The next in point of effect was young C- G-.He evidently languished under the influence of indisposition, which, while it added to the natural gentleness of his manners, diminished the impression hisaccomplishments would otherwise have made.I was greatly struck with the modesty with which he offered his opinions, and could scarcely credit that he was the same individual whose eloquence in Parliament is by many compared even to Mr.Canning's, and whose firmness of principle is so universally acknowledged, that no one ever suspects him of being liable to change.You may have heard of his poem "On the Restoration of Learning in the East," the most magnificent prize essay that the English Universities have produced for many years.The passage in which he describes the talents, the researches, and learning of Sir William Jones, is worthy of the imagination of Burke; and yet, with all this oriental splendour of fancy, he has the reputation of being a patient and methodical man of business.He looks, however, much more like a poet or a student, than an orator and a statesman; and were statesmen the sort of personages which the spirit of the age attempts to represent them, I, for one, should lament that a young man, possessed of so many amiable qualities, all so tinted with the bright lights of a fine enthusiasm, should ever have been removed from the moon-lighted groves and peaceful cloisters of Magdalen College, to the lamp-smelling passages and factious debates of St.Stephen's Chapel.Mr.G- certainly belongs to that high class of gifted men who, to the honour of the age, have redeemed the literary character from the charge of unfitness for the concerns of public business; and he has shown that talents for affairs of state, connected with literary predilections, are not limited to mere reviewers, as some of your old class- fellows would have the world to believe.When I contrast the quiet unobtrusive development of Mr.G-'s character with that bustling and obstreperous elbowing into notice of some of those to whom the Edinburgh Review owes half its fame, and compare the pure and steady lustre of his elevation, to the rocket-like aberrations and perturbed blaze of their still uncertain course, I cannot but think that we have overrated, if not their ability, at least their wisdom in the management of public affairs.
The third of the party was a little Yorkshire baronet.He was formerly in Parliament, but left it, as he says, on account of its irregularities, and the bad hours it kept.He is a Whig, I understand, in politics, and indeed one might guess as much by looking at him; for I have always remarked, thatyour Whigs have something odd and particular about them.On making the same sort of remark to Argent, who, by the way, is a high ministerial man, he observed, the thing was not to be wondered at, considering that the Whigs are exceptions to the generality of mankind, which naturally accounts for their being always in the minority.Mr.T-, the saddler's son, who overheard us, said slyly, "That it might be so; but if it be true that the wise are few compared to the multitude of the foolish, things would be better managed by the minority than as they are at present."The fourth guest was a stock-broker, a shrewd compound, with all charity be it spoken, of knavery and humour.He is by profession an epicure, but I suspect his accomplishments in that capacity are not very well founded; I would almost say, judging by the evident traces of craft and dissimulation in his physiognomy, that they have been assumed as part of the means of getting into good company, to drive the more earnest trade of money-making.Argent evidently understood his true character, though he treated him with jocular familiarity.I thought it a fine example of the intellectual tact and superiority of T-, that he seemed to view him with dislike and contempt.But I must not give you my reasons for so thinking, as you set no value on my own particular philosophy; besides, my paper tells me, that I have only room left to say, that it would be difficult in Edinburgh to bring such a party together; and yet they affect there to have a metropolitan character.In saying this, I mean only with reference to manners; the methods of behaviour in each of the company were precisely similar--there was no eccentricity, but only that distinct and decided individuality which nature gives, and which no acquired habits can change.Each, however, was the representative of a class; and Edinburgh has no classes exactly of the same kind as those to which they belonged.--Yours truly,ANDREW PRINGLE.
Just as Mr.Snodgrass concluded the last sentence, one of the Clyde skippers, who had fallen asleep, gave such an extravagant snore, followed by a groan, that it set the whole company a-laughing, and interrupted the critical strictures which would otherwise have been made on Mr.Andrew Pringle's epistle."Damn it," said he, "I thought myself in a fog, andcould not tell whether the land ahead was Plada or the Lady Isle." Some of the company thought the observation not inapplicable to what they had been hearing.
Miss Isabella Tod then begged that Miss Mally, their hostess, would favour the company with Mrs.Pringle's communication.To this request that considerate maiden ornament of the Kirkgate deemed it necessary, by way of preface to the letter, to say, "Ye a' ken that Mrs.Pringle's a managing woman, and ye maunna expect any metaphysical philosophy from her." In the meantime, having taken the letter from her pocket, and placed her spectacles on that functionary of the face which was destined to wear spectacles, she began as follows:-
