pencil of Reynolds and the chisel of Nollekens people with the bayonet

. Many of his contem. have handed them down to us, were disagree- poraries had a morality quite as lax as his; but ably harsh and exaggerated. In his descend- very few among them had his talents, and none ants, the aspect was preserved; but it was had his hardihood and energy. He could not, softened, till it became, in the late lord, the like Sandys and Doddington, find safety in conmost gracious and interesting countenance that tempt. He therefore became an objeci of such was ever lighted up by the mingled lustre of general aversion as no statesman since the fall intelligence and benevolence.

of Strafford has incurred-of such general As it was with the faces of the men of this aversion as was probably never in any country noble family, so was it with their minds. Na- incurred by a man of so kind and cordial a disture had done much for them all. She had position. A weak mind would have sunk under moulded them all of that clay of which she is such a load of unpopularity. But that resolute most sparing. To all she had given strong spirit seemed to derive new firmness from the reason and sharp wit; a quick relish for every public hatred. The only effect which rephysical and intellectual enjoyment; constitu- proaches appeared to produce on him, was to tional intrepidity, and that frankness by which sour, in some degree, his naturally sweet temconstitutional intrepidity is generally accom- per. The last steps of his public life were panied; spirits which nothing could depress; marked, not only by that audacity which he had tempers easy, generous, and placable; and that derived from nature-not only by that immogenial courtesy which has its seat in the heart, rality which he had learned in the school of and of which artificial politeness is only a faint Walpole—but by a harshness which almost and cold iinitation. Such a disposition is the amounted to cruelty, and which had never been richest inheritance that ever was entailed on supposed to belong to his character. His seany family.

verity increased the unpopularity from which But training and situation greatly modified it had sprung. The well-known Jampoon of the fine qualities which nature lavished with Gray may serve as a specimen of the feeling such profusion on three generations of the of the country. All the images are taken from house of Fox. The first Lord Holland was shipwrecks, quicksands, and cormorants. Lord a needy political adventurer. He entered Holland is represented as complaining, that the public life at a time when the standard of in-cowardice of his accomplices had prevented iegrity among statesmen was low. He started him from putting down the free spirit of the as the adherent of a minister who had in- city of London by sword and fire, and as pining deed many titles to respect; who possessed for the time when birds of prey should make eminent talents both for administration and for their nests in Westminster Abbey, and unclean debate; who understood the public interest beasts burrow in St. Paul's. well, and who meant fairly by the country ; Within a few months after the death of this but who had seen so much perfidy and mean- remarkable man, his second son Charles apness, that he had become skeptical as to the peared at the head of the party opposed to the existence of probity. Weary of the cant of American War. Charles had inherited the patriotism, Walpole had learned to talk a cant bodily and mental constitution of his father, of a different kind. Disgusted by that sort of and had been much-far too much--under his hypocrisy which is at least a homage to virtue, father's influence. It was indeed impossible he was too much in the habit of practising the that a son of so affectionate and noble a spirit less respectable hypocrisy which ostentatiously should not have been warmly attached to a displays and sometimes even stimulates vice. parent who possessed many fine qualities, and To Walpole, Fox attached himself politically who carried his indulgence and liberality 10. and personally, with the ardour which belonged wards his children even to a culpable extent to his temperament. And it is not to be denied, The young man saw that the person to whoin that in the school of Walpole he contracted he was bound by the strongesi lies, was, in the faults which destroyed the value of his many highest degree, odious to the nation; and the great endowments. He raised himself, indeed, effect was what might have been expected to the first consideration in the House of Com- from his strong passions and constitutional mons; he became a consummate master of the boldness. He cast in his lot with his father, and art of debate; he attained honours and im- took, while still a boy, a deep part in the most mense wealth—but the public esteem and con- unjustifiable and unpopular measures that had fidence were withheld from him. His private been adopied since the reign of James the friends, indeed, justly extolled his generosity Second. In the debates on the Middlesex and good-nature. They maintained, that in election, he distinguished himself, not only by those parts of his conduct which they could his precocious powers of eloquence, but by the least defend, there was nothing sordid; and vehement and scornful manner in which he thai, if he was misled, he was misled by bade defiance to public cpinion. He was at amiable feelings-by a desire to serve his that time regarded as a man likely to be the friends, and by anxious tenderness for his most formidable champion of arbitrary govern children. But by the nation he was regarded ment that had appeared since the Revolution as a man of insatiable rapacity and desperate -to be a Bute with far greater powers-a ambition ; as a man ready to adopt, without Mansfield with far greater courage. Happily scruple, the most immoral and the most un- his father's death liberated him early from the constitutional measures; as a man perfectly pernicious influence by which he had becu fitted, by all his opinions and feelings, for the misled. His mind expanded. His range of work of managing the Parliament by means of observation became wider. His genius brolie secret service-money, and of keeping down the thrich early prejudices. lIis na:ural bene

