mediate purpose to investigate the causes of this failure. There is a good deal in the letters to Miss Bowles that tends to explain it; but nothing to mitigate the severity of the sentence. They exhibit the charm of Southey's private character, his affectionate disposition, his firm and zealous friendship, his simple tastes, his purity and piety of thought and life. But they also display the asperity and intolerance of his literary judgments, his bitterness towards those from whom he differed, and his indulgence to his own crotchets and opinions, to which he clung with the spirit of infallibility. Nothing could be more amiable than his relations to Miss Bowles, governed by the tenderness of a friendship which ripened into love. But in the course of a long correspondence, whilst they deal in profuse compliments to one another, they contrive to distribute pretty severe blows to every one else. We shall quote some of these passages, which are amusing and characteristic. Byron and Jeffrey were two of Southey's "favorite aversions," as the phrase runs. Although he boasts that he is "inirritable to any attacks through the press," he adds: "When I have taken occasion to handle Jeffrey, or found it necessary to take up the pen against Lord Byron, it has been more with a feeling of strength than of anger something like Rumpelstiltzchen. feels when he lays his paw upon a rat." Rumpelstiltzchen was his favorite cat. The sentence is not only absurd but ungrammatical. The pronoun "what" is left out, probably by accident. But Rumpelstiltzchen might have found such rats as Byron and Jeffrey too strong for his claws. In the eyes of Southey Lord Byron was simply "a bad man." In 1824, when Southey was busily engaged on his "History of the Peninsular War," Miss Bowles informed him with regret that another history of that war was in preparation under the auspices of the Duke of Wellington. The work thus announced is obviously Sir William Napier's immortal narrative. To this Southey replies: Your news is new to me; but it does not surprise, and can in no degree injure me. In deed, I do not think it will affect Murray's interest, who is the person interested; for the intended work will prove a military history exclusively. The duke refused to communicate any papers to me, upon the ground that he reserved them for such a work. He said that I should do as every one who wished to make a popular work would ascribe more to the Spaniards than was due to them. In this he is mistaken. But the truth is he wants a whole-length portrait of himself, and not an historical picture in which a great many other figures must be introduced. By good fortune I have had access to papers of his of a much more confidential nature than he himself (I am very sure) would entrust to any one. And I have only to wish the work which he patronizes may come out as soon as possible, that I may make use of it. For my third volume, in all likelihood, it will come in time, and then it will save nie some trouble, for I may rely upon its authority in mere military points. This must be the reason why Murray announces my second volume so prematurely, when only I shall neither hurry myself nor be hurried. twenty-six sheets are printed out of a hundred. And you need not be told that I shall everywhere speak of the duke exactly as I should have done if he had behaved towards me with more wisdom. Let who may write the military history, it is in my book that posterity will read of his campaigns. And if there had been nothing but a military interest in the story, the duke might have written it for me. The Duke of Wellington appears to have judged Southey's qualifications as a military historian more correctly than Southey himself, and a pen of a very dif exploits: Southey sinking into the very ferent trempe was chosen to record his abasement of self-delusion, and unconscious of the melancholy fate which awaited his own quartos. Of Dean Milman he says: The paper on Milman I have not read, caring too little for any such subject. I know Milman, who spent a summer here some years ago. and has since been more so by admiration, He was then a little spoilt by Etonism, fashionable society, and prosperity. So much for the author of the "History of Latin Christianity," which will certainly outlive Southey's "History of the Peninsular War." Mr. Hallam does not fare better. Of him Southey writes: To-day I returned the proofs of the severest criticism I have ever written. It is upon Hallam's "Constitutional History," a book composed in the worst temper and upon the worst principles. It contains even a formal justification of the murder of Lord Strafford. I am acquainted with the author, and should, therefore, have abstained from this act of justice upon him, if he had not called it forth by some remarks in his notes upon the "Book of the Church," which take from him all right of complaint You will see I can be angry, not on my own score, because any attack on that book only serves to prove its strength, etc. Yet, if we are not mistaken, Hallam's 10 Poor Mrs. Barbauld, with her exquisite the City. He doubts whether he can make his way to Coutts's bank in the Strand with a tool. cheque in his pocket. The end of all things is at hand. We make all allowances for an elderly literary gentleman whose nerves are shaken, and whose head is not very strong. But we have