APPENDIX. [201] 



into disrepute and contempt by the petty jealousies of a few "monopolisers 

 of petty power." For this curious non sequiiur, and the other extraordi- 

 nary contradictions of this curious paragraph, I must really blame your 

 printer's devil, who ought to have assisted in giving intelligible utterance to 

 remarks which Mr. Swainson's angry feelings rendered himself too confused 

 to express with clearness, — Proceed we now to the " personal reflections." 



14. " First, then, on my • grade ' and * profession." My interrogator was, or is, in the army ; 

 consequently he knows, or should know, that he bf whom he writes is his superior officer, and 

 that, in ' camps and courts,' he must give him place." 



The exact degree of precedence that exists between Mr. Swainson and 

 myself in " camps and courts," I must leave to himself to determine. He 

 will find me little solicitous on such points ; and not the less so because 

 they refer to matters of facts, not of words. A man's birth, his station in 

 life, the estimation in which he is held by his countrymen, are matters not 

 of opinion or argument, but of record and history. There let them lie. 

 One word only as to Mr. Swainson's military and courtly supremacy. Al- 

 though some of the happiest associations of my early days are connected 

 with arms, yet the circumstances of having borne the colours of a gallant 

 regiment for the short period of one or two years — a period rendered thus 

 limited by the accidents of war — give me but little pretensions to rank or 

 preeminence, even were I disposejd to assert any, or even were such claims 

 allowed to supersede those of birth or hereditary station, Mr. Swainson's 

 pretensions on this score are even, if possible, still less than mine. His 

 connection with the army, as far as I can collect from his own observations, 

 — if I have mistaken him, I am open to correction, — originated in his being 

 in some way employed in the commissariat department. 



This is amongst the worst of those ludicrous exposures into which Mr. 

 Swainson has been betrayed in his ill-digested attempt at exalting himself 

 into consequence by the aspersion of one whom he conceives to be a rival. 

 Had he a more just and extensive knowledge of human nature in general, 

 or a less exalted opinion of himself, he would have known that liberality of 

 sentiment and a nice sense of honour are confined to no station in life ; 

 and that it is only the vain pretensions to superiority, swelling out beyond 

 the narrow limits of a lowly grade, that exposes the pretender to derision. 

 These are truly the " fantastic tricks " which, although they may make 

 " the angels weep," cause no inconsiderable share of merriment among 

 frailer mortals. Sterne's Marquis, when he betook himself to the coUec-- 

 tion of pounds and pence, deposited his sword among the archives of his 

 ancestors : but Mr. Swainson perseveres in retaining the sword in con- 

 junction with the palette, in a happy union of Cocker and the cockade ; 

 with him knight-errantry struts about, and " frets its hour," on the 

 Exchange. Here we have a Bobadil of the quill, a Drawcansir of the 

 scraper, a veritable Copper Captain ! 



15. " Opprobrious expressions are heaped upon me [where ?] for receiving pecuniary recom- 

 pense for my writings. Here, again, I find myself in a goodly company, headed by Sir Walter 

 Scott, ff'e are all, it seems, ' jobbers,' — ' money-changers,' — ' dealers in literai-y ' " 



How comes the epithet introduced on this occasion V 



*' * or scientific peltry ! ' With such epithets does this writer insult that mighty and intellectual 

 power of the country, engaged to instruct or delight the world ! " 



Excellent ! another most congruous association ! Parnassus in alliance 

 with Grub Street ! The modesty of the man, in linking himself with the 

 author of Waverley, is nearly as amusing as the honesty of the quotation by 

 which he slily attempts to effect the union. I have seen it somewhere 

 recorded, that, at the representation of a certain splendid equestrian drama, 

 where the quadruped performers vied with the biped in eliciting the thun- 

 dering applause of the spectators, an honest saddler in the pit, transported 



