SECRKT MEMORANDUMS. 157 



permit of further extracts ; but there are many which we shall 

 transfer to our columns at a future time." Whenever this is said, 

 the reader may in most instances rest assured he will hear no more 

 of the matter. It is an excellent method of pleasing the imagination 

 of all parties author, publisher, and public and without having to 

 read a line of the work. 



Two or three months after all these articles had appeared, I re- 

 ceived this note from the editor of the Old Squaretoes. 



" Sir : I have recently heard, from four or five Quarters, of a 

 Book, of Poetical Character, called the ' Rise of Liberty/ Having 

 mislaid my own Copy, and not knowing where in the World to look 

 for It, I have applied to you, to Pen me a short notice Thereof, firmly 

 believing you are fully competent to do it Justice. I shall therefore 

 Repose with Confidence in your experienced Hand, as you are well 

 conversant with the general Tone, and undeviating Routine, of our 

 Magazine. Yours, Sir, &c." 



I according wrote to the Old Squaretoes in an epistolary form : 



" Mr. Urbanity : I have to call your attention (apologizing for 

 thus trespassing on your valuable time and pages) to a poem, pub- 

 lished some months since, bearing the title of the ' Rise of Liberty.' 

 It is the composition of an author whose name has never before tran- 

 spired Mr. William Fisher Wimble ; and as he evinces a respec- 

 table degree of talent, I cannot doubt but you will permit some men- 

 tion to be made of his production in your long-established magazine. 

 The poem contains many very clever ideas, which are well expressed 

 and not always deficient in spirit. Although the images are too 

 copious, we cannot say but they are frequently very apposite to his 

 theme ; and his versification, though by no means formed upon the 

 fine old established models of the great Pope, of Gray, and others, is 

 not altogether without harmony, even when he is harsh in sentiment. 

 His feelings, however intemperate at times, are of a high order, as 

 we conjecture ; but we are persuaded that very many of his specu- 

 lations on the subject of laws, property, moral rights, and political 

 justice, will not be at all acceptable to the generality of independent 

 gentlemen, &c. " I have the honour to remain, 



" Mr. Urbanity, yours, &c." 



I had almost forgotten to mention, that as a further " set off" to 

 the article in the Brassrazor, as well as to neutralize the other attacks 

 upon Mr. Wimble, I had also sent an elaborate critique to the In- 

 dependent Depository. On referring to it, however, I found that the 

 editorial axe had chopped it down to the bare truth. 



" < The Rise of Liberty,' a poem, by W. F. Wimble. This poem 

 is full of beauties, interspersed with great faults, which do not ob- 

 scure the former. This is a proof of their high merit. The faults 

 are such as will disappear with time and practice ; the beauties are 

 intrinsic, and therefore lasting." 



And here ended, for the present, my labours in the cause of 



Liberty. 



****** # * 



A press of literary business prevented me from making an esti- 

 mate, according to " my usual custom of an afternoon," of the remu- 



