A Chronological List of the Writings of Leigh Hunt, with Explanations and Opinions. Juvenilia; or a Collection of Poems; written between the ages of twelve and sixteen, by 7. H. L. Hunt, late of the Grammar School of Christ's Hospital, and dedicated, by permission, to the Hon. J. H. Leigh, containing Miscellanies, Translations, Sonnets, Pastorals, Elegies, Odes, Hymns, and Anthems. 1801. ["For some time after I left school, I did nothing but visit my schoolfellows, haunt the book stalls, and write verses. My father collected the verses; and published them with a large list of subscribers, numbers of whom belonged to his old congregations. I was as proud perhaps of the book at that time, as I am ashamed of it now. The French Revolution, though the worst portion of it was over, had not yet shaken up and re-invigorated the sources of thought all over Europe. At least I was not old enough, perhaps was not able, to get out of the trammels of the regular imitative poetry, or versification rather, which was taught in the schools. My book was a heap of imitations, all but absolutely worthless. But absurd as it was, it did me a serious mischief; for it made me suppose that I had attained an end, instead of not having reached even a commencement; and thus caused me to waste in imitation a good many years which I ought to have devoted to the study of the poetical art, and of nature. Coleridge has praised Boyer for teaching us to laugh at 'muses,' and 'Castalian streams ;' but he ought rather to have lamented that he did not teach us how to love them wisely, as he might have done had he really known anything about poetry, or loved Spenser and the old poets, as he thought he admired the new. Even Coleridge's juvenile poems were none the better for Boyer's training. As to mine, they were for the most part as mere trash as anti-Castalian heart could have desired. I wrote 'odes' because Collins and Gray had written them, 'pastorals' because Pope had written them, 'blank verse because Akenside and Thomson had written blank verse, and a 'Palace of Pleasure' because Spenser had written a Bower of Bliss.' But in all these authors I saw little but their words, and imitated even those badly. I had nobody to bid me to go to the nature which had originated the books."-Autobiography of Leigh Hunt. Revised Edition, with an Introduction by his Eldest Son. 1860, p. 97.] Papers in the "Traveller" Newspaper, about 1804-5. ["My father, with his usual good-natured impulse, making me a present one day of a set of the British classics, which attracted my eyes on the shelves of Harley, the bookseller in Cavendish-street, the tenderness with which I had come to regard all my school recollections, and the acquaintance which I now made for the first time with the lively papers of the Connoiseur, gave me an entirely fresh and delightful sense of the merits of essay-writing. I began to think that when Boyer crumpled up and chucked away my themes' in a passion, he had not done justice to the honest weariness of my anti-formalities, and to their occasional evidences of something better. "The consequence was a delighted perusal of the whole set of classics (for I have ever been a glutton of books'); and this was followed by my first prose endeavours in a series of papers called the 'Traveller,' which appeared in the evening paper of that name (now the Globe), under the signature of 'Mr. Town, junior, Critic and Censor-General,'-the senior Mr. Town, with the same titles, being no iess a person than my friend of the Connoiseur, with whom I thus had the boldness to fraternise. I offered them with fear and trembling to the editor of the Traveller, Mr. Quin, and was astonished at the gaiety with which he accepted them. What astonished me more was a perquisite of five or six copies of the paper, which I enjoyed every Saturday when my essays appeared, and with which I used to re-issue from Bolt Court in a state of transport. I had been told, but could not easily conceive, that the editor of a new evening paper would be happy to fill up his pages with any decent writing; but Mr. Quin praised me besides; and I could not behold the long columns of type, written by myself, in a public paper, without thinking there must be some merit in them, besides that of being a stop-gap. "Luckily, the essays were little read; they were not at all noticed in public; and I thus escaped the perils of another premature laudation for my juvenility." Autobiography of Leigh Hunt. Revised Edition, with an Introduction by his Eldest Son. 1860, p. 124.] Early Theatrical Criticisms, in the "News," 1805. ["My brother John, at the beginning of the year 1805, set up a paper, called the "Good God! To think of the grand opinion I had of myself in those days, and what little reason I had for it!"-Autobiography of Leigh Hunt. Revised Edition, with an Introduction by his Eldest Son. 1860, p. 138.] Critical Essays on the Performers of the London Theatres, including general Remarks on the Practice and Genius of the Stage, by the Editor of the "Examiner." 1807. [It contains, among others, Strictures on Mrs. Siddons, Miss Pope, Miss Smith, "A portion of these criticisms subsequently formed the appendix of an original volume on the same subject, entitled "Critical Essays on the Performers of the London Theatres.' I have the book now before me; and if I thought it had a chance of survival, I should regret and qualify a good deal of uninformed judgment in it respecting the art of acting, which, with much inconsistent recommendation to the contrary, it too often confounded with a literal, instead of a liberal imitation of nature. I particularly erred with respect to comedians like Munden, whose superabundance of humour and expression I confounded with farce and buffoonery. Charles Lamb taught me better."--Autobiography of Leigh Hunt. Revised Edition, with an Introduction by his Eldest Son. 1860, p. 143.] Classic Tales; Serious and Lively-with Critical Essays on The Merits and Reputation of the Authors. 5 vols. 1807. [This was a joint speculation of Mr. C. H. Reynell and Mr. John Hunt. The tales were published in monthly parts, at 2s. 6d. Mr. Leigh Hunt was the selector of the tales, as well as the author of the Preface and the Introductory Essays on Mackenzie, Goldsmith, Brooke (author of "The Fool of Quality"), Voltaire, and Johnson. Three Essays-on Marmontel, Hawksworth, and Sterne-do not bear Leigh Hunt's name, as the others do, and were written (as the compiler of this list has been told) by Mr. Thomas Reynell.] The Examiner, a Sunday Paper on Politics, Domestic Economy, and Theatricals. Motto: "Party is the madness of many for the gain of a few."-Swift. The first number appeared on January 3, 1808. ["At the beginning of the year 1808, my brother John and myself set up the weekly paper of the Examiner in joint partnership. It was named after the N Examiner of Swift and his brother Tories. I did not think of their politics. I thought only of their wit and fine writing, which, in my youthful confidence, I proposed to myself to emulate; and I could find no previous political journal equally qualified to be its godfather. Even Addison had called his opposition paper the Whig Examiner. "Some years afterwards I had an editorial successor, Mr. Fonblanque, who had all the wit for which I toiled, without making any pretensions to it. He was, indeed, the genuine successor, not of me, but of the Swifts and Addisons themselves; profuse of wit even beyond them, and superior in political knowledge. Yet, if I laboured hard for what was so easy to Mr. Fonblanque, I wil not pretend to think, that I did not sometimes find it; and the study of Addison and Steele, of Goldsmith and Voltaire, enabled me, when I was pleased with my subject, to give it the appearance of ease. At other times, especially on serious occasions, I too often got into a declamatory vein, full of what I thought fine turns and Johnsonian antitheses. The new office of editor conspired with my success as a critic to turn my head. I wrote, though anonymously, in the first person, as if, in addition to my theatrical pretensions, I had suddenly become an oracle in politics; the words philosophy, poetry, criticism, statesmanship, nay, even ethics and theology, all took a final tone in my lips. When I remember the virtue as well as knowledge which I demanded from everybody whom I had occasion to notice, and how much charity my own juvenile errors ought to have considered themselves in need of (however they might have been warranted by conventional allowance), I will not say I was a hypocrite in the odious sense of the word, for it was all done out of a spirit of foppery and 'fine writing,' and I never affected any formal virtues in private; but when I consider all the nonsense and extravagance of those assumptions, all the harm they must have done me in discerning eyes, and all the reasonable amount of resentment which it was preparing for me with adversaries, I blush to think what a simpleton I was, and how much of the consequences I deserved. It is out of no 'ostentation of candour' that I make this confession. It is extremely painful to me. "Suffering gradually worked me out of a good deal of this kind of egotism. I hope that even the present most involuntarily egotistical book affords evidence that I am pretty well rid of it; and I must add, in my behalf, that, in every other respect, never, at that time or at any after time, was I otherwise than an honest man. I overrated my claims to public attention; but I set out perhaps with as good an editorial amount of qualification as most writers no older. I was fairly grounded in English history; I had carefully read De Lolme and Blackstone; I had no mercenary views whatsoever, though I was a proprietor of the journal; and all the levity of my animal spirits, and the foppery of the graver part of my pretensions, had not destroyed that spirit of martyrdom which had been inculcated in me from the cradle. I denied myself political as well as theatrical acquaintances: I was the reverse of a speculator upon patronage or employment: and I was prepared, with my excellent brother, to suffer manfully, should the time for suffering arrive. "The spirit of the criticism on the theatres continued the same as it had been in the News. In politics, from old family associations, I soon got interested as a man, though I never could love them as a writer. It was against the grain that I was encouraged to begin them; and against the grain I ever ever afterwards sat down to write, except when the subject was of a very general description, and I could introduce philosophy and the belles lettres. "The main objects of the Examiner newspaper were to assist in producing Reform in Parliament, liberality of opinion in general (especially freedom from superstition), and a fusion of literary taste into all subjects whatsoever. It began with being of no party; but Reform soon gave it one. It disclaimed all knowledge of statistics; and the rest of its politics were rather a sentiment, and a matter of general training, than founded on any particular political reflection. It possessed the benefit, however, of a good deal of reading. It never wanted examples out of history and biography, or a kind of adornment from the spirit of literature; and it gradually drew to its perusal many intelligent persons of both sexes, who would, perhaps, never have attended to politics under other circumstances."