———————Ex fumo dare lucemCogitat, ut speciosa dehinc miracula promat.
From the Lobby we are next led into the several committee-rooms and other offices adjoining; and among the rest, MERLIN, like a noble Lord, whose diary was some time since printed, “takes occasion to inspect the water-closets,”
Where offerings, worthy of those altars, lie,Speech, letter, narrative, remark, reply;With dead-born taxes, innocent of ill,With cancell’d clauses of the India bill:There pious NORTHCOTE’s meek rebukes, and hereThe labour’d nothings of the SCRUTINEER;And reams on reams of tracts, that, without pain,Incessant spring from SCOTT’s prolific brain.Yet wherefore to this age should names be known,But heard, and then forgotten in their own?Turn then, my son, &c. &c.
This passage will probably surprise many of our readers, who must have discovered our author to be, as every good and wise man must be, firmly attached to the present system. It was natural for Dante to send his enemies to hell; but it seems strange that our poet should place the writings of his own friends and fellow-labourers in a water-closet. It has indeed been hinted to us, that it might arise from envy, to find some of them better rewarded for their exertions in the cause, than himself. But though great minds have sometimes been subject to this passion, we cannot suppose it to have influenced the author of the ROLLIAD in the present instance. For in that case we doubt not he would have shown more tenderness to his fellow-sufferer, the unfortunate Mr. NORTHCOTE, who, after sacrificing his time, degrading his profession, and hazarding his ears twice or thrice every week, for these two or three years past, has at length confessed his patriotism weary of employing his talents for the good of his country, without receiving the reward of his labours. To confess the truth, we ourselves think the apparent singularity of the poet’s conduct on this occasion, may be readily ascribed to that independence of superior genius, which we noticed in our last number. We there remarked, with what becoming freedom he spoke to the Minister himself; and in the passage now before us, we may find traces of the same spirit, in the allusions to the coal-tax, gauze-tax, and ribbon-tax, as well as the unexampled alterations and corrections of the celebrated India-bill. Why then should it appear extraordinary, that he should take the same liberty with two or three brother-authors, which he had before taken with their master; and without scruple intimate, what he and every one else must think of their productions, notwithstanding he may possess all possible charity for the good intention of their endeavours?
We cannot dismiss these criticisms, without observing on the concluding lines; how happily our author, here again, as before, by the mention of Shiptonia, contrives to recal our attention to the personages more immediately before us, MERLIN and DUKE ROLLO!
* * * * *
We come now to theSanctum Sanctorum, the Holy of Holies, where the glory of political integrity shines visibly, since the shrine has been purified from Lord J. CAVENDISH, Mr. FOLJAMBE, Sir C. BUNBURY, Mr. COKE, Mr. BAKER, Major HARTLEY, and the rest of its pollutions. To drop our metaphor, after making a minute survey of the Lobby, peeping into the Eating-room, and inspecting the Water-closets, we are at length admitted into the House itself. The transition here is peculiarly grand and solemn. MERLIN, having corrected himself for wasting so much time on insignificant objects,
(Yet wherefore to this age should names be known,But heard, and then forgotten in their own?)
immediately directs the attention of Rollo to the doors of the house, which are represented in the vision, as opening at that moment to gratify the hero’s curiosity; then the prophet suddenly cries out, in the language of ancient Religion,
———Procul, ô procul este profani!
Turn then, my son, where to thy hallow’d eyeYon doors unfold—Let none profane he nigh!
It seems as if the poet, in the preceding descriptions, had purposely stooped to amuse himself with the Gomgom Pearson, Hucsteria, Major Scott, Mr. Northcote, and the Reverend author of the Scrutineer, that he might rise again with the more striking dignity on this great occasion.
MERLIN now leads ROLLO to the centre of the House,
Conventus trahit in medios, turbamque sonantem.
He points out to him the gallery for strangers to sit in, and members to sleep in; the bar below, and the clock above. Of the clock he observes,
When this shalt point, the hour of question come,Mutes shall find voice, and Orators be dumb.This, if in lengthen’d parle the night they pass,Shall furnish still his opening to DUNDAS;To PITT, when “hear-hims” flag, shall oft supplyThe chear-trap trick of stale apology;And, strange to tell! in Nature’s spite, provokeHot ARDEN once to blunder at a joke.
The beauty of these lines will be instantly perceived by all who have witnessed the debates; as they cannot but have remarked, how perpetually “the late hour of night” occupies the exordiums of Mr. DUNDAS, after eleven o’clock; and how frequently it is introduced by Mr. PITT as a hint, for what is calledchearing, whenever his arguments and invectives are received by his young friends with the unparliamentary compliment of sacred silence. The miracle of a jest from Mr. ARDEN, happened on the occasion of some Resolutions having passed between the hours ofsixandsevenin the morning; for which reason the Attorney-General facetiously contended, that they were entitled to no respect, “as the house was then atsixesandsevens.” Any approximation to wit in debate, being perfectly unusual with this gentleman, however entertaining his friends may think him in private, our author very properly distinguishes this memorable attempt by the same kind of admiration, with which poets commonly mention some great prodigy—as for instance, of a cow’s speaking:
——pecudesque locutæInfandum!
We hope none of our readers will attribute to us the most distant intention of any invidious comparison.
The table, mace, &c. are next described, but these we shall pass over in silence, that we may get—where most who enter the House of Commons wish to get—to the TREASURY-BENCH,
Where sit the gowned clerks, by ancient rule,This on a chair, and that upon a stool;Where stands the well-pil’d table, cloth’d in green;There on the left the TREASURY-BENCH is seen.No sattin covering decks the’ unsightly boards;No velvet cushion holds the youthful lords:And claim illustrious Tails such small regard?Ah! Tails too tender for a seat so hard.
This passage touches on a subject of much offence to the young friends of the minister; we mean the barbarous and Gothic appearance of the benches in the House of Commons. The Treasury-bench itself looks no better than a first form in one of our public schools:
No sattin covering decks the’ unsightly boards,No velvet cushion holds the youthful Lords.
The above couplet states with much elegance the matter of complaint, and glances with equal dexterity at the proper remedy. The composition is then judiciously varied. The whole art of the poet is employed to interest our passions in favour of the necessary reform, by expostulatory interrogations and interjections the most affectingly pathetic. And who can read the former, without feeling his sense of national honour most deeply injured by the supposed indignity; or who can read the latter, without melting into the most unfeigned commiseration for the actual sufferings to which the youthful lords are at present exposed? It must, doubtless, be a seasonable relief to the minds of our readers, to be informed, that Mr. PITT (as it has been said in some of the daily papers) means to propose, for one article of his Parliamentary Reform, to cover the seats in general with crimson sattin, and to decorate the Treasury-bench, in particular, with cushions of crimson velvet; one of [1] extraordinary dimensions being to be appropriated to Mr. W. GRENVILLE.
