The Rolliad Part 4

It seems as if the poet, in the preceding descriptions, had purposely stooped to amuse himself with the Gomgom Pearson, Hucsteria, Major Scott, Mr. Northcote, and the Reverend author of the Scrutineer, that he might rise again with the more striking dignity on this great occasion.

MERLIN now leads ROLLO to the centre of the House,

Conventus trahit in medios, turbamque sonantem.

He points out to him the gallery for strangers to sit in, and members to sleep in; the bar below, and the clock above. Of the clock he observes,

When this shalt point, the hour of question come, Mutes shall find voice, and Orators be dumb.

This, if in lengthen'd parle the night they pa.s.s, Shall furnish still his opening to DUNDAS; To PITT, when "hear-hims" flag, shall oft supply The chear-trap trick of stale apology; And, strange to tell! in Nature's spite, provoke Hot ARDEN once to blunder at a joke.

The beauty of these lines will be instantly perceived by all who have witnessed the debates; as they cannot but have remarked, how perpetually "_the late hour of night_" occupies the exordiums of Mr.

DUNDAS, after eleven o'clock; and how frequently it is introduced by Mr. PITT as a hint, for what is called _chearing_, whenever his arguments and invectives are received by his young friends with the unparliamentary compliment of sacred silence. The miracle of a jest from Mr. ARDEN, happened on the occasion of some Resolutions having pa.s.sed between the hours of _six_ and _seven_ in the morning; for which reason the Attorney-General facetiously contended, that they were ent.i.tled to no respect, "as the house was then at _sixes_ and _sevens_." Any approximation to wit in debate, being perfectly unusual with this gentleman, however entertaining his friends may think him in private, our author very properly distinguishes this memorable attempt by the same kind of admiration, with which poets commonly mention some great prodigy--as for instance, of a cow's speaking:

----pecudesque locutae Infandum!

We hope none of our readers will attribute to us the most distant intention of any invidious comparison.

The table, mace, &c. are next described, but these we shall pa.s.s over in silence, that we may get--where most who enter the House of Commons wish to get--to the TREASURY-BENCH,

Where sit the gowned clerks, by ancient rule, This on a chair, and that upon a stool; Where stands the well-pil'd table, cloth'd in green; There on the left the TREASURY-BENCH is seen.

No sattin covering decks the' unsightly boards; No velvet cus.h.i.+on holds the youthful lords: And claim ill.u.s.trious Tails such small regard?

Ah! Tails too tender for a seat so hard.

This pa.s.sage touches on a subject of much offence to the young friends of the minister; we mean the barbarous and Gothic appearance of the benches in the House of Commons. The Treasury-bench itself looks no better than a first form in one of our public schools:

No sattin covering decks the' unsightly boards, No velvet cus.h.i.+on holds the youthful Lords.

The above couplet states with much elegance the matter of complaint, and glances with equal dexterity at the proper remedy. The composition is then judiciously varied. The whole art of the poet is employed to interest our pa.s.sions in favour of the necessary reform, by expostulatory interrogations and interjections the most affectingly pathetic. And who can read the former, without feeling his sense of national honour most deeply injured by the supposed indignity; or who can read the latter, without melting into the most unfeigned commiseration for the actual sufferings to which the youthful lords are at present exposed? It must, doubtless, be a seasonable relief to the minds of our readers, to be informed, that Mr. PITT (as it has been said in some of the daily papers) means to propose, for one article of his Parliamentary Reform, to cover the seats in general with crimson sattin, and to decorate the Treasury-bench, in particular, with cus.h.i.+ons of crimson velvet; one of [1] extraordinary dimensions being to be appropriated to Mr. W. GRENVILLE.

