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Leader (1850-1860), 10th May 1856, Edition 2 of 2, Page 17, r MOORE'S JOURNALS. Jkfemoirs, Journals,...

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      :. .;.-,:, : The Oxford Essays: Oxfbi-Cl...

      spirit of Roman antiqaiity ; though Herculean efforts are made to show that they were more rational -when made by the lover of Cleopatra than they would have been if made by Cato . The- measures which he took for the purpose of recruiting and stimulating Koman population , admitted on all hands to have been futile in themselves , dearly indicate a design of repairing and ? strengthening , not of merging-the dominant j ace of which their , author had become the chief . His extension of the freedom of the city to hisi own province of . < 3 aulj and to bis favourite legion , Alauda , and his introduction of a" number 1 « f . his own Gallic officers into the senate , were clearly measures of rpersonal policyylike Syila ' -s enfranchisement of his political army of Cornelii : and the bestowal of a gprrrilege on aparticular province , so far from implying that all privileged were to be abolished , implied : distinctly that they were to be retained . The gift of citizenship ' to all men of seience was a more generous measure , but even this is i wflS nofc at all in the secret of the cosmopolitan dicta tor

      jstaiedVby Suetooius ' C - . - Bbip ) , tohavehadfor . itaobject the increase of population in the city . But what do theJSebiGsesaieanB eay to : the creation of a new batch of patrician houses ? How do they-find-a . placf efottilis in % \ m democratic theory ? We could furnish them , if they will with a ; very ready , though ^ commonp lace explanation , and even with an historical analogy ,, if they please , in the aristocracy recently created by his democratic majesty , King Suluk . But do these measures , all taken together , amount to , or indicate any real-attempt to deal with the great evils of the Roman world ? _ They display ^ no doubt , a genius for government and national organization , acting in the plenitude of that despotic power which enables even mean capacities to become , in the eyes of the educated vulgar , the master-spirits of their age . But can they soberly be said to display conceptions at all beyond the reach of any able Roman of that age ? Can they be said to display conceptions equal in liberality to those which are found in the political philosoph y of Cicero ?

      ] M^ Lqyl8gfo3 The L'Eadeb, 449

      ] M ^ lQyl 8 gfo 3 THE L'EADEB , 449

      R Moore's Journals. Jkfemoirs, Journals,...

      r MOORE'S JOURNALS . Jkfemoirs , Journals , and Correspondence of Thomas Moore . Edited by the Right ¦ Hon . Lord John Eussell . Vols VII . and VIIL Longman and Co .

      ( Second Notice . ) One night in the stalls of the Italiens at Paris , a musical , but obtrusive ^ Frenchman , was humming -with great content the lovely Pria che spunti , which Rubini then was-singing . An irate Italian , close by , exclaimed : Che Tjestia ! The musical gentleman , flashing looks more indignant than his tones , demanded " Qui ga , monsieur . '"'' Whereupon the Italian , looking him steadily in the face , replied , with cruel politeness , " Cest Rubini , quim ' empeche cTentendre monsieur . We have always regarded this as the perfection of epigrams , so perfect in its sarcasm , and yet" so thoroughly keeping within the limits of politesse . A somewhat similar story is told by Moore : — Oue night when John Kemblewas performing , at some country theatre , one of his most favourite parts , he was much interrupted , from time to time , by the squalling of a young child in one of the galleries . At length ; angered by this rival performance , Kemble walked with solemn step to the front of the * tage , and , addressing theandrence in his -most tragic toneSj said , " Ladies and gentlemen , unless tkepley is stopped tke cliilrt cannot possibly go on . " The effect on the audience of -this earnest interference , in favour of the child , may be easily conceived . Here is a fragment of literary gossip from one of the letters written by Hogers : —

      Campbell , lives at Sydenbam , writing for the booksellers , and anything-, I believe , but poetry . The Late people seemed to be completely silenced by the broadsides -of the Edinburgh Revie-w . " Jeffrey has been lately in town , though I missed him . In his way hither he stopped at Keswick , and saw Southey and Coleridge . He seems to have been dazzled by the rhetoric of Coleridge , whom be had never seen before . W . Scott has made 10 , 000 / . by his poem [ The Lady of the Lake ] ! and will , I dare say , double the sum . And here we have MOORE UPON ROGERS . Rogers and I had n very pleasant tour of it , though I felt throughout it all , as I

      always feel with him , tliat the fenr of losing his good opinion almost embitters the possession of it , and that though , in his society , one walks upon roses , it is with constant apprehension of the thorns that are among them . . He left me rather out of conceit with my poem , " Lalla Rookh" ( as his fastidious criticism generally docB ) , and I have returned to it with rather an humbled spirit ; but I have already onco altered my whole plan to please him , and I will do so no more , for I should make as long a voyage of it as his own " Columbus" if I attended to all his objections . His general opinion , however , of what I have done is very flattering ; he only finds fault with , every part of it in detail ; and this you know is the style of hie criticism of characters— " an excellent person , but "

