Political Pamphlets Part 12

_The new converts_.--After the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes.

_T.W._ is, of course, a mere fancy signature. It might stand for 'True Wellwisher' or anything. The wiseacres took it as ='W.T.,' William Temple.

II. THE SHORTEST WAY WITH THE DISSENTERS.

_Neither_, for 'too,' is colloquial but rather picturesque. Cf. the famous 'And yet but yaw neither' in _Hamlet_.

III. THE DRAPIER'S LETTERS.

I have not thought it desirable to reproduce the abundance of italics with which the original is furnished. They no doubt appealed to the vulgar, as where poor Mr. Wood is described as '_a mean ordinary man, a hard-ware dealer_.' But the vigour of the onslaught is wholly independent of them.

_Written_--by Swift himself.

_Bere_, or 'bear,' also 'bigg,' a kind of barley largely cultivated in Ireland, Scotland, and Northern England. It has six rows in the ear, and will grow in much poorer ground and a much damper and rougher climate than the two-rowed variety. It is also, I believe, still thought to give the best whisky, if not the best beer, when malted.

_Conolly_.--Speaker of the Irish House of Commons.

_Pistole_--about ten s.h.i.+llings.

_Brought to the bullion_ seems here to have the meaning of the French _billonner_ or _envoyer au billon_, 'to melt for recoining.'

_Our Caesar's statue_.--The statue of George I. on Ess.e.x Bridge, Dublin.

IV. SECOND LETTER ON A REGICIDE PEACE.

_Contignation_.--This rather pedantic, and now, I think, quite obsolete word (from _tignum_, 'beam') means 'having a common or continuous roof.'

The slackness of England in taking advantage of the Vendean and Chouan movements, of which Burke here complains, has never been fully explained. The poltroonery of the Bourbon princes, and the factions of the emigrants, throw a certain but not a complete light on it; and though conjectural explanations are obvious enough, there is little positive evidence to support them.

_But when the possibility ... that the_.--It will probably seem to a modern reader that either 'that' or 'the' has crept in improperly.

It might be so; but Burke still maintained the authoritative but rather inelegant tradition by which 'that,' like the French _que_, could replace any such antecedent word as 'when,' 'because,' etc.

_Louis the Sixteenth_.--To this is appended a note in the editions beginning, 'It may be right to do justice to Louis XVI. He did what he could to destroy the double diplomacy of France.' The subject has of late years received considerable ill.u.s.tration in the Duke of Broglie's _Le Secret du Roi_, and other works by the same author.

_Montalembert_.--Marc Rene, Marquis de (1714-1800), a voluminous military writer.

_Harrington_--of the _Oceana_.

V. PETER PLYMLEY'S LETTERS.

_Dear Abraham_.--'Peter Plymley' addresses his _Letters_ to 'my brother Abraham, who lives in the country,' and is a parson.

_Baron Maseres_.--Cursitor Baron of the Exchequer, a descendant of Huguenots, very well thought of by his contemporaries. Dr. Rennel I know not, unless he was the Herodotus man.

_C----_, Canning.

_Dr. Duigenan_.--A delightful person who, in his hot youth, as a junior Fellow of T.C., D., threatened to 'bulge the Provost's' [Provost Hely Hutchinson's] 'eye,' and was afterwards a pillar of Protestantism.

This _light and frivolous jester_ was _not_ the Rev. Sydney Smith, but George Canning, Esq.

_The pecuniary Rose_.--'Old George' Rose, Pitt's right hand. He was rather heavily rewarded with places and pensions; but even Liberals now admit that the country has hardly had an abler official.

_Lord Hawkesbury_, Jenkinson, better known as Lord Liverpool.

_Tickell_--the _Rolliad_ Tickell.

_Joel_--Peter's nephew and Abraham's son.

VI. LETTER TO THE JOURNEYMEN AND LABOURERS OF ENGLAND, WALES, SCOTLAND, AND IRELAND. LETTER TO JACK HARROW.

_Paint in the most horrid colours_.--See, for instance, _The b.l.o.o.d.y Buoy_ and _The Cannibal's Progress_, by William Cobbett.

_Flogging_.--Some of the militia mutinied at Ely, and were punished, the guard on the occasion being furnished by the cavalry of the German Legion. Cobbett noticed this in the most inflammatory manner, and it being war time, was indicted, tried, found guilty, and sentenced as he describes.

_Monks and friars_.--A time came when Cobbett thought and wrote very differently of these persons. But that was his way.

_Foundal_.--I do not know whether Cobbett invented this equivalent for _trouvaille_, 'windfall,' or not. His notable scheme for breaking the Bank is a good example of him in his insaner moods.

VII. FIRST LETTER OF MALACHI MALAGROWTHER.

_The Duenna_--Sheridan's.

_The Jury Court_.--Trial by jury in _civil_ cases was only introduced into Scotland in 1815.

_Evasive answer_--to the effect that each queen was the fairest woman in her own country.

_Doer_ = 'factor' or agent.

_Them_--as if 'Scotsmen' had been written for 'Scotland.'

_Chosen Five and Forty_--the original number of members a.s.signed to Scotland.

_Political pamphlet_--'The Public Spirit of the Whigs.'

_Durk, sic_ in original.

_Cessio, sc. bonorum_, whereby a debtor on giving up his property could be relieved of liabilities.

_Adjudication_, whereby a creditor could attach landed as well as personal property.

_Lauch_ = 'laugh.'