Does British valour yield? No! though each man can show his wound, Yet, yet, maintain your dangʼrous post, In rapid march his legions come, 1 Charge them home!" Redoubled spirits give. As, step by step, his soldiers tread Their chief from danger shrinks not back, Again the bayonet charge to try! Aim'd was the wound with rifle art, His soul of dauntless bravery: When Death's dark film bedimm'd his eye, A feeble "Charge" upon his tongue In that convulsive movement hung, and saw and In the epistle dedicatory, the poet is less animated; and he introduces such inadmissible rhymes as bore and war ; war also occur. Art. 17. The Beauties of Carlo Maria Maggi paraphrased. To which are added Sonnets. By Mariana Starke, Author of "The Widow of Malabar," "Letters from Italy," &c. Crown 8vo. 3s. Longman and Co. 1811. Carlo-Maria Maggi is perhaps the most religious of the Italian poets; and though his writings convey rather the expression of his own devotional feelings than arguments to excite them in others, and ate better calculated to inspire than to convince, yet they possess a pathetic and fanciful grace, Which without passing through the judgment, gains While, however, we consider this translation of his works as highly creditable to the talents of Miss Starke, we cannot suppress a wish that she had placed more restraint on her own imagination; since, by abstaining at least from such alterations as were not evident improvements, she would have given her English readers a more accurate idea of her author's style and sentiments. His similes, which are appo site and ingenious, she has sometimes weakened by amplification; thus, when he says, "-le speranze mie furon di vetro, E di quel veico all' avvenir fo specchio," this passage is rendered as follows, in Sonnet 5th; My brightest hopes were nought but fragile glass, But of the scattered fragments form a mass, Shall prove, henceforth, a mirror for my mind.' Some of Miss Starke's rhymes are not altogether admissible, as join, divine,-barred, reward,-joined, mankind,— tomb, come,-&c The conclusion of the Ode to Eurilla in adversity' is so elegant and touching in the original, that we must lament that she did not translate it. She has, however, added some passages to this poem, which give it increased pathos; and many of her omissions may be considered as improvements on Maggi's lay. The Sonnets, which are exclusively Miss Starke's own, contain much pleasing and appropriate imagery; and we hope that this may not be the last of the Italian poets with whose works she will make us acquainted, but that her correct knowlege of their language, and her feeling admiration of their merits, may induce her to invest others of them with an English dress which they would not themselves have blushed at weaving or at wwearing. The poems of Maggi are frequently mentioned, and much commended, in the correspondence between Miss Carter and Miss Talbot; (See Rev. Vol. Ixi. p.142.) and Miss Starke informs us that the Countess Dowager Spencer was so much struck with his compositions, that she printed a Scelta of them at Pisa, in 1793. Art. 18. Ode on the present State of Europe. By T. G. Lace. 4to. 28. Cadell and Davies. 1811. This is one of the poems which are interdicted by "men, gods, and columns." It is moderate indeed, and cannot even be called " coldly correct or classically dull." Why it is intitled an Ode', we cannot easily divine. The measure is that of Gay's fables; the humble eight-footed verse, which has of late wondered to see itself exalted into epic dignity, and is now laying claim to lyric honours: but we perceive no animation, nor variety, nor vigour, nor grace, nor novelty, nor beauty, in either the thoughts or the expressions of this illegitimate 'Ode.' In a word, it is a composition which might have been whistled (for it demanded no effort of writing) after dinner, to the tune of “Lillibullero,” or any other. The author has chosen for his motto, Εις άωνος αρισῖος ἀμύνεσθαι περὶ πατρής Homer We beg leave to suggest to him, as a more appropriate description of his reverie on the present state of Europe, Ύπνος έχε γλυκερος πολλά φρεσι μαρμαίρονία Homer. That the most candid of our readers may be satisfied as to the degree of somnolency under which the writer of this Ode must have laboured, we select, at random, a passage alluding to the Portuguese migration: For there, • An exiled monarch-Far away, Event unparallel'd! Oh, say,' &c. &c. &c. By Art. 19. The Kiss, a Comedy, in Five Acts; as performed at the Theatre Royal, Lyceum, with the greatest Applause. Stephen Clarke. 8vo. 2s. 6d. Longman and Co. 1811. Either the author is mistaken, or the town is not fastidious. Such a play as The Kiss' received with the greatest applause! Impos sible! Such a tissue of improbabilities has rarely disgraced the boards. Though we have as much kissing of hands as at a levee, in addition to the kiss in the grove, yet, as the whole business turns on the convenient machinery of a concealed door behind the arras, the piece ought rather to have been called the Private Door: but, in spite of the great applause' which this comedy is said to have received, we question whether this private door will be often opened. Art. 20. The Substance of a Speech delivered by Lord Viscount, Castlereagh, in a Committee of the House of Commons, May 8, 1811, on the Report of the Bullion-Committee. Second Edition. 8vo. pp. 50. 2s. Stockdale, jun. Lord Castlereagh is evidently desirous of apprizing the public that he has not only studied the bullion-question, but has formed a very decided opinion on it,-an opinion altogether hostile to the views and recommendations of the Bullion-Committee. He begins the speech here reported by asserting that the case of the Bank of Ireland in 1804, on which the Committee expatiated in their Report as analogous to the present situation of the Bank of England, was by no means such as they represented it; and that the re-establishment of the Irish exchange in 1805 was not accomplished by a reduction of the circulating paper of the Bank of Ireland. Before 1797, the common currency of Ireland was metallic, as is the case at present in France, and in all countries where credit is not thoroughly established between man and man. Until that year, guincas were annually transmitted transmitted in quantities from the Bankof England to Dublin; but this transmission ceasing after the restriction-act, the currency of