people, gave out, that he brought with him twenty thousand Laplanders, clothed in the skins of bears, all of their own killing; and that they mutinied because they had not been regaled with a bloody battle within two days after their landing. He was no sooner on the throne, than those, who had contributed to place him there, finding that he had made some changes at Court which were not to their humor, endeavored to render him unpopular by misrepresentations of his person, his character, and his actions. They found that his nose had a resemblance to that of Oliver Cromwell, and clapt him on a huge pair of mustachoes to frighten his people with: His mercy was fear; his justice was cruelty; his temperance, economy, prudent behaviour, and application to business, were Dutch virtues; and such as we had not been used to in our English kings. He did not fight a battle, in which the Tories did not slay double that number of what he had lost in the field, nor ever raised a siege, or gained a victory, which did not cost more than it was worth. In short, he was contriving the ruin of his kingdom; and in order to it advanced Dr. Tillotson to the highest station of the Church, my Lord Sommers of the Law, Mr. Mountague of the Treasury, and the Admiral at la Hogue of the Fleet. Such were the calumnies of the party in those times, which we see so faithfully copied out by men of the same principles under the reign of his present Majesty." In the same paper are these just animadversions on the conduct and conversation of those who pretend a vast interest for the welfare of religion; making that a cloak for political ambi tion : "But the most fruitful source of falsehood and calumny is that which, one would think, should be the least apt to produce them; I mean a pretended concern for the safety of our established religion. Were these people as anxious for the doctrines which are essential to the Church of England, as they are for the nominal distinction adhering to its interests, they would know, that the sincere observation of public oaths, allegiance to their king, submission to the bishops, zeal against popery, and abhorrence of rebellion, are the great points that adorn the character of the Church of England, and in which the authors of the reformed religion in this nation have always gloried. We justly reproach the Jesuits, who have adapted all Christianity to temporal and political views, for maintaining a position so repugnant to the laws of nature, mo rality, and religion, that an evil may be committed for the sake of good, which may arise from it. But we cannot suppose even this principle, (as bad a one as it is), should influence those persons who, by so many absurd and monstrous falsehoods, endeavor to delude men into a belief of the danger of the Church. If there be any relying on the solemn declarations of a prince, famed for keeping his word, constant in the public exercises of our religion, and determined in the maintenance of our laws, we have all the assurances that can be given us, for the security of the established Church under his government. When a leading man, therefore, begins to grow apprehensive for the Church, you may be sure that he is either in danger of losing a place, or in despair of getting one. It is pleasant on these occasions, to see a notorious profligate seized with a concern for his religion, and converting his spleen into zeal. These narrow and selfish views have so great an influence in this city, that, among those who call themselves the Landed-interest, there are several of my fellow freeholders, who always fancy the Church in danger upon the rising of bank stock. But the standing absurdities, without the belief of which no man is reckoned a stanch Churchman, are, that there is a Calves'head Club; for which (by the way) some pious Tory has made suitable hymns and devotions: That there is a confederacy among the greatest part of the prelates to destroy episcopacy; and that all who talk against popery are Presbyterians in their hearts. The emissaries of the party are so diligent in spreading ridiculous fictions of this kind, that at present, if we may credit common report, there are several remote parts of the nation in which it is firmly believed, that all the churches in London are shut up; and that if any clergyman walks the streets in his habit, it is ten to one but he is knocked down by some sturdy schismatic." The table of contents to this Whig journal is varied enough, one would suppose, to suit almost any taste: moral essays on patriotism and perjury, the laughable memoirs of a Preston rebel, letters from and to the Female Association, political homilies, portraits of public men, general maxims of state and current suggestions, as the advertisers of cheap goods always add, to suit the times. Most of the scenes described in this work, and the questions debated, have become, by the lapse of time, of historical importance, and give it the value and weight of one of the most important contemporary sources of history for the year of the first "turning out," 1715. As a model of fine writing also it is deserving of attention, to see how lightly this delicate artist handled the deepest topics. He made them even agreeable to the ladies. We cannot leave this pleasant book without extracting some of his gallant comicalities. He makes it appear that the ladies formed a female association, and gives the results of their deliberations in his habitual happy manner:— "I have heard that several ladies of distinction, upon the reading of my fourth paper, are studying methods how to make themselves useful to the public. One has a design of keeping an open tea-table, where every man shall be welcome that is a friend to King George. Another is for setting up an assembly for Basset, where none shall be admitted to punt, that have not taken the oaths. A third is upon an invention of a dress which will put every Tory lady out of countenance: I