Canning met most of the leaders of the Whigs, | of the marriage, to be angry. After the cereand they were not slow in recognizing his abil-mony, he was so nervous that he could not sign ity, and tried to attach him to their party. It as witness, and Canning whispered to me to showed Canning's sagacity as well as his high sign without waiting for him.'" spirit and confidence in himself that he determined to take his own line, and judge for himself When I went to see him at Oxford he showed me a letter he had received from Mrs. C, whose husband was a great Whig leader. It enclosed a note from the Duke of Portland, offering to bring Canning into Parliament. The

offer was a very tempting one to so young a
man. But Canning refused it, and he told me
his reason.
'I think,' he said, there must
be a split. The Duke will go over to Pitt, and
I will go over in no man's train. If I join Pitt,
I will go by myself.'"'

In 1797 Mr. Frere joined Mr. Canning, George Ellis and others of the younger members of their party in bringing out the " Anti-Jacobin, or Weekly Examiner," The first number appeared on the 20th of November, with a notice that it would be "continued every Monday during the sitting of Parliament," and the last number was issued at the close of the Session on the 9th of July, 1798. It was edited by Gifford; among the contributors were Mr. Jenkinson (Lord Liverpool) and Lord Canning afterwards came into Parliament for one of what were called "Bob Mr. Pitt himself is said to have attended Mornington (Marquess Wellesley); and Smith's boroughs." Dundas used often to sup with Pitt, after the House rose, and one of the meetings of the editors, and one night took Canning with him. On to have written a paper on Finance in the next morning Canning came to Frere, before he was out of bed, and, after tell ing him where he had been supping the night before, added “I am quite sure I have them both;" and "I do not wonder at it," remarked Mr. Frere, "for with his humour and fancy it was impossible to resist him." The intimacy thus formed soon ripened into friendship. Cannings love for Pitt was quite filial, and Pitt's feeling for him was more that of a father than a mere political leader."

"Some years after," says Mr. Frere, "when Canning was going to be married, Pitt felt as keenly about the affair as if Pitt had nothing else to think of, and Canning had been his only child. It was a good match for Canning in a worldly point of view, for his own fortune was not adequate to the political position Pitt would have liked him to hold. Pitt not only took a personal interest in the match himself, but he made old Dundas think almost as much about it, as if it had been some important party combi

nation."

In connection with this marriage Mr. Frere related the following anecdote:

one of the early numbers. For the first plan of the publication was serious; but bore the three chief writers irresistibly the current of events and public feeling into the direction fittest for their genius.

The "Anti-Jacobin" has suffered the talked about without being known, and fate of many a famous work, which is which gave it birth and character. Peocriticized apart from the circumstances ple are content to laugh over some of its most hackneyed pieces with ever fresh amusement, or to shake their heads with the grave superiority of professional critics, and pronounce the catch-words — "mere parody". "no original thoughts"

But

Punch as good every week." the " Anti-Jacobin "is neither to be judged 1872 instead of 1798. The whole (for we by scraps, nor from the point of view of may leave the lesser contributors out of sight) is the harmonious work of three ardent minds, working with a definite purpose, and on a joint plan, which made it difficult in later years to distinguish their separate shares in several of the pieces. And the purpose and style of the work "I was to be best man, and Pitt, Canning, arose naturally out of the political crisis and Mr. Leigh, who was to read the service, of that time. It was 1797-8, not 1789-90. dined with me before the marriage, which was The first enthusiasm which had greeted to take place in Brook-street. We had a coach the bold stroke of the French people for to drive there, and as we went through that freedom, had quickly yielded to the elonarrow part, near what was then Swallowquence of Burke, and the more resistless street, a fellow drew up against the wall, to torrent of the events which whelmed avoid being run over, and peering into the France in anarchy and plunged England coach, recognized Pitt, and saw Mr. Leigh, who was in full canonicals, sitting opposite to him. into war. The course of that war had The fellow exclaimed, What, Billy Pitt! and united the British nation in a struggle of with a parson too!" I said, "He thinks you patriotism; and the minority were, with are going to Tyburn to be hanged privately," very little discrimination, suspected or dewhich was rather impudent of me; but Pitt tested as sympathizers or accomplices in was too much absorbed, I believe, in thinking the great Republican propaganda against

inal:

"Cold was the night wind; drifting fast the snows fell;

Wide were the downs and shelterless and naked:

