128

Hebrew Idyls:

Thy young men's coming was not known to me,
Or else they had not so returned to thee.
As the Lord liveth, who this day for good
Hath now withholden thee from shedding blood,
May all who at thy life or honour touch
Be such as Nabal--altogether such !

And, good my lord, now let thy young men lift,
And take away with them thy handmaid's gift.
Pardon my boldness, and depart in peace :
The Lord will surely make thy house increase,
And stablish it; for thou dost only fight
His battles, and before him walkest right.
Yet one pursues thee with relentless strife-
But thou art bound up in the roll of life

Which the Lord keeps; and he thy foes shall fling
Away-
--as from the middle of a sling.

But when at last thy house shall firmly stand,
And thou art ruler over all the land,

This shall not be thy grief,--a vengeance ta'en
By thine own hand--a man unjustly slain-
Blood shed without a cause: but when with thee
Tis well, my lord, do thou remember me."
And David said, "Blest be the Lord, who now
Sent thee to meet me! blest be also thou,
Who thy good will to me hast thus disclosed,
And 'twixt my rage and me hast interposed;
For I had vowed I would this very night
Evil with evil to the full requite—

That every man in Nabal's house should die
Before the next dawn streaked the dewy sky.
Return in peace-thy word is heeded, kept;
Thy gift and good will freely I accept."

But Abigail, on her return, poor Nabal found
Deep in his cups, in mirth and riot drowned:
A kingly feast before the churl was spread,
Nor any thought his joy disquieted;

He drank and feasted, till dead-drunk he lay,
And snored the wine-fume heavily away.
But when he woke next morning, and his wife
Told him what danger threatened late his life,
How turned aside by her, and how incurred,
Chilled to the core, he answered not a word:
His heart died in him, and, by fear o'erthrown,
He was as one congealed into a stone.

And on the tenth day from his feastful pride,
The Lord smote silly Nabal, that he died.

And David blessed the Lord, who stayed his hand

From Nabal's life, when he went with his band

To put in act his meditated crime:

And mindful of her worth, in after-time,

He woo'd (and how could David's wooing fail?)
And won to wife the lovely Abigail.

M. J. CHAPMAN.

MR. ALARIC ALEXANDER WATTS.

THE duty of a journalist imposes on him, not unfrequently, a task, in performing the chronicler's part, from which he would otherwise have turned away in disgust. It is his province to notice, as they pass over and off the stage, the dwarfs as well as the giants of human society,-the notorious as well as the illustrious of mankind. Such an office devolves upon us on the present occasion, -mitigated, however, by one feature which is of a satisfactory cast,— namely, that, as far as the individual is concerned, it is our closing communication. For it is our lot this month to take our final leave of the now well-known Mr. Alaric Attila-we beg pardon-Mr. Alaric Alexander Watts. And such appears to be the singular conformation of this person's mind, that we have little doubt that he will hear this announcement with transports of joy,—and that, so that he may get from under REGINA's lash, he will care little to feel that he owes his future immunity to his past misconduct, and that he has found a retreat from frequent chastisement only by working his own final excommunication.

William Cobbett was very fond of relating an anecdote of a combat which he once witnessed between two countrymen; one of whom at last-and the one who had been the aggressor-getting the worse of the pugilistic fray, drew his knife on his antagonist. Cobbett delighted to describe the indignation of the just combatant, and the wrath with which, having snatched a huge stick from a bystander, he belaboured the cowardly miscreant.

Alaric Alexander Watts and FRASER'S MAGAZINE have been at fisty-cuffs this many a day. We have met his jests, scurvy as they were, with jests,——his harder knocks with knocks as hard. At last, finding that he was getting the worst of the fray, like the creature in Cobbett's story, he draws his knife! From the court of public opinion he appeals to the Court of King's Bench,-- from the verdict of the literary world he flies to the verdict of a Middlesex jury.

His weapon, however, has been turned upon himself. By succeeding, through a quirk of the law, in shutting out our evidence of provocation, and by thus compelling the jury to decide on a view of only half the facts of the case, he obtained a verdict against this Magazine. Four days afterwards, he had to make his appearance again before a jury; but now in the character of a defendant. A man whom we really believe he had no more libelled than we had libelled him, brought his action, recovered damages, and thus commended the poisoned chalice to Watts's own lips. Mr. Alaric Alexander walked out of court, after a very pleasant week's work, minus at least two hundred pounds on a balance of the

two actions!

A word or two, however, on our own case. It happened that Mr. Watts, for reasons which existed long antecedent to the establishment of this Magazine, thought proper to conceive a violent dislike (we hope the word is not libellous) of a gentleman long known in the world of newspapers and magazines, Dr. and this feeling he extended towards every person and thing with supposed, whether justly or not, to be connected. We

Maginn ;

which the Doctor was

VOL. XIII. NO. LXXIII.

