Page images
PDF
EPUB

[Speech of Chatham on being taunted on account of youth.]

disease-against the employment of Indians in the war with America, is too characteristic, too noble, to be omitted.

in the war with America.]

now

Sir-The atrocious crime of being a young man, which the honourable gentleman has, with such spirit [Speech of Chatham against the employment of Indians and decency, charged upon me, I shall neither attempt to palliate nor deny, but content myself with wishing that I may be one of those whose follies may cease with their youth, and not of that number who are ignorant in spite of experience. Whether youth can be imputed to any man as a reproach, I will not, sir, assume the province of determining; but surely age may become justly contemptible, if the opportunities which it brings have passed away without improvement, and vice appears to prevail when the passions have subsided. The wretch who, after having seen the consequences of a thousand errors, continues still to blunder, and whose age has only added obstinacy to stupidity, is surely the object either of abhorrence or contempt, and deserves not that his gray hairs should secure him from insult. Much more, sir, is he to be abhorred who, as he has advanced in age, has receded from virtue, and become more wicked with less temptation; who prostitutes himself for money which he cannot enjoy, and spends the remains of his life in the ruin of his country. But youth, sir, is not my only crime; I have been accused of acting a theatrical part. A theatrical part may either imply some peculiarities of gesture, or a dissimulation of my real sentiments, and an adoption of the opinions and language of another man.

In the first sense, sir, the charge is too trifling to be confuted, and deserves only to be mentioned that it may be despised. I am at liberty, like every other man, to use my own language; and though, perhaps, I may have some ambition to please this gentleman, I shall not lay myself under any restraint, nor very solicitously copy his diction or his mien, however matured by age, or modelled by experience. But if any man shall, by charging me with theatrical behaviour, imply that I utter any sentiments but my own, I shall treat him as a calumniator and a villain; nor shall any protection shelter him from the treatment he deserves. I shall, on such an occasion, without scruple, trample upon all those forms with which wealth and dignity entrench themselves; nor shall anything but age restrain my resentment; age, which always brings one privilege, that of being insolent and supercilious, without punishment. But with regard, sir, to those whom I have offended, I am of opinion that if I had acted a borrowed part, I should have avoided their censure; the heat that offended them is the ardour of conviction, and that zeal for the service of my country which neither hope nor fear shall influence me to suppress. I will not sit unconcerned while my liberty is invaded, nor look in silence upon public robbery. I will exert my endeavours, at whatever hazard, to repel the aggressor, and drag the thief to justice, whoever may protect him in his villany, and whoever may partake of his plunder.

We need not follow the public career of Pitt, which is, in fact, a part of the history of England during a long and agitated period. His style of oratory was of the highest class, rapid, vehement, and overpowering, and it was adorned by all the graces of action and delivery. His public conduct was singularly pure and disinterested, considering the venality of the times in which he lived; but as a statesman he was often inconsistent, haughty, and impracticable. His acceptance of a peerage (in 1766) hurt his popularity with the nation, who loved and reverenced him as the great commoner;' but he still 'shook the senate' with the resistless appeals of his eloquence. His speech-delivered when he was upwards of sixty, and broken down and enfeebled by

