Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB
[blocks in formation]

Ming each on t a, the bright he ent Fount of ased not to re isplayed, the sublime! eautiful illas lass of our ex om for many d through the lty abides, which would b that they bec and serve to eat s the ample M lofty Grove, g fire of light indling osale

Summer even

the dusky rel s her own,

rated, by pe ke power Virtue thus

rself; thus f

ent fire,

mortal life. 1-Day from

Justice w of Despair

re the E

ght not han
itable s

occurs b

appened wi the Pro

is assertan and most

poetry, a

died bas

ct which m

d we shall

ome of sty

tion fired
! Shall the S

of Thee
pure, who wil

passioned in the cran re Thon eraass!

Me didst thou constitute a Priest of thine, In such a Temple as we now behold

THE UNITED STATES LITERARY GAZETTE.

Reared for thy presence: therefore, am I bound
To worship, here, and everywhere-as One
Not doomed to ignorance, though forced to tread,
From childhood up, the ways of poverty;
From unreflecting ignorance preserved,
And from debasement rescued.-By thy grace
The particle divine remained unquenched;
And, 'mid the wild weeds of a rugged soil,
Thy bounty caused to flourish deathless flowers,
From Paradise transplanted. Wintry age
Impends; the frost will gather round my heart;
And, if they wither, I am worse than dead!
-Come Labour, when the worn-out frame re-
quires

Perpetual sabbath; come disease and want:
And sad exclusion through decay of sense;
But leave me unabated trust in Thee-
And let thy favour, to the end of life,
Inspire me with ability to seek
Repose and hope among eternal things-
Father of heaven and earth! and I am rich
And will possess my portion in content!

p. 143.

- Thou-Who didst wrap the cloud
Of Infancy around us, that Thyself,
Therein, with our simplicity awhile
Might'st hold, on earth, communion undisturbed—
Who from the anarchy of dreaming sleep,
Or from its death-like void, with punctual care,
And touch as gentle as the morning light,
Restor'st us, daily, to the powers of sense,
Aud reason's steadfast rule-Thou, Thou alone
Art everlasting, and the blessed Spirits,
Which thou includest, as the Sea her Waves:
For adoration thou endurest; endure
For consciousness the motions of thy will;
For apprehension those transcendant truths
Of the pure Intellect, that stand as laws,
(Submission constituting strength and power)
Even to thy Being's infinite majesty!
This Universe shall pass away-a frame
Glorious! because the shadow of thy might,
A step, or link, for intercourse with Thee.
Ah! if the time must come, in which my feet
No more shall stray where Meditation leads,
By flowing stream, through wood, or craggy
wild,

Loved haunts like these, the unimprisoned Mind
May yet have scope to range among her own,
Her thoughts, her images, her high desires.
If the dear faculty of sight should fail,
Still, it may be allowed me to remember
What visionary powers of eye and soul
In youth were mine; when, stationed on the top
Of some huge hill-expectant, I beheld
The Sun rise up, from distant climes returned
Darkness to chase, and sleep, and bring the day
His bounteous gift! or saw him, tow'rds the Deep
Sink-with a retinue of flaming Clouds
Attended; then, my Spirit was entranced
With joy exalted to beatitude;
The measure of my soul was filled with bliss,
And holiest love; as earth, sea, air, with light,
With pomp, with glory, with magnificence!
p. 145.

Upon the breast of new-created Earth Man walked; and when and wheresoe'er he moved,

Alone or mated, Solitude was not.

He heard, upon the wind, the articulate Voice
Of God; and Angels to his sight appeared,
Crowning the glorious hills of Paradise;
Or through the groves gliding like morning mist
Enkindled by the sun. He sate-and talked
With winged Messengers; who daily brought
To his small Island in the etherial deep
Tidings of joy and love.-From these pure
Heights

(Whether of actual vision, sensible
To sight and feeling, or that in this sort
Have condescendingly been shadowed forth
Communications spiritually maintained,

And Intuitions moral and divine)

Fell Human-kind-to banishment condemned
That flowing years repealed not: and distress
And grief spread wide; but Man escaped the
doom

Of destitution;-Solitude was not.
-Jehovah-shapeless Power above all Powers,
Single and one, the omnipresent God,
By vocal utterance or blaze of light,

Or cloud of darkness, localized in heaven;
On earth, enshrined within the wandering ark;
Or, out of Sion, thundering from his throne
Between the Cherubim-on the chosen Race
Showered miracles, and ceased not to dispense
Judgments, that filled the land from age to age
With hope, and love, and gratitude, and fear;
And with amazement smote;-thereby to assert
His scorned or unacknowledged Sovereignty.
And when the One, ineffable of name,
In nature indivisible, withdrew
From mortal adoration or regard,
Not then was Deity engulphed, nor Man,
The rational Creature, left, to feel the weight
Of his own reason, without sense or thought
Of higher reason and a purer will,
To benefit and bless, through mightier power.
p. 169.

