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    What is the case with Boswell ' s Letters , ' which our contemporaries have received with so much enthusiasm ? As far as the external evidence goes , never was a publication entitled to less credit . ' Observe , ve do not pronounce these Letters not to be authentic . They may be the veritable letters of James Boswell , discovered in the way stated by the editor ; on a question so delicate we naturally refrain from expressing an opinion . We have no proof that they are not authentic ; but—and here lies the whole difficulty —we have absolutely no guarantee for their authenticity - To enable our readers to form an opinion on the point , we will extract tlie whole of the preface to this volume , wherein is narrated the discovery of the Letters : —

    The Letters of James Bo swell , contained in the present volume , came into _ the tanas of the Publisher under the following circumstances . A feiir years ago a clergyman hiving occasion to bay some , small articles at . the shop of Madame B oel , at Boulogne , observed that the paper in which they were wrapped iras the fragment of an English letter . Upon inspection , a date and some namres were discovered ; and further investigation proved , that the piece of paper in question -was part of a correspondence , carried on nearly a century feefore , between tne Biographer of Dr . Samuel Johnson and his early friend , the Rev . William Johnson Temple . On mafeimj inbeen taken from

    quiry , it was ascertained that this piece of paper had a large parcel recently purchased from a h awker , who -was in the habit of passing through Boulogne once or twice ft year , for the purpose of supplying the different shops with , paper . Beyend this no farther information could be obtained . The-whole contents of the pareel -were immediately seeared . The majority of the Letters bear the London and Devon postmarks , and " aid franked hy well-known names of that period . Besides those written by Boswell which are here published , were found several from Mr . NichoHs , Mr . Claxton , and ether persons alluded to in the following pages , as -well as a few unfinished Sermons and Essays by Mr * . Temple .

    happy to pass my life with her ; but if she does not incline to it , I can bear it cequo animo , retire into the calm regions of philosophy . She is indeed extremely pretty , and possessed of every amiable qualification ; she dances , sings , and plays upon several instruments equally well , draws with a great deal of taste , and reads the best authors ; at the same time she has a just regard for true piety and religion and behaves in the most easy , affable way . Slie is just sxich a young lady as I could wish for the partner of my soul ; and you know that is not every one ; for you and I have often talked how nice we would be in such . a choice . I own I can haTe but little hopes , as she is a fortune of thirty thousand pounds . Heaven knows that sordid motive Is farthest from my thoughts . She invited me to come and -wait upon her , so I went last -week and drank tea . I was kindly entertained , and desired to come when convenient . I have reason to believe she has a very good opinion of me *

    and , indeed , a youth of my turn has a better chance to gam . the affections of a lady of her character tljan of any other ; but ( as I told you before ) my mind is in such an agreeable situation , that being refused -would not be so fatal as to drive me to despair , as your hot-brained romantic lovers talk . No : v , my dear friend , I sincexely ask ten thousand pardons for giving you the trouble of this long narration ; but as it is a thing that concerns me a good deal , I could not but communicate it to you , and I know , when I inform you how happy it makes me to open my mind , you will forgive me . Pray never speak of it : you are the only person knows of it , except Mr . love , who reads with her , and takes every unsuspected method to lend me his friendly assistance . Oh Willie 1 how happy should I be if she consented , some years after this , to make me blest ! How transporting to think of such a lady to entertain you at AucMnleck I

    Can one not also fancy one hears him utter this noble sentiment when , about to set forth on his travels : ~ My father has allowed me 60 ? . a quarter , —240 ? . a year : that is not a great allowance , but -with economy I may live very well upon it , for Holland is a cheap country . However I am . determined not to be straitened , nor to encourage the least narrowness of disposition as to saving money , but will draw upon my father for any sums I find necessary . One word in conclusion : we have raised a question of some importance relative to this work , and foresee that we may involve ourselves in an interminable controversy unless limits be assigned beforehand . We have stated our doubts and difficulties ; and unless those can be removed by the production of positive evidence , we shall enter into no collateral discussions of probability , ' ' internal evidence , ' or what ' eminent critics' may think . The question is wholly and simply one of personal guarantee ; what is wanted is a statement of names , dates , and localities .

