sumption; and while admitting his wit, and the exceeding the middle height, with a serene, placid grace and beauty of his style, laughed at the gross-countenance, rendered so entirely by discipline, for ness of his blunders, both in history and philoso- in the depths of his dark gray eyes you could read phy. Fortunately for our tempers, the argument the evidence of fiery and tempestuous passions was interrupted by an invitation to dinner, which within. There is something cruel and ferocious we all very cheerfully obeyed, disputation and sight-in a gray eye, which yet is sometimes so tempered seeing being both great promoters of appetite. and softened by passion, that it becomes the most Instead of dinner, I should rather, perhaps, have fascinating in nature. Mythology attributes gray called the meal we were about to eat a second eyes to Achilles, to indicate the union of intellect breakfast, as we took it considerably before noon. with the most destructive propensities. Tiberius At a much earlier hour we had stopped, and de- the worst of Roman emperors, had gray eyes, which scended from the diligence to gaze at one of those from that day to this have obtained little favor with grand natural objects which constitute the charm poets or romance writers. We hear of dark, huof Switzerland. The fall of the Sallemche, vul- mid, lustrous eyes, of bright or soft blue eyes; but garly called the Pissevache, which disappoints at of the gray eye no epithet is suitable but that of first sight, is magnificent when approached. It fierce or fiery. To talk of a soft gray eye would was rather too early in the morning, for the sun- be a contradiction which would instinctively proshine, which already gilded the summits of the duce laughter, yet it has often happened that men rocks above, had not yet touched the trembling and women with gray eyes have fascinated all and foaming waters, or called into existence those around them. The reason may be this, that the iminnumerable rainbows which other travellers have perious energy of the character suggests the necesseen spanning the infernal surge which precipitates sity of exercising an antidote, and the mixture of itself down in prodigious masses, seeming as if it softness and fierceness, of all-absorbing love and would cleave the very rocks upon which it eter-violent antipathies, operates like a spell. The Jenally dashes. On the right hand, at the very sum-uit, of whom I have been speaking, was at least an mit of the cataract, a part of the rock forming the channel of the stream appears to project beyond the other parts of the river's bed, and round this the water curves, and foams, and looks exactly like the mane of a snow-white colossal horse, tossing and waving in the tempest. Though wet by the fine spray which fell about us like rain, we regretted leaving this extraordinary spot. The fertile portion of the canton consists of a narrow valley, flanked on both sides by lofty mountains, many of which were now blanched by a weight of virgin snow of the most dazzling whiteness. At the feet of these, often, in small semicircular sweeps, are found spots of verdure, of a very peculiar form and beauty. Imagine two towering rocky mountains, barren as death, and strikingly-savage in their aspect, divided in front from each other by a bed of soft green turf, dotted with tufted trees, single or in groups, and rising from the road with a gentle slope until it touches the curtain of naked rocks which unite the two mountains behind. But I know of no expression which can paint the love-the points on which they differ, in favor, of course, liness of one of those scenes which we passed a little before sunset on Wednesday evening. The greensward, rising gradually, as I have said, from the level of the great valley, appeared to swell into every form of beauty which an undulating surface, infinitely varied in aspect, could assume. Here were small glades, through which the de-scribed admirably. The name of Pervenche, used lighted eye wandered into the dim distance; there thick groves of umbrageous trees; here a patch of smooth-shaven lawn; by the side of this a dusky hollow, terminating in a shelving semicircle of green turf. In short, I know of no voluptuous feature in a landscape, excepting sparkling streams, which this valley did not exhibit. CHAPTER V.THE JESUIT. Let me describe my friend of the Society of Jesus. He was a man of about thirty-five, slightly example of this. His short and slightly curled up per lip indicated a large amount of scorn, which he sought to disguise by a winning voice and gentle manners; but from the height of his intellect he evidently looked down upon his opponents, and now and then put forth a degree of strength that startled them. His face was pale, with a few streaks of red in the cheeks, such as you sometimes see in farmers, who have been a good deal exposed to the weather. He wore a long black cassock, reaching from his neck to the feet, a common hat, and a little white band of linen about the neck. We understood each other thoroughly, and between his Catholicism and my Protestantism there was so little difference that it required the name to distinguish one from the other. We rose above sectarianism, and met on the common level of Christianity. Such a man, however, would be a dangerous proselyte-maker, for he would first show all the points in which the two beliefs agree, and then gradually attack as errors, condemned by both, of his own church. As we went along, I inquired into the mental and physical condition of the Valaisans, on which he exhibited extensive information, though himself a native of Alsace. Our conversation