of the most astute and exalted of men, | landed at Annapolis, "after a pleasant anon, dissecting in his own mind the Cyn- passage of fifty-three days!" Soon after, thias of the minute, and, while subdued he was installed at Washington, which, voluntarily by their magic, keeping him- he said, "resembles Hampstead Heath self, by the same impulse of his will, fancy more than any other place I ever saw." free. In 1809, Washington consisted of scatThe preliminary volumes left our mem-tered houses, intersected with heath, ber of the British Legation in Spain only wood, and gravel-pits. Francis put up a four-and-twenty years of age. The later covey of partridges "about three huntwo volumes, now before us, relate the in-dred yards from the House of Congress." cidents of six years more of the diplomat- On his presentation to President Madiist's busy life. They are, as they might be expected to be, greatly superior to those detailing the earlier passages of Jackson's career. The observation is acuter than ever, the power of expression is heightened, the wit is still more brilliant, the philosophy more profound and more attractively expounded. In a word, the later volumes are more entertaining even than the first; and if Jackson's powers to amuse and interest strengthened with his years, we hope that we have not yet nearly done with him, and that the leave we take of him in 1815 is only temporary. The first volume of the second series opens at the old Glo'ster Coffee-House, Piccadilly, in December, 1809. Frere's mission to Spain had come to an end. Lord Wellesley was returning to England to receive the Seals of the Foreign Office, and he assured Jackson that he was well disposed to further Jackson's wish to obtain a renewal of the appointment in Spain, in preference to the Secretaryship of Legation at Washington, to which he had been named. George's elder brother Francis was then Mr. Canning's Minister Plenipotentiary to the Government of the United States, with which, since 1807, differences had existed, arising out of the encounter between the Leopard and the Chesapeake. George Jackson, trusting, we are told, in the belles paroles of the Foreign Office, tarried in London, and had ample leisure to discover what such ware was worth.

son, a plain little man, of simple manners, the two had a long conference, "during which a negro servant brought in some glasses of punch and a seedcake." Our minister did not dislike this unceremonious ceremony, although it was in strong contrast with audiences he had had of "most of the sovereigns of Europe." Of Mrs. Madison, then about forty, and growing stout, Francis says,-"She must have been a comely person when she served out the liquor at the bar of her father's tavern, in the State of Virginia." Francis admired the American ladies generally, but he distinguished between the swaggering Yankee and the true American gentleman. His wife lamented that her diplomatic husband, who had been accustomed "to treat with the civilized Governments of Europe," had now the misfortune to have to negotiate "with savage democrats, half of them sold to France." The minister himself wrote to his brother George that "to be upon tolerable terms with the Americans, we must show that it is indifferent to us, whether we are so or not." While the coarseness of Transatlantic legislators was disgusting Mrs. Jackson, an exceptional case in our House of Commons had rather startled the general sense of propriety. A member, Fuller, for using outrageous language, was committed to the custody of "the serjeant-at-arms." By way of farewell, Fuller called the Speaker "a damned puppy," and snapped his fingers in his face.

The diplomatist out of place looks very much like the gentleman waiting for But we must confine ourselves to the an audience in Meissonier's well-known doings and surroundings of George Jackmasterpiece. That is to say, hopeful yet son, who was what is significantly, if disappointed, ready to serve and impa- roughly, called "kicking his heels," in tient to be employed; but, after all, with England. He was ever in the "best comas much relish for the amusements of the pany," though that was not always of the day as for the duties of office. Through- purest quality. He had a contempt for out the first volume, George Jackson is the Prince of Wales, and he called Mrs. chiefly engaged in dancing attendance Fitzherbert and the Princess of Wales on ministers or cotillons in ball-rooms; his "two wives," which, indeed, they keeping, the while, his diplomatic hand were. The latter, in 1809, was going off. up to its cunning by correspondence with" He need not be so jealous of his wife's his brother Francis, the Plenipotentiary popularity" (George wrote to his mother). in the United States. Francis had She makes herself perfectly ridiculous,

and wherever she goes the chief subject of remark and critique is her lavish display of her protuberant beauties."

