"His friend Lord John! What genuine friend- | Lord John Russell, both having been born in '92; ship can subsist between political rivals, where but you see the bright sword of Netherby is big one of them, especially, is so bitter and caustic in enough and tall enough to put Lord John in his his application of shin plasters? I am afraid it scabbard. must be a hollow profession of words. "There you are mistaken. A very cordial sympathy still exists between Stanley and Russell; for Lord John is quite aware that nobody more regrets Stanley's impetuosity and petulance of temper than Stanley does himself when the fit is over. On the occasion of the death of Lord John's first wife, and in the very heat of party warfare, Stanley wrote a letter to Lord John, full of kindly and affectionate sympathy; and on several occasions there has been a very cordial interchange of mutual regard. "What a pity, then, that Stanley, with so much real ability and genuine oratorial fire, should lower his standing as a statesman, by those occasional bursts of clever, energetic, indiscreet, passionate impetuosity, which render him as much the dread of friends as of foes! "Graham has oscillated too violently between extremes for my taste. "No doubt of it; and Lord John, in his quiet way, very effectually pitched it into him' not long ago, when he reminded him of his denunciation of the birds of prey,' the recipients of the public money, while he, Lord John, who had started into public life a moderate reformer,' was 'a moderate reformer, still.' It is curious to see Graham on these occasions, or when he is pelted with quotations from his 'corn and currency:' at times he blushes a little: an innocent confusion' occasionally mantles on his cheek; but generally speaking, he laughs as hearty as the rest, and seems to think it capital sport. "Does not that manifest a deficiency in the nice sense of honor? "Well, well: let 'sleeping dogs lie;' for 'to "Ah! he will cool, if he continue long in office.err is human, to forgive divine.' Graham abanHis natural temperament was excited and sharp-doned his colleagues and his party, and did not ened in opposition; and he was encouraged and treat them with scrupulous care after he left them. flattered in his displays, because he is the very But they say that the old hare returns at last to Picton of an assailing party in debate. In care- the old form; his father was a Tory. But let less power, rapid, yet easy flow of idea and of justice be done to Sir James Graham. He is a utterance, and in severe, almost savage retort, man of real ability; and now that he is in office, Stanley has no equal in the house: Brougham, he retains and maintains some of his old opinions in his best days, would have overtopped him, but with manliness and consistency. there is no Brougham in the present House of Commons. LORD JOHN RUSSELL. "By the way, there is the rising hope of the Conservatives, and Peel's right arm— -William Ewart Gladstone, Vice President of the Board "What position does Lord John Russell hold of Trade, and Master of the Mint. as a speaker? "As an orator-nil. He wants the physical conformation and the mental energy that are essential to oratory. But he is an admirable sententious thinker; and though in the mere power of speaking he is poor, his speeches are frequently full of point as well as of matter. "Then you think favorably of his abilities? "Not only of his abilities, but of his character; and to me it is a matter of real pleasure to see two such ancient and noble families as that of Derby and of Bedford furnishing representatives of so much personal worth and ability as Lord Stanley and Lord John Russell. And now that many great questions have been settled, I cannot reconcile myself to the idea, that because the whigs are out, and the tories are in, therefore such a man as Lord John Russell is to be for ever excluded from office, in a ministry where he could sit beside his friend Stanley, and his old colleague Graham. "Yes, yes, plausible enough: but coalition is an ugly word; and even though there may be now only personal recollections to cause any material difference, still we must not forget that in the public mind there is usually a 'great gulf fixed' between whig and tory-not an impassable gulf, as Graham and Stanley testify, but wide enough in the estimation of party morality. But, talking of Graham, show me Sir James Mackintosh's manly puppy.' SIR JAMES GRAHAM. "There he is, sitting beside Peel. Sir James Robert George Graham is of the same age as VOL. II. No. I. 5 MR. GLADSTONE. "That young man!