When a poor wanderer struggled on her journey, Weary and way-sore." Were ever lines more provocative of parody?*

the throne and altar, against the peace of absurdity of the metre" in Southey's origall nations and especially of England. It was a moment when the threats of the Directory were most insulting, and the machinations of the Corresponding Societies most active; when Hoche was proEngclaiming to the army of invasion " land is the richest country in the world and we give it up to you to be plundered; when the Bank had suspended cash pay ments, and the glory of St. Vincent had been eclipsed by the mutinies at Spithead The poetry of the "Anti-Jacobin" is and the Nore; and when Ireland was on not truly described as "mere parody." the verge of open rebellion. Burke had It is far more than an empty echo of the just died, after protesting against all comoriginal, more than an amusing travesty, promise in his "Letters on a Regicide written for sound or for fun: it gives anPeace;" and the Opposition leaders had se- other version of the sense-or of the ceded from Parliament after the loss of - and that with a set lurking nonsense Mr. Grey's Reform Bill. The contest of and serious purpose. It is ridicule as well serious argument was suspended for the as parody, in the true spirit of the Aristime; and the English people were in no tophanic comedy. Its classic tone and alhumour -as happily they seldom are lusions appealed to the educated classes, to regard the preaching of republicanism in whose hands the government then was; as anything short of an attempt to disturb and its very want of adaptation to an age the very centre of gravity on which our of household suffrage and penny papers is whole constitution has been deliberately a testimony to its power at its own time. poised. The young champions, who ofOf the very first poem one of those fered themselves eagerly for the cause of which would perhaps find least sympathy loyalty and patriotism, viewed the repub-in the present day Sir Bartle Frere lican minority as a hydra, whose heads, though severed by the keen edge of argument and eloquence, kept springing up afresh; and they betook themselves to cauterize the enemy's life-blood with the burning-irons of ridicule and sarcasm. This was the way to secure a hearing and to win the sympathy of the people; as was already proved by the caricatures of GillIf ray, now at the height of his success. ridicule is not the test of truth, it is the a critical re-agent detector of humbugfor separating unseen error and precipitating it in its real colours.

The writers who were roughly classed as Jacobins with what justice or discrimination it is now superfluous to discuss- - themselves suggested the direction of the attack by the puerile theories and sickly sentimentalisms which they uttered in such outlandish guise as Southey's Dactylies and Sapphics and those uncouth Hexameters, which Byron characterized in words applicable to all similar imitations,

"He stuck fast in the first Hexameter

Not one of all whose gouty feet would stir." Here we must observe, in passing, that the ludicrous swing of the so-called Sapphics of the famous "Needy Knife-grinder (the joint production of Canning and Frere) was purposely adopted from "the

observes:

"The shafts of ridicule told with still greater effect on the more impressible classes, and helped to keep in the ministerial fold many a young literary adventurer or sober dissenter, whose poetical or religious feelings might have been touched by such appeals as Southey's visions of a millennial reign of liberty, or by his description of the beauties of nature, from enjoying which the regicide was debarred."

The final test of merit is the fact that many of these imitations have surpassed and survived the originals, as Sir George Cornewall Lewis observed of the admirable satire on Erasmus Darwin's poems in the "Loves of the Triangles" by Canning and Frere. Those who read the poem

for

themselves may judge whether some pas- Not less admirable is the description of sages have not the merit of anticipating the young Jacobins, who find their counmodern Darwinism and other cosmogonic terpart in the young Republicans of the theories. Meanwhile we may call atten- present day :tion to a note in which an explanation is given of "the genesis or original formation of space itself, in the same manner in which Dr. Darwin has traced the whole of the organized creation to his SIX FILAMENTS." The writers add:

"SPACE being thus obtained, and presenting a suitable NIDUS, or receptacle for the generation of CHAOTIC MATTER, au immense deposit of it would gradually be accumulated; after which, the FILAMENT of fire being produced in the chaotic mass, by an idiosyncracy, or self-formed habit analogous to fermentation, explosion would take place; suns would be shot from the central chaos; planets from suns; and satellites from planets. In this state of things the FILAMENT of organization would begin to exert itself in those independent masses which, in proportion to their bulk, exposed the greatest surface to the action of light and heat. This FILAMENT, after an infinite series of ages, would begin to ramify, and its viviparous offspring would diversify their forms and habits, so as to accommodate themselves to the various incunabula which Nature had prepared for them. Upon this view of things it seems highly probable that the first effort of Nature terminated in the production of VEGETABLES, and that these being abandoned to their own energies, by degrees detached themselves from the surface of the earth, and supplied themselves with wings or feet, according as their different propensities determined them in favour of aerial or terrestrial existence. Others, by an inherent disposition to society and civilization, and by a stronger .effort of volition, would become MEN. These, in time, would restrict themselves to the use of their hind feet: their tails would gradually rub off, by sitting in their caves or huts as soon as they arrived at a domesticated state; they would invent language and the use of fire, with our present and hitherto, imperfect system of society. In the meanwhile, the Fuci and Algae, with the Corallines and Madrepores, would transform themselves into fish, and would gradually populate all the submarine portion of the globe."

