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pressed as they were—I suspect by his Majesty—I felt the counter-weight of that pressure . The Duke of Newcastle sent me frequent messages to attend him ; I obeyed . My visit was as welcome to his grace as Lord Granville had foretold ; he received me with embraces , chocolate was ready , and he as ready to persuade and conjure me to accept of his Majesty ' s offer and to return to Vienna . He thought I stood on bargaining , offered me any price I should name , as Lord Granville had done , repeated honours , emoluments , &c . ; I as constantly and firmly declined . I fairly told him I wanted neither honours nor emoluments ; if I should go , I desire d it might he on the same footing ; I had as much of the King's pay as my station , required ; and theTe had never been a competition or the least discord between Mr . Robinson and me . I wanted no honours which might interfere with £ iis ; that though I had made nay plan to stay at home , I would offer a condition or two to bis grace on
which alone I could return . That as he knew Mr . Robinson ' s affection for me , mine was not Ies 3 towards him : though I did not know any particular relation or connexion between his grace and Mr . Kobinson , yet I thought there -was some such existing with his brother , Mr . Pelham , whom I had not the honour of knowing personally ; but be that as it may , his grace knew Mr . Robinson was a younger brother with a small fortune , and then married , with a growing family ; that he had never hoarded riches , never had been in the way of exceeding mere living ; his services had been long and great ; and that even in that important event of the peace with Prussia , in which I had some share , he had borne the whole burthen ; that Lord Hyndford , who had no further trouble than to give , what he -with odium and irremissible labour obtained , had been distinguished and superabundantly rewarded ; that , therefore , if his grace could obtain of his Majesty a thousand pounds a . year augmentation for Mr . Robinson , I could perhaps return with such good tidings , and sacrifice my interest and time to the King ' s service during the continuance ; of the war .
The duke seemed startled at this proposal , and , looking in amaze , said he durst not even propose it -to his Majesty ; that , on the treaty of 1731 , Mr . Kobiason had been advanced from Envoy Extraordinary to Minister Plenipotentiary , and had then the increased pay of . 37 . per diem , so that it was too near the time , i . e ., eleven years , to mention so delicate a matter to the King . I then pressed him to know whether his merit in the late peace with Prussia , in which both his body and mind had suffered the severest risks and anxieties , would not be rewarded in some sottd and substantial manner ; that . it was the moment for a faithful , zealous servant to feel his master ' s bounty and generosity . He said , he had thought that as Mr . Robinson had formerly- desired the Red Itibbon , it might be the more agreeable to him on this occasion , and that that ostensible mark of the King ' s favour would be a more permanent one of his Majesty ' s approbation . . . ¦ ...
I spoke of the ribbon with such indifference that surprised his grace . I told him that when mature minds sought rewards ,, baubles and gew-gaws were not competent ; they might please the vanity and levity of youth , and , perhaps , when he thought that the brilliancy of a Star and Garter might add to the hustre of a single man , he , at that time , might have been flattered with the splendour ; but now that he had a wife and several young children , the providing for these made up the essential part of his happiness , and for them it was I meant a solid , substantial reward . Finding , however , that all this reasoning had no -weight with the duke , I turned the matter on what I thought more feasible , and in itself just and reasonable ; I told him that as I knew Mr . Robinson ' s desire , on account , of the education of his children , was turned towards home , and that , whenever a general peace should happen , he -would seek to return at any rate ; if , therefore , his grace would intercede -with the King to give him any post or place , or even to secure Mm one before his arrival , whenever that should happen , the reward would be equally agreeable to that -which I had first proposed .
. The duke , on this point , stroked bis face , settled his wig , hesitated ,. and asked me , with a slow voice , stooping towards my ear , has he a borough ? can he get into Parliament ? I told him 1 knew of no borough , no interest -which could bring him into Parliament , but his grace's ; on which I rose up , took my leave abruptly , with this single remark , that I supposed , after twenty years' service , the same question would be put to me , and on such a vague prospect I was confirmed in my first resolution of staying at home . His grace folio-wed me , on my retreat , begging and entreating me to return into his closet , which I absolutely refused . ** I left him , I confess , -with indignation , and to disburthen my mind of the impressions of so discouraging and unsatisfactory a conversation , I immediately went to Lord Granville , who judged by my countenance the effects of my conference with the duke . He received me -with his usual smile , inclined to a laugh—brought me to a detail of the whole ; the singularity of the negotiation not only amused him exceedingly , but heightened his spirits to much mirth . I found , however , by his lordship ' s asking what the duko would say to the King , that I had the interview by hia Maesty ' s command .
