Preface to "Aurora Leigh," that the work contains her "highest convictions upon Life and Art." She has passed through the three periods which represent those of the development of Art. She has embodied the results of this process in a noble work which we think will continue to be her finest. That she will still refresh and inspire us with her song, we cannot doubt. As the art of the present age can at will make use of all the forms which originally answered to a particular epoch of history; so Mrs. Browning can reproduce for us, to a certain degree, the various stages through which she has thus far passed. These results will, however, probably stand in the same relation to the "Aurora Leigh," which Tennyson's "Maud" bears to his "In Memoriam."

Although, as we have said, Mrs. Browning's "Aurora Leigh" is her finest work, there are many among her admirers whom her earlier poems will still move the most deeply. Comparatively few can follow, with full sympathy, her entire course. Perhaps most of those whose spiritual life has actually begun, stand yet upon the stage of sorrow and longing. While such gaze with admiration on the shining path of their poet, they will yet feel the deepest sympathy with her, as she is still walking among the shadows, and cheering them with her songs. It appears to us, also, that the "Aurora Leigh" is not to be reckoned among the works destined for immortality. The universal element in it is too much mingled with the peculiarities of our time, to admit of its becoming naturalized in another age. This need not, however, lessen our enjoyment of it; as we should not find the blossom of the century-plant less beautiful for the thought that the entire age had been needed for its production, and that it yet would wither, very shortly, before our eyes.

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ART. VI. — 1. Memoirs of SIR ROBERT PEEL. By M. London Richard Bentley. 1857. 8vo. pp. 398. 2. Memoirs of the RIGHT HONORABLE SIR ROBERT BART., M. P., &c. Published by the Trustees of his LORD MAHON (now EARL STANHOPE) and the RIGE EDWARD CARDWELL, M. P. Part I. The Roman Question. 1828 - 9. Part II. The New Gove 1834-5. Part III. Repeal of the Corn Laws. 1 London: John Murray. 1856-7. 12mo. pp. 366, 357.

3. The Speeches of the late RIGHT HONORABLE SIR PEEL, BART., delivered in the House of Commons a General Explanatory Index, and a Brief Chron Summary of the various Subjects on which the were delivered. London: George Routledge & Co 8vo. 4 vols. pp. xxxi. and 768, 864, 887, 856.

THE life of the late Sir Robert Peel is identified v history of party in England for the last forty years. his first entrance into Parliament, he was one of t prominent of the rising men among the Tories, the zenith of their power. At the close of his career, nessed the waning fortunes and final disruption of th He came into notice as a disciple and follower of the Pitt. He lived to be the acknowledged leader of with entirely different views of public policy. He he under the crown for a greater length of time than an contemporaries, except Lord Palmerston; and in th sion of every question which was agitated during hi mentary life he took an active part. He was alterna idol of his party, and the object of their most bitter i Though he originated no great measure, he left a mark upon the legislation of England than any othe man of modern times, with the single exception of Ea In considering his life, therefore, we have to deal wit every question of any importance in the foreign and policy of England since the commencement of the I Administration. Some of these questions have n

their interest. The secret history of others still remains to be unfolded. But enough light is thrown upon some of the most important of them by the two works first named at the commencement of this article, to dispel whatever obscurity may have attached to Sir Robert Peel's connection with those

measures.

M. Guizot approaches the discussion of several of these topics under peculiarly advantageous circumstances. During the whole of Sir Robert Peel's second ministry he was at the head of the French government. He was therefore in a position to observe all Sir Robert's measures from an entirely independent point of view. To this duty he brought a singularly calm and impartial temper of mind, an intimate acquaintance with English history and politics, and liberal and comprehensive views in regard to all questions of international policy. His remarks upon the question of the right of search, the Tahiti question, the repeal of the Corn Laws, and the Spanish marriages, are especially full, candid, and judicious. In other respects his volume presents a calm and manly estimate of Sir Robert Peel's character and public services, in its whole tone and structure worthy of the author's reputation as a statesman and an historian. It is a striking illustration of the temper of our times and of the entente cordiale which these great men upheld, that the life of a prime minister of England should thus be written by a contemporary prime minister of France, with such remarkable candor and impartiality.

