ous modes of deliberation and of counsel; by either have done of their common adversagiving a sanctity to judicial bodies, before which ry; and we have now lying before us scores rank and riches bend in submission; and, finally, of tracts and speeches in which the nextby opposing a check to every act of passion, whether in chief, nobles, or people, that the whole society is protected against the abuse of those faculties of government, the right use of which produces some of the greatest of human blessings. door neighbors of the liberal party have been very witty, very severe, and in many observe that the hostile critics seize on the cases very unjust, upon each other. We imputation that the essential failing of Lord John Russell is, indiscretion. Thus Sydney Smith wrote -"It is impossible to sleep easy while Lord John has command of the Political power is, generally speaking, a watch ;" and the driver of the "Derby matter of permission; and so long as a nation Dilly" characteristically said, in 1834-in is tranquil, easy and obedient, it is impossible words that flew over the town "Johnny to say that the power which rules them is not, de jure as well as de facto, a legitimate governterly Review, a well-known hand assimilated has upset the coach." And so, in the Quarment. Restore to the people their sovereignty; they will instantly delegate it afresh; and there him to Lord Byron's ancestor who never went are times when a nation is more faithfully rep- to sea but in a storm thefoul weather resented by the sword of Cæsar than by the Jack" of nautical annals; - the allusion senate of Cato. being probably suggested by the famous "Channel Fleet" witticism. At this point it Whether the thinking of the foregoing pas-is interesting to turn to Moore's lines, and sages be right or wrong, none can deny that see how the ideality of the poet converts into they exhibit philosophic generalization and heroism what the critics on Lord John have trenchant style. It is after reading such pas-called "rashness." sages, that we can appreciate those two stanzus from Moore's lines to his noble friend : With an ardor for liberty, fresh as in youth It first kindles the bard and gives life to his lyre; Yet mellowed e'en now by that mildness of truth Which tempers, yet chills not, the patriot fire; With an eloquence, not like those rills from a height Which sparkle, and foam, and in vapor are o'er; But a current that works out its way into light lore. Moore was very proud of having written these lines-expostulating with Lord John Russell on his intention, nearly thirty years since, to abandon politics. He used playfully to allude to them as the effusions of a real "vates." Ever since Lord John has become famous With a spirit as meek as the gentlest of those Who in life's sunny valley lie sheltered and warm, Yet bold and heroic as ever yet rose To the top cliffs of fortune, and breasted the storm: a stanza which illustrates a remark of Sheridan on Moore (as reported by Hazlitt)"There is no man puts so much of his heart into his fancy as Tom Moore. His soul is like a particle of fire, separated from the sun, fluttering to get back to its source of light and heat." Although with the political convictions remore of a sentimentalist than any other polisulting from thought, Lord John is perhaps tician of the day- the traditions of his ancestry and the story of his famous race powerfully influencing his mind. He evidently feels that -the branches that spring from the old Russell tree in the senate he has been criticized with great severity by eminent persons belonging to adverse schools of thought. He has been quizzed and satirized by Sydney Smith, and Are by liberty claimed for the use of her shrine. very harshly spoken of in a work of great He often argues modern questions in the ability, "The History of the Peace." The witty sayings of the late Canon of St. Paul's are uncommonly sharp and shrewd - but we could no more accept as historical verities his most amusing caricatures of Lord Melbourne, Lord Palmerston, and the present leaders of the Commons, than we could think of taking Moore's "Twopenny Post-Bag" or Byron's invectives as authorities against Lord Castlereagh. "The History of the Peace" is composed in the spirit of philosophical radicalism; and in politics and in theology those who dwell in the same vicinage are often contentious as are borderers. Calvinists and Lutherans have written harder things of each other than style of a historical revivalist, and refers, as to some scientific canons, to the opinions of Locke and of Milton, without taking into account what Locke and Milton might think now with the new social experiences of modern Christendom. The philosophical radicals have always criticized him as not being enough of an economist in his political principles; and they aver that he ignores "the principles of social progress" as discovered and established by Bentham and Mill. His "Letter to the Electors of Stroud" is an able defence from his own pen to the charge of being indifferent to progress. A more highly finished piece of political writing has rarely issued from any oriental tourist. Miss Bunbury exhibits herself as bustling, curious, sentimental, resolute to see, and not averse to be seen in a man practical statesman. Grappling with the demand for more deference to theory and less submission to established institutions, he quotes the remark made to himself in conver- ner calculated