I cannot, my lords, I will not, join in congratulation on misfortune and disgrace. This, my lords, is a perilous and tremendous moment; it is not a time for adulation; the smoothness of flattery cannot save us in this rugged and awful crisis. It necessary to instruct the throne in the language of truth. We must, if possible, dispel the delusion and darkness which envelope it, and display, in its full danger and genuine colours, the ruin which is brought to our doors. Can ministers still presume to expect support in their infatuation? Can parliament be so dead to their dignity and duty, as to give their support to measures thus obtruded and forced upon them; measures, my lords, which have reduced this late flourishing empire to scorn and contempt? But yesterday, and England might have stood against the world; now, none so poor to do her reverence! The people whom we at first despised as rebels, but whom we now acknowledge as enemies, are abetted against you, supplied with every military store, have their interest consulted, and their ambassadors entertained, by your inveterate enemy; and ministers do not, and dare not, interpose with dignity or effect. The desperate state of our army abroad is in part known. No man more highly esteems and honours the English troops than I do; I know their virtues and their valour; I know they can achieve anything but impossibilities; and I know that the conquest of English America is an impossibility. You cannot, my lords, you cannot conquer America. What is your present situation there? We do not know the worst; but we know that in three campaigns we have done nothing and suffered much. You may swell every expense, accumulate every assistance, and extend your traffic to the shambles of every German despot; your attempts will be for ever vain and impotent-doubly so, indeed, from this mercenary aid on which you rely; for it irritates, to an incurable resentment, the minds of your adversaries, to overrun them with the mercenary sons of rapine and plunder, devoting them and their possessions to the rapacity of hireling cruelty. If I were an American, as I am an Englishman, while a foreign troop was landed in my country, I never would lay down my arms: Never, never, never! But, my lords, who is the man that, in addition to the disgraces and mischiefs of the war, has dared to authorise and associate to our arms the tomahawk and scalping-knife of the savage; to call into civilised alliance the wild and inhuman inhabitant of the woods; to delegate to the merciless Indian the defence of disputed rights, and to wage the horrors of his barbarous war against our brethren? My lords, these enormities cry aloud for redress and punishment. But, my lords, this barbarous measure has been defended, not only on the principles of policy and necessity, but also on those of morality; for it is perfectly allowable,' says Lord Suffolk, to use all the means which God and nature have put into our hands.' I am astonished, I am shocked, to hear such principles confessed; to hear them avowed in this house or in this country. My lords, I did not intend to encroach so much on your attention; but I cannot repress my indignation-I feel myself impelled to speak. My lords, we are called upon as members of this house, as men, as Christians, to protest against such horrible barbarity! That God and nature have put into our hands! What ideas of God and nature that noble lord may entertain I know not; but I know that such detestable principles are equally abhorrent to religion

and humanity. What! to attribute the sacred sanction of God and nature to the massacres of the Indian scalping-knife! to the cannibal savage, torturing, murdering, devouring, drinking the blood of his mangled victims! Such notions shock every precept of morality, every feeling of humanity, every sentiment of honour. These abominable principles, and this more abominable avowal of them, demand the most decisive indignation. I call upon that right reverend, and this most learned bench, to vindicate the religion of their God, to support the justice of their country. I call upon the bishops to interpose the unsullied sanctity of their lawn; upon the judges to interpose the purity of their ermine, to save us from this pollution. I call upon the honour of your lordships to reverence the dignity of your ancestors, and to maintain your own. I call upon the spirit and humanity of my country to vindicate the national character. I invoke the Genius of the Constitution. From the tapestry that adorn these walls, the immortal ancestor of this noble lord frowns with indignation at the disgrace of his country. In vain did he defend the liberty and establish the religion of Britain against the tyranny of Rome, if these worse than Popish cruelties and inquisitorial practices are endured among us. To send forth the merciless cannibal, thirsting for blood! against whom? your Protestant brethren! to lay waste their country, to desolate their dwellings, and extirpate their race and name by the aid and instrumentality of these horrible hell-hounds of war! Spain can no longer boast preeminence in barbarity. She armed herself with blood-hounds to extirpate the wretched natives of Mexico; we, more ruthless, loose these dogs of war against our countrymen in America, endeared to us by every tie that can sanctify humanity. I solemnly call upon your lordships, and upon every order of men in the state, to stamp upon this infamous procedure the indelible stigma of the public abhorrence. More particularly I call upon the holy prelates of our religion to do away this iniquity; let them perform a lustration, to purify the country from this deep and deadly sin. My lords, I am old and weak, and at present unable to say more; but my feelings and indignation were too strong to have said less. I could not have slept this night in my bed, nor even reposed my head upon my pillow, without giving vent to my eternal abhorrence of such enormous and preposterous principles.

