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and so indiscreet as to broach, to a Reformed Parliament, the awful mysteries of questions close and questions open? We verily believe it was. They dropped their awful mask for this mean and silly purpose! and though the debate was protracted to a second night, the discovery of this poor juggle, and its poorer object, so paralyzed all feeling, that the question which on Thursday morning had created the most intense anxiety on all sides, was disposed of on Friday night with less interest than any other question of the

session.

In the debate, however, two things were remarkable: Lord Darlington stated, and was not contradicted, that while the government professed neutrality, it was secretly but zealously endeavouring to swell the majority against Mr. Hume; yet, of the half-dozen officemen who voted in the minority, we find the son, the son-in-law, the brother-in-law, and the nephew of the Prime Minister. Lord Grey, it seems, fancied this corn question was so perilous a quagmire, that, while he insisted on dragging the door of his followers through it, he, with parental tenderness, allowed his own family to escape. The other remarkable incident was the conduct of the First Lord of the Admiralty: Sir James Graham had, a few nights before, distinguished himself by the high honour and consistency of his conduct in the affair of Mr. Baron Smith, in which, amongst the faithless only faithful found,' he adhered to what had been the first resolve of the government, and vindicated-even amidst the tergiversation of his colleagues-the wisdom and justice of the original determination of the cabinet. On the corn question, again, the Right Honourable Baronet came forward with equal dignity and more powerful talent; his speech was one of the ablest ever delivered on such a subject-clear in its arrangement, strong in its facts, irresistible in its arguments-and pronounced with such appropriate eloquence and such evident sincerity, as to obtain and deserve the applause and confidence of an immense majority of the House.

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The danger of any sudden change of system is therefore over-for the present-perhaps even for the session; though we confess that the visible conduct of the Grey family-what we have heard and believe of the feelings of a considerable party in the cabinet on this occasion-and indeed our general impression as to all the sayings and doings' of a government which, like a pendulumclock, is kept going only by oscillation-must necessarily excite considerable uneasiness as to the future. Sir James Graham's speech has already done much good in the country, and will do more as it is as it is more maturely considered; and we have some hopes that it may tend to render real and effective, the apparent unanimity of the cabinet. As to the people,

we

we know how hard it is to persuade mankind to look to consequences-to postpone a seeming present advantage to a more solid but remote benefit; but we still hope that the unanswerable arguments which have been adduced against any hasty and inconsiderate alteration of the present system of corn-laws, and the utter discomfiture of Mr. Poulett Thomson in the late debate, may create in all sober minds, even of the lower classes, a salutary suspicion that what is called cheap bread may only be the first step to no bread at all. We have already expressed our fear that the fable of Menenius would have now little effect with a popular assembly: perhaps it might be more struck with the shorter and livelier instance given by Montesquieu of the savages, who, to get more easily at the bread-fruit, cut down the tree on which it grows!

NOTE

On the Article in No. C. on the Journal of a West India Proprietor.' We are extremely sorry for having inserted in this Article, without due inquiry, an extract from a manuscript diary, conveying an unpleasant, and, as must now be evident, a wholly unjust reflection on the character of Mr. Lewis (father to the author of 'The Monk'). We have since received a letter from that gentleman's son-in-law, Sir Henry Lushington, in which he says- I do not believe there ever existed a more honourable or generous man than the one who has been accused of reducing his son's income one moiety, because that son had not forgotten his duty to his mother. I am fully convinced that Mr. Lewis did not reduce his son's income from any such motive; nor is it likely, that the man of whom Mr. G. Lewis speaks (in a passage quoted by the "Quarterly Review" itself), "as one of the most generous persons that ever existed," could have been influenced by such sentiments. The fact is, Mr. Lewis reduced his son's allowance because his own means were so diminished as to compel him to alter every part of his establishment, even to letting his house, and laying down his carriage: and I can, moreover, state from my personal knowledge, that the allowance Mr. Lewis continued to his son, was actually more than one-half of his own English income.' We feel sincerely obliged to Sir H. Lushington for giving us the means of thus correcting the effect of our rash citation,

THE

QUARTERLY REVIEW.

ART. I.-Letters and Essays, in Prose and Verse. London, 1834. 12mo. pp. 268.

