ページの画像
PDF
ePub

and lofty forehead, and in the presence of innumerous godfathers and godmothers, all religiously anxious to vow themselves to the guardianship of her spiritual welfare, gave an immortal name to the Queen of the North, who now "proudly flings her white arms to the sea," and at sunset and sunrise, blazes, a cloudlike apparition, among her unconquered mountains.

In return for their complimentary kindness, what have we done to the Southrons? Heathen'd their metropolis the Modern Babylon! No, England! "thou can'st not say I did it." 'Twas done by "MOODY Madness, laughing wild-amidst severest woe." We never nicknamed London, it be ing "a thing so majestical." That dissyllable sounds magnificently in our ears-so does the Thames, like the sea. But Cobbett called it-" The Wen." In his eyes it seems a large excrescence from the Body Politic -far heavier and more hideous than that-though it weighed fifty-six pounds (now a separate and independent preservation)-—which lately hung from the stomach of that poor Chinese, smiling to the last, who gently "sank" (what a sweet word for " died!") under the tender hearts and scientific hands of his executioners, blindly anxious, poor TuftedPow! to be relieved-at any riskfrom his overgrown metropolis! True, that we pointed to one PlagueSpot called Cockaigne-sallow symptom of the sweating sickness. But not in scorn-in sympathy; and, fearless of the infectious matter, we knocked out the pus from the purulent part of the patient-yea, even with the knout-and lo! London, restored to her pristine sanity, walks stately along her bridges, and-not ungrateful to her wise Physician and sagacious Surgeon-breathes again the bold breezes that come joyously up with the foaming tide a-tumble from the Nore.

[ocr errors]

All this may be very fine, and perhaps not wholly unamusing; but it may be hinted that it helps us no great way on towards our intended political article, the Edinburgh Election. True; but these our prefatory paragraphs may probably put the Pensive Public into good-humour; and, as the subject is susceptible of considerable irritation, we are not without hopes

that, in our treatment of it, people will imitate our example, and keep their tempers, which are by far too good things to be thrown away, and when lost, not likely to be recovered before another dissolution of Parlia

ment.

But the prime object of this prelude has been to conciliate the favour of our readers south of the Tweed. The time was when Maga was supposed to breathe too much of her birthplace, when the honey that distilled from her lips was accused of having always a heather-taste ;when, in short, it was unscrupulously said, that she whose feet were beautiful on the mountains, smelt too much of the shop-that is, of Scotland. The reproach that

"She narrow'd her mind, And to Scotland gave up what was meant for mankind,"

has been long wiped away from her character; and, indeed, of late years Maga has been perhaps too much of a Cosmopolite. A leading article about Edina, therefore, seems to be required for the redemption of her nationality-a prejudice, or rather a virtue, essential to all living worth.

The city of Edinburgh sends one representative to Parliament; and, by our present_constitution, the members of the Town Council are the electors. Two candidates for that honour appeared-Robert Adam Dundas, Esquire, of Whiterigg, and Francis Jeffrey, Esquire, the Lord Advocate for Scotland. Like honest and independent men,they elected the first of these gentlemen; and hence a howl of Whig and Radical rage, savage as if Wombwell's caravans had let loose over the city their awkward squads of laughing hyenas, growling bears, roaring lions, chattering monkeys, screeching macaws, and, loud above all, the lowing thunder of that surprising animal, the bonassus. Such another hubbub we do not remember to have heard, since one day in Paris about forty years ago, not very long before the murder of the king.

The Town Council elected the man whose political principles they approved, in preference to the man whose political principles they condemned; and for having done so, they have been brutally abused by a tyrannical junto, and their slavish tools, as traitors to their king,

their country, and their conscience. They have been true to all three; and should this be the last exercise of their highest privilege, they will have, while they live, the satisfaction of knowing that they did their duty, in scorn of many formidable dangers, brandished in their faces by mobs and demagogues, as ferocious and as iniquitous as ever scowled and howled the first threatenings of revolution.

Who, asked all the lower orders of the Whigs and Radicals-is Mr Robert Adam Dundas? That, we answer, was no business of theirs; they had nothing in the world to do with him or his concerns; with the rights of the electors, or with the exercise of those rights. Not to be known by such persons, does not surely gue oneself unknown;" and it is one recommendation in favour of any candidate to begin with, that his name should never have been heard or remembered by the pack that gave tongue in that canine outcry.

