''/I .■•^''^'*-V^' m^^^ ^■^■^■^^'■'B^^-'W- : >^ • '• >,{TT" POETEY OF THE ANTI-JACOBIN Large paper edition of this work, limited to 250 copies, each of which is ninnbered and signed by the Author, contaiti- ingan ADDITIONAL FOLIO PLATE, entitled NEW MOLALITY, or. The Promised Installment of the High Priest of the Theophilanthropists ; containing numerous por- traits and a numbered explatiatory key plate. Crown 4to, price 21/-, same publishers. POETKY OP THE ANTI-JACOBIN COMPBISING THE CELEBEATED POLITICAL AND SATIRICAL POEMS, The Rt. Hons. G. Canning, John Hookham Frere, W. Pitt, The Marquis Wellesley, G. Ellis, W. Gipford, The Earl of Carlisle, and Others. EDITED, WITH EXPLANATORY NOTES, ETC. BY CHARLES EDMONDS, EDITOR OF THE " PYTCHLEY HUNT, PAST AND PRESENT," ETC., ETC. THIRD EDITION, CONSIDERABLY ENLARGED, WITH SIX ILLUSTRATIONS Br JAMES GILLRAY. New Yoek : G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS. London: SAMPSON LOW & CO., Limited. 1890. ^^0 ^SSO 4 I i^ EDITOE'S PEEFACE. The fate which usually attends political and satirical writings that owe their origin to passing events, has in no way affected the Poetry of the Anti-Jacobin, which, after a lapse of more than ninety years, still continues to interest and amuse. Public opinion never fails, sooner or later, to arrive at a just conclusion as to the merits both of individuals and actions; and though it may often neglect to preserve a meritorious work, never perpetuates a worthless one. Poetry which lashed with so remorse- less a hand the patriotic proceedings, and held up to ridicule the persons and habits, of the most distinguished Whig leaders, must have possessed no common merit to have won the encomiums of such liberal politicians and such critics as Mackintosh and Jeffrey, Moore and Bykon. Moore, in his Life of Sheridan, observes: " The Rolliad and The Anti-JacoUn may, on their respective sides of the question, be considered as models of that style of political satire whose lightness and vivacity give it the appearance of proceeding rather from the wantonness of wit than of ill-nature, and whose very malice, from the fancy with which it is mixed up, like certain kinds of fire-works, explodes in sparkles". This criticism might be applied to some of his own political squibs. Vi POETRY OF THE ANTI-JACOBIN. As the poems refer to occurrences long since past, a rapid glance at the state of events at that time (1797-8) may render them more intelligible to the generality of readers. The affairs of England were then in a critical position. The ministry of Pitt was carrying on a fierce war with republican France, the necessity for which had split the public into two great parties. The liberal party alleged, that "the whole misfortunes of Europe and all the crimes of France had arisen from the iniquitous coalition of kings to overturn its infant freedom ; — that, if its govern- ment had been left alone, it would neither have stained its hands with innocent blood at home nor pursued plans of aggrandizement abroad ; and that the Eepublic, relieved from the pressure of external danger, and no longer roused by the call of patriotic duty, would have quietly turned its swords into pruning-hooks, and, renouncing the allurements of foreign conquests, thought only of promoting the internal felicity of its citizens ". These sentiments, though supported by the extra- ordinary eloquence of Fox, Sheridan, Erskine, and others, had but little weight with the minister or the great body of the public. It was impossible to deny that the power of the French Eepublic was daily increas- ing, and threatened the subjugation of the greater part of Europe. Buonaparte had overrun Italy, and broken the power of Austria, which, by the treaty of Leoben, was compelled to cede the Netherlands to France, allow the free navigation of the Eliine, and recognise the in- dependence of the newly-erected Italian republics. EDITOE S PEEFACE. Vll Spain, also, had declared war against Britain, which was thus left to contend singly against the power of France ; for the Directory had refused the basis of peace proposed by Loed Malmesbuey, that of a mutual restitu- tion of conquests. To add to these embarrassments, dur- ing the year 1797 credit became affected, and the Bank of England suspended cash payments ; mutinies broke out in the fleets at Spithead and the Nore ; and Ireland was on the verge of rebellion. But the talents of Pitt were equal to the occasion, and his power rose higher than ever, when his prognostications were shortly after (in December, 1797) confirmed by the unprovoked attack upon Switzerland by the French. The impolicy of this proceeding was equal to its infamy ; for nothing ever done by the revolutionary government contributed so powerfully to cool the ardour of its partisans in Europe, and to open the eyes of the intelligent and respectable classes in every other country to its ultimate designs. Its effect on the friends of freedom in England may be judged of from the indignant protest of Sie James Mackintosh, himself once a warm admirer of the French Eevolution, who, in his defence of Jean Peltiee, in 1803, for a libel on Buonapaete, declared, " the invasion and destruction of Switzerland an act, in comparison with which all the deeds of rapine and blood perpetrated in the world are innocence itself ". Even before this, the true character of the revolution had been detected by the democratic Coleeidge, who gave public utterance to his feelings of horror and disgust in that noble Ode to France written in February, 1797. In a word, to say Viii POETBY OF THE ANTI-JACOBIN. nothing of her other conquests, France, at the beginning of 1798, had three affihated repubhes at her side, the Batavian, Cisalpine, and the Ligurian ; before its close she had organized three more, the Helvetic, the Eoman, and the Parthenopeian. Pitt's influence was further increased by the threatened invasion of Great Britain by the French, a proceeding which, as it affected every class in the country, raised the national enthusiasm to the highest pitch, inflamed as it already was by the recent glorious victories off Cape St. Vincent and Camperdown. That they were likely to be in earnest had been already shown by their expedi- tions to Bantry Bay and Pembrokeshire, and Buona- parte's boast at Geneva, that " he would democratize England in three months," proved how much he relied upon the support of the malcontents both in Great Britain and Ireland. The estimates and preparations for defence were enormous ; taxes, to an extent utterly un- known before, were laid on ; the Volunteer Bill was passed (Sheridan assisting), by which, in addition to the regular army, a hundred and fifty thousand volunteers were, in a few weeks, in arms ; The King was authorized by another bill, in the event of an invasion, to call out the levy, en masse, of the population ; the Alien Bill was re- enacted ; and the suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act continued for another year. But the genius of one man, however great, can effect but little, unless suitably supported by others. The saga- cious mind of Pitt had long seen that his party in Parliament were, with very few exceptions, no match for EDITOR S PREFACE. IX his numerous opponents, powerful both in talent and social position ; among whom were Fox, Sheridan, Erskine, Horne Tooke, Whitbread, Nicholls, Courte- NAY, FiTZPATRiCK, the DuKBs of NoRFOLK and Bedford, Lord Stanhope, the Duchess of Devonshire, and others. He was always anxious, therefore, to secure whatever available talent presented itself, and immediately on their appearance enlisted under his banners Canning, Jenkin- soN, HusKissoN, and Castlereagh, all men of the same standing, for the first three were born in 1770, and the last in 1769. The important assistance of Canning was immediately felt, for he was, in the words of Byron, "a genius — almost a universal one ; an orator, a wit, a poet, a states- man ". Though he entered Parliament at the early age of 23 (in 1793), and attained the post of Under-Secretary of State for the Foreign Department two years after, he was by no means inexperienced either as a writer or as an orator ; for while a student at Eton he had won distinc- tion by his contributions to The Microcosm, a weekly paper published by the more advanced Etonians, and also in the discussions of their Debating Society, which were conducted with strict regard to parliamentary usages. And afterwards, while studying for the law, he took an active part in the proceedings of the debating societies of the metropolis, in which he achieved so much reputation as to lead to his introduction to Pitt, whose party he unhesitatingly joined. Canning early saw the necessity of the Government's possessing some literary engine, which, like the Whig X POETRY OF THE ANTI-JACOBIN. RoUiad, published some years before, should carry con- fusion into the ranks of its enemies. In a lucky hour he conceived the idea of The Ant i- Jacobin, a weekly news- paper, interspersed with poetry, the avowed object of which was to expose the vicious doctrines of the French Revolution, and to turn into ridicule and contempt the advocates of that event, and the sticklers for peace and parliamentary reform. The editor was William Gifford, whose vigorous and unscrupulous pen had been already shown in his Baviad and Mceviad ; and among the regular writers were : John Hookham Frere, Jenkinson (after- wards Earl of Liverpool), George Ellis (who had previously contributed to the Whig Rolliad), Lord Clare, Lord Mornington (afterwards Marquis Wellesley), Lord Morpeth (afterwards Earl of Carlisle), Baron Macdonald, and others. These gentlemen entered upon their task with no common spirit. Their purpose was to blacken their adversaries, and they spared no means, fair or foul, in the attempt. Their most distinguished countrymen, whose only fault was their being opposed to government, were treated with no more respect than their foreign adversaries, and were held up to public execration as traitors, blasphemers, and debauchees. So alarmed, however, became Wilberforce and others of the more moderate supporters of ministers at the boldness of the language employed, that Pitt was induced to interfere, and, after an existence of eight months. The Anti-Jacobin (in its original form) ceased to exist. The Poetry of the Anti-Jacobin is not exclusively political. The Loves of the Triangles, a parody on Dr. Darwin's Loven EDITOR S PREFACE. XI of the Plants, is, in the opinion of a celebrated critic (Lord Jeffrey) of the highest degree of merit ; as is also The Progress of Man, a parody on Payne Knight's Progress of Civil Society ; and The Rovers, a burlesque on the German dramas then in vogue, the extraordinary plots of which, as well as their language, alternately ultrasentimental and domestically bathotic, well marked them out for ridicule, is distinguished by sharp wit and broad humour of the happiest kind. Canning and his coadjutors in this piece did a real service to literature, and assisted in a purij&cation which Gifford, by his demolition of the Delia Cruscan school of poetry, had so well begun. Of The Friend of Humanity and the Knife-grinder it is unnecessary to speak ; perhaps no lines in the English language have been more effective, or oftener quoted. But Canning's greatest power is shown in New Morality, which, being the last of the series, seems to have been i-eserved as a concentrating medium for his pent-up scorn and contempt of the Whigs and their adherents. So that their blows fall thick (for he was powerfully seconded by Frere, Gifford, and Ellis), they care little who suffer from them, and the modern reader is surprised to find Charles Lamb and other non-intruders into politics, figuring as congenial conspirators with Tom Paine ! It is somewhat difficult to regard Pitt in the character of a Wit and a Poet, as from the narrative of most of his biographers, he might be considered as uniformly cold, stiff, and unbending; but his intimate friend Wilber- FORCE, in his Memoirs, thus describes him : " Pitt, when free from shyness, and amongst his intimate companions, Xll POETEY OF THE ANTI-JACOBIN. was the very soul of merriinent aud conversation. He was the wittiest man I ever knew, aud what was quite pecuhar to himself, had at all times his wit under entire controul. Others appeared struck by the unwonted association of brilliant images ; but every possible com- bination of ideas' seemed always present to his mind, and he could at once produce whatever he desired. I was one of those who met to spend an evening in memory of Shakespeare, at the Boar's Head, Eastcheap. Many professed wits were present, but Pitt was the most amusing of the party, the readiest and most apt in the required allusions." It is not, therefore, at all unlikely, that he now and then contributed witty verses to The Anti-Jacohin, in addition to those which the Editor has, on probable grounds, ascribed to him in the present volume. " Critical commentary," says a critic of the previous edition, " on the merits of The Anti-Jacohin, would be superfluous. Its satire is distinguished for the terse language of its poignant personality, which was often excessively stinging, but seldom offensively coarse. Its best contributors. Canning and Frebe, were not mere pamphleteers in verse, like the writers for The RolUad. They had poetical inspiration and a sprightly joyousness springing from a genial play of the mental faculties. They were ' Conservatives ' not only in their politics but in their loyal adherence to the ordinances and traditions of classical English literature. False sentiment, tumid diction, mawkish cant, were chastised by them with exemplary efficacy. On the fourth edition of the com- editor's preface. xiii plete work (1799, 2 Vols. 8vo, containing both prose and poetry), they placed the epigraph, Sparsosque recoUig/'t i(jnes ; and in the very last paper (No. 36), the motto on discontinuance was exquisitely happy : — " ' We shall miss thee ; But yet thou shalt have freedom. So to the elements Be free ; and fare thou well ! ' "And these lines, taken from The Tempest (probably by Canning), have been prophetic of the popularity of their witty verse, still quoted and admired by all lovers of the genius that is airily elegant and strong." CHARLES EDMONDS. Water Orton, Birmingham. ADDITIONS TO THE PEESENT EDITION. Nmnerous new Biographical and other Notes. Additions and Corrections to the List of presumed Authoks of " The Poetry ". Selections from the Prose portion of the work, written by the Rt. Hon. G. Canning and his coadjutors. Account of the various Editions of Tkc Anti-Jacohin, and its suc- cessors. Enlarged articles on the opposition Newspapers abused by The Anti'Jacohin writers. The curious Abusive and Satirical Index to The Anti-Jacohin ; and specimens of a similar Index to The Anti-Jacobm Review atid Magazine. Selections from The Anti-Jacobin Review and Magazine — the suc- cessor to The Anti-Jacobin — showing that though written by a diiierent body of Authors, both works were animated by the same spkit. EDITIONS OF THE ANTI-JACOBIN; AND ITS SUCCESSORS. The Anti-Jacobin, or Weekly Examiner. Sparsosque recolligit ignes. From Nov. 20, 1797, to July 9, 1798. 4to. ^ London. Nos. 1 to 36 ; with a Prospectus (complete). The Same. Second, and third editions, in 4to. The Same. Fourth edition, revised and corrected. 2 vols. 8vo. London, 1799. Every Number contained Poetry, the presumed Names of the Authors of which will be found in the Table of Contents of the present volume. The Poetry of the Anti-Jacobin. 4to. London, isoi. This volume includes the whole of the Poetry contained in the original Anti-Jacobin, with a few verbal corrections. Previous to its publication, it was announced that it would be illustrated by 40 plates expressly designed by GiLLRAY ; but they never appeared. Numerous editions in 12mo subsequently appeared, b\it without any additions, till those mentioned below. The Poetry of the Anti-JaCOBin. A New Edition, with Explanatory Notes by Charles Edmonds. 12mo. London, 1S52. The Same. Second edition, by Charles Edmonds ; with additional Notes, the original Prospectus (by the Rt. Hon. G. Canning), and a com- plete List of the Authors. Illustrated by six etchings after the designs of Jas. Gillray. 12mo. London, 1854. The Anti-.Jacobin Review and Magazine ; or Monthly Political and Literary Censor. From the commencement in July, 1798, to its close in 1821. (The first few vols, contain engravings by Gillray anci others, and much Poetry is scattered through the volumes.) 61 vols. 8vo. London, 1798-1821. For reasons stated on a previous page. Canning and other political friends of Pitt thought it prudent to withdraw themselves from the original Anti- Jacobin, but by a preconcerted arrangement it was determined that the spirit which had pervaded that work, and which had had so powerful an effect on the popular mind, and thereby, in connection with Gillray's caricatures, so un- doubtedly strengthened the hands of the Ministry, should not die, if it could be kept alive by other and congenial writers. In the words of Mr. Fox Bourne (in his valuable \yox]s. on English Neu-spapers, 1SS7): "Though The Anti-Jacobin made its last appearance on July 9, 1798, there was started a few days before a monthly Anti-Jacobin Review and Magazine of the same politics, but much less brilliant, and more ponderous. Strange to say, it also was edited by a Gifford, or one who so called himself. John Richards Green was a bold and versatile adventurer, who, having to fly from his creditors in 1782, returned from France in 1788, as John Gifford, and was connected with several newspapers [in- cluding the establishment of The British Critic], besides editing The Anti-Jacobin Review. [He also wrote a History of France, and other works.] Befriended in h XVlll POETBY OF THE ANTI-JACOBIN. many -ways by Pitt, he wrote a four-volume pamphlet [3 vols. 4to, and also 6 vols. Svo, both dated 1809], styled the Life of William Pitt, after his patron's death. James Mill, the friend and associate of Jeremy Bentham, was glad to earn money in his stniggling days by writing non-political articles for The Anti-Jamtjin Revinc. William Gifford, it is hardly necessary to state, besides editing Ben Jonson's Works, and other useful occupations, was the first editor of The Quarterly Revie^o in 1809." In the British Museum are two copies of The Anii- Jacobin Review and Magazine. In one of them the first six vols, contain the Names of the Authors of most of the articles, among whom are the Rev. John Wiiitaker, author of The History of Manchester, the Rev. Sam. Henshall, author of works on Domes- day Book, the Rev. C. E. Stewart, a copious poetaster, etc., and many other clergymen. The New Anti-Jacobin Review. Delenda est Carthago. Nos. 1 to 3 seem to be all that were published, and appeared May 6, June 9, and June 23, 1827 ; price two shillings each. No. 2 includes what is called a Patriot Portrait Exhibition, which is continued in No. 3. In the latter No. is also an article entitled Can-'iingiana. Published by Saunders and Otley. The New Anti-Jacobin ; a Monthly Magazine of Politics, Commerce, Science, Literature, Art, Music, and the Drama. Consists of only Nos. 1 and 2. Published by Smith, Elder, & Co., and Carpenter .] PAGE. AUTHORS. Peospectus of the Anti- Jacobin 1 Canning. Introduction 12 Canning. Inscription for the Apartment in Chepstow \ Castle, where Henry Marten, the Regicide, >• Southey. was imprisoned thirty years 16 ' Inscription for the Door of the Cell in New- 'i gate, where Mrs. Brownrigg, the Prentice- |_ Canning ^p cide, was confined previous to her execu- j ^'^r© • tion 16^ The Friend of Humanity and the Knife Grinder 23J The Invasion ; or, the British War Song 25 Hely Addington, W. La Sainte Guillotine : a New Song, attempted \ Canning ) f, from the French 29/ Hammond, B. [By Canning and Frere only.] [Meeting of the Friends of Frecdoni] 32 claimed by Frere. \ Frere ) p j/ Canning i ^' XX POETRY OF THE ANTI-JACOBIN. PAGE. AUTHORS. ( Canning (^ p The Soldier's Friend 38-! Frere l ^• ( Ellis, B. [By Canning and Frcre only.] Sonnet to Liberty 39 Lord Carlisle, B. < Quintessence of all the Dactylics that ever i Canning, B. were, or ever will be, written 41/ Gifford, W. Latin Verses, written immediately after the \ Revolution of the Fourth of September ... 43/ ^^^' ^ ®s sy- Translation of the above 45 Frere, B. [Pearce, in his Memoirs nf the Marquis Wdlesley, gives the credit of this translation to the sixth Earl of Carlisle.] The Choice ; imitated from The Battle of \ Sabla, in Carlyle's Specimens of Arabian > G. Ellis, B. Poetry 48/ The Duke and the Taxing Man 52 Bar.Macdonald,C.,B- Epigram on the Paris Loan, called the Loan "j T-. 1 1 i:A Frere, B. upon England 54J [Not claimed by Frere] Ode to Anarchy 55 Lord Morpeth, B. Song, recommended to be sung at all con- "j vivial meetings convened for the purpose > Frere, _B. of opposing the Assessed Tax Bill 58 ) [By Canning, Ellis, and Frere.] Lines written at the close of the year 1797... 61 Translation of the New Song of The Army of Eoigland 63 Epistle to the Editors of The Anti- Jacobin... 68 [This Epistle is now known to have been written by the Hon. Wm. Lamb, (afterwards second Viscount Melbourne, and Prime Minister). He was then only in his nineteenth year.] To the Author of the Epistle to the Editors of \ Canning, C. the Anti-Jacobin 7l/ HammoAd, B. Ode to Lord Moira 78 G. Ellis, C, B. A Bit of an Ode to Mr. Fox 83 [ f^erS.^' Acme and Septimius ; or, the Happy Union 88 G. Ellis, C. [Mr. Fox's Birth-Day] 90 To the Author of the Anti- Jacobin 95 1 wards^Bathurst. CONTENTS. XXI PAGE. AUTHORS. Lines written under the Bust of Charles Fox \ at the Crown and Anchor 99/ ^''^'e. B. Lines written by a Traveller at Czarcozelo ^ under the Bust of a certain Orator, once „„. „ -, -I n I. -r-^ n 1 y Cr. EUlS, B. placed between those of Demosthenes and j Cicero 99J [Jas. Boswell, jun., asserts, on the authority of the nephew of the great statesman, that the above lines were written by Pitt. This is not improbable : see Note on page 101.] ( Canning, C. The Progress of Man. Didactic Poem 102 ^ Gifford, W. ^ ( Fiere, B. [Cantos 1 and 2 by Canning only ; and Canto 23 by Canning and Frere only.] The Progress of Man, coiitimiecl 107 j- H^JJJJJJfnd B. Imitation of Bion. Written at St. Anne's ^ q. Ellis, B. Hill 111/ Gifford,'w.' The New Coalition ; Imitation of Horace, Lib. 3, Carm. 9 114 [The Honey Moon of Fux and Tookc, another version of the same by the Eev. C. E. Stewart ; published in the Anti-Jacobin Review, vol. i.] 116 Imitation of Horace, Lib. 3, Carm. 25 119 Canning, C. Chevy Chase 125 Bar.Macdonald,C.,B. Ode to Jacobinism 129 The Progress of Man, continued 133 | Frere ) ^• I G. Ellis, B. The Jacobin 141 Nares, W. The Loves of the Triangles. A Mathe- -> Frere, C. matical and Philosophical Poem 145/ Canning, B. [All but the last three lines Frcre's.'] The Loves of the Triangles, continued 158-| %^^^^' g' ^^• [Down to " Twine round his struggling heart," by Ellis. From " Thus, happy France," to " And folds the parent-monarch," by Canning, Ellis, and Frere. The next twelve lines, which were not in the/rsJ edition, 179S, were added by Canning.] Brissot's Ghost 165 Frere, B. [Not claimed by Frere.'] r Canning) B.,\V., C. The Loves of the Triangles, con^miiccZ 170-5 Gifford >G. (. Frere J C. [By Canning, Ellis, and Frere.] Xxii POETRY OF THE ANTI-JACOBIN. PAGE. AUTHORS. By Citizen Muskein 182 A Consolatory Address to his Gun-Boats. \ Lord Morpeth, B. r frere » Ode to my Country, MDCCxcviii 191-^ B. B. i" <- Hammc f Canning-! B., C. Elegy on the Death of Jean Bon St. Andre. ..185.^ Gifford ^C. ^^ l Frere J C. [By Canning, Ellis, and Frere.'i Frere )_ ^ Hammond, B. [This is not claimed by Frere.] Ode to the Director Merlin 199 Lord Morpeth, B. i Frere \ G. ElYis \^- Canning ) B. [Ace 1, Sc. 1 and 2, by FrereSong by Canning and Sllis ; Act 2, So. 1 and 3, and Act 3, by Canning ; Act 2, Sc. 2, and Act 4, by Frere, The preliminary prose by Frere and Canning.] Frere \ B. Ellis Canninc C. The Rovers ; or, the Double Arrangement, \ Gifford continued 219 1 An Affectionate Effusion of Citizen Muskein \ „ [ Lord Morpeth, B. to Havre-de-Grace -^odJ Translation of a Letter from Bawba-dara- j yjiis" I c. adulphoola, to Neek-awl-aretchidkooez .. 2391 pjy"g"Sp- [By Cannijig, Fllis, and Fi-ere.] [Buonaparte's Letter to the Commandant at Zante] 248 Ode to a Jacobin 251 Ballynahinch ; A New Song 255 Cannmg, C. De Navali Laude Britanniaa 257 Canning, B. [Translation of the above... 2604 The late^A. F. West- "- { macott.] [ Valedictory A ddress] 263 { Canning \ B New Morality 271-^ ^ffti W \ Gifford G. Ellis CONTENTS. XXm LINE. 1 From Mental Mists Frere, W. 15 Yet venial Vices, &c Canning, W. 29 Bethink thee, Gifford, &c. These lines were written by Canning some years before he had any personal acquaintance with Gifford. 71 Awake ! for shame ! Canning, W. 158 Fond Hope ! Frere, W. 168 Such is the liberal Justice Canning, W. f Frere ) 249 O ! Nurse of Crimes i Canning J- W. ( G. Ellis ) 261 See Loiivet Canning, W. 287 But hold, severer Virtue | Canning t ^• ( Frere ) 302 To thee proud Barras bows < Cannina: > W. L Ellis ^ J 318 Ere long, perhaps { ElHs"^ I '^• 328 Couriers and Stars 4 cannin<^ [ ^• 356 Britain, beware Canning, W. 372 So thine own Oak attributed to W. Pitt. "Wright, the publisher of the Anti-Jacobin, lived at 169, Piccadilly, and his shop was the general morning resort of the friends of the ministry, as Debrext'S was of the oppositionists. About the time when the Anti-Jacobin was contemplated, Owen, who had been the publisher of Burke's pamphlets, failed. The editors of the Anti-Jacobin took his house, paying the rent, taxes, &c., and gave it up to Wright, reserving to themselves the first floor, to which a communication was opened through Wright's house. Being thus enaljled to pass to their own rooms through Wright's shop, where their frequent visits did not excite any remarks, they contrived to escape particular observation." " Their meetings were most regular on Sundays, but they not unfrequently met on other days of the week, and in their rooms were chiefly written the poetical portions of the work. What was written was generally left open upon the table, and as others of the party dropped in, hints or suggestions were made ; sometimes whole passages were contributed by some of the parties present, and afterwards altered by others, so that it is almost impossible to ascertain the names of the authors. Where, in the above notes, a piece is ascribed to different authors, the conflicting statements may arise from incorrect information, but sometimes they arise from the whole authorship being assigned to one person, when, in fact, both may have contributed. If vve look at the references, 167, 185, we shall see Canning naming several authors, whereas Lord Burghersh assigns all to one author. Canning's authority is here more to be relied upon. New Morality CANNING assigns generally to the four contributors. Wright has given some interesting particulars by appropriating to each his peculiar portion." " Gifford was the working editor, and wrote most of the refutations and corrections of the Lies, Mistakes, and Misrepresentations." " The papers on finance were chiefly by Pitt : the first column was frequently kept for what he might send ; but his contributions were uncertain, and generally very late, so that the space reserved for him was sometimes filled up by other matter. He only once met the editors at Wright's." " W. Upcott, who was at the time assistant in Wright's shop, was employed as amanuen.sis, to copy out for the printer the various contributions, that the author's handwriting might not be detected." — E. Haickins. " THE RIGHT HON. GEORGE CANNING AS A MAN OF LETTERS." [The following is part of a review, under the above title, of the present editor's previous edition of The Poetry of the Anti-Jacobin, and appeared in The Edinburgh Review of July, 1858. It is reprinted in the Biographical and Critical Essays of A. Hayward, Esq., Q.C., 2 vols., 8vo., 1873. It is introduced here as throwing some additional light on the Writers of the vai-ious pieces.] "... We can hardly say of Canning's satire what was said of Sheridan's, that — " ' His wit in the combat, as gentle as bright, Never carried a heart-stain away on its blade '. But its severity was redeemed by its buoyancy and geniality, whilst the subjects against which it was principally aimed gave it a healthy tone and a sound foundation. Its happiest effusions will be found in The Anii- Jacobin, set on foot to refute or ridicule the democratic rulers of revolutionary France and their admirers or apologists in England, who, it must be owned, were occasionally hurried into a culpable degree of extravagance and laxity by their enthu- siasm. . ." " We learn from Mr. Edmonds that almost all his authorities practically resolve themselves into one, the late Mr. AV. Upcott, and that he never saw either of the alleged copies on which his informant relied. As regards the principal one, Canning's own, after the fullest inquiries amongst his surviving relatives and friends, we cannot discover a trace of its existence at any period. Lord Burghersh (the late Earl of Westmoreland) was under fourteen years of age during the publication of The Anti- Jacobin ; and we very much doubt whether either the publisher or the amanuensis (be he who he may) was admitted to the complete confidence of the contributors, or whether either the prose or poetry was composed as stated. In a letter to the late Madame de GiRARDIN, d ji'i'opos of her play, I'^^cole des Journalistes, JULES JANIN happily e;cposes the assumption that good leading articles ever were, or ever could be, produced over punch and broiled bones, amidst intoxication and revelry. Equally untenable is the belief that poetical pieces, like the best of The Anti- Jacobin, were written in the common rooms of the confraternity, open to constant intrusion, and left upon the table to be corrected or completed by the lirst comer. The unity of design discernible in each, the glowing harmony of the thoughts and images, and the exquisite finish of the versification, tell of silent and solitary hours spent in brooding over, maturing, and polishing a cherished conception ; and young authors, still unknown to fame, are least of all likely to sink their individuality in this fashion. We suspect that their main object in going to Wright's was to correct their proofs and see one another's articles in the more finished state. Their meetings, if for these purposes, would be most regular on Sundays, because the paper appeared every Monday morning. The extent to which they aided one another may be collected from a well-authenticated anecdote. When Frere had completed the first part of The Loves of the Triannles, he exultingly read over the following lines to Canning, and defied him to improve upon them : — " ' Lo, where the chimney's sooty tube ascends, The fair Trochais from the corner bends ! Her coal-black eyes upturned, incessant mark The eddying smoke, quick flame, and volant spark ; Mark with quick ken, where flashing in between. Her much-loved Smoke-Jack glimmers through the scene ; CANNING AS A MAN OF LETTEES. XXV Mark, how his various parts together tend, Point to one purpose, — in one object end ; The spiral grooves in smooth meanders flow, Drags the long chain, the polished axles glow. While slowly circuravolves the piece of beef below : ' " Canning took the pen and added — " ' The conscious flre with bickering i-adiance burns. Eyes the rich joint, and roasts it as it turns '. " These two lines are now blended with the original text, and constitute, we are informed on the best authority, the only flaw in Frere's title to the sole authorship of the First Part. The Second and Third Parts were by Canning. " By the kindness of [the late] Lord Hatherton, we have now before us a bound volume containing all the numbers of The Anti-Jamhin as they originally appeared, eight pages quarto, with double columns, price sixpence. On the fly-leaf is inscribed : ' This copy belonged to the Marquess Wellesley, and was purchased at the sale of his library after his death, January, 1842. H.' On the cover is pasted an engraved label of the arms and name of a former Ijroprietor, Charles William Flint, with the pencilled addition of ' Con- fidential Amanuensis '. In this copy Canning's name is subscribed to (amongst others) the following pieces, which are also assigned to him (along with a large share in the most popular of the rest; by the most trustworthy rumours and traditions: — Inscription for the Door of the Cell in Newfrate tohere Mrs. Brownrigg, the Prenticide, was confined previous to her execution ; The Friend of Humanity and the Knife-Grinder ; the lines addressed To the Author of the Einstle to the Editors of The Anti-Jacobin ; The Pror/rcss of Man (all three parts) ; and Neio Morality * " With the single exception of The Friend of Humanity and the Knife-Grinder, no piece in the collection is more freshly remembered than the Inscription for the Cell of Mrs. Broionrigg, who " ' A\1iipp'd two female prentices to death, And hid them in the coal-hole '. " The Answer to Tlie A uthor of the Epistle to the Editors of The Anti-Jacobin is less known, and it derives a fresh interest from the fact, recently [c. 1854] made public, that The Epistle (which appeared in The Morning Chronicle of January 17, 1798) was the composition of William Lord Melbourne. The beginning shows that the veil of incognito had been already penetrated. " ' Whoe'er ye are, all hail ! — whether the skill Of youthful Canning guides the ranc'roiis quill ; With powers mechanic far above his age, Adapts the paragraph and fills the page ; Measures the column, mends whate'er's amiss. Rejects THAT letter, and accepts of THIS ; Or Hammond, leaving his official toil. O'er this great work consume the midnight oil — Bills, passports, letters, for the Muses quit, And change dull business for amusing wit.' " After referring to ' the poetic sage, who sung of Gallia in a headlong rage,' The Epistle proceeds : — " ' I swear by all the youths that Malmesbury chose.t By Ellis' sapient prominence of nose — * On the subject of the respective authorship of the contributions to The Anti-Jacobin, see The Worhs of John Hookham Frere, in verse and prose, %oith Prefatory Memoir. Edited by his Nephews, H. and Sir Bartle Frere, and The Edin- burgh Kevieio for April, 1872, p. 47i5. t It will be i-emembered that these eminent persons were chosen by Lord Malmesbury to accompany him on his mission to Lille and were associated with him in the abortive negotiations for peace. XXVI POETRY OF THE ANTI- JACOBIN. By Moppeth's gait, important, proud and big— Bji Levesnn Gower's crop-imitating v:ig, That, could the pow'rs which in those numbers shine, Could that warm spirit animate my line, Your glorious deeds which huml)ly I rehearse — Your deeils should live immortal as my verse ; And, while they wonder'd whence I caught my flame. Your sons should blush to read their fathers' shame '. " Happily the eminent and accomplished sons of these fathers will smile, rather than blush, at this allusion to their sires, and smile the more when they remember from which side the attack proceeded. It is clear from the Answer, that, whilst the band were not a little ruffled, they had not the remotest suspicion that their assailant was a youth in his nineteenth year. Amongst other prefatory remarks they say : — " ' We assure the author of the epistle, that the answer which we have here the honour to address to him, contains our genuine and undisguised sentiments upon the merits of the poeui. " ' Our conjectures respecting the authors and abettors of this performance may possibly be as vague and unfounded as theirs are with regard to the Editors of The Anti -Jacobin. We are sorry that we cannot satisfy their curiosity upon this subject — but we have little anxiety for the gratification of our own. " ' It is only necessary to add, whati.s most con.scientiously the truth, that this production, such as it is, is 6// far ike Ust of all the attacks that the combined wits of the cause have been able to muster against The Anti-Jacobin.' " The Answer opens thus : — " ' Baud of the borrow'd lyre ! to whom belong The shreds and remnants of each hackney'd song ; ^Vllose verse thy friends in vain for wit explore, And count but one good line, in eighty-four ! Whoe'er thou art, all hail 1 Thy bitter smile Gilds our dull page, and cheers our humble toil ! ' " The ' one good line ' was ' By Leveson Gower's crop-imitating wig,' but the Epistle contains m.any equally good and some better. The .speculations as to its authorship afforded no slight amusement to the writer and his friends. . . . "New Morality is commonly regarded as the master-piece of The Anti-Jacobin ; and, with the exception of a few lines, the whole of it is by Canning. It ap- peared in the last number, and he is said to have concentrated all his energies for a parting blow. The reader who comes fresh from Dryden or Pope, or even Churchill, will be disappointed on finding far less variety of images, sparkling antithesis, or condensed brilliancy of expression. The author exhibits abundant humour and eloquence, but comparatively little wit ; i.e., if there be any truth in Sydney Smith's doctrine ' that the feeling of wit is occasioned by those relations of ideas which excite surprise, and surprise alone '. We are commonly prepared for what is coming, and our admiration is excited rather by the just- ness of the observations, the elevation of the thoughts, and the vigour of the style, than by a startling succession of flashes of fancy. If, as we believe, the same might be said of Juvenal, and the best of his English imitators, Johnson, we leave ample scope for praise ; and Neio Morality contains passages which have been preserved to our time and bid fair to reach posterity. How often are the lines on Candour quoted in entire ignorance or forgetfulness of their author. . . . " The drama of Th". Rorers, or Double Arrangement, was written to ridicule the German Drama, then hardly known in this country, except through the medium of bad translations of some of the least meritorious of Schiller's, Goethe's, and Kotzebue's productions. The parody is now principally remembered by Rogero's song, of which, Mr. Edmonds states, the first five stanzas were by Canning. "Having been accidentally seen, previously to its publication, by Pitt, he was so amused with it that he took a pen and composed the last stanza on the spot. ... CANNING AS A MAN OF LETTERS. XXVU " Canning's reputed share in The Rovers excited the unreasoning indignation, and provoked the exaggerated censure, of a man who has obtained a world-wide reputation by his historical researches, most especially by his skill in separating the true from the fabulous, and in tilling up chasms in national annals by a pro- cess near akin to that by which Cuvier inferred the entire form and structure of an extinct species from a bone. The following passage is taken from NiEBUHR'S History of the Period of the Revolution (published from his Lectures, in two volumes, in 1845) :— " ' Canning was at that time (1807) at the head of foreign affairs in England. History will not form the same judgment of him as that formed by contempo- raries. He had great talents, but was not a great Statesman ; he was one of those persons who distinguish themselves as the squires of political heroes. He was highly accomplished in the two classical languages, but without being a learned scholar. He was especially conversant with Greek writers. He had likewise poetical talent, but only for Satire. At first he had joined the leaders of opposition against Pitt's ministry : Lord Grey, who perceived his ambition, advised him, half in joke, to join the ministers, as he would make his fortune. He did so, and was eniployeil to ^vrite articles for the newspapers and satirical verses, which were often directed against his former benefactors. " ' Through the influence of the ministers he came into Parliament. So long as the great eloquence of former times lasted, and the great men were alive, his talent was admired ; but older persons had no great pleasure in his petulant, epigrammatic eloquence and his jokes, which were often in bad taste. He joined the Society of the Anti-Jacobins, which defended everything connected with existing institutions. This society published a journal, in which the most honoured names of foreign countries were attacked in the most scandalous manner. German literature was at that time little known in England, and it was associated there with the ideas of Jacol)inisui and revolution. Canning then published in The ^H(j-t/((to6ui, the most shameful pasquinade which was ever written against Germany, under the title of Matilda Pottingeu. Gottingen is described in it as the sink of all infamy ; professors and students as a gang of miscreants ; licentiousness, incest, and atheism as tlie chai'acter of the German people. Such was Canning's beginning : he was at all events useful, a sort of political Cossack' (Geschichte des Zeitalters der Revolution, vol. ii., p. :24ii). " ' Here am I,' exclaimed Raleigh, after vainly trying to get at the rights of a squabble in the courtyard of the Tower, ' employed in writing a true history of the world, when I cannot ascertain the truth of what happens under my own window.' Here is the great restorer of Roman history — who, by the \\ay, prided himself on his knowledge of England — hurrieil into the strangest misconception of contemporary events and personages, and giving vent to a series of depreciatory misstatements, without pausing to verify the assumed ground- work of his patriotic wrath. His description of ' the most shameful pasquinade," and his ignorance of the very title, prove that he had never seen it If he had, he would also have known that the scene is laid at Weimar, not at Gottingen, and that the satire is almost exclusively directed against a portion of the dramatic literature of his country, which all rational admirers must admit to be indefensible. The scene in The Rovers, in which the rival heroines, meeting for the first time at an inn, swear eternal friendship and embrace, is positively a feeble reflection of a scene in Goethe's Stdla ; and no anachronism can exceed that in Schiller's Cahal und Liebe. when Lady Milford, after declaring herself the daughter of the Duke of Norfolk who rebelled against Queen Elizabeth, is horrified on finding that the jewels sent her by the Grand Duke have been purchased by the sale of VOOO of his subjects to be employed in the American war."^ * It is surprising that the satirist's attention was not attracted to the scene in Stella, in which one of the heroines describes the rapid growth of her passion to its object: " I know not if you observed that you had enchained my interest from the first moment of our first meeting. I at least soon became .aware that your eyes sought mine. Ah, Fernando, then my uncle brought the music, you took your violin, and, as you played, my eyes rested upon you free from care. I studied every feature of your face ; and, during an unexpected pause, you fixed XXVlll POETRY OF THE ANTI-JACOBIN. " Amongst the prose contributions to The Anti-Jacobin, there is one in which, indeiiendently of direct evidence, the peculiar humour of Canning is discernible, — the pretended report of the meeting of t\v Friends of Freedom at the Crown and Anchor Tavern.* The plan wus evidently suggested by Tickell's .<4rt(ici- pation, in wliich the debate on the Address at the opening of the Session was reported beforehand with such surprising foresight, that some of the speakers, who were thus forestalled, declined to deliver their meditated orations. "At the meeting of the Friends of Fi-eedom, Erskine, whose habitual egotism could hardly bs caricatured, is made to perorate as follows, &c. . . . A long speech is given to Mackintosh, who, under the name of Macjmigus, after a fervid sketch of the Temple of Freedom which he proposes to construct on the ruins of ancient establishments, proceeds with kindling animation, &c. . . .t "The wit and fun of these imitations are undeniable, and their injustice is equally so. Erskine, with all his egotism, was, and remains, the gi'eatest of English advocates. lie stemmed and turned the tide which threatened to sweep away the most valued of our free institutions in 1794 ; and (we say ■with Lord Brougham) ' Before such a precious service as this, well may the lustre of statesmen and orators grow pale '. Mackintosh was pre-eminently distinguished by the comprehensiveness and moderation of his views ; nor could any man be less disposed by temper, habits, or pursuits towards revolutionary courses. His lectures on T/ie Law of Nature and Nations were especially directed against the new morality in general, and Godwin's Political Justice in particular. " At a long subsequent period (1807) Canning, when attacked in Parliament for his share in TKe Anti-Jacobin, declared that ' he felt no shame for its character or principles, nor any other sorrow for the share he had had in it than that whicli the imperfection of liis pieces was calculated to inspire '. Still, it is one of the inevitable inconveniences of a connection with the Press that the best known writers should be made answerable for the errors of their associates ; and the license of The Anti-Jacobin gave serious and well-founded offence to many who shared its opinions and wished well to its professed oViject. In WiLBERFORCE's Diary for May IS, 17it9, we find ' Pitt, Canning, and Pepper Arden came in late to dinner. I attacked Canning on indecency of Anti- Jacobin.' Coleridge, in his Biographia Literaria, complains bitterly of the calumnious accounts given by The Anti-Jacobin of his early life, and asks with reason, ' Is it surprising that many good men remained longer than perhaps they otherwise would have done adverse to a party which encouraged and openly rewarded the autliors of such atrocious calunmies ? ' " Mr. Edmonds says that Pitt got frightened, and that the publication was discontinued at the suggestion of the Prime Minister. It is not unlikely that Canning, now a member of the House of Commons and Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, found his connection witli it embai-rassing, as his hopes rose and his political prospects expanded. Indeed, it may be questioned whether a Parliamentary career can ever be united with that of the daily or weekly journalist without compromising one or both. At all events, the original Anti-Jacobin closed with the number containing New Moralitij, and Canning had nothing to do with the montldi/ revieio started under the same name. " your eyes upon— upon me ! They met mine ! How I blushed, how I looked away ! You observed it, Fernando ; for from that moment I felt that you looked oftener over your music-book, often played out of tune, to the dis- turbance of my uncle. Every false note, Fernando, went to my heart. It was the sweetest confusion I ever felt in my life." * The whole of this jeu d'esprit has been claimed for Frere, but on unsatis- factory evidence. It is much more in Canning's way as a student of oratory, whicli Frere was not. [t See pages 32, 34.-Ed.] THE ANTI-JACOBIN AS AN AID TO GOVERNMENT. [Considering The Anli-Jacobin from a national as well as a literary point of view, we cannot do better than nse a portion of an Essay on English Political Satires by the late Jas. Hannay, in the Quarterly Review, April, 1857.] ". . . In the case of The Anti-Jacobin, what are we to say? A hundred opinions may be adopted respecting the Fi-ench Revolution. Some hate it with unmitigated hatred. Some regret it, but accept its consequences as beneficial to mankind on the whole. Some cherish its memory as a new political revela- tion of which they hope to see still further results. But a candid man of any of these persuasions must remember that the aim of The Anti-Jacobin was to keep Britain from revolution during 1797-8. It was therefore necessary to fight as our soldiers afterwards did in Spain— to wage such a literary war as suited the agitated spirit of Europe. While we blame Canning, therefore, for speaking as he did of Madame Roland, we must not forget the indecorum of her Memoirs, or that it was from persons of her party that vile aspersions were cast upon the character of Marie Antoinette. There were men quite ready to begin the same work over here that had been done in France, and that in a spirit of vulgar imitation, and under quite different circumstances. They had to be shot down like mad dogs ; for a cur, though contemptible in ordinary cases, becomes tragic when he has hydrophobia. " For The Anti- Jacobin must be claimed an honour which can be claimed for scarce one of the works we have passed under review. Let us waive the question how much we may have owed it for helping to inspire that unity and stout insular self-confidence which carried us tlirough the great war, — whole within and impervious without, Let us consider it only in a literary point of view, and we shall find it enjoying the rare distinction that its best Satires live in real popular remembrance. The Kni/e-Grinder, with his " ' Story ! God bless you, I have none to tell, sir,' is almost as widely known as our nursery rhymes. "But if The Anti-Jacobin excels all similar works in popularity, and in the eminence of its contributors, it also excels them in another important particular. It contains on the whole a greater number of really good things than any one of them. The Loves of the Triangles, in which, " ' Th' obedient Pulley strong Mechanics ply. And wanton Optics roll the melting eye ! ' is an irresistible parody, and likely to keep the original of Darwin [Loves of the Plants] in remembrance. Gray's Odes have survived the burlesques of Colman ; and the Covntry and City Mouse of Prior and ilontague is neglected by nine- tenths of those who read with admiration the Hind and the Panther. But Darwin's case is peculiar. Other poems live in spite of ridicule ; and his Loves of the Plants in consequence of it. The Attic salt of his enemies has preserved his reputation. " There is always a purpose in The Anti- Jacobin's view something more important than the mere persiflage that teases individuals. Like the blade of Damascus, which has a verse of the Koran engraved on it, its fine wit glitters terribly in the cause of sacied tradition." DESCRIPTION OF THE PLATES. THE GIANT FACTOTUM AMUSING HIMSELF. (Frontispiece.) Pitt, with his right hand is playing at cup and ball ; the latter being a globe to denote his influence over foreign countries as well as at home. His right foot is supported by Dundas and Wilberforce, and is extended to be submissively kissed by his ministerial followers, fore- most of whom is Canning. With his left foot he has crushed the Opposition. On the same side is a document labelled "Resources for supporting the War," with a collection of coin, evidently destined for foreign subsidies. On his right side are various official returns of volunteers, seamen, regulars, and militia. He is thus prepared to carry on the war abroad, and maintain tranquillity at home. THE FRIEND OF HUMANITY ANB THE KNIFE-GRINDER. i/ Page 23 Scene, the Borough of Southwark, with a portrait of George Tier- NEY, its able and radical representative. Published Dec. 4, 1797, as a graphic illustration of the Parody of Southey's poem. The Wkloio. LORD LONGBOW, THE ALARMIST, DISCOVERING THE MISE- ^ RIES OF IRELAND Page 78 A characteristic portrait of the gallant and exxellent Earl of Moira, afterwards Marquis of Hastings, and Governor-General of India. The engraving is in ridicule of his complaint, in the House of Lords, of the cruelties exercised by the Government troops on the Irish Rebels. In the distance is seen INIoll C'oggin, an Irish witch, mounted on a black Ram with a blue tail, and on the hill an Oak-boy, carrying an uprooted oak, on the branches of which are numerous swans — in allusion to the unfounded nature of his charges. THE LOYAL TOAST Page 94 Representing the Duke of Norfolk giving at a dinner at the Crown and Anchor Tavern in honour of the birth-day of Fox his famous toast, " Our Sovereign's Health— The Majesty of the People ". On the left is John Nicholls, Member for Tregony ; next to him is the DUKE OF Bedford ; on the other side of the table are Sheridan and Fox. DESIGN FOR THE NEW GALLERY OF BUSTS AND PICTURES. ^ Page 99 The statue of Fox was placed between those of Demosthenes and Cicero, by the Kmpress Catherine of Russia, as a compHment to him for having successfully opposed the sending of the armament prepared loy Pitt, in conjunction with Prussia and Holland, to compel her to give up Ockzakow which she had seized. As this caricature, in- cluding the verses, was originally published in March, 1793, the latter in Tkt Anti-Jacobin must have been suggested by them. THE REPUBLICAN RATTLESNAKE FASCINATING THE BEDFORD SQUIRREL Page 285 In allusion to the influence exercised by Fox over Francis, fifth Duke of Bedford, who had become one of the most zealous of the popular party. V PEOSPECTUS OF THE ANTI-JACOBIN; OR, WEEKLY EXAMINER, The First Number of which will be published on Monday, the 20th of November, 1797, to be contiaued every Monday during the sittmg of Parliament. Price 6d. Possit quid vivida virtus Experiure, licet : nee longe scilicet hostes Qucerendi. At a moment, v^hen whatever may be the habits of inquiry and the anxiety for information upon subjects of pubHc concern diffused among all ranks of people, the vehicles of intelligence are already multiplied in a pro- portion nearly equal to this encreased demand, and to the encreased importance and variety of matter, some apology may perhaps be necessary for the obtrusion of a new Paper upon the World; and some account may reasonably be expected of the views and principles on which it founds its pretensions to notice, before it can hope to make its way through the crowd of competitors which have gotten the start of it in the race for public favour. [As this Prospectus was written by Mr. Canning, and it has been prefixed only to the former edition of the Pontnj by the present Editor, it is again con- sidered an interesting addition to the present one.] 1 ii PROSPECTUS OF The grounds upon which such pretensions have usually been rested by those who have engaged in undertakings of this kind, are accuracy, variety, and priority of Intelligence, connections at home, corre- spondence abroad, and, above all, a profession of impartial and unprejudiced attention to all opinions, and to all parties and descriptions of men. On none of these Topicks is it Our intention to enlarge. Of Our means of information, and of the use which We make of them, our readers will, after a very short trial; be enabled to form their own opinion. And to that trial We confidently commit ourselves : professing, however, at the same time, that if the only advantage which We were desirous of holding but to our Eeaders, were that of having it in our power to apprize them an hour or a day sooner than those Journals, which are already in their hands, of any event however important — We should bring to the undertaking much less anxiety for success, and should state our claims on public atten- tion with much less boldness, than We are disposed to do in the consciousness of higher purposes, and more beneficial views. Novelty indeed We have to announce. For what so new in the present state of the daily and weekly Press (We speak generally, though there are undoubtedly exceptions which we may have occasion to point out hereafter) . as the Truth? To this object alone it is that Our labours are dedicated. It is the constant vio- lation, the disguise, the perversion of the Truth, whether in narrative or in argument, that will form the principal subject of our Weekly Examination : and it is by a diligent and faithful discharge of this duty — by detecting THE ANTI-JACOBIN. 6 falsehood, and rectifying error, by correcting misrepresen- tation, and exposing and chastising mahgnity — that We hope to deserve the reception which We sohcit, and to obtain not only the approbation of the Country to our attempt, but its thanks for the motives which have given birth to it. These are strong words. But We are conscious of intending in earnest what they profess. How far the execution of our purpose may correspond with the design, it is for others to determine. It is ours to state that design fairly, and in the spirit in which we conceive it. Of the utility of such a purpose, if even tolerably executed, there can be little doubt, among those persons (a very large part of the community) who must have found themselves, during the course of the last few years, perplexed by the multiplicity of contradictory accounts of almost every material event that has occurred in that eventful and tremendous period ; and who must anxiously have wished for some public channel of information on which they could confidently rely for forming their opinion. But before We can expect sufficient credit from persons of this description, to enable us to supply such a defect, and to assume an office so important, it is natural that they should require some profession of our principles as well as of our purposes ; in order that they may judge not only of our ability to communicate the information which We promise, but of our intention to inform them aright. To that freedom from jiartialitij and prejudice, of which ,We have spoken above, by the profession of which so many of our Contemporaries recommend themselves, We * PROSPECTUS OF make little pretension — at least in the sense in which those terms appear now too often to be used. We have not arrived (to our shame perhaps we avow it) at that wild and unshackled freedom of thought, which rejects all habit, all wisdom of former times, all restraints of ancient usage, and of local attachment ; and which judges upon each subject, w^hether of politicks or morals, as it arises, by lights entirely its own, without reference to recognized principle, or established practice. We confess, whatever disgrace may attend such a con- fession, that We have not so far gotten the better of the influence of long habits and early education, not so far imbibed that spirit of liberal indifference, of diffused and comprehensive philanthropy, which distinguishes the candid character of the present age, but that We have our feelings, our preferences, and our affections, attach- ing on particular places, manners, and institutions, and even on particular portions of the human race. It may be thought a narrow and illiberal distinction — but We avow ourselves to be partial to the Country in wMcJi we live, notwithstanding the daily panegyricks which we read and hear on the superior virtues and endowments of its rival and hostile neighbours. We are prejudiced in favour of lier Establishments, civil and religious ; though without claiming for either that ideal perfection, which modern philosophy professes to discover in the other more luminous systems which are arising on all sides of us. The safety and prosperity of these kingdoms, however unimportant they may seem iw abstract contemplation when compared with the more extensive, more beautiful, and more productive parts of the world, do yet excite in THE ANTI-JACOBIN, our minds a peculiar interest and anxiety ; and will pro- bably continue to occupy a share of our attention by no means justified by the proportional consequence which speculative reasoners may think proper to assign fo them in the scale of the universe. We should be averse to hazarding the smallest part of the practical happiness of this Country; though the sacrifice should be recommended as necessary for accom- plishing throughout the world an uniform and beautiful system of theoretical liberty : and We should at all times exert our best endeavours for upholding its constitution, even with all the human imperfections which may belong to it, though We were assured that on its ruins might be erected the only pillar that is yet wanting to complete the '^most glorious fahric.h loliicli the Integrity and Wisdom of man have raised since tlie Creation ". If, as Philosopher Monge* avers, in his eloquent and instructive address to the Directory, " The Government of England and the French Eepnblick cannot exist together," We do not hesitate in our choice ; though well aware that in that choice we may be much liable, in the opinion of many critics of the present day, to the imputation of a want of candour or of discernment. [* A very eminent Mathematician and Physicist, and the inventor of descriptive geometry; born in 1746. In 1792 he was appointed Minister of Marine ; and afterwards took an active jjart in the eq[mpment of the Army. After founding the £cole Polytcchnique, he was sent into Italy to receive the pictures and statues seized by Buonaparte. He then joined the expedition to Egypt, and rendered great service both in the war operations and in the labours of the Egyptian Institute, the results of which were pubhshed by command of Napoleon in that magnificent and extensive work the DescriiMon de VEgyi)te. He died in 1818.— En.] 6 PEOSPECTUS OF Admirers of military heroism, and dazzled by military success in common with other men, We are yet even here conscious of some qualification and distinction in our feelings : We acknowledge ourselves apt to look with more complacency on bravery and skill, when displayed in the service of our Country, than when We see them directed against its interests or its safety ; and, however equal the claims to admiration in either case may be. We feel our hearts grow warmer at the recital of what has been atchieved by Howe, by Jervis, or by Duncan, than at the ''glorious victory of Jemappe" or ''the immortal battle of the bridge of Lodi ". In Mobals We are equally old-fashioned. We have not yet learned the modern refinement of referring in all considerations upon human conduct, not to any settled and preconceived principles of right and wrong, not to any general and fundamental rules which experience, and wisdom, and justice, and the common consent of man- kind have established, but to the internal admonitions of every man's judgment or conscience in his own particular instance. We do not dissemble, — that We reverence Law, — We acknowledge Usage, — We look even upon Peescbiption without hatred or horror. And we do not think these, or any of them, less safe guides for the moral actions of men, than that new and liberal system of Ethics, whose operation is not to bind but to loosen the bands of social order ; whose doctrine is formed not on a system of recip- rocal duties, but on the supposition of individual, inde- pendent, and unconnected rights ; which teaches that all men are pretty equally honest, but that some have different notions of honesty from others, and that the THE ANTI- JACOBIN. 7' most received notions are for the greater part the most faulty. We do not subscribe to the opinion, that a sincere con- viction of the truth of no matter what principle, is a suffi- cient defence for no matter what action ; and that the only business of moral enquiry with human conduct is to ascertain that in each case the principle and the action agree. We have not yet persuaded ourselves to think it a sound, or a safe doctrine, that every man who can divest himself of a moral sense in theory, has a right to be with impunity and without disguise a scoundrel in practice. It is not in our creed, that Atheism is as good a faith as Christianity, provided it be pro- fessed with equal sincerity ; nor could we admit it as an excuse for Murder, that the murderer was in his own mind conscientiously persuaded that the murdered might for many good reasons be better out of the way. Of all these and the like principles, in one word, of JACOBINISM in all its shapes, and in all its degrees, political and moral, public and private, whether as it openly threatens the subversion of States, or gradually saps the foundations of domestic happiness, We are the avowed, determined, and irreconcileable enemies. We have no desire to divest ourselves of these inveterate prejudices ; but shall remain stubborn and incorrigible in resisting every attempt which may be made either by argument or (what is more in the charitable spirit of modern reformers) by force, to convert us to a different opinion. It remains only to speak of the details of our Plan. 8 PBOSPECTUS OF It is our intention to publish Weekly, during the Ses- sion of Parliament, a Paper, containing, First, An Abstract of the important events of the week, both at home and abroad. Secondly, Such Eeflections as may naturally arise out of them : and. Thirdly, A contradiction and confutation of the false- hoods and misrepresentations concerning these events, their causes, and their consequences, which may be found in the Papers devoted to the cause of Sedition and Irbeligion, to the pay or principles of France. This last, as it is by far the most important, will in all probability be the most copious of the three heads ; and is that to which, above all others. We wish to direct the attention of our Eeaders. We propose diligently to collect, as far as the range of our own daily reading will enable us, and we promise willingly to receive, from whatever quarter they may come, the several articles of this kind which require to be thus contradicted or confuted ; which will naturally divide themselves into different classes, according to their different degrees of stupidity or malignity. There are, for instance (to begin with those of the highest order), the Lies of the Week ; the downright, direct, unblushing falsehoods, which have no colour or foundation whatever, and which must at the very moment of their being written, have been known to the writer to be wholly destitute of truth. Next in rank come Misrepresentations which, taking for their ground-work facts in substance true, do so colour and distort them in description, as to take away all semblance of their real nature and character. THE ANTI-JACOBIN. 9 Lastly, The most venial, though by no means the least mischievous class, are Mistakes ; under which descrip- tion are included all those Hints, Conjectures, and Ap- prehensions, those Anticipations of Sorrow and Depre- cations of Calamity, in which Writers who labour under too great an anxiety for the Public Welfare are apt to indulge ; and which, when falsified by the event, they are generally too much occupied to find leisure to retract or disavow : — A trouble which We shall have great pleasure in taking off these Gentlemen's hands. To each of these several articles We shall carefully affix the name and date of the Publication from which We may take the liberty of borrowing it. With regard to the Proceedings in Parliament, We shall not fail to mark to Our Eeaders the progress of the public business ; though it does not enter into our Plan to give a regular detail of the Debates : nor would the limits of our Paper allow of it. We have a further reason for not occupying this pro- vince, which will equally account for our determination, not to receive Advertisements — our earnest desire not to lessen the circulation of any existing Public Print. It is obvious upon every ground of fairness and of policy, that We must entertain this desire very strongly with regard to the respectable Papers which are directed by principles and attachments like our own : an attach- ment (We have no wish to disguise it) to the cause of a Government, with whose support, whose popularity and consequent means of exertion, the circumstances of the present times have essentially connected the existence of THIS Country as an independent Nation. 10 PROSPECTUS OF As little should we wish to circumscribe the sale of those Journals, upon whose errors or perverseness, upon whose false statements and pernicious doctrines We reckon for the main support, as they have been the principal cause of our undertaking. These We would entreat to proceed with fresh vigour and increased activity. It is our wish to be seen together, and to be compared with them. Every week of misrepresentation will be followed by its weekly comment ; and with this corrective faithfully administered, the longest course of Morning Chronicles or Morning Posts, of Stars or Couriers, may become not only innocent but beneficial. With these views then We commence our undertaking. Whatever may be the success or the merit of its execution in our hands, the want of something like it has so long been felt and deplored by all thinking and honest men, that We cannot doubt of the approbation and encouragement with which the attempt will be received. We claim the support, and We invite the assistance, of ALL, who think with us that the circumstances and character of the age in which We live require every exer- tion of every man, who loves his country in the old way, in which till of late years the love of one's country was professed by most men, and by none disclaimed or reviled ; of all who think that the Press has been long enough employed principally as an engine of destruction, and who wish to see the experiment fairly tried whether that engine, by which many of the States which surround us have been overthrown, and others shaken to their foundations, may not be turned into an instrument of defence for the one remaining Country which has Estab- lishments to protect, and a Government with the spirit, THE ANTI-JACOBIN. 11 and the power, and the wisdom to protect them ; of all who look with respect to pubUc honour, and with attach- ment to the decencies of private life ; of all who have so little deference for the arrogant intolerance of Jacobinism as still to contemplate the office and the person of a King with veneration, and to speak reverently of Ee- LiGiON, without apologizing for the singularity of their opinions ; of all who think the blessings which we enjoy valuable, and who think them in danger ; and who, while they detest and despise the principles and the professors of that NEW FAITH by which the foundations of all those blessings are threatened to be undermined, lament the lukewarmness with which its propagation has hitherto been resisted, and are anxious, while there is yet time, to make every effort in the cause of their country. Published by J. Wright, No. 169, opposite Old Bond Street, Piccadilly : by whom Orders for the Papers, and all Communications of Correspondents, addressed to the Editor of the Anti-Jacobin, or Weekly Examiner, will be received. Sold also by all the Booksellers and Newsmen in Town and Country. POETEY OF THE ANTI-JACOBIN. No. I. INTEODUCTION. Nov. 20, 1797. In our anxiety to provide for the amusement as well as information of our readers, we have not omitted to make all the inquiries in our power for ascertaining the means of procuring poetical assistance. And it would give us no small satisfaction to be able to report that we had succeeded in this point precisely in the manner which would best have suited our own taste and feelings, as well as those which we wish to cultivate in our readers. But whether it be that good Morals, and what we should call good Politics, are inconsistent with the spirit of true Poetry — whether ^Hlie Muses still roith freedom found" have an aversion to regular governments, and require a frame and system of protection less complicated than king, lords, and commons : — " Whether primordial nonsense springs to life* In the wild war of democratic strife," and there only — or for whatever other reason it may be, whether physical, or moral, or philosophical (which last [* Parodied from Pa;)'ne Ivnight's poem, " The Progress of Civil Society," which is admirably ridiculed in No. XV. 2^ost. — Ed.] THE ANTI-JACOBIN. 13 is understood to mean something more than the other two, though exactly what, it is difficult to say), we have not been able to find one good and true Poet, of sound principles and sober practice, upon whom we could rely for furnishing us with a handsome quantity of sufficient and approved verse — such verse as our readers might be expected to get by heart, and to sing; as the worthy philosopher Mongb describes the little children of Sparta and Athens singing the songs of Freedom, in expectation of the coming of the Great Nation. In this difficulty we have had no choice but either to provide no poetry at all — a shabby expedient — or to go to the only market where it is to be had good and ready made, that of the Jacobins — an expedient full of danger, and not to be used but with the utmost caution and delicacy. To this latter expedient, however, after mature deliberation, we have determined to have recourse ; qualifying it at the same time with such precautions as may conduce at once to the safety of our readers' principles, and to the improvement of our own poetry. For this double purpose, we shall select from time to time from among those effusions of the Jacobin Muse which happen to fall in our way, such pieces as may serve to illustrate some one of the principles on which the poetical as well as the political doctrine of the New School is established— prefacing each of them, for our readers' sake, with a short disquisition on the particular tenet intended to be enforced or insinuated in the produc- tion before them — and accompanying it with an humble effort of our own, in imitation of the poem itself, and in further illustration of its principle. 14 POETRY OF By these means, though we cannot hope to catch " tlie ivood-notes 'wild" oi the Bards of Freedom, we may yet acquh-e, by dint of repeating after them, a more complete knowledge of the secret. in which their greatness lies than we could by mere prosaic admiration ; and if we cannot become poets ourselves, we at least shall have collected the elements of a Jacohin Art of Poetry for the use of those whose genius may be more capable of turning them to advantage. It might not be unamusing to trace the springs and principles of this species of poetry, which are to be fo-und, some in the exaggeration, and others in the direct inver- sion of the sentiments and passions which have in all ages animated the breast of the favourite of the Muses, and distinguished him from the "vulgar throng ". The poet in all ages has despised riches and grandeur. The Jacobin poet improves this sentiment into a hatred of the rich and the great. The poet of other times has been an enthusiast in the love of his native soil. The Jacohin poet rejects all restriction in his feelings. His love is enlarged and expanded so as to comprehend all human kind. The love of all human kind is without doubt a noble passion : it can hardly be necessary to mention that its operation extends to freemen, and them only, all over the world. The old poet was a warrior, at least in imagination ; and sung the actions of the heroes of his country in strains which "made Ambition Virtue," and which over- whelmed the horrors of war in its glory. The Jacol)in poet would have no objection to sing iDattles too — but lie would take a distinction. The THE ANTI-JACOBIN. 15 prowess of Buonaparte, indeed, be might chant in his loftiest strain of exultation. There we should find no- thing but trophies and triumphs and branches of laurel and olive, phalanxes of Eepublicans shouting victory, satellites of despotism biting the ground, and geniuses of Liberty planting standards on mountain-tops. But let his own country triumph, or her allies obtain an advantage : straightway the " beauteous face of war " is changed ; the " pride, pomp, and circumstance " of victory are kept carefully out of sight, and we are presented with nothing but contusions and amputations, plundered peasants, and deserted looms. Our poet points the thunder of his blank verse at the head of the recruiting serjeant, or roars in dithyrambics against the lieutenants of pressgangs. But it would be endless to chase the coy Muse of Jacobinism through all her characters. Mille hahet orna- ttis. The Alille decenter hahet is perhaps |more question- able. For in whatever disguise she appears, whether of mirth or of melancholy, of piety or of tenderness ; under all disguises, like Sir John Brute in woman's clothes, she is betrayed by her drunken swagger and ruffian tone. In the poem which we have selected for the edification of our readers and our own imitation this day, the principles which are meant to be inculcated speak so plainly for themselves, that they need no previous introduction. 16 POETRY OF INSCEIPTION* For the Apartment in Chepstow Castle, where Henry Marten, the Regicide, ivas imprisoned thirty years. For thirty years secluded from mankind Here Marten lingered. Often have these walls Echoed his footsteps, as with even tread He paced around his prison : not to him Did Nature's fair varieties exist ; He never saw the sun's delightful beams, Save when through yon high bars he pour'd a sad And broken splendour. Dost thou ask his crime ? He had eebell'd against the King, and sat In judgment on him ; for his ardent mind Shaped goodliest plans of happiness on earth. And peace and liberty. Wild dreams ! but such As Plato loved ; such as with holy zeal Our Milton worshipp'd. Blessed hopes ! awhile From man withheld, even to the latter days When Christ shall come, and all things be fulfill'd ! imitation. INSCEIPTION For the Door of the Cell in Newgate, where Mrs. Broionrigg, the ' Prentice-cidc, ivas confined previous to her Execution. For one long term, or e'er her trial came. Here Brownrigg linger'd. Often have these cells Echoed her blasphemies, as with shrill voice She screamed for fresh Geneva. Not to her Did the blithe fields of Tothill, or thy street, [* By SOUTHEY.— Ed.] THE ANTI-JACOBIN. 17 St. Giles, its fair varieties expand ; Till at the last, iu slow-drawn cart she went To execution. Dost thou ask her crime? She whipp'd two female 'prentices to death, And hid them in the coal-hole. For her mind Shaped strictest plans of discipline. Sage schemes ! Such as Lycurgus taught, when at the shrine Of the Orthyan goddess he hade flog The little Spartans ; such as erst chastised Our Milton when at college. For this act Did Brownrigg swing. Harsh laws ! But time shall come When France shall reign, and laws be all repeal'd ! [Mrs. Elizabeth Brownrigg was executed at Tyburn on Monday, 14th Sept., 1767, for murdering one of her apprentices, Mary Clifford.— Ed.] [Henry Marten was one of the most interesting and remarkable of the Regicides, not only from his abilities and consistent honesty, but from the elegance of his manners, his wit, and the fascinating gaiety of his conversation ; and, moreover, from his humane disposition and generosity to fallen foes. His private life, however, was disgraced by the most reckless debauchery, which might seem more appropriate in such libertines as Rochester and Sedley than in a coadjutor of the strict Puritan party. But from a note in Grey's edition of Hadibrw, pt. ii., ch. i., p. 313, it would appear that the general opinion at that time was that profligacy of a pronounced character was indulged in privately by more than a few of that sanctimoniotis sect. He was the son of Sir Henry Marten, LL.D., a loyal Judge of the Admiralty. After receiving a learned education at Oxford, he entered one of the Inns of Court, and travelled in France. Having a stake in Berkshire — for he inherited a property of £3000 a year, besides several thousand pounds in money — he was elected, 1(540, one of the members for the county in the last two Parlia- ments of King Charles I. His chief seat was at Becket, iu the parish of Shriven- ham. He afterwards obtained a grant of £1000 a year to him and his heirs out of the forfeited estates of the Duke of Buckingham. His early marriage with a rich widow, selected by his father, but not affected by himself, also benefited his finances. From the commencement of the Civil Wars he was a violent Republican ; and as early as 1643 openly expressed his opinion of the desirability of the destruction of the King and his children, for which rather premature advice he was expelled the House of Commons, and underwent a short imprisonment in the Tower. He was appointed by the House of Commons a Colonel of Horse and Goveinor of Reading, but made less mark as a soldier than as a rapacious spoiler of the adherents of the King, which earned him the oppro- bnous nickname of " Plunder-master General". Being empowered to dispose of the Regalia and royal trappings, he once invested George Wither — who had been made one of Cromwell's Major- Generals— with them, and so accoutred induced the old Poet to strut up and down Westminster Abbey to the scandal of right-thinking people. 2 18 POETRY OF To him also were refevrecl the alterations in the public arms, the Great Seal, and the legends upon the money. Upon the latter was a shield bearing the cross of St. George, encircled by a palm and olive branch, and inscribed The Cninmonirtalt/c of Biigkuul, and on the reverse, God with m.«, lOltS ; which occasioned the remark "that God and the Commonwealth were not on the same side ". Nothing apparently could damp the ill-timed jocosity too often prevalent in those troublous times, for at Marten's trial, ICth October, 16i!0, Ewer, who had been his servant, swore that "at the signing of the warrant for the King's execution Ue did see a pen in Mr. Cromwell's hand, and he marked Mr. Marten in the face with it, and Mr. Marten did the like to him ". But many of his excesses were condoned in the eyes of both his friends and enemies by his generous and humane spirit. D'Israeli, in his Commentaries on the Life and lieif/n of Charles J., describes the ingenious way in which Marten saved the life of David Jenkins, a loyal and obstinate Welsh judge, who, when brought to the bar of the House of Commons to answer for imprisoning several persons for bearing arms against the King, peremptorily disowned their jurisdiction, and defied them in the following bold terms : " ' But, Mr. Speaker, since you and this House have renounced your allegiance to your Sovereign, and are become a den of thieve.^, should I bow myself in this House of Rimmon the Lord would not pardon nie '. The whole House were electrified. . . . He was voted guilty of high treason without any trial. The day of execution was then debated. Harry Marten, who had not yet spoken, rose, not to dissent from the vote of the House, he observed, but he had something to say about the time of the execution. ' Mr. Speaker,' said he, ' everyone must believe that this old gentleman here is fully possessed in his head resolved to die a martyr in his cause, for other- wise he would never have provoked the House by such biting expressions. If you execute him, you do precisely that which he hopes for, and his execution will have a great influence over the people, since he is condemned without a jury. I therefore move that we should suspend the day of execution, and in meantime force him to live in spite of his teeth.' The drollery of the motion put the House into better humour, and he was reprieved. After being kept in various prisons for eleven years, he was released by Cromwell, and died in 1663, aged eighty-one." Another instance may be given of Marten's felicitous humour and humane temper. When the Commons had rid themselves of the Sovereign, the;/ coted the Lords to he dangerous and useless. But MARTEN proposed an amendment in their favour ; namely, that they loere useless, but not deingerous. His speeches in the House were represented to have been not long, "but wondrous poynant, pertinent, and witty. He was exceedingly apt in apt instances ; he alone hath sometimes turned the whole House." He wrote several tracts on parliamentary subjects, and Verses on the Death of his Nephew, Cliarles Edmonds, 7thJidii, IdJl, ivt. 30. But the most amusing of the publications bearing his name is one entitled Familieir Letters to his Lady of Delight; also her kinde Returnes : with his Rivedl R. Ptttingall's Heroiecdl Epistles. Printed by Edmundus de Speciosa Villa [i.e., Edmund Gayton]. Bellositi Dobunonini [Oxford], 1662 and 1663, 4to. Another edition, with additions, appeared in 1685. "These epistles," says D'Israeli, " paint to the life the loose habits and cspiegleries of this witty profligate ; and I think they have been referred to by some inconsiderate writers as a genuine correspondence." They were pro- bably altogether concocted by Gayton. He was severely attacked in various scurrilous lampoons, some of which are printed among the Rump Songs, 1662. On his trial he was found guilty and sentenced to death ; but the good feeling created among many who had in his prospeious days enjoyed his society and hospitality, and even among many of his former opponents by his generous treatment of them when in dangei-, stood him in good stead, and it was by a well-timed and humorous appeal to the Judges — such as he himself might have used— that his life was saved. Henry, fourth Viscount Falkland, whose virtuous and heroic father fell at the first Battle of Newbury while fighting for the King, said to the Judges : " Gentlemen, ye talk here of making a sacrijice : it was old law that all sacrifices were to be without spot or blemish ; THE ANTI-JACOBIN. 19 and now you are going to make an old rotten rascal a sacrifice ". This piece of wit pleased his Judges, and his sentence was commuted to imprisonment for life. He was confined in Chepstow Castle, Monmouthshire, for twenty years, and died in September, 1680, aged seventy-eight. He must have felt some contrition for his vicious life, for some time before his death he made this epitaph, by way of acrostic, on himself ; H ere, or elsewhere (all's one to you, to me), E arth, air, or water gripes my ghostly dust, N one knowing when brave fire shall set it free. R eader, if you an oft tryed rule will trust, Y ou'll gladly do and suffer what you must. M y life was worn with serving you and you, A nd now death's my pay, it seems, and welcome too. R avenge destroying but itself, while I T o birds of prey leave my old cage, and fly. K xaniples preach to the eye, care (then mine says) N ot how you end, but how you spend your days. " In Cromwell's time Chepstow C.4.stle served as a place of imprisonment for Jeremy Taylor ; and, after the Restoration, it leceived a less illustrious occupant in the person of Harry Marten, the Regicide, whose imprisonment here has attracted more than its share of notice in consequence of the foolish lines written by Southey in his days of republicanism and pantisocracy, but which are as untrue in fact as they are mischievous in sentiment. As to the fact, it is notorious that Marten— at all events after the first few years of his imprisonment — was little more than a prisoner on parole ; allowed to visit the neighbouring gentry, and occupying at Chepstow Castle, with his family and servants, spacious and comfortable apartments in the tower which still bears his name. As to the sentiment, the lines received their best antidote in the clever parody of Canning and Frere in The Anti-Jacobin." — Anneda of Chexistow CaMlr, by J. P. Marsh, 1883 ; 4to. 20 POETKY OF No. II. Nov. 27, 1797. In the specimen of Jacobin Poetry which we gave in our last number was developed a principle, perhaps one of the most universally recognised in the Jacobin creed ; namely, " that the animadversion of human law upon Jmman actions is for the most part nothing but fp'oss oppression ; and that, in all cases of the administration of criminal justice, the truly benevolent mind will consider only the severity of the punishment, without any reference to the maliijniti/ of the crime ". This principle has of late years been laboured with extraordinary industry, and brought forward in a variety of shapes, for the edification of the public. It has been inculcated in bulky quartos, and illustrated in popular novels. It remained only to fit it with a poetical dress, which had been attempted in the Inscription for Chepstow Castle, and which (we flatter ourselves) was accomplished in that for Mrs. Brownrigg's Cell. Another principle, no less devoutly entertained, and no less sedulously disseminated, is the natural arid eternal warfare of the poor and the rich. In those orders and gradations of society, which are the natural result of the original difference of talents and of industry among man- kind, the Jacobin sees nothing but a graduated scale of violence and cruelty. He considers every rich man as an oppressor, and every person in a lower situation as the victim of avarice, and the slave of aristocratieal insolence and contempt. These truths he declares THE ANTI-JACOBIN. 21 loudly, not to excite compassion, or to soften the con- sciousness of superiority in the higher, but for the pur- pose of aggravating discontent in the inferior orders. A human being, in the lowest state of penury and dis- tress, is a treasure to the reasoner of this cast. He con- templates, he examines, he turns him in every possible light, with a view of extracting from the variety of his wretchedness new topics of invective against the pride of property. He, indeed (if he is a true Jacobin), refrains from relievliig the object of his compassionate contempla- tion ; as well knowing that every diminution from the general mass of human misery must proportionably diminish the force of his argument. This principle is treated at large by many authors. It is versified in sonnets and elegies without end. We trace it particularly in a poem by the same author [SoutheyJ from whom we borrowed our former illustra- tion of the Jacobin doctrine of crimes and punishments. In this poem, the pathos of the matter is not a little relieved by the absurdity of the metre. We shall not think it necessary to transcribe the whole of it, as our imitation does not pretend to be so literal as in the last instance, but merely aspires to convey some idea of the manner and sentiment of the original. One stanza, how- ever, we must give, lest we should be suspected of paint- ing from fancy, and not from life. The learned reader will perceive that the metre is Sapphic, and affords a fine opportunity for his scanning and proving, if he has not forgotten them. Cold was the night wind ; drifting fast the sn5ws fell ; Wl:le wgre the downs, and shelterless and naked : 22 POETEY OF When a poor wand'rer struggled on her journey, Weary and way-sore.* [* The original poem, by Southey, is here subjoined : — THE WIDOW. Cold was the night wind ; drifting fast the snows fell ; Wide were the downs, and shelterless and naked ; When a poor wand'rer struggled on her journey, Weary and way-sore. Drear were the downs, more dreary her reflections ; Cold was the night wind, colder was her bosom : She had no home, the world was all before her, She had no shelter. Fast o'er the heath a chariot rattled by her : " Pity me ! " feebly cried the poor night wanderer. " Pity me, strangers ! lest with cold and hunger Here I should perish. . "Once I had friends — but they have all forsook me ! • Once I had parents — they are now in heaven ! I had a home once — I had once a hiisband — Pity me, strangers ! " I had a home once — I had once a husband — I am a widow, poor and broken-hearted ! " Loud blew the wind, unheard was her complaining ; On drove the chariot. Then on the snow she laid her down to rest her ; She heard a horseman : " Pity me ! " she groaned out. Loud was the wind, unheard was her complaining; On went the horseman. Worn out with anguish, toil, and cold and hunger, Down sunk the wanderer ; sleep had seized her senses Thei'e did the traveller find her in the morning — God had released her.] 1796. TLFBIEND of HVMANITT ound. t/ie.KS7FE-G]UNDER.-S^^^.Th^Borou^i. vn. Imitatum^ofM!^Southiys Sapphics ■WHe.Aii'yiMjim .^15. Krienlflf rtMiv?_'W«(fy/Giu£^rMu^/w^uJfAw art yswgoing^ .. 'R'3ugk\£6)t,nrv.i..yom\Yh£di^ out cf crdsr. So hjivt ymvrBnechiSf S. m £• S^ 2 I'V}^ 171- Uwr ayoihis rvll ahrtg Ow tufi^nfuhi^- road vMchtsrdMfUTK. 'tis c^in^ all diW- "Krwivs witi 'Sci/sar: tcgnrdO^" * Tell TTu> /Giffr-yrvjir, htvamijcw to^rvnJ. Atjmcs? Was it ihi, Sq^ar&?orJ^arsaTi tf O-^Peunsh* Or th^Aitrm^^ "Was it tht'Si^wt^fhrh^^in^afJusGam&'Sar Or '/•oyiuskLawytr mads^yvn h^-tyaw (wit^ ^^ AH iffh dhm-Kuib'? Hr-cps ofocrn^>a/sim Vra^nM£ cm,rrty eyc-luis, Jhjidy (cfiill, at scow as you A^v^ to^jycur J^tU/Usttry'* l^xiiSe^-^nndsx.J'StffryLGoihhlsyou,! Jhax^erunu C? ml ,Sir, , Onfy^sCru^hta'drmkiri^ at OwChiq^uiTS, I — T?usfMvr oidHat'arid.Brmhis.asy(ncse£,.w(re' Tom m a $cu^. ._ "OmstaiUs camL uf> fvr to tah, ttil imto , . Custoiy. ^ &>ciimc bifirc. lAcJusticc ; , JujtU£.0\Amixfm put 77i£. i/i Sw PansKr - Stodts -fur a Va^rcuntt . ' fshauHic^LuLto dnnk.yaurJ£yrwurfhwMiTa A fbt of Beer if you. u-au^d ^iucrn/- S^x^x/ice,; ^u£f^rnypartJn£i>erwuetome/Wju WUkPoiiUcs Sv." A^iend f>f Huml T^hk^ Sirfimcef IwtU'Sec Oiit dojmmj^ {i^. — \Vrd£k'\»Jhhm'no stASf of wrm^s mnrvujt to'ucr^ ScT^ unjtdinq.reftnAak.dsffraSiil, -^^m* Spiniys outcast ! (IGdcs ttf Knife -grmder , overturns his Wheli. and eaat tn a. traufpoit of TcpuUicaji enOiu^fm oaH. univerjc.! -•-■---—--_ — .. . - fhilanUiTOjw^ THE ANTI-JACOBIN. 23 This is enough ; unless the reader should wish to be informed how Fast o'er the bleak heath rattling drove a chariot ; Or how, not long after, Loud blew the wind, finheard was her complaining — On went the horseman. We proceed to give our Imitation, which is of the Amcehcean or Colloadory kind. SAPPHICS. the friend of humanity and the knife-grinder. Friend of Humanity.''' " Needy Knife-grinder ! whither are you going? Eough is the road, your wheel is out of order — Bleak blows the blast ; your hat has got a hole in't, So have your breeches ! " Weary Knife-grinder ! little think the proud ones, Who in their coaches roll along the turnpike- -road, what hard work 'tis crying all day " Knives and Scissars to grind ! " '^ Tell me. Knife-grinder, how you came to grind knives ? Did some rich man tyrannically use you ? [* George Tierney, M.P. for Southwark, who in early times was among the more forward of the Eeforniers. " He was," says Lord Brougham, " an assiduous member of the Society of Friends of the People, and drew up the much and jiistly celebrated Petition in which that useful body laid before the House of Commons all the more striking particulars of its defective title to the office of representing the people, which that House then, as now, but with far less reason, assumed." Notwithstanding the above severe verses, Tierney served luider Canning as Master of the Mint, during the latter's short administration in 1827.— Ed.] 24 POETRY OF Was it the squire ? or parson of the parish ? Or the attorney ? " Was it the squire, for kiUing of his game? or Covetous parson, for his tithes distraining ? Or roguish lawyer, made you lose your httle All in a lawsuit ? " (Have you not read the Eights of Man, by Tom Paine?) Drops of compassion tremble on my eyelids, Eeady to fall, as soon as you have told your Pitiful story." Knipe-Grinder. " Story ! God bless you ! I have none to tell, sir, Only last night a-drinking at the Chequers, This poor old hat and breeches, as you see, were Torn in a scuffle. " Constables came up for to take me into Custody ; they took me before the justice ; Justice Oldmixon put me in the parish- - Stocks for a vagrant. " I should be glad to drink your Honour's health in A pot of beer, if you will give me sixpence ; But for my part, I never love to meddle With politics, sir." Friend of Humanity. " / give thee sixpence ! I will see thee damned first — Wretch ! whom no sense of wrongs can rouse to ven- geance — Sordid, unfeeling, reprobate, degraded. Spiritless outcast ! " [Kicks the Knife-grinder, overturns his wheel, and exit in a transport of Ecpubliam enthusiasm and universal philanthroinj.'] THE ANTI-JACOBIN, 25 No. III. Nov. 30, 1797. We have received the following from a loyal corre- spondent, and we shall be very happy at any time to be relieved, by communications of a similar tendency, from the drudgery of Jacobinical imitations. THE INVASION;* OR, THE BBITISH WAR SONG. To the Tune of " Whilst happy in my native land ". I. Whilst happy in our native land, So great, so famed in story, Let's join, my friends, with heart and hand To raise our country's glory : When Britain calls, her valiant sons Will rush in crowds to aid her — Snatch, snatch your muskets, prime your guns, And crush the fierce invader ! Whilst every Briton's song shall be, " give us Death — or Victory ! " [* In Feb., 1797, about 1400 Frenchmen landed at Pembroke, but surrendered without resistance to the country people, whom Lord Cawdor (who had been elevated to the Peerage in the preceding year) had armed with scj'thes and pitchforks. He was succeeded by his elder son, who was created Earl Cawdor in 1827, and died I860.— Ed.] 26 . POETEY OF II. Long had this favour'd isle enjoy'd True comforts, past expressing, When France her helhsh arts employ'd To rob us of each blessing : These from our hearths by force to tear (Which long we've learned to cherish) Our frantic foes shall vainly dare ; We'll keep 'em or we'll perish — And every day our song shall be, "0 give us Death — or Victory ! " III. Let France in savage accents sing Her bloody Eevolution ; We prize our country, love our king, Adore our constitution ; For these we'll every danger face, And quit our rustic labours ; Our ploughs to firelocks shall give place ; Our scythes be changed to sabres ; And clad in arms, our song shall be, " O give us Death — or Victory ! " IV. Soon shall the proud invaders learn, When bent on blood and plunder, That British bosoms nobly burn To brave their cannon's thunder : Low lie those heads, whose wily arts Have plann'd the world's undoing ! THE ANTI-JACOBIN. 27 Our vengeful blades shall reach those hearts Which seek our country's ruin ; And night and morn our song shall be, " give us Death — or Victory ! " V. When, with French blood our fields manured, The glorious struggle's ended, We'll sing the dangers we've endured, The blessings we've defended : O'er the full bowl our feats we'll tell, Each gallant deed reciting ; And weep o'er those who nobly fell Their country's battle fighting — And ever thence our song shall be, " 'Tis Valouk leads to Victoky ". [The following Song which furnished the hints for the one above was written by Miles Peter Andrews, M.P. for Bewdley, and a dealer in gimpowder ; but his Plays, Prologues, Verses, &c., by no means resemble so active a composition. He, with other members of the '^ Delia Crusca," was savagely attacked and extinguished by W. Gifford in " T/ie Baviad". His song was set to music by Sir Henry Bishop. He died in 1814. I. Whilst happy in my native land I boast my coimtry's charter, I'll never basely lend my hand Her liberties to bai'ter. The noble mind is not at all By poverty degraded ; 'Tis guilt alone can make us fall, And well am I persuaded. Each free-born Briton's song should be, "Oh! give me Death or Liberty!" 28 POETRY OF Though small the pow'r which Fortune grants, And few the gifts she sends us, The lordly hireling often wants That freedom which defends us. By laAV secur'd from lawless strife, Our house is our cnstellum ; Thus, blessed with all that's dear in life. For lucre shall we sell 'em ? No, — ev'ry Briton's song should be, "Oh! give me Death or Liberty!" Ed. THE ANTI-JACOBIN. 29 No. IV. Dec. 4, 1797. We have been favoured with the following specimen of Jacobin Poetry, which we give to the world without any comment or imitation. We are informed (we know not how truly) that it will be sung at the meeting of the Friends of Freedom ; an account of which is anticipated in our present paper.* LA SAINTE GUILLOTINE. ATTEMPTED FBOJM THE FBENCH. Tune — " O'er the vine-covered hills and gay regions of France ". I. From the blood-bedew'd valleys and mountains of France, See the Genius of Gallic invasion advance ! Old ocean shall waft her, unruffled by storm, While our shores are all lined with the ''Friends of he- form ".t Confiscation and Murder attend in her train, With meek-eyed Sedition, the daughter of Paine ; :|: While her sportive Poissardes with light footsteps are seen To dance in a ring round the gay Guillotine. § [* This account will be found on p. 32, et seq. — Ed.] f See proclamation of the Directory. J The "too long calumniated author of the Rights of Man". — See a Sir Something Burdett's speech at the Shakspeare, as referred to in the Courier of Nov. 30. § The Guillotine at Arras was, as is well known to every Jacobin, painted " Cotdeur de Rose ". 30 POETRY OF II. To London, " the rich, the defenceless"* she comes — Hark ! my boys, to the sound of the Jacobin drums ! See Corruption, Prescription, and Privilege fly, Pierced through by the glance of her blood-darting eye. While patriots, from prison and prejudice freed, In soft accents shall lisp the Eepublican creed, And with tri-colour'd fillets, and cravats of green, Shall crowd round the altar of Saint Guillotine. III. See the level of Freedom sweeps over the land— The vile Aristocracy's doom is at hand ! Not a seat shall be left in a House that ice hiow. But for Earl Buonaparte and Baron Moreau. But the rights of the Commons shall still be respected, Buonaparte himself shall approve the elected ; And the Speaker shall march with majestical mien. And make his three bows to the grave Guillotine. IV. Two heads, says the proverb, are better than one. But the Jacobin choice is for Five Heads or none. By Directories only can Liberty thrive ; Then down with the One, Boys ! and up with the Five ! How our bishops and judges will stare with amazement. When their heads are thrust out at the National Casement !-)r When the National Razor t has shaved them quite clean, What a handsome oblation to Saint Gaillotine ! * See Weekly Examiner, No. 11. Extract from the Courier. f La petite Fenetre, and la Razoire Nationale, fondling expres- sions applied to the Guillotine by the Jacobins in France, and their pupils here. THE ANTI-JACOBIN. 31 [The followino; Lines were written by an ardent reformer, \V. Roscok, the accomplished author of the "Life of Leo X.," and other works, to commemorate the taking of the Bastille (14th July, 17S9), and the publication by the National Assembly (on 20th August following) of the famous " Declai-ation of Rights " — a manifesto which became the creed of the Revolution, and which promulgated, as the basis of social government, the specious but impracticable doctrines of liUrtii, equality, and tlie snnreignt// of tlie ynoiilc exercised by universal suffrage. How the hopes and anticipations of moderate reformers, as embodied in these lines, were falsified by the spoliations and massacres which rapidly followed are but too well known. When, therefore, the Jnti-Jacobin was established to combat the principles of the Revolution, these Lines were, for party pm-poses, maliciously referred to, and significantly recommended to be "recited on the anniversary of the 14th August ". To make this allusion more clear, it must be remembered that on the 10th August, 1702, after frightful massacres, the Hotel de Ville was seized and the Tuileries stormed. On the 13th the king and family were imprisoned in the Temple. His deposition, the dismissal of the Ministers, and the formation of a National Convention, on more popular principles than the Legislative A.ssembly, were decreed by the victors. On the 14th Le Brun became Minister for Foreign Affairs, Danton for Justice, and Monge for Marine ; while the Girondist Minis- ters, Roland, Servan, and Ciaviere, resumed their former functions as Ministers of the Interior, War, and Finance respectively The Song, La Sainte Guillotine, was evidently written as a Contreist, and not as a Peirody — a few lines at the beginning only excepted, which serve as an incroduction to verses on another promised phase of the Revolution, the in- vasion of England. — Ed.] LINES. Written for the pm'pose of being reciced on the Anniversary of the 14th of August. By William Koscoe, Esq. O'er the vine-covered hills and gay regions of France, See the day-star of liberty rise ; Through the clouds of detraction luisullied advance, And hold its new course through the skies ! An ef!\ilgence so mild, with a lustre so bright. All Europe with wonder surveys ; x\nd, from deserts of darkness and dungeons of night, Contends for a share of the blaze. Ah ! who 'midst the horrors of night would abide, That can breathe the pure breezes of morn ? Or who, that has drmik the pure ciystalline tide, To the feculent flood would return ? When the bosom of Beauty the throbbmg heart meets, Ah, who can the transport decline '? Or who, that has tasted of Liberty's sweets. The prize but with life would resign ? 32 POETRY OF Let Biu'ke like a bat from its splendour retire, A splendoiir too strong for his eyes ; Let pedants and fools his effusions admire, Entrapt in his cobwebs like flies. Shall insolent Sophistry hope to prevail Where Reason opposes her weight, When the welfare of millions is hung in the scale, And the balance yet trembles with fate ? But 'tis over — high Heaven the decision approves, Oppression has struggled in vain, To the hell she has form'd Siiperstition removes, And Tyranny bites his own chain. In the records of Time a new era vuifolds, All nature exults in its birth ; His creation benign the Creator beholds, And gives a new charter to earth. Oh ! catch the high import, ye winds, as ye blow ; Oh ! hear it, ye waves, as ye roll, From regions that feel the siui's vertical glow, To the farthest exti'emes of the Pole. Equal rights, equal laws, to the nations around, Peace and friendship its precepts impart, And wherever the footsteps of man shall be found, He shall bind the decree on his heart. [The Account of what was "anticipated to take place at the Meeting of the Friends of Freedom — alhided to on page 29 — duly appeared in TJic Anti-Jacobin, but has never hitherto formed a part of the collection of its Poctrii. As it is marked by much ability, and has been often quoted, it appears to the editor desirable to introduce some portion of it into the present edition of the Poctrt/. MEETING OF THE FRIENDS OF FREEDOM. The House of KitsseU being given, Loiti) John and Lord William both rose at once. Lord .John made a very neat, and Loud Wlliiam a very appropriate speech. Alderman Coombe made a very impressive speech. Mr. Tierney made a very pointed speech. Mr. Grey made a very fine speech. He described the ministers as "bold bad men" — their measures he repeatedly declared to be not only "weak, but wicked ", Mr. Byng said a few words. General Tarleton and the Electors of Liverpool being given, the General, after an eulogiiun on Mr. Fox, begged to anticipate their favourite concluding toast, and to give "Tlie Cause of Freedom all over the M'orhl". This toast un- fortunately gave rise to an altercation which threatened to disturb the harmony of the evening. Olaudah Equiano, the .African, and Henry Yorke, the mulatto, insisted upon being heard; but as itappeai-ed that they were entering upon a subject which would have entirely altered the complexion of the Meeting, they were, though not without some difficulty, withheld from proceeding further. THE ANTI-JACOBIN. 33 Mr. Euskine rose, in consequence of some allusions which had been made to Trial by Jury. He professed himself to be highly flattered by the encomiums which had been lavished upon him ; at the same time he was conscious that he could not, without some degree of reserve, consent to arrogate to himself those qualities which the partiality of his friends had attributed to him. He had, on former occasions, declared himself to be clothed with the infirmities of man's nature ; and he now begged leave in all humility to reiterate that confession ; he should never cease to consider himself as a feeble, and with respect to the extent of his faculties in many respects, a finite being— he had ever borne in mind, and he hoped he should ever continue to bear in mind, those words of the inspired Penman, "Thou hast made him less than the angels, to crown him with glory and honour". These lines were indeed applicable to the state of man in general, but of no man more than himself; they appeared to him pointed and personal, and little less than prophetic ; they were always present to his mind ; he could wish to wear them in his breast as a sort of amulet against the en- chantment of public applause, and the witcheries of vanity and self-delusion ; yet if he were indeed possessed of those super-human powers— all pretensions to wliich he again begged leave most earnestly to disclaim — if he were endowed with the eloquence of an angel, and with all those other faculties which we attribute to angelic natures, it would be impossible for him to do justice to the eloquence with which the Honourable Gentleman who opened the meeting had defended the Cause of Freedom, identified as he conceived it to be with the persons and government of the Directory. In his present terrestrial state he could only address it as a prayer to God and as counsel to Man that the words which they had heard from that Honourable Gentleman might work inwardly in their hearts, and in due time, produce the fruit of Liberty and Revolution. He had not the advantage of being personally acquainted with any of the Gentlemen of the Directory ; he understood, however, that one of them (Mr. ^Merlin) previous to the last change, had stood in a situation similar to his own — he was, in fact, nothing less than a leading Advocate and Barrister in the midst of a free, powerful and enlightened people. The conduct of the Directory with regard to the exiled Deputies had been objected to by some persons on the score of a pretended rigour. For his part he should only say that having been, as he had been, both a Soldier and a Sailor, if it had been his fortune to have stood in either of those two relations to the Directory — as a Man and as a Major-General he should not have scrupled to direct his artillery against the National Representation : — as a Naval Officer he would undoubtedly have undertaken for the removal of the Exiled Deputies ; admitting the exigency, under all its relations, as it appeared to him to exist, and the then circumstances of the times, with all their bearings and de- pendencies, branching out into an infinity of collateral considerations, and in- volving in each a variety of objects political, physical, and moral ; and these again under tlieir distinct and separate heatls, ramifying into endless sub- divisions which it was foreign to his purpose to consider. Having thus disposed of this part of his subject, Mr. Erskin'e passed in a strain of rapid and brilliant allusions over a variety of points characteristic of the conduct and disposition of the present Ministry; Mr. Burke's metaphor of "the Swinish Multitude," Mr. Reeves' metaphor of the "Tree of Monarchy," "the Battle of Tranent," "the March to Paris," the phrase of "Acquitted Felons," and the exclamation of " Perish Commerce " — which last expression he declared he should never cease to attribute to Mr. Windham ; so long, at least, as it should please the Sovereign Dispenser to continue to him the power of utterance and the enjoyment of his present faculties. He condemned the ex- pedition to Quiberon, he regretted the " Fate of Messrs. Muir and Palmer," he exulted in the "Acquittal of Citizens Tooke, Hardy, Thelwall, Holcroft and others," and he blessed that Providence to which (as it had been originally allotted to him (Mr. Erskine) the talents which had been exerted in their de- fence) the preservation of those Citizens might perhaps be indirectly attributed. He then descanted on the captivity of La Fayette, and the Dividend on the Imperial Loan. . After fully exhausting these subjects, Mr. Erskine resumed a topic on which he had only slightly glancetl before. In a most delicate and sportive vein of 34 POETRY OF humour he contended, that if the people were a Swinish Multitude, those who represented them must necessarily be a Swinish Representation. It would be in vain to attempt to do justice to the polite and easy pleasantry which per- vaded this part of Mr. Erskine's speech. Suffice it to say that the taste of the Audience showed itself in complete unison with the genius of the Orator, and the whole of this passage was crowned with loud and reiterated plaudits. After a speech of unexampled exertion, Mr. Erskine now began to enter much at length into a recital of select passages from our most approved English authors, concluding with a feopious extract from the several Publications of the late Mr. Burke ; but such were the variety and richness of his quotations which he con- tinued to an extent far exceeding the limits of this paper, that we found our- selves under the necessity, either of considerably abridging our original matter, or omitting them altogether, which latter alternative we adopted the more readily as the greater part of these brilliant citations have already past through the ordeal of a public and patriotic auditory ; and as there is every probability that tlie circumstances of the times will again call them forth on some future emergency. Mr. Erskine concluded by recapitulating, in a strain of agonizing and im- pressive'eloquence, the several more prominent heads of his speech : — He had been a Soldier and a Sailor, and had a son at Winchester school — he had been called by Special Retainers, during the summer, into many different and distant parts of the country— travelling chiefly in Post-chaises — He felt himself called upon to declare that his poor faculties were at the service of his Country— of the free and enlightened part of it at least — He stood here as a Man — He stood in the Eye, indeed in the Hand of GOD — to whom (in the presence of the Company and Waiters) he solemnly appealed — He was of Noble, perhaps. Royal Blood — He had a liouse at Hampstead — was convinced of the necessity of a thorough and radical Reform — His Pamphlet had gone through Thirty Editions — skip- ping alternately the odd and even numbers — He loved the Constitution, to which he would cling and grapple— And he was clothed with the infirmities of man's nature— He would apply to the present French Rulers (particularly Barras and Beubel) the words of the poet :— " Be to their Faults a little blind ; "Be to their Virtues very kind, " Let all their ways be uncontin'd, " And clap the Padlock on their mind ! " And for these reasons, thanking the Gentlemen who had done him the honour to drink his Health, he should propose " Merlin, the late Minister of Justice, and Trial by Jury !" Mr. Erskine here concluded a speech which had occupied the attention and excited the applause of his Audience during a space of little less than three hours, allowing for about three quarters of an hour, which were occupied by successive fits of fainting, between the principal subdivisions of his discourse. — Mr. Erskine descended from the Table, and was conveyed down stairs by the assistance of his friends. On arriving at the corner of the Piazzas, they were surprized by a very unexpected embarrassment. Mr. Erskine's horses had been taken from the carriage, and a number of able Chairmen en- gaged to supply their place ; but these fellows having contrived to intoxicate themselves with the money which the Coachman had advanced to them on account, were become so restive and unruly, so exorbitant in their demands (positively refusing to abide by their former engagement) that Mr. Erskine deemed it unsafe to trust himself in their hands, and determined to wait the return of his own more tractaljle and less chargeable animals. This unpleasant scene continued for above an hour. Mr. Siierid;.n's health was now drunk in his absence and received with an appearance of general approbation ; —when in the midst of the applause Mr. Fox arose, in apparent agitation, and directed the attention of the Company to the rising, manly virtues of Mr. Macfungus. Mr. Macfungus declared that to pretend he was not elated by tlie en- comiums with which Mr. Fox had honoured him was an affectation which he disdained ; — such encomiums would ever form the proudest recompense of his THE ANTI-JACOBIN. 35 patriotic labours— he confessed they were cheering to him— he felt them warm at his heart— anil while a single fibre of his frame preserved its vibration, it would throb in unison to the approbation of that Honourable Gentleman. The applause of the Company was no less flattering to him — he felt his faculties invigorated by it, and stimulated to the exertion of new energies in the race of mind. Every other sensation was obliterated and absorbed by it ; for the present, however, he would endeavour to suppress his feelings, and concentre his energies for the purpose of explaining to the Company why he assisted now for the first time at the celebration of the Fifth Revolution which had been effected in regenerate(l France. The various and extraordinary talents of the Right Hon. Gentleman — his vehement and overpowering perception, his vigorous and splendid intuition would for ever attract the admiration of all those who were in any degree en- dowed with those faculties themselves or capable of estimating them in others ; as such, he had ever been among the most ardent admirers, and on many occa- sions, among the most ardent supporters of the Right Hon. Gentleman— he agreed with him in many points— in his general love of Liberty and Revolution ; in his execration of the War ; in his detestation of Ministers ; but he entertained his doubts, and till those doubts were cleared up, he could not, consistently with his principles, attend at the celebration of any Revolution whatever. These doubts, however, were now satisfactorily done away. A pledge had been entered into for accomplishing an effectual radical Revolution ; not for the niere overthrow of the present System, nor for the establishment of any other in its place ; but for the effecting such a series of Revolutions as might be sufficient for the establishment of a Free System. Mr. MacfUxNGUS continued he was incapable of compromising with first principles, of acquiescing in short-sighted temporary palliative expedients : if such had been his temper he should assuredly have rested satislied with the pledge which that Right Hon. Gentleman had entered into about six months ago on the subject of Parliamentary Reform, in which pledge he considered the promise of that previous and preliminary Revolution, to which he had before alluded, as essentially implicated. "Whenever this Reform takes place," exclaimed Mr. Macfungus, "the present degraded and degrading system must fall into dissolution ; it must sink and perish with the corruptions which have supported it. The national energies will awake, and shaking off their lethargy as their fetters drop from them, they will follow the Angel of their Revolution, while the Genius of Free- dom soaring aloft beneath the orb of Gallic Illumination will brush away as with the wing of an Eagle all the cobwebs of Aristocracy. But before the Temple of Freedom can be erected in their place, the surface which they have occupied must be smoothed and levelled— it must be cleared by repeated Re- volutionary Explosions from all the lumber and rubbish with which Aristocracy and Fanaticism will endeavour to encumber it, and to impede the progress of the holy work.— The sacred level, the symbol of Fraternal Equality, must be passed over the whole.— The completion of the Edifice will indeed be the more tardy, but it will not be the less durable for having been longer delayed — Ce- mented with the blood of tyrants, and the tears of the Aristocracy, it will rise a monument for the astonishment and veneration of future ages. The remotest posterity, with our children yet unborn, and the most distant portions of the Globe, will crowd around its Gates and demand admission into its Sanctuary. — The Tree of Liberty will be planted in the midst of it, and its branches will extend to the ends of the Earth, while the Friends of Freedom meet and fraternize and amalgamate under its consolatory shade. There our Infants shall be taught to lisp in tender accents the Revolutionary Hymn — there with wreaths of myrtle, and oak, and poplar, and vine and olive and cypress and ivy ; with violets and roses and daffodils and dandelions in our hands we will swear respect to childhood and manhood and old age, and virginity and womanhood and widowhood ; but above all to the Supreme Being. — There we will decree and sanction the Immortality of the Soul.— There pillars and obelisks, and arches and pyramids, will awaken the love of Glory and of our Country. — There Painters and Statuaries, with their chisels and colours, and Engravers with their engraving tools will perpetuate the interesting features of our Revolutionary Heroes ; while our Poets and Musicians, with an 36 POETKY OF honourable emulation, strive to immortalize their memory. Their bones will be entombed in the Vault Ijelow, while their sacred Shades continue hovering over our Heads— those venerated Manes which from time to time will require to be appeased by the blood of the remaining Aristocrats. — Then Peace and Freedom, and Fraternity and Equality will pervade the whole Earth — while the Vows of Republicanism, the Altar of Patriotism, and the Revolutionary Pontiff, with the thrilling volcanic Sympathies, whether of Holy Fury or of ardent Fra- ternal Civism, uniting and identifying, produce as it were an electric Energy." Mr. Macfungus' here paused for a few moments, seemingly overpowered by the excess of Sensibility, and the force of the ideas which he was labouring to co7ivey. — The whole Company appeared to sympathize with his unaffiicted emo- tions. After a short interval, he recovered himself from a very impressive silence, and continued as follows : "These prospects, Fellow-Citizens, may possibly be deferred. The Machi- avelism of Governments may for the time prevail, and this iinnatural and execrable contest may yet be prolonged ; but the hour is not far distant ; Persecution will only serve to accelerate it, and the ))lood of Patriotism stream- ing from the severing axe Avill call down vengeance on our oppressors in a voice of Thunder. I expect the contest, aiiil I am prepared for it. — I hope I shall never shrink nor swerve nor start aside wherever duty and inclination may place me. My services, my life itself, are at your disposal — Whether to act or to suffer, I am yours— With HAMPDEN in the field, or with SIDNEY on the scaffold. My example may be more useful to you than my talents : and this head may perhaps serve your cause more effectually, if placed on a pole on Temple Bar, than if it was occupied in organizing your Committees, in preparing your Re- volutionary Explosions, and conducting your Correspondence." Mr. Macfungus said he should give, as an unequivocal test of his senti- ments, " Buonaparte and a Radical Reform ". The conclusion of Mr. Macfungus's speech was followed by a simultaneous burst of rapturous approbation from every part of the room. The applause con- tinued for several minutes, during which Mr. Macfungus repeatedly rose to express his feelings. The conversatit)n now became more mixed and animated ; several excellent Songs were sung, and Toasts drank, while the progressive and patriotic festivity of the evening was heightened by the vocal powers of several of the most popular Singers. A new Song written by Captain Morris received its sanction in the warmest expression of applause. The whole company joined with enthusiasm in their old favourite Chorus of Bow ! Wow !! Wow !!! [Macfungus stands for Sir James Mackintosh, who, after studying medicine in Edinburgh, settled in London, and wrote for the opposition news- papers, particularly the Morning Post, Daniel Stuart, the proprietor, being his father-in-law. The first work that brought him into notice was his Findiciw Galliccii (1791), in reply to Burke's Reflectioiu on the French Revolution, which splendid philippic it greatly surpassed in philosophic thought, sound feeling, and connnon sense. It was enthusiastically received by the Liberal party, whose leaders eagerly sought his acquaintance and co-operation ; and when the Association of the Friends of the People was formed, he was appointed Secretary. His subsequent successful career as an Advocate. Indian Judge, Member of Parliament, Minister under Lord Grey, and as an English historian, bore out the promise of his youth. He was born in 1765 and died in 1S3'2. — Ed.] THE ANTI-JACOBIN. 37 No. V. Dec. 11, 1797. "We have already hinted at the principle by which the followers of the Jacobinical sect are restrained from the exercise of their own favourite virtue of charity. The force of this prohibition, and the strictness with which it is observed, are strongly exemplified in the following poem. It is the production of the same author [Southey] whose happy effort in English Sapphics we presumed to imitate ; the pi-esent effusion is in Dactylics, and equally subject to the laws of Latin Prosody. THE SOLDIER'S WIFE. Weary way-wanderer, languid and sick at heart, Travelling painfully over the rugged road ; Wild visag'd wanderer — ah for thy heavy chance. We think that we see him fumbling in the pocket of his blue pantaloons ; that the splendid shilling is about to make its appearance, and to glitter in the eyes, and glad the heart of the poor sufferer. But no such thing — the bard very calmly contemplates her situation, which he describes in a pair of very pathetical stanzas ; and after the following well-imagined topic of consolation, concludes by leaving her to Providence. Thy husband will never return from the war again ; Cold is thy hopeless heart, even as charity ; Cold are thy famished babes — God help thee, widow'd one ! 38 POETRY OF We conceived that it would be necessary to follow up this general rule with the particular exception, and to point out one of those cases in which the embargo upon Jacobin bounty is sometimes suspended ; * with this view we have subjoined the poem of THE SOLDIEE'S FEIEND. DACTYLICS. Come, little Drummer Boy, lay down your knapsack here: I am the soldier's friend— here are some books for you ; Nice clever books by Tom Paine, the philanthropist. t * [The original poem is here subj^aited : — THE ^LDIEE-"S'*\VIFE. DACTYLICS. Weai-y way-wandex'er, languid and sick at heart, Travelling painfull^' over the ragged road ; Wild-visaged wanderer ! Ah ! for thy heavy chance. Sorely thy little ones drag by thee barefooted, Cold is the baby that hangs at thy bending back — Meagre and livid, and screaming its wretchednese. Woe-begone mother, half anger, half agony, As over thy shoulder thou lookest to hush the babe, Bleakly the blinding snow beats in thy haggard face. Thy husband will never return from the war again ; Cold is thy hopeless heart, even as charity — Cold are thy famished babes — God help thee, widowed one !] 1795. t [" Walked to the Old Bailej^ to see David Isaac Eaton in the piUory. The mob was decidedly friendly to him. His havmg published Paine's Age of Eeason was not an intelligible offence to them." — Crahb Robinson's Diaiy, i. 386. The Proclamation against Seditious Writings, however, was supported by some influential Whigs. " Pitt had previously sent copies of it to several members of the Opposition in both Houses, requesting their advice," says Lord Malmesbmy. Whether Pitt desired it or not, no measure could have been more effectual for dividing the Whig party. — Ed.] THE ANTI-JACOBIN. 39 Here's lialf-a-crown for you — here are some handbills too — V Go to the barracks, and give all the soldiers some. ^ Tell them the sailors are all in a mutiny. Exit Drummer Boy, with handbills and halj-a- crown. — Manet Soldier's Friend. Liberty's friends thus all learn to amalgamate, Freedom's volcanic explosion prepares itself, Despots shall bow to the fasces of liberty. Reason, philosophy, " fiddledum diddledum," Peace and fraternity, higgledy, piggledy, Higgledy, piggledy, "fiddledum diddledum ". Ut cetera, et cetera, et cetera. SONNET.— TO LIBERTY. Just Guardian of man's social bliss ! for thee The paths of danger gladly would I tread : For thee ! contented, join the glorious dead, Who nobly scorn'd a life that was not free ! But worse than death it pains my soul to see The Lord of Ruin, by wild Uproar led, Hell's first-born, Anarchy, exalt his head. And seize thy throne, and bid us bow the knee ! "What though his iron sceptre, blood-imbrued, Crush half the nations with resistless might ; Never shall this firm spirit be subdued : In chains, in exile, still the chanted rite, Liberty ! to thee shall be renew'd : still be sea-girt Albion thy delight ! D. 40 POETRY OF No. VL Dec. 18, 1797. We cannot enough congratulate ourselves on having been so fortunate as to fall upon the cui'ious specimens of classical metre and correct sentiment which we have made the subject of our late Jacobinical imitations. The fashion of admiring and imitating these produc- tions has spread in a surprising degree. Even those who sympathise with the principles of the writer selected as our model, seem to have been struck with the ridicule of his poetry. There appeared in the Morning Chronicle of Monday a Sapphic Ode, apparently written by a friend and associate of our author, in which he is however travestied most unmercifully. And to make the joke the more pointed, the learned and judicious editor contrived to print the ode en masse, without any order of lines, or division of stanza ; so that it was not discovered to be verse till the next day, when it was explained in a hobbling erratum. We hardly know which to consider as the greater object of compassion in this case— the original Odist, thus parodied by his friend, or the mortified Parodist thus mutilated by his printer. " Et tn. Brute!" has probably been echoed from each of these worthies to his murderer, in a tone that might melt the hardest heart to pity. We cordially wish them joy of each other, and we resign the modern Lesbian l)jre into their hands without envy or repining. Our author's Dactylics have produced a second THE ANTI-JACOBIN. 41 imitation (conveyed to us from an unknown hand), with which we take our leave of this species of poetry also. THE SOLDIEE'S WIFE.* DACTYLICS. " Weary way- wanderer," &c. &c. IMITATION. DACTYLICS. Being the quintessence of all the TJactijlics that ever were, or ever will he written. HUMBLY ADDRESSED TO THE AUTHOR OF THE ABOVE. Wearisome Sonnetteer, feeble and querulous, Painiully dragging out thy demo-cratic lays — Moon-stricken Sonnetteer, "ah ! for thy heavy chance!" Sorely thy Dactylics lag on uneven feet : Slow is the syllable which thou wouldst urge to speed, Lame and o'erburthen'd, and " screaming its wretched- ness ! " t Ne'er talk of ears again ! look at thy spelling-book ; Dilworth and Dyche % are both mad at thy quantities — Dactylics, call'st thou 'em — God help thee, silly one ! " [• See p. 38.— Ed.] t My worthy friend the beUman had promised to supply an additional stanza ; but the business of assisting the lamp- lighter, chimney-sweeper, &c., with complimentary verses for their worthy masters and mistresses, pressing on him at this season, he was obliged to decline it. [A quiz at the third stanza, which was contributed by Coleridge. — Ed.] [J Thomas Dyche was a clergyman, and kept a school at Stratford-le-Bow. He was the author of an English dictionary, a spelling-book, a Latin vocabularj^, &c. He died about 1750. Thomas Dilworth, whose educational works were long popular, was for some time his assistant, and then set up a school for himself at Wapping. He died in 1781. — Ed.] 42 POETRY OF [The following is the Sapphic Ode alluded to above, which was intended by the poet of the Morning Chronicle as a " retort courteous " to the Friend of Humanity. The printer of that paper, unfoi'tiuiately, being new to " such branches of learning," and not dreaming it could be intended for ptoctry, printed it as below. The mistake seems to have been inmiediately discovered, for it re-appeared next day (Dec. 12) in the guise of verse. — Ed.] THE COLLECTOE AND THE HOUSEHOLDER. The Hint taken from the Anti-Jacobin, "Needy Knife-Grinders' H. Greedy Collector, whither are you going, thus with your inkhorn in your button- hole, and ledger so snugly underneath your coat ? Say, greedy Collector. G. Much I rejoice that I have met you here, friend : turn back, I pri'thee, 'tis with you I want to speak ; I am come on business of importance — gentle Householder. H. Greedy Collector, well I know your biisiness, 'tis for my taxes you are come to dun me ; well I 'tis the last time you will have a right to ask me for money. Buggy, no longer do I drive a smart one ; smash went my gig, as long [ago] as Easter ; down Highgate hill we tumbled al- together, horse, wife, and I, Sir. One broke his knees, and* another broke his collar-bone ; there's an end of pleasuring on Smidays. Take my last payment ; there is your two pounds twelve shillings and nine- pence. C. Gentle householder, much are you mistaken ; Order, Religion, Constitution, Laws, and rational freedom, all demand from you a — triple assessment. H. Triple Assessment ! What beside the old tax ? C. Certainly : come, deposit, I'm a waiting. H. Wait and be damned. What is it you are after ? C. Ten poimds eleven. H. Ten pounds eleven ! ha'^e I not informed thee gig I have none ? I've sent it to the hammer ; Pay for a gig and not [to] have it ! C. But you had one at Easter ! H. Easter is past and gone. I'll never pay thee. C. Gentle Householder, then I must proceed to shew thee a little bit of parchment, called a writ of distringer [for distringas]. [Exit Collector to take posses- sion of the Householder's bed and fui-niture. [* and should have been omitted.— ED.] THE ANTI-JACOBIN. 43 The verses which we here present to the public were written immediately after the Eevolution of the 4th of September. We should be much obliged to any of our classical and loyal correspondents for an English trans- lation of them. LATIN VEESES Written immediately after the Revolution of the Ath of September. Ipsa mali Hortatrix scelerumque uberrima Mater In se prima suos vertit lymphata furores, Luctaturque diu secum, et conatibus segris Fessa cadit, proprioque jacet labefacta veneno. Mox tamen ipsius rursum violentia morbi Erigit ardentem furiis, ultroque minantem Spargere bella procul, vastseque incendia cladis, Civilesque agitare faces, totumque per orbem Sceptra super Eegum et Populorum subdita colla Ferre pedem, et sanctas Eegnorum evertere sedes. Aspicis ! Ipsa sui bacchatur sanguine Eegis, Barbaraque ostentans f oralis signa triumphi, Mole gigantea campis prorumpit apertis, Successu scelerum, atque insanis viribus audax. At qua Pestis atrox i-apido se turbine vertit, Cernis ibi, prisca morum compage soluta, Procubuisse solo civilis foedera vitae, Et quodcunque Fides, quodcunque habet alma verendi Eeligio, Pietasque et Legum frasna sacrarum. Nee spes Pacis adhuc — necdum exsaturata rapinis Effera Bellatrix, fusove expleta cruore. Crescit inextinctus Furor, atque exsestuat ingens 44 POETRY OF Ambitio, immauisque ira Vindicta reuata Eeliquias Soliorum et adhuc restantia Regna Flagitat excidio, praedaeque incumbit opimae. Una etenim in mediis Gens intemerata ruinis Libertate proba, et justo libramine rerum, Securum faustis degit sub legibus aevum; Antiquosque edit mores, et jura Parentum Ordine firma suo, sanoque intacta vigore, Servat adhuc, hominumque fidem, curamque Deorum. Eheu ! quanta odiis avidoque alimenta furori ! Quanta profanatas inter spoliabitur aras Vietima ! si quando versis Victoria fatis Annuerit scelus extremum, terraque subacta Impius Oceani sceptrum faedaverit Hostis ! THE ANTI-JACOBIN. 45 No. YIL Dec. 25, 1797. We have been favoured with a translation of the Latin verses inserted in our last Number. We have little doubt that our readers will agree with us, in hoping that this may not be the last contribution which we shall receive from the same hand.''' Parent of countless crimes, in headlong rage, War with herself see frantic Gallia wage, Till worn and wasted by intestine strife. She falls — her languid pulse scarce quick with life. But soon she feels through every trembling vein, New strength collected from convulsive pain : Onwai"d she moves, and sounds the dire alarm, And bids insulted nations haste to arm ; Spreads wide the waste of war, and hurls the brand Of civil discord o'er each troubled land, While desolation marks her furious course. And thrones subverted bow beneath her force. Behold ! she pours her Monarch's guiltless blood. And quaffs with savage joy the crimson flood ; Then, proud the deadly trophies to display [* The Latin Verses, much admired at the time, were written by the Marquis Wellesley at Walmer Castle, in 1797, at the desire of Pitt, and were published after the author's departure for India, in the Anti-Jacobin. The beautiful translation of them was by Lord Morpeth, afterwards sixth Earl of Carlisle, whose mother was the daughter of Granville Leveson Gowee, first Marquis of Stafford. He died in 1848.] 46 POETEY OF Of her foul crimes, resistless bursts away, Unaw'd by justice, unappall'd by fear, And runs with giant strength her mad career. Where'er her-. banners float in barbarous pride, Where'er her conquest rolls its sanguine tide, There, the fair fabric of establish'd law. There social order, and religious awe. Sink in the general wreck ; indignant there Honour and Virtue fly the tainted air ; Fly the mild duties of domestic life That cheer the parent, that endear the wife, The lingering pangs of kindred grief assuage, Or soothe the sorrows of declining age. Nor yet can Hope presage th' auspicious hour. When Peace shall check the rage of lawless Power; Nor yet th' insatiate thirst of blood is o'er, Nor yet has Eapine ravaged every shore. Exhaustless Passion feeds th' augmented flame, x\nd wild Ambition mocks the voice of Shame ; Eevenge, with haggard look and scowling eyes. Surveys with horrid joy th' expected prize ; Broods o'er each remnant of monarchic sway, And dooms to certain death his fancied prey. For midst the ruins of each falling state. One favour'd nation braves the general fate — One favour'd nation, whose impartial laws Of sober Freedom vindicate the cause ; Her simple manners, midst surrounding crimes, Proclaim the genuine worth of ancient times ; THE ANTI- JACOBIN. 47 True to herself, unconquerably bold, The rights her valour gain'd she dares uphold ; Still with pure faith her promise dares fulfil, Still bows submission to th' Almighty will. Just Heav'n ! how Envy kindles at the sight ! How mad Ambition plans the desperate fight ! "With what new fury Vengeance hastes to pour Her tribes of rapine from yon crowded shore ! Just Heav'n ! how fair a victim at the shrine Of injured Freedom shall her life resign, If e'er, propitious to the vows of hate, Unsteady Conquest stamp our mournful fate, If e'er proud France usurp our ancient reign, And ride triumphant o'er th' insulted main ! Far hence th' unmanly thought — the voice of Fame Wafts o'er th' applauding deep her Duncan's name. What though the Conqueror of th' Italian plains Deem nothing gain'd, while this fair isle remains ; Though his young breast with rash presumption glow, He braves the vengeance of no vulgar foe : Conqueror no more, full soon his laurel 'd pride Shall perish — whelm'd in Ocean's angry tide ; His broken bands shall rue the fatal day. And scatter'd fleets proclaim Britannia's sway. 48 POETKY OF No. VIII. Jan. 1, 1798. A COBKESPONDENT has adapted the beautiful poem of the Battle of Sabla, in "Carlyle's Specimens of Arabiaii Poetry," to the circumstances of the present moment. We shall always be happy to see the poetry of other times and nations so successfully engaged in the service of our country, and of the present order of society. THE CHOICE. (feom the battle of sabla, by jaafer ben alba.) I. Hast thou not seen th' insulting foe In fancied triumphs crown'd ? And heard their frantic rulers throw These empty threats around ? " Make now your choice ! The terms we give, Desponding Britons, hear ! These fetters on your hands receive, Or in your hearts the spear." Can we forget our old renown ; Eesign the empire of the sea ; And yield at once our sovereign's crown, Our ancient laws and liberty ? Shall thus the fierce destroyer's hand Pass unresisted o'er our native land ? Our country sink, to barb'rous force a prey. And ransuin'd England bow to Gallic sway ? THE ANTI-JACOBIN. 49 II. ''Is then the contest o'er?" we cried, " And lie we at your feet ? And dare you vauntingly decide The fortune we shall meet ? A brighter day we soon shall see ; No more the prospect lours ; And Conquest, Peace, and Liberty Shall gild our future hours." Yes ! we will guard our old renown ; Assert our empire o'er the sea ; And keep untouch'd our sovereign's crown, Our ancient laws and liberty. Not thus the fierce destroyer's hand Shall scatter ruin o'er this smiling land ; No barb'rous force shall here divide its prey ; Nor ransom'd England bow to Gallic sway. III. The foe advance. In firm array We'll rush o'er Albion's sands — Till the red sabre marks our way Amid their yielding bands ! Then as they lie in death's cold grasp, We'll cry, " Our choice is made ! These hands the sabre's hilt shall clasp, Your hearts shall feel the blade ". Thus Britons guard their ancient fame, Assert their empire o'er the sea. And to the envying world proclaim, One nation still is brave and free — 4 50 POETRY OF Eesolv'd to conquer or to die, True to their King, their Laws, their Liberty : No barb'rous foe finds here an easy prey — Un-ransoirCd England spurns all foreign sway.* * The original poem as translated, or rather paraphrased, by Prof. J. D. Carlyle, is here subjoined : — THE CHOICE. Sabla ! thoii saw'st th' exulting foe In fancied triumphs crown'd : Thou heard'st their frantic females throw These gallmg taunts around : " Make now your choice — the terms we give, Desponding victims, hear ! These fetters on your hands receive, Or in your hearts the spear." "And is the conflict o'er," we cried, And lie we at your feet, *' And dare you vauntingly decide The fortmie we must meet ? "A brighter day we soon shall see, Tho' now the prospect lowers, And Conquest, Peace, and Liberty Shah gild our future hours." The foe advanc'd — in firm array We rush'd o'er Sabla's sands. And the red sabre mark'd our way Amidst their yielding bands. Then as they writh'd m death's cold grasp, We cried, " Our choice is made ! These hands the sabre's hilt shall clasp, Your hearts shall have the blade ! " As Carlyle's version is although a spirited not a faithful one, the Editor is induced to present a literal translation, from Translations of Ancient Arabian Poetry, by G. J. Lyall, 1885, 8vo., p. 10. The contest was not a battle but one of the fre- quent skirmishes between neighbouring clans. Sabla is Car- lyle's rendering of Sahbal a JVady, in Arabia, overlooked by twin peaks. THE ANTI-JACOBIN. 51 The following poem has been trausiiiitted to us, without preface or introduction, by a gentleman of the name of Ibeland.* We apprehend from the peculiarities of the style, that it must be the production of a remote period. We are likewise inclined to imagine, that it may contain allusions to some former event in English his- tory. What that event may have been, we must submit to the better judgment and superior information of our readers, from whom we impatiently expect a solution of this interesting question. The editor has been influenced solely by a sense of its poetical merit. Ja'fAR son of 'UlBAH, of the BANU-L-HiEITH. The Poet, with two companions, went forth to plunder the herds of 'Ukail, a neighbour-tribe, and was beset on his way back by detached parties of that tribe in the valley of Sahbal, whom he overcame and reached home safely. That even when under Sahbal's twin peaks upon us drave the horsemen troop after troop, and the foemen pressed us sore — They said to us — " Two things lie before you : now must ye choose — the points of the spears couched at you, or, if ye will not, chains". We answered them — "Yea, this thing may fall to you after fight, when men shall be left on ground, and none shall arise again ; But we know not, if we quail before the assault of Death, how much may be left of life : the goal is too dim to see ". We strode to the strait of battle : there cleared us a space around the white swords in our right hands which the smiths had fiu'bished fair. To them fell the edge of my blade on that day of Sahbal dale, and mine was the share thereof whereover my fingers closed. Ed. [* W. H. Ireland, the Shakespeare forger. — Ed.] 52 POETBY OF THE DUKE AND THE TAXING-MAN.- Whilome there liv'd in fair Englonde A Duke of peerless wealth, And mickle care he took of her Old Constitution's health. Full fifty thousand pounds and more To him his vassals paid, But ne to King, ne Countree, he Would yield th' assessment made. The taxing-man, with grim visage Came pricking on the way ; The taxing-man, with wrothful words, Thus to the Duke did say : " Lord Duke, Lord Duke, thou'st hid from me. As sure as I'm alive, Of goodly palfreys seventeen, Of varlets f/venfjj-Jive" . Then out he drew his gray goose quill, Ydipp'd in ink so black, And sorely to surcharge the Duke, I trowe, he was ne slack. Then 'gan the Duke to looken pale, x\nd stared as one astound, Twaie coney nge Clerks f eftsoons he spies Sitting their board around. [* The above ballad refers to an attempt by Francis, fifth Duke of Bedford, to escape the payment of the Assessed Taxes upon twentj^-five of his servants, on the plea that as the Helpers did not wear a Livery, and were engaged by the week, they were not liable to the duty. This defence was, however, unsnccessful. — Ed.] t Ttvaie coneynge Clerks. — Coneynge is the participle of the verb to hen or know. It by no means imports what we now denomi- nate a knoioing one : on the contrary, twaie coneynge clerks means two intelligent and disinterested clergymen. THE ANTI-JACOBIN. 53 " woe is me," then cried the Duke, " Ne mortal wight but errs ! I'll hie to yon twaie coneynge Clerks, Yclept Commissioners." The Duke he hied him to the board. And straight 'gan for to say, " A seely ■■'' wight I am, God wot, Ne ken I the right way. " These varlets twenty -five w^ere ne'er Liveried in white and red ; "Withouten this, what signifie "Wages, and board, and bed ? " And by St, George, that stout horseman, My palfreys seventeen, For tw^o years, or perchance for three, I had forgotten clean." " Naie," quoth the Clerk, "both horse and foot To hide was thine intent, Ne seely wight be ye, but didst With good advisament.f " Surcharge, surcharge, good Taxing-man, Anon our seals we fix, Of sterling pounds. Lord Duke, you pay Three hundred thirty-six.";}: * Beely is evidently the original of the modern word silly. A sedy wight, however, by no means imports what is now called a silly fellow, but means a man of simplicity of character, devoid of all vanity, and of any strange, ill-conducted ambition, which, if snccessful, wonld immediately be fatal to the man who in- dulged it. t Good advisamfnt means — cool consideration. [X Francis, fifth Duke of Bedford, died after a severe stir- gical operation, March 2, 1802, at the early age of thirty-six. " The I)nke of Bedford's energetic and capacious mind," says 54 POETKY OF EPIGEAM ON THE PAEIS LOAN,* CALLED THE LOAN UPON ENGLAND. The Paris cits, a patriotic band, Advance their cash on British freehold land. But let the speculating rogues beware — They've bought the skin, but who's to kill the hear? Lord Ossory, "his enlarged way of thinking, and elevated senti- ments, together with the habits and pursuits of his hfe, peculiarly qualiHed him for his high station and princely fortune. He was superior to bad education and disadvantages for forming his character, and fciurned out certainly a first-ra-te man, though not free from imperfections. His uprightness and truth were un- equalled ; his magnanimity, fortitude and consideration, in his last moments, taken so unprepared as he was, were astonishing." On the 16th March, C. J. Fox, in moving for a new writ for the borough of Tavistock, vacated by Lord John Russell, who had succeeded to the titles and estates of his deceased brother, took occasion to pronounce a beautiful and glowing eulogium on his departed friend and firm supporter. — Ed.] [* The Anti-Jacohin (in No. 8) thus speaks of the threatened invasion of this comitry, for whicla " they have publicly formed, and (as they term it) organized their Army of England. Its Advanced Guard is to be formed from a chosen Corps of Ban- ditti, the most distinguished for Massacre and Plunder. It is to be preceded, as it naturally ought, by the Genius of French Revolutionary Liberty, and it will be vjclcomed, as they tell us, ' on the ensanguined shores of Britain, by the generous friends of Parliamentary Reform '. In the interval, however, till these golden dreams are realized, it is necessary that this ' Army of England,^ while it yet remains in France, should be fed, paid, and clothed. For this purpose a new and separate fund is provided (in the same spirit with the rest of their measiu'es), and is to be termed ' The Loan or England,' to be raised by anticipation on the security and mortgage of all the Lands and Property of this Country. This gasconade, which sounds too extravagant for reality, is nevei'theless seriously annomiced by a message from the Executive Directory ; and we are told that the Merchants of Paris are eagerly offering to advance, on such a security, the money which is to defray the expenses of the Expedition against this country." — Ed.] THE ANTI- JACOBIN. 55 No. IX. Jan. 8, 1798. ODE TO ANARCHY. BY A JACOBIN. (being an IMITATION OF HORACE, ODE XXXV. BOOK I.) Diva, gratum quce regis Antium ! Goddess, whose dire terrific power Spreads from thy much-loved Galha's plains Where'er her blood-stain'd ensigns lower, Where'er fell Eapine stalks, or barb'rous Discord reigns ! Thou, who canst lift to fortune's height The wretch by truth and virtue scorn'd, And crush with insolent delight, All whom true merit rais'd, or noble birth adorn'd ! Thee, oft the murd'rous band implores, Swift darting on its hapless prey : Thee, wafted from fierce Afric's shores, The Corsair Chief invokes to speed him on his way. Thee, the wild Indian Tribes revere ; Thy charms the roving Arab owns ; Thee, kings, thee tranquil nations fear, The bane of social bliss, the foe to peaceful thrones. For, soon as thy loud trumpet calls To deadly rage, to fierce alarms, Just Order's goodly fabric falls. Whilst the mad people cries, "To arms ! to arms ! " 56 POETRY OF With thee Proscription, child of strife, With Death's choice implements, is seen, Her Murderer's gun, Assassin's knife, And, "last not least in love," her darling Guillutine. Fond Hope is thine, — the hoj)e of Spoil, And Faith, — such faith as ruffians keep : They prosper thy destructive toil, That makes the Widow mourn, the helpless Orphan weep. Then false and hollow friends retire, Nor yield one sigh to soothe despair ; Whilst crowds triumphant Vice admire, Whilst Harlots shine in robes that deck'd the Great and Fair. Guard our famed Chief to Britain's strand ! Britain, our last, our deadliest foe : Oh, guard his brave associate band ! A band to slaughter train'd, and "nursed in scenes of woe ". What shame, alas ! one little Isle Should dare its native laws maintain ! At Gallia's threats serenely smile, And, scorning her dread power, triumphant rule the main. For this have guiltless victims died In crowds at thy ensanguined shrine ! For this has recreant Gallia's pride O'erturned Eeligion's Fanes, and braved the Wrath Divine ! What Tliione, what Altar, have we spared To spiead thy power, thy joys impart ? x\h ! then, our faithful toils reward ! And let each falchion pierce some loyal Briton's heart. THE ANTI-JACOBIN. 57 [the following is a translation, by duncombe, of HORACE'S ODE TO FORTUNE, Of ivhich the above Ude is a ^Mvody. Goddess, whose propitious sway Thy Antium's favoiirite sons obey ; Whose voice from depth of woe recalls The wretch, and triumphs tm-ns to fmierals ; From Thee, rich crops the needy swam Implores. Thee, sovereign of the main, The mariner invokes, who braves In a Bithynian bark the Cretan waves ; Thee, Scj'thians, wandering far and near. And iim-elenting Dacians, fear : The warlike sons of Italy ; Cities, and realms, and empires, worship Thee. Mothers of bai'barons monarchs dread, And pm'ple tyrants, lest thon tread With spurning foot, and scatter romid The sculptured column on th' encumbered ground ; Aiad lest the fickle crowd should break Their bonds ; and with loud clamoiu's wake The peaceful to assert their right By force of arms, and quell usiirping might. Ruthless necessity prepares The way for Thee ; and ever bears Huge nails in her strong hands of brass The wedge, the hook, and lead's hot molten mass. Thee Hope and white robed Faith, adore, So rarely found! — She, Avhen no more Thou smil'st, attends the fallen great Stript of his gay attire and stately seat. But venal crowds and harlots fly : And, if the flowing casks are dry. When to the dregs the wine they drmk. From friendship's yoke the false associates shrink. Thy aid for Caesar Rome implores, Conduct him safe to Britain's shores, The limits of the world ; and lead Our new-raised bands against the trembling Mede. 58 POETET OF Alas 1 we mourn our crimes, our scar And brethren slain in civU wars : How oft have Eoman youth embrued Their savage hands in sti'eams of social blood ! What has this Iron Age not dared? "What Gods revered ? ^^Hhat Altars spared ? ! pomt again the blunted steel, And let the Massagete our vengeance feel ! — Ed.] The following Song is recommended to be sung at all Co7ivivial Meetings, convened for the purpose of opposing the Assessed-Tax Bill. The correspondent who has trans- mitted it to us informs us that he has tried it with great success among many of his well-disposed neighbours, who had been at first led to apprehend that the l-20th part of their income was too great a sacrifice for the preservation of the remainder of their property from French Confiscation. You have heard of Eewbell,* That demon of hell. And of Baeeas, his brother Director ; [*'ihe above verses refer to the memorable events of the 18th Fructidor, Sept. 4, 1797 (the model of Prince Louis Napole'on's coup d'etat, Dec. 2, 1851), when Eewbell, Barras, and Larevelliere-Lepaiix, on the plea that the Republic was in danger, got rid of their fellow-directors, Carnot (grandfather to the present President of the French Republic) and Barthflemy, who were replaced by Merlin and Francois de Neufchateau, dispersed by military force the members of the Five Himdred and the Ancients, fifty-three of whom were condemned to transportation — banished the editors, &c., of forty-two news- papers — annulled the elections of fortj'-eight departments — and effected other arbitrary measures without opposition. The spruags of the movement were throughout directed by Buona- parte, seconded by Hoche and Augereau. This event was the true era of the commencement of military despotism in France. But Thiers considers "the Directory by these means pre- vented civil war, and substituted an arbitrary but necessary act of power, carried out with energy, but with all the mildness and modeiation that revolutionary times would allow "• — Ed.] THE ANTI- JACOBIN. 59 Of the canting Lepaux, And that scoundrel Moreau, Who betray'd his old friend and protector. Would you know how these friends, For their own private ends, Would subvert our Eeligion and Throne ?— Do you doubt of their skill To change Laws at their will ?— You shall hear how they treated their own. 'Twas their pleasure to look, In a little blue book, At the Code of their famed legislation, That with truth they might say, In the space of one day They had broke every Law of the Nation. The first law that they see, Is " the Press si tail he free ! " The next is "tJie Trial hi/ Jury": Then, "the People's free Choice "; Then, " the Memhers' free Voice" — When Eewbell exclaim'd in a fury — " On a method we'll fall T For infringing them all — We'll seize on each Printer and Member : No period so fit For a desperate hit, As our bloody month of Septeviher. "We'll annul each election Which wants our correction, And name our own creatures instead. 60 POETRY OF When once we've our will, No blood we will spill, (But let Caenot be knock'd on the head). " To Rochefort we'll drive Our victims alive. And as soon as on board we have got 'em, Since we destine the ship For no more than one trip, We can just make a hole in the bottom. " By this excellent plan. On the true Rights of Mem, When we've founded owr fifth Revolution, Though EnglcouVs our foe, An army shall go To improve her corrupt Constitution. " We'll address to the Nation A fine Proclamation With offers of friendship so warm : Who can give Buonaparte A welcome so hearty As the friends of a thorough reform ? " THE ANTI-JACOBIN. 61 No. X. Jan. 15, 1798. For the two following poems we are indebted to un- known correspondents. They could not have reached us at a more seasonable period. The former, we trust, describes the feelings common to every inhabitant of this country. The second, we know too well, is expressive of the sentiments of our enemies. LINES, WRITTEN AT THE CLOSE OF THE YEAR 1797. Loud howls the storm along the neighbouring shore ; Britain indignant hears the frantic roar : Her generous sons pour forth on every side, Firm in their country's cause — their country's pride ! See wild Invasion threats this envied land : Swift to defend her, springs each Social Band : Her white rocks echoing to their cheerful cry, " God and our King!" — " England and Victory ! " Yes ! happy Britain, on thy tranquil coast No trophies mad Philosophy shall boast ! Though thy disloyal sons, a feeble band, Sound the loud blast of treason through the land ; Scoff at thy dangers with unnatural mirth, And execrate the soil which gave them birth ; "With jaundiced eye thy splendid triumphs view, And give to France the palm to Britain due : 62 POETRY OP Or, — when loud strains of gratulation ring,* And lowly bending to the Eternal King, Thy Sovereign bids a nation's praise arise In grateful incense to the fav'ring skies — Cast o'er each. solemn scene a scornful glance, And only sigh for anarchy and France. Yes ! unsupported Treasons standard falls, Sedition vainly on her children calls, While Cities, Cottages, and Camps contend. Their King, their Laws, their Country to defend. + Eaise, Britain, raise thy sea-encircled head ; Bound the wide world behold thy glory spread ; Firm as thy guardian oaks thou still shalt stand, The dread and wonder of each hostile land ; [ * Alluding to the National Thanksgiving for the three great naval victories achieved by Lords Howe, St. Vincent, and Duncan. On this occasion the Kmg and Queen, with their family, the Houses of Lords and Counnons, &c., went in pro- cession to St. Paul's, where Divine Service was performed. The Government Papers attributed to the Opposition Press a desire to throw discredit on this proceeding. "The conse- quence of the Procession to St. Paul's " (says the Morning Post, of Dec. 25) "was, thato?ie man returned thanks to the Almighty, and one woman was kicked to death." — Ed.] [t Mary Frampton, in her journal (Dec. 20, 1797), gives a lively accomit of the King's attendance at St. Paul's for Duncan's Victory on the 11th Oct. "The King," she says, " stopped under the dome, and conversed for some time with Lord Dimcan and the sailors ; and, to the great scandal of good chru-ch-goers, did not hold his tongue for any considerable time together during the service. . . . Pitt was attacked at Temple Bar by three ruffians, who rushed from the mob and seized upon the door of his carriage undoubtedly with an intent to drag him out, but three of the Light Horse Volunteers rode up, and backing their horses against them, sent them head over heels to the place from whence they came, rather faster than they ventured out." Page 99. — Ed.] THE ANTI-JACOBIN. 63 While the chre fiends of discord idly rave, And, mad with anguish, curse the severing v^ave. Queen of the ocean, lo ! she smiles serene, 'Mid the deep horrors of the dreadful scene ; With heartfelt piety to Heav'n she turns — ■ From Heav'n the flame of British courage burns — She dreads no power but His who rules the ball. At whose " great bidding " empires rise and fall ; In Him, on peaceful plain, or tented field, She trusts, secure in His protecting shield — Gallia, thy threats she scorns — Britain shall never An Englishwoman. translation of the new song OF THE "AEMY OF ENGLAND". written by the ci-devant bishop of autun.* WITH NOTES BY THE TBANSLATOB. Good Eepublicans all, The Directory's call Invites you to visit John Bull ; Oppress'd by the rod Of a King, and a God,t The cup of his misery's full. [* Prince Talleyrand. — Ed.] ■j- General Danican, in his Memoirs, tells us, that while he was in command, a felon, who had assmned the name of Brutus, chief of a revolutionary tribunal at Rennes, said to his colleagues, on Good Friday, " Brothers, we must put to death this day, at the same hour the counter-revolutionist Christ died, that young devotee who was lately arrested " : and this yoxmg lady was guillotined accordingly, and her corpse treated with every possible species of indecent insult, to the infinite amusement of a vast multitude of spectators. 64 POETRY OF Old Johnny shall see What makes a man free ; Not parchments, nor Statutes on Paper ; And stripp'd of his riches, Great Charter, and breeches, Shall cut a fkee Citizen's caper. Then away, let us over To Deal, or to Dover— We laugh at his talking so big ; He's pamper'd with feeding, And wants a sound bleeding — Par Die /I f he shall bleed like a pig ! John, tied to the stake, A grand baiting will make, When worried by mastiffs of France ; What Eepublican fun. To see his blood run. As at Lijons, La Vendee, and Nantz/* *The reader will tind iu the works of Peter Porcupine [W. Cobbett] (a spirited and instructive writer) an ample and satisfactory commentary on this and the following stanza. The French themselves inform us, that by the several modes of destruction here alluded to, upwards of 30,000 persons were butchered at Lyons, and this once magnificent city almost levelled to the ground, by the command of a wretched actor (CoLLOT d'Herbois), whom they had formerly hissed from the stage. From the same authorities we learn, that at Nantz 27,000 persons, of both sexes, were murdered ; chiefly by drowning them in plugged boats. The waters of the Loire became putrid, and were forbidden to be drunk, by the savages who conducted the massacre : — that at Paris 150,000, and in La Vende'e 300,000 persons were destroyed. — Upon the whole, the French themselves acknowledge, that two millions of huinan beings (exclusive of the military) have been sacrificed to the principles of Equality and the Eights of Man : 250,000 THE ANTI-JACOBIN. 65 With grape-shot discharges, And plugs in his barges, With National Razors good store, We'll pepper and shave him, And in the Thames lave him — How sweetly he'll bellow and roar ! What the villain likes worse, We'll vomit his Pm'se, And make it the guineas disgorge ; For your Raphaels and Eubens We would not give two-pence ; Stick, stick to the pictures of George. No Venus of stone, But of good flesh and bone, Will do for a true Democrat ; When weary with slaughter, With John's Wife and Daughter, We'll join in a little chit-chat. of these are stated to be women, and 30,000 children. In this last nmuber, however, they do not inchide the unborn ; nor those who started from the bodies of their agonizing parents, and were stuck upon the bayonets of those very men who are now to compose the "Army of England," amidst the most savage acclamations. [At the beginning of the revolution, some companies of childi-en, called Bonsbons, were dressed and drilled as National Guards, as a compliment to the Dauphin, who to please the Parisians sometimes donned that uniform. Similar companies were afterwards formed in Brittany, and employed to shoot those poor wretches whom the two guillotines could not dispatch in suflficient numbers ! — Biog. tfniv., art. St. Andr4. —Ed.] 5 66 POETRY OF The Shop-keeping hoard, The Tenant and Lord, And the Merchants,* are excellent prey At our cannon's first thunder, Rape, pillage, Q.udi pAunder The Order shall be of the day. French fortunes and lives, French daughters and wives, ^Qave Jive lionest men to defend 'em ! And Bakeas and Co. When to England we go. Will kindly take John's in commendam. *At Lyons, Jabogues, the second murderer (the Actor being the first), in his speech to the Democratic Society, used these words — " Down with the edifices raised for the profit or the pleasiu'e of the rich ; down with them all. Commerce and AKTS are useless to a warlike people, and are the destruction of that SUBLIME Equality which France is determined to spread over the globe." Such are the consequences of Eadical Beform I Let any merchant, farmer, or landlord ; let any husband or father consider this, and then say, ^^ Shall ive or shall ive not contrihiUe a moderate sum, IN proportion to our annual expen- diture,/©?' the ■pur'pose of preserving ourselves from the fate of Lyons, La Vendee, and NantzV Styptic. THE ANTI-JACOBIN. 67 No. XL Jan. 22, 1798. We have said in another part of our paper of this day, "that though we shall never begin an attack, \fe shall always be prompt to repel it ". On this principle, we could not pass over in silence the Epistle to the Editoes of the Anti-JacoJdn, which ap- peared in the Morning Chronicle of Wednesday, and from which we have fortunately been furnished with a motto for this day's paper. We assure the author of the epistle, that the answer which we have here the honour to address to him, con- tains our genuine and undisguised sentiments upon the merits of the poem. Our conjectures respecting the authors and abettors of this performance may possibly be as vague and unfounded as theirs are with regard to the Editoes of the Anti-Jaco- bin. We are sorry that we cannot satisfy their curiosity upon this subject — but we have little anxiety for the gra- tification of our own. It is hardly to be expected, that the character of the epistle should be taken on trust from the editors of this volume ; it is thought best, therefore, to subjoin the whole performance as it originally appeared — a mode of hostility obviously the most fair, and m respect to the combatants in the cause of Jacobinism, by much the most effectual. They are always best opposed by the arms which they themselves furnish. Jacobinism shines by its own light. 68 POETRY OF To the respectable names which the author of the fol- lowing address has thought proper to connect with the " Anti- Jacobin," no apology is made for thus preserving this otherwise perishable specimen of dulness and defa- mation. He who has been reviled by the enemies of the " Anti- Jacobin," must feel that principles are attributed to him, of which he need not be ashamed : and when the abuse is conveyed in such a strain of feebleness and folly, he must see that those principles excite animosity only in quarters of which he need not be afraid. It is only necessary to add, what is most conscientiously the truth, that this production, such as it is, is hy far the best of all the attacks that the combined wits of the cause have been able to muster against the " Anti- Jacobin ". EPISTLE TO THE EDITOKS OF THE ANTI-JACOBIN.* Hie Niger est ; hunc tii, Eomane, caveto ! To tell what gen'rals did, or statesmen spoke, To teach the world by truths, or please by joke ; To make mankind grow bold as they peruse, Judge on existing things, and — weigh the news ; For this a paper first display'd its page. Commanding tears and smiles through ev'ry age I Hail, justly famous ! who in modern daj's With nobler flight aspire to higher praise ; Hail, justly famous ! whose discerning eyes At once detect mistakes, mis-statements, lies ; 10 Hail, justly famous ! who with fancy blest. Use fiend-like vii'ulence for sportive jest ; "Who only bark to serve your private ends — Patrons of Prejudice, Corruption's friends ! Who hurl yoiu" venom'd darts at well-earned fame — Virtue your hate, and Calunmy your aim ! ["^ Probably written by the Rt. Hon. John Courtnay.] THE ANTI-JACOBIN. 69 "Whoe'er ye are, all hail ! — whether the skill Of youthful Canning giiides the ranc'roiis quill ; With powers mechanic far above his age, Adapts the paragraph and fills the page ; 20 Measures the column, mends whate'er's amiss, Eejects that letter, and accepts of this ; Or HAiniOND, leaving his official toil, O'er this great work consume the midnight oil — Bills, passports, letters, for the Muses quit. And change dull biisiness for amusing wit : — His life of labour at one gasp is o'er. His books forgot — his desk beloved no more ! Proceed to prop the Ministerial cause ; See consequential Morpeth nods applause ; 30 In ev'ry fair one's ears at balls and plays The gentle Granville Leveson whispers praise : Well-judging Patrons, whom such works can please ; Great works, well worthy Patrons such as these ! Who heard, not raptured, the poetic Sage Who sung of Gallia in a headlong rage, And blandly drew with no xm courtly grace The simple manners of oin- English race — ExtoU'd great Duncan, and, supremely brave, Whelm'd Buonaparte's pride beneath the wave ? 40 I swear by all the youths that Malmesbury chose. By Ellis' sapient prominence of nose, B3' Morpeth's gait, important, proud, and big — B.y Leveson Gower's crop-imitating wig, That, could the pow'rs which in those numbers shme, Could that warm spirit animate my line, Yoiu' glorious deeds which humbly I rehearse — Your deeds should live immortal as my verse ; And, while they wonder'd whence I caught my flame. Your sons should blush to read their fathers' shame ! 50 Pi'oceed, great men ! — your office is not done ; Proceed with what you haA'e so well begun : Load Fox (if you by Pitt would be preferr'd), AVith ev'ry guilt that Kenyon ever heard— Adult'rer, gamester, drunkard, cheat and knave, A factious demagogue and pension'd slave ! 70 POETBY OF Loose, loose your cry — with ire satiric flash : Let all the Opposition feel yoiir lash ; And prove them to these hot and partial times, A combination of the worst of crimes I 60 But softer numbers softer subjects fit : In liquid phrases thrill the praise of Pitt ; Extol in eulogies of candid truth The Virgin Minister — the Heav'n-born Youth ; The greatest gift that fate to England gave, Created to support and born to save ; Prompt to supply whate'er his coimtry lacks — Skilful to GAG, and knowing how to tax ! AVith him companions meet in order stand — A firm, compact, and well-appointed band ; 70 Skill'd to advance or to retreat, Dundas, And bear thick battle on his front of brass ; Geenville with pond'roiTS head, which match'd we find By equal ponderosity behind. — - — - But hold, my Muse ; nor farther these piirsue I — Great Editors, we have digress'd from you ; From you, to whom our trivial lays belong, From you, the sole inspirers of our song ! Proceed : — urge on the same vindictive strain. To gain the applauses of great Malmesbury's train ; 80 With jaundiced eyes the noblest patriot scan : Proceed — be more opprobrious if you can ; Proceed — be more abusive ev'ry hour ; To be more stupid is beyond your power. Line 10. — [One of the fiistinguishing features of the " Anti-Jacobin " was their articles devoted to an exposure of the " Lies, Misrepresentations, and Mistakes " of the Opposition Press. — Ed.] Line 23. — [George Hammond, at this time Canning's colleague as Under- Secretary of State ; the latter being succeeded by John Hookham Frere. — Ed.] Line 30. — [Lord Morpeth, son of the (fifth) Earl of Carlisle who was satirized by Byron in " English Bards and Scotch Reviewers". — Ed. | Line 32. — [George Granville Leveson Gower, eldest son of the first Marquis of Stafford, born in 1758, became second Marquis in 1803, and created Duke of .Sutherland in 1833. He was one of Canning's intimate college companions. — Ed.] Line 41. — [James Harris, first Earl of Malmesbury, one of the most distin- guished of Englisli diiiliiuiatists. His "Diaries and Correspondence," pub- lished by his giandson, the third Earl, throw much light on the transactions of the eventful period to wliieh they refer. — Ed.] Line 42.— TGeorge Ellis, the accomplished editor of the "Specimens of the Early English Poets, and of Early English Metrical Romances," &c. In early life he contributed to the liolliad, being the author of Nos. 1 and 2, in Part I., THE ANTI-JACOBIN. 71 and Nos. 1 and 2, in Pait II. Of the Political Eclogues he wrote the one entitled " Charles Jenkin.son ". In the ProOationari/ Odes, he wrote No. II. " Ode on the New Year, by Lord Mulsrave," and No. XX. " Irregular Ode for the King's Birth Day, by Sir G. Howard ". Afterwards, however, he became niiicli attached t(5 Pitt, and acted as Secretary to Lord ^lalmesbury during his unsuccessful negotiations with the French for peace, at Lisle, 1797. Horace Walpole thus alludes to him, in a letter of 24111 June, 17S3 : " English people are in fashion at Versailles. A Mr. Ellis, who wrote some pretty verses at Bath two or three years ago, is a favourite there." Sir Walter Scott addressed to him Canto V. of " Marmion". He died in 1S1.5, aged 70. — Ed.] Line 71. — [The Rt. Hon. Henry Dundas (afterwards created Viscount Mel- ville), in the Commons, and Lord Grenville in the Lords, were Pitt's most efficient supporters.— Ed.] TO THE AUTHOR OF THE EPISTLE TO THE EDITORS OF THE ANTI-JACOBIN. Nostrorum sermonum candide judex I Bard of the borrow 'cl lyre ! to whom belong The shreds and remnants of each hackney 'd song ; Whose verse thy friends in vain for wit explore, And comit but one good line in eighty-four ! Whoe'er thou art, all hail ! Thy bitter smile Gilds our dull page, and cheers our humble toil ! For yet — though firm and fearless in the cause Of pure Eeligion, Liberty, and Laws, — Though TRUTH approved, though fav'ring virtue smiled, Some doubts remained : we yet were nnreviled. 10 Thanks to thy zeal ! those doubts at length are o'er ! Thy suffrage crowns our wish ! — we ask no more To stamp with sterling worth each honest line, Than Censure, cloth' d in vapid Verse like thine ! But say — in full blown honours dost thou sit 'Midst Brookes's elders on the bench of wit. Where Hare, chief-justice, frames the stern decree. 72 POETRY OF While with their learned brother, sages three, FiTZPATRiCK, TowNSHEND, Sheeidan, agree? Or art thou One — the party's flattered fool, 20 Train'd in Dehretfs, or Ridgiuays civic school — One, who with rant and fustian daily wears. Well-natured Eichaedson ! thy patient ears ; — Who sees nor Taste nor Genius in these times, Save Parr's huzz prose,* and Couetenay's kidnapp'd rhymes ? + * Buzz Prose. — The learned reader will perceive that this is an elegant metonymy, by which the quality belonging to the outside of the head is transferred to the inside. Buzz is an epithet usually applied to a large wig. It is here iised for swellmg, biu'ly, bombastic writing. There is a pictm-e of Hogarth's (the Election Ball, we believe), in which there are a number of Hats thrown together in one corner of the room ; and it is remarked as a peculiar excellence that there is not a Hat among them of which yoii cannot to a certainty point out the owner among the figiu'es dancing, or otherwise distributed through the picture. We remember to have seen an experiment of this kind tried at one of the Universities Avith the wig and writings here alluded to. A page taken from the most happy and elaborate part of the writings was laid upon a table in a barber's shop, romid which a number of wigs of different descriptions and dimensions were suspended, and among them that of the Author in qiiestion. It was required of a young student, after reading a few sentences in the page, to point out among the wigs that which nmst of necessity belong to the Head in which siich sentences had been engendered. The experiment succeeded to a miracle. The learned reader will now see all the beauty and propriety of the metonymy. f Kidnapp'd Ehymes. — Kidnapp'd implies something more than stolen. It is, according to an expression of Mr. Sheridan's (in the " Critic "), using other peo^le''s " thoughts as gi2)sies do stolen children — disfiguring them, to maJce them jmss for their ovm ". This is a serious charge against an author, and ought to be well supported. To the proof then ! THE ANTI-JACOBIN. . 73 Or is it he, — the youth, whose daring soul With half a mission sought the Frozen Pole ; — And then, returning from the unfinish'd work, Wrote half a Utter, — to demolish Bueke ? Studied Burke's manner, — aped his forms of speech ; 30 In an Ode of the late Lord Nugent's are the following spirited lines : "Though Cato liv'd — though Tully spoke — * Though Brutus dealt the godlike stroke, Yet perish'd fated Eome ! " The author above mentioned saw these lines, and liked them — as well he might ; and as he had a mind to write about Eome huuself, he did not scruple to enlist them into his service ; but he thought it right to make a small alteration in their appear- ance, which he managed thxis. Speaking of Eome, he sajs it is the place ''Wliere Cato liv'd":— A sober truth ! which gets rid at once of all the poetry and sphit of the original, and reduces the sentiment from an example of manners, virtue, patriotism, from the vitm exemplar dedit of Lord Nugent, to a mere question of uihabitancy. Ubi habitavit Cato- -where he was an mhabitant-householder, paying scot and lot, and had a house on the right-hand side of the way, as you go down Esquiline Hill, just opposite to the poulterer's. But to proceed — " Where Cato liv'd ; where Tully spoke. Where Brutus dealt the godlike stroke — — By ivhich his glory rose ! ! ! " The last line is not borrowed. We question whether the history of modern literature can produce an instance of a theft so shameless, and turned to so little advantage. [' Horace Walpole, in a letter to Hannah More, quotes one word of these verses incorrectly, writing : — " Though Cato dud," an error which P. Cunning- ham allows to pass, as also another," that Mr. — instead of iorti— Nugent wrote tbeni. — Ed.] 74 . POETRY OF Though when he strives his metaphors to reach, One luckless slip his meaning overstrains, And loads the blunderbuss with Bedford's brains." * And loads the blunderbuss until Bedford's brains. — This line is wholly iinintelligible without a note. And we are afraid the note will be wholly incredible, unless the reader can fortunately procure the book to which it refers. In the " Part of a Letter," which was published by Mr. Eobt. Adair, in answer to Mr. Burke's "Letter to the D. of B.," nothing is so remarkable as the studious imitation of Mr. Burke's style. His vehemence, and his passion, and his irony, his wild imagery, his far-sought illustrations, his rolling and lengthened periods, and the short quick pointed sentences in which he often condenses as much wisdom and wit as others would ex- pand through pages, or through volumes, — all these are care- fully kept in view by his opponent, though not always very artificially copied or applied. But imitators are liable to be led strangely astra_y ; and never was there an instance of a more complete mistake of a plain meaning, than that which this line is intended to illustrate — a mistake no less than that of a coffin for a corpse. This is hard to believe or to comprehend — but you shall hear. Mr. Burke, in one of his publications, had talked of the French ^^ wvplumbinci the dead in order to destroy the living," — by which he intended, without doubt, not metaphorically, but literally, '■'■stripping the dead of their leaden coffins, and then maldng them {not the dead but the coffins) into bullets". A circumstance perfectly notorious at the time the book was written. Biit this does not satisfy our author. He determines to retort Mr. Burke's own words upon him ; and unfortunately "reaching at a metaphor," where Mr. Burke only intended a fact, he falls into the little mistake above mentioned, and by a stroke of his pen transmutes the illustrious Head of the house of EussELL into a metal, to which it is not for us to say how near or how remote his affinity may possibly have been. He writes thus — "1/ Mr. Burke had been content with '■unplumbing' a dead Russell, and hewing HIM (observe — not the coffin, but Hill — the old dead Eussell himself) into qrape and canister, to sweep down the v:hole generation of his descendants," d-c, d'C. The thing is scarcely credible ; but it is so ! We write with the book open before us. THE ANTI-JACOBIN. 75 Whoe'er thou art — ne'er may thy patriot fire, Unfed by praise or patronage, expire ! Forbid it, Taste ! — with Compensation large Patrician hands thy labours shall o'ercharge ! ■■'• Bedfobd and Whitbread shall vast sums advance, The L'dhl and 31alt of Jacobin Finance ! Whoe'er thou art — before thy feet we lay, 40 With lowly suit, our Number of to-day ! Spurn not our offering with averted eyes ! Let thy pure breath revive the extinguished Lies I Midakes, Mis-tells, which one of the company had dexterously whipped on unperceived. The first motion was that of indignation ; but the stupid stare of the unconscious Captain, who half opened Iiis eyes at every sound of the bells as liis head rose or fell, and im- mediately closed them again, somno vinnque gravatu>), had such a powerful effect on the risible faculties of the Company, that they broke, as if by consent, into the most violent and convulsive fits of laughter ; Mr. Fox himself not being exempt from the general contagion. As soon as the Captain was made sensible of the cause of this uproar, he attempted to pull ofi: the Cap, but was prevented Ity a Citizen from the Cor- responding Soclcltj, who maintained that the Company had a right to be amused by the Captain in what m.mner they pleased ; and that, as he seemed to amuse them more effectually in that state, than in any other, he insisted, for one, on his continuing to wear the Cap. This was universally agreed to, with the exception of the Duke of Nokfolk. The Captain was therefore led to the upper table, with all his ".iangling honours loud upon him!" Here, as soon as he was seated, his Noble Friend called upon him for a Song. The Captain .sang the " Plempo " in his best manner. This was received with great applause ; and then the Duke gave " The Defenders — of Ireland"— (Wo'te times three). Captain Morris then began "And all the Books of Moses " ; — but was interrupted, before he had finished the first line, by Mr. Tierney, who declared he would not sit there and hear anything like ridicule on the Bible.* — {Mviii coughing and scraping.) — Mr. Erskine took God to witness, that he thought the Cai)tain meant no harm ;— and a gentleman from Cambridge, whose name ■we c impute a design to him which was wholly foreign from his heart — (/nud appltuisc). He augured well, however, of their patriotism, and would now afford them an op- portunity of repairing the injury they had done him, by giving the Toast as he intended— " The Health of our Sovereign— the Majesty of the People ".§ —{Loud and incessant shouts of applause.) A disgusting scene of uproar and confusion followed, which we shall not attempt to detail. The Chairman sank under the table in a state of stupefaction, and the rest of the Company, maddened alike with noise and wine, committed a thotisand outrages, till they were literally turned into the streets by the Waiters. As many of them as could speak were conducted home by the watch- men ; others were conveyed " in silent majesty" to the Round-house ; and not a few of them slept out the remainder of the night upon the steps of tlie neigh- bouring houses. The Reporters of the Jacobin Papers were sought out, and conveyed home by the pressmen, devils, &c., and one poor youth, whom we after- wards found to be a Writer in the Morning Chronicle (hired for the day by The True Briton) || had his pockets picked of a clean white Handkerchief and a Notebook, after being severely beaten for deserting his former' Employers. * Morning Post, Jan. 25. t Morning Chronicle, Jan. 25. t Morning Chronicle, Morning Post, Morning Hercdd, &c. § The Company seem to have recollected (had his Grace forgotten?) that the Duke of Norfolk has another Sovereign, to whom he has recently, more than once, sworn Allegiance ; and under whom he now holds the Lieutenancy of the West Riding of the County of York, and the Command of a Regiment of Militia. II See The True Briton, of Thursday, Jan. 25. TkLOYAL TOAST. THE ANTI-JACOBIN. 95 No. XIV. Feb. 12, 1798. It has been our invariable custom to suppress such of our correspondents' favours as conveyed any compliments to ourselves; and we have deviated from it in the present instance, not so much out of respect to the uncommon excellence of the Poem before us, as because it agrees so intimately with the general design of our paper — to ex- pose the deformity of the French Eevolution, to counter- act the detestable arts of those who are seeking to intro- duce it here, and above all, to invigorate the exertions of our countrymen against every Foe, foreign and domestic, by showing them the immense and inexhaustible resources they yet possess in British Courage and British Virtue ! to THE AUTHOR OF THE ANTI-JACOBIN. Foe to thy country's foes ! 'tis thine to claim From Britain's genuine sons a British fame — Too long French manners our fair isle disgraced ; Too long French fashions shamed our native taste. Still prone to change, we half-resolved to try The proffered charms of Fkench fraternity. Fair was her form, and Freedom's honour'd name Conceal'd the horrors of her secret shame : She claim' d some kindred with that guardian pow'r, Long worshipp'd here in Britain's happier hour : Virtue and Peace, she said, were in her train, The long-lost blessings of Astr-5;a's reign — But soon the vizor dropp'd — her haggard face Betray'd the Fury lurking in the Grace — 96 POETRY OF The false attendants that behind her press'd, In vain disguised, the latent guilt confess'd : Peace dropt her snow-white robe, and shudd'ring show'd Ambition's mantle reeking fresh with blood ; Presumptuous "Folly stood in Eeason's form, Pleased with the power to ruin, — not reform ; Philosophy, proud phantom, undismay'd, With cold regard the ghastly train survey'd ; Saw Persecution gnash her iron teeth, While Atheists preach'd the eternal sleep of death ; Saw Anarchy the social chain unbind. And Discord sour the blood of human kind ; Then talk'd of Nature's Eights, and Equal Sway ; And saw her system safe — and stalk'd away ! Foil'd by our Arms, where'er in arms we met, With ARTS LIKE these the foe assails us yet. Hopeless the fort to storm, or to surprise. More secret wiles his envious malice tries ; Diseas'd himself, spread wide his own despair, Pollutes the fount, and taints the wholesome air. While many a Chief, to glory not unknown, Alarms each hostile shore, and guards our own, 'Tis THINE, the latent treachery to proclaim ; An humbler warfare, but the cause the same. In vain had Pompey crush'd the Pontic host. And chas'd the pirate swarm from every coast ; The crew that leagu'd their country to o'erthrow ; The base confederates of a Gallic * foe ; * Conjuravere Gives nobilissimi Patriam incendere — Gallorum gentem infestissimam nomini Konaano in bellmxi arcessunt — Dux Hostium cmii exercitu supra caput est. — Obat. Caton. ap. .Sallust. THE ANTI-JACOBIN. 97 Had not the Civic Consul's watchful eye Track'd through the windings of conspiracy, Exposed, confounded, shamed, and forced away, The "Jacobin Eeformer * of his day ". 'Tis THINE a subtler mischief to pursue, And drag a deeper, darker, plot to view ; Whate'er its form, still ready to engage. Detect its malice, or resist its rage ; Whether it whispers low, or raves aloud, In sneers profane, or blasphemies avow'd ; f Insults its King, reviles its Country's cause. And, 'scaped from Justice, braves the lenient Laws : Whate'er the hand in desperate faction bold, By native hate inspired, or foreign gold ; Traitors absolved, and libellers released. The recreant Peer, or renegado Priest ; | The Sovereiffn-jjeople's cringing, crafty slave. The dashing fool, and instigating knave. Each claims thy care ; nor think the labour vain — Vermin have sunk the Ship that ruled the Main. * Turn Catilina polliceri tabulas novas, proscriptionem locu- pletium, Magistrates, Sacerdotia, rapinas, alia omnia qnse bellnni atqne lubido Victoruni fert. — Sallust. [ f " A Correspondent cautions ns against making a profane use of Mr. Wilberforce's appearance on Sunday ; that gentle- man would not have been so imgodly as to gallop there witliont a sufficient reason — it was the fultilment of some Prophecy ; and the horse he rode might be related to the "White Horse of the Revelations." — Morning Chronicle, Jan. 11, 1798. — Ed.] [J This refers to Charles Howard, eleventh Duke of Norfolk, (who gave, at a public dinner, the famous toast of " Our Sove- reign's health, the Majesty of the People,") and to John Home Tooke, who was a regularly ordained clergyman, ahd had been tried for High Treason and acquitted. — Ed.] 7 98 POETRY OF 'Tis THINE, with Truth's fair shield to ward the blow. And turn the weapon back upon the foe : To trace the skulking fraud, the candid cheat, That can retract the falsehood, yet repeat ; To wake the listless, slumb'ring as they lie, Lapt in th' embrace of soft security ; To rouse the cold, re-animate the brave, And shew the cautious all they have to save. Erect that standard Alfred first unfurl'd, Britain's just pride, the wonder of the world ; Whose staff is Freedom's spear, whose blazon'd field Beams with the Christian Cross, the Eegal Shield ; That standard which the Patriot Barons bore, Eestored, from Eunimede's resounding shore ; Which since consign'd to Williabi's guardian hand, Waved in new splendour o'er a grateful land ; Which oft in vain by force or fraud assail'd, Has stood the shock of ages — and prevail'd. Yes ! the bright sun of Britain yet shall shine — The clouds are earth-born, but his fire divine ; That temperate splendour, and that genial heat, Shall still illume, and cherish Empire's Seat ; While the red Meteor, whose portentous glare Shot plagues infectious through the troubled air ; Admired, or fear'd no more, shall melt away. Lost in the radiance of his brighter day ! THE ANTI-JACOBIN. 99 LINES. Written under the Bust of Charles Fox at the Grown and Anchor. I'll not sell Uncle Noll, Charles Surface cries ; — I'll not sell Charley Fox, John Bull replies : Sell him, indeed ! who'll find me such another ? — Fox is above all price ; so hold your pother. Morning Post, Feb. 6. To make our readers some amends for this miserable doggrel, we will present them, in our turn, with some lines written under a bust, not at the Crotvn and Anchor, by an English traveller just returned from Peters- burgh. We believe they are more just ; we are certain they are more poetical. LINES. Written by a Traveller at Czarco-zelo under the Bust of a certain Orator, once i)laced between those of Demosthenes and Cicero. I. The Grecian Orator of old, With scorn rejected Philip's laws. Indignant spuru'd at foreign gold. And triumph'd in his country's cause. II. A foe to every wild extreme, 'Mid civil storms, the Eoman Sage Eepress'd Ambition's frantic scheme, / And check'd the madding people's rage. III. Their country's peace, and wealth and fame. With patriot zeal their labours sought, 100 POETRY OF And Eome's or Athens' honoured name Inspired and govern'd every thought. IV. Who now, in this presumptuous hour, Aspires to share the Athenian's praise ? — The advocate of foreign power, The ^schines of later days. V. What chosen name to Tully's join'd. Is thus announced to distant chmes ? — Behold, to lasting shame consign'd, The Catiline of modern times ! * [* These lines allude to the Empress Catherine's placing in her gallery the bust of Fox between those of Demosthenes and Cicero, as a token of gratitude for his exertions in de- feating the project of Pitt, wlio, in conjxmction with Prussia and Holland, had, in 1791, prepared a powerful armament to compel her to give up Ockzakow, which she had seized. The Court party delighted in stigmatizing Fox as the modern Catiline. " But the part which he took in parliament subse- quent to 1793, (says Sir N. W. Wraxall), and the eulogimns lavished by him on the French Revolution, soon changed the Empress's tone. She caused the bust to be removed ; and when reproached with such a change in her conduct, she replied, ' C'etoit Monsieur Fox de Quatre-vingt-onze que j'ai place dans mon cabinet '." — WraxaWs Posthumous Memoirs, vol. 1., pp. 435, 436. " It seems to have escaped general notice, (says Sir James Prior in his Life of Burke), that the misfortunes of Poland in her final partition may be, in some degree, attributed, however imdesignedly on their part, to Mr. Fox and the Opposition, in the strong and unusual means made use of to thwart Mr. Pitt in the business of Ockzakow. They lay claim, it is true, to the merit of having prevented war on that occasion, lint if war had then taken place with England for one act of vio- lence comparatively trivial, Eussia, in all probability, woiild not have ventured upon a second and still greater aggression, involving the existence of a nation, with the certainty of a THE ANTI- JACOBIN. 101 second war. Nothing, after all, might have saved Poland from tlie combination then on foot against her ; but it is certain that Mr. Pitt, from recent experience, had little encouragement to make the attempt." It is a curious circumstance that, though the ^jZafe illus- trating these Lines was published, according to its inscription, on the 17th March, 1792, the five stanzas engraved on it are identical with those which appeared in the Anti-Jacobin of r2th Feb., 1798, though these were introduced as written "by an English Traveller just [sic] returned from Petersburg!! ". Assuming the date on the engraving to be correct, we might account for the parachronism on the supposition that the author of the earlier plate-stanzas availed hiniself of the appearance of the Lijics xorittcn under the Bust of Charles Fox at the Crown atid Anchor to reproduce them — six years afterwards— with a few verbal alterations, to adapt them to a later period — and with an equivocal statement as to the period of their first production. The following are the alterations in the reprinted version : — Stanza 2 line 3, frantic for lawless. ,, 3 „ 1, their country's for domestic. „ 3 „ 1, and wealth and for external. „ 3 „ 3, honoured for sacred. „ 4 „ 1, now for then. „ 4 ,, 3, advocate for tool confessed. „ 4 „ 4, later for modern. „ 5 „ 2, thus for now. ,, 5 „ 4, Catiline for Cataline. „ 5 „ 4, modern for later. — Ed.] 102 POETRY OF No. XV. Feb. 19, 1798. THE PEOGEESS OF MAN.* IN FORTY CANTOS, WITH NOTES CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY : CHIEFLY OF A PHILOSOPHICAL TENDENCY. DEDICATED TO R. P. KNIGHT, ESQ. CANTO FIRST. Contents. — The Subject proposed. — Doubts and Waverings. — Queries not to be answered. — Formation of the stupendous Whole. — Cosmogony; or the Creation of the World: — the Devil— Man— Various Classes of Being: — Animated Beings — Birds— Fish — Beasts — the Influence of the Sexiial Appe- tite — on Tigers — on Whales— On Crimpt Cod — on Perch — on Shrimps— on Oysters, — Various Stations assigned to dif- ferent Animals : — Birds — Bears — Mackerel. — Bears remark- able for their fur — Mackerel cried on a Sunday — Birds do not graze — nor Fishes fly — nor Beasts live in the Water. — Plants equally contented with their lot : — Potatoes — Cabbage — Lettuce — Leeks — Cucumbers. — Man only discontented — born a Savage ; not choosing to continue so, becomes polished — resigns his Liberty — Priest - craft — - King - craft — Tyranny of Laws and Institutions. — Savage Life — de- scription thereof : — The Savage free — roammg Woods — feeds on Hips and Haws — Animal Food — first notion of it from seeing a Tiger tearing his prey — wonders if it is good — resolves to try — makes a Bow and Arrow — kills a Pig — resolves to roast a part of it — lights a fire — Apostrophe to fires — Spits and Jacks not yet invented. — Digression. — Corinth — Sheffield. — Love, the most natural clesire after Food. — Savage Courtship. — Concubinage recommended. — Satirical Reflections on Parents and Children — Husbands [* Written to ridicule Richard Payne Knight's Progress of Civil Society, a Didactic Poem, in Six Books. London, 1796, 4to.— Ed.] THE ANTI-JACOBIN. 103 and Wives — against collateral Consanguinity. — Freedom the only Morality, &c. &c. &c. Whether some great, supreme o'er-ruling Power Stretch'd forth its arm at Natm-e's natal horn*, Composed this mighty whole with plastic skill, Wielding the jarring elements at will ? Or whether, sprung from Chaos' mingling storm, 5 The mass of matter started into form ? Or Chance o'er earth's green lap spontaneous fling The fruits of autumn and the flowers of spring ? Whether material substance unrefinecl. Owns the strong impulse of instructive mind, 10 Which to one centre points diverging lines, Confounds, refracts, invig'rates, and combines? Whether the joys of earth, the hopes of heaven, By man to God, or God to man, were given? If virtue leads to bliss, or vice to woe ? 15 Who rules above, or who reside below? Ver. 3. A modern author of great penetration and judgment observes very shrewdly, that "the cosmogony of the world has puzzled the philosophers of all ages. What a medlej- of opinions have thej' not broached upon the creation of the world. Sanconiathon, Manetho, Berosus, and Ocellus Lucanus have all attempted it in vain. The latter has these words — A)Utrchon ara kai ateleutaion toi)an — which imply, that all things have neither beginning nor end." See Goldsmith's Vicar of TVakefield : see also Mr. Ivnight's Poem on the Progress of Civil Society. Ver. 12. The influence of Mind upon Matter, comprehending the whole question of the Existence of Mind as independent of Matter, or as co-existent with it, and of Matter considered as an intelligent and self-dependent Essence, will make the subject of a larger Poem in 127 Books, now preparing iinder the same auspices. Ver. 14. Hee Godwin's Enquirer; Darwin's Zo on omia; Paine; Priestley, »&c. &c. ; also all the French Encyclopaedists. Ver. 16. Qiucstio sjnnosa et contortala. 104 POETKY OF Vain questions all — shall man presume to know ? On all these points, and points obscure a.s these, Think they who will, — and think whate'er they please ! Let us a plainer, steadier theme pursue — 20 Mark the grim savage scoop his light canoe ; Mark the dark rook, on pendent branches hung, With anxious fondness feed her cawing young. — Mark the fell leopard through the desert prowl, Fish prey on fish, and fowl regale on fowl ; — 25 How Lybian tigers' chawdrons love assails, And warms, 'midst seas of ice, the melting whales ; — Cools the crimpt cod, fierce pangs to perch imparts. Shrinks shrivell'd shrimps, but opens oysters' hearts ; — Then say, how all these things together tend 30 To one great truth, prime object, and good end ? First — to each living thing, whate'er its kind. Some lot, some part, some station is assign'd. The feather'd race with pinions skim the air — Not so the mackerel, and still less the bear ; 35 This roams the wood, carniv'rous for his prey ! That with soft roe pursues his icaiery way : Ver. 26. "Add thereto a tiger's chawdron." — Macbeth. Ver. 26, 27. " In softer notes bids Lybian lions roar. And warms the whale on Zenibla's frozen shore." Progress of Civil Society, Book I. ver. 98. Ver. 29. "An oyster may be crossed in love." — Mr. Sheridan's Critic. Ver. 34. Birds fly. Ver. 35. But neither fish, nor beasts — particularly as here exemplified. Ver. 36. The bear. Ver. 37. The mackerel — there are also hard-roed mackerel. Sed de his alio loco. THE ANTI-JACOBIN. 105 111 is, slain by hunters, yields his shaggy hide; Tli'it, caught by fishers, is on Sandays cried. — But each contented with his humble sphere, 40 Moves unambitious through the circling year ; Nor e'er foi'gets the fortune of his race, Nor pines to quit, or strives to change his place. Ah ! who has seen the mailed lobster rise. Clap her broad wings, and soaring claim the skies ? 45 When did the owl, descending from her bow'r. Crop, 'midst the fleecy flocks, the tender flow'r ; Or the young heifer plunge, with pliant limb. In the salt wave, and fish-like strive to swim ? The same with plants — potatoes 'tatoes breed — 50 Uncostly cabbage springs from cabbage seed ; Lettuce to lettuce, leeks to leeks succeed ; Nor e'er did cooling cucumbers presume To flow'r like myrtle, or like violets bloom. — Man, only, — rash, refined, presumptuous man, 55 Starts from his rank, and mars creation's plan. Ver. 38. Bear's grease, or fat, is also in great request ; being supposed to have a criniparous, or hair-producing quality. Ver. 39. There is a special Act of Parliament ^\hich permits mackerel to be ci-ied on Sundays. Ver. 45 to 49. Every animal contented with the lot which it has drawn in life. A tine contrast to man, who is always discontented. Vtr. 49. Salt wave — wave of the sea — "brinii ivave'\ — Poetae passim. I'tr. 50. A still stronger contrast, and a greater shame to man, is found in plants ; — they too are contented — he restless and changing. Alejis agitat mihi, nee placida contenta quiete est. Ver. 50. Potatoes 'tatoes breed. Elision for the sake of verse, not meant to imply that the root degenerates. — Not sowithnian — Mox daturus Progeniem vitiosiorem. 106 POETEY OF Bom the free heir of nature's wide domain, To art's strict hmits bounds his narrow'd reign ; Eesigns his native rights for meaner things, For faith and fetters — laws, and priests, and kings. 60 fTo he continued.) We are sorry to be obliged to break off here. The remainder of this admirable and instructive Poem is in the press, and will be continued the first opportunity. THE EDITOR. [The following is the commencement of Knight's poem : — Whether pi'imordial motion sprang to life From the wild war of elemental strife ; In central chains the mass inert confined, And sublimated matter into mind : Or, whether one great all-pervading soul Moves in each part and animates the whole ; Unnumbered worlds to one great centre draws, And governs all by pre-established laws : Whether in fates' eternal fetters bound, Mechanic nature goes her endless round : Or ever varying, acts but to fulfil The sovereign mandates of Almighty will ; — Let learned folly seek, or foolish pride, Rash in presumptuous ignorance, decide. — Ed.] [Eminent as Richard Payne Knight was as a classical scholar anil archaeolo- gist, his poetical powers were not highly appreciated by his literary contem- poraries, as is amusingly shown in a letter from Horace Walpole, dated 22nd March, 1796, to the Rev. W. Mason, in which he declares how much he is "offended and disgusted by Mr. Knight's new, insolent, and self-conceited poem". He winds up thus : " I send you a parody on two lines of Mr. Knight, which will show you that his poem is seen in its true light by a young man of allowed parts, Mk. Canning, whom I never saw. The originals are the two first lines at the top of page 5 : " — "Some fainter irritations seem to feel, Which o'er its languid fibres gently steal".— Knight. "Cools the crimp'd cod, to pond-perch pangs imparts, Thrills the shelled shrimps, and opens oysters' hearts." — Canning. It is evident from this that Canning had thought of parodying the poem im- mediately after its publication, and that Walpofe had seen a specimen in nianu- script, nearly two years before its publication in the Anti-Jucohin, in which the two lines (28, 29) are thus altered :— "Cools the crimpt cod, fierce pangs to perch imparts, Shrinl^s shrivell'd shrimps, but opens oysters' liearts". By an oversight, Peter Cunningham, in liis edition of Walpole's Letters, attri- butes the latter's attack to a previous protluction of Knight's, published in 1794, entitled The Landscape ; a iliilactic Poem in three Books, a work which had excited Walpole's high indignation by expressing opinions oppo.sed to his own. — Ed.] THE ANTI-JACOBIN. 107 No. XVI. Feb. 26, 1798. The specimen of the poem on the " Progress of Man," with which we favoured our Eeaders in our last Number, has occasioned a variety of letters, which we confess have not a little surprised us, from the unfounded, and even contradictory charges they contain. In one, we are accused of Malevolence, in bringing back to notice a work that had been quietly consigned to oblivion ; — in another, of Plagiarism, in copying its most beautiful passages ; — in a third, of Vanity, in striving to imitate what was in itself inimitable, &c., &c. But why this alarm? has the author of the ^^ Progress of Civil Societij" an exclusive patent for fabricating Didactic poems? or can we not write against Order and Government without incurring the guilt of Imitation ? We trust we were not so ignorant of the nature of a didactic poem (so called from didasJiein, to teach, and jwe^na, a poem ; because it teaches nothing, and is not poetical) even before the "Progress of Civil Society" appeared, hut that we were capable of such an undertaking. We shall only say further, that we do not intend to proceed regularly with our Poem ; but having the re- maining thirty-nine Cantos by us, shall content ourselves with giving, from time to time, such extracts as may happen to suit our purpose. The following passage, which, as the reader will see by turning to the Contents prefixed to the head of the Poem, is part of the First Canto, contains so happy a 108 POETRY OF deduction of Man's present state of Depravity, from the first slips and failings of his Original State, and inculcates so forcibly the mischievous consequences of social or civilized, as opposed to natural society, that no dread of imputed imitation can prevent us from giving it to our readers. PKOGEESS OF MAN. Lo ! the rude savage, free from civil strife. Keeps the smooth tenour of his guiltless life ; Restrain'd by none, save Nature's lenient laws, Quaffs the clear stream, and feeds on hips and haws. Light to his daily sports behold him rise ! 65 The bloodless baiiquet health and strength supplies. Bloodless not long — one morn he haps to stray Through the lone wood — and close beside the way Sees the gaunt tiger tear his trembling prey ; Beneath whose gory fangs a leveret bleeds, 70 Or pig — such pig as fertile China breeds. Struck with the sight, the wondering savage stands. Rolls his broad eyes, and clasps his lifted hands ! Then restless roams — and loaths his wonted food ; Shuns the salubrious stream, and thirsts for blood. 75 By thought matured, and quicken'd by desire, Ver. 61 — 66. Simple state of savage life — previous to the pastoral, or even the hunter state. Ver. 66. First savages disciples of Pythagoras. Ver. 67, &c. Desire of animal food natural only to beasts, or to man in a state of civilized society. First suggested by the circumstances here related. Ver. 71. Pigs of the Chinese breed most in request. Ver. 76. First formation of a bow. Introduction of the science of archerv. THE ANTI-JACOBIN. 109 New arts, new arms, his wayward wants require. From the tough yew a slender branch he tears, "With self-taught skill the twisted grass prepares ; Th' unfashioned bow, with labouring efforts bends 80 In circling form, and joins th' unwilling ends. Next some tall reed he seeks — with sharp-edg'd stone Shapes the fell dart, and points wdth whiten'd bone. Then forth he fares. x\round in careless play, Kids, pigs, and lambkins unsuspecting stray ; 85 With grim delight he views the sportive band, Intent on blood, and lifts his murderous hand. Twangs the bent bow — resounds the fatoful dart, Swift-wing'd, and trembles in a porker's heart. Ah, hapless porker ! what can now avail 90 Thy back's stiff bristles, or thy curly tail? Ah ! what avail those eyes so small and round. Long pendent ears, and snout that loves the ground ? Not unreveng'd thou diest ! — in after times Prom thy spilt blood shall spring unnumber'd crimes. 95 Soon shall the slaught'rous arms that wrought thy woe, Improved by malice, deal a deadlier blow ; Ver. 79. Grass twisted, used for a string, owing to the want of other materials not yet invented. Vei: 83. Bone — fish's bone found on the sea-shore, shark's teeth, &c. &c. Ver. 90. Ah ! what avails, &.c. — See Pope's DescrqAion of the death of a Pheasant. Ver. 93. " With leaden eye that loves the ground." Ver. 94. The first effusion of blood attended with the most dreadful consequences to mankind. Ver. 97. Social Man's wickedness opposed to the simplicity of savage life. 110 POETRY OF When social man shall pant for nobler game, And 'gainst his fellow man the vengeful weapon aim. As love, as gold, as jealousy inspires, 100 As wrathful hate, or wild ambition iires, Urged by the statesman's craft, the tyrant's rage, Embattled nations endless wars shall wage. Vast seas of blood the ravaged field shall stain, And millions perish — that a king may reign ! 105 For blood once shed, new wants and wishes rise ; Each rising want invention quick supplies. To roast his victuals is man's next desire. So two dry sticks he Jrubs, and lights a fire. Hail fire, &c. &c. Ver. 100, 101. Different causes of war among men. Ver. 106. Invention of fire — first employed in cookery, and produced by rubbing dry sticks together. THE ANTI-JACOBIN. Ill No. XVII. March 5, 1798. We are obliged to a learned correspondent for the following ingenious imitation of Bion. — We will not shock the eyes of our fair readers with the original Greek, but the following Argument will give them some idea of the nature of the Poem here imitated. ARGUMENT. Venus is represented as bringing to the Poet, while sleeping, her son Cnpid, with a request that he would teach him Pastoral Poetry — Bion complies, and endeavours to teach him the rise and progress of that art : — Cupid laughs at his mstructions, and in his turn teaches his master the Loves of Men and Gods, the "Wiles of his Mother, &c. — " Pleased with his lessons," says Bion, " I forgot what I lately taught Cupid and recollect in its stead only what Cupid taught me." IMITATION, &c.* written at ST. anne's hill. Scarce had sleep my eyes o'erspread, Ere Alecto sought my bed ; In her left hand a torch she shook, And in her right led John Horne Tooke. thou ! who well deserv'st the bays, Teach him, she cried, Sedition's lays — She said, and left us ; I, poor fool, [• Written in the character of C. J. Fox, at his seat, St. Anne's Hill, near Chertse}', during his secession from Parlia- ment from 1797 to 1802. His fondness for the Greek Poets is well known. — Ed.J 112 POETRY OF Began the wily priest to school ; Taught him how Moira sung of lights, Blown out by troops o' stormy nights ; * How Erskine, borne on rapture's wings, At clubs and taverns sweetly sings Of self — while yawning Whigs attend — /SW/ first, last, midst, and without end ; f How Bedford piped, ill-fated Bard ; X Half-drown'd, in empty Palace-yard ; How Lansdowne, nature's simple child. [* Alhidecl to at page 79.— Ed.] [t Erskine was noted for his intense vanity, which procured him the nickname of Ego. Sir John Bowring, who knew him well, gives in his Autobiography several instances of this peculiarity, one of which is here inserted. " The master-string of his mind was vanity ; its vibrations trembling to the very end of his existence. He said, ' When the Emperor Alexander came to England, Lord Granville told me that the Emperor wished to see me. I went. He received me with particular attention, and said he was very anxious to make my acquaintance. He spoke English as well as yoxi do. " You are a friend and cor- respondent," he said, " of my naost valued friend La Harpe ? " "Yes, sire." "Is he a regular correspondent? " "Yes, a vei'y kind one." " Has he been so of late ? " " Well, if your Majesty will cross-examine me, I nmst own he owes me a letter." He put his hand into his pocket, and drew forth a letter addressed to me. " Yes, there is his answer. I intercepted it that I might have the pleasure of knowing Lord Erskine." I gave Alexander all my writings and speeches, which he received with many expressions of satisfaction.' " — Ed.] [J On April 3, 1797, an open-air meeting of the inhabitants of Westminster was held in Palace Yard, during very inclement weather (Westminster Hall having been shut against them by order of the keeper), to consider of an address to his Majesty to dismiss Pitt's ministry. Fox and the Duke of Bedford took part in the proceedings. Meetings were held about the same time all over the country for the same object. — Ed.] THE ANTI-JACOBIN. 113 At BowooD trills his wood-notes wild — * How these and more (a phrenzied choir) Sweep with bold hand Confusion's lyre, Till madding crowds around them storm " Fob one geand radical Eefoem ! " TooKE stood silent for a while, Listening with sarcastic smile ; Then in verse of calmest flow, Sung of treasons, deep and low, Of rapine, prisons, scaffolds, blood, Of war against the great and good ; Of Venice, and of Genoa's doom, And fall of unoffending Kome ; Of monarchs from their station hurl'd. And one waste desolated world. Charm'd by the magic of his tongue, I lost the strains I lately sung. While those he taught, remain impress'd For ever on my faithful breast. DOEUS. [* After Lord Shelburne's resignation of the office of Prime Minister, consequent on the coalition of Fox and Lord North, he was created Marquis of Lansdowne, and withdrew almost entu-ely from public life, passing his time principally at his magnificent seat, Bowood, near Calne, Wiltshire. — Ed.] [BION. IDYLLIUM IIL THE TEACHER TAUGHT. TRANSLATED BY FAWKES. As late I slumbering lay, before my sight Bright Venus rose in visions of the night : She led young Cupid ; as in thought profound His modest eyes were fixed upon the ground ; And thiis she spoke : " To thee, dear swain, I bring My little son ; instruct the boy to sing ". 8 114 POETRY OF No more she said ; but vanished into air, And left the wily pupil to my care : I, — (sure I was an idiot for my pains), Began to teach him old bucolic strains ; How Pan the pipe, how Pallas formed the flute, Phcebus the lyre, and Mercury the lute : Love, to my lessons quite regardless grown. Sang lighter lays, and sonnets of his own, Th' amours of men below, and gods above, And all the triumphs of the queen of love. I, sure the simplest of all shepherd swains, Full soon forgot my old bucolic strains ; The lighter lays of Love my fancy caught, And I remembered all that Cupid taiaght. — Ed.] Something like the same idea seems to have dictated the following Stanzas, which appear to be a loose imita- tion of the beautiful Dialogue of Horace and Lydia, and for w'hich, though confessedly in a lower style of poetry, and conceived rather in the slang, or Brentford dialect, than in the classical Doric of the foregoing Poem, we have many thanks to return to an ingenious academical correspondent. THE NEW COALITION. 1 I. Fox. — When erst I coalesced with North And brought my Lid/an bantling forth " In place — I smiled at faction's storm, Nor dreamt of radical reform.. II. TooKE. — While yet no patriot project pushing, Content I thump'd old Brentford's cushion, I pass'd my life so free and gaily ; Not dreaming of that d d Old Bailey. THE ANTI-JACOBIN. 115 III. Fox. — Well ! now my favourite preacher's NicMe,^ He keeps for Pitt a rod in pickle ; His gestures fright th' astonish'd gazers, His sarcasms cut like Packwood's razors. IV. TooKE. — ThelwalVs^ my man for state alarm; I love the rebels of Chalk Farm ; Eogues that no statutes can subdue, Who'd bring the French, and head them too. V. Fox. — A whisper in your ear, John Hoene,^ For one great end we both were born, Alike we roar, and rant, and bellow — Give us your hand, my honest fellow. VI. TooKE. — Charles, for a shuffler long I've known thee : But come — for once, I'll not disown thee ; And since with patriot zeal thou burnest, With thee I'll live — or hang in earnest. [HOEACE. BOOK III., ODE IX. Horace. — Whilst I was fond, and you were kind, Nor any dearer youth, reclined On yoiu' soft bosom, sought to rest, Not Persia's monarch was so blest. Lydia. — Whilst yoii adored no other face, Nor loved me in the second place. Your Lydia' s celebrated fame Outshone the Koman Ilia's name. Horace. — Me Chloe now possesses whole ; Her voice and lyre command my soul : Nor would I death itself decline, Could I redeem her life with mine. 116 POETBY OF Lydia. — For me young lovely Calais burns, And warmth for warmth my heart returns. Twice would I life for him resign, Could his be ransomed thus with mine. Horace. — What if the God, whose bands we broke, -- Again should tame us to the yoke ! "What if my Chloe cease to reign, And Lydia her lost power regain ! Lydia. — Though Phosphor be less fair than he; Thou wilder than the raging sea; Lighter than down ; yet gladly I "With thee would live, with thee would die. — Ed.] [Another version of this Ode published in the Anti- Jacobin Review, vol. 1, pp. 597-8 (the successor to the Anti- Jacobin), may perhaps not be considered out of place here. It was written by the Rev. C. E. Stewart, a constant contributor to the former journal. The Honey-Moon of Fox and Tooke. Donee gratus eram tibi. Fox. — Since Fox of his Tooke is possest, No sorrows my bosom can harass ; "What Director was ever so blest ? I'm greater, far greater than B arras. Tooke. — If Fox to his consort is true. And this blest Coalition sincere, I'll engage as a private with you, Nor envy thy fame, Robespierre. Fox. — You once were the worst of my foes, E'en Pitt I detested not more, "When you dar'd my Election oppose, And eternal antipathy swore. Tooke. — Not to you was my hatred confin'd. Your father I styled " The Defaulter," Drew a portrait of both, and consign'd Both father and son to the halter. THE ANTI-JACOBIN. 117 Fox. — Drive these hated reflections away ; For you I would gladly resign. Jockey Norfolk, big Bedford, and Grey ; But they answer your purpose and mine. TOOKE. — "Whate'er you attempt or intend, I am yours, and will bring at your call, Binns, Gurney, Scott, Ferguson, Fi-end, Corresponding Society— all. Both. — Thus reconcil'd, fond, and delighted, Together we'll ride in the storm, While Jacobin Clubs, all united. Make a radical, perfect Keform. — Ed.] Notes to the " New Coalition ". [^ The Secret History of Fox's coalition with Lord North, his former adversary, — a proceeding which entailed on him much odium, — was first brought to light by the publication of the "Memorials and Correspondence of Charles James Fox," begim by the late Lord Holland, and edited by Earl Russell. It was occasioned by his disgust at the conduct of the Earl of Shelburne, for while Fox as one of the Secretaries of State under the Piockingham Administration was treating with Dr. Franklin for peace with the United States through the agent of the Cabinet (Tliomas Grenville) Lord Shelburne, the other Secretary of State, was, through his agent Oswald, privately thwarting his measures, and that with the concurrence of the King ! The consequence of the Coalition was the fall of Lord Shelburne's ministry, and Fox and Lord North's "taking the Treasury by storm". — Ed.] [- The India Bill brought in by Fox, shortly after his acces- sion to office, was the signal for his downfall. The Bill passed the House of Commons by large majorities, but when it reached the Lords, the King, who hated Fox, empowered Earl Temple to declare that he would consider everyone who supported the measure as personally his enemy. The Bill was consequently lost on the second reading by a majority of eighty-seven against twenty-nine. The Coalition Ministry resigned, and Pitt, then in his 23rd year, became Prime Mmister.] 118 POETEY or p John Nicholls, M.P. for Tregony, was blind of one eye, and altogether remarkably ugly. His delivery was imgraceful, and his action generally much too vehement. He wrote Recol- lections and Reflections during the Reign of George III. ,2 vols. 8vo., 1822. His hostile pamphlet on the Income Tax is marked by great ability.^ED.] [* On the 14th April, 1794, Thelwall was in the chair at a supper of one of the Divisions of the Reformers, and blowing off the head of a pot of porter said, " This is the way I would have all kings served". — Ed.] [5 John Horne Tooke was educated for the Church, and in 1760 became vicar of Neiv Brentford. Resigning this he studied the Law, but being a clergj'man was refused admission to the Bar. At first he supported Pitt, then a ■promising Reformer, publishing in 1788 his " Two Pair of Portraits," disadvan- tageously contrasting Fox and his father with Pitt and his father. But Pitt not fulfilling his hopes, he became his bitter opponent and softened his animosity towards Fox. In 1775 he was imprisoned for a libel on the king's troops in America. In 1790 he was an imsuccessful candidate for Westminster ; the other candidates being Fox and Admiral Sir Alan Gardner. In 1794 he was tried, in company with Thelwall and others, for high treason, when all were acqiiitted. In 1796 he again stood for Westminster, and failed ; biit in 1801 he obtained a seat in Parliament for Old Sarum, on the nomination of Lord Camel- ford. A remarkable memoir of him was contributed to the (Quarterly Review, vol. 7, by Lord Dudley, Secretary for Foreign Affairs in Canning's administration, 1827-8. — Ed.1 THE ANTI-JACOBIN. 119 No. xviir. March 12, 1798. We are indebted for the following exquisite imitation of one of the most beautiful Odes of Horace, to an unknown hand. All that we can say is, that it came to us in a blank cover sealed with a ducal coronet, and that it appears evidently to be the production of a mind not more classical than convivial. ODE. Whitheb, O Bacchus, in thy train,* Dost thou transport thy votary's brain With sudden inspiration ? Where dost thou bid me quaff my wine, And toast new measures to combine The Great and Little Nation ? Say, in what tavern I shall raise t My mighty voice in Charley's praise, And dream of future glories. When Fox, with salutary sway (Terror the Order of the Day), Shall reign o'er King and Tories ? HOK. LIB. III., CAKM. XXV. DITHYRAMBUS. *Quo me, Bacche, rapis, tiii Plenum? quae nemora, aut quos agor in specus, Velox mente novS, ? t Qnibus Antris egregii Cassaris audiar Eterniuii meditans decns Stellis inserere, et consilio Jovis ? J 120 POETBY OF My mighty feelings must have way ! * A toast I'll give — a thing I'll say, As yet misaid by any, — "OuE Sov'beign Lobd!" — let those who doubt My honest meaning, hear me out — "His Majesty — the Many!" Plain folks may be surprised, and stare, f As much surprised as Bob Adaib At Eussia's wooden houses ; And Eussian snows, that lie so thick ; | And Eussian boors § that daily kick. With barbarous foot, their spouses. What joy, when drunk, at midnight's hour,|| To stroll through Covent Garden's bow'r, Its various charms exploring ; And, 'midst its shrubs and vacant stalls. And proud Piazza's crumbling walls, Hear trulls and watchmen snoring ! * Dicaui iiisigue, recens, adlmc Indictum ore alio. f Non secus in jugis Exsomnis stupet Evias, Hebriim prospiciens, X et nive candidam Thracen, ac j^ede barbaro Lustratam Rhodopen. § There appears to have been some little mistake in the Translator here — Rhodofe is not, as he seems to imagine, the name of a woman, bnt of a mountain, and not in Russia. Pos- sibly, however, the Translator may have been misled by the inaccuracy of the traveller here alluded to. II Ut mihi devio Rupes, et vacuum nemus Mirari libet ! THE ANTI-JACOBIN. Parent of wine, and gin, and beer * The nymphs of BilHngsgate you cheer ; Naiads robust and hearty ; As Brookes's chairmen fit to wield Their stout oak bludgeons in the field, To aid our virtuous party. Mortals ! no common voice you hear ; t Militia Colonel, Premier Peer, Lieutenant of a County ! I speak high things ! yet, god of wine, For thee, I fear not to resign These gifts of royal bounty. 121 * O Naiadiun poteiis Baccharumque valentinm Proceras manibiis vertere fraxinos. Nil parvum, ant liumili moclo, Nil mortale loquar. Dulce periculmii est, O Leiisee, sequi deum Cingentem viridi tempora pampino. [HOEACE. BOOK III., ODE XXV. TO BACCHUS. TRANSLATED BY FRANCIS. Whither in sacred ecstasy, Bacchus, when Ml of thy divmity, Dost thou transport me ? To what glades ? "What gloomy caverns, unfrequented shades? In what recesses shall I raise My voice to sacred Caesar's deathless praise, Amid the stars to bid him shine, Ranked in the councils of the powers divme ? Some bolder song shall wake the lyre, And sounds unknown its trembhng strmgs mspn-e. Thus o'er the steepy mountains' height. Starting from sleep, thy priestess takes her flight : Amazed, behold the Thracian snows, With languid streams where icy Heber flows Or Rhodope's high-towering head, 122 POETRY OF "Where frantic choirs barbarian measures tread. O'er pathless rocks, through lonely groves, With what delight my raptnred spirit roves ! O thou, who rul'st the Naiad's breast ; By whom the Bacchanalian maids, possessed With sacred rage inspired by thee, Tear from the bursting glebe th' uprooted tree ; Nothing or low, or mean, I sing. No mortal sound shall shake the swelling string. The venturous theme my soul alarms ; But warmed by thee the thought of danger chai'ms. When vine-crowned Bacchus leads the way. What can his daring votaries dismay ? — Ed.] [The preceding Ode, written in the character of Charles Howard, eleventli Duke oi" Norfolk, refers to the fanions toast, " Our Sovereign's health — the Majesty of the People," proposed by his Grace at a Banquet at the " Crown and Anchor Tavern," Strand, on the 24th January, 1798, given to celebrate the birthday of C. .J. Fox. For this toast and other sentiments promulgated at the meeting, his Grace a few days after received notice of his dismissal from the Lord-Lieutenancy of the West Riding of Yorkshire and his Colonelcy in the INIllitia, and on the 6th of February Earl Fitzwilliam was gazetted to the former office, vice the Duke of Norfolk, resumed. But sixteen years earlier, this Toasi was not considered seditious ; for in the General Adrtrtiscr oi the 13th of April, 1782, then edited by Perry (afterwards the eminent proprietor of the Morniiui Chronicle), we find an account of a dinner of the electors of Westminster held the preceding day at the Shakespeare Tavern, Earl Fitzwilliam in the chair. The first toast given by his Lordship was, "The ]NL\jesty of the People". It was drunk by the Earl of Effingham, the Earl of Surrey (after- wards Duke of Norfolk, and the subject of the present remarks), Mr. Secretary Fox, Burke, Windham, Dean .Jebb, .J. Churchill, Brand Mollis, Dr. Brocklesby, &c. Thus the identical toast was proposed and drunk l.>y the Earl of Fitz- william, to whom the Lord-Lieutenancy now taken from the Duke of Norfolk was given. It is not a little remarkable that Lord Fitzwilliam himself was dismissed by his new Tory allies, Oct. 23, 1819, from the same Lord-Lieutenancy of the West Riding of Yorkshire, having signed the requisition for the York meeting, at which resolutions were passed condemning the measures of Ministers (Lords Liverpool, Eldon, Bathurst, Castlereagh, Palmerston, 6:c.), respecting the Manchester Reform Meeting, called by Henry Hunt, on ICth August, at which occurred what is known as the "Peterloo Massacre". — Ed.] ["The Majesty of the People," as given ox Fox's Birthday. The company was a very large one, but the estimated number of 2000 diners is surely an error. The Duke of Norfolk presided, supported by the Duke of Bedford, the Earls of Lauderdale and Oxford, Sheridan, Tierney, Erskine, Capt. Morris (who produced three new songs for the occasion), and Home Tooke ; the latter became reconciled to Fox by the explanation the latter gave of his sentiments on parliamentary reform. On the cloth being removed, he rose and said, "We are met in a moment of most serious difficulty to celebrate the birth of a man dear to the friend of freedom. I shall only recall to your memory that not twenty years ago, the illustrious George Washington had not more than two thousand men to rally round him when his country was attacked. America is now free. This day full two thousand men are assembled in this place. I leave the application to you. I propose to you the health of Charles James Fox." In the course of the evening the Duke's health was drunk with great en- THE ANTI-JACOBIN. 123 thusiasm. He returned thanks, and concluded his speech with these words, "Give me leave to call on you to drink, Our Sovereign's health, "The Majesty of the People". After this toast had been drunk and warmly applauded, the Duke gave succes- sively, "The Rights of the People," " Constitutional Redress of the Wrongs of the People," " A speedy and effectual Reform in the Representation of the People in Parliament," " The genuine Principles of the British Constitution," "The People of Ireland, and may they be speedily lestored to the Blessings of Law and Liberty ". On the 6th of February, the next monthly meeting of the IVJiiij Club was held at the London Tavern, Ludgate Hill. The Duke of Norfolk presided. He gave as a toast, " The Man who dares be honest in the worst of times— "Charles James Fox". Fox returned thanks, and then toasted "The Sovereignty of the People". He subsequently proposed the health of the Duke of Norfolk in a most powerful speech. He adverted to the dismissal of the Duke. " No reason had been ofKcially assigned ; it was, however, generally understood that it had arisen from the eulogium pronounced on General Washington. Was it to be wondered at, that the noble Duke, who had uniformly opposed the American war, should have done so? What Englishman, what man of any country, whose heart was animated with a love of freedom, did not venerate the name of that illustrious patriot? It seems also " a toast " has given offence — the Majesty of the People. I do not know upon what times we are fallen, but the sovereignty of the people of Great Britain is surely a thing not new to the language, to the feelings, nor the hearts of Englishmen. It is the basis of the whole system of our Government. It is an opinion, which if it be not true. King William was an usurper. By what right did the glorious and immortal King William tlie Third, whose portrait is placefl on our chair, come to the throne of these realms, il not by that of the sovereignty of the people? . . . The King holds liis title by an Act of Parliament. Who called that Parliament? King William the Third. By what right did he obtain it? By a Convention representing the sovereignty of the people. The Convention of Representatives in fact did the thing. It is whimsical enough to deprive the noble Duke of his appointments for an offence which, if he had not committed during the reigns of George I. and George II. , would have subjected him to the charge of being a Jacobite, and an adherent of the exiled family. ... Of the persons of his Majesty's Ministers I will not say a word. There are several of them to whom I may fairly say this sentiment is not new. One member of the Cabinet (the Duke of Portland) is still a member of this club ; another (Mr. Windham) was a member ; and a third (Earl Spencer) long gloried in holding the same tenets. How often with the two first have we drunk the sentiment in this room ! A\ hat did they mean when they drank the Sovereignty of the People ? What, but that they recog- nised by this approved and customary method a truth which belongs to all people in reality, but is the avowed basis of the Government of England, that the people of every country are its legitimate Sovereign, and that all authority is delegated from and for them ? I should be ashamed, on account of my old respect for those persons, if they did not honestly avow this to be their sense of the sentiment." While adverting, on this occasion, to the dismiss.al of the Duke of Norfolk from his Lord-Lieutenancy and Colonelcy of Militia, Fox remarked, "I have nothing the Ministers can take from me. I am still indeed a Privy Councillor, at least I know nothing to the contrary ; and if this sentiment entitles the Noble Duke to this animadversion, I shall certainly feel that I am equally entitled to this mark of his Majesty's displeasure." This anticipation was verified shortly afterwards. On the 1st of May following, at the Freemasons' Tavern, another dinner of the U'liig Club took place. Fox was in the chair, and gave, as the first toast — "The Sovereignty of the People of Gre.\t Britain". 124 POETRY OF The Duke of Norfolk proposed "The Health of the Man who dares be Honest in the worst of Times — "Charlks James Fox". Fox responded in a most impressive speech. He said : " On any other occa- sion, he should have contented himself with returning thanks, but in the very peculiar embarrassments in which the country was now plunged, he thought it necessary to say a few words in the only place in which he thought it might be useful for him to deliver his sentiments. The circumstances and events of public affairs of late had induced him and many of his friends to abstain from their usual assiduous attendance in Parliament. Their e.xertions for the preser- vation of the Constitution had been of no avail ; two years ago they had seen the repeal of the Bill of Rights carried by a triumphant majority ; they had seen the functions of the Constitutional Law suspended, on alarm created by the Ministers themselves ; and however well-founded the alarm might now be, he .scorned the idea that it was necessary for him to attend in his place in the House of Commons, for the purpose only of vindicating himself from the vulgar calumny that he was not an enemy to a foreign invasion. It would be an insult on his whole life if such a declaration could be expected from him. He believed there was not a voice in the assembly he addres.sed which was not in unison with his own — namely, that every man who heard him was both ready and willing to stand forth in defence of his country, with the spirit that belongs to Englishmen. He found no fault with those who thought it necessary to make the.se professions elsewhere. Thus much only would he say in this place for himself. The j^rcscnt Government of the country, he had no hesitation in sai/ing, v:as a Gnvermnent of Tyranny. They had adopted the princij>les of Robespierre, and their object was to establish tyranny in England. Look at the situation of the Si.ster Kingdom ; our own will soon be the same. He had no remedy to recommend but that the friends of freedom should be united and firm, and wait for better times. Tyranny was now the oider of the day in every country in Europe. Notwithstanding the arbitrary proceedings of our own Ministers, he was per- suaded the unanimous feeling of the country, the universal determination of every man in it was to be ready to take the field against a foreign foe ; and, indeed, they had a powerful motive to do so, for if they were united, they had a better chance to get rid of the tyranny of their own Ministers than they could possibly have by the success of a foreign invasion. Even in his present retire- ment he should be ready to come forward, in every constitutional effort, to re- gain our lost liberties ; and he should be in the foremost of the ranks to repel the invasion of a daring enemy." This speech led to a most important consequence — the erasing from the Privy Council Book the name of one of the most illustrious statesmen which had ever adorned it. Fox's name was struck out by the King on the 9tli of May. On the Cth of June, after the dinner at the Wliig Club, the Duke of Bedford proposed "The Health of Charles Fox," and remarked in severe terms oa Ministers having caused the King to strike his name out of the list of the Privy Council. Fox said : "It would be most unlit for him to say a word respecting the Noble Duke's allusion to a circumstance personal to himself. Would to God the time of the .Ministers had been always employed in such frivolmts fooleries as settling v/ho .should )ie Honourable und who Jiight Honourable, und deliberating on the titles most befitting their friends and supporters." Fox, with some of his supporters, seceded from Parliament in 1797, and returned to the House of Commons in 1802 to defend the Peace of Amiens, and he was persuaded to con- tinue his parliamentary attendance by the urgent request of friends, with whose wishes he felt himself bound to comply. — Ed.] THE ANTI-JACOBIN. 125 No. XIX. March 19, 1798. For the authenticity of the enclosed Ballad we refer our readers to a volume of MS. Poems discovered upon the removal of some papers, during the late alterations which have taken place at the Tax-office, in consequence of the Eeports of the Finance Committee. It has been communicated to our printer by an in- genious friend of his, who occasionally acts for the Deputy Collector of the Parish of St. Martin in the Fields ; but without date, or any other mark, by which we are enabled to guess at the particular subject of the composition. CHEVY CHASE.* God prosper long our noble king, Our lives and safeties all : A woeful story late there did In Britain's Isle befall. Duke Smithson, of Noethumberland, A vow to God did make, The choicest gifts in fair England, For him and his to take. [* This clever parody has reference to the attempt made by the Duke of Noethumberland to evade payment of Pitt's Income-tax. To mitigate the severity of the pressure on persons with large families, a dediiction of ten per cent, was allowed to persons who had above a certain nmnber of children. Among others the dike was not ashamed to avail himself of this clause. — Ed.] 126 POETEY OF " Stand fast, my merry men," he cried, " By Moika's Earl and me, And we will gain place, wealth and pow'r, As arm'd neutrality. "Excise and Customs, Church and Law, I've begg'd from Mader Eose ; The Garter too — but still tlie Blues I'll have, or I'll oppose." " Now God be with him," quoth the King, " Sith 'twill no better be ; I trust we have within our realm Five hundred good as he." The Duke then join'd with Charley Fox, A leader ware and tried. And Ebskine, Sheridan, and Geey Fought stoutly by his side. Throughout the English Parliament, They dealt full many a wound ; But in his king's and country's cause, Pitt firmly stood his ground. And soon a law like arrow keen. Or spear, or curtal-axe. Struck poor Duke Smithson to the heart. In shape of Poivder-tax.'^ Sore leaning on his crutch, he cried, " Crop, crop, my merry men all ; No guinea for your head I'll pay, Though Church and State should fall ". [* See Note at p. 84 in « A Bit of an Ode to Mr. Fox," line 18.— Ed.] THE ANTI-JACOBIN. 127 Again the taxing-man appear'd — No deadlier foe could be ; A schedule of a cloth-yard long, Within his hand bore he. " Yield thee, Duke Smithson, and behold The assessment thou must pay ; Dogs, horses, houses, coaches, clocks, And servants in array." " Nay," quoth the Duke, " in thy black scroll Deductions I espye — For those who, poor, and mean, and low. With children burthen'd lie. ' ' And though full sixty thousand pounds My vassals pay to me. From Cornwall to Northumberland, Through many a fair countee ; " Yet England's church, its king, its laws, Its cause, I value not, Compar'd with this, my constant text, A penny sav'd, id got. " No drop of princely Percy's blood Through these cold veins doth run ; With Hotxpnrs castles, blazon, name, I still am poor Smithson. " Let England's youth unite in arms. And every liberal hand, With honest zeal, subscribe their mite. To save their native land : 128 POETRY OF " I at St. Martin's Vestry Board, To swear shall be content, That I have children eight, and claim Dedtictions ten per cent." God bless us all from factious foes, And French fraternal kiss ; And grant the king may never make Another Duke like this.* [* Sir Hugh Smithson married Lady Eliz, Seymour, great- granddanghter of Joceline, eleventh Earl of Northmiiberland, who was the last of the male Percies. He was created Duke OF Northumberland in 1766. The hero of this Ballad was his son, who died in 1817. — Ed.] THE ANTI-JACOBIN. 129 No. XX. ODE TO JACOBINISM. March 26, 1798. I. Daughtee of Hell, insatiate power, Destroyer of the human race, Whose iron scourge and madd'ning hour Exalt the bad, the good debase ; Thy mystic force, despotic sway. Courage and innocence dismay, And patriot monarchs vainly groan With pangs unfelt before, unpitied and alone ! II. When first to scourge the sons of earth, Thy sire his darling child design'd, Gallia receiv'd the monstrous birth — Voltaire inform'd thy infant mind ; Well-chosen nurse ! his sophist lore He bade thee many a year explore ! He mark'd thy progress, firm though slow, And statesmen, princes, leagued with their invet'rate foe. III. Scared at thy frown terrific, fly The morals (antiquated brood) ; Domestic Virtue, social Joy, And Faith that has for ages stood : Swift they disperse, and with them go The friend sincere, the gen'rous foe. — 9 130 POETEY OF Traitors to God and man avow'd, By thee now rais'd aloft, now crush' d beneath the crowd. IV. Eevenge, in blood-stain'd robe arrayed, Immersed in gloomy joy profound ; Ingratitude, by guilt dismay'd, With anxious eye wild glancing round, Still on thy frantic steps attend : With Death, thy victim's only friend. Injustice, to the truth severe, And Anguish, dropping still the life-consuming tear. v. Oh swiftly on my country's head, Destroyer, lay thy ruthless hand ; Nor yet in Gallic terrors clad, Nor circled by the Marseilles hand, (As by th' initiate thou art seen). With thund'ring cannon, guUlotine, With screaming Horror's funeral cry. Fire, Eapine, sword, and chains, and ghastly Poverty. VI. Thy sophist veil, dread goddess, wear, Falsehood insidiously impart ; Thy philosophic train, be there. To taint the mind, corrupt the heart ; The gen'rous virtues of our isle. Teach us to hate and to revile ; Our glorious Charter's faults to scan, Time-sauction'd truths despise, and preach thy Eights OF Man. An English Jacobin. THE ANTI- JACOBIN. 131 [The original poem, of which the above is an imitation, is subjoined : — HYMN TO ADVEESITY. BY THOMAS GRAY. Daughter of Jove, relentless power. Thou tamer of the human breast, "Whose iron scourge, and torturing hour, The bad affright, afflict the best 1 Bound in thy adamantine chain, The proud are taught to taste of pain, And purple tyrants vainly groan, "With pangs imfelt before, mipitied and alone. "When first thy sire to send on earth Virtue, his darling child, designed, To thee he gave the heavenly birth,_ And bade thee form her infant mind, Stern, rugged nurse ! thy rigid lore With patience many a year she bore : What sorrow was, thou bad'st her know, And from her own she learnt to melt at others' woe. Scared at thy frown terrific, fly Self-pleasing Folly's idle brood. Wild Laughter, Noise, and thoughtless Joy, And leave us leisure to be good. Light they disperse, and with them go The summer friend, the flattering foe ; By vain prosperity received. To her they vow their truth, and are again believed. Wisdom, in sable garb arrayed, Iimnersed in rapturous thought profound, And Melancholy, silent maid. With leaden "eye that loves the ground, Still on thy solenui steps attend : Warm Charity, the general friend, With Justice, to herself severe. And Pity, dropping soft the sadly-pleasing tear. O, gently on thy suppliant's head, Dread goddess, lay thy chastening hand ! Not in thy Gorgon terrors clad. Nor circled with the vengeful band 132 POETRY OP (As by the impious thou art seen), With thundering voice, and threatening mien, With screaming Horror's fmieral cry. Despair, and fell Disease, and ghastly Poverty. Thy form benign, goddess I wear, Thy milder influence impart. Thy philosophic train be there, To soften not to wound my heart. The generous spark extinct revive ; Teach me to love and to forgive ; Exact my own defects to scan, What others are, to feel, and know myself a man.- -Ed.] THE ANTI-JACOBIN. 133 No. XXL April 2, 1798. We promised in our Sixteenth Number, that though we should not proceed regularly with the publication of the Didactic Poem, the Progress of Man, — a work which, indeed, both from its bulk, and from the erudite nature of the subject, would hardly suit with the pur- poses of a Weekly Paper, — we should, nevertheless, give from time to time such extracts from it as we thought were likely to be useful to our readers, and as were in any degree connected with the topics or events of the times. The following extract is from the 23rd Canto of this admirable and instructive Poem ; — in which the author (whom, by a series of accidents, which we have neither the space, nor indeed the liberty, to enumerate at present, we have discovered to be Mr. Higgins, of *S'^. Mary Axe) describes the vicious refinement of what is called civilized society, in respect to marriage ; con- tends with infinite spirit and philosophy against the factitious sacredness and indissolubility of that institu- tion ; and paints in glowing colours the happiness and utility (in a moral as well as political view) of an ar- rangement of an opposite sort, such as prevails in countries which are yet under the influence of pure and unsophisticated nature. In illustration of his principles upon this subject, the author alludes to a popular production of the German Drama, the title of which is the " Eeformed House- 134 POETRY OF keeper" \Tlie Stranger], which he expresses a hope of seeing transfused into the language of this country. THE PEOGEESS OF MAN. ■ CANTO TWENTY-THIRD. CONTENTS. On Marriage. — Marriage being indissoluble the cause of its being so often unhappy. — Nature's laws not consulted in this point. — Civilized nations mistaken. — Otaheite : Hap- piness of the natives thereof — visited by Captain Cook, in his Majesty's Ship Endeavoiir — Character of Captain Cook. — Address to Circumnavigation. — Description of His Majesty's Ship Endeavour --Msjiit, rigging, sea-sickness, prow, poop, mess-room, surgeon's mate — History of one. — Episode con- cerning naval chirurgery. — Catching a Thunny Fish. — Arrival at Otaheite^ — cast anchor — land — Natives astonished. — Love — Liberty — Moral — Natural- — Religious — Contrasted with European manners. — Strictness — License — Doctor's Com- mons. — Dissolubility of Marriage recommended — Illustrated by a game at Cards — Whist — Cribbage — Partners changed — Why not the same in Marriage ? — Illvistrated by a River. — Love free. — Priests, Kings. — German Drama. — Kotzebue's "Housekeeper Reformed". — Moral employments of House- keeping described — Hottentots sit and stare at each other — Querj^ WHY? — Address to the Hottentots — History of the Cape of Good Hope. — Resume of the Arguments against Marriage. — Conclusion. PEOGEESS OF MAN. EXTRACT. Hail ! beauteous lands''' that crown the Southern Seas ; Dear happy seats of Liberty and Ease ! Hail ! whose green coasts the peaceful ocean laves, * The ceremony of invocation (in didactic poems especially) is in some measure analogous to the custom of drinking toasts ; the corporeal representatives of which are always supposed to be absent, and unconscious of the irrigation bestowed upon their names. Hence it is, that our Author addresses himself to the natives of an island who are not likely to hear, and who, if they did, would not understand him. THE ANTI-JACOBIN. 135 Incessant washing with its watery waves ! DeHcious islands ! to whose envied shore Thee, gallant Cook ! the ship Endeavour* bore. There laughs the sky, there zephyr's frolic train, And light- wing'd loves, and blameless pleasures reign : There, when two souls congenial ties unite, No hireling Bonzes chant the mystic rite ; Free every thought, each action unconfin'd, And light those fetters which no rivets bind. There in each grove, each sloping bank along, And flow'rs and shrubs and odorous herbs among. Each shepherd clasp'd, with undisguis'd delight. His yielding fair one, — in the Captain's sight ; Each yielding fair, as chance or fancy led, Preferr'd new lovers to her sylvan bed.f Learn hence, each nymph, whose free aspiring mind Europe's cold laws, J and colder customs§ bind — ! learn, what Nature's genial laws decree — What Otaheite 11 is, let Britain be ! * His Majesty's ship Endeavour. f In justice to our Author we must observe, that there is a delicacy in this picture, which the words, in their common acceptation, do not convey. The amours of an English shep- herd would probably be preparatory to marriage (which is con- trary to our Author's principles), or they might disgust lis by the vulgarity of their object. But in Otaheite, where the place of a shepherd is a perfect sinecure (there being no sheep on the island), the mind of the reader is not offended by any disagreeable allusion. X Laws made by parliaments or kings. § Customs voted or imposed by ditto, not the customs here alluded to. II M. Bailly and other astronomers have observed, that in 136 POETRY OF Of WHIST or CRiBBAGE mark th' amusing game — The partners changing, but the sport the same. Else would the gamester's anxious ardour cool, Dull every deal, and stagnant every pool. — Yet must one '^ Man, with one unceasing "Wife, Play the long rubber of connubial life. Yes ! human laws, and laws esteem'd divine, The generous passion straiten and confine ; And, as a stream, when art constrains its course, Pours its fierce torrent with augmented force, So, Passiont narrowed to one channel small. Unlike the former, does not flow at all. — For Love then only flaps his purple wings. When uncontroll'd by priestcraft or by kings. Such the strict rules, that, in these barbarous climes, Choke youth's fair flow'rs, and feelings turn to crimes; And people every walk of polish'd lifej With that two-headed monster, Man and Wife. Yet bright examples sometimes we observe, Which from the general practice seem to swerve ; consequence of the varying obliquity of the Ecliptic, the climates of the circumpolar and tropical climates may, in pro- cess of time, be materially changed. Perhaps it is not very likely that even by these means Britain may ever become a small island in the South Seas. But this is not the meaning of the verse — the similarity here proposed relates to manners, not to local situation. * The word one here, means all the inhabitants of Europe (excepting the French, who have remedied this inconvenience), not any particular individual. The Author begs leave to dis- claim every allusion that can be construed as personal. t As a stream — simile of dissimilitude, a mode of illustration familiar to the ancients. X Walks of polished life, see " Kensington Gardens," a poem. THE ANTI-JACOBIN. 137 Such as presented to Germania's* view, A Kotzebue's bold emphatic pencil drew ; Such as, translated in some future age, Shall add new glories to the British stage ; — While the moved audience sit in dumb despair, " Like Hottentots, + and at each other stare ". With look sedate, and staid beyond her years, In matron weeds a Housekeeper appears. The jingling keys her comely girdle deck — Her 'kerchief colour'd, and her apron checJc. Can that be Adelaide, that " soul of whim," Reformed in practice, and in manner prim? — On household cares intent, J with many a sigh She turns the pancake, and she moulds the pie ; Melts into sauces rich the savoury ham ; From the crush'd berry strains the lucid jam ; Bids bran died cherries, § by infusion slow. Imbibe new flavour, and their own forego. Sole cordial of her heart, sole solace of her woe ! While, still responsive to each mournful moan. The saucepan simmers in a softer tone. * Germania— Germany ; a cottntry in Eiarope, peopled by the German! : alluded to in Csesar's Commentaries, page 1, vol. ii. edit. prin. See also several Didactic Poems. f A beautiful figure of German literature. The Hottentots remarkable for staring at each other — God knows whj'. X This delightful and instructive picture of domestic life is recommended to all keepers of boarding-schools, and other seminaries of the same nature. § It is a singular quality of brandied cherries that they exchange their flavour for that of the liqiior in which they are immersed. — See Knight's Progress of Civil Society. 138 POETRY OF [The following extracts will give some idea of Payne Kxight's poem. Hail ! happy States, that fresh in vigour rise From Europe's wrecks beneath Atlantic skies ! Long may ye feel the blessings ye bestow ; Nor e'er your parents' sicklysyniptoras know ! But when that parent, crush'd beneath the weight Of debts ajid taxes, yields herself to fate ; May you her hapless fugitives receive. Comfort their sorrows, and their wants relieve ! For come it will — th' inevitable day, When Britain must corruption's forfeit pay, Beneath a despot's, or a rabble's sway. After a glowing description of the amours of a shepherd and shepherdess, he thus speaks of Marriarje :— Bless'd days of youth, of liberty, and love ! How short, alas ! your transient ]»leasures prove ! Just as we think the sweet delights our own, We strive to fix them, and we find them flown : — For fix'd by laws, and limited by rules, Affection stagnates and love's fervour cools ; Shrinks like the gather'd flower, which, when possess'd, Droops in the hand, or withers on the breast : Feels all its native bloom and fragrance fly. And death's pale shadows close its purple dye. While nmtual wishes form love's only vows. By mutual interests nursed, the union grows ; Respectful fear its rising power maintains. And both preserve, when each may break, its chains. But when in bands indissoluble join'd, Secui-ely torpid sleeps the sated mind ; No anxious hopes or fears arise, to move The flagging wings, or stir the fires of love : Benumb'd, the soul's best energies repose. And life in dull unvaried torpor flows ; Or only shakes off lethargy to teaze Whom once its only pleasure was to please. — Ed.] In illustration of these peculiar doctrines of Love and Marriage, the authors of the present Parody Introduced into the first twenty lines of the preceding " Extract," the very free statements on these subjects which appear in Chapters S, 12, 14, 16, 17, of the narrative of Cook's First Voyage to the Pacific in the " Endeavour," in 17(58, derived, by the editor, Dr. John Hawkesworth, from the Diary of Mr. (afterwards Sir Joseph) Banks, -vilxo accompanied Captain Cook.— Ed.] [Lord Erskine, after dinner, inveighed bitterly against Marriage ; and smarting, I suppose, under the recollection of his own unsuccessful choice, con- cluded by saying that a wife was a tin canisler tinl to a ma7i's tall, which very much excited the indignation of Lady Ann Culling Smith, who was of the party. "Monk" Lewis took a sheet of paper, and wrote the following neat epigram on the subject, which he presented to Her Royal Highness [the Duchess of York]: - " Lord Erskine at marriage presuming to rail, Says, a trifc's a tin canister tied to one's tail ; And the fair Lady Ann, while the subject he carries on, Feels hurt at his Lordship's degrading comparison. But wherefore degrading? if taken aright, A tin canister's useful, and polished, and bright, And if dirt its oiiginal iiurity hide, 'Tis the fault of tlie puppy to whom it is tied." —Journal o/T. Raikes:, ii. 50.— Ed.] THE ANTI-JACOBIN. 139 [Richard Payne KjMght, eminent as he was as a classical scholar and archaeologist, was not successful as a poet or moralist, and this is shown in an amusing manner in a letter from Horace Walpole to the Rev. W. Mason, dated 22nd March, 1790, in which he declares how much he is offended and disgusted by Knight's " new insolent and self-conceited poem," alluding to his Progress of Civil Societii, — the former one being "The Landscape, a didactic poem in three books," 4to, pub. 1794, of which mention has already been made. In 1816 he was examined before a Select Committee of the House of Commons on the proposed purchase by the Government of the Elgin llarljles ; but his estimate of their value as works of the highest art was much below that of other artistic witnesses, such as Flaxman, Westmacott, Chantrey, B. West, and others. For these statements he was severely criticised in vol. 14 of the Qoxu-terlji Ruvieie, and in a squib, reprinted in the JVew WJdg Guide in 1819. He valued the collec- tion at £-25,1)00 ; Gavin Hamilton's estimate was £60,800, and Lord Aberdeen's .£35,000 ; for which latter sum they were obtained by the Government. He bequeathed his collection of ancient Bronzes, Greek Coins, &c. — valued at £50,000— to the British Museum. He represented Ludlow till 1806. He was a supporter of Fox, upon whom he wrote a ilonody. He was never maiTied, and he was succeeded in his fine property, including Downtou Castle, near Ludlow, &c., on his death in 1824, by his brother, Thomas Andrew Knight, one of the most scientific of horticul- turists, and he in turn was succeeded by his grandson, Andrew Johnes Rouse Boughton, second son of the late Sir W. E. Rouse Boughton, Bart., who added by royal license in 1856 the name of Knight to his patronymic— Ed.] [The drama (here nicknamed Tlie Reformed Housel-eeper), but entitled by the author "Misanthropy and Jiepentancc,"\\a,s produced at Drury Lane Theatre, Sheridan being then lessee, as " The Stranger," on the 24th March, 1798. Tlie following was the cast:-r/ie Stranger, J. P. Kenible ; Baron Steinfort, John Palmer ; Francis, R. Palmer ; Peter, Suett ; Tobias, J. Aikin ; Solomon, Wewit- zer; Count IFi/i(ecsere, Barrymore ; Mrs. //«;/(■/•, Mrs. Siddons ; Countess Winter- sen, Mrs. Goodall ; Charlotte, Miss Stuart. It was considered by competent authorities as one of Ke nble's finest efforts, and was performed on twenty-six successive nights. Some of our most eminent actors and actresses have essayed the principal parts. Miss O'Neill made her last appearance on the stage in the character of Mrs. Haller, 13th of July, 1818. The acting version purported to be altered from the German by Benj. Thompson (afterwards Count Rumford), but it is likely that all or most of the alterations came from the skilful hands of Sheridan, assisted by Kemble. The pathetic song introduced, " / have a silent sorrow here," was written by the former. Two other versions of the drama appeared in the year 1798— one by A. Schinck, and the other by G. Papendick— but neither has been acted. Kotzebue tells us in his Autobiography that this play of his was acted at the Imperial Palace of The Ilenrdtage, St. Petersburg, nude'- his superintendence while manager of the Imperial Company of German Comedians, and excited visible emotion in the Emperor Paul. He himself saw it acted at Tobolsk during his exile in Siberia. The vast and splendid palace of The Hervnitagc is now given up to the Arts. It contains the enormous collection of Pictures accumulated by the Russian sovereigns (including the Houghton Gallery formed by Sir Robert Walpole), together with a Gallery of Sculpture, one of tlie finest assortments of Antique Gems in the world, a museum of Grecian and Etruscan Antiquities, and a library of rare Books and Manuscripts. An awful event took place during the performance of this play a short time after its production. John Palmer, an eminent comedian, while acting the principal character, at Liverpool, on the 2nd of August, 1798, expired on the stage. He had recently suffered severe domestic bereavements, wliich are sup- posed to have given a painful application to some passages in the third act in which he had to utter the words : " There is another and a better world ". In the first scene of the fourth act, his agitation increased ; he fell into the arms of the performer of the part of Baron Steinfort, and died without a gioan. A nar- rative of this shocking event, published immediately afterwards, by the same performer, disposes of the generally-received but more emotional tradition that 140 POETEY OF Palmer's earthly career was terminated while pronouncing the above words. He was in his fifty-seventh year. This is not the only instance of so impressive an end, for a similar death- stroke overtook Joseph Peterson, an excellent actor, in October, 1758, while re- presenting The Duke in Measure for Measure. In act 3, sc. 1, in reciting the words — " — Reason thus with life : If I do lose thee, I do lose a thing That none but fools would keep : a breath thou art — " he dropped into the arras of Moody, who personated Claudio, and never spoke more ! — Ed.] [" One other noted character we visited— the one who, according to William Taylor of Norwich, was the greatest of all. This was August von Kotzebue, the very popular dramatist, who.se singular fate it was to live at variance with the great poets of his country, while he was the idol of the mob. He was at one time (about this time (1801) and a little later) a favourite in all Europe. One of his plays, The Stranger, I have seen acted in German, English, Spanish, French, and, I believe, also Italian. He was the pensioner of Prussia, Austria, and Russia. The odium produced by this circumstance, and the imputation of being a spy, are assigned as the cause of his assassination by [C. L. Sand] a student of Jena, a few years after our visit [March 3, 1819]. He was living, like Goethe, in a large house and in style. I drank tea with him, and found him a lively little man, with small black eyes. He had the manners of a petit-maUre."— Vrabb Robinson's Diary (1801), i. 115.— ED.] THE ANTI- JACOBIN. 141 No. XXIL April 9, 1798. TO THE EDITOR OF THE ANTI-JACOBIN. SiE, — I saw, with strong approbation, your specimen of ancient Sapphic measure in Enghsh, which I think far surpasses all that Abraham Fraunce, Eichard Stany- hurst, or Sir Phihp Sidney himself, have produced in that style — I mean, of course, your sublime and beautiful Knife-Grinder, of which it is not too high an encomium to say, that it even rivals the efforts of the fine-eared democratic poet, Mr. Southey. But you seem not to be aware, that we have a genuine Sapphic measure be- longing to our own language, of which I now send you a short specimen. THE JACOBIN. I AM a hearty Jacobin, Who own no God, and dread no sin, Ready to dash through thick and thin For freedom : And when the teachers of Chalk-Farm Gave Ministers so much alarm. And preach'd that kings did only harm, I fee'd 'em. By Bedford's cut I've trimm'd my locks. And coal-black is my knowledge-box, Callous to all, except hard knocks Of thumpers ;, 142 POETEY OF My eye a noble fierceness boasts, My voice as hollow as a ghost's, My throat oft washed by factious toasts In bumpers. Whatever is in France, is right ; Terror and blood are my delight ; Parties with us do not excite Enough rage. Our boasted laws I hate and curse, Bad from the first, by age grown worse, I pant and sigh for univers-* al suffrage, Wakefield^ I love — adore Hokne Tooke, With pride on Jones ^ and Thelwall^ look. And hope that they, by hook or crook. Will prosper. But they deserve the worst of ills, And all th' abuse of all our quills. Who form'd of strong and gagn'ing Bills * A cross pair. Extinct since then each speaker's fire. And silent ev'ry daring lyre,t Dum-founded they whom I would hire To lecture. * This division of the word is in the true spirit of the English as well as the ancient Sapphic. See the " Counter-Scuffle," " Coimter-Rat," and other poems in this style. t There is a doubt, whether this word should not have been written liar. THE ANTI-JACOBIN. 143 Tied up, alas ! is ev'ry tongue On which conviction nightly hung,'^ And Thelwall looks, though yet but young, A spectre.^ B. 0. B. * These words, of conviction and hanging, liaAe so ominous a sound, it is rather odd they were chosen. [(1) The Rev. Gilbert Wakefield wrote several pamphlets against governnient, of which no notice was taken, until his Letter to the Bishop of Llandaff appeared, when the Attorney-General instituted a prosecution against him. He was found guilty and imprisoned ; during which imprisonment a subscription of £3000 among his friends sujiported his wife and family very comfortably. — Ed.] 1(2) John Gale Jones was an active political agitator for many years. In ISIO, he was the conductor of the debating club, denominated the "British Forum," which at one of its meetings discussed the priiiiriety of tlie exclusion of strangers from the House of Commons during the debates on tlie Walcheren Expedition. For his observations the House, disregarding his apology, committed him to Newgate. — Ed.] [(3) " John Thelwall left his shop (that of a silk mercer) to be one of the Re- formers of the age. After Ihs acquittal he went about the country lecturing. Sometimes he was attended by numerous admirers, but more frequently hooted and pelted by the mob. In order to escape prosecution for sedition, he took as his subject Greek and Roman history, and had ingenuity enough to give such a colouring to events and characters, as to render the application to living persons and present events an exciting mental exercise. I heard one or two of these lectures, and thought very differently of him then from what I thought after- wards. When, however, he found his popularity on the wane, and more strin- gent laws had been passed, to which he individually gave occasion, he came to the prudent resolution of abandoning his vagrant habits, and leading a farmer's life in a beautiful place near Brecon. . . . He was an amiable man in private life, an affectionate husband, and a fond father. He altogether mistoolc his talents— he told me without reserve that he believed he should establish his name among the epic poets of England ; and it is a curious thing considering his own views that he thought the establishment of Christianity, and tlie British Constitution, very appropriate subjects for his poem. . . . Thelwall, unlike Hardy, had the weakness of vanity; but he was a perfectly honest man, and had a power of declamation which qualified him to be a mob orator. He used to say that if he were at the gallows with liberty to address the people for half- an-hour, he should not fear the result ; he was sure he could excite them to a rescue. I became acquainted with him soon after his acquittal, and never ceased to respect hitn for his sincerity, though I did not think highly of his understand- ing."— Croii* Robinson's Diary, 1790 and 1799.— Ed.] [(4) These "Gagging Bills," of 1796, required that notice should be given to the magistrate of any public meeting to be held on political subjects ; he was authorized to be present, and empowered to seize those guilty of sedition on the spot ; and a second offence against the act was punishable with transportation. So exasperated were the Opposition with this measure that Fox and a large part of the minority withdrew altogether for a considerable time from the House. — Ed] [(5) The hero of the above song was Charles Howard, eleventh Duke of Nor- folk, who both as a member of the House of Commons (while Earl of Surrey), and afterwards as a peer, was one of Fox's most strenuous supporters. Sir N. Wraxall thus describes him : " Nature, which cast him in her coarsest mould, had not bestowed on him any of the external insignia of high descent. His person, large, muscular, and clumsy, was destitute of grace or dignity, 144 POETEY OF though he possessed much activity. At a time when men of every description wore hair-powder and a queue, he had the courage to cut his hair short, and to renounce powder, which he never used except when going to court. In his youth he led a most licentious life, having frequently passed the whole night in excesses of every kind, and even lain down, when intoxicated, occasionally to sleep in the streets, or on a block of wood. In cleanliness he was negligent to so great a degree that he rarely made use of water for the purpose of bodily re- freshment and comfort. Complaining one day to Dudley North that he was a martyr to the rheumatism, and had ineffectually tried every remedy for its relief, "Pray, my lord," said he, "did you ever try a clean shirt?" It must not be forgotten, however, that h« was a munificent patron of literature, for he defrayed the entire expense of printing Taylor's Translation of Plato, 5 vols. 4to. ; Dalla way's History of Sussex, 2 vols. 4to.; and Duncunib's History of Here- fordshire, '/! vols. The initials B. O. B. refer to Mr. (afterwards Sir Robert) Adair, who is often alluded to in these pages.— Ed.] THE ANTI-JACOBIN. 145 No. xxiir. April 16, 1798. We cannot better explain to our readers the design of the poem from which the following extracts are taken, than by borrowing the expressions of the author, Mr. HiGGiNS, of Sf. Mary Axe, in the letter which ac- companied the manuscript. We must premise, that we had found ourselves called upon to remonstrate with Mr. H. on the freedom of some of the positions laid down in his other didactic poem, the "Progress of Man"; and had in the course of our remonstrance hinted something to the disadvan- tage of the new princiipTes which are now afloat in the world, and which are, in our opinion, working so much prejudice to the happiness of mankind. To this Mr. H. takes occasion to reply — * " What you call the new prind'ples are, in fact, nothing less than new. They are the principles of primeval nature, the system of original and unadulterated man. [* These observations are directed against Godwin's work on " Political Justice," which, on its first appearance, excited extraordinary attention. His aim was to represent the whole systera of society as radically and essentially wrong, and to extirpate all those principles which uphold its present constitu- tion. The existence of the Deity is spoken of as an hypothesis, and the ethics are worthy of the religion. Holceoft reviewed it in the " Monthly Eeview," but was doubtful whether to praise or blame it.— Ed.] ["I noticed (says Crabb Eobinson in 1811) the infinite superiority of Godwin over the French writers in moral feel- ing and tendency. I had learned to hate Helvetius and Mira- beau, and yet retamed my love for Godwin. This was agreed to as a just sentiment." — En.] 10 146 POETRY OF " If you mean by my addiction to new principles that the object which I have in view in my larger work [meaning the ' Progress of Man ' ] and in the several other concomitant and subsidiary didactic poems which are necessary to complete my plan, is to restore this first, and pure simplicity; to rescue and to recover the in- teresting nakedness of human nature, by ridding her of the cumbrous establishments which the folly, and pride, and self-interest of the worst part of our species have heaped upon her;^you are right. Such is my object. I do not disavow it. Nor is it mine alone. There are abundance of abler hands at work upon it. Encyclopedias, Treatises, Novels, Magazines, Reviews, and New Annual Registers, have, as you are well aware, done their part with activity and with effect. It re- mained to bring the heavy artillery of a didactic poem to bear upon the same object. " If I have selected your paper as the channel for conveying my labours to the XDublic, it was not because I was unaware of the hostility of your principles to mine, of the bigotry of your attachment to ' things as they are,' but because, I will fairly own, I found some sort of cover and disguise necessary for securing the favourable reception of my sentiments ; the usual pre- texts of humanity, and philanthropy, and fine feeling, by which we have for some time obtained a passport to the hearts and understandings of men, being now worn out or exploded. I could not choose but smile at my success in the first instaiice, in inducing yoti to adopt my poem as your own. "But you have called for an explanation of these principles of ours, and you have a right to obtain it. THE ANTI-JACOBIN. 147 Our first principle is, then — the reverse of the trite and dull maxim of Pope — ' Whatever is, is right'. We contend, that ' Whatever is, is torong' ; that institutions, civil and religious, that social order (as it is called in your cant) and regular government, and law, and I know not what other fantastic inventions, are but so many cramps and fetters on the free agency of man's natural intellect and moral sensibility ; so many badges of his degradation from the primal purity and excellence of his nature. "Our second principle is, the ^eternal and absolute perfectibility of man '. We contend, that if, as is demon- strable, we have risen from a level with the cabbages of the field to our present comparatively intelligent and dignified state of existence, by the mere exertion of our own energies ; we should, if these energies were not re- pressed and subdued by the operation of prejudice, and folly, by King-Craft and Priest-Craft, and the other evils incident to what is called civilized society, continue to exert and expand ourselves in a proportion infinitely greater than anything of which we yet have any notion : — in a ratio hardly capable of being cal- culated by any science of which we are now masters : but which would in time raise man from his present biped state to a rank more worthy of his endowments and aspirations ; to a rank in which he would be, as it were, all Mind ; would enjoy unclouded perspicacity and perpetual vitality ; feed on oxygene, and never die, but by his oivn consent. " But though the poem of the Progress of Man alone would be sufficient to teach this system and enforce these doctrines, the whole practical effect of 148 POETEY OF them cannot be expected to be produced, but by the gradual perfecting of each of the subhmer sciences ; — • at the husk and shell of which we are now nibbling and at the kernel whereof, in our present state, we cannot hope to arrive. These several sciences will be the subjects of the several auxiliary Didactic Poems which I have now in hand (one of which, entitled The Loves OF THE Triangles, I herewith transmit to you), and for the better arrangement and execution of which, I beseech you to direct your bookseller to furnish me with a handsome Chambers's Dictionary ; in order that I may be enabled to go through the several articles alphabeti- cally, beginning with Abracadabra, under the first letter, and going down to Zodiac, which is to be found under the last. " I am persuaded that there is no science, however abstruse, nay, no trade or manufacture, which may not be taught by a didactic poem. In that before you, an attempt is made (not unsuccessfully, I hope) to enlist the imagination under the banners of Geometry. Botany I found done to my hands. And though the more rigid and un- bending stiffness of a mathematical subject does not admit of the same appeals to the warmer passions, which naturally arise out of the sexual (or, as I have heard several worthy gentlewomen of my acquaintance, who delight much in the poem to which I allude, term it, by a slight misnomer no way difficult to be accounted for — the sensual) system of Linngeus ; — yet I trust that the range and variety of illustration with which I have endeavoured to ornament and enlighten the arid truths of Euclid and Algebra, will be found to have smoothed the road of Demonstration, to have softened the rugged THE ANTI-JACOBIN. 149 features of Elementary Propositions, and, as it were, to have strewed the Asses' Bridge with flowers." Such is the account which Mr. Higgins gives of his own undertaking, and of the motives which have led him to it. For our parts, though we have not the same sanguine persuasion of the absolute perfedihilitii of our species, and are in truth liable to the imputation of being more satisfied with things as they are, than Mr. Higgins and his associates ; — yet, as we are, in at least the same proportion, less convinced of the practical influence of didactic poems, we apprehend little danger to our readers' morals from laying before them Mr. Higgins's doctrine in its most fascinating shape. The poem abounds, indeed, with beauties of the most striking kind, — various and vivid imagery, bold and unsparing imper- sonifications ; and similitudes and illustrations brought from the most ordinary and the most extraordinary occurrences of nature — from history and fable — appeal- ing equally to the heart and to the understanding, and calculated to make the subject of which the poem professes to treat rather amusing than intelligible. We shall be agreeably surprised to hear that it has assisted any young student at either University in his mathe- matical studies. We need hardly add, that the plates illustrative of this poem (the engravings of which would have been too expensive for our publication) are to be found in Euclid's Elements, and other books of a similar tendency. 150 POETEY OF LOVES OF THE TEIANGLES* ARGUMENT OF THE FIBST CANTO. Warning to the profane not to approach — Nymphs and Deities of Mathematical Mythology — Cyclois of a pensive turn — Pendulums, 6n the contrary, playful — and why? — Senti- mental Union of the Naiads and Hydrostatics — Marriage of Euclid and Algebra. — Pulley the emblem of Mechanics — Optics of a licentious disposition — distinguished by her tele- scope and green spectacles. — Hyde-Park Gate on a Sunday morning — Cockneys — Coaches. — Didactic Poetry — Nonsensia — Love delights in Angles or Corners — Theory of Fluxions explamed — Trochais, the Nymph of the Wheel — Smoke-Jack described — Personification of elementary or culinary Fire. — Little Jack Homer — Story of Cinderella — Rectangle, a Magi- cian, educated by Plato and Menecmus— m love with Three Curves at the same time — served by Gins, or Genii — trans- forms himself into a Cone — the Three Curves requite his passion — Description of them — Parabola, Hyperbola, and Ellipsis — Asymptotes — Conjugated Axes. — Illustrations — Rewbell, Barras, and Lepaux, the three virtuous Directors — Macbeth and the Three Witches — the Three Fates — the Three Graces — Kmg Lear and his Three Daughters — Derby Diligence — Catherine Wheel. — Catastrophe of Mr. Gmgham, with his Wife and Three Daughters overturned in a One-horse Chaise — Dislocation and Contusion two kindred Fiends — Mail Coaches — Exhortation to Drivers to be careful — Genius of the Post-Office — Invention of Letters — Digamma — Double Letters — Eemarkable Direction of one — Hippona the God- dess of Hack-horses — Parameter and Abscissa unite to over- power the Ordinate, who retreats down the Axis-Major, and forms himself m a Square — Isosceles, a Giant — Dr. Ehomboides — Fifth Proposition, or Asses' Bridge — Bridge of Lodi — Buonaparte — Eaft and Windmills — Exhortation to the recovery of our Freedom — Conclusion. [* Written in ridicule of Dr. Darwin's Loves of the Plants.] THE ANTI-JACOBIN. 151 THE LOVES OF THE TEIANGLES. 3V #litthcmaticvil vtnb l^hilosophicnl l3otm, INSCRIBED TO DR. DARWIN. CANTO I. Stay your rude steps, or e'er your feet invade The Muses' haunts, ye sons of War and Trade ! Nor you, ye legion fiends of Church and Law, Pollute these pages with unhallow'd paw ! Debased, corrupted, grovelling, and confined, 5 No Definitions touch y/owr senseless mind ; To you no Postulates prefer their claim. No ardent Axiobis your dull souls inflame ; For you no Tangents touch, no Angles meet, No Circles join in osculation sweet ! 10 For vie, ye Cissoids, round my temples bend Your wandering curves ; ye Conchoids extend ; Ver. 1 — 4. Imitated from the introductory couplet to the Economy of Vegetation : " Stay your rude steps, whose throbbing breasts infold The legion fiends of glory and of gold ". This sentiment is here expanded into four lines. Ver. 6. Definition — A distinct notion explaining the genesis of a thing. — Wolfius. Ver. 7. Postulate — A self-evident proposition. Ver. 8. Axiom — An indemonstrable truth. Ver. 9. Tangents — So called from touching, because they touch circles, and never cut them. Ver. 10. Circles — See Chambers's Dictionary, article "Circle". Ver. 10. Osculation — For the osculation, or kissing of circles and other curves, see Huygens, who has veiled this delicate and inflammatory siibject in the decent obscurity of a learned language. Ver. 11. Cissois — A curve supposed to resemble the sprig of ivy, from which it has its name, and therefore peculiarly adapted to poetry. Ver. 12. Conchois, or Conchylis — A most beautiful and pictur- 152 POETRY OF Let playful Pendules quick vibration feel, While silent Cyclois rests upon her wheel ; Let Hydeostatics, simpering as they go, 15 Lead the light Naiads on fantastic toe ; Let shrill Acoustics tune the tiny lyre ; "With Euclid sage fair Algebra conspire ; The obedient pulley strong Mechanics ply. And wanton Optics roll the melting eye ! 20 I see the fair fantastic forms appear. The flaunting drapery, and the languid leer ; Fair sylphish forms — who, tall, erect, and slim. Dart the keen glance, and stretch the length of limb ; To viewless harpings weave the meanless dance, 25 Wave the gay wreath, and titter as they prance. Such rich confusion charms the ravish'd sight. When vernal Sabbaths to the Park invite. esque curve ; it bears a fanciful resemblance to a conch, shell. The conchois is capable of infinite extension, and presents a striking analogy between the animal and mathematical creation — every individual of this species containing within itself a series of young conchoids for several generations, in the same manner as the Aphides and other insect tribes are observed to do. Ver. 15. Hydrostatics — Water has been supposed, by several of our philosophers, to be capable of the passion of love. Some later experiments appear to favour this idea. Water, when pressed by a moderate degree of heat, has been observed to simper, or simmer, as it is more usually called. The same does not hold true of any other element. Ver. 17. Acoustics — The doctrine or theory of somid. Ver. 18. Euclid and Algebra — The loves and nuptials of these two interesting personages, forming a considerable episode in the third canto, are purposely omitted here. Ver. 19. Pulley — So called from oiu- Saxon word to pull, signifying to pull or draw. Ver. 23. Fair sylphish forms — Vide modern prmts of nymphs and shepherds dancing to nothmg at all. Ver. 27. Such rich confusion — Imitated from the following THE ANTI-JACOBIN. 153 Mounts the thick dust, the coaches crowd along, Presses round Grosvenor Gate th' impatient throng ; 30 White-musHned misses and mammas are seen. Linked with gay cockneys, ghttering o'er the green : The rising breeze unnumbered charms displays. And the tight ankle strikes th' astonished gaze. But chief, thou Nurse of the Didactic Muse, 35 Divine Nonsensia, all thy soul infuse ; The charms of Secants and of Tam/ents tell, How Loves and Graces in an Anr/le dwell ; How slow progressive Points protract the Line, As pendent spiders spin the filmy twine ; 40 How lengthened Lines, impetuous sweeping round. Spread the wide Plane, and mark its circling bound ; genteel and sprightly lines in the first canto of the " Loves of the Plants " : " So bright its folding canopy withdrawn, Glides the gilt landau o'er the velvet lawn, Of beanx and belles displays the glittering throng, And soft airs fan them as they glide along ". Ver. 38. Angle — Gratus puellse risus ab Angulo. — Hor. Ver, 39. How slow i)rogressive Points — The Author has reserved the pictiu'esque imagery which the tJieory of fluxions naturally suggested for his "Algebraic Garden," where the fluents are described as rolling with an even current between a margin of curves of the higher order over a pebbly channel, mlaid with difl^erential calculi. In the following six lines he has confined himself to a strict explanation of thetheorj', according to which lines are supposed to be generated by the motion of points, planes by the lateral motion of lines, and solids from planes, by a similar process. Qua're — Whether a practical application of this theory would not enable us to account for the genesis or original formation of space itself, in the same manner in which Dr. Darwin has traced the whole of the organized creation to his six filaments — Vide Zoonomia. We may conceive the whole of our present universe to have been originally concentred in a single point ; 154 POETKY OF How Planes, their substance with their motion grown, Form the huge Guhe, the Cylinder, the Gone. we ixiay conceive this primeval point, or pundum saliens of the universe, evolvin^ itself by its own energies, to have moved forward in a right line, ad infinitum, till it grew tired ; after which the right line which it had generated would begin to put itself in motion in a lateral direction, describing an area of infinite extent. This area, as soon as it became conscious of its own existence, would begin to ascend or descend, according as its specific gravity might determine it, forming an innnense solid space filled with vacuiim, and capable of containing the present existing universe. Space being thus obtained, and presenting a suitable nidus, or receptacle for the generation of chaotic matter, an immense deposit of it would gradiially be accumulated ; after which, the filament of fire being produced in the chaotic mass by an idio- nyncrasy, or self-formed habit, analogous to fermentation, explo- sion would take place ; suns would be shot from the central chaos ; planets from suns ; and satellites from planets. In this state of things the filament of organization would begin to exert itself in those independent masses which, in proportion to their bulk, exposed the greatest surface to the action of light and heat. This filament, after an infinite series of ages, would begm to ramify, and its viviparous offspring would diversify their forms and habits, so as to accommodate themselves to the various incunabula which Nature had prepared for them. Upon this view of things it seems highly probable that the first effort of Nature terminated in the production of vegetables, and that these, being abandoned to their own energies, by degrees detached themselves from the surface of the earth, and supplied themselves with wings or feet, according as their different pro- X^ensities determined them in favour of aerial and terrestrial existence. Others, by an inherent disposition to society and civilization, and by a stronger effort of volition, would become men. These, in time, would restrict themselves to the use of their hind feet; their tails would gradually rub off by sitting m their caves or huts, as soon as they arrived at a domesti- cated state ; they would invent language and the use of fire, with our present and hitherto imperfect system of society. In the meanwhile, the Fuci and Algce, with the Corallines and Madrepores, would transform themselves into fish, and would gradiially populate all the submarme portion of the globe. THE ANTI-JACOBIN. 155 Lo ! where the chimney's sooty tube ascends, 45 The' fair Trochais from the corner bends ! Her coal-black eyes upturned, incessant mark The eddying smoke, quick flame, and volant spark ; Mark with quick ken, where flashing in between, Her much-loved Smoke-Jack glimmers thro' the scene ; 50 Mark, how his various parts together tend. Point to one purpose, — in one object end ; The spiral grooves in smooth meanders flow, Drags the long chain, the polished axles glow, While slowly circumvolves the piece of beef below ; 55 The conscious fire with bickering radiance burns, Eyes the rich joint, and roasts it as it turns. So youthful Horner rolled the roguish eye, Cull'd the dark plum from out his Christmas pie, And cried, in self -applause — "How good a boy am I ". 60 So she, sad victim of domestic spite, Fair Cinderella, pass'd the wintry night. In the lone chimney's darksome nook immured, Her form disfigured, and her charms obscured. Sudden her godmother appears in sight, 65 Lifts the charmed rod, and chants the mystic rite. The chanted rite the maid attentive hears, Ver. 46. Trochais — The Nympli of the "Wheel, supposed to be in love with Smoke-Jack. Ver. 56. The conscious fire — The sylphs and genii of the different elements have a variety of innocent occupations assigned them ; those of fire are supposed to divert themselves with writing Kunkel in phosphorus. — See Economy of Vegeta- tion : " Or mark, with shining letters, Kunkel's name In the pale fhosphor''s self-consuming flame". 156 POETRY OF And feels new ear-rings deck her listening ears ; While 'midst her towering tresses, aptly set, Shines bright, with quivering glance, the smart aigrette ; 70 Brocaded silks" the splendid dress complete, And the Glass Slipper grasps her fairy feet. Six cock-tailed mice transport her to the ball. And liveried lizards wait upon her call. Alas ! that partial Science should approve The sly Ebctangle's too licentious love ! For three bright nymphs, &c., &c. {To he continued.) Ver. 68. Listening ears — Listening, and therefore peculiarly suited to a pair of diamond ear-rings. See the description of Nebuchadnezzar in his transformed state — " Nor flattery's self can pierce his pendent ears ". In poetical diction, a person is said to '■^breathe the blue air," and to ^^ drink the hoarse ivave!" — not that the colour of the sky or the noise of the water has any reference to drmking or breathing, but because the poet obtains the advantage of thus describing his subject under a double relation, in the same manner in which material objects present themselves to our different senses at the same time. Ver. 73. Cock-tailed mice — Coctilibus Muris. Ovid.— -Theve is reason to believe that the murine, or mouse species, were anciently much more numerous than at the present day. It appears from the sequel of the line, that Semiramis surrounded the city of Babylon with a number of these animals. Dicitur altam Coctilibus Muris cinxisse Semiramis urbem. It is not easy at present to form any conjecture with respect to the end, whether of ornament or defence, which they could be supposed to answer. I should be inclined to believe, that in this instance the mice were dead, and that so vast a coUection of them must have been hirnished by way of tribute, to free the THE ANTI-JACOBIN. 157 comitry from these destriictive animals. This superabundance of the murine race must have been owing to their immense fecundity, and to the comparatively tardy reproduction of the feline species. The traces of this disproportion are to be found in the early history of every country.- — The ancient laws of Wales estimate a cat at the price of as much corn as would be sufi&cient to cover her, if she were suspended by the tail with her fore-feet touching the ground. — See Howel Dha. — In Ger- many, it is recorded that an army of rats, a larger animal of the mils tribe, was employed as the ministers of divine vengeance against a feudal tyrant ; and the commercial legend of our own Whittington might probably be traced to an equally authentic origin. 158 POETRY OF No. XXIV. April 23, 1798. THE LOVES OF THE TEIANGLES. ^ ^Jttathcinatical anb iHhilosopltical |Jocm. (Continued.) CANTO I. Alas ! that partial Science should approve 75 The sly Eectangle's too licentious love ! For tJiJ'ee bright nymphs the wily wizard burns ;^ Three bright-eyed nymphs requite his flame by turns. Strange force of magic skill ! combined of yore With Plato's science and Menecmus' lore. 80 In Afric's school, amid those sultry sands High on its base where Pompey's pillar stands, This learnt the Seer ; and learnt, alas ! too well. Each scribbled talisman, and smoky spell : Ver. 76. Rectangle — " A figure which has one angle, or more, of ninety degrees ". Johnson's Dictionary. — It here means a right- angled triangle, which is therefore incapable of having more than one angle of ninety degrees, but which may, according to our author's Prosopopoiia, be supposed to be in love with three, or any greater number of nymphs. Ver. 80. Plato's and Menecmus' lore — Proclus attributes the discovery of the conic sections to Plato, but obsciu-ely. Era- tosthenes seems to adjudge it to Menecmus. " Neque Menecmeos necesse crit in cono secare ternarios." (Vide Montucla.) Fi'om Greece they were carried to Alexandria, where (according to our author's beautiful fiction) Rectangle either did or might learn magic. THE ANTI-JACOBIN. 159 "What muttered charms, what soul-subduing arts, 85 Pell Zatanai to his sons imparts. Gins — black and huge ! who in Dom-Daniel's cave "Writhe your scorched limbs on sulphur's azui'e wave ; Or, shivering, yell amidst eternal snows, "Where cloud-capp'd Caf protrudes his granite toes; 90 (Bound by his will, Jiukeas fabled king, Lord of Aladdin's lamp and mystic ring.) Gins ! ye remember ! — for your toil conveyed "Whate'er of drugs the powerful charm could aid ; Air, earth, and sea ye searched, and where below 95 Planie embryo lavas, young volcanoes glow, — Ver. 86. Zatanai — Supposed to be the same with Satan. — Vide the New Arabian Nights, translated by Gazette, author of *'Le Diahle amoureux'\ Ver. 87. Gins — the Eastern name for Genii. — Vide Tales of ditto. Ver. 87. Dom-Daniel — a sub-marine palace near Tunis, where Zatanai usually held his court. — Vide Ncio Arabian Nights. Ver. 88. Suliohw — A substance which, when cold, reflects the yellow rays, and is therefore said to be yellow. When raised to a temperature at which it attracts oxygen e (a process usually called burning), it emits a blue flame. This may be beautifully exemphfied, and at a moderate expense, by ignitmg those fasciculi of brimstone matches, frequently sold (so fre- quently, indeed, as to form one of the London cries) by women of an advanced age, in this metropolis. They will be foiuid to yield an ar.ure, or blue light. Ver. 90. Caf — the Indian Caucasus. — Vide Baillfs Lettres sur I' Atlantide, in which he proves that this was the native country of Gog and Magog (now resident in Guildhall), as well as of the Peris, or fairies, of the Asiatic romances. Ver. 91. Jucf.ma^s fabled king — Mr. Higgins does not mean to deny that Solomon was really king of Judiea. The epithet fabled applies to that empire over the Genii, which the retro- spective generosity of the Arabian fabulists has bestowed upon this monarch. Ver. 96. Young volcanoes — The genesis of burning mountains was never, till lately, well explained. Those with which we are 160 POETRY OF Gins ! ye beheld appall'd th' enchanter's hand Wave in dark air th' Hijpothenusal wand ; Saw him the mystic Circle trace, and wheel "With head erect, and far-extended heel ; lOQ Saw him, with speed that mocked the dazzled eye, Self-whirled, in quick gyrations eddying fly : Till done the potent spell — behold him grown Fair Venus' emblem — the Phoenician Cone. best acquainted are certainly not viviparous ; it is therefore probable, that there exists, in the centre of the earth, a con- siderable reservoir of their eggs, which, during the obstetrical convulsions of general earthquakes, produce new volcanoes. Ver. 100. Far-extended heel — The personification of Bedangley besides answering a poetical purpose, was necessary to illus- trate Mr. HiGGiNs's philosophical opinions. The ancient mathematicians conceived that a cone was generated by the revolution of a triangle ; but this, as our author justly observes, would be impossible, without supposing m the triangle that expansive nisus, discovered by Blumenbach, and improved by Darwin, which is peciiliar to animated matter, and which alone explains the whole mystery of organization. Our enchanter sits on the ground, with his heels stretched out, his head erect, his wand (or hy23othenuse) resting on the extremities of his feet and the tip of his nose (as is finely expressed in the engraving in the original work), and revolves upon his bottom with great velocity. His skin, by magical means, has acquired an indefinite power of expansion, as well as that of assimilating to itself all the azote of the air, which he decomposes by expiration from his lungs — an inxmense quantity, and which, in our present miimproved and imeconomical mode of breathing, is quite thrown away. By this simple process the transformation is very naturahy aecomited for. Ver. 104. Phmnician Cone — It was imder this shape that Venus was worshipped in Phoenicia. Mr. Higgins thinks it was the Venus Urania, or Celestial Venus ; m aUusion to which, the Phoenician grocers first introduced the practice of preserving" sugar-loaves in blue or sky-coloiu-ed paper — he also believes that the conical form of the original grenadier's cap was typical of the loves of Mars and Venus. THE ANTI-JACOBIN. 161 Triumphs the Seer, and now secure observes 105 The kindhng passions of the rival Curves, And first, the fair Parabola behold. Her timid arms, with virgin blush, unfold ! Though, on one focus fixed, her eyes betray A heart that glows with love's resistless sway ; 110 Though, climbing oft, she strives with bolder grace Bound his tall neck to clasp her fond embrace. Still ere she reach it, from his polished side Her trembling hands in devious Tanr/enfs glide. Not thus Hyperbola; — with subtlest art 115 The blue-eyed wanton plays her changeful part ; Quick as her conjugated axes move Through every posture of luxurious love, Her sportive limbs with easiest grace expand ; Her charms unveiled provoke the lover's hand ; 120 Unveiled, except in many a filmy ray, Where light Asymjptotes o'er her bosom play, Nor touch her glowing skin, nor intercept the day. Yet why, Ellipsis, at thy fate repine ? More lasting bliss, securer joys are thine. 125 Ver. 107. Parabola— Th.e curve described by projectiles of all sorts, as bombs, shuttlecocks, &c. Ver. 115. Hyperbola — Not figuratively speaking, as in rhetoric, but mathematically ; and therefore blue-eyed. Ver. 122. Asymptotes — " Lines, which though they may ap- proach still nearer together till they are neai'er than the least assignable distance, yet being still produced infinitely, will never meet ". — Johnson's Dictionary. Ver. 124. Ellipsis— A ciu've, the revolution of which on its axis produces an eUipsoid, or solid resembling the eggs of birds, particularly those of the gallinaceous tribe. Ellipsis is the only curve that embraces the cone. 11 162 POETRY OF Though to each fair his treacherous wish may stray, Though each, in turn, may seize a transient sway, 'Tis thine with mild coercion to restrain, Twine round his strugghng heart, and bind with endless chain. Thus, happy France ! in thy regenerate land, 130 Where Taste with Eapine saunters hand in hand ; "Where, nursed in seats of innocence and bliss, Eefoem greets Tebbor wdth fraternal kiss ; Where mild Philosophy first taught to scan The wrongs of Providence, and rujhts of Man ; 135 Where Memory broods o'er Freedom's earlier scene, The Lantern bright, and brighter GuiUotive ; Three gentle swains evolve their longing arms, And woo the young Eepublic's virgin charms ; And though proud Barras with the fair succeed, 140 Though not in vain th' Attorney Rewhell plead, Oft doth th' impartial nymph their love forego, To clasp thy crooked shoulders, blest Lepaux ! So, with dark dirge athwart the blasted heath, Three Sister Witches hailed the appalled Macbeth. 145 So, the Three Fates beneath grim Pluto's roof. Strain the dun warp, and weave the murky woof ; 'Till deadly Atropos with fatal shears Slits the thin promise of the expected years. While 'midst the dungeon's gloom or battle's din, 150 Ambition's victims perish, as they spin. Thus, the Three Graces on the Idalian green Bow with deft homage to Cythera's Queen ; THE AXTI-JACOBIN, 163 Her polished arms with pearly bracelets deck, Part her light locks, and bare her ivory neck ; 155 Eound her fair form ethereal odom'S throw, And teach th' unconscious zephyrs where to blow. Floats the thin gauze, and glittering as they play, The bright folds flutter in phlogistic day, So, with his daughters Three, th' unsceptered Lear 160 Heaved the loud sigh, and poured the glistering tear : His daughters Three, save one alone, conspire (Rich in his gifts) to spurn their generous sire ; Bid the rude storm his hoary tresses drench, Stint the spare meal, the hundred knights retrench ; 165 Mock his mad sorrow, and with altered mien Een ounce the daughter, and assert the queen. A father's griefs his feeble frame convulse, Eack his white head, and fire his feverous pulse ; Till kind Cordeha soothes his soul to rest, 170 And folds the parent-monarch to her breast. Thus some fair spinster grieves in wild affright. Vexed with dull megrim, or vertigo light ; Pleased round the fair, Three dawdhng doctors stand, Wave the white wig, and stretch the asking hand, 175 State the grave doubt, the nauseous draught decree. And all receive, though none deserve, a fee. So down thy hill, romantic Ashbouro,* glides The Derby dilly, carrying Three Insidbs. [* " Komantic Asliboiu^n." The road clown Ashbourn Hill winds in front of Ashbonrn Hall, then the residence of the Eev. Mr. Leigh, who married a relation of Canning's, and to whom the latter was a frequent visitor. A clever parodical application of this couplet was made by O'Connell to Lord Stanley's sec- tion of a party of six, who wished to hold the balance of power, 164 POETRY OF One in each corner sits, and lolls at ease, 180 With folded arms, propt back, and outstretched knees ; While the pressed Bodldn, punched and squeezed to death, Sweats in the' midmost place, and scolds, and pants for breath.* {To he continued.) dm-ing Peel's short administration in 1835. He altered it to " The Derby Dilly," carrying six insides. — See the Greville Memoirs, vol. 3, pp. 236, &c.— Ed.] [* Thus sings Dr. Darwin of the Loves of the Plants : " Tivo brother swams, of Collins' gentle name, The same their features, and their forms the same, With rival love for fair CoUinia sigh. Knit the dark brow, and roll the misteady eye. With sweet concern the pitying beauty mourns, And soothes with smiles the jealous pair by turns. "Woo'd with long care, Curcuma, cold and shy, Meets her fond husband with averted eye. Four beardless j'ouths the obdurate beauty move With soft attentions of Platonic love." — Ed.] THE ANTI-JACOBIN. 165 No. XXV. April 30, 1798. BEISSOT'S GHOST.* As at the Shakespeare Tavern dining, O'er the well replenished board Patriotic chiefs reclining, Quick and large libations poured ; While, in fancy, great and glorious, 'Midst the democratic storm, Fox's crew, with shout victorious, Drank to Radical Reform ; Sudden, up the staircase sounding. Hideous yells and shrieks were heard ; Then, each guest with fear confounding, A grim train of Ghosts appeared : Each a head, with anguish gasping, (Himself a trunk deformed with gore). In his hand, terrific, clasping. Stalked across the wine-stained floor. On them gleamed the lamp's blue lustre, When stern Bbissot's grizzly shade His sad bands was seen to muster, And his bleeding troops arrayed. [* Brissot was one of the first movers in the outbreak of the French Revolution, and with twenty other Girondists suffered death under the guillotine, October 30, 1793. He was one of the most virtuous as well as most accomplished litterateurs of the time. — Ed.] 166 POETRY OF Through the drunken crowd he hied him, Where the chieftain sate enthroned, There, his shadowy trunks beside him, Thus in threatening accents groaned : " Heed, oh heed our fatal story, (I am Beissot's injured Ghost), You who hope to purchase glory In that field where I was lost ! Though dread Pitt's expected ruin Now your soul with triumph cheers, When you think on our undoing. You will mix your hopes with fears. " See these helpless, headless spectres, Wandering through the midnight gloom : Mark their Jacobinic lectures Echoing from the silent tomb ; These, thy soul with terror filling. Once were Patriots fierce and bold " — (Each his head, with gore distilling, Shakes, the whilst his tale is told). " Some from that dread engine's carving In vain contrived their heads to save — See Barbaeoux and Potion* starving In the Languedocian cave ! * Such was the end of these worthies. They were found starved to death in a cave in Languedoc. Vide Barrerc's Rep. [Charles Barbaroux was one of the most distinguished and energetic of the Girondists. As he opposed the party of Marat and Robespierre, he was, in 1793, proscribed as a Eoyalist and an enemy of the Eepublic. He wandered aboiit the comatry, hiding himself as he best could for thirteen months, when he was taken, and perished by the guillotine, June 25, 1794.— Ed.] JEROME Petion de Villeneuve was a prominent member THE ANTI-JACOBIN. 167 See, in a higgler's* hamper buckled, How Louvet's soaring spirit lay ! How virtuous RoLAND,t helpless cuckold, Blew w^hat brains he had away. " How beneath the power of Marat, CoNDORCET, blaspheming, fell. Begged some laudanum of Garat,:{: Drank ; — and slept,— to wake in hell ! of the Jacobin Club, and a great ally of Eobespierre. Being elected Maire de Paris in Bailly's stead, he encouraged the demonstrations of the lowest classes, and the arming of the poj)ulace. He then joined the Girondists. On their defeat by the army of the Convention, he fled in July, 1793, into Bretagne. A short time after the corpses of himself and Buzot were found in a corn-field near St. Emilion, partly devoured by wolves. They were supposed to have died by then own hands. He was extremely virtuous m all his domestic relations ; but his public career shows him to have beeji weak, shallow, ostentatious, and vain. — Ed.] * See Louvet's RScit cle mes Perils. f This philosophic coxcomb is the idol of those who admire the French Eevolution up to a certain point. X This little anecdote is not generally known. — It is strikingly pathetic. — Garat has recorded this cii'cumstance in a very eloquent sentence — " toi, qui arretas la main avec laquelle tu tra9ais le progres de I'esprit humain, pour porter sur tes levres le breuvage mortel, d'autres p)ensees et d'autres sentimens out mclin^ ta volonte vers le tombeau, dans ta derniere delibera- tion. — (Garat, it seems, did not choose to poison himself.) — Tu as rendu a la Uberte eterneUe ton ame E^publicaine par ce poison qui avait 4ie partage entre nous comme le pam entre des freres." " Oh you, who stayed the hand with which you were tracing the progress of the human mind, to carry the mortal mixture to your lips — it was by other thoughts and other sentiments that your judgment was at length determmed in that last deli- berated act. You restored your republican spirit to an eternal freedom, by that poison which we had shared together, like a morsel of bread between two brothers." 168 POETRY OF Oh that, with worthier souls uniting, I in my country's cause had shone ! Had died my Sovereign's battle fighting, Or nobly propp'd his sinking throne ! — " But hold ! — I scent the gales of morning — Covent-Garden's clock strikes One ! Heed, oh heed my earnest warning, Ere England is, like France, undone ! To St. Stephen's quick repairing, Your dissembled mania end ; And, your errors past forswearing. Stand at length your Country's Friend ! " [The preceding ballad is parodied from the one by Glover, entitled — ADMIRAL HOSIER'S GHOST. As near Porto-Bello lying On the gently swelling flood, At midnight with streamers flying, Our trimnphant navy rode : There while Vernon sat all-glorious From the Spaniard's late defeat. And his crews, with shouts victorious, Drank success to England's fleet : On a sudden, shi-illy sounding. Hideous yells and shrieks were heard, Then each heart with fear confounding, A sad troop of ghosts appeared : All in dreary hammocks slirouded. Which for winding-sheets they wore. And with looks by sorrow clouded. Frowning on that hostile shore. On them gleam'd the moon's wan lustre, When the shade of Hosier brave His pale bands was seen to muster, Rising from their wat'ry grave : O'er the glimmering wave he hied him. Where the Burford rear'd her sail. With three thousand ghosts beside him, And in groans did Vernon hail. Heed, O heed, our fatal story, I am Hosier's injured ghost, You who now have purchas'd glory. At this place where I was lost ; Though in Porto-Bello's ruin You now triumph free from fears, THE ANTI-JACOBIN. 169 When you think on our undoing, You will mix your joy with tears. See these mournful spectres sweeping Ghastly o'er this hated wave, Whose wan cheeks are stain'd with weeping, These were English Captains brave. Mark those numbers pale and horrid, Those were once my sailors bold, See each hangs his drooping forehead, While his dismal tale is told. I by twenty sail attended Did this Spanish town affright. Nothing then its wealth defended But my orders not to fight. O ! that in this rolling ocean I had cast them with disdain, And obey'd my heart's warm motion To have quell'd the pride of Spain. For resistance I could fear none, But with twenty ships had done Wliat thou, brave and happy Vernon, Hast achiev'd with six alone. Then the Bastinientos never Had our foul dishonour seen, Nor the sea the sad receiver Of this gallant train had been. Thus, like thee, proud Spain dismaying, And her galleons leading home. Though condemned for disobeying, I had met a traitor's doom : To have fallen, my country crying He has play'd an English part. Had been better far than dying Of a griev'd and broken heart. Unrepining at thy glory, Tliy successful arms we hail ; But remember our sad story, And let Hosier's wrongs prevail. Sent in this foul clime to languish. Think what thousands fell in vain. Wasted with disease and anguish. Not in glorious battle slain. Hence with all my train attending From their oozy tombs below, Through tlie hoary foam ascending. Here I feed my constant woe. Here the Bastimentos viewing, We recal our shameful doom. And our plaintive cries renewing. Wander through the midnight gloom. O'er these waves for ever mourning, Shall we roam deprived of rest. If to Britain's shores returning, You neglect my just request ; After this proud foe subduing. When your patriot friends you see, Think on Vengeance for my ruin, And for England sham'd in me.] 170 POETRY OF No. XXVI. May 7, 1798. LOVES OF THE TEIANGLES. The frequent solicitations which we have received for a continuation of the Loves of the Triangles have induced us to lay before the public (with Mr. Higgins's permission) the concluding lines of the Canto. The catastrophe of Mr. and Mrs. Gingham, and the episode of Hippona, contained, in our apprehension, several reflec- tions of too free a nature. The conspiracy of Parameter and Abscissa against the Ordinate is written in a strain of poetry so very splendid and dazzling as not to suit the more tranquil majesty of diction which our readers admire in Mr. Higgins. We have therefore begun our extract with the Loves of the Giant Isosceles, and the Picture of the Asses-Bridge, and its several illustrations. CANTO I. extract. 'Twas thine alone, youth of giant frame, Isosceles ! * that rebel heart to tame ! In vain coy Mathesis t thy presence flies : Still turn her fond hallucinating X eyes ; * Isosceles — An equi-crural triangle — It is represented as a. Giant, because Mr. Higgins says he has observed that pro- cerity is nnich promoted by the equal length of the legs, more especially when they are long legs. t Mathesis — The doctrine of mathematics —Pope calls her mad Mathesis. — Vide Johnsonh Dictionctry. X Hallucinating — The disorder with which Mathesis is affected is a disease of increased volition, called erotomania., or sentimental love. It is the fourth species of the second genus of the first THE AN TI- JACOBIN. 171 Thrills with Galvanic fires * each tortuous nerve, Throb her blue veins, and dies her cold reserve. — Yet strives the fair, till in the giant's breast She sees the mutual passion's flame confessed : Where'er he moves, she sees his tall limbs trace Internal Angles\ equal at the base ; Again she doubts him : but produced at will, She sees th^ external Angles equal still. Say, blest Isosceles ! what favouring power, Or love, or chance, at night's auspicious hour, While to the Asses-Bridge| entranced you strayed, Led to the Asses-Bridge the enamoured maid ? — order and third class ; in consequence of which, Mr. Hackman shot Miss Eeaj^ in the lobby of the playhouse. — Vide Zoonomia, vol. ii., pp. 363, 365. * Galvanic fires — Dr. Galvani is a celebrated philosopher at Turin. He has proved that the electric fluid is the proximate cause of nervous sensibility ; and Mr. Higgins is of opinion that by means of this discovery, the sphere of our disagreeable sensations may be, in future, considerably enlarged. " Smce dead frogs (says he) are awakened by this Huid to such a degree of posthumous sensibihty as to jmiip out of the glass m which they are placed, why not men, who are sometimes so much more sensible when alive ? And if so, whj' not employ this new stimulus to deter mankind from dying (which they so perti- naciously continue to do) of various old-fashioned diseases, not- withstanding all the brilliant discoveries of modern philosophy, and the example of Count Cagliostro ? t Internal Angles, d-c. — This is an exact versification of Euclid's fifth theorem. — Vide Euclid in loco. X Asses-Bridge — Pons Asinorum — The name usuallj' given to the before-mentioned theorem — though, as Mr. Higgins thinks, absurdly. He says, that having frequently watched companies of asses during their passage of a bridge, he never discovered in them any sj^nptoms of geometrical instinct iipon the occasion. But he thinks that with Spanish asses, which are much larger (vide Toivnsend's Travels through /S^xw'h), the case may possibly be ditferent. 172 POETRY OF The Asses-Bridge, for ages doomed to hear The deafening surge assault his wooden ear, With joy repeats sweet sounds of mutual bliss, The soft susurrant sigh, and gently-murmuring kiss. So thy dark arches, London Bridge^ bestride Indignant Thames, and part his angry tide, There oft — returning from those green retreats, Where fair Vanxhallia decks her sylvan seats ; — Where each spruce nymph, from city compters free. Sips the froth'd syllabub, or fragrant tea ; While with sliced ham, scraped beef, and burnt cham- pagne, Her 'prentice lover soothes his amorous pain ; — There oft, in well-trimmed wherry, glide along Smart beaux and giggling belles, a glittering throng : Smells the tarr'd rope — with undulation fine Flaps the loose sail — the silken awnings shine ; " Shoot we the bridge !'' the venturous boatmen cry; " Shoot we the bridge !" the exulting fare* reply. — Down the steep fall the headlong waters go, Curls the white foam, the breakers roar below. The veering helm the dexterous steersman stops, Shifts the thin oar, the fluttering canvas drops ; Then with closed eyes, clenched hands, and quick-drawn breath. Darts at the central arch, nor heeds the gulf beneath. Full 'gainst the pier the unsteady timbers knock. The loose planks, starting, own the impetuous shock ; * Fare —A person, or a number of persons, conveyed in a hired vehicle by land or water. THE ANTI-JACOBIN. 173 The shifted oar, dropp'd sail, and steadied hehn, With angry surge the closing waters whelm — Laughs the glad Thames, and clasps each fair one's charms, That screams and scrambles in his oozy arms. Drench'd each smart garb, and clogged each straggling limb. Far o'er the stream the Cockneys sink or swim ; While each badged boatman,* clinging to his oar, Bounds o'er the buoyant wave, and climbs the applauding shore. So, towering Alp ! from thy majestic ridge f Young Freedom gazed on Lodi's blood-stained Bridge ; Saw, in thick throngs, conflicting armies rush, Eanks close on ranks, and squadrons squadrons crush ; Burst in bright radiance through the battle's storm, Waved her broad hands, displayed her awful form ; Bade at her feet regenerate nations bow, And twined the wreath round Buonapabte's brow. Quick with new lights, fresh hopes, and altered zeal. The slaves of despots dropp'd the blunted steel : Exulting Victory owned her favourite child, And freed Liguria clapp'd her hands, and smiled. * Badficd boatman — Boatmen sometimes wear a badge, to distinguish them, especially those who belong to the Water- men's Companj^ t Alp, or Alps — A ridge of mountains which separate the North of Italy from the South of Germany. They are evidently primeval and volcanic, consisting of granite, toadstone, and basalt, and several other siibstances, containing animal and vegetable recrements, and affording munberless undoubted proofs of the infinite antiquity of the earth, and of the conse- quent falsehood of the Mosaic chronology. 174 POETRY OF Nor long the time ere Britain's shores shall greet The warrior-sage^ with gratulation sweet : Eager to grasp the wreath of naval fame, The Great Eepublic plans the Floating Frame ! O'er the huge plane gigantic Terror stalks, And counts with joy the close-compacted balks : Of young-eyed Massacres the Cherub crew, Eound their grim chief the mimic, task pursue ; Turn the stiff screw,* apply the strengthening clamp, Drive the long bolt, or fix the stubborn cramp, Ijash the reluctant beam, the cable splice. Join the firm dove-tail with adjustment nice, Through yawning fissures urge the willing wedge, Or give the smoothing adze a sharper edge. Or group'd in fairy bands, with playful care. The unconscious bullet to the furnace bear ; — - Or gaily tittering, tip the match with fire, Prime the big mortar, bid the shell aspire ; Applaud, with tiny hands, and laughing eyes. And watch the bright destruction as it flies. Now the fierce forges gleam with angry glare — The windmill t waves his woven wings in air ; * Turn the stiff screw, &c. — The harmony and imagery of these lines are imperfectly imitated from the following exquisite passage in the Economy of Vegetation : " Gnomes, as yoti now dissect, with hammers fine, The granite rock, the noduled flint calcine ; Grind with strong arm the circling Chertz betwixt. Your pure Ka — o — lins and Pe — tunt — ses mixt. Canto ii. line 297. [f The windmill, &c. — This luae affords a striking mstance of the ■sound conveying an echo to the sense. I would defy the most unfeeling reader to repeat it over without accompanying it by some corresponding gesture imitative of the action described. — Editor.] THE AXTI-JACOBIX. 175 Swells the proud sail, the exulting streamers fly, Their nimble fins unnumber'd paddles ply : Ye soft airs breathe, ye gentle billows waft. And, fraught with Freedom, bear the expected Kaft ! Perch'd on her back, behold the Patriot train, Mum, Ashley, Baelow, Tone, O'Connor, Paine ! While Tandy's hand directs the blood-empurpled rein. Ye Imps of Murder? guard her angel form. Check the rude surge, and chase the hovering storm ; Shield from contusive rocks her timber limbs, And guide the sweet Enthusiast* as she swims ! And now, with web-foot oars, she gains the land, And foreign footsteps press the yielding sand : The Communes spread, the gay Departments smile, Pair Freedom's Plant o'ershades the laughing isle : Fired with new hopes, the exulting peasant sees The Gallic streamer woo the British breeze ; f While, pleased to watch its undulating charms. The smiling infant^ spreads his little arms. * Siveet Enthusiast, &c. — A term usually applied in allegoric or technical poetry to any person or object to which no other qualifications can be assigned. — Chambers's Dictionary. [t Anne Plumptre, who made herself known as one of the first introducers of German plays, said: "PcojjIc are talking ■about an Invasion. I am not afraid of an Invasion ; I believe the country would be all the ha2}pier if Buonaparte were to effect a landing and overturn the Government. He woiild destroy the Church and the Aristocracy, and his government would be better than the ■one we have". Crabb Robinson's Diary (1810), i. 298. — Ed.] X The smiling infant — Infancy is particularly interested in the diffusion of the new principles. See the "Bloody Buoy". See also the following description and prediction : "Here Time's hiige fingers grasp his giant mace, And dash proud Superstition from her base ; Piend her strong towers and gorgeous fanes, &c. ****** 176 POETKY OF Ye sylphs of Death ! on demon pinions flit Where the tall Guillotine is raised for Pitt : To the poised plank tie fast the monster's back,* Close the nice slider, ope the expectant sack ; Then twitch, with faii-y hands, the frolic pin — Down falls the impatient axe with deafening din ; The liberated head rolls off below, f And simpering Freedom hails the happy blow ! While each light moment, as it passes by, With feathery foot and pleasure-twinkling eye, Feeds from its baby-hand with inany a kiss The callow-nestlings of domestic bliss." — Botanic Garden. * The monster's back — Le Monstre Pitt, I'ennemi du genre hu- main. See Debates of the legislators of the Great Nation, passim. t Atque illud prono praeceps agitur decnrsus. — CcUullus. [The following lines of Dr. Darwin's, in Canto ii., gave great offence to the Government : — So, borne on sounding pinions to the west, When tyrant-power had built his eagle nest ; Wliile from his eyry shriek'd the famish'd brood, Clench'd their sharp claws, and champ'd their beaks for blood. Immortal Franklin watch'd the callow crew, And stabb'd the sti'uggling vampires, ere they flew. — The patriot-flame with quick contagion ran, Hill lighted hill, and man electris'd man : Her heroes slain awhile Coluiubia mourn'd. And crown'd with laurels Liberty return'd. The warrior. Liberty, with bendmg sails, Helm'd his bold course to fair Hibernia's vales ; Firm as he steps along the shouting lands, Lo ! Truth and Virtue range their radiant bands ; Sad Superstition wails her empire torn, Art plies his oar, and Commerce pours her horn. Long had the giant-form on Gallia's plains Inglorious slept, unconscious of his chains ; Eound his lai-ge limbs were wound a thousand strings By the weak hands of confessors and kings ; THE ANTI-JACOBIN. 177 O'er his closed eyes a triple veil was bound, And steely rivets lock'd him to the ground ; While stern Bastile with iron-cage inthralls His folded limbs, and hems in marble walls. — Ed.] NOTES TO LOVES OF THE TRIANGLES. [The general features of Dr. Darwin's extraordinary poems, tlie "Lores of the Plantg," iind the " Econoii}// of VencUitinn," which are so admirably ridiculed in the preceding pages, may be gathered from the following specimens : — ARGUiMENT. The Genius of the place invites the Goddess of Botany — She descends— is re- ceived by Spring and the Elements — Addresses the Nymphs of Fire— Love created the LTniverse — Chaos explodes — All the Stars revolve — Colours of the Morning and Evening Skies — Exterior Atmosphere of inflammable Air — Fires at the Earth's Centre— Animal Incubation— Venus visits the Cyclops— Phosphoric Lights in the Evening — Bolognian Stone — Ignis fatuus— Eagle armed with Lightning — Discovery of Fire — Medusa— The Chemical Properties of Fire- Lady in Love — Gunpowder — Steam-engine — Labours of Hercules— Halo round the Heads of Saints— Fairy rings — Death of Professor Richman— Cupid snatches the thunderbolt from .Jupiter — The great Egg of Night — Naiad released — Fi'ost assailed— Whale attacked — Ice-Islands navigated into the Tropic Seas — Rainy Monsoons — Elijah on Mount Carmel — Departure of the Nymphs of Fire like sparks from Artificial Fireworks, &c. " Nymphs ! you disjoin, unite, condense, expand, And give new wonders to the Chemist's hand ; On tepid clouds of rising steam aspire, Or fix in sulphur all its solid fire ; With boundless spring elastic airs unfold. Or fill the flne vacuities of gold ; AVith sudden flash vitrescent sparks reveal. By fierce collision from the flint and steel ; Or mark with shining letters Kunkel's name In the pale phosphor's self-consuming flame. So the chaste heart of some enchanted maid Shines with insidious light, by love betray'd ; Round her pale bosom plays the young desire. And slow she wastes by self-consuming fire." These poems, produced in that dreary time for English poetry which elapsed between the disappearance of Cowper and Burns and the advent of Scott and Byron, had, in spite of their glaring absurdities, no lack of warm admirers. Miss Seward, in her Life of Br. Darwin, published in 1804, sets no limits to her .admiration: — "We are presented," she says, " with an highly imaginative and sjilenilidly descriptive poem, whose successive pictures alternately possess the sublimity of Michael Angelo, the correctness and elegance of Raphael, with the glow of Titian ; whose landscapes have, at times, the strength of Salvator, and at others the softness of Claude ; whose numbers are of stately grace, and artful harmony ; while its allusions to ancient and modern history and fable, and its interspersion of recent and extraordinary anecdotes, render it extremely enter- taining. * •■ * Each part is enriched by a number of philosophical notes. They state a great variety of theories and experiments in Botany, Chemistry, Electricity, Mechanics, and in the various species of Air, salubrious, noxious, and deadly," &c.] THE .SCOTTISH "POLITICAL MARTYRS". [Thomas Muir, the younger, of Hunter's Hill, a promising young advocate of the Scottish Bar, and of high respectability, was tried at Edinburgh, 30th and 31st of August, 1793, before Lord Justice Clerk (Braxfield), Lords Hender- 12 178 POETRY OP land, Swinton, Dunsinnan, and Abercromby, for Sedition. The weightiest charge against him was that of " lending" a copy of Paine's Rights of Man to a person wlio begged a reading of that popular book. He was found guilty, and sentenced to fourteen years' transportation. On the 17th of the ensuing month, the Rev. Thos. Fyshe Palmer, a Unitarian Minister of Dundee, and an ex-fellow of Queen's College, Cambridge, was tried at Perth for publishing a seditious Address, and sentenced to seven years' transportation. On their arrival at Woolwjch, in a revenue cuttei', they were put on board separate hulks, and assisted at the common labour on the banks of the river. MuiR, soon after his arrival in New South Wales, effected his escape, in an American vessel, to South America, whence he proceeded to Spain. Buring this voyage, in an action with a British frigate, he received a wound in the head, from which he recovered ; but on his arrival at his destination, he was imprisoned by the Spanish authorities, until, on the application of M. de Talleyrand in the name of the then government of France, he obtained his release. He then went to France, and died at Bourdeaux [or Cliantilly] in 1799 ; aged 33. Palmer served out his seven years, but died on the hcimeward voyage. Other Trials soon followed. At the close of December, 1793, Mr. Skirving, Mr. Gerrald, and Mr. Margarot were tried at Kdinburgh on similar charges of seditious practices, and were all sentenced to fourteen years' transportation. The former two died soon after reaching New South Wales. Maurice Mar- garot, who appears to have conducted himself tliroughout with the most abandoned and shameless profligacy, was the only one of these convicts — his fourteen years over — who ever set foot again in Britain. Gerrald was a man of very superior ability, and a favourite pupil of Dr. Parr's, as is mentioned by De Quincey in his famous essay on that noted Whig pedagogue. On the Scottish " political martyrs " Lord Cockburn, in bis posthumous Examination of the Trials for Sedition in Scotland, published in 1SS8, which deals with the twenty-five trials of the above-named five and of thirty-two others, be- tween 1793 and 1819, passes his deliberate verdict, that, with the exception of Muir, not one of them was guiltless. But, like ordinary criminals, tbey were entitled to a fair and impartial trial ; and tlieir trials were, one and all, iniqui- tous. Of the six judges who presided in the first fourteen (1793-94), five were dull, timid nonentities ; the sixth. Lord Justice Clerk Braxfleld, was, says Lord Cockburn, "a profound practical lawyer, and a powerful man; coarse and illiterate . . . utterly devoid of judicial decorum, and though pure in the administration of civil justice, when he was exposed to no temptation, with no other conception of principle in any political case except that the upholding of his party was a duty attaching to his position. Over the five weak men who sat beside him, this coarse and dexterous ruffian predominated as he chose." But Jedburgh — no, nor the Bloody Assize itself— could scarcely match one scene in Gerrald's trial : — " ' After all,' he was urging in his defence, 'the most useful discoveries in philosophy, the most important changes in the moral history of man, have been innovations. The Revolution was an innovation, Christianity itself was an innovation.' Instantly upon this, the following interruption took place : - Lord Braxfield : ' You would have been stopped long before this, if you had not been a stranger. All that you have been saying is sedition. And now, ray Lords, he is attacking Christianity.' Lord Henderland : ' I allow him all the benefit of his defence. But ... I cannot sit here as a judge without saying that it is a most indecent defence. . . .' The juries were packed as never, surely, before, or afterwards." With such judges, such juries, and, at least, in two cases, false witnesses, it might seem easy to anticipate the result ; but the result transcends anticipation. In almost every case a light sentence would have amply met the requirements of justice ; but the judges all shared Lord Swintoii's opinion that " it is impos- sible to punish Sedition adequately, now that torture has been abolished ". So they strove to supply the deficiency by Transportation, a punishment unwar- ranted by precedent. With respect to Margarot's trial at Edinburgh, the following is a vivid memory of Lord Cockburn's boyhood : — " ^Margarot came from the Black Bull [in Leith Street] to be tried, attended THE ANTI-JACOBIN. 179 by a procession of tbe populace and his Convention friends, with banners and what was called a tree of liberty. This tree was in the shape of the letter M, about twenty feet hish iind ten wide. The honour of beaiing it up by carrying the twii uiuight poles w;is assigned to two eminent Conventionalists, and the little culprit walked beneath the circular placard in the centre, which proclaimed liberty and equality, &c. I was looking out of a window in the old Post-Office, which was then the northmost house on the west side of the North Bridge. I think I see the scene yet. The whole North Bridge, from the Tron Church to the Register Office, was quite empty at first ; not a single creature venturing on that l)it of sand, over which the waves were so soon to break from both ends. The Post-Office and the adjoining houses had been secretly filled with constables, and sailors from a frigate in the roads (I think The Hind, Capt. Cochrane), all armed with sticks and batons. No soldier appeared, it being determined that this civic insurrection should be put down by the civil force, unaided, at least, by scarlet. As soon as the tree, which led the van, emerged from Leith Street, and appeared at the north end of the bridge. Provost Elder and the Magistrates issued from some place they had retired to (I believe the Tron Church), and ap- peared, all robed, at the south end. The day was good. There was still not one person— I doubt if there was even a dog— on any part of the space, being the whole length of the bridge, between the two parties. But the rear of each was crammed with people, who tilled up every inch as those in front moved on. The Magistrates were in a line across the street, with the Provost in the centre, the city officers behind this line, and probably a hundred loyal gentlemen in the rear of the officers. The two parties advanced steadily towards each other, and in perfect silence, till they met just about the Post- Office. The Provost stepped forward about a pace, so that he almost touched the front line of the rebels, when, advancing his cane, he commanded them to retire. This order probably would not have been obeyed ; but, at any rate, it could not have been obeyed speedily, from the crowd behind. However, all this was immaterial ; for, without waiting one instant to see whether they meant to retire or not, the houses vomited forth their bludgeoned contents, and in almost tivo minutes the tree was demolished and thrown over the bridge, the street covered with the knocked down, the accused dragged to the bar, and the insurrection was over." On Febiuary 20th, 1837, a meeting took place at the Crown and Anchor Tavern, Strand, for commencing a subscription to erect monuments in London and Edinburgh to the memory of the above five Refonners. Joseph Hume, M.P. was in the chair ; Colonel Perronet Thompson, Mr. Dan. Whittle Harvey, and fifteen other members of Parliament were present. A lofty obelisk was erected on the Calton Hill to the memory of the "Scottish Martyrs," but London did not sympathize with the movement.— Ed.] JOEL BARLOW. [Joel B.^rlow, born in 1756 in Connecticut, was educated as a Presbyterian minister, but afterwards turned Deist. Before this change he translated the Psalms into metre, and his version is still used in the churches of New England. He now adopted the Law, and engaged in periodicals— one, The Anarchist, which was political in its character, and exercised great influence. In 17SS, after visiting England, he went to Paris, where he joined the Girondists. In 17id, he returned to England, where he published the first part of his Adcicc to the Prh-ilcgol Orders, in which he assails the whole system of Government pursued in monarchical Europe, the Church establishments, the standing armies, the judicial organisations, and the financial systems which belong to the old governments. In February, 1792, he published a political poem, which he entitled The Conspiraci/ of Kiivis ; also a Letter to the Conventioii advising the separation of Church and State. So great did his reputation become that he was fixed on by the London Constitutional Society to present their Address to the Con txntioii. After various political transactions in the intei'est of France, and also in commercial speculations which made hiin a rich man, he left Paris in 1805, living on his estate in America till 1811, when he was sent as Minister 180 POETRY OF Plenipotentiary to Paiis. Bnt Napoleon being on his Russian Expedition, he followed him to Wilna ; but the fatiguing journey proved fatal : he died 26th December, 1812. He wrote at an early age a poem, Tin: VUion of Columbus, which acquii'ed great popularity, and which he afterwards enlarged as The Columbiad. Among other works he published (in 17f)6) a mock-heroic poem, BastT/ Pudding, which is generally considered his best work. — Ed.] THEOBALD WOLFE TONE. [Theobald Wolfe Tone, the founder of the A.ssociation of United Irish- men, was born in Dublin in 1764, and, after passing through Trinity College, came to London to prosecute his legal studies, which he soon forsook for politics, being induced thereto by the indignation excited in his breast by the persecution of the Irish Catholics, whose cause, although himself a Protestant, he warmly advocated. With the view of getting their grievances redressed, he founded the society of L^mted Irishmen, which gavegreat alarm to the English Government. His liberty being menaced, he went to America, and thence to France, where he arranged with Gen. Hoche the expeditions to Bantry Bay and the Texel. Being appointed Adjutant-General, he served in several of the French armies, and lastly in Gen. Hardi's expedition to Ireland in October, 1798. The vessel he was aboard of was captured by the English, and he was conveyed to Dublin, tried by a Court-Martial, and sentenced to be hanged. He anticipated his execution, however, by committing suicide in prison, 19th November, 179S.— Ed.] ARTHUR O'CONNOR. [On the 21st and 22nd May, 1798, Arthur O'Connor (proprietor of a Dublin newspaper. Tin: Pn.u), John Binns (an active member of the London Corrc- spondiiUJ Socirt;/), JOHN ALLEN, JEREMIAH Leary, and Jas. O'Coigly, (dies Ja.s. C^uigley, cd ins Jus. John Fivey (a Priest), were tried at Maidstone for High Treason. ROBERT Fergusson was counsel for Allen. O'Coigly only was found Guilty, and was executed 7th June, on Pennenden Heath. After being sus- pended for ten minutes, he was cut down and his head severed from his body : the disgusting remainder of his sentence was remitted. He met his death with great fortitude, and denying to the last the charge of treasonable correspon- dence abroad. In the State Tricds, vols. 26 and 27, are included the Life of the prisoner ; Observations on bis Trial ; Address to the People of Ireland ; and Letters, all written by himself during his contineraent in Maidstone Gaol. His real name, he says, was the Rev. Jas. Coigly, and his age 36. " Can you imagine a man more treacherous and profligate than O'Coigly ?" said Sir James Mackintosh to Dr. Parr. " Yes, Sir, he might have been worse : he was a parson — he might have been a lawyer ; he was a traitor— he might have been an apostate ; he was an Irishman — he might have been a Scotchman." When it is recollected that INIackintosh was a Scotchman and a lawyer, and that he had written in defence of the French Revolution against Burke, these observa- tions of Dr. Parr were both insolent and uncalled for. A Portrait of "Arthur O'Connor, late Member in the Irish Parliament for Borough of Philipstown, painted by J. Dowling, engraved by W. Ward," was published in London, 18th April, 1798. Another Portrait in military uniform is to be found in Barrington's ilenwirs of the Union. He figures also in several of Gillray'S Caricatures. In the Birmingham Da.ibj Post of April 2, 1SS8, it is stated that THE HON. R. E. O'Connor, M.A., barrister-at-law, the latest addition to the Legislative Council of New South Wales, is a grandson of Arthur O'Connor, one of the leaders of the United Irishmen, who died a General in the service of France. When O'Connor was acquitted by the Jury, on the above-named occasion, but before the Judge had given orders for his release, a strange scene occurred in court, an attempt being made, as it was alleged, by Sackville, Earl of Thanet, Robert Fergusson (in after years known as Cutlar Fergusson, Judge-Advocate-General), and others to facilitate his escape in order to avoid further charges about to be preferred against him, Binns also being implicated for this exploit, which was unsuccessful, but attended with violence. These THE ANTI-JACOBIX. 181 confederates were tried at the Bar of the Court of King's Bench, 25th April, 1799. The Counsel for the Crown were Sir John 8cott [Lord Eldon], I/aw [Lord Ellenborough], Sir W. Garrow, Sir C. Abbot, &c., while the defendants had the powerful advocacy of Erskine and others. His Lordship and Mr. Fergusson were found guilty after a long and ingenious defence by the latter, which presaged his future eminence as a Counsel. Lord Thanet was ordered to pay a fine of ±;1000 ; to be imprisoned in the Tower for a year ; and to give security "for good behaviour for seven years on the expiration t)f the sentence ; himself in £111,000, and two sureties in £.^000 each. Fergus- son was ordered to pay a tine of £100 ; to be imprisoned in the King's Bench prison for one year ; to give security for good behaviour for seven years from the expiration of the sentence ; himself in £5iO, and two sureties in £250 each. —See ^tate Trials, vols. 26 and 27.— Ed.] JAMES NAPPER TANDY. ["A person who afterwards made a considerable figure in the local affairs of Ireland raised himself about this time into considerable notoriety by hi.s patriotic exertions. This was Mr. James Napper Tandy, a gentleman in the middle station of life, without talent or natural influence, had become a warm advocate in the corporation of Dublin ; he debated zealously in public, he argued strenuously in private, and persevered in both with indefatigable ardour. His person was ungracious — his language neither eloquent nor argumentative— his address neither graceful nor impressive— but he was sincere and persevering -and though in many instances erroneous and violent, he was considered to be honest. His private character furnished no ground to dciulit the integrity of his public one— and, like many of those persons who occusiniially spring up in revolutionary periods, he accpured celebrity without being iilile to account for it, and posses.sed influence without rank or capacity. In 17yC), Mr. Tandy lost all his popularity, and nearly his life, by his apparent want of courage in an affair between him and Mr. Toler, then Solicitor-General, afterwards Lord Xorbury, and Chief Justice of the Common Pleas. IMr. Tandy liaving signified to Mr. 'Toler his desire to fight him, the Chief Justice readily accejited the offer. Both parties manceuvred very skilfully; but Mr. Tandy delayi]ig liis ultimatum too long for the impatience of the Solicitor-General, he brought him before the House" of Commons for a breach of privilege, and pro- secuted him for sedition. Mr. Tandy escaped to the Continent, entered the French Service, invaded Ireland, was, with his confederates, arrested by the British Envoy at Hamburg, 24 Nov., 1798, contrary to the law of nations: the Minister of France claimed them as French citizens, and the Senate, un- willing to offend either power, came to no decision on the subject. Tandy was thereupon taken to Ireland and condemned to be hanged— was pardoned by Lord Cornwallis, and sent back to France, where he died a French General." — Barrington's Mimoirs of the Unioii, vol. 1, where is a portrait of Tandy. — Eo.J 182 POETRY OF No. XXVII. May 14, 1798. The gallant defence of the Isles of St. Marcou would justify a more serious celebration than is attempted in the following poem ; and the modest and unassuming manner in which Lieutenant Price gives the account of services so highly meritorious, adds to the hope which we entertain that he will meet a more solid reward than any verse of ours or of our correspondent's could bestow. Citizen Muskein, if he understands Horace, and can read English, will be amply rewarded for the victory of which he has, no doubt, by this time, made a pompous report to the Directory, by the perusal of the 14th Ode of the 1st Book, for which we have to return our thanks to a classical correspondent. A CONSOLATOEY ADDEESS TO HIS GUNBOATS. BY CITIZEN MUSKEIN. navis ! referent in mare te novi jluctus. GENTLE GuN-BoATS, whom the Seine Discharged from Havre to the main ; Now leaky, creaking, blood-bespattered, With rudders broken, canvas shattered — tempt the treacherous sea no more, But gallantly regain the shore. Scarce could our guardian goddess, Eeason, Ensure your timbers through the season. Though built of wood from famed Marseilles, Well-manned from galleys, and from jails, THE ANTI-JACOBIN. 183 Though with Lepaux's and Eewbell's aid, By Pleville's '•' skill your keel was laid ; Though lovely Stael, and lovelier Stone,* Have worked their fingers to the bone, And cut their petticoats to rags To make your bright three-coloured flags ; Yet sacrilegious grape and ball Deform the works of Stone and Stael, And trembling, without food or breeches, Our sailors curse the ixiintcd .+ Children of Muskein's anxious care, Source of my hope and my despair, GuN-BoATS — unless you mean hereafter To furnish food for British laughter — Sweet GuN-BoATS, with your gallant crew, Tempt not the rocks of Saint Maecou ; Beware the Badger's bloody pennant. And that d d invalid Lieutenant ! • Stone. — Better known by the name of Williams. t AVe decline printing this rhyme at length, from obvious reasons of delicacy ; at the same time that it is so accurate a translation of 2^'^'^^'^^ puppihus, that we know not how to sup- press it, without doing the utmost injustice to the general spirit of the poem. LYRICS OF HORACE. ODE XIV., BOOK I, TRANSLATED BY ARCHDEACON WRANGHAM. Ship, fresh billows soon again Shall bear thee to the boisterous main ! Firm, keep the port. See, see thy side, "Without a single oar to giiide 1 Wounded by tempests is thy mast : Tliy sail -yards groan beneath the blast ; Nor can thy keel, uncabled, brave The swelling of th' miperious wave. 184 POETKY OF Torn are thy sails I nor Gods hast thou, When danger threats, to hear thy vow. Though born of noblest wood, 'twas thme To tower a vigorous Pontic pine ; 'Tis vain thy race, thy name, to prize : Nought on his painted stern relies The trembling seaman. Storms afar Thicken to mock thy strength : beware. Thou, who wast late my anxious fear, Thou now my fondest, tenderest care : O shun, dear Ship, those tossing seas Which part the white-cliff'd Cyclades ! [Ml'sivEIN was an inhabitant of Antwerp, whom the Directory not only appointed to superintend the construction of the flat-bottomed boats for the invasion of (Jreat Britain (nsiially called by the French sailors " bateaux a la ilMkein"), but made a " capitahic de vaisacau". An attack was ordered to be made upon the two small islands of Saint Marcouf (each not more than 200 yards in leneth), of which, in July, 179a, Sir SinNEV Smith, with the Diamond frigate, had taken unobstructed possession, and which were considered to give to the English great facility in intercepting between the ports of Havre and Cherbourg. The islands are situated off tlie river Isigny, on the coast of Nor- mandy, and about four miles distant from the French shore. After being garrisoned with about 500 seamen and marines, including a great proportion of invalids, these small islands were placed under the command of Lieut. Charles Papps Price, of I'he Badger, a cruiser-converted Dutch hoy, mounting four, or at most six, guns. On the 8th April, 1798, Muskein, with 33 flat-bottomed boats, with a body of troops on board, and a few gun-brigs, was about to make a combined attack on the two islands, but was driven oflf by two British frigates. The Di.oioxd, Vupt. Sir -R. J. Strachan, and THE Hydra, Cnpf. Sir Freoicis Laj'orey, and stood into Caen river. While there for three weeks, repairing damages, he was joined by seven heavy gun-brigs, and about 40 flat-boats and armed fishing vessels, bringing with them additional troops. On the 0th May, Lieut. Price received information that an attack was meditated during the night. By 10 p.m., owing to the prevailing calm, the small naval force on the station, consisting of the 50-gun ship. Adamant, ('ajH. Will. Hotharii, 24-gun ship. Eurydice, Capt. John Tedhot, and 18-gun brig-sloop, Orestes, Capt. W. Haaijitt, had not been able to approach nearer to the iislands than six miles — precisely what the assailants wanted. The attacking force consisted of 52-gun brigs and flat-bottomed boats, having on board, as was re- ported, about 0000 men. At day-break, on the 7th, the flotilla was seen drawn up in a line opposite to the south-west front of the western redoubt ; and instantly was opened, upon the brigs and flats composing it, a fire from 17 pieces of cannon, consisting of four 4, two C, and six 24 pounder long guns, and three 24 and two 32-pouncler carionades, being all the guns that would bear. The brigs remained at a distance of from 300 to 400 yards, in order to batter the redoubt with their heavy long guns, while the boats, with great resolution, rowed up until within musket-shot of the battery. But the guns of the latter, loaded with round, grape, and canister, soon poured destruction amongst these, cutting several of the boats " into chips," and compelling all that could keep afloat to seek their safety in flight. Six or seven boats were seen to go down, and one small flat, No. 13, was afterwards towed in, bottom upwards. She appeared, by some pieces of paper found in her, to have had 144 persons on board, including 129 of the second company of the Boulogne battalion. The loss sustained by the British garrison amounted to one private-marine THE ANTI-JACOBIN. 185 killed, and two piivate-marines and two seamen wounded. According to one French account, the invaders lost about 900 in killed or drowned, and Ijetween 300 and 400 wounded. As a reward for their conduct on this occasion, Lieuten- ants Price and Bourne were each promoted to the rank of Commander. The former died a Post Captain, at Hereford, in 1S13, aged 62.— James'/: Kami Hlstori/, vol. ii., pp. 128-131 : ed. 1886.— Ed.] [M. PlSville was Minister of Marine, and, shortly afte*' this unsuccessful dt'hut of the famous flotilla, was succeeded by Rear-Adm. Bruix, who directed Rear-Adm. La Crosse to take the command, and to make a second attack upon the islands. This, however, the French Government declined to make. — Ed.] HELEN MARIA WILLIAMS. Helen M.\RIA Willi.\ms.—(" Among the literary celebrities of the French Revolution was Helen Maria Williams, at whose house were wont to assemble the most distinguished of the liberal writers of France, her own reputation giving considerable eclat to these meetings. She wrote some of the most beautiful hymns in our language, was a prisoner under the rtiini nf terror, and published a work on the French Revolution which is full of the most touching incidents, and adorned with specimens of the ardent and pathetic poetry, the product of French genius under the excitement of those most mystei'ious days. A. Humboldt was much attached to her, and committed to her care the trans- lation and publication of some of his most eIal)orate works. "She had two nephews, Athanas and Charles Coquerel, whom she educated, and who both attained considerable fame, one in the theological and the other in the political field. Athanas was for .some time the preacher in the Protestant Church at Amsterdam, and married the daughter of a Swiss gentle- man, the only pei'son I have ever known on the Continent to adopt the dress and profess the opinions of an English Quaker. Miss Williams maintained iutimate relations with her English friends, was familiar with the great lights of the Revolution, and her conversation was most instructive, entertaining, and varied. All her sympathies were on the side of freedom, and thuugh she was not so prominent as to be persecuted by the Emperor, like Madame de Stael, she was the object of a good deal of suspicion and naiiowly watched by the police." — Autobr. Kecnlkctions btj Sir Jo/rn Boirriii;/, pp. 353-4. — En.] [Miss Williams, for some years, wrote that portion of the A'cw Aanunl Rcgkler which relates to France. Among many other productions she was the author of the song Ecan Banks (to the tune of Havounia Delish), which has often been attributed to Burns ; a novel called Julia, and a Tour in Sicitzerla/ad. Horace Walpole called her in his Correspondence a "scribbling trollop". She lived for many years, and until the death of that gentleman — in Paris, 1818— under the protecHon. of JOHN HURFORD STONE, a man of letters, who in the early part of the French Revolution had removed with his wife to Paris, where he formed an intimacy with Miss Williams. She was born about 1762, and died in Paris in 1827 as a friend to the Bourbons, and the enemy of the Revolution ! This Mr. Stone was born at Tiverton in 1763, While in Paris he was in the confidence of the Directory, and became one of the chief printers there. In 180.5, he brought out an edition of the Genera Bible, and published several English reprints ; also Miss Williams's translation of Humboldt's Travels. His brother, Wm. Stone, was tried in 1790 for High Treason, for holding treason- able correspondence with him. — Ed.] ELEGY ON THE DEATH OF JEAN BON ST. ANDK^. The following exquisite tribute to the memory of an unfortunate republican is written with such a touching 186 POETRY OF sensibility, that those who can command salt tears must prepare to shed them. The narrative is simple and un- affected ; the event in itself interesting ; the moral obvious and awful. — We have only to observe, that as this account hi the transaction is taken from the French papers, it may possibly be somewhat partial. — The Dey's own statement of the affair has not yet been received. Every friend of humanity will join with us in expressing a candid and benevolent hope, that this busi- ness may not tend to kindle the flames of war between these two unchristian powers ; but that, by mutual con- cession and accommodation, they may come to some point (short of the restoration of Jean Bon's head on his shoulders, which in this stage of the discussion is hardly practicable) by which the peace of the Pagan world may be preserved. For our part, we pretend not to decide from which quarter the concessions ought principally to be made. It is but candid to allow that there are pro- bably faults on both sides, in this, as in most other cases. For the character of the Dey we profess a sincere re- spect on the one hand ; and on the other, we naturally wish that the head of Jean Bon St. x\nde^ should be reserved for his own guillotine. ELEGY; OE, DIRGE. I. All in the town of Tunis, In Africa the torrid, On a Frenchman of rank Was played such a prank, As Lepaux must think quite horrid. THE ANTI-JACOBIN. 187 II. No story half so shocking, By kitchen fire or laundry, Was ever heard tell, — As that which befel The great Jean Bon St. Andre.* III. Poor John was a gallant Captain, In battles much delighting ; He fled full soon On the first of June — But he bade the rest keep fighting. IV. To Paris then returning. And recovered from his panic. He translated the plaii Of Paine s Rights of Man, Into language Mauritanic. V. He went to teach at Tunis — "Where as Consul he was settled — [*Jean Bon St. Andrd, deputy to the Convention for the Department of Lot, during the reign of Terror, rivalled Marat and Eobespierre in cruelty. Having been appointed to re- model the Republican Navy, he was present at the action of June 1, 1794, in which he shewed excessive cowardice. He was afterwards Consul at Smyrna, where he was arrested by the Turks, but released on the peace. Napoleon subsequently commissioned him to organise the four departments of the Ehine, in which he succeeded. He was created a Baron, a Chevalier of the Legion of Honoiu- and Prefect of Maure. He died in 1813 of a contagious malady caught while performing charitable offices for the sick ! — Ed.] 188 POETRY OP Amongst other things, " That the people are kings ! " Whereat the Dey was nettled. VI. The Moors being rather stupid, And in temper somewhat mulish, Understood not a word Of the doctrine they heard, And thought the Consul foolish. VII. He formed a Clith of Brothers, And moved some resolutions — " Ho ! ho ! (says the Dey), " So this is the way " That the French make Revolutions ". VIII. The Dey then gave his orders In Arabic and Persian — " Let no more be said^ But bring me his head ! These Clubs are my aversion ''. IX. The Consul quoted Wicquefokt, And PuFFENDORF and Grotius ; And proved from Vattel Exceedingly well, Such a deed would be quite atrocious. X. 'Twould have moved a Christian's bowels To hear the doubts he stated ; — THE ANTI-JACOBIN. 189 But the Moors they did As they were bid, And strangled him while he prated. XI. His head with a sharp-edged sabre They severed from his shoulders, And stuck it on high, Where it caught the eye, To the wonder of all beholders. XII. This sure is a doleful story As e'er you heard or read of ; — If at Tunis you prate Of matters of state, Anon they cut your head off ! XIII. But we hear the French Directors Have thought the point so knotty ; That the Dey having shown He dislikes Jean Bon, They have sent him Beknadott:^. On recurring to the French papers to verify our Cor- respondent's statement of this singular adventure of Jean Bon St. Andbe, we discovered, to our great morti- fication, that it happened at Algiers, and not at Tunis. We should have corrected this mistake, but for two reasons — first, that Algiers would not stand in the verse ; and, secondly, that we are informed by the young man who conducts the Geographical Department of the Morning Chronicle, that both the towns are in Africa, or 190 POETBY OF Asia (he is not quite certain which), and, what is more to the purpose, that both are peopled by Moors. Tunis, therefore, may stand. [Marshal BernadottjS, the French Pi-ince of Monti Corvo, died as Charles John XIV., King of Sweden, 8th March, 1844, ill his eighty-first year. He married, in 1798, EUGEXiA-BEHNAKDiNA-DfisiRfiE be Clary, daughter of a Marseilles merchant, and sister of Madame Joseph Buonaparte (Queen of Spain). " Slie, who was not a common-place person," says Madame de R^MUSAT, in her valuable Memoirs, " had before her marriage been very much in love with Napoleon, and appears to have always preserved the memory of that feeling ! It has been supposed that her hardly extinguished passion caused her obstinate refusal to leave France." She survived her husband many years, and died in Paris, in the Rue d'Anjou Saint Honore. Her husband was succeeded on the throne of Sweden by their son, Oscar I., who married Josephine, daughter of Eug6ne Beauharnais, Due de Leuchtenberg, and granddaughier of the EMPRESS JOSEPHINE. Bernadotte owed his elevation to the throne to the misgovernment of Gustavus IV., who had brought the nation to the verge of ruin, and who was de- posed in 1809, when his uncle, the Duke of Siulermania, became king as Charles XIII. ; and the next year, Bernadoti'E was elected Crouii Prince, and successor to the throne. In 1813, he rendered great assistance to the Allies, for, as Crown Prince, he joined the confederacy against France with 30,000 men ; and, after defeating Marslial Ney, with great loss, on the 6th September, he, on the 18tli October, with the co-operation of Bliicher, again defeated him at the decisive Battle of Leipsic ; and, on the 19th, the Emperor Alexander, the King of Prussia, and the Crown Prince, entered the great square of Leipsic, amidst the acclamations of the inhabitants. He was a decided democrat, and hated by Napoleon, but was the only sovereign of the revolutionary branch who was permitted to retain his dominions after the great reaction in 1814. The choice made of this great soldier of fortune excited the surprise of all Europe at the time, but the wisdom of it was soon demonstrated by his prudent conduct. He had distinguished himself from all Napoleon's other marshals by his clemency in victory. For half a century before his accession, Sweden had not known the peace and prosperity in which he left the country on his death. In T. Raikes's Diari/ will be found some interesting anecdotes of Berna- DOTTfi's gratitude for services rendered him while a young subaltern. But one is of a more startling nature, as it records his narrow escape from the death intended for him by the widow of the late king, who had purposely prepared a poisoned cup of coffee for him, which she herself presented to him at her own table. Having been suddenly warned, he succeeded in forcing it upon her She resolutely accepted her fate, and died during the night.— Ed. THE ANTI-JACOBIN. 191 No. XXVITL May 21, 1798. We have received the following letter, with the poem that accompanies it, from a gentleman whose political opinions have hitherto differed from our own ; but who appears to feel, as every man who loves his country must, that there can be but one sentiment entertained by Englishmen at the present moment. Were we at liberty, we should be happy to do justice to the author, and credit to ourselves, by mentioning his name. TO THE EDITOR OF THE " ANTI-JACOBIN ". SiE, — However men may have differed on the political or constitutional questions which have of late been brought into discussion — whatever opinions they may have held on the system or conduct of administration — there can surely be now but one sentiment as to the instant necessity of firm and strenuous union for the preservation of our very existence as a people ; and if degrees of obligation could be admitted, where the utmost is required from all, it should seem that in this cause the opposers of administration stand doubly pledged ; for with what face of consistency can men pre- tend to stickle for points of constitutional liberty at home, who will not be found amongst the foremost at their posts to defend their country from the yoke of foreign slavery ? That there should be any set of men so infatuated as not to be convinced that the object of the enemy must 192 POETRY OP be the utter destruction of these countries, after making the largest allowance for the effects of prejudice and passion, it is not easy to conceive. Such, however, we are told, there are. They believe, then, that after a long series of outrage, insult, and injury, in the height of their animosity and presumption, these moderate, mild, disinterested conquerors will invade us in arms, out of pure love and kindness, merely for our good, only to make us wiser, and better, and happier, and more pros- perous than before ! Future events lie hid in the volume of Fate, but the intentions of men may be known by almost infallible indications. Passion and interest, the two mighty motives of human action, determine the Government of France to attempt the abolition of the British Empire ! and if, abandoned by God and our right arm, we should flinch in the conflict, that destruction will be operative to the full of their gigantic and monstrous imaginations ! — Harbours filled up with the ruins of their towns and arsenals, the Thames rendered a vast morass, by burying the Imperial City in her bosom — but I will not proceed in the horrible picture. Are we then, it may be asked, to wage eternal war ? — No ; a glorious resistance leads to an honourable peace. The French people have been long weary of the war ; their spirit has been forced by a system which must end in the failure of the engagement to give them the plunder of this country. They will awake from their dream, and raise a cry for peace, which their government will not dare to resist. The monarchs of Europe must now begin clearly to perceive that their fate hangs on the destiny of England ; they will unite to compel a satisfactory THE ANTI-JACOBIN. 193 peace on a broad foundation ; and peace, when war has been tried to the utmost, will probably be permanent. A few years of wise economy and redoubled industry will place us again on the rising scale ; and if the pres- sure of the times may have rendered it necessary some- times to have cast a temporary veil over the statue of Liberty, she may again safely be shown in an unimpaired lustre. Of the following verses I have nothing to say : if it should be decided that the greatness of the object cannot bear out the mediocrity of the execution, I will not appeal from the decision. ODE TO MY COUNTEY. MDCCXCVIII. S. 1. Beitons ! hands and hearts prepare : The angry tempest threatens nigh. Deep-toned thunders roll in air, Lightnings thwart the livid sky ; Throned upon the winged storm. Fell Desolation rears her ghastly form, "Waves her black signal to her Hell-born brood, And lures them thus with promised blood : A. 1. " Drive, my sons, the storm amain ! Lo, the hated, envied land. Where Piety and Okdee reign. And Freedom dares maintain her stand. Have ye not sworn, by night and hell. These from the earth for ever to expel ? 13 194 POETRY OF Eush on, resistless, to your destined prey, Death and rapine point the way." E. 1. Britons ! stand firm ! with stout and dauntless heart Meet unappall'd the threatening boaster's rage ; Yours is the great, the unconquerable part, For your loved hearths and altars to engage, And sacred Liberty, more dear than life — Yours be the triumph in the glorious strife. Shall theft and murder braver deeds excite Than honest scorn of shame and heavenly love of right ? . S. 2. Turn the bright historic page ! Still in glory's tented field, Albion's arms, for many an age. Have taught proud Gallia's bands to yield. Are not we the sons of those "Whose steel-clad sires pursued the insulting foes, E'en to the centre of their wide domain, And bowed them to a Briton's reign ? * A. 2. Kings, in modest triumph led, Graced the sable Victor's arms : t His conquering lance, the battle's dread ; — His courtesy the conquered charms. The lion-heart soft pity knows, To raise with soothing cares his prostrate foes ; * Henry VI. crowned at Pari.s. f The Black Prince. THE ANTI-JACOBIN. 195 The vanquished head true valour ne'er oppress'd, Nor shunn'd to succour the distress'd. E. 2. Spirit of great Elizabeth ! inspire High thoughts, high deeds, worthy our ancient fame ; Breathe through our ardent ranks the patriot fire, Kindled at Freedom's ever-hallowed flame ; Baffled and scorned, the Iberian tyrant found, Though half a world his iron sceptre bound. The gallant Amazon could sweep away, Armed with her people's love, the " Invincible " array. * S. 3. The Bold Usubper f firmly held The sword by splendid treasons gained ; And Gallia's fiery genius quelled, And Spain's presumptuous claims restrained : When lust of sway, by flattery fed, J To venturous deeds the youthful monarch led. In the full flow of victory's sw^elling tide Britain checked his power and pride. A. 3. To the great Batavian's name § Ceaseless hymns of triumph raise ! Scourge of tyrants, let his fame Live in songs of grateful praise. Thy turrets, Blenheim, || glittering to the sun, Tell of bright fields from warlike Gallia won ; * The Spanish Armada. t Oliver Cromwell. X Louis XIV. § William III. || Blenheim, Eamilles, &c., &c. 196 POETRY OF Tell how the mighty monarch mourned in vain His impious wish the world to chain. E. 3. And ye famed heroes, late retired to heaven, Whose setting glories still the skies illume, Bend from the blissful seats to virtue given — Avert your long-defended country's doom. Earth from her utmost bounds shall wondering tell How victory's meed ye gained, or conquering fell ; Britain's dread thunders bore from pole to pole. Wherever man is found, or refluent oceans roll. S. 4. Names embalmed in honour's shrine, Sacred to immortal praise. Patterns of glory, born to shine In breathing arts or pictured lays : See Wolfe, by yielding numbers pressed, Expiring smile, and sink on victory's breast ! See Minden's plains and Biscay's billowy bay Deeds of deathless fame display. A. 4. O ! tread with awe the sacred gloom, Patriot Virtue's last retreat; Where Glory, on the trophied tomb, Joys their merit to repeat ; There Chatham lies, whose master-hand Guided through seven bright years the mighty band, That round his urn, where grateful Memory weeps, Each in his hallowed marble sleeps. THE ANTI-JACOBIN. 197 E. 4. Her brand accursed when civil discord hurled,* Britain alone the united world withstood, EoDNEY his fortune-favoured sails unfurled, And led three nation's chiefs to Thanies's flood. Firm on his rock the Veteran HERot stands ; Beneath his feet unheeded thunders roar ; Smiling in scorn, he sees the glittering bands Fly with repulse and shame old Calpe's hopeless shore. S. 5. Heirs or partners of their toils, Matchless heroes still we own ; Crowned with honourable spoils From the leagued nations won. On their high prows they proudly stand, The godlike guardians of their native land ; Lords of the mighty deep triumphant ride, Wealth and victory at their side. A. 5. Loyal, bold, and generous bands. Strenuous in their country's cause. Guard their cultivated lands. Their altars, liberties, and laws. On his firm, deep-founded throne. Great Brunswick sits — a name to fear unknown, With brow erect commands the glorious strife, Unawed, and prodigal of life. * American War. f Lord Heabhlield. 198 POETEY OF E. 5. Sons of fair Freedom's long-descended line, To Gallia's yoke shall Britons bend the neck ?- No ; in her cause though fate and hell combine To bury all in universal wreck, Of this fair Isle to make one dreary waste, Her greatness in her ruins only traced, — Arts, commerce, arms, sunk in one common grave- The man who dares to die will never live a slave. THE ANTI-JACOBIN. 199 No. XXIX. May 28, 1798. In a former number, we were enabled, by the com- munication of a classical correspondent, to compliment Citizen Muskein with an Address to his Gun-boats, imitated from a favourite Ode of Horace. Another (or perhaps the same) hand has obligingly furnished us with a composition, which we have no doubt will be equally acceptable to the citizen to whom it is ad- dressed. ODE TO THE DIEECTOE MEELTN. HOEACE, B. I., O. V. Who now from Naples, Eome, or Berlin, Creeps to thy blood-stained den, Meblin, "With diplomatic gold ? — to whom Dost thou give audience en costume ? King Citizen ! — How sure each state Thau bribes thy love shall feel thy hate ; Shall see the democratic storm Her commerce, laws, and arts deform. How credulous, to hope the bribe Could purchase peace from Meklin's tribe ! Whom, faithless as the waves or wind, No oaths restrain, no treaties bind. For us — beneath yon sacred roof, The Naval Flags and arms of proof, By British valour nobly bought, Show how true safety must be sought ! 200 POETBY OF [Thiers, in his History of the French Eevolution, frequently asserts the incorrupt ibihty (with the exception of Barras) of the French Directory. But Alison, in his History, exposes the extraordinary conduct of M. de Talleyrand, then Minister of Foreign Affairs, towards the Envoys from the United States of America, who complained that an innnense niimber of American vessels had been seized by the French Government under a decree of Jan., 1798, which directed that all ships having for their cargoes, in whole or in part, any English merchandise, should be held lawful prize, whoever was the proprietor thereof, from the single circumstance of its coming from England or its foreign settlements. The Envoys were told that nothing could be done till their Government had advanced a sum equal to 1,280,000L as a loan, and 50,000/. as a douceur to the Directors. These terms were, of course, indignantly rejected. The Hanse Towns, too, only obtained licenses to navigate the high seas by the secret payment of 150,000/. to the Republican rulers. — Ed.] [LYRICS OF HORACE. BOOK I., ODE V. TRANSLATED BY ARCHDEACON WRANGHAM. What slender youth, all essenced o'er, In sweet alcove or rosy bower-, Now woos thee, PyiTha, to be kind ? For whom these tresses dost thou bind. Thus simply neat ? O how shall he, Poor youth ! bewail the boisterous sea. Rough with black tempests ! How accuse Capricious Gods, and broken vows ! Fond dupe ! he hopes — so sweet that kiss — Thou'lt still be witching, still be his ! "What treacherous gales beset his way, Ah ! little knows he ! Hapless they. Who ne'er thy faithless smiles have tried ! — That I have 'scaped the whelming tide, A tablet and my dripping vest. Hung up m Neptune's fane, attest. — Ed.] THE ANTI- JACOBIN. 201 No. XXX. June 4, 1798. OuB ingenious correspondent, Me. Higgins, has not been idle. The deserved popularity of the extracts which we have been enabled to give from his two didactic poems, the Progret^s of Man, and the Loves of the Trkuif/les, has obtained for us the communications of several other works which he has in hand, all framed upon the same principle, and directed to the same end. The propaga- tion of the New System of Philosophy forms, as he has himself candidly avowed to us, the main object of all his writings. A system, comprehending not politics only and religion, but morals and manners, and generally whatever goes to the composition or holding together of human society ; in all of which a total change and re- volution is absolutely necessary (as he contends) for the advancement of our common nature to its true dignity, and to the summit of that perfection which the combina- tion of matter, called Man, is by its innate enei'gies capable of attaining. Of this system, while the sublimer and more scientific branches are to be taught by the splendid and striking medium of didactic poetry, or ratiocination in rhyme, illustrated with such paintings and portraitures of essences and their attributes as may lay hold of the imagination while they perplex the judgment ;— the more ordinary parts, such as relate to the conduct of common life and the regulation of social feelings, are naturally the subject of a less elevated style of writing ; 202 POETRY OF of a style which speaks to the eye as well as to the ear, — in short, of dramatic poetry and scenic representation. "With this view," says Mk. Higgins (for we love to quote the very words of this extraordinary and indefatig- able writer),— " with this view," says he, in a letter dated from his study in St. Mary Axe, the window of which looks upon the parish pump, — " with this view I have turned my thoughts more particularly to the German stage, and have composed — in imitation of the most popular pieces of that country, which have already met with so general reception and admiration in this — a Play ; which, if it has a proper run, will, I think, do much to unhinge the present notions of men with regard to the obligations of civil society, and to substitute, in lieu of a sober contentment, and regular discharge of the duties incident to each man's particular situation, a wild desire of undefinable latitude and extravagance, — an aspiration after shapeless somethings that can neither be described nor understood, — a contemptuous disgust at all that is, and a persuasion that nothing is as it ought to be; — to operate, in short, a general discharge of every man (in his own estimation) from every tie which laws, divine or human, which local customs, immemorial habits, and multiplied examples, impose upon him ; and to set them about doing what they like, where they like, when they like, and how they like, — without reference to any lav/ but their own will, or to any consideration of how others may be affected by their conduct. " When this is done, my dear sir," continues Mr. H. (for he writes very confidentially) — " you see that a great step is gained towards the dissolution of the frame of every existing community. I say nothing of Governments, THE ANTI-JACOBIN. 203 as tlieiv fall is of course implicated in that of the social system ; — and you have long known that I hold every Government (that acts by coercion and restriction — by laws made by the few to bind the many) as a mahmi iu se, — an evil to be eradicated, — a nuisance to be abated, — by force, if force be practicable ; if not, by the artillery of reason, by pamphlets, speeches, toasts at club-dinners, and though last, not least, by didactic poems. " But where would be the advantage of the destruction of this or that Government, if the forixi of Society itself were to be suffered to continue such as that another must necessarily arise out of it and over it ?— Society, my dear sir, in its present state, is a hydra. Cut off one head, — another presently sprouts out, and your labour is to begin again. At best you can only hope to find it a polypus ; — where, by cutting off the head, you are some- times fortunate enough to find a tail (which answers all the same purposes) spring up in its place. This, we know, has been the case in France ; the only country iu which the great experiment of regeneration has been tried with anything like a fair chance of success. " Destroy the frame of society, — decompose its parts, — -and see the elements fightiug one against another, — insulated and individual, — every man for himself (stripped of prejudice, of bigotry, and of feeling for others) against the remainder of his species ; — and there is then some hope of a totally new order of tilings, — of a Radical Reform in the present corrupt system of the world. "The German Theatre appears to proceed on this judicious plan. And I have endeavoured to contribute my mite towards extending its effect and its popularity. There is one obvious advantage attending this mode of 204 POETRY OF teaching ; — that it can proportion the infractions of law, rehgion, or moraUty, which it recommends, to the capacity of a reader or spectator. If you tell a student, or an apprentice, or a merchant's clerk, of the virtue of a Brutus, or of the splendour of a La Fayette, you may excite his desire to be equally conspicuous ; but how is he to set about it ? Where is he to find the tyrant to murder ? How is he to provide the monarch to be im- prisoned, and the national guards to be reviewed on a white horse ? — But paint the beauties of forcjenj to him in glowing colours ; — show him that the presumption of virtue is in favour of rapine and occasional murder on the highway — and he presently understands you. The highway is at hand — the till or the counter is within reach. These haherdasliers^ lieroics come home to the business and the bosoms of men. — And you may readily make ten foi>tpads, where you would not have materials nor opportunity for a single tyrannicide. " The subject of the piece which I herewith transmit to you is taken from common or middling life ; and its merit is that of teaching the most lofty truths in the most humble style, and deducing them from the most ordinary occurrences. Its moral is obvious and easy ; and is one frequently inculcated by the German dramas which I have had the good fortune to see ; being no other than ' the reciprocal duties of one or more husbands to one or more ivives, and to the children who may happen to arise oiit of this complicated and endearing] connectioii'. The plot, indeed, is formed by the combination of the plots of tivo of tlie most popular of these plays (in the same way as Terence was wont to combine two stories of Menander's). The characters are such as the admirers of these plays THE ANTI-JACOBIN. 205 will recognise for their familiar acquaintances. There are the usual ingredients of imprisonments, post-houses and horns, and appeals to angels and devils. I have omitted only the sirewing, to which English ears are not yet sufficiently accustomed. "I transmit at the same time a Prologue, which in some degree breaks the matter to the audience. About the song of Rogero, at the end of the first Act, I am less anxious than about any other part of the performance, as it is, in fact, literally translated from the composition of a young German friend of mine, an Illumine, of whom I bought the original for three-and-sixpence. It will be a satisfaction to those of your readers who may not at first sight hit upon the tune, to learn that it is setting by a hand of the first eminence. — I send also a rough sketch of the plot, and a few occasional notes. — -The geograplnj is by the young gentleman of the Morning Clironide." THE EOVEES; OR, THE DOUBLE ARRANGEMENT. ^iiimatis ^crsonir. Prior of the Abbey of Quedlinburgh, very corpulent and cruel. Eogero, a prisoner in the Abbey, in love with Matilda POTTINGEN. Casimere, a Polish emigrant, in Dembrowsky's legion, married to Cecilia, but having several children by Matilda. Puddingfield and Beefington, English noblemen, exiled by the tyranny of King John, previous to the signature of Magna Charta. Eoderic, Count of Saxe Weimar, a bloody tyrant, with red hair, and an amorous complexion. Cta.spar, the minister of the Count — author of Kugero's con- tinement. 206 POETRY OF Young Pottixgen, brother to Matilda. Matilda Pottingen, in love with Rogero, and mother to Casimere's children. Cecilia Muckenfeld, wife to Casimere. Landlady, Waiter, Grenadiers, Troubadours, &c., &c. Pantalowsky and Britchinda, children of Matilda, by Casimere. Joachim, Jabel, and Amarantha, children of Matilda, by Rogero. Children of Casimere and Cecilia, with their respective Niirses. Several Children — fathers and mothers unknown. The Scene lies in the town of Weimar, and the neighbourhood of the Abbey of Quedlinburgh. Time from the I2th to the present century. PEOLOGUE.* in character. Too long the triumphs of our early times, "With civil discord and with regal crimes, Have stain'd these boards ; while Shakespeare's pen has shown Thoughts, manners, men, to modern days unknown. Too long have Eome and Athens been the rage ; \_AppIause. And classic Buskins soil'd a British stage. To-night our bard, who scorns pedantic rules, His plot has borrow'd from the German schools ; The German schools — where no dull maxims bind The bold expansion of the electric mind. [* Parodied from Pope's Prologae to Gato. — Eu.] THE ANTI-JACOBIN. 207 Fix'd to no period, circled by no space, He leaps the flaming bounds of time and place. Round the dark confines of the forest raves, With gevtle Eobbers* stocks his gloomy caves ; Tells how Prime Ministers t are shocking things, And reigning Dul-es as bad as tyrant Kings ; How to hvo swains J one nymph her vows may give, And how two damsels;}: with one lover live ! Delicious scenes ! — such scenes our bard displays. Which, crown'd with German, sue for British, praise. Slow are the steeds, that through Germania's roads With hempen rein the slumbering post-boy goads ; Slow is the slumbering post-boy, who proceeds Thro' deep sands floundering on those tardy steeds ; More slow, more tedious, from his husky throat. Twangs through the twisted horn the struggling note. These truths confess'd — Oh ! yet, ye travell'd few, Germania's plays with eyes unjaundiced view ! * See The Robbers, a German tragedy [by Schiller], in which robbery is put in so fascinating a hght, that the whole of a German University went upon the highway in consequence of it. t See Cabal and Lore, a German tragedy [by Schiller], very severe against prime mmisters and reigning Dukes of Bruns- wick. This admu'able performance very judiciously reprobates the hire of German troops for the Avierican war in the reign of Qiieen Elizabeth, a practice which would undoubtedly have been highly discreditable to that wise and patriotic princess, not to say wholly unnecessary — there being no American war at that particular time. X See The Stranger; or, Reformed Houselieeper, in which the former of these naorals is beautifully illustrated ; and Stella, a genteel German comedy [by Goethe], which ends with placing a man bodkin between two wives, like Thames between his two banks m The Critic. Nothing can be more edifj'ing than these two dramas. I am shocked to hear that there are some people who think them ridiculoiis. 208 POETKY OP View and approve ! — though in each passage fine The faint translation* mock the genuine line ; Though the nice ear the erring sight belie, For U til-ice dottpd is pronounced like /;" [Applav>ir. Yet oft the scene shall nature's fire impart, Warm/ro?;< the breast, and glowing to the heart! Ye travell'd few, attend ! — On yon our bard Builds his fond hope ! Do you his genius guard ! \_A2)'plavife . Nor let succeeding generations say A British audience damnd a German play ! [Lotid and continued A-ppIausei>'. Flash of lighining. — The ghost of Prologue's Grandmother by the Father's side, appears to soft music, in a vjhite tiffany riding-hood. Prologue hneels to receive her blessing, ivhich she gives in a solemn and affecting manner, the audience claf- ping and crying all the while. — Flash of lightning. — PROLOGUE and his Grandmother sink through the trap-doors. THE ROVEES; OR, THE DOUBLE ARRANGEMENT. ACT I. SCENE I. Scene represents a room at an inn, at Weimar — On one side of the stage the bar-room, with jellies, lem^ons in nets, syllabubs, * 'i'liese are the warnings very properly given to readers, to beware how they judge of what they cannot understand. Tims if the translation runs, " lightning of mg soul, fidgation of angels, sulphur of hell," we should recollect that this is not coarse or strange in the German language when applied by a lover to his mistress ; but the English has nothing precisely parallel to the original iWulijilvausc ^^vch.ingrlicltcn, which means rather emana- tion of the archangelic nature — or to -Smcllmgiikcrn TJaiihclf cr, which, if literally rendered, would signify made of stuff of the same odour whereof the devil makes flambeaux. See Schuttenbriioh on the German idiom. THE ANTI-JACOBIN. 209 and part of a cold roast foivl, d-c. — On the opiJosite side, a ivin- dow looking into the street, through ivhichjJersons {inhabitants of Weimar) are seen passing to and fro in apparent agitation — Matilda appears in a great coat and riding-habit, seated at the corner of the dinner-table, which is covered with a clean huckaback cloth ; plates and napkins, with buck' s-horn-han died knives and forks, are laid, as if for four persons. Mat. Is it impossible for me to have dinner sooner ? Land. Madam, the Brunswick post-waggon is not yet come in, and the ordinary is never before two o'clock. Mat. [ With a look expressive of disappointment, hut imme- diately recomposing herself.'] Well, then, I must have patience. \_Exit Landlady.'] Oh Casimere ! — How often have the thoughts of thee served to amuse these moments of expectation ! — -What a difference, alas ! — Dinner — it is taken away as soon as over, and we regret it not ! — It returns again with the return of appetite. — The beef of to-morrow will succeed to the mutton of to-day, as the mutton of to-day succeeded to the veal of yesterday. But when once the heart has been occupied by a beloved object, in vain would we attempt to supply the chasm by another. How easily are our desires transferred from dish to dish ! — Love only, dear, delusive, delightful love, restrains our wandering appetites, and confines them to a particular gratification ! Post-horn blows; re-enter Landlady. Land. Madam, the post-waggon is just come in with only a single gentlewoman. Mat. Then show her up — and let us have dinner instantly ; [Landlady going] and remember — \after a momenfs recollection, and with great earnestness] — remem- ber the toasted cheese. [Exit Landlady. 14 210 POETEY OF Cecilia enters, in a hrown doth riding-dress, as if just alighted from the post-waggon. Mat. Madam, you seem to have had an unpleasant journey, if I may judge from the dust on your riding- habit. Cec. The way was dusty, madam, but the weather was dehghtfuh It recalled to me those blissful moments when the rays of desire first vibrated through my soul. Mat. [^Asid.e.'] Thank Heaven ! I have at last found a heart which is in unison with my own. \To Cecilia] — Yes, I understand you — the first pulsation of senti- ment — the silver tones upon the yet unsounded harp Cec. The dawn of life — when this blossom \_putting her hand upon her heart] first expanded its petals to the pene- trating dart of love ! Mat. Yes— the time — the golden time, when the first beams of the morning meet and embrace one another ! — The blooming blue upon the yet unplucked plum ! Cec. Your countenance grows animated, my dear madam. Mat. And yours too is glowing with illumination. Cec. I had long been looking out for a congenial spirit ! — my heart was withered — but the beams of yours have rekindled it. Mat. a sudden thought strikes me — Let us swear an eternal friendship. Cec. Let us agree to live together ! Mat. Willingly. [With rapidity and earnestness. Cec. Let us embrace. [Tliey embrace. Mat. Yes; I too have loved! — you, too, like me, have been forsaken. [Douhtingly, and as if with a desire to he informed. THE ANTI-JACOBIN. 211 Cec. Too true ! Both. Ah these men ! these men ! Landlady enters, and places a leg of mutton on the table, xoith sour kraut and prune sauce; then a small dish of black puddings — Cecilia and Matilda appear to take no notice of her. Mat. Oh, Casmiere ! Geo. {Aside.'] Casimere ! that name ! — Oh, my heart, how it is distracted with anxiety. Mat. Heavens ! Madam, you turn pale. Cec. Nothing — a shght megrim — with your leave, I will retire — Mat. I will attend you. [Exeunt Matilda and Cecilia ; Manent Landlady and Waiter, with the dinner on the table. Land. Have you carried the dinner to the prisoner in the vaults of the abbey ? Waitbb. Yes — Pease soup, as usual — with the scrag end of a neck of mutton. The emissary of the Count was here again this morning, and offered me a large sum of money if I would consent to poison him. Land. Which you refused? [With hesitation and anxiety. Waiter. Can you doubt it ? [With indignation. Land. [Recovering herself, and drawing up with an ex- jyressfon of dignity.'] The conscience of a poor man is as valuable to him as that of a prince . . . Waitee. It ought to be still more so, iu proportion as it is generally more pure. Land. Thou say'st truly. Job. Waiter. [With eidliusiasni.] He who can spurn at wealth when proffered as the price of crime, is greater than a prince. 212 POETRY OF Post-horn blows. — Enter Casimere {in a travelling dress, a light blue great coat ivith large metal buttons, his hair in a long queue, but tivisted at the end ; a large Kevenhuller hat ; a cane in his hand). Cas. Here, "Waiter, pull off my boots, and bring me a pair of slippers. [Exit Waiter.] And hark'ye, my lad, a basin of water {rubbing his handi] and a bit of soap. I have not washed since I began my journey. Waiter. {Anstcering from behind the door'\ Yes, Sir. Cas. Well, Landlady, what company are we to have ? Land. Only two gentlewomen, Sir. — They are just stept into the next room — they will be back again in a minute. Cas. Where do they come from ? [All this while the Waiter re-enters with the basin and water ; Casimere indls off his boots, takes a napkin from the table, and washes hi'i face and hands. Land. There is one of them, I think, comes from Nuremburgh. Cas. [Aside.] From Nuremburgh ! [nntJi eagerness] her name ! Land. Matilda. Cas. [Aside^^ How does this idiot woman torment me ! —What else ? Land. I can't recollect. Cas. Oh, agony ! [In a paroxijsm of agitation. Waiter. See here, her name upon the travelling trunk — -Matilda Pottingen. Cas. Ecstasy ! ecstasy ! [Embracing the Waiter. Land. You seem to be acquainted with the lady — shall I call her? THE ANTI-JACOBIN. 213 Cas. Instantly — instantly — tell her her loved, her long- lost — tell her Land. Shall I tell her dhiner is ready? Cas. Do so— and in the meanwhile I will look after my portmanteau. [Exeunt severallij. Scene changes to a subterranean vault in the Abbey of Quedlivhurgh, u'ith coffins, 'scutcheons, death's heads and crossbones — toads and other loathsome reptiles are seen traversing the obscurer parts of the stage. — Eogero appears, in chains, in a suit of rusty armour, ivith his beard grown, and a cap of a grotesque form ttpon his head — beside him a crock, or pitcher, supposed to contain his daily allow- ance of sustenance. — A long silence, during lohich the wind is heard to ivhistle through the caverns. — Eogero rises, and comes slowly forward, loith his arms folded. EoG. Eleven years ! it is now eleven years since I was first immured in this living sepulchre — the cruelty of a Minister — the perfidy of a Monk — yes, Matilda ! for thy sake — alive amidst the dead — chained — coffined — con- fined — cut off from the converse of my fellow-men. Soft ! — what have we here ! [stumbles over a bundle of sticks.] This cavern is so dark that I can scarcely distinguish the objects under my feet. Oh — the register of my caj)tivity. Let me see; how stands the account? [Takes 2i/p the sticks, and turns them over loiih a melanclioJij air; then stands silent for a few minutes, as if absorbed in ccdctdation.] — Eleven years and fifteen days ! — Hah ! the twenty-eighth of August ! How does the recollection of it vibrate on my heart ! It was on this day that I took my last leave of my Matilda. It was a summer evening ; her melting hand seemed to dissolve in mine, as I prest it to my bosom. Some demon whispered me that I should never see her more. I stood gazing on the hated vehicle which 214 POETRY OF was conveying her away for ever. The tears were petri- fied under my eyehds. My heart was crystalHzed with agony. Anon — I looked along the road. The diligence seemed to diminish every instant ; I felt my heart beat against its prison, as if anxious to leap out and overtake it. My soul whirled round as I watched the rotation of the hinder wheels. A long trail of glory followed after her, and mingled with the dust ; it was the emanation of Divinity, luminous with love and beauty, like the splen- dour of the setting sun ; but it told me that the sun of my joys was sunk for ever. Yes, here in the depths of an eternal dungeon, in the nursing cradle of hell, the suburbs of perdition, in a nest of demons, where despair in vain sits brooding over the putrid eggs of hope ; where agony wooes the embrace of death ; where patience, be- side the bottomless pool of despondency, sits angling for impossibilities. Yet, even here, to behold her, to embrace her ! Yes, Matilda, whether in this dark abode, amidst toads and spiders, or in a royal palace, amidst the more loathsome reptiles of a court, would be indifferent to me; angels would shower down their hymns of gratulation upon our heads, while fiends would envy the eternity of suffering love Soft, what air was that? it seemed a sound of more than human warblings. Again ! \JAstens attentively for some minutes.^ Only the wind ; it is well, however ; it reminds me of that melancholy air, which has so often solaced the hours of my captivity. Let me see whether the damps of this dungeon have not yet injured my guitar. [^I'akes Ms guitar, tunes it, and begins the folloioing air, loith a full accompaniment of violins from: the orchestra. THE ANTI-JACOBIN. 215 \_Air, Laiderna Magica.] SONG. BY EOGEEO.^ I. Whene'er with haggard eyes I view This dungeon that I'm rotting in, I think of those companions true Who studied with me at the U — — niversity of Gottingen — — niversity of Gottingen. [Wee2}s, and pulls out a blue kerchief, loith which he ivipes his eyes; gazing tenderly at it, he proceeds — II. Sweet kerchief, check'd with heavenly bhie, Which once my love sat knotting in ! — • Alas ! Matilda the)i was true ! At least I thought so at the XJ — — niversity of Gottingen — — niversity of Gottingen. [At the repetition of this line Rogero clanJcs his chains in cadence. III. Barbs ! Barbs ! alas ! how swift you flew Her neat post-waggon trotting in ! Ye bore Matilda from my view ; Forlorn I languish'd at the U — — niversity of Gottingen — — niversity of Gottingen. IV. This faded form ! this pallid hue ! This blood my veins is clotting in, 216 POETRY OF My years are many — they were few "When first I entered at the U — • — niversity of Gottingen — — niversity of Gottingen. V. There first for thee my passion grew, Sweet ! sweet Matilda Pottingen ! Thou wast the daughter of my tu — — tor, law professor at the U — — niversity of Gottingen ~ — niversity of Gottingen. VI. Sun, moon, and thou vain world, adieu, That kings and priests are plotting in : Here doomed to starve on water gru — — el,'^ never shall I see the U — —niversity of Gottingen — — niversity of Gottingen. [During the last stanza Eogero clashes his head re- peatedly against the walls of his prison; and, finally, so hard as to produce a visible contusion; he then throws himself on the floor in an agony. The curtain drops; the music still continuing to play till it is loholly fallen. * A manifest error, since it appears from the Waiter's conver- sation (p. 211) that Rogero was not doomed to starve on water- gruel, but on pease-soup, which is a much better thing. Pos- sibly the length of Rogero's imprisonment had impaired his memory ; or he might wish to make thmgs appear worse than they really were ; which is very natural, I think, in such a case as this poor unfortimate gentleman's. — Printer's Devil. [The character of Eogero is a quiz upon Sir Robert Adair, THE ANTI-JACOBIN. 217 who received his edncation at Gottingen, and fell in love with his tutor's daughter. His relative, Lord Albemarle, says in his Reminiscences : "Throughout life my kinsman was an enthu- siastic admirer of the fair sex, which he generally ' loved, not wisely, but too well'". He married, in 1805, Mdlle. Angelique Gabrielle, daughter of the Marquis d'Hazincoiu't and the Com- tesse de Champagne. Adair was the son of Mr. Robert Adair, sergeant- surgeon to K. George III., by his wife Lady Caroline Keppel, daughter of Wm. Anne, second Earl of Albemarle. He was educated at Westminster School and Gottingen University ; called to the Bar, but never practised. He contested Camelford in 1796 ; and was M.P. for Appleby, 1799-1802, for Camelford, 1802-1812. He was sent by Fox as Minister Plenipotentiary to Vienna in 1806 ; and by his old adversary Canning to Constantinople in 1808 ; and also to Berlin. He was Ambassador to Constanti- nople, 1809-11, and to Belgium, 1831-5. He was a facile writer, and wrote several spirited pamphlets, including defences of his relatives, Francis, Duke of Bedford, and Admiral Keppel, Fox, and other Whigs. He coatributed to the Political Eclogues a poem called Margaret Nicholson, in which George III., Pitt, Jenkinson, &c., were ridiculed, and the Song of Scrutina (on the " Westminster Scrutiny "), in the style of Ossian, in the Proba- tionary Odes for the Laurcateship. He was the author also of an account of his Missvm to the Court of Vienna; and his Negotia- tions for the Peace of the Dardanelles : 3 vols., 8vo. For his ser- vices in the latter business he was made G.C.B. He was born 24th May, 1763, and died 3rd Oct., 1855. There is a curious ch'cumstance connected with the compo- sition of this song, the first five stanzas of which were written by Canning. Having been accidentally seen, previous to its publication, by Pitt, who was cognisant of the proceedings of the " Anti- Jacobin " writers, he was so amused with it, that he took up a pen and composed the last stanza on the spot. — Ed.] [This drama was produced at the Haymarket Theatre, July 26, 1811, with alterations and additions, and some mtroductory matter, which contained smart hits at the Quadrupeds, which then desecrated the stage of Covent Garden Theatre. Liston performed Rogero ; Munden, Casimere ; Mrs. Glover, Matilda; Mrs. Gibbs, Cecilia. The following Prologue, written by George Colman the younger, in imitation of Pope's prologue to Cato, was spoken by EUiston : — To lull the soul by spurious strokes of art, To warp the genius, and mislead the heart ; 218 POETRY OF To make mankind revere wives gone astray,* Love pious sons who rob on the highway ; t For this the foreign muses trod our stage Commanding German schools to be the rage. Hail to sucli schools ! Oh, Une false feeling, hail ! Thou badst non-natural nature to prevail ; Through thee, soft super-sentiment arose. Musk to the mind like civet to the nose ; Till fainting taste (as invalids do wrong), Snuff'd the sick perfume, and grew weakly strong. Dear Johnny Bull ! you boast much resolution. With, thanks to Heaven ! a glorious Constitution : Your taste, recovered half from foreign quacks, Takes airings, now, on English horses' backs ; While every modern bard may raise his name. If not on lasting ]>raise, on stable fame. Think that to Germans you have given no check. Think how each actor hors'd has risk'd his neck ; You've shewn them favour : Oh, then, once more shew it To this night's Awjlo-Uerman, Horse-Play Poet! — Ed.] * Vide The Stranger. t Lovers' Votes. THE ANTI-JACOBIN. 219 No. XXXI. June 11, 1798. We have received, in the course of the last week, several long, and to say the truth, dull letters, from unknown hands, reflecting in very severe terms on Me. HiGGiNS, for having, as it is affirmed, attempted to pass upon the world, as a faithful sample of the productions of the German theatre, a performance no way resembling any of those pieces which have so late excited, and which bid fair to engross, the admiration of the British public. As we cannot but consider ourselves as the guardians of Mb. Higgins's literary reputation, in respect to every work of his which is conveyed to the world through the medium of our paper (though, what we think of the danger of his principles we have already sufficiently explained for ourselves, and have, we trust, succeeded in putting our readers upon their guard against them) — we hold ourselves bound not only to justify the fidelity of the imitation, but (contrary to our original intention) to give a further specimen of it in our present number, in order to bring the question more fairly to issue between our author and his calumniators. In the first place we are to observe, that Mr. Higgins professes to have taken his notion of German plays wholly from the translations which have appeared in our language. If they are totally dissimilar from the originals, Mr. H. may undoubtedly have been led into error; but the fault is in the translators, not in him. That he does not differ widely from the models which he proposed to 220 POETRY OF himself, we have it in our power to prove satisfactorily, and might have done so in our last number, by subjoin- ing to each particular passage of his play the scene in some one or other of the German plays which he had in view when he wrote it. These parallel passages were faithfully pointed out to us by Mr. H. with that candour which marks his character ; and if they were suppressed by us (as in truth they were), on our heads be the blame, whatever it may be. Little, indeed, did we think of the imputation which the omission would bring upon Mr. H., as in fact our principal reason for it was the apprehension that, from the extreme closeness of the imitation in most instances, he would lose in praise for invention more than he would gain in credit for fidelity. The meeting between Matilda and Cecilia, for example, in the first act of The Rovers, and their sudden intimacy, has been censured as unnatural. Be it so. It is taken, almost word fo7' ivonJ , from Stella, a German (or professedly a German) piece now much in vogue; from which also the catastrophe of Mr. Higgins's play is in part borrowed, so far as relates to the agreement to which the ladies come, as the reader will see by and bye, to share Casi- mere between them. The dinner-scene is copied partly from the published translation of The Stranrjer, and partly from the first scene of Stella. The song of Eogero, with which the first act concludes, is admitted on all hands to be in the very first taste ; and if no German original is to be found for it, so much the worse for the credit of German literature. An objection has beeii made by one anonymous letter- writer to the names of Puddingfield and Beefington, as THE ANTI-JACOBIN. 221 little likely to have been assigned to English characters by any author of taste or discernment. In answer to this objection we have, in the first place, to admit, that a small, ai:id we hope not an unwarrantable, alteration has been made by us since the MS. has been in our hands. These names stood originally Puddincrantz and Beefinstern, which sounded to our ears as being liable, especially the latter, to a ridiculous inflection — a diffi- culty that could only be removed by furnishing them with English terminations. With regard to the more substantial syllables of the names, our author proceeded,, in all probability, on the authority of Goldoni, who, though not a German, is an Italian writer of considerable reputation ; and who, having heard that the English v^ere distinguished for their love of liberty and beef, has. judiciously compounded the two words Runnymede and Beef, and thereby produced an English nobleman, whom he styles Lord Runnyheef. To dwell no longer on particular passages, the best way perhaps of explaining the whole scope and view of Mr. H.'s imitation will be to transcribe the short sketch of the plot which that gentleman transmitted to us, together with his drama, and which it is perhaps the more necessary to give at length, as, the limits of our paper not allowing of the publication of the whole piece, some general knowledge of its main design may be acceptable to our readers, in order to enable them ta judge of the several extracts which we lay before them. PLOT. Eogero, son of the late minister of the Count of Saxe Wei- mar, having while he was at college, fallen desperately in love with Matilda Pottingen, daughter of his tutor, Doctor Engel- 222 POETBY OF bertixs Pottingen, Professor of Civil Law ; and Matilda evidently retiu'ning his passion, the Doctor, to prevent ill consequences, sends his daughter on a visit to her aunt in Wetteravia, vi^here she becomes acquainted with Casimere, a Polish Officer, who happens to be quartered near her aunt's, and has several chil- dren by him. Eoderic, Count of Saxe AVeimar, a prince of a tyrannical and licentious disposition, has for his Prime Minister and favourite Gaspar, a crafty villain, who had risen to his post by first ruin- ing, and then putting to death, Eogero's father. Gaspar, apprehensive of the power and popularity which the young Eogero may enjoy at his return to Com:t, seizes the occasion of his intrigue with Matilda (of which he is apprized officially by Doctor Pottingen) to procure from his master an order for the recall of Eogero from college, and for committing him to the care of the Prior of the Abbey of Quedlinburgh, a priest, rapacious, savage, and sensual, and devoted to Gaspar's interests — sending at the same time private orders to the Prior to con- fine him in a dungeon. Here Eogero languishes many years. His daily sustenance is administered to him through a grated opening at the top of a cavern, by the landlady of the Golden Eagle at Weimar, with whom Gaspar contracts, in the prince's name, for his support ; intending, and more than once endeavom'ing, to corrupt the waiter to mingle poison with the food, in order that he may get rid of Eogero for ever. In the meantime, Casimere, having been called away from the neighbourhood of Matilda's residence to other quarters, becomes enamoured of and marries Cecilia, by whom he has a family ; and whom he likewise deserts after a few years' co- habitation, on pretence of business which calls him to Kamt- schatka. Doctor Pottingen, now grown old and infirm, and feeling the want of his daughter's society, sends young Pottingen in search >of her, with strict injunctions not to return without her ; and to bring with her either her present lover Casimere, or, should THE ANTI-JACOBIN. 223 that not be possible, Rogero himself, if he can find him ; the Doctor having set his heart upon seeing his children comfort- ably settled before his death. Matilda, about the same period, quits her aimt's in search of Casimere ; and Cecilia, having been advertised (by an anonymous letter) of the falsehood of his Kamtschatka joimiey, sets out in the post-waggon on a similar pursuit. It is at this point of time the Play opens — with the accidental meeting of Cecilia and Matilda at the Inn at Weimar. Casimere arrives there soon after, and falls in first with Matilda, and then with Cecilia. Successive eclaircissements take place, and an arrangement is finally made, by which the two ladies are to live jointly with Casimere. Young Pottingen, wearied with a few weeks' search, during which he has not been able to find either of the objects of it, resolves to stop at Weimar, and wait events there. It so happens that he takes up his lodgings in the same house with Puddmgfield and Beefington, two English noblemen, whom the tyranny of King John has obliged to fly from their countrj' ; and who, after wandering about the continent for some time, have fixed their residence at Weimar. The news of the signature of Magna Charta arriving, de- termines Puddingfield and Beefington to return to England. Young Pottingen opens his case to them, and entreats them to stay to assist him in the object of his search. — This they refuse ; but coming to the Inn where they are to set off for Hamburgh, they meet Casimere, from whom they had both received many civilities in Poland. Casimere, by this time tired of his " Double Arrangement," and having learnt from the waiter that Rogero is confined in the vaults of the neighbouring abbey /or love, resolves to attempt his rescue, and to make over Matilda to him as the price of his deliverance. He communicates his scheme to Puddingfield and Beefington, who agree to assist him ; as also does young Pot- tingen. The Waiter of the Inn, proving to be a Knight Templar in disguise, is appointed leader of the expedition. A band of 224 POETRY OF Troubadours, who happen to be returning from the Crusades, and a company of Austrian and Prussian Grenadiers returning from the Seven Years' War, are engaged as troops. The attack on the Abbey is made with success. The Count of Weimar and Gaspar, who are feasting with the Prior, are seized and beheaded in the refectory. Tlie Prior is thrown into the dungeon from which Eogero is rescued. Matilda and Cecilia rvish in. The former recognises Eogero, and agrees to live with him. The children are produced on all sides— and young Pottingen is commissioned to write to his father, the Doctor, to detail the joyful events which have taken place, and to invite him to Weimar to partake of the general felicity. THE ROVEES; OE, THE DOUBLE AREANGEMENT. ACT II. Scene, a Boom in an ordinary Lodging-house at Weimar — PuDDiNGFiELD and Beefington discovered sitting at a small deal table, and playing at All-fours — Young Pottingen, at another table in the corner of the ream, udth a pipe in his mouth, and a Saxon mug of a singular shape beside him, which he re- peatedly applies to his lips, turning back his head, and casting his eyes towards the firmament — at the last trial he holds the mug for some moments in a directly inverted position ; then replaces it on the table ivith an air of dejection, and gradually sinks into a pro- found slumber — the pijje falls from his hand, and is broken. Beef. I beg. PuDD. [Deals three cards to Beefington.] Are you satisfied ? Beef. Enough ; what have you ? PuDD. High, low, and the game. Beef. D n! 'Tis my deal. [Deals; turns tij) a knave.] One for his heels ! [Truimphaitthj. PuDD. Is king highest ? THE ANTI-JACOBIN. 225 Beef. No. [Siernh/] The game is mine. The knave gives it me. PuDD. Are knaves so prosperous ? Beef. Aye, marry are they in this world. They have the game in their hands. Your kings are but noddies * to them. PuDD. Ha ! ha ! ha ! Still the same proud spirit, Beefington, which procured thee thine exile from England. Beef. England ! my native land ! when shall I revisit thee ? [Durmg this time Puddingfield deals, and begins to arrange his hand. Beef. [Confi7meti.'\ Phoo, hang All-fours ; what are they to a mind ill at ease ? Can they cure the heartache ? Can they soothe banishment ? Can they lighten ignominy? Can All-fours do this ? 0, my Puddingfield ! thy limber and lightsome spirit bounds up against afflic- tion with the elasticity of a well-bent bow ; but mine — ! mine — [Falls into an agony, and sinks bach in his chair. Young PoTTiNGEN, awakened by the noise, rises, and advances with a grave demeano^ir towards Beefington and Puddingfield. The former begins to recover. * This is an excellent joke in German ; the point and spirit of which is but iW-Rcndered in a translation. A Noddy, the reader will observe, has two significations, the one a knave at All-fours, the other a fool or booby. See the translation by Mr. Keiider of Count Benyowsky, o?- the Conspiracy of Kamschatica, a German Tragi-Comi-Comi-Tragedy, where the play opens with a scene of a game at chess (from which the whole of this scene is copied), and a joke of the same point, and merriinent about pawns, i.e., boors being a match for kings. 15 226 POETBY OF y. Pot. What is the matter, comrades,* you seem agitated. Have you lost or won ? Beef. Lost ! I have lost my country. Y. Pot. And I my sister. I came hither in search of her. Beef. 0, England ! Y. Pot. O, Matilda ! Beef. Exiled by the tyranny of an usurper, I seek the means of revenge, and of restoration to my country. Y. Pot. Oppressed by the tyranny of an Abbot, perse- cuted by the jealousy of a Count, the betrothed husband of my sister languishes in a loathsome captivity ; her lover is fled no one knows whither, and I, her brother, am torn from my parental roof, and from my studies in chirurgery, to seek him and her, I know not where — to rescue Rogero, I know not how. Comrades, your counsel. My search fruitless — my money gone — my baggage stolen ! what am I to do ? In yonder Abbey — in these dark, dank vaults, there, my friends, there lies Eogero — there Matilda's heart. scene II. Enter Waiter. Waiter. Sir, here is a person who desires to speak with you. Beef. [Goes to the door aiid returns with a letter, which he opens. On perusi7ii] it his countenance hecomes illuminated, and expands prodigiously.] Ah, my friend, what joy ! [Turning to Puddingfield. * This word in the original is strictly felbm-ludgers — " Go- occwpants of the same room in a house let out at a small rent by the week". There is no single word in English which expresses so complicated a relation, except perhaps the cant term of chum, formerly in use in our Universities. THE ANTI-JACOBIN. 227 PuDD. What? tell me — let your Puddingfield partake it. Beef. See here. [Prothtces a printed jyaper. PuDD. What? [With wipatience. Beef. [In a significant tone.] A newspaper ! PuDD. Ah, what sayst thou?- — A newspaper! Beef. Yes, Puddingfield, and see here \shoios it par- tiaUii], from England. PuDD. [With extrnme earnestness.^ Its name? Beef. The Daily Advertiser. PuDD. Oh, ecstasy ! Beef. [With a dicpiified severity.] Puddingfield, calm yourself — repress those ti-ansports — remember that you are a man. PuDD. [After a ^?o?fcse, tcith suppressed emotion^ Well, I will be— I am calm — yet tell me, Beefington, does it contain any news ? Beef. Glorious news, my dear Puddingfield — the Barons are victorious — King John has been defeated — Magna Charta, that venerable immemorial inheritance of Britons, was signed last Friday was three weeks, the third of July, Old Style. PuDD. I can scarce believe my ears — but let me satisfy my eyes — show me the paragraph. Beef. Here it is, just above the advertisements. PuDD. [Reads.] " The great demand for Packwood's Eazor Straps" — Beef. Pshaw ! — what, ever blundering ! — you drive me from my patience. See here, at the head of the column. PuDD. [Reads.] " A hireling print, devoted to the court, Has dared to question our veracity 228 POETRY OP Respecting the events of yesterday ; But by to-day's accounts, our information Appears to have been perfectly correct. The Charter of our Liberties received The royal signature at five o'clock, When messengers were instantly dispatched To Cardinal Pandulfo ; and their majesties, After partaking of a cold collation. Returned to Windsor." — ^I am satisfied. Beef. Yet here again — there are some further par- ticulars [turns to another xxirt of the p-i3ut, sweet my love.i -^ -, , ,*= . > •' I one drop bestow. F. M. > ' -^ 'I one drop Trou. J I It -l ^^ c f me ! F. M iLrl^^^Pi'^^^^Mlhee [Exeunt struggling f<.r the bottle, but without anger or animosity, the Fem. Min. njypeariiig by degrees to obtain a superivi'ity in the contest. END OF ACT II. " And when pale characters of death Shall mark this alter'd cheek ; AVhen my poor wasted trembling breath My life's last hope would speak ; I shall not raise my eyes to heaven. Nor mercy ask for me, My soul despairs to be forgiv'n, Unpardon'd, love, by thee ! " — Ed, THE ANTI-JACOBIN. 231 Act the Thibd — contains the eclaircissements and final arrangement between Casimebe, Matilda, and Cecilia ; which so nearly resemble the concluding act of Stdla, that we forbear to lay it before our readers. Scene, the Inn duel'; Diligence drawn up. — Casimere appears super- inteuding the package cf his piurtmanteaus, and giving directions to the Porters. Enter Beefington aiid Puddingfielu. PuDD. Well, Coachey, have you got two inside places ? Coach. Yes, your Honour. PuDD. \seems to he druck with Casimeke's appearance. He surveys him earnestly loitlwut yaylng any attention to the Coachman, tlien doahtinyly pronounces^ Casimere ! Cas. {taming round rapidly, recognizes Puddingfield, and embraces him.] My Puddingfield! PuDD. My Casimere ! Cas. What, Beefington too ! [discoveriitg him] — then is my joy complete. Beef. Our fellow-traveller, as it seems! Cas. Yes, Beefington — but wherefore to Hamburgh ? Beef. Oh, Casimere''' — to fly — to fly — to return — Eng- land — ^our country — Magna Charta — it is liberated — a * See CuHjd Beinjowsky ; where Crustiew, an old gentleman of much sagacity, talks the following nonsense : Crustiew [icith youthful energy, and an air of secrecy and cnnfi- d.ence]. " To liy, to Hy, to the isles of Marian — the island of Tinian — a terrestrial paradise. Free — free — a mild climate — a new-created smi — wholesome fruits — harmless inhabitants — and liberty — tranquillity." 232 POETRY OF new aera — House of Commons — Crown and Anchor — Opposition — Cas. What a contrast ! you are flying to Hberty and your home — I, driven from my home by tyranny, and exposed to domestic slavery in a foreign country. Beep. How domestic slavery ? Cas. Too true — two wives — [sloidij, and wi(h a dejected air — then after a jx. •^' , ! .,,,,. I Let us help, ere he die i witli entliusiasm. } ^ [Exeiuit omnes, waving their huts. Scene, the Abbey Gate, with Bitches, Drawbridges, aud Siiikes; Time, about an hour before Huurise. — The consjiiratai'S appear as if in- ambuscade, whispering and consulting Ugether, in expectation. 6 itself i^ fim iH fyt u/wn, Ih. miufiuCmj tik(t V-ti/tk' mcist ojf iS Rattlt. fasamiSii £c unfmAi lit im/crtumtl^ Vic&v tiU. Losing aM.Snut.lCiiuamnwnl, it Urn .ilIuw/ vntj Ih^Mavlk (rj-tfis,hcfn! AipVCar, fii^.^n^.^fuii' mlili—^ THE ANTI-JACOBIN. 285 " x\ll creeping creatures, venomous and low, Paine, Williams, Godwin, Holceoft, praise Lepaux ! " and with join'd,* And every other beast after his kind. " And thou, Leviathan ! on ocean's brim Hugest of hving things that sleep and swim ; Thou, in whose nose, by Burke's gigantic hand 350 The hook was fixed to drag thee to the land. With , , and , in thy train, And wallowing in the yeasty main, — f Still as ye snort, and puff, and spout, and blow, In pufiing, and in spouting, praise Lepaux ! Britain, beware ; nor let th' insidious foe. Of force despairing, aim a deadlier blow ; Thy Peace, thy Strength, with devilish wiles assail, And when her Arms are vain, by Arts prevail. True, thou art rich, art powerful ! — thro' thine Isle 360 Industrious skill, contented labour, smile ; Far Seas are studded with thy countless sails ; What wind but wafts them, and what shore but hails ! True, thou art brave ! — o'er all the busy land In patriot ranks embattled myriads stand ; « The Eeader is at liberty to fill lap the blanks according to his own opinion, and after the chances and changes of the times. It would be highly mifair to hand down to posterity as followers of Leviathan, the names of men who may, and probably will soon, grow ashamed of their leader. t Though the yeasty sea Consume and swallow navigation up. Macbeth. [Applied to S. "Whitbread, M.P., the Breu-er.—ED.] 286 POETEY OF Thy foes behold with impotent amaze And drop the Hfted weapon as they gaze But what avails to guard each outward part, If subtlest poison, circling at thy heart, Spite of thy courage, of thy pow'r, and wealth, 370 Mine the sound fabric of thy vital health ? So thine own Oak, by some fair streamlet's side. Waves its broad arms, and spreads its leafy pride, Tow'rs from the earth, and rearing to the skies Its conscious strength, the tempest's wrath defies. Its ample branches shield the fowls of air, To its cool shade the panting herds repair. The treacherous current works its noiseless way, The fibres loosen, and the roots decay ; Prostrate the beauteous ruin lies ; and all 380 That shared its shelter, perish in its fall. thou ! lamented Sage ! whose prescient scan Pierc'd through foul Anarchy's gigantic plan, Prompt to incredulous hearers to disclose The guilt of France, and Europe's world of woes ; — Thou, on whose name each distant age shall gaze, The mighty sea-mark of these troubled days ! large of soul, of genius unconfin'd. Born to delight, instruct, and mend mankind ! BuKKE ! in whose breast a Koman ardour glow'd ; 390 Whose copious tongue with Grecian richness flow'd; Well hast thou found (if such thy country's doom), A timely refuge in the sheltering tomb ! As, in far realms, where eastern kings are laid. In pomp of death, beneath the cypress shade, THE ANTI-JACOBIN. 287 The perfuni'd lamp with unextinguish'd light Flames through the vault, and cheers the gloom of night : So, mighty Bukke ! in thy sepulchral urn. To Fancy's view, the lamp of Truth shall burn. Thither late times shall tuni their reverent eyes, 400 Led by thy light, and by thy wisdom wise. There are, to whom {then- taste such pleasures cloy) No light thy wisdom yields, thy wit no joy. Peace to their heavy heads, and callous hearts, Peace — such as sloth, as ignorance imparts ! Pleas'd may they live to plan their country's good. And crop with calm content their fiow'ry food ! What though thy venturous spirit loved to urge The labouring theme to Eeason's utmost verge, Kindling and mounting from th' enraptur'd sight ; 410 Still anxious wonder watch'd thy daring flight ! While vulgar minds, with mean malignant stare, Gazed up, the triumph of thy fall to share ! Poor triumph ! price of that extorted praise. Which still to daring Genius Envy pays. Oh ! for thy playful smile, thy potent frown. To abash bold Vice, and laugh pert Folly down ! So should the Muse, in Humour's happiest vein. With verse that flowed in metaphoric strain, And apt allusions to the rural trade, 420 Tell of icliat ■wood i/oung Jacobins ai-e made ; How the skill'd gardener grafts with nicest rule The sli}) of coxcomb on the dock of fool ; 288 POETEY OF Forth in bright blossom bursts the tender sprig, A thing to wonder at — * perhaps a Whin : Should tell, how wise each half-fledged pedant prates Of weightiest matters, grave distinctions states, That rules of policy, and public good, In Saxon times were rightly understood ; That kings are proper, mai/ be useful things, 430 But then, some gentlemen object to kings ; That in all times the minister's to blame ; That British liberty's an empty name, Till each fair burgh, numerically free. Shall choose its members by the Rule of Three. So should the Muse, with verse in thunder clothed. Proclaim the crimes by God and Nature loathed. Which — when fell poison revels in the veins — (That poison fell, which frantic Gallia drains From the crude fruit of Freedom's blasted tree) 440 Blot the fair records of Humanity. To feebler nations let proud France afford Her damning choice, — the chalice or the sword, To drink or die ; — fraud ! O specious lie ! Delusive choice ! for if they drink, they die, * i.e. Perhaps a member of the Whig Club — a society that has presumed to nionopoHze to itself a title to which it never had any claim, but from the character of those who have now with- drawn themselves from it. '■'■Perhaps" signifies that even the Whig Club sometimes rejects a candidate whose principles {risum teneatis) it affects to disapprove. [Referrmg to the secession of the Duke of Portland and others from the Whig Club in consequence of their not approving of all the pro- ceedings of Fox and his more violent adherents. Sheridan met with so much opposition to his entrance into the Whig Club, that he succeeded in getting admitted only by stratagem. — Ed.] THE ANTI-JACOBIN. 289 The Sword we dread not : — of ourselves secure, Firm were our strength, our peace and freedom sure. Let all the world confederate all its powers, " Be they not backed by those that should be ours," High on his rock shall Beitain's Genius stand, 450 Scatter the crowded hosts, and vindicate the land. Guard we but our own Hearts : with constant view To ancient morals, ancient manners true ; True to the manlier virtues, such as nerv'd Our fathers' breasts, and this proud Isle preserv'd For many a rugged age : and scorn the while Each philosophic atheist's specious guile ; The soft seductions, the refinements nice, Of gay Morality, and easy Vice ; So shall we brave the storm ; our 'stablish'd pow'r Thy refuge, Europe, in some happier hour. 461 But, Fkench in heart, though Victory crown our brow. Low at our feet though prostrate Nations bow, Wealth gild our Cities, Commerce crowd our shore, London may shine, but England is no more ! FOEEIGN INTELLIGENCE. In the last Address which We shall have to make to the Public, We would willingly review the whole of what has been advanced by Us under the different Heads of our Paper, and leave behind us a Summary of our Opinions upon the state of each subject as We found it, and as We conceive it to stand at the moment when our labours are concluded. Upon no point, if We are to speak our sincere opinion, 19 290 POETRY OF is the task more easily to be executed, or in a less com- pass, than in what relates to Foreign Politics. In other times, the relations of States to each other have been matter of great study, and difficulty ; have been embarrassed with a diversity of views, and a com- plication of interests, which it might require much ex- perience to calculate, and much political sagacity to reconcile. At present, there is but one relation among all the States of Europe : — one, at least, there is so paramount, as to confound and swallow up all inferior considerations. France is bent on the conquest and ruin op them ALL. To repel this Conquest, to ward off this ruin, various means are tried, according to the power or the prudence of the different Nations. War, Treaty, Supplication, Bribery, timid Neutrality, implicit Submission, and, finally, an Incorporation into the Map of the Great Re- public, are all at this moment exemplified in the con- duct of the Countries which surround us. Our lot, a lot imposed upon us by necessity, but which if it were not so imposed upon us, whoever is not blind, judicially blind to the conduct of France towards us, and every other Country, w^ould claim by choice, is War. The relation in which we may stand to the other States of Europe, or they to each other, is comparatively of little moment. They may reciprocate Missions, and propose Treaties, — the Ligiirian Republic may make Peace or War with the Cisalpine; the Cisalpine with the Roman; — either of them with the King of Sardinia, with Tuscany, or with Naples ; and the greater Powers may mediate, or embroil the quarrel, may offer their protection, and talk of their Dignity: — But the question does not lie there. — THE ANTI-JACOBIN. 291 France has the power and the will to controul, to oppress them altogether ; to limit or extend their Boundaries, as she sees good ; to approve or annul their Internal Eegulations, as well as their stipulations with each other : And while she has that power, whether it be by strength in herself, or by the sufferance of others ; w^hether she may choose to vex and harass them in mass, or detail ; to keep peace between them, or to set them at variance ; to work their revolutions by her own arms, or to dele- gate that sacred office to their neighbours ; or, finally, to insist upon their performing it each for themselves ; — the result to us is the same. The People of Europe are equally enslaved ; — it matters not whether they are manacled separately, or bolted to the links of a long chain which connects and coerces them in a fellowship of misery. Mortalia corda Per gentcs humilis stravit favor. To Us, the relation of these unhappy Powers, is either that of Friends forced into a Foreign Army to fight against us, or placed, hand-cuffed, on the Deck of a Line of Battle Ship to receive our fire — or it is that of a Captive languishing in a Dungeon against which We are making an attack, and who does not dare to acknow- ledge his Friend, till he can hail him as his Deliverer. The Contest between Great Britain and France, then, is not for the existence of the former only, but for the Freedom of the World. To look to partial Interests, to talk of partial Successes, as bearing upon the main object and general issue of the War, is to take a narrow and pitiful view of the most momentous and most tremendous 292 POETRY OF THE ANTI-JACOBIN. subject that ever was brought under the consideration of mankind. If Great Britain, insensible of what she owes to herself and to the World, flinches (for she cannot fall), in the Contest ; — shd throws away not herself alone, but the peace and happiness of Nations. If she maintain her- self stoutly ; — to speculate on the mode, the time, the means by which success adequate to the immensity of the object at stake is to be attained, were, indeed, pre- sumptuous ; — but We risk, without apprehension of being thought sanguine in our hopes and expectations, or of being contradicted by the event, the sentiment of the greatest Orator of ancient times — " It is not, it cannot be possible, that an Empire founded on injustice, on rapacity, on perfidy, on the contempt and disregard of everything sacred towards God, or among Men ; — it is not possible that such an Empire should endure." NOTES TO "NEW MORALITY". Joseph Priestley, LL.D. (page 278). " I have read a communication from George III. to one of his ministers, on the subject of the riots in which Priestley's house was burned. His Majesty says, in his short emphatic way, that the riots must be stopped immeiUatdy ; that no man's house must be left in peril ; and then he orders the march of certain troops, &c., to restore peace ; and concludes with saying that, as the mischief did occur, it was impossible not to be pleased at its having fallen on Priestley rather than another, that he might feel the wickedness of tlie doc- trines of democracy which he was propagating."—/. IF. C'roker (MS.).— [Ed.] Madame de Stael (page 282). "Madame de Stael was at Mickleham, in Surrey, in 1793, with Talleyrand, Narbonne, Jaucourt, Guibert (who proposed to her), and others. There was not a little scandal about her relations with Narbonne (see Fanny Burney's Letters). Narbonne's place was supplied by Benjamin Constant, who had a very great influence over her, as in return she had over him. At Coppet, she found consolation in a young officer of Swiss origin, named Rocca, twenty-three years her junior, whom she married privately in 1811. She had married Baron de Stael in 178ti, and in 1797 they separated. He died in 1802 ; and she in 1817." —Lite of Mad. de Stael, lnj A. Steven.'<, 1880. •' On the 2Sth of January" (says Crabb Robinson in his Diary, 1804), " I first waited on Madame de Stael. I was shown into her bedroom, for which, not knowing Parisian customs, I was unprepared. She was sitting, most decorously, ill her bed, and writing. She had her night-cap on, and her face was not made up for the day. It was by no means a captivating spectacle, but I had a very cordial reception, and two bright black eyes smiled benignantly on me. After a warm expression of her pleasure at making my acquaintance, she dismissed ine till three o'clock. On my return then I found a very different person the accomplished Frenchwoman surrounded by admirers, some of whom were themselves distinguished. Among them was the aged Wieland. There was on this, and, I believe, on almost every other, occasion, but one lady among the guests : in this instance Frau von Kalb. Madame de Stael did not affect to conceal her preference for the society of men to that of her own sex. " Count d'Orsay related of Madame de Stael, whose character was dis- cussed, that one day, being on a sofa with Madame de Recamier, one who placed himself between them exclaimed : " Me voil^ entre la beaute et I'esprit ! " She replied: "That is the first time I was ever complimented for beauty ! " Madame de Recamier was thought the handsomest woman in Paris, but was by no means famed for esprit. — C'raljli Rot/inson's Diary. " Madame de Stael was a perfect aristocrat, and her sympathies were wholly with the great and prosperous. She saw nothing in England but tlie luxury, stupidity, and pride of the Tory aristocracy, and the intelligence and magnificence of the Whig .aristocracy. The latter talked about truth and liberty and herself, and she supposed it was all as it should be. As to the millions, the people, she never enquired into their situation. She had a 294 POETBY OF horror of the canaille, but anything of sam/re uznl had a charm for her. When she was dying she said ; ' I^et me die in peace ; let my last moments be undis- turbed '. Yet she ordered the cards of every visitor to be brought to her. Among them was one from the Due de Richelieu. ' What !' exclaimed she, indignantly; 'what! have you sent away the Duke? Hurry. Fly after him. Bring him back. Tell him that though I die for all the world, I live for hua.' " — Bowring's Autohr. Kecoltectionf!, pp. 575-6. Madame de Siael prepared her bons-mots with elaborate care, some being borrowed. . . ."'.She was ugly, and not of an intellectual ugliness. Her features were coarse, and the ordinary expression rather vulgar. ,She bad an ugly mouth, and one or two irregularly prominent teeth, which perhaps gave her coimtenance an habitual gaiety. Her eye was full, dark, and expressive ; and when she declaimed, which was almost whenever she spoke, she looked eloquent, and one forgot that she was plain. On the whole, she was singularly unfeminine ; and if, in conversation, one forgot she was ugly, one forgot also that she was a woman. — J. iV. Croher's Note-Books. — [Ed.] The Rev. Gilbert Wakefield (page 284). " It is well known that the French Revolution turned the brains of many of the noblest youths in England. Indeed wlien such men as Coleridge, Words- worth, SouTHEY, caught the infection, no wonder that those who partook of their sensibility, but had a very small portion of their intellect, were carried away. Many were ruined by the errors into which they were betrayed ; many also lived to smile at, the follies of their youth. ' I am no more .ashamed of having been a Republican,' said Southey, 'than I am of having been a child.' The opinions held led to many political prosecutions, and I naturally had much sympathy with the sufferers. I find in my journal, Feb. 21, 17H9 (says Crabb Robinson) : ' An interesting and memorable day. It was the day on which Gilbert Wakefield was convicted of a seditious libel, and sentenced to two years' imprisonment. This be suffered in Dorchester Gaol, which he left only to die. Originally of the Established Church, he became a Unitarian, and Professor at the Hackney College. By profession he was a scholar. His best known work was a)i edition of Lucretius. He had written against Porson's edition of the //tc ii'ja of Euripides.' It is said that PORSON was at a dinner- party at which toasts were going round, and a name, accompanied by an appro- priate sentence from Shakespeare, was required from each of the guests in suc- cession. Before Porson's turn came, he had disappeared beneath the table, and was supposed to be insensible to what was going on. This, however, was not the case, for when a toast was required of him, he staggered up and gave : ' Gilbert Wakefield— what's Hecuba to him, or he to Hecuba ^ ' Wakefield was a political fanatic. He had the pale complexion and mild features of a Saint, was a most gentle creature in domestic life, and a very amiable man ; hut when he took part in any religious or political controversy, his pen was dipped in gall. The occasion of the imprisonment before alluded to was a letter in reply to Watso.n, Bisliop of Llandaff, who had written a pamphlet exhorting the people to loyalty. Wakefield asserted tliat the poor, the labouring classes, could lose nothing by French conquest. Referring to the fable of the Ass and the Trumpeter, he .said: 'Will the enemy make me carry two panniers?' and declared that, if the French came, they would find him at his post with the illustrious dead." — [Ed.] John Thelwall (page 284). " Coleridge and Southey spoke of Thelwall, calling him merely ' John '. Southey said : ' He is a good-hearted man ; besides we ought never to forget that he was once as near as possible being hanged, as there is some merit in that'."— Crabb Robinson's Diary. — [Ed.] THE ANTI-JACOBIN. 