Chapter IV: Part THE SECOND (1)

_NUMBER I._

We have now followed our admirable author through the _Sixth Book_ of his poem; very much to our own edification, and, we flatter ourselves, no less to the satisfaction of our readers. We have shewn the art with which he has introduced a description of the leading characters of our present House of Commons, by a contrivance something similar indeed to that employed by Virgil, but at the same time sufficiently unlike to substantiate his own claim to originality. And surely every candid critic will admit, that had he satisfied himself with the same device, in order to panegyrize his favourites in the other House, he would have been perfectly blameless. But to the writer of the ROLLIAD, it was not sufficient to escape censure; he must extort our praise, and excite our admiration.

Our classical readers will recollect, that all Epic Heroes possess in common with the poets who celebrate their actions, the gift of _prophecy_; with this difference however, that poets prophecy while they are in sound health, whereas the hero never begins to talk about futurity, until he has received such a mortal wound in his lungs as would prevent any man but a hero from talking at all: and it is probably in allusion to this circumstance, that the power of divination is distinguished in North Britain by the name of SECOND SIGHT, as commencing when common vision ends. This faculty has been attributed to dying warriors, both by _Homer_ and _Virgil_; but neither of these poets have made so good use of it as our author, who has introduced into the last dying speech of the Saxon Drummer, the whole birth, parentage, and education, life, character, and behaviour, of all those benefactors of their country, who at present adorn the House of Peers, thereby conforming himself to modern usage, and at the same time distinguishing the victorious Rollo's prowess in subduing an adversary, who dies infinitely harder than either Turnus or Hector.

Without farther comment, we shall now proceed to favour our readers with a few extracts. The first Peer mentioned by the _Dying Drummer_, is the present _Marquis of Buckingham_: his appearance is ushered in by an elegant panegyric on his father, Mr. _George Grenville_, of which we shall only give the concluding lines:

_George_, in whose subtle brain, if Fame say true,
Full-fraught with wars, the fatal stamp-act grew;
Great financier! stupenduous calculator!--
_But, George_ the son is _twenty-one times_ greater!

It would require a volume, not only to point out all the merits of the last line, but even to do justice to that Pindaric spirit, that abrupt beauty, that graceful aberration from rigid grammatical contexts, which appears in the single word _but_. We had however a further intention in quoting this passage, viz. to assert our author's claim to the invention of that species of MORAL ARITHMETIC, which, by the means of proper additions, subtractions, multiplications and divisions, ascertains the relative merits of two characters more correctly than any other mode of investigation hitherto invented. Lord Thurlow, when he informed the House of Peers, that, "_one_ Hastings is worth _twenty_ Macartneys," had certainly the merit of ascertaining the comparative value of the two men in _whole numbers_, and _without a fraction_. He likewise enabled his auditors, by means of _the rule of three_, to find out the numerical excellence of any other individual; but to compare Lord Thurlow with our author, would be to compare the scholar with the inventor; to compare a common house-steward with _Euclid_ or _Archimedes_. We now return to the poem.

After the lines already quoted, our dying drummer breaks out into the following wonderful apostrophe:

Approach, ye sophs, who, in your northern den,
Wield, with both hands, your huge _didactic_ pen;
Who, step by step, o'er _Pindus_' up-hill road,
Drag slowly on your learning's pond'rous load:
Though many a shock your perilous march encumbers,
Ere the stiff prose can struggle into numbers;
And you, at _comets' tails_, who fondly stare,
And find a mistress in the _lesser bear_;
And you, who, full with metaphysics fraught,
Detect sensation starting into thought,
And trace each sketch by Memory's hand design'd
On that strange magic lantern call'd the MIND;
And you, who watch each loit'ring empire's fate;
Who heap up fact on fact, and date on date;
Who count the threads that fill the mystic loom,
Where patient vengeance wove the fate of Rome;
Who tell that wealth unnerv'd her soldier's hand, }
That Folly urg'd the fate by traitor's plann'd; }
Or, that she fell--because she could not stand: }
Approach, and view, in this capacious mind,
Your scatter'd science in one mass combin'd:
Whate'er tradition tells, or poets sing,
Of giant-killing John, or John the King;
Whate'er------

But we are apprehensive that our zeal has already hurried us too far, and that we have exceeded the just bounds of this paper. We shall therefore take some future opportunity of reverting to the character of this prodigious nobleman, who possesses, and deserves to possess, so distinguished a share in his master's confidence. Suffice it to say, that our author does full justice to every part of his character. He considers him as a walking warehouse of facts of all kinds, whether relating to history, astronomy, metaphysics, heraldry, fortifications, naval tactics, or midwifery; at the same time representing him as a kind of haberdasher of small talents, which he retails to the female part of his family, instructing them in the mystery of precedence, the whole art of scented pomatums, the doctrine of salves for broken heads, of putty for _broken windows_, &c. &c. &c.

* * * * *

_NUMBER II._

We now return to the dying drummer, whom we left in the middle of his eulogy on the Marquis of Buckingham.

It being admitted, that the powers of the human mind depend on the number and association of our ideas, it is easy to shew that the illustrious Marquis is entitled to the highest rank in the scale of human intelligence. His mind possesses an unlimited power of inglutition, and his ideas adhere to each other with such tenacity, that whenever his memory is stimulated by any powerful interrogatory, it not only discharges a full answer to that individual question, but likewise such a prodigious flood of collateral knowledge, derived from copious and repeated infusions, as no common skull would be capable of containing. For these reasons, his Lordship's fitness for the department of the Admiralty, a department connected with the whole cyclopoedia of science, and requiring the greatest variety of talents and exertions, seems to be pointed out by the hand of Heaven;--it is likewise pointed out by the dying drummer, who describes in the following lines, the immediate cause of his nomination:--

On the great day, when Buckingham, by pairs
Ascended, Heaven impell'd, the K------'s back-stairs;
And panting breathless, strain'd his lungs to show
From Fox's bill what mighty ills would flow:
That soon, _its source corrupt, Opinion's thread,
On India's deleterious streams wou'd shed_;
That Hastings, Munny Begum, Scott, must fall,
And Pitt, and Jenkinson, and Leadenhall;
Still, as with stammering tongue, he told his tale,
Unusual terrors Brunswick's heart assail;
Wide starts his white wig from his royal ear,
And each particular hair stands stiff with fear,

We flatter ourselves that few of our readers are so void of taste, as not to feel the transcendant beauties of this description. First, we see the noble Marquis mount the fatal steps "by pairs," _i.e._ by two at a time; and with a degree of effort and fatigue: and then he is out of breath, which is perfectly natural. The obscurity of the third couplet, an _obscurity_ which has been imitated by all the ministerial writers on the India bill, arises from a confusion of metaphor, so inexpressibly beautiful, that Mr. Hastings has thought fit to copy it almost verbatum, in his celebrated letter from Lucknow. The effects of terror on the royal wig, are happily imagined, and are infinitely more sublime than the "_steteruntque comæ_" of the Roman poet; as the attachment of a wig to its wearer, is obviously more generous and disinterested than that of the person's own hair, which naturally participates in the good or ill fortune of the head on which it grows. But to proceed.--Men in a fright are usually generous;--on that great day, therefore, the Marquis obtained the promise of the Admiralty. The dying drummer then proceeds to describe the Marquis's well-known vision, which he prefaces by a compliment on his Lordship's extraordinary proficiency in the art of lace-making. We have all admired the parliamentary exertions of this great man, on every subject that related to an art in which the county of Buckingham is so deeply interested; an art, by means of which Britannia (as our author happily expresses it)

Puckers round naked breasts, a decent trimming,
Spreads the thread trade, and propagates old women!

How naturally do we feel disposed to join with the dying drummer, in the pathetic apostrophe which he addresses to his hero, when he foresees that this attention will necessarily be diverted to other objects:--

Alas! no longer round thy favorite STOWE,
Shalt thou the nicer arts to artists show,
No more on thumb-worn cushions deign to trace,
With critic touch, the texture of bone-lace;
And from severer toils, some moments robbing!
Reclaim the vagrant thread, or truant bobbin!
Far, other scenes of future glory rise,
To glad thy sleeping, and thy waking eyes;
As busy fancy paints the gaudy dream,
Ideal docks, with shadowy navies teem:
Whate'er on sea, on lake, or river floats,
Ships, barges, rafts, skiffs, tubs, flat-bottom'd boats,
Smiths, sailors, carpenters, in busy crowds,
Mast, cable, yard, sail, bow-sprit, anchor, shrowds,
Knives, gigs, harpoons, swords, handspikes, cutlass blades,
Guns, pistols, swivels, cannons, carronades:
All rise to view!--All blend in gorgeous show!
Tritons and tridents, turpentine, tar--tow!

We will take upon ourselves to attest, that neither Homer nor Virgil ever produced any thing like this. How amiable, how interesting, is the condescension of the illustrious Marquis, while he assists the old women in his neighbourhood in making bone-lace! How artfully is the modest appearance of the aforesaid old women's cushions (which we are also told were dirty cushions) contrasted with the splendor and magnificence of the subsequent vision! How masterly is the structure of the last verse, and how nobly does the climax rise from tritons and tridents--from objects which are rather picturesque than necessary--to that most important article _tow_! an article "without which," in the opinion of Lord Mulgrave, "it would be impossible to fit out a single ship."

The drummer is next led to investigate the different modes of meliorating our navy; in the course of which he introduces the Marquis's private thoughts on _flax_ and _forest-trees_; the natural history of _nettles_, with proofs of their excellence in making cables; a project to produce _aurum fulminans_ from Pinchbeck's metal, instead of gold, occasioned by admiral Barrington's complaint of bad powder; a discussion of Lord Ferrers's mathematical mode of ship-building; and a lamentation on the pertinacity with which his Lordship's vessels have hitherto refused to sail. The grief of the Marquis on this occasion, awaking all our sympathy--

Sighing, he struck his breast, and cried, "Alas!
Shall a three decker's huge unwieldy mass,
'Mid croud of foes, stand stupidly at bay,
And by rude force, like Ajax, gain the day?
No!--let Invention!------"

And at the moment his Lordship becomes pregnant, and is delivered of a project that solves every difficulty.

The reader will recollect Commodore Johnstone's discovery, that "the aliquot parts being equal to the whole, two frigates are indisputably tantamount to a line of battle-ship; nay, that they are superior to it, as being more manageable." Now, a sloop being more docile than a frigate, and a cutter more versatile than a sloop, &c. &c. is it not obvious that the _force_ of any vessel must be in an inverse ratio to its _strength_? Hence, Lord Buckingham most properly observes,

Our light arm'd fleet will spread a general panic,
For speed is power, says Pinchbeck, the mechanic.

The only objection to this system, is the trite professional idea, that ships having been for some years past in the habit of sailing directly forwards, must necessarily form and fight _in a straight line_; but according to Lord Buckingham's plan, the line of battle in future is to be like the line of beauty, _waving_ and _tortuous_; so that if the French, who confessedly are the most imitative people on the earth, should wish to copy our manoeuvres, their larger ships will necessarily be thrown into confusion, and consequently be beaten.

