|
PINKERTON, JOHN, a voluminous historian and critic, was
born at Edinburgh on the 11th February, 1758. [Nichol’s Lit. Illustrations,
v. 666.] He was the youngest of three sons of James Pinkerton,
who had, in Somersetshire, acquired an independence as a dealer in
hair, and returned to his native country, Scotland, where he married a widow
whose maiden name was Heron. The opening of young Pinkerton’s intellect fell
to the charge of an old woman acting as schoolmistress of a village near
Edinburgh, and he was afterwards removed to the grammar school of Lanark. At
school he is said to have shown, in apathy and abstinence from the usual
boyish gratifications, the acidity of disposition for which he was afterward
more particularly distinguished. Hypochondria, inherited from his father, is
believed to have been the primary cause of the characteristic. He is
said to have publicly distinguished himself at school by his early
classical acquirements having, as an exercise, translated a portion of Livy,
which his preceptor, on comparison, decided to be superior to the same
passage as translated in Hooker’s Roman History. After having remained at
school for six years, he returned to Edinburgh. The dislike of his father to
a university education seems to ban for some time after this period
subjected him to a sort of half literary imprisonment, in which, by
alternate fits, he devoted his whole time to French, the classics, and
mathematics. Intended for the legal profession, he was apprenticed to Mr
Aytoun, an eminent writer to the signet, under whose direction he remained
for the usual period of five years. Apparently during his apprenticeship, in
1776, he published an "Ode to Craigmillar Castle," dedicated to Dr
Beattie The professor seems to have given the young poet as little
encouragement as a dedicatee could in politeness restrict himself to. "There
are many good lines," he says, "in your poem; but when you have kept it by
you a week or two, fancy you will not think it correct enough as yet to
appear in public." [Pinkerton’s Correspondence, i. 2.] But
Pinkerton had a mind too roughly cast for poetry, and it was only when his
imitations were mistaken for the rudeness of antiquity that his verses were
at all admired. After 1780, when his father died, he visited London, and
having previously contracted a slight bibliomania, the extent and variety of
the booksellers’ catalogues are said to have proved a motive for his taking
up his residence in the metropolis as a literary man, and eschewing Scotch
law. In 1781, he published in octavo some trifles, which it pleased
him in his independence of orthography to term "Rimes." This work contained
a second part to Hardyknute, which he represented as "now first published
complete." If Pinkerton thought that his imposition was to get currency by
being added to a ballad really ancient, the circumstance would show
the extreme ignorance of the period as to the literature of our ancestors;
for it is now needless to remark how unlike this composition is to the
genuine productions of the elder muse. The imposition in this case was not
entirely successful. "I read over again," says Mr Porden the architect, "the
second part of Hardyknute; and I must inform you that I have made up
my mind with respect to the author of it. I know not whether you will value
a compliment paid to your genius at the expense of your imitative art, but
certainly that genius sheds a splendour on some passages which betrays you."
[Pinkerton’s Correspondence, i. 25.] In 1782 appeared a second edition of
the "Rimes," and at the same time he published two separate volumes of
poetry which have dropped into oblivion. In the ensuing year he published in
two volumes his "Select Scottish Ballads," a work rather more esteemed. At
this period he turned the current of his laborious intellect to numismatics.
Early in life a latent passion for the collection of antiquities had been
accidentally (as is generally the case with antiquaries,) called into
action. He drew up a manual and table of coins for his own use, which
afterwards expanded itself into the celebrated "Essay on Medals," published
in two volumes, 8vo, in 1784; and published a third time in 1808. These
volumes form a manual which is continually in the hands of numismatists. In
1785, he published, under the assumed name of Robert Heron, a work termed
"Letters of Literature;" the singularity of this work suggests that its
author was guilty of affecting strangeness, for the purpose of attracting
notice. Among the most prominent subjects, was a new system of orthography,
or, more properly, of grammar, which, by various transmutations, such as
classical terminations, (e. g. the use of a instead of s in forming
plurals,) was to reduce the harshness of the English language. The attempt
on the public sense was not in all respects effective, but the odium
occasioned very naturally fell on poor Robert Heron, who was just then
struggling into being as a literary man. The work, however, procured to
Pinkerton an introduction to Horace Walpole, who made him acquainted with
Gibbon. The proud spirit of that great historian seems to have found
something congenial in the restless and acrid Pinkerton. He recommended him
to the booksellers as a person fit to translate the "English Monkish
Historians." In an address which Gibbon had intended to prefix to the work,
his protege was almost extravagantly lauded: but the plan as then designed
was never put in practice. The friendship of Walpole continued till his
death; and, light and versatile in his own acquirements, he seems to have
looked on the dogged perseverance, and continually accumulating knowledge of
Pinkerton with some respect. After Walpole’s death, Pinkerton sold a