volence and magnanimity had fair play. In a come a mere form, as it was in the Irish House very short time he appeared in a situation of Peers before the Union. This was a great worthy of his understanding and of his heart. misfortune to a man like Lord Holland. It was From a family whose name was associated in not by occasionally addressing fifteen or twenty the public mind with tyranny and corruption- solemn and unfriendly auditors, that his grandfrom a party of which the theory and the prac- father and his uncle attained their unrivalled tice were equally servile—from the midst of parliamentary skill. The former had learned the Luttrells, the Dysons, the Barringtons- his art in “the great Walpolean battles," on came forth the greatest parliamentary defender nights when Onslow was in the chair serenof civil and religious liberty.

teen hours without intermission; when the The late Lord Holland succeeded to the thick ranks on both sides kept unbroken order talents and to the fine natural dispositions of till long after the winter sun had risen upon his house. But his situation was very differ- them; when the blind were led out by the hand ent from that of the two eminent men of whom into the lobby; and the paralytic laid down in we have spoken. In some important respects their bed-clothes on the benches. The powit was better; in some it was worse than theirs.ers of Charles Fox were, from the first, exerHe had one great advantage over them. He cised in conflicts not less exciting. The great received a good political education. The first talents of the late Lord Holland had no such lord was educated by Sir Robert Walpole. Mr. advantage. This was the more unfortunate, Fox was educated by his father. The late lord because the peculiar species of eloquence, was edu ed by Mr. Fox. The pernicious which belonged to him in common with his maxims early imbibed by the first Lord Hol- family, required much practice to develope it land, made his great talents useless, and worse With strong sense, and the greatest readiness than useless, lo the state. The pernicious of wit, a certain tendency to hesitation was maxims early imbibed by Mr. Fox led him, at hereditary in the line of Fox. This hesitation the commencement of his public life, into great arose, not from the poverty, but from the wealth faults, which, though afterwards nobly expiated, of their vocabulary. They paused, not from were never forgotien. To the very end of his the difficulty of finding one expression, but career, small men, when they had nothing else from the difficulty of choosing between several. to say in defence of their own tyranny, bigotry, It was only by slow degrees, and constant er. and imbecility, could always raise a cheer by ercise, that the first Lord Holland and his son some paltry taunt about the election of Colonel overcame the defect. Indeed, neither of them Luttrell, the imprisonment of the Lord May- overcame it completely. or, and other measures in which the great In statement, the late Lord Holland was not Whig leader had borne a part at the age of successful; his chief excellence lay in reply. one or two-and-twenty. On Lord Holland no He had the quick eye of his house for the unsuch slur could be throwị. Those who most sound parts of an argument, and a great felicity dissent from his opinions must acknowledge, in exposing them. He was decidedly more that a public lise, more consistent, is not to be distinguished in debate than any peer of his found in our annals. Every part of it is in times who had not sat in the House of Comperfect harmony with every other; and the mons. Nay, to find his equal among persons whole is in perfect harmony with the great similarly situated, we must go back eighty principles of toleration and civil freedom. years—to Earl Granville. For Mansfield, This rare felicity is in a great measure to be Thurlow, Loughborough, Grey, Grenville, attribuied to the influence of Mr. Fox. Lord Brougham, Plunkett, and other eminent men, Holland, as was natural in a person of his ta- living and dead, whom we will not stop to enulents and expectations, began at a very early merate, carried to the Upper House an eloage to take the keenest interest in politics; and quence formed and matured in the Lower. Mr. Fox found the greatest pleasure in forming The opinion of the most discerning judges was, the mind of so hopeful a pupil. They corres- that Lord Holland's oratorical performances, ponded largely on pulitical subjects when the though sometimes most successful, afforded no young lord was only sixteen; and their friend- fair measure of his oratorical powers; and ship and mutual confidence continued to the that, in an assembly of which the debates were day of that mournful separation at Chiswick. frequent and animated, he would have attained Under such training, such a man as Lord a very high order of excellence. It was, in. Holland was in no danger of falling into those deed, impossible to converse with him without faults which threw a dark shade over the whole seeing that he was born a debater. To him, as career of his grandfather, and from which the to his uncle, the exercise of the mind in disyouth of his uncle was not wholly free. cussion was a positive pleasure. With the

