likeness to innumerable prints and busts which I had seen. Fox, in repose, had by far the more striking external of the two. His face had the massiness, precision, and gravity of a bronze statue. His eyes, bright but gentle, seemed to lurk under a pair of rectilinear, ponderous, and shaggy eyebrows. His cheeks we square and firm; his forehead open and serene. The head could have no dishonour to poet, philosop prince. There was some little incon in the lips, and a tinge of luxurl over the lower features of the face. But benignity, mingled with ower, was the predominant as wells the primary expression of the whole; and no man need have started had he been told that such was the physiognomy of Thesus, Sophocles, or Trajan.-Pitt, in the same state of inaction, would not have made nearly such an impression on those who knew him not. It must have required the united skill of Lavater and Spurzheim to discover in him prima facie, a great man. His position was stiff, his person meagre. His nose was ill-formed, and on a very anti-grecian angle; his lips were inelegantly wavering in their line; his cheekbone projected too much, and his chin too little. The countenance seemed expressive of much cleverness, but it was not till he spake that the marks of genius seized upon the attention. Had an utter stranger been shewn the heads at a theatre, and informed that they were those of the two great politicians of England, he would certainly have imagined the dark eye-brows and solemn simplicity to belong to the son of Chatham, and guessed the less stately physiognomy to be the property of his more Mercurial antagonist. "Not so, had he seen either of them for the first time in the act of speaking. A few sentences, combined with the mode of their delivery, were sufficient to bring matters to their due level to raise Mr Pitt at least to the original standard of his rival, and, I rather think, to take away somewhat of the first effect produced by the imposing majesty of Mr Fox's features. They were both exquisite speakers, and yet no two things could be more dissimilar than their modes of oratory. Fox displayed less calmness and dignity than his physiognomy might have seemed to promise. In speaking, his other features retained every mark of energy; his eyes and his mouth alone betrayed the debauchee. There is a certain glassiness in the eye, and a certain tremulous smoothness in the lips, which I never missed in the countenance of a man of pleasure when he speaks. Fox had both in perfection; it was only in the moments of his highest enthusiasm that they entirely disappeared. Then indeed, when his physiognomy was lighted up with wrath or indignation, or intensest earnestness-then, indeed, the activity of his features did full justice to their repose. The gambler was no longer to be discovered-you saw only the orator and the patriot. They tell us, that modern oratory and modern action are tame, when compared with what the ancients witnessed; I doubt, however, if either in the Pnyx or the Forum, more over-mastering energy, both of language and of gesture, was ever exhibited, than I have seen displayed in the House of Commons by Mr Fox. When he sat down, it seemed as if he had been, like the Pythaness of old, filled and agitated To ayav Ora. His whole body was dissolved in floods of perspiration, and his fingers continued for some minutes to vibrate, as if he had been recovering from, a convulsion. He "Mr Fox was a finer orator than Mr Pitt. His mode of speaking was in itself more passionate, and it had more power over the passions of those to whom it was addressed. His language was indeed loose and inaccurate at times; but in the midst of all its faults, no trace could ever be disovered of the only fault upardonable in orators as in poets-weakness. was evidently a man of a strong and grasping intellect, filled with enthusiastic devotion to his cause, and posses sing, in a mind saturated with most multifarious information, abun dant means of confirming his position by all the engines of illustration and allusion. It was my fortune to hear him speak before Mr Pitt, and, I confess, that upon the conclusion of his harangue, filled with admiration for his warmth, his elegance, and the apparent wisdom of the measures he recommended, it was not my expectation, certainly not my wish, that an impression equal or superior in power should be left upon me by the eloquence of the rival statesman. "Nevertheless, it was so. I do not say that I consider Mr Pitt as so nearly allied to the great politician-orator of Athens as his rival; but I think he exhibited a far higher specimen of what a statesman-orator should be, than Mr Fox-perhaps than Demosthenes himself ever did. It is true, that the illustrious ancient addressed a motley multitude of clever, violent, light, uncertain, self-conceited, and withal, begotted Athenians; and that the nature of his oratory was, perhaps better than any other, adapted to