thus assailed on both sides, they must, cussion, between the contending para as a political party, soon cease to have ties which we denominate, (for want of any being; and that with their fall, more proper terms of distinction) Whig the old and well tried balance of the and Tory? Let us first calmly consider constitution will be destroyed, and the what is the actual situation of the liberties of the nation delivered over, country, and then, if we can persuade bound and fettered, to all the extre- ourselves that it is really such as to mities which the prevalence of despo- leave those who have its interests at tism or anarchy may inflict upon them. heart, sufficient leisure to devote I am quite convinced that this deplo- themselves to this war of words, and rable crisis is not to be averted on the that they can devote themselves to it part of the Whigs, by the weak com- securely, there is no more to be said. promise of a single constitutional prin- But, if higher and more iminediate ciple in the way of concession to po- duties not only require their attention, pular clamour and insolence; and I but are of such a nature as to demand am equally certain, that it must be it entirely, what true Englishman incalculably accelerated by the system will persist for a moment longer in of abuse and recrimination so diligent- the useless, the more than useless, exly pursued by the government writers ercise ? The nation is no longer diagainst the remnant of a party, which, vided between Whig and Tory, or bethough politically opposed, is essen- tween Churchman and Dissenter, or tially united to them by one common between Protestant and Catholic; but interest against their more formidable between those of all parties who acand radical opponents. It is by knowledge an interest, and who claim measures of concession to and con- a right, in the preservation of the ciliation with all those of every class commonwealth, and those whose only and mode of opinion to whom the ark aim, secret or open, is to destroy it. of the constitution is yet properly the It is impossible that any man, wheobject of veneration and care, and not ther he be Whig or Tory, can be so by the proud and uncompromising blinded by the bigotry of faction, as spirit of injustice, which would con- not to be internally convinced, that found all shades and diversities of it is as much the desire and the object doubt and dissent in one indiscrimi- of those of the contrary party, as it is nate charge of rebellion, that the state his own, to defend the real interests is now to be defended against the at- of the state against the enemies who tacks of those who are openly pledged are leagued together for its overthrow. and sworn to its subversion; and it is Then why any longer stoop to employ well said by the author whom I have that false and execrable jargon, the before cited, with feelings very different sole tendency of which, is to confound from those of entire approbation,- the proudest and best established dis“Les amis aveugles des mesures vio- tinctions, and by levelling the barriers lentes tombent sans cesse dans la même of truth, to expose the constitution, erreur. C'est au despotisme qu'ils de- unarmed and naked, to every shaft mandent la reparation des maux que le which is aimed at its existence? Let despotisme a causés. Quand un état me ask,--setting aside all motives of est prêt a peri faute de liberté, ils ap- prudence and true political wisdompellent à leur secours plus de servitude whether, in common justice between encore, et c'est par un accroissement man and man, the Whigs are strictly d'arbitraire qu'ils croient apaiser le chargeable as a body, with all the besoin des garanties. Mais le pouvoir warm and intemperate expressions, absolu n'est pas comme la lance d' with all the extravagant doctrines or Achille-il ne guerit point les blessures principles, to which the fury of the qu'il a faites-il les envenime et les moment may have given birth in cerrend incurables." tain individuals of the party, any Now, if there is any truth in this more than these whose profession is observation, and I think that every that of attachment to the existing goday's political experience more and vernment, are deserving of having immore tends to confirm it,) how does puted to them, in the mass, the exit apply to the habit of perpetual a- ploded chimera of the divine right of buse and altercation to which the kings, or the more dangerous notion public is condemned to listen, in the of the perfection of absolute monarform of sound argument and fair disa chy, upon which many of their too Extract of a Letter relative to the Death of Voltaire, and that of Jean Jacques Rousseau. M. de Voltaire has just terminated to endure me at her side.” He was his long career amid the honours paid not allowed to be interred in Paris ; to him by Parisian enthusiasm. He and the church in which he was was crowned at the Theatre