295 Jean Paul Marat (page 284). The fdllowing remarkable account of this scientific monster is given in an " Historical Account of the Warrington Academy, an institution in Lancashire," published in the Monthln Jiipnxlturi/, by the Rev. W. Turner, of Wakefield. "After the departure of Dis. Reinhold Forster, various unsuccessful attempts weie made to engage a foreigner in the capacity of teacher of the raodern languages— a M. Fantin la Tour, a M. le Maitre, a/ias Mara, and a Mr. Lewis Guery ; but none of them continued for any length of time. . . . There is great reason to believe that le Maitre, alias Mara, was the infamous Marat. . . . It is known that he was in England about this time [1774], and published in London "A Philosophical Essay on the connection between the Body and the Soul of Man," and, somewhere in the country, had a principal hand in printing, in quarto, a work of considerable ability, but of a seditious tendency, entitled—' The Chains of Slavery : a work v^herein the clandestine and villainous Attempts of Princes to ruin Liberty are pointed out, and the dreadful Scenes of Despotism disclosed, etc.; London, solel by/. Almon. . . . T. Payne, and Jiic'iardson and Urquhart, Wh.' MARA, as his name is spelt in the Minutes of the Academy, very soon left Warrington, whence he went to Oxford, robbed the Ashmolean Museum, escaped to Ireland, was apprehended in Dublin, tried and convicted in Oxford, under the name of le Maitre, and sentenced to the hulks at Woolwich. Here one of his old pupils at Warrington, a native of Bristol, saw him. He was afterwards a Bookseller in Bristol, and failed ; was confined in the gaol of that city, but released by the Society there for the relief of prisoners confined for small sums. One of that society, who had previously relieved him in Bristol Gaol, afterwards saw him in the National Assembly in Paris in 1792." Grave doubts have, however, been thrown upon the accuracy of the above statement by Henry A. Bright, B.A., in a paper published in the Transactions of the Historic Society of Lancashire and Ohes/iire, 8vo, vol. xi. , session 1858-9. Yet it was an establishment that might have attracted such a mind as Marat's. "At Warrington Academy (says Mr. Bright), were collected some of the noblest literati of their day. Here the free thought of the English Presby- terians first began to crystallize into the Unitarian theology which they have since maintained. Here, for a time, was the centre of the liberal politics and the literary taste of the entire county. . . . The Academy was founded in 1757, and was closed in 17S0. It was visited by John Howard, W. Roscoe, 'J'. Pennant, Currie, the biographer of Burns, &c. The first Tutors appointed were Dr. John Taylor of Norwich, Tutor in Divinity, Mr. Holt of Kirkdale, Tutor in Natural Philosophy, Mr. Dyer of London, Tutor in Languages and Polite Literature, whose duties, however, were taken by Mr. (afterwards the Rev. Dr.) Aikin, father of the celebrated Physician and Mrs. Barbauld. Dr. Priestley succeeded Dr. Aikin." Dr. Priestley, who is addressed by Coleridge as " Patriot, and Saint, and Sage," was succeeded by John Reinhold Forster, p German Scholar and Naturalist, who accompanied Captain Cook in his second voyage. Dr. Enfield, author of The Speaker, and the Rev. Gilbert Wakefield, were Tutors. Among the students were Mr. Sf.rjeant Heywood ; Archibald Hamilton Rowan, the Irish rebel ; the Rev. H. Malthus ; Lord Ennismore ; Sir James Carnegie of Southesk ; Mr. Henry Beaufoy, etc., all strong Whigs. The name of neither Mara nor Le Maitrr appears on the Minutes of the Academy. For the latest contribution to the history of Marat's sojourn in England we are indebted to the researches of Mr. H. Morse Stephens, of Balliol College, Oxford, who, in his elaborate and painstaking History of' the French Revolution (1886), which includes facts unknown to Carlyle and earlier historians, gives the following account of that "arch-destroyer"; but, as he calls him, "a much maligned individual " : — " Jean Paul Marat," says he, " was born at Boudry, near Neufchatel, in Switzerland, on April 13, 1742. His father, who spelt his name ' Mara,' was a physician of some ability, and on being exiled from his native island of Sardinia for abandoning the Roman Catholic religion, had taken up his residence in Switzerland, and married a Swiss Protestant. Jean Paul was the eldest of 296 * POETRY OF three sons ; his next brother settled down as a watchmaker at Geneva, and his youngest brother entered the service of the Empress Catherine, and dis- tinguished liimself in tlie Russian array under the title of the Chevalier de Boudry. Jean Paul was from his childhood of an intensely sensitive and excitable disposition, and also so quick at his books that he became a good classical scholar, and acquainted with most modern languages. As his chief taste, however, seemed to be for natural science, he was intended to follow his father's profession, and was, at the age of eighteen, sent to study medicine at the University of Bordeaux. He there obtained a thorough knowledge of his profession, but devoted himself particularly to the sciences of optics and elec- tricity. From Bordeaux he went to Paris, where he effected a remarkable cure of a disease of the eyes, which had been abandoned as hopeless both by physicians and quacks, by means of electricity. Fi'om Paris he went to Amster- dam, and, finally, to London, where he set up in practice in Church Street, Sohu, then one of the most fashionable districts in London. He must soon have formed a good practice, for he stopped in London, with occasional visits to Dublin and Edinburgh, for ten years, and only left it to take up an appoint- ment at the French court. While in London he wrote his first book, and in 1772 and 1773, he published the first two volumes of a philosophical and physio- logical Risay on Man. The point he discussed was the old problem of the rela- tion between body and mind, and he treated it in a very interesting manner from the physiological point of view. He held some extraordinary theory about the existence of some fluid in the veins which acted on the mind ; which, however, does not impair the interest of his inquiries into the cause of dreams, or diminish the respect felt for his wide reading and extensive knowledge both of ancient and modern philosophical and medical authors. He shows a wide knowledge of Latin and Greek literature, and while writing in good English freely quotes French, German, Italian, and Spanish writers. In one part of his book he declared that it was ridiculous for any one to make psychical researches without having some knowledge of anatomy and physiology, and openly at- tacked Helvetius for despising scientific knowledge in his famous Ve l' Esprit. Voltaire naturally took the side of Helvetius, and did the young author the honour of noticing, and very severely criticising, his book. Marat himself translated it into French, and published it at Amsterdam in 1775. His next work was of a political chiracter. He had got mixed up with some of the popular societies in England, whicli were striving to obtain a thorough reform of the representation of the people in the House of Commons, and, in 1774, published a work, which he entitled The Chains nf Slavery. In this book, which is partly historical and partly political, he begs the electors to take more care in tlie choice of their representatives. It is written in a very declamatory style, and strikes the note of the responsibility of representatives to their constituents, which is the keynote of all his political ideas. The liook is published in quarto, and is printed on fine paper, so that it can hardly have been meant to appeal to the populace, but it, nevertheless, procured him the honorary membership of the popular societies of Neiccast/e and other gi-eat northern cities. Subsequently ha again returned to his profession, and after publislung a medical tract in 1775, of which no copy is known to exi.st, he published An Inquiry into the Nature, Cause, and Cure of a singular Disease of the Byes, in 1776. [See Academy of September 23, 18S2.] In this little pamphlet there is no violent language ; it describes the disease and the cases he had cured in perfectly simple language, and shows, at least, that he was no mere quack, but a scientific physician. On June 30, 1775, he had, while on a visit to Scotland, received the honorary degree of M.D. from the University of St. Andrews for his eminence as a doctor, and had probably received similar compliments from other Universities, because, on June 24, 1777, jEan Paul Marat, ' mt5decin de plusieurs facultes d'Angleterre,' was appointed, for his good character and high reputation as a doctor, physician to the body-guard of the Comte d'Artois, with a salary of a thousand livres a year and allowances. To take up this court appointment he moved to Paris, and soon acquired a large practice there, and the name of ' physician of the inoui'ables,' from the number of hopeless cases he was successful in treating. He also moved in the best society about the court, and won the affections of the Marquise de I'Aubespine for saving her life. For some reason or other, most THE ANTI-JACOBIN. 297 grobably because he had obtained a competent fortune, and desired to satisfy is ambition, he resigned his court appointment in 1783, and devoted himself to science. He had long observed the phenomena of Heat, Light, and Electricity, and in the course of the next five years published the result of his experiments, and presented them to the Jctuhuu/ of Scicncfs. His hard work won him the friendship of Benjamin Franklin, but the violence with which he attacked his adversaries, and his audacity in doubting the conclusions of Newton, prevented him from obtaining a seat in the Academy of Sciences. AVhen he recognised that this liostility to liimself prevented due recognition of his work, he deter- mined to win the approbation of the Academy by concealing his name ; and his translation of the Optics of Newton, which was covered by the name of M. de Beauzk, and published in 1788, was at once crowned by the very Academy which had rejected him. " His political work during these years was confined to a treatise, in imitation oi Beccaria, on the subject of Punishments. The approach of the States- General, however, revived his political enthusiasm, and in the March of 1789, when he believed himself to be dying, he published his Offvande a la. Patrie, which was followed in quick succession by a supplement and other pamphlets. Of these, distinctly the most able is the Tahliaa dcs Vices de la Constitution Anc/laisc, which he presented to the Assembly in September, 1789. In it he points out wliat he had learnt in the popular societies of England, that the English people was by no means so well governed as it was supposed to be ; that the intiuence of the king and the ministry was overwhelming through the extent of patronage, and that tlie rich there bought seats in the House of Com- mons as they bought estates. " Marat then felt that he could not express himself frequently enough in pamphlets, and on September 12 appeared the first number of a iournal written entirely by himself, called the Journal da Peiip/e, which title wa.s changed to that of Aiaidu Pciip/e, or 2'he People's Friend, with the fourth number. "To understand the man, it is necessary to get rid of preconceived ideas. Suspicious and irritable, excitable and sensitive to an extreme, he attacked everybody, and attacked them all with unaccustomed violence ; but with all this, he was in private life a highly educated gentleman. The extent of his attainments appears from his numerous works, and it must be remembered that he could not for years have been a fashionable nhysician and held a court appointment without being perfectly polite and well-bred. His faults arose from his irritable and suspicious nature, and years of persecution made him half-insane towards the end of his life ; but in September, 1789, he was in perfect possession of his senses, and the very popularity of his journal showed how con- genial his gospel of suspicion was to the Paiisians."— [Ed.] Jean Paul Marat'.s Sister. The Right Hon. J. "W. Croker, in a letter to John 'Winter .Jones, dated 23rd October, 1854, says that Colin, who had been Marat's printer or publisher, "introduced hiin to Marat's sister, who was as like her brother, he said— and as from all pictures and busts I readily believed— as ' deti.v gouttes d'eau'. She was very small, very ugly, very sharp, and a great politician. Her ostensible livelihood was making watch-springs, but she told me she was pretty easy in her circumstances, and I either gathered from her, or saw cause to suspect, that she had some secret charitable help."- [Ed.] Lareveillere-Lepaux (page 283). LAREVElLLfeRE-LEPAUX left orders in his will that his Memoirs were to be printed and published. His heirs were not proud of the part the Director had played, so, after complying with the terms of his will and printinr/ the 3I(inoir.% they deslroi/ed tlie u-hole issue at once ; and the only copy extant is the one which, in accordance with the law of France, was sent to the Bibliothkiue Rationale at Paris. 298 POETRY OF THE THEOPHILANTHEOPISTS. These {Gr. "Lovers of Gofls and Men") weve a sect of 2ifi.s?.s which appeared in France amiierre, an historic drama, was published Sept. 2-2, 1794 : the first act written by COLERIDGE, the second and third by Southey. It is not difficult to understand why Coleridge was so severely attacked by the Goveinmeut writers. In 179.5, at the early age of 23, he delivered, at Bristol, some puljlic lectures, reflecting in warm terms on the measures of Pitt. Three of them were published at Bristol at the end of 1795 — the first two together, with the title of Condones ad Populum; the third as The Plot Discovered. The eloquent pas.sage in conclusion of the first of these addresses was written by Southey. That he was considered by ministers a dangerous character is proved by his having been for some months watched by a Government spy while residing at Stowey, providing for his scanty mainten- ance by writing verses for The Morning Post. It was his fortune also to excite 300 POETEY OF the ire of Buonapakte, by his anti-gallican writings in the same paper ; and a benevolent intimation of his danger by Baron von Humboldt and Cardinal Fesch alone prevented his being arrested while in Italy. (See p. 284.) SOUTHEV thus alludes to the attack upon him (by Gillray, in his famous caricature), in a letter addressed to C. W. W. WyNi\, dated Hereford, August 15, 179s : — "I have seen myself Bcdfordizcd, and it has been a subject of much amusement. Holcroft's likeness is admirably preserved. I know not what poor Lamb has done to be croaking there. What I think the worst part of The Anti-Jacobin abns& is the lumping together men of such opposite principles; this was stupid. We should have all been welcoming the Director, not the Theo- philanthrope. The conductors of The Anti-Jacobin will have much to answer for in thus inflaming the animosities of this country. They are labouring to pro- duce the deadly hatred of Irish faction; perhaps to produce the same end. Such an address as you mention might probably be of great use ; that I could assist you in it is less certain. I do not feel myself at all calculated for anything that requires methodical reasoning ; and though you and I should agree in the main object of the pamphlet, our opinions are at root different. The old systems of government, I think, must fall ; but in this country the immediate danger is on the other hand,— from an unconstitutional and unlimited power. Burleigh saw how a Parliament might be employed against the people, and Montesquieu prophesied the fall of English liberty when the Legislature should become cor- rupt. You will not agree with me in thinking his prophecy fulfilled. Violent men there undoubtedly are among the democrats, as they are always called ; but is there any one among them whom the ministerialists will allow to be moderate 1 The Anti-JacotAn certainly speaks the sentiments of Government.' -Ed.] Wordsworth, Coleridge, Southev (page 284). ["The passionate verdicts given, both 'f'" "'.editious, false, and prone to ill. They eager suateh'd the grey-goose quill. And as they oft had heard apart The wonders of Sedition's art. Each, for Madness rul'd the hour, Would prove his own subversive power. First Paine his Rights of Man display'd, But could no more — for falsely cross'd Ev'n by the friends himself had made. Enraged he fled to Gallia'.s coast. Next Priestley tried, to whom 'twas given Mankind's free-agency to tell ; Ordain'd to point the road to heaven. In pure free will he points — to hell ! With meagre visage Thelwall came, In lectures told his sufferings sore ; Till purple tyrants blush'd with shame And crowds the suffering saint adore. But thou, O Godwin ! meek and mild ; Speak thy metaphysic page : Now it cheer'd a laggard age, 20 306 POETRY OF And bade new scenes of joy at distance hail ; When tyrant Kings shall lie no more, When human wants and wars shall fail, And sleep and death shall quit the hallow'd shore. 'Twas thus he strove to sap the throne. With borrow'd arts and weapons not his own, AVhile Gallia clapp'd her hands, and hail'd her favourite child. And longer had he sung— but, strange to say, Wakefield, the dragon-fly, rush'd on ; Eager he sought the bold rebellious fray, And burst with anger and disdain The web of sophistry in twain Which Godwin, patient sage ! had spread To catch the fluttering insects of the land. Treason upreared her arm to strike, Rebellion grasped the murd'rous pike, And though, sometimes, each maddening pause between, Soft Discretion, joined with Fear, AVhisper'd her councils in his ear. Still Anarchy upheld the busy scene. And raised her shield of brass to guard her vot'ry's head. Next HOLCROFT vowed in doleful tone No more to fire a thankless age. Oblivion marked his labours for her own. Neglected from the press and damn'd upon the stage. See ! faithful to their mighty dam, Coleridge, Southey, Lloyd, and Lamb, In splay-foot madrigals of love. Soft moaning like the widowed dove, Pour side by side their sympathetic notes. Of equal rights and civic feasts And tyrant Kings and knavish Priests Swift through the land the tuneful mischief floats. And now to softer strains they struck the lyi'e. They sung the beetle, or the mole, The dying kid, or ass's foal. By cruel man permitted to expire. But O, how altered was the sprightlier hour ! When Fox, the Parthian hero, rose to view ; He o'er the rest high-towering like a steeple Leagued with a "Corresponding" crew. Pledged in large floods of wine "their Majesties— the People". The royal tribe accept the proffered power. Kings from the forge, dictators from the plough, Peeping from fortli their allies low, Before the fallen arch-seceder ))ow ; Lepaux bade Gallia hail his name. But old St. Stephen bowed his head for shame. See Norfolk last, with Bedford roll. He of Bacchus' favours proud, The sovereign mob most eloquent addressed ; But soon he spied the mirth-inspiring bowl. Whose ruby treasures charmed his soul the best ; They would have thought who heard him speak, 'Twas Falstaff , with his minions at his back, High primed with valour, turbulence, and sack, Aping the monarch to a wondr'ing crowd. THE ANTI-JACOBIN. 307 While Bedford proud his lesson to rehearse, With studious labours urged the bold reply : Shouts of applause ran rattling through theskv • And he, the hero of the day, cu 1 •^'■'?li* K'^tl their servile suffrage to repay, bhook golden bounty from his swelling purse. O, England ! heav'n-defended land ' With power to "threaten and command," Say, is thy former spirit broke, To crouch beneath a foreign yoke, And listen to the idiot strains Of slaves thy better sense disdains, As erst, in many an ardent hour. You awed an adverse haughty power. Thy lofty mind, to Freedom true. May well retain what then it knew. Where is thy former patriot soul, Above deceit, above contvoul? Arise ! as in that happier time United, fearless, bold, sublime. 'Tis said, and 1 believe the tale, Thy efforts then could more avail. Could more true happiness dispense. With Order, Morals, Virtue, Sense, Than all that fires with party rage This boastful philosophic age. Arise ! with manly zeal advance. To curb the lawless power of France ; O, bid her mad endeavours cease, And give the willing nations PEACE ! — Fttbricius. THE PASSIONS. An Ode for Music. William Collins. When Music, heavenly maid, was young, While yet in early Greece she sung, The Passions oft, to hear her sliell, Throng'd around her magic cell. Exulting, trembling, raging, fainting, Possess'd beyond the Muse's painting ; By turns they felt the glowing mind, Disturb'd, delighted, rais'cl, relin'd, Till once, 'tis said, when all were flr'd, Fill'd with fury, rapt, inspir'd, From the supporting myrtles round They snatcli'd her instruments of sound, And, as they oft had heard apart Sweet lessons of her forceful art, Each, for Madness ruled the liuur. Would prove his own expressive power. First Fear, his hand, its skill to try. Amid the chords bewilder'd laid. And back recoil'd, he knew not why, Even at the sound himself had made. Next Anger rush'd his eyes on fire, In lightnings own'd his secret stings. In one rude clash he struck the lyre, And swept with hurried hand the strings. With woful measures wan Despair Low sullen sounds his grief beguil'd, A sullen, strange, and mingled air, 'Twas sad by fits, by starts 'twas wild. But thou, O Hope ! with eyes so fair, What was thy delightetl measure ? Stiil it whisper'd promis'd pleasure, And bade the lovely scenes at distance hail ! Still would her touch the strain prolong. And from the rocks, the woods, the vale, She call'd on Echo still through all the song ; And where her sweetest theme she chose, A soft responsive voice was heard at every close, And Hope enchanted smil'd, and wav'd her golden hair. POETRY OF THE ANTI-JACOBIN. 309 And longer had she sung,— but, with a frown, Revenge impatient rose, He threw his blood-stained sword in thunder down, And, with a withering look, The war-denouncing trumpet took. And blew a blast so loud and dread, Were ne'er prophetic sounds so full of woe. And ever and anon he beat The doubling drum with furious heat ; And though sometimes, each dreary pause between. Dejected Pity at his side Her sonl-subduing voice applied ; Yet still he kept his wild unalter'd mien. While each strain'd ball of sight seem'd bursting from his head, Thy numbers. Jealousy, to nought were flx'd, Sad proof of thy distressful state ! Of differing themes the veering song was mix'd. And now it courted Love, now raving call'd on Hate. With eyes upraised, as one inspir'd, Pale Melancholy sat retir'd. And from her wild sequester'd seat, In notes by distance made more sweet, Ponr'd through the mellow horn her pensive soul : And dashing soft from rocks around. Bubbling runnels join'd the sound ; Through glades and glooms the mingled measure stole, Or o'er some haunted streams with ifond delay, Round a holy calm diffusing, Love of peace and lonely musing, In hollow murmurs died away. But oh ! how alter'd was its sprightlier tone ! When Cheerfulness, a nymph of healthiest hue, Her bow across her shoulders flung. Her buskins gemm'd with morning dew. Blew an inspiring air that dale and thicket rung. The hunter's call to Faun and Dryad known ; The oak-crown'd Sisters, and their chaste-eyed Queen, Satyrs and Sylvan boys were seen, Peeping from forth their alleys green ; Brown Exercise rejoic'd to hear, And Sport leapt up, and seized his beechen spear. Last came Joy's ecstatic trial ; He with viny crown advancing. First to the lively pipe his hand address'd ; But soon he saw the brisk awakening viol. Whose sweet entrancing voice he lov'd the best. They would have thought who heard the strain, They saw in Tempe's vale her native maids, Amidst the festal sounding shades, To some unwearied minstrel dancing : While, as his Hying fingers kiss'd the strings. Love framed with Mirth a gay fantastic round, Loose were her tresses seen, her zone unbound: And he, amidst his frolic play. As if he would the charming air repay, Shook thousand odours from his dewy wings. 310 POETKY OF THE ANTI-JACOBIN. O Music ! sphere-descended maid, Fiiend of Pleasure, Wisdom's aid, Why, goddess, why to lis denied, Lay'st thou thy ancient lyre aside ? As in that lov'd Athenian bower, You learn'd an all-commanding power, Thy mimic soul, O nymph endear'd. Can well recall what then it heard. '■ AVhere is thy native simple heart. Devote to virtue, fancy, art ? Arise, as in that elder time, Warm, energetic, chaste, sublime ! Thy wonders, in that god-like age, Fill thy recording Sister's page. 'Tis said, and I believe the tale, Thy humblest reed could more prevail. Had more of strength, diviner rage, Than all which charms this laggard age E'en all at once together found Cecilia's mingled world of sound. O bid our vain endeavours cease. Revive the just designs of Greece ; Return in all thy simple state ! Confirm the tales her sons relate. THE ANTI-JACOBIN EEVIEW AND MAGAZINE FOR JULY, 1798. MAGNA EST VERITAS ET PR^VALEBIT. Art. 1. The Republican Judge, or the American Liberty of the Press, as exhibited, explained, and exposed, in the base and 2^artial Prosecution of William Cobbett, for a i)retended Libel against the King of Spain and his Embassador, before the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. With an AdAress to the People of England. By Peter Porcupine. 8vo.,pp.QQ. Price 2s. Wright, London. f\^he past writings of Mr. William Cobbett, who has assumed the appellation X of Peter Porcupine, are too well known in England to require any explanation from us, either of their tendency, or of the author's principles. Were any doubt entertained on the subject, nothing more would be requisite to dispel it than a mere reference to the comments of all the Jacobin Reviewers, who have, without exception, in defiance alike of decency and of truth, lavished on them the most indiscriminate censure and the most scurrilous abuse. Strange as it may appear, it is indisputably true that the individual exertions of Mr. Cobbett have more essentially contributed to give a proper tone to the public spirit in America than all the efforts of the well-disposed part of the native Americans : for a considerable length of time he combated alone a host of foes, "himself a host"; stemmed the impetuous tide of democracy; and checked the irruptions of French anarchy and atheism, which threatened to overwhelm the American States, and, with the ruins of their confiiction, to crush everything for which the Americans, at the period of their revolution, professed to fight, and which they have ever since professed to cherish. The adoption of such a line of conduct was alone sufficient to draw down upon our author the vengeance of all whose treasonable designs his manly efforts were intended to defeat. Accordingly, nothing was spared by the infuriated advo- cates of anarchy to injure him in the public mind, and, by blasting his reputa- tion, to deprive him of that credit which was indispensably necessary to secure the success of his works. No imputation however base, no lie however atrocious, none of those black and diabolical arts, in short, which, issuing from the bubbling cauldron of democracy, were so skilfully employed to blacken the first and fairest character in France, as a necessary prelude to the establish- ment of the virtuous republic of the Great Nation, were neglected in the gloriou.i attempt to achieve the ruin of this worthy individual. When these were found to fail of producing the desired effect, recourse was had to personal threats — the coward's weapon — with the hope of inducing him, by the means of intimidation, to quit a counti'y in which his enemies endeavoured to convince him that his life was daily exposed to most imminent danger. But neither the dread of calumny, nor the fear of assassination, could lead the object of their persecution to forego his laudable design. He manfully persevered, and has at length, though not without infinite difficulty, succeeded in opening the eyes of the Americans to their own interest, and in the infamous machinations of France, and of American traitors in the pay of France — for England is not the ONLY country in which foreign gold is employed as a stimulus to domestic treason.* In the course of his exertions to produce this desirable end, honest * "It is notorious that the French Director^/ have neios]}apers in their pay, not only in America, but in cveri/ country in Europe. That there should exist such 312 POETKY OF Peter had occasion to comment on the pusillanimous conduct of the Spanish monarch, in bending the knee to, and forming an alliance with, the base plunderers and assassins of his family, and on the insidious and criminal efforts of the Spanish ambassador to strengthen the hands of the French faction in America. These comments, it seems, excited the indignation of Don Carlos >Iartinez de Trojo, who determined to bring the author to condign punishment ; and it was the very unwarrantable conduct which the latter experienced on the occasion that gave rise to the publication before us. Peter begins -his tract by stating the dangers to which he knew himself exposed, on account of his political principles, when he established his residence in the state of Pennsylvania, "where the government, generally speaking, was in the hands of those who had (and sometimes with great indecency) manifested an uniform partiality for the sans-culotte French, and as uniform an opposition to the ministers and measures of the federal government ". That men should ever be placed in situations of trust and importance, whose principles are avowedly adverse to the constitution whence they derive their subsistence, and which it is their bounden duty to protect, is a circumstance that would excite universal astonishment if it did not, unhappily, so often occur. Still the frequency of its occurrence does not alter its nature, nor should it be allowed to diminish that ample portion of censure which must ever attach to the authors of such appointments. It is such conduct as this that justifies one of the wisest observations that ever fell from the pen of Voltaire — "a government can only perish by suicide"— an observation confirmed by the fate of every country that has been recently reduced beneath the iron yoke of republican France. Aware of his danger, our author thought the best means of averting it was, by seeking for some standard, as a safe rule for his conduct in respect to the liberty of this press. "The English press was said to be enslaved ; but, when I came to consult the practice of this enslaved press, I found it still to be far too free for me to attempt to follow its example. Finally, it appeared to me to be the safest way, to form to myself some rule founded on the liberty exercised by the American press. I concluded that I might without danger go as great lengths in attacking the enemies of the country as others went in attacking its friends : that as much zeal might be shown in defending the general government and administration as in accusing and traducing them : and that as great warmth would be admissible in the cause of virtue, order, and religion, as had been tolerated in the wicked cause of villainy, insurrection, and blasphemy" (p. 21). Alas ! Peter, at this time, knew but little of the "spirit and temper," a.s Mb. Barrister Erskine would express it, of democracy and Jacobinism. He knew not that the men who profess those principles are for the most part vindictive, malignant, oppressive, and intolerant ; and that under the mask of liberty they exercise the most insupportable tyranny over their families and dependents, and that in their general conduct to their inferiors— unless when impelled by interest or urged by ambition, they irritate their passions with toasts and flattery, from a tavern-chair, or influence their minds by seditious discourses and treasonable insinuations, from a tribune or a scaffold— they are supercilious, arrogant, insolent, and overbearing. He knew not, it would seem, that those whose whole duty is to defend the laws often sleep on their 2'osts, while their enemies are ever vigilant, active, and alert ; that when the former are attacked, a tardiness of zeal, amounting nearly to torpor, secures, with few exceptions, impunity to the assailant ; whereas any exposure of the latter draws forth a malignity of revenge which is the certain fore-runner of persecution. MERCENARY TRAITORS AS TO RECEIVE THE PAY OF REGICIDES AND ASSASSINS is still less astonishing than that there should be found men in the different countries, and men of rank, too, so base, .so degenerate, and so foolish, as to give encouragenent to their treasonable productions " (p. 57). The author speaks truth ; there is at least one newspaper of this description in London, which is encouraged— to their shame be it spoken ! — by men of rank, and by members of the Legislature— iJejjrfSf?!(a)!s du Peuple Souverain! — who even degrade them- selves so far as to associate with the profligate miscreants who compose its inflammatory pages.— Reviewer. THE ANTI-JACOBIN. 313 Indeed, the inveteracy of the discontented, of that class which includes all those who aspire to the possession of place and power, and are little scrupulous about the means of attaining them ; and all the determined revolutionists or subverters of established institutions, may be traced to a natural source. Un- able to support by reason a cause which reason disavows, unable to strengthen by arguments positions which set all argument at defiance, it becomes their business to inflame by passion and to dazzle with sophistry. Hence arises an extreme facility of exposing their weakness aiul detecting their infamy, and not having the means of resisting such exposure, being wholly destitute of the sentiments which are necessary for a successful reply, they are reduced to the degrading alternative of abandoning the field to a triumphant adversary, or of seeking, by the adoption of violent measures, to punish the opponent whom they did not dare to encounter. This it is that renders revenge an active principle in their minds. The first step taken by the Spanish ambassador was an application to the federal government to prosecute our author " for certain matters published in his Gazette against himself and that poor, unfortunate, and humbled mortal, Charles IV., King of Spain". The government consented, and Peter was accordingly bound over to appear in the federal district court before Judge refers. Don Carlos, however, soon found that his prosecution would be more likely to succeed, if brought in a district where the defendant had more personal enemies, and where the people were more generally disposed to the adoption of revolutionary principles. A memorial was, accordingly, " delivered in to the federal government, requesting that the trial might come on before the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, of which Court McKeaa is Chief Justice". Of this re-puliiiean Judge our author gives such an account as must convey to English minds a .strange idea of the administration of republiuni Justice. It is to be found in P. 22— When Britons contemplate the character here delineated, and contrast it with the characters of their own Judges to which even the licentious tongue of faction has not dared to impute the smallest stain, their Ijosoms must glow with satisfaction of the most exalted kind ; they must exult in the superior excellence of that form of government and of those laws which effectually secure them from the evils of a vicious, corrupt, or partial distribu- tion of justice. After giving an historical detail of the proceedings against him, accompanied by copies of the warrant to apprehend him, the imputed libels, the bill of indictment, and the Judge's charge, Peter exclaims — "This, when it comes to be served up in Britain, will be a dish for a king. The royalists will lick their lips, and the republicans will cry, God bless us ! The emigrations for liberty's sake will cease, and we .shall have nothing but the pure unadulterated dregs of Newgate and the Fleet, the candidates for Tyburn and Botany Bay — Blessed cargo ! A.\\ patriots to the backbone : true philanthropists and univer.sal citizens : fit for any place but England in this world and heaven in the next ! " But, notwithstanding the Judge's charge, the most partial and scandalous charge, we conceive, that ever was delivered out of France, the Grand Jury re- fused to find the bill, and the prosecution of course i,eased. The Judge, not less disappointed than the prosecutor, on this occasion, took an early oppor- tunity—to his infamy be it recorded !— of declaring from the Bench that the Grand Jury would not do their duly. What would the disaffected in this country say were aiiy British Judge to use such language ? The gross imputations cast upon the character of our author by this impartial Judge, have extorted from Peter a tribute of justice to himself which the occasion most amply justifies. As the account here given perfectly accords with all the information we have received from persons of undoubted veracity who know him well, and as it fully corroborates the opinion we ourselves have formed of him, from an atten- tive perusal of his publications, we shall extract it for the satisfaction of our readers : — " It hardly ever becomes a man to say much of his private character or concerns ; but on this occasion I trust I shall be indulged for a moment. I will say, and I will make that saying good, whosoever shall oppose it, that I never attacked any one, whose private character is not, in every light in which it can possibly be viewed as far beneath mine as infamy is beneath honour. Nay, I defy the city of Philadelphia, populous as it is, and respectable as are many of its inhabitants, to produce me a single man \vho is more sober, in- 314 POETRY OF dustrious, or honest ; who is a kinder husband, a tenderer father, a better master, a fonder friend, or (though last not least) a more zealous and faithful subject. " Most certainly it is unseemly in any one to say this much of himself unless compelled to it by some public outrage on his character ; but when the accusa- tion is made notorious so ought the defence ; and I do again and again repeat, that I fear not a comparison between my character and that of any man in this city : no, not even with that of the very Judge, who held me as the worst of miscreants. His Honour is welcome, if he please, to carry this comparison into (ili the actions of our lives, public and domestic, and to extend it beyond our- selves to every branch of our J'mnilies. " As to my writing, I never did slander any one, if the promulgation of useful truths be not slander. Innocence and virtue I have often endeavoured to defend, but I never defamed either. I have, indeed, stripped the close-drawn veil of hypocrisy ; I have ridiculed the follies, and lashed the vices of thousands, and have done it sometimes perhaps with a rude and violent hand. But these are not the days for gentleness and mercy. Such as is the temper of the foe, such must be that of his opponent. Seeing myself published as a rogue, and nuj wii'e a lohore; being per.secu ted with such infamous, such base and hellish calumny in the philantliroiiic city of Philadelphia, merely for asserting the truth respecting others, was not calculated, I assure you, to sweeten my temper, and turn my ink into honey-dew. " My attachment to order and good government, nothing but the impudence of Jacobinism can deny. The object not only of my own publications, but also of all tliose which I have introduced or encouraged, from the first moment that I appeared on the public scene to the present day, has been to lend some aid in stemming the torrent of anarchy and confusion. To undeceive the misguided, by tearing tlie mask from the artful and ferocious villains who owing to the infatuation of the poor, and the supineness of the rich, have made such fearful progress in the destruction of all that is amiable and good and sacred among men. To the governmeut of this country in particular it has been my constant study to yield" all the support in my power. When that government, or the worthy men who administer it have been traduced and vilified, I have stood forward.in their defence, and that too, in times when its friends were some of them locked up in silence, and others giving way to the audacious violence of its foes. Not that I am so foolishly vain as to attribute to my illiterate voter a thousandth part of the merit my friends are inclined to allow it. As I wrote the other day to a gentleman who had paid me some compliments on this score, ' I should never look on my family with a dry eye if I did not hope to outlive my works'. They are mere transitory beings to which the revolutionary storm has given life, and which with that storm will expire. But, what I contend for and what nobody can deny, I have done all that laid in my power, all that I was able by any means to accomplish in order to counteract the nefarious effects of the enemies of the American government and nation. " With respect to religion, altho' Mr. M'Kean was pleased to number it among the things that were in danger from the licentiousness of the press, and of course from poor vie, I think it would puzzle the devil himself to produce from my writings, a single passage, which could, by all the powers of perversion be twisted into an attack upon it. But it would on the contrary be extremely easy to prove, that I have at all times, when an opportunity offered, repelled the attacks of its enemies, the abominable battalions of Deists and Atheists, with all my heart, with all my mind, with all my soul, and with all my strength. The bitterest drop in my pen has ever been bestowed upon them ; because, of all the foes of the human race, I look upon them, after the devil, as being the greatest and most dreadful. Not a sacrilegious plunderer from Henry VIII. to Condorcet, and from Condorcet to the impious Sans-culottes of France, has escaped my censure. All those, who have attempted to degrade religion whether by open insults and cruelties to the clergy, by blasphemous publications or by the more dangerous poison of the malignant modern philosophy, I have ranked amongst the most infamous of mankind, and have treated them accordingly." In the concluding part of his tract the author clearly convicts the Judge of the most decided and most flagrant partiality. He quotes a number of infamous THE ANTI-JACOBIN. 315 libels, on religious and political subjects, -which had never roused the indigna- tion, nor even excited the censure, of those whose duty it is to preserve the public peace and to enforce a due observance of the laws. If, indeed, we were to judge, from this specimen, of the mode of administriiig justice in America, in matters of libel, we should conclude, that every degree of licentiousness is allowed to those who seek to debauch the minds of the people, to seduce them from their allegiance, and to dissolve every tie which religion and morality have formed for the happiness of men in a social state, while the upright supporters of virtue, whose labours are directed to the prevention of anarchy and rebellion, by detecting the views and exposing the machinations of their abettors, are the sole objects not merely of j)iosecution but of persecution. The" abuse bestowed on the mild and beneficent sovereigns of these realms by the Democratic factions in the American Congress, is almost equal in severity to the censures lavished by some members of opposition during the last parlia- ment in the British Senate, on the Kings of Prussia and Hungary, before those mouarchs had become allies of France. The following extracts will, at once, afford a criterion of the political prin- ciples of public men, in the State of Pennsylvania, and a curious specimen of republican morality. "The Governor (Mifflin) attended at a civic festival, when the following toasts were drunk, which were published in most of the newspapers.* '"Those illustriozis citizens sent to Botany Bay. May they be siKcdily recalled by their country in the da>/ of her regeneration.' " ' May the spirit of parliamentary reform in Britain and Ireland burst the bonds of corruption, and orerwhelm tlie foes ofliberti/.' "'The sans-culottes of France. May the robes of all the Enrperors, Kings, Princes, and Potentates [not excepting the King of Spain] now employed in suppressing the flame of liberty, be cut up to make breeches.' "This is pretty 'Acfiit' in a Governor; but without stopping to remark on the peculiar decency of his toasting a gang of convicts, let us come to another instance of his conduct, full as 'decent' as this. "At the civic festival, held in this city in 1794, to celebrate the dethrone- ment of ' our great and good ally, Louis XVL' there were ' assembled,' according to the 'proccs verbal' which was sent to the Paris convention, 'the chiefs, civil and rnilitari/'. This ]iroc'cs verbal contains a letter to the convention, in which the following honourable mention is made of the governor. 'The Governor of Pennsylvania, that ardent friend of the French republic, was present, and partook of all our eni/iusiasin and «/^ our sentiments.' t " I believe they spoke truth ; for the cannons of the State were fired, and military companies, with drums beating and colours flying, attended the execrable fSte, one of the ceremonies of which was burning the English dag ; and as to the sentiments contained in the oaths and .speeches (for there were both) they abounded in insults towards almost all the princes of the earth, but particularly the King of Cireat Britain. "A Judge of Pennsylvania, Redm.vn, was, in November, 1795, caught thieving in the shop of I\lR. Folwell, the dry-goods merchant in Front Street. Mr. Folwell detected him, took the money (s30U) from him, and kicked hira into the street. His friemts, among the most intimate of whom was His Excellency the Governor, advised him to retire ; and he is still living at his ease about 20 miles from the city. No justice was ever done to him ; he was never censured, not even in the newspapers ! Such is the cowardly, base, and worth- less press of America. Such are republicanjudges, and such is republican morality ! * " See B.A^CHE of 11 February, 1795." t The reader will not be surprised to hear that this is the identical governor who wanted a few thousands of dollars from the French minister, Fauchet, and who drew secretly 15,000 dollars out of the Bank of Pennsylvania ! ! This man brought a whole litter of beistards home to his virtuous wife. He is a shameless blackguard, a drunkard, and everything that can be named that is vile. Such is a republican governor; a chief magistrate of state, who has infinitely gi-eater powers over life and property than King George has ! ! And this I have already pointed out on sundry occasions. 316 POETRY OF THE ANTI-JACOBIN. But this is not the worst. I know a Judge who committed murder ! wilful mur- der, and that, too, previous to his appointment by this our republican Governor ! " I only give a sort of hint here. One day or other if it pleases God to spare Diy life, I will publish such a collection of facts as will shock the universe. "A Pennsylvania Judge's vi/e had, a little while ago, a child, by a man who kept a livery stable. The lady says, the stableman is the best of the two and_ so has married him, though his Honour is still living. I need not name the parties, for though the cowardfy newspapers have never noticed the affair it is notorious enough. "There are more bastards born annuallyin the single state of Pennsylvania,than in all the British dominions : and as to cuckoldom, I will only say that every paper teems with c(dvcrtisemc7its ofvdrrg eloped from the bed and board of their husbands. I do not hence insinuate that there are no good people here. There are many. As many as in most countries ; but then people will, and do allow, that the morals of the country are approaching fast to that state, which has never yet failed to prove the ruin of every thing held in esteem amongst men./ In proving the falseliood of tlie assertion so f requentlyrepeated, as well on this as on the other side of the Atlantic, that "in America the press is, free and truth is not a libel," our author adverts to a letter of Dr. Priestley's on that sub- ject which he promises hereafter to expose more fully (a promise which we trust lie will not forget) ; and then introduces the following curious anecdote, which we extract for the benefit of the Doctor's political friends and admirers in Europe. ' ' But since the Doctor wrote that letter it seems experience has changed his opinion. He has suffered the just punishment of his malignancy againstliis country ; he has been cheated, neglected, and scorned. He is now in an obscurity hardly penetrable ; he is reduced to poverty and bursting with vexation " (may a restless spirit of innovation, springing from, and nourished ))y, a bigotted vanity and a turbulent pride ever experience a similar fate) ! All this has had an effect ; and I will state as a fact, which I call upon him to deny if he can, that he has lately declared "that Repvblicem governments arc the most abitrary in the world " .' This Machiavel had said before, and this all unprejudiced men of reading and observation had long since admitted ; but, we confess we little ex- pected to hear Doctor Prie.stley subscribe to the creed of the one, or to the acknowledgments of the other. Adversity, however, is an able advocate in the cause of truth. The Address to the People of England, which is prefixed to the publication, is sliort, but pointed and expressive. It breathes the true spirit of a Briton. Of the literary merit of the work, after the ample analysis which we have given of its contents, and the extracts which we have made, little remains to be said. ■\Ve agree with the publisher, who in the Advertisement says: "The author has been more anxious to strengthen his arguments than to polish his style, to convince the judgment than to flatter the taste," but those critics must be more "(icncaie" or fastidious who can reject substantial advantages for fanciful de- fects. Though Peter aim not at embellishments, he possesses great strength and energy of language, and generally writes witli more accuracy than most of the American authors, who, be it observed, have a phraseology peculiar to themselves. This tract contains much important information, and we strenuously recommend it to the serious perusal of our countrymen ; particularly to such of them as are disposed to question the superior advantages which they enjoy, over ALL republican states under our own well-poised and limited monarchy. The following admonitions with which the author conchules, will, we trust, have a due effect on the minds of those to whom they are addressed. " Such, Britons, is the fruit of republican govei-nment here ; not among the apish and wolfish French, but among a people descended from the same ancestors as your- selves. When your monarchial government bears such fruits, let it, I say, be hewn down and cast into the fire ; but till that disgraceful and dreadful day comes, watch over it with care and defend it to the last drop of your blood, preserve it as you would a golden casket, the apple of your eye, or the last dear gift of your dying parents. Witli this I conclude, praying the God of our fathers to lead you in the practice of all their virtues, to give wisdom to your minds and strength to your arms, to keep you firm and united, honest and generous, loyal, brave, and free ; but above all, to preserve you from the desolating and degrad- ing curse of revolutionary madness and modern republicanism." PETER PORCUPINE'S AVILL. [By William Cobbett. Published in The Anti-Jacobin Revieto and Magazine; ov Monthly Political and Literary Censor : from July to December, 1798. Vol. i., pp. 72oS.— Ed.] In the name of Fun, Amen. I Peter Porcupine, Pamphleteer and News- monger, being (as yet) sound both in body and in mind, do, this fifteenth day of April, in the Year of our Lord, one thousand seven hundred and ninety-seven, make, declare, and publish, this my Last Will and Testament, in manner, form, and substance following ; to wit : In Primis, I leave my body to Doctor Michael Lieb, a member of the Legislature of Pennsylvania, to be by him dissected (if he knows how to do it) in presence of the Rump of the Democratic Society. In it they will find a heart that held them in abhorrence, that never palpitated at their threats, and that, to its last beat, bade them defiance. But my chief motive for making this bequest is, that my spirit may look down with contempt on their cannibal-like triumph over a breathless corpse. Item. As I make no doubt that the above said Doctor Lieb (and some other Doctors that I could mention) would like very well to skin me, I request that they, or one of them may do it, and that the said Lieb's father may tan my skin ; after which I desire my Executors to have seven copies of my Works com- plete, bound in it, one copy to be presented to the Five Sultans of France, one to each of their Divans, one to the Governor of Pennsylvania, to Citizens Maddison, Giles, and Gallatin one each, and the remaining one to the Democratic Society of Philadelphia, to be carefully preserved among their archives. Ilem. To the Mayor, Aldermen, and Councils of the City of Philadelphia, I bequeath all the sturdy young hucksters, who infest tlie market, and who to maintain their bastards, tax the honest inhabitants many thousand pounds annually. I request them to take them into their worshipful keeping ; to chasten their bodies for the good of their souls ; and moreover to keep a sharp look-out after their gallants ; and remind the latter of the old proverb : Touch pot, touch ■penny. Ittia. To T J son. Philosopher, I leave a curious Norway Spider, with a hundred legs and nine pair of eyes ; likewise the first black cut-throat general he can catch hold of, to be flead alive, in order to determine with more certainty the real cause of the dark colour of his skin ; and should the said T J son survive Banneker the Almanack Maker ; I request he will get the brains of said Philomath carefully dissected, to satisfy the world in what respects they differ from those of a white man. htm. To the Philosophical Society of Philadelphia, I will and bequeath a correct copy of Thornton's plan for abolishing the use of the English language, and for introducing in its stead a republican one, the representative characters of which bear a strong resemblance to pot-hooks and hangers ; and for the dis- covery of which plan, the said society did, in the year 1793, grant to the said language maker ."JOO dollars premium. It is my earnest desire, that the copy of this valuable performance, which I hereby present, may be shown to all the travelling literati, as a proof of the ingenuity of the author and of the wisdom of the society. Item. To Doctor Benjamin Rush, I will and bequeath a copy of The Censor for January, 1797 ; but, upon the express condition, that he does not in anywise 318 POETRY OF or guise, either at the time of my death, or Six months after, pretend to speak, write, or publish an eulogiuin on me, my calling or character, either literary, military, civil, or political. Iteni. To my dear fellow labourer Noah Webster, "gentleman-citizen," Esq. and News-man, I will and bequeath a prognosticating barometer of curious construction and great utility, by which, at a single glance, the said Noah will be able to discern the exact state that the public mind will be in in the ensuing year, and will thereby be enabled to trim b>i de;irecs and not expose himself to detection, as he rio'Vv does by his sudden lee-shore tacks. I likewise bequeath to the said "gentleman-citizen," six Spanish milled dollars, to be expended on a new plate of his portrait at the head of his sjielling book, that which graces it at present being so ugly that it scares the children from their lessons ; but this legacy is to be paid him only upon condition that he leave out the title of 'Squire, at the bottom of said picture, which is extremely odious in an American school-book, and must inevitably tend to corrupt the political principles of the republican babies that behold it. And I do most earnestly desii-e, exhort and conjure the said 'Squire news-man, to change the title of his paper. The Minerva, for that of The Pnlitiral (Antaur. Item. To F. A. Mughlenburg, Elsq., Speaker of a late house of Representa- tives of the United States, I leave a most superbly finished statue of Janus. Item. To Tom the Tinker, I leave a liberty-cap, a tricolovired cockade, a wheel-barrow full of oysters, and a hogshead of grog : I also leave him three blank checks on the bank of Pennsylvania, leaving to him the task oi filling them vp ; requesting him, however, to be rather more merciful than lie has shown himself heretofore. Item. To the Governor of Pennsylvania, and to the late President and Cashier of the Bank of the said State, as to joint Legatees, I will and bequeath that good old proverb : Honest)/ is the best polic)/. And this legacy I have chosen for these worthy gentlemen, as the only thing about which I am sure they will never disagree. Item. To T Coxe, of Philadelphia, citizen, I will and bequeath a crown of hemlock, as a recompense for his attempt to throw an odium on the administration of General Washington ; and I most positively enjoin my Executors, to see that the said crown be shaped exactly like that which thib spindle-shanked legatee wore before Gen. Howe, when he made his triumphal entry into Philadelphia. Item. To Thomas Lord Bradford (otherwise called Goosy Tom), Book-seller, Printer, News-man, and member of the Philosophical Society of Philadelphia, I will and bequeath a copy of the peerage of Great Britain, in order that the said Lord Thomas may the more exactly ascertain what probability tliere is of his succeeding to the seat, which his noble relation now fills in the House of Lords. Item. To all and singular the authors in the United States, whether they write verse or prose, I will and bequeath a copy of my Life and Adventures ; and I advise the said authors to study with particular care the 40th and 41st pages thereof ; more especially and above all things, I exhort and conjure them never to publish it toe/ether, though the bookseller should be a saint. Item. To Edmund Randolph, Esq., late Secretary of State, to Mr J. A. Dallas, Secretary of the State of Pennsylvania, and to His Excellency, Thomas Miffin, Governor of the said unfortunate State, I will and bequeath, to each of them, a copy of the sixteenth paragraph of Fauchet's intercepted letter. Item. To Citizen John Swanwick, member of Congress, by the will and consent of the sovereign people, I leave bills of Exchange on London to an «normous amount ; they are all protested, indeed, but if properly managed, may be turned to good account. I likewise bequeath to the said John a small treatise by an Italian author, wherein the secret of pleasing the ladies is developed, and reduced to a mere mechanical operation, without the least dependence on the precarious aid of the passions. Hoping that these instances of my liberality will pi'oduce, in the mind of the little legislature, effects quite different from those produced therein by the King of Great Britain's pension to his parents. Item. To the Editors of the Boston Chronicle, the Neio York Arr/us, and the Philadelphia Merchants' Advertiser, I will and bequeath one ounce of modesty and love of truth, to be equally divided between them. THE ANTI-JACOBIN. 319 I should have been more liberal in this bequest, were I not well assured that one ounce is more than they will ever make use of assuied, Item To Franklin Bache, Editor of the Aurora or P/uladelnhia I will and bequeath a small bundle of French assignats, which I bro sht w th me fiom the country of equality. If these should be too lij^ht in value for lis pfessfnS exigencies I desire my executors, or any one of them to bestow on him f second part to what he has lately received in South" ark ■ andTs Tfnrttier proof of my good .v;ill and affection, I request him to accept o I g^a-* and I Ran To my beloved countrymen, the people of Old England I will and ^mT; and T^'ll^ ^r*""" Pr-'^'""^-^ ^''«';'^^ Sermon. for the MtofvoorE^- grants, and to the said preaching philosopher himself, I bequeath a heart full of disappointment, grief, and despair. ^ Ran To the good people of France, who remain attached to their sovereign particularly to those among whom I was hospitably received, I bequeath each a good strong dagger: hoping most sincerely that they may vetTncl coi™ enough to carry them to the hearts of their abominable tyrants co"'-ag:e Item lo Citizen U oe, I will and bequeath my chamber lookino-.elass It IS a plain but exceeding true mirror ; in it he will see the exact hken?sf of a ami savage enemy.'"''^"'"' '^' ^°"°"'^ ^'"' ^''^''^'' "^ '"^ ''"""^'-^ *« ^ pertidiout Iteva. To the Republican Britons, who have fled from the hands of iustice f^^^ ovvii country, and who are a scandal, a nuisance, and a disgrace to th^ I bequeath hunger and nakedness, scorn and reproach and I do hereby posi^ tively enjoin on my executors to contribute five hundred dollars towards the erection of gallowses and gibbets, for the accommodation of the saidlmported patriots, when the legislators of this unhappy state shall have the wiXm to countenance such useful establishments. * e i^ue wisaom co Item My friend, J. T. Callender, the runaway from Scotland, is of course a partaker in the last mentioned legacy ; but as a particular mark of my atten: tiou, I will and bequeath him twenty feet of pine plank, which I request mv :.fb^^^fjZnt^p^^epTicV"*° ^ ^"^'^'•^' *° '^^ ^^P* ^- '^-particular ^^t^l Item. To Tom Paine, the author of Common Sense, Rights of Ma7i Aae of Reason, and a Letter to General Washington, I bequeath a strong hempen collar as the only egacy I can think of that is worthy of him as well as best adapted to render his death in some measure as infamous as his life : and I do hereby direct and order my Executors to send it to him by the first safe conveyance with my compliments, and request that he would make use of it without delay that the national razor may not be disgi-aced by the head of such a monster ^' itun lo the gaunt outlandish orator, vulgarly called the Politic'il Sinnor who in the just order of things follows nkt after the last iLntCed legatee I bequeath the honour of partaking in his catastrophe ; that in theii deaths as It^^'TTlu^'^'i ^'^ ^^? ''^^'^ may exclaim : ""see how rorZslZXfetka^^ Item Toa-n and singular the good people of these States, I leave peace union, abundance, happiness, untarnished honour, and an unconquerable eve?- idndlles ' ''"''' Revolutionists and their destructrv^e Abominable Item To each of my Subscribers I leave a quiU, hoping that in their hands It may become a sword against every thing that is hostile to the gwernment and independence of their country. kuc ouveuimenc leistl)/. To my three brothers, Paul, Simon, and Dick, I leave mv whole dfvt, p'/h 7'" '■''h ^' P^''°"'^' ^^''f PaJ''"^ "^^^ foregoing legacies) to be^equlny divided between them, share and share alike. And I do hereby make and con- stitute my said three brothers the Executors of this my last will • to see the power he's?'"' ' ''''=''°''""S to its true intent and meaning, as far' as in their Witnesses present, ^^^^^ PORCUPINE. Philo Fun, I Jack Jockus. ^ THE VISION OF LIBERTY. Written in the manner of Spenser. [As the virulent style of political writing prevalent ninety years ago is now but little known, the present edition of The Poetn/ of the Anti-Jacobin seemed a convenient medium for giving some specimens of it which appeared in The Anti- Jacobin Rerkii- and MarjaHiie, a work conducted on the same principles, but by different writers, and witli the cognizance of the government. Two of them were by W. Cobbett, who, had he been less arrogant and contentious, and more consistent, would have been, in the words of Lord Bailing, "a very great man in the world ; as it was lie made a great noise in it ". (See pp. 311-319.) The Vision of libcrti/ is by C. KiUKPATRiCK Sharpe, an author and artist much esteemed by Scottish antiquarians, of which specimens only need be p^ven. Of The Anarchists, the author is not known.] O WRETCHED man, how long wilt thou refuse Thy Maker's favour, and His mercy great ? How long thy worldly happiness abuse, And growl and grumble at thy present state? Seeking accursed change both .so4 ; keeps her father in awe, ('). ; lively fancy withont knowledge and habits of reasoning, ib.\ so qunli- ,riid becomes one of the Atiali/tical Reviewers, ili.; tindertakes to answer Burke, 95 ; answer such as might have been expected, ih.; her constitu- tion testitied by her husband to have been iniiornus, ih.\ Rights of Woman characterised, ih.; her passsions in- flamed by celibacy, 96 ; falls in love with a married man, ih. ; at the break- ing out of the war betakes herself to our enemies, (6.; intimate with the French leaders under Robespierre, 97; with Thomas Paine, ib.\ taken by Imlay into keeping, ib.; her hus- band declares that her soul had panted for that connection, ib.; her doctrines, illustrated by her example, lint ncic, ib.; (IS old os proslilutinn, ih.; proposes to elude her creditors, ib.; deserted by her keeper, ib.; derives particular gratification from Hamil- ton Rowan, ih.; pursues her keeper to England, ib.; her great aversion to this country, ih.; being without a lover attempts to drown herself, 98 ; appointed kept mistress to the philo- sopher Godwin, ib. ; married to the philosopher, ib.; does not believe in future punishments, 99 ; from tlie time she became enlightened discon- tinued public worship, ib.; her life illustrates Jacobin morality and religion, ib.; high praises of her life, doctrines, and conduct by the Analy- tical Reviewers, 101 ; prophetic apos- trophe to her by them, 402. See Maria, Godwin, Prostitution, and Analytical Review. The End. ABEBDEEN UNIVERSITY PBESS. x V I X m Giant Factotum amusing himfdf «# m^ '^^ m • LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 014 090 043 6 ^■^ ■\^ ,V' •>';' . -{■ ',>-•' '(-■ ■.-'■- f ■' • ■ . ' Hi' . » • 1 ■>/' J > ' •■ '~N„- :-^:t, '•>*'■.•. r/^<,i ■.i^-.^ .v^" -..'%»ia ill?''.' i^rf A-#,