The last public appearance and death of Lord Chatham are thus described by Belsham, in his history of Great Britain :

'The mind feels interested in the minutest circumstances relating to the last day of the public life of this renowned statesman and patriot. He was dressed in a rich suit of black velvet, with a full wig, and covered up to the knees in flannel. On his arrival in the house, he refreshed himself in the lord chancellor's room, where he stayed till prayers were over, and till he was informed that business was going to begin. He was then led into the house by his son and son-inlaw, Mr William Pitt and Lord Viscount Mahon, all the lords standing up out of respect, and making a lane for him to pass to the earl's bench, he bowing very gracefully to them as he proceeded. He looked pale and much emaciated, but his eye retained all its native fire; which, joined to his general deportment, and the attention of the house, formed a spectacle very striking and impressive.

When the Duke of Richmond had sat down, Lord Chatham rose, and began by lamenting "that his bodily infirmities had so long and at so important a crisis prevented his attendance on the duties of parliament. He declared that he had made an effort almost beyond the powers of his constitution to come

down to the house on this day, perhaps the last time he should ever be able to enter its walls, to express the indignation he felt at the idea which he understood was gone forth of yielding up the sovereignty of America. My lords," continued he, "I rejoice that the grave has not closed upon me, that I am still alive to lift up my voice against the dismemberment of this ancient and noble monarchy. Pressed down as I am by the load of infirmity, I am little able to assist my country in this most perilous conjuncture; but, my lords, while I have sense and memory, I never will consent to tarnish the lustre of this nation by an ignominious surrender of its rights and fairest possessions. Shall a people, so lately the terror of the world, now fall prostrate before the house of Bourbon? It is impossible! In God's name, if it is absolutely necessary to declare either for peace or war, and if peace cannot be preserved with honour, why is not war commenced without hesitation? I am not, I confess, well informed of the resources of this kingdom, but I trust it has still sufficient to maintain its just rights, though I know them not. Any state, my lords, is better than despair. Let us at least make one effort, and if we must fall, let us fall like men."

The Duke of Richmond, in reply, declared himself to be "totally ignorant of the means by which we were to resist with success the combination of America with the house of Bourbon. He urged the noble lord to point out any possible mode, if he were able to do it, of making the Americans renounce that independence of which they were in possession. His Grace added, that if he could not, no man could; and that it was not in his power to change his opinion on the noble lord's authority, unsupported by any reasons but a recital of the calamities arising from a state of things not in the power of this country now to alter."

Lord Chatham, who had appeared greatly moved during the reply, made an eager effort to rise at the conclusion of it, as if labouring with some great idea, and impatient to give full scope to his feelings; but before he could utter a word, pressing his hand on his bosom, he fell down suddenly in a convulsive fit. The Duke of Cumberland, Lord Temple, and other lords near him, caught him in their arms. The house was immediately cleared; and his lordship being carried into an adjoining apartment, the debate was adjourned. Medical assistance being obtained, his lordship in some degree recovered, and was conveyed to his favourite villa of Hayes, in Kent, where, after lingering some few weeks, he expired May 11, 1778, in the 70th year of his age.'

Grattan, the Irish orator, has drawn the character of Lord Chatham with such felicity and vigour of style, that it will ever be preserved, if only for its composition. The glittering point and antithesis of his thoughts and language, have seldom been united to such originality and force :

'The secretary stood alone. Modern degeneracy had not reached him. Original and unaccommodating, the features of his character had the hardihood of antiquity. His august mind overawed majesty; and one of his sovereigns thought royalty so impaired in his presence, that he conspired to remove him, in order to be relieved from his superiority. No state chicanery, no narrow system of vicious politics, sunk him to the vulgar level of the great; but, overbearing, persuasive, and impracticable, his object was England, his ambition was fame. Without dividing, he destroyed party; without corrupting, he made a venal age unanimous. France sunk beneath him. With one hand he smote the house of Bourbon, and wielded in the other the democracy of England. The sight of his mind was infinite; and his schemes were to affect,

not England, not the present age only, but Europe and posterity. Wonderful were the means by which these schemes were accomplished; always seasonable, always adequate, the suggestions of an understanding animated by ardour and enlightened by prophecy.

The ordinary feelings which make life amiable and indolent were unknown to him. No domestic difficulties, no domestic weakness, reached him; but aloof from the sordid occurrences of life, and unsullied by its intercourse, he came occasionally into our system to counsel and to decide.