66 ar

Who and what Mr Robert Adam Dundas is, was already well known to thousands of the respectable citizens of Edinburgh, and to those who did not know, but wished and were entitled to be told, the answer was as easy as the question-and most satisfactory to every honourable mind, whatever might be the political creed of the interrogator. Mr Dundas is nephew to the late member for the city; and has been for some years in Parliament for Ipswich. He there successfully stood a contested election against Major Torrens, we believe --one of the political economistswho must surely be dead-and on the hustings distinguished himself by great presence of mind, great readiness of talent, and great strength of character. In Parliament he proved himself an able, attentive, and useful member-and on the debate on the Bill, spoke well on the side of the Constitution. He is known, in short, by all here who are not determined to shut their eyes and their ears against all merit in their political opponents, young and old alike, to be a person of good family, good fortune, good education, good talents, good manners, good morals, good business habits, and good principles-and worthy, therefore, to re

present the city of Edinburgh in ParÎiament.

Good principles-ay, there comes the rub. opinion of all that great part of the Good principles, in the population of Scotland that belongs to what we shall now take the liberty of calling the Conservative Order-Bad principles, in the opinion of that likewise great part of the population of Scotland that belongs to what we shall take the liberty of calling (with certain limitations to be afterwards attended to) the Revolutionary Faction. therefore, desired his election; all All the first, the last would have moved heaven and earth-and another region-to prevent it. They did move some districts of the second and thirdbut ineffectually; and though the Lord Advocate lost his election, as yet we see no frowns on the face of the first.

Mr Dundas being in himself-personally-thus worthy of the honour to which he aspired-and admitted to be so by all those in the ranks of how to judge of the character of a his political opponents, who know gentleman-and they are many-and in distinct terms by the Lord Advocate himself; this contest was in no from any other between the two one point whatever distinguished great parties in the state. party-on the one hand Tory, and on Each the other Whig-Reformers and Antireformersor say rather, Friends "of the Bill, the whole Bill, and nothing but the Bill," and Foes to the Bill, in that its obstinate resistance to all alteration in its principle each party, it is plain, was resolved -and, indeed, also in its detailswhich we need not say-its worst) to to do its best (and one of thesecarry the day;-and now, therefore, by a single tree, let us look over the from this little sunny knoll, shaded city, and, like philosophers as we are

though not, perhaps, without the partialities and prejudices of men— sitting in the calm, decide on the merits of the principles and practice of the conflicting parties, as exhibited before, during, and after that `election,

"Whereof all Europe rings from side to side,"

at least in the ears of us Modern Athenians.

In the first place, the canine out cry against Mr Dundas, as an unknown stranger, was kept up by many of the pack-the cross-bred curs called yelpers-till their tongues lolled out of their mouths, and they were fain to quench their thirst in the gutters. His character being free from all taint or stain, even the most rabid dared not to calumniate it. His gentlemanly manners, and his intelligent mind, pleased all the electors whom he canvassed; nor, among them, did the bitterest of his political opponents behave towards him otherwise than with courtesy; but part of the press ventured of course to scribble about him, with their usual insolence, and occasionally, we believe, also to compliment him, jibingly, on certain personal points, of which they, indeed, must be the very nicest judges. No great harm in all this, surely; for, though at first their liberties were not unloathsome, they became at last merely ludicrous; and their lucubrations "fit audience found though few," in the retired shades of the Pozzi.

But finding nothing they could successfully attack in the character of the candidate, a person of excellent performance and high promise, they turned with all their fury on his family, and loaded the name of Dundas with all the vulgar varieties of execration. With too many who ought to have spurned the slaves, such wretched ravings were, we are sorry to say it, not altogether unacceptable-while to the palates of not a few they were even as marrow and as fat-and they smacked their lips as they gorged the greasy offal. That in Scotland-in Edinburghthere are many honourable men on principle opposed to the policy that has for many years regulated the public conduct of the members of that distinguished family, all the world knows; and they must always be the political enemies of every one belonging to the house of Arniston. It is well that it should be so; and from all such Mr Dundas must have been prepared to meet with the most uncompromising and inveterate hostility. But what shall we say for the forgetful, or ungrateful, or temporizing crew, who have not only