The epithet “tender” in the last line we were at first disposed to consider as merely synonymous with “youthful.” But a friend, to whom we repeated the passage, suspected that the word might bear some more emphatical sense; and this conjecture indeed seems to be established beyond doubt, by the original reading in the manuscript, which, as we before said, has been communicated to us,
“Alas! that flesh, so late by pedants scarr’d,Sore from the rod, should suffer seats so hard,”
We give these verses, not as admitting any comparison with the text, as it now stands, but merely by way of commentary, to illustrate the poet’s meaning.
From the Treasury-bench, we ascend one step to the INDIA-BENCH.
“There too, in place advanc’d, as in command,Above the beardless rulers of the land,On a bare bench, alas! exalted sit,The pillars of Prerogative and PITT;Delights of Asia, ornaments of men,Thy Sovereign’s Sovereigns, happy Hindostan.”
The movement of these lines is, as the subject required, more elevated than that of the preceding: yet the prevailing sentiment excited by the description of the Treasury-bench, is artfully touched by our author, as he passes, in the Hemistich,
On a bare bench, alas!———
which is a beautiful imitation of Virgil’s
———Ah! filice in nudâ———
The pompous titles so liberally bestowed on the BENGAL SQUAD, as thepennyless hirelingsof opposition affect to call them, are truly in the Oriental taste; and we doubt not, but every friend to the present happy government, will readily agree in the justice of stiling them “pillars of prerogative and Pitt, delights of Asia, and ornaments of man.” Neither, we are assured, can any man of any party object to the last of their high dignities, “Sovereigns of the Sovereign of India;” since the Company’s well-known sale of Shah Allum to his own Visier, is an indisputable proof of their supremacy over the Great Mogul.
As our author has been formerly accused of plagiarism, we must here in candour confess, that he seems, in his description of the India-bench, to have had an eye to Milton’s account of the devil’s throne; which, however, we are told, much exceeded the possible splendour of any India-bench, or even the magnificence of Mr. Hastings himself.
High on a throne of royal slate, which farOutshone the wealth of Orams, or of Ind;Or where the gorgeous East, with lavish hand,Show’rs on her King, barbaric pearl and gold;Satanexalted sate.———
This concluding phrase, our readers will observe, is exactly and literally copied by our author. It is also worthy of remark, that as he calls the Bengal squad,
ThePillarsof Prerogative and Pitt,
So Milton calls Beelzebub,
APillarof State:———
Though, it is certain, that the expression here quoted may equally have been suggested by one of the Persian titles[2], said to be engraved on a seal of Mr. Hastings, where we find the Governor General styled, “Pillarof the Empire.” But we shall leave it to our readers to determine, as they may think proper, on the most probable source of the metaphor, whether it were in reality derived from Beelzebub or Mr. Hastings.
[1] For a description of this young gentleman’s person, fromtop to bottom, see No. V.
[2] The following is copied from the Morning Chronicle of October 5, 1784.
Mr. HASTINGS’S PERSIAN TITLES,as engraved upon a Seal.A True Translation.Nabob Governor-General Hastings,Saub,Pillar of the Empire,The fortunate in War, Hero,The most princely offspring of the Loins,Of the King of the Universe,The Defender of the Mahomedan Faith,And Asylum of the World, &c. &c. &c. &c.
Translation of a Persian Inscription engraven on a large fine Ruby,being the titles either given to or assumed by Mrs.HASTINGS.“Royal and Imperial Governess,The elegance of the age,The most exalted Bilkiss,The Zobaide of the Palaces,The most heroic Princess,Ruby Marian Hastings, Sauby, &c. &c.
N.B. With the Mussulmans,Bilkisssignifies the person, called in the Bible History the Queen of Sheba; andZobaidewas a favourite wife of Mahomed; and when they wish to pay the highest compliments to a lady, they compare her to Bilkiss and Zobaide, who possessed the most exalted beauty, and perfection of every kind.
* * * * *
From the above general compliment to the India-bench, the poet, in the person of Merlin, breaks out into the following animated apostrophe to some of the principal among our Leadenhall-street Governors:
All hail! ye virtuous patriots without blot, RolloThe minor KINSON and the major SCOTT:And thou of name uncouth to British ear,From Norman smugglers sprung, LE MESURIER;Hail SMITHS; and WRAXALL, unabash’d to talk,Tho’ none will listen; hail too, CALL and PALK;Thou, BARWEL, just and good, whose honour’d name,Wide, as the Ganges rolls, shall live in fame,Second to HASTINGS: and, VANSITTART, thou,A second HASTINGS, if the Fates allow.
The bold, but truly poetical apocope, by which the Messrs. At-kinson and Jen-kinson, are called the two kinsons, is already familiar to the public. The minor Kinson, or Kinson the less, is obviously Mr. Atkinson; Mr. Jenkinson being confessedly greater than Mr. Atkinson, or any other man, except One, in the kingdom.—The antithesis of the Major Scott to the minor Kinson, seems to ascertain the sense of the word Major, as signifying in this place the greater; it might mean also the elder; or it might equally refer to the military rank of the gentleman intended. This is a beautiful example of the figure so much admired by the ancients under the name of the Paronomasia, or Pun. They who recollect the light in which our author before represented Major Scott, as a pamphleteer, fit only to furnish a water-closet, may possibly wonder to find him here mentioned as THE GREATER SCOTT; but whatever may be his literary talents, he must be acknowledged to be truly great, and worthy of the conspicuous place here assigned him, if we consider him in his capacity of agent to Mr. Hastings, and of consequence chief manager of the Bengal Squad; and it must be remembered, that this is the character in which he is here introduced. The circumstance of Mr. Le Mesurier’s origin from Norman Smugglers, has been erroneously supposed by some critics to be designed for a reproach; but they could not possibly have fallen into this mistaste, if they had for a moment reflected that it is addressed by MERLIN to ROLLO, who was himself no more than a Norman pirate. Smuggling and piracy in heroic times were not only esteemed not infamous, but absolutely honourable. The Smiths, Call and Palk of our poet, resemble the
Alcandrumque, Haliumque, Noëmonaque, Prytanimque,
of Homer and Virgil; who introduce those gallant warriors for the sake of a smooth verse, and dispatch them at a stroke without the distinction of a single epithet. Our poet too has more professedly imitated Virgil in the lines respecting Mr. Vansittart, now a candidate to succeed Mr. Hastings.
———And, VANSITTART, thouA second HASTINGS, if the fates allow.———Si quâ fata aspera rumpas,Tu Marcellus eris!
The passage however is, as might be hoped from the genius of our author, obviously improved in the imitation; as it involves a climax, most happily expressed. Mr. Barwell has been panegyrized in the lines immediately foregoing, assecond to Hastings; but of Mr. Vansittart it is prophesied, that he will be asecond Hastings; second indeed in time, but equal perhaps in the distinguishing merits of that great and good man, in obedience to the Court of Directors, attention to the interests of the Company in preference to his own, abstinence from rapacity and extortion, justice and policy towards the princes, and humanity to all the natives, of Hindostan. The ingenious turn on the wordssecond to Hastings, and asecond Hastings, would have furnished matter for whole pages to the Dionysius’s, Longinus’s, and Quintilians of antiquity, though the affected delicacy of modern taste may condemn it as quibble and jingle.
