The Rolliad, in Two Parts. George Ellis

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СКАЧАТЬ (With the QUEEN’s leave) your WARREN’s ivory bed!

      The pannels of the gallery too, over the canopy of the bed, are to be ornamented with suitable paintings,

      Above, In colours warm with mimic life,

       The German husband of your WARREN’s wife

       His rival deeds should blazon; and display.

       In his blest rule, the glories of your sway.

      What singular propriety, what striking beauty must the reader of taste immediately perceive in this choice of a painter to execute the author’s design! It cannot be doubted but Mrs. Hastings would exert all her own private and all Major Scott’s public influence with every branch of the Legislature, to obtain so illustrious a job for the man to whose affection, or to whose want of affection, she owes her present fortunes. The name of this artist is Imhoff; but though he was once honoured with Royal Patronages he is now best remembered from the circumstance by which our author has distinguished him, of his former relation to Mrs. Hastings.

      Then follow the subjects of the paintings, which are selected with the usual judgment of our poet.

      Here might the tribes of ROHILCUND expire,

       And quench with blood their towns, that sink in fire;

       The Begums there, of pow’r, of wealth forlorn,

       With female cries their hapless fortune mourn.

       Here, hardly rescu’d from his guard, CHEYT SING

       Aghast should fly; there NUNDCOMAR should swing;

       Happy for him! if he had borne to see

       His country beggar’d of the last rupee;

       Nor call’d those laws, O HASTINGS, on thy head,

       Which, mock’d by thee, thy slaves alone should dread.

      These stories, we presume, are too public to require any explanation. But if our readers should wish to be more particularly acquainted with them, they will find them in the [1]Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, commonly called the Reports of the Select and Secret Committees, with Appendixes of Letters, Minutes, and Narratives written by Mr. Hastings himself. Or they may consult the History of Alexander the Great, contained, in Major John Scott’s narrative of the administration of Mr. Hastings. Though we would rather refer them to the latter work, as in our opinion it is one of the most satisfactory defences ever published; and proves to demonstration, that Mr. Hastings never committed a single act of injustice or cruelty, but he constantly obtained forty or fifty lacks for the Company or himself—That an enquiry into past abuses is an impolitic order; because “much valuable time must be lost, and much odium incurred by the attempt;” and therefore Mr. Hastings of course ought not to have been censured at all, unless he had been censured before he had done any thing to deserve it—That it was right for Mr. Hastings to keep up the good old custom of receiving presents, in defiance of a positive law; because his predecessors had received as large sums when they were authorized by custom, and not prohibited by any law—That Mr. Hastings was justified in disobeying the orders of the Directors, because he could no otherwise have convinced the Country Powers of his superiority over his Masters, which was, and is, absolutely necessary—that, though it may be questioned if Nundcomar was legally condemned, it was proper to execute him, in order to show the justice and impartiality of the Judges in hanging the natives, whom they were sent especially to protect—That a Treaty of Peace between two nations is of no force, if you can get one of the individuals who officially signed it, to consent to the infraction of it—together with many other positions, equally just and novel, both in Ethics and Politics.

      But to return to our Poet. MERLIN now drops his apostrophe, and eulogizes the India-bench in the third person for the blessings of Tea and the Commutation Tax. The following passage will show our author to be, probably, a much better Grocer than Mr. Pitt; and perhaps little inferior to the Tea-Purchaser’s Guide.

      What tongue can tell the various kind of Tea?

       Of Blacks and Greens, of Hyson and Bohea;

       With Singlo, Congou, Pekoe, and Souchong:

       Couslip the fragrant, Gun-powder the strong;

       And more, all heathenish alike in name,

       Of humbler some, and some of nobler fame.

      The prophet then compares the breakfasts of his own times with those of ours: attributes to the former the intractable spirit of that age; and from the latter fervently prays, like a loyal subject, for the perfect accomplishment of their natural effects; that they may relax the nerves of Englishmen into a proper state of submission to the superior powers. We shall insert the lines at length.

      On mighty beef, bedew’d with potent ale,

       Our Saxons, rous’d at early dawn, regale;

       And hence a sturdy, bold, rebellious race,

       Strength in the frame, and spirit in the face,

       All sacred right of Sovereign Power defy,

       For Freedom conquer, or for Freedom die.

       Not so their sons, of manners more polite;

       How would they sicken at the very sight!

       O’er Chocolate’s rich froth, o’er Coffee’s fume,

       Or Tea’s hot tide their noons shall they consume.

       But chief, all sexes, every rank and age,

       Scandal and Tea, more grateful, shall engage;

       In gilded roofs, beside some hedge in none,

       On polish’d tables, or the casual stone.

       Be Bloom reduc’d; and PITT no more a foe, Ev’n PITT, the favourite of the fair shall grow: Be but Mundungus cheap; on light and air New burthens gladly shall our peasants bear, And boil their peaceful kettles, gentle souls! Contented—if no tax be laid on coals. Aid then, kind Providence, yon’ generous bench, With copious draughts the thirsty realm to drench; And oh! thy equal aid let PRESTON find, With [2]musty-sweet and mouldy-fresh combin’d, To palsy half our isles: ’till wan, and weak, Each nerve unstrung, and bloodless every cheek, Head answering head, and noddling thro’ the street. The destin’d change of Britons is complete; Things without will, like India’s feeble brood, Or China’s shaking Mandarins of wood. So may the Crown in native lustre shine, And British Kings re-sume their right divine.

      We have been thus prolix in giving the whole of this quotation, as we think it glances very finely at the true policy, why it is expedient to encourage the universal consumption of an article, which some factious people have called a pernicious luxury. And our readers, we are persuaded, will agree with us, when we decidedly pronounce this as good a defence of the Commutation Tax, as we have yet seen.

      We must observe however that our author is probably indebted to the extensive information of Lord Sydney, for the hint of the following couplet:

      In gilded roofs, beside some hedge in none,

       On polish’d tables, or the casual stone.

      The СКАЧАТЬ