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ART. IX.-England and the English. By EDWARD LYTTON BULWER, Esq., M. P., author of "Pelham," &c. In 2 vols. Bentley. 1833.

Ir is with great propriety, and certainly with no inconsiderable portion of credit to himself, that Mr. Bulwer has patronized and acted on the shrewd injunction which is implied in the language of the judicious Montagu, when he said, "every now and then we should examine ourselves; self-amendment is the offspring of selfknowledge." If this be true of an individual, it is equally an axiom as respects a nation; for a large community, in a moral sense, is nothing more than an individual on a vaster scale, with propensities and liabilities proportioned to the amount of the difference.

The object of Mr. Bulwer's work, then, is to suggest to this very wayward nation, the policy, or, more strictly speaking, the obligation which rests upon it, of turning its own keen eyes on itself, examining, as it were, its own heart, with a view to estimate the nature and extent of those errors which more or less militate against its general welfare. We thank Mr. Bulwer for the pains he has taken in helping the conscience of England to the due discharge of this solemn duty, inasmuch as, with great diligence and research, he has compiled a very elaborate table of sins, which will very successfully prevent the possibility of this compunctious nation overlooking a single offence that can with justice be laid to its charge.

The work is divided into five books, each book being again separated into a variable series of chapters. This being obviously a convenient principle of arrangement, we shall be contented to abide by it in the course of the succeeding observations. The general object of the first book is to treat of the peculiarities which distinguish the English character, and in the opening chapter, Mr. Bulwer considers the remarkable feature which is produced in it by our passion for the unsocial. The main causes of this propensity, to which the mild and fallacious title of domesticity is applied, is traced by the author, first to our habits of trade, and next to the ' long-established influence of a very peculiar form of aristocracy amongst us. Mr. Bulwer contends, with respect to the first, that it is evidently the nature of commerce to detach the mind from the pursuit of amusement; fatigued with promiscuous intercourse during the day, its votaries concentrate their desires of relaxation within their home; at night they want rest rather than amusement: hence we usually find that a certain apathy to amusement, perfectly distinct from mere gravity of disposition, is the characteristic of commercial nations. It is not less observable among the Americans and the Dutch, than it is among the English; the last indeed have, in their social state, great counterbalances to the commercial spirit.

So much for the first cause, and with reference to the second, he says, that it is more latent than the other-that instead of springing from our liberty, it is the offspring of the restraints upon that liberty, and arises solely from the peculiar influences of aristocratic power. To the illustration of this latter influence in England, Mr. Bulwer devotes a whole chapter, tracing the causes which distinguish the moral superiority of the English aristocracy over every other, and showing how its influence operates on character, and further, how that character operates on legislative measures. He next dwells on the singularity of the revolution which has been effected in our feelings respecting foreigners, for we now, he says, no longer, as we used to do, hold the French in abhorrence. The odium which, in ancient times, we conceived against our Gallican neighbours, was a legacy bequeathed to us by traditions from early times; for as our forefathers had to struggle successively against invaders of the country, in the shape of Romans, Saxons, Danes, and, finally, Normans, it was natural that we should always feel an antipathy towards foreigners in general. This dislike was subsequently strengthened by commercial jealousy, and we were frequently annoyed at the rivalship of foreign traders who came to settle amongst us. Another reason for this hatred of strangers, but particularly of the French, is to be found in the Machiavelian policy which was acted upon, principally by the late Mr. Pitt; for it was the pride of all his military and naval agents to inculcate upon their men, that the very highest virtue of an Englishman was a deep hatred of the French. There can be no question that the feeling engendered both in the army and navy by this means, contributed to that inveterate spirit which led to so complete a triumph as crowned our share in the wars with France. But all is now changed-the long duration of peace, the consequent facility for mutual intercourse, and above all, the community of sentiment respecting liberty which exists between the two nations, have not merely removed the antipathy formerly subsisting, but have produced a degree of reaction which makes us fear that we are likely to fall into the opposite extreme, and submit ourselves too much to the influence of the French.