to suggest whimsical thoughts sation by Sir James Mackintosh "How of the impression which her solitary appearstrange it is that such a man as Mr. Bentham ance must have produced in circles wherein does not perceive that Utility itself is part of the travelled Englishwoman is a rarity. Our Prescription." We may add from ourselves authoress appears, avowedly, to have anthat Voet on the "Pandects" has a sentiment nounced herself as travelling with a view to similar to that of Mackintosh. The conclud- publication; and to have "got on" in a fashing sentence of the Stroud letter- "I will ion sufficiently unique. Let us take an innot lift the anchors of the monarchy while the stance at random. While waiting in Christsigns of a storm are black in the horizon"— iania for an eclipse, it occurred to Miss Bunhave been quoted nearly as often as "The bury that she would improve the interval by whisper of a faction shall not prevail against taking a run into the country. Never having the voice of a nation :"- -a mot which attained learned to drive herself in a carriole, and feelmarvellous currency during the Reform Bill ing that a solitary expedition in a strange agitation. land, of which she could not speak the lanAmongst leaders of the Commons Lord John guage, might be unsafe as well as conspioRussell has been signally successful. The uous, she met willingly a proposition post is one of prodigious difficulty: rightly made by those whom she consulted, that she filled it may be called the most arduous should hire a divinity student, on the point political office in the world. Its duties must of taking orders, to drive her and to keep her be discharged before a wary opposition. It company. The narrative shall be continued demands readiness in debate and resolution in in her own words: : confronting adversaries. There must be courtesy and good temper, without any tendency to cringe or cajole; that fault being very fatal. Often compelled to resist, and sometimes to concede - the leader must do the first manfully, and the last gracefully. There must be either great talent or vast experience in a parliamentary leader-but character" is indispensable. Lord Johu himself once wrote with significancy- "It is the habit of party in England to ask the alliance of a man of genius, but to follow the guidance of a man of character." It is a curious fact, that a Scotchman has never yet led the British House of Commons. Only two Scotchmen the Earls of Bute and Aberdeen have been prime ministers of England. Two Irishmen Castlereagh and Canning-have led the Commons; and amongst prime ministers Ireland counts three-the first Marquis of Lansdowne, the Duke of Wellington, and Mr. Canning. As successful "leaders,' Sir Robert Walpole and the younger Pitt are unrivalled in the duration of their power. From the Athenæum. Life in Sweden; with Excursions in Norway and Denmark. By SELINA BUNBURY. 2 vols. Hurst & Blackett. WHEN we were speaking of the belligerent aud inconsolable Mrs. Hervey's travels in Kashmir, we characterized the present as an age of "odd female travellers." Miss Bunbury's book does not tempt us to withdraw the epithet-though it must be forthwith added, that her "curiosities of travel" are of a more quaint and feminine order than those of the The to-morrow" came; I could scarcely sleep from excitement. However, having my travels before me, I tried to make a good breakfast. Every book of travels in the north I had read asserted that in these regions one might always calculate on good eggs. So eggs I always have ordered hitherto; in the Hôtel de Scandinavie, however, I think they must be reserved for the use of us English only, for they have invariably been kept too long when presented to me. I was ready, notwithstanding, and had my bonnet in my hand when the professor came into the room which is appropriated to my receptions. "Is the gig ready, Herr Professor?" "Quite ready." "And the candidat?" "" "But what?" Yes, but "He cannot "Got in! How?"" "He is too be got in." he just fills the gig.' big. He could not be got into the carriole, and It was true: to crush the candidat into a carriole would have been a refinement on thumb-screwing. "No matter," said the good-natured professor, "I have another plan for you, just what you call the very thing. There is a lieutenant who wants to go to see his family somewhere on the road to Bergen; he is glad to have a free passage, and will attend you. "Then I must go on the road to Bergen. Very well, it is the most beautiful road." "I will go for him now, and return in half an hour." "What easy resources they have here!" I said to myself. In three or four hours the professor returned. "I should have come sooner," he said, "but the lieutenant has has come to see our country; and a promise to now promised to accompany a blind man, who a blind man, you know, must be kept.' "" "Before one to a lady?" Perhaps-yes- before one to a lady who has eyes. But no matter, I have another plan, much more suited to you. Yes, this you will say is the very thing. See, now, one of our fairy-legend writers is going to of D 66 66 me for mine! make a tour.". "A tour in Fairyland !" I | Hand-book says it is dangerous to take a heavy interrupted, clasping my hands, and feeling carriage over the hills of Norway, and certainly myself wafted back to the far, far distant years a roll down among such et ceteras would not be f my blessed childhood; "and I shall share it?" pleasant," I added. Herr Fairy-hunter moved Yes, he will drive; and if you wish to uneasily on his chair, worked his hands together, draw -"Draw! what? The carriole?" shook his head disprovingly, and said, "You "Ack! nay; he is going to collect fairy- must be complained of." legends; and if you wish to what do you call it in English?" said the professor, marking Miss Bunbury at last succeeded in finding lines on the palm of his hand. -"Sketch ?". Such strength as a guide and companion. Yes, if you wish to sketch, you can do so, her book possesses lies in the record of advenwhile he collects the fairy-legends.' "And Itures like the above. She spares neither her will give him my sketches for his legends."