a few lighter affairs, some of which Horace Walpole saw executed in his own press at Strawberry-hill. She wrote plays of a "tenderly sentimental cast" and generally appeared in the chief character herself. Private theatricals were much in vogue in her day. While abroad, she found favour in the eyes of the Margrave of Anspach; and the Marquis of Craven obligingly departing from this world of alternate hurry and idleness, he made her his Margravine. The Court of Vienna conferred the title of Princess on her, and the Court of Berlin purchased the Margrave's little territory from him, and thus the noble pair had means and opportunity of purchasing an estate at Hammersmith, building Brandenburgh-house, and offering themselves to King George and Queen Charlotte to shine as particularly bright stars in the firmament of St. James's. The Queen not being large-minded where titles were in question, would not receive the lady as princess, so she was obliged to content herself with her title of Margravine. Well she might, it being once borne by the witty and agreeable sister of Voltaire's and Carlyle's hero-philosopher, Frederick the Great. The house warming of their mansion took the shape of a masquerade, in which one of the characters, attired as a sailor, rushed against a magnificent pier glass, and broke it in pieces, and the silk and point lace curtains, and the satin coverings of chairs and sofas, were cut and slashed by pen knives, and parts carried away. (Would this have occurred in Bayreuth or Wurtzburg ?) Here the beautiful and talented Margravine continued to entertain her acquaintance with plays, the heroines of which were imagined, and personated by herself, and occasionally standard comedies were produced. The leaven of the Wycherley and Congreve dramas had not even at that late hour lost its peculiar zest. The Provoked Wife was played at Brandenburgh House, Sir Walter James personating Sir John Brute, and the fair hostess, Lady Brute. It was the most natural thing in the world that the lady should desire to concentrate the interest of the scene in her own person, but this did not at all times meet the wishes of her subordinates. "On one of these occasions the younger Angelo, a protégé of the Margravine, who could not reconcile himself to the no-part given to him to enact, noticing that his patroness had left the stage, seized his opportunity for distinction, and burst out into a Gag the length of which was only exceeded by its absurdity. "The distinguished authoress hearing peal upon peal of uproarious laughter, where she had placed the most touching sentiment, rushed in alarm back to the side-scenes, just in time to behold her walking gentleman for whom no speech had been written, concluding a soliloquy in a style of extravagant fustian, that was literally convulsing the entire audience. "He made his exit amid thunders of applause, but pleasant as his success must have been to him, it vanished when he came suddenly face to face with the offended Margravine. A pretty sharp scolding for his unwarrantable interpolation was his only punishment, notwithstanding that the profound interest that should have been excited for her heroine was totally marred by the audience's recollection of the capital fun of Angelo's extraordinary soliloquy." Thus did this literary and hospitable lady keep an asylum open for the (mentally) destitute and afflicted, till the insidious fingers of time began to limn crow's feet about eyes and mouth, and till the Margrave was called to his account. She spent her latter years in Italy, where the first Duke of Buckingham and Chandos became acquainted with her and arranged her diary for publication. She died in 1828, leaving the bulk of her property to the Hon. Keppel Craven, who, inheriting her taste for life on the Continent, spent much time in Italy, wrote a couple of volumes descriptive of the country, and became a devoted adherent to the next occupier of Brandenburgh House, the illstarred Queen Caroline. The ancient Irish were not very much deceived in their estimation of the powers of satire as far as human beings were concerned. Its power of rhyming mice and rats to death, may be looked on as a bit of exaggeration, not to be used to the prejudice of the general assertion. Poor George III. must have been sadly tormented by the ill-natured rhymes of Dr. Walcott; so must his eldest son have suffered from "Tom Crib's Memorial" and other pestilent productions of Tom Browne the Younger, but much more scurri lous, and bitter, and bad than these, especially when the defenceless condition of their object was taken into account, were Theodore Hook's lampoons on the poor Queen. These were published in the John Bull, and wonderfully did they enlarge its circulation. "The fun soon grew fast and furious, and as the laugh became more general at these fearless lampoons, those