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our horizon, whom Lord Brougham could relatively value from personal experience of their powers, and no more competent judge exists. But, for whom is reserved the portraiture of the learned lord himself-of him to whom, above any living man, (with one exception, perhaps, which the majority of my countrymen at least would claim), the energetic homage of Aristophanes to Pericles is more applicable : “Ηστραπτ ̓ ἐβρόντα, ξυνεκύκα τὴν Ἑλλάδα.” (Ach. 539.) * Were orators, like painters, to delineate themselves, the autograph portrait of Lord Brougham would, indeed, be "il Raffaelle da se stesso dipinto."

But felicitously, and with a masterhand, as his lordship has traced the intellectual lineaments of these great men, some incidental observations have escaped him which are open to animadversion. As an instance,-in

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*On the power of Mr. O'Connell's eloquence over his countrymen, the evidence is incontestable; nor has it been unfelt in Parliament. A foreign acquaintance of mine has thus described it, and the discriminative shades are not, I conceive, inferior to the happiest efforts of Lord Brougham:-" Lorsque l'émancipation des Catholiques permit enfin à cet Agitateur Irlandais de s'asseoir dans la Chambre des Communes, l'on ne prenait pas garde à lui. Vint ensuite le bill de Réforme, et alors on commença à prêter l'oreille aux discours de l'orateur. On trouva sa voix tantôt douce, tantôt tonnante, sa parole abondante comme un fleuve, ses formes hardies et nouvelles, et je ne sais quel charme inconnu dans cette éloquence, où les élans de la passion se trouvaient tempérés par une sensibilité expansive, et les morsures de la colère adoucies par une ironie tellement fine, qu'on dirait une légère dorure sur du fer, ou des fils de soie sur du cable. Mr. O'Connell a toujours une originalité qui charme, et une puissance qui subjugue."

The truth of the delineation may possibly be disputed; but the beauty of the colours can hardly be denied: and my friend's perfect possession of our language made him a competent judge of Mr. O'Connell's distinctive merits as an orator. Foreigners, too, are necessarily more disengaged from passion or prejudice than his advocates or adversaries at home; and as Racine, in the preface of his Bajazet, observes, as an excuse for the selection of a modern subject, distance of place is equivalent to distance of time, so that strangers may be presumed to anticipate the judgment of posterity.

On the subject of this gentleman's favourite, or defensive, scheme of the "Repeal of the Union," I may be permitted to add, that, a short time previous to the legislative incorporation of the two islands, I was witness of a warm discussion as to its effects, between two celebrated men, Messrs. Kirwan and Curran; when the former, its zealous supporter, maintained that, if not carried, a separation, or, at least, the attempt, would be inevitable. An outcry, similar to that raised in 1648 by Father Cornelius O'Mahony, in his book-" Disputatio Apologetica de Jure Regni Hiberniæ cantra Hæreticos Anglos," would be the result; and the exhortation urged in that volume" Eligite regem vernaculum "-would assuredly be repeated. We were in the Dublin Library, then held in Eustace Street, and Mr. Kirwan referred to Cox's History of Ireland, vol. ii. p. 195, where O'Mahony's book is buoted; for the original is extremely rare-perhaps not to be found. (See also Smith's Cork, vol. ii.) Mr. Kirwan immediately withdrew, when Curran, in his caustic tone, observed"There goes a man who will hearken to no one else's reasons, and (alluding to the convulsive movement of Mr. Kirwan's mouth, which prevented his dining abroad) who will breathe no atmosphere but his own."

† On reading Lord (then Mr.) Denham's Greek quotation from this historian at GENT, MAG. VOL. X. 4 G

man virtue; but the former admits of easy explanation, and the latter's bad feelings entitle him to little credit. Nor can I acknowledge the aptness of the epithet harsher to the virtue of Brutus, as compared to that of Cato, who was far less lenient and of austerer virtue than his nephew, and as little indulgent to himself as to others. (Sallust, Bell. Catil. cap. 52-54.) Every line of Plutarch, and every page of Cicero that has reference to Cato, demonstrate their conviction of the uncompromising severity of his principles and rectitude of conduct, so as apparently to border on harshness. Cicero (De Officiis, lib. i. cap. 31) discriminates him from all other men, "propterea quòd eorum vita lenior, et mores fuerant faciliores." Others might, he thought, submit to Cæsar; but, in consistency of character, "Catoni moriendum potius, quàm tyranni vultus aspiciendus fuit."

Brutus, on the contrary, did, ostensibly at least, submit to Cæsar, who had, in the powerful language of Horace, subjugated the world, but failed to bend the indomitable spirit of Cato :

:

"Et cuncta terrarum subacta, Præter atrocem animum Catonis."