The concluding description of the advent of the guillotine and the execution of Pitt is in the finest vein of mock-heroic poetry:

"Ye Sylphs of DEATH! on demon pinions flit Where the tall Guillotine is raised for PITT: To the poised plank tie fast the monster's back, Close the nice slider, ope the expectant sack; Then twitch, with fairy hands, the frolic pin Down falls the impatient axe with deafening din;

The liberated head rolls off below,

"Tell of what wood young JACOBINS are made, How the skill'd gardener grafts with nicest rule

The slip of coxcomb on the stock of fool Forth in bright blossom bursts the tender sprig,

A thing to wonder at, perhaps a Whig: Should tell, how wise each new-fledged pedant prates

Of weightiest matters, grave distractions

states

and to Frere belongs the merit of the is probably familiar to our readers;

well-known scene between Matilda and Cecilia :

"Mat. Madam, you seem to have had an unpleasant journey, if I may judge from the dust on your riding-habit.

Cec. The way was dusty, madam, but the weather was delightful. It recalled to me those blissful moments when the rays of desire first vibrated through my soul.

Mat. (aside). Thank Heaven! I have at last found a heart which is in unison with my own - (To Cecilia) - Yes, I understand youthe first pulsation of sentiment - - the silver tones upon the yet unsounded harp. . . . . Cec. The dawn of life- when this blossom (putting her hand upon her heart) first expanded its petals to the penetrating dart of love! Mat. Yes the time- - the golden time, when the first beams of the morning meet and embrace one another! - The blooming blue up

And simpering FREEDOM hails the happy blow!" on the yet unplucked plum ! . . . .

The "Progress of Man," is a satire upon the "Navis Stultifera," who were secretly "Free Love":

"Learn hence, each Nymph, whose free aspir- after ing mind

Europe's cold laws, and colder customs bind-"There was SHUCK BOROUGH, the wonderful O! learn, what Nature's genial laws de

"It has been asserted that the publication was at last discontinued at Pitt's direct instance, from an apprehension not, under the circumstances, at all unreasonable. that the satirical spirit to which so much of the success of the Anti-Jabobin was due, might in the long run prove a less manageable and discriminating ally than a party leader would desire."

In fact the work was. from its very nature, strictly occasional, and would have lost all point and savour by an attempt to prolong it; for its one definite purpose distinguishes it completely from the comic periodicals of our day. We have abstained from discussing the justice of the satire of the "Anti-Jacobin," as a question now out of date; nor indeed ought the spirit of satire and caricature to be tested by the laws of solemn controversy. But this much may be said, that its weapons were as polished as they were keen, and its sarcasm never degenerated into spite. It is pleasant to know that Frere lived to be the warm and kind friend of Southey and Coleridge.

Says Lord Grenville, Prepare to Lord Minto
Despatches to bid him refund.'

Mr. Hammond, who smiles at your cunning,
On the subject amusingly punn'd;

Says he, They're so proud of their funning,
'Twill be pleasant to see them refunn'd.'

As for Stratton, he ought for his sin, to
Be sent to some wild Sunderbund.

But we'll pardon him still, if Lord Minto

Will instantly make him refund.
Believe me, I don't mean to hurt you,
But if you'd avoid being dunn'd,
Of necessity making a virtue,

With the best grace you can, you'll refund.
Let the Snuff-box belong to Lord Minto;
But as for the five hundred pund,*
I'll be judged by Almeida or Pinto,

If his Chancery must not refund.
POSTSCRIPT.

There are letters from India which mention,
Occurrences at Roh-il-cund;
But I'll not distract your attention.

Lest I make you forget to refund.
Lord Carlisle's new play is the Story

Of Tancred, and fair Sigismund,
Our last news is the taking of Gorée,

But our best is, that you must refund."

Space compels us reluctantly to abstain from citing examples of his affectionate spirit and irrepressible humour in the familiar letters of this period.

A great

The cessation of the "Anti-Jacobin' marks the end of the first of the three pe- In 1800 he was appointed Envoy Extrariods into which Mr. Frere's life was clear- ordinary and Plenipotentiary to Portugal, ly divided. On the second period of his and in the following year was transferred to political and diplomatic service it is not Spain, where he remained as Minister nearly our purpose here to dwell. In 1799 he two years. He was again sent to Spain in succeeded Canning, who was removed the same capacity in 1808, but was recalled to the Board of Trade, as Under-Secre- in the following year, upon the failure of tary of State in the Foreign Office. Like his friend in the celebrated poetical despatch about the Dutch Customs, Frere relieved the dryness of official work by at least one poetical epistle. Being ordered by Lord Grenville to direct Lord Minto to refund an unauthorized payment by Mr. Stratton for a snuff-box, which had been presented by the British Ambassador to some foreign diplomatist in violation of the Treasury Regulations he conveyed the reproof in the following lines:

Sir John Moore's expedition.
clamour was raised against the Envoy in
England, and upon him the public and the
press attempted to throw a share of the
discredit attending the disastrous issue of
our first Peninsular campaign. His biog-
rapher vindicates at some length Mr.
Frere's conduct throughout these transac-
tions, but it would be foreign to our pres-
ent purpose to enter into a discussion of

* Scoticè pro "pound.”—J. H. F.