The poet then hints at a most ingenious proposal for the embellishment of the India-bench, according to the new plan of Parliamentary Reform; not by fitting it up like the Treasury-bench, with velvet cushions, but by erecting for the accommodation of the Leadenhall worthies, the ivory bed, which was lately presented to her Majesty by Mrs. Hastings.
O that for you, in Oriental state,At ease reclin’d to watch the long debate,Beneath the gallery’s pillar’d height were spread(With the QUEEN’s leave) your WARREN’s ivory bed!
The pannels of the gallery too, over the canopy of the bed, are to be ornamented with suitable paintings,
Above, In colours warm with mimic life,The German husband of your WARREN’s wifeHis rival deeds should blazon; and display.In his blest rule, the glories of your sway.
What singular propriety, what striking beauty must the reader of taste immediately perceive in this choice of a painter to execute the author’s design! It cannot be doubted but Mrs. Hastings would exert all her own private and all Major Scott’s public influence witheverybranch of the Legislature, to obtain so illustrious a job for the man to whose affection, or to whose want of affection, she owes her present fortunes. The name of this artist is Imhoff; but though he was once honoured with Royal Patronages he is now best remembered from the circumstance by which our author has distinguished him, of his former relation to Mrs. Hastings.
Then follow the subjects of the paintings, which are selected with the usual judgment of our poet.
Here might the tribes of ROHILCUND expire,And quench with blood their towns, that sink in fire;The Begums there, of pow’r, of wealth forlorn,With female cries their hapless fortune mourn.Here, hardly rescu’d from his guard, CHEYT SINGAghast should fly; there NUNDCOMAR should swing;Happy for him! if he had borne to seeHis country beggar’d of the last rupee;Nor call’d those laws, O HASTINGS, on thy head,Which, mock’d by thee, thy slaves alone should dread.
These stories, we presume, are too public to require any explanation. But if our readers should wish to be more particularly acquainted with them, they will find them in the [1]Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, commonly called the Reports of the Select and Secret Committees, with Appendixes of Letters, Minutes, and Narratives written by Mr. Hastings himself. Or they may consult the History of Alexander the Great, contained, in Major John Scott’s narrative of the administration of Mr. Hastings. Though we would rather refer them to the latter work, as in our opinion it is one of the most satisfactory defences ever published; and proves to demonstration, that Mr. Hastings never committed a single act of injustice or cruelty, but he constantly obtained forty or fifty lacks for the Company or himself—That an enquiry into past abuses is an impolitic order; because “much valuable time must be lost, and much odium incurred by the attempt;” and therefore Mr. Hastings of course ought not to have been censured at all, unless he had been censuredbeforehe had done any thing to deserve it—That it was right for Mr. Hastings to keep up the good old custom of receiving presents, in defiance of a positive law; because his predecessors had received as large sums when they were authorized by custom, and not prohibited by any law—That Mr. Hastings was justified in disobeying the orders of the Directors, because he could no otherwise have convinced the Country Powers of his superiority over his Masters, which was, and is, absolutely necessary—that, though it may be questioned if Nundcomar was legally condemned, it was proper to execute him, in order to show the justice and impartiality of the Judges in hanging the natives, whom they were sent especially to protect—That a Treaty of Peace between two nations is of no force, if you can get one of the individuals who officially signed it, to consent to the infraction of it—together with many other positions, equally just and novel, both in Ethics and Politics.
But to return to our Poet. MERLIN now drops his apostrophe, and eulogizes the India-bench in the third person for the blessings of Tea and the Commutation Tax. The following passage will show our author to be, probably, a much better Grocer than Mr. Pitt; and perhaps little inferior to the Tea-Purchaser’s Guide.
What tongue can tell the various kind of Tea?Of Blacks and Greens, of Hyson and Bohea;With Singlo, Congou, Pekoe, and Souchong:Couslip the fragrant, Gun-powder the strong;And more, all heathenish alike in name,Of humbler some, and some of nobler fame.
The prophet then compares the breakfasts of his own times with those of ours: attributes to the former the intractable spirit of that age; and from the latter fervently prays, like a loyal subject, for the perfect accomplishment of their natural effects; that they may relax the nerves of Englishmen into a proper state of submission to the superior powers. We shall insert the lines at length.
On mighty beef, bedew’d with potent ale,Our Saxons, rous’d at early dawn, regale;And hence a sturdy, bold, rebellious race,Strength in the frame, and spirit in the face,All sacred right of Sovereign Power defy,For Freedom conquer, or for Freedom die.Not so their sons, of manners more polite;How would they sicken at the very sight!O’er Chocolate’s rich froth, o’er Coffee’s fume,Or Tea’s hot tide their noons shall they consume.But chief, all sexes, every rank and age,Scandal and Tea, more grateful, shall engage;In gilded roofs, beside some hedge in none,On polish’d tables, or the casual stone.BeBloomreduc’d; and PITT no more a foe,Ev’n PITT, the favourite of the fair shall grow:Be butMundunguscheap; on light and airNew burthens gladly shall our peasants bear,And boil their peaceful kettles, gentle souls!Contented,—if no tax be laid on coals.Aid then, kind Providence, yon’ generous bench,With copious draughts the thirsty realm to drench;And oh! thy equal aid let PRESTON find,With [2]musty-sweetandmouldy-freshcombin’d,To palsy half our isles: ’till wan, and weak,Each nerve unstrung, and bloodless every cheek,Head answering head, and noddling thro’ the street.The destin’d change of Britons is complete;Things without will, like India’s feeble brood,Or China’s shaking Mandarins of wood.So may the Crown in native lustre shine,And British Kings re-sume their right divine.
We have been thus prolix in giving the whole of this quotation, as we think it glances very finely at the true policy, why it is expedient to encourage the universal consumption of an article, which some factious people have called a pernicious luxury. And our readers, we are persuaded, will agree with us, when we decidedly pronounce this as good a defence of the Commutation Tax, as we have yet seen.
We must observe however that our author is probably indebted to the extensive information of Lord Sydney, for the hint of the following couplet:
In gilded roofs, beside some hedge in none,On polish’d tables, or the casual stone.
The Secretary of State in the discussion of the abovementioned tax, very ably calculated the great quantity of tea consumed under hedges by vagrants, who have no houses; from which he most ingeniously argued to the justice and equity of laying the impost on persons who have houses, whether they consume it or not.
We shall conclude this number, as the Poet concludes the subject, with some animated verses on Mr. FOX and Mr. PITT.
