Platt. Cobbett had received him in Newgate, Sir Charles Wolseley twice in Abingdon gaol, and Sir Francis Burdett in the King's Bench. When Mr. Hobhouse had blustered himself into similar durance, Major Cartwright affectionately hastened— "To see so worshipful a friend,

I' th' pillory set at the wrong end."

We shall give his own account of the interview :

"It happened accidentally to come to his knowledge that a friend of that gentleman's family had represented, or intended to represent, very forcibly to his father and himself, the danger to which his health was exposed by confinement and want of exercise, and that it would be very desirable, as well as easy, to shorten the period by some sort of recantation or acknowledgment. Scarcely was Major Cartwright informed of this, than he set off for Newgate, determined, if he saw any probability that such advice should prevail, to urge strongly the propriety of submitting to any inconvenience rather than purchase his liberation at so dear a rate. On his return home, however, he remarked with a smile, I soon saw that my errand was unnecessary; the young man is firm.' .'"-Vol. ii. p. 162.

At length the great event occurred to which the labours of a whole life of more than usual length had as yet been unsuccessfully directed. The Major himself was indicted as a principal. The accusation was, a conspiracy to elect a legislatorial attorney for the representation of the loyal town of Birmingham in Parliament. But he was far from being unprepared for this charge; and it was in order to meet the blow which he anticipated that he had already applied to his friends.

Pray send a line to Lord Semphill, to request he will assist me in procuring me a halfpenny, coined early in the present reign, which, if I mistake not, bore a cap of Liberty on the wand of Britannia, before she was armed with a trident. Consult also another friend of ours how to come at an accurate description of the King's state coach at the beginning of this or any other reign since the Revolution, so as to ascertain whether the cap of Liberty made one of its ornaments.” Vol. ii. p. 166.

Major Cartwright conducted his own defence, and naturally enough was found guilty, and sentenced to pay a fine of 100%. Before he left the Court, he produced from one of the pockets of his waistcoat, which he always wore of an unusual size, a large canvass bag, out of which he slowly and deliberately counted 1007. in gold, observing that he believed "they were all good sovereigns."

The promotion of public dinners in celebration of the Revolutions of Spain, Portugal, and Naples, and public meetings in support of Queen Caroline's chastity, continued to occupy him

66

even while this prosecution was pending. He put “in hand” "patriotic songs in Spanish, and translations of them." He employed an artist to make two busts of Riego and Quiroga, which being mounted on flat pedestals fixed on staves, and ornamented with sprigs of olive and laurel, were carried at the head of the stewards, led by the chairman:" through the assistance of Senor Llanos Guiterez, he obtained the help of "an admired singer at the Opera, who electrified the audience by a Spanish song, which was received with enthusiastic plaudits;" and a young English friend also produced another song, which was set to music by a native of Scotland. The following letter from Dr. Parr is connected with these interesting occupations:

"Dear and excellent Mr. Cartwright,

"I am busy night and day in preparing such a catalogue of my numerous books, as may guide my executors when I am no more. Scarcely any consideration could draw me away from the laborious but important task. If my presence had been necessary for the cause of the Queen, I am pretty sure that I should have been summoned; and the Queen knows I should have been ready to obey the summons. But all her interests and all her rights are in the hands of able, and we may now say, faithful auxiliaries. I hold with you, that the honour of the Queen is closely connected with the Constitutional rights of the people; and at all events we are gaining ground against a venal and oppressive crew in the Palace, in the Council-chamber, and in both Houses of Parliament.

My mind, like your own, is anxious for the success of the Spaniards, Portuguese, and Neapolitans, in their resistance to tyranny. I believe that the governors of this country will not dare to interfere. I cannot with any convenience attend your dinner; and I must fairly acknowledge to you, that my own sense of decorum always leads me to keep at a distance from convivial meetings upon political subjects. But I shall not yield the palm of consistency and intrepidity to any Englishman now living, when, by open profession, or by personal exertion, I can promote the cause of genuine freedom. I set at defiance the invectives of party scribblers, and the taunts of courtiers, and the frowns of nobles and princes. I really and I avowedly. think you a most injured man; and I lament the servility, and the corruption, and intolerance, and the cruelty of which so many vestiges are to be found among the dignitaries of my own order, and, I am sorry to add, among the ministers of public justice. Our infatuated rulers are blindly rushing into every outrage which has a tendency to accelerate revolution. Mrs. Parr unites with me in best compliments and best wishes to your well-bred and intelligent lady, and to Miss Cartwright.

-Vol. ii. p. 198.

"I have the honour to be,

"Dear Sir, &c.

66 SAMUEL PARR."

His next great public essay, in 1822, was to appoint a Committee "to prepare a popular reception in London" for Hunt, who had never before appeared within his field of political view.

"Hunt has gained much credit both in and out of parliament, and for the sake of the public, we ought to hope he will not risk a diminution of it. It will require extraordinary circumspection, and a dignified line of conduct; but after all, he ought to know his own case best; and I do not wish that any persons should endeavour to divert him from that course which, on mature consideration, he may think wisest and best. We had a pleasant radical dinner on the 28th, when the old Major entered his eighty-third year. Wolseley, Strickland, Docilli, a young Neapolitan, &c. &c. were present. Best remembrances to Mrs. N. and the young brood, from yours radically.”—Vol. ii. p. 223.

In the following year, the sagacity of his coadjutor Wooler led him to a discovery, which, if it had been made before, would have saved him much time and money, and perhaps a few headaches.

