loud and prolonged cheering and hissing of the 'stupid party,' comprising the home plutocrats and the Indian nabobs. The 'Westminster Scrutiny' in 1784-85, when the Government party tried-but failed to oust Fox from his seat at Westminster in favour of Sir Cecil Wray, gave the Whigs something to rejoice over; few political events ever called forth such a wealth of squibs, lampoons, and caricatures. The Rolliad consists of pretended criticism on a supposititious epic poem, from which quotations were now and again made, enough only being given at a time to serve as text for the comment. The plot was suggested by a boast of Rolle that he was descended from the Norman Duke Rollo; who (disguised as a smuggler) is made to sail to England, and, by help of Merlin, has visions of the glories of his descendants in England, down to the most distinguished scion of the stock, the strong-lunged Tory member who coughed down Burke. The vision of his descendants' career is, as might be expected, not wholly pleasing-thus several of the principal representatives of the family are seen to come to an untimely and shameful end. In the 'Dedication' it is indicated that the Rolliad 'owed its existence to the memorable speech of the member for Devonshire on the first discussion of the Westminster Scrutiny, when he so emphatically proved himself the genuine descendant of Duke Rollo; and in the noble contempt which he showed for the rights of electors seemed to breathe the very soul of his great progenitor, who came to extirpate the liberties of Englishmen with the sword.' And the last of Rollo's stock had at various times in his career (so the vision showed) had humiliating experiences -as at Westminster School, for example: In vain ten thousand Busbys should employ The planless plan allows the free handling of all the supporters of the Government most open to criticism, burlesque, or innuendo as bores, fools, or venal persons; the bishops are not spared— Who still, submissive to their Maker's nod, Adore their Sovereign, and respect their God; Cumberland the dramatist and Rowland Hill the popular preacher are sharply dealt with; the hygienic merits of the Highland kilt and of souchong (as compared with stingo and October) are lauded in mock heroics; and for the comfort of the luxurious Indian contingent, it is proposed to introduce a few velvet-cushioned couches of ivory in place of the hard benches of the House of Commons. The Criticisms on the Rolliad appeared in a 'First Part' and a 'Second Part;' and this series of clever jeux d'esprit was followed by Probationary Odes for the Laureateship, Political Eclogues, and Political Miscellanies. The design of the Probationary Odes was probably suggested by Pope's ridicule of Cibber; and the death of Whitehead, the poet-laureate, in 1785, was seized upon by the Whig wits as affording an opportunity for satirising some of the political and literary characters of the day, conspicuous as members or supporters of the Government. Pitt, Dundas, Jenkinson (Lord Liverpool), Lord Thurlow, Major John Scott (agent for Warren Hastings), Harry Dundas (Viscount Melville), and others were the objects of these humorous sallies and personal invectives; while among literary men, Joseph and Thomas Warton, Sir John Hawkins, Macpherson (the translator of Ossian), and Sir N. W. Wraxall, M.P., traveller, and author of many books of travels, were selected for attack. The idea (somewhat analogous to that of the Rejected Addresses) was to make the personages write, in competition for the laureateship, poems as specimens of their powers; thus giving the parodists scope for satirising their characters, caricaturing their peculiarities, and burlesquing their style. Though there is a great variety of rhymes and of subjects, there is a wonderful unanimity of feeling throughout, and it has always been difficult to say who was the author of the several pieces; doubtless many were the joint work of several pens. The chief contributors to this gallery of burlesque portraits and clever caricatures were: Dr French Laurence (1757-1809), the friend of Burke, who was the chief editor or director of the satires; he was ultimately chancellor of the diocese of Oxford and judge of admiralty for the Cinque Ports. He wrote also odes and sonnets, and translations from the Italian.-General Richard Fitzpatrick (1747–1813), a brother of the last Earl of Upper Ossory, who served in the army in America, was long in Parliament, and held the offices of Secretary-at-War and Irish Secretary. Fitzpatrick was the most intimate friend of Charles James Fox; he was famous as a wit, and published several poems, satirical and other.