The epithet "_tender_" in the last line we were at first disposed to consider as merely synonymous with "_youthful_." But a friend, to whom we repeated the pa.s.sage, suspected that the word might bear some more emphatical sense; and this conjecture indeed seems to be established beyond doubt, by the original reading in the ma.n.u.script, which, as we before said, has been communicated to us,

"Alas! that flesh, so late by pedants scarr'd, Sore from the rod, should suffer seats so hard,"

We give these verses, not as admitting any comparison with the text, as it now stands, but merely by way of commentary, to ill.u.s.trate the poet's meaning.

From the Treasury-bench, we ascend one step to the INDIA-BENCH.

"There too, in place advanc'd, as in command, Above the beardless rulers of the land, On a bare bench, alas! exalted sit, The pillars of Prerogative and PITT; Delights of Asia, ornaments of men, Thy Sovereign's Sovereigns, happy Hindostan."

The movement of these lines is, as the subject required, more elevated than that of the preceding: yet the prevailing sentiment excited by the description of the Treasury-bench, is artfully touched by our author, as he pa.s.ses, in the Hemistich,

On a bare bench, alas!------

which is a beautiful imitation of Virgil's

------Ah! filice in nuda------

The pompous t.i.tles so liberally bestowed on the BENGAL SQUAD, as the _pennyless hirelings_ of opposition affect to call them, are truly in the Oriental taste; and we doubt not, but every friend to the present happy government, will readily agree in the justice of stiling them "pillars of prerogative and Pitt, delights of Asia, and ornaments of man." Neither, we are a.s.sured, can any man of any party object to the last of their high dignities, "Sovereigns of the Sovereign of India;"

since the Company's well-known sale of Shah Allum to his own Visier, is an indisputable proof of their supremacy over the Great Mogul.

As our author has been formerly accused of plagiarism, we must here in candour confess, that he seems, in his description of the India-bench, to have had an eye to Milton's account of the devil's throne; which, however, we are told, much exceeded the possible splendour of any India-bench, or even the magnificence of Mr. Hastings himself.

High on a throne of royal slate, which far Outshone the wealth of Orams, or of Ind; Or where the gorgeous East, with lavish hand, Show'rs on her King, barbaric pearl and gold; Satan _exalted sate_.------

This concluding phrase, our readers will observe, is exactly and literally copied by our author. It is also worthy of remark, that as he calls the Bengal squad,

The _Pillars_ of Prerogative and Pitt,

So Milton calls Beelzebub,

A _Pillar_ of State:------

Though, it is certain, that the expression here quoted may equally have been suggested by one of the Persian t.i.tles[2], said to be engraved on a seal of Mr. Hastings, where we find the Governor General styled, "_Pillar_ of the Empire." But we shall leave it to our readers to determine, as they may think proper, on the most probable source of the metaphor, whether it were in reality derived from Beelzebub or Mr. Hastings.

[1] For a description of this young gentleman's person, from _top to bottom_, see No. V.

[2] The following is copied from the Morning Chronicle of October 5, 1784.

Mr. HASTINGS'S PERSIAN t.i.tLES, _as engraved upon a Seal._ _A True Translation._ Nabob Governor-General Hastings, _Saub_, Pillar of the Empire, The fortunate in War, Hero, The most princely offspring of the Loins, Of the King of the Universe, The Defender of the Mahomedan Faith, And Asylum of the World, &c. &c. &c. &c.

_Translation of a Persian Inscription engraven on a large fine Ruby, being the t.i.tles either given to or a.s.sumed by Mrs._ HASTINGS.

"Royal and Imperial Governess, The elegance of the age, The most exalted Bilkiss, The Zobaide of the Palaces, The most heroic Princess, Ruby Marian Hastings, Sauby, &c. &c.

N.B. With the Mussulmans, _Bilkiss_ signifies the person, called in the Bible History the Queen of Sheba; and _Zobaide_ was a favourite wife of Mahomed; and when they wish to pay the highest compliments to a lady, they compare her to Bilkiss and Zobaide, who possessed the most exalted beauty, and perfection of every kind.

