Praised with faint damns : a review of a review of Saumarez biographer
We are used to some useful and gentle book reviews of age of sail books appearing on various journal pages and to sometimes ironic ones of quaint old texts but recenlty while researching a few side lines set off by anteros_lmc I found this review of Sir John Ross' two- volume biography of Admiral Lord James de Saumarez.
Saumarez, who outlived Edward Pellew by just a few years,really was the last of a remarkable and in many ways irreplacable group of sea officers and it is not surprising that there would be many who wanted to read a biography of him. Osler's biography of Pellew, published in 1835, though written against the wishes of most of his family ,nevertheless had been fairly well received although Parkinson,a century later was to have the advanatge of far more access to family papers.
The Ross biography of Saumarez appears from its title to have had co operation from his family - but here in a review of it in 1838 we see that the last of the gallant age of sail admirals perhaps drew the short straw.
>
Memoirs of Admiral Lord de Saumarez From Original Papers in the Possession of his Family. By Sir John Ross, C.B. K.S. A. &c. &c. 2 vols. 8vo, Bentley, London, 1838 as reviewed in the Literary Gazette and Journal of Belles-lettres, arts and sciences vol 51 for that year.
The appearance of this book a few years after its subject died in 1835 was probably greeted with enthusiasm by those who had sailed with him and others who honoured the memory of the resourceful and able men who had ensured Britain's supremacy at sea with much personal sacrifice. Like Collingwood,Pellew,Cochrane and others, Saumarez was even then eclipsed by the nation's apparent idea that Nelson had done most things single handed and those who knew their naval history hoped to settle down to a fine orderly biography culled from good sources.
At least as far as the Gazette is concerned they were to be out of luck.The reviewer does not pull his punches from the very start- how about this for being clear about what he was arguing- and the first sentence is so classically Georgian -
That the family of any individual who has been distinguished in life should endeavour, with grateful anxiety, to preserve a lasting memorial of their relative's fame, is most natural; but some little discrimination is requisite in the selection of hands competent to discharge the task in a judicious manner, should it so happen that none of the family feel themselves competent to the performance of the duty.
In the present instance, the choice appears to have been an unlucky one. Sir John Ross does not possess the qualities needful in a literary biographer ; and the consequence of his undertaking, a matter for which he was so eminently unfit, has been the production of a work of the poorest character in every respect, alike discreditable to its author and his subject.
Two volumes of more vapid, ill written, ill digested, and inconsistent feebleness, we never had the misfortune to wade through. No discretion has been exercised upon the fond effusions of aged affections or sorrows of personal friendships; but everv thing furnished, no matter whence or how, has been crudely thrown into the heterogeneous heap, and we have, among our many publications of partial biography, one, perhaps, of the weakest that ever issued from the press. Lord de Saumarez was a gallant sailor: it is to be lamented that his services should have met with such a record. We must, however, run over some of the salient points in this abortion.
I think you get the idea that he does not like it! One wonders what Saumarez family made of this however if it indeed was their choice to invite Sir John to do the work..
one of the reviewers attacks is for the romantic manner of storytelling - and indeed for the way in which Saumarez himself is cast as the hero of romance - but look out for the way he codemns it, fangirls all:
At an early age he had attained, by his own merit, the highest rank to which an officer could be advanced: he had fully established a character equally exalted for courage and professional talent; and having been, wherever fortune had placed him, always in the best society, his manners as a gentleman were no less elegant than his person, which was tall and graceful, while his handsome features denoted a heart susceptible of the dictates both of humanity and love. It is not then to be wondered at, when he returned to his native island, that he still cherished an attachment which he had long formed; especially when he found her, on whom he had fixed his affections, possessed of every quality which could ensure mutual happiness; neither can it appear surprising that on her part the regard should be equally warm and sincere. The appearance of hostilities in the same year, however, occasioned a suspension of his matrimonial arrangements."