The two volumes of Memoirs, published in accordance with a codicil to Sir Robert Peel's will, comprise a series of letters, with explanatory narratives, designed to elucidate his course at three of the most important periods in his life, in regard to the removal of the Catholic Disabilities, the formation and overthrow of his first ministry, and the repeal of the Corn Laws. Doubtless, thinking that the course which he adopted on these occasions would continue to be discussed after his death, he selected from his private papers such of the confidential letters relating to these subjects as he thought necessary for his vindication, and arranged them for posthumous publication, with a commentary designed to pre

serve the continuity of events and to illustrate the obscure points. These narratives and letters have been published by his literary executors with only a few omissions, — those chiefly in the last of the three memoirs,— and with a few additional documents which had been preserved by him to be published at their discretion. The whole collection is a valuable contribution to recent history, and we shall have occasion to refer to it repeatedly.

The four large and closely printed volumes of Sir Robert's Speeches furnish a remarkable proof of the extent and variety of his Parliamentary services. They cover a period of more than forty years, from January, 1810, to June, 1850, and relate to nearly every important question which was discussed in the House of Commons during that time. He was always a skilful debater, a prudent and well-informed leader, a close reasoner, and an impressive speaker; and in many of his speeches we recall passages of lofty eloquence. Yet it is rather for their remarkable adaptation to the time and circumstances in which they were delivered, than for their brilliancy or their luminous exposition of general principles, that these speeches will be read. In other words, Sir Robert Peel was a practical, rather than a theoretical, statesman. Content with persuading or overruling his audience, he always spent his strength on the matter actually in hand.

The elder Sir Robert Peel was a respectable Tory in Lancashire, where he rose to wealth and influence by his successful prosecution of the business of cotton-spinning. At the age of forty he entered Parliament as member for the borough of Tamworth, and in 1801 he was knighted. In Parliament he was a sturdy supporter of the ministerial measures; and in the country he upheld the same cause by his money, and in all the various ways in which a wealthy country gentleman could then support the cause which he had espoused. He was a man of strong, clear sense, and much energy, but with the limited views and thoroughly aristocratic opinions which were generally held by the Tories fifty years ago. Entering Parliament when the French Revolution was just beginning to alarm the higher classes in England, he naturally adopted the political dogmas current among those with whom he

associated, and he held them with great tenacity through life. He died at Drayton Manor, in 1830, at the advanced age of eighty years.

His more famous son was born at Bury, on the 5th of February, 1788. The boy was early instructed in the principles of his father, with a view to fitting him for public life; and we are told, that, when he was a mere child, his father was in the habit of placing him upon a table to repeat the sermon which he had just heard from some High-Churchman fresh from the banks of the Isis. To his father's early influence we are disposed to ascribe that narrowness of mind from which he never wholly recovered, and which Sydney Smith once pleasantly referred to travelling in dangerous company. "Mr Peel and his chaplain," said the great wit, in 1826, "have been travelling together, and some of the parson's notions have been put up in Mr. Peel's head by mistake." When he was old enough to leave the paternal roof, he was sent to the great public school at Harrow, where he distinguished himself by his progress in solid learning, and his faithful use of all the advantages which such a school offers to an ambitious and pains-taking youth. Lord Byron, who sat in the same form with him, bore testimony to his youthful integrity and his devotion to his studies, and declared that there were always great hopes of him among both masters and scholars. At the age of sixteen he entered Christ Church College, Oxford, as a gentleman commoner; and in 1808 he took his degree of Bachelor of Arts with the highest honors, being first in the classics and in mathematics, double distinction which no one had ever before achieved.

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In 1809, when he was only twenty-one years of age, he entered Parliament as member for Cashel, in the county of Tipperary, Ireland. Like the elder and the younger Pitt, Burke, Fox, Canning, and Brougham, he owed his entrance into public life to that close-borough system which was happily overthrown by the Reform Bill of 1832; and his first constituency numbered only twelve persons. Though Fox, Burke, and Pitt were dead, and Grey had been called to the Upper House two years before, young Peel found on the future theatre of his fame many eminent men to kindle his