THE POETRY OF THE " ANTI-JACOBIN."

Ix is more than thirty years since Mr. Charles Edmonds brought out his second annotated edition of The Poetry of the "Anti-Jacobin," and the time is fully ripe for the third, which has now appeared, supplemented by quotations from the prose satires, many of them scarcely inferior to the poetry. These squibs of Canning and Frere have long established themselves

as the best in the language, and continue to assert their in- fluence by the number of unconscious quotations they supply. Not one man in a hundred knows that the now hackneyed wheeze, "A sudden thought strikes me, let us swear eternal friendship," is taken from "The Rovers," in the Anti- Jacobin; and the list of similar phrases is a long one.

Among parodies, the Rejected Addresses have passed through more editions and been more widely read ; but they have

had a borrowed life, dependent upon the popularity of the great poets with whom they trifled, while the literary parodies of Canning and Frere have long outlived the works which gave rise to them. We still read how love—

",Cools the crimpt cod, fierce pangs to perch imparts, Shrinks shrivelled shrimps, but opens oysters' hearts,"

and the eloquent reproach to ill-placed ambition :—

" Ah ! who has seen the mailed lobster rise,

Clap her broad wings, and, soaring, claim the skies ? "

As for the political satires, not only did they do their work of stemming the tide of revolutionary opinion in England more effectively than anything of the kind in history, but their wit, their universality, their applicability to the recurring follies and excesses of politicians, over and over again displayed, make them almost as fresh reading to-clay as when they were written. "The Friend of Humanity" is a constant type ; the "Lines written in Elizabeth Brownrigg's Cell" might have been inspired by Mr. O'Brien's sufferings ; "the sweet accord of harmony and love" in which the luckless Lamb was so unjustly made to move, bears a striking resemblance to our own "Union of Hearts." The friend of every country but his own is with us still, and at no time has the "New Morality" had a larger following. By far the most famous lines in this, Canning's crowning effort, are those containing the celebrated invective against the "Candid Friend." The outbreak is characteristic of the spirit of the Anti-Jacobin, for the candid friend here satirised is not, as it is now generally taken, the covert and insidious foe, but the man who is capable of being fair to his opponents. Writing at a white- heat of party passion, regarding all who were not with them as against them, and guilty—to use the phrase of the old Examiner—of an infamous neutrality, Canning and his friends poured indiscriminate abuse upon every one in any way connected with the other side. In such a frame of mind, no virtue could be more detestable than genuine candour :—

" Much may be said on both sides. Hark ! I hear A well-known voice that murmurs in my ear, The voice of Candour. Hail! most solemn sage, Thou drivelling virtue of this moral age : Candour—which softens party's headlong rage; Candour—which spares its foes ;—nor e'er descends With bigot zeal to combat for its friends."

This kind of candour may be weak and flabby indecision, but-

" the bold, uncompromising mind

Whose principles are fixed, whose views defined,"

is just as likely to be the mind of a prejudiced bigot. At

this distance of time, it is not quite easy to be severe enough in regard to the scurrilities of the Anti-Jacobin, or their effect in holding the worthy as well as the unworthy up to popular hatred and contempt ; but the poets of the Anti-Jacobin were not unique offenders in this respect. They are mildness and good taste itself compared to the caricatures of Gillray ; and the other side had equal venom, if less wit. Even so they contain much that can neither be extenuated nor excused.

The chief additions to the present edition are a number of prose satires, and a curious, abusive, and satirical index, issued after the Anti-Jacobin had run its brief course of thirty-six numbers. One of the chief functions of the paper was to classify the statements of the Opposition Press, under the head of "Lies, Misrepresentations, and Mistakes." The Morning Chronicle is dealt with as follows in the index :—

" Morning Chronicle : its impiety, its blasphemy—its falsehood— The Poetry of the "Anti-Jacobin." Comprising the Celebrated Political and Satirical Poems of the Right Hons. G. Canning, John Hookham Frere, W. Pitt, the Marquis Wellesley, G. Ellis, W. Gifford. the Earl of Carlisle, and others. Edited, with Explanatory Notes, &c., by Charles Edmonds Third Edition, considerably. Enlarged, with 6 Illustrations by James Gillray. London: Sampson Low and Co. 1890. its historical, geographical, and political ignorance—its insolence, baseness, and stupidity—passim, passim."

And Erskine, whose egotism made him Cann;ng's favourite butt, is thus indexed "Erskine, Mr., his definition of Himself at the Meeting of the Friends of Freedom—clothed with the infirmities of man's nature —in many respects a finite being—disclaims all pretensions to superhuman powers—has been both a soldier and a sailor—has a son at Winchester School—has been called by special retainers into many parts of the country, travelling chiefly in post-chaises- is of noble, perhaps Royal, blood—has a house at Hampstead."

This refers to an amusing report of the meeting of the Friends of Freedom, which opens as follows :— "The House of Russell' being given, Lord John and Lord William both rose at once. Lord John made a very neat, and Lord William a very appropriate speech. Alderman Coombe made a very impressive speech. Mr. Tierney made a very pointed speech. Mr. Grey made a very fine speech. He described the Ministers as 'bold bad men,' their measures he repeatedly declared to be not only weak but wicked.' " Then follows a ludicrous parody of Erskine's style, of which some idea may be formed from the entry in the index.

Canning's Muse did not become silent for ever, when Pitt thought that it was time for his rising supporter to give up his connection with the paper. Some of his most effective shafts were aimed at the Addington Ministry, and Mr. Edmonds would have done well to include them in his appendix. About the authorship of the particular pieces he has nothing new to say on this occasion ; but he incorporates some further information which has appeared since his last edition.

Sydney Smith, the last man, one would have thought, to throw doubts on the alliance of wit and wisdom, tried to dis- parage Canning as a mere trifler and diner-out; but it was just his keen political sense and skill in fastening on the weak points of his opponents, that gave these squibs their unparalleled effectiveness. It is this that distinguishes" Canning's work in the Anti-Jacobin from Moore's in the Twopenny Postbag. In the latter we laugh at the description of the Regent's break- fast "The table spread with tea and toast, Death-warrants, and the Morning Post;" and at the parody of his letter to the Duke of York on assuming the Regency :— "A strait-waistcoat for him, and restrictions for me, A more limited monarchy scarce could well be."

But Moore's wit seldom left a sting behind. It is far otherwise with Canning's The political cartoon has now largely super- seded the squib ; and even in Canning's time the successor of the Anti-Jacobin; placed its chief reliance on Gillray's venomous cartoons. Punch has refined us since then, and both Canning and Gillray, if they were now alive, would have to modify something of their work.