[Abridged from "The Eclectic Review for May, 1833.”]

ART. VI. Whychcotte of St. John's; or the Court, the Camp, the Quarter-deck, and the Cloister. 2 voulmes, 12mo. London, 1833.

UNDER a title which looks too much like a bookseller's puff to lead us to expect much that is substantial in the work itself, these volumes contain a collection of very clever and entertaining original papers. In the getting up of the volumes, there is, indeed, a palpable air of book-making; and the publication has altogether the appearance of a catch-penny. We must say too, that we cannot entirely applaud the taste displayed in the concoction of the materials. The liberty that is taken with living characters, is scarcely allowable; although the writer may plead in extenuation, that his portraits are generally those of the panegyrist, not of the satirist. We know not what Professor Smythe will say at having his lectures and conversations surreptitiously reported.* We wish that it might provoke him to publish in self-defence. Whatever fault, however, we may find with the author or supposed rédacteur of these Whychcotte papers, on these or other grounds, we cannot refuse to do him the justice of admitting, that we have been much amused with his biographical sketches, not a little interested by his stories and anecdotes, and often well pleased with the good sense of his graver observations. We should suspect him to be an indolent man of talent, capable of producing far better things. He has evidently (notwithstanding his choice of a publisher) received his education and formed his opinions in the Tory school; and his partialities bespeak him to be a real Cantab. We honor his courageous frankness in lauding Bishops Marsh and Phillpotts, the two least popular prelates on the bench, although we cannot sympathize in his admiration either of the Author of the Seventy-three Questions, or of the active and acute political bishop,' 'the Clerical Chesterfield' and Proteus. As we do not share in the writer's partialities and opinions, he will consider himself, we hope, the more honored by our good opinion.

An introductory memoir,' by no means the least engaging part of the work, but very slenderly related to the subsequent papers, describes the character of Aylmer Whychcotte, of whom his tutor argued but too prophetically: 'He has talent enough for any thing; he will attain nothing.' The portrait is evidently from the life, and conveys an instructive lesson. But alas! wrongheadedness is, in most instances, incurable. The next paper introduces us to the Cambridge Professor of Modern History.

[* Professor Smythe has as yet, we believe, been known as an author only by a volume of very pleasing poems in the highly-finished style of past days, entitled "English Lyrics." EDD.]

"Whether it be the peculiar beauty of his style, or the noble, and generous, and elevated sentiments which his Lectures embody, or the feeling with which they are uttered, or the singular felicity with which he sustains the unflagging interest and attention of his youthful auditory, or to all these circumstances combined, certain it is, that no professor ever conciliated or retained, in a higher degree, the affectionate regard of those who, year after year, have attended his Lectures.

For him, even the idle will rise an hour earlier, rather than lose the lecture. For him, the gay, rather than forego the fund of information that awaits them, will desert their late breakfast party, or decline it altogether. 'He is precisely that sort of lecturer to influence the auditory he addresses. His object is, invariably and unweariedly, to inspire them with elevated sentiments and enlarged views, to lead them to regard with distrust, men of sweeping measures and daring experiments, to teach them to look for the security of a country in the lenity and justice of its administration, - to think all vain but affection and honor, the simplest and cheapest pleasures, the truest and most precious, -to impress on them, that virtue herself is becoming, and the pursuit of truth rational, and that generosity of sentiment is the only mental acquirement which is either to be wished for or admired.

'Rarely does a lecture close without containing in it some reference to man's higher destiny and the magnificent visions of Christian hope; apart from which his existence is a riddle, and his trials unmeaning. 'One is at this instant present to me. He had been lecturing on the Flight to Varennes: and, in alluding to the various accounts which had been given of that unfortunate enterprise, took occasion to notice the difficulties and distrust which certain skeptics have attempted to throw over the mission of our Lord, from certain discrepancies, omissions, and apparent inconsistencies, in the accounts of the four Evangelists. "Paley, that most sensible writer, has noticed these attempts, and has most_completely and triumphantly refuted them. If the argument which Paine and Hume have applied to the writers of the four Gospels, — which are strictly and properly Memoirs of the Life and Sufferings of our Saviour, be applied to the narratives of writers on the French Revolution, we are bound to infer, upon their principle, that no such event as the French Revolution has ever occurred!

"Discrepancies, contradictions, omissions, inconsistencies, present themselves, which it is impossible to reconcile or overlook. Take, for an instance, the fact of the Flight of Varennes. The queen is represented, in one account, as leaving the palace leaning on the arm of Monsieur de Moulins in another, as leaning on the arm of M. de Mallery: by a third writer it is asserted positively, that she quitted it alone. Yet from this, are we to imagine that the queen did not leave it at all?