But as Sir Gregory Page Turner finely says, "infallibility is not given to human nature." Our prodigious Marquis, therefore, diffident of his talents, and not yet satisfied with his plan, rakes into that vast heap of knowledge, which he has collected from reading, and forms into one _compost_, all the naval inventions of every age and country, in order to meliorate and fertilize the colder genius of Great Britain. "In future," says the drummer,

All ages, and all countries, shall combine,
To form our navy's variegated line.
Like some vast whale, or all-devouring shark,
High in the midst shall rise old Noah's _ark_:
Or, if that ark be lost, of equal bulk,
Our novel Noah rigs--the _Justice Hulk_:
An Argo next, the peerless Catherine sends,
The gorgeous gift of her _Mingrelian_ friends:

Here we cannot repress our admiration at the drummer's skill in geography and politics. He not only tells us that _Mingrelia_ is the ancient _Colchis_, the country visited by the Argonauts, the country which was then so famous for its fleeces, and which even now sends so many virgins to the Grand Seignior's seraglio, but he foresees the advantages that will be derived to the navy of this kingdom, by the submission of his Mingrelian majesty to the Empress of Russia. But to proceed:

And next, at our Canadian brethren's pray'r,
Ten stout _triremes_ the good pope shall spare!

We apprehend, with all due submission to the drummer, that here is a small mistake. Our Canadian brethren may indeed possess great influence with the Pope, on account of their perseverance in the Catholic religion; but as all the triremes in his holiness's possession are unfortunately in bass-relief and marble, we have some doubt of their utility at sea.

Light-arm'd _evaas_, canoes that seem to fly,
Our faithful _Oberea_ shall supply:
_Gallies_ shall Venice yield. Algiers, _xebecs_--
But thou, Nanquin, gay _yachts_ with towering decks;
While fierce Kamtschatka------

But it is unnecessary to transcribe all the names of places mentioned by our drummer in sailing eastward towards Cape Horn, and westward to the Cape of Good Hope. We flatter ourselves that we have sufficiently proved the stupendous and almost unnatural excellence of the new Lord Buckingham; and that we have shewn the necessity of innovation in the navy as well as in the constitution; we therefore shall conclude this number, by expressing our hope and assurance, that the salutary amputations which are meditated by the two state surgeons, Mr. Pitt, and Mr. Wyvill, will speedily be followed by equally skilful operations in our marine; and that the prophecy of the dying drummer will be fulfilled in the completion of that delightful event--the nomination of the noble Marquis to the department of the admiralty!

* * * * *

_NUMBER III._

Having concluded his description of the Marquis of Buckingham, our expiring prophet proceeds to the contemplation of other glories, hardly less resplendent than those of the noble Marquis himself. He goes on to the DUKE of RICHMOND.

In travelling round this wide world of virtue, for as such may the mind of the noble Duke be described, it must be obvious to every one, that the principal difficulty consists--in determining from what quarter to set out; whether to commence in the _frigid zone_ of his benevolence, or in the _torrid hemisphere_ of his loyalty; from the _equinox_ of his oeconomy, or from the _terra australis_ of his patriotism. Our author feels himself reduced to the dilemma of the famous _Archimedes_ in this case, though for a very different reason, and exclaims violently for the {Dos pou sto}, not because he has no ground to stand upon, but because he has too much--because puzzled by the variety, he feels an incapacity to make a selection. He represents himself as being exactly in the situation of _Paris_ between the different and contending charms of the three _Heathen Goddesses_, and is equally at a loss on which to bestow his _detur pulcherimæ_. There is indeed more beauty in this latter similitude than may at first view appear to a careless and vulgar observer: the three goddesses in question being, in all the leading points of their description, most correctly typical of the noble Duke himself. As for example--_Minerva_, we know, was produced out of the head of _Jove_, complete and perfect at once. Thus the Duke of Richmond starts into the perfection of a full-grown _engineer_, without the ceremony of gradual organization, or the painful tediousness of progressive maturity.--_Juno_ was particularly famed for an unceasing spirit of active persecution against the bravest and most honourable men of antiquity. Col. _Debbeige_, and some other individuals of modern time, might be selected, to shew that the noble Duke is not in this respect without some pretensions to sympathy with the queen of the skies.--_Venus_ too, we all know, originated from _froth_. For resemblance in this point, _vide_ the noble Duke's admirable theories on the subject of _parliamentary melioration_.

Having stated these circumstances of embarrassment in a few introductory lines to this part of the poem, our author goes on to observe, that not knowing, after much and anxious thought, how to adjust the important difficulty in question, he resolves at last to trust himself entirely to the guidance of his muse, who, under the influence of her usual inspiration, proceeds as follows:

Hail thou, for either talent justly known,
To spend the nation's cash--or keep thy own;
Expert alike to save, or be profuse,
As money goes for thine, or England's use;
In whose esteem, of equal worth are thought,
A public million, and a private groat.
Hail, and--&c.

_Longinus_, as the learned well know, reckons the figure _Amplification_ amongst the principal sources of the sublime, as does _Quintilian_ amongst the leading requisites of rhetoric. That it constitutes the very soul of eloquence, is demonstrable from the example of that sublimest of all orators, and profoundest of all statesman, Mr. _William Pitt_. If no expedient had been devised, by the help of which the _same_ idea could be invested in a thousand different and glittering habiliments, by which _one_ small spark of meaning could be inflated into a blaze of elocution, how many delectable speeches would have been lost to the Senate of Great Britain? How severe an injury would have been sustained to the literary estimation of the age? The above admirable specimen of the figure, however, adds to the other natural graces of it, the excellent recommendation of strict and literal truth. The author proceeds to describe the noble Duke's uncommon popularity, and to represent, that whatever be his employment, whether the gay business of the state, or the serious occupation of amusement, his Grace is alike sure of the approbation of his countrymen.

Whether thy present vast ambition be
To check the rudeness of the' intruding sea;
Or else, immerging in a _civil_ storm,
With equal wisdom to project--reform;
Whether thou go'st while summer suns prevail,
To enjoy the freshness of thy kitchen's gale,
Where, unpolluted by luxurious heat,
Its large expanse affords a cool retreat;
Or should'st thou now, no more the theme of mirth,
Hail the great day that gave thy sov'reign birth,
With kind anticipating zeal prepare,
And make the _fourth_ of _June_ thy anxious care;
O! wheresoe'er thy hallow'd steps shall stray
Still, still, for thee, the grateful poor shall pray,
Since all the bounty which thy heart denies,
Drain'd by thy schemes, the _treasury_ supplies.

