No. XII.

Jan. 29, 1798.

The following Ode[A] was dropped into the letterbox in our Publisher’s window. From its title—“A Bit of an Ode to Mr. Fox”—we were led to imagine there was some mistake in the business, and that it was meant to have been conveyed to Mr. Wright’s neighbour, Mr. Debrett, whom we recollected to have been the Publisher of the “Half of a Letter” to the same gentleman, which occasioned so much noise (of horse-laughing) in the world. Our politics certainly do not entitle us to the honourable distinction of being made the channel for communicating such a production to the public. But, for our parts, as we are “not at war with genius,” on whatever side we find it, we are happy to give this Poem the earliest place in our Paper; and shall be equally ready to pay the same attention to any future favours of the same kind, and from the same quarter.

The Poem is a free translation, or rather, perhaps, imitation, of the twentieth Ode of the second Book ofHorace. We have taken the liberty to subjoin the passages of which the parallel is the most striking.

I.On[83]grey goose quills sublime I’ll soarTo metaphors unreach’d before,That scare the vulgar reader:With style well form’d from Burke’s best books—From rules of grammar (e’enHorne Tooke’s)A bold and free Seceder.II.I[84]whom, dear Fox, you condescendTo call your “Honourable Friend,”Shall live for everlasting:That[85]Stygian Gallery I’ll quit,Where printers crowd me, as I sitHalf-dead with rage and fasting.III.I[86]feel! the growing down descends,Like goose-skin, to my fingers’ ends—Each nail becomes a feather:My cropp’d head[87]waves with sudden plumes,Which erst (like Bedford’s, or his groom’s)Unpowder’d, braved the weather.[88]IV.I mount, I mount into the sky,“Sweet[89]bird,” to[90]PetersburgI’ll fly;Or, if you bid, toParis;Fresh missions of theFox and GooseSuccessful Treaties may produce;ThoughPittin all miscarries.V.Scotch,[91]English, IrishWhigsshall readThe Pamphlets, Letters, Odes I breed,Charm’d with each bright endeavour:Alarmists[92]tremble at my strain,E’en[93]Pitt, made candid by champaign,Shall hailAdair“the clever”.VI.Though criticism assail my name,And luckless blunders blot my fame,[94]O![95]make no needless bustle;As vain and idle it would beTo waste one pitying thought on me,As to[96]“unPLUMBaRussell”.[97]

On[83]grey goose quills sublime I’ll soarTo metaphors unreach’d before,That scare the vulgar reader:With style well form’d from Burke’s best books—From rules of grammar (e’enHorne Tooke’s)A bold and free Seceder.

On[83]grey goose quills sublime I’ll soar

To metaphors unreach’d before,

That scare the vulgar reader:

With style well form’d from Burke’s best books—

From rules of grammar (e’enHorne Tooke’s)

A bold and free Seceder.

II.

I[84]whom, dear Fox, you condescendTo call your “Honourable Friend,”Shall live for everlasting:That[85]Stygian Gallery I’ll quit,Where printers crowd me, as I sitHalf-dead with rage and fasting.

I[84]whom, dear Fox, you condescend

To call your “Honourable Friend,”

Shall live for everlasting:

That[85]Stygian Gallery I’ll quit,

Where printers crowd me, as I sit

Half-dead with rage and fasting.

III.

I[86]feel! the growing down descends,Like goose-skin, to my fingers’ ends—Each nail becomes a feather:My cropp’d head[87]waves with sudden plumes,Which erst (like Bedford’s, or his groom’s)Unpowder’d, braved the weather.[88]

I[86]feel! the growing down descends,

Like goose-skin, to my fingers’ ends—

Each nail becomes a feather:

My cropp’d head[87]waves with sudden plumes,

Which erst (like Bedford’s, or his groom’s)

Unpowder’d, braved the weather.[88]

IV.

I mount, I mount into the sky,“Sweet[89]bird,” to[90]PetersburgI’ll fly;Or, if you bid, toParis;Fresh missions of theFox and GooseSuccessful Treaties may produce;ThoughPittin all miscarries.

I mount, I mount into the sky,

“Sweet[89]bird,” to[90]PetersburgI’ll fly;

Or, if you bid, toParis;

Fresh missions of theFox and Goose

Successful Treaties may produce;

ThoughPittin all miscarries.

