of care. forehead, and say if you are not browbeaten to the ground. Its outlines, extending miles and miles horizontally and perpendicularly, enclose a vast space deeply channelled by torrents of thought, or roughened and ridged by the convulsions of patriotic anguish. A million of vexed spirits are there" contracted in one brow" As you approach the region betwixt the eyes, the deep tracks and wrinkles of anxious concern, disappointment, and grief, increase, till the dark convolutions of valleys and ridges, immediately above the nose, seem another Switzerland, that land of liberty, and consequently of Whigs. But how are ye to stand the wither ing flash of these huge orbs-these two great living lakes of eyes-half a nation at once looking through them? In what dark, stern, reproachful gaze they are fixed! Fire and darkness are mingled in them. The very light in them is darkness. Allowing that an individual can see about fifteen minutes into the future (a Tory cannot see five seconds before him)-consider what a reach of vision these multiplied and magnifying or gans of Giant Whig must have in that direction. No wonder he can foretell the issue of every measure as soon as 'tis entered upon, for he actually foresees it. He has far more than the second sight.* The nose that nose which is a thousand times more acutely sensitive than the best scent dog's; which can detect from the greatest distance the faintest effluvia of a fault-comes next to be described; and next again comes the mouth, particularly the tongue: A tongue which lies Whose thunders so often threaten to split the very frame of the Constitution; whose words are so mighty that only very large ears can give them admission. But ere we can address ourselves to a task so daring as the description of these, we must be allowed a little respite, and time to invoke some superior aid. I intend to imprecate the assistance of that exquisite portrait painter, Dr Morris, your friend. In my next lecture on heads, after treating at great length of the prodigious organs of smell, taste, and speech of our subject-(as for the ear, see the description of Dionysius')—I shall gratify the audience, or rather spectators, by some curious and important calculations respecting him. I shall endeavour, among other things, to ascertain how many scavengers it would require, working a given time, to scrape his tongue, he being somewhat foulmouthed:"--How many barbers it would take to shave his head, in the event of his being seized with a fit of madness, and so requiring the application of a blister:-How many thousand yards of flannel would be necessary to make him a warm comfortable night-cap; or in the event of his death, in how many months all the weavers in Yorkshire could weave him a shroud.t The third lecture I intend to devote exclusively to the craniological peculiarities of Giant Whig. The operations for the determining of all the * Our visions, and dreams, and soothsayings ought to be collected into a volume, or rather volumes. As they are rather of a sombre hue-the fall, the ruin of the country, the extinction of mental light, the annihilation of liberty and security, the spoliation of wealth, &c. &c. being their subjects, the work ought to be bound in black boards, spotted with white tears. As an appropriate supplement to it, "The Afflicted Man's Companion," "The Crook of the Lot," and Hervey's "Meditations amongst the Tombs," ought to be added. What mournful luxury it would be to sit under a yew in the doleful groves of Whiggism, and pore over so woful, and yet so consoling a book. On second thought, I conceive that the substance of the work now proposed should be inserted under the article Prophesy, in the New Supplement to the Encyclopædia Britannica. What ample materials the modern Apocalypse, viz. the Edinburgh Review, would afford of itself! + Blackwood's Magazine for February 1818, see. craniological questions will be conducted by a gentleman who assisted in the late survey of this island; so that the elevations of the bumps, the depths of the cavities, and the relative situations of all, will be most accurately ascertained. The craniological map of the whole head will be given, beau tifully engraved by W. and D. Lizars. There may be some ill-natured enough to reckon, that were the cranium of Giant Whig dug through, "Before their eyes in sudden view" would 66 appear "The secrets of the hoary deep-a dark abyss, "Where length, breadth, and height, "And time and place, are lost; where eldest night, "And chaos, ancestors of nature, hold And that not a vestige of brain would be found. This I have heard impudently as serted, and that on the ground of Giant Whig being greatly inconsist ent, contradictory, and even occasionally outrageous, in his conduct and language. It should, however, be considered, that Giant Whig's temper and sanity have been tried more than any man's. And would not a constant state of chagrin, disappointment, and mortification, injure the soundest brain? If he has betrayed symptoms of wantied and soothed than laughed at ? dering, ought he not rather to be pi hibition is over, and he who would see In the mean time, however, the exthe show again must pay another fare. N. B. The charge is double to see the pollar monster fed. POLITO. NOTE FROM MR MULLION, ENCLOSING AN ESSAY ON THE STATE DEAR MR EDITOR, OF THE NATION. I WISH you had laid aside your veil, and come up to the Parliament House the morning the news of Mr Tierney's great defeat arrived-I mean the defeat of his motion for a committee to enquire into the state of the nation. Faces were long, and arms reversed, all along that great parade of whiggery, and the muffled drums of demi-sedition played something not unlike a dead march to their ancient bearers. I, for my part, entered into friendly conversation with one of the most moderate and sensible whigs that walks the boards. We talked over the matter quietly and calmly, and parted as usual without being able to agree in any one point either of premises or conclusion. My friend, Mr S. on my quitting him, said, "You have said just nothing to the purpose."