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more general import interspersed, upon which we cannot remain altogether silent, or allow to whiggish intolerance the undisturbed enjoyment of its ridiculous complacency.

The reviewers complain, that the conduct of the Education Committee has been made what they call a party question; and they assert, that if moral evidence" can decide the point, there exists such evidence in superfluity to prove, that the "distinguished individual" who took the lead in its proceedings was influenced throughout by the purest and loftiest principles. This is in the true spirit of controversial audacity, by which the journal has ever been distinguished, and which has prompted the ingenious authors in their most desperate extremities, to assume a tone of defiance altogether foreign to the character of the transaction which they are summoned to defend. If they cannot propitiate favour, they imagine that they can at least overpower resistance by this fearless effrontery. It is in their hour of darkest perplexity that they are ever most prolific of mutual and fulsome eulogy-of bold appeals to character and reputation-of fierce and contemptuous denunciations of their opponents. There is a sort of desperate courage in all this which has its merit, and, in the case of the Edinburgh Review, has already won its ample reward-for the examples are innumerable in which that journal has achieved a short-lived useless triumph, by the mere appalling audacity of its assertions; but every artifice of this kind has its natural limits, and the Review has now flourished long enough upon the strength of this simple and witless expedient. It is really too much, after the calm and careful developement of facts in the Quarterly Review, fixing the taint of wayward ambition on the committee and its learned chairman, with all the precision of judicial inquiry, thus to assume in limine the exemption of the "distinguished individual" from that reproach which forms the very essence of this grave and momentous contro

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soon after, and therefore we know it is of Mr Henry Brougham the critic speaks. This gentleman is a prominent public character, and in that point of view, we are warranted to speak of him with the freedom and sincerity of truth. Ill would it become the man who has sought, in political differences, the justification of a rancour which survives the stroke of death itself, and disturbs, with its bitter murmurs, the consecrated silence of the tomb-who has publicly avowed a wish that his enmity to the name of Pitt might be recorded on his epitaph, ill would it become him to complain, that the truce which he refuses to the imputed frailties of the mighty dead, should be denied to his own living errors, now in the full energy of their mischievous operation.

When we review, then, the political life of Mr Brougham, we find that he was, in the infancy of his career, the idolator of that same Mr Pitt whose memory he now assails with deep hostility-that he was like one bound to the triumphal car of that master spirit, till death arrested his magnificent course, and impartially annihilated his power, either of serving his country, or rewarding his followers-that a sudden light then descended on this fiery patriot, and transformed him at once, from the worshipper into the severe censor of the great statesman, who had just paid the debt of nature; and we find, moreover, that this generous person, after having crept into the favour of the party then momentarily triumphant, by an unseemly placard against the fame of the departed, has shown himself throughout to be one of the blindest votaries of factionquaffing to the very dregs the poisoned cup of party rancour and hostility-and carrying his opposition to government to a pitch of extravagant excess, which has made the more moderate leaders of party shrink from his co-operation, and has at length reduced him to that amphibious rank in politics which renders it doubtful whether he belongs, in the general classification, to the va grant insanity of Spafields, or the chastised Jacobinism of Hollandhouse. One or two things he has done, which have had a casual, and in a single instance at least, a merited popularity; and there is no end to the grafts which his friends would thrust into this slender stock of political merit. He opposed the orders in council; but it was

with the address of an American trader, and in the spirit of a French Douanier; and he followed in the rear of Mr Wilberforce, and other great men, united for the abolition of the Slave Trade. In this last instance, however, Mr Brougham had the merit at least of being well employed-and we fully give him all the credit that can be due to his subordinate services; but, with this single exception, from which he has already derived more than his adequate portion of fame, we know not upon what occasions he has, as a politician, exemplified the high qualities for which his friends so liberally give him credit, or laid the broad basis of that moral evidence deducible from general political character, which is to shelter him from the consequences of actual and proved misconduct.