am not informed of the particulars, but am told in general, that she has contrived to show her principles by the setting of her Commode; so that it will be impossible for any woman, that is disaffected, to be in the fashion. Some of them are of opinion that the fan may be made use of with good success, against popery, by exhibit ing the corruptions of the Church of Rome in various figures; and that their abhorrence of the superstitious use of beads may be very aptly expressed in the make of a pearl necklace. As for the civil part of our constitution, it is unanimously agreed among the leaders of the sex, that there is no glory in making a man their slave, who has not naturally a passion for liberty; and to disallow of all professions of passive obedience, but from a lover to his mistress." And further on, he thus gossips with the happiest air: "As an instance of this cheerfulness in our fair fellow subjects, to oppose the designs of the Pretender, I did but suggest in one of my former papers, That the fan might be made use of with good success against popery, by exhibiting the corruptions of the church of Rome in various figures;' when immediately they took the hint, and have since had frequent consultations upon several ways and methods to make the fan useful.' They have unanimously agreed upon the following resolutions, which are indeed very suita ble to ladies who are at the same time the most beautiful and the most loyal of their sex. To hide their faces behind the fan, when they observe a Tory gazing upon them. Never to peep through it, but in order to pick out men, whose principles make them worth the conquest. To redresses, than by counting the sticks of it turn no other answer to a Tory's adall the while he is talking to them. To avoid dropping it in the neighborhood of a malecontent, that he may not have an opportunity of taking it up. To show their disbelief of any Jacobite story by a flirt of it. To fall a fanning themselves when a Tory comes into one of their assemblies, as being disordered at the sight of him. "These are the uses by which every fan may in the hands of a fine woman become serviceable to the Public. But they have at present under consideration certain fans of a Protestant make, that they may have a more extensive influence, and raise an abhorrence of popery in a whole crowd of beholders; for they intend to let the world see what party they are of, by figures and designs upon these fans; as the Knights-errant used to distinguish themselves by devices on their shields. "There are several sketches of pictures which have been already presented to the ladies for their approbation, and out of which several have made their choice. A pretty young lady will very soon appear with a fan, which has on it a nunnery of lively black-eyed vestals, who are endeavoring to creep out at the grates. Another has a fan mounted with a fine paper, on which is represented a group of people upon their knees very devoutly worshipping an old ten-penny nail. A certain lady of great learning has chosen for her device the council of Trent; and another, who has a good satirical turn, has filled her fan with the figure of a huge taudry woman, representing the whore of Babylon; which she is resolved to spread full in the face of any sister-disputant, whose arguments have a tendency to popery. The following designs are already executed on several mountings. The ceremony of the holy Pontiff opening the mouth of a Cardinal in a full consistory. An old gentleman with a triple crown upon his head, and big with child, being the portrait of Pope Joan. Bishop Bonner purchasing great quantities of faggots and brushwood for the conversion of heretics. A figure reaching at a sceptre with one hand, and holding a chaplet of beads in the other; with a distant view of Smithfield." We have been uncommonly full in our quotations from the Freeholder, as it is a work seldom read at the present day, though, independent of its value as a party production, it affords good reading to all who cherish the fame, and have been (as who has not?) delighted with the grave irony and gay pleasantry of the painter of Sir Roger de Coverly. Johnson, in English literature, follows Addison, critically considered, as Juvenal follows Horace, more magisterial in his air and imposing in his manner. A Tory from constitutional peculiarities, by no means made such by his pension, we cannot help respecting Johnson, in spite of his prejudices; and among them, none was more bottomless, irrational, and palpably absurd, than the view he took of the American Revolution. His own deference to authority and love of power, impelled him to write in advocacy of a high-toned government. Himself a literary despot, he too much inclined to favor arbitrary principles; yet the magnanimous nature of the old Tory sometimes got the better of his sophistications, and at heart he was the lover of liberty and hater of oppression. Boswell once extorted a memorable confession from him; after pressing his inquiries as to how far a people should bear the exacting claims, often falsely urged, of its rulers, he is reported to have answered, that driven to a certain point, human nature could bear no more, and must vindicate its inherent rights by turning upon its oppressors. This was a brave speech for so contracted a politician. The tract, "Taxation no Tyranny," is altogether framed to suit the views of his party; and although Johnson was a strong Tory before he received a pension, (given, as stated, for no future political services, which were never the less expected as a matter of gratitude, if not as a matter of course, in a business point of view), yet we cannot help thinking that unpensioned he had never written that odious plea for tyranny, and eulogy upon oppression, Johnson the moralist, does not appear here, but Johnson the bigoted partisan; the violent assailant of tolerant Whigs and enthusiastic republicans; and not the