— own scrapes nor the peculiarities of those by "No that cannot be; native art and literature whose hospitable aid she studied the life and only are encouraged here. The government manners of Sweden, Norway, and Denmark. sends this fairy-hunter, and has already paid The following bit of landscape, introduced as him for his legends, and sends him on his tour a specimen of Miss Bunbury's "touch" apfree."-"O dear! No government would pay plied to other subjects than men and women, We have no government train to reminds us, in its tone and temper, of the Fairy-land.' But you must wait till to-mor- northern vignettes of the Countess Hahnrow," said the professor... The professor had told Hahn: me that the fairy-legend hunter spoke English; a delightful knowledge this was to me, for I am by no means strong in northern tongues. Thus, in the hope of using and hearing my own, I was quite at case, when the next day they both made their appearance. The professor presented me formally. Herr Fairy-hunter made a great many bows; and as so many bows involve a good many curtsies, I inclined nearly as often. Then, with a last reverence he spoke, in English, and said, very slowly-"I complain of you much, that you are so disagreeable; but now I make an extra." I made my last reverence in reply. Such a speech, by way of a complimentary one, was rather startling, and not a little alarming. I looked nervously at the professor, who, with profound gravity, interpreted his friend's meaning, thus -"He pities you for being so disagreeably circumstanced; but he is making an abridgment of his book, and, therefore, cannot now make his tour." I bowed with a sense of relief, and the fairy-hunter and myself exchanged some sentences which I do not record, as I believe the fairies alone would be able to understand the language. I have got another plan for you," said the professor; yes, this is the very thing. A teacher of music here wishes to take his wife and child into the country, and one of our opera-voices, who also speaks Italian which you do likewise- will go with them. They will all join you; but as they must leave their affairs here, they expect you will pay all the travelling expenses. They will bring their own provisions, because there are none to be got on the road. That is fair." "Very fair, indeed," I answered. The very thing.". "I complain of you much!" murmured the fairy-hunter, looking at me compassionately.. "You must, then, take a carriage," said the professor. "It will be quite filled," I replied. "Four persons, with Norsecloaks, pipes, tobacco-pouches, provisions, and luggage "And the child?" added my professor. "Ah! I suppose I must take it on my knee.". "You are very disagreeable," said the fairy-hunter, with a look of commiseration at me; but I thought, secretly, that others were still more disagreeable. "But Mr. Murray's 66 Before the autumn expired, I resolved to visit Upsala; and, accompanied by a young woman, whom I took as companion, I set off by the steamboat on Lake Mälar. It was truly a miserable day, toward the latter end of September. The cold was such that no amount of clothing seemed to me enough; and there, on board that boat, was a poor little Frenchwoman, the wife of a professor of Paris, without any sort of cloak or defence against it. I gave her part of mine, and made her put her feet at the open door of the fire-room. We sat there and talked French. She told me her husband had come to Sweden in order to acquaint himself fully with its history, politics, past and present state in regard to government, agriculture, produce, manufactures, &c. &c. How long had he been in Sweden? Í asked. Nearly six weeks, she answered. This seems, indeed, a favorite time for authors' visits. The whole passage on the lake to Upsala was very dreary. It is not at any time so interesting or beautiful here as it is in other parts. The prevalence of that drug in Swedish scenery, and, indeed, in Swedish ground, the fir and pine, and the nearly total absence of what are called here, curiously enough, leaf-trees- that is, all trees that bear leaves in summer and not in winter- gives a monotonous and rather heavy air to the banks, which is only occasionally diversified by the appearance of such fine places as Skokloster. And if such be the case at all times, it may be supposed what it was on a dark, rainy, and bitterly cold day. We landed, however, and got to an hotel, and were given an immense room, with a couple of sofas in it, which at night were opened, and the treasures they contained were taken out and laid upon them: and so your sofa is turned into your bed, and your sitting-room into your sleeping room, with very little ado. And the evening was so wet that I stayed in the house, and tried to persuade