Act and discuss General Warrants. The factions, whether Whig or Tory or "King's Friends," had nothing of their own. This total emptiness, this thorough barrenness of plan or purpose, is the most remarkable feature of the volumes : and the circum- stance that the writer was an actor, or at least a prompter in the drama, adds to the impression. In a general history we might sup- pose that the politicians were big with plans that miscarried: but we see too truly that they never thought of a plan. They did not even rise to a "measure for rejection."

- Another, but a much lesser point brought out in these pages, is the veracity of JUNIUS in what has beets called his libels, His letters were themselves written a few years later ; but his retro- spective facts, and his judgments of character, are singularly con- firmed. We do not mean to assert that their truth is proved, but that JUNIUS did not invent or much exaggerate in fact ; both which things he has been charged with. WALPOLE, and the common fame of the political world, believed what JUNIUS stated ; though their modes of statement would be different.

It seems needless to say after this account, that if these volumes are not history, they are something more amusing. Sometimes WALPOLE'S summaries of debates may be rather tedious to the ge- neral reader, though they are often highly graphic ; and it should be observed that the scarcity of reports gives them an intrinsic_ value beyond any literary attraction. In the cases where WALPOLE was himself engaged in setting sections of parties by the ears, or in egging on his friend CONWAY to retain office, there are a diffuseness of nar- rative and a pomp of statement quite disproportioned to the dignity of the events or the morality of the means ; but this has the ludicrous effect of a man unconsciously satirizing himself. His narrative is invariably clear, and his style less artificial than is his wont. But the great merit of the book is the lifelike knowledge posseSsed and displayed by its author. He knew the men; he was witness of or engaged in most of the events he described • and where he received them at second-hand, he was possessed with the spirit of the ac- tors. This gives a value and an interest to the book which the greatest genius could not impart without the same advantages, though a greater genius might have exercised itself in another way. The bias of WALPOLE may colour his judgment, his personal en- mities may induce him to malign his opponents, and his vanity in- fluence his estimate of his own importance : but he knew his men even in their habit as they lived ; the telling of his anecdotes (and the book is anecdotical as well as narrative) differ from the anecdotes of hearsay, as the imitation of an original differs from that of a "mimic's mimic "—we have the colour and complexion, as well as the character. And, restricted as we are this week for space, our extracts must be limited to anecdotes.

PREMATURE KINGCRAFT.

The first moment of the new reign afforded a symptom of the Prince's character—of that cool dissimulation in which he had been so well initiated by his mother, and which comprehended almost the whole of what she had taught him. Princess Amelia, as soon as she was certain of her father's death, sent an account of it to the Prince of Wales ; but he had already been apprized of it. He was riding, and received a note from a German valet-de-chambre, attendant on the late King, with a private mark agreed upon between them, which certified him of the event. Without surprise or emotion, without dropping a word that indicated what had happened, he said his horse was lame, and turned back to Kew. At dismounting, he said to the groom, "1 have said this horse is lame : I forbid you to say the contrary."

TRAFFIC& IN VOTES, 1762.

Had the peace been instantaneously proposed to the House of Commons, there is no question but it would have been rejected ; so strong a disgust WAS taken at the union of Bute and Fox, and so numerous were their several per- sonal enemies. Yet in one respect Bute had chosen judiciously: Fox was not to be daunted, but set himself to work at the root. He even made applications to Newcastle; but the Duke o' Cumberland had inspired even Newcastle and Devonshire with resolution. This, however, was the last miscarriage of mo- ment that Fox experienced. Leaving the grandees to their ill-humour, he directly attacked the separate Members of the House of Commons; and with so little decorous on the part of either buyer or seller, that a shop was publicly opened at the Pay-office whither the Members flocked, and received the wages of their venality to bank-bills, even to so low a sum as two hundred pounds for their votes on the treaty. Twenty-five thousand pounds, as Martin, Secretary of the Treasury, afterwards owned, were issued in one morning ; and in a single fortnight a vast majority was purchased to approve the peace.

PREROGATIVE AND COURTESY.

The Court having secured the obedience of Parliament, it WSJ determined to mum a high tone of authority—to awe, and even to punish, the refractory. "The King. it was given out, would be King—would not be dictated to by big Ministers, as his grandfather bad been. The prerogative was to shine out : vett Lords must be humbled." Fox—whose language ever was, that the Crown must predominate whenever it would exert its influence—warmly up- held the doctrine of rewards and punishments; and, having employed the former with so much success, he was rejoiced to inflict the latter to glut his own vengeance. The first fruit of these councils struck mankind with astonishment. The Duke of Devonshire, who had kept himself in the country, coming to town on the 28th of October, went to pay his duty to the King; and, as is customary with the Great Officers, went to the back-stairs, whence he sent the Page in Waiting to acquaint his Majesty with his attendance. ". Tell him," said the King angrily, I will not see him." The Page, amazed, hesitated. The King ordered him to go and deliver those very words. If the Page had been thunderstruck, it may be imagined what the Duke felt, lie bad, however, the presence of mind to send in the Page again to ask what he should do with his key of Lord Chamberlain. The reply was "Orders will be given for that." The Duke went home with a heart full of rage, and tore off his key, which immediately after be carried to Lord Egr, emont the Secre- tary of State; and the next morning his brother Lord George Cavendish and Lord Besborough his brotber-in•law resigned their places.