Crown the froth’d Porter, slay the fatted Ox,And give the British meal to British Fox.But for an Indian minister more fit,Ten cups of purest Padrae pour for PITT,Pure as himself; add sugar too and cream,Sweet as his temper, bland as flows the streamOf his smooth eloquence; then crisply niceThe muffin toast, or bread and butter slice,Thin as his arguments, that mock the mind,Gone, ere you taste,—no relish left behind.Where beauteous Brighton overlooks the sea,These be his joys: and STEELE shall make the Tea.
How neat! how delicate! and how unexpected is the allusion in the last couplet! These two lines alone include the substance of whole columns, in the ministerial papers of last summer, on the sober, the chaste, the virtuous, the edifying manner in which the Immaculate Young Man passed the recess from public business; not in riot and debauchery, not in gaming, not in attendance on ladies, either modest or immodest, but in drinking Tea with Mr. Steele, at the Castle in Brighthelmstone. Let future ages read and admire!
[1] We have the highest law authority for this title; as well as for calling Mr. Hastings Alexander the Great.
[2] The Tea-dealers assure us, that Mr. PRESTON’ssweetandfreshTeas contain a great part of themustyandmouldychests, which the Trade rejected.
* * * * *
In every new edition of this incomparable poem, it has been the invariable practice of the author, to take an opportunity of adverting to such recent circumstances, as have occurred since the original publication of it relative to any of the illustrious characters he has celebrated. The public has lately been assured that, the Marquis of Graham is elected Chancellor of the University of Glasgow, and has presented that learned body with a complete set of the engravings of Piranesi, an eminent Italian artist; of which we are happy to acquaint the Dilettanti, a few remaining sets are to be purchased at Mr. Alderman Boydell’s printshop, in Cheapside, price twelve pounds twelve shillings each. An anecdote reflecting so much honour upon one of the favourite characters of our author, could not pass unnoticed in the ROLLIAD; and accordingly, in his last edition, we find the following complimentary lines upon the subject:
If right the Bard, whose numbers sweetly flow,That all our knowledge is ourselves to know;A sage like GRAHAM, can the world produce,Who in full senate call’d himself a goose?The admiring Commons, from the high-born youth,With wonder heard this undisputed truth;Exulting Glasgow claim’d him for her own,And plac’d the prodigy on Learning’s throne.
He then alludes to the magnificent present abovementioned, and concludes in that happy vein of alliterative excellence, for which he is so justly admired—
With gorgeous gifts from gen’rous GRAHAM grac’d,Great Glasgow grows the granary of taste.
Our readers will doubtless recollect, that this is not the first tribute of applause paid to the distinguished merit of the public-spirited young Nobleman in question. In the first edition of the poem, his character was drawn at length, the many services he has rendered his country were enumerated, and we have lately been assured by our worthy friend and correspondent, Mr. Malcolm M’Gregor, the ingenious author of the Heroic Epistle to Sir William Chambers, and other valuable poems, that the following spirited verses, recording the ever-memorable circumstance of his Lordship’s having procured for the inhabitants of the Northern extremity of our Island, the inestimable privilege of exempting their posteriors from those ignominious symbols of slavery, vulgarly denominated breeches, are actually universally repeated with enthusiasm, throughout every part of the highlands of Scotland—
Thee, GRAHAM! thee, the frozen Chieftains bless,Who feel thy bounties through their fav’rite dress;By thee they view their rescued country cladIn the bleak honours of their long-lost plaid;Thy patriot zeal has bar’d their parts behindTo the keen whistlings of the wintry wind;While Lairds the dirk, while lasses bag-pipes prize,And oat-meal cake the want of bread supplies;The scurvy skin, while scaly scabs enrich,While contact gives, and brimstone cures the itch,Each breeze that blows upon those brawny parts,Shall wake thy lov’d remembrance in their hearts;And while they freshen from the Northern blast,So long thy honour, name, and praise shall last.
We need not call to the recollection of the classical reader,
Dum juga montis aper, sluvios dum piscis amabit,Semper honos, nomenque tuum laudesque manebunt.
And the reader of taste will not hesitate to pronounce, that the copy has much improved upon, and very far surpassed the original. In these lines we also find the most striking instances of the beauties of alliteration; and however some fastidious critics have affected to undervalue this excellence, it is no small triumph to those of a contrary sentiment to find, that next to our own incomparable author, the most exalted genius of the present age, has not disdained to borrow the assistance of this ornament, in many passages of the beautiful dramatic treasure with which he has recently enriched the stage. Is it necessary for us to add, that it is the new tragedy of the Carmelite to which we allude?—A tragedy the beauties of which, we will venture confidently to assert, will be admired and felt, when those of Shakespeare, Dryden, Otway, Southerne, and Rowe, shall be no longer held in estimation. As examples of alliterative beauty, we shall select the following:—
The hand of heav’n hangs o’er me and my house,To their untimely graves seven sons swept off.
Again—
So much for tears—tho’ twenty years they flow,They wear no channels in a widow’s cheek.
The alternate alliteration of the second line, in this instance, seems an improvement upon the art, to the whole merit of which Mr. Cumberland is himself unquestionably entitled.
Afterwards we read,
———Treasures hoarded up,With carking care, and a long life of thrift.
In addition to the alliterative merit, we cannot here fail to admire the judiciously selected epithet of “carking;” and the two lines immediately following, although no example of that merit, should not be omitted:
Now, without interest, or redemption swallow’d,By the devouring bankrupt waves for ever.
How striking is the comparison of the ocean, to a bankrupt swallowing without interest or redemption, the property of his unfortunate creditors! Where shall we find a simile of equal beauty, unless some may possibly judge the following to be so, which is to be found in another part of the same sublime work, of two persons weeping—
———We will sitLike fountain statues, face to face oppos’d,And each to other tell our griefs in tears,Yet neither utter word———
Our readers, we trust, will pardon our having been diverted from the task we have undertaken, by the satisfaction of dwelling on a few of the many beauties of this justly popular and universally admired tragedy, which, in our humble opinion, infinitely surpasses every other theatrical composition, being in truth an assemblage of every possible dramatic excellence: nor do we believe, that any production, whether of antient or modern date, can exhibit a more uncommon and peculiar selection of language, a greater variety of surprising incidents, a more rapid succession of extraordinary discoveries, a more curious collection of descriptions, similies, metaphors, images, storms, shipwrecks, challenges, and visions, or a more miscellaneous and striking picture of the contending passions of love; hatred, piety, madness, rage, jealousy, remorse, and hunger, than this unparalleled performance presents to the admiration of the enraptured spectator. Mr. Cumberland has been represented, perhaps unjustly, as particularly jealous of the fame of his cotemporaries, but we are persuaded he will not be offended when, in the ranks of modern writers, we place him second only to the inimitable author of the ROLLIAD.
