done or said, that should lead any man to believe him, primâ facie, a fit person to tread upon that ground which has been barred for ever from all but the most exquisite of geniuses, or the most audacious of quacks, by the inimitable march of Hume? But it would take us into too wide an excursion, were we to attempt enlarging upon this. One of the best pieces in the volume is a poem entitled "The Choice of the Leader." The principal members of Opposition are supposed to have met together to select a chief, under whose auspices their campaign in the House of Commons may be conducted. After a variety of confident candidates have been dismissed with more or less measure of respect, our celebrated countryman thus makes his appearance: "On t'other hand, MACKINTOSH strives to unite The grave and the gay, the profound and polite: And piques himself much that the ladies should say, How well Scottish strength softens down in Bombay; Frequents the assembly, the supper, the ball, The philosophe-beau of unloveable STAEL ;* Affects to talk French in his hoarse Highland note, And gargles Italian half way down his throat; At best, he is but a half-polish'd Scotch pebble." He has some difficulty in gaining the ear of the Committee, but at last his throne During Mad. de Stael's residence in England, she was much attended by Sir J. Mackintosh.-E. + Vindicia Gallica, by James Mackintosh. At Dresden so bold, and at Leipsic so true, To the aid of the French all his forces he drew, And, from their united success he afar saw A richer reward than the Duchy of Warsaw. Had fortune not frown'd on NAPOLEON the Great, How different, to-day, were Augustus's fate! The Niemen, the Rhine, then, had bounded his reign, And Stralsund display'd his gay flag o'er the main; In Prague he, perhaps, had exalted his seat, And Hamburgh and Dantzig had crouch'd at his feet; Then Prussia's proud King (if the French spared his head) Had begg'd through the world for a morsel of bread, And the Elbe and the Danube, the Oder and Weser, Had giv'n to Augustus the title of Cæsar. "Though Germany, England, France, Sweden and Spain, Russia, Prussia, and Portugal join to main Lord Sidmouth had in his administration made Mr Mackintosh Recorder of Bombay.-E. We have no small difficulty in making our selections, now that we have got into the poetical part of this production, We would gladly quote the whole of the lyrical pieces in particular, in order to furnish the few faint-hearted young Tories of this place with a manual of merry staves, by which they might ehaunt their courage into a flame, when two or three of them are gathered together over that private bowl of hot punch which commonly follows the judges' claret at a circuit dinner. But we refer them to the work itself, and shall merely give them a slight specimen; we venture to say that the following Medley has great merit; Of the following it would be folly to say one word. The wit in the last line is perhaps as good as possible. "Mr Calcraft was Clerk of the Ordnance in the Talents' administration, and moved the Ordnance estimates.-E." + The Ordnance Office in Palace-yard." "R. Ward, Esq. M. P. for Haslemere, and now Clerk of the Ordnance.--F,” VOL, V. He does not succeed quite so well in Scotch as in English; however, we must give one specimen of this. We shall also give the prefatory note of the author himself. "We doubted whether we ought to publish the following Song under the title of an English Melody; but the author, the elegant and erudite Member for Glasgow, the Roscoe indeed we may say, of Greenock, assures us, that it is as good English as he ever spoke in his life. "After this testimony, we cannot hesitate to lay before our readers the following Eng lish Melody. But our poet is no less successful in originals than he is in imitations.Witness the following: AN EXCELLENT NEW SONG. To the tune of "A Cobler there was, and he lived in a Stall.” Ye noisy Reformers who rant and who bawl, Paul; + Not him who, at Putney, gave Burdett But the worthy successor of Westminster Ye Billingsgate muses, ye dames of the Hall, Come sing from my ballad the praises of We Poets of Grub-street, who write for the "Kirkman Finlay, Esq. M. P. for Glasgow. + "See Mr Brougham's motion, on the 2d April, 1816, relative to the remission of excise penalties. "Evidently Paul Methuen, Esq. "James Paul, Esq. (since deceased) wounded Sir F. Burdett, in a duel on Putney Heath.-E." There is an ingenuity in this little morceau, which might have done honour to our friend the Rector himself. Political Alphabet; or, the Young Member's A. B. C. A, was an ALTHORPE, as dull as a hog; D, was a DOUGLAS, who wanted a place; G, was a GORDON'S preposterous phiz; "These seem to allude to Mr Freemantle, Secretary of the Treasury in the Talents' Administration, who certainly wears a wig, but whether he deserves the imputation which the rest of the line conveys is not so clear.-E." +Mr Methuen was famous in private theatricals; it is presumed that he also be longed to the four-in-hand club." |