A Budget of Paradoxes Volume I Part 44

[392] This child was a daughter. She became Sh.e.l.ley's wife, and G.o.dwin's influence on Sh.e.l.ley was very marked.

[393] This was John Nichols (1745-1826), the publisher and antiquary. He edited the _Gentleman's Magazine_ (1792-1826) and his works include the _Literary Anecdotes of the Eighteenth Century_ (1812-1815), to which De Morgan here refers.

[394] William b.e.l.l.e.n.den, a Scotch professor at the University of Paris, who died about 1633. His textbooks are now forgotten, but Parr edited an edition of his works in 1787. The Latin preface, _Praefatio ad b.e.l.l.e.n.dum de Statu_, was addressed to Burke, North, and Fox, and was a satire on their political opponents.

[395] As we have seen, he had been head-master before he began taking "his handful of private pupils."

[396] The story has evidently got mixed up in the telling, for Tom Sheridan (1721-1788), the great actor, was old enough to have been Dr. Parr's father. It was his son, Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751-1816), the dramatist and politician, who was the pupil of Parr. He wrote _The Rivals_ (1775) and _The School for Scandal_ (1777) soon after Parr left Harrow.

[397] Horner (1785-1864) was a geologist and social reformer. He was very influential in improving the conditions of child labor.

[398] William Cobbett (1762-1835), the journalist, was a character not without interest to Americans. Born in Surrey, he went to America at the age of thirty and remained there eight years. Most of this time he was occupied as a bookseller in Philadelphia, and while thus engaged he was fined for libel against the celebrated Dr. Rush. On his return to England he edited the _Weekly Political Register_ (1802-1835), a popular journal among the working cla.s.ses. He was fined and imprisoned for two years because of his attack (1810) on military flogging, and was also (1831) prosecuted for sedition. He further showed his paradox nature by his _History of the Protestant Reformation_ (1824-1827), an attack on the prevailing Protestant opinion. He also wrote a _Life of Andrew Jackson_ (1834). After repeated attempts he succeeded in entering parliament, a result of the Reform Bill.

[399] Robinson (1735-1790) was a Baptist minister who wrote several theological works and a number of hymns. His work at Cambridge so offended the students that they at one time broke up the services.

[400] This work had pa.s.sed through twelve editions by 1823.

[401] Dyer (1755-1841), the poet and reformer, edited Robinson's _Ecclesiastical Researches_ (1790). He was a life-long friend of Charles Lamb, and in their boyhood they were schoolmates at Christ's Hospital. His _Complaints of the Poor People of England_ (1793) made him a worthy companion of the paradoxers above mentioned.

[402] These were John Thelwall (1764-1834) whose _Politics for the People or Hogswash_ (1794) took its t.i.tle from the fact that Burke called the people the "swinish mult.i.tude." The book resulted in sending the author to the Tower for sedition. In 1798 he gave up politics and started a school of elocution which became very famous. Thomas Hardy (1752-1832), who kept a bootmaker's shop in Piccadilly, was a fellow prisoner with Thelwall, being arrested for high treason. He was founder (1792) of The London Corresponding Society, a kind of clearing house for radical a.s.sociations throughout the country. Horne Tooke was really John Horne (1736-1812), he having taken the name of his friend William Tooke in 1782. He was a radical of the radicals, and organized a number of reform societies. Among these was the Const.i.tutional Society that voted money (1775) to a.s.sist the American revolutionists, appointing him to give the contribution to Franklin. For this he was imprisoned for a year. With his fellow rebels in the Tower in 1794, however, he was acquitted. As a philologist he is known for his early advocacy of the study of Anglo-Saxon and Gothic, and his _Diversions of Purley_ (1786) is still known to readers.

[403] This was the admiral, Adam Viscount Duncan (1731-1804), who defeated the Dutch off Camperdown in 1797.

[404] He was created Duke of Clarence and St. Andrews in 1789 and was Admiral of the Fleet escorting Louis XVIII on his return to France in 1814.

He became Lord High Admiral in 1827, and reigned as William IV from 1830 to 1837.

[405] This was Charles Abbott (1762-1832) first Lord Tenterden. He succeeded Lord Ellenborough as Chief Justice (1818) and was raised to the peerage in 1827. He was a strong Tory and opposed the Catholic Relief Bill, the Reform Bill, and the abolition of the death penalty for forgery.

[406] Edward Law (1750-1818), first Baron Ellenborough. He was chief counsel for Warren Hastings, and his famous speech in defense of his client is well known. He became Chief Justice and was raised to the peerage in 1802. He opposed all efforts to modernize the criminal code, insisting upon the reactionary principle of new death penalties.

[407] Edmund Law (1703-1787), Bishop of Carlisle (1768), was a good deal more liberal than his son. His _Considerations on the Propriety of requiring subscription to the Articles of Faith_ (1774) was published anonymously. In it he a.s.serts that not even the clergy should be required to subscribe to the thirty-nine articles.

[408] Joe Miller (1684-1738), the famous Drury Lane comedian, was so illiterate that he could not have written the _Joe Miller's Jests, or the Wit's Vade-Mec.u.m_ that appeared the year after his death. It was often reprinted and probably contained more or less of Miller's own jokes.

[409] The sixth duke (1766-1839) was much interested in parliamentary reform. He was a member of the Society of Friends of the People. He was for fourteen years a member of parliament (1788-1802) and was later Lord Lieutenant of Ireland (1806-1807). He afterwards gave up politics and became interested in agricultural matters.

[410] George Jeffreys (c. 1648-1689), the favorite of James II, who was active in prosecuting the Rye House conspirators. He was raised to the peerage in 1684 and held the famous "b.l.o.o.d.y a.s.size" in the following year, being made Lord Chancellor as a result. He was imprisoned in the Tower by William III and died there.

