Let kings assemble.’
she utters the passage with beautiful feeling, and leaves nothing to be wished. The burst of indignation when Austria endeavours to silence her, subsiding instantly into a tone of the keenest contempt, was no less striking. Her very best effort was on quitting the stage, when, having uttered those pathetic exclamations for the loss of her son, she goes out in all the wildness of despair, as if occupied by no other thought than to seek him through the world. Young was a little too violent in some parts of the character of King John; but, on the whole, it may be considered a fine piece of acting: the two scenes with Hubert, and his ‘dying scene, were excellent. Faulconbridge, the bastard, is one of Charles Kemble’s happiest hits; his manly figure, and martial appearance, well bear him out in his scoffs at the Duke of Austria; he is no sooner knighted, than he seems made for his rank, and leads out Queen Elinor like a ‘lordly gallant.’ Some of the nobles of John’s court did not convey the idea of much dignity either in their dress or persons: we wish that the managers, who have the power of issuing patents of nobility at pleasure, would consider whether the general effect might not be improved by a little more attention to this point.
THE PRESS—COLERIDGE, SOUTHEY, WORDSWORTH, AND BENTHAM
| The Yellow Dwarf.] | [January 3, 1818. |
A debate has been lately going on, in the French House of Commons, respecting the Liberty of the Press. M. Jollivet said, ‘the Liberty of the Press is less necessary in a Representative Government than in any other.’ ‘The press’ he added, ‘is represented as the only instrument by which truth can be made known; but the passions of men are too impetuous, to permit the Press that liberty which some demand. The real national representation is in the King;[[44]]—the legitimate inheritance of his Crown, from whence all powers and honours are derived, fixes there, with the destinies of the people. This is the primitive representation, from which all others emanate. There is the sacred depot of sovereignty. The powers established by the Charter are only the means of that sovereignty, for the dispensation of order and justice. We must then leave out of the question this pretended influence of the Liberty of the Press upon our representative Government, in favour of the branch called the Democratic. We must reject principles which can never return in France. By this course we may perhaps lose some commentaries upon the rights of man, but all classes of society will find their repose in it.’
So says M. Jollivet; and so sings a modern bard:—
‘Kiuprili—Had’st thou believ’d thine own tale, had’st thou fancied
Thyself the rightful successor of Andreas,
Would’st thou have pilfer’d from our school-boys’ themes
These shallow sophisms of a popular choice?