“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 three sons; his next brother settled down as a

watchmaker at Geneva, and his youngest brother entered the service of

the Empress Catherine, and distinguished himself in the Russian army

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 electricity. 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. From Paris he went to Amsterdam, and, finally, to LONDON,

where he set up in practice in _Church Street, Soho_, 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 appointment 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

physiological _Essay on Man_. The point he discussed was the old problem

of the relation 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

attacked HELVÉTIUS for despising scientific knowledge in his famous _De

l’Esprit_. VOLTAIRE naturally took the side of HELVÉTIUS, 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 character. He had

got mixed up with some of the popular societies in England, which 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 OF SLAVERY. In this book, which is partly historical

and partly political, he begs the electors to take more care in the

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 key-note of all his political ideas.

The book 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 _Newcastle_ and other great northern cities. Subsequently

he again returned to his profession, and after publishing a medical

tract in 1775, of which no copy is known to exist, he published _An

Inquiry into the Nature, Cause, and Cure of a singular Disease of the

Eyes_, in 1776. [See _Academy_ of September 23, 1882.] 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, ‘médecin de plusieurs

facultés 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 incurables,’

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 l’Aubespine_ for saving her life. For some reason or other,

most probably because he had obtained a competent fortune, and desired

to satisfy his 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

_Academy of Sciences_. 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. When he recognised that

this hostility to himself prevented due recognition of his work, he

determined 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 Beauzée_, 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 of 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 _Offrande à la Patrie_, which was followed in quick succession by a

supplement and other pamphlets. Of these, distinctly the most able is

the _Tableau des Vices de la Constitution Anglaise_, which he presented

to the Assembly in September, 1789. In it he points out what 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

influence of the king and the ministry was overwhelming through the

extent of patronage, and that the rich there bought seats in the House

of Commons 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 journal

written entirely by himself, called the JOURNAL DU PEUPLE, which title

was changed to that of _Ami du Peuple_, or _The 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

physician 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 congenial his

gospel of suspicion was to the Parisians.”—[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 him to Marat’s sister, who was as like her

brother, he said—and as from all pictures and busts I readily

believed—as ‘_deux 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.]

LARÉVEILLÈRE-LEPAUX (page 283).

LARÉVEILLÈRE-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

_printing_ the _Memoirs_, they _destroyed the whole issue at once_; and

the only copy extant is the one which, in accordance with the law of

France, was sent to the _Bibliothèque Nationale_ at Paris.

THE THEOPHILANTHROPISTS.

These (_Gr._ “Lovers of Gods and Men”) were a sect of _Deists_ which

appeared in France amid the confusion and disorder of the first

Revolution. While the State was indifferent to all forms of Religion,

and the Republican Directory was afraid of the Christianity which

prevailed in the Church, a felt consciousness of the necessity of some

religion led many to adopt a form of worship adapted to Natural

Religion.

“This Sect” (says SOUTHEY, in the _Quarterly Review_, vol. xxviii.)

“began with more circumstances in their favour than ever occurred to

facilitate the establishment of a religion or of a sect. Many persons of

considerable influence and reputation engaged in the project with zeal,

and it was patronised by LA RÉVEILLÈRE LÊPAUX, one of the Directory....

His motives for putting himself at the head of the Theophilanthropists

are said to have been twofold: if the scheme succeeded, he intended to

become their High Priest; and he hated Christianity. Through his means

the Theophilanthropists obtained a decree from the Government giving

them a right of holding their meetings in the Churches, as national

buildings, which were open to any religion, but belonged to none.

“Nearly twenty Churches in Paris were taken possession of; but by

occupying so many, they injured themselves.... They took up too extended

a position, and had neither numbers nor means answerable to the scale

upon which they set out.... Their _Service_ began at noon, and lasted

about an hour and a half. It was, they said, a worship for those who had

no other, and a moral society for those who had. The _Ritual_ consisted

of Prayers, Hymns original or selected from the best French Poets,

readings from their Manual, and Discourses. The _Hymns_ were, in

general, judicious, and set to good music, and the _Prayers_ well

composed; but had their books been stript of all that they had borrowed

from the Gospel, and from the works of Christian writers, they would

have been meagre indeed. In one part of the Service there was a short

pause, during which the congregation were expected to consider each in

silence what his own conduct had been since the last of these meetings.

A basket of fruit or flowers, according to the season, was placed upon

the altar, as a mark of acknowledgment for the bounties of the Creator;

and over the altar was the inscription, _Nous croyons à l’existence de

Dieu, et à l’immortalité de l’âme_.... LA RÉVEILLÈRE, in a speech at the

Institute, declaiming against Christianity, as being opposed to the

liberty of mankind, expressed his wish that a form of religion were

adopted, which should have only _a couple of articles_. He wished also

for a religion without priests; and this, it was pleasantly observed,

would be like a Directory without a Director.

“This was the _Creed of the Theophilanthropists_. And on each side of

it, the following sentences were inscribed in their temples, to take

place of the Decalogue:—

“‘Adore God, cherish your fellow-creatures; render yourselves useful to

your

country.

Good is whatever tends to preserve man, or to perfectionate him.

Evil is whatever tends to destroy him, or to deteriorate him.

Children, honour your fathers and mothers; obey them with affection,

solace

their old age. Fathers and mothers, instruct your children.

Wives, behold in your husbands the heads of your houses. Husbands, love

your wives, and render yourselves mutually happy.’

“At _Marriage_ the bride and bridegroom were to be coupled with ribands,

or garlands of flowers, the ends of which were to be held on each side

by the elders of their respective families. The Bride received a ring

from her husband, and a medal of union from the head of the family.

There was a rite also for infants.... When a member _died_, the other

members of the Society were invited to place a flower upon the urn, and

pray the Creator to receive the deceased into his bosom. The Decades and

National Holidays were observed by these Anti-Christians, and they had

four Holidays of their own, for Socrates, St. Vincent de Paule, Jean

Jacques Rousseau, and Washington,—oddly assorted names! Two of them,

however, stand well together in this kalendar, for the one, who was a

Christian, established the Foundling Hospital at Paris; and the other,

who was a sentimentalist, a philosopher, and a Theophilanthropist, sent

his own children to it....

“LA RÉVEILLÈRE used to take praise to himself for having, in his

Directorial character, humbled the Pope and the great Turk. The

Anti-Christian language of the Directory, and its persecution of the

Clergy, are imputed to him; so far his colleagues were willing to go

with him; but his zeal for Deism they regarded as ridiculous.... In the

way of pecuniary aid, he could obtain little:—_beaucoup d’argent_ was

what the Directory were accustomed to demand, not to give....

“Their _Service_ at Paris was numerously attended while it was a new

spectacle, and the subject of conversation; but more than two-thirds of

the persons thus assembled were idlers. But this concourse soon abated;

there was nothing attractive in the ceremonies, nothing to impose upon

the imagination or the senses. A propagandist reported from Montreuil

that the readings and orations had been heard by an audience _avide de

morale_, but he had observed with pain that the _matériel_ of the

worship was not what it should have been.... It was got up at Bourges in

better style; the orator there officiated in a white sash ornamented

with blue flowers, before an altar upon which an orange tree was placed:

and at the _fête des époux_, the Theophilanthropists carried _two

pigeons_ in procession, as an emblem of conjugal tenderness, and placed

them upon the altar of the country!”

* * * * *

[The literary association of LAMB with COLERIDGE and SOUTHEY [says SIR

T. N. TALFOURD, in his life of LAMB,] drew upon him the hostility of the

young scorners of _The Anti-Jacobin_, who, luxuriating in boyish pride

and aristocratic patronage, tossed the arrows of their wit against all

charged with innovation, whether in politics or poetry, and cared little

whom they wounded. No one could be more innocent than LAMB of political

heresy; no one more strongly opposed to new theories in morality—which

he always regarded with disgust. The very first number of _The

Anti-Jacobin Review and Magazine_ [this was, however, a new work, by

different hands, but imbued with the same spirit as _The Anti-Jacobin_]

was adorned by a caricature of GILLRAY’S, in which COLERIDGE and SOUTHEY

were introduced with asses’ heads, and LLOYD and LAMB as toad and frog.

In the number of July, 1798 [of the original _Anti-Jacobin_] appeared

the well-known poem of _New Morality_, in which all the prominent

objects of the hatred of these champions of religion and order were

introduced as offering homage to LEPAUX, a French charlatan,—of whose

existence LAMB had never even heard. Not content with thus confounding

persons of the most opposite opinions and the most various characters in

one common libel, the party returned to the charge in their number for

September [of _The Anti-Jacobin Review_], and denounced the young poets

in a parody on the _Ode to the Passions_, under the title of _The

Anarchists_. They are reprinted in the present volume.—ED.]

[The cause of Coleridge, Southey, Lloyd, and Lamb, being thus satirized

as persons of the same politics, was the conjoint publication of their

works. In the spring of 1796, COLERIDGE published vol. i. of his

_Juvenile Poems_, including three Sonnets by LAMB; in May, 1797, there

appeared a new edition, with many poems by LLOYD and LAMB. _The Fall of

Robespierre_, an historic drama, was published Sept. 22, 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

Government writers. In 1795, at the early age of 23, he delivered, at

Bristol, some public 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 _Conciones ad Populum_; the third

as _The Plot Discovered_. The eloquent passage 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 maintenance by writing verses for _The Morning Post_. It

was his fortune also to excite the ire of BUONAPARTE, 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.)

SOUTHEY thus alludes to the attack upon him (by GILLRAY, in his famous

caricature), in a letter addressed to C. W. W. WYNN, dated Hereford,

August 15, 1798:—“I have seen myself _Bedfordized_, 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_ abuse is the lumping together men of

such opposite principles; this was stupid. We should have all been

welcoming the _Director_, not the _Theophilanthrope_. The conductors of

_The Anti-Jacobin_ will have much to answer for in thus inflaming the

animosities of this country. They are labouring to produce 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 corrupt. 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?” _The Anti-Jacobin_ certainly speaks the sentiments of

Government.’—ED.]

* * * * *

WORDSWORTH, COLERIDGE, SOUTHEY (page 284).

[“The passionate verdicts given, both _pro_ and _con_, in reference to

WORDSWORTH, COLERIDGE, and SOUTHEY, may now be looked back upon with

some wonder, but all three had made themselves obnoxious to the charge

of renegadism. WORDSWORTH had accepted the office of stamp-distributor

from Lord Lonsdale; SOUTHEY, after attempting to suppress his

demagogical drama of _Wat Tyler_, became a violent Tory, bringing a hot

partisanship into the ranks to which he fled; and COLERIDGE, a

Tom-Paineite in politics and a preaching Unitarian, ended by adopting

all the doctrines of orthodoxy.”—_Sir John Bowring._—ED.]

* * * * *

EDMUND BURKE (page 286).

“ADAIR told me a great many things about BURKE, and FOX, and

FITZPATRICK, and all the eminent men of that time with whom he lived

when he was young. He said ... that FITZPATRICK was the most agreeable

of them all, but HARE the most brilliant. BURKE’S conversation was

delightful, so luminous and instructive. He was very passionate; and

ADAIR said that the first time he ever saw him he unluckily asked him

some question about the wild parts of Ireland, when BURKE broke out:

‘You are a fool and a blockhead. There are no wild parts in

Ireland.’ ... There was an attempt to bring about a reconciliation

between him and FOX, and a meeting for that purpose took place of all

the leading men, at Burlington House. BURKE was on the point of yielding

when his son suddenly made his appearance unbidden, and, on being told

what was going on, he said: ‘My father shall be no party to such a

compromise,’ took BURKE aside, and persuaded him to reject the

overtures. That son ADAIR described as the most disagreeable, violent,

and wrong-headed of men, but the idol of his father, who used to say

that he united all his own talents and acquirements with those of FOX

and everybody else, &c.”—See _The Greville Memoirs_, i. 136–7.—[ED.]

[The following remarkable passage occurs in a pamphlet written by TOM

PAINE, entitled: _Thomas Paine to the People of England, on the Invasion

of England; Philadelphia, printed at the Temple of Reason Press, Arch

Street, 1804_.

“The original plan, formed in the time of the Directory (but now much

more extensive) was to build one thousand boats, each sixty feet long,

sixteen feet broad, to draw about two feet water, to carry a twenty-four

or thirty-six pounder in the head and a field-piece in the stern, to be

run out as soon as they touched ground. Each boat was to carry a hundred

men, making in the whole one hundred thousand, and to row with twenty or

twenty-five oars on a side. Bonaparte was appointed to the command, and

by an agreement between him and me, I was to accompany him, as the

intention of the expedition was to give the people of England an

opportunity of forming a government for themselves, and thereby bring

about peace.”—ED.]

* * * * *

THE COURIER.

THE COURIER, in the time of the war, was the great paper; it obtained a

large circulation, and consequently exercised considerable influence. It

was started by JOHN PARRY in 1792, and he carried it on for some years

with tolerable success, till he was ruined in 1799 by a government

prosecution for a libel on the Emperor of Russia. It was bought by

DANIEL STUART, who left _The Morning Post_ for _The Courier_ in 1803.

During three years, says he, at the time of the overthrow of BUONAPARTE,

_The Courier_, by the able management of PETER STREET, who was editor

and half-proprietor, sold steadily upwards of 8000 per day; during one

fortnight it sold upwards of 10,000 daily. At the end of 1809, S. T.

COLERIDGE contributed to it some Essays on the Spaniards; and in 1811 he

wrote for it on a salary. At this time the paper was much under

ministerial direction. From about the year 1818 till 1829 _The Courier_

was conducted by W. MUDFORD, with whom WILLIAM STEWART was a proprietor.

After 1819 D. STUART took no interest in it, and parted with his last

share in it in 1822. After the year 1825, JAMES STUART, a Scotch

gentleman of great talent and respectability—the same that unfortunately

killed SIR ALEXANDER BOSWELL in a duel, and was author of _Travels in

the United States_—became editor. True to his principles, he gave in

this capacity every support in his power to the Whig or Liberal party.

He was appointed by LORD MELBOURNE to the situation of Factory

Inspector, which he held till his death, at the age of 74, in 1849. When

JAS. STUART obtained his factory appointment, SAM. LAMAN BLANCHARD

became editor. The paper having become, like other evening papers, less

profitable than of old, the proprietors sold it to the party they had so

long opposed. It took Tory politics; LAMAN BLANCHARD, of course,

resigned; and a few short years were sufficient to destroy a journal

which had once been the most valuable newspaper property in England. Its

last number appeared 6th July, 1842.

