BOOKS.

SIR H. BULWER ON SOME HISTORICAL CHARACTERS.*

A VERY able man of cosmopolitan experience, familiar with politicians in all countries, accustomed to watch and weigh men as only diplomatists ever watch and weigh them, has in these volumes given us his impressions of four men, in all of whom the world retains a vivid interest, Talleyrand, Canning, Cobbett, and Mackintosh. Apparently they have been selectal as types of different kinds of success, Sir II. L. Bulwer appending to each name a distinctive label, which in his judgment sums up at once the character and the career. With him Talleyrand is par excel- lence " the politic man," Canning " the brilliant inani" Sir. James Mackintosh the " man of promise," and Cobbett " the contentious man." That mode of treatment produces of necessity a certain narrowness of regard and one-sided mode of reading character which is, we think, the main defect of essays which otherwise would be nearly perfect. The reader feels that there is is each of the men something, some quality, or faculty, or other source of power, which Sir Henry Bulwer declines, as it were, to treat; that his out- line, bold and accurate as it is, would not only be improved, but be modified by more shading. For example, in the longest sketch of all, that of Talleyrand, intended to be a complete biography, the reader regrets the absence of any distinct effort to explain one of the most inexplicable of human beings. Sir H. Bulwer judges him too much as he would judge a diplomatist with whom he had to do business,—that is, he weighs carefully every quality in Talleyrand's mind or incident in his history which will throw light on his probable action, weighs them with marvellous care and a result usually accurate, but he does not trouble himself to make his correspondents understand the man. He suggests no key to his general action, except what no doubt existed, his fidelity to France, and does not always try to explain single points almost essential to a true comprehension of his intellect. For example, had Talleyrand any religious or even superstitious feeling of any kind? He was always a layman in his habits of life, and the Pope himself released him from his vows, and he married ; but to the day of his death the surest way to earn his personal dislike was to allude to his former condition, either of priest or bishop. His biographer throws no light that we see on his actual mind in relation to that subject, as little as he does on Talleyrand's feeling as aristocrat or as politician. Men who knew him well said, after his death, that the key to much if not most of his character was an aristocratic pride as keen and as haughty as ever animated a noble of the old regime ; that he never forgot for a moment, particularly when dealing with a Sovereign, that he was the eldest Talleyrand-Perigord, heir of a thousand years of prince- dom ; yet that feeling, if he entertained it, scarcely influenced his political conduct. lie himself declared solemnly that he was no Legitimist, that Louis XVIII. did not reascend the throne " in virtue of a pre-existing and hereditary right," and he strongly urged Louis to obtain a plebiscitum sanctioning his own claim. The King, who of all the family that ever reigned was most • Historical Characters: Tallegrand Cobbett, Mackintosh, Canning. By Sir Henry Lytton Bulwer, G.O.B. Vol. IL Second Edition. ,London: Bentley. l868.

typically the Bourbon, that is, at once the most regal, the most cynical, and the most selfish of men, with a brain which seemed hardly to work, yet could never be worked upon, refused, in the celebrated sentence, " Then you would be sitting, and I stand- ing," and Talleyrand gave way. But was he really a Liberal in the usual sense of that term? Sir H. &Awes is content to describe him all through as a wise man, who always looked to that which was expedient for the welfare of France, and describes him with a singular felicity of expression as one of the men "whose energy and whose intelligence is rather subtle than comprehensive, and who are attracted by the useful rather than by the sublime. Shrewd and wary, these men rather take advantage of circum- stances than make them. To turn an obstacle, to foresee an event,

to seize an opportunity, is their peculiar talent. They are with- out passions, but self-interest and sagacity combined give them a

force like that of passion. The success they obtain is procured by efforts no greater titan those of other candidates for public honours and renown, who with an appearance of equal talent vainly struggle after fortune ; but all their exertions are made at the most fitting moment, and in the heppiest, manner." Still, few men live without convictions of some kind, and students of Talleyrand's time desire very keenly to know if Talleyrand had any, and what they were ; whether the element of scorn for humanity which be undoubtedly possessed dominated his mind, whether throughout his long career he was fighting a battle or only playing dice. That is now the unknown datum, without

which it is impossible to complete their notion of the man, and towards it Sir H. Bulwer contributes very little. In a narrative remarkable at once for its lucidity and its succinctness, he proves beyond all cavil that Talleyrand was as he designates him, the politic man, but when that is admitted readers feel a want of

more which he does not supply, which probably no one will supply until Talleyrand's own memoirs make their appearance. Sir 11. Bulwer does not fail to remark that Talleyrand was probably corrupt,—that he, for example, extorted in 1815 large sums from the petty Princes whom he could make and unmake; but he does not attempt to reconcile such cupidity with a character to which it does not belong, with a personal pride, for example, so high as Talleyrand's.

