father, "he is acknowledged by all who knew him to have
been as candid as he was benevolent." He might have said more than
this--indeed far more than it might have been quite becoming in a son to
say. The late Lord Holland was a noble example of the highest and best
traits of the English character. Throughout his public life he was the
champion of all just causes; the friend of all who fairly sought
redress; the fearless advocate of liberty, religious and civil, in days
disastrous to both; a statesman of singular courage and consistency, a
most accomplished gentleman and scholar. He had learning without
pedantry, and wit without ill-nature. His sweetness of temper and
fascinating grace of manner had been commemorated by many distinguished
men who had felt their winning potency and charm. But above all he had a
store of observation and anecdote of the richest kind, and a power of
applying it with surprising felicity to whatever subject might be under
discussion. This book is a delightful surviving proof of that quality in
his character. Its anecdotes are told with a charming ease and fulness
of knowledge. No one so quickly as Lord Holland detected the notable
points, whether of a book or a man, or turned them to such happy
account. We do not read a page of this volume without feeling that a
supreme master of that exquisite art is speaking to us. It comprises
recollections of the scenes and actors in the stirring drama which was
played out on the Continent between 1791 and 1815. It opens with the
death of Mirabeau and closes with the death of Napoleon. France,
Denmark, Prussia, and Spain are the countries principally treated of.
Lord Holland's first visit to France was in 1791, just after the death
of Mirabeau and the disastrous flight to Varennes. LAFAYETTE seems to
have been more disposed than any other public actor in the revolution to
put faith in the king even after that incident, and his confidence won
over the young English traveller. But the weakness as well as strength
of Lafayette is well hit off.

"Lafayette was, however, then as always, a pure disinterested man, full
of private affection and public virtue, and not devoid of such talents
as firmness of purpose, sense of honor, and earnestness of zeal will, on
great occasions, supply. He was indeed accessible to flattery, somewhat
too credulous, and apt to mistake the forms, or, if I may so phrase it,
the pedantry of liberty for the substance, as if men could not