Od. lib. ii. Od. i. Four other poets emulously made him the theme of their panegyric. Virgil (Æneid. viii. 671) describes him as the legislator of Elysium:-"Et his dantem jura Catonem." Lucan's line (lib. i. 128) "Victrix causa Diis placuit, sed victa Catoni," raises him above humanity; and again, (lib. ii. 380) "Nec sibi, sed toti genitum se credere mundo." Martial (lib. vi. Epigr. 32), in the same spirit of admiration, says, Sit Cato, dum vivit,

66

sane vel Cæsare major;" and Manilius (Astron. lib. vi. 87), Et invictum, devictâ morte, Catonem." Montaigne has devoted a chapter (liv. i. ch. 36) to his praise; but where his imputed fopperics are to be found I am wholly ignorant.

Without stopping rigidly to weigh the conduct of Brutus to Cæsar, we know that he yielded to his power; and we learn from Cicero that he evinced the most griping avarice, where Cato had displayed the utmost disinterestedness and integrity. On the death of Ptolemy (Auletes or Nothus), Cato remitted to Rome, without the slightest reserve, the royal treasure, amounting to about 7000 talents, or 1,200,000l. (Plutarch, cap. 44); while Brutus, in the same island, exercised the most unrelenting rigour and usurious extortion against his debtors. The circumstances, as communicated in confidential correspondence to their mutual friend, T. Pomponius Atticus (lib. v. Ep. 24), are disgraceful to the fame of the stoic, who wished to make Cicero, then Proconsul of Cilicia (U.C. 703), the instrument of his harshness, (certainly not the harshness of virtue,) which the latter refused to become, and, in vindication of this refusal, thus writes to Atticus-" Habes meam causam, quæ si Bruto non probatur, nescio curillum amemus; sed avunculo ejus certe probabitur," an appeal and distinction quite decisive of his higher estimation of Cato, though just then not a little disconcerted at the rigid stoic's declining to support his demand of a triumph, notwithstanding his cajoling letter on the subject (Epist. ad Famil. lib. xv. Epist. 4), to which Cato made an admirable reply.*

The conscious hardihood of impugn

the trial of Queen Caroline, I instantly traced it to its real source, "the article Octavie in Bayle," which I afterwards indicated to Dr. Dibdin.

* Antiquity has not left us a composition of superior interest to the letters of Cicero to Atticus, which, as Cornelius Nepos (Vit. Attici, cap. 16) observes, may enable us to dispense with any other memorial of the period. Nor would it be easy to present a parallel instance of genuine friendship, as defined by Cicero himself in his treatise De Amicitiâ," in which (cap. xvi.) he reproves, I may transiently remark, the calculating foresight that would teach us "to live with our friends as if they were one day to become our enemies;" a maxim, I know not why, usually num. bered with La Rochefoucauld's, probably because in his spirit, but it is not to be found in his collection. On Atticus this correspondence, of which, however, we have not his part, has conferred an immortality which his alliance with so many members of the Imperial House never would have secured him, as Seneca has well observed, "Nomen Attici perire Ciceronis epistolæ non sinent: nihil illi profuisset

ing any assertion of so consummate a classical scholar as Lord Brougham, has compelled me to appear armed in strength of authority, which necessitated, and, I trust, will excuse, these multiplied references and minute details, though abridged as much as possible.

His lordship has also included in his group, and exhibited in striking outline, the genius and aberrations of Napoleon, which I notice merely to add that M. Blanquè, on his return from a statistical mission to Corsica, communicated, on the 17th instant, to the Société des Sciences, Morales, et Politiques, some interesting particulars of Bonaparte's juvenile essays, hitherto, apparently, unknown. One is on the Culture of the Mulberrytree," a source of profitable industry in the island; another on the "Military Defence of Corsica ;" and a third on the "Constitutional Oath," required of the French clergy in 1790. They all teem, as is represented, with beauties of the first order, unerringly prelusive to that superiority of mind which, in its riper stage, so dazzled, deluded, and dismayed mankind. 1792, he thus addressed his great-uncle and guardian Lucien,-"Envoyez moi trois cents francs. Cette somme me suffira pour aller à Paris . . . . . tout me dit que j'y réussirai: voulez vous m'en empêcher faute de cent écus?" The little sum (127.) was sent, and

