and fretted in his humors, but kind and cordial where he has a liking-not surely a bitter enemy, and, I can well believe, an attached friend. His great original error in life lay in his attempting to sway the mind of England: a giant could not do that, nor twenty giants; no wonder, then, that signal discomfiture befell one single dwarf. If I might be allowed to use an illustration, after the manner of Mr. Tickler, I should say that Mr. Jeffrey, being ambitious of notice, conceived the scheme of going up in a balloon-that the machine was constructed of the proper material, a light silk, and not untastily ornamented; but that unfortunately there was a deficiency of gas, so that the globus aërostaticus was never sufficiently inflated. The cords, however, were cut, and the enterprising voyager began to ascend. By and by, getting entangled somehow or other by the foot, there he hung with his head downwards, while the balloon cleared the roofs of the houses, but could make no approximation to the lowest strata of clouds. Finally, Mr. Jeffrey got released, and he and his balloon came to the earth almost together, and without any serious hurt to the aëronaut, but the vehicle was irremediably injured, and in all probability will never more be able to reach the chimney-top.

The Shepherd. Odd's my life! that simile's just unco like Tickler, wi' a great tinge o' eloquence; for, oh dear me! after all, a weel-educated Southron says things in a tosh and complete manner, that we modern and northern Athenians canna come up to for our lives. There's nae denying that.

The Opium-Eater. With regard to these ludicrous, and, as many persons may not unwarrantably call them, impertinent and insolent expressions of Mr. Jeffrey, more especially impertinent and insolent when applied to persons in the same rank of life as his own, and indeed somewhat superior, at least more dignified and authoritative, I should say, that most probably Mr. Jeffrey employed them without any very culpable feeling towards the parties, and merely in compliance with the spirit of that vituperative system of contention with our real or supposed opponents, which he did not originate, but which, nevertheless, he, by his popular abilities, and by the favor which the Edinburgh Review found with a great portion of the reading public, helped to make of very great prevalence in the periodical literature of this country. A high-minded, and high-facultied man, could scarcely, I think, have written as Mr. Jeffrey has too often done; but I do not wish rashly to assert that he might not, remembering the vulgar virulence of Milton not truly to his equals or superiors, for where were they, but to his inferiors indubitably, and without reference to individuals, to all that portion of mankind, or womankind, concerning whom he wrote in a controversial or polemical spirit.

North. Wisely spoken. But Mr. Tickler chiefly despises him, as it seems to me, for the hypocritical claim he advances to perfect freedom

1823.]

THE WHIGS.

387

from this failing, and for the bitterness with which he arraigns that conduct in others of which he is himself more frequently guilty than any other man of eminence in this age.

The Opium-Eater. That is another matter, and therein he is without defence.

The Shepherd. Weel, then, Mr. Tickler, is party-spirit, think ye, likely to rin, like a great heavy sea, ower domestic intercourse in families, this winter ?

Tickler. Why, James, I neither know nor care. My friends, for upwards of half a century, have been TORIES; and what is the sour sulky face of a captious Whig to me, any more than his portrait in a picture-falling from which, I turn in calm contempt, or deep disgust, to the well-pleased countenance of some staunch lover of his country and his King?

The Shepherd. But isna it a desperate pity to see mony clever chiels keepit apart just for mere difference o' opinion about the government? Tickler. Pray, where are all these "clever chiels?" Take away about four Whigs, and are not all the rest confounded dogs? I cannot really be too grateful to party-spirit for keeping such gentry in their own circles. I hope, James, you are not going to join the PLUCKLESS?

North. I am more Whiggish than you, Tickler. What can be more amiable than the present zeal of the Whigs in the cause of Spain? They are doing all they can to wipe off the foul stain of their truckling to Bonaparte when he stormed Spain. They are crying shame upon their former selves; and why not believe them to be sincere?

Tickler. Hypocrites.

North. Then, have they not subscribed four thousand, three hundred, sixteen shillings, and eight-pence three farthings, for the Greeks? Tickler. Scrubs.

North. Did they not wish us to go to war, like a brave people? Tickler. Fools.

North. Did they not call Bonaparte the guardian of the liberties of the world?

Tickler. Liars.

North. Who but they would change our criminal law?

Tickler. Knaves.

North. Are they not for a "substantial reform ?"

Tickler. Radicals.

North. Are they not adverse to the prosecution of the foes to Christianity?

Tickler. Deists.

North. Would they not fain overlook blasphemy?
Tickler. Atheists.

North. Are they not friends to the liberty of the Press?
Tickler. Libellers.

