Concursu adcedere magnoAnthea, Sergestumque videt, fortemque CloanthumTeucrorumque alios.CHAPTER XXXI.
Concursu adcedere magnoAnthea, Sergestumque videt, fortemque CloanthumTeucrorumque alios.
Concursu adcedere magnoAnthea, Sergestumque videt, fortemque CloanthumTeucrorumque alios.
Concursu adcedere magnoAnthea, Sergestumque videt, fortemque CloanthumTeucrorumque alios.
Concursu adcedere magno
Anthea, Sergestumque videt, fortemque Cloanthum
Teucrorumque alios.
No order of precedence or regard to dates is observed in the Memoranda which succeed. Many of the individuals here brought before the reader, have before been introduced. They are now collected in the class of those personally known to the Sexagenarian, the termination of whose career seems to have been far more auspicious and fortunate than their origin, connections, and first introduction into life, promised.
The first is a worthy Baronet. He has himself an honest and manly pride in acknowledging, that his present distinction in life, his great opulence, and extensive influence, is imputable alone to his determined perseverance in industrious pursuits.
He was educated in the medical line, and in that capacity proceeded to India, either there professionally to establish himself, or he might perhaps have been a surgeon in a King’s ship, or in an EastIndiaman. This is not material. He by some means or other, most probably by some commercial speculation, obtained possession of a very large quantity of opium. He disposed of this, and as is believed, in China, to such extraordinary advantage, that it produced a capital, on which he built his future fortunes, and those of his house.
This house is of no ordinary dimensions. There are at least twenty immediate descendants from him, all of whom have been successively introduced into the path which leads to fortune, not only with liberality but splendour.
He himself is a Baronet. His commercial engagements and concerns extend to every quarter of the globe. His two eldest sons are in Parliament, and fill the highest stations at the Bank and the East India-house. The rest of his family are in situations of the greatest respectability. Although this gentleman may very properly be ranked in the very first class of successful adventurers in life, yet he bears his faculties meekly, and does not, as in similar instances is too frequently the case, manifest the insolence of wealth.
The next personage who claims a high place among those who have drawn a capital prize in the lottery of life, has his portrait delineated in a former part of the work. His entrance into life was, as the son of a clergymen, respectable, but ofno considerable eminence, and his claims did not rise beyond what the exertion of moderate talents might promise by persevering diligence at the bar. At the termination of life, he found himself, in consequence of a most fortunate marriage, a Member of Parliament, a considerable landholder, of extensive influence, and a companion of the great and powerful. This is the individual who, in his progress from mediocrity to affluence, had the misfortune to lose his memory.
A third distinguished character, from a very humble origin, and circumscribed education, after various experiments and vicissitudes, all at once found himself, if not to his own surprize, certainly to that of many, a Member of Parliament, and in a situation of great emolument, and of high responsibility. His original connections were indeed humble, if a certain lively lady may be credited, whose unembarrassed assurance, night after night, considerably baffled and perplexed the wisest and the gravest Members of Parliament. But so far his subsequent elevation does him the greater honour. Without any pretensions to learning, he possessed respectable talents and extensive accomplishments. He was a fluent speaker, and enjoyed that characteristic self-confidence, which neither could be disconcerted by the opposition, nor dismayed by the numbers of his adversaries in debate.He certainly was an elegant poet, and produced a poem in commemoration of a splendid victory, which was exceedingly popular.
In one respect, he was, by universal consent, remarkably successful. He was a member of various Symposiums, the principal object of whose assembling was to have good talk. He never failed to have it all to himself.
Fortune, who makes a lottery of life, has seldom exhibited greater waywardness than in the personage whose portrait next appears. He was an Irishman, of little or no hereditary property, but well educated, handsome in his person, and agreeable in his manners. He was, it is believed, called to the bar, but whether he ever practised is uncertain, and of no consequence. The place of his practice, when known to the Sexagenarian, was certainly not at the bar. He came over to this country, it may be said, without any intended reflection, to seek his fortune.
In his progress, he caught the contagion of play, but at that period, in all probability, his stake could not be high, nor the risk which he encountered great. It was the pernicious principle and habit which was to be reprobated. Most fortunately, for so the result might eventually have proved, he met a young lady at a fashionable watering-place, who attracted his immediate and serious attention. And well she might, for thesun of Britain has hardly ever shone upon a lovelier object. Most agreeable in her person, most captivating in her manners, of an intellect very far superior to the generality of her sex, with a high principle of honour, warm-hearted, generous, every thing indeed for which man could wish. Add to all this, a circumstance probably neither undesireable, nor entirely overlooked by our gentleman, she had a very large fortune, and was entirely at her own disposal.
He succeeded in his addresses. The lady treated him with a generous candour; and although not unacquainted with his characteristic foible, believed in his solemn protestations of laying aside for ever the dangerous propensities he had encouraged; and not improbably also trusted, as well she might, in her powers of enabling him to find the “Bathmendi[3],” of which he was in search, at home, in the reciprocation of connubial confidence and love.
Things went on very smoothly for a considerable time. The lady’s good sense, discretion, and engaging behaviour, appeared to have obtained a memorable triumph. Old acquaintances were revived, and cordially welcomed—new ones formed—the sweet ties of children promised to cement and perpetuate the harmony of the establishment;—when suddenly a sort of restlessness appeared onthe part of the gentleman, and his absence from home, and particularly in the evening, became more and more frequent. It is in no circumstances whatever, an easy matter, to elude the vigilant and anxious eyes of a mother and a wife; and the lady of whom we are speaking, was remarkably acute, discerning, and sagacious. She evidently perceived that he had betaken himself to his old haunts, and former companions. Remonstrance she knew to be ineffectual, and she formed her plan accordingly; which, though it could not be unattended with severe mortification, she persisted in with firmness.
She shut herself up with her children, bestowing the whole of her time and attention on the care of their health, the formation of their manners, and the cultivation of their minds. She received not, as heretofore, even the most intimate and the oldest of her friends, wisely observing, that if the master of the house were not present to bid welcome, the feast would resemble that, in which Banquo’s chair was empty.
The space of the theatre in which the hero of the drama, subsequently exercised his talents, became very considerably enlarged. He was seen by the side of Princes, and Dukes, and Peers were his companions. He was a Member of the British Parliament, and inhabited a palace. He launchedinto all the luxuries of a depraved metropolis, and seldom saw his almost widowed wife except at the transient half hour of a two o’clock breakfast.
Nil erit ulterius quod nostris moribus addetPosteritas.
Nil erit ulterius quod nostris moribus addetPosteritas.
Nil erit ulterius quod nostris moribus addetPosteritas.
Nil erit ulterius quod nostris moribus addet
Posteritas.
The reader will not be unmindful that our Memoranda are still employed in brief communications concerning certain individuals personally known to the Sexagenarian, who, from the humblest beginnings, have risen from the contingencies of life to situations of affluence and honour. We come now to a Right Honourable—Aye!—a Right, Right Honourable!
His first origin could not possibly be very lofty, though it is not pretended to assert what it was, but his first appearance on the public stage was in the navy, and in its civil department; probably as captain’s clerk. That he should ascend to the highest degree of the department, and in due time become a purser, is in the natural order of things, and necessarily implies steadiness and good conduct. But the individual under review, had higher and greater qualities; and the next record concerning him, is the fact of his having entered into the line of politics, bustling among the great and powerful, and rendering himself serviceable to one of the greatest ministers this country ever beheld,by his strong sense, sagacity, powers of computation, and great expertness in all arithmetical calculations.
He became a Member of Parliament—forward, prompt, and useful, wherever and whenever the Minister required his assistance, which was principally in matters relating to the business of the Exchequer.
The value of his services was felt, acknowledged, and rewarded—rewarded indeed to no common extent. The advantages conferred at the time, and the sinecures still retained, now that the giver is no more, constitute no inconsiderable catalogue, and render the possessor one of the richest and most powerful of our English commoners. These benefits also result to the various branches of his family, who are all of them more or less distinguished by situations of honour and emolument.
All intention of depreciating the sterling value of the individual, whose portrait is here slightly delineated, is pointedly disavowed, nor indeed are the cursory remarks which are subjoined at all likely to lessen his currency.
But our friend adds drily, that if a treatise were to be elaborately written on “Memory,” and the vicissitudes it undergoes, its degrees of strength or weakness, as things turn out prosperous or adverse, he thinks it will appear, that it is apt to growprogressively weaker and more uncertain in those, whose elevation in life has exceeded their early prospects and expectations, than in those who have passed quietly and soberly along the middle path, neither drawn aside by ambition, nor thrust down by misfortune.
Whether there is any physical reason which will account for this phœnomenon, it is not pretended to conjecture; perhaps rapidity of ascent may have some effect in confusing the intellect; perhaps glittering scenes, constantly succeeded by still more gaudy and fascinating spectacles, may dazzle the imagination. Be this as it may, the gentleman before us, certainly laboured under the suspicion of being liable to this infirmity.
Indeed, with respect to him, there was some aggravation in the circumstances, for it has been said, that when he was most positive, and vehement, and determined in his assertions, then it was that his accuracy was most doubted.
One example occurred to our Sexagenarian of this great man’s being occasionally at least, subject to this infirmity, and he has recorded it.
He made our friend, it seems, a promise positive and unequivocal, clogged by no qualifications, and subject to no incidental occurrences. Alas! a walk of about two miles dispelled every trace of the fabric in his mind, nor did any image of it everagain appear to present itself to his recollection. Honest pride prevented his being reminded of it by the individual concerned, and so the matter passed away; indeed so effectually, that the great man, at a subsequent period of no great distance, had no remembrance even of the person of him, whose hopes had been so agreeably, but so unfortunately raised, only to be disappointed.
The next personage who became of very great consequence from the meanest origin, and whose fall was not less extraordinary than his rise, was neither Right Honourable nor Honourable, but he did arrive at the distinction of knighthood, and probably had yet higher titles in contemplation.
His first appearance was as a common shop-boy to a retail grocer. He remained in this situation for some years. Whilst in this employment, he scraped an acquaintance with the niece of a decent man, who kept a respectable inn in a provincial town. Allured by the encouragement of his dulcinea, and probably with the prospect of ultimately bettering himself, he became a waiter at this inn. He finally married the niece, became master of the inn, and inherited from his wife considerable property.
He was a man of weak and confused intellect, and indeed could but just read and write, yet he had a great deal of low cunning and sagacity, andfirst suggested to his uncle by marriage, the idea of establishing a Bank. This was accordingly accomplished, and on the death of the first proprietor, was successfully, and for a very extended period, carried on by the person whose portrait is here delineated.
Among his other qualities, he had all the pliancy and obsequiousness to his superiors, which might be expected from a tavern-waiter, and by some means got an introduction to G. Earl of O. to whom he made himself so useful, and so acceptable, that through his influence he was made Receiver-General of the County. The emoluments and reputation of this office, were remarkably salutary in propping up, which it did for years, the reputation of his Bank; and, as it is generally believed, enabled him to administer to the necessities of his noble friend, who, in the interval of his expecting remittances from Russia, in return for one of the most valuable collection of pictures ever formed in this country, was reduced to great pecuniary difficulties.
At length the Bank stopped payment, and his debts, including the claims of government upon his house, amounted to 600,000l.It is very extraordinary, that at this particular time, he had only 25,000l.of notes in circulation. It is no less singular, that this failure did not occasion the bankruptcy, or cause stoppage of payment, in any otherhouse. Among his principal creditors were gentlemen who had made considerable deposits, but who, by taking the concerns into their own hands, at a most propitious period, when landed estates sold at the very highest price, contrived to make a dividend of fourteen shillings in the pound.
Luckily for the creditors, his son was made a partner during the life of his father, or every shilling of the landed property would have gone to him.
When the father died, or what became of the son, was unknown, but the family fell back again to their original poverty.
A whimsical anecdote is recorded of the above individual. When riches began to abound, he must needs set up his carriage, and he applied to the parson of the parish to furnish him with a motto. This same person was a most eccentric character. Very fond of his pipe—still more fond of his bottle—but withal, was very learned, and had an abundant store of facetiousness and humour. On his wealthy friend’s application for a motto, he gave him the following—“Quo mihi fortunam?”
This was accordingly placed upon the carriage; but some of the banker’s half-learned friends pretended to dispute its accuracy; upon which, out of humour, he remonstrated with his clerical adviser for imposing an incorrect motto upon him.—“FriendRoger,” replied the old gentleman, “do you support your carriage, and I’ll support the motto.” The motto is indeed remarkable for the seeming spirit of prophecy with which it was communicated. The motto survives—the coach is no more.
The next two individuals, concerning whom notices present themselves, were of the ecclesiastical profession, and both may surely be denominated fortunate.
The one was in the humblest possible situation, compatible with the character of a student, in one of the colleges of Oxford, but he carried with him the best qualifications of steadiness of principle, thirst for knowledge, and the seeds of an honourable ambition.
On his first leaving the University, no better occupation presented itself than that of a humble curacy in a country village. But here fortune befriended him. Among his auditors was a venerable nobleman, who had himself risen to his wealth and dignities from no very splendid beginnings, by the active use of considerable talents, and who consequently had the sagacity to distinguish merit, and, as it appeared from the consequences, had, also the liberality to assist and reward it.
This nobleman having received the young curate into his familiar acquaintance, soon discovered that he had talents of the higher order, and which merited a more spacious held for their display and exercise. A very long period did not elapse, before a living of considerable value, with no small degree of responsibility attached to it, was procured by the nobleman for his friend.
In the discharge of this greater duty, he so well acquitted himself, that ere long, a Prebendal stall was added to it, and at no very great interval of time, he became a Dean, Bishop, perhaps hereafter ⸺
Let it not be supposed that this advancement to high ecclesiastical dignities, was the mere result of noble and powerful influence. In addition to private virtues and personal recommendations, claims to preferment were enforced by various and profound erudition exercised on professional subjects.
His first publication, if we mistake not, was some ingenious and learned discourses, preached at his own parish church, containing the arguments for and against the reception of Christianity by the ancient Jews and Greeks.
He also preached a very powerful sermon, which he subsequently published, on the Claims of the Establishment, in reply to the loud expostulations every where circulated, on what were denominated the Claims of the Roman Catholics.
But this personage’s great work was a volume of Dissertations or Lectures, the subject of which was a comparison between Paganism and Christianity. They were obviously intended for the benefit of a great public seminary, to which among other things it had been objected, that more was taught the pupils, of Heathen, than of Christian theology. The avowed object of the work was to illustrate the Christian Religion, and explain the errors and follies of Heathen superstition, and it is really a powerful production.
The other successful candidate for clerical honours arrived at equal dignities, but with claims very dissimilar. He was a servitor at one of our universities, and though of remarkable steadiness and unimpeachable conduct, discovered no talents which justified his expectation of college distinctions.
He accordingly took orders, and went to a village remote from the metropolis, to discharge the honourable and useful office of a curate. Here fortune befriended him also. A noble family had a mansion in the vicinity, the head of which laboured under a sort of imbecility, which disqualified him for active business.
The curate, if respectable, always receives more or less notice from the heads of a parish, and in this instance Mr. G. was found so attentive, obliging, and assiduous, that great intimacy and confidence followed. There was also a General election, in theevent of which the family greatly interested themselves, and the curate, by his zeal, activity, and ardour, was very instrumental in procuring the matter to terminate, as his patrons desired.