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A BATCH OF BOOKS . The beBt volume on our present list is a reprint—revised by the authorof Adventures in Canada and the Backwoods , which originally appeared in Hogg ' s Instructor , and which Messrs . Groombridge have now published in a separate form . The title of the book , Whitlings from the West , and the fancy name under which the author chooses to conceal himsdf , " Abel Log , " led us to expect some very flippant , vulgar , and commonplace writing . We ¦ weTQ agreeably disappointed by finding that Mr . " Abel Log" was capable of much better things than his name and title-page seemed to promise . Ho hasgenuine animal spirits , a hearty sense of humour , and a shrewd observation of character ; and ho has produced a narrative which is always readable and often interesting . The faults which he ought to guard against in hia next book ( if ho takes up the pen again ) sire an inveterate tendency to exaggeration and to that over-lively style of writing , which may do very well to till a dozen pages in a magazine , but whioh . is perilously detrimental
wttli a very largo Class ot readers , to the success of a whole volume . The 11 Whitlinga" , in plain English , descriptions of scones in the great tow « B of Canada , and of adventures on the nvers and among ; the baokwoods . The author is the hero of tho narrative . He , mixes up a groat deal of fiction with hia facts ; but he always contrives—making allowance for the exaggeration which wo have mentioned as his besetting sin , —to keep up the appearance of reality and nature in relating his adventures 5 and ho very wisely makes tho human interest the prominent interest of hio story throughout . Tho characters ho moots with always occupy tho prominent part of Ins pioturos , nnd the scenery is Icopt in its proper place—tho background . If wo had apace to spare we should make some extracts from tho author ' s canoo-voyage up the Black River , and from hia vividly interesting account of the backwoodsmen ' s attack on " Butternut Custlo . " But our columns Uavono " places to lot" for literary applicants this week . We must be content with recommending Mr . Log 8 adventures to our readers .
Nordufari ; or , Rambles in Iceland , by Pliny Miles ( Longman ) , forms the last new contribution to " The Traveller ' s Library , " and is well worth reading . But we must , honestly warn " travellers' at the outset , that they will find Mr . Pliny Miles ' s style of writing all but unendurable . Such ultra American-English ( Mr . Miles is a Yankee of the most formidable dimensions ) has , we "believe , never before been set u p in English type . The slang expressions are , in some places , literally incomprehensible —the style is pertinaciously flippant and careless , and the tone of the writer is almost uniformly dogmatic and conceited throughout the book . In spite , however , of the very serious drawback of a singularly offensive style , these " Rambles" , we repeat , well worth reading . They contain information of the most remarkable and most original kind on many deeply-interesting subjects in connexion with Iceland—both as to its former history and as to its present condition . The information is dreadfully disfigured by our
American informant before he can bring it to light—but it is information , in the best and strictest sense of the word . By holding conversations with learned Icelanders , and by obtaining access to the manuscripts of ancient Iceland historians , Mr . Pliny Miles contrived to make some really remarkable antiquarian discoveries in connexion with men and events in the far north . One of these discoveries , if it can really be trusted , assigns to an Icelander , on apparently reliable evidence , the honour of being the first European who ever sailed to America . " Biarni , the son of Heriulf , sailed from Iceland to join his father in Greenland , was driven south , and landed on the American coast—probably Labrador . " This was in the year 986 .
Leif Ericsson was the next navigator to America . He sailed from Greenland in the year 1000 , and discovered Newfoundland and Nova Scotia . Greenland settlements existed in Hew England from 1011 to 1014 , and—most startling revelation of all—our author declares it to be " doubly proved , that Columbus sailed to Iceland in the year 1477 " —fifteen years before the date of his \ first voyage to America . The evidence on which these extraordinary statements rest will be found detailed at full length in Mr . Miles ' s first volume . We have only referred to them , here in . order to show that , with all his gross faults of manner , the author of the Rambles in Iceland has produced a book which has some unusually strong claims to the attention , not of travellers only , but of stay - at- home readers as well .
We have not done with books about America , or books by Americans yet . The press swarms with them just now , and they pour in upon us accordingly in an almost continuous literary stream . No sooner have we done with WMtlings from ifie West , and Mr . Pliny Miles , than Doctor Marshall Hall comes forward with a volume called The Twofold Slavery of the United States . The doctor is a staunch abolitionist , and his plan for the negroes is , that they should free themselves . Task-work and over-work he recommends , instead of day-work ; he would have a "just and generous premium placed on each slave ' —" wages for over-work , secured with liberal interest in savings banks "—* " , when accumulated , to be paid over to master "— - and " slave to be declared free . " This plan of selftemancipation is , doubtless , dictated by the sincerest benevolence ; and it looks so -well on paper , that we -will not pain the , amiable projector by examining it from a too
practicalpoin . t of view , We prefer passing at once from the doctor ' s pleasant philanthropic dream ( if he will excuse us for using such an expression ) to Mrs . Ann S . Stephens ' s gipsy fiction , which we have not been able to read , doubtless from the defective sensibility , which , is the vice of critical natures in general . Very young ladies who worship the romantic , and relish a style with plenty of adjectives in it , will approve highly of Zana ; or , the Heiress of Clair Hall . The description of the heroine , at the beginning of the story , was too voluptuously eloquent for our severe and Spartan nature . When we found that her cheeks were " peachy crimson , " that her complexion was of a " soft creamy tint , " that she pould " bury her tiny foot in the extremity of her raven curls , " that she had a '' spirited ankle , " that , when she wanted to dance , she prepared for that exercise by " giving her person a willowy bend sideways ; " we closed the book before its fascinations overpowered us , and sought to invigorate ourselves morally by opening Life ' s
Lesson—another American story by another American writer ; anonymous , but evidently of the fair sex . Much embracing takes place , first and last , among the characters in Life ' s Lesson ; the gentlemen ( as usual with ladies ' gentlemen ) are always thinking of how they shall marry and who they shall marry ; the ladies , though not possessing " spirited ankles , " " persons " capable of " bending sideways" in a " willowy" way , are variously fascinating , accomplished , and bi-illiant , and are always respectfully addressed by their admirers as " Miss Ellen , Miss Jane , Miss Nannie , " and so forth . Offers ai'e made , marriages are solemnised , virtue leads to happiness , vice to misery ; and if that is not " Life ' s Lesson , " who shall say what is ? To be serious , with much that is trivial and absurd , this last new American story shows traces , here and there , of clever observation and attention to the truth of nature . It is above the ordinary novel-average , and we wish it , therefore , all success with tho Circulating Libraries and the idlers of tho reading world .
Two contributions only from the versifiers have reached us : one is by Mr . John William Fletcher , and is called Flirtation ; or , The Way into the Wilderness ; which second title , so far as we are concerned , has proved itself to be synonymous with The Way into the Waste-Paper Basket . The second volume of rhymes is entitled A Voice from the East ; or , Scripliiral Meditations to Beguile Solitary Hours , by Mrs . St . John . In a versified preface , Mrs . St . John bogs that tho reader will bo " blind like all her friends , " will abstain from looking for faults , lioiug very willing to attend to this injunction , and to treat tho authoress like a friend , wo will content ourselves with merely announcing thnt her book is publishedand will leave to
, sterner reviewers tho business of criticising it . Of catchpenny literature , wo havo also two specimens . Mr . Hain Friswoll imitates Dickons and Thaekcru \\ calls tho imitation Houses with the Fronts Off , and does his best to make Ins book aaloablo by disfiguring its cover with an oye-aore in the shape of a coloured caricature . The Itev . Erskino Noalo contributes to keep up tho present cordial understanding between the English and French armies by a pink pamphlet , culled My Comrade and My Colours , with an engraving , on tho cover , of the puke of Wellington winning tho battle of Waterloo , and with u motto , reviving such old exploded non-
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980 THE LEADER . [ Saturday ,
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Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 14, 1854, page 980, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2060/page/20/
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