—I did not quite like this, so on returning home, I threw together upon paper the substance, so far as my memory would serve me, of what I had said, resolving within myself, that you and your readers should act as umpires upon this occasion between the Whig and the Tory. In order to ensure you impartiality, I may mention that, in spite of his political opinions, my friend is almost as great an admirer of your Miscellany as myself. He is one of the few eminent individuals of that sect who think it possible to be sincere without being cruel. He hates the persecuting spirit with which his brethren treat dissenters like yourself. Yours sincerely, STATE OF THE NATION. A FOREIGNER, unacquainted with the customs and forms of the English senate, and especially if he were a philosophical foreigner,-would be a good deal surprised to find how little the substance of that parliamentary proceeding, which is technically denominated." an inquiry into the state of the nation," corresponds in dignity, or in extent and compass, with the grandeur of its title. The title would MORDECAI MULLION. lead him to expect from the senators, a solemn and ceremonial inquest upon the total condition of the people whom they represented; an estimate of their whole economy, financial, martial, agricultural, and commercial; an estimate of their international relations, and of their internal state, with respect to laws and morals; a survey of the national institutions-both as to their grounds and their tendency; a ing sustained one of the most conspicuous defeats, and the present administration as having achieved one of the most brilliant and decisive victo ries which our parliamentary annals record. A few weeks ago, as our reas ders are aware, Mr Tierney, (the leader of opposition) made a motion " that the house do resolve itself into a com→ mittee of the whole house, to consider of the state of the nation." Each side of the house mustered in unusual strength; five hundred and thirty-five members voted; and four members of Grenville politics sheered off, it seems, without voting. The result was-that the number of those who voted with ministers more than doubled (viz. by one) the number of those who voted with Mr Tierney. Old soldier as this gentleman is in parliamentary tacticswe cannot but suspect, that on this occasion he was surprised and confounded by the result. That he miscalculated his strength is indeed evident from his having made the motion at all; for he could not design to emblazon, in the way he has done, the strength of administration; and most undoubtedly, if he had even resolved upon the motion at any risk, for the sake of parading his forces, and that he might ascertain who was with him and who against him, he would not, under any anticipation of so total a defeat, have allowed himself to put the issue upon that foundation which he did; for in the opening of his speech, having spoken very favourably of the composition of the present House of Commons-as comprehending a larger proportion of men connected with no party than he (who had sate and voted in so many houses) had ever before remembered," he drew a natural inference, that such a house "would vote without reference to either side;-that they would weigh measures and not men.' Miscalculate, therefore, Mr Tierney did, we may assured, from some cause or other; possibly from the successes which his party has had once or twice this session in skirmishes upon local questions. Manifest it is, that he miscounted his own strength, or miscounted the probable attendance on the opposite side. During this session (as appeared from a pretty plain hint of Lord Castlereagh) the ministerial party have been very slack in attendance; and possibly the assembly might not be final verdict delivered upon the state of the country, as compared with its state at some former period, so as to furnish reasonable data for determining whether, upon the whole, the people be progressive or improgressive: and the whole process conducted as radically as the researches of a philosopher, and as rigorously as the self-examination of a religious penitent. To these magnificent anticipations derived from the name, he would find a ludicrous contrast in the thing. An inquiry into the state of the nation unis formly turns out to be an inquiry into the state of parties. The party in opposition are anxious at intervals to try their strength, more especially in the first session of a new parliament. Much strength may possibly have been gained through the extensive changes made by a general election in the composition of the house: some, they are apt to flatter themselves, may have accrued to them from impressions favourable to themselves, produced by the course of events, and their own wisdom or eloquence upon the minds even of old members. At the same time they are aware that a question of inferior magnitude, or one which (like the Catholic question) is by general agreement a privileged question upon which a plenary indulgence is granted to tender consciences and tender intellects, cannot serve as a test question for determining the several proportions of strength. A question is, therefore, chosen of the largest possible compass, and pretty nearly co-extensive with an inquiry into "things in general,”—by way of drawing from parliament a verdict upon the total merits of each party. It takes the shape of an inquiry into the state of the nation, rather upon negative grounds than positive, rather because it excludes all local and minor questions, than because it is seriously designed to embrace the widest and most national. It is in fact a watchword, by which the forces on either side are instructed to prepare for action; a signal flying from the masthead, by which the commander-inchief makes known his intention to lay himself on board the enemy. And the appropriate interest connected with the occasion is a martial interest, and our anxieties the same as those with which we await the issue of a battle. Looking at the question in this light, we may consider Mr Tierney as hav 66 be |