-what a disappointment! In person he is of a good stature, and, like Stanley, has a pretty, good-natured, rather pouting mouth, while the upper part of the face, like Stanley's, has a knitted,' if not a frowning aspect. But what disappoints me most is the smallness of the head. Under Stanley's careless locks, you can see hidden a good solid mass of forehead: but this noted young man-this philosophic worker-out of church principles-I want for him capacious skull and breadth of face. Can such a small head carry all he knows? "We must take men as they are, and not as we imagine them. The head is small, but it is well shaped. You notice that the upper part of the face rather expresses severity; and I am told that old Gladstone, and the family generally, have been noted in Liverpool for what is called a 'crusty' temperament. If this be so, and this young man inherits it, he is an example of the power of principle, for he seems to have his temper singularly under control. His voice, too, is sweet and plaintive: he has amazing clearness of speech and volubility of utterance, but with a tendency to run into a mellifluous monotony, which he will probably correct. "Are his abilities as great as they say, or is he an example of being 'cried up?" "Oh, no man can doubt that his abilities are great. I do not refer to his books on church and state, with which he first established his reputation, but to his conduct in the house. He proved 'a friend in need' to Peel in conducting the tedi ous business and details of the new tariff: in fact | tive Utility. That man is a remarkable example every thing devolved on the prime minister and his Vice President of the Board of Trade; and though Peel's great business facility and long practice in addressing the house enabled him to expound, state, and defend the principles and details of the tariff with more fulness, force, and weight, it was universally acknowledged that young Gladstone shone in the department of facts and figures,' and displayed a capacity for official business of the very first order. "Old Gladstone has risen into great wealth from a humble condition, has he not? "Yes; the Gladstone family, like the Peel family, furnish evidence of the power of our trade and commerce to throw up individuals from the bottom of society, to disport themselves, like leviathan, on the surface. Old Gladstone made his money in Liverpool, as Morrison, the member for Inverness, made his huge fortune in London. LORD PALMERSTON. "Is not Palmerston a fop? "Tut, one has no patience with these vulgar ideas of people, which vulgar fools propagate. Certainly Fanny was younger once than she is now; and time works changes. But look at Palmerston, sitting on those front benches; you see all the signs of a man of high breeding, but foppery there is none. "Is it not singular that Palmerston and Peel should now be pitted as rivals? "It is rather; but, remember, though Palmerston and Peel commenced public life together, Palmerston was in advance of Peel on such questions as Catholic emancipation and parliamentary reform. Palmerston is four years older than Peel, being now 59. But he seems in excellent keeping; his vigor, mental and bodily, appears unimpaired-what a fine looking man he is! "But is he really a man of talent? "The question is superfluous. His family, the Temple family-has an hereditary reputation for ability; and Palmerston does not belie it. To be sure, his opponents say, as Melbourne said of Lyndhurst, that his talents are from God, but the application of them is otherwise. And that reminds me of D'Israeli. MR. B. D'ISRAELI. of very considerable ability being wholly insufficient to prevent an individual from becoming a monstrous bore. He is, I am told, kindly and unassuming in private life; and his great philological powers, his travels, his statistics, his Benthamism, and advocacy of commercial freedom, are known to all. Yet as a speaker in the house, he is lackadaisical, lachrymose, and tedious; his pathos is invariably bathos, and when he does sink into the pathetic, his sing-song intonation makes it excessively ludicrous. "You speak of bores-are there many in the house? 66 A few: there is a youngish man down there he with reddish whiskers and plain appearance, who has got up to ask a question of his 'right hon. friend at the head of the government.' That youth exhibited decided symptoms of the bore, but somebody or something gave him a check. It is Stuart Wortley, eldest son of Lord Wharncliffe, the President of the Council-the successful opponent of Lord Morpeth in Yorkshire at the last general election. MR. HUME. "I see Hume in his seat-isn't he a bore? "Why, Joe is now permitted, in consideration of his long services, to have 'the run of the kitchen.' He offends nobody; and, on the whole, is rather a general favorite than otherwise. Unquestionably, whatever may be thought of his school of politics, he has done the state some service' by his long-continued exertions in favor of retrenchment; to which may be added what he has done for commercial reform, as for instance, by his celebrated Import Duties Committee, confessedly the immediate foundation of the new tariff. But Hume will never get over that peculiar style of oratory which Canning characterized as the tottle of the holl;' not long ago he censured the 'peccadillies' of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and announced that wherever there was any thing delicate there was sure to be something wrong. "Hume has an assistant, has he not, in Williams of Coventry? "Yes, a dull, unimaginative man, but very assiduous, very decent, and moderate, and therefore useful. SIR GEORGE GREY AND LORD HOWICK. "Is not that Sir George Grey? I heard him make a very telling speech in Exeter-hall. "Do you see that tall, rather thin young man (hardly young now), with Jewish cast of features, dark countenance, and heavy, full, swimming eyes, bent either in