The fate of this work was decided like that of many more important things,
by a trifle, a word, a pun. A ballad, chanted by a fille-de-chambre,
undermined the colossal power of Alberoni; a single line of Frederic the
Second, reflecting not on the politics but the poetry of a French
minister, plunged France into the seven years' war; and a pun condemned
Sir John Hawkins's sixteen years' labour to long obscurity and oblivion.
Some wag wrote the following catch, which Dr. Callcott set to music:--
"Have you read Sir John Hawkins's History? Some folks think it quite a
mystery; Both I have, and I aver That Burney's History I prefer."
_Burn his History_ was straightway in every one's mouth; and the
bookseller, if he did not follow the advice _à pied de la lettre_,
actually wasted, as the term is, or sold for waste paper, some hundred
copies, and buried the rest of the impression in the profoundest depth of
a damp cellar, as an article never likely to be called for, so that now
hardly a copy can be procured undamaged by damp and mildew. It has been
for some time, however, rising,--is rising,--and the more it is read and
known, the more it ought to rise in public estimation and
demand.--_Harmonicon_.
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