myself I was in Upsala. When I went out of the hotel on a sunshiny morning, I went about and about, and said, "Where is Upsala?" and my companion said, "You are in it ;" and I answered, "No, I am in a clean, modern, goodlooking town, of new wooden houses, painted, or asked for monsieur, said she was his wife, and colored, in all colors, chiefly red; the streets are must be to make such a proposal!" Then abruptly saying, " He is absent! he is in Paris! he is very ill in bed!" she turned her back, and looked up at the articles on her shelf. I went away; on our road I saw a sign with "Perukmakare" upon it; and before Fröken could stop me I entered the shop. There was a man here. Is it to make a peruke?" he inquired. —“ No! to come to dress my hair." The poor man seemed to undergo a convulsion to avoid laughter. Then he looked so awkward. I think he blushed. But I looked out, and saw Fröken standing with a very pretty face of perfect distress in the street. "Madame! Madame !" she cried at the door, when I appeared, "that is impossible that we can ask for a hair-dresser in Stockholm! Pray, madame, come home; I want to be at home." I went home with the poor girl, Miss Bunbury passed a winter in Stockholm, as the lodger of a countess who instructed her benignantly on the manners and customs and short-comings of English ladies, and who is depicted as being a mean, oldfashioned, prejudiced woman, illiberal in her notions, and not very generous in her hospi-thinking only that it is very unpleasant for any talities. The coming on of hard weather is not interested in an object to go about thus on an described with some sprightliness:- though found. A few minutes after we entered the unpleasant day, looking for what is not easily as regards pictorial skill Miss Bunbury does house, I followed Fröken to the salong, and not equal other travelling English women to found my hostess leaning her back against the name but two, the writer of the "Letters kakelugn, or stove, and laughing most heartily; from the Baltic" and Miss Howitt. There is while Fröken stood before with a half-ashamed, life in her picture of Stockholm on a Christ- half-relieved countenance, evidently in the act mas evening night, with all the prepara- of confession. "Yes, madame," cried the tions for that merry season, which seem to former, interrupting her laugh to speak to me, become more and more elaborate in proportion and taking it up again, "yes, I am telling her as we travel northward. We can also recom- that is not so dangerous," and the laugh recommend persons curious in that subject of inex-menced "What?" "To ask for a hair. haustible interest, the marriage ceremony, dresser." That there was some infection going to read Miss Bunbury's description of the which such persons were in danger of conveying, wedding of a distiller's foreman, to which she asked if this were the case, a roar of laughter I was now quite convinced; but when I simply was carried as a spectator and which was echoed through the great room. solemnized, as not unfrequently happens on the some young ladies to see if what was going on It brought out Continent, in a house híred and garnished for were rolig- -a word, I think, oftener used in the the occasion. Then, we have the tale of Miss Swedish language than in any other, certainly Bunbury's presentation at court:-and an oftener than we use its English expletive illustration of conventional modesty new to us amusing. But to see all the modest faces that -in its comicality out-doing the most out- were put to the blush when they heard that rageous case or specimen gathered by Mrs. madame had actually been inquiring for a hairTrollope or by Captain Marryat: dresser ! "Well," "said the hostess at last, "it is not wonderful that madame should do so, for As I was unable to eke out the little adornment in my younger days it was not thought improper which nature herself had bestowed upon my to employ a man to dress hair." Improper !" head, by wearing the plumes more lavishly I cried, opening my eyes, as a new light dawned bestowed on other creatures, without being guilty on them, and that good wife's shocked expression of usurping the honors of matrimony, I felt it of face reäppeared before them; " Improper necessary to make the most of my natural advan- why, in England, where propriety is very much tages, by calling in the aid of a hair-dresser. thought of, and in France too, that is an everyRecollecting having seen a shop of that descrip- day occurrence."-"Yes, yes, that is not dantion, kept by a Frenchman from Paris, some-gerous; and that I find quite a foolish idea, where about Brunkeberg, I thought there was no difficulty in the way, and, asking Fröken to accompany me on a walk, I went out, intending to make this matter its object. The shop proved to be a perfumery and fancy stationery one also. There was a woman only therein, who, when I though it is our custom," said our hostess, for once in her life giving up the perfection and immutability of Swedish ways. "It was not so in my youth. No, when I was in the world it was not improper to have a hair-dresser." The ladies ran away; and I asked the elder one in private what it was that constituted this impropriety. | shall be removed unto any letter, the other, by a "That is just what I cannot well say,' "she wonderful sympathy, will move unto the same. replied; "but no lady here would have a man - Book 11., chap. ii., 4to., 1669, p. 77. to dress her hair; they have women who are taught to do so."