Oh for a penny a line, a garret in Grub Street, and romance writing for boarding school girls, instead of the history of boarding tars !-" The appearance of hostilities " is nothing in this quotation to what it is a page later, when we learn, with absolute astonishment, that "in 1790 appearances of hostility took place!!"-Vol. I. p. 89.?
romance writing for boarding school girls - can they possibly mean that young ladies are excited by tall and hamdsome men in naval uniform? Surely not!
perhaps the reviewer has a point when he remarks on the inconsistency in the portrait of a devout Christian and a prestige-hungry man chasing the elusive baronetcy which he was so cross Edward Pellew got long before him:
It may be well to observe here, that though worldly honours are unquestionably legitimate objects of the ambition of even very religious persons, Sir John Ross succeeds in representing Saumarez as having a most inordinate appetite for a title. The contrast between this morbid fueling, and the conventicle language in which it is expressed, is often quite ludicrous. We will illustrate this. Listen to the oracle :-
" He was one of the oldest members (I believe, President) of the Society for promoting Christian Knowledge, having become a subscriber to that institution in the year 1789 ; he was also president of the Royal Naval Charitable Institution, and of the Naval and military Bible Society, as well as a large contributor. He was, moreover, vice-president of the British and Foreign Bible Society, and of the Society for promotingChristianity among the Jews...
...
His mind and his time, therefore, were employed in a manner no less honourable and useful than it had been in his majesty's service.He had not taken any notice of his claims until the peace of 1814, when, at the conclusion of the war, peerages were conferred on those officers of the army and navy who had most highly distinguished themselves. He now found bis name omitted ; while Sir Edward Pellew, an officer junior to him on the list of admirals, who had never commanded a ship in a general action, and who was not even a Knight of the Bath, was raised to the dignity of baron.
Sir James could not but consider this circumstance as an injustice to his superior claims; and we know that Sir Edward Pellew, then created Baron Exmouth, admitted that Sir James's claims for that high honour were far greater than his own. We may add, that every officer of his majesty's navy was of the same opinion. Feeling himself bound to remonstrate, a correspondence took place between Sir James and some of his majesty's ministers on the subject, but without effect."
Poor human vanities, so mixed with a higher and better order of mind, however puritanically the author parades them; and, " God's will" being done in making a baronet into a baron, a red riband into a lord, is as glibly prated of as if the concerns of heaven and of earth were of exactly the same importance."
You can test for yourself whether the reviewer is just or not - Ross' life is on the internet
here
Unlike Pellew who had Parkinson to amplify and develop Osler and Collingwood who has recently had Max Adams do an excellent contemporary biography, Saumarez is still waiting for a full biography other than the Ross one - though Blake in Evangelicals in the Royal navy 1775-1815 uses Ross to good research effect but writes extensively about Saumarez if people are keen to know more about him.
Lord James de Saunarez.
Saumarez, who outlived Edward Pellew by just a few years,really was the last of a remarkable and in many ways irreplacable group of sea officers and it is not surprising that there would be many who wanted to read a biography of him. Osler's biography of Pellew, published in 1835, though written against the wishes of most of his family ,nevertheless had been fairly well received although Parkinson,a century later was to have the advanatge of far more access to family papers.
The Ross biography of Saumarez appears from its title to have had co operation from his family - but here in a review of it in 1838 we see that the last of the gallant age of sail admirals perhaps drew the short straw.
>
Memoirs of Admiral Lord de Saumarez From Original Papers in the Possession of his Family. By Sir John Ross, C.B. K.S. A. &c. &c. 2 vols. 8vo, Bentley, London, 1838 as reviewed in the Literary Gazette and Journal of Belles-lettres, arts and sciences vol 51 for that year.
The appearance of this book a few years after its subject died in 1835 was probably greeted with enthusiasm by those who had sailed with him and others who honoured the memory of the resourceful and able men who had ensured Britain's supremacy at sea with much personal sacrifice. Like Collingwood,Pellew,Cochrane and others, Saumarez was even then eclipsed by the nation's apparent idea that Nelson had done most things single handed and those who knew their naval history hoped to settle down to a fine orderly biography culled from good sources.
At least as far as the Gazette is concerned they were to be out of luck.The reviewer does not pull his punches from the very start- how about this for being clear about what he was arguing- and the first sentence is so classically Georgian -
That the family of any individual who has been distinguished in life should endeavour, with grateful anxiety, to preserve a lasting memorial of their relative's fame, is most natural; but some little discrimination is requisite in the selection of hands competent to discharge the task in a judicious manner, should it so happen that none of the family feel themselves competent to the performance of the duty.
In the present instance, the choice appears to have been an unlucky one. Sir John Ross does not possess the qualities needful in a literary biographer ; and the consequence of his undertaking, a matter for which he was so eminently unfit, has been the production of a work of the poorest character in every respect, alike discreditable to its author and his subject.