The reference to the noble Duke's kitchen, is a most exquisite compliment to his Grace's well-known and determined aversion to the specious, popular, and prevailing vices of _eating_ and _drinking_; and the four lines which follow, contain a no less admirable allusion to the memorable witticism of his Grace (memorable for the subject of it, as well as for the circumstance of its being the only known instance of his Grace's attempting to degrade himself into the vulgarity of joke).

When a minister was found in this country daring and wicked enough to propose the suspension of a turnpike bill for one whole day, simply for the reason, that he considered some little ceremony due to the natal anniversary of the _highest_, and beyond all comparison, the _best_ individual in the country; what was the noble Duke's reply to this frivolous pretence for the protraction of the national business? "What care I," said this great personage, with a noble warmth of patriotic insolence, never yet attained by any of the present timid-minded sons of faction, "What care I for the King's birthday!--What is such nonsense to me!" &c. &c. &c. It is true, indeed, times have been a little changed since--but what of that! there is a solid truth in the observation of Horace, which its tritism does not, nor cannot destroy, and which the noble Duke, if he could read the original, might with great truth, apply to himself and his sovereign:

Tempora mutantur, et nos mutamur in illis.

A great critic affirms, that the highest excellence of writing, and particularly of poetical writing, consists in this one power--to _surprise_. Surely this sensation was never more successfully excited, than by the line in the above passage, when considered as addressed to the Duke of Richmond--

Still, still, for thee, the _grateful poor_ shall pray!

Our author, however, whose correct judgment suggested to him, that even the sublimity of surprise was not to be obtained at the expence of truth and probability, hastens to reconcile all contradictions, by informing the reader, that the _treasury_ is to supply the sources of the charity, on account of which the noble Duke is to be prayed for.

The poet, with his usual philanthropy, proceeds to give a piece of good advice to a person, with whom he does not appear at first sight to have any natural connexion. He contrives, however, even to make his seeming digression contribute to his purpose. He addresses _Colonel Debbeige_ in the following goodnatured, sublime and parental apostrophe--

Learn, thoughtless _Debbeige_, now no more a youth,
The woes unnumber'd that encompass truth.
Nor of experience, nor of knowledge vain,
Mock the chimæras of a sea-sick brain:
Oh, learn on happier terms with him to live,
Who ne'er knew _twice_, the weakness to forgive!
Then should his grace some vast expedient find,
To govern tempests, and controul the wind;
Should he, like great _Canute_, forbid the wave,
T'approach his presence, or his foot to lave;
Construct some bastion, or contrive some mound,
The world's wide limits to encompass round;
Rear a redoubt, that to the stars should rise,
And lift himself, like Typhon, to the skies;
Or should the mightier scheme engage his soul,
To raise a platform on the _northern pole_,
With foss, with rampart, stick, and stone, and clay,
To build a breast-work on the _milky-way_,
Or to protect his sovereign's blest abode,
Bid numerous batteries guard the _turnpike road_;
Lest foul Invasion in disguise approach,
Or Treason lurk within the _Dover_ coach.
Oh, let the wiser duty then be thine,
Thy skill, thy science, judgment to resign!
With patient ear, the high-wrapt tale attend,
Nor snarl at fancies which no skill can mend.
So shall thy comforts with thy days increase,
And all thy last, unlike thy first, be peace;
No rude _courts martial_ shall thy fame decry,
But half-pay plenty all thy wants supply.

It is difficult to determine which part of the above passage possesses the superior claim to our admiration, whether its science, its resemblance, its benevolence, or its sublimity.--Each has its turn, and each is distinguished by some of our author's happiest touches. The climax from the pole oft the heavens to the pole of a coach, and from the milky-way to a turnpike road, is conceived and exprest with admirable fancy and ability. The absurd story of the wooden horse in Virgil, is indeed remotely parodied in the line,

Or Treason lurk within the Dover coach,

but with what accession of beauty, nature, and probability, we leave judicious critics to determine. Indeed there is no other defence for the passage alluded to in _Virgil_, but to suppose that the past commentators upon it have been egregiously mistaken, and that this famous _equus ligneus_, of which he speaks, was neither more nor less than the _stage coach_ of antiquity. What, under any other supposition, can be the meaning of the passage

Aut hoc inclusi ligno occultantur _Achivi?_

Besides this, the term _machina_ we know is almost constantly used by _Virgil_ himself as a synonyme for this horse, as in the line

_Scandit fatalis_ machina _muros_, &c.

And do we not see that those authentic records of modern literature, the newspapers, are continually and daily announcing to us--"This day sets off from the Blue-boar Inn, precisely at half past five, the Bath and Bristol _machine_!" meaning thereby merely the _stage coaches_ to Bath and to Bristol. Again, immediately after the line last quoted (to wit, _scandit fatalis machina muros)_ come these words,

_Fæta armis_, i.e. filled with _arms_.

Now what can they possibly allude to, in the eye of sober judgment and rational criticism, but the _guard_, or armed _watchman_, who, in those days, went in the inside, or perhaps had a place in the _boot_, and was employed, as in our modern conveyances, to protect the passenger in his approximation to the metropolis. We trust the above authorities will be deemed conclusive upon the subject; and indeed, to say the truth, this idea does not occur to us now for the first time, as in some hints for a few critical lucubrations intended as farther _addenda_ to the _Virgilius Restauratus_ of the great Scriblerus, we find this remark precisely:--"In our judgment, this horse (meaning _Virgil_'s) may be very properly denominated--the DARDANIAN DILLY, or the POST COACH to PERGAMUS."

We know not whether it be worth adding as a matter of mere fact, that the great object of the noble Duke's erections at Chatham, which have not yet cost the nation a _million_, is simply and exclusively this--to _enfilade_ the turnpike road, in case of a foreign invasion.

The poet goes on--he forms a scientific and interesting presage of the noble Duke's future greatness.

