58 Mr. Fraser versus Mr. Berkeley. 



walking down the street, and admitting him the same evening clandes- 

 tinely into her brother's house. We speak not of the insults he offers 

 to the merchants of Bristol. Any member of the noble house of Berke- 

 ley may, if it so please him, write an immoral book he may ridi- 

 cule honest men and scoff at virtuous women ; but will any independ- 

 ent mind condemn a reviewer who asks him the question Is your 

 boasted family immaculate ? Is it superior in honesty or virtue to 

 those persons whom you affect to despise ? Have the heroes and he- 

 roines of your romance no counterparts in your own castle? Will 

 he be censured, if from the pages of history he bring down authen- 

 ticated facts derogatory to the purity or nobility of the writers' fa- 

 mily to place in juxta-position with the foul libels he has heaped 

 on the ladies of England ? This is precisely the state of the case. 

 It stands in legal phraseology thus : "Mr. Grantley Berkeley and 

 his family versus the Females of England." And is not the man who 

 in their defence has had the courage to step beyond the bounds of le- 

 gitimate criticism to chastise the offender entitled to their thanks and 

 gratitude rather than their censure ? We admit, that in no other case 

 but one similar to the present should a critic dare to invade the pri- 

 vacy of domestic life. But here is a history of the Berkeley family ; 

 and, as the counsel for the plaintiff justly remarked, "If Mr. Berke- 

 ley made his novel a species of family biography, a sort of pedestal of 

 fame on which he might exalt himself, he ought to be reminded of 

 circumstances connected with that family which might have escaped 

 his memory. Personal anecdotes are related every day in works is- 

 suing from the press, some of them by no means calculated to exalt 

 the character of the families they relate to. Yet we hear of no assaults 

 on the publishers or writers of them. " Oh !' cries one, " they are 

 deemed matter of history, and cannot be personally offensive." Now 

 weshould'be glad to ascertain the precise point, at which hi story ^termi- 

 nates arid slander begins. In which of those divisions does a man's 

 grandfather stand ? Or is he to be placed in a debateable land, to be 

 shifted into either territory at the pleasure of his descendants? 



Admitting, however, that the animus of the review was directed 

 against the author rather than his writings, admitting that the re- 

 viewer, in vindicating female purity from the taint of the defamer, 

 quitted his legitimate track and assailed the offender in his private 

 character, admitting that he published facts which, although they 

 had already been the subject of public judicial investigation, should 

 not have been repeated, and admitting that Mr. Berkeley, writhing 

 under the aspersions cast upon the fame of his family, did, in a 

 moment of excitement, inflict personal chastisement upon the author 

 of the galling criticism, we might, sympathizing with his irritated 

 feelings, have allowed the provocation in some sort as a justification 

 of the offence. But with all these broad admissions granted to Mr. 

 Berkeley, we cannot discover a single point, upon which he can rest 

 a well-grounded defence of his assault on Mr. Fraser. It is almost 

 notorious, that the proprietor or publisher of magazines and other 

 periodical works of literature is rarely the editor of them ; that is 

 an office completely distinct from the mercantile management of the 

 concern. The editor's province is to examine, and receive or reject 