-

of the class that used to be described as “men who wrote." In a letter descriptive of a tour in Scotland, the elder brothAmid the gayeties of London Jackson er praised Scott's poetry. 'But, alas! was anxiously waiting for office of anoth- for the poet," he continues, fastidiously, er description. When a rival was more "he is a mere mortal; a great raw-boned successful than he, Jackson accepted the Scotchman, with a lame leg; and, altodisappointment with a quiet bit of sar-gether, except in a natural expression of casm. Mr. Foster was one of those suc- good-nature and intelligence, nothing cessful competitors; and Jackson wrote could be less poetical than his appearof him, in 1811, "Foster is a very gentle-ance." At the close of 1812.George manlike young man, quite equal to doing Jackson showed he had not spent his time nothing at his post, which is now the in London for nothing. By perseverance best possible policy to follow." George's he had got something. "Congratulate brother, in the same year, enjoined him me, my dear mother," he wrote, "on my to get a wife with a good fortune, and accession of a little butter to my bread!" with connexions "to push him on in the It took the form of a pension of 300l. a world"; and George fell in love accord- year. "But," he added, “I have hopes, ingly, twice or thrice, but without results, by a little management in the Office, to till the true lady and the inevitable hour get it antedated, for which precedents came. Meanwhile, we find him so far ad- are by no means wanting." Fresh opporvanced that he was summoned to an au- tunity, too, seemed to loom upon him. dience with the Prince Regent; "but As we close the first volume, news of the there were so many people to be hanged Russian successes over the French promthe Recorder had no less than thirty-ised employment for envoys, legates, and two cases to bring forward—the Prince ambassadors, ordinary and extraordinary. sent out to desire that I would come the George Jackson accordingly settled himnext Council day." The disappointed self near "the Office," and, to use a phrase diplomatist had nothing to do but to write of his own, took good care to keep his long letters to, and receive answers from, weather-eye open! his elder brother, and to complain of the postage, when franks were not easily obtained. It is curious to hear Francis, after a reference to franks being sold by the dozen, writing thus: "I often think there is room for some reform in our postal arrangements generally, and that it might combine greater convenience to the public with some advantages also to the Government." When George was subsequently at Court, he who had represented his sovereign abroad, as far as an attaché could effect that end, was immensely shocked by a stranger sight than a Recorder with a list of wretches ready for hanging—namely, John Kemble at the palace! Jackson supposed the player (who, it was reported, had accepted an engagement in America, to play twentytwo nights for six thousand pounds, and all expenses paid) was at Court to take leave! This is the characteristic comment on the event. "Neckar said the French Revolution was decidedly begun when one of the ministers of Louis XVI. went to an audience of his Majesty in shoe-strings. The appearance of an actor at Court is, I believe, quite as unprecedented." This dreadful innovation seems to have quite shocked the diplomatist's finer sense. His brother Francis did not think much more favourably

The second volume opens, in 1813, with Mr. Jackson at Stevens's Hotel, Bond Street, looking through a dense fog at his possible future prospects. The volume concludes in 1816, with the Duchesse de Berri and her dog dancing together at the Tuileries. Between these two extremes, there lies the most stirring, the most splendid, and the most saddening of histories. The struggle of Napoleon, on a score of battle-fields, to recover from the ruin he had reaped in Russia; his crowning defeat; his re-appearance in arms; his final overthrow; and the second restoration of the Bourbons - these form the subjects of the second volume of the Archives. It is history written by contemporaries and witnesses, to which are added, in the private, gossipping, familiar letters, the commentaries of farseeing people, the characteristic inquiries of quidnuncs, and samples of the silliness of selfish people who, while half the world was in flames, had more thought for the fashion of a button than for the outpouring of blood and the devastation by fire and sword, by which the Continent was then afflicted.