some difficulty in discovering in all this Sir Henry Taylor's GREAT MAN. The personal relations of Mr. Southey and Miss Bowles are always pleasing, especially when they speak of their blackbirds, their nuthatches, and their favorite cats. For both of them had a keen sense of the charm and beauty of nature, and a strong yearning for domestic affection. But the objects of domestic affection were denied them; for Miss Bowles was a sol itary woman, and Southey's hearth and Charles Lamb, Mrs. Opie, Hannah home were overcast by the illness of his More, Charles Butler, William Howitt, wife. Hence they derived an unbroken Hayley, Charlotte Brontë, and a multitude pleasure from a sympathetic correspondof other excellent and accomplished perence carried on between the hills of Westsons come in for some of these rough moreland and the borders of the New touches of Southey's pen, and Miss Forest, but they rarely met. Their intiBowles is never behindhand in adminis- macy began in 1818 by a humble appeal tering a few pin-pricks in her small way. on the part of Miss Bowles that the great It is melancholy to think what backbiting Mr. Southey "would devote some leisure and slander very good people are apt to hour to the perusal of a manuscript, hardly indulge in at the expense of their fellow- to be called a poem for Miss Bowles creatures. Southey, it seems, with char- always speaks very modestly of her own acteristic blindness, wished this corre- performances. Southey not only read but spondence to be published for the benefit admired; for he was touched by the of future ages; but his representatives graceful and flattering letter which achave shown but little judgment in giving companied the poem, though the sterner it to the light. Many passages leave a judgment of Mr. Murray declined the bitter taste in the mouth, and we doubt publication of it. But the basis of a lifewhether any portion of it will raise South-long friendship was laid, which was of far ey's reputation or give a reputation to more importance. Southey's opinion of Miss Bowles. Miss Bowles's literary powers was so On all questions connected with politics high that he proposed to her in 1823 a and religion, Southey labored under in-"6 "literary union," the offspring of which superable prejudices and a rank intolerance. His standard of excellence appears to have been the Georgian age. On the death of that excellent monarch, King George IV., in 1830, he exclaims: There is something melancholy in having To a mind so constituted the era which was to be a joint poem, written after the manner of Beaumont and Fletcher's plays, on the legend of "Robin Hood," seeing, as he says, no just cause or impediment why R. S. and C. A. B. should not thus be joined together. The lady took a more sober view of this perilous alliance with the author of "Thalaba," and she soon found (as she anticipated) that she made a bad hand of "Thalaba's" prosody. It was to her "like attempting to drive a tilbury on a tram-road. You would laugh to see me in the agony of composition." So at last the scheme dropped. But if Southey had not been the most guileless of men, we might suspect the bard of a deep-laid plot upon the lady's affections. Thenceforth the intimacy increased, and as a sincere record of a literary life it becomes interesting. Southey relates to 66 his correspondent all his incessant labors, | Cowper." Had Cowper committed, or his articles for the Quarterly, his squab- imagined himself to have committed, some bles with editors and publishers, his plans crime? We shall never know. But the of greater works, some of which remained probability is, that it was a mere hypounaccomplished, and the results of his chondriacal and imaginary effect of his indefatigable reading, of which the most state of mind, as Southey suggests. He complete evidence is to be found in that was most unlikely to have committed any strange and amusing book "The Doctor." grave offence, but very likely to imagine There Southey gave a free rein to his that he had done so. learning and to his drollery: nobody but himself could have written it. Some twenty or thirty years were spent in collecting the odds and ends of this singular conglomerate, which was at last moulded into shape. "The Doctor" is certainly the most characteristic, if not the best, of Southey's prose writings. It deserves to retain a place in literature, not only for its originality, but for its pathos and for its fun. Miss Bowles said of it with truth, "There is the concentrated essence of a life's reading in these two volumes; and, better, of a life's feeling; and, best of all to me, I found you in every chap. ter." Southey, who is not afraid of startling comparisons with past greatness, replies, "There is something of Tristram Shandy,' in its character, something of Rabelais, more of Montaigne, and a little of old Burton, but the predominant character is my own." He appears to have thought that there was no great disparity between himself and these eminent per Genius," says Southey in one of these letters, "is common enough (I had almost said too common), but nothing is so uncommon as the good sense which gives it its right direction." That is a saying worth remembering; but it is impossible to read this correspondence without feeling that, if Southey had a good deal of genius, the allowance of good sense_was not always