, LFTERARY SPECTATOR.:
- • r • OROLVS;IiIFE .()F GEORGE THE FOURTH:* • TIA4LET'is here left out of 'his own play :,• there is quite .as. much' of any body else-in the ,Memoir . as of our late; King. - The -Most *prominent petsonage, howeveriethe whole; is Mt. CabiY him- self---not by _any 'peculiarity •of egotiStri,_ but by an uncOnrinon Par- • tikularity of style, Which stamps the individual on every. sentenoe. Mt. Cioti belongs to the volcanic. school Of. prose-writers: his pliraSegare not the 'gentle .streams , of 'flowing ink, such as those that classics shed—they• are showers'and torrents of lava, Molten, fiery,- and-terrific. Rep'oie- ig noWhere to 'be found:' should there aiull,it is neither mo.re nor less than that awful stillnesi'whieh precedes eXplosiOn. • • • • THE "VOLC-ANIO!' STYLE.
• ...THE 'RENCH REvoLortoir.,--" France, bursting from-her old dungeon, and wild, furious, and revengeful EtS• ever,. was unehained mathiess•: at once indicting agonies on herself, and destruction.on all in her paths let lo.ose against-thern, a naked shape of evil, brandishing its fetters and • srfreading terror arid desolation through the world." ' P.!2R1. • - . -THE Searnsu-WArt.-"'But there was a scene of:blood to come, 'Those .royal irobecileS (th'd SiarriSh King-and-queen). Were not worth his forY ; , they hatHeft but.the velvet' ortlie tiger's pa W : others'were .0 feel its ta- lons and they ere instantly darted at the throato Spain.""P. 35.5.' , §P.tepfEbt OF TUE VOLCANIC MIXED UP W#‘1,IIIOI FILI4E C • • • •"- OLOOREBSTFLE: -
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••IRISR RECEPTION Ti-PE REGENCY.,—" All • Was ; principled -hypercrisy, .ad -rinignahimoui 'defection ; and the holders of offi.ce; the Wearers of bine-and green ribainfa, and the'. bearers of gold keYs,-blick rbds; and white stieksexidted in being' able toile such costly attestation of their . new faith, as the SactificeLof their badges on the altar of th-e•Regency.1 But from fraudAhe progreit'is• eaiy to mountebankism, and frofir!fdily • to-faction. In the midsvol thistarnival of party success, perfidy began. ,te.frit its eye on-darker 'ohjects:Arrarmurs were heard that were short of 'treason; the key-note of rebellion was-touched mere- thin---On cc' in, this' chbrus of iew7born' l'Oyalty ; and in the wild resohitleitis:Of the and their still!.0iiiler spetches,• were first founded those jilst alarms which predispoied the,ThigliSh eibinet to the calamitous measure of the Union." P:218. • THE 'Friancir 'unberi N'spot.Enx.---" The boy- of eighteen, suddenly throWn'into'colitacti.Wit.h the profligacy or a camp-,•-iyas vitiated for life : he saw.hefore'hin-c•frorri day to day, every temptati6h.that' can . ,stfirtulate' the- hot piisions of man, and every licittOr that. an Iiiiiden:the heart: he lived in the midst of plunder, bloodshed; Arid pitmisCuouslvite:• mitilthe.sabre or fhfeannorhall t ame to sweep hini out of life, he was t‘nilister of •all-that he mast his Hytii upon; anti the -brief tenure .01. the pos- .-flea.sion. only,inflarOckhis guty ap.petites .the.rnore-7`. Let us eat and • ffrfink, for to-morrow me,rlie,";pever was realized with such fgrious license • 4.sin the campaigns a the Ffeocti Impepal airriy Tie soZlerr tuAdil on: us np-erpetual'uffiiiiiiiiitly reetry, robbvtg, an' blood" t 85.0. -tire P"04E1e OF •iiik Ptiii.f..E •TRE ReVOI.RTION'. The force of the multitude Was an unknown element ,-a nekv,ei4titealtetnifilif '-'-eckti that OrkIlEid e0eitithilsto -Bad Been:Mott instromentatin•calling • It,tmon the kattkicactirtgithat ltaddlieleadettlEff--the'Nationali.ASseuittiO.,; :were the firatto hisstaitlethat their own workvand fiy,in -alarm-fro-wits I .uucalculated and terribla-enertries. .They• had thought that.they. might ply oo:the Monarch's -weakness in safety, by pointing to the volcano. at a distance : they. suddenly -WV the whole soil volcanic, --and blazing .up under their feet. Like•the Italian poison.makers, the mask had nrisonner dropped off,-.than they felt themselves paralysed and•dying,oyer.the fumes their own•crucible." ••• • ' • • = *Writing of this descriptitML-and the speeimens are selected almost at random---will exhibit in acotip (reef/the nature of Mr. OnOLY'S Memoir of George the, Fourth.