Scotch,[91]English, IrishWhigsshall readThe Pamphlets, Letters, Odes I breed,Charm’d with each bright endeavour:Alarmists[92]tremble at my strain,E’en[93]Pitt, made candid by champaign,Shall hailAdair“the clever”.

Scotch,[91]English, IrishWhigsshall read

The Pamphlets, Letters, Odes I breed,

Charm’d with each bright endeavour:

Alarmists[92]tremble at my strain,

E’en[93]Pitt, made candid by champaign,

Shall hailAdair“the clever”.

VI.

Though criticism assail my name,And luckless blunders blot my fame,[94]O![95]make no needless bustle;As vain and idle it would beTo waste one pitying thought on me,As to[96]“unPLUMBaRussell”.[97]

Though criticism assail my name,

And luckless blunders blot my fame,[94]

O![95]make no needless bustle;

As vain and idle it would be

To waste one pitying thought on me,

As to[96]“unPLUMBaRussell”.[97]

[LYRICS OF HORACE, BOOK II., ODE XX.TRANSLATED BY ARCHDEACON WRANGHAM.

[LYRICS OF HORACE, BOOK II., ODE XX.

TRANSLATED BY ARCHDEACON WRANGHAM.

Borne on no weak or vulgar wing,Upward through air, two-form’d, I’ll spring;Nor longer grovel here, but soarWhere Envy shall pursue no more.Not I, from humble lineage sprung,Not I, dear Patron, whom thy tongueSummons to fame, will fear to die,Or bound by Styx’s fetters lie.A rougher skin my legs assume;My upward limbs the cygnet’s plumeInvests; my shoulders, fingers feelThe feathery softness o’er them steal.Fleeter than Icarus now I’ll haste,A tuneful swan, to Libya’s waste,And heaving sands, where Bospor’s waveTosses, or Arctic tempests rave.Me Colchis, Dacia me shall learn,Who hides her fear of Marsian stern;Me Scythia’s hordes, the well-trained sonOf Spain, and he who quaffs the Rhone.From my mock bier be far awayThe loud lament, the funeral lay;And, tribute to my fancied doom,Far the vain honours of the tomb!—Ed.]

Borne on no weak or vulgar wing,

Upward through air, two-form’d, I’ll spring;

Nor longer grovel here, but soar

Where Envy shall pursue no more.

Not I, from humble lineage sprung,

Not I, dear Patron, whom thy tongue

Summons to fame, will fear to die,

Or bound by Styx’s fetters lie.

A rougher skin my legs assume;My upward limbs the cygnet’s plumeInvests; my shoulders, fingers feelThe feathery softness o’er them steal.

A rougher skin my legs assume;

My upward limbs the cygnet’s plume

Invests; my shoulders, fingers feel

The feathery softness o’er them steal.

Fleeter than Icarus now I’ll haste,A tuneful swan, to Libya’s waste,And heaving sands, where Bospor’s waveTosses, or Arctic tempests rave.Me Colchis, Dacia me shall learn,Who hides her fear of Marsian stern;Me Scythia’s hordes, the well-trained sonOf Spain, and he who quaffs the Rhone.

Fleeter than Icarus now I’ll haste,

A tuneful swan, to Libya’s waste,

And heaving sands, where Bospor’s wave

Tosses, or Arctic tempests rave.

Me Colchis, Dacia me shall learn,

Who hides her fear of Marsian stern;

Me Scythia’s hordes, the well-trained son

Of Spain, and he who quaffs the Rhone.

From my mock bier be far awayThe loud lament, the funeral lay;And, tribute to my fancied doom,Far the vain honours of the tomb!—Ed.]

From my mock bier be far away

The loud lament, the funeral lay;

And, tribute to my fancied doom,

Far the vain honours of the tomb!—Ed.]

[The charge ofFox’shaving sentAdairto St. Petersburg, to counteract the measures ofPitt’sgovernment, first broached in Mr. Burke’s “Letter on the Conduct of the Minority,” has been vigorously contradicted, yet so late as April, 1854, it was alluded to as a fact by Lord Malmesbury in the House of Peers. It was, however, on this occasion again authoritatively denied byLord Campbell, who took occasion to observe thatSir Robert Adairwas “now in his 90th year, and for many years had served his country with great assiduity and fidelity. He had been sent by successive ministers [Mr. Fox, Lord Grey,Mr. Canning(who assisted in libelling him so often in the pages of the present work), Lord Wellesley, Lord Palmerston, the Duke of Wellington] to Vienna, to Constantinople, to Brussels, and to Berlin, and had represented the Crown of England upon some occasions of very great importance, in which he had uniformly acquitted himself to the satisfaction of the Government and for the benefit of his country. He believed a more honourable man had not lived in this country at any time.”