We must premise, that the first of the following extracts relates to a buryingground, and the second to the feelings which lead men to set apart and preserve such places.

-To a mysteriously-consorted Pair
This place is consecrate; to Death and Life,
And to the best Affections that proceed
From their conjunction Consecrate to faith
In Him who bled for man upon the Cross;
Hallowed to Revelation; and no less
To Reason's mandates; and the hopes divine
Of pure Imagination ;—above all,
To Charity, and Love, that have provided,
Within these precincts, a capacious bed
And receptacle, open to the good
And evil, to the just and the unjust;
In which they find an equal resting-place:
Even as the multitude of kindred brooks
And streams, whose murmur fills this hollow vale,
Whether their course be turbulent or smooth,
Their waters clear or sullied, all are lost
Within the bosom of yon chrystal Lake,
And end their journey in the same repose!

Small Creature as she is, from e flowers

Into the dewy clouds.

The primal duties shine aloft-like The charities that soothe, and heal, Are scattered at the feet of Man-1

Many, very many passages e we have extracted, we have with regret that we could not q but we must bring this article We have not endeavoured to giv ers a full and adequate repres Wordsworth's mind. An attem

sumptuous could not have succ only because the limits, within must confine ourselves, are far for this purpose; but because s could only be accomplished by kindred to his own. We cert that our feeble efforts will hel his poems into notice; and th can desire. For we trust ther who can read them without ple profit;-without recognising in th and paying willingly the tribute grandeur, eloquence, and beauty

tion to

"The highest, holiest raptures of the And wisdom, married to immortal ve

MISCELLANY.

ON THE COMMON SYSTEMS OF 1
GRAMMAR.
No. II.

It is difficult to assign any reason for a distinction between 1 Pronouns. The custom of dist them probably arose from the opinion that pronouns have no ab nification, but derive all their mea the particular nouns to which th -And whence that tribute? wherefore these re- any time, made to refer. But if

gards?

p. 242.

Not from the naked Heart alone of Man
(Though framed to high distinction upon earth
As the sole spring and fountain-head of tears,
His own peculiar utterance for distress
Or gladness) No,' the philosophic Priest
Continued, 'tis not in the vital seat
Of feeling to produce them, without aid
From the pure Soul, the Soul sublime and pure;
With her two faculties of Eye and Ear,
The one by which a Creature, whom his sins
Have rendered prone, can upward look to heaven;
The other that empowers him to perceive
The voice of Deity, on height and plain
Whispering those truths in stillness, which the
Word,

To the four quarters of the winds, proclaims.'

not in themselves a radical me what serves the same purpose, a signification established by custo could make no difference at any pronoun is used. They would b cyphers, which might be used i nately. But if each pronoun ha minate meaning, it is importan should be accurately defined; an finitions would properly constitute grammar of pronouns. Nothing m be necessary to their being used But our Grammar-makers are ve to avoid this and whatever else the philosophy of language. I find the same pronoun belongin pasively to several of their artifici of speech. It is almost equally and frequently becoming some for children and for men to pars what, mine, both, and several cording to any rules extant. T grammar is in complete confusio must remain so until we substitut definitions for accidental relatio can these accidental relations b

p. 245.

We

There are a multitude of exquisite
sages scattered over all of this poem.
have left ourselves small space for these
gems; but there are many like the following
Our thoughts

Pleasant as roses in the thickets blown,
And pure as dew bathing their crimson leaves.
p. 56.

Before your sight Mounts on the breeze the Butterfly-and soars, 32

derstood, where the meaning of the word is not first determined? Men of independent minds continue to get along by adopting their own notions where the grammar seems incorrect or incompetent; but with children the case is hopeless.

In declining the personal pronouns, the example of Mr Murray has been followed by all our other writers. The second person singular must be thou, thy or thine, thee. Thus we teach our children, while nine tenths of the books they read, and all of the conversation they hear contradict it, and give you, your or yours, you, both in the singular and plural. So far is this carried in most of our common schools, that even when the antecedent of the pronoun you is singular, the pronoun and its verb are called plural; and our grammarians would be greatly shocked, were they told that are and were should be called singular, when they agree with you, having a singular antecedent. Our Quaker brethren must produce abler grammarians than Mr Murray, before they can prove that their solemn style is more correct than our common familiar style. We shall have occasion to allude to this subject again when we come to the conjugation of verbs.

