LORD HERVEY.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 2, Issue 81, 10 February 1879, Page 2

LORD HERVEY.

Of all the ' memoites pour servir,'there are few that can compare, in novelty of information, in humor, in mordant descriptions of character, in hate and cynicism, with the pages of John, LordHervey. Observant, spiteful, the favorite of the hard Queen Caroline gazes upon the court life' of George 11,, and comments in his witty, worldly manner upon the scenes—civil, ecclesiastical, political, and pass, before his sickly view. He lifts tlie veil, and wo see tho King listening to tho counsels of Sir Robert Walpole, rattling' at the Queeji,,and descanting upon the charms' of the faivon • iteofhis seraglio. - Wo''ace the Queen, cette diablesse, as the first George kindly called her, worshipping with' a devotion worthy of a better cause her little tyrant of a husband; badgering the divines who led the devotions of the court with the

most perplexing and heterodox l of tiona, and mocking with' the conscious' nesa of power those who, sought to supplant her in the affections of her lord and master; we see Sir Robert Walpole, the Minister whom posterity lias discovered, was not so corrupt as his enemies havo alleged, wide awake to'his' own interests, telling the Qneen how he defeated' tlie tactics of the Opposition, bidding her Majesty pay little head to the transgressions of .the King. provided •. she ■ exercise over him the empire of the intellect," and winding up the conversation with. one of those stories which drove his modest bro-:the™-lawy;Townshend,'from the table'; we see the Prince of Wales being played upon by Pultenoy and Bolingbroke, .placing liimself at the head of the Opposition, quarrelling in the most unseemly manner with his parents,. expelled; from tho'Royal presence, and expressing his delight at the approaching dissolution of his mother; we see Bishops playing court to mistresses for promotion; lawyers descending to any depths for the prizes of their profession, officers struggling for a.star or a ribbon, adventurers,' doubtful whether to pay court to the King or Walpole, or the Queen, or the fat German women: vanity, ambition, ruthless competition, and sordid vice tho only breath in this courtly atmosphere. Last of all, we Have that death-bed scene, so terrible and yet so grotesque in its awful depravity. Who does not know ; it '1 The King bending over the couch of his dying, consort, sobbing passionately, • andqvowing to all who hear him that he is losing the best and dearest woman in the world. The Queen bidding him olieck lib grief, and advising him, and so'many departing wives advise their husbands without desiring such advice to;be followed, to console himself by a second marriage " Non, 11011," replies the afflicted and high-minded monarch, " j'aurai des maitressesf " Mais', mon Dieu," answers the fond but 1 easy wife, " clea n'empcche pas!" Was ever tragedy . transformed into so repulsive burlesque!— Temple Bar.