"Again: one account states confidently, that M. de Bouillé was wounded in the side and in the shoulder. Monsieur de Damas says, that he was wounded only in the breast. A third writer affirms, that his sole injury was that of a slight contusion on the head. The fact of his illtreatment and butchery is beyond dispute.

"“Again: one writer of considerable authority says, that the queen was recognised, at St. Menehould, by Drouet's son: another, that she was observed by Drouet himself. In detailing the several features of this disastrous undertaking, one historian affirnis, that Drouet entered the town of Clermont; another, that he passed by it; a third, that he rode into Varennes alone; a fourth, that his son was with him; a fifth,—and this is the true account, that he was accompanied by a friend. Yet, of his detection of the royal party, of his journey to and arrival at Varennes,

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-there can exist no doubt. All these are matters of indisputable truth. Yet is it on points slight and immaterial as these, that the veracity of the Gospel narratives has been attempted to be overthrown, and the reality of our Saviour's existence impugned!"— pp. 2–7.

'You would like to see him? We are late: it wants but one minute to ten. Away to the anatomical schools. Here, in this dark, dingy lecture-room, his little black mahogany stand placed straight before him, his right arm a little extended, the left resting on the small portfolio which contains his lectures, his whole appearance indicating the gentleman of the old school, but strongly characteristic of extreme bonhommie and kindness of disposition, stands the popular Professor. Hark! he has just finished some brilliant passage,- a part of his well known lecture on Maria Theresa: :- Who that has heard it can ever forget it? or has summed up his elaborate analysis of Frederick the Great, or has closed his exquisite portraiture of the follies and sorrows of the unfortunate Antoinette, and a murmur of applause which they cared not or could not control, has burst from his delighted auditory.

'Take another view. You see that tall and somewhat gaunt figure, in a green coat and black velvet collar, bright buff waistcoat, knee breeches, and white cotton stockings, powdered, with round shoulders, and rather a stoop in his gait, yes, he that is striding away before us on the Trumpington Walk, with his hands behind him, his master's gown curiously tucked up into a roll, and most unceremoniously disposed of, as if it fettered the motions of the wearer, and was an appendage he would gladly dispense with, there goes the boast of Peterhouse, totally abstracted from the present, and revelling in recollections of the past.

'His voice is peculiar. Your first impressions of it are unfavorable; that it is harsh, wiry, thin, and inharmonious. Yet, so completely does he identify himself with his subject, that those passages which require irony or pathos; lofty indignation, or winning intreaty; cutting rebuke, or generous pity, are delivered with a truth, a fire, a force, and feeling, which set criticism at defiance.'- pp. 11 - 13.

We are then favored with a few specimens of the Professor's style of lecturing, taken down in a note-book in the lecture-room. They are not hazarded with the intention of giving an adequate and complete idea' of the force and eloquence of the original; and the charm of delivery is wanting. Still, our readers will agree with us, that these stolen morceaux are samples of no ordinary compositions. We must make room for a few passages.

""Louis XIV. He was in some respects unfortunate. He became a ruler of the earth when quite an infant. His education was neglected. His ruling passion was vanity, the mere love of praise. He was an actor. He was eternally uneasy and anxious for an audience. He was incessantly desirous to exhibit. At his levees-in his drawingroom on his terrace at his meals he was ever acting the grand posture-maker of Europe. Throughout the whole of the royal day he had his exits and his entrances. It was for ever a drama, and the hero of the piece was Louis. Even at the chapel it was the "grand monarque at his devotions. No ideas, however overwhelming, no apprehension of the sanctity of the Being he was addressing, seems for one instant to have banished from his view, the tinsel trumpery of human grandeur. Yet his age was very famous. Several master spirits lived in it; and the splen

dor of their works has been reflected back upon the age and history of Louis. Turenne, Villeroy, Vendome, and the great Condé, were his generals: Richelieu and Mazarine were his statesmen: Le Notre laid out his grounds: he had Perreau for the architect of his palaces, and Le Poussin to decorate them: Corneille and Racine wrote his tragedies: Moliere his comedies: Bourdaloue, Bossuet, and Massillon, were his ministers. What could he desire more? I have already alluded to his appetite for praise. Out of forty-nine years, these bounded his reign,- he had twenty-nine years of war. One million of men were sacrificed. A succession of battles was to be fought, attended with the most frightful carnage; the tender were to mourn, and the brave were to die; that Louis might be called 'Great'!

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"At the close of his life, when the pageantry of power was about to cease for ever, he seems to have been first sensible that he had mistaken the first duties of a sovereign. 66 My son," said he on his death-bed to the Dauphin, "cultivate peace as the source of the greatest good. Avoid war as the source of the greatest evil. My example in this respect has not been a good one. Do not imitate it. It is this part of my reign that I most regret."