such an audience, invested by the absurdities of a corrupted constitution, with powers which no similar assembly ever can possess without usurpation, or exercise without tyranny. Mr Fox had a strong leaning as I apprehend, by far too strong a leaning-to the democratic part of the British constitution. He even spoke more for the multitude without, than for the few within, the walls of the House of Commons; and his resemblance to Demosthenes was perhaps a fault, rather than an excellence. Mr Pitt always remembered that it was his business to address and convince, not the British AHMO, but the British Senate. "His mode of speaking was totally devoid of hesitation, and equally so of affectation. The stream of his discourse flowed on smoothly, uninteruptedly, copiously. The tide of Fox's eloquence might present a view of more windings and cataracts, but it by no means suggested the same idea of utility;-nor, upon the whole, was the impression it produced of so majestic a character. Mr Pitt was, without all doubt, a consummate speaker, but in the midst of his eloquence it was impossible to avoid regarding him at all times, as being more of a philosopher than of an orator. What to other men seems to be a most magnificent end, he appeared to regard only as one among many means for accomplishing his great purpose. Statesmanship was, indeed, with him the axion, and every thing was kept in strict subservience to it. What Plato vainly wished to see in a king, had he lived in our days, he might have beheld in a minister. "By men of barren or paltry minds, I can conceive it quite possible that Pitt, as a speaker, might have been contemplated with very little admiration. That which they are qualified to ad mire in a speech, was exactly what he, from principle, despised and omitted. He presented what he conceived to be the truth, that is, the wisdom of the case, in simplicity, in noble simplicity, as it was. Minds of grasp and nerve comprehended him, and such alone were worthy of doing so. The small men who spend their lives in pointing epigrams or weaving periods, could not enter into the feelings which made him despise the opportunity of displaying, for the sake of doing; and they reviled him as if the power, not the will, had been wanting, λάβροι παγγλωσσία Κωρακες ὡς ἀκραντα γαρυςμεν Διος προς ορνιθα θείον. Instead of following with reverent gaze the far-ascending flight and beaming eye of the eagle, they criticised him, like the peacocks of the Hindoo fable, because he had no starry feathers in his tail, and because the beauty of his pinions consisted only in the uniform majesty of their strength. "The style of speaking which was employed by this great man, seems to be the only style worthy of such a spirit as his was, entrusted with such duties as he discharged. Intellect embodied in language by a patriot, these few words comprehend every thing that can be said of it. Every sentence proceeded from his mouth as perfect, in all respects, as if it had been balanced and elaborated in the retirement of his closet; and yet no man for an instance suspected him of bestowing any previous attention whatever on the form or language of his harangues. His most splendid appearances were indeed most frequently replies, so that no such supposition could exist in the minds of those who heard him. I have heard many eloquent orators in England as well as elsewhere, but the only one who never seemed to be at a loss for a single word, or to use the less exact instead of the more precise expression, or to close a sentence as if the beginning of it had passed from his recollection, was William Pitt. The thoughts. or the feelings of such a soul would have disdained to be set forth in a shape mutilated or imperfect. In like manner, the intellect of Pitt would have scorned to borrow any ornament excepting only from his patriotism. The sole fire of which he made use was the pure original element of heaven. It was only for such as him to be eloquent after that sort. The casket was not a gaudy one; but it was so rich, that it must have appeared ridiculous around a more ordinary jewel. "While Pitt and Fox were both alive, and in the fulness of their strength, in one or other of the great parties of England, each of these illustrious men possessed an inflexible host of revilers -almost, such is the blindness of party spirit, of contemners. It is a strange anomalous circumstance in the constitution of our nature that it should be so, but the fact itself is quite certain, that, in all ages of the world, political, even more than military leaders, have been subjected to this absurd use of the privilege which their inferiors have of judging them. So spake the Macedonian vulgar of Demosthenes; so the more pernicious Athenian rabble of Philip. The voice of detraction, however, is silenced by death,-none would listen to it over the tomb of the illustrious. A noble and patriotic poet of England has already