The Sexagenarian has, in various parts of his manuscript, introduced
detached remarks and anecdotes on the subject of book clubs, literary
societies, and meetings of similar denomination.
He seems to have been a member of one in particular, which must have
communicated no ordinary satisfaction, as he has sketched a concise
delineation of the individuals of whom it was composed, which is here
introduced, to exercise the acuteness of those who may be disposed to
appropriate the several descriptions and portraits.
The first was a Barrister; a man of singular acuteness, great vigour
of intellect, extensive knowledge of modern languages, particularly
of French, a very subtle disputant, and never perhaps exceeded in
conversation talents. In the time of Louis XIV. it was notorious that
the great wits of the day, bestowed a portion of their morning hours, in
preparing themselves to shine in the parties they were to meet in the
evening, by making themselves familiar with such subjects as were likely
to be introduced, by contriving such verbal artifices as might afford
them the opportunity of introducing new jests, puns, jeux des mots, and
so forth.
Our legal friend laboured under a somewhat similar imputation, but
be this as it may, his talents were of the very highest order, and
though perhaps in many of his opinions, and more particularly in those
concerning politics, he did not coincide with any one member of the
Symposium, he was greatly acceptable to all, from the vivacity of
his communications, the easy flow of his eloquence, his diversified
narratives, and urbanity of manners.
He qualified himself for professional distinction by severe application,
and he long and patiently endured the “_res angusti domi_,” with the hope
of progressively making his way to more lucrative business. But this
seemed still to linger at a distance; he was, however, too high-spirited
to be easily turned aside from his purpose, and too confident in his own
natural and acquired attainments, to despair of finally accomplishing his
object. Two things occurred, which attracted the public attention towards
him, and made him the object of more general attention and curiosity.
He undertook to be the advocate of the French Revolution in its
primordial state, and produced a work upon the subject, which became the
fertile parent of disputation, replies, rejoinders, and commentaries.
He also read public lectures on legal subjects, which were numerously
attended, and exhibited unequivocal demonstration of his abilities.
He might probably not have been obliged to court the office which
he afterwards and honourably filled, but for the pertinacity of his
political opinions, and his strenuous opposition, on all occasions, to
the measures of government.
This pertinacity, however, so far, gave way at length, that he accepted
from ministers a judicial situation in one of the remote dependencies
of the empire, where he resided for several years. His acceptance of
this office was considered by his party as tergiversation, and he
was reproached by them accordingly. One example of this reproach is
commemorated as having been made by a very distinguished friend of
opposition, on the occasion of the trial of O’Connor and his friends at
Maidstone. It is too well known to require repetition.
At length he returned to his native country, and great were the political
changes which had occurred in the interval of his absence. What did he
do? It might have been supposed that government possessed some claims
upon his gratitude; it might have been presumed, that having witnessed
the follies and the pernicious effects of the revolutionary principles
he had once advocated, he would shrink from the peril of being even the
suspected partisan of a power which had been exercised to the destruction
of every thing, which by the wise and the good was contemplated with
the strongest attachment and sincerest veneration. He nevertheless went
back to the Magi, by whom he had formerly been deluded, and was quickly
initiated in all the greater and lesser ceremonies of the Gallic Eleusis,
Madame de S. being the high-priestess.
It was, however, reported of him, that even in the midst of his
wanderings in the labyrinths of politics, he not only meditated, but
actually commenced, a great and arduous historical labour, to which his
talents were fully adequate, and which promised to place his name on a
pedestal, far more lofty and substantial too, than any fabrick which
could possibly be raised by a subtle, ingenious, but powerless minority.
On the subject of this gentleman, with the exception of a few scattered
notices, nothing more of importance appears in our Recollections. There
is reason to apprehend, that at this period, the Sexagenarian retired
from the world, and totally lost sight of his former associates.
Eam laudem hic ducit maximam, cum illis placet
Qui vobis universis et populo placent,
Quorum operæ in bello, in otio, in negocio
Suo quisque tempore usus est sine superbia.