The reviewer complains, that personalities towards Mr Brougham, and misrepresentations of his views, have been allowed to mingle with this great public controversy. We are not aware that there have been misrepresentations, except on the part of the blundering interpreter of college statutes, who insisted on rating Oxford and Cambridge among the institutions formed for the education of the lower orders. As to personalities, however, we have a few words to say. It was impossible to touch the subject at all without personal allusion to Mr Brougham-to the learned author of the whole stupendous project-the chairman the head-the guiding power-the very soul in fact of the committee-for no one could consider his civic adjunctsSir William Curtis or Alderman Wood, for example, slumbering in the committee-room-in any other light than as the mere vis inertia of the anomalous composition-the ballast liberally thrown into the great discovery-ship of reform. Of the conduct of Mr Brougham, therefore, it became necessary to treat, or to remain altogether silent. Is it the latter alternative that the Whigs would modestly impose on their political adversaries? And is it indeed the Edinburgh Reviewers who complain of misrepresentation and personalities of the occasional use by their opponents of their own weapons, with which they have for twenty years maintained a scandalous war

fare with the proud spirit, and the most venerable institutions of their country? There has, in this instance, been neither misrepresentation nor calumny on the part of the Tories; but if there had, with what grace would remonstrance have come through the pages of a journal which has long set an example of every thing that is sour, illiberal, and uncompromising in political discussion? Are the Whigs a privileged order for circulating all sorts of misrepresentations-a chartered oligarchy of detraction? Do the fouler elements of political controversy, by some nice principle of moral affinity, form a natural and graceful combination with their cause, and entitle them to a monoply of such shameful resources? If not, their keen and vindictive sensibility on this point is unaccountable for we do not remember, in the whole range of our periodical literature, a single work which has exhibited more copious examples than their own favourite journal of all the most reprehensible stratagems of political warfare-which has dealt more unceremoniously with the loftiest and most venerable names of our country, both living and dead-which has approached with more scoffing accent and more unhallowed hand, the consecrated fabric of our domestic policy, both sacred and civil-or which has so defied the dignity and generosity of national feeling, and madly breathed its pestilent rancour even against the genius of our native land. And now that the tide of fortune has gloriously turned, and whelmed in its progress every tiny embankment which the reviewers had constructed against its majestic revulsion-now that their chilling sophistry has no ally in the towering despotism which they worshipped, or the alarmed bosoms which they wrung with their eternal comminations-now that baffled prediction, and exposed delusion, and irretrieveable disappointment, and supervening dotage, have left them naked and imbecile, to sustain the pelting storm of ridicule which descends upon them from every corner of the land-they complain of the destiny which they have wrought for themselves; but they complain in vain, for it is "unshunnable as death,' and enduring as the memory of their manifold and stupendous wrongs.

MR EDITOR,

RITSON ON SHAKSPEARE.

I was much amused with some specimens, in your last Number, of emendations of the text of Shakspeare, by Mr Zachariah Jackson, who seems really to have hit on a principle, by the application of which the meaning of our great dramatist may very frequently be restored. You have spoken of the dulness and stupidity of Shakspeare's commentators, and vowed vengeance against any future delinquents of that kind. Are you acquainted with a little volume by the celebrated Ritson, entitled, "Remarks, critical and illustrative, on the Text and Notes of the last edition of Shakspeare?" It is an amusing book, and Ritson belabours the commentators in a way that does one's heart good to behold. He does not confine himself, however, to the dull ones of the herd, but kicks and cuffs Steevens and John son with great spirit and alacrity. Ritson was a bit of good stuff, though he never eat animal food, and often knocks the Doctor about the ring with the gloves, in a manner highly creditable to a sparrer of his weight and inches. As the book is not a common one, a few specimens of it may amuse your readers.

COMEDY OF ERRORS.-P. 266.
Benc. Let him be clap'd on the shoulder,

and call'd Adam.

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have taken their academical degree. Lower messes, therefor, adds he, are graduates of a lower form. Mr Steevens, however, believes that lower messes is onely used to

signify the lowest (lower) degrees about the

court. A conjecture in which he seems to be as right, as Dr Johnson is certainly wrong: the word mess, as Mess John, nei ther being any contraction of master, nor having the remotest allusion to academical degrees. It is merely the Scotish pronunciation of Mass, and is only applyed, in vulgar language, to the priest or minister.

Macb.

MACBETH.-P. 592.

Then, fly, false thanes, And mingle with the English epicures.

"It appears," says Mr Steevens, in a

note upon this passage, "from Dr Johnson's Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland, that the natives had neither kail nor brogues, till they were taught the arts of planting the one, and making the other, by the soldiers of Cromwell; and yet," adds he, " king James VI. thought it necessary to form an act against superfluous banquetting."

It is a pity that the ingenious commentator has omitted the very candid and liberal inference which the great traveler draws from the above circumstance of the kail, i. e. that, "when they had not that, they had nothing."

