cial institutions, he was disposed to grant Sharing in this noble sentiment, the king has to the duchy of Holstein, as a German renounced the fourth part of his yearly infederal state, a free constitution, with a come. He has ordered the royal plate and separate government, military armament, the royal collection of medals to be taken and exchequer; and that he would use his to the mint, in order to mitigate as much best endeavors, as soon as the fitting time as possible, by personal sacrifices, the sufshould arrive, for the institution of a popu- ferings which war must entail upon the lar German parliament. From this mo- country; and his first act after returning to ment there has been nothing but love and the capital was to send the whole of his confidence between the King of Denmark guards to the seat of war, and trust himand his Danish subjects. On the other self, without even a sentry at the palacehand, the Separatist party, before the gate, to the love of his subjects. Rendsborg deputation could return to Hol- The progress of events since we began stein, having heard of the nomination of a this paper has been both rapid and decisive. new and liberal ministry, and feeling that Several sharp encounters have taken place, they could now only succeed by force, threw in which the Danish troops, though outoff the mask, nominated a provisional gov-numbered and over-matched, have well susernment of their own, and proclaimed that tained the ancient glory of their race; and an insurrection had broken out in Copen- Sweden and Russia, not unmindful of old enhagen, and that the king, being held under gagements, are beginning to speak out, and restraint, the Prince of Augustenborg was making preparations for more than a reauthorized to take the command of the monstrance. We blush while we acknowduchies in his name. By this ruse the re- ledge that what they are doing England bels were enabled to gain over part of the ought to have done. The guarantee which troops in the duchies, and to get possession Russia and Sweden gave was equally given of the fortress of Rendsborg. But the by us, and it is little to our honor that we king no sooner received intelligence of should have exhibited such exceeding rethese proceedings than he concentrated an luctance to redeem the pledge. But, in army in Schleswig, and, proceeding at truth, our foreign policy, both at the preonce to put himself at its head, gave the sent moment and for many a year to come, lie to these idle pretences. The royal must, more or less, expose us to the charge troops soon occupied the whole of Schles- of caring for no treaties except such as wig, and order would have been re-estab- bear, either favorably or otherwise, upon lished, had not Prussia, with several of the our own commerce. What can England minor German States, in open violation of do, burdened as she is with a debt which the fundamental laws of the Confederation not only suffers no diminution, but goes on and of the law of nations, marched troops continually augmenting itself? Is it not to the assistance of the male-contents, with- the consciousness of the inability of the out any previous declaration of war, and nation to pay for a war which alone opeinduced the Diet of Frankfort openly to rates with Lord John Russell to restrain espouse their cause. The Danish people, him from seeking redress at the point of on the other side, feeling that the king had the bayonet from Spain? entered with sincerity into their views, who shrink from a contest with so feeble a have flocked with touching enthusiasm power, commit ourselves to a trial of round his standard; and both king and strength which may perchance bring more people have proved in the hour of severe than Germany upon our backs? Still, let trials, that their patriotism was not the justice be done to all parties. Though we mere ebullition of a momentary excite- have not armed in defence of Denmark, we ment. The confederated armies of Ger- are ready to mediate between her and her many are already marching into the heart invaders. Will she accept such mediation of Denmark, which the heroism of her sons, now? We doubt it exceedingly. The succumbing to an overwhelming superiority Scandinavian blood is hot. The descenof number, have been unable to close alto- dants of the sea-kings are still powerful gether against them; but not a Dane har- upon their own element; their northern bors a thought of yielding to the unjust allies are marching to their support; and claims of the enemy. The people know war, of which the tide is already turned, that, single-handed, they cannot conquer will soon cease to be distasteful to them. in so unequal a contest; but if Denmark is We believe that they will prevail, not only to fall, she will fall, they say, with honor. in re-annexing Schleswig to the monarchy,

And can we,

but in depriving Holstein of privileges, has hurried forward. Be this, however, as which she has grossly abused. We cannot it may, if success go with the right, Denobject to this now. The appearance of a mark will surely prevail; and seeing that British fleet at the mouth of the Elbe three we can offer no more, we here beg to tenmonths ago would have prevented it all; der, both to her and to her allies, our best but we can have no right to protest now wishes in the contest on which they have against results which our own supineness entered.

