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phantasmagoric representation , that it is only when you come to examine narrowly that you perceive this History to be as remarkable for its veracity as for its word-painting . Opinions there are -which the student of history will by no means adopt , but there are no statements for which positive authority cannot be produced . It was our task formerly to examine very minutely the coxirse of events during the French Revolution ; and the result of this comparison of historians with documentary evidence was that Carlyle was not only the most accurate of historians who had then written on the subject , but the onl y one who was uniformly accurate . Now if we consider this fact in conjunction with his strange fantastic mode of representation , we shall be led to explore the secret of his success , for we shall discover a similar constrast in all his writings : on . the one hand , a solid basis of knowledge ; on the other , a most conspicuously eccentric representation . It is because he sees clearly , that he writes effectively ; he does not produce effects by mere combination of words . His pictures will be found full of
minute details , no detail introduced merely because it is picturesque , but every detail drawn from reality , and . presented so as to call up the reality before our eyes . Very useful it would be to draw a parallel between Macaulay and Carlyle as painters , both abounding in details , both celebrated for their exaggerations . It would be found that Macaulay uses details whenever he can get them , with little solicitude as to their truth , provided they serve the purpose of the picture ; whereas Carlyle , so concrete and so hungry for details , uses none but those for which chapter and verse can be given - It would be found that the exaggeration of Macaulay is in statement—in the fact stated . —his manner being calm , and wearing the severe air of historical truth ; whereas the exaggeration of Carlyle is wholly in the manner , the fact stated being severely true . It may sound paradoxical , but we deliberately say that the leading characteristic of Carlyle ' s writing is veracity , as the leading characteristic of his mode of representation is concretetiess—which is also veracity .
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HORACE WALTOLE'S LETTERS . The Letters of Horace Walpole , Earl ofOrjbrd . Edited by Peter Cunningham . ZNow First Chronologically Arranged . Yol . I . Bentley . There are ten prefaces to this chronological collection of the Wai pole letters . That is to say , Mr . Cunningham has thought it right to preserve all the critical heraldry of Wai pole ' s various editors . There are , besides , several different sets of" annotations—borrowed from former issues , or added by the copious ' Cunningham' himself , who is careful to identify himself by something more distinct than the vague modesty of the initial C . Of some of these notes the value is at least questionable . They are largely derived from . " The Peerage , " and are sometimes mere superfluities of remark , not
cessfully as it proved , a candidate of his own , and concluded a -very unbrotherly letter by saying , " 1 must be excused if I beg it of you as a favour , never to be kind to me again . " To which Horace wrote a reply in a sarcastic and reproachful strain , beginning :- — ¦ n r » i -May , 1745 . Brother , I am sorry you won ' t let me say , Dear Brother ; but till you have still farther proved how impossible It is for you to have any affection for me I will never begin my letters as you do—' Sir . " ' We follow with some of the quotations and comments in this extraordinary letter : — J Whose iirth and seniority give me so just and natural a pretension . To my father ' s estate before me , to nothing else that I know of . You have , I must confess , showed a great disposition to me and to my children at all times . Thank you . Good nature , which I think and say you possets in a great degree . Dear brother , I wish I could think the same of you .
You have assumed to yourself a ^ re-eminence , from an imaginary disparity between us in point of abilities and character . Who told you bo ? not your eyes , but your jealousy . I'll tell you , brother , the only superiority I ever pretended over you , was in my temper . Although you are a very great man . I leave that expression to support itself upon its own force , meaning , and elegance . You conclude with disclaiming all friendship with , and relation to , me . After the vain pains I have taken to deserve that friendship , and the regard I have in vain had to that relation , I don ' t know whether I ought not readily to embrace this entire rupture . However , as I think you are good-natured when you are cool , and must have repented the -unmerited ill-treatment , I can forgive you , and for this last time offer you my friendship ; at the same time assuring you that I despise your anger , and if you persist in disclaiming my brotherhood , the only cover that you have for your abuse , I must tell you that you shall treat me like a gentleman . Yours or not , as you . please , Hob . Wa . lpot . ic .
The passages in italics are quoted from Sir Edward ' s epistle particular-The next letter , from Horace , however , is generous and fraternal : — Dear Brother , May 17 , 1745 . You have used me very ill without any provocation or any pretence . I have always made it my study to deserve your friendship , as you yourself own , and by a submission which I did not owe you . For consulting you in what you lad nothing to do , I certainly did not , nor ever will , while you profess so much aversion for me . I am still ready to live with you -upon any terms of friendship and equality ; but I don't mind your anger , which can only hurt yourself , when you come to reflect with ¦ what strange passion you have treated me , who have always loved you , lave always tried to please you , have always spoken of you with regard , and who will yet be , if you will let me , Your affectionate brother and humble servant , Hob . Walpoie .
It is pleasant to learn that this was the reply really sent to Sir Edward ; Horace locked up the more elaborate composition in his desk . The first * perhaps was the more sincere , but the second was more natural . It was one of Walpole ' s ingenuities to affect an absence of affectation . Most persons , probably , ha-ve read ' their Walpole / as they have read their Scott or Byron ; but there sire few who will not be glad to con over the letters , as collected by Mr . Cunningham , in serial order ; while to private and public libraries the new edition will be indispensable . It is well printed , on excellent paper ; the eight volumes will form a ' handsome set' for the binder . Horace Walpole , indeed , deserves to be commemorated in wellbound editions . He is the reflex of an age ; he knew the great world familiarly , and described it with a lighter -vivacity than is natural to the English pen ; he was feeble , egotistic , vicious—all that Mr . Macaulay says he wasbut we could not have spared his letters from the literature of the eighteenth century , rich as that century was in productions of a monumental character .