Mr. Jackson was soon in the midst of it. In 1813, he was appointed to a mission at the head-quarters of the allied armies against Napoleon. His best cre

but he turned the answer to account when he and his allies hammered and pounded at Napoleon, after the fortune of the latter had turned. In spite of successive defeats they won the crowning victory. Napoleon himself gives us the impression that he was a consummate actor, all head and no heart rather than of a true hero. Indeed, his complete contempt for truth deprived him of the real heroic qualities. Pope Pius was right when he called the Emperor of the French, "a great comedian !”

He could play his comedy charmingly. Marie Louise, at Mayence, entreated him, "for her sake, for their child's sake, for the welfare of France, to make peace on any terms." His reply was, that he would not make it on dishonourable terms; adding, Pourquoi m'as tu appris qu'il y a quelque chose que je puis te refuser?" embracing her, at the same time, tenderly.

66

dentials were the sums of money which of "Honi soit qui mal y pense." That served the allies as well as swords, and Alexander was not wanting in sense, is which they took, without thanks, too, as shown by an incident of interest. At his if they were conferring favours instead of meeting with Napoleon, at Tilsit, the receiving alms. This appointment was Russ asked the "Corse " to what he attriblooked upon as a stepping-stone to a bet-uted his stupendous good fortune. "To ter, for the readiest way of obtaining perseverance in pursuing it," was the anwhich, the elder brother was ever profuse swer. Alexander seemed lost in thought, of hint and counsel to the younger. Francis Jackson thought Lord Cathcart, who was then "near the person" of the Czar Alexander, a vain pedant, bnt he advised George to flatter him to the top of his bent, to praise his diplomacy, and show utter ignorance of his military incapacity. Lord Kinnaird, too, was to be encountered. "I dare say he will give himself airs enough," says the senior brother, "but it is worth while keeping well with him." Similar advice is given with regard to Lord and Lady Burghersh. Two things the fraternal mentor especially enjoined, namely, that his brother should never thrust himself into danger, nor spend his salary in entertaining useless illustrious personages. For his hospitality, he was told he would get no thanks; and should a curiosity to see battles cost George his life, "you will get no honour," said Francis, "and only be laughed at for your pains." George himself had, as he said, his "weather-eye" always open; and when he heard of a member of Parliament getting a larger pension than his own, his reflection thereon was "It is no bad thing to belong to an opposition leader." To take what he could get, and to get all he could, were not the only things to be considered. "Stick to your post and your cause," wrote Francis, "like a New Forest fly, which nothing but death can detach from the horse's flank." The royal and imperial personages in these volumes do not impress us favourably. The King of Prussia always "looked as if he were afraid of Boney"; and the Emperor of Austria "sneaked" about, after he had made up his mind to fight his son-in-law, as if he was ashamed of the resolution to which he had come. Some of them were rather rude personages. When the Garter was conferred on Alexander, he and his brother Constantine laughed throughout the ceremony, as if in ridicule of it; and Alexander afterwards exhibited himself with the decoration round his thigh, above his cavalry boots. In absurdity, however, this was outdone by Lady Castlereagh, who at Vienna, wore her husband's order of the Garter round her head, and walked into a ball-room with the legend in diamonds on her brow

When they

If Napoleon as often uttered pretty sayings to please his wife, he as frequently gave unrestrained expression to the very rudest exclamations; but, arrogant or civil, he was never dull. The King of Saxony became his very humble, yet not very faithful, servant. Nevertheless, his aid and support were of great value on more than one occasion. could be no longer given, the great Emperor rudely shrieked at the King's sister, "Your brother is a mean scoundrel!" There was more seeming justification in what he said to a German nobleman before he set out on his fatal Russian expedition. There had been some conversation on antiquity of family. "Ah!" cried Napoleon, "I am considered, I know, to be of no family, but I also know that, whatever my family may be, my dynasty will soon be the oldest in Europe!"