On the other hand, the late Lord Holland, as greatest good-nature and good-breeding, he compared with his grandfather and his uncle, was the very opposite to an assenter. The 'aboured under one great disadvantage. They word “ disputatious” is generally used as a were members of the House of Commons. He word of reproach ; but we can express our became a peer while still an infant. When meaning only by saying that Lord Holland was he entered public life, the House of Lords was most courteously and pleasantly disputatious. a very small and a very decorous assembly. In truth, his quickness in discovering and apThe minority to which he belonged was scarce-prehending distinctions and analogies was ly able to muster five or six votes on the most such as a veteran judge might envy. The larimportant nights, when eighty or ninety lords yers of the Duchy of Lancaster were astonishwere present. Debate had accordingly be-led to find in an unprofessional man so strong a relish for the esoteric parts of their science; tic as it is, still continues to grow as fast as a and complained that as soon as they had split young town of logwood by a water-privilege a hair, Lord Holland proceeded to split the in Michigan, may soon displace those turrets filaments into filaments still finer. In a mind and gardens which are associated with so less happily constituted, there might have been much that is interesting and noble-with the a risk that this turn for subtilty would have courtly magnificence of Rich-with the loves produced serious evil. But in the heart and of Ormond-with the counsels of Cromwellunderstanding of Lord Holland there was with the death of Addison. The time is coming ample security against all such danger. He when, perhaps, a few old men, the last surviwas not a man to be the dupe of his own inge- vors of our generation, will in vain seek, nuity. He puts his logic to its proper use; amidst new streets, and squares, and railway and in him the dialectician was always subor- stations, for the site of that dwelling which dinate to the statesman.

was in their youth the favourite resort of wits His political life is written in the chronicles and beauties-of painters and poets-of schoof his country. Perhaps, as we have already lars, philosophers, and statesmen. They wili intimated, his opinions on two or three great then remember, with strange tenderness, many questions of Foreign Policy were open to just objects once familiar to them, the avenue and objection. Yet even his errors, if he erred, the terrace, the busts and the paintings; the were amiable and respectable. We are not carving, the grotesque gilding, and the enig. sure that we do not love and admire him the matical mottoes. With peculiar fondness they more because he was now and then seduced will recall that venerable chamber, in which from what we regard as a wise policy, by sym- | all the antique gravity of a college library was pathy with the oppressed; by generosity to- so singularly blended with all that female wards the fallen; by a philanthropy so en- grace and wit could devise to embellish a larged that it took in all nations; by love of drawing-room. They will recollect, not unpeace, which in him was second only to the moved, those shelves loaded with the varied love of freedom; by the magnanimous credulity learning of many lands and many ages; those of a mind which was as incapable of suspeci- portraits in which were preserved the features ing as of devising mischief.

