National Progress page 5

Among the historians of the time there are three or four names that deserve to be specially mentioned. The first is that of Sir James Mackintosh, who, notwithstanding the pressure of parliamentary duties and the attractions of London society, so far conquered his constitutional indolence, increased by his residence in India, as to produce some literary works, so valuable that it has been a source of regret that he could not find time to give to the world something more than fragments. His dissertation on "The Progress of Ethical Philosophy" shows what he could have accomplished in that field; while his three volumes of "The History of England" caused a general feeling of disappointment that he was not spared to complete the work. He was engaged on a history of the revolution of 1688, when he died, rather suddenly, in May, 1832.

The English Roman Catholics produced an historian - Dr. Lingard - who, for the correctness and strength of his diction, as well as the extent of his learning, ranks among the first names in that department of literature. He was a man of great force of mind, remarkable acuteness in testing historical evidence, and considerable powers of description. Being a priest, it was not to be expected that he would be impartial in his treatment of the events and characters of the Reformation, and the subsequent conflicts between the churches of England and Rome. Of his own church he was a zealous defender and a skilful apologist; but where that bias did not interfere, his judgments were generally sound.

Henry Hallam occupies a higher ground than Lingard, having no party interests to serve, and having a mind singularly free from prejudice, as well as a conscientious regard for truth in his records and judgments; while his clear, impressive, and graceful style invests dry details with interest. His " View of the State of Europe during the Middle Ages," a work of great learning and value, was followed, in 1827, by his " Constitutional History of England;" and ten years later he published, in four volumes, an " Introduction to the Literature of Europe in the Fourteenth, Fifteenth, and Sixteenth Centuries." This is his greatest work, and in point of learning, and utility, and purity of style, it may be regarded as one of the greatest in the English language. These works placed Mr. Hallam, by general consent, at the head of contemporary historians.

The history of the Peninsular war was written very ably and faithfully by a soldier who bore a distinguished part in it - General Sir W. F. P. Napier, one of three brothers, all eminently distinguished for their talents and achievements. About the time when this work was concluded appeared further illustrations of the war, in the " Despatches of Field-Marshal the Duke of Wellington," which were edited by Colonel Gurwood, and which are very valuable. Of these despatches it was justly remarked in the Edinburgh Review that no man ever before had the gratification of himself witnessing the formation of such a monument to his glory. His "Despatches" will continue to furnish through every age lessons of practical wisdom, which cannot be too highly prized by public men in every station, whilst they will supply military commanders in particular with examples for their guidance, which they cannot too carefully study nor too anxiously endeavour to emulate.

Thomas Moore, the poet, in the latter period of his life, published several biographical works - namely, a "Life of Richard Brinsley Sheridan," in 1825; a Notices of the Life of Lord Byron," in 1830; and " Memoirs of Lord Edward Fitzgerald," in 1831. Byron had written memoirs of his own life, which he presented to Moore, and by the publication of which a very large sum of money could have been made; but Moore generously placed the MS. at the disposal of Mrs. Leigh, the poet's sister and executrix; and from a regard to his memory, they were consigned to the flames. It is supposed, however, that all that was valuable in them was found in the noble lord's journals and memorandum-books. Among literary biographies - a class of publications highly interesting to cultivated minds - the first place is due to Lockhart's " Life of Sir Walter Scott," which comes next to Boswell's " Life of Johnson," which is a perfect model in, that department of literature.

The number of distinguished authors on miscellaneous subjects was very great at this time. In jurisprudence and political economy there were Jeremy Bentham, whose life ended in 1832; his eminent disciples, J. S. Mill, Dr. Bowring, and Dr. Hill Burton, Archbishop Whately, Mr. M'Culloch, Mr. Sadler, and Mr. N. W. Senior. De Quincey began his brilliant career as an author in 1822, by the publication of "The Confessions of an English Opium-Eater." Mr. William Hazlitt, who displayed great versatility of talent as a public writer and lecturer, died in 1830. William Howitt is the author of several able and popular works. In 1834 he published " The History of Priestcraft," which was followed by " Rural Life in England," " Colonisation and Christianity," and other works. Mr. J. C. Loudon was the author of four " Cyclopaedias " connected with horticulture, and stands at the head of the numerous class of writers on agricultural subjects. In 1827 began the plan of publishing monthly volumes of valuable scientific works, previously so expensive as to be beyond the reach of the multitude. To Mr. Constable, of Edinburgh, belongs the credit of this plan; but he failed before it could be carried into effect. His name, however, was given to the series; and " Constable's Miscellany " was started in 1827. The works were issued in monthly numbers, at a shilling each, and in volumes at 3s. 6d. each. Mr. Murray, the eminent London publisher, took up the idea, and published monthly volumes of " The Family Library," at five shillings each. A series of " Sacred Classics " was also published. The " Edinburgh Cabinet Library " commenced in 1830, and contained the works of some of the first writers of the day. There was also a series called a " Library of Entertaining Knowledge," in four-shilling volumes, started by the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, which was established in 1825. The first of its sixpenny treatises on science was issued in 1827. It was " A Discourse on the Objects, Advantages, and Pleasures of Science," by Henry Brougham. The society thus began to work upon a vast field, a mere skirt of which it was able to cultivate. But it was soon entered by other labourers, who showed that private enterprise could accomplish more than public societies in the diffusion of useful knowledge. Since that time the stream of periodical literature has been enlarging, till it has become a vast river, expanding every day, into which ten thousand tributary minds are constantly pouring the resources of their genius and learning - at once gratifying and exciting the popular thirst for knowledge.