Français, buried at Troyes en Champagne, has at the close of the representation of been interdicted. His punishment his Irene, a tragedy which savours was well merited by him, seeing that strongly of the chilled age when he he protested, until his latest hour, wrote it. On quitting the theatre, he against the divinity of Jesus Christ. was surrounded by the minor poets, He even composed the following epiwho demanded, on their knees, the gram, if it may be so named, against honour of kissing his hands. This religion, and repeated it to his friends, excess of enthusiasm, which was very when the agonies of death were fast ridiculous, became still more absurd approaching. on his reaching the house of Mr Adieu, mes amis, Franklin, who fell on his knees, and Adieu, la compagnie, asked a blessing of him for his young Dans une heure d'ici, nephew. The excruciating pains felt Mon ame, anéantie, by M. de Voltaire led him to ask a Sera ce qu'elle était une heure avant ma vie. remedy of his friend M. D. Richelieu, I have not heard that he has as yet who laboured under the same come had an epitaph bestowed on him, unplaint. The latter sent him opium, less the ines which have been handed the remedy to which he had himself about, and which are quite in the had recourse ; and by its abuse he was epigrammatic style, are to be considerpoisoned. In his latest moments, he ed as such. expressed a wish to consult M. Tron- De Voltaire admirez la bizarre planette : chin, of whom, however, he did not Il naquit chez Ninon, et mourut chez Villette. entertain the most favourable opinion, The latter is a young Swiss lady, of and treated him as a quack, his art as whom he was greatly enamoured, and imposture, &c. Exasperated at these whom he had married to M. de insults, M. Tronchin told him, with Villette.* much gravity, that, at the most, he Jean Jacques Rousseau has rendere had not more than two hours to live, ed his end singularly interesting by and that therefore it behoved him to the memoirs of his life, in which he see to his affairs. On this observation has made an exact avowal of all his he was desired to withdraw. actions. These memoirs are comprised M. de Voltaire now raised himself in an octavo volume, which sells at a on his bed, with the help of his nurse most extravagant price. It is even and of his notary. The latter having said that copies have been purchased handled him somewhat roughly, re- at as high a rate as eighty livres, (more ceived a cuff, the force of which led than three guineas,) and from that to him to enter his protest against the twenty-five. The dearness of the prognostic of the ctor. As soon as book arises from the vigilance of the he was recovered from the disorder police, and from its interest-for M. into which the awkwardness of the Rousseau has developed in it the innotary had thrown him, he said to trigue of his novel. It is as follows: himself, “ At length I am to die.- His Julie is Mademoiselle de MontBe it so; but let my end be conform- morency, married to a French nobleable to my life. It is more than pro- man, whose name I have not been bable that my body will be deposited able to learn, and whom he styles in the Chantier (timber-yard) of Madame Wolmar. This unfortunate Maurapas, where the ashes of La female has been long dead ; and it is Couvreur* repose. Forty years ago said by several persons who were acshe would not permit me to sleep with quainted with Rousseau, that from her, but she will now be constrained that time he became unsocial and mis * A celebrated actress, denied, with all those of her profession in the Catholic states, Christian burial. + These details were given by M. Mercier, who was present when M. de Voltaire breathed his last. mar. anthropic. He acknowledges that he others, he presented to them this fehad carried on, during three months, male, saying, “ I call God and my an illicit intercourse with Madame de friends to witness that I acknowledge Montmorency, the mother of his Julie; no other wife beside Mademoiselle le and that this lady, conceiving herself to Vasseur.” By this woman he had four be the only object of his homage, had children, three of whom are, agreeably confided to him the education of her to his testimony, in the foundling hosdaughter, whom he seduced: That a pital. With the destiny of the other nobleman had demanded her in mar- he professes to be unacquainted. riage and that he, Rousseau, having (Here is introduced an extract from had satisfactory proofs of the probity the preface to THE CONFESSIONS," of this nobleman, had beseeched him already before the public. What folnot to entail misery on the young lows, as referring to the manner of lady and on himself. To this he con- Rousseau's death, is not so well known. sented, and retired to his country seat. A loose hint is thrown out by Madame This personage is his Milord Edouard. de Staël, in her memoirs of this exThat the Viscount