embalmed, in lines that will never die, those feelings of regret and admiration wherewith every Englishman now walks above the mingled ashes of Pitt and Fox. The genius, the integrity, the patriotism of either, is no longer disputed. The keenest partisan of the one departed chief would not wish to see the Laurel blighted on the bust of his antagonist. Under other names the same political contests are continued; and so, while England is England, must they ever be. But already, such is the untarrying generosity of this great nation, and such the natural calmness of its spirit, the public judgment is at one concerning the men themselves. The stormy passions of St Stephen's chapel are at once chastened into repose by the solemn stillness of Westminster Abbey. "It is probable that this national generosity has been carried too far. For me, I partake in the general admiration-I refuse to neither the honour that is his due. But, as I did while they were alive, so, now they are dead, I still judge them impartially. There is no reason why I should join in the atonement, since I was guiltless of the sin. "Mr Fox was, I think, a man of great talents and of great virtues, whose talents and virtues were both better fitted for a leader of Parliamentary opposition, than for a Prime-minister of England; for his talents were rather of the destructive than of the constructive kind, and his virtues were more those of an easy and gentle heart, than of a firm unshaken will. Providence fixed him, during the far greater part of his life, where he was best fitted to be, and was equally wise in determining the brighter fortune of his rival. That fortune, however bright, was, nevertheless, to judge as men commonly do, no very enviable boon. The life of Pitt was spent all in labour-much of it in sorrow; but, England and Europe may thank their God, his great spirit was formed for its destiny, and never sunk into despondence. Year after year rolled over his head, and saw his hairs turning gray from care, not for himself, but for his country; but every succeeding year left this Atlas of the world as proudly inflexible, beneath his gigantic burden, as before. Rarely, very rarely, has it happened that one man has had it in his power to be so splendidly, so eternally, the benefactor of his species. So long as England preserves, within her' guarded shore,' the Palladium of all her heroes-the sacred pledge of Freedom, his name will be the pride and glory of the soil that gave him birth. Nay, even should, at some distant day, the liberty of that favoured land expire, in the memory of strangers he shall abundantly have his reward; for that holy treasure which he preserved to England might, but for the high resolution of this patriot martyr, have been lost for ever, not to her only, but to the world. 'He was a man, take him for all in all, We shall not look upon his like again.' * SANSCRIT ODE. WE have been favoured with the translation of a Sanscrit Ode, made by the late William Tolfrey, Esq. of Columbo, a young gentleman whose premature death is a great loss to literature, religion, and society. He originally went to India as an officer in the army, and had the good fortune to share in the battle of Assaye, and to obtain the favourable opinion of the Duke of Wellington; but though this opened to him prospects of military advancement, the natural inclination of his mind was towards literature. He had acquired, by great diligence and uncommon aptitude, a general and profound knowledge of the Oriental languages, and he dedicated the fruits of his study and his talents to the best of all works-the diffusion of the holy Scriptures into the language of the people amongst whom his residence was thus accidentally thrown: he had particularly obtained a perfect knowledge of the Cingalese, or Sanscrit, of Ceylon; and from this language, as a specimen of the style of the people, he made the following literal version of a panegyric on the Governor, which, for poverty and exaggeration, bombast and common-place, and all the other great qualities of the bathos, is hardly to be excelled by any court poet of any age or nation. THE BROWNRIGG ASHTAKE', A Sanscrit Ode in Honour of His Excellency SIR ROBERT BROWNRIGG, G. C. B. Governor of Ceylon ; By PETROS PUNDITA SEKARA, I. 1 MAY he be for ever illustrious, who, in the year of Christ 1815, 2 On the ninth day from the sun's entrance into the sign Kumbha,* on a Saturday, 3 Achieved the conquest of the city of Sen-Khanda-Saila, in the island of Lanka,+ 4 Who destroyed the hostile powers by which it had been oppressed, 5 Who is skilled in war, being endued with truth, piety, courage, and liberality-the four indispensable qualities of a hero. II. 1 May the one only God of the universe, Lord of the past, present, and future, 2 Preserve, for one hundred years, him 3 Who, born in England, rules over Lanka; 4 Whose exalted and unspotted fame, diffused throughout the whole world, Aquaricus. + Kandi. + Ceylon. 