LORD FLOYSHAM.*
Tars is a perplexing book ; but in the stream of novels written by recipe—and very good recipes are those of Mr. Payn or Mr. Black, or even Miss Braddon—it at least fixes the attention when we meet so different a book as is this from any others. It is in two thin volumes, " smaller than Nature," casual remarks in it run to two pages, and the hero is " enamoured " with Grandisonian delicacy. His " flame " is of Danish birth but South American training, and she unites the fires of the Tropics with the sentimentality that is bound to belong to any one with the name of Amalie. The author does not, we imagine, rely on his plot to give his novel interest ; it is so attenuated that it barely lives even through four hundred pages, and it may be understood by a mere list of the persons concerned. We have
• Lord Ploys/nom By P. G. Walpole. London: Chapman and Hall. 1586.
a didactic and humorous nobleman, and his sister, a lady of quality, both very amiable ; and also a brisk but well- conducted Captain of Life Guards, whose name, Charlie Luttrell, as much belongs to him in the fitness of things as his craft in fascinating the fair sex, his drawing-room diplomacy, and ingenuous politics. Adcla Thornton, his be- loved, is the female of the male; discreetly lively in her capture of Charlie, and in her conciliation of "the Uncle," Sir Charles Luttrell, who, a county magnifico, holds for the young pair the keys of their paradise, and who after a rosewater siege of which he is unconscious, admits them to the satisfactions of money and Mayfair.
Every personage of the story is so thoroughly "in the swim," that the mere suggestion of exile from it is sufficient to create the element of tragedy which should be the background for love-affairs. To be, or not to be dans le mouvement ? is the vexed question of the Hamlets of Pall Mall. The loves of the second hero, who is the Spruchsprecker of the book, with Amelia Galvarez remain latent, as is strictly proper, until a revolution in his Republic of Guirana carries Mr. Galvarez beyond all ties of marriage. Then, with some difficulty, the ice on which Lord Floysham has skated, and which, indeed, was always thick enough to defy alike Cupid and Mrs. Grundy, is broken, and every one lives happy in this worst of bad worlds. Though he wears the mask of cynic contempt for the "sins and shameses " of Piccadilly and St. James's, we do not believe in Mr. Walpole's pessimism ; and this is a carious circumstance, as modern novels go. In most of them, their authors praise their puppet personages to the skies, and rail at their environ- ment, and are eloquent over the painful riddle of the earth ; while Mr. Walpole, with old-fashioned, even archaic satire, belabonre the unprincipled make-believes of men and women, while between the lines he allows his faith in the saving power of the Christian salt to show plainly. He indulges in club- window observation, bat, like his hero, Lord Floyeham, he hugs his Thomas a Kempis all the time he is describing the selfish pretences and foibles of the people in the street. The specimens of them he has selected as dramatis 1301'801103 are all fairly good, while some are high on the ladder to Heaven. Some of his chapters might be essays in a Taller of the early Georgian era ; as well written, with as little "gush," but certainly less cheery. We accept the amusing sketch of finance and politics in a South American Republic as probably true enough. Its diplomatic agents " were in a great measure dependent upon the sale of decorations to small traders at foreign ports, who flew the flag of the Republic over their street-doors to notify that they held the distinguished posts of Consular Agents for that State." Railway schemes were found the surest bait for European in- vestors ; and when a line was pitched on, uo matter in what direction, between the capital and the interior, it was necessary that the works should " take root " at the furthest point, because "the land could be easily appropriated by the State in these parts, and if the Indians destroyed a bridge or blocked a tunnel, it would be the misfortune but not the fault of the Government." But while satire at the expense of Guirana is comfortable reading, Mr. Walpole's minute descrip- tion of his Guardsman's election is less agreeable, and does small credit to the various Reform Bills since Tatter times. Charlie Luttrell's first impressions of the House of Commons are sad- dening to the ingenuous mind, and take us back to the inepti- tudes of the Rump, or the dodging of a hundred years since, without a " Junius " to clear the air. About " Questions," Lord Floysham says :— " The object of most questions consists merely in the asking of them ; many questions had to be asked to oblige some one or more of the Member's constituents ; and, although the question might be framed with malice in order to please the said constituents, the Member sincerely hoped that it would elicit a satisfactory reply, and that be would, at all events for a time, be left in peace. Some questions are put by a Member with the object only of bringing himself into notice ; and as in this case the Member always takes care to put a safe question, with the apparent object of benefiting the State, he is quite indifferent as to the answer. Just such a question was put to-night by the Member for Smellfungus when he asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer for explanation why the Indian expenditure for the year under the bead of sealing-wax exceeded that of the previous year by fourteen shillings and twopence. If you will look at the Smellfungue Gazette of to-morrow, yon will sees paragraph, set in the largest type, headed Our Local Member,' with the question and answer printed verbatim, and followed by some complimentary editorial remarks on the praiseworthy public spirit displayed by the honourable Member. This fourteen-and-twopence-worth of sealing- wax will give political life to the Member for Smellfungus for at leach three months, but with no end of ulterior possibilities. At the next election, for instance, the incident will be availed of ; but the frog will by that time have become an ox ; and the electors of Smell- fungus will be reminded of the labour bestowed by the honourable Member in dissecting the Indian Estimates, and that his timely interference was the means of arresting a most lavish expenditure, which was believed in well-informed circles to be sapping the foundation of our Indian Empire."