friend of liberty and humanity. His great friend Burke, in his better days, did the good cause honorable service by an eloquence and brilliancy unsurpassed in political oratory and political writing. It were idle, at this epoch, to recriticize those sterling efforts that have delighted and instructed thousands for the space of more than half a century. But to allude to two only of his masterly attempts; Americans should never forget their advocate, whose noble speech is not to be paralleled in the records of ancient eloquence; nor can the political writer find anywhere a nobler model for the very highest species of political writing, than the admirable Letter to a Noble Lord. Junius is, to use a homely analogy, Burke cut down, razeed into a sparkling letter-writer; in place of the magnificence and grandeur of the orator, we have the cutting sneer and polished sarcasm of the refined gentleman and scholastic wit. We conceive it almost an impossibility that Burke could have been the author of the "Letters." His power of imitation, to be sure, was great; but then his original must have been more after his own manner. Bolingbroke's style he easily adopted, since there existed a previous similarity, in their copiousness, vigor, and harmony of composition. But Burke and Junius had little in common. Burke was of a generous spirit; Junius, malignant as a fiend;-Burke's invective was almost poetic; Junius was very sarcastic, very bitter; but these are the talents of a small though an acute mind. Compared with the richness of Burke, Junius shrinks into a writer of epigrams. The one had a fertile imagination; the other a trained fancy. Burke is an author for the world; Junius for the most exclusive and insignificant portion of it. The former latterly "narrowed his mind;" the latter could never boast of any great comprehensiveness. With Junius ends the race of pamphleteers who have in England obtained any permanent reputation. Clever men write, are read, and speedily forgotten. One political writer of the present day, we shall notice presently. But for the next great political writer, and for the rest of whom we shall speak, with one exception, we must come home. And here we meet at the commencement of our glorious struggle, the name of Thomas Paine. Perhaps no writings are more disregarded, or more often ignorantly condemned, than the political writings of Thomas Paine. Of these capital pieces we take the liberty to include a criticism written some time since, by the author of the present paper, and published in a volume of limited circulation. The matter will probably be new to the reader.* "It is a fact not a little singular, in the history of literature, that political writing which relates to matters of great practical importance, and which is sure-when well done-of meeting with vast popularity, is generally the worst executed of any species of composition. In general, slovenly and carelessly written, it is purely ephemeral seldom containing truths of sufficient importance to endure, in the meagre shape in which they are enveloped. The truth is, however, that politics, rightly viewed, is a noble study, and the inquiries tending to it of great value, both speculative and practical. It is a theme of some dignity, perhaps of the greatest. No employment of the faculties can be greater than the government of Most political pieces are expected to be, however, of a current nature merely. Occasionally men arise who discuss the questions more important than any to the human race, after the truths of religion, in a manner so as to impress durability on their productions. Sometimes the politician is a philosopher and a poet: and then, his works are appealed to as standards of foresight and wisdom. men. "Political writers may be divided into three classes: "I. Those who write to and for statesmen and philosophers; "II. They who write for those of the educated classes who are neither; and, "III. Those who write for that 'manyheaded monster,' the people. "Among English writers, Burke is the finest specimen of the first subdivision, Junius of the second, and Paine of the third-each admirable in his way, but wholly different from his rivals. The characteristics of Burke are brilliancy and profundity; and he, together with Bacon, Milton, and a very few others, is a rare instance of the union of these most opposite qualities. The second possessed pointed sarcasm, and a keen, polished style. The third was shrewd, admirably clear, pithy and caustic. Burke was less practical and more romantic than Paine; his imagination was smitten with the love of chivalry, of antiquity, of fallen grandeur. This tendency of his imagination led him on to aristocracy; while the absence of it in Paine, probably, strengthened his democratic tone of character. and smartness-far less, however, of "Paine had more every-day shrewdness Burke's comprehensive sagacity and gorgeous fancy. Junius was more cutting and vexatious, fuller of glittering points, and altogether a greater master of sarcasm. That was his chief weapon; but he wanted the fulness and coloring of Burke, and the fine declamation of Paine. Both Burke and Paine were metaphysical in their cast of mind; but Burke saw farther in his moral views, and extended his perceptions over a greater range of speculation. Coleridge used to compare Berkley and Paine, by likening the acuteness of the first to that of a philosopher, and the shrewdness of the second to the cunning of a shopboy. This parallel is deformed by extravagance and distorted by prejudice. Nevertheless, Paine's range was lower and narrower, though not to such a degree as the comparison implied. He has, notwithstanding, very great and distinct merits, wholly undeniable; and the services he has rendered this country by his pen are too great to account (except on one ground) for the declension and comparative obscurity of his reputation. It is allowed by all liberal judges that, in his