It is interesting to mark this first commencement of the popular question of Reform (if we except Mr. Pitt's measure, in 1782) and to contrast its slow progress with the final issue, under the same leader, in the year 1832. The minority for several successive years seldom exceeded the amount above specified, though the measure was at length carried by so large a majority.
[681] This expression alludes to the nervous fever and great depression of spirits that Cowper laboured under, in the months of October and November, and which has been frequently mentioned in the preceding correspondence.
[682] There were three portraits of Cowper, taken respectively by Sir Thomas Lawrence, Abbot, and Romney. The reader may be anxious to learn which is entitled to be considered the best resemblance. The editor is able to satisfy this inquiry, on the joint authority of the three most competent witnesses, the late Rev. Dr. Johnson, the present Dowager Lady Throckmorton, and John Higgins, Esq., formerly of Weston. They all agree in assigning the superiority to the portrait by Abbot; and in evidence of this, all have repeated the anecdote mentioned by Cowper, of his dog Beau going up to the picture, and shaking his tail, in token of recognition. It is an exact resemblance of his form, features, manner, and costume. That by Romney was said to resemble him at the moment it was taken, but it was his then look, not his customary and more placid features. There is an air of wildness in it, expressive of a disordered mind, and which the shock, produced by the paralytic attack of Mrs. Unwin, was rapidly impressing on his countenance. This portrait has always been considered as awakening distressing emotions in the beholder. The portrait by Sir Thomas Lawrence is the most pleasing, but not so exact and faithful a resemblance. There is however a character of peculiar interest in it, and he is represented in the cap which he was accustomed to wear in a morning, presented to him by Lady Hesketh. It was on this picture that the following beautiful lines were composed by the late Rev. Dr. Randolph.
ON SEEING A SKETCH OF COWPER BY LAWRENCE.
Sweet bard! whose mind, thus pictured in thy face,
O'er every feature spreads a nobler grace;
Whose keen, but softened eye appears to dart
A look of pity through the human heart;
To search the secrets of man's inward frame,
To weep with sorrow o'er his guilt and shame;
Sweet bard! with whom, in sympathy of choice,
I've ofttimes left the world at Nature's voice,
To join the song that all her creatures raise,
To carol forth their great Creator's praise;
Or, 'rapt in visions of immortal day,
Have gazed on Truth in Zion's heavenly way:
Sweet Bard!—may this thine image, all I know,
Or ever may, of Cowper's form below,
Teach one who views it with a Christian's love,
To seek and find thee, in the realms above.
[683] The Hon. Mrs. Boscawen had expressed her regret that Cowper should employ his time and talents in translation, instead of original composition; accompanied by a wish that he would produce another 'Task,' adverting to what Pope had made his friend exclaim,
"Do write next winter more 'Essays on Man.'"
[684] Mr. Rose.
[685] Mrs. Haden, formerly governess to the daughters of Lord Eardley.
[686] The fifth edition of Cowper's Poems.