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We shall here say a word on what the epithet Cockney, applied to a writer either of prose or poetry, really signifies, or ought to signify:-it is worth describing; and, since we have made the Edinburgh Mohocks angry, they apply it so blunderingly that it is likely to lose all its point, should we leave it in their hands, and that were a pity. We suspect they never knew very well what they were about in using it ;-but it has served them for a word when they have been without an idea. It has saved them an expenditure, disproportionate to their means, in argument and wit: they have written Cockney against a writer, when they have been unable to write any thing else. Not but that, in some instances, the term has been sufficiently characteristic of the persons to whom they have applied it :-if their cleverness led them to these happy applications, we can only say, that their knavery has made them spoil their own joke; for the term Cockney, as now directed by them against an author, only means that they have a spite against his person or his talents.-The author of the article on the Scotch Novels, which appeared in our Magazine, has not, by his subsequent papers, rendered himself quite so agreeable to their feelings as they stated themselves to have found him in his first:

in their last Number accordingly he is put down as a Cockney!" an unfortunate Cockney!" Yet we believe it is pretty generally allowed, that he has proved himself to be too far North for them; and it would go hard, we suspect, for any of the VOL. III.

and

Mohocks to show, that, either in virtue of their birth-place or their compositions, they have a better right than he has to quote the motto of the Scottish nation, or brandish significantly the emblem which it accompanies. Our ELIA, too-the pride of our Magazine, and the object of the praise of their's under his real name he is set down as a "Cockney Scribbler!" This gentleman, in his capacity of acknowledged author, they have never mentioned but to eulogize; as, indeed, who does not eulogize his writings for displaying a spirit of deep and warm humanity, enlivened by a vein of poignant wit, -not caustic, yet searching, recommending a shrewdness of judgment on men, books, and things, which seems to revive the old times when Magazines were not, and li terature and knowledge were the better for it. The author of our Table Talk, too, is "a Cockney:" we offer to wager the amount at which Professor Leslie has laid his damages, in the action he has brought against them, that he is not,-and that no reader of his papers thinks him one. They have thus a good opportunity presented to them of getting out of a scrape, if their words are worth any thing. But they will take Shakspeare's advice instead of our bet; "they who can't be honest shouldn't be valiant." They won't risk the wager. Let us, however, proceed at once to tell them what a Cock

ney writer is: they know, as well as ourselves, that these, just mentioned, have no claim to the title.

Cockneys, in general, are little

G

men; but they are smart, clever, and active; quick observers, and wonderfully occupied with whatever is going on about them. They observe every thing, however, with an immediate and exclusive reference to themselves being born and bred up in the metropolis renders each, in his own estimation, a member of a privileged class, and all novelties and varieties from their habits, are set down by them as singular exceptions, remarkable occurrences, things to be entered in their journals. They themselves constitute a standard, in their own estimation; and hence they are always measuring other people by themselves. If taller, they are giants; if shorter, dwarfs. Cockneys are thus unpleasantly pert in their manner, without meaning to be offensive: they are prone, too, to make mountains of mole-hills, and this is apt to turn the laugh against them, and cause them to be considered as more ignorant than they are. Place a Cockney amongst the ice-islands described by our late discoverers, and he would be forcibly struck by the magnificence and terror of the scene; but the first object in his thoughts would be himself, and nature's marvels would be ranked high in importance chiefly through their connection with himself. How strange that he should be there! The ice how much more thick than on the Serpentine! How much more cold than in Cheapside! How much he will have to tell when he gets back!" What do you find most remarkable at Versailles," said Louis XIV to the Doge of Genoa, whom he had compelled to come personally to make an apology? "Myself!" replied the Doge: "what most strikes me with surprise is that I should be here." This was a Cockney idea; and the Doge of Genoa was, no doubt, a sort of Lord Mayor.-When Mr. Henry Augustus Mug was prime minister at the court of his Mandingo majesty, in the interior of Africa, he looked at the palm-trees and thought of the flower-pots in the windows of Ludgate-hill; he admired the elephant's teeth, because they suggested his turner's-shop; and the white sands and black faces of the land of the Niger, put him in mind of a chess-board newly made. He was saucy to the savages on his right

as a Londoner; and not even his fears could conquer his propensity to cut jokes on their ignorance of knives and forks, in a country which fur-. nished so much fine ivory for handles!