With gorges, scaffolds, breaches, ditches, mines,
With culverins, whole and demi, and gabines;
With trench, with counterscarp, with esplanade,
With curtain, moat, and rhombo, and chamade;
With polygon, epaulement, hedge and bank,
With angle salient, and with angle flank:
Oh! thou shall prove, should all thy schemes prevail,
An UNCLE TOBY on a larger scale.
While dapper, daisy, prating, puffing JIM,
May haply personate good _Corporal Trim_.

Every reader will anticipate us in the recollection, that the person here honoured with our author's distinction, by the abbreviated appellative of _Jim_, can be no other than the Hon. James Luttrel himself, surveyor-general to the ordnance, the famous friends, defender, and _commis_ of the Duke of Richmond. The words _dapper_ and _daisy_, in the last line of the above passage, approximate perhaps more nearly to the familiarity of common life, than is usual with our author; but it is to be observed in the defence of them, that our language supplies no terms in any degree so peculiarly characteristic of the object to whom they are addressed. As for the remaining part of the line, to wit, "_prating, puffing Jim_," it will require no vindication or illustration with those who have heard this honourable gentleman's speeches in parliament, and who have read the subsequent representations of them in the diurnal prints.

Our immortal author, whose province it is to give poetical construction, and _local habitation_ to the inspired effusions of the _dying drummer_ (exactly as _Virgil_ did to the predictions of _Anchises_), proceeds to finish the portrait exhibited in the above passage by the following lines--

As like your _prototypes_ as pea to pea,
Save in the weakness of--_humanity_;
Congenial quite in every other part,
The same in _head_, but differing in the heart.

* * * * *

_NUMBER IV._

We resume with great pleasure our critical lucubrations on that most interesting part of this divine poem, which pourtrays the character, and transmits to immortality the name of the _Duke of_ RICHMOND.--Our author, who sometimes condescends to a casual imitation of ancient writers, employs more than usual pains in the elaborate delineation of this illustrious personage. Thus, in Virgil, we find whole pages devoted to the description of _Æneas_, while _Glacus_ and _Thersilochus_, like the _Luttrels_, the _Palkes_, or the _Macnamaras_ of modern times, are honoured only with the transient distinction of a simple mention. He proceeds to ridicule the superstition which exists in this country, and, as he informs us, had also prevailed in one of the most famous states of antiquity, that a navy could be any source of security to a great empire, or that shipping could in any way be considered as the _natural_ defence of an _island_.

Th' Athenian sages, once of old, 'tis said,
Urg'd by their country's love--by wisdom led,
Besought the _Delphic_ oracle to show
What best should save them from the neighb'ring foe
--With holy fervor first the _priestess_ burn'd,
Then fraught with presage, this reply return'd:
"_Your city, men of Athens, ne'er will fall,
If wisely guarded by a_ WOODEN WALL."
--Thus have our fathers indiscreetly thought,
By ancient practice--ancient safety taught,
That this, Great Britain, still should prove to thee
Thy first, thy best, thy last security;
That what in thee we find or great or good,
Had ow'd its being to this WALL of WOOD.--
Above such weakness see great _Lenox_ soar,
This fence prescriptive guards us now no more
Of such gross ignorance asham'd and sick,
Richmond protects us with a _wall--of brick_;
Contemns the prejudice of former time,
And saves his countrymen by _lath_ and _lime_.

It is our intention to embarrass this part of the _Rolliad_ as little as possible with any commentaries of our own. We cannot, however, resist the temptation which the occasion suggests, of pronouncing a particular panegyric upon the delicacy as well as dexterity of our author, who, in speaking upon the subject of the Duke of _Richmond_, that is, upon a man who knows no more of the history, writings, or languages of antiquity than the _Marquis of Lansdown_ himself, or great _Rollo_'s groom, has yet contrived to collect a great portion of his illustrations from the sources of ancient literature. By this admirable expedient, the immediate ignorance of the hero is inveloped and concealed in the vast erudition of the author, and the unhappy truth that his Grace never proceeded farther in his _Latinity_, than through the neat and simple pages of _Corderius_, is so far thrown into the back ground as to be hardly observable, and to constitute no essential blemish to the general brilliancy of the _picture_.

The poet proceeds to speak of a tribunal which was instituted in the _æra_ he is describing, for an investigation into the professional merits of the noble Duke, and of which he himself was very properly the head. The author mentions the individuals who composed this inquisition, as men of _opulent, independent, disinterested_ characters, three only excepted, whom he regrets as apostates to the general character of the arbitrators. He speaks, however--such is the omnipotence of truth--even of them, with a sort of reluctant tendency to panegyric. He says,

Keen without show, with modest learning, sly,
The subtle comment speaking in his eye;
Of manners polish'd, yet of stubborn soul,
Which Hope allures not--nor which fears control;
See _Burgoyne_ rapt in all a soldier's pride,
Damn with a shrug, and with a look deride;
While coarse _Macbride_ a busier task assumes,
And tears with graceless rage our hero's plumes;
Blunts his rude science in the _chieftain_'s face,
Nor deems--forgive him, _Pitt!_--a truth, disgrace:
And _Percy_ too, of lineage justly vain,
Surveys the system with a mild disdain.