-Richard Tickell (1715-93), the grandson of Addison's friend and the brotherin-law of Sheridan, besides his contributions to the Rolliad, was author of The Wreath of Fashion and other poetical pieces, and of a lively political pamphlet entitled Anticipation, 1778. Tickell was a commissioner of stamps; he was a great favourite in society; yet in a moment of despondency he threw himself from a window in Hampton Court Palace, and was killed on the spot. —Joseph Richardson (1755-1803), a journalist and ultimately proprietor of the Morning Post, was author of a comedy called The Fugitive, and was partner with Sheridan in Drury Lane Theatre. From 1776 till his death he sat in Parliament. Among the other contributors to the Rolliad were Lord John Townsend (1757-1833); Mr George Ellis (1753-1815), editor of Early English poetry, friend of Scott, and afterwards one of the founders of the Tory Anti-Jacobin (see pages 673, 678); Sir Robert Adair, Fox's intimate, a capable diplomatist; and General Burgoyne (1723-92), who surrendered to Gates at Saratoga, latterly known as author of pamphlets, miscellanea, and at least one successful comedy, The Heiress. These were for the most part gay, witty, fashionable, and somewhat fast-living men, whose political satire and malice, as Moore has remarked, 'from the fancy with which it is mixed up, like certain kinds of fireworks, explodes in sparkles'-though, it must be added, some of their sallies are coarsely personal. The topics of their satire are now in a great measure forgotten-superseded by other party-men and party-measures; and the very qualities which gave it immediate and splendid success, and carried the series through more than a score of editions, have sunk it the sooner in oblivion. Merlin in the House. It is possible Merlin might even have gone on much longer; but he is interrupted by one of those disturbances which frequently prevail in the House of Commons. The confusion is finely described in the following broken couplet : 'Spoke! Spoke !-Sir!-Mr Speaker-Order there! I rise !-Spoke !-Question! Question!-Chair! Chair! Chair!' This incident is highly natural, and introduced with the greatest judgment, as it gives another opportunity of exhibiting Mr Rolle, and in a situation where he always appears with conspicuous pre-eminence. Great Rollo look'd amazed; nor without fears Merlin's Invective. Tatterdemalions, Scald Miserables, Rascals and Rascalions, From the Dedication of 'The Rolliad.' Character of Mr Pitt. Pert without fire, without experience sage, Too proud from pilfered greatness to descend, Nor rum-contractors think his speech too long, Or vote some necessary millions more (From The Rolliad, No. 2, attributed to Ellis.) The Nabob M.P.'s. There too, in place advanced as in command From the 'Probationary Odes.' The first highly Whitmanesque fragment is from the ode credited to the much-travelled Sir N. W. Wraxall, the second is Major Scott's, the third Harry Dundas's (in ingenious manufactured, non-natural Scotch), the fourth that of Lord Mountmorres, the fifth Lord Thurlow's. 'Great Brunswick ' is, of course, George III.; and Cornwall' the then Prince of Wales. But hail, ye lost Athenians! Hail also, ye Armenians! Hail once ye Greeks, ye Romans, Carthaginians! Hail, wonder-working Magi! Hail Ourang-Outang! Hail Anthropophagi ! Hail, all ye cabinets of every state, From poor Marino's Hill, to Catherine's empire great! All, all have chiefs, who speak, who write, who seem to think, Caermarthens, Sydneys, Rutlands, paper, pens, and ink. Now shall the Levee's ease thy soul unbend, · In accents clear, Great Brunswick's voice still vibrate on my ear, 'What?-what?-what!' Oh! fancy quick! Oh! judgment true! So hasty and so generous too! Not one of all thy questions will an answer wait! To paint the beauties of that head and heart! Damnation seize ye all, Who puff, who thrum, who bawl and squall; The wreath, that blooms for other brows, to gain. 'Mr Mac Pherson,' declared to be 'a chief writer on the Government side,' was caricatured both in prose and in verse; part of the prose ran thus: Cornwall leaped from his throne and screamed-The Friends of Gwelfo hung their Heads-How were the mighty fallen!-Lift up thy face, Dundasso, like the brazen shield of thy chieftain! Thou art bold to confront disgrace, and shame is unknown to thy brow,--but tender is the youth of thy leader; who droopeth his head like a faded lily-leave not Pito in the day of defeat, when the Chiefs of the Counties fly from him like the herd from the galled Deer. And this ode is described as 'a Duan in the true Ossianic sublimity :' Does the wind touch thee, O Harp? Or is it some passing Ghost? Spirit of the departed Scrutiny? A song shall rise ! Every soul shall depart at the sound!!! I behold thee sitting on mist!!! The ghosts of dead Tories shall hear me In their airy Hall! The wither'd thistle shall crown my head! Bring me the Harp, Son of Chatham! But Thou, O King! give me