Obrazy na stronie
PDF
ePub

Tickler. Shocking trash! shocking, shocking!

Odoherty. I suppose Byron thought, since The Courier abused dead Shelley, The Liberal had a right to abuse dead Castlereagh.

North. Sir, Lord Byron thought no such thing. Lord Byron could never have thought that he had a right to insult all England, merely because one poor drivelling hypocrite had insulted his friend's memory in a newspaper. No, no, there is no defending these things.

Odoherty. Particularly as they happen to be utterly dull and helpless, and as devoid of point as the Ettrick Shepherd's own gaucy under-quarter, which, by the way, I wish he would give over scratching.

North. Once more, Hogg, never mind them. Your affection for Lord Byron, and concern to see him acting amiss, do you much honor. Whatever examples other people may set or follow, I hope you will always continue to be of opinion, that the few men of genius in the world ought to respect each other, rejoice in each other's triumphs, and be cast down by each other's misfortunes. Such a way of thinking is generous, and worthy of your kind heart, my good worthy friend.

Odoherty. Sir Richard Phillips is another great genius, and yet he does not write a good Magazine.

Tickler. Why, Pythagoras, my dear fellow, is one of the most contemptible Magaziners in the world. He is a dirty little jacobin, that thinks there is more merit in making some dirty little improvement on a threshing machine, than in composing an Iliad. He is a mere plodding, thick-skulled, prosing dunderpate; and every thing he puts forth seems as if it had been written by the stink of gas in the fifth story of a cotton-mill-a filthy jacobinical dog, sir.

in

North. Poor idiot! he is hammering at Napoleon still; now, deed, he has taken to exhibiting a two-penny-half-penny bust of him, in his house in Bridge-street. Gentlemen and ladies one shilling— children and servants sixpence only!

Hogg. Speaking about Bonaparte, I wad like if ye wad lend me that lad Barry O'Meara's book out wi' me for a week. it by the next carrier.

I'll return

North. Don't read it, Hogg. It's a piece of mere trash. Hogg. Od! I thought I saw some commendation o't in the Magazine.

North. Yes-but Mr. Croker's letter of 1818 had not been published then at least I had not seen it, else I would have scored out the paragraph.*

* Copy of the official Letter which notified to Mr. O'Meara his removal from the situation of a Surgeon in the Navy: ADMIRALTY OFFICE, Nov. 2, 1818. "SIR-I have received and laid before my Lords Commisioners of the Admiralty your letter

[ocr errors]

1822.]

BARRY O'MEARA.

267

Hogg. What does Crocker say about him? 'Tis like he might ken something about him in Erland.

North. Why, you see, Mr. Hogg, the story was just this :-Mr. O'Meara

Odoherty. O'Mára, if you please, North.

North. Well, Mr. O'Marra writes to the Admiralty in 1818, saying that Sir Hudson Lowe had asked him to poison Bonaparte for him in 1816. Stop there, my friend, says Mr. Croker, either you are telling a bit of a bouncer, and Sir Hudson never made any such proposals to you at all; or you are a pretty behaved lad, (are you not?) to keep the thing in your pocket for two years, and bring it out now, not for the sake of justice, but for the sake of gratifying your own spleen. In short, "Le Docteur O'Meara" was dismissed his Majesty's service for this affair, and that's all.

Kempferhausen. Has he never made any answer to all this? Tickler. Answer!-Poo! poo!—The dilemma is inevitable-he can only make his choice on which horn he is to ride.

Odoherty. We shall see what he says for himself in due time. He is a cleverish kind of fellow, is O'Meara, and we must, at least, admit that he has dish'd old Walter of the Times.

[ocr errors]

(and its enclosure) of the 28th ult., in which you state several particulars of your conduct in the situation you lately held at St. Helena, and request that their Lordships would, as soon as their important duties should allow, communicate to you their judgment thereupon.'

"Their Lordships have lost no time in considering your statement; and they command me to inform you, that (even without reference to the complaints made against you by Lieut. General Sir H. Lowe) they find in your own admissions ample grounds for marking your proceedings with their severest displeasure.

"But there is one passage in your said letter of such a nature as to supersede the necessity of animadverting upon any other part of it.

"This passage is as follows:-'În the third interview which Sir Hudson Lowe had with Napoleon Bonaparte in the month of May, 1816, he proposed to the latter to send me away, and to replace me by Mr. Baxter, who had been several years surgeon in the Corsican Rangers. This proposition was rejected with indignation by Napoleon Bonaparte, upon the grounds of the indelicacy of a proposal to substitute an army surgeon for the private surgeon of his own choice. Failing in this attempt, Sir Hudson Lowe adopted the resolution of manifesting great confidence in me by loading me with civilities, inviting me constantly to dinner with him, conversing for hours together with me alone, both in his own house and grounds and at Longwood, either in my own room, or under the trees and elsewhere. On some of these occasions he made to me observations upon the benefit which would result to Europe from the death of Napoleon Bonaparte, of which event he spoke in a manner which, considering his situation and mine, was peculiarly distressing to me.'

"It is impossible to doubt the meaning which this passage was intended to convey, and my Lords can as little doubt that the insinuation is a calumnious falsehood; but, if it were true, and if so horrible a suggestion were made to you, directly or indirectly, it was your bounden duty not to have lost a moment in communicating it to the Admiral on the spot, or to the Secretary of State, or to their Lordships.

"An overture so monstrous in itself, and so deeply involving not merely the personal character of the Governor, but the honor of the nation, and to the important interests committed to his charge, should not have been reserved in your own breast for two years, to be produced at last, not (as it would appear) from a sense of public duty, but in furtherance of your personal hostility against the Governor.

"Either the charge is in the last degree false and calumnious, or you can have no possible excuse for having hitherto suppressed it.

"In either case, and without adverting to the general tenor of your conduct, as stated in your letter, my Lords consider you to be an improper person to continue in his Majesty's service, and they have directed your name to be erased from the list of Naval Surgeons accordingly. I have, &c.. (Signed) J. W. CROKER. MR. O'MEARA, 28 Chester Place, Kensington."

Tickler. Not much to brag of, that, if he had done it, but I doubt the fact.

Odoherty. Well, well, as Samuel Johnson said, "Tis no great object to arrange the precedence between a louse and a flea."

Blackwood. All I say is, that the more the book is abused, the better it sells. I think there is never an hour but I hear it called for. It has had as great a run as the Cook's Oracle ever had.

North. I'll lend you the book, however, old Hogg.

Hogg. Thank ye, sir; after a' you're the discreetest of your divan, and I'll sing ye a sang for you're civility.

Kempferhausen. Bravo! Colonel, sing, sing-hurra! hurra!

[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small]

They ha'e plagued my heart, and pleased my e'e, And teased and flat - tered

[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small]

1822.]

THE WOMEN FOLK."

I've loe'd them better than mysel';
I've tried again to like them ill.
Wha sairest strives, will sairest rue,
To comprehend what nae man can :
When he has done what man can do,
He'll end at last where he began.

O, the women folk, &c.

That they hae gentle forms, and meet,
A man wi' half a look may see,
An' gracefu' airs, and faces sweet,

An' wavin curls aboon the bree-
An' smiles as saft as the young rosebud,
An' een sae pawky bright and rare,
Wad lure the lavrock frae the clud;
But, laddie, seek to ken nae mair.

O, the women folk, &c.

Even but this night, nae farther gane,
The date is nouther lost nor lang,

I tak' ye witness ilka ane,

How fell they fought, an' fairly dang;
Their point they've carried right or wrang,
Without a reason, rhyme, or law,

An' forced a man to sing a sang,
That ne'er could sing a verse ava.

O, the women folk, &c.

269

Tickler. Well done, kind Shepherd; I do love to hear your voice once more. Oh! Hogg, those were charming times when you used to pop in upon me of an evening after the chain was on the door, and practise the fiddle till the cattle danced upon the meadow.

Hogg. Hoh! sirs, we're a' turnin' auld noo: we've seen our best days, my dear Mr. Tickler.

Odoherty. Come, come, none of your humdrum sentiment here, my hearties. I will sing you a song I heard last year on board a 74-it was sung by its author, the surgeon of the vessel—a choice lad.

North. What is it about?

Odoherty. I don't recollect the words exactly, but I's give you something to the same tune, and similar in its scope and tendency, (ut cum Macveio loquar.) But you must be all ready with a chorus, mind that

[merged small][ocr errors][merged small]

Let wit and wag - ge- ry, joy and jolli ty, Be the order, boys, of the

[ocr errors]

night. Is

not our wine of the prim-est quality? Are not our

hearts and our spirits light? Cho-rus my song then, joy-ous-ly chorus it;

[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]

Tickler. Council Ten! Who is that, in the name of Grub-street? Odoherty. An ass.-(Sings.)—Chorus my————

Hogg. I never heard of him.

Odoherty. Of course not; but don't interrupt the song. Tchorus, a Mulligan has it. (Sings.) Chorus my song then, &c.

3

He who prates of Reform in Parliament,

Send him adrift to the right or left,

Why need we care what the big whig Charley† meant—
Whether 'twas TREASON, or only THEFT?

4.

Chorus my song, &c.

He who'd bore us with jabber critical,
On your curst scribes of verse or prose ;-
Turn him loose with the ass political;-

I never would wish to get drunk with those.
Chorus my song, &c.

5.

Better it is to toast our pretty ones

To chaunt or chorus while others sing

To laugh at dull men-and laugh with witty ones;
Or drink the health of our own dear King.

Chorus my song then, joyously chorus it;

Why should we look dull or blue?

There are some moments of pleasure before us yet.
Folderol, tolderol, lolderol, loo!

Hogg, (coughing.) Hoh! hoh!-I'll be as hoarse as as a cuddie for

* Bentham.-M.

† Charles James Fox.-M.

« PoprzedniaDalej »