1830.] [ 321 ] 



SIR JOHN DE BULL.* 



IT is with great pleasure that we are enabled to devote a few pages to 

 this interesting little work, and to call the attention of the public to the 

 very meritorious purpose for which it is published. Of its literary 

 merits we shall not speak at present ; although our readers will see from 

 the quotations we shall make, that these are of no mean order but proceed 

 at once to explain the circumstances which led to the discovery of the 

 original MS., and to its being now found in the possession of the inge- 

 nious translator. We cannot do this better than by quoting a part of 

 the preface. 



" I was returning, a few months ago, from my friend the 



bookseller, (where I had been reading an evening paper, and discussing 

 the news of the day with a few loiterers like myself,) when I perceived 

 that I was followed, or rather dogged, by a shabby-genteel sort of per- 

 sonage, in an old, worn-out, military surtout. I was, I must confess, 

 rather alarmed ; and the more so, when I arrived at my own door, and 

 found the fellow close at my heels. As I saw that I could not escape 

 him, I had no alternative but to put on a c swashing and a martial out- 

 side,' and when my pertinacious follower came up, and saluted me, I 

 was very surly in my reply. He was evidently hurt by my manner, 

 and, making a low bow, was about to pass on ; but the air of deep 

 dejection visible in his face awoke my compunction, and I begged him 

 to stay and acquaint me with his business. We retired, after a few 

 words, into my parlour, when he entered into the purpose of his visit, 

 which I shall relate. 



" He was a clerk in one of the public offices (I don't mention 

 which, for sufficient reasons) ; had been a soldier, and was placed there 

 when his services were dispensed with, at the conclusion of the war. 

 His salary was just sufficient to keep life in ; but, nevertheless, it had 

 been reduced by our frugal ministry, into a mere pittance. He pulled 

 out of his pocket a very dusty-looking manuscript, and handed it to me 

 for perusal. It was in Latin; and he stated that he had found it 

 amongst some state papers, (as Milton's treatise was found, a few years 

 ago,) and had brought it to me, as a literary man, hoping that I would 

 buy it of him. I hinted a doubt of the honesty of the transaction ; but 

 he pointed to the elbows of his tattered coat, and that settled the ques- 

 tion. I have no doubt that if the manuscript had fallen into the hands 

 of the higher powers they would have acted in a similar manner ; and, 

 consequently, I have promised that the poor fellow shall have the pro- 

 duce of the publication, reserving to myself the satisfaction of having 

 done a service to a starving fellow-creature, as well as to the literary 

 world." 



A work thus introduced cannot, we think, fail of success especially 

 as its literary merits are far from contemptible. Our author's style is 

 without pretension to eloquence; but it is generally correct; and his 

 pictures of men and manners are just and forcible. Some of his epithets, 

 however, might have been improved, or something more gentle substituted 

 for them, without weakening the point of his satire. We hope he will 

 attend to this in his next edition. We select the opening stanzas for 



* A Poem, translated from the Latin by Jerome Sandford, Esq. 8vo. Hazard and Co., 

 Piccadilly. 



M .M. New Series.^Voj.. X. No. 57- 2 S 