The same defect is marked in the admirable sketch of Sir James Mackintosh, a sketch marked from beginning to end by an intellectual delicacy, a refined perception of the more subdued shades of human character which make it a luxury to read. No more subtle delineation of that frequent character, the man who ought to do everything, but does nothing, has ever come before us, but still as an estimate of Sir James Mackintosh it is incomplete. It is a sketch entirely from the outside, and leaves the man as little explained as he was before it was written :— " If I were to sum np in a few words the characteristics of the persons who thus promise more than they ever perform, I should say diet their powers of comprehension are greater than their powers either of creation or exposition ; and that their energy, though capable ,•of being roused occasionally to great exertions, can rarely be relied on for any continued effort. They collect, sometimes in rather a saunter- ing manner, an immense store of varied information. But it is only by fits and starts that they are able to use it with effect, and at their happiest moments they rarely attain the simple grace or the natural vigour which give beauty and life to composition. Their deficiencies are inherent in their nature, and are never therefore entirely overcome, They have not in their minds the immortal spark of genius ; but the faculty of comprehending genius may give them, in a certain degree, the power of imitating it; whilst ambition, interest, and necessity will at times stimnlate them to extraordinary exertions. As writers, they usually want originality, ease, and power; as men of action, tact, firm- ness, and decision. The works in which they most succeed are usually short, and written under temporary excitement ; as statesmen, they at times attract attention and will applause, but rarely obtain authority or take and keep the lead in public affairs. In society, however, the more faculty of remembering and comprehending a variety of things is quite sufficient to obtain a considerable reputation ; whilst the world, when indulgent, of ton estimates the power of a man's abilities by some tram- scient and ephemeral display of them."

That is admirable, but in the individual type of this class what was wanting, ambition, or perseverance, or industry, or what? When Sir James went to India, he went, he said, to make a fortune and to write a book :— "The whole man is before us wheh we discover bow, far either of these objects was attained by him. He did not make a fortune; he did not write a work. The greater part of his time seems to have been employed in a restless longing after society, and a perpetual- dawdling over books ; during the seven years ho was absent, he speaks continually of his projected work as 'always to bo projected. observe,' he says in one of his letters to Mr. Sharpe, 'that you touch me once or twice with the spur about my books- on Morals. I felt it gall me. for I have not begun.' "

Well, but wily, with those abilities and opportunities, did he neither make the fortune nor write the book? That he did not,

shows a weakness in his character of which Sir H. Bulwer in- stantly lays hold, as he would have laid hold of a weakness in a

foreign premier, but we want to know something more than this, of which the essayist gives us no hiut, namely, the nature of that

weakness. Was. not Sir James Mackintosh essentially a dreamer, a man to whom reverie supplied the place of all other satisfactions, who cared, for example, little for success, because no success could give him a place such as in his own mind he already occu-

pied, the duties of which lie was discharging admirably while apparently occupied with his dinner? Add to a habit like this some constitutional indolence, and the delight in conversing which often marks such temperaments, and we have at once an explana- tion of Sir James MackintOsh'e partial, failure to succeed, and an apology for that failure which the. clearsighted man of the world who is describing hint is evidently disinclined to Make. There is a trace almost, of contempt in Sir H. Bulwer's judgment of him, which, if justified by his career, is not war- ranted by his character -

"No man doing so little ever went through a long life, continually creating the belief that ho would ultimately do much. A want of earnestness, a want of passion, a want of genius, prevented him from playing a great part amongst men during his day, and from leaving any of those monuments behind him which command the attention of pos- terity. A love of knowledge, an acute and capacious intelligence, an early and noble ambition, led him into _literary and active life, and furnished him with the materials and at moments with the energy by which success in both is obtained. An amiable disposition, a lively flow of spirits, an extraordinary and various stock of information made his society agreeable to the most distinguished persons of his ago, and induced them, encouraaed by some occasional displays of power, to consider his abilities to be greater than they really were. What have you done,' be relates that aFrench lady once said to him, ' that people should think you so superior ?'—'I was obliged,' ho adds, 'as usual, to refer to my projects:"

The author could hardly be more severe if Sir James had been an impostor, who assumed instead of merely enjoying a reputation beyond his deserts. Though something of a pedant with his pen, he was personally unaffected, and it was no fault of his that his friends mistook power of thought for power of action, and forgot that a musical composer does not always carry into life the ideas to which he gives such magnificent expression. Sir James Mackintosh was a composer whose instrument was conversation, and those whom he charmed into exaggerated admiration were scarcely wiser than the Italian electors who the other day sent Verdi to Parliament.

We have made this review, we see, almost a complaint, but it is not querulousness but pleasure which these volumes will excite in their readers' mind. They are full of judgments on men and

events, always sound and. sometimes wise, of well told anecdotes, and of political reflections marked usually by, great acumen, and sometimes, as in the following extract, by very telling exaggeration.

Canning had been denounciug what he called the idle cant of " Measures, not men," the belief that " it is the harness, not the

horses, which draw the chariot along," and affirming that to contend with Bonaparte, one great commanding spirit -was worth all our preparations, and Sir H. Bulwer cominents thereon :— " Mr. Canning was right. - No cant betrays more ignorande than that which affects to undervalue the qualities of public men in the march of public affairs. However circumstances may contribute to niche in- dividuals, individuals have as great a share in making circumstances. Had Queen Elizabeth been A weak and timid woman, we might now be speaking Spanish, and have our fates dependent on the struggle be- tween Prim and Narvaez. Had James IL been a wise and prudent man, instead of the present cry against Irish Catholics, our saints of the day would have been spreading charges against the violence and perfidy of some Puritan Protestant —some English, or perhaps Scotch, O'Connell. Strip Mirabeau of his eloquence, endow Louis XVI. with the courage and.the genius of Henry IV., and the history of the last eighty years might be obliterated.'

Mr. Disraeli has repeatedly expressed in writings a similar

conviction, the only answer to which is probably as imperfect as the doctrine laid down, namely, that no political assassination can be shown clearly to have turned the main stream of events into a new channel.