meditation or on vacancygazing downwards to discover the perforations "And he can make a very effective speech in in the floor? That's young Ben D'Israeli, the the House of Commons. He held but a suborson of old D'Israeli, and as great a 'curiosity of dinate position in the late government: had he literature' as his father ever produced. Some time persevered at the law, he might have taken a ago he took to the foreign line, wanted to over-high place. Beside him you see Charles Wood, haul all our consular establishments, and thought the whig Secretary of the Admiralty, and son-inhe would make a palpable hit, by finding Pal- law of Earl-Grey. He is a regular feather-lungs, merston, like the devil, in every mischief brew- and his face is as sharp as the edge of a hatchet; ing abroad. Ben is really clever-a genius: a man of ability, however: though you cannot but somehow Sir Robert Peel and the party endure to listen to one of his lengthy speeches have not taken to him; though clever, he has a from beginning to end, yet at intervals you can strong tendency to become a bore. discover that he is uttering very good sense. Here comes his brother-in-law, Lord Howick; he has an excellent understanding, and speaks with a level clearness and facility which would make him an admirable lecturer, but he has a dogmatic and obstinate way of laying down the DR. BOWRING. "Who is that man with spectacles, poking about like an old woman? "You mean Bowring, I suppose-Doctor Posi SIR T. FREMANTLE-SIR G. CLERK-LORD MAHON. "Who is this little man dancing in and out of the house, scarcely ever sitting a moment? "Sir Thomas Fremantle, one of the joint secretaries of the Treasury: his duties require him to be frequently on the move, especially if a division be expected, and the whip' has to be applied. He has met his colleague, Sir George Clerk, that stoutish bald-headed, good-humored looking man; and see, Lord Mahon has joined them on those back benches; perhaps to ask them to get a 'pair' for him. "Lord Mahon! That's Earl Stanhope's son. "Yes, and as like his father in figure, attitude, and accent (each having a remarkable burr) as if, in the Irish phrase, he had been 'spit' out of his mouth. Lord Mahon is a very decent man; one of our literati; and superior to his father, who is the Ferrand of the House of Lords." We must now dismiss these lively portraits, and conclude for the present our notice of this entertaining little volume. A MORE exhilarating cordial than "the fine fresh gallop over dewy downs" could scarcely be prescribed by the College of Physicians; and, far be it from a kindly lover of horses and horsemanship to insinuate that the musical pack, and emulous brother pinks, and echoing high woods, and the Swift-orama of a green, open country, are not accessories to equestrian delight, at once dulcet and exciting. Still, some stress must be laid on the somewhat apprehensive fancy, that one's cravat and its contents may possibly become disarranged, or one's occiput tapped of what current intellect it carries, in the harem-scarem of the chase. blushing vestments the noblest and the gentlest of Britain's gallant youth, wantonly intent on following even to the death the trail of a red herring; when, I say, these things are done in the name of hunting, surely it were better even to go a-fishing with Mark Antony; and, when Cleopatra's divers have diligently hung on our hook the last of their dead tunnies, to put up for the rest of the day with unlimited sport from a tub of pickled sprats. ers. Once more: a country ramble, in rude health and fine weather, is thoroughly delightful, an innocent pleasure, not seriously diminished by fowling-piece and pointBut there be many to confess, that on a cold, drizzly morning in November, they do not like to find themselves up to the knees in drenching turnip-tops; and still less, on a roasting September noon, to be toiling over dusty fallows, with a heavy iron tube upon their shoulders. There be many who are weak enough to acknowledge that the scream of a wounded hare makes them feel as if they had shot a child; and to fear the probable possibility of a friend's trigger, pulled by some demon twig, conveying to them the unwelcome compliments of a Mr. Joseph Manton. In fact, we have heard more than one true country lover, in speaking of capital covers for game, maintain the respectable opinion, that the best in life is a tin one; and as to the birds being in good condition, they can scarcely be in a better than when frothily cooked, and served up with bread-sauce. But that BUT must be in capitals, printer, for it is as pregnant of nice fancies as a butt of Muscatel,commend me, dear fauns, nymphs and dryads, to "the conteinplative man's recreation." O, I have many things to say of that same sweet sport.