Page:Hazlitt, Political Essays (1819).djvu/389

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
347

threw off the yoke of a race of hereditary pretenders, shew "like a rebel's whore," and every morning illegitimates the House of Brunswick, and strikes at the title of the Prince Regent to the succession of the Crown, to which his ancestors had no just claim but the choice of the people. It is not a paper for a free people to endure, if a people that has oppressed the struggling liberties of another nation can dare to call itself free; or for the Sovereign of a free people to look at, if a Prince who had restored a despot to a throne, in contempt of the voice of the people, could be supposed to respect the rights of human nature more than his own power. It reverses the Revolution of 1688, by justifying the claims of the Bourbons,—brings back Popery and slavery here, by parity of reasoning,—and sends the illustrious members of the present Royal Family a packing, as vagabonds and outlaws—by right divine. If this is not a legitimate conclusion from the Doctor's reasoning,—from his "brangle and brave-all, discord and debate,"—why then

"The pillar'd firmament is rottenness,
And earth's base built on stubble."

The chief Dramatis Personæ in the Fudge Family are,—Comic Personages, Miss Biddy Fudge and Mr. Bob Fudge, her brother: Mr. Philip Fudge, their father, and a friend of Lord Castlereagh, a grave gentleman; and a Mr. Phelim Connor, who is a patriotic, or, which is the same thing, a tragic writer. Miss Biddy Fudge takes the account of poke-bonnets and love-adventures upon herself; Mr. Bob, the patés, jockey-boots, and high collars: Mr. Phil. Fudge addresses himself to the Lord Viscount Castlereagh; and Mr. Phelim, "the sad historian of pensive Europe," appeals, we confess, more effectually to us, in words

"As precious as the ruddy drops
That visit our sad hearts."