It is a curious, but not creditable, circumstance that _The Courier_ was

in the habit of re-printing, from year to year, without acknowledgment,

the able leading articles from _The Liverpool Courier_, written by the

Rev. Richard Watson, secretary to the Wesleyan Missionary Society, by

whom, in conjunction with his friend, Mr. Kaye, this newspaper was

established upon loyal and constitutional principles.

“_The Courier_, in 1814, was supplied by R. Peel, Lord Palmerston, and

J. W. Croker, with political squibs and lyrics, resembling in general

features _The Anti-Jacobin_ and _The Rolliad_. The verses are chiefly

parodies of Moore’s _Irish Melodies_, or of Byron’s songs, and are far

above the ordinary level of such compositions.... The various pieces

were collected and published in 1815, under the title of _The New Whig

Guide_.”—_Croker Papers_, vol. i., p. 58.

This statement contains several inaccuracies. The pieces forming _The

New Whig Guide_ were first collected and published in 1819, _and not in

1815_, for BYRON’S _Fare thee well_ was not written till April, 1816.

The parody on it was entitled _The Leader’s Lament. By the Right Hon.

George Ponsonby_. A. Hayward says in his review of _The Poetry of the

Anti-Jacobin_, in _The Edinburgh Review_, 1858—that “CANNING has been

traditionally credited with the parody of Moore’s. _Believe me, if all

those endearing young charms_, the gentleman addressed being a

distinguished commoner afterwards ennobled (the first LORD METHUEN), who

was far from meriting the character [of a foolish fop] thereby fastened

on him”. The other parodies were by JOHN CALCRAFT, the Hon. W. H.

LYTTELTON, DUDLEY NORTH, M.P., KIRKMAN FINLAY, M.P. for Glasgow, &c. MR.

METHUEN, in return, wrote many clever squibs and parodies against the

Tories, which were collected, under the title of _The New Tory Guide_,

and reproduced, like its rivals in 1819. “Talking of _The Morning

Chronicle_,” says T. MOORE (_Diary, 19th March, 1831_), “PAUL METHUEN

told us he was the author of almost all those about _The Rat Club_;

which are certainly some of the best.”

THE STAR.

THE STAR, the first London daily Evening Newspaper, was started in 1788

by PETER STUART, brother to DANIEL STUART, of _The Morning Post_. Its

first editor was ANDREW MACDONALD, author of _Vimonda_, a tragedy, and

other works: and after him another Scottish poet, John Mayne, author of

_The Siller Gun_, was editor. ROBERT BURNS was offered an engagement to

write poetry for it, at the rate of one guinea an article per week. The

arrangement was not completed. It was to PETER STUART that BURNS

addressed his “Poem, written to a gentleman who had sent him a

Newspaper, and offered to continue it free of expense”. The facetious

Bob Allen, of whom Charles Lamb has such pleasant reminiscences, was for

many years a contributor to this paper. Subsequently, DR. A. TILLOCH,

editor of _The Philosophical Magazine_, was for many years editor of

_The Star_. After Oct. 15, 1831, _The Star_ became incorporated with

_The Albion_ newspaper, under the title of _The Albion and Evening

Star_.

_The Star_ was during many years the leading newspaper on the Whig side,

CAMPBELL the poet being one of its writers after 1804, when he was

engaged at a salary of four guineas a week. The clear profits of this

paper in 1820 were said, on apparently good authority, to amount to

£6000.

THE MORNING CHRONICLE.

THE MORNING CHRONICLE was, with one exception (_The Public Ledger_,

which started in 1760), the oldest of the daily papers up to the period

of its discontinuance March 19, 1862. The latest number in the British

Museum is dated Dec. 31, 1861.

It was established on Whig principles, 28th June, 1769, by WILLIAM

WOODFALL, who carried it on with great success till 1789.

Woodfall, in addition to other talents requisite to the success of a

newspaper, possessed two, which were of essential service to it, namely,

his prodigious memory, which enabled him to report Parliamentary Debates

without the aid of notes, and the excellence of his Theatrical

Criticisms, which, as MR. FOX BOURNE, in his copious and valuable work

on _English Newspapers_, 2 vols., 8vo., 1887—one to which the editor of

the present publication has been under frequent obligations—says, “are a

neglected mine of wealth for students of Theatrical History”.

On WOODFALL’S death, in 1803, it was sold to JAMES PERRY, who borrowed

£500 from RANSOME & CO., the bankers, and some more from BELLAMY, the

wine merchant—who was also caterer and doorkeeper to the House of

Commons—and entered into partnership with a Charterhouse schoolmaster

named GRAY, who had just received a legacy of £500. With that joint

capital, the two bought _The Chronicle_, the DUKE OF NORFOLK making

PERRY a present of a house in the Strand, which he converted into a new

publishing office. A few other influential Whigs, also, contributed a

further sum, which, as the late SIR ROBERT ADAIR, who is so often

satirized in _The Anti-Jacobin_, and who was a subscriber to the fund,

informed the editor of the present work, was £300.

PERRY was on good terms with his contributors, and made _The Morning

Chronicle_ a more prosperous and influential journal than had ever

before been known in England. GRAY provided the heavy articles, PERRY

those of lighter sort; and after GRAY’S death, which happened when he

had been part proprietor for only a few years, other writers were

employed, among them JAS. MACKINTOSH and SHERIDAN, and in later times T.

CAMPBELL and T. MOORE, who contributed verse, and JOHN CAMPBELL, then a

young barrister, who was the Theatrical Critic, and was still so in

1810. T. CAMPBELL, on coming to London in 1802, was engaged as a

political writer, but this not being his forte, he, with great judgment,

confined himself to poetical pieces, among which were _Ye Mariners of

England_, and _The Exile of Erin_. PERRY had another and equally famous

contributor. In Sept., 1793, S. T. COLERIDGE, then aged nineteen, “sent

a poem of a few lines to PERRY, soliciting a loan of a guinea for a

distressed author,” which prayer was immediately granted. In 1796, he

accepted an offer of Perry’s to write in it, but the arrangement was

never carried out. In later years, COLERIDGE wrote some other poems for

_The Morning Chronicle_, and his friend CHARLES LAMB was an occasional

writer of prose for it.

PERRY continued as the general manager of the paper till his death on

6th Dec., 1821; but before this he had left much of the editing to

others, his first assistant after GRAY’S death being ROBERT SPANKIE,

ultimately attorney-general of Bengal. The next was JOHN BLACK, who had

joined him in 1810; and upon him, when PERRY died, the entire management

devolved.

After PERRY’S death the paper was purchased for £42,000, by WILLIAM

CLEMENT, by whom it was held till 1834, when it was sold to SIR JOHN

EASTHOPE for £16,500.

In 1843, JOHN BLACK was dismissed to make way for ANDREW DOYLE, who had

been Foreign Editor, and had married Sir John’s daughter. Black died in

1855.

On 26th July, 1847, SIR JOHN EASTHOPE, who had been carrying on the

paper at a loss for some time, sold it to the Duke of Newcastle, W. E.

Gladstone, Sidney Herbert, and other influential Peelites. Its new

Editor was JOHN DOUGLAS COOK, who had for some time been one of the

reporters of _The Times_, and who gathered round him a brilliant staff

of contributors, including George Sydney Smythe, afterwards Lord

Strangford, Gilbert Venables, Abraham Hayward, William Vernon Harcourt,

and Thackeray. Its business manager was WILLIAM DELANE, the father of

the clever young editor of _The Times_, JOHN THADDEUS DELANE.

