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GORDON, THOMAS, an eminent
party writer, and translator of Tacitus, is supposed to have been born in
the parish of Kells, in the stewartry of Kirkcudbright, about the end of
the seventeenth century. His father, the representative of an ancient
family, descended from the Gordons of Kenmuir, was proprietor of Gairloch
in that parish. Thomas Gordon is said to have received a university
education in his own country, and then to have gone to London as a
literary adventurer: joining these circumstances with his avowed
infidelity, it is probable that he was a renegade student of divinity, or
licentiate—almost always an unprincipled and odious character. In
London, he supported himself at first as a teacher of languages, and
gradually became an author by profession. He is said to have been employed
as a political writer by the earl of Oxford, in the support of the tory
ministry of which that nobleman was the head; but this hardly corresponds
with the other dates of his literary exertions, for Mr Gordon appears to
have written nothing of which the title has been commemorated, till he
formed an intimacy with Mr Trenchard; and, on the 20th of January, 1720,
commenced in conjunction with that individual, a weekly political sheet
called "the Independent Whig." If Gordon wrote in the reign of
queen Anne, what was he doing in the course of the six intervening years?
Nor is it of small importance to his reputation that this point should be
settled, as he became a distinguished patriot, and a supporter of Sir
Robert Walpole—the very reverse, in every respect, of what he is said to
have been in the days of queen Anne’s tory ministry. It is our own
opinion that the latter allegation is not well founded; it does not appear
in the original memoir of Gordon in the Biographia Britannica, 1766, an
article evidently written by a person that must have known himself or at
least his surviving family; that sketch represents him in the more
probable character of a young man taken into employment by Mr Trenchard as
an amanuensis, and subsequently so much improved by the conversation and
instructions of his employer, as to be fitted to enter into a literary
partnership with him as an independent patriotic writer. Thus we see much
cause to relieve the memory of this clever person from no small share of
the odium which has been cast upon it by subsequent biographical writers.
Trenchard, the partner of
Gordon, was a political writer of some standing, and no small influence.
It was in consequence of a pamphlet from his pen, that the parliament
obliged king William to send home his Dutch guards; a proceeding which is
said to have moved that grave monarch to tears, and almost induced him to
go back to Holland himself. Mr Trenchard was the author of a work which
appeared in 1709, under the title of "the Natural History of
Superstition," and held the office of commissioner of the forfeited
estates in Ireland. His acquaintance with Gordon appears to have been
commenced without the formality of an introduction. "From a perfect
stranger to him," says the latter, "and without any other
recommendation than a casual coffee-house acquaintance, and his own good
opinion, he took me into his favour and care, and into as high a degree of
intimacy as ever was shown by one man to another. This was the more
remarkable," continues Gordon, "and did me the greater honour,
as he was naturally as shy in making friendships, as he was eminently
constant to those which he had already made." The Independent Whig,
which seems to have been their first joint production, was continued for a
year, stopping in January, 1721. Before its conclusion, namely in
November, 1720, the two writers had begun a series of letters signed Cato,
in the London, and, afterwards in the British Journal, which was
continued almost to the death of Mr Trenchard, an event that happened in
December, 1723. A new edition of the Independent Whig, including a renewed
series published by Gordon, after Mr Trenchard’s death, appeared in two
volumes, 12mo. A similar collection of Cato’s Letters, appeared
in four volumes, and went into a fourth edition in 1737.
Of the Independent Whig, Dr
Murray thus speaks in his Literary History of Galloway. "It is a
fortunate circumstance, that this work is known only by name; for it is
disfigured by sentiments which are deserving of great reprobation. It was
more immediately directed against the hierarchy of the church of England;
but it was also meant, or at least has a direct tendency to
undermine the very foundation of a national religion, under any
circumstances, and to bring the sacred profession, if not religion itself,
into contempt. The sacerdotal office, according to this book, is not only
not recommended in scripture, but is unnecessary and dangerous; ministers
of the gospel have ever been the promoters of corruption and ignorance,
and distinguished by a degree of arrogance, immorality, and a thirst after
secular power, that have rendered them destructive of the public and
private welfare of a nation. ‘One drop of priestcraft,’ say they, ‘is
enough to contaminate the ocean.’