To return from the digression into which a subject so seducing has involuntarily betrayed us. The reader will recollect, that in our last we left MERLIN gratifying the curiosity of ROLLO, with a view of that Assembly of which his Descendant is one day destined to become so conspicuous an ornament. After having given the due preference to the India-Bench, he proceeds to point out to him others of the most distinguished supporters of the present virtuous administration. Having already mentioned the most confidential friends of the minister, he now introduces us to the acquaintance of an active young Member, who has upon all occasions been pointedly severe upon the noble Lord in the blue ribbon, and who is remarkable for never having delivered his sentiments upon any subject, whether relating to the East-Indies, the Reform of Parliament, or the Westminster Election, without a copious dissertation upon the principles, causes, and conduct of the American war.
Lo! BEAYFOY rises, friend to soft repose;Whose gentle accents prompt the house to dose:His cadence just, a general sleep provokes,Almost as quickly as SIR RICHARD’s jokes.Thy slumbers, NORTH, he strives in vain to break,When all are sleeping, thou would’st scarce awake;Though from his lips severe invectives fell,Sharp as the acid he delights to sell.
In explanation of the last line, it may be, perhaps, necessary to apprise our readers, that this accomplished orator, although the elegance of his diction, and smoothness of his manner, partake rather of the properties of oil, is in his commercial capacity, a dealer in vinegar. The speaker alluded to, under the name of Sir Richard, is probably the same whom our author, upon the former occasion, stiled—
Sleep-giving poet of a sleepless night.
The limits of our plan will not allow us to enlarge upon the various beauties with which this part of the work abounds; we cannot, however, omit the pathetic description of the SPEAKER’s situation, nor the admirable comparison of Lord MAHON preying on his patience, to the vulture devouring the liver of Prometheus. The necessity of the Speaker’s continuing in the chair while the House sits, naturally reminds our author of his favourite Virgil:
———sedet æternumque sedebitInfelix Theseus.
There CORNEWELL sits, and, oh unhappy fate!Must sit for ever through the long debate;Save, when compell’d by Nature’s sovereign will,Sometimes to empty, and sometimes to fill.Painful pre-eminence! he hears, ’tis true,FOX, NORTH, and BURKE, but hears SIR JOSEPH too.
Then follows the simile—
Like sad PROMETHEUS, fasten’d to his rock,In vain he looks for pity to the clock;In vain the’ effects of strengthening porter tries,And nods to BELLAMY for fresh supplies;While vulture-like, the dire MAHON appears,And, far more savage, rends his suff’ring ears.
* * * * *
Amongst the various pretensions to critical approbation, which are to be found in the excellent and never-sufficiently to be admired production, which is the object of these comments, there is one that will strike the classical observer as peculiarly prominent and praise-worthy:—namely, the uncommon ability shown by the author, in the selection of his heroes. Thepersonæthat are introduced in the course of this poem, are characters that speak for themselves. The very mention of their names is a summons to approbation; and the relation of their history, if given in detail, would prove nothing more than a lengthened panegyric. Who that has heard of the names of a Jenkinson, a Robinson, or a Dundas, has not in the same breath heard also what they are? This is the secret of our author’s science and excellence. It is this that enables him to omit the dull detail of introductory explanation, and to fasten upon his business, if one may use the expression, slap-dash and at once.
Semper ad eventum festinat, et in medias res,Non secus ac notas auditorum rapit. HOR.
Homer himself yields, in this respect, to our author; for who would not perceive the evident injustice done to the modern bard, if we were to place the wisdom of an Ulysses on any competition with the experience of a Pitt; to mention the bully Ajax, as half so genuine a bully, as the bully Thurlow; if we were to look upon Nestor as having a quarter of the interesting circumlocution of the ambiguous Nugent; to consider Achilles as possessed of half the anger of a ROLLE; or to suppose for a moment, that the famous ποδας-ωκυς of antiquity, could run nearly so fast in a rage, as the member for Devon in a fright; to conceive the yellow-haired Paris to have had half the beauty of the ten times more yellow-haired Villiers; to look upon Agamemnon as in any degree so dictatorial to his chiefs as the high-minded Richmond; to consider the friendship of Patroclus, as possessed of a millionth portion of the disinterested attachment of a Dundas; to have any conception that the chosen band of Thessalian Myrmidons, were to be any way compared, in point of implicit submission, to the still more dextrously chosen band of the Minister in the British House of Commons. Or—but there is no end to so invidious a comparison; and we will not expose poor Homer, to the farther mortification of pursuing it.
MERLIN proceeds in his relation, and fixes upon an object that will not, we believe, prove any disgrace to our author’s general judgment of selection; namely, that worthy Baronet and universally admired wit, Sir RICHARD HILL, of whom it may be truly said,
———Pariter pietate jocisque,Egregius.
He looks upon him as an individual meriting every distinction, and has thought proper therefore, in the last edition of the ROLLIAD, though the Baronet had been [1]slightly touched upon before, to enlarge what was then said, into a more particular description. Speaking of Sir Richard’s style of elocution, our author observes—
With quaint formality of sacred smut,His rev’rend jokes see pious RICHARD cut.Let meaner talents from the Bible drawTheir faith, their morals These, and Those their law!His lively genius finds in holy writA richer mine of unsuspected wit.What never Jew, what never Christian taught,What never fir’d one sectary’s heated thought,What not e’en [2]ROWLAND dream’d, he saw alone,And to the wondering senate first made known;How bright o’er mortal jokes the Scriptures shineResplendent Jest-book of bon-mots divine.
This description will be readily felt, and we trust, not less cordially admired, by all those who may have enjoyed the pleasure of auricular evidence to Sir Richard’s oratory. The thought of converting the Bible into ajest book, is, we believe, quite new; and not more original in itself, than characteristically just in its application to the speaker. We all know that Saul affected insanity for the sake of religion, in the early periods of our holy faith; and why so great an example should not be imitated in later times, we leave it to the prophane to shew.
We know not whether it is worth observing, that the eloquence of this illustrious family is not confined to Sir Richard alone; but that his brother inherits the same gift, and, if possible, in a greater degree. It is said, there is an intention of divesting this latter gentleman of his clerical robe, and bringing him into the senate, as the avowed competitor of our modern Cromwell. If this happy event should luckily take place, we shall literally see the observation then realized, that the Ministry will give to their wicked enemies, on the other side of the House, what they have so long wanted and deserved.
“———ARowlandfor theirOliver.”
This, however, by the way. Our author resumes his subject with the following spirited apostrophe:—
Methinks I see him from the Bench arise,His words all keenness, but all meek his eyes;Define the good religion might produce,Practise its highest excellence-abuse;And with his tongue, that two-edg’d weapon, show,At once the double worth of JOB and JOE.
Job, as some of our more learned readers may know, is a book in the Old Testament, and is used hereper synechdochen, as a part for the whole. Nothing can be more natural, than the preference given to this book, on this occasion, as Sir Richard is well known in his speeches to be so admirable an auxiliary to its precepts. The person of the name ofJoe, who has received so laconic a mention in the last line of the above extract, will be recognized by the critical and the intelligent, as the same individual who distinguished himself so eminently in the sixteenth century, as a writer and a wit, namely, Mr. Joseph Miller; a great genius, and an author, avowedly in the highest estimation with our learned Baronet.