-The Autobiography of Leigh Hunt. Revised Edition, with an Introduction by his Eldest Son. 1860, p. 155. The following is from an article by Leigh Hunt in the Monthly Repository for 1837, then edited by him, entitled Explanation and Retrospection; the Examiner Twenty Years Ago:"-" It had little political ability in detail, no statistics, nothing that Cobbett, for instance, had, except purpose and greater courage. We may say so without immodesty, or even self-reference; for one of its proprietors (if it be not an egotism in a brother to say so) was a man of an heroical nature, prepared for any sufferance, and proving it through sick ness and trouble, by imprisonment on imprisonment, with tranquil readiness, for which he deserves well of his country. We never knew a fault in him but reserve, and a zeal for justice towards individuals so great as sometimes made him not quite mindful enough of the claims of those whom he thought opposed to them. As to ourselves, with but half his courage (for, to give it no harsher term, which might be thought a vanity, we even had a tendency to the luxurious and self-indulgent, which it required some excessive principle of friendship or cosmopolity to overcome), we had great animal spirits, an extraordinary equipoise of sick feelings and healthy, or levity and gravity; and between us both the Examiner, by its combination of a love of literature with politics, and its undoubted honesty, introduced a regard for Reform in quarters that otherwise would not have thought of it, and became the father of many a journalist of the present day, especially in the provinces. It was the Robin Hood of its cause, plunder excepted; and by the gaiety of its daring, its love of the green places of poetry, and its sympathy with all who needed sympathy, produced many a brother champion that beat it at its own weapons. Hazlitt, in its pages, first made the public sensible of his great powers. There Keats and Shelley were first made known to the lovers of the beautiful. There Charles Lamb occasionally put forth a piece of criticism, worth twenty of the editors', though a value was found in those also; and there we had the pleasure of reading the other day one of the earliest addresses to the public of a great man, who, with a hand mighty with justice, has succeeded in lifting up a nation into the equal atmosphere which all have a right to breathe-Daniel O'Connell. The powers of its present editor no man can appreciate with greater readiness than ourselves, or have oftener joined in praising. He is a wit of the times of Queen Anne, with greater political detail, though less general sympathies; and we always feel grateful to him for carrying on the reputation of the paper, which he does with far more political ability than its former editor;-but with respectability in the eyes of the conscientious, he could not, nor with greater encouragement from the respected." The following passages are taken from the preface to the 1st volume of the Examiner, January, 1808 :-"It is with some pride that the Examiner can close his first volume, not only with a complacent retrospect towards his prospectus, but with the approbation of those subscribers who, as they were the first to doubt, are now the most willing to trust him. It will be allowed me, however, for that very reason, while I sketch a slight review of what has been done, to explain what I have attempted without promising; and this consists of two endeavours: first, an humble attempt, exclusive of mere impartiality in great matters, to encourage an unprejudiced spirit of thinking in every respect, or, in other words, to revive an universal and decent philosophy, with truth for its sole object; and, second, an attempt to improve the style of what is called fugitive writing, by setting an example of, at least, a diligent respect for the opinion of literary readers. And a freedom from party spirit supposes in some degree this necessary enlargement of reason; for he that looks continually, even on the most brilliant leader of a faction, is in as much danger of being unable to see anything else properly as he that fixes his eye on red, or yellow, or any other brilliant or violent colour; but to look generally on mankind, and on the face of things, leaves the perception as keen and as distinct as to look on the colour of green, which is the general hue of Freedom from party-spirit is nothing but the love of looking abroad upon men and things, and this leads to universality, which is the great study of philosophy, so that the true love of inquiry and the love of one's country move in a circle. This is the "zeal according to knowledge" which I would be an humble instrument of recommending. As theatrical criticism is the liveliest part of a newspaper, I have endeavoured to correct its usual levity by treating it philosophically; and as political writing is the gravest subject, I