Men in private life go down to their graves with some unlucky name, not received in baptism, but more descriptive and picturesque; and even ministers of state have winced at a political christening. Malagrida the Jesuit and Jemmy Twitcher were nicknames which made one of our ministers odious, and another contemptible.[52] The Earl of Godolphin caught such fire at that of Volpone, that it drove him into the opposite party, for the vindictive purpose of obtaining the impolitical prosecution of Sacheverell, who, in his famous sermon, had first applied it to the earl, and unluckily it had stuck to him. "Faction," says Lord Orford, "is as capricious as fortune; wrongs, oppression, the zeal of real patriots, or the genius of false ones, may sometimes be employed for years in kindling substantial opposition to authority; in other seasons the impulse of a moment, a _ballad_, a _nickname_, a _fashion_ can throw a city into a tumult, and shake the foundations of a state." Such is a slight history of the human passions in politics! We might despair in thus discovering that wisdom and patriotism so frequently originate in this turbid source of party; but we are consoled when we reflect that the most important political principles are immutable: and that they are those which even the spirit of party must learn to reverence. FOOTNOTES: [47] See Recueil Chronologique et Analytique de tout ce qui a fait en Portugal la Societe de Jesus. Vol. ii. sect. 406. [48] _Plunder_, observed Mr. Douce, is pure Dutch or Flemish--_Plunderen_, from _Plunder_, which means _property_ of any kind. May tells us it was brought by those officers who had returned from the wars of the Netherlands. [49] One of the best collections of political songs written during the great Civil War, is entitled "The Rump," and has a curious frontispiece representing the mob burning rumps as described above. [50] The "History of the Tories and Rapparees" was a popular Irish chapbook a few years ago, and devoted to the daring acts of these marauders. [51] These curious particulars I found in a manuscript. [52] Lord Shelburne was named "Malagrida," and Lord Sandwich was "Jemmy Twitcher;" a name derived from the chief of Macheath's gang in the _Beggar's Opera_. THE DOMESTIC LIFE OF A POET.--SHENSTONE VINDICATED.