SPECTATOR'S LIBRARY.

Hirronv AND BIOGRAPHY.

Historical Sketches of Statesmen who Flourished in the Time of George III. To which are added, Remarks on the French Revolution. By Henry Lord Brougham,

F.R.S., Member of the National Institute of France. &c. a Knight and Co. A History of the Church, in five Books, from A.D. 322 to the Death of Theodore of Mopsuestia. A.D. 427. By Theodoretus, Bishop of Cyrus. A new Translation from the Original, with a Memoir of the Author, an account of his Writings, and the Chronology of the Events recorded Bagger. Aoneuu. Lrrxruvrtyar, Friendship's Offering of Sentiment and Mirth. Smith and Elder.

LORD BROUGHAM'S THIRD SERIES OF HISTORICAL SKETCHES.

THE third series of Lord BROUGHAM'S Historical Sketches of Statesmen who flourished in the time of George the Third seems in part designed to introduce names omitted in the former volumes, with some of the lately dead—as the Irish Lord Chief Justice Bosun and Lords WELLESLEY and HOLLAND ; in part to draw from past history some reflections applicable to the present state of Ireland under its Agitator. The book opens with a view of the French Revolution ; the later and violent stages of which are attributed to a small minority, achieving their mischievous ends against the opinion of the vast majority of the nation, by activity, impudence, club-organization, and appeals to the passions of the multitude, ending in due time in the horrors of the reign of terror. From which example Lord BROUGHAM draws the moral, that the executive with the property and respectability of a country should at once show an imposing front to an organized agitation for wildly theoretical objects, whilst all real grievances should be timely redressed. The sketches of the leading actors in the French Revolution—ROBESPIERRE, DANTON, CAMILLE DESMOIJLINS, ST. JUST, and SATES, enable Lord BROUGHAM to bring out incident- ally his views of the qualities men should possess to succeed in public convulsions, and to point a moral from the fate of the most eminent—that such brief success, to be so quickly followed by destruction, is a beacon in favour of slower rise under a quiet and regular government. The same topics are continued, but brought nearer home, in the character of WILKES ; and in the supplement to it, called " Demagogue Arts," there is a palpable hit at O'Cox- Nem, and the Irish. "John fourth Duke of BEDFORD" contains a defence, more friendly than successful, against the attack of JUNIUS, and serves to introduce a diatribe against " anonymous slanderers." JEFFERSON completes the portraits of American statesmen : but perhaps another reason for his introduction was a defence of American Democracy against the European disrepute into w it has fallen, with some hard hits at Lord SYDENHAM'S late published Correspondence. The other Sketches consist of Lord CAMDEN, LORD ELLENBOROUGH, and JOHN ALLEN, the Edinburgh Reviewer ; and of these Lord ELLENBOROUGH is perhaps the best subject, as he is decidedly the best done. An appendix gives the characters of WALPOLE and Boutionitoxs ; the first containing a favourable view of WALPOLE generally, with a special panegyric as a peace minister; the last cleverly estimating BOLINGBROKE'S eloquence from tradition and his published works, and pronouncing him the first orator of modern times, but pressing very severely on his public and private character.

It will be seen that in one point of view this volume differs from its predecessors ; several of the groups or characters being chosen to exhibit some principle of politics both in detail and at large. This undoubtedly gives a purpose to many of the sketches, and excites an interest in the reader beyond the character itself, by setting him on the watch for the application of the principle, and the traits of the writer's personal feelings which it often exhibits. As time or dis- tance, however, has deprived the author of the personal knowledge, or of the sympathy arising from belonging to the same set, which he possessed in the case of many of the former individuals, all the Sketches perhaps have not the same raciness ; and they seem generally to want the spontaneity of their predecessors. Lord ELLENBoitonotr and the French Revolutionists are the principal exceptions to this remark. With Lord ELLENBOROUGH, of course, Lord Baononam had a professional acquaintance ; and he was intimate with men who had seen and watched the whole of his career. In his preface he states that he has learned much respecting the leaders of the Revolution, from veterans who yet survive : and indeed, this living kind of knowledge is obvious in many parts of the characters, as well as an acquaintance with contemporary documents, to which the same eminent Frenchmen probably di- rected him. Lord WELLESLEY, whom he knew so well, has less of these living. traits than might have been expected. The deficiency perhaps originates in the plan, which is rather a narrative of his career than a sketch of his character. With these qualifications, the work is as broad, as interesting, and as readable as its predeces- sors, whilst the whole wears a more subdued or sober air, and perhaps possesses more solidity.

