If, indeed, we go back to the characters of antiquity, we find others much better suited to our man, than these exalted natures; but there is one especially whose resemblance is such that we cannot help suspecting that there must be more than chance in it. He is described by Aristophanes, and with such lively and accurate traits, that no one can fail to recognise the type of our present hero. It has not, indeed, been reserved for the nineteenth century to discover that a measure promising cheap food is well suited to procure popularity and power, and that the favour of the people can most readily be obtained by courting that highly important organ, its stomach. (Nor can we altogether blame this judgment of the “popular bellua.”) The late contest between our political leaders is most amusingly similar to that described in the “Knights,” between the two candidates for the good graces of the Athenian Demos.
R. ὁρᾷς· ἐγώ σοι πρότερος ἐκφέρω δίφρον.
P. ἀλλ’ οὐ τράπεζαν· ἀλλ’ ἐγὼ προτεραίτερος.
R. ἰδοὺ φέρω σοι σάχχαρον Κύβης ἐγὼ,
ἤρτυνε δ’ αὐτὸν δοῦλος Ἀφρικανικός.
P. ἐγὼ δὲ μᾶζαν Ἰνδικὴν μεμαγμένην.
R. λαβέ νῦν πλακοῦντος πίονος παρ’ ἐμοῦ τόμον.
P. παρ’ ἐμοῦ δ’ ὅλον γε τὸν πλακοῦντα τουτονί.
But it is when we come to the crowning trick that we more especially recognise our patriot, that famous “coup” of the hare, which has shed immortal lustre on the ἀλλαντοπώλης. How exactly was Cleon like the Whigs, boasting K. ἀλλ’ οὐ λαγῷ’ ἕξεις ὁπόθεν δῷς· ἀλλ’ ἐγώ·
ΑΛΛΑΝ. οἴμοι. πόθεν λαγῷά μοι γενήσεται;
ὦ θυμὲ νυνὶ, βωμολόχον ἔξευρέ τι.
And how beautiful is the heaven-sent flash of genius which irradiates the mind of the Athenian Peel, when, distracting his adversary’s attention, by directing it to “envoys with bags of money,” he snatches away the choice tit-bit, and proffers it with his own hands to the chuckling Demos;— ΑΛΛΑΝ. ὦ Δημίδιον, ὁρᾷς τὰ λαγῷ’ ἅ σοι φέρω;
It is a stroke that may have been often imitated, but never surpassed, and must excite envy even in the breast of his present successful follower. And is not our modern trickster’s recognition of the services of Cobden, and his own claim of merit for his skilful “government influence,” almost prophetically expressed in the slightly varied line— P. τὸ μὲν νόημα Κοβδένος, τὸ δὲ κλέμμ’ ἐμόν.
and the contest for their respective claims to favour between himself and Lord John? R. ἐγὼ δ’ ἐκινδύνευσ’. P. Greek: ἐγὼ δ’ ὤπτησά γε.
with the pithy judgement of the Demos, ἄπιθ’· οὐ γὰρ ἀλλὰ τοῦ παραθέντος ἡ χάρις.[13]
Yes, when we read this it is impossible to hesitate; an Attic colony must have settled in England, and the sausage-seller’s progeny must still be thriving among us. The blood of the ἀλλαντοπώλης must yet be circulating in the veins of the κοτωνοπώλης of the day.
Yet when we read of our sausage-seller’s subsequent career, we feel that we have done him injustice; most widely different is his policy as Agoracritus, from any thing in the career of Peel.