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Leader (1850-1860), 18th November 1854, Edition 2 of 2, Page 19, November 18, 1854.] THE LEADER. 1399

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      cinct but complete educational Manuals , by Professors of distinction , on Plane Trigonometry , Mechanics , and Hydrostatics ( Longman and Co . ); the Steppingstone to Animal and Vegetable Physiology , by Mary Shield ( Longman and Co . ) , a modest but not ineffective conversational introduction to the science of what the authoress not inaptly calls the " physical revelation" of the Creator-, an ¦ illustrated Byron ( Vizetelly and Co . ) , which would be better without the illustrations ; the first number of a new story , by Frank Pairlegh , called Harry Coverdale's Courtship , and What Became of It ; a temperate and reasonable pamphlet , by a Catholic Priest , on the reconciliation of science and religion ( Js Phjsic < il Science the Handmaid or the Enemy of the Christian Revelation ?) , by the Rev . James A . Stothert ( Marsh and Beattie , Edinburgh ); and an Essay , with the startling title of Ireland ' s Recovery , by a gentleman with the famous name of John Locke ( John W . Parker and Son ) , of which we may say a few words .

      We have been so used to hear of nothing but difficulty and agitation in connexion with Ireland , that the very title of this Essay is a recommendation which its contents do not disappoint . In twenty-four pages , supported by a copious and careful appendix of the data on which the Essay is founded , Mr . Locke discusses , with the closeness and precision of a practised statist , the convalescent symptoms of the " first flower of the earth , fisrt gem of the sea , " whose virtues and capacities have so long been a mere figure of speech for agitators , who lived on the sickness , and would have been ruined by the cure , of their distracted country . In emigration and its accompanying reparative , agencies of decreased pauperism and industrial progress , in a solvent proprietary , in a reproductive workhouse system , in practical educational efforts , in the rise of wages , in agricultural improvements , in social concord , in renewed commercial and manufacturing activity , in the development of national resources , in railway enterprise , and last , but not least , in the operation of the Encumbered Estates Commission , Mr . Locke discerns the slow but sure recovery of Ireland . Poor Ireland has been so much regarded as a hospital of incurables , and its doctors have been so generally mad-doctors , or quacks , that we may well be glad to meet with one who . feels the pulse -without shaking his head , and promises a cure without the alternative of killing .

      ^ 'Truth ' s Conflicts and Truth ' s Triumphs ; or , theSeven-leaded Serpent Slain , by Stephen Jenner , MJt . —an allegory , and a series of Essays of a theological tenor , directed , apparently , against Puseyism and other " serpents" in the Church of England .

      November 18, 1854.] The Leader. 1399

      November 18 , 1854 . ] THE LEADER . 1399

      Mr. Mooncalf Among The Authors. Recollec...

      MR . MOONCALF AMONG THE AUTHORS . Recollections of Literary Characters and Celebrated Places . By Mrs . Thomson . Author of " Memoirs of the Court of Henry VIII ., " & c , & c . Bentley . On turning to Mrs . Thomson ' s Preface , after looking through her two volumes of so-celled JtecollectiQ 7 is , it afforded us considerable relief and satisfaction to read the following explanatory sentence :- — " In venturing to offer , from ray own personal knowledge , reminiscences of some of the departed literati of England , I -wrote under the appellation of ' A . Middle-aged Man , ' in order that , by better disguising myself , I might at the same time express myself the more unreservedly . " Por Mrs . Thomson herself -we Slave a great respect . She has hitherto , as far as we know anything ' of her ¦ works , honestly enough , endeavoured to turn -what literary ability she possesses to the best account ; and we should have been very sorry if we had "been obliged to say to her , what we must positively say to some responsible person , in reference to the volumes before us . This person we now find xeady-made to our hands in the shape of " A Middle-aged Man ; " and we propose , in a critical point of view , to " collar" him forthwith , on the charge of having produced an extremely absurd and wretched book . To Mrs . Thomson herself , we respectfully bow our farewell at the outset . To Mrs . Thomson ' s assumed character we say : — "Come into court , and be judged ! You are , in a meek and mild way , one of the most arrant humbugs we have encountered for a long time past ; and you shall not show yourself in publi c with impunity . " Though the name of the " Middle-aged Man" does not appear , earnest investigation of his character , manners , habits , and style of writing , convinces us that he must certainly have been announced , when ho got himself asked to parties by his famous literary friends , as Mr . Mooncalf . By that name ire will call him—subject of course to correction , if we have made any mistake , and if he will honour us by leaving his card at the office of this journal . We consider Mr . Mooncalf to be a humbug , because , by his own confession > lie knows next to nothing of most of the literary characters about whom he protends to inform the public in his soft and slip-slop way . He begins with Dr . Maginn . " I saw him one evening , " says Mr . Mooncalf ; " how well I remember it ! and with what throes and throbs the remembrance is even now recalled ! " What wont on to produce all these " throes and . throbs" in what our author , a little further on , touehingly calls his " eldex'ly heart ? " Did Maginn and Mooncalf burst into tears and fall on each other ' s necks ? Nothing of tho sort . Mooncalf was not even introduced . A ¦ circle of admurors stood round Maginn . Mooncalf pottered about outside the . circle , looked , listened , passed on—nnd there was tin end of it for that time . Again , Mooncalf meets Maginn , looking shabby , at a friend ' s house . Maginn does not oven glance at him—bo shuts down a window—Maginn ( don't bo excited I ) anys , "Thank you "—and , on the friend coming inlo the room , adds , " 1 am going out of town . " Whereupon , " sorrow , sickness ., weariness of 6 pirit , embarrassed circumstances , and a mournful list of Qt « efcor « a , " suggest themselves to Mooncalf , and lie runs " down thu dingy stairs with a mournful conviction that adversity with her rapid strides had overtaken poor Mnginn . " On the third occasion , ho actually gots a day ' s talk with tho doctor , who ontora into a narrative of a duel in which he was engaged , ami epcuka of a certain " bcatou and nflnghtod publisher ? IIi a lip , Trrhile talking on this latter topic , " quivered , his frame writhed , a tour

      dimmed his eye , " & c . & c . Under these distressing circumstances , what does Mr . Mooncalf do ? " Eleven o ' clock came , and I rushed into the street . " What else ? "I saw Maginn no more . " On Coleridge Mr . Mooncalf is wonderfully strong . He sat on Colerid « -e ' a knee ; he heard Coleridge tell the story of Mary of Buttermere , with ° the tears running down his cheeks all the time , and " a circle" ( there is always * ' a circle" in Mr . Mooncalf ' s recollections ) " of admiring and sympathetic young women" for audience . Coleridge paid a visit at a house , and Mooncalf was in that house at the time . Coleridge lectured , and Mooncalf was among the audience . Any more evidences of Mooncall's intimate knowledge

      of Coleridge , and perfect fitness to inform the public accordingly ? No more . Let us wipe our eyes after Mary of Buttermere , and get on to Mackintosh . Mooncalf has only a " dawning acquaintance" here , when he is so fortunate as to fall ill . His " disease" resembles " at first the fatal disease of which Mackintosh ' s favourite daughter had died . " Mackintosh in consequence calls to inquire after him , and lends him books . He gets convalescent , and peeps out of the window at Mackintosh walking in the garden . He gets well , and dines in Mackintosh ' s company . Anything more in the way of familiar knowledge of this " literary character ? " Nothing more . Take away Mackintosh , and bring in Campbell .

      Our readers will be glad to hear , on the indisputable authority of Mr . Mooncalf , that Lochiel was thus composed : — " The rhymes -were written first , and the lines filled in afterwards ! " They will be grieved to hear that Mooncalf , when young , read the Pleasures of Hope , and then angled all day , ¦ " seated with the bearish inconsiderateness of-boyhood , on the very centre of the middle step" ( of some house—Campbell's , as far as we can guess ) , " witn my great feet on the lower one , my stupid eyes fixed on . my line . " One day , these " stupid eyes" saw Campbell disembarking from a boat . "I ran" cries Mooncalf , " for my life ; the neatly-chiselled profile was all I could perceive . " Another day , Mooncalf calls for a friend in a hackney-coach . The friend comes down stairs . Heaven and earth ! Mr . Campbell is with him , and jumps into the coach . " Mr . Campbell and I , ' s ays miserable Mooncalf , " sat side by side , nay friend opposite . I was