then turned upon the summit of the Alps, where he had often wandered, and which he de accidentally in our conversation, led to the mention of Jean Jacques Rousseau, and that again to Madame de Warrens, and that to love. I felt not a little anxious to learn the opinion of a Jesuit on this passion, but observing that Madame Carli and the rest of our companions were stening too attentively to our conversation, he said he would speak of it another time when I did him the honor to visit his college. That visit was never paid, neither did the promised discussion ever take place; but, instead, he related to me a story which did honor to his frankness, for it represented a Jesuit in love. What will be the opinion of the reader when he hears the anecdotes, it is, of course, beyond my power to conjecture, neither shall I at present state my own; but when I have related faithfully all the incidents of the narrative, the event will speak for itself. 66 that channel. The Jesuit viewed the scene with a look expressive of sorrow and painful recollections, which suggested to me the idea that he had witnessed some tragedy on that spot. "I will tell you," said he, as we go along, the history of the destruction of this little plain, which, as you perceive, is of very recent date. I happened to be It was towards the close of the day, and not many here when it took place, and was blessed with more leagues from Brigg, when, observing an extraordi- than one opportunity of affording aid or consolation nary appearance in the valley and mountain on our to the sufferers. Similar occurrences are not rare right, I inquired of the Jesuit the cause of the phe- in the region of the Upper Alps, but probably nothnomenon. Across the small plain from the foot of ing so terrible has been known in the valley within the rocks to the river extended a broad, irregular the memory of man. Look yonder among the chasm some fifteen or twenty feet deep. On its trees. At every advance of the diligence we disedge stood the ruins of several cottages, and above, cover the ruins of fresh cottages; indeed, a whole in the face of the mountains, was a tremendous gap' hamlet once stood where you now behold only loose like the mouth of an immense sluice; large trees stones and piles of rubbish. Look at yon cross; toh up by the roots, rocks of enormous size rolled, how it nods over the chasm like the light of relidown and jammed together among the ruins of the forest, appeared to indicate the passage of some risistless flood, but all was now dry; and from the rature of the ground, it was clear that no river or ven brook or streamlet could ever have flowed in From Fraser's Magazine. HOPE AND MEMORY. Two spirit-voices sighed upon the air- gion gleaming over eternity. Close to it stood the little village church, and graves of the dead. All are now buried beneath the sands of the Rhone." He then commenced his relation in these words :- My voice is but an echo, ling`ring on Round some old temple whence the gods are gone. [TRUTH AND OPINION.] "MORE than half a century ago a journalist properly observed, that the question is not whether all truths are fit to be told, but whether all opinions are fit to be published; whether it is expedient that every individual should propagate and defend what he looks upon as truth. Every real truth is fit to be told; but every opinion that is engendered in the fermentation of a superficial head, with an irregular fancy, may not be fit to be told, however plausible it may be rendered by a tinsel clothing of metaphysical sophistry."-Monthly Review, vol. 64, p. 499. [ENGLISH ECCENTRICITY.] HORACE WALPOLE says, the most remarkable thing he had observed abroad was, "that there are no people so obviously mad as the English. The but then they are so national that they cease to be French, the Italians, have great follies, great faults; striking. In England tempers vary so excessively that almost every one's faults are peculiar to himself. I take this diversity to proceed partly from our climate, partly from our government; the first is changeable, and makes us queer, the latter permits our queernesses to operate as they please."-Letters, vol. 1, p. 43. so they cannot fail of giving a bias to the tastes, and strengthening the reflective powers, of the young and the ardent of many generations. Chatham, Sheridan, Erskine, Burke, Fox-what a galaxy of illustrious names! Whig though they be, (with the exception, at least, of Burke, and he was a whig at the outset,) it is impossible not to feel, when we come into their presence, tha we are indeed standing upon holy ground. But why should our spirited publishers stop there? Has not England produced another Pitt, attaining, even in his youth, to higher eminence than his father succeeded in making at mature age? Are Canning's silver tones forgotten? Has Wilberforce quite passed from men's memories? or Huskisson, or Scott, or Murray, or Thurloe? And might not passages of surpassing power and interest be culled from the speeches of still earlier statesmen-such as Hyde, Falkland, Hampden, Cecil? Perhaps this hint of ours may not be thrown away. The firm which has dared to put forth these two volumes, cannot fail of meeting with such encouragement as shall lead to more. And then, without doubt, the same judgment and skill which have been brought to bear upon the present selection, will find scope and room enough to disport themselves on another. From Fraser's Magazine. * THE MODERN ORATOR. MESSRS. Aylott and Jones have established a strong claim upon the gratitude of all to whom the cause of English literature is dear. They have come forward in a very spirited manner