On this page
-
Text (1)
-
Untitled Article
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
been so conspicuous in both . We consider his literary character to be already immoveably fixed , and that there is no man of ingenuity , who does not larnenbto seethe close
of his philological labours . As a man of wit and general talents , he will be likewise allowed on all hands to stand in the highest rank ; as a companion , well-bred , affable ,
cheerful , entertaining , instructive , awl in raillery to have been perhaps without an equal . —But when we proceed to his politics , we find ourselves on contentious ground , and feel the embers hot under our
feet . Gay and lively in his general habits , here only he was inflexible ah 3 severe . Whether it was the love of mankind or impatience of ppwer , let men dispute according to their fancies . It is a sufficient
motive for our praise that he was " Constantly on the side of freedom . ' *•—We , ourselves , who have always jp refer red , from love as well as ' principle , to tread in the footsteps of another leader , may have "thoiight 'tftt * Tooke culpably
fasti jcjions ' an'd intractable . But , to say nothing of his just confidence in himself , he tin List be allowed to have had some ground for caution and distrust in forming connections with public men : for he had sup-, j ) orted Wilkes , and w&s betrayed ; aod b ad united with Pitt * &ttd was
persecuted . — 'By those who are rqaxjyjt © approve every encroachu jrtent of power , his writings may Still fee tended libeU , and his coirjduct turbulence . Yet the nation fcas long since come to agree with
him respecting th « American war , and tfre ' * murder * of Lexington ;*' > aiuUttbe judgment of a jury shall W confirmed by posterity , the infamy that was prepared for . Tooke may fall on his prosecutors . At
Untitled Article
any rate , the supporters of fature administration * will probably be satisfied with classing him among the Hampdens * the Mil tons , and
similar disturbers of quiet government and older . —In his public character , he may fairly . be allowed the praise of being disinterested , for he exposed himself to sufferings and loss when he failed , without
personal advantage from success . Nor let it be thought that his exertions in the cause of liberty were vain , because they were so generally repelled . The abuse of power has no greater , restraint than the dread of some stubborn mind , which fines and prisons cannot subdue ; and we are persuaded that ministers and even judges , have sometimes been awed into moderation , by a man who not only sacrificed to liberty , but was willing to yield himself up as the offering . ^ The marked and
inveterate hostility . which he so long indulged against the purest and most disinterested patriot of our times , took its rise in the memorable
period of 1782 , when on the demise of the Marquis of Rockingham , Mr . Fox felt himself compelled te resign , in consequence of the appointment of th # Earl of Shelburne te : be First Lord of the
Treasury Mw . Tooke closely allied himself with , and became the active partisan of that fniniatry ; amd though in the end he detected the inordinate lust of power , at the shrine of ; which Mr . Pitt sacrificed
every principle of his youth , Mr * Toake never seemed to forgive the keener penetration of Mr . Fox , in discovering at once . t 4 ie real charactenand views of that youthful statesman . Added to which , Mr . Tooke had , in his nature a jealous and unrelenting enmity to
Untitled Article
192 Obituary . —John Home Too feel
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1812, page 192, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1746/page/56/
-