In

Of

fruitful indeed was it of results!
his first public manifestation in that
capital, in October 1795, when he
overthrew the Sections armed in oppo-
sition to the Convention, I was witness,
and well remember the prognostics
raised on the fearful energy of his
conduct on that occasion, when I had
the good fortune to secure a refuge to
one of the discomfited generals and his
aide-de-camp, who were concealed at
my residence in the South for some
days. The general, a connexion of
my family, no longer survives; but
the aide-de-camp has since served with
distinction under Napoleon, and com-
manded the third division of the inva-
ding army against Spain in 1823, when
he was created a Peer of France; I
mean the present General Count
Bourke, the son of an officer in the
Irish Brigade, who was made prisoner
with his countryman, the unfortunate
Lally, at Pondicherry, for the surrender
of which Lally was executed in 1766,
a sacrifice similar to that of our Byng
to national vanity and popular cla-
mour; but Lally found a noble vindi-
cator in his eloquent son, Count Lally
Tolendal, who concluded one of his
memorials in strong language :-
"Le
parlement de Dijon a ratifié, par bé-
tise, un assassinat, que celui de Paris
avait commis par cruauté." Lally
and Bourke were natives of the county
Mayo.

Reaching in his progress the high.

gener Agrippa, et Tiberius progener, et Drusus Cæsar pronepos: inter tam magna nomina taceretur, nisi Cicero illum applicuisset." (Sen. Ep. 21.) Tacitus, however, (Annal. ii. 43) says, "Druso proavus eques Romanus, Pomponius Atticus, dedecere Claudiorum imagines videbatur," though, according to C. Nepos, the family of Pomponius was coeval with the origin of Rome::-"Ab origine ultima stirpis Romanæ generatus," (Vit. Attici, cap. i); but it never had exceeded the equestrian rank. To no critic, I may add, are we more indebted than to Paulus Manutius, (the hero of Erasmus's Ciceronianus,) for the elucidation of these admirable letters, of which he discovered the key, as Dr. Young, or Champollion (at whose great exhibiton of his most interesting explorations I assisted, the 20th April, 1830, on his return from the East), did that of the Egyptian inscriptions. And when we find Cicero himself thus addressing Atticus (lib. vi. Ep. 4), " μvorixŵrepov ad te scribam: tu sagacius odorabere," we may justly appreciate the penetrating acumen that revealed

these secrets at the distance of sixteen centuries to the classical reader. The Abbé Montgault is also entitled to praise; and, if some residuous obscurities should still interrupt the perusal, we may say, with D'Olivet (ad Epist. 4, lib. ii.) “Tu verà, bone lector, quæ non intelliguntur ne curabis quidem intelligere, sed ex iis quæ plana sunt voluptatem et fructum capies."

How different was the friendship of Cicero and Atticus from the illustration of the sentiment by the renowned Russian Chief Suvorow, as found in the collection of his quaint and pithy sayings-" Amitié et services sont deux parallèles qui ne se rencontrent jamais." Such in his view was the discordance between the profession and action of friendship!

est elevation of public virtue, Lord Brougham closes his review of illustrious moderns by a beautiful tribute to Washington, who succeeds Napoleon in the series, not indeed as a pendant, but in deepest contrast. Rich, however, as the subject is, and gratifying as it would be to dwell on, I shall not further encroach on your pages, than to relate a little personal anecdote in association with it, not devoid, I think, of interest, and certainly not barren of reflection.

On the 4th July 1796, I assisted, by special invitation, at an entertainment given at Bordeaux by several Americans of the democratic party, then furiously opposed to the Federalists, whom Washington appeared to favour. After the commemorative toasts of the day, a round of rascals (not an uncommon practice at the time) followed, and, at their head, with "curses loud and deep," was pronounced the name of George Washington! The General above alluded to and myself were the only guests. I silently declined the toast, and passed unnoticed; but my friend, having indiscreetly offered some remark, was answered by

the Chairman in the language of insult, fortunately not sufficiently intelligible to him, nor so interpreted by me, as to lead to serious consequences. The Chairman, a Mr. Russell, was subsequently employed in various diplomatic missions, and, as he was not destitute of talent, must, I have no doubt, in after years, have reflected with shame and horror on the delirious excess and frantic injustice of such party-spirit. How it darkens the judgment and perverts the heart, all may learn from history and many by experience; but so signal an instance of its demoralizing influence is and must remain without a parallel; for where could the baneful passion find such a victim or expect to batten on such a prey?

"He who surpasses or subdues mankind, Must look down on the hate of those below

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THE HISTORY OF COCCAYNE AND THE COCKNEYS. WE have fallen on a very dainty subject. We want to prove that the glorious and song-renowned "land of Coccayne" is neither more or less than the land of Cookery, and that the Cockneys or Coccaneys derive their name from thence, as the proper and legitimate natives of the said kingdom of Coccayne.

We think we shall be able to establish this connexion between the land of Coccayne and the Cockneys by many good and sufficient authorities, and, by so doing, show the point and pro.. priety of the appellation that has so long fastened itself on our metropolitans, and refute those vulgar and erroneous notions that are still afloat on the stream of Cockney chit-chat.

