234 
§tephensiana a —No. I. [Oct. I, 
take, they mean as their last flourish in 
the war. May your health, which never 
failed you yet, still continue till you 
have scraped together enough to return 
home, and live in some snug corner, as 
happy as the Corycius Senex in Virgil’s 
4th Georgic, whom I recommend both 
to you and myself as a perfect model 
of the most happy life. Believe me to he 
ever most sincerely and affectionately, 
yours, &c. James Thomson, 
j. H. TOOKE. 
One Sunday (latter end of) May, 
1811, Mr. Tooke received from the ex¬ 
ecutor and successors of Mr. Jos. John¬ 
son, of St. Paul’s Church -yard, the sum 
of £960, being the residue of the debt 
due for theEpea Pterorenta. This, to¬ 
gether with the sum before received by 
Mr. T. for subscriptions, &c. amounted 
in all to £1500. for that work, which I 
am told was never but once advertized. 
TOOKE’S OPINIONS OF LOCKE. 
Mr. Tooke considered it a lucky mis¬ 
take which Mr. Locke made when he 
called his celebrated work An Essay on 
Human Understanding; 44 for some 
part of the inestimable benefit of that 
book has*’ added he, 44 merely on ac¬ 
count of its title, reached to many thou¬ 
sands more than I fear it would have 
done, had he called it (what it is 
namely) A Grammatical Essay, or a 
Treatise on Words or Language, The 
human mind , or human understandings 
appears to be a grand and a noble 
theme ; and all men, even the most 
insufficient, conceive that to be a pro¬ 
per object for their contemplation; 
whilst inquiries into the nature of 
language (through which alone they can 
obtain any knowledge beyond the 
beasts) are fallen into such extreme dis¬ 
repute and contempt, that even those 
who 44 neither have the accent of Chris¬ 
tian, Pagan, or Man,” nor can speak so 
many words together with a3 much pro¬ 
priety as Balaam’s ass did, do yet ima¬ 
gine words to be infinitely beneath the 
concern of their exalted understand¬ 
ing. He was of opinion, however, that 
Mr. Locke in this essay never did ad¬ 
vance one step beyond the origin of 
ideas and the composition of terms. 
MR. COUTTS. 
Written at Holly Lodge , Highgate, by 
the Duke of Gordon , and presented in 
the Drawing-room by the Marquis of 
Huntley. 
An apple, we know, caus’d old Adam’s dis¬ 
grace, 
Who from Paradise quickly was driven, 
But your’s, my dear Tom, is a happier case. 
Fora Melon transports yon to heaven 
THE BRITISH CONSTITUTION 
Acts by general laws, and never en¬ 
grafts unlimited power on the virtue or 
discretion of any individual, even the 
first magistrate. 
STANZAS to the late DUCHESS of 
GORDON. 
On Spey’s wild banks at Huntly’s board, 
Where first fierce chieftains met their Lord, 
In festive joy and arms ! 
Love’s gentle forces now are seen, 
His daughters and the mother queen, 
Arrayed in beauty’s charms. 
Soothed in their mansions in the sky. 
The Huntly barons here descry, 
New conquests still in view : 
The loves and graces from the north 
Shad bid the ducal banner forth, 
And strike the south anew. 
And thou fair Duchess ! fairest still i 
Shalt guide those conquests at thy will, 
And Scotia’s pride phall reign• 
O’er London shall thy trophies fly,^ 
Her proudest lords and dames shall vie 
To grace thy Tartan train. 
LORD CHIEF JUSTICE SAUNDERS. 
He succeeded the Lord Chief Justice 
Pemberton, in the King’s Bench. Ac¬ 
cording to North, in his life of the 
Lord Keeper Guildford, 44 his character 
and beginning were equally strange. 
He was at first no better than a poor 
beggar boy, or parish foundling, with¬ 
out parents or relations.” He is de¬ 
scribed 44 as very corpulent and beastly, 
a mere lump of morbid flesh and 44 to 
say nothing of brandy, he was seldom 
without a pot of ale at his nose or near 
him.” While lie sat in the Court of 
King’s Bench,” adds the same author, 
44 he gave the rule to the great satisfac¬ 
tion of tile lawyers ; but "his course cf 
life was so different from what it had 
been, his business (so) incessant, and 
withal crabbed, and his diet and exer¬ 
cise (so) changed, that the constitution 
of his body, or head rather, could not 
sustain it, and he fell into an apoplexy 
and palsy, which numbed his parts, 
and he never recovered the strength cf 
them.” This chief justice was selected 
for the express purpose of deciding 
against the liberties of the City of Lon¬ 
don, in the.question of warrants. 
GOVERNMENT. 
All governments stand either upon 
will or power, or condition and con¬ 
tract : the first rule by force, the second 
by the laws. All laws are either fun¬ 
damental, and thus invariable, such 
as those tor the punishment of robbery 
and murder, or temporary and alterable, 
such as those relating to trade, lanes, &c. 
LETTER 