The business of the composition goes on.—It is evident, however, the poet was extremely averse to quit a subject upon which his congenial talents reposed so kindly. He does not leave Sir Richard, therefore, without the following finished and most high-wrought compliment:
With wit so various, piety so odd,Quoting by turns from Miller and from God;Shall no distinction wait thy honour’d name?No lofty epithet transmit thy fame?Forbid it wit, from mirth refin’d away!Forbid it Scripture, which thou mak’st so gay!SCIPIO, we know, was AFRICANUS call’d,RICHARD styl’d LONG-SHANKS—CHARLES surnam’d the BALD;Shall these for petty merits be renown’d,And no proud phrase, with panegyric sound,Swell thy short name, great HILL?—Here take thy due,And hence be call’d the’ SCRIPTURAL KILLIGREW.
The administration of baptism to adults, is quite consonant to Sir Richard’s creed; and we are perfectly satisfied, there is not a Member in the House of Commons that will not stand sponsor for him on this honourable occasion. Should any one ask him in future,—Who gave you that name? Sir Richard may fairly and truly reply, My Godfathers, &c. and quote the whole of the lower assembly, as coming under that description.
MERLIN, led, as may easily be supposed, by sympathy of rank, talents, and character, now pointed his wand to another worthy baronet, hardly less worthy of distinction than the last personage himself, namely, Sir JOSEPH MAWBEY. Of him the author sets out with saying,
Let this, ye wise, be ever understood,SIR JOSEPH is as witty as he’s good.—
Here, for the first time, the annotators upon this immortal poem, find themselves compelled, in critical justice to own, that the author has not kept entire pace with the original which he has affected to imitate. The distich, of which the above is a parody, was composed by the worthy hero of this part of the ROLLIAD, the amiable Sir Joseph himself, and runs thus:
Ye ladies, of your hearts beware:SIR JOSEPH’s false as he is fair.
How kind, and how discreet a caution! This couplet, independent of its other merits, possesses a recommendation not frequently found in poetry, the transcendant ornament of Truth. How far, indeed, the falshood of this respectable individual has been displayed in his gallantries, it is not the province of sober criticism to enquire. We take up the assertion with a large comprehension, and with a stricter eye to general character—
SIR JOSEPH’s false as he is fair.———
Is it necessary to challenge, what no one will be absurd enough to give—a contradiction to so acknowledged a truth? Or is it necessary to state to the fashionable reader, that whatever may be the degree of Sir Joseph’s boasted falshood, it cannot surpass the fairness of his complexion? The position, therefore, is what logicians call convertible: nothing can equal his falshood but his fairness; nothing his fairness but his falshood.—Incomparable!
Proceeding to a description of his eloquence, he says,
A sty of pigs, though all at once it squeaks,Means not so much as MAWBEY when he speaks;And his’try says, he never yet had bredA pig with such a voice or such a head!Except, indeed, when he essays to joke;And then his wit is truly pig-in-poke.
Describing Sir Joseph’s acquisitions as a scholar, the author adds,
His various knowledge I will still maintain,He is indeed a knowing man in grain.
Some commentators have invidiously suggested, that the last line of this couplet should be printed thus,
He is indeed a knowing man-in grain:
assigning as their reason, that the phrase in grain evidently alludes to bran, with which Sir Joseph’s little grunting commonwealth is supported; and for the discreet and prudent purchase of which our worthy baronet is famous.
Our author concludes his description of this great senator with the following distich:
Such adaptation ne’er was seen before,His trade a hog is, and his wit—a boar.
It has been proposed to us to amend the spelling: of the last word, thus,bore; this improvement, however, as it was called, we reject as a calumny.
Where the beauty of a passage is pre-eminently striking as above, we waste not criticism in useless efforts at emendation.
The writer goes on. He tells you he cannot quit this history of wits, without saying something of another individual; whom, however, he describes as every way inferior to the two last-mentioned, but who, nevertheless, possesses some pretensions to a place in the ROLLIAD. The individual alluded to, is Mr. GEORGE SELWYN. The author describes him as a man possessed of
A plenteous magazine of retail witVamp’d up at leisure for some future hit;Cut for suppos’d occasions, like the trade,Where old new things for every shape are made!To this assortment, well prepar’d at home,No human chance unfitted e’er can come;No accident, however strange or queer,But meets its ready well-kept comment here.—The wary beavers thus their stores increase,And spend their winter on their summer’s grease.
The whole of the above description will doubtless remind the classic reader of the following beautiful passage in the Tusculan Questions of Cicero:Nescio quomodo inhæret in mentibus quasi sæculorumquoddam augurium futurorum—idque inmaximis ingeniis altissimisque animisexistit maxime et apparet facillime. This will easily account for the system of previous fabrication so well known as the character of Mr. Selwyn’s jokes. Speaking of an accident that befel this gentleman in thewars, our author proceeds thus:
Of old, when men from fevers made escape,They sacrific’d a cock to ÆSCULAPE:Thus, Love’s hot fever now for ever o’er,The prey of amorous malady no more,SELWYN remembers what his tutor taught,That old examples ever should be sought!And, gaily grateful, to his surgeon cries,“I’ve given to you the Ancient Sacrifice.”
The delicacy with which this historical incident is pourtrayed, would of itself have been sufficient to transmit our author’s merit to posterity: and with the above extract we shall finish the present number of our commentaries.
[1] See No. III.
[2] The Reverend Rowland Hill, brother of Sir Richard.
* * * * *
The next person among the adherents of the Minister, whom MERLIN now points out to the notice of ROLLO, is SIR SAMUEL HANNAY, Baronet, a name recollected with great gratitude in the House: for there are few Members in it to whom he has not been serviceable. This worthy character indeed has done more to disprove Martial’s famous assertion,
Non cuicunque datum est haberenasum,
than any individual upon record.
The author proceeds—
But why, my HANNAY, does the ling’ring MuseThe tribute of a line to thee refuse?Say, what distinction most delights thine ear,OrPhilo-Pill, orPhilo-Minister?Oh! may’st thou none of all thy titles lack,Or Scot, or Statesman, Baronet or Quack;For what is due to him, whose constant view isPreventingprivate, or a publiclues?
Who, that read the above description, do not, during the first impression of it, suppose that they see the worthy Baronet once more the pride of front advertisements—once more dispensing disregard and oblivion amongst all his competitors; and making your Leakes, your Lockyers, and your Velnos,
—Hide their diminish’d heads.—
In the passages which immediately follow, the poet goes on to felicitate the community upon the probable advantages to be derived to them from the junction of this illustrious personage with our immaculate Minister. He divides his congratulations into two parts. He first considers the consequence of the union, as they may affect the body personal; and secondly, as they may concern the body politic. Upon the former subject, he says,
This famous pair, in happy league combin’d,No risques shall man from wand’ring beauty find;For, should not chaste example save from ill,There’s still a refuge in the other’s pill.