- so many, that the pressure of the crowd hinders the fair order of their exit. Look you, there is in fishing no little savor of a just philosophy; the last ingredient of Pandora's box of simples is mingled in it generously; A Missourium now, or a Megalomegisto- Hope, with her honeycomb uncertainties, therium, or, to descend a little, your African lingers latest in the angler's heart, and gives Elephant, Bengal Tiger, Sloane's Rhinoce- him an early call next morning. Greater ros, or flock of Lions-these, indeed, would minds (to speak historically) are captured be worthy of so valiant a venture; but, when by fishing than by other modes of sport, the tame stag is quietly uncarted, and, after because their aim and game are things una canter of twenty miles, as quietly boxed seen. Davy or Paley would as soon have up again, the scatheless captive for next dreamt of angling in a well-stocked tub, as week's run; or, when "sportsmen brave, in one of those vasty stews of Holland, in leather breeches, leap over five-barred where every carp is known, and mynheer gates and ditches, and hair-breadth 'scapes battens the pond's bottom every third sumand perils dare, to hunt that furious beast mer, No; let the huntsman take his railthe hare;" or, when from the portals of road gallop thrice a week through the same Europe's premier college, sally forth in breaks, and over those well-accustomed Chaucer hath it, with his bodily eyes, half a mile a head, making for the fir-wood; let him-of-harriers feel that the greatest gain of all that lavish expenditure in oaths and whipcord, human hardness, animal suffering, real danger, and the cheerless, illimitable, creeping home again at night, can be but a timid and miserable hare; let the crack shot boast of his battue that massacre of barn-door pheasants or let him mark down, two fields off, his covey of indubitable partridges; whereas, what is the fisher's hope?-and hope, after all, is the soul of sporting. He cannot see his game; he seeks it blindfold in primeval waters; and who can be sure what strangest creature is not on the instant nibbling at his bait? ditches; let him know that an odoriferous not in loyal Wales; and see how pleasantly fox-brush must be his highest trophy; for it rests, as in the lap of peace, between this he sees "Master Reynolds, the fox," as ruin-crowned hill, and yonder purple heath swelling into upland, sentinelled about withal by gallant oaks, and shaded well among dark copses of hazel and marsh-loving alder. What a wild museum of Nature, undisturbed, rejoices in existence on its banks! The frequent kingfisher will dart by, like a brilliant arrow, and startle you with its shrill squeak; or a wedge of wildduck will drop headlong from their wheeling flight souse among the rushes; or a mighty carp will be heard, wallowing like a seal at play, in the muddy shallows yonder; or the green water-snake will rustle through dry grass, slide down the bank, and work his zigzag way across, with head erect, hissing like a little boa. Sometimes the heron will heavily flap along, skimming the reeds with his long legs; sometimes the coot, starting about, will dive suddenly, to rise again yards away; the cooing wood-pigeon will be heard responsive to the thickethiding nightingale; and fragrant meadowsweet will be seen bowing its dewy feathers in homage to the choicer scent that breathes from out the wild blush-rose. A pleasant school for ologies is Oakley; and, when sport begins to fail, and the better fish at noontide take their Palermitan siesta, you may spend many a sweetly-profitable hour, of what book-worms count for idleness, in watching the race of bright beetles in the sun, or the gorgeous dance of dragon-flies above the water-lilies, in conning lessons whispered by humble field-flowers-in listening to spring-time musicians of the wood, and, best, in blessing Him who made them all so happy. For my own part, among the scarcely post-diluvial mud of yonder ancient pond, where rushes have grown rank for centuries, (and how much more in Noachic rivers or the unsearchable, unchanging sea!) 1 never can know absolutely, and for certain, whether my next prize may not be some miniature specimen of the icthyosaurus; Tritons and British Fishes, who can tell? And here, let no gentle Waltoner suppose that his fanciful angler is not perfectly conusant of the liking which certain fishes take to certain baits, and of the consequent probability that the good craftsman of the streams will bring in that which he went out for; neither let him think so feebly of a brother's skill, as if it were ignorant of the likelihood that the slow, guttural gulp betokened perch, and the spirited attack indicated trout; the sly suction of old carp is eminently one thing, and the brilliant run But see, my trolling-rod is ready, and the of pike another. This only be insisted on; freshening breeze this grey morning prothere still is room for the pleasant excite-mises a noble pike. Well cast!