[99] Warton on “Pope.”
[100] See his “Querist,” p. 358, published in 1737.
[101] “Siris; or, Reflections on Tar Water.”
[102] Sermon in Trinity College Chapel on “Passive Obedience,” 1712.
[103] “Gentleman’s Magazine,” 1777.
[104] He published the “Vindiciæ Gallicæ” in 1791; he gave his lectures in 1799; he appeared as Peltier’s advocate in the same year; he entered Parliament in 1813; he delivered his celebrated speech against the Foreign Enlistment Bill in 1819, and carried his motion pledging the House of Commons to an improvement in the criminal law in 1822; his work on “Ethics” was published in 1830; his “History of England” in 1830-31.
[105] B. Constant was another instance of this kind, and it is singular to see Mackintosh himself thus judging him:—“Few men have turned talent to less account than Constant. His powers of mind are very great, but as they have always been exerted on the events of the moment, and as his works want that laboured perfection which is more necessary but more difficult in such writings than in any others, they have left us a vague or faint reputation which will scarcely survive the speaker or writer.”
[106] Letter to Mr. Taylor. “Writings,” vol. xii. s. 212.
[107] Page 393.
[108] People are often at this day disputing as to whether a particular picture is by the master it is attributed to, or by one of his scholars. A peculiarity of genius in an artist is to create first-rate imitators in those who live in his society; and it is not unworthy of notice that one of the best pieces of writing in Cobbett’s best style is “The Rat Hunt” (Political Register, vol. xci. p. 380), and was by the pen of Mr. J. M. Cobbett, Mr. Cobbett’s son.