    At the death of the purchaser of these Letters they passed into the hands of a nephew , from whom the Editor obtained them ; and in the present form they are now submitted to the Public . This may be the simple truth , strange as it appears ; but -when such a narrative is submitted to the investigation of even friendly scepticism , the utter want of guarantee , the vagueness , and suspiciousness of the statements must be noticed . Who is , or "was , the clergyman ? What was his name , where did he live , what -were his antecedent * ? No reserve of modesty ought to prevent a maa ' s name being given in . such a case . On his veracity must depend our belief . If he is known to- he a man of integrity , incapable of <» llttsk > Ti ia a trick o-f literary forgery , the publication of his name would cariysome . authoritywith . it . But , unhappily , no name is given ; clergyman , nephew , and editor , all are anonymous ; and the public has a right to know , who all three actually are . So much for the discoverer . Now for the occasion . The letters were

    found at Jyiadaane iNoel ' s shop , in Boulogne , a few years ago . " Mrs . Smith , of London , a few years ago , " would be evidence as acceptable . Where did Madame Noel live ? in -what street ? what was her lousiness ? and -what was the year in which the letters were found ? Moreover , this hawker , who is in the labit of passing through Boulogne once or twice a year for the purpose of supplying waste paper to the different shops , is an extremely saythical-looking person ; and we should be glad to know whether it is thought worth while for a hawker to carry ' waste-paper ' across the Channel twice a year , when ' waste paper' always finds purchasers

    enough in England . Finally , now that this precious discovery is made , and the Letters are recognised as being the unmistakable correspondence of James Boaweli with Temple , the anonymous clergyman whose interest in Literature is keen enough to make him detect the treasure from , a casual scrap of waste paper , ia silent respecting his good lack , makes no announcement of it in the public journals , informs no literary man of the fact , but dies , and leaves the precious treasure to his nephew , also anonymous , who gives or sells it to the anonymous editor !

    To believe this story , on this evidence , requires an . elasticity of acquiescence which few persons accustomed to investigate matters of this nature will be found to possess . We again emphatically say the story nicey be true , nor are we ia any condition to prove it not true ; tut the story , as presented to the public , Is neither acceptable nor probable ; and until something like positive evidence is offered , the authenticity of these Letters must rank with the authenticity of many French Memoirs . We point out the imperative necessity of a guarantee , because the value of these Letters naturally depends on their being genuine . If they are forgeries , they are extremely clever forgeries , and interesting as such ; but the public must know what it is which amuses—the naivet 6 of truth , or the adroitness of dramatic imitation .

    Keadmr these Letters with profound distrust we may have formed a false opinion of them , but it seemed to us that the picture of Boswell here preeantad uaa too like the popular notion of Boswell . The author — assuming there was . an author—has beeu too dramatic . The authentic letters of Moore , Southey , Bvron , Gray , Walpolc , and every other well known person , by no means display this perpetual self-revelation ; if they let ns into the secret of the writer ' s personality , it is in a more oblique manne ^ i- ^ . i We f ™ tf ^ efr 0 " * something unlike what we learned from their puDfasfeed works . BosweB , on the contrary , is , in these Letters , the Boawell weall . krtow ; and the verisimilitude of this private portrait is a suspicious circumstance : it w more vraisemblable than urai , in out estimation . Should tura out to

    they ho authentic ; the Letters will deserve to live in literature ,, aa specimens of naive autobiography . They aro extremely amusing , and nothing would better pleasq us than to find tnat they were the actual outpourings of the little man . His love passages are throughout touched with a truly Boswellian hand . Read this as a sample — You know-I « av « yov . « hiut ia my last o « tho continuance of my passion for Mias ™—\ I assure you I am exOeB 8 ively fond of her , no <> I have gi ^ n you fair wwiung ) don't be surprised if your grave , sedate , plulosophic friendwhomod to « arry it 8 O high and talk with 8 uch a composed indifferouce of the boau cws sex and whom you used to admonish , not to turn an old mantoosoon . -don ' tbrthunderatruck if this B » mo follow Bhould airat once , subito furor * obrepttJ , commence Don QuSot W SS ™ \? ft t v . {> t 8 lfc flerfous ^ I «* ** *» violentlySTwSh tor , and thought I should be quite miserable if I did not obtain her ; but nXTia changed , to » rational erteem of har good qualities , 80 tliat I should be extoly

    Untitled Article

    POLITICAL CRITICISM : NAPOLEON THE THIRD . Napoleon the Third : Review of Ms Life , Character , and Policy ; with : Extracts from Mis Writings and Speeches . By a British Officer . Longman and Co . The " Officer" has not attempted to produce a "biography of Louis Napoleon . His work is a pamphlet , on a laTge scale , and is composed of extracts and dissertations held together "by the slightest possible thread of narrative . As far as the " life" of Louis Napoleon is concerned , he merely repeats that which has been worked up in two or three shilling volumes ; the interesting memoirs which depict the youtli of the present Emperor having altogether escaped his eye . His object , plainly , was not biographical . He has published his " views " - —nothing more , and it remains to' be ascertained of what importance are the views set forth in a volume of anonymous

    panegyric . However valuable , or the reverse , they are by no means startling . We became familiar with them , and all their congeners , during the earlier stages of the Russian war . They weie repeated day after day , in newspapers . As the " British'Officer" tells tis nothing , in point of fact , which waa not told by Mr . Christmas , or Mr . Green-wood , so he suggests nothing which -was not continually amplified upon by every devotee of success while Napoleonism was fashionable in England . Unfortunately , it is not now fashionable , and this voluminous eulogy has come too late . The writer promises on his title-page " references to contemporary opinions . " Wo searched with some interest for the&e selections , but found that , while a considerable proportion of the book is made up of quotations , the writers , or the journals , are rarely mentioned by name .

    The greatest mistake of the book is its unconcealed partiality . It is made up of invariable praise . Every allusion drives its * substantive and six . ' The " Officer" cannot rest a moment from the effusion of his courtly ardour , " wise , " « great , " magniacent , " " unparalleled , " " vast , " " loyal , " " chivalrous , " and all the epithet species climbing in parasitical profusion about the page , until they become an absolute nuisance . Ho cannot allow any incident to speak for itself . And this brings us to a topic which « iti " Officer " may regard as of secondary importance . The events thus garlanded -with superlatives are not correctly narratod . In point of historical accuracvthc

    pamphlet is not less deficient than , in point of literary execution . To instance one example , the alliance is represented as tho work of Louis Napoleon , although documentary proofs aiay be cited that it was the proposal of the Republican leaders who preceded him . This is a blunder winch surprises us when met with in a serious publication . Tlie references to the Provisional Government , the June Insurrection , the Presidency , and the Con \) ( TJEtat are often naively fatuous ; but it would be a superfluous task to set right a c on ^ iler so wilfully and so complacently wrong . It -will be more useful , in order to show what kind of logic is necessary to the morality of such a writer , to quote and expose a paragraph on the December Usurpation : —

    A vast amount of mystification has arisen -with respect to tho lawfulness or rightfulness of tbo change which was effected in tho Constitution as it stood prior to the 2 nd of December Xt has been argued by some writers , in real or affected ignorance of the facts , that that Constitution was immutable in all its details . Nothing could be more contrary to fact . Thoao who pretend that tho Constitution wan thus unchangeable in any one of its particular parts , would reduce tho enlightenment of its constructors to a lcrel witli that of the ancient propounders of tho immutability of tho laws of the Medea and Persians . No ; it waa not any one detail , or any part oC its details , that was unchangeable ; it was its principle . That principle was the national will , which had created it , which had not abandoned its supremacy to it , but to which it was necessarily and naturally subject . The Constitution was mftdo for

    and by the people , not the people for tUe Constitution . Tho Constitution , ia short , meant tho national will . Tho promiao to maintain it , meant allegiance to tho national will . Whoever pretends tho rovorso , abnegatos that principle of tho supremacy of th « suffrage of the nation without which tlie Constitution could have had neither meaningf nor vitality , but would have been o mere medley of barbarous impracticability .

    Untitled Article

    36 THE LEA DEB ,. [ No . 356 , Sa ^ tubba * ,

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 17, 1857, page 66, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2176/page/18/