130

Mr. Alaric Alexander Watts.

have been told, perhaps erroneously, that the pique originated in some newspaper arrangements of a strictly private kind; and we are sure that Dr. Maginn did not give himself the trouble of reciprocating the ill-will of which he was the object. Into the mysteries of this dislike, however, we have no wish to pry; but that it existed, and grew, and daily became more and more troublesome, both to him who cherished it and to all who came near him, was too clear. For five long years, and more, in newspapers of every description, and even in the Literary Souvenir itself, has this private quarrel (if that can be called a quarrel which is wholly carried on by one party) been habitually obtruded on the public ear. We have now had, for several years, the advantage of the frequent contributions of the individual thus pertinaciously attacked; and with that advantage we, and many of our most esteemed friends, had also to bear a portion of the wrathful and splenetic assaults of Mr. Watts. And as FRASER'S MAGAZINE soon became an established mark for his abuse, it very naturally followed that, when insulted individuals sought to return his compliments in kind through our columns, admission to these retorts was not always denied.

Our

This was the sort of quarrel which Mr. Watts thought it becoming the character of a literary man to bring into a court of law. And very consistently to suppress and fittingly, when it was there brought, all his efforts, and the efforts of his counsel, were directed to keep out of view the whole of our case, proof of manifold provocation, and to set up Mr. Watts, most falsely, as a poor, which innocent, persecuted, and grossly slandered man. These efforts partly succeeded: the judge ruled that to produce the copies of Mr. Watts's own newspapers, had been officially deposited by his own servants at the Stamp Office, was not evidence of publication! and thus our whole case was shut out,—the jury were left to decide on a view of half the facts, and Mr. Watts carried a verdict against us.

Well, he has drawn his knife! and it is now for us to decide as to the course we shall take, in this wholly changed state of circumstances between us. Revenge if that were any object with us-revenge the most complete andNo one can glance for three moments over ample might easily be obtained. the specimens, culled from Mr. Watts' newspapers, which ornament Mr. Erle's speech, without being perfectly satisfied that he himself has given a dozen times more and more frequent ground for libel-actions, than ever could be found in Half a dozen of our contributors might each justly FRASER'S MAGAZINE. maintain their several actions, and (especially if, like him, they could contrive to shut out all evidence tending to shew the least provocation) their chances, in every case, of a verdict of 150l. would be far greater than ever were Mr. Watts' on the 5th of December. What the end of this game would be, as far as Mr. "Alaric Alexander" is concerned, it is not at all difficult to imagine.

But we have neither time nor taste for this sort of life. It may suit Mr. Watts's turn of mind-for we hear that he has seldom of late been without one or two of these pretty proceedings on his hands, either as plaintiff or defendant -but to us it has few charms. Were there even a moderate chance of ultimate justice being done, there might be some interest excited; but when it is seen that such a proceeding turns out to be a mere game of backgammon, in which you want, first, a good throw of the dice, and, nert, an adroit player, one soon gets sick of such a way of deciding points of honour and questions of morals.

We therefore decline continuing a controversy which our opponent proposes to carry on through the medium of barristers and juries. A longer and a sharper dotermination is changed by knife than that which our antagonist has drawn upon us lies within our reach, but

30 new circumstance, is in a totally opposite direction. We say to Mr. Watts: "Go! Henceforth fear nothing from FRASER'S MAGAZINE. You are no longer of our order. You have doffed your literary armour, and cased you in latitats, subpoenas, and bills of costs. With these we wage no warfare. Under their safeguard you may well rely on the most perfect impunity. As soon should we think of using any freedom of speech towards Dicas the attorney, or Byers the common informer!

We therefore bid Mr. Watts farewell, with no sentiment of anger, and certainly with still less of regret. The parting, though abrupt, is perhaps not greatly accelerated by what has past. We have heretofore sailed, if not in company, yet within sight of each other; but a greater distance was obviously becoming inevitable. We have been steadily advancing, for some time past, in public favour and acceptance; Mr. Watts, as an author, or editor, as steadily declining. The witness who came from the house of his late publishers, Messrs. Longman and Co., deposed to the regular decline of sale of his Souvenir, in each of the last five years; so that, at the end of the connexion, its sale was about, or rather less than, half what it had been at the beginning. And, as consumption generally runs through a family, we are not surprised to hear that his poor little newspapers all betray similar symptoms of rapid decay. On every ground, therefore, it was becoming necessary for us to part company. According to all present appearances, it is rather improbable that Mr. Watts should be able to continue to hold his place in that rank of literature which falls within the cognisance of a monthly periodical. He must do as better men have done before him. Leigh Hunt-eminently gifted with (what this man lacks) a heart to sympathise with generous emotions, and taste to appreciate the beautiful—has long since given up his newspapers, and has found foolscap volumes of verses pay no better than Mr. Watts's rhymes, he does a three-halfpenny thing for Charles Knight. Even Roebuck, dissolving partnership with the Westminster Review, has set up a "twopenny" on his own account. This refuge is still open to our late antagonist. To the Olio, the Mirror, or the Penny Magazine, he may prove a useful hand,-with this essential proviso, however, that the sternest prohibition be put upon his pugnacious propensities, especially towards a certain Doctor of Canon and Civil Law. This point especially stipulated, we hereby endorse his character, as one who, though of a quarrelsome disposition, might, if well muzzled, in " a place of all work," make himself "generally useful." And so, good bye! Master Alaric Alexander!

