1830.] 



Dwneslie find Foreign. 



235 



The Marquis of Lansdowne is closely 

 hit : 



Good sense ; 



But declamation is not eloquence! 



Loud without force, and copious without 



strength, 

 We long for greater height, and shorter length. 



Dudley's impromptus are laughed at ; 

 but John Ward could speak to command 

 attention, when he had not 80,000 a year. 

 Full justice is done to the old Chancellor,, 

 while the new one is characterized as the 

 learned, the gay, the versatile - the Palinu- 

 rus of politics,, who does nothing now but 

 " promote his friends, and prosecute his 

 foes." 



Harrowby is the wise, the good, the 

 accomplished. Peel often calls him " Araby 

 the blest" a squib at the secretary's ple- 

 beian pronunciation. Lord EUenborough's 

 curls and conceit exhaust most of the au- 

 thor's bile. The duke of dukes has full 

 measure : 



Straight-forward sense, severe simplicity ; 

 That cleared each, obstacle, and smoothed the 



way 



This stamped his dictate with decisive sway. 

 With bloodless lip comprest, and arching brow. 

 Warrior of Waterloo, I see thee now ! 

 Calm, yet acute, throughout the dire debate 

 Composed in feature, rigidly sedate ; 

 What prudence counsels, resolute to dare 

 Victor alike in politics and war. 



The borough Lords follow- 

 Rutland and Beaufort, Hertford, Cleveland, see 

 Combine with Norfolk for the ministry ; 

 On whom, obedient to their chief's decrees, 

 Wait in the back-ground some two score M.P.'s . 

 But fierce Newcastle goads his Newark horse, 

 To strengthen Bedford's and Fitzwilliam's 



force, 



While Lonsdale balances in middle space 

 His dread of Popery 'gainst his love of place. 



Lots of Lords are dismissed with a word, 

 while the Bishops are lumped thus : 

 Lo! where the Bishops awe the timid mind, 

 In curly wigs, and gigot-sleeves reclined ! 

 Not every one such pious horror feels 

 A foreign princess called them ' imbeciles,'* 

 And quaintly asked, so wonderful the sight, 

 If those were peeresses in their own right? 



The Templars, an Historical Novel, 3 

 vols., I2mo The Templars bears one mark 

 of a first performance, and one which is, at 

 the same time, of some promise the latter 

 end is better than the beginning an event 

 as important and. of as good augury in 

 novels as in morals. While this is read- 

 able, better things may be looked for a 

 second effort will present, probably, more 

 skill in binding events together more re- 

 finement in language, and point in senti- 

 ment, and the writer will learn to eschew 

 the perilous propensity of character-draw- 

 ing. It is always safer, especially where 



* The modern name for ladies' large sleeves. 



ideas are yet scarcely defined, and the judg- 

 ment is still immature, to be content with 

 developing by action, and leave the reader 

 to portraiture, physically and metaphysically, 

 if the employment be to his taste. The 

 Templars, instead of redoubted crusaders, 

 are three doughty lawyer's clerks, assembled 

 in one office, but soon separated by circum- 

 stances which fling them into different 

 spheres, but which the returning tide of 

 affairs eventually throws together again. 

 The hero, who is endowed with qualities to 

 make a gentleman of, is speedily driven 

 into embarrassments by the shewy but pro- 

 fligate habits of one associate, and rescued 

 from impending ruin by the kind and reso- 

 lute energy of the other. The friend and 

 deliverer is a rough diamond, with some 

 mystery in his story, an Irishman, capable 

 of strong attachments, and indulging them 

 with something like devotion towards the 

 youth he had rescued ; but some misunder- 

 standing quickly separates, if it does not 

 alienate them, and sudden absorbing events 

 preclude conciliation. The treacherous 

 seducer, involved in the consequences of his 

 own profligacy, is obliged to fly, but with 

 burning feelings of hatred towards, the vic- 

 tim who had just escaped the toils he had 

 thrown around him. The hero comes, by 

 the death of his old carking father, into pos- 

 session of a splendid income, and for want of 

 something better to do, enters the Guards, and 

 though the profession, at least the perilous 

 part of it, is not at all to his taste, yet from 

 emulation, or a sense of honour, becomes a 

 thorough soldier, and early wins laurels in 

 the field, and a majority in the dragoons. 

 In the course of service, on the first stirrings 

 of the Irish rebellion, he goes with his 

 regiment to Dublin, where, before the out- 

 break of the rebels, his roaming amatory 

 fancies are fixed by the fascinations of a 

 charming girl, of whom he occasionally gets 

 a tantalizing glance, till, at last, in the 

 farther pursuit of the syren, he lights upon 

 his old and faithful Irish friend, acting the 

 lawyer in some obscure hole of the metropo- 

 lis of Erin, and in the sister of his friend 

 discovers the lady he has been so long in 

 search of. She is a most enchanting and 

 superior creature, high in intellect, and 

 deep in feeling, and devoted to her brother, 

 who is not only of Milesian, but of regal 

 descent, and as it quickly proves, on the 

 strength of this pretension, an active leader 

 in the rebellion. The hero and the lady, of 

 course, fall mutually in love, and the mate- 

 rials for embarrassment abound. He is an 

 officer in the king's service the friend a 

 rebel, and the lady in the secret. The 

 explosion follows; the major falls into an 

 ambuscade, and is rescued, though not 

 without difficulty, by the exertions and in- 

 fluence of his friend. The rebel leader, in 

 turn, is betrayed and thrown into prison, 

 and the major, relying upon his castle in- 

 fluence, solicits his pardon. A reprieve is 

 readily obtained by one whose services were 

 9. n 9 



