The “Pope” of Holland House
John Whishaw to Thomas Smith, 9 February 1815
Feb. 9, 1815.
THE speeches at Gloucester on the petition against the
property tax are very creditable to your county. Very good use was made of the
suggestion that the idea of this tax ought to be closely associated, or rather
identified, with the idea of war, so that when people talk of hostilities and
national glory, they may know what is to be calculated upon or expected.
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| “Edinburgh Review” |
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The following are the names of the articles of the last number of
the Edinburgh
Review as far as I know or can guess them:—
8. Part, I believe, by
Mr. Pillans,
master of the High School at Edinburgh, but a good deal by
Jeffrey.
10. Brougham.
11. Chiefly Jeffrey.
12. Brougham.
There are all sorts of strange reports about changes of Ministers
in which I am not in the least of a believer. They originate in the strange
secluded life which the Prince has been living
at Brighton, without any intercourse or communication with his official servants. I
shall content myself with the quotation from Tacitus1 of a passage which is very justly
admired by Gibbon. Have the goodness to show
it to Miss Bailey.2
Domitianus3 vero,—“umbraculis hortorum abditus, sicut
ignava animalia, quibus si cibum suggeras, jacent, torpentque, presentia
præterita, futura, pari oblivione demiserat.”
I am at length putting the finishing hand to Mungo Park, after many interruptions. The work
has been done by fits and starts and in a manner very unsatisfactory to myself, but
it must take its chance.
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Henry Peter Brougham, first baron Brougham and Vaux (1778-1868)
Educated at Edinburgh University, he was a founder of the
Edinburgh
Review in which he chastised Byron's
Hours of Idleness; he
defended Queen Caroline in her trial for adultery (1820), established the London University
(1828), and was appointed lord chancellor (1830).
Domitian, emperor of Rome (51-96)
Roman emperor and despot; he was the son of Vespasian and successor to Titus; he was
succeeded by Nerva after his wife had him murdered.
Edward Gibbon (1737-1794)
Author of
The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
(1776-1788).
Francis Jeffrey, Lord Jeffrey (1773-1850)
Scottish barrister, Whig MP, and co-founder and editor of the
Edinburgh
Review (1802-29). As a reviewer he was the implacable foe of the Lake School of
poetry.
James Pillans (1778-1864)
Edinburgh Reviewer and rector of Edinburgh High School, afterwards professor of Latin at
Edinburgh University. He earned Byron's enmity for his review of Francis Hodgson's
Juvenal.
John Playfair (1748-1819)
Professor of Mathematics at Edinburgh University and Whig man of letters who contributed
to the
Edinburgh Review.
Elizabeth Smith [née Chandler] (1767 c.-1859)
The daughter of Richard Chandler of Gloucester and wife of Thomas Smith of Easton Grey in
Wiltshire; she was a Unitarian and friend of John Whishart.
Thomas Smith (1767 c.-1822)
Of Easton Grey in Wiltshire; he was a county magistrate and friend of John Whishart,
David Ricardo, and Robert Southey.