The royal personage the most out of the way at the head-quarters of the allied armies was the Duke of Cumberland, with Mr. Dawkins almost as close to his side as the Siamese twins to each other. The Duke was not without good qualities, but he was without courtesy in word or deed. Nobody knew what to do with him and Dawkins; but Lord Cathcart, as the simplest thing to do, asked him to din

hibited by him who had planted the seeds, and had brought them to perfect maturity, and who now solemnly protested that the fruit was rotten in quality, and that to taste it was sin almost unpardonable.

ner at Töplitz. The Duke accepted the ment to enjoy the fruit that had been proinvitation, and kept the party waiting six hours! He had been amusing himself at the outposts, where he had also dined, and when he at last presented himself at Lord Cathcart's house, His Royal Highness graciously desired that the guests should wait no longer; "but," says the diarist, we had already waited so long that, for the most part, our appetites were as little improved as the dinner by the delay."

66

an

We must now pass from the personages of the drama to the conclusion of the brilliant tragi-comedy. The last scene brings us with the Allies to Paris, Jackson writes much as others have done of the Parisians and their shattered idol, in 1814:

from being really tired out, or from dread of a counter-revolution producing fresh anarchy, not a man has any inclination to stir. It may be, however, that this exaggerated talk, which accords so little with the general inactivity of the talkers, is owing to the natural instability of the French character; and that such a return of success to Bonaparte's Eagles as would drive back the allied armies beyond the frontiers would make the tongues that now abuse him loud in his praise. For it is very certain that the people do not welcome us as deliverers. Perforce, they must tolerate us; and the general feeling, as far as I have been able to observe, seems to be that of intense mortification; of wounded vanity; of disappointment, that their great Emperor-who, as I heard a Frenchman say only yesterdayhas so many years been practising the art of war, has not yet learnt enough to enable him to protect France from invasion.

Of the men who ranked higher by intellect than by birth, Jackson did not en6th. Not a single Frenchman, high or counter many. The two who had then gained the highest reputation in litera-low, that I have talked with, but speaks of ture were Goethe and Werner. Jackson tion. Yet it goes no further, it leads to nothBonaparte and his tyranny in terms of execrawas quartered in Goethe's house in Wei- ing. From the language these people hold, mar, in 1813, and he had every reason to one would suppose that he had not another be grateful to his host. He was, how-week to reign, or even to live; and yet, whether ever, not extraordinarily impressed by the universal idol. He found Goethe's charm of conversation marred by an air of pedantry born of the general adulation of which Goethe was the object. The author of "Faust" was regarded as oracle; it was only natural that he should speak oracularly. "But," said Jackson, I like Goethe for his good humour and pleasant manners, for I think that a man inferior in genius and of less genial nature would have become insufferable in society if constantly dosed with flattery, as he is; and that much credit is due even to him for being so little spoiled by it." While Goethe's reputation has increased and extended, that of Werner, if it has not diminished, has somewhat faded. There is an old-fashioned look about it, whereas Goethe's renown grows and brightens daily with fresh generations of readers. Sixty years ago, however, the name of Werner was on every man's lips-for love or for hate, for homage or for defiance. The admiration and the passion have alike been tamed down, but Werner, then so celebrated, made a great figure at Vienna during the Congress. After being a popular dramatist, he became a Roman Catholic priest, and denounced the stage, as Sheridan Knowles is said to have done, who, after being actor and dramatic poet, turned Baptist preacher. In Vienna, crowds went of a morning to hear Werner, with fiery eloquence or solemn earnestness, decry all plays generally, but his own in particular. As the managers invariably put forward the plays against which he fulminated anathemas, the same crowds who were at church in the morning thronged the theatres in the evening. It gave additional zest to the entertain

When the allied armies entered Paris, Jackson states that the Parisians forgot everything in their enjoyment of the great spectacle. Their reception of the Czar was marked by an uproarious joy, and Jackson believes that Alexander had never before been greeted with such delight, even in his own capital. The restoration of the Bourbons followed, and, soon after, a marriage, which introduces the last illustrious lady named in the bright chapters of these volumes, namely, the Duchesse de Berri, the mother of that Comte de Chambord who claims to be Henri V. by right divine, or to be nobody in particular. The mother was a very extraordinary woman; "not handsome," certainly, as Mr. Jackson writes from Paris, in 1816, "but," he adds, "she is so well made, and looks so young, fair, and innocent, that is impossible not to be pleased with her appearance." To other