From Bentley's Miscellany.

MEMOIR OF SIR E. BULWER LYTTON, BART.

Far more agreeable will it be to trace the broad outlines of his successful career. The interest attached to the author will cast its reflex light upon the simplest details.

In spite of a fiercely-contested reputa-worth. He is still a young man, and his tion, there is no name which would more intellect is obviously mellowing into richer spontaneously present itself as that of the ripeness with every succeeding year. He most eminent of our living authors than the has gone on so steadily improving, and so name of Bulwer. If you were speaking to healthily developing his mind, that we yet a foreigner on the subject of English litera- await new manifestations of his power. ture, Bulwer's would be the first name which Though precocious in success, his may turn both of you would pronounce. Wordsworth out a late mind. Burke and Dryden are or Tennyson would suggest themselves if glorious examples of what we mean. Be you were speaking of poets; Sheridan that as it may, we feel that no judgment Knowles, if you were speaking of Drama- can as yet be definitely pronounced upon tists; Grote or Hallam, if you were speak- him; he has not yet given us the measure ing of historians; Carlyle or John Mill, if of his stature. you were speaking of thinkers; Macaulay, if you were speaking of reviewers; Dickens, if you were speaking of comic genius or popularity; but, we repeat, if the subject were English literature in general, the Let us begin with his genealogy. On the name that would inevitably come first would maternal side it is traceable as far back as be Bulwer. Twenty years of success have Sir Robert de Lytton, of Lytton, in Derby, widened and legitimized his claims to that comptroller of the household to Henry IV. preeminence; twenty years of various labor The Knebworth estates have been in the have exhibited his versatile power. If he family possession ever since Henry VII. has lost something, in intenso, he has On the paternal side Burke will tell you surely gained more than he has lost in ex- how Tyrus, or Turold de Dalling enfeoffed tenso. He has given us the flippant novel, of the lordships of Wood Dalling and Bynthe slang novel, the historical novel, the ham, by Peter de Valoins, who held those philosophical novel, and the metaphysical lands from William the Conqueror, founded novel; he has written tragedies, plays, and the house of Bulwer. Those curious in a comedy; he has written Grecian history such matter have only to turn to Burke's and Edinburgh Review articles; poems Commoners of England, and there will find and pamphlets; satires and essays. What pages of information. From the foregoing living writer has shown such versatility? details it will be seen that the author of What living writer has better deserved suc-" Pelham" has reason to pride himself cess? Criticize each of these productions upon his birth; and no one who calmly as severely as you will-they are open to it contemplates the influence of race, will -but do not forget that each work is but a sneer at such a source of satisfaction It section of a large circle. A guinea may be may provoke the ire of sturdy radicals who a more valuable coin than a crown; but he " sprang from nothing," and are ostentais a richer man who has fifty crowns, than tiously "not ashamed to own it," to obhe who has but one guinea. serve some perfectly stupid scion of an ancient house, smoothing his straw-colored moustache, and talking of the "supewiowi

The time has not yet arrived when an estimate can be made of Bulwer's true

That

ty of wank and family," it may gall the graven itself upon our memories. "aristocracy of nature" to notice noodles word "adamantine" was so majestic, and relying solely on their parchments for es- so grandly incomprehensible to us. teem; but when a man has other titles to our admiration, no one will grudge him a reasonable pride in his descent.

