But imitators are liable to be led strangely astray; and never was there an instance of a more complete mistake of a plain meaning, than that which this line is intended to illustrate—a mistake no less than that of a _coffin_ for a _corpse_. This is hard to believe or to comprehend—but you shall hear. MR. BURKE, in one of his publications, had talked of the French “_unplumbing_ the dead in order to destroy the living,”—by which he intended, without doubt, not metaphorically, but literally, “_stripping the dead of their_ LEADEN COFFINS, _and then making them_ (_not the_ DEAD _but the_ COFFINS) _into bullets_”. A circumstance perfectly notorious at the time the book was written. But this does not satisfy our author. He determines to retort MR. BURKE’S own words upon him; and unfortunately “reaching at a metaphor,” where MR. BURKE only intended a fact, he falls into the little mistake above mentioned, and by a stroke of his pen transmutes the illustrious HEAD of the house of RUSSELL into a metal, to which it is not for us to say how near or how remote his affinity may possibly have been. He writes thus—“_If_ MR. BURKE _had been content with ‘unplumbing’ a dead Russell, and hewing_ HIM (observe—not the coffin, but HIM—the old dead Russell himself) _into grape and canister, to sweep down the whole generation of his descendants_,” _&c., &c._ The thing is scarcely credible; but IT IS SO! We write with the book open before us. Footnote 61: Qu.—Surcharge? [Footnote: [62]HORACE, ODE VIII., BOOK II. IN BARINEM. _Ulla si juris tibi pejerati Pœna, Barine, nocuisset unquam, Dente si nigro fieres, vel uno Turpior ungui_, _Crederem. [64]Sed tu simul obligâsti Perfidum votis caput, enitescis Pulchrior multo_, juvenumque prodis Publica cura. [66]Expedit _matris cineres_ opertos Fallere, et toto [66]_taciturna noctis Signa_ cum cœlo, gelidâque Divos Morte carentes. _Ridet hoc, inquam, [67]Venus ipsa; rident Simplices [69]Nymphæ, ferus et [73]Cupido Semper ardentes acuens sagittas_ Cote cruentâ. Adde quod pubes tibi crescit omnis, [74]_Servitus crescit nova; [75]nec priores Impiæ tectum dominæ relinquunt, Sæpe minati._ Te suis matres metuunt juvencis; Te [76]_senes parci, miseræque [77]nuper Virgines nuptæ, tua ne retardet Aura Maritos._ ® Footnote 63: Line 3.—[Referring to LORD MOIRA’S complaints against the Government agents, for unnecessary cruelty to the Irish rebels.—ED.] Footnote 65: