Pagina-afbeeldingen
PDF
ePub

THE NATIONAL REVIEW.

JANUARY 1856.

ART. I.-EDWARD GIBBON.

The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, by Edward Gibbon, Esq. With Notes by Dean Milman ́and M. Guizot. Edited, with additional Notes, by William Smith, LL.D. In Eight Volumes. London, 1855. Murray.

"PAPA, I wish I was the Roman Empire;" "Child, don't talk nonsense;" was a dialogue of the early years of this century. This is the fate of Gibbon; no one does or can separate the historian from his subject. If you ask as to the antiquities of Constantinople, you are told those are the times which are "in Gibbon." Mr. Carlyle, who never exaggerates, speaks of Madame de Staël, in youth of course, romping about the knees of the "Decline and Fall." He plainly traced a resemblance himself; for he has narrated the events of his own life, "his progression from London to Buriton and from Buriton to London," in the same majestic periods which record the downfall of states and empires. What the commonplace parent thought absurd, has in simple reality happened. It may be useful to attempt in a few pages to substitute a notion of the man for the indistinct idea of a huge imperial being.

The diligence of their descendant accumulated many particulars of the remote annals of the Gibbon family; but its real founder was the grandfather of the historian, who lived in the times of the "South Sea." He was a capital man of business according to the custom of that age-a dealer in many kinds of merchandise -rivalling probably the "complete tradesman" of Defoe, who was

No. III. JAN. 1856.

B

2

to understand the price and quality of all articles made within the kingdom, and be in consequence a complete master of the inland trade. The peculiar forte, however, of Edward Gibbon, the grandfather, was the article "shares" his genius, like that of Mr. Hudson, had a natural tendency towards a commerce in the metaphysical and non-existent; and he was fortunate in the age on which his lot was thrown. It afforded many opportuni ties of gratifying that taste. A great deal has been written and is being written on panics and manias-a great deal more than Iwith the most outstretched intellect we are able to follow or conceive; but one thing seems certain, that at particular times a great many stupid people have a great deal of stupid money. Many saving people have only the faculty of saving; they accumulate ably, and contemplate their accumulations with approba tion; but what to do with them they do not know. Aristotle, who was not in trade, had a great idea that money is barren; and barren it certainly is to quiet ladies, rural clergymen, and preventing improvident speculation; one would abolish Peel's Several excellent economists have plans for act, and substitute one-pound notes; another would retain Peel's act, and make the calling for one-pound notes a capital crime: but the only real way is, not to allow any man to have a hundred pounds who cannot prove to the satisfaction of the Lord Chancellor that he knows what to do with a hundred pounds. The want of this obvious and proper precaution allows the accumulation of wealth in the hands of rectors, sweepers, grandmothers, idea except that their money now produces nothing, and ought and other persons who have no knowledge of business, and no Isaid one of this class, "for the largest immediate income, and and must be forced immediately to produce something. "I wish," I am therefore naturally disposed to purchase

country misers.

an advowson."

Every now and then, from causes which are not to the present
purpose, the money of people of this class-the blind capital (as
oculists call it) of the country-happens to be particularly large
is

"plethora"-it finds some one, and there is "

it is devoured, and there is "panic."
was one of these. The interest of money was very low, perhaps
under three per cent. The usual consequence followed; able
men started wonderful undertakings; the ablest of all,
The age of Mr. Gibbon
speculation"-

pany

a com

"for carrying on an undertaking of great importance,

but no one to know what it was."

According to the narrative of his grandson, he already filled a
considerable position, was worth sixty thousand pounds, and
had great influence both in Parliament and in the City. He
Mr. Gibbon was not idle.
applied himself to the greatest bubble of all-one so great, that

