Stood forth; and I in stature am more like With such a part. If he were beautiful, So sung Dante of Dis-not so sing I of Giant Whig; for "I in stature am more like a giant," than a giant is like his little finger, and besides, he does not stand at mid-breast from the ice;" for I suppose him like John Bunyan's Pilgrim in the Slough of Despond, up to the chin in mud, so that it is only his head we can contemplate. * In order to enable the comprehension to reach this political poll, suppose yourself placed before Ben-Lomond, Snowdon, or any other mountain you may have contemplated, and conceive, whilst you are gazing, the whole undiminished mass converted into a human head. What a grand spectacle, and yet what a disinal one to every Tory! Come all ye enemies of liberty, ye defenders of abuses, ye engrossers and abusers of power, especially ye secular popes and cardinals,-popes who have superadded to the power of the keys that of the crown,-come and look on Go to a proper point of view, that ye may be able not only to contemplate each amazing feature, but feel the tremendous total of effect of the whole countenance. I allow, that, to a superficial observer, there is a dash of vulgarity in the contour, but no true lover of nature will see any thing that should not be. The ingredients of the cup of Whiggism consist chiefly of those pure unsophisticated children of nature, who, though in the lower circles of life, are far above the paltry baubles of factitious, conventional, false grace or decorum. When such put their heads together, the result, of course, will not be what you previously call great. We however judiciously invert your scales of size and merit, so that our great men and your great men are antipodes to each other, and rise in opposite directions. Observe how shrewd, knowing, and angry our giant phiz appears. Can you endure that look, which concentrates the intensely accumulated expression of a million disapproving minds. The blackness of indignation prevails over the whole face. Many a square acre of cheeks, and brow, and chin, are furrowed and puckered by disinterested wrath. Lift up your eyes to yon exalted I would seriously advise that all further attempts to reach the Pole, and find the N.W. passage, be given over to the poets. Such undertakings are far too much for uninspired men. By employing those who have studied navigation under the muses, you absolutely ensure the solution of all the geographical problems relating to the north seas; problems which, I fear, never will otherwise be solved, even though Mr Scoresby were employed in the service. Let a poet be well braced with good Hippocrenean grog, and give him his favourite muse, and he'll go any where, and perform any feat you choose. He'll spend a summer in the sun, or a winter on the pole, and never once complain of either extreme. Only hold out the twenty thousand pound premium, and I'll engage, not only that the N.W. passage shall be discovered, but that at least fifty bold adventurers shall exhibit, this very summer, the British flag to the wondering natives along the whole northern shore of America, and arrive safely at Canton by the way of Bering's Straits. As for the North Pole, it shall be crossed at least every month during the same period. Neither the Pole, however, nor the N.W. passage, should be made a common of. Some skilful, daring, and experienced poet-pilot should be appointed by government to this glorious enterprise, and who realizes the necessary conditions so well as our poetical Captain Cook, or rather Columbus-Mr Southey. It would be needless to send out Lord Byron, for he would settle amongst the Esquimaux, and never return. It has just occurred to me, that a premium, still more tempting than the twenty thou sand pound might be held out to the poet who may be appointed to the command of the northern expedition, viz. the promise of being criticised, on his return, by Thomas Campbell, a gentleman who has given us more than " the Pleasures of Hope," even those of a rich fruition, and that not only as a poet, but likewise as a critic. His last work is an honour to British feeling as well as to British genius. 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" of care. 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 organs 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 endeayour, 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, beautifully 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 inconsistent, 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 In the mean time, however, the exhibition is over, and he who would see the 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 OF THE NATION. DEAR MR EDITOR, 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 arins 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 66 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 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 uniformly 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 ing sustained one of the most conspicuous defeats, and the present administration as having achieved one of the most brilliant and decisive victories which our parliamentary annals record. A few weeks ago, as our rea ders are aware, Mr Tierney, (the leader of opposition) made a motion "that the house do resolve itself into a committee 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 tactics→→ we 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 66 would vote without reference to either side;—that they would weigh measures and not men.' Miscalculate, therefore, Mr Tierney did, we may be assured, from some cause or other; possibly from the successes which his party has had once or twice this ses sion 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 "frequent and full" when Mr Tierney was speaking; for he must have spoken early in the evening. Be the cause however of his miscalculation what it may, miscalculate he did: and he has himself taught us how to interpret the triumph of ministers. Of a house admitted to be an independent house, and voting conscientiously, the major part by far voted with ministers; and whosoever did so vote "confessed (according to Mr Tierney,) his perfect confidence in the wisdom, vigour, and enterprise of ministers, his unqualified approbation of their measures, and his opinion that their career ought not to be interrupted. This construction of the vote was held out in terrorem to those who might be dubiously affected towards ministers, but after the votes it reflects an awkward commentary upon the general sentiments and disposition of parlia ment, such as Mr Tierney will be sorry to have made binding upon his candour. Possibly there were some conscientious men among those who voted on that night with ministers who did not think themselves pledged by their vote to so wholesale an approbation of ministerial conduct as Mr Tierney for an immediate purpose affected to think. Making even very large deductions from the merits and claims of ministers, there will still remain an amount of merit grounded on past services large enough (we conceive) to ensure them at all times a triumph in public opinion on a competition with their opponents. For the present at least the ministers are decidedly popular in the house: their strength is greater perhaps than they themselves had imagined. Out of the house no less,-abstracting from the envy which attends the possessors of power among those of their own rank, and from the odium which attaches among the lower ranks to the ostensible imposers of taxes,—we think that ministers are not unpopular. A partial clamour was at one time raised against them in reference to some energetic measures of domestic policy; but this clamour had it's birth, we believe, with the frantic reformers, and never reach ed the well-informed classes: men of intelligence are more apt to complain of an undue laxity of domestic government in the present ministry, and too servile a fear of the popular voice. At no time therefore did this clamour much interfere with the popularity of government, and at present it is wholly extinct. Upon the whole therefore, as far as it is possible for an English ministry to be so, we believe that the present ministry are and will continue to be popular. How have they become so? What is the tenure upon which they keep their hold upon the national regard? This is an interesting question: it will be the same question, presented under another aspect, if we ask how it is that their opponents have become unpopular? This we shall attempt briefly to answer; premising that, by their opponents we mean the old opposition or Fox party. The character and manners of the first Lord Holland were not English, nor acceptable therefore to the English nation. But of him we do not purpose to speak: the public feeling might suffer a slight prejudice as respected his son from a previous knowledge and dislike of the father. But that prejudice, if it ever existed, soon relented before the splendid powers of Charles Fox: and, at a boyish age, we may affirm that Charles Fox was popular. How came it that he and his party, composed of so many brilliant men, have since become so irredeemably unpopular that no changes of public affairs have ever restored them to any national favour? Chiefly, as we believe, from three causes: 1. The first great shock given to thereputation of the Fox party was it's coalition with the party of Lord North. During the reign even of Charles the Second there had been no case of equal public profligacy. Of all the graces which can adorn and recommend a public disputant, that which is most effectual to win esteem and to disarm opposition is the grace of sincerity and zeal. To see a man earnestly contending for what he believes to be the truth is always an affecting spectacle: and we are all ready to pardon, on the single consideration that he is in earnest,much of intemperance-much angermuch ignorance-much even of error. Liberties, which we should else repel with indignation, we tolerate by way of doing homage to the spirit of conscientious zeal which we believe to prompt them. To be in earnest, in short, and deeply in earnest so as to forget one's self, and to be swallowed up in the single consideration of the truth, is the most potent and captivating elos |