the launce! Collected editions of The Rolliad, Probationary Odes, and Political Eclogues and Miscellanies appeared in 1795 and subsequently; the twenty-second edition was dated 1812. The authorship of the various pieces in the Rolliad was discussed at length in vols. ii. and iii. of the First Series of Notes and Queries; and see an article in St Paul's, vol. v. (1870). George Canning (1770–1827), the scion of an old Anglo-Irish family long settled at Garvagh in County Derry, was born in London; his father, having quarrelled with his family over his marriage, tried poetry, pamphleteering, and law without success, and died leaving his wife, with a one-yearold baby, to make a struggle to live as an actress. The boy, however, was sent by a banker uncle to Eton and Christ Church; and after a time at Lincoln's Inn, when according to Scott's story he was startled out of revolutionary sympathies by a visit from Godwin (see page 702), entered Parliament as a supporter of Pitt in 1796. In two years he had made himself famous as a parliamentary orator, and formidable as the ruling spirit of the Anti-Jacobin. In 1804 he became Pitt's Secretary of the Navy. In or out of office he was a most conspicuous figure till, in 1822 on the death of Castlereagh, with whom he had fought a duel in 1809, he became Secretary for Foreign Affairs, and helped to make history. At home he was disliked by reformers as a supporter of oppressive measures; his foreign policy was branded as revolutionary. Tories suspected him of leanings to Liberalism; to Liberals he was always a Tory. Eldon and Wellington in his own camp disliked him, and his contemptuous criticisms of all who differed from him made him many enemies. He supported Catholic emancipation, asserted British independence against the Holy Alliance, promoted commerce by mitigating the protective-prohibitive system, prepared the way for the repeal of the Corn Laws, worked with France and Russia for Greek independence, supported Portugal against Spain, and (though both Castlereagh and Wellington admitted the de facto independence) was the first to recognise the free states of South America. In 1827 he became Prime Minister with the aid of the Whigs; but his health gave way under the cares of office, and he died within six months, in the same room where Fox had breathed his last. He was a master of pol shed eloquence, of incisive logic, of trenchant wit, of brilliant rhetoric; but had not the power of convincing and persuading that his great predecessors Pitt and Burke and Fox exercised, though Cornewall Lewis thought that Canning as an orator had never been surpassed, perhaps never equalled, and Mackintosh ranked him above Pitt. More famous than his speeches are his contributions to The Anti-Jacobin or Weekly Examiner, a strenuously satirical and powerful organ of Conservative opinion in prose and verse, begun in November 1797, and carried on-in dead earnest even when at its wittiest-till the July of next year. Canning was the master-spirit, but he had Gifford for editor, and amongst his principal collaborators George Ellis and Hookham Frere; Pitt, too, may have lent a hand. The Whig Rolliad had been rollicking, broadly humorous, at times coarse and offensively personal; but it aimed more at fun than at the destruction of error and the dissemination of truth. These were distinctly amongst the aims of the Anti-Jacobin, and there is therefore some excuse for a measure of bitterness and even ferocity both in defence and assault, which cannot be attributed solely to Gifford. The Anti-Jacobin stood up for the English constitution against all foes, domestic and foreign, especially against French republicans and their friends; for Christianity and the Church of England against innovators, freethinkers, Dissenters, and atheists; for common-sense against the poetry and philosophy of Erasmus Darwin; for English humour and taste against the false and feeble sentiment, silly rodomontade, lax morality, pointless dramatic construction, and general imbecility the Tory wits (from imperfect knowledge) conceived to be characteristically German. The management was sometimes, as might be expected, undiscriminating and unfair in the selection of persons to be attacked. Thus 'Coleridge and Southey, Lloyd and Lamb and Co.,' are invoked, along with 'Paine, Williams, Godwin, Holcroft,' and 'all creeping creatures venomous and low,' to worship the revolutionary Lepaux. It is not singular that Southey should at this time have been denounced as an incendiary, or that Helen Maria Williams should have been very disrespectfully alluded to. Coleridge never admitted that he was fairly treated in these references, and even when a high Tory, continued to resent the inclusion in this connection of poor Charles Lamb's name. In the Anti-Jacobin for 1802 