No. XXII. April 9, 1798. TO THE EDITOR OF THE ANTI-JACOBIN. SIR,—I saw, with strong approbation, your specimen of ancient Sapphic measure in English, which I think far surpasses all that Abraham Fraunce, Richard Stanyhurst, or Sir Philip Sidney himself, have produced in that style I mean, of course, your sublime and beautiful Knife-Grinder, of which it is not too high an encomium to say, that it even rivals the efforts of the fine-eared democratic poet, Mr. Southey. But you seem not to be aware, that we have a genuine Sapphic measure belonging to our own language, of which I now send you a short specimen. THE JACOBIN. I AM a hearty Jacobin, Who own no God, and dread no sin, And when the teachers of Chalk-Farm By BEDFORD'S cut I've trimm'd my locks, Of thumpers; My eye a noble fierceness boasts, My throat oft washed by factious toasts In bumpers. Whatever is in France, is right; Terror and blood are my delight; Parties with us do not excite Enough rage. Our boasted laws I hate and curse, al suffrage. WAKEFIELD1 I love adore HORNE TOOKE, But they deserve the worst of ills, A cross pair. Extinct since then each speaker's fire, Dum-founded they whom I would hire To lecture. *This division of the word is in the true spirit of the English as well as the ancient Sapphic. See the " Counter-Scuffle," "Counter-Rat," and other poems in this style. There is a doubt, whether this word should not have been written liar. Tied up, alas! is ev'ry tongue On which conviction nightly hung,* And THELWALL looks, though yet but young, A spectre." B. O. B. *These words, of conviction and hanging, have so ominous a sound, it is rather odd they were chosen. [(1) The Rev. Gilbert Wakefield wrote several pamphlets against government, of which no notice was taken, until his Letter to the Bishop of Llandaff appeared, when the Attorney-General instituted a prosecution against him. He was found guilty and imprisoned; during which imprisonment a subscription of £3000 among his friends supported his wife and family very comfortably. -ED.] [(2) John Gale Jones was an active political agitator for many years. In 1810, he was the conductor of the debating club, denominated the "British Forum," which at one of its meetings discussed the propriety of the exclusion of strangers from the House of Commons during the debates on the Walcheren Expedition. For his observations the House, disregarding his apology, committed him to Newgate.-ED.] [(3) "John Thelwall left his shop (that of a silk mercer) to be one of the Reformers of the age. After his acquittal he went about the country lecturing. Sometimes he was attended by numerous admirers, but more frequently hooted and pelted by the mob. In order to escape prosecution for sedition, he took as his subject Greek and Roman history, and had ingenuity enough to give such a colouring to events and characters, as to render the application to living persons and present events an exciting mental exercise. I heard one or two of these lectures, and thought very differently of him then from what I thought afterwards. When, however, he found his popularity on the wane, and more stringent laws had been passed, to which he individually gave occasion, he came to the prudent resolution of abandoning his vagrant habits, and leading a farmer's life in a beautiful place near Brecon. . . . He was an amiable man in private life, an affectionate husband, and a fond father. He altogether mistook his talents-he told me without reserve that he believed he should establish his name among the epic poets of England; and it is a curious thing considering his own views that he thought the establishment of Christianity, and the British Constitution, very appropriate subjects for his poem. . . . THELWALL, unlike Hardy, had the weakness of vanity; but he was a perfectly honest man, and had a power of declamation which qualified him to be a mob orator. He used to say that if he were at the gallows with liberty to address the people for halfan-hour, he should not fear the result; he was sure he could excite them to a rescue. I became acquainted with him soon after his acquittal, and never ceased to respect him for his sincerity, though I did not think highly of his understanding."-Crabb Robinson's Diary, 1790 and 1799.-ED.] [(4) These "Gagging Bills," of 1796, required that notice should be given to the magistrate of any public meeting to be held on political subjects; he was authorized to be present, and empowered to seize those guilty of sedition on the spot; and a second offence against the act was punishable with transportation. So exasperated were the Opposition with this measure that Fox and a large part of the minority withdrew altogether for a considerable time from the House.-ED.] [(5) The hero of the above song was Charles Howard, eleventh Duke of Norfolk, who both as a member of the House of Commons (while Earl of Surrey), and afterwards as a peer, was one of Fox's most strenuous supporters. SIR N. WRAXALL thus describes him: "Nature, which cast him in her coarsest mould, had not bestowed on him any of the external insignia of high descent. His person, large, muscular, and clumsy, was destitute of grace or dignity, though he possessed much activity. At a time when men of every description wore hair-powder and a queue, he had the courage to cut his hair short, and to renounce powder, which he never used except when going to court. In his youth he led a most licentious life, having frequently passed the whole night in excesses of every kind, and even lain down, when intoxicated, occasionally to sleep in the streets, or on a block of wood. In cleanliness he was negligent to so great a degree that he rarely made use of water for the purpose of bodily refreshment and comfort. Complaining one day to Dudley North that he was a martyr to the rheumatism, and had ineffectually tried every remedy for its relief, "Pray, my lord," said he, "did you ever try a clean shirt?" It must not be forgotten, however, that he was a munificent patron of literature, for he defrayed the entire expense of printing Taylor's Translation of Plato, 5 vols. 4to.; Dallaway's History of Sussex, 2 vols. 4to.; and Duncumb's History of Herefordshire, 2 vols. The initials B. O. B. refer to Mr. (afterwards Sir Robert) Adair, who is often alluded to in these pages.-ED.] No. XXIII. April 16, 1798. WE cannot better explain to our readers the design of the poem from which the following extracts are taken, than by borrowing the expressions of the author, Mr. HIGGINS, of St. Mary Axe, in the letter which accompanied the manuscript. We must premise, that we had found ourselves called upon to remonstrate with Mr. H. on the freedom of some of the positions laid down in his other didactic poem, the " Progress of Man"; and had in the course of our remonstrance hinted something to the disadvantage of the new principles which are now afloat in the world, and which are, in our opinion, working so much prejudice to the happiness of mankind. To this Mr. H. takes occasion to reply "What you call the new principles are, in fact, nothing less than new. They are the principles of primeval nature, the system of original and unadulterated man. [These observations are directed against Godwin's work on" Political Justice," which, on its first appearance, excited extraordinary attention. His aim was to represent the whole system of society as radically and essentially wrong, and to extirpate all those principles which uphold its present constitution. The existence of the Deity is spoken of as an hypothesis, and the ethics are worthy of the religion. HOLCROFT reviewed it in the "Monthly Review," but was doubtful whether to praise or blame it.-ED.] ["I noticed (says CRABB ROBINSON in 1811) the infinite superiority of GODWIN over the French writers in moral feeling and tendency. I had learned to hate Helvetius and Mirabeau, and yet retained my love for GODWIN. This was agreed to as a just sentiment."-ED.] |