Sir Richard Jodrell, though he wrote such adamantine tragedies, was a remarkable man, a great Greek scholar, member of This remark is made to deprecate mis- the Grecian Club, and worth a passing reconstruction when we say that Bulwer has membrance as the host of Rousseau. Peace created no small amount of not undeserved be to his manes! He achieved at least ill-will by a certain Walpole-foppery of something in dramatic literature; he had wishing to be considered rather as a gentle- one admirer out of his family! Could his man than as an author. It is a foppery spirit but have looked into that silken tent, which sits very ungracefully upon him. and seen amidst indiscriminate pastry the There are few authors of any station who reclining form of his intense admirer— have worked harder or reaped more sub-could he but have heard his quarto tragedy, stantial pudding and praise from their and very quarto iambics, spouted into the labors. Why, then, this otiose assumption sultry summer air, his "last infirmity," his of superiority-this impatience of Grub" sacred lust of praise," would have been Street? It was surely ill-judged in him satisfied.

to exchange his celebrated name of Bulwer The two striking events in Bulwer's earfor the perfectly insignificant name of Lyt- liest life-at least that he rememberston, however superior the latter may be in were first, the recitation to him of Pope's the pages of Burke, or in the annals of Homer and the Percy Ballads, by his moHertfordshire. Macaulay admirably says ther, together with some tales in verse of that posterity has refused to degrade the her own composition. To his mother he name of Bacon into that of Lord Verulam ; owes much; and in one of his dedications, in the same way Bulwer's contemporaries we forget which, he affectionately mentions studiously refuse to call him Lytton. At his obligations. Mrs. Lytton was a reKnebworth, or in Parliament, the name markable woman; a strange combination of may be given to him; but no one talks of business, talent, and natural literary taste him except as Bulwer. and ability.

To return. He comes from a learned as The second event was the death of his well as a gentle stock His maternal grand-grandfather, which brought all the old genfather, Richard Warburton Lytton, was a tleman's books into the house; a perfect remarkable scholar, and apparently a pro- deluge of literature! The whole house, digious pedant, for he wrote a Hebrew play, from parlors to attics, was crowded with and was astonished at not being able to them; they were even strewed upon the find actors for it. Parr (him we mean of floors. Bulwer, then having just begun to the dirt, dogmatism, and Greek, not him read, was allowed to range unrestrictedly of the "Life Pills,") thought this Richard amidst their solemn solitudes,-to shake Lytton unsurpassed as a Latinist; and we suppose that is an authority not to be disputed. This Hebrew dramatist married the sister of Sir Richard Paul Jodrell, also a dramatist of an Oriental turn, though he wrote in ponderous English. Well do we remember, in our school days, sitting under a primitive tent, (constructed of cricket- and eager mind? bats and silk-handkerchiefs !) in company He went to various schools, and speaks with Sir Richard's descendant, reading ore of Dr. Hooker's, Rottendean, as the best. rotundo, those amazing tragedies which his The doctor grounded and prepared well. ancestor had published, and thinking them From thence he went to two private tutors, superb--they had such long words!

"Immured in Susa's adamantine tombs," was a line of frequent recurrence, and it has

from them the dust and cobwebs as he pleased, and to extract from them what nutriment he could. He formed an extraordinary passion for them; and read with equal avidity what he could, and what he could not understand. Who shall calculate the effect of such reading upon the young

the first of whom, Wallington of Ealing, published for him some poems and translations, written between the ages of thirteen and fifteen. The second tutor, Dr. Thom* A doubt arises in our minds as to whether, per-son of St. Lawrence, near Ramsgate, lived haps, this change of name was a condition of his inheriting the Knebworth property. Should this be in a house which formerly belonged to Bulso, the above objection will go for nothing. wer's grandfather, and was therefore not

without interest for him. Dr. Thompson | but not first-rate; pretty much what is to prepared him for Cambridge as well as he be said of his parliamentary career. He could, but his pupil's bent was not scholas- threw more information into his speeches tic. It was here that he first read Rous-than most of the others, and was held to be seau, who produced a powerful impression, a sort of authority on English History. -an impression very traceable in Falkland, He was subsequently made president of the which was written between sixteen and se- society. To give the reader some higher venteen, and more or less traceable through- notion of this society than that of an ordiout his writings. In the mixture of the ideal nary debating club, we may mention, that with the sensual, and of the rhetorical with Macaulay, even after having taken his dethe logical, we see in Bulwer the influence gree, came up from London to speak there. of Rousseau; the presence of other faculties, however, prevents our calling him a disciple.