-" But these women are taught shadows before ;" and, in the present case, Thus it is that" coming events cast their by men."-"Yes, but man kan inte hjelpe det." "The fact is it is a lady's propriety, but not one is curious to learn how far back the a woman's, that is shocked by employing a male shadow may be traced. By whom has this hair-dresser," I remarked.. "It is our custom, conceit been whispered thorow the world? madame; but I grant you I do not think it a and in what musty tomes is that tradition wise one, for it was not thought dangerous when concealed which speaks concerning it? KirI was in the world forty years ago.' "Butcher's Catena Magnetica might haply tell us how can it be so now?"- "Why you know something in reply to these inquiries. he must go into the ladies' apartments."-"Yes, but men often do so here, at all times, and sit and talk there with them."-"Yes; but you know their toilet is not complete when their hair is to be dressed."-"But propriety is much more outraged when it is complete," I answered. "Man kan inte hjelpe det," said the noble dame, and ran off to the kitchen. taste. In conformity with an often repeated suggestion to the correspondents of "N. & Q.," to the simple signature of my habitat, alone hitherto adopted by me, I now subjoin my name. Cowgill. WM. MATTHEWS. TRIUMPH OF PENNY POSTAGE. Having been The above extracts will suffice to give the among the very first to recognize the merits, and reader a fair, and, we think, a not unpleasant, scheme of postage reform, it has afforded us great prognosticate the success, of Rowland Hill's idea of Miss Bunbury's book. She is not so pleasure to record, from time to time, the gradual much wanting in good nature as wanting in realization of all the advantages which its author She possesses the power of observation and most sanguine supporters anticipated from in larger proportion than the faculty of selec-it. We have seen the facilities for transmitting tion. A sledge accident which confined her letters trebled, if not quadrupled, and the rate to the house, made her the object of affection-of postage reduced to less than one-sixthate ministration on the part of Miss Bremer, counting double letters, we might say less than to whose thoughtful and delicate benevo- one-twelfth of what it was before, and while lence every one who has written concerning the public have gained thus as individuals, the Mr. Hill's the Swedish novelist bears concurrent testi- public revenue has not suffered. promises in regard to the ultimate productiveness mony. of the penny rate have been fulfilled — nas, more than fulfilled. The last return, issued only a few days ago, is replete with facts of a most wonderful and gratifying kind. The gross I HAVE just met with a passage in the Pseu- revenue from the Post Office is now more by dodoxia Epidemica of Sir Thomas Browne, 100,000l. than it was in the highest years of the wherein this invention is foreshadowed in old system, and the increase of accommodation to terms more remarkable and significant, if less of 75,907,572 letters carried in 1839, and these the public is measured by the fact that, instead imaginative and beautiful, than that from single letters, there are now carried 379,591,499, The Spectator, to which public attention has many of them really double, and the majority of already been directed, and which, I conceive, them such as would have been charged double must unquestionably have been written with postage under the old system. The gross revethis particular esample of the "received nue of the Post Office was tenets and commonly presumed truths" of the learned physician's day distinctly present to the mind of Addison. The passage referred to is as follows: From Notes and Queries. THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH. There is another conceit of better notice, and whispered thorow the world with some attention; credulous and vulgar auditors readily believing it, and more judicious and distinctive heads not altogether rejecting it. The conceit is excellent, and, if the effect would follow, somewhat divine; whereby we might communicate like spirits, and confer on earth with Menippus in the moon. And this is pretended from the sympathy of two needles touched with the same loadstone, and placed in the centre of two abecedary circles, or rings with letters described round about them, one friend keeping one, and another the other, and agreeing upon the hour wherein they will communicate. For then, saith tradition, at what distance of place soever, when one needle In 1839 In 1852 The net revenue has not yet reached what it was in 1839; but this is owing to the increased accomodation afforded by double mails daily from London to the extremities of the kingdom, by a great addition to the number of side posts, by the heavier expense of quick transit as compared with slow, and by the larger amount of work done to the government department. Still, the net revenue is coming up fast. In 1839 it was 1,614,3537.; in 1841, the first year of the cheap postage, it fell to 410,0287.; but last year it had risen to 965,4421., and the charge to the government departments should be now 124,9771., instead of 45,1561., as it was in 1839. Well may Rowland Hill and the friends of cheap postage, and the friends of low charges generally, congratulate themselves on the result of this grand experiment. -Aberdeen Herald. |