Two volumes of more vapid, ill written, ill digested, and inconsistent feebleness, we never had the misfortune to wade through. No discretion has been exercised upon the fond effusions of aged affections or sorrows of personal friendships; but everv thing furnished, no matter whence or how, has been crudely thrown into the heterogeneous heap, and we have, among our many publications of partial biography, one, perhaps, of the weakest that ever issued from the press. Lord de Saumarez was a gallant sailor: it is to be lamented that his services should have met with such a record. We must, however, run over some of the salient points in this abortion.
I think you get the idea that he does not like it! One wonders what Saumarez family made of this however if it indeed was their choice to invite Sir John to do the work..
one of the reviewers attacks is for the romantic manner of storytelling - and indeed for the way in which Saumarez himself is cast as the hero of romance - but look out for the way he codemns it, fangirls all:
At an early age he had attained, by his own merit, the highest rank to which an officer could be advanced: he had fully established a character equally exalted for courage and professional talent; and having been, wherever fortune had placed him, always in the best society, his manners as a gentleman were no less elegant than his person, which was tall and graceful, while his handsome features denoted a heart susceptible of the dictates both of humanity and love. It is not then to be wondered at, when he returned to his native island, that he still cherished an attachment which he had long formed; especially when he found her, on whom he had fixed his affections, possessed of every quality which could ensure mutual happiness; neither can it appear surprising that on her part the regard should be equally warm and sincere. The appearance of hostilities in the same year, however, occasioned a suspension of his matrimonial arrangements."
Oh for a penny a line, a garret in Grub Street, and romance writing for boarding school girls, instead of the history of boarding tars !-" The appearance of hostilities " is nothing in this quotation to what it is a page later, when we learn, with absolute astonishment, that "in 1790 appearances of hostility took place!!"-Vol. I. p. 89.?
romance writing for boarding school girls - can they possibly mean that young ladies are excited by tall and hamdsome men in naval uniform? Surely not!
perhaps the reviewer has a point when he remarks on the inconsistency in the portrait of a devout Christian and a prestige-hungry man chasing the elusive baronetcy which he was so cross Edward Pellew got long before him:
It may be well to observe here, that though worldly honours are unquestionably legitimate objects of the ambition of even very religious persons, Sir John Ross succeeds in representing Saumarez as having a most inordinate appetite for a title. The contrast between this morbid fueling, and the conventicle language in which it is expressed, is often quite ludicrous. We will illustrate this. Listen to the oracle :-
" He was one of the oldest members (I believe, President) of the Society for promoting Christian Knowledge, having become a subscriber to that institution in the year 1789 ; he was also president of the Royal Naval Charitable Institution, and of the Naval and military Bible Society, as well as a large contributor. He was, moreover, vice-president of the British and Foreign Bible Society, and of the Society for promotingChristianity among the Jews...
...
His mind and his time, therefore, were employed in a manner no less honourable and useful than it had been in his majesty's service.He had not taken any notice of his claims until the peace of 1814, when, at the conclusion of the war, peerages were conferred on those officers of the army and navy who had most highly distinguished themselves. He now found bis name omitted ; while Sir Edward Pellew, an officer junior to him on the list of admirals, who had never commanded a ship in a general action, and who was not even a Knight of the Bath, was raised to the dignity of baron.
Sir James could not but consider this circumstance as an injustice to his superior claims; and we know that Sir Edward Pellew, then created Baron Exmouth, admitted that Sir James's claims for that high honour were far greater than his own. We may add, that every officer of his majesty's navy was of the same opinion. Feeling himself bound to remonstrate, a correspondence took place between Sir James and some of his majesty's ministers on the subject, but without effect."
Poor human vanities, so mixed with a higher and better order of mind, however puritanically the author parades them; and, " God's will" being done in making a baronet into a baron, a red riband into a lord, is as glibly prated of as if the concerns of heaven and of earth were of exactly the same importance."
You can test for yourself whether the reviewer is just or not - Ross' life is on the internet
here
Unlike Pellew who had Parkinson to amplify and develop Osler and Collingwood who has recently had Max Adams do an excellent contemporary biography, Saumarez is still waiting for a full biography other than the Ross one - though Blake in Evangelicals in the Royal navy 1775-1815 uses Ross to good research effect but writes extensively about Saumarez if people are keen to know more about him.
Lord James de Saunarez.