who were most severely handled by them began to move away. The great Whig families who had supported the Queen as a party manœuvre only, rapidly withdrew their usual custom when their friends were no longer of use. The "Unprotected Female" cry could not get a hearing, the "Injured Wife" appeal only excited unpleasant retorts, and any reference to the "Wronged Queen" only elicited a burst of mirth. If the possession of a magnificent saloon were capable of assisting its owner to endure worldly ills Queen Caroline was well favoured. "The glory of the house was the saloon on the first floor, which was of large size and lofty dimensions, with massive folding doors. On one side was a life-size, full-length portrait of the Margravine or Princess Berkeley, painted at a time when she was in the zenith of her charms. On the other side of the doors were life-size portraits of her brothers, Berkeley and Keppel Craven, both painted, I believe, by Romney. At one end of the room in the centre stood a self-acting pianoforte, the tones of which were beautifully modulated and sweet. This instrument was always kept surrounded by a bower of tube-roses, and the scent from it perfumed the entire apartment." We are assured, on the authority of a friend of the writer's, who was an intimate in the Brandenburg House, that “there never was a more attractive person in manner than Queen Caroline. She had an excellent temper and most benevolent disposition. Her fault was a contempt for the world's opinion when she was unconscious of doing wrong, a contempt which, I regret to say, no woman can entertain with safety to her reputation." On one occasion a noble lord brought her a pine apple, not a very extravagant present to a Queen.' After his departure she called her secretary, laughed with him over the magnificent present, mentioned her suspicion of his being a Carlton House spy, said she had invited him to din ner, and would have some fun with him. "She ordered two decanters of tea the colour of wine to be placed on the dinnertable, on either side of her, and from these she drank copiously and with considerable display, taking care that the noble lord should never taste the wine she seemed so fond of. "As soon as his lordship had taken leave, her Majesty laughingly exclaimed, 'Oh, rare the fun! Now he will go back to Carlton House, and say that he saw me the worse for wine, and that I finished the best part of two bottles at dinner.' "The real fact was that the Queen never drank anything but milk, tea, or coffee. "The intuitive perception of the Queen was remarkable On a particular evening there was a reception. She was at one end of the room playing at an Italian game of cards, and at the other her secretary was in conversation with Mr., now Lord Brougham, and Sergeant Wilde (Lord Truro). She sent for her chaplain. When he had reached the card-table, leaning forward as she played, she said, 'You have been talking of me. They are persuading Brougham has been doing so more than you to urge me not to go to the coronation. Wilde. Tell them I will go." It will be no news to most of our readers to be told that the Hon. Grantley F. Berkeley is a gentleman of decided prejudice on family and other matters, and that for one of his sturdy qualities he would have won Dr. Johnson's good-will. With regard to the poor foreign princess who was systematically ill-treated from her first landing on the (to her) inhospitable soil of Britain, we are well pleased to find his feelings in unison with every lover of justice, and friend to the weaker sex. He describes in detail her progress to Westminster Abbey, and the means so well devised of preventing her entrance in the streets, when its approach towards "The Royal carriage had not been long the Abbey was thwarted by a mob of people, all of whom my friend observed to be acting in concert under special leaders, and in perfect organization. In short, the vociferous multitude consisted principally of the prize-fighting class and 'roughs' of the day. Many of the pugilists were known fond of gymnastic exercises and sparring; to my informant from his having been but after the lapse of so considerable a time he cannot now remember all their names, though he recognised Josh. Hudson, Peter Crawley, and Richmond the Black, who were amongst the most active in impeding the progress of the royal carriage. . "Other carriages that were passing by at the time were blocked up. One was brought for a moment to a stand-still alongside, if not almost in contact with the royal carriage, and in this was a lady attired for court. Whatever the dress of this female might have been, her manners were not courtly, for after gesticulating in anger towards the Queen, whatever she said being drowned by the cries of the populace-this woman spat at her Majesty through the open window !" Her attempt at passing