_NUMBER VIII._

From the above general compliment to the India-bench, the poet, in the person of Merlin, breaks out into the following animated apostrophe to some of the princ.i.p.al among our Leadenhall-street Governors:

All hail! ye virtuous patriots without blot, Rollo The minor KINSON and the major SCOTT: And thou of name uncouth to British ear, From Norman smugglers sprung, LE MESURIER; Hail SMITHS; and WRAXALL, unabash'd to talk, Tho' none will listen; hail too, CALL and PALK; Thou, BARWEL, just and good, whose honour'd name, Wide, as the Ganges rolls, shall live in fame, Second to HASTINGS: and, VANSITTART, thou, A second HASTINGS, if the Fates allow.

The bold, but truly poetical apocope, by which the Messrs. At-kinson and Jen-kinson, are called the two kinsons, is already familiar to the public. The minor Kinson, or Kinson the less, is obviously Mr.

Atkinson; Mr. Jenkinson being confessedly greater than Mr. Atkinson, or any other man, except One, in the kingdom.--The ant.i.thesis of the Major Scott to the minor Kinson, seems to ascertain the sense of the word Major, as signifying in this place the greater; it might mean also the elder; or it might equally refer to the military rank of the gentleman intended. This is a beautiful example of the figure so much admired by the ancients under the name of the Paronomasia, or Pun.

They who recollect the light in which our author before represented Major Scott, as a pamphleteer, fit only to furnish a water-closet, may possibly wonder to find him here mentioned as THE GREATER SCOTT; but whatever may be his literary talents, he must be acknowledged to be truly great, and worthy of the conspicuous place here a.s.signed him, if we consider him in his capacity of agent to Mr. Hastings, and of consequence chief manager of the Bengal Squad; and it must be remembered, that this is the character in which he is here introduced.

The circ.u.mstance of Mr. Le Mesurier's origin from Norman Smugglers, has been erroneously supposed by some critics to be designed for a reproach; but they could not possibly have fallen into this mistaste, if they had for a moment reflected that it is addressed by MERLIN to ROLLO, who was himself no more than a Norman pirate. Smuggling and piracy in heroic times were not only esteemed not infamous, but absolutely honourable. The Smiths, Call and Palk of our poet, resemble the

Alcandrumque, Haliumque, Noemonaque, Prytanimque,

of Homer and Virgil; who introduce those gallant warriors for the sake of a smooth verse, and dispatch them at a stroke without the distinction of a single epithet. Our poet too has more professedly imitated Virgil in the lines respecting Mr. Vansittart, now a candidate to succeed Mr. Hastings.

------And, VANSITTART, thou A second HASTINGS, if the fates allow.

------Si qua fata aspera rumpas, Tu Marcellus eris!

The pa.s.sage however is, as might be hoped from the genius of our author, obviously improved in the imitation; as it involves a climax, most happily expressed. Mr. Barwell has been panegyrized in the lines immediately foregoing, as _second to Hastings_; but of Mr. Vansittart it is prophesied, that he will be a _second Hastings_; second indeed in time, but equal perhaps in the distinguis.h.i.+ng merits of that great and good man, in obedience to the Court of Directors, attention to the interests of the Company in preference to his own, abstinence from rapacity and extortion, justice and policy towards the princes, and humanity to all the natives, of Hindostan. The ingenious turn on the words _second to Hastings_, and a _second Hastings_, would have furnished matter for whole pages to the Dionysius's, Longinus's, and Quintilians of antiquity, though the affected delicacy of modern taste may condemn it as quibble and jingle.

The poet then hints at a most ingenious proposal for the embellishment of the India-bench, according to the new plan of Parliamentary Reform; not by fitting it up like the Treasury-bench, with velvet cus.h.i.+ons, but by erecting for the accommodation of the Leadenhall worthies, the ivory bed, which was lately presented to her Majesty by Mrs. Hastings.