"Dinner-meetings for valuable objects are bad inventions; as, very soon after dinner, the wine begins to take effect, all is noise and confusion; and although I am a friend to pithy and spirited toasts, they, in the way of utility, will not rank with able speeches and wise resolutions."-Vol. ii. p. 238.

He now wrote to the President of the Congress of Greece, and transmitted six copies of an abridgment of his larger work on the Constitution. A learned Italian about the same time translated this abridgment into the language of Italy; and he "had reason to expect that some French literati would do the same with respect to France." He designed a monument for Riego, consisting of three cubes, three entablatures, three inscriptions, and two altars: he subscribed to the London Mechanics' Institute; and he asked General Mina to dinner.

This protracted course of restlessness was at length closed on the 23rd of September, 1824, and Major Cartwright brought to conclusion a life of 84 years, in which, with the best possible intentions, he had scarcely ever succeeded in a single object to which his labours had been directed. Thus, exclusive of Politics, we find him engaged, in a comparatively early period of his life, in an attempt to raise the Royal George. His Biographer assures us that it was allowed by all to be the best scheme which had been offered to Government; but, alas! it was never attended to: again, he erected a large mill at Retford, in Nottinghamshire, for manufacturing wool, but we are further informed, that from a variety of causes and untoward circumstances, with which it is not

112 Life and Correspondence of Major Cartwright.

necessary to trouble the reader, this undertaking entirely failed between two and three years after its commencement. To these may be added his design for a Naval Temple-the drawings were forty-six in number; they presented a catalogue of decorations large enough to stock the portfolio of any average architect from Vitruvius down to Mr. Nash; five Nautic Orders, eight personified Winds, studies for bas relievos, friezes full of taste, and one Genius of Britain at the very top of a column. For all these the thanks of the British Institution were voted to Major Cartwright, and he was informed that his plan did "not appear to come within the views" of the meeting. Next, we find a flying drawbridge approved by Sir John Moore, and a Britannic spear, not adopted by those to whom it was offered. In his political exertions, it is very candidly admitted that "he did weary and disgust those who had less zeal or more prudence than himself;" and again, that during his long life he never once found out "the happy moment" for agitating any public measure; perhaps, however, his escapes from sitting in the Augean Parliament, which he so incessantly laboured to purge, were more numerous than those of the rankest borough-canvasser in existence. We are not certain that we shall be accurate in our enumeration, but if we err, it will be in presenting the minimum. Twice was he proposed, or thought of, for the Town of Nottingham, once was he beaten for the County; thrice was he negotiated with for Boston, as many times for Westminster. That he declined the invitation of a majority of the Burgesses of Retford is scarcely a matter of surprise, since 66 one of his ancestors, who was Member for that town during the Civil wars, received so dreadful a crush in the lobby of the House of Commons, (it was believed not accidentally,) while the Members were entering, that he died in consequence." Major Cartwright did not sit in Parliament after all; if he had done so, his ultimate success under so many rebuffs would have reminded us of the final triumph of that most erudite and subtle Scotist, Magister Warmsemmel, of Cologne, qui fuit tempore suo pro gradu magisterii bis rejicitus, et ter impeditus, et tamen stetit ulterius, quoad fuit promotus, pro honore Universitatis.

Every glance which is afforded us of the private life of Major. Cartwright, shews him in a pleasing and amiable light, whether he is learning to play at bears, on all fours, with his friend's children, watching over the declining health of his brother, or advising his nephew on his approaching marriage.. In his domestic circle he was formed to be most fondly loved and cherished; and with all these claims upon our attachment, it is no small consolation to remember, that on the points on which we most differ from him, and on which, if he had been successful, we

Captain Parry's Third Voyage to the Polar Regions.

113 must have visited him with severity, he was completely impotent. Against a razor or a horse-pistol we must arm in self-defence; but we may safely disregard a squirt or a pea-shooter. No man can be heartily angry if he be once forced into a laugh; and the animal which is most mischievous in its antics often escapes punishment, even if it bites and scratches, from its happy facility of becoming merely ridiculous.

ART. VI.―Journal of a Third Voyage for the Discovery of a Northwest Passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific; performed in the Years 1824-5, in his Majesty's Ships Hecla and Fury, under the orders of Captain Wm. Edward Parry, R. N., F. R. S., and Commander of the Expedition. (Published by Authority of the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty.) London, Murray, 1826.

THE arrangements for the voyage of discovery, with the history of which we are presented in this volume, were, in all leading respects, similar to those which had been found so adequate to their purpose on the two former occasions. Some slight improvement was made in the adjustment and fixing of the warming-stoves on board the vessels employed; but in other points there was little to be added to the excellence of their previous equipment.

In drawing up the official instructions, a very honourable reliance was placed on Captain Parry's tried discretion. He was to proceed up Davis's Strait, and, in whatever latitude he considered advisable, to cross over to its western side; then, in consequence of the favourable representations which he had made of such a course, he was to bear up Lancaster Sound and Barrow's Strait, and finally endeavour to penetrate to the Pacific through Prince Regent's Inlet. If he succeeded in passing onwards, he was constantly to bear in mind the land-expeditions under Captains Lyon and Franklin respectively; and by erecting flag-staffs, and burying bottles at their feet with an account of his progress, to afford all possible means of communication, in case they should happen to follow on the same coasting-track. Kamschatka, the Sandwich Islands, or Canton, were noticed as favourable places for refreshment, if the great object of the voyage should be happily accomplished; and in the absence of all intelligence which might render such a measure unnecessary, supplies were to be in waiting in Behring's Straits about August or September, 1827.

The Hecla and Fury, accompanied by the William Harris transport, which was to convey a great portion of their stores across the

VOL. III.