He consoles the reader, however, for the pain given him by the contemplation of such weakness and injustice, by hastening to inform him of the better and wiser dispositions of the other members of the tribunal;

--But ah! not so the rest--unlike to these,
They try each anxious blandishment to please;
No skill uncivil e'er from them escapes,
Their modest wisdom courts no dang'rous scrapes;
But pure regard comes glowing from the heart,
To take a friend's--to take a master's part;
Nor let Suspicion with her sneers convey,
That paltry Int'rest could with such bear sway.
Can _Richmond_'s brother be attach'd to gold?
Can _Luttrell_'s friendship, like a vote, be sold?
O can such petty, such ignoble crimes,
Stain the fair _æra_ of these golden times,
When _Pitt_ to all perfection points the way,
And pure _Dundas_ exemplifies his lay?
When _Wilkes_ to loyalty makes bold pretence,
_Arden_ to law, the _Cabinet_ to sense;
When _Prettyman_ affects for truth a zeal,
And _Macnamaras_ guard the common-weal;
When _lawyers_ argue from the holy writ,
And _Hill_ would vie with _Sheridan_ in wit;
When _Camden_, first of Whigs, in struggles past,
_Teiz'd_ and _tormented_ quits the cause at last;
When _Thurlow_ strives commercial skill to show,
And even _Sydney_ something seems to know;
When honest _Jack_ declines in men to trade,
And court majorities by truth are sway'd;
When _Baker, Conway, Cavendish, or Byng_,
No more an obloquy o'er senates fling;
When------

But where could a period be put to the enumeration of the _uncommon_ appearances of the epoch in question?--The application of the term _honest_, prefixed to the name of the person described in the last line of the above passage but three, sufficiently circumscribes the number of those particular _Jacks_ who were at this moment in the contemplation of our author, and lets us with facility into the secret that he could mean no other than the worthy Mr. _John Robinson_ himself.--The peculiar species of traffic that the poet represents Mr. Robinson to have dealt in, is supposed to allude to a famous occurrence of these times, when Mr. R. and another contractor agreed, in a ministerial emergency, to furnish government with _five hundred and fifty-eight_ ready, willing, obedient, well-trained men, at so much per head per man, whom they engaged to be _perfectly fit for any work the minister could put them to_. Tradition says, they failed in their contract by somewhat about _two hundred_.--We have not heard of what particular complexion the first order were of, but suppose them to have been _blacks_.

We collect from history, that the noble Duke had been exposed to much empty ridicule on account of his having been, as they termed it, a judge in his own cause, by being the President of that Court, whose exclusive jurisdiction it was to enquire into supposed official errors imputed to himself. The author scouts the venom of those impotent gibers, and with great triumph exclaims,

If it be virtue but yourself to _know_,
Yourself to _judge_, is sure a virtue too.

Nothing can be more obvious--all judgment depends upon knowledge; and how can any other person be supposed to know a man so well as he does himself? We hope soon to see this evidently equitable principle of criminal jurisprudence fully established at the _Old Baily_; and we are very much inclined to think, that if every _house-breaker, &c._ was in like manner permitted to judge himself, the susceptible heart would not be altogether so often shocked with spectacles of human massacre before the gates of Newgate, as, to the great disgrace of our penal system, it now is.

Our author now proceeds to speak of a transaction which he seems to touch upon with reluctance. It respects a young nobleman of these times, of the name of _Rawdon_. It is very remarkable, that the last couplet of this passage is printed with a scratch through the lines, as if it had been the author's intention to have erazed them. Whether he thought the event alluded to in this distich was too disgraceful for justification--or that the justification suggested was incomplete--that the image contained in them was too familiar and puerile for the general sublimity of his great poem, or whatever he thought, we know not, but such is the fact. The passage is as follows:--after relating the circumstance, he says

Association forms the mind's great chain,
By plastic union many a thought we gain,
[Struck-through:
(Thus _Raw_ suggested _Raw head_, and the _Don_,
Haply reminded him of _Bloody bone)_.]

To the justice of the disgrace thrown upon the above couplet, we by no means concede.--What it wants in poetical construction, it amply makes up in the deep knowledge which it contains of the more latent feelings of the human heart, and its philosophic detection of some of the true sources of human action. We all know how long, and how tenaciously, original prejudices stick by us. No man lives long enough to get rid of his nursery. That the noble duke therefore might not be free from the common influence of a very common sensation, no one can reasonably wonder at, and the best proof that he was not so is, that we defy any person to show us, upon what possible principle, if not upon this, the conduct of the noble Duke, in the transaction alluded to, is to be explained or defended. The Duke of Richmond--a gentleman by a thousand pretensions--a soldier--a legislator--a peer--in two countries a duke--in a third a prince--a man whose honour is not a mere point of speculative courtesy, but is his _oath_--impeaches the reputation of another individual of pure and unblemished character; and with the same publicity that he had applied the original imputation, this peer, prince, legislator, and soldier, _eats_ every syllable he had said, and retracts every _item_ of his charge. Is this to be credited without a resort to some principle of a very paramount nature in the heart of man indeed? Is the original depravity, in the first instance, of publicly attempting to sully the fair honour of that interesting and sacred character, a youthful soldier, or the meanness in the second, of an equally public and unprecedentedly pusillanimous retraction of the whole of the calumny, to be believed in so high a personage as the Duke of _Richmond_, without a reference to a cause of a very peculiar kind, to an impulse of more than ordinary potency? Evidently not.--And what is there, as we have before observed, that adheres so closely, or controuls so absolutely, as the legends of our boyish days, of the superstitions of a nursery? For these reasons, therefore, we give our most decided suffrage for the full re-establishment of the couplet to the fair legitimate honours that are due to it.

The poet concludes his portrait of this illustrious person, with the following lines--

The triple honours that adorn his head,
A three-fold influence o'er his virtue shed;
As _Gallia_'s prince, behold him proud and vain;
Thrifty and close as _Caledonia_'s thane;
In _Richmond_'s duke, we trace our own JOHN BULL,
Of schemes enamour'd--and of schemes--the GULL.

* * * * *

_NUMBER V._

The author of the Rolliad has, in his last edition, introduced so considerable an alteration, that we should hold ourselves inexcusable, after the very favourable reception our commentaries have been honoured with, in omitting to seize the earliest opportunity of pointing it out to the public.