DODSLEY, first published in 1748, and which long continued to be a favourite and useful book. It embraced within the compass of two volumes, in octavo, treatises on elocution, composition, arithmetic, geography, logic, moral philosophy, human life and manners, and a few other branches of knowledge, then supposed to form a complete course of education.

The age under notice may be termed the epoch of magazines and reviews. The earliest work of the former kind, the Gentleman's Magazine, commenced in the year 1731 by Mr Edward Cave, a printer, was at first simply a monthly condensation of newspaper discussions and intelligence, but in the course of a few years became open to the reception of literary and archæological articles. The term magazine thus gradually departed from its original meaning as a depository of extracts from newspapers, till it was understood to refer to monthly miscellanies of literature, such as it is now habitually applied to. The design of Mr Cave was so success

A character so exalted, so strenuous, so various, so authoritative, astonished a corrupt age, and the treasury trembled at the name of Pitt through all the classes of venality. Corruption imagined, indeed, that she had found defects in this statesman, and talked much of the inconsistency of his glory, and much of the ruin of his victories; but the history of his country, and the calamities of the enemy, answered and refuted her. Nor were his political abilities his only talents: his eloquence was an era in the senate, peculiar and spontaneous, familiarly ex-ful, that it soon met with rivalry, though it was pressing gigantic sentiments and instinctive wisdom; not like the torrent of Demosthenes, or the splendid conflagration of Tully; it resembled sometimes the thunder, and sometimes the music of the spheres. Like Murray, he did not conduct the understanding through the painful subtlety of argumentation; nor was he, like Townsend, for ever on the rack of exertion; but rather lightened upon the subject, and reached the point by the flashings of the mind, which, like those of his eye, were felt, but could not be followed. Upon the whole, there was in this man something that could create, subvert, or reform; an understanding, a spirit, and an eloquence to summon mankind to society, or to break the bonds of slavery asunder, and to rule the wilderness of free minds with unbounded authority; something that could establish or overwhelm empire, and strike a blow in the world that should resound through the universe.'

ENCYCLOPEDIAS AND MAGAZINES.

The Cyclopædia of EPHRAIM CHAMBERS, published in 1728, in two folio volumes, was the first dictionary or repertory of general knowledge produced in Britain. Chambers, who had been reared to the business of a globe-maker, and was a man of respectable though not profound attainments, died in 1740. His work was printed five times during the subsequent eighteen years, and has finally been extended, in the present century, under the care of Dr ABRAHAM REES, to forty volumes in quarto. Dr JOHN CAMPBELL, whose share in compiling the Universal History has already been spoken of, began in 1742 to publish his Lives of the British Admirals, and three years later commenced the Biographia Britannica; works of considerable magnitude, and which still possess a respectable reputation. The reign of George II. produced many other attempts to familiarise knowledge; but it seems only necessary to allude to one of these, the Preceptor of ROBERT

some time before any other work obtained sufficient encouragement to be continued for any lengthened period. The Literary Magazine, started in 1735 by Mr Ephraim Chambers, subsisted till about the close of the century. The London Magazine, the British Magazine, and the Town and Country Malished with more or less success during the reigns gazine, were other works of the same kind, pubof George II. and George III. In 1739, the Scots Magazine was commenced in Edinburgh, upon a plan nearly similar to the Gentleman's;' it survived till 1826, and forms a valuable register of the events of the times over which it extends. In the old magazines, there is little trace of that anxiety for literary excellence which now animates the conductors of such miscellanies; yet, from the notices dents, and manners of former years, they are genewhich they contain respecting the characters, incirally very entertaining. The Gentleman's Magazine' continues to be published, and retains much of its early distinction as a literary and archæological repository.

Periodical works, devoted exclusively to the criticism of new books, were scarcely known in Britain till 1749, when the Monthly Review was commenced under the patronage of the Whig and low church party. This was followed, in 1756, by the establishment of the Critical Review, which for some years was conducted by Dr Smollett, and was devoted to the interests of the Tory party in church and state. These productions, marked by no great ability, were the only publications of the kind previous to the commencement of the British Critic in 1793.