In proceeding with his illustration of the English, Mr. Bulwer attributes to the middle classes the possession of a quality called common sense, in which he thinks the highest as well as the lowest classes are strikingly deficient. This property, he considers, is an inevitable consequence of the habit of making bargains, and that, therefore, it is confined to the trading portions of society, not only in England, but also amongst the Dutch and the Americans. With respect to the absence of common sense amongst the highest classes, Mr. Bulwer offers an illustration which involves a fearful, but, we are afraid, too severely faithful a portrait of that class of the nobility which has hitherto been entrusted with the management of our foreign relations:

Like the nobility of other civilized countries, our own are more remarkable for an extravagant recklessness of money, for an impatient ardour for frivolities, for a headlong passion for the caprices, the debaucheries, the absurdities of the day, than for any of those prudent and considerate virtues which are the offspring of common sense. How few estates that are not deeply mortgaged! The Jews and the merchants have their grasp on more than three parts of the property of the peerage. Does this look like common sense? But these excesses have been carried to a greater height with our aristocracy than with any other, partly because of their larger command of wealth, principally because they, being brought like the rest of the world under the control of fashion, have not, like the ancient sieurs of France, or the great names of Germany, drawn sufficient consequence from their own birth to require no further distinctions. Our nobles have had ambition, that last infirmity of noble minds, and they have been accordingly accustomed to vie with each other in those singular phantasies of daring vulgarity with which a head without culture amuses an idleness without dignity. Hence, while we have boasted of our common sense, we have sent our young noblemen over the world to keep that enviable reputation by the most elaborate eccentricities and valuing ourselves on our prudence, we have only been known to the continent by our extravagance. Nor is this all those who might have been pardonable as stray specimens of erratic imbecility, we have formally enrolled as the diplomatic representatives of the nation :-the oligarchical system of choosing all men to high office, not according to their fitness for the place, but according to their connexion with the party uppermost, has made our very ambassadors frequently seem the delegates from our maisons des fous; and the envoy of the British nation at the imperial court of Metternich and craft, was no less a person than the present Marquis of Londonderry.-vol. i., pp. 60-62.

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Some of the more common accusations against the English character are ingeniously refuted by Mr. Bulwer, as we shall show from one or two examples. It is commonly made a matter of charge against us, that we are in raptures at a newspaper tale of murder, and that no spectacle can more delight us than that of a victim on the gibbet. Now, according to Mr. Bulwer, the persons who are most tender and most susceptible of terror, are those who will be most curious about it; from their ignorance of the nature of tragic crimes, their anxiety to be acquainted with them is greater, and thus he would lay it down as a rule, that the avidity with which we watch for descriptions of atrocities, is a complete proof how little such contemplations are familiar to our own hearts. Hence the very charge affords the most powerful answer to itself. The accusation of being a suicidal people is next examined by Mr. Bulwer, and is with great effect and with much pleasantry (not very germain to the subject, we must admit) flung back upon the accusers, who are principally the French. In England, the loss of fortune is the general cause of suicide; with the French it is mostly the adverse chances of the dice; but whilst in the one country we come to the resolution in sober sadness, and generally in a phrenzy of melancholy and despair, in the other they treat suicide as a play-thing,

as an amusement quite in conformity with the national disposition to turn the gravest things into frivolities. "We do not, at all events," reproachingly exclaims Mr. Bulwer, "we do not set about it with the mirthful gusto which characterizes the felo de se in your Excellency's native land. We have not yet, among our numerous clubs, instituted a club of suicides, all sworn to be the happiest dogs possible, and not to outlive the year! These gentlemen ask you to see them go off'-as if death were a place in the malle poste. Will you dine with me to-morrow, my dear Dubois?"

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"With the greatest pleasure;-yet, now I think of it, I am particularly engaged to shoot myself; I am really au desespoir!— but one can't get off such an engagement, you know.'

"I would not ask such a thing, my dear fellow. Adieu!-By the way, if you should ever come back to Paris again, I have changed my lodgings, au plaisir !'

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Exeunt the two friends; the one twirling his mustaches, the other humming an opera tune.

The national attributes of the English form the subject of some very striking passages in this work. The main principle of the greatness of England is her love of action, and hence her wonderful spirit of industry. As this is the distinguishing quality, the pervading genius which has poured abundant riches into our hands, and carried up our grandeur to the highest pitch, at the same time that it has extended our power to the furthermost ends of the earth, so should we guard it with sacred care, and, as the vestals of the ancient world, trim the pure taper, and preserve the flame both night and day. In speaking of another of the national attributes, namely, the universality of the principle of courage amongst the people, Mr. Bulwer takes occasion to enter into an examination of the construction of the army, its regulations and abuses, amongst which he particularly enumerates, and what is more remarkable, justifies, the practice of flogging. After describing the chief defects of the army service, Mr. Bulwer proposes some remedies. He recommends military schools for privates, where the principle of honour could be early instilled into them; the introduction of the system of degrading, as in the Prussian army; a system of certain promotion on particular conditions; the necessity of a certificate to character for every person entering into the service; and, lastly, a system of adequate pensions on retirement.

In book the second, Mr. Bulwer considers the society and manners of the English, one of the most characteristic features of which is the universal marketing of young women. In this respect we are only rivalled by the body of eastern slave dealers. We are, in short, a match-making nation, and the custom of open matchmaking to which we have been brought at last, is productive of many lamentable consequences, which are now for the first time noticed. For example, the practice alluded to encourages, according to Mr. Bulwer, the spirit of insincerity among all women,—

"Mothers and Daughters," a spirit that consists in perpetual scheming, and perpetual hypocrisy; it lowers the chivalric estimate of women, and damps with eternal suspicion the youthful tendency to lofty and honest love. In the next place, it assists to render the tone of society dull, low, and unintellectual; it is not talent, it is not virtue, it is not even the graces and fascination of manner that are sought by the fair dispensers of social reputation: no, it is the title and the rent-roll. You do not lavish your invitations on the most agreeable member of a family, but on the richest. The elder son is the great attraction. Nay, the more agreeable the màn be, if poor and unmarried, the more dangerous he is considered; you may admit him to acquaintanceship, but you jealously bar him from intimacy. Thus society is crowded with the insipid, and beset with the insincere. The women that give the tone to society take the tone from their favourites. The rich young mân is to be flattered in order that he may be won; to flatter him you seem to approve his pursuits; you talk to him of balls and races; you fear to alarm him by appearing his intellectual superior; you dread lest he should think you a blue; you trust to beauty and a graceful folly to allure him, and you harmonize your mind into "gentle dulness," that it may not jar upon his own.

Another characteristic of English society is the influence of cliques, which are described as consisting of some half-dozen little worthless persons, got into a certain eminence, God knows by what process, in some certain line, and who pretend, by virtue of this false assumption, to have the power of dispensing all kinds of reputations. The clique of Albemarle-street once ruled over the fountain of literary fame; but they are no more, thanks to the march of good sense; but the clique of fine ladies, and the clique of dandies still exist, and are nuisances that ought to be abated. There is, however, in genteel provincial society, quite enough to compensate for the objectionable principles which degrade that of the metropolis; and the reason appears to be, that in London, people know not their own station, whereas, in the country, the rank of every man and every family is fixed, and, consequently, they are contented with remaining what they really are.

Clubs compose another peculiar feature of English society. Mr. Bulwer gives his unqualified praise to those institutions as at present conducted, and prophecies, that the march of general improvement will ultimately cause the same system as exists in the clubs, to be applied extensively to the humble population of the country. Mr. Bulwer complains, that the highest classes of society in England form an exception to the corresponding classes in most other civilized countries, in the deficiency of elegance and accuracy in their conversation. According to this authority, the regular and polished smoothness of conversation, the unpedantic and transparent preciseness of meaning, the happy choice, unpremeditated, because habitual, of the most graceful phrases and polished idioms which

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