This admirable expansion of Lord Brougham's miniature is followed by a careful kit-cat after Mr. Twiss's full-size portrait of Lord Eldon. Whatever additional wrinkles could be supplied by subsequent artists of inferior mark have been inserted-but these were not many; and the novelty is almost wholly in the colouring. Mr. Twiss made no attempt to disguise his own sympathy, except on one isolated question, with his venerable Tory. Lord Campbell has the old Whig pallet in his hand, and dashes in the requisite shadows with the fattest brush of his school. But as no Whig has ventured to complain of Twiss for an inaccurate feature, so no Tory student will be either perplexed or saddened by the gloomier tinges of the successor.

In the Preface to this Series he expresses much gratitude to Sir Robert Peel for the free use of the correspondence between Lord Eldon and himself while colleagues in the Liverpool cabinet, and we turned to the chapter with some expectation of new light-but not much. We have found no new lights at all. It was obvious from letters printed by Mr. Twiss, that during the latter years of that administration Lord Eldon found himself de trop among his colleagues;-it was plain that Lord Liverpool, from the first a little jealous of his Chancellor, became more and more so, as the private Sunday dinners on liver and bacon at Carlton House grew into a custom; and it could hardly fail to be surmised that as younger men rose into importance, they also gradually imbibed something of a similar feeling. The incurable old Tory was at all events their incubus. Fully conscious of the weight that his name lent them in the eye of the legal profession, of the Church, and of the real Tories of the aristocracy-they still felt more and more that his authoritative presence was a standing incumbrance. Even if there had been no Catholic Question, he must have been got rid of somehow, not much later than the break up of 1827. As to Sir Robert Peel individually, during many years he had necessarily been in very close personal connexion with Lord Eldon, as leading in the Commons that antiCatholic section of their party, of which the Chancellor was the chief within the Cabinet; and whenever the great judge was attacked by the Whig and Radical lawyerlings in the lower House, his cause was upheld by his young colleague with a courage and a dexterity that could have left him nothing to desire. In his letters to his own daughter he more than once speaks on this head, much as an aged father might do of the exertions of a dutiful son. But the difference of years alone was such that strict intimacy could hardly be expected—and even in the letters antecedent by years to the death of Lord Liverpool, we never trace anything of the easy warmth of companionship. As the correspondence, at best stiff, approaches the catastrophe of the cause that originally united them, it is easy to detect the creep

ing

ing on of additional constraint; and if there be somewhat of painful aigreur on the Chancellor's side, that may be pardoned— while no one can fail to acknowledge and admire the indications of generous and regretful feeling on the other part. It is apparent that the rising chief, after long hesitation, had made up his mind for a complete submission to what seemed a necessity, and that a suspicion of this change had been growing in the old man's mind long before it was announced to him, or perhaps to any second person of any rank. In short, on the ultimate settlement (so called) of 1829, this correspondence, as here produced, leaves our information precisely where it was-that is to say, complete enough as respects George IV., but miserably deficient as to his coercers.

In Lord Campbell's Essay the only new things of the least consequence are three or four anecdotes from the table-talk of Holland House, where, notwithstanding life-long differences of politics, the Chancellor was an honoured guest-a few tolerable facetice from Lincoln's Inn and the Northern Circuit-and some corrections in the detail of the romantic chapter-the love and the elopement-such themes being in every case handled with special care and gusto by this biographer. His Lordship has nowhere indulged himself more largely in the shallow cant of his party than in his review of the great political trials, when Eldon was Attorney-General; but the whole story of Queen Caroline and Bergami is handled in far better taste;-the writer makes scarcely any pretence of doubt as to the grossness of the unfortunate lady's errors, and the Chancellor's conduct throughout the proceedings in the House of Lords is fairly admitted to have been admirable. As to the Eldonian career generally, he dwells at rather oppressive length on the old stories of underhand intrigue, tears, vows, doubts, and delays; but still shows the feeling of a thoroughbred lawyer in winding up his account of 'the greatest lawyer and judge of recent times.'-Primus absque secundo!

Lord Campbell says: On one occasion when his merits were discussed among some lawyers, a warm partisan extolled him as a pillar of the Church. No,' retorted another, 'Old Bags may be a buttress, but certainly not a pillar, for he is never seen within its walls.' This is not laid at the right door. The joke, we believe, was made by a celebrated poet, philosopher, and sermon-writer of our time upon himself.

In enumerating the pictures of Lord Eldon he omits the excellent Lawrence in Sir Robert Peel's gallery, and he is in error when he says that the Chancellor was rarely caricatured-HB. had not as yet appeared.' He was caricatured over and over by Gilray, and afterwards by George Cruikshank in that spirited

artist's

artist's merriest period-and we are now writing with several HB.'s of him on the screen before us. One represents him walking down St. James's Street, arm-in-arm with H. R. H. the Duke of Cumberland, shortly after the passing of the Catholic Relief Bill -both most desolate, but the likenesses unimpeachable. Another exhibits the ex-Chancellor consoling himself in his private corner at Encombe with the proofs and tokens of Protestant approbation. He is cutting the first slice from a colossal cheese, the tribute of the Cheshire Pittites-and beside it on the board is a monster tumbler, given by the True-blue Glass-blowers' Association, and brimming with porter from some Glorious Memory club in Ire land. This has the benignant repose of the fine old head in great perfection. We are pretty sure there were half-a-dozen more HB.'s. Punch,' as Lord Campbell truly observes, has been forced to content himself with other ex-Chancellors.