With a sketch equally brief and masterly as the above, he describes his hopes on the other branch of his division.
The body politic no more shall grieveThe motley stains that dire corruptions leave;No dang’rous humours shall infest the state,Norrotten Membershasten Britain’s fate.
Our author who, notwithstanding his usual and characteristic gravity, has yet not un-frequently an obvious tendency to the sportive, condescends now to take notice of a rumour, which in these times had been universally circulated, that Sir Samuel bad parted with his specific, and disposed of it to a gentleman often mentioned, and always with infinite and due respect, in the ROLLIAD, namely, Mr. Dundas.—Upon this he addresses Sir Samuel with equal truth and good-humour in the following couplet:
Then shall thy med’cine boast its native bent,Then spread its genuine blessing—to prevent.
Our readers cannot but know, it was by the means of a nostrum, emphatically called aSpecific, that Mr. Dundas so long contrived to prevent the constitutional lues of aParliamentary Reform. The author, however, does not profess, to give implicit credit to the fact of Sir Samuel’s having ungratefully disposed of his favourite recipe, the happy source of his livelihood and fame; the more so, as it appears that Mr. Dundas had found the very wordspecificsufficient for protracting a dreadful political evil on the three several instances of its application. Under this impression of the thing, the poet strongly recommends Sir Samuel to go on in the prosecution of his original profession, and thus expresses his wish upon the occasion, with the correct transcript of which we shall close the history of this great man:
In those snug corners be thy skill display’d,Where Nature’s tribute modestly is paid:Or near fam’d Temple-bar may some good dame, }Herself past sport, but yet a friend to game, }Disperse thy bills, and eternize thy fame. }
MERLIN now calls the attention of our hero to a man whom there is little doubt this country will long remember, and still less, that they will have abundant reason for so doing, namely, Mr. SECRETARY ORDE. It may seem odd by what latent association our author was led to appeal next to the Right Honourable Secretary, immediately after the description of a Quack Doctor; but let it be recollected in the first place, to the honour of Sir Samuel Hannay, that he is, perhaps, the only man of his order that ever had a place in the British House of Commons; and in the second, that there are some leading circumstances in the character of Mr. Orde, which will intitle him to rank under the very same description as the worthy Baronet himself. We all know that the most famous of all physicians,Le Medecin malgré lui, is represented by Moliere, as a mart who changes the seat of the heart, and reverses the intire position of the vital parts of the human body. Now let it be asked, has not Mr. Orde done this most completely and effectually with respect to the general body of the state? Has he not transferred the heart of the empire? Has he not changed its circulation, and altered the situation of the vital part of the whole, from the left to the right, from the one side to the other, from Great Britain to Ireland?—Surely no one will deny this; and therefore none will be now ignorant of the natural gradation of thought, by which our author was led, from the contemplation of Sir Samuel Hannay, to the character of Mr. Orde.
We know not whether it be worth remarking, that the termLe Medecin malgré lui, has been translated into English with the usual incivility of that people to every thing foreign, by the uncourtly phrase ofMock Doctor. We trust, however, that no one will think it applicable in this interpretation to Mr. Orde, as it is pretty evident he has displayed no mockery in his State Practices, but has performed the character of Moliere’sMedecin, even beyond the notion of the original; by having effected in sad and sober truth, to the full as complete a change in the position of theCœur de l’Empire, as the lively fancy of the dramatist had imputed to his physician, with respect to the human body, in mere speculative joke.
With a great many apologies for so long a note, we proceed now to the much more pleasant part of our duty—that of transcribing from this excellent composition; and proceed to the description of Mr. Orde’s person, which the poet commences thus:
Tall and erect, unmeaning, mute, and pale,O’er his blank face no gleams of thought prevail;Wan as the man in classic story fam’d,Who told old PRIAM that his Ilion flam’d;Yet soon the time will come when speak he hall,And at his voice another Ilion fall!
The excellence of this description consists as that of a portrait always must, in a most scrupulous and inveterate attention to likeness.—Those who know the original, will not question the accuracy of resemblance on this occasion. The idea conveyed in the last line,
And at his voice another Ilion fall,
is a spirited imitation of thefuimus Troes, fuit Ilium, of Virgil, and a most statesmanlike anticipation of the future fate of England.
The author now takes an opportunity of shewing the profundity of his learning in British history. He goes on to say,
CÆSAR, we know, with anxious effort try’dTo swell, with Britain’s name, his triumph’s pride:Oft he essay’d, but still essay’d in vain;Great in herself, she mock’d the menac’d chain.But fruitless all—for what was CÆSAR’s swordTo thy all-conquering speeches, mighty ORDE!!!
Our author cannot so far resist his classical propensity in this place, as to refrain from the following allusion; which, however, must be confessed at least, to be applied with justice.
AMPHION’s lyre, they say, could raise a town;ORDE’s elocution pulls a Nation down.
He proceeds with equal spirit and erudition to another circumstance in the earlier periods of English history,
The lab’ring bosom of the teeming NorthLong pour’d, in vain, her valiant offspring forth;For GOTH or VANDAL, once on British shore,Relax’d his nerve, and conquer’d states no more.Not so the VANDAL of the modern time,This latter offspring of the Northern clime;He, with a breath, gives Britain’s wealth away,And smiles, triumphant, o’er her setting ray.
It will be necessary to observe here, that after much enquiry and very laborious search, as to the birth-place of the Right Honourable Secretary (for the honour of which, however difficult now to discover, Hibernia’s cities will, doubtless, hereafter contend) we found that he was born in NORTHUMBERLAND; which, added to other circumstances, clearly establishes the applicability of the description of the wordGoth, &c. and particularly in the lines where he calls him the
———VANDAL of the modern time,The latter offspring of the Northern clime.
Having investigated, with an acumen and minuteness seldom incident to genius, and very rarely met with in the sublimer poetry, all the circumstances attending an event which he emphatically describes as theRevolutionof seventeen hundred and eighty-five, he makes the following address to the English:
No more, ye English, high in classic pride,The phrase uncouth of Ireland’s sons deride;For say, ye wise, which most performs the fool,Or he whospeaks, or he whoacts—a BULL.
The Poet catches fire as he runs:
—Poetica surgitTempestas.
He approximates now to the magnificent, or perhaps more properly to themaniaof Poetry, and like another Cassandra, begins to try his skill at prophecy; like her he predicts truly, and like her, for the present at least, is not, perhaps, very implicitly credited.—He proceeds thus;
Rapt into future times, the Muse surveysThe rip’ning; wonders of succeeding days:Sees Albion prostrate, all her splendour gone!In useless tears her pristine state bemoan;Sees the fair sources of her pow’r and prideIn purer channels roll their golden tide;Sees her at once of wealth and honour shorn,No more the nations’ envy, but their scorn;A sad example of capricious fate,Portentous warning to the proud and great:Sees Commerce quit her desolated isle,And seek in other climes a kinder soil;Sees fair Ierne rise from England’s flame,And build on British ruin, Irish fame.