collection of his "Ana" to the proprietors of the Monthly Magazine, and they
were afterwards published under the title "Walpoliana." In 1786, Pinkerton
published "Ancient Scottish Poems, never before in print, but now published
from the manuscript collections of Sir Richard Maitland of Lethington,
Knight, Lord Privy Seal of Scotland; comprising pieces written from about
1420 till 1586: with large Notes and a Glossary." Pinkerton maintained that
he had found the manuscript in the Pepysian library at Cambridge, and in his
correspondence he sometimes alludes to the circumstances with very admirable
coolness. The forgery was one of the most audacious recorded in the annals
of transcribing. Time, place, and circumstances were all minutely
stated—there was no mystery. Among Pinkerton’s opinions as to character,
that of literary impostor was of the most degraded order. The whole force of
his nature and power over the language were employed to describe his
loathing and contempt. On Macpherson, who executed the task with more
genius, but certainly much less historical knowledge than himself, he poured
the choice of his denunciations. In 1787, he published "The Treasury of Wit;
being a Methodical Selection of about Twelve Hundred of the best Apothegms
and Jests, from books in several languages." This work is not one of those
which may be presumed to have been consonant with Pinkerton’s pursuits, and
it probably owed its existence to a favourable engagement with a bookseller;
but even in a book of anecdotes this author could not withstand the desire
of being distinct from other men, and took the opportunity of making four
divisions of wit and humour, viz., "serious wit, comic wit; serious humour,
and comic humour." During the same year, he produced "A Dissertation on the
Origin and Progress of the Scythians or Goths, being an Introduction to the
Ancient and Modern History of Europe." In the compilation of this small
treatise, he boasts of having employed himself eight hours per day for one
year in the examination of classical authors: the period occupied in
consulting those of the Gothic period, which he found to be "a mass of
superfluity and error," he does not venture to limit. This production was
suggested by his reading for his celebrated account of the early "History of
Scotland," and was devised for the laudable purpose of proving that the
Celtic race was more degraded than the Gothic, as a preparatory position to
the arguments maintained in that work. He accordingly shows the Greeks to
have been a Gothic race, in as far as they were descended from the Pelasgi,
who were Scythians or Goths—a theory which, by the way, in the secondary
application, has received the sanction of late etymologists and ethnologists
of eminence—and, by a similar progress, he showed the Gothic origin of the
Romans. Distinct from the general account of the progress of the Goths,
which is certainly full of information and acuteness, he had a particular
object to gain, in fixing on an island formed by the influx of the Danube in
the Euxine sea, fortunately termed by the ancient geographers "Peuke," and
inhabited by Peukini. From this little island, of the importance of which he
produces many highly respectable certificates, he brings the Peukini along
the Danube, whence, passing to the Baltic, they afterwards appear in
Scotland as the Picts or Pechts. At this period Pinkerton appears to have
been an unsuccessful candidate for a situation in the British museum. Horace
Walpole says to him in a letter of the 11th February, 1788, "I wrote a
letter to Sir Joseph Banks, soliciting his interest for you, should there be
a vacancy at the museum. He answers, (and I will show you his answer when I
see you,) that he is positively engaged to Mr Thorkelin, should Mr Planta
resign; but that, the chancellor having refused to sign the permission for
the latter, who will not go abroad without that indulgence, no vacancy is
likely to happen from that event." [Correspondence, i. 180. Ib., 177] In
1789, he edited from early works, printed and manuscript, "Vitae Antiquae
Sanctorum Scotorum." This work, of which only one hundred copies were
printed, is now scarce and expensive; but at its appearance it seems to have
met little encouragement from the author’s countrymen. "Mr Cardonnel," he
says in a letter to the earl of Buchan, "some months since informed me that,
upon calling at Creech’s shop, he learned there were about a dozen
subscribers to the ‘Vitae Sanctorum Scotiae.’ Upon desiring my
factor, Mr Buchan, since to call on Mr Creech, and learn the names, Creech
informed him ‘there were about two or three; and the
subscription paper was lost, so he could not tell the names." During the
same year, Pinkerton published his edition of "Barbour’s Bruce." Although
the most correct edition up to the period of Dr Jamieson’s publication, it
was far from accurate, and gave the editor ample opportunity of vituperating
those friends who incautiously undertook to point out its mistakes. In 1790,
appeared "The Medallic History of England to the Revolution," in 4to, with
forty plates; and, at the same time, the "Inquiry into the History of
Scotland, preceding the reign of Malcolm III., or 1056: including the
authentic history of that period." This work contained a sort of
concentration of all his peculiarities. It may be said to have been the
first work which thoroughly sifted the great "Pictish question;" the
question whether the Picts were Goths or Celts. In pursuance of his line of
argument in the progress of the Goths, he takes up the latter position; and
in the minds of those who have no opinions of their own, and have consulted
no other authorities, by means of his confidence and his hard terms, he may
be said to have taken the point by storm. But he went farther in his proofs.