The Shepherd. You stopt me a while since, and I cry stop till baith o' you now. I kenna wha's the worst. I hae nae notion o' sic desperate bitterness in politics. What can Mr. Joyous be thinking a' this while? Mr. Vivian, you haena spoken muckle the nicht, but the little you did say was to the purpose. I dinna like folk ower furthy a' at ance. Besides, you are sadly knocked up, man. That Gretna Green

is a sad business.

North (laying his gold repeater on the table). Twelve o'clock. Old Chronos smites clearly, and with a silver sound. My dear Vivian, we keep early hours, and your young bride will be in tears. I understand your silence, and know your thoughts. You are at Barry's Hotel. None better. Allow me to accompany you to the steps. Give me your arm, my good boy.

(Exeunt omnes

-NORTH leaning on JOYEUSE and the OPIUMEATER, Mr. AMBROSE bustling before with the blazing branches, and TICKLER, arm-in-arm with the SHEPHERD, towering in the rear.)

No. XIII.-MARCH, 1824.

Dram. Pers.-NORTH and TICKLER.

Tickler. Proper humbug!—but don't rail, North, for I remember his father

North. I rail!—I like him better than most of them, for he has pluck-he has the old lad's blood in him. I was only wondering that he should again commit himself in such a way; but there really is no accounting for Whig conduct.

Tickler. Pooh! pooh! I was joking, man; he is in private a pleasant fellow enough, but in public, he is one of the hacks of the party, and of course obliged to get through such things. Yet it would be no harm, I think, if he remembered to what set of men, and what system, his people owed their honors; and, perhaps, although he is in the service of the Duke of Devonshire,* such a recollection might make him less rabid on the followers of Pitt.

North. Hang it! such a cheese-paring is not worth wasting a sentence about. Keep moving with the Review. The price of tea-I think we're that length

Tickler. I leave to the swallowers of Souchong, Campoi, Hyson, Hymskin, Bohea, Congou, Twankay, and Gunpowder. This will be a favorite article with the Cockneys-with the leafy-that is, tealeafy bards, who

Te redeunte die, te decedente canebant.

It is nothing to us.

North. Nothing whatever. I leave it and the discussion on the Holy Alliance, to be swallowed by those whom it is meant for.

Tickler. The Jeremiade over the Italian traitors is vastly interesting; then it appears, that, after all, only one of the ruffians expiated his crimes on the gallows.

North. God bless the Jacobins, and their child and champion. They would have made cleaver work of it. It is, however, quite comfortable to hear Old Bailey lawyers, like Denman and Brougham, talking of

* It would appear from this that the delinquent was James Abercromby, the Duke's steward, and now Lord Dumferline, with a pension of £4000 a year for his own life, and that of his son, as ex-Speaker of the House of Commons!-M.

the savageness of the Austrian Government, when they must know, that in a population double our own, the executions are as one to five, if not in a still smaller proportion. A Vienna review, if there be such a thing, could finely retort that in our faces. With respect

Odoherty (outside). The club-room-only Mr. North and Mr.

Tickler.

Waiter (outside). That's all, sir. There's a trifle of a balance, sir, against you since

Odoherty (speaks as he enters). Pshaw-don't bother me, man, with your balances. Do you think, when the interests of the world are going to be debated-Gentlemen, a pair, am right glad to see you.

North. Sit down.

Tickler. And here's a clean glass.

North. What will ye drink?

Tickler. Champagne, Chateau-Margot, Glenlivet, or Jamaica?

North. We have got to the hot stuff this hour.

jug, or make for yourself?

Tickler. I recommend the jug.

Will you try our

Odoherty. I am quite agreeable wherever I go. Here's a bumper to your health, and that of all good men and true.

Tickler. How long are you arrived ?

Odoherty. Half an hour. Knew I'd meet somebody here. Where are the rest?

North. Hogg is at work with his epic poem.

Odoherty. His He-pig poem you mean. Queen Hynde, if I mistake not. A great affair, I suppose.

I

Tickler. Quite grand. The Shepherd has been reading it all over the hills and far away. There are fine bits in it, I assure you. heard the exordium; it is splendid.

Odoherty. Do you remember any of it?

Tickler. No-not enough at least to spout.

Odoherty. I met Jemmy Ballantyne at York-we supped together -and he told me he had heard it was to open like the Æneid or Madoc.

North. The Eneid or Madoc! Just as you would say Blackwood's Magazine and the London! How do you mean?

Odoherty. Why, with a recapitulation of all his works-as thus-I quote from memory

Tickler (aside). Or imagination.

Odoherty.

Come listen to my lay, for I am he

Who wrote Kilmeny's wild and wondrous song,

Likewise the famous Essay upon Sheep,

And Mador of the Moor; and then, unlike