594 Monthly Review of Literature. [MAY, 



party ; to which his lordship replied, that he could not accept the invitation, as the prince 

 u-as perfectly unknown to him." vol. iii. page 117. 



This is still better than Madame de StaePs declining to breakfast, one day, with 

 George IV., because she was previously engaged! 



The picture of fashionable variety which our author sums up, is exceedingly good 

 and not at all overcharged. The English nobility, he observes, cannot establish 

 their supremacy on the score of noble blood and high extraction ; because, in many 

 cases, nothing remains of an ancient family but the name: nor would wealth, nor 

 political power, answer the purpose ; for both are accessible to the meanest and 

 dirtiest trader in the country. To support their pretensions, therefore, and avoid 

 the world's dread laugh, " an entirely new power was placed on the throne, as 

 supreme and absolute sovereign fashion. 



" The spirit of caste, which, emanating from this source, descends through all 

 stages of society in greater or less force, has received here a power, consistency, and 

 full development, wholly unexampled in any other country.*** Every class of 

 society, as well as every field, in England, is separated from every other by a hedge 

 of thorns.*** Of course, every reflecting person sees at a glance that a society so 

 constituted must necessarily become eminently provincial (small townish) in its 

 several coteries ; and this strikingly distinguishes it from the large and cosmo- 

 politan society at Paris" *** 



"A London exclusive of the present day is in truth nothing more than a bad, flat, 

 dull impression of a roue of the Regency, and a courtier of Louis XV. : both have 

 in common, selfishness, levity, boundless vanity, and an utter want of heart ; 

 both think they can set themselves above every thing by means of contempt, deri- 

 sion and insolence ; both creep in the dust before one idol alone ; the Frenchman 

 of the last age, before his kuw the Englishman of this before any acknowledged 

 ruler in the Empire of Britain.*** 



" The highest triumph of the English ' dandy ' is, to appear in the most wooden 

 manners, as little polished as will suffice to avoid castigation ; nay, to contrive even 

 his civilities so, that they are as near as may be to affronts : this, indeed, is the 

 style of deportment which confers upon him the greatest celebrity.*** That his 

 conversation consists only of the most trivial local jests and scandal ; tna t with men, 

 he can talk only of gambling or of sporting; that, except a few fashionable 

 phrases which the shallowest head can the easiest contain, he is deplorably igno- 

 rant; that his awkward ' tournure ' goes not beyond the ' nonchalance' of a 

 plough boy, who stretches himself at bis length on the ale-house settle ; and that 

 his grace is very much like that of a bear which has been taught to dance ; all 

 this does not rob his crown of a single jewel." 



The whole of this part of the work, however, is made ridiculous by a note, added, 

 we trust, by the printer's devil, declaring that the above portrait has ceased to 

 be a likeness, since the accession of the present frank, noble, &c. king, and simple, 

 aimable, &c. Sec. queen ! The author forgot that but a short time before, he pro- 

 nounced, as an eulogium, that the present King had no more influence over 

 fashions than his grandfather George III., who was one of the most unfashionable 

 men in his dominions. 



A still stronger influence, we trust, will speedily be exerted to put down a spec- 

 tacle which degrades us in the eyes of foreigners, and causes us to be laughed at as 

 monkeys and puppies all over the world. As the people rise in power, the little 

 creatures of fashion must fall ; and the time is not far distant when details, like 

 those now before us, will be read with as much laughter as we bestow upon our 

 great grandmother's hair dresser, or any other ancestral monstrosity. 



THE SONG OF ALBION; LINES ON THE FALL OF WARSAW ; AND OTHER POEMS. 

 BY HENRY SEWELL STOKES. 



This is a well-timed and well-intended production ; and it exhibits at least the 

 enthusiasm which is so essential a component part of poetry. It has been favourably 

 received, we believe, by the critics in general, and we are far from wishing to im- 

 pugn their judgment. The auther feels well, and strongly and is besides, we 

 have heard, in circumstances which render a speedy sale of the work desirable. 