in proportion to it. Mr. Dowden, with the enthusiasm of an editor, declares that he was a man "sound to the core," though cursed with an irritable nervous system, "dangerously excitable." This must be the excuse for the numerous harsh, incorrect, and intemperate judgments to be met with in these pages. But we are reluctantly led to the conclu sion that Southey, in spite of his high principles and his noble aspirations, was singularly incapable of forming a just opinion of his contemporaries or of the times in which he lived. The French Revolution half turned his youthful brain in the direction of democracy, and he It was Southey's misfortune that he wrote "Joan of Arc." Subsequent events was compelled to write book after book, twisted him round, and he wrote the and article after article, for the daily "Vision of Judgment." The Reform Bill bread of his family. His means were was to him a letting loose of all the pow small, his pension inconsiderable, and liters of evil. Something, therefore, was erature was his chief resource. Litera- wanting to give his genius its right direc ture is a charming mistress, but a bad servant-of-all-work. Upon the whole, whatever he did best in this kind of composition for the market is to be found in his biographical writings: he found biography pleasant, easy, and profitable. We have already mentioned with all honor his "Life of Nelson," to which he subsequently added the lives of other naval heroes. sons. The "Life of Wesley" is a valuable contribution to the history of Methodism, and the "Life of Cowper" an interesting psychological study. Of Cowper, how ever, he says in these letters, that some mystery remains unrevealed, and that it might have been disclosed from Mr. Newton's correspondence. But he adds that "his mind is made up that, if it ever be revealed, it shall not be by himself. It would mingle too distressingly with all one's thoughts and feelings concerning tion. Mrs. Southey, who had long been a complete invalid, died in November, 1837, and at about that date this published correspondence ends. The later letters of Miss Bowles are lost; and the editor has wisely abstained from entering at greater length on the circumstances attending the marriage of Southey to her who had so long been the cherished depository of his thoughts and feelings. The marriage cannot be said to have been an unhappy one, for never were two human beings better suited to each other. But it was accompanied with very painful incidents. Southey's mental powers began to give way. "He had been," says Mr. Dowden, "an Arab steed bearing the load of a packhorse; he bore it long and well, then quivered and fell by the way." But in those hours of darkness, that antecham. ber of the tomb, it was no slight allevia in yourself an excellent nature. You have tion of the griefs of failing nature that From The Saturday Review. SERVANT-HUNTING. magnitude. And servant-hunting, as a - IF rich people are not obliged to work for their own bread, they have to undergo considerable toil and labor for those who work for them. It is not our present purpose to enter into the miseries of being slave-driven by first-rate servants; but We cannot dismiss this volume without we may point out that even servant-catchsome notice of the correspondence being in the first instance is a work of some tween Southey and Shelley, which is annexed to it, from a transcript made by Miss Bowles. These letters are in the highest degree remarkable, and add a memorable page to the painful history of Shelley's life and opinions. Early in life (for in 1816 Shelley says it was 66 some years ago") the poets had met Shelley There are a great many methods of serthen at nineteen, Southey at eight-and- vant-hunting. Most people are more or thirty. The impression left on Shelley's less dependent on registry offices; but mind was favorable. He regarded the there are certain amateurs who take a elder bard with admiration as a poet, and special pleasure in suiting their friends with respect as a man; and in 1816 he with, and finding places for, servants sent him a copy of " Alastor," as a mark an amusement which has much in comof respect. A bitter review of "The Re- mon with the more ambitious occupation volt of Islam" appeared in the Quarterly of match-making. These benevolent peoin 1820, which was erroneously attributed ple know of an excellent cook that will to Southey; and their correspondence suit you exactly; and, if you want to find was renewed in different terms. Southey a place for a butler, they know the kindhad not written the article, and, indeed, est and best and richest of masters, who had not read any of Shelley's publications requires just such a servant. It is scarceexcept the "Alastor;" but the incidents | ly necessary to add that their swans are of Shelley's life which had occurred in usually geese. At regular registry offices the interval, were known to him, and they it is highly entertaining to hear the opincalled forth his strongest censure and ion of your acquaintances current below remonstrance. Shelley replied from Pisa stairs. On inquiring why a certain serin a more moderate tone than might have vant left his last master, who happens to been expected, and sent Southey his later be one of your intimates, you are informed works, including "The Cenci and the that your friend and his wife are " queer "Prometheus." To this latter Southey sort of people," that no servants "stop responded by an appalling picture of with them long," that "the missus is alShelley's own career. ways meddling in the kitchen," and that the master is completely under the thumb of an old butler, who persuades him to discharge all servants that will not stoop Some men [he said] are wicked by disposition; others become so in their weakness, yielding to temptation; but you have corrupted to make it worth his while to allow them to avoid. The most respectable of the to remain. Some people prefer advertise- candidates will generally have an unmisments to registry offices, and that system takable expression of ill-temper. We is often successful enough; but when it well remember a man applying for the is resorted to, every post brings a weari- situation of butler who had every appearsome heap of letters, most of which are ance of a thoroughly good servant. His much in this style: "Sir in anser to testimonials were unexceptionable, and your advertisement i am now disengaged the only mystery was how such a paragon threw the istablishment bein broken up of perfection could be out of place. There my character is good." The answers was, however, a certain something about never contain any information worth his well-ordered features which made us knowing except that the writers apply for suspect that he could be cross, if he liked. your situation. But the worst of all On being pressed on the point, he gave methods of servant-hunting is to ask your himself an excellent character for temper, own or other people's servants to assist "but," he added, with an expression full you in the pursuit. of deep meaning, "I don't like to be putt Many people living in the country must upon.' Disagreeable as a morning dehave experienced the doubtful pleasures voted to interviewing servants may be, it of going up to London for a couple of is far more satisfactory than correspondnights' servant-hunting. Perhaps a but- ing with them. The inexperienced might ler-hunter receives a number of applica- be surprised to find how little information tions, and he writes to invite the appli- a servant can contrive to convey in a letcants to call upon him. The registry ter. The most astute diplomatist could keepers are also informed that he will be not more completely conceal everything found at certain hours on a given day, that his correspondent could wish to and everything is prepared for a grand know. Nor are servants very astute in campaign. His morning will resemble in understanding letters addressed to them many respects that of a celebrated Lon- by would-be employers. Before engaging don physician. He will spend his time in servants we always like to give them one room receiving his visitors. No thoroughly to understand what we expect sooner will one of them be shown out of them. In accordance with our custom, than another will be shown in. Like a we once wrote a letter to a butler who had physician, he will have to question, and offered his services, describing his future examine with a critical eye, each person duties at some length. In reply, we rewho comes to see him; but, unlike the ceived the following curt epistle: "Sir, physician, he will pocket no guineas. as I find it is not a butler but an odd man With some few exceptions his visitors you want, I decline your situation." We will be a lugubrious-looking lot, much re- suppose that among servants a man is sembling undertakers. A certain propor- known almost as well by the wages he tion of them will be no better than what gives as by his name, for every servant are commonly known as "greengrocers." that applies for your situations knows to Some of them will begin by saying that a pound what you paid his predecessor; they lived last with a duke or a marquess, he generally knows also the customs of but it will turn out on cross-examination your house, what you will stand, and what that they were simply at the house of one you will not, and it is absolutely useless or other of these personages on a job as to get a new servant with the idea that he hired waiters. Some will be spirituous will not continue the abuses into which looking men, with beery noses, ginnish the old one had gradually drifted. The eyes, and trembling hands; "D.T." will new one will take them up at exactly the be too plainly written on their faces to point at which the other left them, with a make further negotiations necessary. wonderful knowledge of his subject. One Others will have an air of oppressive is often tempted to wish that one could piety, reminding one of the butler in learn as much about one's servants as Punch who, when asked what religion he they seem to know about oneself; it might followed, replied, "Well, sir, what little 1 perhaps be as well, too, if we could see do in that way is with the Hanabaptists." ourselves as servants see us. The butler-hunter will be astonished to find how many of his applicants have been in a business which did not answer usually a public-house-and wish to return to domestic service. Such prodigals as these the judicious will take good care Some of the most difficult servants to get are footmen. It is true that a very large number of pigmy footmen are always to be had for the asking; but good footmen of decent size are rarities. There is something exceedingly demoral |