EGOTISM AND ITS REGRETS.

3

(however they might have been warranted by conventional allowance), I will not say I was a hypocrite in the odious sense of the word, for it was all done out of a spirit of foppery and "fine writing," and I never affected any formal virtues in private; but when I consider all the nonsense and extravagance of those assumptions-all the harm they must have done me in discerning eyes, and all the reasonable amount of resentment which it was preparing for me with adversaries, I blush to think what a simpleton I was, and how much of the consequences I deserved. It is out of no 66 ostentation of candour" that I make this confession. It is extremely painful

to me.

Suffering gradually worked me out of a good deal of this kind of egotism. I hope that even the present most involuntarily egotistical book affords evidence that I am pretty well rid of it; and I must add, in my behalf, that, in every other respect, never, at that time or at any after time, was I otherwise than an honest man. I overrated my claims to public attention; I greatly overdid the manner of addressing it; and I was not too abundant in either; but I set out perhaps with as good an editorial amount of qualification as most writers no older. I was fairly grounded in English history; I had carefully read De Lolme and Blackstone; I had no mercenary views whatsoever, though I was a proprietor of the

journal; and all the levity of my animal spirits, and the foppery of the graver part of my pretensions, had not destroyed in me that spirit of martyrdom which had been inculcated in me from the cradle. I denied myself political as well as theatrical acquaintances; I was the reverse of a speculator upon patronage or employment; and I was prepared, with my excellent brother, to suffer manfully, should the time for suffering arrive.

The spirit of the criticism on the theatres continued the same as it had been in the News. In politics, from old family associations, I soon got interested as a man, though I never could love them as a writer. It was against the grain that I was encouraged to begin them; and against the grain I ever afterwards sat down to write, except when the subject was of a very general description, and I could introduce philosophy and the belles lettres.

The main objects of the Examiner newspaper were to assist in producing Reform in Parliament, liberality of opinion in general (especially freedom from superstition), and a fusion of literary taste into all subjects whatsoever. It began with being of no party; but Reform soon gave it one. It disclaimed all knowledge of statistics; and the rest of its politics were rather a sentiment, and a matter of training, than founded on any particular political reflection. It possessed the benefit, however, of a good deal of

ANTI-EXAMINER CHARGES REFUTED.

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general reading. It never wanted examples out of history and biography, or a kind of adornment from the spirit of literature; and it gradually drew to its perusal many intelligent persons of both sexes, who would, perhaps, never have attended to politics under any other circumstances.

In the course of its warfare with the Tories, the Examiner was charged with Bonaparteism, with republicanism, with disaffection to Church and State, with conspiracy at the tables of Burdett, and Cobbett, and Henry Hunt. Now Sir Francis, though he was for a long time our hero, we never exchanged a word with; and Cobbett and Henry Hunt (no relation of ours) we never beheld;-never so much as saw their faces. I was never even at a public dinner; nor do I believe my brother was. We had absolutely no views whatsoever, but those of a decent competence and of the public good; and we thought, I dare affirm, a great deal more of the latter than of the former. Our competence we allowed too much to shift for itself. Zeal for the public good was a family inheritance; and this we thought ourselves bound to increase. As to myself, what I thought of, more than either, was the making of verses. I did nothing for the greater part of the week but write verses and read books. I then made a rush at my editorial duties; took a world of superfluous pains in the writing; sat up late at night, and was a very trying

1

person to compositors and newsmen. I sometimes have before me the ghost of a pale and gouty printer whom I specially caused to suffer, and who never complained. I think of him and of some needy dramatist, and wish they had been worse men.

The Examiner commenced at the time when Bonaparte was at the height of his power. He had the continent at his feet; and three of his brothers were on thrones. The reader may judge of our Bonapartist tendencies by the following dramatic sketch, which appeared in the first number:

NAPOLEON IN HIS CABINET.

SCENE, A Cabinet at St. Cloud.

NAPOLEON. [Ruminating before a fire and grasping a poker.] Who waits there?

LE M. May it please your Majesty, your faithful soldier, Le Meurtrier.

NAP. Tell Sultan Mustapha that he is the last of the Sultans.

LE M. Yes, sire.

NAP. And, hark ye-desire the king of Holland to come to me directly.

LE M. Yes, sire.

NAP. And the king of Westphalia.—[Aside] I must tweak Jerome by the nose a little, to teach him dignity.

LE M. [With hesitation.] M. Champagny, sire, waits to know your Majesty's pleasure respecting the king of Sweden.

"NAPOLEON IN HIS CABINET."

NAP. Oh-tell him, I'll let the boy alone for a month or two. And stay, Le Meurtrier; go to the editor of the Moniteur, and tell him to dethrone the queen of Portugal.-Spain's dethronement is put off to next year. Where's Bienseance? [Exit LE MEURTRIER, and enter BIENSEANCE.

BIEN. May it please your august majesty, Bienseance is before you.

NAP. Fetch me General F.'s head, and a cup of coffee. BIEN. [Smiling with devotion.] Every syllable uttered by the great Napoleon convinces Frenchmen that he is their father.

[Exit BIENSEANCE.

NAP. [Meditating with ferocity.] After driving the Turks out of Europe [pokes the fire], I must annihilate England [gives a furious poke]; but first-I shall over-run India; then I shall request America and Africa to put themselves under my protection; and after making that great jackass, the Russian Emperor, one of my tributaries, crown myself emperor of the east-west-north-and south. Then I must have a balloon army, of which Garnerin shall be field-marshal; for I must positively take possession of the comet, because it makes a noise. That will assist me to conquer the solar system; and then I shall go with my army to the other systems; and then-I think I shall go to the devil.

I thought of Bonaparte at that time as I have thought ever since; to-wit, that he was a great soldier, and little else; that he was not a man of the highest order of intellect, much less a cosmopolite; that he was a retrospective rather than a prospec