A QUATRAIN ON THE QUEEN. BY SIR MORGAN O'DOHERTY, BART. WITH A DOZEN OCTAVES OF TRANSLATION OF HER MAJESTY'S LAST SPEECIÍ. Dedicated to Her Majesty, by his own Permission. High in their lordships' hall Victoria sate, The words of humbug here I thus translate, 'Tis an old humbug now of standing long."-Wordsworth. "I have recently concluded with the King of the French a convention, calculated to put an end to differences which have arisen of late years between the fishermen of Great Britain and of France. This convention, by re. moving causes of dispute, will tend to cement that union hetween the two countries which is so advantageous to both, and so conducive to the general interests of Europe. "I shall continue to pursue with perseverance the negotiations in which I am engaged, to persuade all the powers of Christendom to unite in a general league for the entire extinction of the slavetrade; and I trust that, with the blessing of Providence, my efforts in so righteous a cause will be rewarded with success. "I regret that the differences which led to the withdrawal of my minister from the court of Tehran, have not yet been satis. factorily adjusted by the govern ment of Persia. "In order to fulfil the engagements announced to you at the opening of the present session, the governor-general of India has moved an army across the Indus; and I have much satisfaction in being able to inform you that the advance of that expedition has been hitherto unopposed; and there is every reason to hope that the important objects for which these military operations have been undertaken will be finally obtained. "I have observed with much approbation the attention which you have bestowed upon the internal state and condition of the country. I entirely concur in the measures which you have framed for the preservation of order, the repression of crime, and the better administration of justice in this metropolis; and I have given a cordial assent to the bills which you have presented to me for the establishment of a more efficient constabulary force in those towns which peculiarly required it, and for effecting the important object of generallyextending and invigorating the civil power throughout the country. ས. I've recently concluded with the king (His name is Louis Philippe) of the French A very pleasant sort of kind of thing, Ruling the fishing, not of carp or tench, But I believe of cod, perhaps of ling, By which French fishermen may dare not trench On rights of snaring sprats, or snaffling sal mon Which Europe, surely, won't consider gam mon. VI. As for the slave trade and the Portuguese, And with the help of Providence, by degrees VII. Fulfilling the engagements that I made When I this session opened-never mind, If every other promise were unpaid, When, of a dozen, one fulfilled you find Across the Indus a terrific raid Auckland has ventured, Brougham's own cousin kind: As for the foe, you all must be aware, he VIII. I have observed with approbation much State and condition of the country. Such Making out elegant laws which may con- And in the country raising a constabulary, Fit to consign each town to government rabble-ary. "Gentlemen of the House of Com mons. "I thank you for the zeal and readiness with which you have voted the supplies for the service of the year. "It has been with satisfaction that I have given my consent to a reduction of the postage duties. I trust that the act which has passed on this subject will be a relief and encouragement to trade, and that by facilitating intercourse and correspondence it will be productive of much social advantage and improvement. I have given directions that the preliminary step should be taken to give effect to the intention of parliament, as soon as the inquiries and arrangements required for this purpose shall have been completed. "The advantageous terms upon which a considerable amount of the unfunded debt has been converted into stock, afford a satisfactory proof of the reliance placed on the credit and resources of the country, as well as on your determination to preserve inviolate the national faith. THE KNIGHTS OF ARISTOPHANES. THE Comedy of the Knights draws much of its humour and satire from Cleon's expedition against the Spartans; it will not, therefore, be uninteresting if we return for a few minutes to the island of Sphacteria. Thucydides informs us, that this event disappointed the expectations of Greece more than any other occurrence throughout the entire war; for it had been believed that neither famine, nor any other suffering or privation, would have shaken the sword from the hands of the Lacedæmonians. The wonderful success of Cleon has been illustrated by a very curious parallel from our own history. We copy it from the second volume of the Philological Museum :— "The temper of the English public, at the period to which we are about to refer, is well evinced by the uncommon popularity of Glover's ballad, entitled 'Admiral Hosier's