very elegantly penned . We miss , in fact , the vigour and precision of style characteristic of some of Mr . Cunningham ' s writings - Moreover , though tediously minute , he is not always minutely accurate , as when he misnames one of Walpole ' s commentators , Mr . Vernon Smith . But these are unimportant defects . The most serious fault in Mr . Cunningham ' s method of editing the letters consists , we think , of his tendency to multiply unnecessary notes on points irrelevant or trivial . Many of these have the appearance of being designed to illustrate , not Horace Walpole , but his editor . We do not say that these venial indiscretions on Mr . Cunningham ' s part detract from the value of his edition of Walpole ' s letters ; but they certainly do not enhance its utility . What is not serviceable to the reader is not
creditable to the editor . Since we have to make this remark upon Mr . Cunningham ' s plan , -which may be amended in the forthcoming volumes , it is due to him to say that he has arranged the whole series of Walpole ' s letters , in chronological order , with great cure , and has often annotated them with considerable judgment . The edition promises , therefore , to be unique and complete ; some of the correspondence is now printed for the first time ; much of it had not previously been collected from the memoirs of Hume , Robertson , and W " arton . Mr . Cunningham has obtained the official and private letters to the Bedfords , Walpole ' s deputies in the Exchequer ; and these disclose many amiable traits of character not commonly associated with the selfish epicureanism of Horace Walpole .
The new letters in this volume are not numerous , but they are interesting . The first is to the Rev . Joseph Spence , the friend of Pope , and author of the Anecdotes . " Walpole described him as more like a silver penny than a genius , yet owns him * o have been his master in the antique . " 1 will never let anything break in upon my reverence for you , " he said , though he afterwards wrote of him with the utmost flippancy , not to say " irreverence . " The second new letter is to the Hon . II . S . Conway , and " is dated June , 1744 . It is full of gossip on public affairs , but concludes with a paragraph of town gossip singularly Walpolcan : — That you may not think I employ my time as idly an the great men I have been
talking of , you must be : informed , that every night constantly I go to Ranelagh ; which has totally beat Vauxhall . Nobody goes anywhere else—cveiy"body goes there . My Lord Chesterfield i 8 so fond of it , that he says he has ordered all his letters to bo directed thither . If you had never seen it , I would make you a most pompous description of it , and tell you how the floor is all of beaten princes—that you can't act your foot without treading on a Prince of Wales or Dulce of Cumberland . The company is universal : thero ia from Ins Grace of Grafton down to cluldren out of the l ' oundlmg Hospital—from my Lady Townshcnd to the kitten—from my Lord Sandys to your humble counin and sincere friend . .
1 his constitutes a really notable addition to the Walpolo letters . Far more remarkable , however , arc those of Sir Edward Walpole to Horace on election matters . What cool ti-aific in suffrages ; what contempt of representation ! Castle-Rising was a beggarly little borough im Norfolk , which , up to May , 1745 , had conferred u sent in Parliament on old General Churchill . Upon Churchill ' s death , Sir Kdward Walpolo wrote to his brother Horace : — " Sir , —Castle-Rising is a family borough . Lord Orford'a son ought to bo bro-uglit in there preferably to anybody . Next to him I , and then you . My uncle and his children have the next claim , then the -lownshonds and tho Hammonds . " He went on to complain of tho contemptuous and arrogant behaviour of Horace , who had put forward , sue-
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QUARTERLY ESSAYS . Descriptive Essays , contributed to the " Quarterly Review . " By Sir Francis B . Head , Bart . 2 vols . Murray . It is not known ta all readers how many persons are engaged in making their own reputations . Of course , everyone ambitious of a reputation ought to make it for himself , but not in the sense we mean . The individuals referred to are those happy loTers of themselves who , having the command of certain literary media , pcaise their own performances , their own books , their own ideas , or , indirectly , puff themselves by perpetually alluding to subjects on which they have written—subjects , perhaps , which are not considered of so much importance elsewhere . Our word may be taken for it , that more than a little notoriety is manufactured by a process of this kind . It is easy in itself , and its results are agreeable . In fact , it would not be a
difficult , if it were a pleasant task , to cite a variety of authentic cases in proof ; but the example in hand is enough . Sir Francis B . Head , most people know , is a Baronet , and as moat people also know , a Quarterly Reviewer ; but not everyone was aware that those particular articles in the Quarterly llevicio , which dwelt so long and so lovingly upon the administrative and political prowess of Sir Francis B . Head , were written by Sir Francis B . Head himself . Sometimes he is veiled under a periphrasis , as an assistant commissioner whom " we" accompanied ; sometimes he is broadly quoted as a " competent authority ; " continually in certain of the essays his name flourishes in flattering paragraphs connected with homo and colonial affairs . That was Sir Francis B . Head ' s method of making himself known ; he
aspired , and the Review was the instrument of his promotion . And -why not ? Men less distinguished than he are in the habit of referring to themselves as the eminent , the -well-known , tho influential . Sir Francis B . Head only joins a chorus , in which every singer is loud in self-exalting eulogy . The only remarkable circumstance is , that the Baronet should so candidly reprint the articles , and say , " I urn . Sir Francis B . Head , tho writer in the Quarterly Jteoieip , who considered that tho sayings and doings of Sir Francis B . Headwcrc deserving of so much attention from an apathetic country . " Wow , in as far as this writer has claims upon tho general gratitude of mankind , we think they have been fully recognized . Fortune made him a Quarterly Reviewer , instead of a Penny Kncyclonoedist ; his natty descriptions
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January 31 , 1857 . j T H E L E A I > E JEL 113
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 31, 1857, page 113, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2178/page/17/
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