PITT'S APPEARANCE IN THE DEBATE ON TOE PEACE.

• It was the other House on which expectation hung. The very uncertainty whether Mr. Pitt's health would allow him to attend, concurred. to augment the impatience of the public on so serious a crisis. The Court, it was true, had purchased an effective number of votes to ratify their treaty; but could Mr. Pitt appear, he might so expose the negotiation, and give breath to such a flame, that the Ministers could not but be anxious till the day was decided, and they knew all that they had to apprehend from Mr. Pitt. Their hopes grew brighter as the debate began, and he did not appear. The probability of his absence augmented as Beekford proposed to refer the preliminaries to a Committee of the whole House ; a measure that seemed calculated to gain time, and that was seconded by James Grenville, who told the courtiers that it did not look as if they were very desirous of praise, so eager were they to hurry through the question. The demand was opposed by Ellie, Sir Francis Dashwood, and Harris of Salisbury ; when the House was alarmed by a shout from aithout. The doors opened, and at the bead of a large acclaiming concourse was seen Mr. Pitt, borne in the arms of his servants, who, setting him down within the bar, he crawled by the help of a crutch, and with the assistance of some few friends, to his seat : not without the sneers of some of Fox's party. In truth, there was a mixture of the very solemn and the theatric in this apparition. The moment was so well timed, the importance of the man and his services, the langour of his emaciated countenance, and the study bestowed on his dress, were circumstances that struck solemnity into a patriot mind, and did a little furnish ridicule to the hardened and insensible. He was dressed in black velvet, his legs and thighs wrapped in flannel, his feet covered w.th buskins of black cloth, and his hands with thick gloves.

ROYAL TRIPPING-DP.

Lord Strange, one of the placemen who opposed the repearof the Stamp Act, having occasion to go into the King on some affair of his office, the Duteby of Lancaster, the King said, he heard it was reported in the world, that be (the King) was for the repeal of that act. Lord Strange replied, that idea did not only prevail, but that his Majesty's Ministers did all that lay in their power to encourage that belief, and that their great majority had been entirely owing to their having made use of his Majesty's name. The King desired Lord Strange to contradict that report, assuring him it was not founded. Lord Strange no sooner left the closet, than he made full use of the authority he had re- ceived, and trumpeted all over the town the conversation he had had with the Ring- So extraordinary a tale soon reached the ear of Lord Rockingham ; who - immediately asked Lord Strange if it was true what the King was reported to have said to him ? The other confirmed it. On that Lord Rockingham de- sired the other to meet him at Court ; when they both went into the closet to- gether. Lord Strange began, and repeated the:King's words ; and asked if he had been mistaken ? The King said, "No." Dad Rockingham then pulled out a paper, and begged to know, if on such a day (which was minuted down on the paper) his Majesty had not determined for the repeal? Lord Rocking- ham then stopped. The King repiied, " My Lord, this is but half"; and taking out a pencil, wrote on the bottom of Lord Rockiugham's paper words to this effect—" The question asked me by my Ministers was, whether I was for enforcing the act by the sword, or for the repeal? Of the two extremes I was for the repeal ; but most certainly preferred modification to either." It is not necessary to remark on this story. The King had evidently con- sented te the repeal, and then disavowed his Ministers, after suffering them to proceed half-way in their plan ; unless it is an excuse that he secretly fomented opposition to them all the time.

The following judgment of CHATHAM on the King's sincerity was given personally to WALPOLE in an interview they had at Bath. "The King, he said, was very gracious to him, and he believed in earnest; and then droppid these remarkable words—' If I was in possession of Ihe citadel of Lisle, and was told there was a mine under my feet, I would say, I do not believe it.' His opinion of his Majesty's sincerity was therefore exactly the same as mine."

. Though not free from some mistakes of detail, Sir DENIS LE MARCHANT'S notes are very good ; sometimes correcting the judgment of the text, sometimes illustrating it by notices of the persons mentioned, or fuller information of the facts. Further illustrative materials are promised in a concluding appendix to the fourth volume : to which we look forward with interest, al- though the editor " disclaims any encroachment on the pro- vince of' the historian," especially since the "publication of the last volume of Lord Mahon's History and the recent article on Lord Chatham in the Edinburgh Review." If, however, he has

nothing to do with the " article," it is clear that the article has had a good deal to do with him ; for, so far as the respective pe- riods run together, all the facts and many of the views in the pe-

riodical are derived from these volumes. It is in fact WALroLa Macaulayized, exactly resembling that process which often takes place in modern books of travels, where the sketches of the tourist are artistically dressed up with some lee& improvements, omissions, and additions, by the fashionable limner. In this aspect, the volumes and the review are curious, and well worth joint perusal.