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. — John Shaqi
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
After fully exhausting these subjects, MR. ERSKINE resumed a topic
on which he had only slightly glanced before. In a most delicate and
sportive vein of humour he contended, that if the people were a
Swinish Multitude, those who represented them must necessarily be a
Swinish Representation. It would be in vain to attempt to do justice
to the polite and easy pleasantry which pervaded this part of MR.
ERSKINE’S speech. Suffice it to say that the taste of the Audience
showed itself in complete unison with the genius of the Orator, and
the whole of this passage was crowned with loud and reiterated
plaudits. After a speech of unexampled exertion, MR. ERSKINE now
began to enter much at length into a recital of select passages from
our most approved English authors, concluding with a copious extract
from the several Publications of the late MR. BURKE; but such were
the variety and richness of his quotations which he continued to an
extent far exceeding the limits of this paper, that we found
ourselves under the necessity, either of considerably abridging our
original matter, or omitting them altogether, which latter
alternative we adopted the more readily as the greater part of these
brilliant citations have already passed through the ordeal of a
public and patriotic auditory; and as there is every probability
that the circumstances of the times will again call them forth on
some future emergency.
MR. ERSKINE concluded by recapitulating, in a strain of agonizing
and impressive eloquence, the several more prominent heads of his
speech:—He had been a Soldier and a Sailor, and had a son at
Winchester school—He had been called by Special Retainers, during
the summer, into many different and distant parts of the
country—travelling chiefly in Post-chaises—He felt himself called
upon to declare that his poor faculties were at the service of his
Country—of the free and enlightened part of it at least—He stood
here as a Man—He stood in the Eye, indeed in the Hand of GOD—to whom
(in the presence of the Company and Waiters) he solemnly appealed—He
was of Noble, perhaps, Royal Blood—He had a house at Hampstead—was
convinced of the necessity of a thorough and radical Reform—His
Pamphlet had gone through Thirty Editions—skipping alternately the
odd and even numbers—He loved the Constitution, to which he would
cling and grapple—And he was clothed with the infirmities of man’s
nature—He would apply to the present French Rulers (particularly
BARRAS and REUBEL) the words of the poet:—
“Be to their Faults a little blind;
“Be to their Virtues very kind,
“Let all their ways be unconfin’d,
“And clap the Padlock on their mind!”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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