SPECIMENS OF A TRANSLATION INTO LATIN OF "THE BEGGAR'S OPERA."

[Some years ago it was proposed, at a very pleasant party near the banks of the Thames it is not necessary to say who composed it, but those who can decipher what is meant by the initials T. E. H., J. S., J. W. C., will allow that it comprised some of the most witty and agreeable people in London.* to write a variorum commentary, in the manner of Malone's 'Shakespeare," on the "Beggar's Opera." One critic was to perform the part of Warburton, another of Johnson, a third of Farmer, and so on. Part of the jest was to consist in proving that Guy imitated the ancient classics very palpably; -something of the kind is often done by the Shakespearian commentators, (see note on "the sea of troubles," in Hamlet, and a thousand other places ;) and as it would be rather difficult to find Augustan authorities for the songs of the "Beggar's Opera," I was engaged to make them. The four following scraps of doggrel Latin were part of these origi nals. Nothing further was done toward completing the commentary.-W. M.]

66

Thinks his trade is as honest as

I.

PEACHUMIUS.

VITE cuncta negotia per,

Homo hominem semper infamat,
Fur et scortum sunt uxor et vir,
Ars artem lacessere amat.
Flamen hostis causidici fit,

Causidicus flaminem lædit,
Et senator, excelsus quòd sit,
Probum æquè ac me sese credit.

*Theodore Edward Hook, James Smith (of "Rejected Addresses" fame), and John Wilson Croker, are the persons initialed here. It is probable that this trifle suggested to Father Mahony the idea, afterward elaborated in the Reliques of Father Prout," of assuming that the most popular modern poetry was only imitated, translated, or paraphrased, from the ancient classics. I would draw attention to the closeness of Maginn's Latin versions of Herrick and of Gay. He generally gives the exact rhythm of the verses.-M.

MAGINN ON MACAULAY.*

He is

THOMAS BABINGTON MACAULAY is a barrister, a commissioner of bankrupts, and member of Parliament for Calne. the son of Zachary Macaulay, of Sierra Leone notoriety; and every act of Thomas's life proves him to be the hopeful and worthy heir to all the father's virtues. He is the godson of Mr. Babington, of the firm of Macaulay, Babington, and Co., the African traders, and the protégé of Henry Brougham, Esq.-is a member of Boodle's—a spouter at the Freemasons' Tavern, and at the Anti-slavery meetings-and is, moreover, the identical young gentleman of whom Mr. William Wilberforce, in a fit of, no doubt, prophetic inspiration, said that, as it was well understood that, in the economy of Providence, mighty and fitting instruments were raised, in all times of emergency, for the accomplishments of

As a fair specimen of Maginn's "slashing" criticism, I give this paper - part of a personal attack, purporting to be a critical notice, of an article in No. 100 of the Edinburgh Review, upon Southey's "Progress and Prospects in Society," attributed to Mr. Macaulay. The paper by Maginn appeared in Fraser for June, 1830, immediately after Macaulay had made his earliest displays in Parliament, as member for Lord Lansdowne's pocketborough of Calne. The able article on Milton, with which he broke ground in the Edinburgh Review, appeared in 1826, when Macaulay was 26 years old. It is curious to see, a quarter of a century having elapsed between the first appearance of Maginn's abuse of Macaulay and its present republication, how completely wrong the writer was in almost every particular. Harsh criticism such as this, emanating from party prejudice, (for Maginn certainly had no personal feeling against Macaulay,) was considered perfectly legitimate in England, during the great party struggle between the Whig and Tory factions. Nor have we improved in later times-as witness the abusive personalities in the Edinburgh Review and The Times, so recently as 1853, on Mr. Disraeli.-M.

God's purposes, so, in the talkative stripling before him he beheld the destined agent, under God's blessing, to inflict chastisement on the colonists and the pro-slavery incarnate demons. At an early age, Mr. Thomas Babington Macaulay received the rudiments of polite education- at so early an age, indeed, that his infantine memory not having sufficient power for tenacity and retention, the politeness of the education has escaped-the essential spirit, as it were, has evaporated, ascended, and mixed itself with the element of air, leaving a thick sediment of slime behind, which has given birth to three insufferable reptiles, that lead a noisy life in Mr. Thomas Macaulay's voided receptacle of polite education, e. g. sophism, charlatanism, and impertinence. It appertains not to Mr. Thomas Babington Macaulay to own to the truth of

"Ingenuas didicisse fideliter artes

Emollit mores, nec sinit esse feros."

If, instead of ingenuous, it were written ingenious arts, it would have been nearer the mark. However that may be-let us finish as much of the gentleman's biography as we intend to give. He was sent to Cambridge, made himself conspicuous for his classical attainments-spouted, ranted, and raved himself into a reputation for what, vulgò, is called the gift of the gab (exemplified in its true colors at the Leicester election, where he had not one word to say against the matter-of-fact and prosing Sergeant Goulbourn) -became the hope of the Broughamites and Whigs, and, at the member for Winchelsea's recommendation, wrote sundry articles for the Edinburgh Review; amongst which was one, in No. 91 of that journal, "On the present Administration."* For this production, had Mr. Thomas Babington Macaulay been rightly served he would have been instantly kicked out of all respectable society (on account of the red-hot demoniacal spirit which it manifests) — but society was sluggish about its honor, and Mr. Thomas Babing

*This article, not included in Macaulay's own collection of his Miscellaneous Writings, appeared in the Edinburgh Review, for January, 1827, but (with a sequel on the State of Parties, nine months later) has been preserved as an appropriate introduction, in the edition of Macaulay's speeches, published by Mr. Redfield, of New York.-M.

ton Macaulay is now the actual member in St. Stephen's for the immaculate and free-voting borough of Calne.

When Mr. Thomas Babington Macaulay commenced his series of contributions to the Edinburg Review, the "Sapphire and blue" was fast drivelling into its dotage. Its ancient spirit had evaporated-its youthful wit, from over-indulgence and dissipation, had fallen into a state of emasculation—its empire was tottering, its circulation was fast drawing in its horns of extended glory. Sydney Smith had grown too fat, too rubicund, and too well satisfied with the good things of this world-more especially since he became a pluralist ;-Sir James Mackintosh had used so frequently his carefully-collected store of international law, philosophy of history, and metaphysical sweepings from the late Professor Stewart's library, that he could use them no longer without raising against his own sagacious person a universal horse-laugh;-Mr. Henry Brougham had become an empty lawyer and a talkative member of the House of Commons ; so that whatever he wrote for my "Great-Grandmother" smacked of the emptiness of the one and the frothiness of the other, and therefore was utterly unreadable, because it wanted consistency and novelty; Francissimus Jeffrey himself candidly confessed that he was utterly drained of all his good things-had lost all his effervescence and wit-had become like that little plaything which pyromachinists sell to little children, called a Catherine's wheel, after it has frisked through its gyrations and spent its every spark of sputtering and sulphureous compound. In this state was the Edinburgh when Mr. Thomas Babington Macaulay wrote his initiatory article for the journal; immediately on the appearance of which, whigs, liberals and radicals, Cantabs and anti-colonists, saints, and the papers of all descriptions under the influence of their respective parties, lauded the young gentleman to the seventh heavens as a "second Daniel come to judgment."

But the Whigs are wise in their generation. They assist one another, and boast of one another's achievements. Inconceivable is the cackle and row on the birth of a Whigling:- When he gives his first squeal, there is an expression of boisterous merriment of robustious jollification:- When he first cocks his youthful eye with a knowing leer at any remarkable object, there is a