_The Chronicle_ lingered on as a would-be Peelite organ till the autumn

of 1854, when by a curious arrangement, the paper, with all its plant,

was sold to Serjeant GLOVER, for £7500, on the understanding that, if he

continued to support in it the Peelite policy, he should have the money

back with interest, being paid £3000 a year for three years. That

contract soon fell through, as GLOVER preferred to draw a subsidy from

LOUIS NAPOLEON, and to make other experiments. At the close of 1854, the

circulation of _The Morning Chronicle_ averaged only about 2500, while

that of _The Morning Post_ was about 3000, that of _The Morning Herald_

about 3500, that of _The Daily News_ about 5300, that of _The Morning

Advertiser_ about 6600, and that of _The Times_ about 55,000.

The last number of _The Morning Chronicle_ appeared March 19, 1862, when

what at one time had been the most influential journal in the country

altogether ceased to exist.

Of this paper SHERIDAN speaks in _The Critic_, and to it BYRON addressed

a _Familiar Epistle_. For its columns W. HAZLITT wrote some of the

finest criticisms in our own or any other language. Some of the early

_Sketches by Boz_ appeared in it, but they were really commenced in the

old _Monthly Magazine_. DICKENS’S father was one of the staff. HAZLITT

also contributed to it Parliamentary Reports, as at a later period did

C. DICKENS.

Among other distinguished writers in _The Morning Chronicle_ were Lord

Brougham, the Duke of Sussex, David Ricardo, Cyrus Redding, Albany

Fonblanque, James and John Stuart Mill, John Payne Collier, Eyre Evans

Crowe, Charles Buller, Lord Holland, Joseph Parkes, Michael Joseph Quin,

George Hogarth, James Fraser, W. Hazlitt, secundus, Lord Melbourne, W.

Johnson Fox, Henry Mayhew, Lord Palmerston, A. B. Reach, Alex. and

Charles Mackay, Tom Taylor.

THE MORNING POST.

THE MORNING POST, the next _daily_ paper in order of date to _The

Chronicle_, first appeared in 1772, and was probably projected by JOHN

BELL. Three years subsequently the REV. HENRY BATE (who took in 1784 the

name of Dudley, and was created a baronet in 1816) joined it, and was

connected with it till the end of 1780, when he quarrelled with his

colleagues, and set up _The Morning Herald_, the first number of which

appeared on Nov. 1 in the same year. In June, 1781, he was sentenced to

a year’s imprisonment for an atrocious libel on the Duke of Richmond. He

was (says Horace Walpole, in his _Journal of the Reign of George III._),

the worst of all the scandalous libellers that had appeared, both on

private persons as well as public. His life was dissolute, and he had

fought more than one duel. Yet Lord Sandwich had procured for him a good

Crown living, and he was believed to be pensioned by the Court. He died

in 1824.

After BATE, as editor, came the REV. W. JACKMAN (or JACKSON)—an equally

discreditable clergyman,—and he was succeeded by JOHN TAYLOR (author of

_Monsieur Tonson_), for whom PETER PINDAR (DR. JOHN WOLCOT) wrote

whimsical verses.

In 1792, MR. TATTERSALL was the responsible proprietor, who, knowing

more about horses and sport than about the elegancies of literature, DR.

WOLCOT continued to be the chief writer; and who, besides his clever

verses, gave much information upon affairs of the prize-ring and kindred

amusements. In 1795, TATTERSALL sold the entire copyright, with house

and printing materials, for £600. The circulation then was only 350

daily.

The purchaser was MR. DANIEL STUART; and MR. CHRISTIE, the auctioneer,

was also a proprietor. Previous to this time, ROBERT BURNS was applied

to, to supply poetry, but none was ever sent. DANIEL STUART was not

twenty-nine when he bought _The Morning Post_; and JAMES (afterwards SIR

JAS.) MACKINTOSH, who was his brother-in-law, and was a regular

contributor, was his senior only by a year.

After 1790, the same ANDREW MACDONALD, who had been editor of _The

Star_, furnished poems, as did WORDSWORTH, SOUTHEY, C. LLOYD, and other

verse writers. At the commencement of 1798, S. T. COLERIDGE—then only

twenty-five—was engaged to contribute poetry. The Odes, _Fire, Famine,

and Slaughter_; _France_; _Dejection_; and that on _The Departing Year_;

with twenty or thirty other pieces, since included in his Poetical

Works, among which was _Love_—one of the most popular poems of this

age—were first published in _The Morning Post_. To these must be added

the first draught of _The Devil’s Thoughts_, a piece afterwards much

altered. About 1800, the paper was supplied with some excellent pieces,

in prose, including Fashionable Intelligence, short pungent articles,

and jokes, by CHARLES LAMB.

In 1798 its sale was over 2000; and so well had DANIEL STUART managed

his property—being exceedingly well served by his principal assistant,

GEORGE LANE—that when he left _The Morning Post_ for _The Courier_, in

1803, the circulation amounted to 4,500. It, therefore, stood higher in

point of sale than any other morning paper, the order in respect of

numbers from high to low being this: _Morning Post_, _Morning Herald_,

_Morning Advertiser_, _Times_. The amount received for it was about

£25,000. According to JOHN TAYLOR, editor of _The Sun_, in his _Records

of my Life_, _The Morning Post_ was afterwards purchased by Government

to silence attacks on the PRINCE REGENT.

Much of the success of _The Morning Post_ was undoubtedly owing to the

writings of COLERIDGE. He afterwards declared that he had wasted the

prime and manhood of his intellect in writing for _The Morning Post_ and

_Courier_. Among his contributions to the former (March 19, 1800) was

his famous character of WILLIAM PITT. The last time he wrote in it was

in August, 1802.

A very competent judge, THOMAS DE QUINCEY, thus alludes to COLERIDGE’S

political writings:—“Worlds of fine thinking,” he says of the daily

press, “lie buried in that vast abyss, never to be disentombed, or

restored to human admiration. Like the sea, it has swallowed treasures

without end, that no diving-bell will bring up again. But nowhere

throughout its shoreless magazines of wealth does there lie such a bed

of pearls, confounded with the rubbish and ‘_purgamenta_’ of ages, as in

the political papers of COLERIDGE. No more appreciable monument could be

raised to the memory of COLERIDGE, than a re-publication of his Essays

in _The Morning Post_, but still more of those afterwards published in

_The Courier_.” These have since been reprinted under the title of

_Essays on his own Times_.

APPENDIX.

THE ANARCHISTS.—An Ode.

[A Parody on Collins’s Ode to the Passions.]

—Numero plures, virtute et honore minores,

Indocti stolidique et depugnare parati.—_Hor._

When Anarchy, sworn foe to Kings,

O’er Gallia wav’d her crimson wings,

Ere yet she spoil’d with iron hand

Fair Europe’s desolated land;

Her offspring here, a spurious brood,

In faction nurs’d, inur’d to blood,

Elate with Hope, perplex’d with Fear,

Would often raise the listening ear;

And all their mother’s wonders tell,

And throng around her secret cell,

Ranting, bribing, whispering, trembling,

Urging, boasting, and dissembling.