the mind. They do not of themselves ex-gible manner, nor is it grammatically cor-
press definitely all Modes of being, action, rect. Take for an example, "Penelope is
and passion, and all Times of being, action, loved by me.' If we admit the common
and passion; and, hence, they do not an- definition, that "a Passive verb implies an
swer their object. A whole sentence, and object acted upon, and an agent by which
often a whole volume, is necessary to de- it is acted upon," and the common rule-
fine the mode and time of an action; and that "Participles govern the same cases as
if we allow the use of auxiliaries to ex- the verbs do, from which they are derived;"
press them definitely, nearly all the words in what case shall we call "Penelope?" It
in the language must be recognised as of is certainly the objective of the transitive
this class.
participle, "loved," and hence is in the ob
jective case. The pronoun, "me," is obvi-
ously the agent; and hence, according to
every Grammar, is in the nominative case.
Transpose the sentence, and change the
agent and object, the one for the other,
and say "I am loved by Penelope." In this
example, the pronoun is the objective of
"loved;" and, if there be any sense in
English cases, it must be in the objective.
If by cases we are to understand the differ-
ent relations of nouns and pronouns, then
it is obvious that every noun or pronoun,
which is the nominative case to what is
called a passive verb, is also in the objec-
tive, and governed by the participle of the
same verb; for it has this double relation,-
being nominative to the verb to be, and ob-
jective to the participle.

It may be said, that an important object
of grammar is, to show what words may
come together, and how they should be ar-
ranged in the construction of sentences;
and that this object is promoted by the
usual composition of modes and tenses.
We admit this object to be important, but
we think it would be attained with much
greater facility by defining with precision
the use of every word in a sentence, than
by giving the common vague definitions and
rules to such squads or parties of words, as
are generally allowed to be sirnamed, to
save analyzing them.

We have heard of a few instructers, who have adopted, with great advantage, the method which we would recommend, of parsing every word by itself,-defining it as well as possible, showing its connexion with other words, and naming its variations. This is what parsing should be, and what every teacher should endeavour to make it. It is, however, impossible to adopt this method with complete success, while our elementary books are so deficient as they are at present.

It is somewhat remarkable that none of our grammarians should have stated that the word mine is a compound term and has generally two cases. It signifies my own, that is my property; own being an abstract term, used at present only pronominally for whatever is emphatically the property of any person or thing. According to common rules of parsing, it should It may now be asked, how many modes be considered as governing the pronoun be- and tenses there are in the English language. fore it in the possessive case. "Give me We are not quite ready for this part of our your book and you shall have mine." In subject, but would ask grammarians if the this example, mine is both possessive and following be not the true principle. The objective. "Your book was saved, mine number that should be recognised in any was lost." Here it is possessive and nomi-grammar, is so many as are expressed by native. These remarks apply equally to the pronoun thine. The pronouns ours, yours, and theirs are likewise compound, and should be parsed like mine. We sometimes use own before a noun; as my own house, mine house, his own house. In such cases, it becomes an adjective noun.

It cannot be said that in the example given above, mine may be governed by book, expressed or understood, because it is obvious that it cannot be placed with that term without implying repetition. The sense is complete as it stands, and the force of the verb falls immediately on the compound pronoun. There is no more difficulty in calling these pronouns compound, than in calling what compound, and there is an equal necessity for it.

Before remarking on the errors in the common method of parsing Verbs, we must make a few general observations.

The custom of taking several words to gether to form one part of speech, is totally inconsistent with the analytical mode of teaching. The compound modes and tenses of verbs, formed in this way, instead of defining the meaning of a sentence more clearly, and determining the precise influence or ise of every member, tend only to confuse

the regular and established variations of
verbs, without reference to what are com-
monly called auxiliaries. If you depart
from this rule, you may have millions.

The

The division of verbs into active, pas-
sive, and neuter, is objectionable, because
the terms active and neuter do not convey
to the mind any idea of the uses of these
two classes of verbs in construction with
other words. Transitive and intransitive
are more definite, because they distinguish
between those which govern, and those
which do not govern other words.
passive verb is not a species distinct from
the others, but formed by combining the
verb to be with the perfect participle of a
transitive verb. In those languages in
which it is a distinct form of the verb, there
is no objection to styling it the passive
voice; but we totally destroy the simplici-
ty of English syntax by endeavouring to
make it agree with that of other languages.
We shall have occasion to say so much up-
on this subject, when we come to treat of
Modes and Tenses in a future number, that
we are not willing to add more in this
place.

The common mode of parsing passive
verbs does not explain them in an intelli-

In our next number we shall treat of Modes and Tenses. Our readers will notice that we are not criticising the work of any author; but that our remarks apply to the Grammars in common use. All with which we are acquainted are nearly useless in the study of the English language. They are totally destitute of analytical method, and embarrass the minds of scholars with an unexplained and inexplicable technical phraseology. We shall endeav our to offer occasionally some proofs of their incorrectness, which we hope will, by degrees, lead those who are competent, to examine the subject more attentively, and give this science an intelligible and practical form.

[blocks in formation]

THE Complaint uttered by Cicero, in his Treatise de Legibus, concerning the mea greness of a jurist's reward, may be justly adopted by the compilers and editors of law books in the United States. Quid tam exiguum quam munus eorum? Only one ancient reporter has been republished in this country with annotations and the editor in that instance, we have the means of knowing, did not ultimately receive day wages for his labour in that behalf. Mr Day bas rendered valuable services to his brethren. by adding notes to about twenty-five volumes of modern reports; but he has been

Notwithstanding the want of pecuniary encouragement, there have been many American editions of English law books, which are greatly increased in value by the addition of notes and references. The extent of the market induces booksellers to republish, and a commendable desire of improving the jurisprudence of the country, and affording facilities of investigation to the profession, has incited its members to a gratuitous contribution of their labours. We hope every future edition of foreign publications on legal subjects may contain references to our own decisions.

Sic vos non vobis

EDINBURGH REVIEW.

251

NUMBER LXXX of this journal contains an amusing article upon America; from for the good of those of our readers who which we propose to make some extracts dently an honest article, and moreover, conhappen not to take the Review. It is evitains a good deal of truth, which it should be gratifying to us to find English writers willing to allow, and which it ought to do the English public some good to learn. The writer sets out thus:

by no means adequately compensated. He purposes of eliciting truth, preventing chi- manufacture of the United States, may lefirst undertook Espinasse's Reports of Cases canery, and securing an orderly investiga-gally be carried from place to place, and at Nisi Prius, which has been, perhaps, the tion. A defendant knows not whether the exposed for sale; yet, a fine of not less than most popular book of reports ever publish- plaintiff's evidence is closed, until the jury ten, nor more than one hundred dollars, is ed in the United States. The success of is sent from the bar. He may, thereupon, to be inflicted on the offender, who shall be this work induced a bookseller in New pretty safely conclude that no further tes- so hardy as thus to carry abroad and sell, York to republish the two first volumes of timony will be admitted, even though it or expose for sale, those pernicious artiMr Campbell's Reports, in 1810 and 1811, may be offered. Such loose practice surely cles, ycleped indigo, feathers, books, tracts, without additional notes. The two last vol- deserves no toleration where the rules of prints, maps, playing cards, lottery tickets, umes, with notes by Mr Howe, were pub- the common law are the professed guide of jewelry, and essences. Now, as the lowest lished in 1821. The notes are evidently courts. from the pen of a learned and discriminatthe value of the risk incurred in that trade, price of any article of trade must include ing lawyer, and greatly enhance the value it is evident that a repeal of the aforesaid of the edition. The cases reported are statute would enable the travelling seller worthy of attention,* and are recommended of law books to offer them, on safe mercanby the circumstance that they are among tile principles, at a yet lower rate; and the last decisions of that most eminent nisi thus we gain a still further insight of the prius judge, Lord Ellenborough. If we exgreat regular profits. cept his too strong inclination, in some cases, to rely on what may be called a moral estoppel, we can hardly find a fault in his judgments. Indeed, Sir James Mansfield, near the close of his long judicial life, expressed his most unqualified admiration of the correctness and ability of the Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench, as dis- There are said to be in the United States played in the reports of Mr Campbell. From the character of almost every re- Mr Griffith, the compiler of the United more than six thousand practising lawyers. cent English treatise on legal subjects, we States Law Register, has announced, by are disposed to believe that reports may be way of recommendation, no doubt, of his more profitably consulted than elementary volumes, that he has the names and places works. These last contain, of late, no prop-of residence of the gentlemen of the bar in er scientific arrangement of the decisions, fifteen states, amounting, in 1821, to four and are too often grossly deficient in matter thousand eight hundred and forty-one. He as well as arrangement. Learners will not estimates the number of judicial officers, in who are dreadfully afraid of America and every There is a set of miserable persons in England, be well instructed by them; and those who the several States and Territories, at twen- thing American-whose great delight is to see that have already learned much, will derive very ty thousand. We think he must include country ridiculed and vilified-and who appear to little profit from them. In this day of mak- the worshipful host of Justices of the Peace imagine that all the abuses which exist in this ing many law books, the profession will in this last class, in order to obtain such a country acquire additional vigour and chance of probably obtain more advantage, at a given formidable aggregate. Assuming, however, forth its venom and falsehood on the United States. duration from every book of Travels which pours expense, from a thorough perusal of reports, that there are but six thousand men in our We shall, from time to time, call the attention of than from any other means. There is much country, who would ever incline to open a the public to this subject, not from any party spirit, in them, it is true, which is apochryphal; law book, it is manifest that almost every but because we love truth, and praise excellence but not less in the recent treatises, the au- work that issues from the over-teeming wherever we find it; and because we think the exthors of which boast of having intruded presses of the "law printer to the king's ample of America will, in many instances, tend to no impertinent comments of their own upon most excellent majesty," and of others in open the eyes of Englishmen to their true interests. the wild conceits which they embody and Great Britain, might be reprinted here ant object for our imitation. The salary of Mr The Economy of America is a great and importdisseminate. We can except from this with tolerable safety to the pockets of the Bagot, our late Ambassador, was, we believe, rathcensure a very few treatises that have late- publishers. One in twenty of those who er higher than that of the President of the United ly come under our notice from England; rank among professional men, may well be States. The Vice-President receives rather less and with great satisfaction we assure our hoped and expected to become a purchaser and all salaries, civil and military, are upon the readers that a native Essay on Insurance, of any legal publication of passable merit. which has recently issued from the press in This would secure a sale for three hundred than America! Mr Hume has at last persuaded the same scale; and yet no country is better served this city, is liable to none of these objec- copies, which, at the price generally de- English people to look a little into their accounts, tions, but is every way worthy of the sub-manded for books in law binding, would enand to see how sadly they are plundered. But we ject, and does honor to the talents, learning, sure the printer and bookseller, quicquid ought to suspend our contempt for America, and honorarium more valuable than the pur-lesson to learn from this wise and cautious people consider whether we have not a very momentous chasers often receive for any single profes-on the subject of economy. sional service. Indeed, since we have seen new law books, fresh from the press, hawk-eration, we are determined, it would seem, not to A lesson upon the importance of Religious Toled about our villages like tin ware, and of learn,-either from America, or from any other fered at prices so very far below the book-York, last year, was a Jew. It was with the ut quarter of the globe. The High Sheriff of New store mark, we have been led to infer (er- most difficulty that a bill was carried this year to roneously perchance) that the profits of allow the first Duke of England to carry a gold the regular trade must be greater than we stick before the King-because he was a Catholic! before suspected. The pedlar of tin ware, impertinent sneers at America, as if civilization by the way, has one advantage over the did not depend more upon making wise laws for —and yet we think ourselves entitled to indulge in itinerant venders of law books, which is not the promotion of human happiness, than in having to be overlooked in an estimate of regular good inns, and post-horses, and civil waiters. The profits. His is a lawful traffic, at least in circumstances of the Dissenters' marriage bill are Massachusetts. Whereas, by a statute of such as would excite the contempt of a Chictaw or that state, though goods, wares, and mer-them. A certain class of Dissenters beg they may Cherokee, if he could be brought to understand chandise in general, if of the produce or not be compelled to say that they marry in the