It was an undoubted fact that the Scots were Celts, and all old authorities
bore that the Scots had subdued the Picts. This was something which
Pinkerton could not patiently contemplate; but he found no readier means of
overcoming it than by proving that the Picts conquered the Scots; a doctrine
founded chiefly on the natural falsehood of the Celtic race, which prompted
a man of sense, whenever he heard anything asserted by a Celt, to believe
that the converse was the truth. He amused himself with picking out terms of
vituperation for the Macphersons; "of the doctor," he said, "his
etymological nonsense he assists with gross falsehoods, and pretends to
skill in the Celtic without quoting a single MS.; in short he deals wholly
in assertion and opinion; and it is clear that he had not even an idea what
learning and science are:" [Inquiry, Introd., 63.] of the translator he not
less politely observes, "He seems resolved to set every law of common
science and common understanding at defiance." [Ib., 64.]
His numberless observations
on the Celts, are thus pithily brought to a focus: "Being mere savages, but
one degree above brutes, they remain still in much the same state of society
as in the days of Julius Caesar; and he who travels among the Scottish
Highlanders, the old Welch, or wild Irish, may see at once the ancient and
modern state of women among the Celts, when he beholds these savages
stretched in their huts, and their poor women toiling like beasts of burden
for their unmanly husbands." [Ib. i. 268.] And he thus draws up a
comparison betwixt these unfortunates and his favourite Goths. "The
Lowlanders are acute, industrious, sensible, erect, free: the Highlanders,
indolent, slavish, strangers to industry. The former, in short, have every
attribute of a civilized people: the latter are absolute savages; and, like
indians and negroes, will ever continue to * * * * All we can do is to plant
colonies among them, and, by this and encouraging their emigration, try to
get rid of the breed." [Ib. i. 340.] Pinkerton proved, indeed, a
sore visitation to the Celts. Moderate men had no objections to a conflict
which might, at least, bring amusement, and might serve to humble the pride,
by displaying the ignorance of a people, who seemed to take an unfortunate
pride in the continuance of barbarism. Few took their side; and Pinkerton
had many triumphs over their native champions, in the recurrence of that
ignorance of their own history, which he maintained to be their
characteristic. His knowledge of history effectually foiled any claim put in
for Celtic merit. He would call on the company to name a Celt of eminence.
"If one mentioned Burke," observes a late writer "What," said he, "a
descendant of De Bourg? Class that high Norman chivalry with the rif-raf of
O’s and Mac’s? Show me a great O’, and I am done." He delighted to prove
that the Scottish Highlanders had never had but a few great captains, such
as Montrose, Dundee, the first duke of Argyle,—and these were all Goths,—the
two first Lowlanders; the last a Norman, a De Campo Bello." [Nichol’s
Illustrations, v. 669.]
In 1792, Pinkerton edited
"Scottish Poems, reprinted from scarce editions," in three volumes octavo.
In 1796, appeared his "History of Scotland, during the Reign of the
Stuarts," in two volumes quarto, one of the most unexceptionable of his
historical works, and still the most laboured and accurate complete history
of the period. In 1798, he married Miss Burgess of Odiham, Hants, sister to
Thomas, bishop of Salisbury. The union was unhappy, and the parties
separated. In 1795 and 1797, he bestowed some pains in preparing lives of
Scotsmen, for the "Iconographia Scotica," two volumes octavo; but the
information in the work is very meagre, and the plates are wretchedly
engraved. In 1802, he published, in two volumes quarto, "Modern Geography,
digested on a new Plan ;" a work
somewhat hastily got up, and deficient in some of its parts, but still one
of the most compendious and useful geographical works of the period. A
second edition was published in 1806, in three volumes, and an abridgment,
in one octavo, is well known. At the commencement of the century, he visited
Paris; and, in 1806, published "Recollections of Paris in the Years 1802-3-4
and 5," two volumes octavo. For some years after this period, he found
employment in editing "A General Collection of Voyages and Travels,"
extending to nineteen volumes quarto, and a "New Modern Atlas," in parts.
For a short period, he also edited the "Critical Review." His last work was
on a subject foreign to his previous studies, but which appears from his
correspondence to have occupied much of his attention during his old age: it
was entitled, "Petralogy, or a Treatise on Rocks," two volumes octavo, 1811.
In his latter years, he resided in Paris, where he died, in indigent
circumstances, on the 10th March, 1825, at the age of sixty-seven. He is
described to have been "a very little and very thin old man, with a very
small, sharp, yellow face, thickly pitted by the smallpox, and decked with a
pair of green spectacles." [Ib. 671.] |
