Non-Fiction > Uncollected essays > Volume 6, 1874 - Academy

142
THE ACADEMY.
[August 8, 1874.
known, were divined by a sort of instinct.
Every approach to a tolerance of Popery was
watched with sleepless jealousy. In March
1G73, Charles had been obliged to cancel the
Declaration of Indulgence which, in February,
he had declared he would " stick to." The
Lords, on whom he relied, had counselled
settlement bj' way of bill, and tlie victory of
the Commons was secured by the Test Act.
When these letters begin, the town is mainly
occupied with the Dutch war and with the
question who will qualify for office by taking
the Sacrament before August 1, the date
fixed by the Act. There are some com-
plaints hero recorded against the cowardice
of the Dutch in lighting as best suited them-
selves, from a distance, as amusing as the
singular exhortation to courage which was
circulated among the officers of the Enghsh
fleet. This stimulating document gave three
reasons against running away. (1) It robs
the King of the service he has paid for.
(2) It is not safe. (3) It impeaches Pro-
vidence, that delights to exercise itself in
times of the utmost hazard.
Lord Clifibrd, whose orthodoxy was doubt-
ful, gave out that he would set apart a cer-
tain day for preparation for the Sacrament.
That very day, " coming out of Somerset
House, in a private coach, the back way,
with only Father Patrick with him, at the
entrance of the Broad Place in the Strand
the coach was unfortunately overthro-mi,
and his Lordship and the Father exposed to
the view of the street ; one bringing his hat,
another his periwig, with compliments that
they were very sorry for the mischance."
Clifford resigned, as did the Duke of
York, against whom the mea.sure was chiefly
aimed, but both were still watched narrowly.
" There is great waiting to see his Lordship
after this great change." " It is not to
be writ the horrid discourses that passes
now upon his Royal Highness surrendering ;
they call him Squire James, and say that he
was always a Romanist ; that he is retu-ing
into the country, &c." "The people will
have it that [the Duke of York] is very
melancholy."
A camp had been fo;med at Blackheath
for the mustering and exercise of the troops
that were to pass over to aid the French in
Holland. Much difficulty was found in
raising troops for this unpopular service.
Buckingham, who hoped to command them,
tried the novel affectation of decent pietv,
and took the Sacrament at York to allay
" the jealousies of the growth of Popery," an
expedient he repeated the next year with
even worse success when in peril of Parlia-
ment. The command was, after all, given
to Schomberg. As a foreigner, he was dis-
liked by the officers, whose bad example had
relaxed the discipline he hoped to restore.
Glimpses are given of the dangerous spirit
of the men. At one time a drunken drum-
mer is rescued from flogging by his com-
rades, on the ground that the officers get
drunk and are not flogged. Again, when
Lockhart's regiment is in open mutiny, an
ensign, " being somewhat brisk" and di-aw-
ing his swoi-d, is immediately " knocked on
the head and left dead on the place."
The hatred of Franco and the hatred of
Popery met in the aversion everywhere ma-
nifested at the marriage of the Duke of
York with ilary of ilodena. A pmpos of
the match,
" the common people talk anything, for every
carman and porter is now a statesman ; and, in-
deed, the coli'ee-houses are good for nothing else.
It was not thus when we drank nothing but sack
and claret, or English beer and ale. These sober
clubs produce nothing hut scandalous and cen-
sorious discourses."
Parliament, having met on October 9,
was prorogued for a week to give tim.e for
the mai-riage, which was, however, acci-
dentally delayed. Twice again it met, and
twice the Commons addressed the King
against the consummation of the match.
The new army was voted a grievance, and
" evil counsellors" were being named, when
a third prorogation put off the day of reckon-
ing till January of the next year (IGT-t).
Then the Commons " went round to
work." While waiting the assembling of
Parliament, the members in town " stormed
at no rate," and declai-ed that the business
of the Dutch war should be fully examined
in the next session. AVhen the Houses met,
Buckingham, accused of crimes public and
private, tried to run before the breeze, and
threw the blame on Ai-lington. He had his
due reward in condemnation by the Com-
mons and displeasure from the King. It was
a bad time for the courtiers, and C'oventry,
"the cherub with the flaming sword," had a
fatiguing duty as he kept turning every way.
