ÆäÀÌÁö À̹ÌÁö
PDF
ePub

But even the application of this scheme of Vortex, was not the offspring of the brain of any of the Talents. No;-though we are not possessed of Fortunatus's wishing- cap, nor Gyges's ring; yet we can see as far into a millstone as the man who picked it; aye, and through a Treasury-wall too. A person of little note, who had furnished Vortex with the outlines of another of his 'grand schemes,-the Redemption of the Quit Rents, had been rewarded with a lucrative place in the moneyoffice; and he it was who planned this new financial disposition. True it was, that the household, as is always the case with great men when they have a mind to make other people's children pass for their own, had unpicked some of the seams, and sewed them up again; had taken a button from one part and put it on another but after all their botching and bun gling, the coat was still the same and another man's coat. It fitted the tenantry, however, as almost any coat would have sat well upon them. They resembled a man in extreme pain, who will swallow with avidity and indiscriminately, brandy, or water, — laxatives or astringents ;

or not

in hopes of experiencing even a momentary relief. The idea of not being worse, much worse than at present,—although for so long a period, and they were then as ill as they could well be, was a kind of relief to them.Their love of their country, and their indigna tion against the little despot, who kept it in hot water, although he dared not meddle with it, lest it should burn his fingers, was superior to every other consideration. - Flay them for their country's good, and they would not have flinched: Roman virtue did not exceed Freeland patience.

The Brushites acquired a degree of reputation, which they should have blushed to have received, since it was at the expense of Vortex. They pocketed it, however; for < suum cuique tribuetur,' was not to be found in their creed.

Some other fortunate circumstances had also occurred, by no means procceding from the judgement or wise dispositions of the Brushites, to dispel part of the gloom which overhung the tenantry. The Bantam had discovered, at least he had reason to discover, that —

66

They err, who count it glorious to subdue
Large countries, and in field great battles win
Great cities by assault: what do these worthies,
But rob and spoil, burn, slaughter, and enslave
Peaceable nations, neighbr'ing or remote,
Made captive, yet deserving freedom more
Than these their conqu'rors, who leave behind
Nothing but ruin wheresoe'er they rove,
And all the flourishing works of peace destroy;
Then swell with pride, and must be titled gods,
Great benefactors of mankind, deliv'rers,
Worshipp'd with temples, priests, and sacrifice;
Till conqu❜ror Death discover them scarce men?"

Milton.

-He had not met with Death, but another conqueror, who had furnished him with a second edition of the Acre. After having expelled Eagle Frederic from his manor, the Bantam had marched into Noland, a part of which be longed to the lord of the Bearskins, and there he was encountered by the Bearskin forces. After an almost continued series of very sanguinary battles, the little Man found that he had met with his master again, and he was obliged to begin his retreat, in which his army was harassed by the

conquerors and daily diminished. It appeared that he was an instrument in the hand of Providence, who had hitherto protected him for his wise purposes; and laughed to scorn all the attempts of earthly lords to bring him down. His downfall was to be effected only at his own time, and by such instruments as he should choose; and both the one and the others were when, and by whom it was least expected. It was as if he had said:- The glory shall be mine alone! The ambitious, sanguinary, haughty despot no sooner experienced that

[ocr errors][merged small]

The wise their conduct lose; the strong, their force • 'Tis heav'n alone the fate of empire weighs;

Whose pow'r, resistless by all human force,
Derides our prudence, and our shallow foresight,
By interposing the minutest accidents,

Unthought-of, unforeseen by man's dim eyes,
Tears from the victor what he thought secure,
And turns the fate of battle.".

-He no sooner experienced the truth of all this, and beheld the sanguinary field bestrewed with infinitely greater numbers of his own troops,

than of the enemy, than with affected philan. thropy he bewailed the effects of wild ambition, attributing them, however, to his victorious enemy. But these hypocrites deceive themselves most, who imagine that they deceive the world. The crocodile!-

"In Egypt thus, from the fermented mud,
The genial Sun raises a monstrous brood:
Th' amphibious monster quits his wat❜ry den
With hideous rush, and sweeps the trembling plain :
Destroys all round! yet then, with pious tears,
He moans, he murders; weeps, but never spares."

[ocr errors]

When Xerxes, king of Persia, was leading an army of 200,000 men from Asia into Europe to invade Greece, he is said to have made this humane reflection: "How sad it is to think, that, of so many thousand fine men, in an hundred years time, there would not be one remaining!" And he is said to have wept at this instance of the instability and uncertainty of human affairs. - He, as well as the Bantam, might have found another subject of reflection, which would have more justly merited tears and affliction; if they had turned their

VOL. III.

[ocr errors]

K

« ÀÌÀü°è¼Ó »