The last sentences of this work must not be omitted here. Lord Campbell evidently penned them after reading a certain clever paper, in a late number of the Law Review,' on the scheme of separating the judicial from the political functions of the Chancellor. Every one knows to what great name it is that that Review owes most of its importance: hence the more to be admired Lord Campbell's coolness in criticising the article now alluded to as a mere exposition of the views of Benthamites.' At the same time we beg to say that we have no reason for connecting Lord Brougham in any way with that particular Essay, or the scheme it recommends. On the contrary, we hope and believe that Lord Brougham is, as to the Marble Chair, as sound a Conservative as Eldon, or Lyndhurst, or as Lord Campbell himself whose obiter dictum touching institutions as old as the Monarchy we have special satisfaction in transcribing:—

The new House of Lords has been adorned with an emblazonment of the armorial bearings of all the Lord Chancellors and Keepers of the Great Seal, who have presided on the woolsack since the end of the reign of Edward III. This is a proper compliment to an order which includes many great names, and through a long succession of ages has been the main support of the hereditary branch of our legislature.

I hope that the line may be continued with increasing reputation to distant generations. In any speculations for abolishing or remodelling the office of Chancellor, I wish Benthamites to consider whether, as it has subsisted since the foundation of the monarchy, it can be safely dispensed with, or materially altered. To ensure the steady march of the Government there must be a great Jurist to guide the deliberations of the Peers, and to assist in the councils of the Sovereign; he cannot do so advantageously without the weight to be derived from a high judicial office, and his political functions are incompatible with the administration of the criminal law. The CLAVIS REGNI must therefore be held by the first Equity or Appellate Judge.

I will conclude with a prophecy, that if the proposed experiment of a tripartite division of the Chancellorship should be tried, it will fail, and that there never will be Seven Volumes filled with "the Lives of the MINISTERS of JUSTICE." -vol. vii. p. 724.

?

The reception of this work ought to encourage Lord Campbell to further experiments in the same department of literature, for which he has many qualifications, and which evidently affords him a congenial solace in hours of leisure. The Lives and Adventures of the Attorney-Generals who have not been Chancellors, might afford, we fancy, an edifying and amusing theme. If we might venture on a hint of advice at making our bow on the present occasion, we should suggest that he might easily have introduced more variety in his construction and arrangement-and that if he had now and then done so, it would have had a more artistic look. Now, there comes to be something of the impression that the author has dealt largely with Blue Books, and imbibed of their genius, and had drawn up queries and skeleton schedules for his own desk, just as if he had been directing a set of barristers of seven years' standing to prepare a report on the Marble Chair. Where and of what parents was born? Education (if any), what and where? How did he conduct himself as a Templar? How soon did he marry? Did he commit What was his first success? Silk gown, through what influencepolitical or petticoat? Largest fee what? And so on to the Attorneyship. In what Causes Célèbres was he concerned? What crim. cons. came before him in any shape? What, if any, were his law reforms? Then, in very formal order, as to the distribution of legal patronage-ecclesiastical ditto. Then what sort of dinners did he give to the profession?-to laymen ditto? Was he a scholar?-a wit? What scholars and wits did he cultivate? Whom that he ought to have nourished did he eschew? Finally what his religion?-his fortune?-his epitaph?-his arms?was not his son a dunce?-what manner of women were his daughters? The marginal notule of these heads are moreover staring us in the face in such disciplined succession that it seems as if Mr. Spottiswoode might as well have had them stereotyped at the beginning, and stored ready for call in a peculiar row of pigeon-holes. All this, however, is trifling criticism in relation to a work of such sterling merits-one of very great labour, of richly diversified interest, and, we are satisfied, of lasting value and estimation. There are many who can pick holes and point out patches-but we doubt if there be half a dozen living men who could produce a Biographical Series on such a scale, at all likely to command so much applause from the candid among the learned as well as from the curious of the laity.

ART. III.-Memoirs of Viscountess Sundon, Mistress of the Robes to Queen Caroline, Consort of George II.; including Letters from the most celebrated Persons of her Time. Now first published from the originals, by Mrs. Thomson, author of The Life of the Duchess of Marlborough,' Memoirs of the Court of Henry VIII.,' &c. 2 vols. London. 8vo. 1847.

HERE is, we think, one of the most flagrant specimens of mere bookmaking that even this manufacturing age has produced: the original materials are very scanty-almost worthless-and the artifices by which they have been bloated out into two volumes, are monstrous. However humble the task of editing such originals' may be, it requires at least some slight acquaintance with the persons and matters treated of-some power of discriminating between two old pieces of paper according to the value of what may be written upon them-sagacity enough in arranging undated letters, to know that one which talks of Caroline, Princess of Wales' was probably penned before another that mentions Queen Caroline;' and, in short, a moderate share of that essential requisite for executing any affair whatsoeverOf none of these does the responsible person seem on this occasion to have employed a particle; and yet we can hardly address to her the old reproach ne sutor ultra crepidam-for in good truth she has plied very diligently the natural implements of her sex, and with a stout pair of scissars, a clumsy needle, and some coarse thread, she has cut Horace Walpolethe Peerage-Biographical Dictionaries, and the like, into shreds, and then stitched them together with as little taste or consistency as if she were making a patchwork quilt, of which the original materials the Sundon Letters-are in position and value no better than a lining. This strange manufacture is thus announced:

common sense.

'It has been judged expedient by the Editor of these Letters to depart from the usual course pursued in similar collections, and to substitute for the elaborate but often unread notes generally appended to each epistle, a brief memoir of the persons who happen to be either mainly concerned in the correspondence, or of the individuals to whom allusion is made.'-Preface, p. vi.

We know not why the editor should talk of the usual course pursued in similar collections,' of appending elaborate notes to each epistle. We know of no such instance. In most works of the class explanatory notes are appended—not to each epistle,' but here and there, as such information seemed requisite; and why this lady should sneer at such occasional and very useful illustrations as elaborate, but unread,' does not at first sight appear; but it soon becomes evident that the real object of this repudiation