SPECTATOR'S LIBRARY.

Memoir of the Life of the Right Honourable Charles Lord Sydenham, G.C.B. With a Narrative of his Admiuistratiou in Canada. Edited by his Brother, G. Poulett Scrope, Esq., M.P. Murray. Taavezs,

The Empire of the Czar; or Observations on the Social. Political, aud Religious State and Prospects of Russia, made during a Journey through that Empire. By the Marquis De Custine. Translated from the French. In three volumes. Longman and Co.

Fiersow, Oakleigh; or the Minor of Great Expectatioug. By W. H. H. Holmes, Esq., Author of Life in the West," &c. In three volumes Newby.

LIFE AND CANADIAN ADMINISTRATION OF LORD $YDENHAM.

Tars volume originated in Lord STDENHAM'S dying wish that Mr. MURDOCH, his Civil Secretary, should write a history of his Cana- dian administration. It contains a memoir of Mr. POULETT THOM- SON'S life and career up to the departure for Canada, by his brother Mr. POULETT SCROPE; an account of his Canadian government, and his last illness, death, and character, in which both Mr. MUR- DOCH and Mr. SCROPE appear to have had a hand, though Mr. MURDOCH has doubtless contributed the main portion ; together with an appendix of various matters, consisting of some of Mr. PoULETT THOMSON's speeches in Parliament, a memorandum on the Paper Currency of Canada with a view to the establishment of a National Bank, a collection of prose monodies from the Canadian newspapers on the death of Lord arnENHAst, and some extracts from his private letters relating to the affairs of Canada and the United States.

Neither the material nor the workmanship of the volume is of a very striking kind. After the first tbrty pages, Mr. Scaores Memoir does little more than deal with the public career of his brother, with which every attentive reader of the newspapers was familiar ; and all that his account accomplishes is to recall that knowledge to the memory. The same remark applies to Mr. MURDOCH'S Canadian Narrative : nearly all that he tells, and a good deal more, may be read in the columns of the Colonial Gazette; and the book rather omits than condenses—it is short- ened by leaving out ; the dying scene of the Governor-General, for example, was told with more of circumstance and effect in the letter published at the time in the newspapers than in the volume before us. Mr. Muanoca's Narrative of course takes the favour- able view of Lord STDENHAM's government ; especially labouring a defence of the mobs that carried the elections, and justifying, whilst he admits, the charge against his patron of fixing the boun- daries of certain districts expressly to procure the return of mem- bers favourable to his government. But, except some particu- lars connected with the sudden resignation of the Solicitor-General, Mr. BALDWIN, we see nothing that can be called new either in the narrative of events, the description of persons and parties, or the explanation of motives. Nor is the material enhanced by any power or grace of composi- tion. Where the personal character or career of the hero is in question, the style is that of the monumental inscription—the evil dropped, the good exaggerated, and the subject exalted into a non- such. The account of public events smacks too much of the state- paper: clear enough, with a sort of march in the composition, and "points" in the matter, but without the circumstances that give interest or the spirit which imparts vitality. Notwithstanding the business in which his life was passed, Lord SYDENHAM found time to keep a journal, and to carry on a voluminous corre- spondence. The few extracts from the journal in this volume indicate that Lord SIDES HAM generally wrote curtly and with "catch-words" rather than filled up paragraphs ; but there is still a suggestiveness about it which raises a desire for more. His letters are in some respects of a superior character—frank, unaffected, without nonsense of any kind, and enlivened by an easy briskness, that contrasts strongly with the ceremonial pomp of phrase around them : nor is it their least tnerit that they exhibit the character of the writer, including his excessive love of approbation, and his skill, unsurpassed except by unscrupulous- ness, in the art of bragging. It commonly happens that we have to complain of excessive printing from correspondence and journals ; in the present case, we suspect that Lord SYDEMIAM had better have been allowed to tell his own story in order to fulfil his last request. A judicious selection from his papers, with the narrative of his early life, and connecting paragraphs to explain or carry on the story, would have formed, or we are much mistaken, a very amusing book ; though it would have required explana- tions, not likely to have been furnished by Mr. SCROPE or Mr. MURDOCH, corrective of the writer's propensity to exaggerate his own merits at the expense of everybody else, and sometimes at the expense of truth. The Preface, indeed, states, that "it has been found impossible to introduce much matter from them [the jour- nals and correspondence] in an original form, without a breach of the restraints imposed, when dealing with such very recent times, by a sense of what is due to the feelings of other parties, and the sacredness of private and confidential intercourse, although relating to public affairs." This proper principle may, no doubt, have acted as a restraint ; but we conceive a much larger draft might have been made upon this class of documents without undue in- jury to anybody ; and assuredly the cautious principle here set forth has not always actuated the compiler. The following gleanings from Lord SYDENHAM'S direct contri- butions to the volume, will exemplify the variety of his topics.