[ocr errors]
[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]

it is spoken of in
many books as the cause and parent of all con-
temporary bubbles-the great South-Sea Company-the design
of which was to reduce the interest on the national debt, which,
oddly enough, it in fact effected, and to trade exclusively to the
South Sea or Spanish America, where, of course, it never did
trade. Mr. Gibbon became a director, sold and bought, traded
and prospered; and was considered, no doubt with truth, to have
obtained much money. The bubble was essentially a fashion-
able one. Public intelligence and the quickness of communica-
tion did not then as now at once spread pecuniary information
and misinformation to secluded districts; but fine ladies, men of
fashion-the London world-ever anxious to make as much of
its money as it can, and then wholly unwise and not now very
wise in discovering how the most was to be made of it—" went
in" and speculated largely. Of course, all was favourable so
long as the shares were rising; the price was at one time very
high, and the agitation very general; it was, in a word, the rail-
way mania in the South Sea. All at once the shares "hesitated,"
declined, and fell; and there was an outcry against every body
concerned in the matter, very like the outcry against the oi reρì
Hudson in our own time. The results, however, were very dif-
ferent. Whatever may be said, and, judging from late experi-
ence, a good deal is likely to be said, as to the advantages of
civilisation and education, it seems certain that they tend to
diminish a simple-minded energy. The Parliament of 1720 did
not, like the Parliament of 1847, allow itself to be bored and
incommoded by legal minutiæ, neither did they forego the use
of plain words. A committee reported the discovery of "a
train of the deepest villany and fraud hell ever contrived to ruin
a nation;" the directors of the company were arrested, and
Mr. Gibbon among the rest; he was compelled to give in a list
of his effects: the general wish was that a retrospective act
should be immediately passed, which would impose on him pen-
alties something like, or even more severe than those now en-
forced on Paul and Strahan. In the end, however, Mr. Gibbon
escaped with a parliamentary conversation upon his affairs. His
estate amounted to 140,000l.; and as this was a great sum, there
was an obvious suspicion that he was a great criminal. The
whole scene must have been very curious. "Allowances of
twenty pounds or one shilling were facetiously voted. A vague
report that a director had formerly been concerned in another
project by which some unknown persons had lost their money,
was admitted as a proof of his actual guilt. One man was ruined
because he had dropped a foolish speech that his horses should
feed upon gold; another because he was grown so proud, that
one day, at the Treasury, he had refused a civil answer to per-

to understand the price and quality of all articles made within the kingdom, and be in consequence a complete master of the inland trade. The peculiar forte, however, of Edward Gibbon, the grandfather, was the article "shares" his genius, like that of Mr. Hudson, had a natural tendency towards a commerce in the metaphysical and non-existent; and he was fortunate in the age on which his lot was thrown. It afforded many opportunities of gratifying that taste. A great deal has been written and is being written on panics and manias-a great deal more than with the most outstretched intellect we are able to follow or conceive; but one thing seems certain, that at particular times a great many stupid people have a great deal of stupid money. Many saving people have only the faculty of saving; they accumulate ably, and contemplate their accumulations with approbation; but what to do with them they do not know. Aristotle, who was not in trade, had a great idea that money is barren; and barren it certainly is to quiet ladies, rural clergymen, and country misers. Several excellent economists have plans for preventing improvident speculation; one would abolish Peel's act, and substitute one-pound notes; another would retain Peel's act, and make the calling for one-pound notes a capital crime: but the only real way is, not to allow any man to have a hundred pounds who cannot prove to the satisfaction of the Lord Chancellor that he knows what to do with a hundred pounds. The want of this obvious and proper precaution allows the accumulation of wealth in the hands of rectors, sweepers, grandmothers, and other persons who have no knowledge of business, and no idea except that their money now produces nothing, and ought and must be forced immediately to produce something. "I wish," said one of this class, "for the largest immediate income, and I am therefore naturally disposed to purchase an advowson.” Every now and then, from causes which are not to the present purpose, the money of people of this class-the blind capital (as oculists call it) of the country-happens to be particularly large and craving; it seeks for some one to devour it, and there is "plethora"-it finds some one, and there is "speculation"— it is devoured, and there is "panic." The age of Mr. Gibbon was one of these. The interest of money was very low, perhaps under three per cent. The usual consequence followed; able men started wonderful undertakings; the ablest of all, a company "for carrying on an undertaking of great importance, but no one to know what it was." Mr. Gibbon was not idle. According to the narrative of his grandson, he already filled a considerable position, was worth sixty thousand pounds, and had great influence both in Parliament and in the City. He applied himself to the greatest bubble of all-one so great, that

« VorigeDoorgaan »