In summing up his character, it is evident that excessive vanity is his besetting sin.  He is not too clever or too honest to act in union with other people, but he is too vain.  He is by no means too good for the rest of the world; but he is too conceited and self-opinionated to condescend to cooeperate with them.  As, at some of the minor theatres, a single actor may play an army, so, in the House of Commons, Roebuck is a host in himself,—­is his own party, and leads it.  His occasional popularity in his own country is due to the fact, that, in his own character, he, to a certain extent, represents and crystallizes a few of the good and many of the bad qualities of Englishmen.  He has their courage and audacity, their independence and pride, their generally defiant front to the rest of the world; but he is also vain, obstinate, bigoted, prejudiced, narrow in his views, and boastful in his language.  His vulgar swagger, for instance, about the navy sweeping the seas, would have been condemned here, if it had been addressed by the most violent of demagogues to the most ignorant of Irish mobs.

We have heard him speak in the House of Commons in his palmier days, before he was as decrepit in mind as he is in body.  He had great fluency, some power of invective, and a vast stock of assurance.  We listened to him upon one occasion, when, without the slightest provocation, he used the most undignified personalities to the late Sir Robert Peel,—­to which Sir Robert, very wisely, never replied.

We cannot say that we feel any profound interest as to his future.  He has compared himself to a dog,—­but, on behalf of that faithful and valued companion of man, we protest against the similitude.  He has the kind of pugnacity which prompts a cur or a puppy to attack a Newfoundland or a mastiff.  He has not the fidelity and many other good qualities of the canine race.  At any rate, he has become a mischievous dog,—­and a dull dog,—­and will soon be a “sad dog.”

We would venture to suggest, that he should at once be raised to the peerage, under the title of Baron Tear-’em.  He might then aid the good cause of the slave-mongers of the South, and act in unison with that just, generous, moral, and virtuous nobleman, the Marquis of Clanricarde.

We ought to apologize to our readers for so lengthy an account of so undeserving a person,—­but, at any rate, they ought by this time to know “Who is Roebuck?”

REVIEWS AND LITERARY NOTICES.

Six Months in the Federal States.  By EDWARD DICEY.  In Two Volumes.  London and Cambridge:  Macmillan & Co.