By turns they felt the Gallic mind

Enlarg’d, unprejudic’d, refin’d;

Till once, by all the goddess fir’d,

Beyond Discretion rapt, inspir’d;

Seditious, false, and prone to ill,

They eager snatch’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,

And bade new scenes of joy at distance hail;

When tyrant Kings shall be 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,

While 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,

Whisper’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 lyre,

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 forth their allies low,

Before the fallen arch-seceder bow;

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.

While BEDFORD proud his lesson to rehearse,

With studious labours urged the bold reply:

Shouts of applause ran rattling through the sky:

And he, the hero of the day,

Right glad their servile suffrage to repay,

Shook 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 controul?

Arise! as in that happier time

United, fearless, bold, sublime.

’Tis said, and I 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!

—_Fabricius._

[Illustration]

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 shell,

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’d, refin’d,

Till once, ’tis said, when all were fir’d,

Fill’d with fury, rapt, inspir’d,

From the supporting myrtles round

They snatch’d her instruments of sound,

And, as they oft had heard apart

Sweet lessons of her forceful art,

Each, for Madness ruled the hour,

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 delighted measure?

Still 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.

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 soul-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 fix’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,

Pour’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 fond 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 flying 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.

O MUSIC! sphere-descended maid,

Friend of PLEASURE, WISDOM’S aid,

Why, goddess, why to us 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.

Where 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.

[Illustration]

THE ANTI-JACOBIN REVIEW AND MAGAZINE

FOR JULY, 1798.

MAGNA EST VERITAS ET PRÆVALEBIT.

_Art. 1. The Republican Judge, or the American Liberty of the Press,

as exhibited, explained, and exposed, in the base and partial

Prosecution of William Cobbett, for a pretended Libel against the

King of Spain and his Embassador, before the Supreme Court of

Pennsylvania. With an Address to the People of England._

_By Peter Porcupine. 8vo., pp. 96. Price 2s. Wright, London._

The past writings of Mr. William Cobbett, who has assumed the

appellation 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 confliction, 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 advocates of anarchy to injure him in the public

mind, and, by blasting his reputation, 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 establishment of the _virtuous_ republic of the Great

Nation, were neglected in the _glorious_ 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 country 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.[330] In the course of

his exertions to produce this desirable end, honest 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 Martinez 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,” as MR. 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 posts_, 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. 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. Unable

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 and 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 Peters_. 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 _McKean is

Chief Justice_”. Of this _republican_ Judge our author gives such an

account as must convey to English minds a strange idea of the

administration of _republican_ 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 bosoms 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 distribution 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! All _patriots_ to the backbone:

true philanthropists and universal 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 refused to find the bill, and the

prosecution of course ceased. The Judge, not less disappointed than

the prosecutor, on this occasion, took an early opportunity—to his

infamy be it recorded!—of declaring from the Bench that the Grand

Jury would not _do their duty_. What would the disaffected in this

country say were any 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 attentive 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 who is more sober, industrious, 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 accusation 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 _all_ the actions of our lives, public and

_domestic_, and to extend it beyond ourselves to _every branch of

our families_.

“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 my wife a whore_; being persecuted with such infamous,

such base and hellish calumny in the _philanthropic_ 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 those 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 the 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 government 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 _me_, 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 libels, on religious and political subjects,

which had never roused the indignation, 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 administring 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 _pro_secution but

of _per_secution.

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_ parliament in the British Senate, on

the Kings of Prussia and Hungary, _before_ those monarchs had become

allies of _France_.

The following extracts will, at once, afford a criterion of the

political principles 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.[331]

“‘Those _illustrious citizens_ sent to Botany Bay. May they be

_speedily recalled_ by their country in _the day of her

regeneration_.’

“‘May the spirit of parliamentary reform in Britain and Ireland

_burst the bonds of corruption, and overwhelm the foes of liberty_.’

“‘The _sans-culottes_ of France. May the robes of _all_ the

_Emperors_, _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 ‘_decent_’ 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

dethronement of ‘our great and good ally, Louis XVI.’ there were

‘assembled,’ according to the ‘_procès verbal_’ which was sent to

the Paris convention, ‘the CHIEFS, _civil and military_’. This

_procès 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 enthusiasm_ and _all our

sentiments_.’[332]

“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 fête, one of the ceremonies of which

was _burning the English flag_; 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 Great Britain.

“A Judge of Pennsylvania, REDMAN, was, in November, 1795, caught

thieving in the shop of MR. FOLWELL, the dry-goods merchant in Front

Street. MR. FOLWELL detected him, took the money ($300) from him,

and kicked him into the street. His _friends_, 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 worthless

press of America. Such are _republican judges_, and such is

republican morality! But this is not the worst. I know a Judge who

_committed murder_! wilful murder, 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 my life, I will publish such a collection of facts as will

shock the universe.

“A Pennsylvania _Judge’s wife_ 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 cowardly

newspapers have never noticed the affair it is notorious enough.

“There are more bastards born annually in the single state of

Pennsylvania, than in all the British dominions: and as to

cuckoldom, I will only say that every paper teems with

_advertisements of wives 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 falsehood of the assertion so frequently repeated, 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 subject which

he promises hereafter to expose more fully (a promise which we trust

he 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 against his 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 by, 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 _Republican governments are the most

arbitrary 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 expected to hear DOCTOR

PRIESTLEY 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 short, 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. We 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 “_delicate_” or fastidious who can reject

substantial advantages for fanciful defects. Though Peter aim not at

embellishments, he possesses great strength and energy of language,

and generally writes with 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 concludes, will, we trust, have a

due effect on the minds of those to whom they are addressed. “Such,

_Britons_, is the fruit of republican government _here_; not among

the apish and wolfish French, but among a people descended from the

same ancestors as yourselves. 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. With 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 degrading curse

of revolutionary madness and modern _republicanism_.”

PETER PORCUPINE’S WILL.

[By WILLIAM COBBETT. Published in _The Anti-Jacobin Review and

Magazine_; or Monthly Political and Literary Censor: from July to

December, 1798. Vol. i., pp. 725–8.—ED.]

In the name of Fun, Amen. I PETER PORCUPINE, Pamphleteer and Newsmonger,

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 complete, 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.

_Item._ To the Mayor, Aldermen, and Councils of the City of

Philadelphia, I bequeath all the sturdy young hucksters, who infest the

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_.

_Item._ 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.

_Item._ 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 discovery of which plan, the said

society did, in the year 1793, grant to the said language maker 500

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 or guise, either at the time of my death, or _Six months

after_, pretend to speak, write, or publish an eulogium on me, my

calling or character, either literary, military, civil, or political.

_Item._ 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 by degrees_ and not expose himself to detection, as he now 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 spelling 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 desire, exhort and

conjure the said ’Squire news-man, to change the title of his paper,

_The Minerva_, for that of _The Political Centaur_.

_Item._ To F. A. Mughlenburg, Esq., Speaker of a late house of

Representatives of the United States, I leave a most superbly finished

statue of Janus.

_Item._ To Tom the Tinker, I leave a liberty-cap, a tricoloured 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

of _filling them up_; requesting him, however, to be rather more

merciful than he 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: _Honesty is the best policy_. 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 this spindle-shanked legatee wore before Gen. Howe, when he made

his triumphal entry into Philadelphia.

_Item._ To Thomas Lord Bradford (otherwise called Goosy Tom),

Bookseller, 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 there 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 together_, 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 enormous 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 produce, 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 _New York Argus_,

and the _Philadelphia Merchants’ Advertiser_, I will and bequeath one

ounce of modesty and love of truth, to be equally divided between them.