and acumen of the author.

One benefit may be hoped from an extensive circulation of the English reports of cases at nisi prius: we mean a correction of the very loose and slovenly practice in some of the American courts, of presenting evidence to a jury. Almost every thing is admitted,―de bene esse at least, and witnesses are examined, cross-examined, and reexamined, without any regard to the rules which we find applied in the English courts, and which are so wisely adapted to the

As an illustration of a government of laws, and not of men, we know of nothing more striking than the case of Beaurain vs. Sir W. Scott, Vol. III.

page 388.

than the second Clerk of the House of Commons;

name of the Trinity, because they do not believe in the Trinity. Never mind, say the corruptionists, you must go on saying you marry in the name of the Trinity, whether you believe in it or not. We know that such a protestation from you will be false; but unless you make it, your wives shall be concubines, and your children illegitimate. Is it possible to conceive a greater or more useless tyranny than this?

ceiving his country to have been united at the Hep- | into their constitution! No one can admire the sim-
tarchy, goes forth from his native town to stitch ple wisdom and manly firmness of the Americans
freely within the sea-girt limits of Albion. Him more than we do, or more despise the pitiful propen-
the mayor, him the aldermen, him the recorder, him sity which exists among Government runners to vent
the quarter-sessions would worry. Him the jus- their small spite at their character; but on the sub-
tices before trial would long to get into the tread- ject of slavery, the conduct of America is, and has
mill; and would much lament that by a recent been, most reprehensible. It is impossible to speak
act, they could not do so, even with the intruding of it with too much indignation and contempt; but
tradesman's consent; but the moment he was tried, for it, we should look forward with unqualified
they would push him in with redoubled energy, and pleasure to such a land of freedom, and such a mag-
leave him to tread himself into a conviction of the nificent spectacle of human happiness.
barbarous institutions of his corporation-divided
country.

Upon page 434, there is a capital para-
graph about English character.

In fact, it is hardly possible for any nation to show a greater superiority over another, than the Americans, in this particular, have done over this The first article in this No-upon Britcountry. They have fairly and completely, and probably forever, extinguished that spirit of reliish India-is interesting; it is not characterized by originality or remarkable abil gious persecution which has been the employment and the curse of mankind for four or five centuries, ity, but contains much information. The -not only that persecution which imprisons and The coaches must be given up; so must the writer states distinctly the efficiency and scourges for religious opinions, but the tyranny of roads, and so must the inns. They are, of course, the utility of the ancient Hindoo customs incapacitation, which, by disqualifying from civil what these accommodations are in all new counoffices, and cutting a man off from the lawful ob- tries; and much like what English great grandfa- and institutions, and the unfortunate conjects of ambition, endeavours to strangle religious ther talk about as existing in this country at the sequences which have proved the folly of freedom in silence, and to enjoy all the advantages, first period of their recollection. The great incon- attempting to supplant them by a system of without the blood and noise and fire of persecution. venience of American inns, however, in the eyes English law. One passage in this article What passes in the mind of one mean blockhead, of an Englishman, is one which more sociable trav-illustrates very pleasantly the excellent is the general history of all persecution. This ellers must feel less acutely-we mean the impossiman pretends to know better than me--I cannot bility of being alone, of having a room separate subdue him by argument; but I will take care he from the rest of the company. There is nothing shall never be mayor or alderman of the town in which an Englishman enjoys more than the pleaswhich he lives; I will never consent to the repeal ure of sulkiness, of not being forced to hear a of the Test Act, or to Catholic Emancipation; I word from any body which may occasion to him will teach the fellow to differ from me in religious the necessity of replying. It is not so much that opinions! So says the Episcopalian to the Catho- Mr Bull disdains to talk, as that Mr Bull has noth lic-and so the Catholic says to the Protestant. ing to say. His forefathers have been out of spirBut the wisdom of America keeps them all down-its for six or seven hundred years, and. seeing secures to them all their just rights—gives to each nothing but fog and vapour, he is out of spirits too; of them their separate pews and bells and steeples and when there is no selling or buying, or no busi- makes them all aldermen in their turns-and qui-ness to settle, he prefers being alone and looking etly extinguishes the faggots which each is prepar- at the fire. If any gentleman was in distress, he ing for the combustion of the other. Nor is this in- would willingly lend an helping hand; but he thinks difference to religious subjects in the American it no part of neighbourhood to talk to a person bepeople, but pure civilization-a thorough compre- cause he happens to be near him. In short, with hension of what is best calculated to secure the many excellent qualities, it must be acknowledged public happiness and peace-and a determination that the English are the most disagreeable of all that this happiness and peace shall not be violated the nations of Europe,-more surly and morose, by the insolence of any human being, in the garb, with less disposition to please, to exert themselves and under the sanction, of religion. In this par- for the good of society, to make small sacrifices, ticular, the Americans are at the head of all the and to put themselves out of their way. They are nations of the world: and at the same time they content with Magna Charta and Trial by Jury; and are, especially in the Eastern and Midland States, think they are not bound to excel the rest of the so far from being indifferent on subjects of reli- world in small behaviour, if they are superior to gion, that they may be most justly characterized as them in great institutions. a very religious people: But they are devout without being unjust the great problem in religion); an higher proof of civilization than painted tea-cups, water-proof leather, or broadcloth at two guineas a yard.

He contrasts the inconveniences occasioned by the privileges and processes of the many corporations of England, with the unshackled liberty of our artisans. In this respect, we consider England as about half way between China,-where every one must not only stay at home, but work at his father's trade with his father's tools, and ourselves;-though rather nearer China.

Though America is a confederation of republics, they are in many cases much more amalgamated than the various parts of Great Britain. If a citizen of the United States can make a shoe, he is at liberty to make a shoe any where between Lake Ontario and New Orleans, he may sole on the Mississippi-heel on the Missouri-measure Mr Birkbeck on the Little Wabash, or take (which our best politicians do not find an easy matter) the length of Mr Monro's foot on the banks of the Potowmac. But wo to the cobbler, who, having made Hessian boots for the alderman of Newcastle, should venture to invest with these coriaceous integuments, the leg of a liege subject at York. A yellow ant in a nest of red ants-a butcher's dog in a fox-kennel--a mouse in a bee-hive,-all feel the effects of untimely intrusion;-but far preferable their fate to that of the misguided artisan, who, misled by sixpenny histories of England, and con

The last paragraph sums up the whole matter. Proof is wanting of the actual and extreme cruelty to slaves, with which the writer charges our "high spirited nation;" -otherwise the whole passage is unexceptionable.