into the Abbey by a private entrance was equally well guarded against. On the night after this day of agitation, and after endeavouring to conceal her anguish from her attendants by an assumed air of pleasantry, she retired to rest, but about three o'clock, asked for a tumbler of water and some magnesia. She put in so much of this salt that the mixture presented the appearance and consistence of paste. Adding some drops of laudanum, she determinedly got down the nauseous stuff by means of a spoon. Her attendants did their best to dissuade her but in vain. Notwithstanding what she must have experienced next day, she determinedly went in state to Drury Lane to see Kean in Richard III." She was obliged to quit the house before the play was over, was visited by the state doctors and cheered up, but the dose and her agitation did their work. In a few days after devoutly receiving religious consolation, her worldly sorrows and trials came to an end. The following ballad sung about the streets after the coronation was not calculated to give pleasure to her royal husband. The first verse alludes to the thin attendance of the nobility at the ceremony. "Rego, regis, hallo, what's this! What! only half my peeries! "Horum, scorum, shut the doorum! Harum, scarum, strife O! Clap, trap, sherry, merry, periwig and hatband! Lord, if I hadn't a wife O! "I declina C. Regina; Rex alone's more handsome! Rursus ego a man sum." Of the popular writers who began to essay their powers in the first quarter of the present century few are left, and shortly they will be only the shadows which Johnson, Goldsmith, Garrick, and Horace Walpole, were to ourselves when we first became acquainted with their writings. The Hon. Mr. Berkeley's recollections are a welcome addition on this account to the libraries of our literary veterans who cannot expect to enjoy them much longer. To the naturalist and sportsman they must be a rich treat, as the author is a genuine enthusiast and of long and varied experience in the noble art by field and flood. MY LOVE AND I. AND we sat in the quiet evening, For she sang me a gay song sweetly, Came the thoughts of other times. In a dream I was still beside her, In a dream I was still beside her, And those good things never came. And I thought as I sat beside her, That with such sweet, thrilling voices So we sat in the quiet evening, All alone, my love and I, And she played on her organ softly, U. L. A. LORD DUFFERIN ON IRISH LAND TENURE. IT has long been the misfortune of Ireland that the portion of the population connected with property, and more deeply concerned than others in maintaining the institutions of the country, have permitted persons having no property, and careless as to the character or extent of any social change, to monopolize public attention in newspaper, speech, and pamphlet. How energetically these lacklands have worked the press in favour of their so-called principles; how vehemently they have urged on the platform altered systems for the management of estates, being ignorant of the very rudiments of the relations of landlord and tenant, those who have given the subject the most moderate attention are well aware. Nor can it be forgotten that such large success has attended this assiduous repetition of unwarranted statements as their too general acceptance, as true and sound, in England, constitutes so that, at length, even statesmen of reputation succumbed to the noise of the multitude of the clamorous, and surrendering their naturally sound judgment, and playing false to their high responsibilities, began to speak in the prevailing strain of the cruelty of Irish proprietors, of their numerous evictions, of the necessity to put a restraint upon their tyranny, and of fixity of tenure, and other gentle specifics, as the only remedy for their abuse of the rights of property. The class assailed fell, on their part, into an error not unusual with individuals and communities who feel that they have a powerful answer to make to any calumny. Relying in the completeness of the defence they can make, they neglect the duty to themselves of making it, and leave an open field to the adversary to rage about in defiantly. In a time when what is styled public opinion is more the result of the combat of argument waged before the eyes of a crowd less prepared to discriminate than to applaud the seeming victor, this course is not wise, and sometimes it is dangerous. Much ground has been lost by such apathy, or misplaced confidence in essential strength, which, now that misrepresentation has obtained a headway over truth, it is very hard to recover. For illustration, take the recent instance of the publication of an article in the leading journal in which the permitted calumnies of years against Irish landlords were compressed into a single phrase, and their evil effects intensified, the