Another respectable and useful periodical work was originated in 1758 by Robert Dodsley, under the title of the Annual Register, the plan being suggested, as has been said, by Burke, who for some years wrote the historical portion with his usual ability. This work is still published.

Seventh Period.

FROM 1780 TILL THE PRESENT TIME.

strong colourings of nature and passion, and in the free and flexible movements of the native genius of HE great va- our poetry. Since then, every department of literiety and abun-rature has been cultivated with success. In fiction, dance of the li- the name of Scott is inferior only to that of Shakterature of this speare; in criticism, a new era may be dated from period might, in the establishment of the Edinburgh Review; and in some measure, historical composition, if we have no Hume or Gibhave been pre- bon, we have the results of far more valuable and dicted from the diligent research. Truth and nature have beel. progress made more truly and devoutly worshipped, and real excelduring the pre- lence more highly prized. It has been feared by vious thirty or some that the principle of utility, which is recogforty years, in nised as one of the features of the present age, and which, as Johnson said, almost the progress of mechanical knowledge, would be fatal every man had come to write to the higher efforts of imagination, and diminish and to express himself correctly, the territories of the poet. This seems a groundless and the number of readers had fear. It did not damp the ardour of Scott or Byron, been multiplied a thousand- and it has not prevented the poetry of Wordsworth fold. The increase in national from gradually working its way into public favour. wealth and population natu- If we have not the chivalry and romance of the rally led, in a country like Great Elizabethan age, we have the ever-living passions of Britain, to the improvement of human nature, and the wide theatre of the world, literature and the arts, and accordingly we find that now accurately known and discriminated, as a field a more popular and general style of composition be- for the exercise of genius. We have the benefit of gan to supplant the conventional stiffness and classic all past knowledge and literature to exalt our stanrestraint imposed upon former authors. The human dard of imitation and taste, and a more sure reward intellect and imagination were sent abroad on wider in the encouragement and applause of a populous surveys, and with more ambitious views. To excite and enlightened nation. The literature of England,' a great mass of hearers, the public orator finds it says Shelley, has arisen, as it were, from a new birth. necessary to appeal to the stronger passions and In spite of the low-thoughted envy which would universal sympathies of his audience; and in writ- undervalue contemporary merit, our own will be a ing for a large number of readers, an author must memorable age in intellectual achievements, and we adopt similar means, or fail of success. Hence it live among such philosophers and poets as surpass, seems natural that as society advanced, the character beyond comparison, any who have appeared since of our literature should become assimilated to it, the last national struggle for civil and religious and partake of the onward movement, the popular liberty. The most unfailing herald, companion, and feeling, and rising energy of the nation. There were, follower of the awakening of a great people to work however, some great public events and accidental a beneficial change in opinion or institution, is poetry. circumstances which assisted in bringing about a At such periods there is an accumulation of the change. The American war, by exciting the elo- power of communicating and receiving intense and quence of Chatham and Burke, awakened the spirit impassioned conceptions respecting man and nature. of the nation. The enthusiasm was continued by The persons in whom this power resides, may often, the poet Cowper, who sympathised keenly with his as far as regards many portions of their nature, have fellow-men, and had a warm love of his native coun- little apparent correspondence with that spirit of try. Cowper wrote from no system; he had not good of which they are the ministers. But even read a poet for seventeen years; but he drew the whilst they deny and abjure, they are yet compelled distinguishing features of English life and scenery to serve the power which is seated on the throne of with such graphic power and beauty, that the mere their own soul. It is impossible to read the compoetry of art and fashion, and the stock images of positions of the most celebrated writers of the predescriptive verse, could not but appear mean, affected, sent day, without being startled with the electric and commonplace. Warton's History of Poetry,' and life which burns within their words. They measure Percy's 'Reliques,' threw back the imagination to the the circumference and sound the depths of human bolder and freer era of our national literature, and nature with a comprehensive and all-penetrating the German drama, with all its horrors and extra- spirit, and they are themselves perhaps the most vagance, was something better than mere delinea- sincerely astonished at its manifestations, for it is tions of manners or incidental satire. The French less their spirit than the spirit of the age. Poets are Revolution came next, and seemed to break down all the hierophants of an unapprehended inspiration; artificial distinctions. Talent and virtue only were the mirrors of the gigantic shadows which futurity to be regarded, and the spirit of man was to enter casts upon the present; the words which express on a new course of free and glorious action. This what they understand not; the trumpets which sing dream passed away; but it had sunk deep into some to battle, and feel not what they inspire; the inardent minds, and its fruits were seen in bold specu- fluence which is moved not, but moves. Poets are lations on the hopes and destiny of man, in the the unacknowledged legislators of the world.'