of the best and wisest Englishmen of two geneTo his views on questions of Domestic Po- rations. They will recollect how many men licy, the voice of his countrymen does ample who have guided the politics of Europe-who justice. They revere the memory of the man have moved great assemblies by reason and who was, during forty years, the constant pro- eloquence—who have put life into bronze and tector of all oppressed races, of all persecuted canvass, or who have left to posterity things sects of the man, whom neither the preju- so written as it shall not willingly let them die dices nor the interests belonging to his station -were there mixed with all that was loveliest could seduce from the path of right-of the and gayest in the society of the most splendid noble, who in every great crisis cast in his lot of capitals. They will remember the singular with the commons-of the planter, who made character which belonged to that circle, in manful war on the slave-trade-of the land- which every talent and accomplishment, every owner, whose whole heart was in the struggle art and science, had its place. They will reagainst the corn-laws.

member how the last debate was discussed in We have hitherto touched almost exclusive-one corner, and the last comedy of Scribe in ly on those parts of Lord Holland's character another; while Wilkie gazed with modest adwhich were open to the observation of mil-miratiɔn on Reynolds’ Baretli ; while Mackinlions. How shall we express the feelings with tosh turned over Thomas Aquinas to verify a which his memory is cherished by those who quotation; while Talleyrand related his conwere honoured with his friendship? Or in versations with Barras at the Luxemburg, or what language shall we speak of that house, his ride with Lannes over the field of Austeronce celebrated for its rare attractions to the litz. They will remember, above all, the grace furthest ends of the civilized world, and now -and the kindness, far more admirable than silent and desolate as the grave? That house grace-with which the princely hospitality of was, a hundred and twenty years ago, apostro-that ancient mansion was dispensed. They phized by a poet in tender and graceful lines, will remember the venerable and benignant which have now acquired a new meaning noi countenance and the cordial voice of him who less sad than that which they originally bore:- bade them welcome. They will remember

that temper which years of pain, of sickness, "Thou hill, whose brow the antique structures grace, of lameness, of confinement, seemed only to Reard by bold chiefs of Warwick's noble race,

make sweeter and sweeter; and that frank Why, once so loved, whene'er thy bower appears, O'er my dimn eyeballs glance the sudden tears? politeness, which at once relieved all the emIlow sweet were onse thy prospects fresh and fair, barrassment of the youngest and most timid Thy sloping walks, and unpolluted air! How sweel the glooms beneath thine aged trees,

writer or artist, who found himself for the first Thy noontide shadow, and thine evening breeze! time among ambassadors and earls. They His image thy forsaken bowers restore;

will remember that constant flow of conversaThy walks and airy prospects charm no more ; No more the summer in ihy glooms allay'd,

tion, so natural, so animated, so various, so Thine evening breezes, and ihy noonday shade." rich with observation and anecdote; that wit

which never gave a wound; that exquisite Yet a few years, and the shades and struc- mimicry which ennobled, instead of degrading; tures may follow their illustrious masters. that goodness of heart which appeared in every The wonderful city which, ancient and gigan- look and accent, and gave additional value to every talent and acquirement. They will re-joy that he had done nothing unworthy of the member, too, that he whose name they hold in friend of Fox and Grey; and they will have reverence was not less distinguished by the in- reason to feel similar joy, if, in looking back Alexible uprightness of his political conduct on many troubled years, they cannot accuse than by his loving disposition and his winning themselves of having done any thing unworthy manners. They will remember that, in the of men who were distinguished by the friend last lines which he traced, he expressed his I ship of Lord Holland.

WARREN HASTINGS.*

[EDINBURGH Review, OCTOBER, 1841.)

66

This book seems to have been manufactured fect, our own view of the life and character of in pursuance of a contract, by which the re. Mr. Hastings. Our feeling towards him is not presentatives of Warren Hastings, on the one exactly that of the House of Commons which part, bound themselves to furnish papers, and impeached him in 1787; neither is it that of Mr. Gleig, on the other part, bound himself to the House of Commons which uncovered and furnish praise. It is but just to say that the stood up to receive him in 1813. He had covenants on both sides have been most faith- great qualities, and he rendered great services fully kept; and the result is before us in the to the state. But to represent him as a man form of three big bad volumes, full of un- of stainless virtue, is to make him ridiculous; digested correspondence and undiscerning and from regard for his memory, if from no panegyric.