But under the favour of this ingenious critic, it does not appear :-Dr Johnson, indeed, is pleased to say so, and they who would have believed him if he had given a relation of his voyage into the moon, may, if they choose, believe this. It is very seldom that we find people teaching to others arts of which they are ignorant theirselves, and yet this must have been the case with Cromwell's soldiers, who were accustomed neither to eat kail, nor to wear brogues. The truth is, that both articles have, in all probability, been known to the Scotish ever since the country was inhabited. So that they may safely admit the truth of the above very candid traveler's good-natured position.

Mr Steevens seems to think it altogether needless to restrain luxury in diet, where people could get neither kail nor brogues; which, to be sure, are the very essence of a sumptuous feast.

KING JOHN.-P. 130. Sal. New flight, And happy newness, that intends old right.

"Happy innovation," quoth Dr Johnson, "that purposed the restoration of the ancient rightful government." What rightful government? Does the good old constitutionalist suppose it to have been in John, a murderer, and a villain-one who had not the least right to the possession of the crown,

and whom it would have been praise-wor thy in any man, or set of men, to have put to death?

RICHARD THE SECOND.-P. 211. Queen. Gardiner, for telling me these news of woe,

I would, the plants thou graft'st may never grow.

An execration, Dr Johnson observes, too ludicrous and unsuitable to the queen's condition; and it certainly appears so. But, perhaps, (for Shakspeare's highest or lowest characters are never without a quibble) she means to wish him childless. It is to be remembered that the queen was very young, Dr Johnson will, therefor, the more readyly pardon any puerilities of expression he may find her guilty of.

P. 213.

Fitzw. my rapier's point.

Dr Johnson here takes an opportunity to censure Shakspeare for deserting the manners of the age in which his drama is placed:-this weapon, he says, not being seen in England till two centuries afterwards. It would be as well, however, though not quite so easy, for the learned critic to bring some proof in support of this and such like assertions. Without which the authority of Shakspeare is at least equal to that of Dr Johnson. And even if he could prove what he asserts (which, however, it is believed he cannot), the poet's friends would still have an argument which would render both his assertions and his proofs equally nugatory and ridiculous.

KING RICHARD THE THIRD.-P. 33. Q. Mar. Why strew'st thou sugar on that bottled spider.

"A spider," says Dr Johnson," is called bottled, because, like other insects, he has a middle slender, and a belly protuberant."

A most rational and satisfactory explanation-very little worse than none at all. A bottle spider is the large bloated spider with a deep black shining skin, generally esteemed the most venemous.

KING HENRY THE EIGHTH.-P. 231.

Old L. Our content Is our best having.

"That is, our best possession.- -In Spanish, hazienda. JOHNSON."

People generally introduce scraps of a foreign language to shew their knowledge; the learned commentator brings this merely to display his want of it. For, let the word hazienda signify what it may, what has it to do here? Indeed," the professed critic, in order to furnish his quota to the bookseller, may write notes of nothing, that is, notes which either explane things which do not want explanation, or such as do not explane matters at all, but merely fill up so much paper;" a canon, of which Dr Johnson has availed hisself pretty much in the

manner of his predecessor, Dr Warburton, who sagaciously observes, that friends of my soul is a Spanish phrase: Amigo de mi alma. Query, Which of these two professed critics has displayed the most learning and acuteness?

ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA.-P. 216. Mec. And gives his potent regiment to a trull.

Trull, Dr Johnson says, was not, in our author's time, a term of mere infamy, but a word of slight contempt, as wench is now. It may be difficult to know what the learned commentator conceives to be a term of mere infamy. But thus much is certain, that trull, in the age of Shakspeare, signifyed a strumpet, and so he uses it.

Jul.

ROMEO AND JULIET.-P. 128. gentle nurse, I pray thee, leave me to myself to-night; For I have need of many orisons To move the heavens to smile upon my state.

Dr Johnson, with that candour and politeness for which he is so remarkable, observes, that Juliet plays most of her pranks under the appearance of religion. Perhaps, says he, Shakspeare meant to punish her hypocrisy. If he had, we should, without doubt, have been, some how or other, informed of it. But Shakspeare would never have given the little innocent excuses her virtue and conjugal fidelity prompt her to make use of so harsh a name.- -Sweet Juliet! little did'st thou dream, that, in addition to thy misfortunes, the unsullyed purity of thy angelic mind should, at this distance of time, be subject to the rude breath of criticism!-But rest in peace, sweet saint! thy fair untainted name shall live-live in thy Shakspeare's page-when even the critic's memory is no more.

HAMLET.-P. 258.