Finding the variety and importance of the characters he is called upon to describe, likely to demand a greater portion both of time and words than an expiring man can be reasonably supposed to afford, instead of leaving the whole description of that illustrious assembly, of which the dying drummer has already delineated some of the principal ornaments, to the same character, he has made an addition to the vision in which the House of Commons is represented, at the conclusion of the Sixth Book, by contriving that the lantern of Merlin should be shifted in such a manner, as to display at once to the eager eye of Rollo, the whole interior of the Upper House; to gain a seat in which the hero immediately expresses a laudable impatience, as well as a just indignation, on beholding persons, far less worthy than himself, among those whom the late very numerous creations prevent our calling--

----_pauci--quos æquus amavit
Jupiter_--

With still less propriety, perhaps we should add--

--_Aut ardens evexit ad æthera virtus._ VIRG.

The hero's displeasure is thus forcibly described:

Zounds! quoth great _Rollo_, with indignant frown,
'Mid British nobles shall a base-born clown,
With air imperious ape a monarch's nod,
Less fit to sit there than my groom, by G-d[1]?

Longinus, in his chapter on interrogations, proves them to be a source of the sublime. They are, indeed, says Dr. Young, the proper style of majesty incensed. Where, therefore, can they be with more propriety introduced, than from the mouth of our offended hero? Merlin, after sympathizing with him in the justice of these feelings, proceeds to a description of the august assembly they are viewing. The author's reverence for the religion of his country naturally disposes him first to take notice of the spiritual lords of Parliament--

Yon rev'rend prelates, rob'd in sleeves of lawn,
Too meek to murmur, and too proud to fawn,
Who still submissive to their Maker's nod,
Adore their sov'reign, and respect their God;
And wait, good men! all worldly things forgot,
In humble hope of Enoch's happy lot.

We apprehend that the fourth line, by an error in the press, the words "adore and respect," must have been misplaced; but our veneration for our author will not permit us to hazard even the slightest alteration of the text. The happy ambiguity of the word "Maker," is truly beautiful.

We are sorry, however, to observe, that modern times afford some instances of exceptions to the above description, as well as one very distinguished one, indeed, to that which follows of the sixteen Peers of Scotland:--

Alike in loyalty, alike in worth,
Behold the sixteen nobles of the north;
Fast friends to monarchy, yet sprung from those
Who basely sold their monarch to his foes;
Since which, atoning for their father's crime,
The sons, as basely, sell themselves to him:
With ev'ry change prepar'd to change their note,
With ev'ry government prepar'd to vote,
Save when, perhaps, on some important bill,
They know, by second sight, the royal will;
With royal _Denbigh_ hearing birds that sing,
"Oppose the minister to please the king."

These last lines allude to a well authenticated anecdote, which deserves to be recorded as an instance of the interference of divine Providence in favour of this country, when her immediate destruction was threatened by the memorable India bill, so happily rejected by the House of Lords in the year 1783.

The Earl of _Denbigh_, a Lord of his Majesty's Bed-chamber, being newly married, and solacing himself at his country-seat in the sweats of matrimonial bliss, to his great astonishment heard, on a winter's evening, in the cold month of December, a nightingale singing in the woods. Having listened with great attention to so extraordinary a phoenomenon, it appeared to his Lordship that the bird distinctly repeated the following significant words, in the same manner that the bells of London admonished the celebrated Whittington,

"Throw out the India bill;
Such is your master's will."

His Lordship immediately communicated this singular circumstance to the fair partner of his connubial joys, who, for the good of her country, patriotically, though reluctantly, consented to forego the newly tasted delights of wedlock, and permitted her beloved bridegroom to set out for London, where his Lordship fortunately arrived in time, to co-operate with the rest of his noble and honourable brethren, the lords of the king's bed-chamber, in defeating that detestable measure; a measure calculated to effect the immediate ruin of this country, by overthrowing the happy system of government which has so long prevailed in our East-India territories.--After having described the above-mentioned classes of nobility, he proceeds to take notice of the admirable person who so worthily presides in this august assembly:--

The rugged _Thurlow_, who with sullen scowl,
In surly mood, at friend and foe will growl;
Of proud prerogative, the stern support,
Defends the entrance of great _George_'s court
'Gainst factious Whigs, lest they who stole the seal,
The sacred diadem itself should steal:
So have I seen near village butcher's stall
(If things so great may be compar'd with small)
A mastiff guarding, on a market day,
With snarling vigilance, his master's tray.

The fact of a desperate and degraded faction having actually broken into the dwelling-house of the Lord High Chancellor, and carried off the great seal of England, is of equal notoriety and authenticity with that of their having treacherously attempted, when in power, to transfer the crown of Great-Britain from the head of our most gracious sovereign to that of their ambitious leader, so justly denominated the Cromwell of modern times.

While our author is dwelling on events which every Englishman must recollect with heart-felt satisfaction, he is naturally reminded of that excellent nobleman, whose character he has, in the mouth of the dying drummer, given more at large, and who bore so meritorious a share in that happy revolution which restored to the sovereign of these kingdoms the right of nominating his own servants; a right exercised by every private gentleman in the choice of his butler, cook, coachman, footman, &c. but which a powerful and wicked aristocratic combination endeavoured to circumscribe in the monarch, with respect to the appointment of ministers of state. Upon this occasion he compares the noble Marquis to the pious hero of the Æneid, and recollects the description of his conduct during the conflagration of Troy; an alarming moment, not unaptly likened to that of the Duke of Portland's administration, when his Majesty, like king Priam, had the misfortune of seeing

----_Medium in penctralibus hostem._ VIRG.

The learned reader will bear in mind the description of Æneas:--

_Limen ærat, cæcoque fores, &c._ VIRG.

When _Troy_ was burning, and the' insulting foe
Had well-nigh laid her lofty bulwarks low,
The good Æneas, to avert her fate,
Sought _Priam_'s palace through a _postern_ gate:
Thus when the Whigs, a bold and factious band,
Had snatch'd the sceptre from their sovereign's hand,
Up the _back-stairs_ the virtuous _Grenville_ sneaks,
To rid the closet of those worse than _Greeks_,
Whose impious tongues audaciously maintain,
That for their subjects, kings were born to reign.