de Montmorency, traordinary character, that a suspicion who is still living, * on his return was entertained of his having been from the war in Hanover, having pere taken off by poison. The particulars ceived that intrigues were carrying on are these.) under his roof, dismissed M. Rousseau, The mausoleum of Jean Jacques and married his daughter to the no- Rousseau is at Ermenonville, where bleman known by the name of Wol. he died, in the house of his friend the He also says, that having be- Marquis de Girardin. The cause of come desperately enamoured of Mad- his death has been disguised, by as, ame de Montmorency's female atten- cribing it to an attack of apoplexy. dant, his passion carried him to such He died of poison, because his mea length as to instigate him to steal a moirs had appeared before the time gold trinket belonging to her mistress, he had prescribed ; and it was the inwith a view to criminate her: That fidelity of his mistress, who had stolen having thrown out suspicions against them from him, which led him to this unfortunate girl, he caused her have recourse to poison. He is buried to be sent to prison, to the end that, in a small island formed by a lake, in as her deliverer, he might acquire cer the centre of a sombre group of trees, tain rights over her person; and that, in which he took particular delight. if she had not yielded to his passion, On one side of his tomb, which is a he would have had the courage to see square of six feet, surmounted by a her hanged, and to despatch himself cornucopia, M. Girardin has inscribed afterwards with a poignard: That the following lines. being in extreme distress, a doctor of Ici, sous ces ombres paisibles, the Sorbonne, whom he names, pro Pour les restes de Jean Jacques Rousseau, posed to him to write against religion. L'amitié posa ce tombeau : This offer he accepted, and took care Mais c'est dans tous les cours sensibles to fulfil his engagement. He names Que cet homme divin, qui fut tout sentiment, a dozen women of quality, still living, Doit trouver du respect l'eternal monument. from whom he received favours, at The other side of the tomb has a times and under circumstances, which musical trophy for his operatic piece, carry with them a great air of proba- LE DEVIN DE VILLAGE.” Behind bility. His mistress is the daughter is a woman in tears, giving her breast of M. le Vasseur, a director of imposts to an infant, who holds in his hands at Dijon. By his persuasives she was " L'EMILE. The third side repreled to elope with him. Having sents two doves billing, as an emblem brought together, at a dinner party, of the “ NOUVELLE HELOISE." Messrs Diderot, d'Alembert, and * This was written shortly after the death of Rousseau. D Vol. VII. THE RAPE OF PROSERPINE. (SCENE—The Vale of Enna.) a PROSERPINE, VIRGINS. Proser. Now come and sit around me, And I'll divide the flowers, and give to each What most becomes her beauty. What a vale Is this of Enna! Every thing that comes From the green earth, springs here more graciously, And the blue day, methinks, smiles lovelier now Than it was wont even in Sicily. My spirit mounts as triumphing, and my heart, In which the red blood hides, seems tumulted By some delicious passion. Look, above, Above: How nobly thro' the cloudless sky The great Apollo goes—Jove's radiant son My father's son: and here, below, the bosom Of the green earth is almost hid by flowers. Who would be sad to-day! Come round, and cast Each one her odorous heap from out her lap Into one pile. Some we'll divide among us, And, for the rest, we'll fling them to the Hours ; So may Aurora's path become more fair, And we be blest in giving. Here~This rose (This one half-blown) shall be my Maia's portion, For that, like it, her blush is beautiful : And this deep violet, almost as blue As Pallas' eye, or thine, Lycimnia, I'll give to thee, for like thyself it wears Its sweetness, never obtruding. For this lily, Where can it hang but at Cyane's breast? And yet 'twill wither on so white a bed, If flowers have sense for envy :-It shall lie Amongst thy raven tresses, Cytheris, Like one star on the bosom of the night. The cowslip and the yellow primrose-they Are gone, my sad Leontia, to their graves, And April hath wept o'er them, and the voice Of March hath sung, even before their deaths, The dirge of those young children of the year.But here is heart's-ease for your woes. The honey-suckle flower I give to thee, And love it for my sake, my own Cyane : It hangs upon the stem it loves, as thou Hast clung to me thro' every joy and sorrow; It flourishes with its guardian's growth, as thou dost; And if the woodman's axe should droop the tree, The woodbine too must perish.-Hark! what sound Do ye see aught ? ܀ And now, CHORUS Behold, behold, Proserpina ! Comes onward : As he moves along the ground, SEMICHORUS. ( Cyane.) Of us may wisely look upon. a PLUTO enters. Pluto. Stay, oh! stay, . |