have attempted to give it a more general interest by handling it good-humoredly. Little miscellaneous sketches of character and manners have been introduced into the Examiner as one small method of habituating readers to general ideas of the age. The fine arts also have met with an attention proportionable to their influence and national character, as well as to their rapid improvement in this country. Their improvement, indeed, is at once an honour and a disgrace to the nation, for it is the sole work of individuals. The politicians and the government have not yet acquired the art, which they must acquire, of looking about them with enlarged eyes, and fighting the great enemy with his only good weapon and his only real glory-the cultivation of the human intellect." nature. The following is from the postscript to the Examiner for the year 1810:"The Examiner closes its third volume under circumstances precisely similar to those at the conclusion of the two preceding years,-an increase of readers and a prosecution by the Attorney-General. These circumstances may not be equally lucrative to the proprietors, but they are equally flattering, and alike encourage them to persevere in a line of conduct which enables them to deserve the one and to disdain the other. Twice has the Attorney-General been foiled on these occasions; and it is not improbable that his amiable perseverance may be fated to sustain a similar shock for the third time. But be the event what it may, the proprietors will ever feel proud and happy in reflecting, that as the writings for which they have been attacked have advanced nothing that is not strictly constitutional and fit to be spoken by Englishmen, so the furtherance of their publicity and the discussion of their principles must tend to keep alive the old English spirit, and to retard, if they can do no more, the fatal period, when the stoppage of the public voice shall announce the death of our freedom." "The Examiner must be allowed (whether we look to the design or execution of the general run of articles in it) to be the ablest and most respectable of the publications that issue from the weekly press."-Edinburgh Review. May, 1823. Vol. 38, p. 368. "The Periodical Press." "The Examiner, that journal which may be fairly called an honour to the English press from the greatness of the intellect it has long commandedfrom the acknowledged subtlety and depth of its literary criticisms-and from the exquisite reasoning and the terse wit with which it enlivens the hackneyed common-places of party warfare."-Sir E. Bulwer Lytton. "Memoir of Laman Blanchard. "As a politician, there is a great debt of gratitude due to Leigh Hunt from the people, for he was their firm champion when reformers certainly did not walk about in silken slippers. He fell on evil days, and he was one of the first and foremost to mend them."-William Howitt; Homes and Haunts of the most Eminent English Poets. "Leigh Hunt." The "Few of the public, I fear, duly consider the debt of gratitude we owe to the first editors of the Examiner, Messrs. John and Leigh Hunt, for the noble example of editorial independence which they displayed, when such examples were more rare, and consequently more valuable than at present; at that time a system of tyranny and 'espionage,' on the part of a borough-mongering government, rendered it dangerous for an editor to publish or write with independence of spirit. Those who judge of the risks and responsibilities of editors of newspapers in these piping times of comparative liberality, can form no idea of the dangers which attended the task thirty years ago. Edinburgh Review and the Examiner were the vanguard of that periodical phalanx, which has since rendered such signal service to the cause of literature and public liberty. They were the first to give that impulse to the public mind which has since produced such wonderful results. They taught the people to think and judge for themselves in matters which, up to that period, had been left in the hands of trading and selfish politicians, whose chief object was not the public good, but the public plunder."-Letter in the Examiner, March 11, 1832, signed M. F.] THE SERVICES AND CLAIMS OF LEIGH HUNT. "It is with sincere satisfaction that we have heard of the movement now making in London to secure a provision for the declining years of Leigh Hunt. Every one acquainted with the history of the press is aware of the services rendered by Mr. Hunt to the cause of reform, not to speak of those contributions by which he has enriched our literature with a series of genial effusions which take their place beside the works of our most admired essayists. It is our intention at an early period to give a critical analysis of his genius, as well as some account of his voluminous writings, but at present, it is with the political career and services of Mr. Hunt that we have to do; and more particularly with his sufferings, both in purse and person, in the cause of reform. During the ascendancy of toryism, in the very worst days of the Castlereagh administration, no journal in the kingdom advocated liberal principles with more invincible courage than the London Examiner. Every liberal measure, without a single exception, which has since become the law of the land, from Catholic Emancipation down to the Repeal of the Corn Laws, did Leigh Hunt plead for and support in the Examiner; and that too at a time when, from the |