To our readers we offer, and we know not whether we ought to apologise for such a demand on their attention,-the clear and simple statement of our case, as it was actually presented to the court by Mr. ERLE. That gentleman's rising fame renders it superfluous for us to testify our sense of the talent displayed by him on that occasion. Had the case, as opened by him, and on which evidence was offered to the court, been allowed to go to the jury, we believe that no one then present can entertain the smallest doubt that the decision of the jury would have been totally different.

THE SPEECH OF WILLIAM ERLE, ESQ., K.C., IN THE CASE OF
WATTS V. FRASER AND MOYES,

On the 5th of December, 1835, in the King's Bench, Westminster,

BEFORE LORD DENMAN AND A SPECIAL JURY.

MR. ERLE.

Gentlemen of the jury,-You have now laid before you the Plaintiff's case, which my learned friend the AttorneyGeneral undoubtedly introduced with all the eloquence which he possesses, and which he employed in heaping abuse on my client, a course which I own a little surprised me, when I reflected upon the character of Mr. Watts-I mean his professional, and not his private, character. When I speak of Mr. Watts's professional character, I mean that he has, for many years, been before the public as an author in, I believe, a variety of capacities-being concerned in newspapers, annuals, and the publication of poetry. When a man comes before the public in this way, the public has an interest in his works,-they become, as it were, public property; and he has not the same right to complain as a private individual would have of public attention being drawn to himself in his works. One of the defendants in this action is the Editor of FRASER'S MAGAZINE; the other is an industrious, laborious tradesman, removed by his occupation and the path of life which he pursues from those feuds which irritate literary men, and having no share at all in the production of such articles as those in question, which give so much pleasure to readers on the one hand, and so much pain to the authors who are attacked on the other. The latter defendant to whom I refer is Mr. Moyes, the printer of the Magazine, who had no connexion whatever with the production of that which is charged as libellous, and is, therefore, morally, not guilty of any intention to injure Mr. Watts's character; although, I am bound to admit that, in the eye of the law, the printer and publisher of a libel are equally answerable for the consequences with the author. I advert to this point the more particularly, inasmuch as my learned friend said he was obliged to proceed against the printer, because he did not know the author. I wish my learned friend had attempted to verify that fact. If it could be shewn that Mr. Watts ever demanded the name of the author, or ever asked that the publications of which he complains should be withdrawn from circulation, there might have been some ground for my learned

3

asked for the name of the author,-that
he never made any application whatever
to the publisher of the Magazine, but
was pleased to resort to an action for
damages, which, let it always be remem-
bered, will, in the event of your verdict
being for the plaintiff, be awarded
against Moyes, the printer, as well as
Mr. Fraser, the publisher. For what
purpose Mr. Moyes was joined with
Mr. Fraser in this action I can scarcely
conceive. The plaintiff pretends that
he has two causes of complaint, one
differing in many respects from the
other. One of his grounds of com-
plaint is, that his property in the
Literary Souvenir has been injured
by the criticism in FRASER'S MAGA-
ZINE. Now I hope that, looking at
the nature of this publication, consi-
dering the right of the public to criticise
any work which is placed before it, and
reflecting upon the danger, to which my
learned friend adverted, of placing any
restriction at all on public works, you
will pause before you sanction the plain-
tiff's claim to compensation on that
ground, my learned friend's observa-
tions as to the motives which prompted
the article in question. The writer of
that article was actuated by no feeling of
malice against the proprietor of the Li-
terary Souvenir; nor is that work
treated with greater severity than other
works of a similar description. Let us
look at the nature of the article. Se-
veral writers in the Magazine are sup-
posed to be assembled in a room, some of
whom are playing at backgammon. It
is proposed that two of the party shall
each write an article on the "Annuals;"
and by a cast of the dice the task de-
volves upon Barry Cornwall and a gen-
tleman called the Man of Genius. It is
quite clear, upon the face of the article,
that it was intended to be a fanciful and
humorous production rather than a piece
of sober criticism; and the Literary
Souvenir is handled in it just in the
same way as all its contemporaries. Mr.
Barry Cornwall's article is read, and
then that written by the Man of Ge-
nius, which is the one of which the
plaintiff complains. To shew that the
article is written in jest, it is only neces-
sary to read the following stanza of a
poem supposed to be written by Miss
London in the Forget-me-Not, which