Yet Mr. Walpole denies that such questions are waste of time,— "If the Tories are in power they fill up the time ; in fact, they are a sort of boon to a Tory Ministry, whose motto is quiets non movers, while they impede the pranks of a Liberal Government ; and if it were not for the opposition, reasonable and unreasonable, and the various distracting influences which are always at work, we might see the Bishops topped off the Constitution on Monday, the Moose of Lords on Tuesday, and the Throne in a posture of defence on Wednesday."
So Tory is Mr. Walpole ! Our vanity is not flattered,
as the author, in his leisurely, indifferent way, gives us thesis after thesis of discouragement. It is as strange to meet fragments of the Imitation embedded throughout this painful mosaic of discontent, as to see a bride at a buriaL The thread of mysticism which runs through Lord Floysham's reveries is no doubt in fashion among people who need some relief from spiritual nihilism, as it is commonly present in devout and convinced souls; but Mr. Walpole is not without courage when he applies the wisdom of that truest Thomas to whom the Imitation is ascribed, to the conduct of diplomacy and political finance. The author of this singular book is, indeed, unusually logical in his application of principles. An enthusi- astic Free-trader is made to exclaim with evident approval :—
" Economia principle cannot be wrong. Now, just look at religion. What are State Churches but protection engines of hypocrisy when they persecute ? And if they don't persecute, what is their raison &dire ? A State Church, I say, that does not persecute is an absurdity : it can only be defended on the ground that it is infallible in all matters of doctrine ; and if it does not claim to be infallible, what right has it to tax the community iu order to promulgate doctrine P"
The author's faith in Free-trade dogma is unlimited. During another discussion, he says, in his analytic way, that Protection is only another word for Socialism ; at all events, it is a very efficacious way of giving effect to the Socialist creed, for,—
" If A wants an article which he can obtain for 5e. if the eopply be unlimited—and if B, who is a countryman of A's and a manufacturer of the article A requires, is protected by an import duty so as to enable B to charge 6a. for it—the result, as regards .A, is to confiscate one of his shilling's and transfer it to B's pocket. It is robbing Peter to pay Paul. You, my dear Devine, are no doubt in their eyes a Peter ; and the Tories, by giving effect to their protective theories, will ho playing into the hands of the Socialists, who are all Pauls, with an eye on Peter."
Our readers will have found in these passages that the book is not without attraction for the numerous unquiet souls who are vexed by our urgent social problems. Many of this year's novels are ringing with sound of probable change in the old order of England. It is threatening as is the murmur of a ground-swell under a calm surface of sea. The strong religious conviction underlying these fragments of somewhat dry satire, distinguishes Mr. Walpole from the common herd of hopeless novelists who tear human passion to tatters in a kind of despairing rage that the divine sanctions of it no longer exist, and that therefore no violence of words can henceforth make it really tragic. If we had space, we should quote two curious pages of casuistry which show the unusual bent of Mr. Walpole's mind. It is, indeed, the author's personality which interests, rather than his fictitious personages. His leisurely humour and curious ideas give Lord Floysham interest. He is evidently sure of his own standpoint in faith and morals ; but he is no enthusiast of humanity, and he has none of the Comtist faith. We are not sure whether his bitterness is tonic or depressing ; but certainly ho has, as he says of his hero, " a keen appreciation of the follies, absurdities, and want of principle which so largely govern the world in which he lives." The tone of the book is distinctly and even nobly religious, but satire "on the side of the angels," though no doubt useful and legitimate, leaves the reader some- what puzzled. Lord Floysham is, however, a sincere and uncon- ventional series of essays, and as such, rather than as a novel, it deserves to be read. If the book sees a second edition, its author will doubtless correct some errors in the French he uses some- what too freely.
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