A MINISTER'S WEER IN ENGLAND: 1832.

August 28th, Saturday.—A week of the hardest possible labour. I have not returned from the House any day till three o'clock ; on Wednesday not till four. It is impossible to stand this. I find my body quite exhausted, and my mind equally worn out. All this week I have alternated between the Bank and Silk Committees, and then the House. On Wednesday I carried my bill (the Customs-duties) through the Committee : was at it from live till two in the morning, nine mortal hours ! . . . . I passed my bill today, thank God I

FLATTERY FOR LORD JOHN: 1841.

I am soiry for your [Mr. Poulett Scrope's] sake, that Lord John quits Stroud ; but I honour and admire him more than ever for throwing himself thus into the thick even of the election-battle. He is, indeed, a LEADER. I wonder how long and often Peel would have weighed matters before he had consented to such a thing! The Liberal party ought to buy him an estate, or build him a house, or erect him a statue of gold. As for me, who am in ge- neral not given to enthusiasm, I cannot find terms for my admiration of his whole conduct. He seems to rise with every difficulty; and each speech or act seems unsurpassable till the next comes, and you find it still superior to its predecessors.

THE POWER AND WEAKNESS OF PEEL.

In England there is little to be done by me. At the Exchequer all that can be hoped is to get through some BAD tax. There is no chance of carrying the House with one for any great commercial reforms, timber, corn, sugar, &c. ; party and private interests will prevent it. If Peel were in, he might do this, as he could muzzle or keep away his Tory allies, and we should support him. If he got in and had courage, what a field for him! But he has not.

LORD SYDENHAM ON THE AMERICAN CHARACTER.

As far as I can judge from hearsay, and the observation which, as a neigh- bour, and Lavin,* pretty important business to do with them, I can make, 1 should say that'Marryatt is only too lenient to the Yankees in his Second Series. I do not mean in his criticisms upon their social habits. Spitting and cbawing, eating with their knives or bolting their meals, or sleeping three in other people's beds, are all disagreeable in their way, but regard only themselves or any unfortunate traveller : but 1 mean in greater matters. Their government seems to me the worst of tyrannies—that of the mob, supported by the most odious and profligate corruption. No man who aims at power dare avow an opinion of his own. He must pander to the lowest prejudices of the people; and in their parties, (the two great ones which now divide the Union, the Lo- cofocoes, and the Whigs,) the only object of the leading men of either is to instil some wretchedly low sentiment into the people, and then exploiter it for their own advantage.

There is scarcely a statesman of either who would not adopt the most violent or the basest doctrine tomorrow, if he thought that be could work it to ad- vantage with the majority. If you remember the character of the newspaper editor in Cooper's novel of Homeward-Bound, you have the type of the whole people, high and low. It is the corruption of Walpole's House of Commons

extended over a whole people. • •

The people being the direct bestowers of all, if not immediately at least in- directly, are adulated in the most disgusting and degrading way; and the trash from which an educated Minister or Boroughmonger in England would turn with disgust is greedily swallowed by them. The result, of course, is general debasement. Those who aim at place and power are corrupt and corrupters. The masses who bestow them are ignorant, prejudiced, dishonest, and utterly immoral. You will naturally say, under such circumstances, how is it that they advance so rapidly and so steadily ? It is the millions of acres of good land alone that does this. Exhaust the means by which all their unquiet spirits and ruined speculators now find a fresh field, and the bubble will burst at once. If they drive us into a war, (which, however, I do not think likely,) the Blacks in the South will soon settle all that part of the Union ; and in the North I feel sure that we can lick them to their heart's content.

coSvEnsION OF THE RED INDIANS.

Catlin is probably correct enough in his description of the Indians in their prairie or forest life. But I wish he had exhibited them in their demi-civilized state, in which I have the honour to be their Great Father,' as you probably have seen in the newspapers. They are ten times worse than when wholly savage. It has been a great mistake to attempt to settle or christianize them. Whether baptism alone will save their souls and send them to Paradise instead of their own traditional hunting-grounds, I cannot determine, but certainly their works will not. They have acquired the most disgusting vices of civilized life, and none of its refinements or advantages. They should be amalgamated with White men, and not separated, if they are not to remain in their wild state. I have a village of them eight miles from here, a perfect pest, and the most debauched, idle, and quarrelsome set of men and women in the country. The attempt has failed everywhere.