From The Academy. THE DELUGE.*

people, she appeared ill-formed, plain, and, if we may use the word, without losing respect for the lady, "scraggy." She THE discovery of the native Babylonian was always a child, but a child of South account of the Deluge, which has rewardItaly, who could be stirred to fierce ac-ed the patience and skill of Mr. G. Smith, tion. When she was a bride, toys were is one of the most important and valuable procured for her amusement. The toilet-ever made in the province of archæology. chair, glass, and table of her dressing- The trustworthiness of Berosus has been room were mounted in diamond-cut crystal, and were so many musical boxes, to the airs of which the Duchess could assimilate her graces. Mr. Jackson says, that on the day of the Duchess's marriage, the bride, on returning from the ceremony, was left alone in this room, to rest and compose herself. A considerable time having elapsed, the Duc de Berri entered the room in search of his wife, and to his astonishment, found her in the same grand court costume, her train six yards in length, and heavily embroidered in silver and diamonds, twisted many times round her arm, humming a merry tune and dancing gaily round the chairs and tables with a favourite spaniel, which she was holding up by the forelegs.

confirmed in the most decisive way, thus enabling us to rely upon his statements where they are not corroborated by the monuments; and a new light is thrown upon the origin and meaning of Western Asiatic mythology. The story of the Flood, instead of being borrowed by the Chaldean historian from Genesis, must have been derived by the Hebrew writers from Babylonia. There alone is it significant, and a part of a great epic cycle.

The narrative is contained in the eleventh tablet of a series of twelve which record the adventures of a mythical hero who may provisionally be called Gisdhubar or Gisdhumas. The British Museum possesses three mutilated copies of these (from the library of Assur-bani-pal). Mr. Smith has found and pieced together about eighty fragments of them. The original text came from Erech, and must have been translated into Semitic at an early period, since the three Assyrian copies present variant readings, have incorporated glosses into the text, and have sometimes retained the original hieratic characters when their modern equivalents were unknown. Mr. Smith's unrivalled powers of deciphering guarantee the substantial correctness of his translation, and those who are able to test it know that his renderings are fully to be depended upon, except of course in the doubtful reading of certain proper names.

With these matters the mission of George Jackson came to an end; and the family was soon busy in looking out for other and more lucrative employment. His kind-hearted and active mother was not idle in her son's behalf. In the very last letter written by her there is a reference to Lord Stewart, in connexion with what her son might possibly make out of him. The discerning old lady saw through the film of his graceful politeness; "but," she says, "I would not have you rely on him for your future advancement, though he spoke of you to me, and has talked much of your merits. His own merits," adds Mrs. Jackson, "are those he probably thinks most of, as he is ex- Gisdhubar and his servant Hea-bani, ceedingly vain, but withal très agréable." according to the legend, went to seek the The character of the late Marquis of translated son of Ubara-tutu, the SisuLondonderry was never more truly de- thrus of Berosus, whom Mr. Smith calls fined. An appointment as Secretary of" Sisit." After forty-five days the mouth Embassy at St. Petersburg was accepted of the Euphrates is reached, where "Siby Jackson, for want of something better; sit" stands on the other side of the waters and Sir J. M. Riddell, in a letter of advice and information, reminded him that the Russian nobles were capricious, false, and overbearing, and that, at St Petersburg, he would find that "a little impudence goes a great way."

of death. He tells Gisdhubar the story of the Flood: how on account of his piety the gods of his "ancient city" Surippak

On a Cuneiform Inscription describing the Deluge; by G. Smith. Read before the Society of Biblical Archæology, December 3rd, 1872.

Chaldean Account of the Deluge. Photographed by Steph. Thompson, with translation by G. Sinith. W. A. Mansell & Co., 1872.

Le Déluge et Epopée babylonienne, par Fr. Lenormant. Reprinted from the Correspondant. Paris, 1873. † Tuoni is the river of death in the Kalewala. The river Datilla is called "the lord of the house of death" in W. A. I. ii. 62, 50, and Tu, "the setting" sun, is given as the god of death (W. A. I. iii. 67, 21).