Common Sense,' and papers entitled The Crisis,' he strengthened in the American mind its aspirations after liberty; gave them the right direction; manfully exhorted them in their wavering hour, and acted the part of a freeman and an active friend to humanity. In the face of all this, he is now become odious, and his name passes for a by-word of contempt. He is ranked with Wright, Trollope, and a similar band, and despised as a mere flaming Democrat. He passes for a thorough-going Radical, whereas he was the firmest of Democrats. The reasons of this we believe to have originated chiefly from his religious blasphemieswhich have rendered that part of his character justly contemptible-and the popular cast of his style and address. The first of these causes is indefensible; we will not pretend to palliate it. We write and speak now only of Paine the politician-with his religion we have nothing to do. It is to be observed, however, that in his political writings published previously to the Age of Reason,' he never alludes to the Deity but with the most reve The Analyst, p. 104.-Art. V. "The Political Writings of Thomas Paine." rential mention. The only other cause for his obscurity seems to result from his style. Though a master of composition, and an acute thinker, he was the people's writer-expressing their views, as well as his own, but then better than any other man could. Clear, plain, explicit, close, compact, he could be understood by all; and he further possessed a most desirable faculty in a certain off-hand, dashing manner, which carried off everything. "He is always full of sense, perfectly clear, and admirably concise. He is, whenever he attempts it, as brilliant a declaimer as Burke, with almost equal fancy, and without any of his verbosity. His glowing tirade on titles in the Rights of Man,' and frequent passages in the 'Crisis,' are perfect specimens. His second Crisis, addressed to Lord Howe, is equal, for sarcastic point and cutting sneers, to anything in Junius. What wit he had grew out of strong sense, sharpened by a satirical spirit and a contempt of imposture, however successful. He is not a wandering, episodical writer, like Cobbett, but direct and straight-forward, perhaps a little too formal, and with as few digressions as any English writer. "He has none of the common faults of political writers: he is never wordy-never clumsy and round-about in his expressions-never dull and tedious in his arguments. He has no pointless anecdotes-no heavy familiarity-no puerile rhetoric-no labored bombast. His sentences are clear and shapely-he is closely logical, and his arguments are connected as by a fine net-work. Whatever style he undertook, whether of expostulation or defence, narrative or logical, declamatory or moral, ironical or earnest, it always was perfectly perspicuous and admirably appropriate. "Hazlitt,' says he, is excellent at summing up and giving conclusions, but that he lacks the faculty of giving his ideas as they rise fresh in his mind.' He prefers Cobbett for this progressive exhibition of the course of his thoughts. "There is a pungency in his manner of uttering the simplest truths, which gives his pieces the air of a collection of aphorisms. He gives point to everything he touches, and is never dull and spiritless. He abounds in original sayings, and always concludes his pieces with a smart sentence: An army of principles can penetrate where an army of men cannot,' is one of a thousand instances. "Paine is said to have been little of a reader to have purposely excluded his mind from the acquisition of particular kinds of knowledge, in order to concentrate it fully on politics. What he did read, however, was choice literature; and his few quotations are exceedingly apt. He composed by paragraphs-which accounts for the extreme finish of his style; for, though a very plain style in general, yet this could be perfected only by elaboration and study. His plain manner and simple ground-work set off his wit, his illustrations, his occasional flights, and his metaphysics, to great advantage, and besides contributed largely to his popularity. During his lifetime he enjoyed a great and most deserved reputation, which nothing could have destroyed but his religious dereliction and consequent debasement of character." The American Revolution regarded primarily the rights of the people, not of the rulers only but the ruled, not of the freeholder solely, but the humblest laborer. It embraced, in its views of Liberty and of Government, every citi zen; and so with the writers of the Revolution. Before the time of Paine, one had sought to strengthen the regal power; one to defend the commercial one, the landed interest: here was the defender of the artizan or manufac turer; but the mass of laboring poor were without a representative. That class, since the Revolution, have now become the most important body in the state at large: and their wants and interests are studied by the most philosophic statesmen and philanthropists. At the present day, however much of inequality may exist in the social condition of our citizens, we justly as sume as a first principle their political equality. This has greatly changed the character of political composition and the estimation of political writers. Politics are a popular study, and the journalist takes rank with the statesman and orator. Newspaper writing has become quite a different thing from what it was half a century ago. It improves yearly. Fonblanque in London, and Bryant in New York, are classical writers in their way. Leggett's vigorous pen entitles him to rank with these, and his generous spirit, strengthened by a love of truth and justice, and gone on improving in style, to perwould have raised him had he lived, haps a higher rank than that of the first writer. The pure poetry of Bryant places him above competition: and we cannot close this slight review of an important department of literature |