Such is a Cockney;-a Cockney author sublimates all these qualities in his person and writings. By a Cockney author we do not mean a London author;-there may be Cockney authors who never saw London, and vice versa. We allude to writers to whom this term of ridicule may be fairly applied. A Cockney author is likely to be found clever, but with his talent will almost constantly go a certain air of smallness belonging to his character generally. He will seem to want actual experience, and be inclined to make up the deficiency by egotism. His good manners will be. pert; his observations too minute and particular; he will make too much of all he knows, and too little of what other people, who are not of his set, tell him. Chiefly, however, will his generosity and magnanimity be dis-. gusting-for these will always savour of intolerance and insolence. Such an one happening upon the word. fatness, as used in Scripture to express the quality of essential richness, would instantly connect the Bible with his own bile, and sicken at the word as nauseous. His poetry will be often beautiful, but quite as often false, and apparently affected; owing to his being unable to observe the due proportion of things, when they have any sort of relation to himself. Should he chance to "have stout notions on the marrying score," we are likely to have him telling us that Shakspeare was an enemy to marriage, not because he has any reason to say so, or because there are not innumerable reasons to say the reverse.-but because a Cockney is always eager to associate himself with Shakspeare, and, out of tenderness to the "bard's" reputation, will not suppose it possible a difference of opinion could exist between them.

We confess we have one of our popular writers, noticed in Blackwood's Magazine as a Cockney poet, chiefly in our eye at present; and we have not scrupled to render our allusions to him pretty plain, because we wish our charges against the Mohocks to be rightly understood. That they have written abominable and unfounded

scandals against this author we know: but that his style and sentiments are not provocative of severity, we would be the last persons to deny.

There are, perhaps, several good writers who might be termed Cockney authors, if it were allowable so to term Doctor Samuel Johnson, whose fondness for London is well known, and whose habits of life are to be traced in the turn and imagery of his compositions. The doctor once went a hunting at Brighton, and he manifested the true Cockney zeal in this novel exercise-he rode over the hounds, and was, at least, in at their death. In another, but a much better

sense, Steele and Addison were Cockney authors; and, so understood, the author of the articles in the LON DON MAGAZINE, on the South Sea House, Christ's Hospital, The Two Races of Men, may claim this distinguishing appellation. The fair influence of London on the works of men of talent, who are either natives of that capital, or who have resided there for a considerable portion of their lives, may be noticed by us in another short Article; and we shall then venture a word or two on the Edinburgh School of Literature. It is a very peculiar one. We do not here mean the Mohock school.

THE QUARTERLY REVIEW.

No. XLVII of this repository of literary decisions was published

about the middle of December. The announcements of the two great Reviews, as they are called, that precede their publication, make authors experience a sensation not dissimilar to that which news of the intended presentation of the Recorder's report excites in the inmates of stony-hearted Newgate: those who feel themselves liable to the worst, become, in both cases, rather restless about the result. When the Quarterly Review is severe, it is more bitter than caustic: the Edinburgh is generally more caustic than bitter. But the Quarterly, on the whole, has done less harm to Literature than the Edinburgh: its best articles have less brilliancy of display; less liveliness, but more meaning, than the best which appear in the other:-at the same time, it must be admitted, that nothing approachable to its worst has ever been seen in its rival. There is more industry shown in the Quarterly than in the Edinburgh; a greater number of respectable hands are employed in it; the system of its manufacture is better; but we seldom or ever find it so clever as its senior appears in happy articles. There is, however, a pains-taking spirit, and a substantial construction, about the Quarterly now, which reflect credit on its management: furthermore, it carries an air of establishment with it that is imposing: it comports itself as if it constituted a fourth estate of the realm-King, Lords, Commons, and The Quarterly Review; and, considering it in this august