"The object of Cato’s
Letters," continues Dr Murray, "is nearly the same with that of
the Independent Whig—with this difference, that its theological and
ecclesiastical discussions are much blended with political disquisitions.
It was, indeed, directed particularly against the South Sea scheme; the
knavery and absurdity of which our authors had the merit of exposing, at a
time when almost the whole nation was intoxicated with dreams of wealth
and independence, which it artfully cherished, and by which so many were
ruined and betrayed.
"Notwithstanding the
insuperable objections we have stated to the most of the principles of
these works, they are characterized, we must confess, by no mean portion
of talents and learning. The authors seem always masters of the subjects
of which they treat, and their discussions are clear, close, and vigorous.
"Like every person
who, in any way, attempts to undermine the welfare and interests of
society, Gordon and Trenchard laid claim to great purity of intention.
According to their own statement, they formed the only two wise,
patriotic, and independent men of the age in which they lived. ‘As these
letters,’ says Gordon, in his preface, ‘were the work of no faction or
cabal, nor calculated for any lucrative or ambitious ends, or to serve the
purposes of any party whatsoever; but attacked falsehood and dishonesty,
in all shapes and parties, without temporizing with any, but doing justice
to all, even to the weakest and most unfashionable, and maintaining the
principles of liberty against the practices of most parties: so they were
dropped without any sordid composition, and without any consideration,
save that it was judged that the public, after its terrible convulsions,
was again become calm and safe.’"
After the death of Mr
Trenchard, his widow, after the manner of ladies in a more expressly
commercial rank of life, became the second wife of her husband’s
journeyman and partner, Mr Gordon,—apparently induced to take this step
by the usefulness of Gordon in managing her affairs. By this lady, who
survived him, and was living in 1766, he had several children. His
circumstances were now very easy and agreeable, and he appears to have
contemplated tasks which required leisure, and promised to give him a
permanent fame. A translation of Tacitus executed by him, (the third
printed in the English language,) with discourses taken from foreign
commentators and translators of that historian, appeared in 1728, two
volumes folio; and the subscription being patronized by Sir Robert
Walpole, it proved a very lucrative speculation. Of this work, one writer
speaks as follows:—"No classic was ever perhaps so miserably
mangled. His (Gordon’s) style is extremely vulgar, yet affected, and
abounds with abrupt and inharmonious periods, totally destitute of any
resemblance to the original; while the translator fancied he was giving a
correct imitation." Another writer, adverts to it in very different
terms. "Though it is now," says Dr Murray, [Chalmer’s General
Biographical Dictionary, xvi. 107.] "in a great degree
superseded by the elegant translation of Mr Murphy, it is nevertheless a
work of no inconsiderable degree of merit. Mr Gordon probably understood
his author better than any who have presented him to the world in an
English dress; and the only objection that has been made to the work, even
by Murphy himself, is, that he foolishly attempted to accommodate the
English language to the elliptical and epigrammatic style of the Roman
historian." Gordon afterwards published a translation of Sallust in
the same style as his version of Tacitus.
During the long period of
Walpole’s administration, the subject of this memoir acted as his
literary supporter, enjoying in return either a regular pay, or the office
of first commissioner of wine licenses. After his death, which happened on
the 28th of July, 1750, two collections of his fugitive writings appeared
under the respective titles of "A Cordial for Low Spirits," and
"The Pillars of Priestcraft and Orthodoxy Shaken;" works
which had better, both for his own fame and the welfare of society, been
suppressed. Finally, a volume entitled "Sermons on Practical
Subjects, addressed to different characters," appeared in 1788.
Thomas Gordon
by J. M. Bulloch (1918) (pdf} |