The Poet in the above passage, is supposed to have had an eye toJuno’s address to Æolus in the first book of the Æneid:
Gens inimica mihi Tyrrhenum navigat æquorIliuminItaliamportans,VictosquePenates.
* * * * *
Though we have at length nearly exhausted the beauties of that part of our author’s work, in which the characters of the leading Members of the House of Commons are so poetically and forcibly delineated; we shall find, however, that the genius of the poet seems to receive fresh vigour, as he approaches the period of his exertions, in the illustrious Mr. ROLLE. What can be more sublime or picturesque than the following description!
Erect in person, see yon Knight advance,With trusty ’Squire, who bears his shield and lance;The Quixote HOWARD! Royal Windsor’s pride,And Sancho Panca POWNEY by his side;A monarch’s champion, with indignant frown,And haughty mein, he casts his gauntlet down;Majestic sits, and hears, devoid of dread,The dire Phillippicks whizzing round his head.Your venom’d shafts, ye sons of Faction spare;However keen, they cannot enter there.
And how well do these lines, immediately succeeding, describe the manner of speaking, which characterizes an orator of such considerable weight and authority:
He speaks, he speaks! Sedition’s chiefs around,With unfeign’d terror hear the solemn sound;While little POWNEY chears with livelier note,And shares his triumph in a silent vote.
Some have ignorantly objected to this as an instance of that figure for which a neighbouring kingdom is so generally celebrated, vulgarly distinguished by the appellation of aBull; erroneously conceiving a silent vote to be incompatible with the vociferation here alluded to: those, however, who have attended parliamentary debates, will inform them, that numbers who most loudly exert themselves, in what is calledchearingspeakers, are not upon that account entitled to be themselves considered as such.—Our author has indeed done injustice to the worthy member in question, by classing him among the number of mutes, he having uniformly taken a very active part in all debates relating to the militia; of which truly constitutional body, he is a most respectable Pillar, and one of the most conspicuous ornaments.
It is unquestionably the highest praise we can bestow upon a member of the British House of Commons, to say, that he is a faithful representative of the people, and upon all occasions speaks the real sentiments of his constituents; nor can an honest ambition to attain the first dignities of the state, by honourable means, be ever imputed to him as a crime. The following encomium, therefore, must be acknowledged to have been justly merited by a noble Lord, whose independent and disinterested conduct has drawn upon him the censures of disappointed faction.
The Noble CONVERT, Berwick’s honour’d choice,That faithful echo of the people’s voice,One day, to gain an Irish title glad,For Fox he voted—so the people bad;’Mongst English Lords ambitious grown to sit,Next day the people bade him vote for PITT:To join the stream our Patriot, nothing loth,By turns discreetly gave his voice to both.
The title of Noble convert, which was bestowed upon his Lordship by a Speaker of the degraded Whig faction, is here most judiciously adopted by our Author, implying thereby that this denomination, intended, no doubt, to convey a severe reproach, ought rather to be considered as a subject of panegyric: this is turning the artillery of the enemy against themselves—
“Neque lex est justior ulla, &c.”
In the next character introduced, some persons may perhaps object to the seeming impropriety of alluding to a bodily defect; especially one which has been the consequence of a most cruel accident; but when it is considered, that the mention of the personal imperfection is made the vehicle of an elegant compliment to the superior qualifications of the mind, this objection, though founded in liberality, will naturally fall to the ground.
The circumstance of one of the Representatives of the first city in the world having lost his leg, while bathing in the sea, by the bite of a shark, is well known; nor can the dexterity with which he avails himself of the use of an artificial one, have escaped the observation of those who have seen him in the House of Commons, any more than the remarkable humility with which he is accustomed to introduce his very pointed and important observations upon the matters in deliberation before that august assembly.
“One moment’s time might I presume to beg?”Cries modest WATSON, on his wooden leg;That leg, in which such wond’rous art is shown,It almost seems to serve him like his own;Oh! had the monster, who for breakfast eatThat luckless limb, his nobler noddle met,The best of workmen, nor the best of wood,Had scarce supply’d him with a head so good.
To have asserted that neither the utmost extent of human skill, nor the greatest perfection in the materials, could have been equal to an undertaking so arduous, would have been a species of adulation so fulsome, as to have shocked the known modesty of the worthy magistrate; but the forcible manner in which the difficulty of supplying so capital a loss is expressed, conveys, with the utmost delicacy, a handsome, and, it must be confessed, a most justly merited compliment to the Alderman’s abilities.
The imitation of celebrated writers is recommended by Longinus, and has, as our readers must have frequently observed, been practised with great success, by our author; yet we cannot help thinking that he has pushed the precept of this great critic somewhat too far, in having condescended to copy, may we venture to say with so much servility, a genius so much inferior to himself as Mr. Pope. We allude to the following lines:
Can I, NEWHAVEN, FERGUSON forget,While Roman spirit charms, or Scottish wit?MACDONALD, shining a refulgent star,To light alike the senate and the bar;And HARLEY, constant to support the throne,Great follower of its interests and his own.
The substitution ofScottishforAttic, in the second line, is unquestionably an improvement, since however Attic wit may have been proverbial in ancient times, the natives of Scotland are so confessedly distinguished among modern nations for this quality, that the alteration certainly adds considerable force to the compliment. But however happily and justly the characters are here described, we cannot think this merit sufficient to counterbalance the objection we have presumed to suggest, and which is principally founded upon the extreme veneration and high respect we entertain for the genius of our author.
Mr. Addison has observed, that Virgil falls infinitely short of Homer in the characters of his Epic Poem, both as to their variety and novelty, but he could not with justice have said the same of the author of the ROLLIAD; and we will venture to assert, that the single book of this Poem, now under our consideration, is, in this respect, superior to the whole, both of the Iliad and the Æneid together. The characters succeed each other with a rapidity that scarcely allows the reader time to admire and feel their several beauties.
GALWAY and GIDEON, in themselves a host,Of York and Coventry the splendid boast:WHITBREAD and ONGLEY, pride of Bedford’s vale,This fam’d for selling, that for saving ale;And NANCY POULETT, as the morning fair,Bright as the sun, but common as the air;Inconstant nymph! who still with open arms,To ev’ry Minister devotes her charms.
But when the Poet comes to describe the character of the hero of his work, the present Member for the county of Devon, whom MERLIN points out to his illustrious ancestor, as uniting in himself all the Various merits of the worthies whose excellencies he has recorded, he seems to rise even above himself.—It is impossible to do justice to his character, without transcribing the whole, which would exceed the limits of our work; we shall therefore only give to our readers the concluding lines, because they contain characteristic observations upon other distinguished Members, most of whom have hitherto passed unnoticed: