1825. Jan. 3rd. Walked over to Bowood: company, Mackintosh and his daughter, Mr. and Mrs. Vernon Smith and Lewson Smith. A good deal of conversation about Burke in the evening. Mentioned his Address to the British colonists in North America. "Armed as you are, we embrace you as our friends and " as our brothers, by the best and dearest ties of relation." The tone of the other parts, however, is, I find, moderate enough. Burke was of opinion that Hume, if he had been alive, would have taken the side of the French Revolution. Dugald Stewart thinks the same. The grand part of Burke's life was between 1772 and the end of the American war; afterwards presumed upon his fame and let his imagination run away with him. Lord Charlemont said that Burke was a Whig upon Tory principles. Fox said it was lucky that Burke and Windham took the side against the French Revolution, as they would have got hanged on the other. Windham's speech on Curwen's motion for Reform-an ingenious defence of parliamentary corruption-like the pleading of a sophist. Burke gave the substance of the India Bill, and Pigot drew it up.'

1833. Feb. 6th. An excellent mot of somebody to Fontenelle, on the latter saying that he flattered himself he had a good heart, — "Yes, my dear Fontenelle, you have as good a heart as can be made "out of brains.""

In talking with Hallam afterwards, I put it to him why it was that this short way of expressing truths did not do with the world, often as it had been tried, even Rochefoucauld being kept alive chiefly by his ill-nature? There was in this one saying to Fontenelle all that I myself had expended many pages on in my "Life of Byron," endeavouring to bring it out clearly; namely, the great difference there is between that sort of sensibility which is lighted up in the heads and imagination of men of genius, and the genuine natural sensibility whose seat is in the heart. Even now, in thus explaining my meaning, how many superfluous words have I made use of? Talking of the Brahmins being such good chess-players (nobody, it seems, can stand before them at the game), Mrs. Hasting's nairetē was mentioned, in saying, "Well, people talk a good deal about the "Brahmins playing well, but I assure you Mr. Hastings, who is very "fond of chess, constantly plays those who come to the Government "House, and always beats them."

For three editions of the Epicurean' (which first came out in 1827) Messrs. Longman, we find, credited the author 700% In 1828 Mr. Murray finally concludes a bargain with him to write a 'Life of Byron,' for which he is to receive 4000 guineas. Moore begins this in February, after having paid a visit to Newstead Abbey, and to Colwich, the residence of Mrs. Musters (formerly Miss Chaworth), with whom he conversed respecting Byron, as he has related in the Life.' The usual gaddings, excursions, and pleasure-hunting characterise these years, the record of which is, however, interspersed with

amusing notes of conversations, held chiefly at Holland House and Bowood; often valuable, though brief, from the light they shed upon transactions regarding which public channels of information have been of necessity imperfect ones. Many little touches reveal the state of political parties, too, in a way no out-of-doors organ could possibly do. The ill-assorted combinations of 1826-27-28, which succeeded on the break-up of Tory ascendancy, are curiously commented upon; and some good stories also find a place in the Diary.'

The sixth volume opens with 1829, and the death of his amiable daughter, Anastasia, which plunged both her fond parents into deep affliction. The Notices of the Life of Byron' came out in the following year, after which Moore set to work to collect materials for that of Lord Edward Fitzgerald; in fact, he seems to have been more than commonly industrious about this time. He and his wife made a journey to Ireland in August, mainly on this errand, but also to visit Moore's mother once more. At a great meeting of from two to three thousand people, Moore being induced to make a speech, on the subject of the late French revolution of the three days' (Bessy being among the auditors), it proved one of the happiest efforts in oratory that he ever essayed.

'From this on to the end my display was most successful, and the consciousness that every word told on my auditory, reacted upon me with a degree of excitement which made me feel capable of anything. The shouts, the applause, the waving of hats, &c., after I had finished, lasted for some minutes. I heard Sheil, too, as I concluded, say with much warmth, "he is a most beautiful speaker !"' (Vol. vi. p. 140.)

The enthusiasm felt for Moore by his countrymen is, indeed, universal, and proclaimed; and many of his admirers endeavour to persuade him to try for a seat in Parliament for some Irish constituency. This temptation, which is renewed after return to Sloperton, he steadily resists (although his inclination would have strongly urged him to accept the offer), on the ground of his utter want of fortune.

Of adventures' there are, properly speaking, none in the whole six volumes; Moore's movements being chiefly from Devizes to Bath, from Bath to Farley, from Farley to Laycock, from Laycock to Bowood, and so on, much after the style of Major Sturgeon's campaigns. But although his person revolved in a limited orbit, his mental activity, and frequent unreserved commerce with the class in whose hands the government of the nation was now vested, caused him to feel no want of more enlarged experience of the world. The privilege enjoyed by

Moore, of going frequently to Bowood, was fully appreciated by him. No one had a more sincere or cordial admiration for the character of its noble owner; a long and intimate acquaintance with which enabled Moore to comprehend and estimate it at its true value.