to save from oblivion some of the brightest flowers in the whole garland of English eloquence. In The Modern Orator, compiled under their auspices, we have, collected within a moderate compass, not specimens only, but the very creain of all that Chatham, Sheridan, Burke, Erskine and Fox, ever addressed to either house of Parliament. The speeches of each statesman, moreover, are prefaced by a short sketch of his life; while explanatory notes enable the reader fully to apprehend both the general drift of the several orations that come before him, and the particular points which, in the progress of his argument, the speaker has contrived either to achieve or to miss. It is impossible to overestimate the value or importance of such a publication. While it brings within the reach of thousands, knowledge, from which, with out some help of the sort, they must have been entirely shut out, it supplies the more fortunate few with a manual, easily referred to, and just sufficiently extensive to recall to their recollection whatever, in this department of literature, an educated man would be loath to forget. No doubt there are fuller biographies extant of all the great men referred to here. And the intrinsic worth of these must remain to the end of time precisely what it was when each first came under the scalpel of the critic. But experience has long ago shown that biographies continue to be popular in an inverse ratio to their bulk; because you cannot forever keep alive the literary appetite that gulps down a couple of quartos, or half a dozen bulky octavos, at the outset. Look at Tomlin's Life of Pitt, Lord Holland's Memoirs of Charles James Fox, and Moore's Life of Sheridan. (Who that has not passed his grand climacteric ever thinks of referring to these, except for a purpose?) And even Prior's Life of Burke, though comparatively a recent publication, lives but in the memory of a passing generation, and will soon take its place on the top-shelves, among the books" which no gentleman's library ought to be without." Messrs. Aylott and Jones have, therefore, done good service, both to the memory of the glorious dead and to the taste and political education of the living. They have embalmed, so to speak, the rich imagery, the terse argument, the glorious declamation of the former, in a shrine which, being accessible to all, has a good chance of commanding the devo tion of true worshippers to the end of time while before the living age they bring models of imitation, which, as they may be studied without fatigue, and remembered in their just proportions, *The Modern Orator. Being a Selection from the Speeches of the Earl of Chatham, Sheridan, Edmund Burke, Lord Erskine, and Charles James Fox, with Introductions and Explanatory Notes. In 2 vols. 8 vo. London: Aylott and Jones, Paternoster Row. CCLXXXIX. LIVING AGE. VOL. XXIII. 26 The first of the great men with whom The Modern Orator deals, was born in St. James' parish, Westminster, on the 15th of November, 1708. His grandfather, when governor of Madras, had purchased for 20,4007., a diamond, which was long considered the largest in the world; and subsequently sold it to the Regent Orleans, on account of the King of France, for 135,000l. Thus enriched, he became the proprietor of a handsome estate near Lostwithiel, in Cornwall, which he bequeathed, together with a considerable portion in money, to his son Robert. Of this Robert, by Harriet Villiers, sister to the Earl of Grandison, William Pitt, afterwards Earl of Chatham, was the second son. William Pitt was sent at an early age to Eton, where he greatly distinguished himself, and became a favorite both with the masters and his schoolfellows. Among the latter, he seems to have associated chiefly with George, afterwards Lord Lyttelton; Henry Fox, afterwards Lord Holland; and Henry Fielding. He entered Trinity College, Oxford, as a gentleman commoner; but never took a degree. An attack of gout in early life induced him to quit the university, and to seek in travel through France and Italy the health which had been seriously impaired. After his return, he obtained a commission in the Blues, and in February, 1735, took his seat in the House of Commons as member from Old Sarum. once, He at and without any apparent effort, made his presence felt in the great council of the nation. A strikingly handsome figure, a dignified and graceful manner, a voice full, rich, clear, and singularly flexible, supplied all that is wanting to complete the exterior graces of an orator; and neither the style nor the matter of his speeches | condemned it. Be the guilt of it upon the head of disappointed the expectations which these outward the adviser; God forbid that this committee should signs might have stirred. Butler, in his Remi-share the guilt by approving it! niscences, says of Lord Chatham, that "his lowest Pitt was now one of the acknowledged leaders whisper was distinctly heard; his middle tones of the opposition, and he gave the enemy no were sweet, rich, and beautifully varied; when he elevated his voice to its highest pitch, the house was completely filled with the volume of the sound." His great forte, like that of his immortal son, seems to have been "invective," the force of which was much enhanced by the lightning glance of an eye which few could bear, when turned upon them, without shrinking. respite. On the 19th of October, 1739, war was declared against Spain; and the reluctant minister, having once drawn the sword, seemed resolute like a rock in his way. to wield it effectively. But here again Pitt stood On the 17th of January, 1741, Sir Charles Wager, first lord of the admiralty, introduced into Parliament a bill for the encouragement and increase of seamen, and for the better and speedier manning of the navy. The He delivered his maiden speech in Parliament measure had more than one very weak side, and on the 29th of April, 1736, when Mr. Pulteney, they were all pounced upon directly by the prince's then paymaster of the forces, moved an address groom of the bedchamber. Among other arrangeof congratulation to George II. on the marriage ments proposed, there was one which empowered of Frederick, Prince of Wales, with the Princess justices of the peace, upon application under the Augusta of Saxe Gotha. To our less courtly sign manual, or by the lord high admiral, or the ears, there is a tone of too much adulation about commissioners executing that office, to issue warthis speech, which, however, the editors of The rants to constables within their jurisdiction, to Modern Orator have, with great judgment, pre- search either by day or by night for seamen; and served. And as it lauded the prince on account for that purpose to enter, and if need were, to of his many virtues, among which dutiful obedience force open the door of any house, or other place, to his royal father was not forgotten, the royal in which there was reason to suspect that seamen father, who hated the royal son consumedly, never forgave the insult. The young statesman was most unceremoniously deprived of his cornetcy of horse, and went, as in duty bound, into violent opposition. As a matter of course, the dutiful Prince of Wales took to his arms the man whom the king his father delighted not to honor. Pitt was appointed groom of the bedchamber to this royal highness, and forthwith took a prominent part in assailing the policy and person of Sir Robert Walpole. Mr. were concealed. Pitt rose, as soon as the opportunity offered, and thus noticed the arguments of the attorney and solicitor-general, (Sir Dudley Ryder and Sir John Strange,) who had preceded him: Sir, the two honorable and learned gentlemen who spoke in favor of this clause, were pleased to show that our seamen are half slaves already, and now they modestly desire you should make them wholly so. Will this increase your number of seato serve you? Can you expect that any man will men? or will it make those you have more willing make himself a slave if he can avoid it? Can you expect that any man will breed his child up to be a slave? Can you expect that seamen will venture their lives or their limbs for a country that has made them slaves? or can you expect that any seaman will stay in the country, if he can by any means make his escape? Sir, if you pass this law, you must, in my opinion, do with your seamen as they do with their galley-slaves in France-you must chain them to their ships, or chain them in couples when they are ashore. But suppose this should both increase the number of your seamen, and render them more willing to serve you, it will The first heavy blow struck by the ex-cornet at the prime minister was delivered in March, 1739, when he fiercely attacked Walpole's convention with Spain, and contributed not a little, by the force of his eloquence, to bring it into disrepute. The cabinet carried its motion, but by a majority of only twenty-eight votes-a thing quite unprecedented in the good old times of undisguised corruption; and the chief of the cabinet felt the same hour that his power was shaken. Nor is this to be wondered at. There was a vigor in Pitt's onslaught which a better cause might have found it hard to withstand; brought against the truckling of the great whig premier, it was quite irre-render them incapable. It is a common observa sistible. tion, that when a man becomes a slave, he loses half his virtue. What will it signify to have your This convention, sir, I think from my soul, is ships all manned to their full complement? Your nothing but a stipulation for national ignominy; an men will have neither the courage nor the tempillusory expedient to baffle the resentment of the tation to fight; they will strike to the first enemy nation; a truce, without a suspension of hostilities, that attacks them, because their condition cannot be on the part of Spain; on the part of England, a made worse by a surrender. Our seamen have suspension, as to Georgia, of the first law of always been famous for a matchless alacrity and nature, self-preservation and self-defence; a sur- intrepidity in time of danger; this has saved many render of the rights and trade of England to the a British ship, when other seamen would have run mercy of plenipotentiaries; and, in this infinitely below deck, and left the ship to the mercy of the highest and most sacred point-future security, not waves, or, perhaps, of a more cruel enemy, a only inadequate, but directly repugnant to the reso-pirate. For God's sake, sir, let us not, by our new lutions of Parliament, and the gracious promise projects, put our seamen in such a condition as must from the throne. The complaints of your despair- soon make them worse than the cowardly slaves of ing merchants, and the voice of England, have France and Spain. Harassed by the ceaseless attacks of his eloquent | February, 1746. But they had felt their own opponent, and deserted first by one and then by weakness from the first, and having again failed to another of his ancient supporters, Sir Robert Wal- overcome the king's disinclination to receive Pitt, pole accepted a peerage, and, as Earl of Orford, they resigned. Mr. Pulteney, now created Earl withdrew from the administration. Mr. Pelham, of Bath, thereupon became first lord of the treasMr. Sandys, Lord Carteret, and their friends, now ury. His