capacity, it must be allowed to bear its faculties meekly. With the exception of some grovelling articles, known to be written by an eminent hack in office,--the discussions of public questions in the Quarterly have a quality of judge-like summing-up about them. The faculties of the writers are all enlisted on the side of what is strong in the country; but their dispositions are not hostile to those who are weak, injured, and distressed. If they could do the latter much good, without seeming to bear hard on the former, they would willingly do so. According to their philosophy, whatever is is right; but they would have no objection to make the right a little better, if it could be done without conveying any reflection_on it as imperfect. If the Quarterly Review, for instance, had existed in those days when the Recorder's report usually included a few cases of witchcraft,-which a regard to the best interests of society had caused to be strictly considered as an unpardonable offence,-it would have maintained the "impropriety of unsettling the foundations on which our present code rests," but would have declared itself ready to "hail, with deep and unaffected satisfaction, any diminution which can be proved to be practicable in the rigour of its letter and administration.' This language, which it holds in its last Number, on the subject of the present inquiry into the criminal laws, it would have held then; and who does not see that, if nobody had ever held different language, we should have vic

tims burnt for sorcery, as well as
hanged for forgery, up to this day?
The Quarterly Review, when it
strikes the balance, always finds
more danger in the alteration, than
mischief in the existing practice: on
the principle, therefore, of superior
forces prevailing, to rest as we are, is
the certain result. Now we know that
society has been materially bene-
fited by coming to a different con-
clusion: the argument, therefore, from
analogy and experience, is against the
Quarterly:- but we did not com-
mence this notice with an intention
to combat with it, but rather to com-
pliment it.
Its last Number is a
well-written, laborious, temperate
publication with little or nothing in
it unduly addressed to the bad pas-
sions, either of courtiers, or the po-
pulace of readers. There is no scan-
dal in it, no polemical intemperance;
there is much amusing matter,
some important points for consider-
ation, and several mistakes, we think.
A far-sighted view, a profound re-
flection, a noble glowing magnani-
mous declaration, or appeal to the
spirit of human improvement, which
Providence has planted in the high-
est class of human bosoms, we do not
look for in the Quarterly Review:
but it states the different cases, in
its small way, with an evident la-
bouring after impartiality: it seems
like one who, if he were not with-
held, would do something: it has an
air as if it would be intrepid, were
it not timid:-it suggests to our re-
collection the French farce, of which
one of the ladies of the "small sup-
pers" said "Ah, poor piece,-how
hard it tries not to be bad!"-The ar-
ticle on Italian Tragedy affords a cu-
rious example of what we mean.
It really emits smoke towards the
conclusion, where it speaks of the
destiny of "beloved Italy,"—it gets
the length of calling the sceptre of
Austria a "leaden sceptre,"-and we
now expect the flame of a generous
enthusiasm to follow - but no: the
poor fellow recoils, he well knows
why;

Scar'd at the sound his hand hath made; and the conclusion he comes to is, that he sees no probability of Italy being other than divided and subdivided, consistent with the peace of Europe, and her own internal hap

piness!"-This, by the bye, is the weakest article in the Number: we know nothing of the secret of its manufacture; but it seems to us written by some one who had no ideas of his own on the subject, and who has borrowed from another, who has given him wrong ones. What he says of the tragedy of Carmagnola is quite wrong; and that it is so is proved by the inconsistency of his observations. He calls the tragedy feeble, yet speaks of its "simple and manly eloquence;" and of the pathos in its principal scene. The chorus, which we gave in Italian, in a former Number of the LONDON MAGAZINE, is allowed to be "the most noble piece of Italian lyric poetry which the present day has produced." It is not true that " Carmagnola wants poetry:" but its style is simple, condensed, and nervous; it has great colloquial power, and the dialogue is terse and pointed. This is not in the taste of common Italian poetry; nor is it in the taste of Mr. Foscolo's Letters, or of his tragedy---both of which have great merit, but not of this kind: ---and, to say the truth, we suspect that the writer of the article in the Quarterly has profited by Mr. Foscolo's assistance. The first article in the Number is an ably written paper on Southey's Life of Wesley: it is temperate, cautious, and very complete.