The first bonus received in testimony of their attachment, was the living of the place where he had officiated as curate, which was worth little less than twelve hundred pounds a-year. But this was far from all. The intimacy was increased on one side, as the usefulness was experienced on the other; and as the political influence of the family was very considerable, one of the best Prebendal stalls in the kingdom was added to the Rectory, and at no very great distance of time, a Deanery. But here an act of justice remains to be done.
This ecclesiastical friend of the Sexagenarian, though not a man remarkable for his learning, his talents, or his accomplishments, was eminently so, for his mild and amiable manners. His memory does not deserve to be followed with scorn or disdain, because he owed his elevation to a concurrence of fortuitous and fortunate circumstances. Rather let it receive the tribute of respect which it merits, from his being, which he really was, friendly, benevolent, charitable, and zealously anxious to promote the comforts and improve the interests ofhis poor and dependent neighbours.
A third clerical personage may not improperly be introduced among those, whose progressive success in life far surpassed their earlier claims and expectations. His history is succinctly this.
He was the son of a country tradesman, who was sufficiently opulent to give his two sons a University education. The elder became a Bishop, and well merited, as he has honourably exercised, that exalted office. The younger son had always infirm health, with the reputation, however, of considerable talents. Of these, indeed, no specimen has been placed before the public for their animadversion, but he has pursued through life, the noiseless easy tenor of his way, enjoying the good things of this world in no very limited proportion.
Ecclesiastical preferment was poured thickly upon him. The brother truly acted a brother’s part. He might have been Fellow of his College, and in due course, after a long series of years, might have succeeded to a College living. More fortunately for him, high and lucrative situations were ready for his acceptance, almost as soon as he was able to sustain them. But this ought not to excite either envy or regret in contemporaries, who have not met with so favourable a tide in theiraffairs. He bears his faculties meekly, and his life is irreproachable.
This catalogue is continued much further, but the above examples may perhaps be thought sufficient, and it really appears to be expedient to think of shutting our tablets.
We will, however, venture to subjoin a brief account of another clerical person, who arrived at equal dignities from a very humble beginning.
On leaving college, he accepted of the situation of assistant teacher in a great public seminary. Here he continued steady and attentive to his employment for a considerable number of years, rather remarkable for his engaging and agreeable person and manners, than for splendour of talents, or depth of erudition. Indeed he has never appeared before the public as an author, except by the printing of a very few sermons, of which local circumstances required the publication.
His first successful advance towards affluence was by an auspicious marriage with a person who inherited considerable property, but he had long been quietly yet effectually obtaining reputation as a preacher at one of our popular charities.
He received his first reward for his excellence in this branch of his profession, from a private individual. A lady of rank and fortune bestowed abenefice of some value upon him, unsolicited and unexpected on his part, solely from the favourable impression which his talents as a preacher had made upon her.
His next piece of good fortune was alike unexpected, but still more highly to his honour. One of the most lucrative, and one of the most honourable, pieces of preferment in the metropolis, in the gift of the Diocesan, became vacant, and which had always been held by individuals of high character and pretensions.
Great interest was of course made to obtain this appointment; and it was reported and believed, that Royalty itself interposed, under circumstances which, in some degree, might be supposed to justify such interposition. It proved, however, ineffectual; and the Bishop, influenced by no other motive than the desire of having a zealous, active, conscientious Pastor in a very large and populous parish, wrote to the individual, the subject of this notice, and with no personal knowledge of him, and without any other recommendation than that of his professional character, offered the living to his acceptance. It was of course accepted, and the good and pious intentions of the Bishop were adequately fulfilled.
His good fortune, however, did not stop here. The character he had established was confirmed, the reputation of his professional excellence was extended, and finally, he rendered himself so acceptable to those who have it in their influence to obtain, or in their power to confer, ecclesiastical dignities, that a valuable Deanery was given; and it has indeed further been reported, that if it had been agreeable to his views and wishes, he might have obtained still higher honours.