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.

_Item._ To Franklin Bache, Editor of the _Aurora of Philadelphia_, I

will and bequeath a small bundle of French assignats, which I brought

with me from the country of equality. If these should be too light in

value for his pressing exigencies, I desire my executors, or any one of

them, to bestow on him a second part to what he has lately received in

Southwark: and as a further proof of my good will and affection, I

request him to accept of a gag and a brand new pair of fetters, which,

if he should refuse, I will and bequeath him in lieu thereof—my

malediction.

_Item._ To my beloved countrymen, the people of Old England, I will and

bequeath a copy of Doctor Priestley’s _Charity Sermon for the benefit of

poor Emigrants_; and to the said preaching philosopher himself, I

bequeath a heart full of disappointment, grief, and despair.

_Item._ 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

yet find courage enough to carry them to the hearts of their abominable

tyrants.

_Item._ To Citizen M——oe, I will and bequeath my chamber looking-glass.

It is a plain but exceeding true mirror; in it he will see the exact

likeness of a traitor, who has bartered the honour and interest of his

country to a perfidious and savage enemy.

_Item._ To the Republican Britons, who have fled from the hands of

justice in their own country, and who are a scandal, a nuisance, and a

disgrace to this, I bequeath hunger and nakedness, scorn and reproach;

and I do hereby positively enjoin on my executors to contribute five

hundred dollars towards the erection of gallowses and gibbets, for the

accommodation of the said imported patriots, when the legislators of

this unhappy state shall have the wisdom to countenance such useful

establishments.

_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 attention, I will and bequeath him twenty feet of pine plank,

which I request my executors to see made into a pillory, to be kept for

his particular use, till a gibbet can be prepared.

_Item._ To Tom Paine, the author of _Common Sense_, _Rights of Man_,

_Age of Reason_, and a _Letter to General Washington_, I bequeath a

strong hempen collar, as the only legacy 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 disgraced by the head of such a monster.

_Item._ To the gaunt outlandish orator, vulgarly called the Political

Sinner, who in the just order of things follows next after the last

mentioned legatee, I bequeath the honour of partaking in his

catastrophe; that in their deaths, as well as in their lives, all the

world may exclaim: “_See how rogues hang together_”.

_Item._ To all and singular the good people of these States, I leave

peace, union, abundance, happiness, untarnished honour, and an

unconquerable everlasting hatred to the French Revolutionists and their

destructive abominable principles.

_Item._ To each of my Subscribers I leave a _quill_, hoping that in

their hands it may become a sword against every thing that is hostile to

the government and independence of their country.

_Lastly._ To my three brothers, Paul, Simon, and Dick, I leave my whole

estate, as well real as personal (first paying the foregoing legacies)

to be equally divided between them, share and share alike. And I do

hereby make and constitute my said three brothers the Executors of this

my LAST WILL; to see the same performed, according to its true intent

and meaning, as far as in their power lies.

PETER PORCUPINE.

Witnesses present,

Philo Fun, }

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 Poetry of the

Anti-Jacobin_ seemed a convenient medium for giving some specimens of it

which appeared in _The Anti-Jacobin Review and Magazine_, a work

conducted on the same principles, but by different writers, and with 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 Dalling, “a very great man in the world; as

it was he made a great noise in it”. (See pp. 311–319.)

_The Vision of Liberty_ is by C. KIRKPATRICK SHARPE, an author and

artist much esteemed by Scottish antiquarians, of which specimens only

need be given. Of _The Anarchists_, the author is not known.]

I.

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 soon and late,

And newest modes allured still to try—

England, beware God’s wrath to aggravate,

For foreign magic blinds thy charmed eye,

And Liberty, sweet Liberty, is now the constant cry.

II.

As on my couch in slumber’s arms I lay,

A vision did my senses entertain;

Of late, me thought in France I miss’d my way,

Amid a columnless deserted plain;

No man or beast upon it did remain,

Swept off by Discord’s wide destroying strife:

Ne planted fence, ne field of waving grain,

Marking the toiling farmer’s busy life,

But ruined huts and castles, brent, were wondrous rife.

III.

Yet on this plain, most goodly to behold,

Saw I a temple tow’ring to the sky,

The dome where of was made of basest gold,

Most false, but yet most lovely to the eye;

And rotting pillars reareth it on high,

Of ghastly human heads, and clotted gore,

With dust, y’mixt the mortar doth supply,

While foulest birds still round this temple soar,

And filthy serpents hiss, and giant hyenas roar.

IV.

Among the heads that did the mass compose,

Three royal skulls were there—one of a king—

Meek saint, who never once revil’d his foes,

His bloody foes that him to scaffold bring;

One of a maid; O heaven! that I could sing

With Spenser’s tongue, her spotless purity,

Her holy zeal, in courts so rare a thing,

By lawless fiends condemn’d she was to die,

And sent, untimely sent, to seek her native sky.

V.

The third I marked with melancholy eyes,

A female head, that once a crown did wear,

Cut off in life’s full bloom, now low she lies,

The loose loves weeping o’er her early bier,

Nor Virtue’s self denies a tender tear;

So young a creature, wonder not she fell,

And left the paths of chastity severe,

Debauched by a court where lust did dwell

Like treach’rous Circe, skill’d in many a witching spell.

VI.

Ah! where are now her gorgeous robes of state,

The glitt’ring gems that did her fairness deck?

The cringing nobles that on her did wait,

The high-born dames that kneeled at her beck?

Alas! a ghastly face, a bloody neck,

A simple winding-sheet is now her share;

Look here, ye proud ones, on this mighty wreck,

And learn what perishable stuff ye are,

From her poor mangled carcase, once so sweet and fair.

VII.

And on the ground there lay a murder’d child,

A piteous sight it was, and full of woe,

Who, when alive, by every art defil’d,

With poison, they at last did overthrow,

Wretches, who never ruth or conscience know;

O lovely flowret cropt by villain hands,

How will thy butchers dread th’ almighty brow,

Arm’d with frowns, when each at judgment stands,

And God the meed of murder from His throne commands.

VIII.

Then o’er the portal was this motto plac’d,

“The house of liberty,” in gold y’writ,

And, vent’ring in, I stood like one amaz’d

Such sights of horror on my heart-strings smit.

There Infidelity, in moody fit,

Hugg’d Suicide—there Rage, and deadly Fears,

There Lechery, with goatish leer did sit,

And Murder, quaffing up his victim’s tears,

With thousand other crimes, too foul for human ears.

IX.

In ’mid the house an image stood in state,

Like to VOLTAIRE in visage and in shape,

Wither’d his heart with fellest rage and hate

Shrivell’d and lean his carcase like an ape

And numerous crowds upon the same did gape,

As he all-naked stood to every eye;

Above an altar covered with crape,

And formed of his books one might descry,

Profane and lewd it was, and cramm’d with many a lie.

X.

And still from ’neath the altar roared he,

As from a bull lowing in cavern deep,

“Come worship me, _O men_, come worship me;

Spit on the cross, of Jesus take no keep,

I promise you an everlasting sleep;

The soul and body both shall turn to clay;

Ye penitents, why do ye sigh and weep?

Let not damnation’s terrors you affray,

Come learn my lore that drives all foolish fears away”.

· · · · ·

XIV.

