The Rolliad, in Two Parts. George Ellis
Translation of a Persian Inscription engraven on a large fine Ruby, being the titles either given to or assumed by Mrs. HASTINGS. “Royal and Imperial Governess, The elegance of the age, The most exalted Bilkiss, The Zobaide of the Palaces, The most heroic Princess, Ruby Marian Hastings, Sauby, &c. &c.
N.B. With the Mussulmans, Bilkiss signifies the person, called in the Bible History the Queen of Sheba; and Zobaide was a favourite wife of Mahomed; and when they wish to pay the highest compliments to a lady, they compare her to Bilkiss and Zobaide, who possessed the most exalted beauty, and perfection of every kind.
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NUMBER VIII.
From the above general compliment to the India-bench, the poet, in the person of Merlin, breaks out into the following animated apostrophe to some of the principal among our Leadenhall-street Governors:
All hail! ye virtuous patriots without blot, Rollo
The minor KINSON and the major SCOTT:
And thou of name uncouth to British ear,
From Norman smugglers sprung, LE MESURIER;
Hail SMITHS; and WRAXALL, unabash’d to talk,
Tho’ none will listen; hail too, CALL and PALK;
Thou, BARWEL, just and good, whose honour’d name,
Wide, as the Ganges rolls, shall live in fame,
Second to HASTINGS: and, VANSITTART, thou,
A second HASTINGS, if the Fates allow.
The bold, but truly poetical apocope, by which the Messrs. At-kinson and Jen-kinson, are called the two kinsons, is already familiar to the public. The minor Kinson, or Kinson the less, is obviously Mr. Atkinson; Mr. Jenkinson being confessedly greater than Mr. Atkinson, or any other man, except One, in the kingdom.—The antithesis of the Major Scott to the minor Kinson, seems to ascertain the sense of the word Major, as signifying in this place the greater; it might mean also the elder; or it might equally refer to the military rank of the gentleman intended. This is a beautiful example of the figure so much admired by the ancients under the name of the Paronomasia, or Pun. They who recollect the light in which our author before represented Major Scott, as a pamphleteer, fit only to furnish a water-closet, may possibly wonder to find him here mentioned as THE GREATER SCOTT; but whatever may be his literary talents, he must be acknowledged to be truly great, and worthy of the conspicuous place here assigned him, if we consider him in his capacity of agent to Mr. Hastings, and of consequence chief manager of the Bengal Squad; and it must be remembered, that this is the character in which he is here introduced. The circumstance of Mr. Le Mesurier’s origin from Norman Smugglers, has been erroneously supposed by some critics to be designed for a reproach; but they could not possibly have fallen into this mistaste, if they had for a moment reflected that it is addressed by MERLIN to ROLLO, who was himself no more than a Norman pirate. Smuggling and piracy in heroic times were not only esteemed not infamous, but absolutely honourable. The Smiths, Call and Palk of our poet, resemble the
Alcandrumque, Haliumque, Noëmonaque, Prytanimque,
of Homer and Virgil; who introduce those gallant warriors for the sake of a smooth verse, and dispatch them at a stroke without the distinction of a single epithet. Our poet too has more professedly imitated Virgil in the lines respecting Mr. Vansittart, now a candidate to succeed Mr. Hastings.
———And, VANSITTART, thou
A second HASTINGS, if the fates allow.
———Si quâ fata aspera rumpas,
Tu Marcellus eris!
The passage however is, as might be hoped from the genius of our author, obviously improved in the imitation; as it involves a climax, most happily expressed. Mr. Barwell has been panegyrized in the lines immediately foregoing, as second to Hastings; but of Mr. Vansittart it is prophesied, that he will be a second Hastings; second indeed in time, but equal perhaps in the distinguishing merits of that great and good man, in obedience to the Court of Directors, attention to the interests of the Company in preference to his own, abstinence from rapacity and extortion, justice and policy towards the princes, and humanity to all the natives, of Hindostan. The ingenious turn on the words second to Hastings, and a second Hastings, would have furnished matter for whole pages to the Dionysius’s, Longinus’s, and Quintilians of antiquity, though the affected delicacy of modern taste may condemn it as quibble and jingle.
The poet then hints at a most ingenious proposal for the embellishment of the India-bench, according to the new plan of Parliamentary Reform; not by fitting it up like the Treasury-bench, with velvet cushions, but by erecting for the accommodation of the Leadenhall worthies, the ivory bed, which was lately presented to her Majesty by Mrs. Hastings.
O that for you, in Oriental state,
At ease reclin’d to watch the long debate,
Beneath the gallery’s pillar’d height were spread
(With the QUEEN’s leave) your WARREN’s ivory bed!
The pannels of the gallery too, over the canopy of the bed, are to be ornamented with suitable paintings,
Above, In colours warm with mimic life,
The German husband of your WARREN’s wife
His rival deeds should blazon; and display.
In his blest rule, the glories of your sway.
What singular propriety, what striking beauty must the reader of taste immediately perceive in this choice of a painter to execute the author’s design! It cannot be doubted but Mrs. Hastings would exert all her own private and all Major Scott’s public influence with every branch of the Legislature, to obtain so illustrious a job for the man to whose affection, or to whose want of affection, she owes her present fortunes. The name of this artist is Imhoff; but though he was once honoured with Royal Patronages he is now best remembered from the circumstance by which our author has distinguished him, of his former relation to Mrs. Hastings.
Then follow the subjects of the paintings, which are selected with the usual judgment of our poet.
Here might the tribes of ROHILCUND expire,
And quench with blood their towns, that sink in fire;
The Begums there, of pow’r, of wealth forlorn,
With female cries their hapless fortune mourn.
Here, hardly rescu’d from his guard, CHEYT SING
Aghast should fly; there NUNDCOMAR should swing;
Happy for him! if he had borne to see
His country beggar’d of the last rupee;
Nor call’d those laws, O HASTINGS, on thy head,
Which, mock’d by thee, thy slaves alone should dread.
These stories, we presume, are too public to require any explanation. But if our readers should wish to be more particularly acquainted with them, they will find them in the [1]Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, commonly called the Reports of the Select and Secret Committees, with Appendixes of Letters, Minutes, and Narratives written by Mr. Hastings himself. Or they may consult the History of Alexander the Great, contained, in Major John Scott’s narrative of the administration of Mr. Hastings. Though we would rather refer them to the latter work, as in our opinion it is one of the most satisfactory defences ever published; and proves to demonstration, that Mr. Hastings never committed a single act of injustice or cruelty, but he constantly obtained forty or fifty lacks for the Company or himself—That an enquiry into past abuses is an impolitic order; because “much valuable time must be lost, and much odium incurred by the attempt;” and therefore Mr. Hastings of course ought not to have been censured at all, unless he had been censured before he had done any thing to deserve it—That it was right for Mr. Hastings to keep up the good old custom of receiving presents, in defiance of a positive law; because