Moore's political feelings partook all through life of the early impressions derived from his boyish connexion with certain friends who were forward in the organisation of Irish resistance to the Government in 1795-96. Though a mere youth, his ardent attachment to Ireland led him to yield the fullest sympathy to those efforts, and from that period downwards he never spoke or wrote about his native country save in a strain of mournful resentment. He was himself, whilst a college student, subjected to an examination before the formidable Chancellor Fitzgibbon, and displayed a self-possession, and we might even say an heroic fidelity to his associates, highly praiseworthy in one so young. The scene is related in the first vol. of the present publication, and had been previously described by Moore in the preface to his Works' in ten vols. 1840. His Letters of Captain Rock' likewise display his views and feelings on Irish politics. But although he held opinions of a strongly democratic cast, he seems to have been less cordial in his wishes for reform in Parliament in 1831-32 than might have been expected. This is to be ascribed partly, as he confesses, to his having reached the age of fifty before the Reform movement became effectual, and partly to his comparatively slender interest in English politics, with which he rarely meddled, whilst with Irish affairs he maintained a constant sympathy. (See his Letter to Electors of Limerick, vol. iv. p. 305.) The wrongs of Ireland' lay at the bottom of his heart, and tinged his views on most public questions. It is honourable both to himself and his noble associates, that Moore's extreme opinions, though openly maintained and ably defended, never interrupted the friendly relations in which he lived with the leading statesmen of the Liberal party. His outspoken objections to the course pursued by the Whig Government, after 1831, towards Ireland, would infallibly have offended any minister but the nobleman who, for Moore's incalculable good fortune, bore him a friendship so warm as to be proof against the shocks of dissent when coming from his privileged neighbour.

A recent newspaper criticism has laboured to fasten upon Moore the imputation of having dangled upon the great;' one more groundless could scarcely be adduced-'the great' ran after Moore, not he after the great. If there be one fact more abundantly attested than another by the Diary,' it is

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this. And among the rare instincts which his nature revealed was the perception of that nice medium between familiarity and humility of demeanour, which he so admirably hit in his intercourse with the nobility of both sexes. He was treated like a spoiled child; yet he conducted himself like a well-bred man. He might assuredly feel a pride in reflecting that he could reckon among his intimate friends the names of Walter Scott, Samuel Rogers, Crabbe, Bowles, Sydney Smith, Lord Byron, Francis Jeffrey, Lord Holland, Luttrell, Lord John Russell, Lord and Lady Lansdowne, with those of other eminent and estimable persons of both sexes; and he did feel it. But no one, we venture to affirm, could charge Moore with presuming upon the favour with which they regarded him. What he seems to be most severely reproached with is, having been inwardly elated, flattered,― made happy, in short, by it. On this manner of construing the revelations comprised in these volumes, we will, even at the risk of appearing tedious, venture to offer some remarks.

The general reader of Memoirs seems to require, before all things, the gratification of his curiosity. But one would think that, this primary object being attained, the next would be to acquire an accurate knowledge of the inward mind and thoughts of the author, particularly if he be a person of eminent and renowned character; and so it is, for every body takes pleasure in diving into the soul of genius, and prying into the laboratory of a poet's fancy. If, however, the writer record for posthumous publication feelings which he would or ought to have dissembled during life, such is the inveterate, the all-puissant influence of conventional habits, that, instead of thanking him for his candour and veracity, the public positively blame him for not disguising his genuine emotions, for not counterfeiting to posterity indifference both to high reputation and to homage from his fellow-creatures. The very quality which is understood to bestow a value on autobiography, viz. the presenting the writer's real mind and thoughts to the reader, -is lost sight of in the abhorrence which the public entertain for what they term 'ridiculous personal vanity!' They shrink from every thing which is not disguised and dressed up' in a decorous garb, covering all personal defects. The public have, indeed, so long and so peremptorily prohibited all external signs of self-satisfaction, or self-love, that at length they have come to believe in the Latin apophthegm, that what does not appear, does not exist; and thus, when the weaknesses of an idol are disclosed, through his private closet avowals, they regard him as a rare instance of depraved

morals, and fall to abusing him as such. For in our artificial society, every thing is made to give way to conventional forms and usages, and neither mind nor matter dare wander beyond the prescribed despotic circle.

To be sure, if a writer of autobiography has died in want and misery, if his vanity has been never so misplaced, offensive, or egregious, we can afford to be more indulgent; the mortification and humiliation he has endured have the effect of neutralising the ascetic element within us, and we feel comforted, as it were, by the spectacle of expiatory justice. But let not the successful or happy man lift the veil, and reveal the pleasure with which a life of labour and poverty was sweetened when he was praised, flattered, and loved by his contemporaries. In vain would his apologists plead that vanity, under profuse homage, is at once natural and innocuous. His prosperity renders it necessary that he should endure the nemesis of the community, and expiate the sin of success.

A great deal has been said, also, respecting Moore's neglect of his domestic hearth; so much, indeed, that it would be unbecoming, in presenting even this slender portraiture of the man, to pass over such a statement in silence. He certainly enjoyed mingling with his friends and acquaintance when his work was done sometimes, indeed, when it was not done-and it is not disguised in the pages before us that Mrs. Moore felt his frequent absences from home. On the other hand, it should be borne in mind that, whereas mental labour, especially that of the inventive faculty, exhausts the individual more than any other occupation, so it is of the last importance to him to seek occasional, even frequent, renovation by some external agency. The spirit-stirring action of pleasant and distinguished society, the expansion of his peculiarly happy talent for conversation, the exercise of his almost magical gift of touching the feelings by musical expression all these recreated the man, and replenished the springs of those powers by means of which the poor poet was to produce his page on the morrow. The physician, the lawyer, the minister, the sharebroker, the soldier, and others, necessarily pass their lives from home, a return to which constitutes a welcome change and relief. But the labo

*No person was ever gifted with a more perfect organisation for music than the deceased Irish Bard. Had he received a thoroughly sound musical education, it is difficult to say whether he might not have produced some great composition as gorgeous in melody and harmony as the Eastern Imagery of his Lalla Rookh.'- ELLA, Musical Sketches, 1853.