The etymology of the Latin word Coquo, to cook, from which, we verily believe, the words Coccayne, Cockney, &c. are derived, is thus stated by Guichard in his "Harmonie Etymologique des Langues," Paris, 1506. "Le verbe Hebraïque Goug signifie première

ment coquere panes subter prunas."
From this root he supposes that the
Greeks derived their KUKEw, misceo, to
mix; and the Latins their coquo, to
cook. "Après de coquo, koken fut for-
mé en Flamen, kocken en Allemand,
cucinare en Italien, cozinare, cozer, en
Espagnol, cuire en François, cook en
Anglais."
So much for etymologies;
we shall see, anon, how critically they
bear upon our friends the Cockneys.

The subject of cookery, in all its branches, is one that we approach with infinite respect and reverence. It hides its head among the clouds, while it walks up and down on the earth. If we may believe so shrewd a mythologist as Homer, the Gods themselves, in the gorgeous palaces of Olympus, cultivated this science of sciences before men were either born or thought of. The magnificent banquet at which Jove himself presided, when the limping Vulcan acted the part of cup-bearer so awkwardly as to fill the immortals with unextin

guishable merriment, has always been a favourite topic among epicures. Plato himself appears to have entertained very savoury conceptions respecting the nectar and ambrosia once served by Hebe and Ganymede; and indeed the very mention of such things is enough, in Cockney dialect, "to make one's mouth water."

Among the Jews, and most of the ancient nations, so great was the respect entertained for cookery, that official epulones, superintendents and inspectors of their fasti, epulæ, aud dapes were appointed. In Rome they had seven dignitaries of this kind, whose duty was to furnish banquets for Jupiter and the other gods of his retinue. The sacrifice being over, the gods were served as if they were able to eat, and, on their declining the offer, the epulones very obligingly performed that function for them.

We know not how it is, but Epicures and Apicians have in all ages possessed an extraordinary faculty of magnifying their office; Ude or Kitchiner, we forget which, got into so lofty a rhapsody concerning the art and mystery of cookery, as to call it the very mother of all moral, intellectual, social, and political improvement. Their argument was, that men never reasoned clearly and correctly on these abstract and metaphysical matters unless their stomachs were in a prosperous condition, and well lined with culinary blessings. As they had probably indulged in an extravagantly good dinner before allowing their imagination so outrageous a swing, we shall make every excuse for them which the case admits.

But seriously, and without a joke, the progress of cookery is one of the best tests we have of the progress of civilization. What Dr. Johnson said of law may with great propriety be applied to this subject.

"Do you,

Sir, presume to deride that science which is the last effort of human genius working on human experience?" Here, and here only, reason and taste have gone hand in hand, and the sublimest abstractions of Epicurus have been tested by no less infallible a criterion than Do you like it?”

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Sir Humphry Davy appears to have caught a glimpse of this sublime theory in one of his philosophic visions.

When his emancipated spirit arrives at the planet Saturn, which he imagines to be a much more respectable world than our own, touching its ecclesiastical and civil polity, what does he discover? why, Sir, he discovered that the whole surface of Saturn is strewed with enormous culinary machines worked by steam and oxygen gas. Viands the most exquisite that ever enchanted the olfactories of the ex-president, diffused their delicious effluvia through the whole atmosphere of the planet. They were cooked by a chemistry, or rather an alchemy, which defied the most critical analysis of the Royal Institution, and altogether made Sir Humphry feel, if he never felt so before, like a thoroughbred glutton - Epicuri de grege por

cus.

The inhabitants of Saturn, who were shaped more like elephants than any thing else, were disporting themselves on the wing between the mainland and the ring. This exercise they invariably took in order to give themselves a constitutional appetiser or whet for the keener relish of their dinner; and, according to the said president, our best authority on the subject, these Saturnites, if they spent not their time like ingenious Athenians in seeing or hearing some new thing, contrived to pass it in the more agreeable or at least substantial employment of tasting and devouring new dishes. So much for the cookery of the stars.

Of the cookery of the Oriental world we have some very transcendental and magnificent speculations, derived from the authority of the Koran, the Arabian Nights, and the very piquant stories of travellers, which we always swallow cum grano salis, with a little salt, which we find assists their digestion, and saves us from that highly fashionable complaint dyspepsia.

But attend to Mahomet a moment: for his description of cookery in Paradise is, as Sir John Falstaff says, "worth the listening to." In the entertainment of the blessed on their admission to Paradise, thus speaks the Prophet: The whole earth will then be as one loaf of bread, and for meat they shall have the ox Balam and the fish Nun, the lobes of whose livers will suffice seventy thousand men.

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