And, in fact, it would appear that the honest and friendly patriot put his threat into execution."I have spoken," said he, "more than once to this and that individual in Parliament, and everybody seems to think that the appointment should be given to you.Nay, that you should be forced to accept it.I intend next to speak to Lord A- " And so he did, at least it would appear so.On the writer calling upon him one evening, about a week afterwards, in order to take leave of him, as the writer was about to take a long journey for the sake of his health, his friend no sooner saw him than he started up in a violent fit of agitation, and glancing about the room, in which there were several people, amongst others two Whig members of Parliament, said, "I am glad you are come, I was just speaking about you.This," said he, addressing the two members, "is so and so, the author of so and so, the well-known philologist; as I was telling you, Ispoke to Lord A- this day about him, and said that he ought forthwith to have the head appointment in - and what did the fellow say? Why, that there was no necessity for such an appointment at all, and if there were, why - and then he hummed and ha'd.Yes," said he, looking at the writer, "he did indeed.What a scandal! what an infamy! But I see how it will be, it will be a job.The place will be given to some son of a steward or to some quack, as I said before.
Oh, these Tories! Well, if this does not make one - " Here he stopped short, crunched his teeth, and looked the image of desperation.
Seeing the poor man in this distressed condition, the writer begged him to be comforted, and not to take the matter so much to heart; but the indignant Radical took the matter very much to heart, and refused all comfort whatever, bouncing about the room, and, whilst his spectacles flashed in the light of four spermaceti candles, exclaiming, "It will be a job - a Tory job! I see it all, I see it all, I see it all!"And a job it proved, and a very pretty job, but no Tory job.
Shortly afterwards the Tories were out, and the Whigs were in.From that time the writer heard not a word about the injustice done to the country in not presenting him with the appointment to -; the Radical, however, was busy enough to obtain the appointment, not for the writer, but for himself, and eventually succeeded, partly through Radical influence, and partly through that of a certain Whig lord, for whom the Radical had done, on a particular occasion, work of a particular kind.So, though the place was given to a quack, and the whole affair a very pretty job, it was one in which the Tories had certainly no hand.
In the meanwhile, however, the friendly Radical did not drop the writer.Oh, no! On various occasions he obtained from the writer all the information about the country in question, and was particularly anxious to obtain from the writer, and eventually did obtain, a copy of a work written in the court language of that country, edited by the writer, a language exceedingly difficult, which the writer, at the expense of a considerable portion of his eyesight, had acquired, at least as far as by the eyesight it could be acquired.What use the writer's friend made of the knowledge he had gained from him, and what use he made of the book, the writer can only guess;but he has little doubt that when the question of sending a person to - was mooted in a Parliamentary Committee - which it was at the instigation of the writer's friend - the Radical on being examined about the country, gave the information which he had obtained from the writer as his own, and flashed the book and its singular characters in the eyes of the Committee; and then of course his Radical friends would instantly say, "This is the man! there is no one like him.See what information he possesses; and see that book written by himself in the court language of Serendib.This is the only man to send there.What a glory, what a triumph it would be to Britain, to send out a man so deeply versed in the mysterious lore of - as our illustrious countryman; a person who with his knowledge could beat with their own weapons the wise men of - Is such an opportunity to be lost?
Oh, no! surely not; if it is, it will be an eternal disgrace to England, and the world will see that Whigs are no better than Tories."Let no one think the writer uncharitable in these suppositions.The writer is only too well acquainted with the antecedents of the individual, to entertain much doubt that he would shrink from any such conduct, provided he thought that his temporal interest would be forwarded by it.
The writer is aware of more than one instance in which he has passed off the literature of friendless young men for his own, after making them a slight pecuniary compensation and deforming what was originally excellent by interpolations of his own.This was his especial practice with regard to translation, of which he would fain be esteemed the king.
This Radical literato is slightly acquainted with four or five of the easier dialects of Europe, on the strength of which knowledge be would fain pass for a universal linguist, publishing translations of pieces originally written in various difficult languages; which translations, however, were either made by himself from literal renderings done for him into French or German, or had been made from the originals into English, by friendless young men, and then deformed by his alterations.