Addresses passed for the removal of Bucking-
ham and Lauderdale. Arlington's business
was referred to a committee, but further
proceedings were stayed by a sudden proro-
gation.
"Common fame" had been busy with
Williamson too. It was, perhaps, as well
for him that his Cologne business, dragging
a weary length, bad to be hastened. The
record of it may be seen still in the Life of
Sir Leoline Jenkins, and he who reads will
run, unless he be of sterner stuff than most.
Sir William Temple and the Spanish am-
bassador swept away the diplomatic cob-
webs and settled a peace in three days. The
main current of events flowed as has been
shown, but in the little eddies of this cor-
respondence are some curious and interest-
ing things. Not to speak of the tittle-
tattle about the new duchess — a parallel to
which may be found without looking far
— there are glimpses of Rupert, hot to
the last, the popular " hero " in the
Dutch war; of Blood, with his mysterious
"influence," his company endured with
sti'ange toleration by decent people ;
of the Duchess of Portsmouth, in an
ill-spelt French letter in answer to Sir
Joseph's congratulations on her dignity.
The riot and bloodshed in Gray's Inn, begun
by the gentlemen of the inn pumping upon
some bailiffs ; the case of Brown, hanged at
St. Thomas Waterings for stealing a city
heiress, and not reprieved according to
custom when the King passed by, because
the Common Council had petitioned against
a pardon ; the case of Pierce, tried for the
same offence, but with this difference, that
he was a citizen, and was allowed to get off
with the country heiress owning him for her
husband, his guilt thus " bringing its own
punishment ;" are some few samples of the
matters to be found in these volumes.
His Cologne business ended. Sir Joseph
returned to be, in due time. Secretary of
State, President of the Royal Society, and
manager of the " formal parts " of the nego-
tiations of William III.'s reign. Those
would seem to have been the parts best
suited to him. The reflection of his cha-
racter in these letters, written for the most
part by his creatures, who strove to outbid
each other in their great man's favour, is
that of an industrious, subservient, solemn
coxcomb, who was deeply interested in the
fact that shops were duly shut on January
30, and would sedulously bestow " marks of
his politeness" upon La Querouaille. He
appears to have had in due proportion the
happy combination of the Italian proverb
quoted by Lord Bacon — " a little of the fool,
and_ not too much of the honest." Mr.
Christie pays a doubtful compliment to public
.servants when he styles Sir Joseph William-
son " a model official." R. C. Beowne.
The Ballads and Songs of Scotland, in. view of
their Liflueuce on the Character of the People.
By J. Clark ]\Iui-ray, LL.D., Professor of
Mental and Moral Philosophy in McGill
College, Montreal. (London : Macmillau
& Co., 187-1.)
This book with the tempting title is a prize
essay reprinted for some occult reason.
Probably there never was published anything
with less result, anything that left the reader
more entirely where he was. The tempting
title, which we have already conceded to it,
is its first merit and its last. It is only by
the comparative method that such a subject
could be treated with success ; and yet Dr.
Murray either knows nothing about any
other ballad literature, or, if he does,
adroitly conceals his learning from the reader.
It is not by a few sporadic references to Tom
Thumb or Thor's hammer, but by a systema-
tic exhibition of identities and differences,
that we should hope for any elucidation ot
this dark and attractive subject. And
again, to write such a book even passably
well, a man should have some notion of
elementary aesthetics. It would require of
him a way of thinking on such subjects a
little more accurate, a use of language a
little more definite, than Dr. Clark Murray's.
For example, our author defines the object
of the ballad as the "perfect imitation of
nature." It certainly should not be possible
for any one to emit such a definition who
had ever thought for two consecutive
minutes about the matter. Not even tho
name of Addison (from whom Dr. Clark
!Murray imitates his phrase, as fi-om a great
critical authority) can render tolerable so
primitive a confusion of ideas. The ballad is
a means of expression quite at the other end
of the scale from any of the realistic arts ; it is
intensely abstract and subjective. This is to
belearned in the infant school of art criticism.
Whatever maybe Dr. Murray's attainments in
his own subject, it is obvious that his views of
aesthetics are neither precise nor interesting.
He is not the man to stand up and instruct
his fellows. The root of the matter is not
in him.
And accordingly, -we turn over his leaves
in a vain search for the solution, even for
the treatm.ent, of the most pressing ques-