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THE author of these pages tells us that they were written during a few short intervals of leisure, which he has employed rather in deriving instruction and amusement from the works of others, than in attempting to afford either by his own.' He adds, that some of his letters had already been published without his knowledge; and that others of them might probably appear hereafter, when he could no longer correct them. There needed no apology for publishing any part of this volume. With the greater number of the pieces in verse which it includes we have for years been familiar; but the form in which these were originally printed must have prevented their circulation from equalling their merits. The new poems are not unworthy of the author's taste; and his prose, to us entirely new, is certainly honourable to him in every respect. We have seldom seen so much wisdom, wit, knowledge of the world, and sound criticism, comprised in so small a space, or expressed in a more nervous and graceful style. The moral tone is throughout delightful: we have constantly before us a pure and generous nature-the warm sympathies, and the calm happiness, of a heart and mind that have come unwithered and unshrunk through the passions of youth and the cares of manhood. As the writer has dated several of his pieces from Fredley Farm, he cannot mean to conceal his name; and in mentioning that of Mr. Richard Sharp, we do enough to excite the curiosity of all who have known anything of the most distinguished society of this metropolis during the last half century. Old enough to have been the friend of Burke and Johnson, may he long continue to be the instructor and ornament of this our third generation,-for we cannot but think of the great bard's introduction of Nestor

Τοῦ καὶ ἀπὸ γλώσσης μέλιτος γλυκίων ῥεν άνδη.
Τῷ δ' ήδη δύο μέν γενεαὶ μερόπων ἀνθρώπων
Ἐφθίαθ οἱ ὁι πρόσθεν ἅμα τράφεν ἠδ ̓ ἐγένοντο

Εν Πύλῳ ἀγαθέη—ΜΕΤΑ ΔΕ ΤΡΙΤΑ ΤΟΙΣΙΝ ΑΝΑΣΣΕΝ.

It is impossible to close this volume without regretting-though not perhaps on account of its author himself-that, with so strong a passion

VOL. LI. NO. CII.

X

a passion for letters, habits of reflection and composition so early formed, and so many opportunities of observation, he should have published so little as he has done. No one can doubt that but for the possession of external advantages and allurements, Mr. Sharp might have long ere now earned a name and place in English literature hardly inferior to what have been achieved by any of his friends. As it is, however, he has done enough to secure himself with posterity against the fate of so many distinguished tabletalkers. When dozens and dozens of persons who have put forth books upon books, and been puffed by themselves or their gossips into contemporary notoriety, shall be as entirely forgotten as the lowest heroes of the Dunciad would have been by this time, had they not attracted the killing but preserving touch of Pope's caustic —these Letters and Essays' will survive in the station to which their modest author has limited his ambition.

With a book of this kind-for the prose part, that is, much the greater part of it, belongs in fact to the class of ana-reviewers have little choice as to their manner of dealing. We affect no more than to justify our general recommendation by a few extracts, selecting, of course, passages in which the traces of the author's peculiar caste of thought or expression seem to us to be especially marked.

Among the earliest Letters, we find the following, addressed to Henderson, the actor, on a remarkable occasion-the début of John Kemble on the London boards. Who can read it without being astonished at the precision with which this gifted observer prophesied, at first sight, the outline of our great tragedian's whole career?

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HAMLET,"

London, 1785.-I went, as I promised, to see the new whose provincial fame had excited your curiosity as well as mine. There has not been such a first appearance since yours: yet Nature, though she has been bountiful to him in figure and feature, has denied him a voice-of course he could not exemplify his own direction for the players to "speak the speech trippingly on the tongue,” and now and then he was as deliberate in his delivery as if he had been reading prayers, and had waited for the response. He is a very handsome man, almost tall and almost large, with features of a sensible, but fixed and tragic caste; his action is graceful, though somewhat formal— which you will find it hard to believe, yet it is true. Very careful study appears in all he says and all he does; but there is more singularity and ingenuity than simplicity and fire. Upon the whole, he strikes me rather as a finished French performer, than as a varied and vigorous English actor; and it is plain he will succeed better in heroic than in natural and passionate tragedy. Excepting in serious parts, I suppose he will never put on the sock.

'You have been so long without a " brother near the throne," that it

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