Next came that cursed felon THOMAS PAINE,

Mounted upon a tiger fierce and fell;

And still a shower of blood on him doth rain,

With tears that from the eyes of widows well;

Loud in his ears the cries of orphans yell;

The axe impending o’er his head alway

While devils wait to catch his soul to hell,

The knave is fill’d with anguish and dismay—

And anxious round he looks, even straws do him affray.

XV.

Then saw I mounted on a braying ass

WILLIAM and MARY, sooth, a couple jolly;

Who married, note ye how it came to pass,

Although each held that marriage was but folly.

· · · · ·

XVIII.

Then came MARIA HELEN WILLIAMS STONE,

Sitting upon a goat with bearded chin;

And she hath written volumes many a one;

Better the idle jade had learned to spin.

· · · · ·

XIX.

Next mounted on a monster like a louse,

With parchments loaded, came a man of law,[333]

Sprung from an ancient Caledonian house,

Cunningly could he quibble out a flaw;

And this sage man would chatter like a daw,

To prove the moon green cheese, and black, pure white,

Spitting out treason from his greedy maw;

To breed sedition was his chief delight,

And scratch men’s scabs to ulcers still with all his might.

XX.

Then on an Irish bull of skin and bone,

A foul churl[334] rode, who still a harp would strum,

A harp Hibernian, stringless saving one,

Well tun’d to harsh sedition’s growling hum;

He hit the bull on which he had his bum

Full many a bitter pang, nor gave him rest—

Dealing his blows on Teagues that round him come,

Grieving the while for man and brute opprest,

Chaunting the Irish howl, abhorr’d of man and beast.

XXI.

O IRELAND, spot accurs’d—tho’ glorious fair,

Shines there the sun, the flowers enamell’d blow,

And scent, with fragrance sweet, the balmy air,

Rippling the gliding pools that softly flow;

No noxious reptile there to man a foe

Abides, but black revenge with cautious plan,

Cool-blooded cruelty with torments slow,

Springs rank; with weeds the goodly soil’s o’er-ran,

And all the reptile’s venom rankles in the man.

XXII.

Then in a gorgeous car of beaten gold,

Drove on a portly man, of mighty rank,[335]

A person comely, of extraction old;

But, carrion-like, his reputation stank;

Sly was the wight, with crafty quip and crank,

To cram with glittering coin his bursting bags;

Yet whilom taxing-men play’d him a prank,

By catching in their traps some strayed nags,

And eke some livery slaves, in miser’s livery rags.

XXIII.

Then on a turtle came proud London’s Mayor,

Followed by Aldermen, a frowsy crew,

Strong smelling of Cheapside, and luscious fair,

Yet apoplexy made his followers few.

Long antlers on the head of each man grew,

So that they seem’d a host of moving horn;

Anon as on they came they’d mump and chew,

Stuffing their guts from dawning of the morn,

Till shades of evening fell—for eating only born.

XXIV.

On a cock sparrow fed with Spanish flies,

A swilling Captain came, with liquor mellow,

And still the crowd in hideous uproar cries,[336]

“Sing us a bawdy song, thou d——d good fellow”,

Incontinent he sets himself to bellow,

And shouts with all the strength that in him lies;

The Citizets exclaim, “He’s sans pareilly O”;

The Citizens in raptures roll their eyes,

And drink with leathern ears, the fool’s lewd ribaldries.

XXV.

On came these wights, and many more beside,

Thick as the grains of sand upon the shore,

Thick as a swarm of flies in summer tide,

That on a dunghill hive and hover o’er;

Most had their hides all scall’d, their trousers tore;

Many sans breeches, shameless trudg’d along,

And many a noble knave and titled w——e,

With Irish bog-trotters would crowd and throng,

Carolling catches base, and filthy French chanson.

XXVI.

Like roaring waves they cover’d all the plain;

And tho’ equality they still requir’d,

Each cudgell’d sore his breast with might and main,

Each to get foremost ardently desir’d.

Some fell into the dirt, and foul were mir’d,

The rest rode over them and took no heed.

Their yells, with patriotic ardour fired,

So made my flesh to quake with very dread,

That Morpheus left my couch, and all the vision fled.

The insertion of the foregoing poem (which was never printed) into your

entertaining and useful publication, will much oblige,

Your humble servant,

C. K.

[Illustration]

INDEX TO THE _ANTI-JACOBIN_.

_4th Edition, 1799; 2 vols., 8vo._

A.

_Abuse_, a new and approved method of conveying, vol. i., p. 502.

_Acme and Septimius_, or the Happy Union, vol. i., p. 452.

_Advertisements_: Government strenuously advised to withdraw them from

the Jacobin Papers, vol. ii., p. 119.

_Advertisements_, Government, withdrawn from the Jacobin Papers, vol.

ii., pp. 308, 490.

_Address_ of City of Londonderry to Lord Camden, vol. i., p. 356; His

Lordship’s Reply, 358.

_Ad—r_, Mr. Robert, tries to imitate Mr. Burke’s style, vol. i., p.

377—fails egregiously—mistakes a coffin for a corpse—transmutes

the head of the house of Russell into lead, p. 378—writes half a

letter to Mr. Fox—and puts the world in high good humour, p. 422.

_Agricola_: his letter on the advantages of a well-regulated economy,

vol. i., p. 583.

_Anecdotes_ respecting Lord Duncan’s victory, vol. i., pp. 38, 107.

_Appropriate_ Speech—See Lord William Russell.

_Assessed Taxes_: benefits arising from trebling them, vol. i., p.

16—horrible effects of, vol. i., pp. 347, 503.

_Assessed Taxes_ evaded by the Duke of Bedford—See _Bedford_, Duke of.

B.

_Bachelor_: his letter, vol. i., p. 258—his definition of a patriot,

vol. i., p. 261.

_Bacchus_: a life of him forged by the _Morning Chronicle_ for the

diabolical purpose of burlesquing the life and death, and

resurrection and ascension of Our BLESSED SAVIOUR, vol. i., p.

220, &c.

_Ballynahinch_, a _loyal_ town of Lord Moira’s—a meeting of rebel

delegates held there, vol. i., p. 83.

_Ballynahinch_, a new song, vol. ii., p. 603.

_Ballynahinchers_: loyal countenances of, read by Lord Moira, vol.

ii., p. 507—loyal professions of, heard by ditto—rob the king’s

stores—debauch his troops—attack them, and are cut to pieces, vol.

ii., p. 519.

_Bedford_, Duke of: his Surcharge of 25 Servants and 17 Horses, vol

i., pp. 230, 254.

_Bedford_, Duke of: justified for evading the Assessed Taxes, by the

_Morning Post_, vol. i., p. 255—and by the _Morning Chronicle_, p.

297—proved to have gained much honour by evading the Assessed

Taxes, by the _Morning Post_, vol. i., p. 256—cleared from any

attempt to evade the Assessed Taxes, by a note of admiration, by

the _Courier_, p. 350.

_Beresford_, Mr., character of him, vol. ii., p. 556.

_Bit_ of an Ode to Mr. Fox, vol. i., p. 422.

_Blockade_ of the Seine, vol. i., pp. 571, 616.

_Blasphemy_ attempted without success by the _Morning Post_, vol. i.,

p. 505—and by the _Courier_—fully succeeded in by the _Morning

Chronicle_, vol. i., p. 325, &c.

_Bosville_, Mr., Banker to the Corresponding Society, vol. i., p. 409.

_Brownrigg_, Mrs.: Inscription for the Door of her Cell in Newgate,

vol. i., p. 35.

_British Merchant_, his Letter on the misrepresentations of the Party,

with respect to the continuance of the War, vol. i., p. 593.

_Brissot’s_ Ghost, vol. ii., p. 236.

_Burdett_, Sir Something: his affectionate mention of Mr. Paine at the

Shakespeare Tavern, vol. i., p. 136.

_Burdett_, Sir Francis, runner to the Corresponding Society, vol. i.,

p. 408.

_Buonaparté_: his health given by Mr. Macfungus, vol. i., p. 35—his

Letter to the Commandant at Zanté, vol. ii., p. 535.

C.

_Camille Jordan_, asserts that one of our Jacobin Newspapers is in the

pay of France, vol. i., pp. 507, 622; vol. ii., pp. 17, 51, 86,

488.

_Cambridge Intelligencer_, detected and exposed, vol. ii., pp. 263,

296.

_Chevy Chase_; a Ballad to the Tune of, vol. ii., p. 21.

_Choice_, The: an Ode, vol. i., p. 263.

_Clare_, The Earl of, Character of, vol. ii., p. 544.

_Clare_, Earl of: proposes a question respecting the extent of Lord

Moira’s DUPERY, vol. ii., p. 518.

_Clever_: See Mr. Robert Ad—r, vol. i., p. 422.

_Coughing_ and laughing: See Mr. John Nicholls, vol. i., p. 186.

_Courtney_, Mr., fully convicted of kidnapping—rhymes, vol. i., p.

376.

_Coalition_, The New: an Ode, vol. i., p. 599.

_Coalition_ of Kings, vol. ii., p. 546.

_Constant_ Reader: his Letter on the Designs of our foreign and

domestic Enemies, vol. i., pp. 544, 597.

_Courier_, The; a mad—and foolish—and odious—and contemptible paper,

_passim_. Picked up by a Gentleman in the streets, for the sake of

its superior information!!! vol. ii., p. 230.

D.

_Detector_: his Letter on the pretended Treaty of Pavia, vol. i., p.

474—On the Treaty of Pilnitz, vol. ii., p. 37—On the Coalition of

Kings, vol. ii., p. 546.

_Description_ of a very extraordinary Plant now growing at Paris, vol.

ii., p. 573.

_Description_ of Mr. Fox’s Radical Reform, vol. i., p. 396.

_Description_ of a Scribbler for the Jacobin Papers, vol. i., p. 613.

_Description_ of the Jacobin Prints, vol. ii., p. 119.

_Decius Mus_: his account of the Secessions in the Roman Common

Wealth, vol. i., p. 261.

_Dismissal_ of the Duke of Norfolk, vol. i., p. 429.

_Duncan_, Lord: Anecdotes relative to his Victory, vol. i., pp. 38,

107.

_Duke_, The, and the Taxing Man, vol. i., p. 265.

_Dupery_ of Lord Moira, vol. ii., pp. 36, 518, &c., &c.

E.

_Edwards_, Mr. Bryan: offers to pay for Mr. Nicholls’ dinner at the

Crown and Anchor—finds his pockets pick’d—his exclamation thereat,

vol. i., p. 410.

_Elegy_ on the Death of Jean Bon Saint André, vol. ii., p. 314.

_Epigram_ on the Loan upon England, vol. i., p. 267.

_Epistle_, Poetical, to the Editors of the Anti-Jacobin, vol. i., p.

371. Reply to ditto, vol. i., p. 371.

_Epistle_, Poetical, to the Author of the Anti-Jacobin, vol. i., p.

486.

_Erskine_, Mr.: his definition of Himself at the Meeting of the

Friends of Freedom—clothed with the infirmities of man’s nature—in

many respects a finite being—disclaims all pretensions to

superhuman powers—has been both a soldier and a sailor—has a son

at Winchester school—has been called by special retainers into

many parts of the country, travelling chiefly in post-chaises—is

of Noble, perhaps, Royal Blood—has a house at Hampstead—faints

between the subdivisions of his discourse—is conveyed to his

carriage—tricked by the chairmen who were hired to draw it—and

finally taken home by his own horses, vol. i., p. 125, &c.

_Expedition_ against Ostend, vol. ii., pp. 367, 377, 442, 486, 596.

F.

_Finance_, vol. i., pp. 16, 44, 85, 143, 212, 244, 313, 391, 607; vol.

ii., p. 224.

_Foreign Intelligence_, vol. i., pp. 41, 73, 105, 138, 170, 206, 238,

267, 305, 339, 382, 424, 453, 491, 528, 560, 600, 629; vol. ii.,

23, 57, 101, 136, 174, 206, 239, 280, 318, 346, 389, 430, 461,

499, 540, 577, 608.

_Foreign Intelligence Extraordinary_, vol. ii., p. 535.

_Fox_, Mr.: his Speech at the Meeting of the Friends of Freedom, vol.

i., p. 92—his Radical Reform described, 396—Celebration of his

Nativity at the Crown and Anchor, 408—his Speech, 412—his Song,

413—A Bit of an Ode to, 422—Lines written under a Bust of him,

489—his dismissal from the Privy Council, vol. ii., p. 293.

_French Revolution_, origin and progress of, vol. i., p. 22.

_French Revolution_, not to be defended or illustrated by a comparison

with the civil wars of this country, vol. ii., p. 17.

_Friend of Humanity_ and the Knife-Grinder, vol. i., p. 71.

_Friends of Freedom_, Meeting of the, vol. i., pp. 91, 125.

_Freemason’s_ observations on the Duke of Norfolk’s toast, vol. i., p.

587.

_Francis_, Mr.: his Novel of a Pamphlet grievously abused by the

_Morning Chronicle_, vol. ii., p. 338.

G.

_German_ Stage: see the “Rovers”.

_Government_ Advertisements: see _Advertisements_.

_Guillotine_, la Sainte: a new Song attempted from the French, vol.

i., p. 136.

H.

_Head_ of the Russells, transmuted into lead, vol. i., p. 377.

_Higgins_, Mr., of Saint Mary Axe—see “Progress of Man,” “Loves of the

Triangles,” the “Rovers,” &c.

_How_ to praise one’s friends, vol. i., p. 397.

_Horrible_ Effects of the Assessed Taxes, vol. i., pp. 347, 503.

_Hoche_, General: his Instructions to Colonel Tate, vol. i., pp. 480,

498.

I.

_Imitation_ of Horace, lib. iii. carm. xxv., vol. i., p. 627.

_Instructions_ for Colonel Tate, vol. i., pp. 480, 498.

_Introduction_, The, vol. i., p. 11.

_Introduction_ to the Poetry, vol. i., p. 31.

_Invasion_, The; or, The British War Song, vol. i., p. 103.

_Ingratitude_, the characteristic vice of Jacobinism, vol. i., p. 579.

_Italicus_: his letter on the plunder of the French in Italy, vol. i.,

p. 367.

J.

_Jacobin_, The, vol. ii., p. 133.

_Jacobin_ Papers, an epidemic malady among them, vol. ii., p. 120.

L.

_Latin_ Verses, De Navali Laude Britanniæ, vol. ii., p. 604.

_Lead_—see _Head of the Russells_.

_Letter_ to Earl Moira on the state of Ireland, vol. i., p. 77, 109,

161.