effort to form a cabinet broke down, and took the chief management of affairs. But their Pitt's friends returning to their places, brought policy, and in particular their system of continental him along with them; first, as vice-treasurer for alliances, differed in nothing from that of Walpole, Ireland, and then on the 6th of May as paymaster and they became, as he had been, the objects of to the forces, with a seat in council. Pitt's vehement denunciations. He attacked their | As the second son of a country gentleman, Wilinconsistency on the 9th and 23d of March, 1742, liam Pitt had always been poor. Indeed, it was when Lord Limerick moved for an inquiry into the the res angusta which alone induced him to accept proceedings of the defunct cabinet; and in Decem- office in the household of Frederick, Prince of ber of the same year exposed, with equal bitterness Wales, and he seized the very first opportunity and ability, the injustice and extravagance of the that presented itself of resigning it. In 1744 the Hanoverian alliance. It was proposed by the min- celebrated Duchess of Marlborough died, and left ister that England should take into her pay 16,000 him a legacy of 10,0007., "On account," as her Hanoverian troops, in order that they might be will expresses it, "of his merit in the noble deemployed in the Netherlands, in support of Maria fence he has made in the laws of England, and to Theresa, Queen of Hungary. Pitt rose immedi- prevent the ruin of his country." This fortune, ately after Henry Fox, who had spoken in support though not great, was sufficient to place him in a of the arrangement, though with a qualification, position of comparative independence, and he immeand saiddiately ceased to be groom of the bedchamber to Sir, if the honorable gentleman determines to the prince. The emoluments of office as paymasabandon his present sentiments as soon as any ter of the forces proved, moreover, an acceptable better measures are proposed, the ministry will addition to his income; though, to his honor be it quickly be deprived of one of their ablest defend-recorded, he did not pocket a shilling beyond the ers; for I consider the measures hitherto pursued bare salary allowed; and at the period concerning so weak and so pernicious, that scarcely any alter- which we now write, this deserves to be accepted ation can be proposed that will not be for the advanas very high praise, for there was no man then in tage of the nation. public life, from the highest to the lowest station, but looked upon the appropriation of waifs and strays as fair plunder. Chancellors and prime ministers openly accepted presents, not from foreign courts alone, but from private persons. Till Pitt's incumbency there had never been a paymasIf, therefore, our assistance to the Queen of Hun-ter who omitted to appropriate to his own use the gary be an act of honesty, and granted in conse-interest on public balances, or to exact a fee of one quence of treaties, why may it not be equally half per cent. from moneys paid in the form of subrequired of Hanover? If it be an act of generosity, sidy to any of the continental powers. Pitt refused why should this country alone be obliged to sacrifice her interests for those of others? or why should the Elector of Hanover exert his liberality at the expense of Great Britain? He then went on, in a strain of fiery eloquence, to expose the sophistry of men who did not scruple to seek the support of the crown at the expense of the people's burdens; and summed up his argument in these words : It is now too apparent, sir, that this great, this powerful, this mighty nation, is considered only as a province to a despicable electorate; and that in consequence of a scheme formed long ago, and invariably pursued, these troops are hired only to drain this unhappy country of its money. That they have hitherto been of no use to Great Britain or to Austria, is evident beyond a doubt; and, therefore, it is plain that they are retained only for the purposes of Hanover. from the first to enrich himself by any such discreditable means. He paid the balances, as often as they accrued, into the Bank of England, and declined the fee which his predecessors used to expect as a matter of right. Pitt was arrogant, overbearing, and very difficult to manage, but he was quite as disinterested as his son; and we defy any man, in high life or in low, to exceed either of them in that respect. In November, 1754, Pitt married Hester, daughter of Richard Grenville, Esq., of Wootten, in the county of Buckingham, and sister of Viscount Cobham, afterwards Earl Temple, and of George and James Grenville. In 1755, he received an intimation from the king that his majesty had no further occasion for his services; and, together with Legge, In 1744 another change of administration took place. The Duke of Newcastle was called to the chief management of affairs, and proposed to the king that Pitt should take office as secretary at war; but George II. could not forgive Pitt's the chancellor of the exchequer, seceded from the opposition to the Hanoverian interests, and posi- cabinet. This was owing to the disapprobation tively refused to receive him. Considerable incon- expressed by these two statesmen of the subsidiary venience followed, which was overcome chiefly by treaties with Hesse Cassel and Russia, into which Pitt's disinterested entreaty to his friends not to the king, without consulting his council, had enrefuse office on his account; and the Newcastle tered. But, though deprived of office, they did cabinet continued to hold the reins till the 10th of not enter violently into opposition. On the con |