Ireland has been brought to consist, in a great measure, of paper. Taking it for granted that the use of our currency is confined to ourselves, his Lordship is satisfied of the non-existence of depreciation of our banknotes by the following process of reasoning: Both the note and the coin were intended for internal circulation, and for internal circulation alone. If the note commands the same value in commodities, and performs all the same functions, so far as relates to internal circulation, as the coin, there is no just ground to consider the note as depreciated.' With more correctness, he attributes (p.15.) the disappearance of our guineas to the extraordinary crisis of our commerce with the continent, together with the magnitude of our military expenditure abroad. Notwithstanding his opposition to most of the doctrines of the Bullion-Committee, he admits that the restrictionact of 1797 is, like the suspension of the habeas-corpus-act, a temporary surrender of the sound and legitimate regulations of our ordinary system but he is reconciled to it by the conviction that, in either case, such a temporary surrender was indispensable to the preservation of the system itself. Our former wars, he says, (p. 25.) were brought to a conclusion sooner than we wished, in consequence of financial pressure: but this war may be carried on year after year, in consequence of our discovering the means of substituting a paper for a metallic currency. We must pause, however, before we join with his Lordship in accounting this so clear an advantage; or in pronouncing with him, (p. 29.) that it is not incumbent on the Bank to be regulated by the price of bullion in the amount of their issues. When he alleges decidedly, (p. 33.) that our bank-paper is not in excess, and (p. 35.) that the increased circulation of town and country bank-notes has no effect in raising the price of commodities, we would hint to his Lordship that these are very complicated questions; and that men, whose avocations have permitted a much larger share of attention to them than it has been in his power to bestow, are not ashamed to acknowlege their doubts in regard to the formation of a positive opinion. With the same facility of decision, Lord C. declares that it was the decrees of Bonaparte and not those of our government which overthrew the equilibrium of our exchanges; and he has taken up the idea, (p. 46.) that his Corsican majesty was on the eve of abandoning his anti-commercial decrees, when, in an evil hour, the Report of the Bullion-Committee came to his knowlege, and encouraged him to enforce them twelve months ago with redoubled severity. Without absolutely contradicting this notion, we would ask whether it be not likely that the long list of bankruptcies among us chiefly inspired the hope, while our successful resistance at Busaco excited the hatred, which were concurrent in the breast of Napoleon at the time of issuing the burning-decrees? Lord Castlereagh is of the number of those who believe that it is not paper that has fallen, but gold that has risen in value. (p. 40.) His great objection to the doctrines of the Bullion-Committee is, that they proceed on the assumption of the practicability of adopting, in Y 4 these these times of disorder, measures which appear to him susceptible of execution only in a period of tranquillity. If we consider the variety of topics introduced in his Lordship's speech, it will appear brief in proportion to their number, and will be found to be rather a declaration of opinions than a series of arguments. The style is generally neat and perspicuous: but we cannot extend the language of compliment to the noble Viscount's reasoning; a great part of which is, as our readers will perceive, at variance with the views which a laborious investigation of the subject has led us to adopt. Art. 21, Substance of two Speeches delivered in the House of Commons by the Right Honourable George Canning, on the 8th and 13th of May, in the Committee of the whole House, to which was referred the Report of the Bullion-Committee. 8vo. pp.155. 35. 6d. Hatchard. Amply as the bullion-question has been discussed, a speech from Mr. Canning forms an attraction of sufficient magnitude to revive the drooping attention of the reader. To the few who have thoroughly studied the subject, an opportunity is here afforded of appreciating the ability of a statesman on a question, of which it may safely be said that it possessed too much public interest not to have called forth the exertion of his powers; although it should, on the other hand, be recollected that topics of finance have never constituted the official labours of Mr. Canning, nor has a claim to knowlege of them ever formed a pretension, on his part, to national confidence. Mr. Canning begins by declaring that he is not the advocate nor the antagonist of either side; a statement which we are not disposed to question, though it happens that in these speeches the greater proportion of his argument is directed against Mr. Vansittart's propositions, or, in other words, against the course recommended by the ministry. He enlarges at some length in justification both of the motives and the opinions of the Bullion-Committee; qualifying his support, however, by a declaration that he does not go to the full extent of their conclusions. The chief point, in which he dissents from the Committee, regards the compulsory opening of the Bank at the expiration of two years, a recommendation in which he by na means concurs. His subjects of difference with the opponents of the Committee appear to be of more serious import. After having condemned (p. 16.) the language of those who would make the pub. lic believe the Bank-restriction to be a politic measure, and after having corrected Mr. Perceval for departing from the specific object of discussion and launching into topics of general policy, Mr. Canning broadly declares (p. 36.) his conviction that Bank-paper is at a discount, and combats, with much animation, the notion that it maintains its equivalency to coin. This equivalency, however it may be supported by the law, is not (he says) sustained by the actual transactions of merchants, If the Bank-nate be not depreciated by paying an extra-price for the dollar, why, he asks, should not in like manner an extra-price be paid for the guinea? Here, however, we must remark that, had political economy been as favourite an object |