In the general remarks, as in all other remarks of the noble author, there are positions advanced from which logical readers will be inclined to dissent, but perhaps fewer than usual ; and the Introductory View of the French Revolution, although assigning too little to the long series of misgovernment in France, may, with the character of ROBESPIERRE, be read as an acute and novel exposition of the causes of that moral and political explosion. These larger views, however, must be perused in the volume : we will draw from it some of its shorter and lighter passages.

ENGLISH AND IRISH mom.

Never man more pandered to the appetites of the mob than Wilkes; never

political pimp gave more uniform contentment to his employers. Having the moral and sturdy English, and not the voluble and versatile Irish to deal with, he durst not do or say as he chose himself; but was compelled to follow that be might seem to lead, or at least to go two steps with his followers that he might get them to go three with him. He dared not deceive them grossly, clumsily, openly, impudently—dared not tell them opposite stories in the same breath—give them one advice today and the contrary tomorrow—pledge him- self to a dozen things at one and the same time ; then come before them with every one pledge unredeemed, and ask their voices, and ask their money too on the credit of as many more pledges for the succeeding half-year : all this with the obstinate and jealous people of England was out of the question ; it could not have passed for six weeks. But he committed as great, if not as gross, frauds upon them ; abused their confidence as entirely, if not so shamefully ; catered for their depraved appetites in all the base dainties of sedition, and slander, and thoughtless violence, and unreasonable demands; instead of using his influence to guide their judgment, improve their taste, reclaim them from bad courses, and better their condition by providing for their instruction. The means by which he retained their attachment were disgraceful and vile. Like the hypocrite, his whole public life was a lie. The tribute which his unruly appetites kept him from paying to private morals, his dread of the mob, or his desire to use them for his selfish purposes, made him yield to public virtue ; and he never appeared before the world without the mask of patriotic enthusiasm or democratic fury.

PITT DYING AND DEAD.

Lord Wellesley returned from his glorious administration at a very critical period in our Parliamentary history. Mr. Pitt was stricken with the malady which proved fatal—a typhus fever, caught from some accidental infection, when his system was reduced by the stomach complaints which he had long laboured under. He soon appointed a time when his friend might come to see him. This, their last interview, was in the villa on Putney Heath, where he died a few days after. Lord Wellesley called upon me there many years after; it was then occupied by my brother-in-law, Mr. Eden, whom I was visiting. His Lordship showed me the place were those illustrious friends sat. Mr. Pitt was, be said, much emaciated and enfeebled, but retained his gayety and his constitutionally sanguine disposition ; he expressed his confident hopes of re- covery. In the adjoining room he lay a corpse the ensuing week: and it is a singular and a melancholy circumstance, resembling the stories told of William the Conqueror's deserted state at his decease, that some one in the neighbour- hood having sent a message to inquire after Mr. Pitt's state, he found the wicket open, then the door of the house, and, nobody answering the bell, he walked through the rooms till he reached the bed on which the Minister's body lay lifeless, the sole tenant of the mansion of which the doors a few hours before were darkened by crowds of suitors alike obsequious and importu- nate, the vultures whose instinct haunts the carcasses only of living Ministers,

WHIG DELICACY.