5 Resembles the lustre of the moon the many-flowering jasmin-the white lotas-the shining dew-a row of precious pearls. III. 1 He who is as a Tilaka (tiara to those serving under him, resplendent with an assemblage of good actions; 2 Who conducts himself in strict conformity to the precepts of our Saviour Jesus Christ; 3 Who is well informed in the laws, and deeply versed in religious knowledge; 4 Who, when in council, surrounded by his friends, his councillors, and his relations, resembles the moon encircled by the stars; 5 Who is, in the estimation of learned men, as precious as a garland of flowers worn on the head. LETTERS OF TIMOTHY TICKLER TO EMINENT LITERARY CHARACTERS. moral sense of the world is against you here; nor could the example of far better and far wiser men than the LETTER IV. To the Editor of Black- Edinburgh Reviewers reconcile us to wood's Magazine. MY DEAR EDITOR, I I GIVE you many thanks for your kind and amusing letter of the 20th ult. and congratulate you on your last Number, which is a capital one, full of spirit and vivacity, and will, verily believe, promote your sale." You wish to have my free and candid opinion of your work in general, and I will now try to answer your queries in a satisfactory way. Your Magazine is far indeed from being a faultless monster, which the world ne'er saw;" for it is full of faults, and most part of the world has seen it. But it is beyond measure entertaining, and custom "cannot stale its infinite variety." Just go on, gradually improving Number after Number, and you will make a fortune. Your " magnum opus" has had a most blessed effect, I can assure you, on Mrs Tickler's temper, which was, you know, formerly somewhat too saturnine. When I see her sitting, on the evening of the 20th of each month, with your Magazine in her hand, I chuckle over the discovery at last of a medicine for her distemper, more efficacious than the prescriptions of all the doctors. But to the business before me. In the first place, you ask what is my private opinion of the famous Chaldee MS.? I almost wish you had been mum here, for it is a very delicate subject. With all my regard for you, I cannot approve of that singular work. There must be something wrong in the spirit of a composition that has excited so much anger in the world. I perfectly agree with you, that the Eastern style of writing is open to the imitation of the various nations of the West; that the MS. is not a profane parody at all; and that it is extremely clever. But if it contains, as it is supposed, sarcasms against personal defects, surely you do not need to be told that such sarcasms are altogether indefensible. They are really as criminal as those jokes and gibes in the Edinburgh Review at the old age and mental alienation of our king, though, fortunately for the credit of your work, they have not been so frequently and wantonly repeated. However, the any severity or sarcasm on what is no crime, but merely a misfortune. They have sported with insanity-your correspondent with deformity; nor is his fault altogether lost in the greater atrocity of theirs. At the same time, I cannot think that the "two Beasts," as they call themselves in the summons which you sent me to look at, will ever bring the affair into a Jury Court. As literary people, they never had much character to lose; and therefore the damages, if they get a verdict in their favour, establishing the fact of their being the two Beasts, would be exceedingly small, perhaps only nominal. At all events, they would lose more by making themselves so openly ridiculous, than they could ever gain by the most successful trial. If, however, the trial comes on, let me know of it; for Mrs Tickler has a longing desire to hear Mr Jeffrey speak, and certainly his commentaries on the "Chaldee" could not fail of being very diverting. You ask me what I think of the Poetical Notices. They are, without exception, the only things of the kind that I ever read, and have about them a good-humoured whimsicality that is peculiar to themselves. They are the dawnings of quite a new School of Poetry. You cannot be serious when you say that they have given great offence. The Notices the good-natured, facetious, urbane Notices, give great offence! Impossible! They are quite saccharine. Never were compliments more delicately turned and polished than those to the different Bibliopolists. "The most are chiefly under one huge thumb," Is the most comprehensive line in the whole body of English poetry. What a picture of power and of subjection in one single line! I would with pleasure go over the whole, word by word, and perhaps I may do so in some future letter; but I shall say no more at present, than that I almost wished I had been an Edinburgh bookseller myself, to have had immortality conferred upon me, unsought, unsuspected, and undeserved. You go on to ask me what I think of Constable's Magazine? Oh! my |