[411] _The Every Day Book, forming a Complete History of the Year, Months, and Seasons, and a perpetual Key to the Almanack_, 1826-1827.

[412] The first and second editions appeared in 1820. Two others followed in 1821.

[413] _The three trials of W. H., for publis.h.i.+ng three parodies; viz the late John Wilkes' Catechism, the Political Litany, and the Sinecurists Creed; on three ex-officio informations, at Guildhall, London, ... Dec. 18, 19, & 20, 1817_,... London, 1818.

[414] The _Political Litany_ appeared in 1817.

[415] That is, Castlereagh's.

[416] The well-known caricaturist (1792-1878), then only twenty-nine years old.

[417] Robert Stewart (1769-1822) was second Marquis of Londonderry and Viscount Castlereagh. As Chief Secretary for Ireland he was largely instrumental in bringing about the union of Ireland and Great Britain. He was at the head of the war department during most of the Napoleonic wars, and was to a great extent responsible for the European coalition against the Emperor. He suicided in 1822.

[418] John Murray (1778-1843), the well-known London publisher. He refused to finish the publication of Don Juan, after the first five cantos, because of his Tory principles.

[419] Only the first two cantos appeared in 1819.

[420] Proclus (412-485), one of the greatest of the neo-Platonists, studied at Alexandria and taught philosophy at Athens. He left commentaries on Plato and on part of Euclid's _Elements_.

[421] Thomas Taylor (1758-1835), called "the Platonist," had a liking for mathematics, and was probably led by his interest in number mysticism to a study of neo-Platonism. He translated a number of works from the Latin and Greek, and wrote two works on theoretical arithmetic (1816, 1823).

[422] There was an earlier edition, 1788-89.

[423] Georgius Gemistus, or Georgius Pletho (Plethon), lived in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. He was a native of Constantinople, but spent most of his time in Greece. He devoted much time to the propagation of the Platonic philosophy, but also wrote on divinity, geography, and history.

[424] Hannah More (1745-1833), was, in her younger days, a friend of Burke, Reynolds, Dr. Johnson, and Garrick. At this time she wrote a number of poems and aspired to become a dramatist. Her _Percy_ (1777), with a prologue and epilogue by Garrick, had a long run at Covent Garden. Somewhat later she came to believe that the playhouse was a grave public evil, and refused to attend the revival of her own play with Mrs. Siddons in the leading part. After 1789 she and her sisters devoted themselves to starting schools for poor children, teaching them religion and housework, but leaving them illiterate.

[425] These were issued at the rate of three each month,--a story, a ballad, and a Sunday tract. They were collected and published in one volume in 1795. It is said that two million copies were sold the first year. There were also editions in 1798, 1819, 1827, and 1836-37.

[426] That is, Dr. Johnson (1709-1784). The _Rambler_ was published in 1750-1752, and was an imitation of Addison's _Spectator_.

[427] Dr. Moore, referred to below.

[428] Dr. John Moore (1729-1802), physician and novelist, is now best known for his _Journal during a Residence in France from the beginning of August to the middle of December, 1792_, a work quoted frequently by Carlyle in his _French Revolution_.

[429] Sir John Moore (1761-1809), Lieutenant General in the Napoleonic wars. He was killed in the battle of Corunna. The poem by Charles Wolfe (1791-1823), _The Burial of Sir John Moore_ (1817), is well known.

[430] Referring to the novels of Thomas Love Peac.o.c.k (1785-1866), who succeeded James Mill as chief examiner of the East India Company, and was in turn succeeded by John Stuart Mill.

[431] Frances Burney, Madame d'Arblay (1752-1840), married General d'Arblay, a French officer and companion of Lafayette, in 1793. She was only twenty-five when she acquired fame by her _Evelina, or a Young Lady's Entrance into the World_. Her _Letters and Diaries_ appeared posthumously (1842-45).

[432] Henry Peter, Baron Brougham and Vaux (1778-1868), well known in politics, science, and letters. He was one of the founders of the _Edinburgh Review_, became Lord Chancellor in 1830, and took part with men like William Frend, De Morgan's father-in-law, in the establis.h.i.+ng of London University. He was also one of the founders of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge. He was always friendly to De Morgan, who entered the faculty of London University, whose work on geometry was published by the Society mentioned, and who was offered the degree of doctor of laws by the University of Edinburgh while Lord Brougham was Lord Rector. The Edinburgh honor was refused by De Morgan who said he "did not feel like an LL.D."

[433] Maria Edgeworth (1767-1849).

[434] Sydney Owenson (c. 1783-1859) married Sir Thomas Morgan, a well-known surgeon, in 1812. Her Irish stories were very popular with the patriots but were attacked by the _Quarterly Review_. _The Wild Irish Girl_ (1806) went through seven editions in two years.

[435] 1775-1817.

[436] 1771-1832.

[437] The famous preacher (1732-1808). He was the first chairman of the Religious Tract Society. He is also known as one of the earliest advocates of vaccination, in his _Cow-pock Inoculation vindicated and recommended from matters of fact_, 1806.

[438] Sir Rowland Hill (1795-1879), the father of penny postage.

[439] Beilby Porteus (1731-1808), Bishop of Chester (1776) and Bishop of London (1787). He encouraged the Sunday-school movement and the dissemination of Hannah More's tracts. He was an active opponent of slavery, but also of Catholic emanc.i.p.ation.

[440] Henrietta Maria Bowdler (1754-1830), generally known as Mrs. Harriet Bowdler. She was the author of many religious tracts and poems. Her _Poems and Essays_ (1786) were often reprinted. The story goes that on the appearance of her _Sermons on the Doctrines and duties of Christianity_ (published anonymously), Bishop Porteus offered the author a living under the impression that it was written by a man.