„ its character .ina3; be expressed in one word—exaggeration. It. is as ,written by, a _person in. a typhus fever--rAmedium. which troubles as . weil-•as ..sggravatesall that passes.between the,patient and the„object. Rhetorisl narratives that are too proud to descend to plain:in- formation, are, me: confess' it, -Our abhorrence. The..genitis . of "`Giono,,r can scarcely,excuse the defect which characterizes his style, when he ratlierhints at the 'fact he wishes to comuro,picate than relates it. -In Mr., Croix-the same fault occurs •' andive really do -not,,see any- qpinaterbalancing merit to _plead in his 'favour. He his treated the life and reign of our late King as affording subjects ifor series of philippics: •I.. matters little whether:,A topic' _lie in his road -or not: it .'gives oeedsion to a tciuilf or -ca. cracker, or affords an opportunity liff.make a. blaze?. his end is--answered. Take "away the title- pea, and GEORLI the Third is as much. the Subject_ of . the luthe as .G--goituig the Fourth. NAPOLEON is eyen-Jnore ,con- apicuous than the King..., We.. know- not -whether it-- is qneent • as a private- or a political life: ' there is-something of -both; .but nothing complete Ofeither. We have •a great deal, atid Much that is ilhbeal f Mrs FITZHERRERT, but . not a wOrd. of the . A vast deal is aid the:004 pieteding the . regeneyi. but-there --is -seareeLY.a . word. of the; reign. There are numerous witticisms attributed to great names ;, there 'Much crack-jaw eloquence •;- there is a vast deal of flighty- dis- sertation 'about all these matters; be they what they. may, frdin Swin to MORGABi PRUSSIA, just as,the writer happened.to.bale an idea; but there is no biography, no memoir, no life.. It is all sermon and' satire. lit is -certainly by no means an ' easything to Write the life-of a 'Xing; it is difficult to seParate the private from the politiCallife-L---- Ads diffidult to amalganuite than. ,A King is Searc4ic4.private dharaeter-he performs.but littlein]that light.worth-mentietniog; in 'a political view,- hisliistoryris: so i lentified -.with the-history -of the nation, that it Vases to be biography and tS lest ifl thetrowd of events which paSs'Jpider:his naufe.-si nit.* alpttlf*IikilinOre • The Life said ;Dines of his late Majesty George-the 'Fourth ; with Anecdole:S.of Distinguished Persons of the last Fifty Years. By the Rev. George Croly, A.M. London. MO. especially applies IQ the Y.eign and life-_--at least • the latter .2art of the reign and . of GEORGE the FOurfh., his 1,11111(44y, he was la man of :pleasure ; 'during_ the regency he was the mere 0.-ent, Of his incapacitated father during the reign, • he.weahlier- • init. 'AM* prejlidiee§ were indulged, and the Ministers,wereleft to rule aS'tbey pleased : this was called reigning. • It is clear that a life Which answers thisdeScription Must be almost impractidable • td one who.knoWS little Of the secrets of the court, and whose politic-tiinforiation is. as limited as his courtly experience, When Sir THOMAS Tliatvriit Writes the private life of his late Majesty, it may pethaps.be_worth leading: it would be painful t_.) name any • one who iS capable of Writing. a histOry Of the reign.
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