The biographer who will one day treat of this subject in full, will have a pleasant picture to paint of these college days, this club, its members, and its influence upon Bulwer. No such task is ours; so we pass

History also became a passion with him; and before going to Cambridge he had carefully gone through most of the original au-on. thorities for the History of England. He made a complete abridgment of it down to the reign of George III. for his own use. He went up to Cambridge unusually young; first to Trinity, and then as a fellow commoner to Trinity Hall.

During his last year he tried for the University prize poem. The subject was Sculpture. He gained the prize, and doubtless congratulated himself upon being a poet. Let it be a matter of consolation to future mediocrity! Let not henceforth the successful prize poet look upon himself as irretrievably lost. He can name Bulwer, and say, He too gained a prize, and yet, in spite of that, you see he has turned out a considerable man.

Bulwer took his degree, and went abroad. We ought to have mentioned, that during the long vacation he travelled on foot over Scotland, and some parts of England, with knapsack on his back, and a heart in his bosom cager for adventure. In these rambles he picked up materials which were subsequently used in his novels. No better school for experience and reflection than that.

The ambition of distinguishing himself naturally made him at first determine to read for honors. He says he was led away from this by two counter attractions, to which, before specifying them, we venture to add a third, viz., a naturally discursive energy which could not be restrained within the limits of "reading up" for honors; and the imperious demand of other faculties, which such reading could not call into play. The two causes he specifics are these: 1. The love for metaphysics and old English literature. He belonged to a club set up for the purchase of old English books, of which Whewell, then an eminent fellow, and now Master of Trinity, and Among his adventures should be placed Professor Malden, were the heads. Me- the time he lived with the gypsies, where taphysics were somewhat fashionable he fell in with a celebrated hero of the lawamongst the young thinking men, and the less kind, a gentleman who rose against the usual appendage of political economy was conventions" of society, and had several not neglected. 2. The Union Debating differences of opinion with the Government. Society, which was then at the height of its From him Bulwer picked up some of the fame. A brilliant little club it was, and knowledge of that sort of life pictured in has turned out considerable men, to wit," Paul Clifford," and the slang used in Thomas Babington Macaulay; the present" Pelham," and other works. Earl Grey; Kennedy, the head master of Shrewsbury; Ord, who died a lord of the Treasury; Praed, the wit, and thought to be the best speaker; Cockburn, Charles Buller, and Charles Villiers. About ten or twelve years ago there was published a little book called "Conversations at Cambridge," which pleasantly reflected the spirit of that debating club, and in which Bulwer occupied a conspicuous place. At the Union he was considered a fair speaker,

The mention of this recalls a delicious story told of Pierce Egan, who, on some one speaking of Bulwer, said, "Yes, yes, Bulwer's a very clever fellow, I dare say;' then adding, with exquisite self-reference and pity, "but, sir, his knowledge of flash is very superficial!"?

While at Paris, before he came of age, he wrote the greater part of "Pelham." The idea of this, he says, was taken from a hint in Madame de Stael, that a character

both gay and sentimental is always popu- [ and was weary of splashing up mud and lar; and a little also from Beaumont and water about him. Fletcher's Humorous Lieutenant." Bul- In that year he published "Pelham," as wer has always been accused of having mentioned, and the "Disowned" in 1829. drawn "Pelham" from himself; but, al-"Devereux" followed. In 1830 appeared though there does appear some show of jus-"Paul Clifford." tice in this prevalent notion, we believe that it admits of another explanation. "Pelham" really was modelled after an intimate friend, now living, a curious compound of learning and frivolity, of daring courage, and dandyism. He had travelled nearly all over the world, had seen and reflected upon life; and he exercised considerable influence upon his younger friend and admirer. Bulwer was his second in two duels, and had every opportunity for studying his character and consequently for drawing it.