Ham. Then came each actor on his ass. This, says Dr Johnson, seems to be a line of an old ballad. He has, therefor, caused it to be printed in the Italic character. But there appears no other ground for the supposition, than the good doctor's opinion, which is not sufficient in these matters to authorise an alteration in the type.

Ibi.

Pol. The best actors in the world, either for tragedy, comedy, history, pastoral, pastoral-comical, historical-pastoral, [tragicalhistorical, tragical-comical, historical-pastoral] scene undividable, &c.

"The words within the crotchets," says Mr Steevens, "I have recovered from the folio, and see no reason why they were hitherto omitted." But though the learned commentator could see no reason why the words were omitted before, his readers can see one, why they should be omitted now; viz. that the words historical-pastoral may

not be absurdly repeated. The truth is, that the industrious editor has entirely lost the merit of his recovery, by the negligence of his printer: the folio properly reads:

-pastoral-comical, historical-pastoral, tragical-historical, tragical-comical, historical-pastoral, &c.

P. 316.

"This speech," says Dr Johnson, “in which Hamlet, represented as a virtuous character, is not content with taking blood for blood, but contrives damnation for the man that he would punish, is too horrible to be read or to be uttered."

How far it detracts from the virtue of Hamlet to be represented as lying in wait for an opportunity to take an adequate and complete revenge upon the murderer of his father, is a question not, with submission to the great moralist, quite so easyly decided. The late king has reported hisself to have been destroyed in the most deliberate, horrid, and diabolical manner;

Cut off ev'n in the blossom of his sin,
Unhousel'd, disappointed, unaneal'd,
No reckoning made, but sent to his account,
With all his imperfections on his head:
O horrible! O horrible! most horrible!
Under such aggravated circumstances, for
Hamlet to be content with having what Dr
Johnson calls blood for blood, would have
been taking an inadequate and imperfect
revenge, and, consequently, doing an act of

injustice and impiety to the manes of his murdered parent. But, indeed, the reasons Hamlet here gives for his conduct, as they are better than any other person can make for him, will fully justify both him and it, against all such hypercritical opposition to the end of time.

P. 408.

Ham. I am afraid you make a wanton of

me.

i. e. you trifle with me, as if you were playing with a child. Dr Johnson onely observes, that a wanton was a man feeble and effeminate. He might as well have said it was a horse or an elephant.

I would have thee gone, And yet no further than a wantons bird, That lets it hop a little from his hand, And with a silk thread pulls it back again. Romeo and Juliet.

I wish poor Ritson were alive now. He would have made an excellent Contributor to your Magazine. It was said that the Edinburgh Review killed him, but his friends know that to be fudge. I will send you, for your next Number, an account of his "Robin Hood"—a work full of very amusing matter. Meanwhile, I am yours sincerely.

A PARALLEL BETWEEN THE MASTER DEBTOR'S SIDE OF NEWGATE, AND THE SEVERAL SPONGING HOUSES IN THE COUNTY OF MIDDLESEX.

MR EDITOR,

I LATELY found among some lumber in an old garret, a little treatise on Newgate, as it existed about a hundred years ago and as the public attention has been much turned to the subject of prison discipline, perhaps an extract from it may not be unacceptable. This treatise was "written for the public good by B. L. of Twickenham," who seems unfortunately to have had excellent opportunities of making himself acquainted with the subject, and was printed for T. Warner, at the Black Boy, in Paternoster-Row, 1724. The cruelty and impositions of Bailiffs, against which B. L. directs his artillery, are, as many of your readers have doubtless experienced, still to be deplored, and, perhaps, I ought to make some apology for awakening painful recollections. But private feelings must be made to give way to public benefit. Will you permit me to add, that your Magazine would, in my opinion, be greatly improved by an inter

mixture of short miscellaneous articles, with those of more grave and important discussion? Extracts from curious old books-rare tracts, &c. would, I am sure, amuse many persons who might be disposed to turn from a regular essay. I am, &c.

A Parallel, &c.

"Most certain it is, That the Laws of this Realm, were first Instituted, for the effectual maintaining and executing of Equity and Justice, between Man and Man; and therefore, every Subject is intituled to Property, Equity, Justice and Liberty; and those who execute any thing to the contrary, are not only Oppressors of the Subject, but also Violators of the Law.

"And since there are many wicked Persons (called Bailiffs) whose Daily Study and Practice, is to oppress the Distress'd; there fore, I shall endeavour to detect all such future Practices, by exposing the several profligate Wretches inflict on such unfortuvile and wicked Impositions which those nate Persons as fall into their Hands.

"And as the Execution of our Laws, is justly performed by the Learned Judges,

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