SYDNEY, whom all the pow’rs of rhetoric grace.
Consistent SYDNEY fills FITZWILLIAM’s place;
O, had by nature but proportion’d been
His strength of genius to his length of chin,
His mighty mind in some prodigious plan
At once with ease had reach’d to Indostan!
The idea conveyed in these lines, of the possibility of a feature in the human face extending to so prodigious a distance as the East-Indies, has been objected to as some-what hyperbolical. But those who are well acquainted with the person as well as the character of the noble lord alluded to, and who are unquestionably the best judges of the extent of the compliment, will certainly be of a different opinion. Neither indeed is the objection founded in truth, but must have arisen merely from the passage not having been properly understood. It by no means supposes his Lordship to have literally a chin of such preposterous dimensions, as must be imagined for the purpose of reaching to the East-Indies; but figuratively speaking, only purports, that, if his Lordship’s mental, faculties are co-extensive with that distinguished feature of his face, they may readily embrace, and be competent to the consideration of the most distant objects. The meaning of the author is so obvious, that this cavil probably originated in wilful misapprehension, with a view of detracting from the merit of one of the most beautiful passages in the whole poem.
What reader can refuse his admiration to the following lines, in which the leading features of the characters are so justly, strongly, and at the same time so concisely delineated?
Acute observers, who with skilful ken
Descry the characters of public men,
Rejoice that pow’r and patronage should pass
From jobbing MONTAGUE to pure DUNDAS;
Exchange with pleasure, ELLIOT, LEW’SHAM, NORTH,
For MULGRAVE’s tried integrity and worth;
And all must own, that worth completely tried,
By turns experienc’d upon every side.
How happy is the selection of epithets in these lines! How forcibly descriptive of the character to which they are applied! In the same strain he proceeds:—
Whate’er experience GREGORY might boast,
Say, is not WALSINGHAM himself a host?
His grateful countrymen, with joyful eyes,
From SACKVILLE’s ashes see this Phœnix rise:
Perhaps with all his master’s talents blest,
To save the East as he subdu’d the West.
The historical allusion is here judiciously introduced; and the pleasing prospect hinted at of the same happy issue attending our affairs in the Eastern, that has already crowned them in the Western world, must afford peculiar satisfaction to the feelings of every British reader.
The next character is most ingeniously described, but like a former one, containing some personal allusions, requires, in order to be fully understood, a more intimate acquaintance with the exterior qualifications of the gentleman in question, than can have fallen to the lot of every reader. All who have had the pleasure of seeing him, however, will immediately acknowledge the resemblance of the portrait.
See next advance, in knowing FLETCHER’s stead,
A youth, who boasts no common share of head;
What plenteous stores of knowledge may contain
The spacious tenement of GRENVILLE’s brain!
Nature, in all her dispensations wise,
Who form’d his head-piece of so vast a size,
Hath not, ’tis true, neglected to bestow
Its due proportion to the part below;
And hence we reason, that, to serve the state,
His top and bottom may have equal weight.
Every reader will naturally conceive, that in the description of the principal person of the board, the author has exerted the whole force of his genius, and he will not find his expectations disappointed; he has reserved him for the last, and has judiciously evaded disgracing him by a comparison with any other, upon the principle, no doubt, quoted from Mr. Theobald, by that excellent critic, Martinus Scriblerus: