The Rolliad, in Two Parts. George Ellis

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СКАЧАТЬ are assured, can any man of any party object to the last of their high dignities, “Sovereigns of the Sovereign of India;” since the Company’s well-known sale of Shah Allum to his own Visier, is an indisputable proof of their supremacy over the Great Mogul.

      As our author has been formerly accused of plagiarism, we must here in candour confess, that he seems, in his description of the India-bench, to have had an eye to Milton’s account of the devil’s throne; which, however, we are told, much exceeded the possible splendour of any India-bench, or even the magnificence of Mr. Hastings himself.

      High on a throne of royal slate, which far

       Outshone the wealth of Orams, or of Ind;

       Or where the gorgeous East, with lavish hand,

       Show’rs on her King, barbaric pearl and gold;

       Satan exalted sate.———

      This concluding phrase, our readers will observe, is exactly and literally copied by our author. It is also worthy of remark, that as he calls the Bengal squad,

      The Pillars of Prerogative and Pitt,

      So Milton calls Beelzebub,

      A Pillar of State:———

      Though, it is certain, that the expression here quoted may equally have been suggested by one of the Persian titles[2], said to be engraved on a seal of Mr. Hastings, where we find the Governor General styled, “Pillar of the Empire.” But we shall leave it to our readers to determine, as they may think proper, on the most probable source of the metaphor, whether it were in reality derived from Beelzebub or Mr. Hastings.

      [1] For a description of this young gentleman’s person, from top to bottom, see No. V.

      [2] The following is copied from the Morning Chronicle of October 5, 1784.

      Mr. HASTINGS’S PERSIAN TITLES, as engraved upon a Seal. A True Translation. Nabob Governor-General Hastings, Saub, Pillar of the Empire, The fortunate in War, Hero, The most princely offspring of the Loins, Of the King of the Universe, The Defender of the Mahomedan Faith, And Asylum of the World, &c. &c. &c. &c.

      Translation of a Persian Inscription engraven on a large fine Ruby, being the titles either given to or assumed by Mrs. HASTINGS. “Royal and Imperial Governess, The elegance of the age, The most exalted Bilkiss, The Zobaide of the Palaces, The most heroic Princess, Ruby Marian Hastings, Sauby, &c. &c.

      N.B. With the Mussulmans, Bilkiss signifies the person, called in the Bible History the Queen of Sheba; and Zobaide was a favourite wife of Mahomed; and when they wish to pay the highest compliments to a lady, they compare her to Bilkiss and Zobaide, who possessed the most exalted beauty, and perfection of every kind.

      * * * * *

       NUMBER VIII.

      From the above general compliment to the India-bench, the poet, in the person of Merlin, breaks out into the following animated apostrophe to some of the principal among our Leadenhall-street Governors:

      All hail! ye virtuous patriots without blot, Rollo

       The minor KINSON and the major SCOTT:

       And thou of name uncouth to British ear,

       From Norman smugglers sprung, LE MESURIER;

       Hail SMITHS; and WRAXALL, unabash’d to talk,

       Tho’ none will listen; hail too, CALL and PALK;

       Thou, BARWEL, just and good, whose honour’d name,

       Wide, as the Ganges rolls, shall live in fame,

       Second to HASTINGS: and, VANSITTART, thou,

       A second HASTINGS, if the Fates allow.

      The bold, but truly poetical apocope, by which the Messrs. At-kinson and Jen-kinson, are called the two kinsons, is already familiar to the public. The minor Kinson, or Kinson the less, is obviously Mr. Atkinson; Mr. Jenkinson being confessedly greater than Mr. Atkinson, or any other man, except One, in the kingdom.—The antithesis of the Major Scott to the minor Kinson, seems to ascertain the sense of the word Major, as signifying in this place the greater; it might mean also the elder; or it might equally refer to the military rank of the gentleman intended. This is a beautiful example of the figure so much admired by the ancients under the name of the Paronomasia, or Pun. They who recollect the light in which our author before represented Major Scott, as a pamphleteer, fit only to furnish a water-closet, may possibly wonder to find him here mentioned as THE GREATER SCOTT; but whatever may be his literary talents, he must be acknowledged to be truly great, and worthy of the conspicuous place here assigned him, if we consider him in his capacity of agent to Mr. Hastings, and of consequence chief manager of the Bengal Squad; and it must be remembered, that this is the character in which he is here introduced. The circumstance of Mr. Le Mesurier’s origin from Norman Smugglers, has been erroneously supposed by some critics to be designed for a reproach; but they could not possibly have fallen into this mistaste, if they had for a moment reflected that it is addressed by MERLIN to ROLLO, who was himself no more than a Norman pirate. Smuggling and piracy in heroic times were not only esteemed not infamous, but absolutely honourable. The Smiths, Call and Palk of our poet, resemble the

      Alcandrumque, Haliumque, Noëmonaque, Prytanimque,

      of Homer and Virgil; who introduce those gallant warriors for the sake of a smooth verse, and dispatch them at a stroke without the distinction of a single epithet. Our poet too has more professedly imitated Virgil in the lines respecting Mr. Vansittart, now a candidate to succeed Mr. Hastings.

      ———And, VANSITTART, thou

       A second HASTINGS, if the fates allow.

      ———Si quâ fata aspera rumpas,

       Tu Marcellus eris!

      The passage however is, as might be hoped from the genius of our author, obviously improved in the imitation; as it involves a climax, most happily expressed. Mr. Barwell has been panegyrized in the lines immediately foregoing, as second to Hastings; but of Mr. Vansittart it is prophesied, that he will be a second Hastings; second indeed in time, but equal perhaps in the distinguishing merits of that great and good man, in obedience to the Court of Directors, attention to the interests of the Company in preference to his own, abstinence from rapacity and extortion, justice and policy towards the princes, and humanity to all the natives, of Hindostan. The ingenious turn on the words second to Hastings, and a second Hastings, would have furnished matter for whole pages to the Dionysius’s, Longinus’s, and Quintilians of antiquity, though the affected delicacy of modern taste may condemn it as quibble and jingle.

      The poet then hints at a most ingenious proposal for the embellishment of the India-bench, according to the new plan of Parliamentary Reform; not by fitting it up like the Treasury-bench, with velvet cushions, but by erecting for the accommodation of the Leadenhall worthies, the ivory bed, which was lately presented to her Majesty by Mrs. Hastings.

      O that for you, in Oriental state,

       At ease reclin’d to watch the long debate,

       Beneath СКАЧАТЬ