Days of political paradox were coming, at which we now stare. Cobbett[398] said, about 1830, in earnest, that in the country every man who did not take off his hat to the clergyman was suspected, and ran a fair chance of having something brought against him. I heard this assertion canvassed, when it was made, in a party of elderly persons. The Radicals backed it, the old Tories rather denied it, but in a way which satisfied me they ought to have denied it less if they could not deny it more. But it must be said that the Governments stopped far short of what their partisans would have had them do. All who know Robert Robinson's[399] very quiet assault on church-made festivals in his _History and Mystery of Good Friday_ (1777)[400] will hear or remember with surprise that the _British Critic_ pronounced it a direct, unprovoked, and malicious libel on the most {178} sacred institutions of the national Church. It was reprinted again and again: in 1811 it was in a cheap form at 6s. 6d. a hundred. When the Jacobin day came, the State was really in a fright: people thought twice before they published what would now be quite disregarded. I examined a quantity of letters addressed to George Dyer[401] (Charles Lamb's G.D.) and what between the autographs of Thelwall, Hardy, Horne Tooke, and all the rebels,[402] put together a packet which produced five guineas, or thereabouts, for the widow. Among them were the following verses, sent by the author--who would not put his name, even in a private letter, for fear of accidents--for consultation whether they could safely be sent to an editor: and they were _not_ sent. The occasion was the public thanksgiving at St. Paul's for the naval victories, December 19, 1797.
"God bless me! what a thing! Have you heard that the King Goes to St. Paul's? {179} Good Lord! and when he's there, He'll roll his eyes in prayer, To make poor Johnny stare At this fine thing.
"No doubt the plan is wise To blind poor Johnny's eyes By this grand show; For should he once suppose That he's led by the nose, Down the whole fabric goes, Church, lords, and king.
"As he shouts Duncan's[403] praise, Mind how supplies they'll raise In wondrous haste. For while upon the sea We gain one victory, John still a dupe will be And taxes pay.
"Till from his little store Three-fourths or even more Goes to the Crown. Ah, John! you little think How fast we downward sink And touch the fatal brink At which we're slaves."
I would have indicted the author for not making his thirds and sevenths rhyme. As to the rhythm, it is not much better than what the French sang in the Calais theater when the Duke of Clarence[404] took over Louis XVIII in 1814.
"God save noble Clarence, Who brings our king to France; God save Clarence! He maintains the glory Of the British navy, etc., etc."
{180} Perhaps had this been published, the Government would have assailed it as a libel on the church service. They got into the way of defending themselves by making libels on the Church, of what were libels, if on anything, on the rulers of the State; until the celebrated trials of Hone settled the point for ever, and established that juries will not convict for one offence, even though it have been committed, when they know the prosecution is directed at another offence and another intent.