PAPER MONEY IN THE STATES.

If you want to see the full-blown benefits of unlimited paper-mills, you should come to this side of the water. There is an agio between every village and its next neighbour in the States and nothing circulates but things called Shin Plasters, notes of from one dollar to half a dollar. A dollar note is some- thing like a 50/. note with us—as rare and astonishing when you get a sight of one.

THE FALLS AND TEE YANKEES.

Here I am on my road to the West, and with the windows and balcony of my rooms facing the most magnificent sight on earth, with beautiful weather ; and if they would only give me a minute's respite from business and show, very much disposed to enjoy myself. I arrived on Sunday, and mean to complete my week nearly. As for attempting to describe the Falls, it is impossible to convey any idea of them. Vulgarly, they are only two great mill-dams, and in painting they can only appear No; but the effect they produce on the mind from their magnitude is indescribable.

We have a host of Yankees, either in the house or arriving daily from the opposite shore, a gun-shot off, to see Mr. Governor Thomson. You never saw or can imsgiue such a set of people ; but they are great fun. I gave them a review, yesterday, of the Ninety-third, a Highland regiment in kilts; which de- lighted them not a little, I guess. 1 overheard one of them say, I guess these Britisbers do it a'most as handsome as the Buffalo Citizen Militia!' Another said to me today, meaning, I presume, to pay me the highest compliment,

opiniate that you are very like our old Hickory' (Jackson)—" you downs them everlasting locusts of place-goers, and wo'nt stand no up but your own ' : pretty true, by the by. Yesterday, on the balcony, a Yankee lady was walking with her little girl : the child said, Mamma, I can't bear this.' Upon which mamma looked daggers at her, and said, 'How can you talk so before the Go- vernor? You should say, 1 can't tolerate this.' Such is their delicacy of language. What it is practically, you may imagine from the circumstance of my bed-rooms opening on a balcony that is common to the house, and there is not a young lady in the hotel who does not walk up and down staring into the window of the room, which is about eight feet square, every morning whilst I am going through all the processes of my toilet.

SHOW AND ITS TROUBLES.

In a private letter, dated 3d December 1839, he thus describes the ceremony of opening the session— "1 opened my Parliament today ; and really the matter was very Creditably

conducted. The Toronto Dragoons are not quite equal to the Life Guards, and Arthur's coach (for I did not bring myoquipages up here) not quite so smart as her Majesty's. But I flatter myself that I looked very regal on the throne, with my cocked-hat on ; and the hall of the Legislative Councnkat the House of Lords hollow. We had all the Toronto ladies, and heaps of fair Americaners, who came over for the Bight; and the Commons made as much noise, and looked as dirty, as they do in Westminster. So, upon the whole I think my Provincial Parliament finite as good as the old one.

"The worst part of the thing to me, individually, is the ceremonial. The bore of this is unspeakable. Fancy having to stand for an hour and a half bowing, and then to sit with one's cocked-hat on to receive addresses. Poor royalty! 1 learn to feel for it. Then the misery of always being on parade! When I get over the first blush, however, I hope to remedy this a little."

The dislike, philosophical or pretended, to the parade of great- ness, comes out again, and touchingly, as it describes his feelings a little while before the fatal accident that destroyed him.

"The removal to Kingston benefited his health in some degree, but could not effectually restore it. Be wrote on the 5th June, a few days after his ar- rival at Alwington House, (a private mansion on the edge of the lake, which bad been fitted up for his residence)— " 'After Montreal, the quiet of this place is delightful. I have a beautiful view of the lake, and grounds going down to it. For two years nearly, I have not been able to take a stroll without my hat, or without the sentinels present- ing arms; and I enjoy being able to do so amazingly. The worst, however, is, that I do not recover strength ; which hitherto I always did very rapidly after an attack. My work oppresses me as it never did before, and I am ready to bang myself half-a-dozen times • day. I am in the midst of the bustle at- tending the opening of the session, and have besides a Ministerial " crisis " on my hands. The latter I shall get through triumphantly, unless my wand, as they call it here, has lost all power over the Members ; which I do not believe to be the case. But the excitement and worry are more than I can stand in the present state of my health, and I do not know how it will end. I long for September; beyond which I will not stay, if they were to make me Duke of Ca- nada and Prince of Regiopolis, as this place is called."

Of his private life, after his election as a Member of Parliament in his twenty-seventh year, little or nothing is told in the volume, beyond what may be gathered, 83 in the above extracts' from his private letters. Before that time, the incidents of his career had some variety, though not of a striking kind in themselves. His father was the head of the celebrated mercantile firm of Thomson, BORAH, and CO. CHARLES EDWARD POULETT THOMSON, the subject of the memoir, was born in 1799; and, from "the perfection of childish grace and beauty" displayed in his person, not only be- came a family pet, but attracted the notice of GEORGE the Third, when the THOMSON and GUELPH families were sojourning at Wey- mouth. The future Lord SYDENHAM was never at either a public school or college ; he received all his education at a preparatory seminary, or a quasi private tutor's taking only a "few select pupils." His school education, however, terminated at sixteen ; when (1815) he was sent to St. Petersburg to occupy a desk in the branch of the firm which was established there. Here, says his brother, While not neglecting the tusiness he was there to learn, he yet eagerly entered into the amusements of society, to which his connexions and position gave him access; and in which his personal recommendations soon rendered him a special favourite with those of the Russian nobility and diplomatic corps then resident at St. Petersburg, who had the good taste to open their doors to the English. It was, no doubt, in these circles, and especially in the close intimacy which he was permitted at this period to enjoy with several polished and highly cultivated individuals then residing at St. Petersburg, such as Count Woronzoff, Count and Countess Sabloukoff, (very old friends of his family,) Princess Galitzin, &c., that he began to acquire that peculiar charm of manner and polished tone of society which distinguished him through life, and was no mean aid to advancement in his political career."

In 1817, ill health obliged him to quit St. Petersburg ; and he spent nearly two years in a Continental tour. On his return, he was placed in the London counting-house; where he soon got tired of com- merce and its ties, or perhaps boyishly ashamed of it, and he wanted to turn diplomatist ; but his family interest did not avail to procure him an appointment. In 1819, he again returned to St. Petersburg, as a partner ; remained there two years, and then made a circuitous tour in the interior of Russia to Odessa ; whence he travelled through Poland to Vienna: Here he spent the winter of 1823-4; and was so delighted with the attractions of that luxurious capital, that there was some difficulty in getting him away to his mother's deathbed. In 1825, he embarked in the " bubbles " then afloat, especially in the El Dorado Mining Companies ; lost some money, and would have lost more but for the remonstrances of his elder brother and senior partner, ANDREW. Sickened of mercantile speculations, he turned his attention to politics and political economy ; got acquainted with WARBURTON, HUME, BOWRING, MILL, and BENTHAM ; studied political economy under M'Cnu.ocit; frequented "the Club " ; and in 1825 began (much to the dislike of his family) to cultivate the good opinions of the burgesses of Dover, to whom Dr. Bow- Nino had introduced him. The expected dissolution, however, did not take place till 1826; when Mr. PoimErr THOMSON was elected, at a cost of 3,000/. His early promise in Parliament as au advo- cate of HUSKISSON and Free Trade, his acceptance of the proffered office of Vice-President of the Board of Trade on the accession of Lord GREY'S Ministry, his election for Manchester, and his sub- sequent career, are known in the outline to any one who takes an interest in Lord SYDENHAM. It may be remarked, however, that Mr. SCROPE'S version of' his brother's appointment as Go- vernor-General of Canada, which represents him its having re- fused the Chancellorship of the Exchequer from preference of the Colonial mission, is much at variance with the common under- standing on the subject. Mr. SCROPE, too, occupies a good many paragraphs, in different places, exhaustive of the extra-wonderful powers which in fifteen years raised a merchant's son to a seat in the Cabinet and a Peerage. Analyzed, there is nothing wonderful in the case. Old Mr. Thomson, though a merchant, was of the class of merchant-princes ; his son, to sufficient comprehension of

mind and power of public speaking, added the industry and prac-

tical knowledge so rare among Whigs; took up a new view (of philosophical free trade) at the right time ; and, though not perhaps shrinking from avowing his principles, yet was he not a man of that uncompromilipg character who would risk much him- self or compel anybody'else to risk much for consistency. Add these to his own views in the following fair enough estimate of MACKINTOSH and himself, with a most thorough appreciation of his friends the Whigs, and the secret of his rise is eZEil'iy enough explained. The passage is an extract from his journal, after he had accepted the Governor-Generalship ; which gave him a little leisure for reading.