Providence seems to allot to a community an average amount of genius, which, if employed in one direction, cannot act in another. The genius of the times we are contemplating spent its main force in material creations. A great engineer may be regarded as a great poet. He constructs forms of beauty out of roughly-quarried materials, which are not only "a joy for ever," gratifying and educating the taste of posterity, but also confer an additional boon upon mankind, by combining utility with beauty. The active and inventive intellects of the age were attracted to speculations and studies connected with material progress, not only by the general excitement of the public mind upon such subjects, but also by the enormous wealth resulting from successful mechanical inventions or scientific discoveries. Perhaps it is owing to these circumstances that so few poets flourished at this time, and that the fields of poetry and fiction were left to be cultivated, to so large an extent, by women. Scott and his contemporaries had run their course, and the men that succeeded them were little better than gleaners on the field which they had reaped.

Sir Walter Scott had, perhaps, left the most permanent traces behind him. We have on many occasions mentioned this illustrious writer; perhaps this is a fitting time to speak more in detail of his career. He was born, in 1771, of a very respectable family, at Edinburgh. In early life he gave but little promise of the eminence he afterwards attained. His residence, during childhood, in a part of Scotland remarkable for its historical reminiscences, gave to his mind a tinge which became only more decided as years rolled on. Being removed to Edinburgh for the completion of his education, his peculiar talents began to show themselves; he exhibited a decided tendency to literary pursuits, and evinced, even at twelve years of age, unmistakable evidence of a poetic genius. But he was more remarkable for the extraordinary powers of his memory, for his agility in gymnastic exercises, notwithstanding a lameness which was incurable, and for merry jests and amusing stories, than for progress in his studies. Nevertheless, he left school with a large amount of general information, which proved highly valuable to him in after life; and by the perusal of histories, voyages, &c., at home, he increased his stock of that literary and antiquarian knowledge for which he had so pre-eminent a taste. At the university he was not very successful; he learned but little Latin, and less Greek, and he had no liking whatever for philosophical or mathematical science. But he acquired a moderate acquaintance with French, Italian, and Spanish, to which he afterwards added some German. He was destined by his father for the legal profession, and was called to the bar at twenty-one years of age. But as his attention had been more assiduously devoted to poetry and romance than to jurisprudence, he was more distinguished as an admirable story-teller than an advocate. He entered on the career of an author while very young; his earlier publications, though not successful in a pecuniary way, were greatly admired by good judges; and his undoubted talents, as well as his family connections, introduced him to men high in rank, whose influence became valuable to him, and also to the most distinguished literary characters of the time. His appointment as sheriff-depute of Selkirkshire, by securing him a competent income, while its duties demanded but little of his time, enabled him to devote himself to his favourite pursuits; especially as his resources were augmented by a small patrimony, which he obtained at the death of his father, and by property he received with the lady whom he married. At this period he produced several poems, some of which were of considerable length, and he acquired a large amount of celebrity. His income from various sources became, after some time, very considerable: and happy would it have been for him had he been content with it. But ambition, of which he had long shown symptoms, became a master passion, and he yielded fatally to its influence. To hasten the acquisition of wealth, as a means of adding to the consequence and importance of his family, which was the dream of his life, he became a partner in a large publishing firm, which afterwards involved him in its ruin, and whose liabilities swallowed up the profits of a most successful career. The demands which it continually made on his resources, compelled him to undertake literary drudgery, in addition to his ordinary labours; and the magnitude of its enterprises filled him with continual anxiety. His time was unremittingly occupied: from 1815 to 1825 he vanished, indeed, from public view; yet he was never more thoroughly employed " Waverley" made its appearance in 1814; but the name of the writer was, for some time, involved in impenetrable mystery. Its success was unexampled, and it was followed by many similar productions. When the hour of Sir W. Scott's seemingly greatest prosperity had arrived, and his most sanguine expectations appeared to be nearly realised, the crash came. The firm, of which he had so long been a secret partner, stopped payment; and this event, besides entailing upon him an immense pecuniary loss, inflicted a deep "wound on his feelings, by proclaiming to the world his connection with mercantile speculations. His conduct upon this trying occasion was, however, in accordance with his whole life; he refused to avail himself of any legal technicalities for the purpose of diminishing his responsibilities; and he not only gave up to the creditors of the concern with which he was so unfortunately connected all he then possessed, but devoted the energies of the remainder of his life to make up the large deficit that still remained. He subsequently realised the enormous sum of £40,000 by his writings, and shortly after his death his debts were paid in full by his executors. But his exertions had been too much for him; he became ultimately a wreck both in body and mind; every effort to recover health was in vain; the last few months of his life were spent -with very rare intervals of consciousness; and he expired, it may be said, prematurely, in the sixty-first year of his age. He ranks high as a poet, but far higher as the discoverer of a new world of fiction; in describing which, however numerous those who attempt to follow the course which he pursued, he is little likely ever to have a successful rival.

The age was remarkably prolific in female poets and novelists, some of whom have taken as high a rank in literature as their sex have done in any age. Lady Blessington and Lady Morgan were not young at the death of George III., but many of their most celebrated works were published during the two subsequent reigns. The former, soon after the death of Lord Blessington in 1829, fixed her residence in London at Gore House, which became the centre of attraction for men of talent and distinction in every department. Even great statesmen and ministers of the Crown sometimes spent their evenings in her circle, which was then unrivalled in London for the combined charms of beauty, wit, and brilliant conversation; and besides, all the celebrities and lions of London were sure to be met there. The ambiguous attachment that so long subsisted between her and Count D'Orsay, one of the most accomplished men of the age, however, excluded Lady Blessington from the best society. The heavy expenses of her establishment compelled her to work hard with her pen, and she produced a number of works, which were in great demand in the circulating libraries of the day. Debt at length broke up the establishment at Gore House, and all its precious collections passed under the hammer of the auctioneer, to satisfy inexorable creditors. Lady Blessington removed to Paris, where she lived in retirement for some years, and died in 1849.