other feeling, his friends would have done well If it were worth while to examine this per- to lend no countenance to such puerile adulaformance in detail, we could easily make a tion. We believe that, if he were now living, long article by merely pointing out inaccurate he would have sufficient judgment and suffistatements, inelegant expressions, and immoral cient greatness of mind to wish to be shown doctrines. But it would be idle to waste criti- as he was. He must have known that there cism on a bookmaker; and, whatever credit were dark spots on his fame. He might also Mr. Gleig may have justly earned by former have felt with pride, that the splendour of his works, it is as a bookmaker, and nothing more, fame would bear many spots. He would have that he now comes before us. More eminent preferred, we are confident, even the sererity men than Mr. Gleig have written nearly as ill of Mr. Mill to the puffing of Mr. Gleig. He as he, when they have stooped to similar would have wished posterity to have a likedrudgery. It would be unjust to estimate ness of him, though an unfavourable likeness, Goldsmith by the History of Greece, or Scott rather than a daub at once insipid and unnaby the Life of Napoleon. Mr. Gleig is neither tural, resembling neither him nor anybody else. a Goldsmith nor a Scott; but it would be un- “Paint me as I am,” said Oliver Cromwell, just to deny that he is capable of something while sitting to young Lely: “ If you leare better than these memoirs. It would also, we out the scars and wrinkles, I will not pay you hope and believe, be unjust to charge any a shilling." Even in such a trifle, the great Christian minister with the guilt of deliberate- Protector showed both his good sense and his ly maintaining some propositions which we magnanimity. He did not wish all that was find in this book. It is not too much to say, characteristic in his countenance to be lost, in that Mr. Gleig has written several passages, the vain attempt to give him the regular feawhich bear the same relation to the “Prince" tures and the smooth blooming cheeks of the of Mackiavelli that the “ Prince of Machiavelli curl-pated minions of James the First. He bears to the “Whole Duty of Man," and which was content that his face should go forth would excite amazemeni in a den of robbers, marked with all the blemishes which had been or on board of a schooner of pirates. But we put on it by time, by war, by sleepless nights, are willing to attribute these offences to haste, by anxiety, perhaps by remorse; but with vato thoughtlessness, and to that disease of the lour, policy, authority, and public care, written understanding which may be called the Furor in all its princely lines. If men truly great Biographicus, and which is to writers of lives knew their own interest, it is thus that they what the goilre is to an Alpine shepherd, or would wish their minds to be portrayed. lirl-cating to a Negro slave.

Warren Hastings sprang from an ancient We are inclined to think that we shall best and illustrious race. It has been affirmed that meet the wishes of our readers, if, instead of his pedigree can be traced back to the great dwelling on the faults of this book, we attempt Danish sea-king, whose sails were long the & give, in a way necessarily hasty and imper- terror of both coasts of the British channel;

and who, after many fierce and doubtful strug.

gles, yielded at last to the valour and genius * Memoirs of the Life of Warren Hastings, first Govern- of Alfred. But the undoubted splendour of wr-General of Bengal. Compiled from Original Papers, the line of Hastings needs no illustration from by the Rev. (1 R. GLEIG, M.A. 3 vols. 8vo. London. fable. One branch of that line wore, in the

1841.

mance.

fourteenth century, the coronet of Pembroke. and ten years later he told the tale, rose in his From another branch sprang the renowned mind a scheme which, through all the turns Chamberlain, the faithful adherent of the of his eventful career, was never abandoned. White Rose, whose fate has furnished so He would recover the estate which had be. striking a theme both to poets and to histo- longed to his fathers. He would be Hastings rians. His family received from the Tudors of Daylesford. This purpose, formed in in the earldom of Huntingdon; which, after long fancy and poverty, grew stronger as his intel dispossession, was regained in our time by lect expanded and as his fortune rose. He a series of events scarcely paralleled in ro- pursued his plan with that calm but indomita