"Read Life of Sir James Mackintosh. It is a melancholy picture of talents— not misapplied, for he did good ; but failing to produce the effect they ought, either for the public or their possessor. With all his powers, he never achieved eminence, for want of perseverance. What a lesson I My recollection of him certainly does not justify the high reputation which he seems to have had among distinguished men who were his immediate contemporaries. But life, and especially the life of public men, has been far more active of late years: and his character was not that of an active man. He was more fitted to em- bellish society at Holland House, when there was time for literary and philo- sophical discussion, than for the duties of an active statesman in these latter days, or even for the conversation of those who now form society in the poli- tical circles in which I move, and which he then moved in. It is strange though, that I, who never had half his recommendations to the Whig aristocracy, and not a tithe of his talent, nor a hundredth part of his information, should have been in office with him as his superior, and for five years a Cabinet Minis- ter. I believe that the cause of this is to be found in the dependence of the one and the independence of the other. The knowledge that I wanted not office for the sake of money, nor patronage to procure me a seat, has done for me that which his superior talents and knowledge, wanting both, could not do." Mr. POULETT SCROPE praises his brother with a breadth and gusto not very often met with in biographies where the author is a near relation and a man of taste. According to him, Lord SYDENHAM was a sort of Admirable CarenTon—of elegant person, fascinating manners, courtierlike polish, a firm friend, pious Christian, and all the other virtues which flourish on tombstones. He is painted as a sort of stay to HUSKISSON, and a tutor to PEEL, who derived his Tariff from Thernsonian labours. This would have been better said by any one than a brother, even were it true ; but it is very far from true. As a Member of Parliament, Mr. Thomson was distinguished for some clever speeches in sup- port of the rising doctrine of Free Trade, in which general statistics with the floating knowledge he had picked up in business were skilfully applied to the questions before the House : but as a political economist, be was deficient in originality, and as a com- mercial minister, in largeness. So far from making any new discoveries in economical science, he wanted the independence of view which arises from well-considered study. SMITH and RICARDO, passed through 3'1'0'1...Loch, with a leaf out of Lord CONGLETON s book, were the extent of his science ; and his re- ductions in the Customs-duties, though very beneficial as far they went, were but improvements in matters of detail. His great home measure was establishing a School of Design for artisans. As respects the main object of the book, and the most conspicuous feature in Lord SYDENHAM'S career, his Canadian administration, the incautious reader of this volume will be liable to be misled. The Governor-General is represented (the cue being given in his private letters) as a paragon of perfection in contemplative and practical statesmanship. This is accomplished, first, by exaggerating the difficulties of a task which Lord Dinutem's mission and the miseries of civil war had made easy for any man of ordinary capacity in business, though it would have puzzled one of those nominees of the Horse Guards or the Admiralty to whom Colonial government is commonly intrusted ; secondly, by claiming credit for absolute success on all occasions, not excepting the very important cases in which Sir CHARLES BAGOT'S success has been entirely owing to the adoption of a policy opposite to that of his predecessor ; thirdly, by total silence as to the share of other people, such as Mr. MURDOCH himself, in the conception and execution of the work to be done ; fourthly, by undervaluing the force of circum- stances, and attributing every happy event to "management" by Lord SYDENHAM; fifthly, by curious adroitness (as, for example with respect to the question of "responsible government ") in giving to what was really Lord SYDENHAM'S unwilling concession to a specific popular demand, the semblance, not of a concession at all, but of a measure peculiarly Lord SYDENHAM'S and emanating from him ; sixthly, by keeping out of sight (except in one in- stance, where the Governor speaks of managing the members of the Assembly with "my wand ") the systematic and unscrupu- lous corruption which Lord SYDENHAM called " management"; and lastly, by such occasional disregard of truth as appears from the statement that he obtained the full consent of the French Canadians to the Union of the Provinces. This large deduc- tion from the claim to perfection as Governor of Canada, will be admitted on the spot, where all the truth is known ; and its accuracy is to some extent proved by the great difficulties which Lord SYDENHAM bequeathed to his successor, and the successful havoc (to which not the least allusion 'is made by his biographers) of Lord SYDENHAM'S arrangements which distinguished the brief administration of Sir CHARLES BAGOT. Still, no little credit is due to Lord SYDENHAM as Governor of Canada. The shout of derision with which his appointment was hailed in England, was obviously founded on an imperfect appreciation of the qualities which he exhibited when he became his own master, instead of serving the Whig aristocracy with cautious humility, This book shows him to have possessed readiness, earnestness, courage, and an untiring industry, which could not but accomplish much good in that augean stable of misgovernment, even though the object constantly in the Governor's view were his own glory. It had been better for his fame if his brother and secretary had not so zealously followed his lead in this respect ; for over-praise is proverbially more injurious than detraction. Yet they have almost entirely neglected to notice what time will pronounce to be the most remarkable feature of Lord SYDENHAM'S government of Canada,—namely, its singular independence of Colonial Office meddling, whereby the Governor was made really responsible for whatever he did or left undone. The important omission reminds us that one of Lord SYDENHAM'S biographers is a member of " this Office."