writer apparently unconscious that he was not only suggesting an utterly false idea of their character, but displaying the utmost ignorance of actual facts. The "alien proprietary" may see in the sweeping condemnation intended to be conveyed in that misdescription, how blamable has been their consent of silence to the libels uttered of them by random accusers. Some months ago, in these pages, satisfaction was expressed that the landed proprietors of Ireland were descending into the public arena, and speaking for themselves. Since this began to be done, there has become visible a marked change in the minds of the less unthoughtful of the public. The electioneering pamphlet is not now regarded as a complete treatise on the land question. Its character as a mere placard of political warfare is more nearly estimated. Nor are men taken as entitled to speak ex cathedra on matters of great difficulty, eminently requiring the qualification of experience who never in their lives let a farm, or had a farm to let, never took a farm, nor know the difference between one sort of tenure, or improvement, and another. Their pretension to expound the philosophy and practice of land-letting and cultivation is not increased by the circumstance that when forced at last, of very shame, to hazard the reduction of their theories to the shape of a measure for Parliament to consider, with the strongest intentions to devise a plan which would advantage the tenant, even at the expense of sacrificing not only the landlord's legal rights, but every principle of natural justice, they have but succeeded in proposing such schemes as would injure the landlord partially, and would ruin the tenant altogether. Mr. Fortescue's Bill of 1866 withdrew from the landlord his control over his property, aiming at the bestowal of a long tenure upon the tenant, under the pretext of its necessity to enable him to work out his improvements; but it did not, and could not, deprive the landlord of the right to take back his land before the tenant acquired a right to fixity upon it; and in endeavouring to coerce the proprietor, it simply forced him to protect himself by the process of eviction, and might, therefore, have shortly been described as an Act to produce the wholesale clearance of estates, and to swell the emigration returns-the very consequences would-be legislators professed to avert. In like manner, though in a more modified way, a Bill introduced this year would be ruinous to the tenantry, since no landlord would suffer the occupier to borrow money from the State for the incumbering of his property, when he could arrest VOL. LXX.—NO, CCCCXV. the operation of the process of injustice by a prompt notice to quit. The friends of the tenant have been proved his worst enemies. So long as their friendship could continue to be a mere outery against supposed oppression, it sounded well; but when they came to try their 'prentice-hand at law-making, they encountered all the difficulties of a subject which is only simple whilst natural and equitable principles are acknowledged. And thus it happens that, at this moment, despite the vehement logic, and many irrelevant interrogatories of Mr. Butt, and the speeches of Mr. Bright in and out of Ireland, and the articles innumerable penned in favour of compulsory leasing, retrospective compensation, and a variety of nostrums, the measure most likely to receive the assent of the Legislature, with the full approval of the reflecting public is that prepared by Lord Clanricarde, and now before a Select Committee of the House of Lords, the fundamental principle of which is the voluntariness of the contract between landlord and tenant. Let that principle be the stone on which the legislator builds, and the structure will stand without it, no erection, however ingenious and fair-seeming, can last. By far the ablest and most earnest of those who have taken away the reproach and the danger of the apathy already spoken of is Lord Dufferin, to whose earliest labours to bring the public mind into a healthy state on the land question reference was made in this magazine. Subsequently, Lord Dufferin felt called upon to go into the question more deeply in a series of Letters to the Times, which arrested universal attention, on account alike of their extreme lucidness, the pains taken to collect and verify materials, the candid use made of these, the simplicity and power of the reasoning based upon them, the impartiality which marked every stage of the inquiry, and in addition to all the thoroughly national feeling, in the best sense, which inspired all that the author wrote. He was an Irishman, anxious to see his countrymen bettered in condition, and with a view to this, to discover, let what class might suffer by the investigation, where the evil lay. Perhaps no series of letters on a public ques 8 |