Hong Kong.
* * * * *
"THE HANOVER RAT."
(Vol. vii. p. 206.)
_An Essay on Irish Bulls_ is said to have found its way into a catalogue of
works upon natural history; with which precedent in my favour, and pending
the inquiries of _naturalists_, _ratcatchers_, and _farmers_ into the
history of the above-named formidable invader, I hope MR. HIBBERD will have
no objection to my intruding a bibliographical curiosity under the
convenient head he has opened for it in "N. & Q."
My book, then, bears the appropriate title, _An Attempt towards a Natural
History of the Hanover Rat, dedicated to P***m M******r, M.D., and S----y
to the Royal Society_, 8vo., pp. 24.: London, 1744.
The writer of this curious piece takes his _cue_ from that remarkable
production, _An Attempt towards a Natural History of the Polype_, 1743; in
which the learned Mr. Henry Baker, in a letter to Martin Folkes, of 218
pages, 8vo., illustrated by a profusion of woodcuts, elaborately describes
this link between the animal and vegetable creation, and the experiments he
practised upon the same: commencing with "cutting off a polype's head," and
so on through a series of scientific barbarities upon his _little
creature_, which ended only in "turning a polype inside out!"
Following the plan of Mr. Baker, the anonymous author of _The Hanover Rat_
tells us, that, after thirty years' laborious research, he had {482}
satisfied himself that this animal was not a native of these islands: "I
cannot," he says, "particularly mark the date of its first appearance, yet
I think it is within the memory of man;" and finding favour in its original
_mine affamée_ state with a few of the most starved and hungry of the
English rats from the common sewer, he proceeds to show that it _did_
extirpate the natives; but whether this is the best account, or whether the
facts of the case as here set forth will satisfy your correspondent, is
another thing. According to _my_ authority, the aboriginal rat was, at the
period of writing, sorely put to it to maintain his ground against the
invading colonists and their unnatural allies the _providers_; and the
present work seems to have been an effort on the part of one in the
interest of the former to awaken them to a sense of their danger. In his
laudable attempts to rally their courage, this advocate reminds them of a
similar crisis when their country was infested with a species of frog
called _Dutch frogs_: "which no sooner," says he, "began to be mischievous,
than its growth and progress was stopped by the natives." "Had we," he
continues, "but the same public spirit with our ancestors, we need not
complain to-day of being eaten up by _rats_. Our country is the same, but
alas! we feel no more the same affection for it." In this way he stimulates
the invaded to a combined attack upon the common enemy, and we need not
tell _our_ readers how successfully, nor how desperate the struggle, the
very next year; which ended in the complete ascendancy of the _Hanover
rat_, or reigning family, over the unlucky Jacobite native. Under his
figure of a rat, this Jacobite is very scurrilous indeed upon the
Hanoverian succession; and, continuing his _polypian_ imitations, relates a
few coarse experiments upon _his subject_ illustrative of its destructive
properties, voracity, and sagacity, which set at nought "all the
contrivances of the farmer to defend his barns; the trailer his warehouse;
the gentleman his land; or the inferior people their cup-boards and small
beer cellars. No bars or bolts can keep them out, nor can any gin or trap
lay hold of them."
Luckily for us living in these latter days, we can extract amusement from
topics of this nature, which would have subjected our forefathers to severe
pains and penalties; and looking at the character and mischievous tendency
of _The Hanover Rat_, I am curious to know if Mary Cooper, the publisher,
was put under surveillance for her share in its production; for to me it
appears a more aggravated libel upon the reigning family than that of the
_Norfolk Prophecy_--for the publication of which, Boswell says, the great
Samuel Johnson had to play at hide and seek with the officers of justice.
The advent of both Pretenders was preceded by _straws_ like these cast out
by their adherents, to try _how the current set_. The present _jeu
d'esprit_, however, is a double-shotted one: for, not content with
tampering with the public allegiance, this aboriginal rat seems more
innocently enjoying a laugh at the Royal Society, and its ingenious
_fellow_ Mr. Baker, in as far as regards the aforesaid elaborate treatise
upon _polypes_.