      again disappointed , for Campbell never turned his face to me—I saw nothing but the faultless and beautiful outline of his profile . " Anything more ? Yes . A Literary Fund Dinner at the Freemason ' s Tavern . " It is there , * writes Mooncalf , rapturously sycophantic , " that I have mourned with the accomplished Lord Carnarvon over the monstrous cruelty of the dog-cart ; and my blood has boiled at the recitals in the Cruelty to Animals' meetings . It is there that Sussex was , and Camh'idge is , perennial chairman . It was there that this far-famed literary dinner took pliice . I crept in among the humble ! " Oh , Mooncalf 1 Mooncalf 1 " Among the humble "—after curdling our loyal blood by talking of two Royal Dukes as " Sussex" and Cambridge !"—But what went on at the dinner ? Among other things , Campbell tried to make a speech , and broke down , and was groaned at , and Mooncalf -was indignant , and Campbell died some time afterwards , and Mooncalf saw him once before he died . So end the author ' s personal recollections of Campbell .

      Other " recollections , with some ideas and moral views of Mr . Mooncalf ' s , we must lump together generally . He writes of Genius , that " she ought to have some one to look after her affairs "—of drunkenness ( when it is the drunkenness of a poet ) , that it is " a dark shadow wliicli the righteous might venture to pity , tho rigid to forgive "—of Mrs . Siddons , that she was " a splendid specimen of humanity "—of Letitia Landon , that she " bowled her hoop in one hand , and created verses at the same time "—of the history of the gifted , that it is " a mournful history ' —of Sir Thomas Lawrence , that " he looked more Hlce the Star of the West than the plodding artist "of G . I . R . James , that " one strives to see in liim the lofty annalist of the Field of the Cloth of Gold " - —of Reynold's Portraits of Ladies , that they " bequeath to us the memory of the graceful matroo , and of the feminine young creature just emerging into maturity in the higher ranks ' —of the Essay on Theodore Hook ' s Life , in the Quarterly Review , that he ( Mooncalf ) " could not recover it for days "—and of Sir Walter Scott , that " he never could have written a modern English novel .

      We have nearly done with Mr . Mooncalf ; but we cannot possibly let him go till we have exhibited him in one of the amorous phases of his disposition . He falls in love—of course with fi " literary character . ' In fact , with no leaa a person than the once famous and now forgotten poetess , " L . E . L . " Mr . Mooncalf is introduced to the beloved object by that old-established transactor of general mortal business , " Futc . " He gets a commission in tho army- —is ordered to Canada—goes to take leave of "L . E . L . "—finds her " chatting with an antique lady of literary fame" about going to a partyfears ho ia "da trop" - —feels " stupid" and " choked" —shakes hands , goes down Blairs—is followed by "L . E . L . " with a little book , " Tia my first poem , " she said ; " perhaps you will be so very good as to read it—I balleve no one eke has . " ( Hew accurately " L . 10 . L .. " hud taken Mr . Mooncalf's

      exact mental measure !) The year 18 UO arrives , and with it Mooncalf from Canada . He goes to a < linncr party , and ia , of course , tho first , in his regular capacity of bore , to "join the ladies "—" a crow , " as ho saya of himself , " among a covey of ddioato wood-pigeons . ' * Tho door opens . "A lady , young and fuir , and dressed in that style that murkfl a mixture with nil sorts of society , came into the cirdc . " ( Circle again !) MooneaJ /' . having become " uncouth ia ideas from long ramblings , " in affected to tuurn . Ho does not believe that the adored pootio objuut cares for him ; but ho , becomes her fust friend , and visits h « r connt . antlyuta houHe-whore oliu hoards with " three maiden ladies and a venerable father , " Ofton him Mooncalf found hor in the dingy garden" of that house , ' * taking breath from tho hot presence of a reviewer . " Why "Jiot ? " Hut lot us proceed . Mooncalf goes abroad again , comes buck , and finds "LE . L . " i » bud spirits , thinking society

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 18, 1854, page 19, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_18111854/page/19/