The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1825-08-03 00:00:00

LITERARY -
e following may be considered as one of the most ex-
ordinary instances of plagiarism l ver reeprded.
The Count de MILIBEAri, in a publication of the year
'7llB, " Aux Bataecs cur le Stathoudetat," thus addresses
s. republican party, whose designs had been overthrown
the Duke of Brunswick's march into Holland.
Que si une lomat* prophitique voila eat revile les etenemens
attire, les maul que vous avey soufferts, et ceux time bons souffle.s
encore, en et cas mime yowl twin du prentlre la resolution que
-ous twee prise, pair peu clue volts einem: respecti votre ;claire, et
stickers, et les jugemens de la posteriti. 0 Bluster iliegmes I
sectorieuse Waite ! Puisse cute 'memorable Epoque kite grare4i.
les annaleatu monde en caracteres ineffagables, et es
,ter toujours nouvelle pour vos derniers neeeux ! Alt!
jamais ignores de quiconque ne asura pas qu' avant conibk
tyrannieau-dedans, la force au dehors, la lisgerete de von volume*,
;missive: euccombi en defendant la cause de Ilumnenr, la cause
de la patrie, la cause de respect, humahie Peut-etre /1 fortune
triomphera-t-elle de la renommee, comma elle a triemphe de la
vertu. Alain votre conscience, du moins, brevets' tee atteintes, et
Ja souvenir de ce que vous rive: tente habitem saps. ems au fond de
vos emirs; it y reposera corume en tan santitaire; it n'en sorties
qu'nvec la vie."
Mr. Buller, on the 24th of February 1'765, bail, in the
House of Commons, in his speech on the Nabob of Arcot's
debts, spoke thus upon an allusion made Pi Mr. Fox's.
India Bill :
" It is not necessary that the Bight Bon. Gentleman should'
sarcastically cell that time to our recollection,- Well do I remen
bee every circumstance of that memorable period. God forbid I
should forget it. 0 Illustrious disgrace ! a victorious defeat !
May your memorial be fresh arid new to the latest generations!,
May the day of that generous coniliet be 'tamped in characters
never to be cancelled or worn out from the records of time ! Let
no man hear of us, who shall not hear, that in a struggle
!against the intrigues of Courts, and 'the perfidious levity of
the multitude, we fell in the cause of 'lithium in the cause of our
country, in the cause of human nature itself! But if fortune
should be as powerful' over (tune as she has been prevalent over
virtue, at least, our conscience is beyond her jurisdiction. My poor
share in the support of that great measure no man shall rarieli front.
me. It shall besafely lodged in the sanctuary of my heart, never,
never tobe torn from thence, but with those holds that grapple it to
life."—Vide Burke's works, vol. iv. p. 219.
We will next present the reader with an instance of de-
liberate falsification of a passage of' 'Zr.. Be axes, which is
perhaps without a parallel in literary history.
In his celebrated Letter on the Revolutiax in France,
Mr. Burke writes thus :
" Circumstances (which with some gentlemen pass for nothing)
give in reality to every political principle its distinguishing colour,
and discriminating effect. The circumstances are what render every
civil and political scheme beneficial or noxious to mankind. Ab-
stractedly speaking, government, as well as liberty, is good ; yel
could I, in common sense, ten years ago, have felicitated France on
her enjoyment af a Government (fin she then had a Government),
without inquiring what the nature of that Government was, or how it
was administered? Can I now congratulate the same nation upon
Its freedom? Is it because liberty, in the abstract, may be classed
amongst the blessings of mankind, that I am seriously to felicitate
a madmen who has escaped from the protecting restraint and
wholesome darkness of his cell, on his restoration to the enjoyment
of light and liberty ? Am 1 to congratulate an highwayman and
murderer, who has broke prison, upon the recovery of his natural
rights ? This would be to act over again the. scene of the criminals
condemned to the galleys, and their heroic deliverer, the metaphysic
Knight of the Sorrowful Countenanee."—Vide Burke's works,
vol. vi. p. 136.
PAINE, in his Rights of Man, in his attack on Mr.
Burke's Letter, writes thus:—
" Bat Mr. Burke app=es to have no idea of principles when he
is contemplating Governments. Ten years ago (says he) I could'
Jytrt felicited France on her havinn a Government, without in-'
rquiring what the nature of that Government was, or how it was
administered. Is this the language of a rational man ? On this
ground Mr. Burke must compliment every Government in the
sotld. while the victims who suffer under them, whether sold
Into slavery or tortured out of existence, ire wholly forgotten.
It is power, and not principles, that Mr. Burke venerates and
[ender this abominable depravity, he is disqualified to judge between
them."
The paragraph containing the above most glaring and
audacious misrepresentation stands the same in all the edi-
tions of the Rights of Man. Even In the very last edition
of his works, published isy Carlile, price 21. in boards.
Vide vol. 1. p. 22.