The following denial by Sir Robert Adair himself is copied from his autograph statement, prefixed to theLife of Wilberforce, published in 1838:—“This idle story is here accredited by Mr. Wilberforce, and inserted by his sons, without due examination. It was grounded on a journey I made to Vienna and St. Petersburg in 1791. Doctor Prettyman [sic], Bishop of Winchester, in a work entitledThe Life of the Right Hon. William Pitt, published by him in 1823, brought forward the fact of my having gone upon this journey as a criminal charge against Mr. Fox, who, as he pretends, sent me upon it with the intent of counteracting some negociations then carrying on between Great Britain and Russia at St. Petersburg. I answered his accusation, I trust successfully, in two letters published by Longman & Co. [Two Letters from Mr. Adair to the Bp. of Winchester, in answer to the charge of a High Treasonable Misdemeanour brought by his Lordship against Mr. Fox and himself in his Life of the Rt. Hon. W. Pitt, 8vo., 1821], and explained the circumstances which induced me in my travels in 1791 to visit the two capitals above mentioned.—Robert Adair: 1838.”

The “Mission” was, however, firmly believed in, andPittwas urged, but in vain, by the Duke of Richmond and others of the Government, to arrestFoxfor high treason.

The following extract from thePolitical Memoranda of Francis, fifth Duke of Leeds, now first printed from the Originals in the British Museum; edited by Oscar Browning, for the Camden Society, 1884, is an illustration of the rumours current at the time, and many years after.

“Saty. 24 Novr. 1792.Lord St. Helensdined with me. After the Ladies were gone upstairs we conversed, for some time on Foreign affairs.... Speaking of the Russian business of last year he reprobated in the strongest terms the conduct ofFoxin sending an agent,Mr. Adair, to Petersburg to counteract the negociations of this Court at that of Russia. He told me he knew for certain thatMr. Adairhad shewn to some English merchants at Petersburg the Empress’ Picture set in diamonds which had been given to him. That it was not one of the sort usually given, but of much greater value, being set round with large Brilliants, and the whole Picture covered with a Table Diamond instead of Chrystal. That this was a present seldom made but on some very particular occasion or to some great favorite (I remember to have seen such a one in the possession of P. Orlow).Ld. St. H.thought it must have been worth six or seven thousand pounds, and of too much value probably to have been meant forMr. Adair. The conclusion we both very naturally drew from this circumstance was not very favorable toMr. Fox.”

The following additional particulars relating to the connection betweenFoxandAdairmay not be thought out of place here. They are extracted from the highly interesting and importantCroker Papers, being the Correspondence and Diaries, 1809–1830, of the Rt. Hon.J. W. Croker,M.P., Edited by Louis J. Jennings. M.P., 3 vols., 8vo., 1884.

The first is in these terms: “WhenAdair, whose father was a surgeon, went asFox’sAmbassador to Russia,Lord Whitworth, then the King’s Minister, made a good joke, which tended not a little to lowerAdair, and defeat his object. ‘Est-ce un homme très considérable, ce M. d’Adair?’ asked theEmpress. ‘Pas trop, Madame,’ replied Lord Whitworth, ‘quoique son père était grand seigneur [saigneur].’” The other is taken from a very long statement on various matters, made by K. George IV., when Prince of Wales, to Croker personally. Adair’s wife, the Prince said, was a Frenchwoman with whomAndreossi, when here as Buonaparte’s Minister, intrigued.The Duchess of Devonshiretold him—the Prince of Wales—that Mrs. Adair had offered her a bribe of £10,000 down, and as much more whenever she might want it, if she would communicate the Cabinet secrets, with which the French thought she could not fail to be acquainted, through her intimacy with all the leaders of the Government. This caused a breach betweenFoxandAdair. But the former could only tellAdairthat an obstacle—which he could neither reveal nor overcome, but which did not affect or alterFox’spersonal regard for him—prevented his appointment to beFox’sUnder-Secretary of State.—Croker Papers, i. 293.—Ed.]

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