      And here is eoqebs aossirriNo on the " quarterly . " A month ago Gifford called to communicate confidentially his design to publish immediately a Review on the plan of the " Edinburgh , " to lie called the " London Review . " I must confess I heard of it with pleasure , as I thought it might correct an evil we have long lamented together . lie wishes much for contributions , and all contributors ( as is the case with the " Edinburgh Review" ) are to be paid indiscriminately . He is exceedingly anxious that you should assist him as often as you can afford time . You may choose what book to review you like ( and you are to receive twenty guineas for every sheet of lettor-presa ) , subject , however , to any alterations and corrections whatever of the Editor , who is to retain an unlimited control , as Jeffrey retains nt Edinburgh ; a very proper regulation I think . I gave him great holies of you ( as w 6 ll fas some of myself ) , And ho has since sent Iloppnc-r to me onco or twice to urge me to write to you on tlic subject . Somo eircuinstances which I have since learnt must , however , bo state *! to you . They affect my mind a little , and not a little . It havo iven offence to the

      seems the politics of Jeffrey ' h " Review" long g great Government party , particularly at Edinburgh ; and Walter Scott , who formerly wrote in it priwtipwlly in the quizzing department , lms on that ncwunt ( and perhaps for some private reasons ) withdrawn hi » eountenmico and support . At the desiro of some persons . in power , particularly Canning aud the Lord Advocate ho has written a very long letter on th < j , aubject to gifford ( which I havo hcch ) , detailing , ubly enough , the plan on which the . Review should bo conducted , and pressing the scheme upon ( r . oa a good dc & jidcratuin « 1 to counteract tha deleterious principles of tbo ' Edinburgh . Review . ' " At this I took alarm ; but Gifford nspuros mo that though of course the politics will be Ministor UH it will by no menns bo a principal object ; ami ho Uoalroa m © to assure you so . However , I confess it shakos mo a little , though Hoppjw , , who in very anguine about it , doaB not think it should . I have , now , at their ardent desire , made my report to you . i ' When I &*»*> l »»« ted your , name toG , ho jumped at the < iound , ami I bfelieve haa noti alopt pluco * Ui » intention ifl , to pay ten guineaa » sheet , but thp . Edinburgh pooplo . * p * y twouty , and ho ohoqrfully ngroon , to it in your instunco . It # cema Brougham ' s Review , of , Ccvallos bam blown Edinburgh , into a blazKj , and liatfl

      have been taken from house to house to collect the signatures of those who would , engage no longer to take it in . All this in confidence , of course , as the secret is not my

      own . The Letters are not very amusing , but some of them deserved a place in the work . Those of Leigh Hunt strike us as being among the very best , and we will give this slight article of ours the benefit of the wise and delicately-worded objection which Lejgb , Hunt makes in one of < them , pa the change in tone from Little tfie Xpunger , to Thomas Moore : — I think you overshot the mark in making repentance a better thing than a wish t < make amends . Repentance is undoubtedly a very good and delicate thing ia some minds , and should reasonably make the amende when they are not to be made other wise ; but , generally speaking , it is mere , regret f o r . the loss of something on one ' s own part , not a social and . just feeling ; it is as much as to . Bay—I ' m very sorry I missed the plum-cake I might have had . The world , ' £ ., think , does not want repentance , especially for the more kindly errors ; it wanU kindUness ' itself , yNsetfisTiness , justice , imagination , good taste , love and'friendship--all that leads it to think of one another , —in short , gain for all , as opposed to gain for the individual .