deserted their benefactors, and the benefactors, in a thousand things, of their country and its metropolis, but turn upon them viperously, and sting the hands that fostered them and their families through a long period of time, when, but for the Dundasses, they would have been trodden down under the feet of an unsparing faction? And, setting all these personal considerations aside, what shall we say for them, who, looking abroad over this City of Palaces-for, contrasted with what it was thirty years ago, it is a City of Palaces-and over our beautiful country, "made blithe with plough and harrow," and benefited in its agriculture, its manufactures, and its commerce, by none of its native statesmen in such measure as by the great Lord Melville-and great he was, and great they called him, when alive to hear their worship-because the stream seems to be waxing strong in favour of that party who were the sworn foes of himself and of his house, have now the audacity to charge a candidate for the representation of Edinburgh with the crime of being a collateral descendant of that illustrious patriot? Such baseness, we know, is despised and abhorred even by the Whigs themselves, while they employ, or suffer, the services of the worthless instruments. And what honest man respects not the enlightened character

public and private-of the present Lord Melville? What honest man denies that he has had always at heart the good of Scotland, and successfully promoted it? The integrity of the late member for the city-Mr William Dundas-was always beyond suspicion-nor did he ever cease, to the best of his excellent abilities, to promote every measure that, in his opinion, was calcu lated to benefit Scotland. These men, and others of the family, belonged, and belong, it is true, to the Tory party; and by the Whigs let their political principles be impugned now as vehemently as heretofore; but let no Tories join the cry, either loud or low, or directly or indirectly encourage it by a shew of approval or indifference, for at such a crisis there is no distinction between a trimmer and a traitor.

But why, on such an occasion, speak only of-or to-Whigs and

Tories? Such is not our wish. We speak to the citizens of Edinburgh, and to the men of Scotland; and we say-not leaving all political opinions out of view-for on such an occasion that would be indeed most outrageously absurd-but giving to conscientious differences of opinion-deep and lasting as we know they are, and which we assuredly desire not to see extinguished or confused-full and free scope and play, in practice as well as principle-allowing to all men expression of them to the utmost verge even of such license as must always prevail during a season of political excitement-as cheerfully granting all this to the opponents of Mr Dundas, as they, we hope, are willing to grant it to his supporterswe then say, that the hubbub and hullabaloo that have been for weeks echoing and reverberating through our lanes and closes, from the holeand-corner committees of tag-ragand-bobtail against the very name of our member, howled as they have been by the rabble-rout, are disgraceful to the city-as long as that Figure stands on the Monument in St Andrew's Square, erected by gratitude in lasting memory of the dead; and that all who like or fear that hideous vociferation, are bound in consistency to call a public meet ing, and propose to the citizens that that statue shall be pulled down, and that pillar prostrated, and not a vestige left there of any memorial of Melville. There would not be wanting apostate and renegade miscreants among the ingrates to go with pick and shovel to work. But before it comes to that, we must bridle these operatives, and it shall not be with a snaffle, but a curb.

The Lord Advocate entered the field personally a few days after Mr Dundas. All along that side of the course on which Mr Dundas was to run (for the City-Plate-one heat) had been dug treacherous pitfalls, and strewn thickets of thorns and furze, which it was expected would either cause him to bolt, or be distanced; while the turf on his Lordship's side was smooth as a shaven lawn, and in fine order for a daisy-cutter. Even before the riders mounted, the crowd had decreed the prize; and during the race one could hardly see the flogging and spurring, for the moving

[ocr errors]

mass of vociferation that shut out all view of the goal. At the distancepost, you might have covered them with a sheet. On reaching the ropes, his lordship seemed to be making a little lee-way; when about fifty yards from home he began to swerve-and at the judges' stand he was beat by three good lengths, though certainly in any thing but a canter.

But to speak less sportingly, the whole Whig party, with all their collected craft, and united intrigue, sought to drive MrDundas off the field, by intimidating the Council. All fair means were employed for that purpose, and all foul-the fair, we would fain believe, by the Lord Advocate and his personal and political friends, the foul by the lowest of his unhired and undesired adherents. The fair consisted, among other legitimate appliances, of the most unbounded and exaggerated panegyrics on his Lordship's genius, talents, learning, virtues, and patriotism. Never before had the world seen such a man. In literature as well as in law, in philosophy as well as in politics, he was Nature's paragon. To oppose him appeared to be absolutely impious; the folly of such opposition was lost in its wickedness; and the "universal Edinburgh Whig-nation" set up as their idol and worshipped it-execrating all who refused to do so as heretics-the distinguished ex-editor of the Edinburgh Review.