""Louis XV. - You will be disappointed that there is no good history of this reign to which I can refer you. It has not yet been written as a portion of French history. Duclos deserts us just about the period at which we have arrived. I have announced and must continue to announce to ye the reign of Louis XV. a prelude to the French revolution. The chief points in the foreign politics of this reign are, the acquisitions of the Dutchies of Lorraine and Barr; and the interference of the Duc de Choiseul in the affairs of Genoa, by which the island of Corsica was annexed to the French monarchy.

""Disputes had arisen between the Corsicans and the republic of Genoa. The Genoese wished to know what they were to pay the French Government for the hire of troops to reduce that island. The Duc de Choiseul proposed higher and higher terms, -at length the possession of the island itself. He then announced himself as a mediator, - affirmed that it was a dependence far too uncertain and burdensome for a republic like theirs, and that it would be for their advantage to be relieved from it.

"The negotiation was carried on so secretly that the jealousy of England was never awakened, and he succeeded, succeeded by slaying the brave with his bayonets, and bribing the irresolute with his gold. But there is a righteous retribution which awaits nations as well as individuals. Who could conceive that from this island, so betrayed and trampled on, from its inhabitants, so cruelly enslaved and remorselessly butchered, one should arise who should crush the Bourbons under foot, one to whom thrones were footstools, one who should become the bitterest scourge of monarchs, and of France in particular!'

""Louis XVI. ascends the throne. He is extremely disquieted about the finances. Gives his confidence to Maurepas: who is succeeded first by Turgot, and then by Necker. Maurepas's plan was bold enough: - no new loans, and no new taxes. This was sufficiently daring, when the annual deficit was twenty-five millions:- but Necker's was bolder still, new loans, and no new taxes! How did Necker propose to cover the deficiency? By abolishing useless places, by economy in the state, and retrenchment about the court. Necker was the Minister of Retrenchment and Reform. He fails in his expectations and plans, at least with the court, and retires. Monsieur de Calonne succeeds.

""Monsieur de Calonne. Did a minister want a sinecure for a follower? -it was ready. Did the queen want a place or a pension for a favorite?

- it was ready. Did a prince of the blood want a temporary supply, to defray a debt at the gaming-table?—it was ready. The minister was always smiling, - always cheerful,- quite at ease and contented, — at every body's call, ready to listen to and oblige all the world. In this golden age, as it must have appeared to the court, the minister (De Calonne) discovered, that the revenue bore a frightful disproportion to the expenditure.

"Because I have not spoken in the most measured terms of the priviledged orders, I have been sacrificed.' These may be considered the last words of De Calonne. He was disgraced and dismissed. But, strange retribution! he lived to see that very aristocracy which had prepared and achieved his ruin, flying from before the senseless demagogues that too soon succeeded him."

"It is melancholy to reflect on the conduct of the noblesse at this critical juncture, the interval between forming the two houses; their miserable jealousy, their selfish policy, their narrow views. They forgot that early reformation is an amicable arrangement with a friend in power. Their conduct resembled that of the savage in his canoe, who sleeps upon the stream till the stream becomes a torrent, and he is precipitated to his destruction.' - pp. 18-29.

A few detached sentences are given as specimens of the pithy, axiomatic, and philosophical observations which the Professor occasionally introduces. The following are excellent.

'Men who in early life are accustomed to the petty details of office, never get beyond them. They become familiarized with corruption; their understandings become narrow; their feelings are blunted; and towards the close of life, they become the secret or avowed friends of servility, the enemies of all public sentiment, and of all advisers the worst that a king or a country can listen to.'

"Woe to the country where the ministers do not respect popular opinion; but woe to the kingdom, the monarchy at least, where they have no other master.'

The great problem of government is, to make the executive power sufficiently strong to maintain and preserve peace and good order, and yet not so strong as to overthrow the liberties of the people.'

To provide for events, is in some measure to control them.'

Great must be the merit of the Lecturer, if these fragments do him injustice.

The

The papers seem purposely shuffled, so as to separate those which are of the same suit. We skip some intermediate ones of slighter structure, to notice the solid observations entitled, 'The Cause of the Church.' That the Church has, till within a very recent period, yearly lost ground in the estimation of the people, cannot,' the writer remarks, 'be with any show of truth denied.' causes to which this has been ascribed are, 1. the tithe system; 2. the little deference shown to the wishes of the people, and the systematic and determined manner in which their representations and entreaties with respect to the distribution of preferment have been discountenanced and defied;' and 3. pluralities, which last are affirmed to be emphatically the curse of the Church.