-and the ments of uncertainty; and, however experience may continually contradict the hope, still, it ever unconsciously arises, that something yet unknown, some "monstrum horrendum informe ingens," is captive to your hook thirty paces off; and that when you wind home to shore the wearied combatant, he may be revealed as some rarest wonder of the fresh deep, some dreadful Gorgon of the river, or some fair Nereid of the darkly flowing current. No angler ever yet set No angler ever yet set forth to a day's fishing ungladdened by the sanguine expectation that, great as his luck may hitherto have been, the exploits of to-day shall eclipse it utterly. Thus, then, wend we forth; till here we are, nothing too soon, at Oakley pond. Pond, quotha! a finer lakelet slumbers gaudy float dances on the distant ripple. Suddenly, down it goes with a tug, and away r-r-r-runs the reel. He's making for his lair yonder among the rushes, and must carry with him sixty yards. How the line cuts and flashes through the water! And how your heart throbs, brother angler,—and how proudly, in so small a matter, feel you man's superiority, and how sure you are that the monster, if, indeed, not a merman, or an iguanodon, is a twenty-pound fish, at least, and is doomed to be stuffed to-morrow! But patience, brother; look at your watch, and wait the longest ten minutes of your yet existence; for he has got your gudgeon across his mouth, and must gorge it at his own epicurean leisure, head-foremost. Now then, he moves once more-be quick wind-and-just a turn of the wrist,-you've Indian twist, can circumvent the sturdy struck him well. Let him go-let him go perch yonder, that has gorged our spinning-off like a shot! Here, he's darting back minnow-fish, hooks, and line, all must be again-wind quick, and hold him; and, now lost! Wind-hold-play him-there's a he's getting sulky, lead him about a bit, and back-fin for you, cutting the bright ripples teach the monster that you've tackled him, like a sailing ploughshare!-there's a fine a wild horse safe in harness. Just have a broadside of brown and gold, with black peep for curiosity-there, do thy multiply bands;-oh, the fellow mustn't break away ing cautiously, and induce our friend to for a bag of ducats! Here he comestaste a little fresh air. Why, those are the gently now-wash out that gristly mouth jaws of a very shark! Let him go, quick! with copious draughts of its treacherous He dashes about gallantly, but will soon be native element, and drown a very fish. His tired of so much racing. Home again, sir. struggles are fainter and fewer, now for the Mind, when he leaps, lower your colors to net, boy-quick!-mind the line-and-safe his excellency, or he'll break all away; and on terra firma. -a clean jump out o' water!-there's his But the morning gets too bright for this first and last appearance in the pirouette: sort of thing, and there's little need of now gently, gently to shore,-the hooked other specimens. Let these hints suffice to stick in those gaping gills, and warmly testify an angler's happy triumphs; to-morwelcome, thou magnificent pike! A fifteen row, as the May-fly will still be on the wapounder, or that aching arm tells falsely. ter, we may ask your worship's company to How he claps his formidable jaws together, like two curry-combs, and furiously wriggles on the ground, as an eel, to run at us! Oh, thou tyrant of the little fish, thou Saturn even of thine own offspring, this, this is retributive justice. Flounder there among the meadow-grass, and confess to the naiads and oreades thy many murders; for assuredly never more shalt thou taste gudgeon. It's a terrible thing to be tedious; so, while we pour a libation of cool claret, (the venerable bottle having been up to its neck in wet grass ever since we came,) my gentle comrade shall repeat you a pretty stave of his, said or sung as we were walking hitherward. With glittering dew yet moist, the mountain cheeks the seven streams, and throw the barbed feather for a trout: meantime, to count our violet-scented spoils, (there are ten brace more than those you've heard of,-) to lay them out on fresh-cut flags, and homewards over the hill with merry hearts to our wholesome, hungry, daylight dinner. Here, boy, carry these rods, and sling that pike and perch on an osier-twig; for they can't be got into the basket. OF FLY-FISHING. "THE Sun's been up this two hours, sir; so I made bould to call ye!" It was the voice, and the heavy hobnailed tread of my factotum and favorite, Master James Bean. "Thank'ee, James; bring my fishingboots, etcetera." แ Now, what recondite idea attached itself to the cabalistic word etcetera," in the mind of the learned Bean, it is quite impossible to say; but the coincidence was remarkable, that, in company with the caoutchone boots aforesaid, appeared a bait-bag full of clean moss, and convoluted lobworms. For once our sagacious friend had erred; we were not to-day going to be guilty of impaling denizens of the dunghill: a sport cleaner, nobler, and more innocent than even that of the quiet augler, had been by us concerted for a pleasant holiday pastime: in fact, friends, you were promised a day's fly-fishing, and here it is. Hollo! where's my float ?-and my reel's rin out, and the rod pulled half into the water! This comes of poetizing; you see, and all such nonsense, when one should be merely a fisher. But, dear Nature, we Waltoners do love thee so,-and truly thy soul Dame Juliana Berners, in y' Boke off St. is poetry, that sooner had been lost a dozen Albans, enprented by Wynkyn de Worde, fish than that dewy canzonet. Natheless, says, with her quaint phrase, not more pretwith cautious wisdom let us retrieve this tily than truly, "Atte y leest youre fyssher idlene s, or Ustonson's bill will be longer hath his holsom walke, and is merry at his than its wont this summer; for, unless man's ease; a swete ayre of the swete savoure of intellect, at the end of half a furlong of meede floures makyth him hongry; he |