[graphic]
[merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small]

tically to the aristocracy of England. His father, the Rev. Dr Cowper, chaplain to George II., was the son of Spencer Cowper, one of the judges of the court of common pleas, and a younger brother of the first Earl Cowper, lord chancellor. His mother was allied to some of the noblest families in England, descended by four different lines from King Henry III. This lofty lineage cannot add to the lustre of the poet's fame, but it sheds additional grace on his piety and humility. Dr Cowper, besides his royal chaplaincy, held the rectory of Great Berkhamstead, in the county of Hertford, and there the poet was born, November 15, 1731. In his sixth year he lost his mother (whom he tenderly and affectionately remembered through all his life), and was placed at a boarding-school, where he continued two years. The tyranny of one of his school-fellows, who held in complete subjection and abject fear the timid and home-sick boy, led to his removal from this seminary, and undoubtedly prejudiced him against the whole system of public education. He was next placed at Westminster school, where, as he says, he served a seven years' apprenticeship to the classics; and at the age of eighteen was removed, in order to be articled to an attorney. Having passed through this training (with the future Lord Chancellor Thurlow for his fellow-clerk), Cowper, in 1754, was called to the bar. He never, however, made the law a study: in the solicitor's office he and Thurlow were 'constantly employed from morning to night in giggling and making giggle,' and in his chambers in the Temple he wrote gay verses, and associated with Bonnel Thornton, Colman, Lloyd, and other wits. He contributed a few papers to the Connoisseur and to the St James's Chronicle, both conducted by his friends. Darker days were at hand. Cowper's father was now dead, his patrimony was small, and he was in his thirty-second year, almost unprovided with an aim,' for the law was with him a mere nominal profession. In this crisis of his fortunes his kinsman, Major Cowper, presented him to the office of clerk of the journals to the House of Lords-a desirable and lucrative appointment. Cowper accepted it; but the labour of studying the forms of procedure, and the dread of qualifying himself by

[ocr errors]

appearing at the bar of the House of Lords, plunged him in the deepest misery and distress. The seeds of insanity were then in his frame; and after brooding over his fancied ills till reason had fled, he attempted to commit suicide. Happily this desperate effort failed; the appointment was given up, and Cowper was removed to a private madhouse at St Albans, kept by Dr Cotton. The cloud of horror gradually passed away, and on his recovery, he resolved to withdraw entirely from the society and business of the world. He had still a small portion of his funds left, and his friends subscribed a further sum, to enable him to live frugally in retirement. The bright hopes of Cowper's youth seemed thus to have all vanished: his prospects of advancement in the world were gone; and in the new-born zeal of his religious fervour, his friends might well doubt whether his reason had been completely restored. He retired to the town of Huntingdon, near Cambridge, where his brother resided, and there formed an intimacy with the family of the Rev. Morley Unwin, a clergyman resident in the place. He was adopted as one of the family; and when Mr Unwin himself was suddenly removed, the same connexion was continued with his widow. Death only could sever a tie so strongly knit-cemented by mutual faith and friendship, and by sorrows of which the world knew nothing. To the latest generation the name of Mary Unwin will be united with that of Cowper, partaker of his fame as of his sad declineBy seraphs writ with beams of heavenly light. After the death of Mr Unwin in 1767, the family were advised by the Rev. John Newton-a remarkable man in many respects-to fix their abode at Olney, in the northern division of Buckinghamshire, where Mr Newton himself officiated as curate. This

[graphic]
[graphic][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][merged small]
[blocks in formation]
« PreviousContinue »