America seems, on the whole, to be a country possessing vast advantages, and little inconvenienthey pay no tithes, and have stage coaches without ces; they have a cheap government, and bad roads; springs. The have no poor laws and no monopolies-but their inns are inconvenient, and travellers are teased with questions. They have no collections in the fine arts; but they have no Lord Chancellor, and they can go to law without absolute ruin. They cannot make Latin verses, but they expend immense sums in the education of the poor. In all this the balance is prodigiously in their favour: But then comes the great disgrace and danger of America-the existence of slavery, which, if not timously corrected, will one day entail (and ought to entail) a bloody servile war upon the Americans-which will separate America into slave states and states disclaiming slavery, and which remains at present as the foulest blot in the moral character of that people. An high spirited. nation, who cannot endure the slightest act of foreign aggression, and who revolt at the very shadow of domestic tyranny-beat with cart-whips, and bind with chains, and murder for the merest trifles, wretched human beings who are of a more dusky colour than themselves; and have recently admitted into their Union, a new State, with the express permission of ingrafting this attrocious wickedness

reasons which have influenced the British to extend their empire in this quarter, and the way in which Indian affairs are regarded at home. In 1816 the Pindarries, certain large and organized bands of robbers, penetrated into the Company's territories, remained there twelve days, killed one hundred and eighty-two persons, wounded five hundred and five, and tortured in various ways three thousand six hundred and three. Whereupon, "The patience of the British government being exhausted by these re peated inroads, it was resolved not only to attack and extirpate the Pindarries in their remotest haunts, but to put down that system of misrule and violence which had so long desolated India." Accordingly, these robbers were extirpated, and,-as mere incidents to this measure of precaution,

The rajah of Nagpoor was driven from his dominions aud throne; the Peshwa, the head of the Mahratta empire, has also been dethroned, and ish, who assign him 100,000l. per annum for his now lives as a prisoner on the bounty of the Brit maintenance. Holkar has fallen from the rank of an independent prince; and Sindia is in reality in the same condition. There is not, in short, any potentate in India that can now move a step without the express sanction of the British authorities.

A part of their object is unquestionably accomplished; "the system of violence relinquished, for there is nothing left to be which has so long desolated India" must be violent with. When the system of misrule will end, it is rather difficult to say.

HULL'S MEMOIRS.*

We did not receive this thick pamphlet until the reviews for this No. were sent to press;-and were it only political and controversial, we should not trouble ourselves or our readers with any remarks upon it. But it is historical. It must throw some

* Memoirs of the Campaign of the North West ern Army of the United States, A. D. 1812. In a series of Letters addressed to the Citizens of the United States. With an Appendix, containing a brief Sketch of the Revolutionary Services of the Author. By William Hull, late Governor of the Territory of Michigan, and Brigadier General in the service of the United States. Boston. 1824. 8vo. pp. 240.

And wash away the blood-stain there.
Why should I guard, from wind and sun,
This cheek, whose virgin rose is fled,
It was for one-oh, only one-

I kept its bloom, and he is dead.

But they who slew him-unaware
Of coward murderers lurking nigh-
And left him to the fowls of air,

Are yet alive--and they must die.
They slew him-and my virgin years
Are vowed to Greece and vengeance now;
And many an Othman dame, in tears,

Shall rue the Grecian maiden's vow.

I touched the lute in better days,

I led in dance the joyous band;-
Ah! they may move to mirthful lays

Whose hands can touch a lover's hand.
The march of hosts that haste to meet
Seems gayer than the dance to me;
The lute's sweet tones are not so sweet
As the fierce shout of victory.

B.

light, and perhaps elicit from others some light, upon important facts. We have no room to make an analysis of its contents; but would briefly present some considerations which they suggest to us. For General Hull's surrender of his forces and posts to the British, he was tried and condemned to death as a coward; and he lives to tell his story through the mercy of the Executive. Whether he has wholly justified his surrender without a battle, may be determined differently by different persons. We suppose that most readers will agree that his conduct could be accounted for without charging with cowardice or treachery, one to whom Washington entrusted important commands. He has sufficiently shown that much more than his due of punishment visited his share of the follies, improvidence, and misconduct, which characterized that astonishing campaign. We feel no kind of hostility to General Dearborn, and have no [It is perhaps due to our readers, to inform them acquaintance with, and no personal feelings that the following pieces, and others with a similar towards General Hull; we know that we signature, are from a small manuscript volume of are unprejudiced, and believe all who are So, will agree with us in thinking that some-of the authors of "Yamoyden." As we have sepoetry written by the late Rev. Mr Eastburn, one thing of a load lies upon General Dear-lelected many of these poems for our columns, it born, which he will do well to throw off as soon as may be. General Hull lost all he had;-General Dearborn did nothing achieved nothing-suffered nothing; and so far, perhaps, he had the best of it. But we do not recollect that General Dearborn has ever explained the singular lapse of memory during which he relieved himself from the peril of a British force, and left that force to go en masse upon General Hullwho was likely to have enough to encounter without this addition. But when Hull was tried, and Dearborn tried him, why was the affair of Washington forgotten? Whoever was guilty there, was answerable somewhere; and it would be rather difficult to persuade any one just now, that the loss of Detroit and of all Hull's posts, afforded more proof of cowardice or treachery than that misconduct-whatever be its true name or nature-which lost Washington. General Hull has shown that there was other opposition arrayed against him than that which arose from his military faults. But they mistook their man. He was not a sufficient scape-goat; he could not bear away all the disgrace and punishment due to the military managers of that play--and particularly to them who conducted the flight of Bladensburgh.

POETRY.

SONG OF THE GRECIAN AMAZON.

I buckle to my slender side

The pistol and the scimetar,
And in my maiden flower and pride

Am come to share the tasks of war.
And yonder stands my fiery steed,
That paws the ground and neighs to go,
My charger of the Arab breed,—
I took him from the routed foe.

My mirror is the mountain spring,
At which I dress my ruffled hair;
My dimmed and dusty arms I bring,

may be improper that we should express more dis-
thought that they would gratify our readers, and
tinctly our opinion of their merit. Had we not
support the reputation of their author, we certainly
should not have availed ourselves of the kindness

of the gentleman by whose means we have obtain
ed them.-EDITOR.]

THE PROSPECT OF DEATH.
When sailing on this troubled sea
Of pain, and tears, and agony,
Though wildly roar the waves around,
With restless and repeated sound,
"Tis sweet to think that on our eyes
A lovelier clime shall yet arise ;-
That we shall wake from sorrow's dream
Beside a pure and living stream.

Yet we must suffer, here below,
Unnumbered pangs of grief and wo;
Nor must the trembling heart repine,
But all, unto its God resign;
In weakness and in pain made known,
His powerful mercy shail be shown,
Until the fight of faith is o'er,
And earth shall vex the soul no more!
E-

PART OF THE XIXth PSALM.
The glittering heaven's refulgent glow,
And sparkling spheres of golden light,
Jehovah's work and glory show,

-N.

By burning day, or gentle night.
In silence through the vast profound
They move their orbs of fire on high,
Nor speech, nor word, nor answering sound,
Is heard upon the tranquil sky:
Yet to the earth's remotest bar
Their burning glory, all is known;
Their living light has sparkled far,

And on the attentive silence shone.

God 'mid their shining legions rears
A tent where burns the radiant sun;
As, like a bridegroom bright, appears

The monarch, on his course begun;
From end to end of azure heaven

He holds his fiery path along,

To all his circling heat is given,

His radiance flames the spheres among.

By sunny ray, and starry throne,
The wonders of our mighty Lord
To man's attentive heart are known,
Bright as the promise of his word.

253

E-N.

AUTUMNAL NIGHTFALL.
Round Autumn's mouldering urn,
Loud mourns the chill and cheerless gale,
When nightfall shades the quiet vale,
And stars in beauty burn.

'Tis the year's eventide.
The wind,--like one that sighs in pain
O'er joys that ne'er will bloom again,
Mourns on the far hill-side.

And yet my pensive eye
Rests on the faint blue mountain long,
And for the fairy-land of song,
That lies beyond, I sigh,

The moon unveils her brow;
In the mid-sky her urn glows bright,
And in her sad and mellowing light
The valley sleeps below.

Upon the hazel gray
The lyre of Autumn hangs unstrung,
And o'er its tremulous chords are flung
The fringes of decay.

I stand deep musing here,
Beneath the dark and motionless beech,
Whilst wandering winds of nightfall reach
My melancholy ear.

[blocks in formation]

A gentleman, at Burkil, not far from Bâsle, in Switzerland, by the name of Ventain, invented some years ago a sort of musical barometer, called, in the German, wetter harfe, weather harp, or riesen harfe, giant harp, which possesses the singular property of indicating changes of the weather by musical tones. This gentleman was in the habit of amusing himself by shooting at a mark from his window, and that he might not be obliged to go after the mark at every shot, he fixed a piece of iron wire to it, so as to be able to draw it to him at pleasHe frequently remarked that this wire gave musical tones sounding exactly

ure.

« AnteriorContinuar »