The abominable doctrines of the republican party are here held forth in their genuine colours, to the detestation of all true lovers of our happy constitution. The magician then thinks fit to endeavour to pacify the hero's indignation, which we before took notice of, on seeing persons less worthy than himself preferred to the dignity of peerage, by the mention of two of those newly created, whose promotion equally reflects the highest honour upon government.

_Lonsdale_ and _Camelford_ thrice honour'd names!
Whose god-like bosoms glow with patriot flames:
To serve his country, at her utmost need,
By this, behold a ship of war decreed;
While that, impell'd by all a convert's zeal,
Devotes his borough to the public weal.
But still the wise their second thoughts prefer,
Thus both our patriots on these gifts demur;
Ere yet she's launch'd the vessel runs aground,
And _Sarum_ sells for twice three thousand pound.

The generous offers of those public-spirited noblemen, the one during the administration of the Marquis of Landsdown, proposing to build a seventy-four-gun ship, for the public service; the other on Mr. Pitt's motion for a parliamentary reform, against which he had before not only voted, but written a pamphlet, declaring his readiness to make a present of his burgage tenure borough of Old Sarum to the bank of England, are too fresh in the recollection of their grateful countrymen to need being here recorded. With respect, however, to the subsequent sale of the borough for the "twice three thousand pounds," our author does not himself seem perfectly clear, since we afterwards meet with these lines:

Say, what gave _Camelford_ his wish'd-for rank?
Did he devote _Old Sarum_ to the Bank?
Or did he not, that envied rank to gain,
Transfer the victim to the Treas'ry's fame?

His character of the Earl of Lonsdale is too long to be here inserted, but is perhaps one of the most finished parts of the whole poem: we cannot, however, refrain from transcribing the four following lines, on account of the peculiar happiness of their expression. The reader will not forget the declaration of this great man, that he was in possession of the land, the fire, and the water, of the town of Whitehaven.

E'en by the elements his pow'r confess'd,
Of mines and boroughs _Lonsdale_ stands possess'd;
And one sad servitude alike denotes
The slave that labours, and the slave that votes.

Our paper now reminds us that it is time to close our observations for the present, which we shall do with four lines added by our author to the former part of the sixth book, in compliment to his favourite, the Marquis of Graham, on his late happy marriage.

With joy _Britannia_ sees her fav'rite goose
Fast bound and _pinion'd_ in the nuptial noose;
Presaging fondly from so fair a mate,
A brood of goslings, cackling in debate.

[1] See Mr. Rolle's speech in the parliamentary debates.

* * * * *

_NUMBER VI._

Our _dying drummer_, in consequence of his extraordinary exertions in delineating those exalted personages, the MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM and DUKE OF RICHMOND; exertions which we think we may venture to pronounce unparalleled by any one, drummer, or other, similarly circumstanced; unfortunately found himself so debilitated, that we were very fearful, like Balaam's ass, LORD VALLETORT, or any other equally strange animal, occasionally endowed with speech, his task being executed, that his mouth would for ever after remain incapable of utterance.

But though his powers might be suspended, fortunately the

----in æternam clauduntur lumina noctem,

has, in consequence of the timely relaxation afforded to the wounded gentleman during the whole of our last number, been for the present avoided; and, like Mr. PITT's question of parliamentary reform, adjourned to a more _expedient moment_.

To our drummer we might say, as well as to our matchless premier,

Larga quidem DRANCE, semper tibi copia fandi,

which, though, some malevolent critics might profligately translate

"There is no end to thy prosing,"

those who have read our drummer's last dying words, or heard our minister's new made speeches, will admit to be in both instances equally inapplicable.

The natural powers of our author here again burst forth with such renovated energy, that, like the swan, his music seems to increase as his veins become drained.

Alluding to an event too recent to require elucidation, after describing the virtues of the most amiable personage in the kingdom, and more particularly applauding her charity, which he says is so unbounded, that it

------Surmounts dull Nature's ties,
Nor even to WINCHELSEA a smile denies.

He proceeds

And thou too, LENOX! worthy of thy name!
Thou heir to RICHMOND, and to RICHMOND's fame!
On equal terms, when BRUNSWICK deign'd to grace
The spurious offspring of the STUART race;
When thy rash arm design'd her favorite dead,
The christian triumph'd, and the mother fled:
No rage indignant shook her pious frame,
No partial doating swayed the saint-like dame;
But spurn'd and scorn'd where Honor's sons resort,
Her friendship sooth'd thee, in thy monarch's court.

How much does this meek resignation, in respect to COLONEL LENOX, appear superior to the pagan rage of MEZENTIUS towards ÆNEAS, on somewhat of a similar occasion, when, instead of desiring him to dance a minuet at the Etrurian court, he savagely, and of malice prepense, hurls his spear at the foe of his son, madly exclaiming

--Jam venio moriturus et hæc tibi porto
Dona prius.

But our author excels Virgil, as much as the amiable qualities of the great personage described, exceed those of MEZENTIUS: that august character instead of dying, did not so much as faint; and so far from hurling a spear at Mr. LENOX, she did not cast at him even an angry glance.

The christian triumph'd, &c.

We are happy in noticing this line, and indeed the whole of the passage, on another account, as it establishes the orthodoxy of the drummer upon so firm a basis, that DR. HORSLEY himself could scarcely object to his obtaining a seat in parliament.

There is something so extremely ingenious in the following lines, and they account too on such rational grounds for a partiality that has puzzled so many able heads, that we cannot forbear transcribing them.

Apostrophizing the exalted personage before alluded to, he says,

Early you read, nor did the advice deride,
Suspicion ne'er should taint a CÆSAR's bride;
And who in spotless purity so fit
To guard an honest wife's good fame, as PITT.

The beautiful compliment here introduced to the chastity of our immaculate premier, from the pen of such an author, must give him the most supreme satisfaction. And

O decus Italiæ virgo!!!

Long mayst thou continue to deserve it!!!