416 Recollections) from the Portfolio of [APRIL, 



" Parva, sed apta mihi ; sed nulli obnoxia, sed non 

 Sordida, parta meo, sed tamen aere domus." 



" Commodious, neat, exciting no public invidiousness, suited to him, and 

 purchased by the fruits of his own labour ;" the description admirably 

 comprehends all that reason and taste could desire. 



In our sceptical age, we begin to get rid of all those old maxims, 

 which were less the work of prejudice, than of experience, with 

 our forefathers. Our "liberality," now disavows the old estimate of " one 

 Englishman to three foreigners." But the very highest authority on 

 such subjects, and at no distant period from the present time, has re- 

 asserted it in the broadest manner. " I always/' said Nelson, " was of 

 opinion, have always acted up to it, and have never had any occasion to 

 repent it, that one Englishman is equal to three Frenchmen/' He 

 gave the proof of this opinion, at the siege of Bastia. The general had 

 abandoned the siege : Nelson was indignant. " What Dundas could 

 have seen to make a retreat necessary," said his letters, " I cannot com- 

 prehend. A thousand men would certainly take Bastia. With five 

 hundred and the Agamemnon, I should attempt it. My seamen are 

 now what British seamen ought to be, almost invincible. They really 

 mind shot no more than pease." Nelson made the attempt : he had but 

 twelve hundred men in all, soldiers, marines and seamen. He stormed 

 Bastia, and took prisoners, 1,000 regulars, 1,500 national guards, and 

 4,000 of the Corsican levy ! 



The expression of Bossuet, to one who found him preparing one of 

 his famous orations, with the Iliad open on his table, is finely charac- 

 teristic of the lofty and magnificent genius of the man. " I always 

 have Homer beside me, when I make my sermons. I love to light my 

 lamp at the sun !" 



Parr was a poor creature after all. This might have been known, 

 even from his perpetual eagerness to be talked about, an unfailing sign 

 of a paltry mind. Let a public man be however vicious or mis- 

 chievous, Parr seemed to think only how far his publicity could draw 

 up the Doctor from his obscurity, and he instantly fastened himself on 

 the demagogue, by a pamphlet, a harangue, or the commencement of a 

 correspondence of wearying, but unwearied, panegyric. Fox was of 

 course his idol, and to Fox he prostrated himself in all shapes of adula- 

 tion ; yet to the confidence of that clever profligate, and perfectly vicious 

 mob-leader, Parr was never admitted, and scarcely suffered to be of his 

 acquaintance. Still the Doctor was indefatigable ; he coursed round the 

 reluctant Whig, bore the contumely, and gained his ends by the mere 

 notoriety of the fact, that he was determined to cling to Foxism, as 

 long as he could cling to any thing. Publicity is easily gained on those 

 terms, and Parr gained the publicity of a patient scribbler of pamph- 

 lets, that no man living had the patience to read through. His whole 

 career was imitation ; in private, he aped Johnson's " bow-wow man- 

 ner/' and laboured to be sententiously formidable. He failed by substitut- 

 ing ponderousness for strength, the pomp of Johnson's words for the 

 vigour of his thoughts. Person described him to perfection in a sen- 

 tence : " Parr was a Brummagem Doctor, Sir ;" as like Johnson as 

 Brummagem plating is like plate. Among his other vanities, was that 