Ghost,' which was a political squib. Hosier had been sent out to protect the West Indian trade against the Spaniards, who were a terror to our merchantmen in those seas. Their principal station was Porto-Bello; off which, accordingly, Hosier cruised. But he had instructions not to make aggressions on the enemy; and he remained inactive at sea, insulted and despised by the Spaniards, till his crews became diseased, and he at last died of a broken heart. He was a brave sailor, but his orders kept him inactive. This state of things, so disgraceful to our naval power, continued till 1739; when Admiral Ver VOL. XX. NO. CXVIII. NO. II. non, who was a fierce, and not ineloquent, assailant in debate, and the delight of his party in the House of Commons, from his blunt impudence and harassing hostility to ministers, came prominently before the public. He was esteemed a pretty good officer; but his boisterous manner in the house was his principal recommendation. In a debate on the Spanish depredations, which still continued unrepressed, he chanced to affirm that PortoBello might easily be taken, if the officers did their duty; and, led on by the ardour of debate, he even pledged himself to capture the place, with only six ships of war, if they would put him in command. The opposition re-echoed his proposal. Vernon was called, by anticipation, a Drake and a Raleigh; and his popularity knew no bounds. The minister, Sir R. Walpole, glad to appease the popular clamour, and to get rid for a time of Vernon's busy opposition in the Commons- and hoping, perhaps, like Nicias, that, by the failure of his boast, he would disgrace himself and his party, or else clear the sea of the Spaniards- closed with his offer so lightly made, and actually sent him out with a fleet to the West Indies. Vernon sailed, and was as good as his word. He speedily took Porto-Bello, and demolished all the fortifications. Both houses joined in an address: Vernon rose to the highest pitch of popularity." Hannah More, writing to her sister from Mrs. Boscawen's seat, Glanvilla, in the summer of 1785, mentions having heard the poet Glover, then past his eightieth year, sing the ballad of CC "Hosier's Ghost." Horace Walpole coming in soon after, she told him how highly she had been gratified by Glover's performance; and he requested her to solicit a repetition of it. "I suppose you recollect," she adds, "that it was the satire conveyed in this little ballad, upon the conduct of Sir Robert Walpole's ministry, which is thought. to have been a remote cause of his resignation. It was a curious circumstance to see his son listening to the recital of it with so much complacency." Burke traced the war of 1739 to the clamour of the popular spirit, inflamed by the invective, the oratory, and the poetry of the times. For that war he declared that Pope sang his dying notes, Johnson awoke the sterner voice of his political eloquence, and Glover attacked the ministry with his happy and effective ridicule. We resume the analysis of the comedy of the Knights with the choral attack upon Cleon. The concluding comparison of the Agitator, looking out for taxes, to the person placed to watch the approach of a shoal of tunnies, is curious. Mitchell illustrates it by a passage from Mr. Yarrell's work on British Fishes: "When the look-out sentinel, posted for that purpose on some elevated spot, makes the signal that he sees the shoals of tunnies advancing, and the direction in which they will come, a great number of boats set off, under the command of a chief, range themselves in a line forming part of a circle, and joining their nets, form an enclosure, which alarms the fish; while the fishermen, drawing closer and closer, and adding fresh nets, still continue driving the tunnies towards the shore. When they have reached the shallow water, a large net is used, having a cone-shaped tunnel to receive the fish, which is drawn to the shore, bringing with it all the shoal. fishermen carry out the young and small tunnies in their arms; the larger ones are killed with poles. The fishery prac tised on the coast of Languedoc sometimes yields many hundred weight at each sweep of the nets." The When there are no cliffs, wooden pillars are erected for the purpose of observation. As to the felicity of Aristophanes' abuse, that can be relished only by the scholar, although the translation of Walsh preserves its spirit. Mitchell drops the expressive Bogßogoragağı-mud-disturber. WALSH. blackguard! bawling knave! Every shore the billows lave, Every assembly that we hold, Every custom-house that's enrolled, Every justice's office, and Every law-court in the land, Has been seen and felt to be Thou restless soul, Who has deafened us by the clang Of thy noisy, loud ba rangue; Watching for the tributemonies, From the hustings' marble block, As the fisher watches tunnies From the lofty beetling SKELTON. He maketh no nobbes, But this dawcock doctor, From liar to liar. |