Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 7.djvu/491

 9s. vii. JUNE 22, loci.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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him as " this talented and extraordinary man." In the Gent. Mag. for 1815 (vol. ii. p. 605) there is reported an " eloquent eulo- gium " delivered by Mr. Mulock at the Liver- pool Pitt Club to the memory of William Pitt and Edmund Burke. In Picton's ' Memorials of Liverpool ' (vol. ii. p. 17) he is referred to as a " somewhat eccentric character " who contributed letters to the Courier in 1816-17 :

" He was an able and original writer and speaker, a great admirer of George Canning, and a Tory to the backbone. His letters in the Courier bore the signature of ' Six Stars,' and excited bitter opposi- tion in the Liberal ranks, who held up the name of the firm to ridicule under the sobriquet of ' Bloody Moloch.' "

According to Dr. Thorn his career as a public speaker in Liverpool was " particularly brilliant." He was for some time secretary to George Canning, with whom he was on intimate terms, and projected a life of that statesman, which, however, he never pub- lished. About 1816 he was contributing to the Sim, as will be seen in William Jerdan's


 * Autobiography ' (vol. ii. p. 130) :

"Mr. Mulock, a gentleman of rare talent, con- tributed a series of reports and bulletins, on the assumed ground that [Leigh] Hunt had been com- mitted to Bedlam as a lunatic, and these gave an account of his aberrations when visitors were ad- mitted, which would not have been unworthy of Dean Swift."

Jordan quotes extensively from these satires, and shows that Canning was in- terested in Mr. Mulock's writing. Later on in his 'Autobiography' (vol. iii. p. 123) he mentions that Mr. Mulock was then " one of the most able and zealous public writers in the cause of " Prince Louis Napoleon, and had also written " three clever satirical letters in the Gazette, under the signature and in the character of Satan, which made a noise at the time."

In 1817 he retired from business, and having, according to Dr. Thorn,

"become the subject of serious impressions, he thenceforward became conspicuous as an author on theological topics. In 1818 he published here a speech which he intended to have delivered at the annual meeting of the Auxiliary Bible Society, helc in the month of May of that year. This has been followed, at intervals, by a whole shower of pam- phlets on religious subjects, all clever all written with singular power, elegance, and grace and many of them characterised by acute or original views on the subjects of theology and Christian practice.'

On 20 June, 1817, he matriculated at Magdalen Hall, Oxford, aged twenty-seven but soon seems to have abandoned the Uni- versity. In 1819 he published in London his

of all the Ages.' This came under the notice
 * Answer given by the Gospel to the Atheism

of Lord Byron, who, writing to John Murray from Ravenna on 1 March, 1820, says :

"The editor of the Bologna Telegraph has sent me a paper with extracts from Mr. Mulock's (his name always reminds me of Muley Moloch of Morocco) * Atheism Answered,' in which there is a .ong eulogium of my poesy, and a great compatimento
 * or my misery. I never could understand what they

mean by accusing me of irreligion : however, they

ay have it their own way. This gentleman seems

In the recently published ' Works of Lord Byron,' edited by Rowland E. Prothero, the portions of this work relating to the poet are quoted (vol. iv. appendix x. p. 496). In the same volume a root-note on p. 416 ex- plains that Mr. Mulock was (at the time the Bologna Telegraph quoted him) giving a course of lectures on English literature at Geneva.

In November, 1820, he started a similar course at Paris. Tom Moore went to hear some of the lectures, but was not favourably impressed. Writing in his diary on 6 Nov., 1820 (' Memoirs,' vol. iii. p. 166), he says :

"Took Bessy in to attend Mulock's first lecture on English literature ; Jiumen verborum guttula mentis. One of his figures was rather awkward, if pursued too minutely. He talked of persons going to the well-spring of English poesy, in order to communicate what they have quajfed to others"

Again, on 17 Nov., 1820 (ibid., p. 169), he writes :

"Went in with Bessy to Mulock's lecture. Absurd and false from beginning to end. Dryden was no poet ; Butler had no originality ; and Locke was ' of the school of the devil,' both in his philo- sophy, politics, and Christianity."

Again, on 6 Dec., 1820 (ibid., p. 176), Moore writes :

" Was to have gone this morning (Bessy and I), with Lady Charlemont, to Mulock's lecture; but finding that I myself was to be one of the victims of his tomahawk to-day, deferred our going to Friday."

And on 11 Dec., 1820 (ibid., p. 178), he says:

" Went into town to Mulock's lecture. Find that he praised me in his discourse on the living poets, the other day, exceedingly ; set me at the head of them all, near Lord Byron, who, he says, is the only person in the world who seems to have any proper notion of religion ! In alluding to ' Lalla Rookh ' he said, 'As for his Persian poem (I forget the name of it), I really never could read it.' The lecture to-day upon evangelical literature and religion in general ; mere verbiage."

Writing to Tom Moore from Ravenna on 9 December, 1820, Byron again refers to Mr. Mulock :

"I have some knowledge of your countryman Muley Moloch the lecturer. He wrote to me several letters upon Christianity to convert me ; and if I