When at the end of 1830 the Whigs came into office, Lord Wellesley was appointed Lord Steward of the Household ; and in 1833 he resumed the Viceroyalty of Ireland, which he held until the change of Government in 1834. He then resigned at once his high office, not waiting till be should be pressed by the new Government to retain it, as in all probability he would have been. Be held himself bound in honour to the Whig party to retire upon their very unceremonious dismissal by King William. Steady to his party, he was actively engaged in preparing the opposition to the Peel Ministry; arranged the important measure of the Speakership, the first blow which that Ministry received ; and with his own hand drew the resolution which on the 8th of April brought it to a close. It cannot be affirmed that the Whig party was equally steady to him. On their accession to power, I have heard him say, he received the first intimation that he was not to return to Ireland from one of the door-keepers at the House of Lords, whom he overheard, as he passed, telling another of my friend Lord Mulgrave's appointment.

THE MERITS AND FAILINGS OF THE FOXES.

Many tempers are equal and placid constitutionally ; but then this calm re- sults from their being cold: the waters are not troubled because their surface is frozen. Lord Holland's temper, on the contrary, like his uncle's, was warm, excitable, lively, animated. Yet 1 knew him intimately for five-and-thirty years, during a portion of which we had political and even party differences ; I had during the most of these years almost daily intercourse with him ; I can positively assert, that though I saw him often sorely tried, and fear me I was now and then among those who tried him, I never for one moment perceived that there was in his composition the least element of anger, spite, peevishness, or revenge. In my whole experience of our race, I never saw such a temper, nor any thing that at all resembled it. His was the disposition of the Fox family. They have a noble and lofty character ; their nature is generous and humane. Selfishness, meanness, craft, are alien to their whole composition. Open, manly, confiding, combining the highest qualities of the understanding with the best feelings of the heart, and marked throughout by the innocent simplicity of infancy, no wonder that they win the affections of all who approach them—that is to say, who approach so near and know them so long as to be familiar with them—for both Mr. Fox and his nephew had the manners, somewhat repulsive at first, of patrician life, and the uncle, especially, was for a while even severely forbidding to strangers. It must be added, that their aristocratic propensities were not confined to man- ner; they had the genuine Whig predilection for that kind of support, and re- garded, perhaps justly regarded, the union of great families as absolutely neces- sary to maintain the popular cause against the Court. Mr. Fox, however, went a little further, and showed more complacency in naming highly-born supporters than might seem altogether to consist with a high popular tone or with the tenets of a philosophical statesman. It is to be added, that with the simplicity of an infantine nature, they had the defect, as regards their affec- tions, of that tender age. Their feelings were strong, but not deep ; the im- pressions made on their heart were passing, and soon effaced. I have often rallied, and sometimes remonstrated with my friend on this peculiarity, when I saw him, as I thought, regarding men rather with the eye of a naturalist than a brother, and rather taking an interest in observing their habits and marking their peculiarities, than feeling as deeply as their relation to us required.

LAST YEARS OF THE WHIGS IN OFFICE, 1839-1841.

In part, possibly in great part, this misconduct of the Whig Ministry for the two years that followed May 1839, is to be accounted for, certainly not ex- cused, by their dread of facing the numerous place-lovers and place-hunters with whom they, like every government, were beset. In London, and in all corporate towns, there were of course swarms of creatures, hatched by the sun- shine of Court favour, and whose only dreams were of being enabled by the prolonged existence of the Cabinet, those already placed to continue battening on the public carcass, those only in expectancy to wriggle themselves into a share of it. These it was hard to face and to thwart. The same influence, or the same fear of offending adherents, occasioned undoubtedly that other most reprehensible act, an act too moat hurtful to the Liberal party, the dissolution in 1841. Who can for a moment believe that the Ministers themselves ex- pected to obtain any thing like a majority in the new Parliament ? Then, what possible right had they to make their Sovereign dissolve in order to in- crease the difficulties of those, her servants, who were to be their successors in office ? This they well knew; and of this I warned them by private remon- strance; as indeed I took the liberty of humbly counselling my gracious Sove-

reign upon the measure, thereby discharging my duty as a Peer of Parliament. But "the pressure from without" was too powerful. Some score of Members fancied their seats would be more secure were their own friends in office during the general election than if that event happened when their adversaries were in power; and to their importunate clamour the Ministers were fain to yield.