Now, that Mr Jeffrey-allow us to call him by a name justly celebrated -is a person of brilliant and various talents, of the highest professional eminence, and most estimable and delightful in private life-we, who are not among the number of his idolaters, feel the sincerest satisfaction in declaring, if not in such elegant language, we hope with at least as clear an understanding as even the Deacon of the Tailors. The Deacons, indeed, of no fewer than Eleven Corporations memorialized the Town Council in eulogy of Mr Jeffrey's incomparable literary powers and acquirements, which seemed justly to have excited their admiration and astonishment. They have now rashly given, we think, their sanction to all his critical dicta; and Wordsworth and Southey, and many a hapless scribe beside, must veil their faces before the Bonnetmakers

-blush deep before the Dyers-and, as they value a sound skin, offer no resistance to the Hammermen. The Eleven are all delighted with his literature, and virtually declare, that without elegant literature, no man ought to represent in Parliament the metropolis of the nation of gentlemen. Whatever else he may be, he must be a critic. One of the Eleven speaks of "the eminent services he has rendered his country,"—without thinking it necessary to enter into any details leaving the Council to establish the general principle by an induction of particular facts. And others speak of him-as we observe he did t'other day of himself at Perth-as having been for many years the firm and consistent friend of reform. We observe, however, that considerable caution is observed by most of the memorialists in speaking of Mr Jeffrey's political writings; we know not whether be cause they are not so familiar with them as with his purely literary labours, or because their light has been dimmed or extinguished in that other brighter lustre.

Meanwhile were held meetings of what were called-if we mistake not -the inhabitants-or citizens of Edinburgh; at which Highland laird and Lowland loon declaimed away in panegyric on the Friend of the People, in all sorts of styles-the business-like and acute matter-of-fact or no-matter-of-fact of the leading lawyer-the prolix prosiness of the fast superannuating young pleader at the side-bar-the unswallowable prescriptions of -formal physician, contrary to all use and wont of the craft, embodied in nautical slang, picked up apparently in Cockaigne -the rhodomontade of half-pay officer, buckled up to the black stock, in a blue surtout, by no means rough in the pile-and the raving of Dunnewassal from the mountain, which we should not fear to back at odds against any bit of insanity, of equal length, from any cell in Bedlam.

That most influential of all bodies, too, the Edinburgh Political Union, like a clocking hen, gathered its chickens under its wings-most of which were shivering in the pipand amidst much chuckling, there was a sound uttered by one cock, which with some passed current for erowing, but which seemed to our

ears-we but heard the echo-about as senseless a scrauch as ever disturbed a dunghill. We are far, however, from meaning any disrespect to the Political Union, which, though laughed at by all but its members, and we must believe by many too even of them, and the most childish of all nurseries for radicals in daidle or dotage, we cannot help likingwhile, on other grounds, we have much esteem for more than one of its members. The newspaper editors here do not patronise it, and under their scowl what flower, however fair, will not wither? For our own parts, we should wish to see it more prosperous, which it never can be till it is commonly consistent; for such is their power of miscellaneous swallow, that the Unionists strenuously recommended the Town-Council to elect Mr Jeffrey-in furtherance, we presume, of the political objects which it is the beginning and will be the end of their own existence to promote-short Parliaments and vote by ballot-these being the two measures which Mr Jeffrey has lately set his face against most frowningly, and pledged himself to oppose, as pregnant with confusion and ruin to all regular and established government.

The Edinburgh Political Union, too, holds fast, it would appear, by the skirts of Mr Jeffrey's creed in its literary faith; and one young gentleman, as learned as he is facetious, delighted the assemblage by a wonderful-nay, almost a miraculous tale of his having absolutely—and bonâ fide-with his own eyes-and no deception-seen translations into the French tongue or the German, we forget which, of certain extracts from articles of Mr Jeffrey's in the Edinburgh Review, in the hands of the Monks of St Bernard, who gloated over them with greedier eyes than did ever priest over virgin kneeling at the confessional!

The young, and indeed also the middle-aged and old Modern Athenians, have got a ready knack of making themselves publicly ridiculous, by binding themselves into small knots-bouquets, where a few fresh flowers are sometimes mingled with those that have long been faded, and with weeds that were better deadand thus flaunting themselves abroad on the eye of our little world here,

« 前へ次へ »