there is a commendatory notice of the poem called The Infidel and Christian Philosopher, contrasting the deathbeds of Voltaire and Addison; the long extract on Voltaire's end begins thus View yon pale wretch who late with haughty pride and Voltaire is made to bewail his blasphemies and in abject terror implore the sovereign mercy which he scorned before. The same number, reviewing a volume of poetry 'by the author of Gebir,' repudiates 'all knowledge of the former productions of this notable bard' named on the title (including The Phoceans and Chrysaor), but pronounces this 'the most arrant doggrell as ever poor critic was compelled to regard. In short, worse lines and worse prin ciples were seldom if ever united in one poor volume. . . . This fustian probably comes from one of the dissenting manufactories at Warwick.' A good deal of difficulty has been found in fixing the authorship of the various contributions to the Anti-Jacobin, which were of course anonymously published; many of the best were the joint work of two or more of the band. Some of the very best were undoubtedly wholly or almost wholly Canning's work. Amongst these are generally reckoned the prospectus; the inscription for the cell of Mrs Brownrigg, the murderer; the second and third parts of The Loves of the Triangles; The Needy Knife-Grinder; the second and third parts of The Progress of Man; and The New Morality. Canning shared with Ellis and Frere in the play of The Rovers (with its English heroes Puddingfield and Beefington), meant to ridicule German plays generally, though in truth it has little relevance to any actual German work; and the 'Song of Rogero' is apparently his, though it is said Pitt added the last verse. The Brownrigg poem caricatured Southey's inscription for the cell of Henry Marten, the parliamentarian regicide, at Chepstow; the 'Friend of Humanity' was the Irish Whig M.P., Tierney; the Progress of Man satirised Payne Knight's Progress of Civil Society; and the Loves of the Triangles was the too amazingly effective caricature of Erasmus Darwin's Loves of the Plants-it killed Darwin's poem and blasted his laurels. Indeed, it might be argued that the Anti-Jacobin helped greatly to put all didactic poetry out of fashion, and so, in spite of its politics and literary principles, to promote a new era in literature and a taste diametrically opposed to that of the eighteenth century. From the New Morality come the oftenquoted lines— Give me the avowed, the erect, the manly foe'; But of all plagues, good Heaven, thy wrath can send, as also the couplet A steady Patriot of the World alone, The Friend of every Country-but his own. Inscription for the Door of the Cell in Newgate, where Mrs Brownrigg, the Prentice-cide, was confined previous to her execution. For one long term, or ere her trial came, Here Brownrigg linger'd. Often have these cells Did Brownrigg swing. Harsh laws! But time shall come From 'The Progress of Man.' Lo! the rude savage, free from civil strife, Struck with the sight, the wondering Savage stands, Ah! hapless porker! what can now avail Thy back's stiff bristles, or thy curly tail? Ah! what avail those eyes so small and round, Long pendent ears, and snout that loves the ground? Not unreveng'd thou diest !—In after times From thy spilt blood shall spring unnumber'd crimes. Soon shall the slaught'rous arms that wrought thy woe, Improv'd by malice, deal a deadlier blow; When social Man shall pant for nobler game, And 'gainst his fellow man the vengeful weapon aim. As love, as gold, as jealousy inspires, As wrathful hate or wild ambition fires, For blood once shed, new wants and wishes rise; Each rising want invention quick supplies. To roast his victuals is Man's next desire, So two dry sticks he rubs, and lights a fire; Hail fire! &c. &c. From 'The Loves of the Triangles.' In The Friend of Humanity and the Knifegrinder, generally called, from the first line, The Needy Knife-grinder, Canning ridicules the youthful Jacobin effusions of Southey, in which, he says, it was sedulously inculcated that there was a natural and eternal warfare between the poor and the rich. The Sapphic rhymes of Southey afforded a tempting subject for ludicrous parody, and lest he should be suspected of painting from fancy, Canning quoted the following stanza: Cold was the night-wind: drifting fast the snows fell; Wide were the downs, and shelterless and naked; When a poor wanderer struggled on her journey, Weary and way-sore. The Friend of Humanity and the Knife-grinder. F. of H. Needy Knife grinder! whither are you going? Rough is your road, your wheel is out of order; Bleak blows the blast-your hat has got a hole in't, So have your breeches! Weary Knife-grinder! little think the proud ones, Tell me, Knife-grinder, how came you to grind knives? Or the attorney? |