The celebrated Foncirg is included among the French Revolu- tionists ; but the notice is contributed by Lord STANHOPE. It is not in strictness a " character " of the man, being merely the writer's reminiscences of him at Dresden in 1815-16. In point of freshness and the distinctiveness of its lineaments, however, this sketch is one of the gems of the volume ; a series of anecdotes, intermingled with remarks, each besides its intrinsic interest de- veloping some trait of character, and denoting some faculty of ob- servation in the reminiscent. We will draw upon the shorter anecdotes.

FODCHOS APPEARANCE.

He had been early in life a professor in the Oratoire; and it was said very truly at Dresden, that he had "le visage d'un moine, et la vole d'un mort," and as he was for some time the only foreign minister at that court, that he appeared "like the ghost of the departed corps diplomatique." His counte- nance showed great intelligence, and did not indicate the cunning by which he was eminently distinguished his manner was calm and dignified ; and he had, either from nature or from long habit, much power of self-possession. When I announced to him the execution of Marshal Ney, of which by some accident I had received the earliest information, his countenance never changed. He appeared to be nearly sixty years of age; and his hair had become as white as snow, in consequence of his having, according to his own expression, " slept upon the guillotine for twenty-five years." His conversation was very ani- mated and interesting; but it related chiefly to events in which he had been an actor, and his inordinate vanity induced him to say, "I am not a king, but I am more illustrious than any of them." His statements did not deserve im- plicit credence ; and I may mention as an instance, his bold denial that during the whole course of his long administration as Minister of Police any letter had ever been opened at the post-office.

NAPOLEON'S NARROWNESS IN BRIBERY.

Foucbe, who after the return of Napoleon was reappointed Minister of Po- lice, was asked by him whether it was not very desirable to obtain the services of Talleyrand, who was then one of the French ambassadors at Vienna. Cer- tainly, replied Fouehe ; and Napoleon then said, " What do you think of send- ing to him a handsome snuffbox?" Fouchd, aware of the extreme ab- surdity of endeavouring to bribe a Minister, who was supposed to be rapacious, by a present which, as a matter of course, be bad received on the conclusion of every treaty, observed, if a snuffbox were sent to Talleyrand, he should open it to see what it contained. " What do you mean ? " inquired Napoleon. " It is idle," replied Fouchd, "to talk of sending to him a snuffbox. Let an order for two millions of francs be sent to him, and let one-half of the sum be payable on his return to France." "No," said Napoleon, "that is too expensive, and I shall not think of it."

FM:fella AND TALLEYBAND ON ONE ANOTHER.

According to a homely expression, "there was no love lost" between Fonche and Talleyrand. The former said, " Talleyrand est nul " till after he has drunk a bottle of Madeira: and the latter asked, "Do you not think that Fouche has very much the air of a country comedian? " Fouche spoke very contemptuously of the late Emperor of Austria, whom he called "an cretin."

FOUCHE AND FERDINAND THE BELOVED.

He had received from the Prince of the Asturias, afterwards Ferdinand the Seventh, during his residence at Valence'', the most servile letters, earnestly entreating that Napoleon would confer upon him the high honour of allowing him to be allied with some relation, however distant, of the Imperial Family. Fouchd said that his hand was kissed by the prince whenever he had occasion to see him ; and added, " I washed it afterwards, for he was very dirty."

If Lord STANHOPE has more such reminiscences as these of the Duc D'OTRANTO, we would respectfully but strongly urge their publication.