1824.1 



ncrs hold out fo the aspiring and ambi- 

 tions in the career of fortune and fame. 

 The same path that is oI)structcd in one 

 age by endless difiicultics, is opened 

 and smootiied by the flattering hand of 

 invitation and incitement in another. 

 Monkish habits in former times were 

 the prelude to dignities and the states- 

 man's robes. Emoluments and honours 

 were then only lavished upon church., 

 men, atid those whose minds were en- 

 slaved by the gross bigotry of monastic 

 life. The Pope had then more subjects 

 at his will than any potentate in Chris- 

 tendom. Every department of our state 

 was priest-ridden: the helm of England 

 lias been directed by the tyrannic hand 

 of a butcher's son, under the sanction 

 of these delusive trappings. 



To this succeeded a more liberal age, 

 wliere reason and refinement were seen, 

 like the great luminary of the world, 

 emerging from a cloud, and bursting 

 through ihe gloom of superstition and 

 cloistered ignorance. Polite and spe- 

 culative literature succeeded the dull 

 jargon of the schools; and philosophers 

 and poets were called to fill many of 

 the important offices of slate. The men 

 of the law succeeded in dethroning the 

 Muses, and by this revolution intro- 

 duced what may ever since be called 

 the " age of lawyers." Formerly men 

 were whelmed in the vassalage of 

 priesthood; the priests being in those 

 times a kind of solicitors in the chan- 

 cery of heaven, invested at the same 

 time, however, with all its plenitude of 

 power on earth. Hence the vast dona- 

 tions to the church, rich gifts in tnort- 

 main, &c. 



Lawyers are now, in a great mea- 

 sure, what priests were then, and the 

 tribute paid to them is as great as su- 

 perstition once rendered to the church. 

 Men of this profession, — without dis- 

 tinction of birth, family, connexions, or 

 wealth, — have been daily seen, during 

 the last half century or more, raising 

 themselves to the highest offices and 

 dignities of the state, by their expert- 

 ness in law quibbles and law jargon. 

 Witness the Bathursts, the Tiiurlows, 

 the Kenyons, &c. and, above all, the 

 Scotts. This last instance of rapid 

 rise to eminence and fortune astounds 

 every beholder; for, although eloquence 

 lias, ever since the time of the Romans, 

 infallibly led to distinction or riches, 

 yet our present Chancellor possesses 

 none of its bewitching (|ualtties: he 

 lias, however, io conducted himself, by 

 labour and i-tcadincsi!, as from a Chan- 

 cery draughlsman to ascend the Chau- 



On Mistranslations. 



403 



eery bench, which gives him precedence 

 over every lay subject of ihe kingdom. 



How long the law may possess this 

 great ascendancy, and the bar remain 

 the chief avenue to weallli, fame, and 

 titles, it is difficult to say J but it is to 

 be greatly deplored: for, if a litigious 

 disposition in the people of Great 

 Britain be not tlic cause of the great 

 evil, it is a never-failing concomitant 

 of it. 



It is not impertinent in this place and 

 at this time to remark, that our neigh- 

 bours the French arc catching the in- 

 fection of forensic eloquence; and in 

 this respect their modern pleaders seem 

 to surpass all the long-robed gentry of 

 their ancient parliaments and lits de 

 justice, as much as the gimcracks and 

 highflyers on the course would eclipse 

 in speed the hired doukics of Brighton. 

 S. P. 



To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine, 



SIR, 



IT has no doubt struck you, as it has 

 myself, that frequent mistakes, in 

 the translations from the French papers, 

 appear in our journals, so as sometimes 

 to confound or completely obscure the 

 sense the author meant to convey to 

 his reader. An error of this description 

 lately api)eared in one of our most po-' 

 puiar journals; wherein it is said, that 

 " an assurance is ofl'ered to the French 

 people for their preventive happiness ;" 

 meaning, no doubt, (for I have not the 

 original to refer to,) that the adoption 

 of those measures and precautions 

 spoken of and recommended, will secure 

 their happiness beforehand. " Assurer 

 leur bon heur par prevention," is unques- 

 tionably (he French phrase. 'Ihese 

 misconceptions are often the fruit of a 

 young and inexperienced translator, 

 who thinks himself fully capable, with a 

 French dictionary by his side, of ren- 

 dering that language into English. 



During the period that the foreign 

 gazettes were translated by privileged 

 clerks in the Post Office, and copies of 

 such translations were multiplied by a 

 polygraphic machine, and distributed to 

 the diflerent newspapers which sub- 

 scribed for tliem, a more ludicrous error 

 ran through almost half the journals of 

 England. A decree of the French le- 

 gislature, npon the subject of forest- 

 timber, which it v\as wished to cherisU 

 for the French navy, forbad all persons, 

 however authorised to pursue game, 

 deer, and other wild animals, from cut- 

 ting down, rooting up, or otherwise 

 injuring, the young and stripling trees. 



As 



