Poetry of the Anti-Jacobin: Comprising the Celebrated Political and Satirical Poems, of the Rt. Hons. G. Canning, John Hookham Frere, W. Pitt, the Marquis Wellesley, G. Ellis, W. Gifford, the Earl of Carlisle, and Others.
History
Poetry of the Anti-Jacobin: Comprising the Celebrated Political and Satirical Poems, of the Rt. Hons. G. Canning, John Hookham Frere, W. Pitt, the Marquis Wellesley, G. Ellis, W. Gifford, the Earl of Carlisle, and Others.
English poetry; France -- History -- Revolution, 1789-1799 -- Poetry; Great Britain -- Politics and government -- 1789-1820
The reader will find in the works of PETER PORCUPINE [W. COBBETT] (a
spirited and instructive writer) an ample and satisfactory commentary
on this and the following stanza. The French themselves inform us,
that by the several modes of destruction here alluded to, upwards of
30,000 persons were butchered at Lyons, and this once magnificent city
almost levelled to the ground, by the command of a wretched actor
(COLLOT D’HERBOIS), whom they had formerly hissed from the stage. From
the same authorities we learn, that at Nantz 27,000 persons, of both
sexes, were murdered; chiefly by drowning them in plugged boats. The
waters of the Loire became putrid, and were forbidden to be drunk, by
the savages who conducted the massacre:—that at Paris 150,000, and in
La Vendée 300,000 persons were destroyed.—Upon the whole, the French
themselves acknowledge, that TWO MILLIONS of human beings (exclusive
of the military) have been sacrificed to the principles of EQUALITY
and the RIGHTS OF MAN: 250,000 of these are stated to be WOMEN, and
30,000 CHILDREN. In this last number, however, they do not include the
unborn; nor those who started from the bodies of their agonizing
parents, and were stuck upon the bayonets of those very men who are
now to compose the “ARMY OF ENGLAND,” amidst the most savage
acclamations.
[At the beginning of the revolution, some companies of children,
called _Bonsbons_, were dressed and drilled as National Guards, as a
compliment to the Dauphin, who to please the Parisians sometimes
donned that uniform. Similar companies were afterwards formed in
Brittany, and employed to shoot those poor wretches whom the two
guillotines could not dispatch in sufficient numbers!—_Biog. Univ._,
art. _St. André_.—ED.]
Footnote 39:
At Lyons, JABOGUES, the _second_ murderer (the Actor being the
_first_), in his speech to the Democratic Society, used these
words—“Down with the edifices raised for the profit or the pleasure of
the rich; down with them ALL. COMMERCE and ARTS are useless to a
warlike people, and are the destruction of that SUBLIME EQUALITY which
France is determined to spread over the globe.” Such are the
consequences of RADICAL REFORM! Let any merchant, farmer, or landlord;
let any husband or father consider this, and then say, “_Shall we or
shall we not contribute a moderate sum_, IN PROPORTION TO OUR ANNUAL
EXPENDITURE, _for the purpose of preserving ourselves from the fate of
Lyons, La Vendée, and Nantz?_”
STYPTIC.
Footnote 40:
[Probably written by the Rt. Hon. John Courtnay.]
Footnote 41:
Line 10.—[One of the distinguishing features of the “ANTI-JACOBIN”
was their articles devoted to an exposure of the “Lies,
Misrepresentations, and Mistakes” of the Opposition Press.—ED.]
Footnote 42:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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