ble force of will, which was the most striking The lords of the manor of Daylesford, in peculiarity of his character. When, under a Worcestershire, claimed to be considered as tropical sun, he ruled fifty millions of Asiatics, the heads of this distinguished family. The his hopes, amidst all the cares of war, finance, main stock, indeed, prospered less than some and legislation, still pointed to Daylesford. of the younger shoots. But the Daylesford And when his long public life, so singularly family, though not ennobled, was wealthy and checkered with good and evil, with glory and highly considered, till, about two hundred years obloquy, had at length closed forever, it was ago, it was overwhelmed in the great ruin of to Daylesford that he retired to die. the Civil War. The Hastings of that time was When he was eight years old, his uncle, a zealous Cavalier. He raised money on his Howard, determined to take charge of him, own lands, sent his plate to the mint at Oxford, and to give him a liberal education. The boy joined the royal army, and, after spending up to London, and was to a school half of his property in the cause of King at Newington, where he was well taught but Charles, was glad to ransom himself by mak-ill fed. He always attributed the smallness of ing over most of the remaining half to Speaker his stature to the hard and scanty fare of his Lenthal. The old seat at Daylesford still re- seminary. At ten he was removed to Westmained in the family; but it could no longer minster school, then flourishing under the care be kepi up; and in the following generation of Dr. Nichols. Vinny Bourne, as his pupils it was sold to a merchant of London.

affectionately called him, was one of the mas. Before the transfer took place, the last Hast- ters. Churchill, Colman, Lloyd, Cumberland, ings of Daylesford had presented his second Cowper, were among the students. With son to the rectory of the parish in which the Cowper, Hastings formed a friendship which ancient residence of the family stood. The neither the lapse of time, nor a wide dissimi. living was of little value; and the situation of larity of opinions and pursuits, could wholly the poor clergyman, after the sale of the estate, dissolve. It does not appear that they ever was deplorable. He was constantly engaged met after they had grown to manhood. But in lawsuits about his tithes with the new lord many years later, when the voices of a crowd of the manor, and was at length utterly ruined. of great orators were crying for vengeance on His eldest son, Howard, a well-conducted the oppressor of India, the shy and secluded young man, obtained a place in the Customs. poet could imagine to himself Hastings the The second son, Pynasion, an idle, worthless Governor-General, only as the Hastings with boy, married before he was sixteen, lost his whom he had rowed on the Thames and played wife in two years, and went to the West Indies, in the cloister; and refused to believe thai so where he died, leaving to the care of his un.good-tempered a fellow could have done any fortunate father a little orphan, destined to thing very wrong.

His own life had been strange and memorable vicissitudes of fortune. spent in praying, musing, and rhyming among

Warren, the son of Pynaston, was born on the waterlilies of the Ouse. He had preserved the 6th of December, 1732. His mother died in no common measure the innocence of childa few days later, and he was left dependent hood. His spirit had indeed been severely on his distressed grandfather. The child was tried, but not by temptations which impellen early sent to the village school, where he him to any gross violation of the rules of solearned his letters on the same bench with the cial morality. He had never been attacked sons of the peasantry. Nor did any thing in by combinations of powerful and deadly enehis garb or fare indicate that his life was to mies. He had never been compelled to make rake a widely different course from that of the a choice between innocence and greatness, young rustics with whom he studied and between crime and ruin. Firmly as he held played. But no cloud could overcast the in theory the doctrine of human depravity, his dawn of so much genius and so much ambi- habits were such, that he was unable to conceive tion. The very ploughmen observed, and long how far from the path of right, even kind and remembered, how kindly little Warren took to noble natures may be hurried by the rage of his book. The daily sight of the lands which conflict and the last of dominion. his ancestors had possessed, and which had Hastings had another associate at Westpassed into the hands of strangers, filled his minster, of whom we shall have occasion in young brain with wild fancies and projects. make frequent mention-Elijah Impey. We Ile loved to hear stories of the wealth and know little about their school days. But we greatness of his progenitors—of their splendid think we may safely venture to guess that, housekeeping, their loyalty, and their valour. whenever Hastings wished to play any ick On one bright summer day, the boy, then just more than usually naughty, he hired Imrey seven years old, lay on the bank of the rivulet | with a tart or a ball to act as fag in the worst which flows through the old domain of his part of the prank. bouse to join the Isis. There, as threescore Warren was distinguished among his com