Whoever the writer is, he possesses, admirably, the tact suitable to the Quarterly Review; for he contrives to write as a gentleman and a man of honour, without once running the slightest risk of shocking a single prepossession nursed by what is "fat and full of sap" in venerable establishment. The second article is on New South Wales:---it is slight and amusing. Italian Tragedy comes next, which we have already noticed. Articles four and six---on Frazer's Tour through Part of the Snowy Range of the Himala Mountains, and on Belzoni's operations within the Pyramids--are interesting in consequence of their subjects. Article five, on Mrs. Heman's poetry, is very laudably intended. The two last papers are on Insanity, and the Criminal Laws. The first is very unaffectedly written, and suitably treats of a most important and interesting subject. Doctor Burrows's book forms the subject of review, and it is very deserv➡

edly praised. It seems clearly esta-
blished, by facts, that madness is a
remediable disorder, if medical
very
applications are made early: but every
thing depends on this. The late Doc-
tor Willis averred, that nine out of
ten cases of insanity recovered, if
placed under his care within three
months from the attack :---not only
do the tables constructed by Doctor
Burrows, but also the returns from
La Salpetriere, at Paris, justify this
assertion. The necessity of uniting
medical and moral treatment, and
not depending on either singly, is
much dwelt upon. The Doctor is of
opinion that it is a mistake to sup-
pose that madness is on the increase.
But Ireland constitutes an exception,
in this respect, to England, Scotland,
and France. Doctor Hallaran, the
Physician of the Cork Asylum, re-
marks that the late unhappy dis-
turbances of Ireland have augmented,
in a remarkable degree, the insane
lists;" he also mentions the influ-
ence to this effect of "the unre-
strained use of ardent spirits, that
alarming vice, so inimical to domes-

tic peace, to every moral virtue, and to political security." It is shown that there is reason to suppose that suicide, instead of being more common in England than on the Continent, is less so. In the capitals of Paris, Berlin, and Copenhagen, the number of suicides, for the year 1817; is, in relation to that of London, as five to two, five to three, and three to one. The article on the state of our Criminal Law is a very long one: its spirit may be honest; but we are quite sure, that, if it were the question of abolishing examination by torture that were now agitated, the writer would be averse to change in the principles and practice of our penal code! The case of a man hanged, in 1814, for cutting down young trees, though the prosecutor, magistrates, and the whole neigh bourhood, petitioned for mercy, is thought (by The Quarterly Review) to be one justifying such severity: -and it appears Lord Sidmouth thought so too. So much for a sense of duty in certain bosoms!

PROJECTED ROYAL SOCIETY OF LITERATURE.

Just now, when the Royal Society of Science is on the decline, and the Royal Academy of Art is allowed to do no good, a project has started up for the formation of a Royal Society of Literature. The following plan has been published.

Royal Society of Literature, for the encouragement of indigent merit, and the promotion of General Literature. To consist of Honorary Members, Subscribing Members, and Associates.

The class of Honorary Members is intended to comprise some of the most eminent literary men in the three kingdoms, and the most distinguished female writers of the present day.

An annual subscription of two guineas will constitute a Subscribing Member. Subscribers of ten guineas, and upwards, will be entitled to privileges hereafter mentioned, according to the date of their subscription.

The Class of Associates is to consist of twenty men of distinguished learning, authors of some creditable work of literature, and men of good moral character; ten under the patronage of the king, and ten under the patronage of the Society.

His Majesty has been pleased to express, in the most favourable terms, his approbation of the proposed Society, and to honour

it with his munificent patronage, by assigning the annual sum of one hundred guineas each, to ten of the Associates, payable out of the privy purse; and also an annual premium of one hundred guineas for the best dissertation on some interesting subject, to be chosen by a council belonging to the Society.

Ten Associates will be placed under the patronage of the Society, as soon as the subscriptions (a large portion of which will be annually funded for the purpose) shall be sufficient, and in proportion as they become so. An annual subscriber of ten guineas, continued for five years, or a life subscription of one hundred guineas, will entitle such subscribers to nominate an Associate under the Society's patronage, according to the date of their subscription.

The Associates under the patronage of the king, will be elected by respected and competent judges. The Associates nominated by subscribers must have the same qualifications of learning, moral character, and public principle, as those who are elected, and must be approved by the same judges.

Every Associate, at his admission, will choose some subject, or subjects, of literature for discussion, and will engage to devote such discussions to the Society's Memoirs of Literature, of which a volume will be published by the Society, from time to

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