      Calvinistic readers , and readers of a sour mind who like to see otners miserable and repenting , and even take a sort of fierce pleasure in it' themselves , will pronounce this passage heretical and calculated' " to sap trie very foundations of morality , " but every one else will echo the saving , «' the world does not want repentance , it wants kindliness . " A little further on Leigh Hunt continues : — . , , ; ..., I would have no insincerity , no such thing as seduction , no gross selfishness of any sort ; I would only have the world think as well as they can of all the gentler impulses , and as badly as they can of all the violent , the proud , and the exclusive ones : but as the majority go on at present ( though somewhat shaken by philosophy ) they proceed upon the blessed absurdity of making as much guilt as they can out of the former , and surrounding the latter with all sorts of ' pride , pomp , and circumstance . " True indeed ! the ai"t of making as much guilt as possible is an art much cultivated by those whose profit comes from terror at guilt . From Lord John ' s Postscript we learn : —

      The literary works of which Mr . Moore was the author had yielded him considerable sums for copyright—not less in the whole , he says , in the ninth volume of his Diary , than 20 , 0007 . But these sums had all been exhausted by his yearly outgoings . He had a pension from the Crown of 300 / . a year , . but this pension ceased with his death . As a provision for his widow , he left only his Diary and Letters , —commending them to my care . I applied immediately to Mr . Longman , his publisher , who informed me that he was prepared to give 3000 / . for the copyright . I found that for this sum Mrs . Moore could secure an annuity for the remainder of her life not less than the income upon which she and her husband had lived frugally and quietly for the last years of his life ; I therefore undertook the task , reserving to myself the power of ewnngingany passages I might think calculated to wpund individuals , or offend the public , taste . ¦ < ¦

      With those who know not the improvident habits of our improvident race , and the titful precarious way in which money conies to them , these statements will discredit Moore : 20 , 000 Z . is a fortune , and a pension of 3001 . a year , for life , might have enabled Moore to insure , one would think . But we must remember that the 20 , 000 / . which makes this round sum came to him in small sums , at uncertain intervals . We must also remember that besides , his aristocratic society , he had a eon to keep in the army . Items like these make it very intelligible that Mrs . Moore should have been left without a provision .

      A Primitive Republic. The Border Lands O...

      A PRIMITIVE REPUBLIC . The Border Lands of Spain and France . With an Account of a Visit to the JRepnblic of Andorre . Chapman and Hall . In this volume there are some really new and instructive sketches of travel . The wrjter , to all appearance , ha < l followed the Handbooks as far as they would lead him , when he determined to leave the fashionable highways of the Continent , and strike into the seclusions of the Pyrenees . Parts of that mountain-chain have been often and well described . Others , not the least interesting , have been passed over by tourists of all nations , the English especially . With the Basque , Beurnais , and Catalonian provinces wo are familiar : but we know less of the Cagots , the people of Cerdagne and

      Roussillon , and , abovo all , of the independent commonwealth of Andorre . Across the early history of this little state flashes a glimmer of the Moorish wars . In its archives exist the original sign-manuals of Charlemagne , with documents attesting the fidelity of the Carlovingian annalists . The institutions of Andorre have equalled in duration the temporal power of the Papacy , and are founded upon charters more ancient by Jtour hundred years than the political title-deeds extant in any state of Italy or Germany . Before penetrating to this sequestered commonwealth , the tourist rambled through the more unfrequented valleys of the Pyrenees , rich in monuinent 6 of nnlitic . il archieoloffv . The Castle of the l'lantagenets , the Chateau de

      Marrac , the triple gates and trenches of Bayonne , areiound wjthm the familiar lines of historical research ; but beyond them , the Basque populations , on the Fionch and Spanish borders , stand in the twilight of antiquarian and philological research , for their traditions and language , unchanged since Ronoesvalles , are among the perplexities of modern learning . Though not independent , like the people of Andorre , they are as isolated and as peculiar , and Bufiiciently mysterious for Humboldt to identity their dialect with the primj .-tive vernacular of Spain , while by Borrow it ia traced to thoMantchu-Tartar stem Every Basque esteems himself noble , but , though as proud as a Spaniard , he is an industrious as a Swiss , and nurses with jealous k > ve the relics of liberty that still haunt and hallow the Pyrenees . , ( The Bearnaie , speaking a Romance dialect , are quite distinct , in manner ? and character , from the Basques , but altogether as pequhar . lhey are lry ^ illustration of the middle ages ; their . language is German , muted w ^ h * TA ,.. »« n . Arnliio . and Latin : their yon-rs are hereditary and mythological ;

      in their traditionary customs may bo traced the symbolism , of the Iiomant » c period , with , a tinge ol mystic fancy , They cherished , through the tumultuous eras of the Reformation and tho Revolution , principles oi socud mutuality , which prevented the immoral development of influence among particular classes . Yet , in Beam * us elsewhere along the Jsrench and Spanish border landa , tho contrast i « viable between tbo political conditions under which

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), May 10, 1856, page 17, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_10051856/page/17/