tering prospects of power or prosperity alter men, when no coercive authorities can compel submission. In the reign of Henry VII. Sir John Fineaux opposed the tax of the tenth penny, and, according to Lloyd, stoutly observed on this occasion:"Before we pay any thing, let us see whether we have any thing we can call our own to pay." Cardinal and Chancellor Morton was against the preferment of this lion-hearted lawyer: "such being (to borrow the words of his biographer,) an encouragement to the factious; whose hydra heads grow faster by being taken off by preferment, and not by the axe." But the wiser king was for employing other means. He thought that "so noble a patriot would be an useful courtier, and that he who could do so well at the bar might do more at the Bench." He was accordingly made a judge and knighted; after which, we learn that no one was so firm to promote or inculcate the doctrine of the prince's prerogative. BRITISH EMPIRE. A French writer calculates the population of the British empire at ninety-five millions, whereof seventy are in India. It contains also observations which furnish a picture of magnificence, characteristic and interesting, and produced by a mind struck with admiration. "The Roman empire in its glory (says he,) contained 120 millions, half of whom were slaves. Considering the difference of situations, with the riches, resources, industry, arts, sciences, commerce, and agriculture of Great Britain, they will not only bear comparison with ours, but appear remarkable in the balance of nations and empires, ancient as well as modern.-The landed property of Great Britain was calculated by Mr. Pitt, in 1797, at 1,600 millions sterling. Their marine last war included a thousand armed ships, and their commerce now employs 174,000 mariners, and upwards of two millions of tons. In short, the British empire may be considered as the greatest that has ever existed; surpassing all others, also, in knowledge, moral character, and merit. The sun never sets on its dominions, and, before his rays withdraw from the steeples of Quebec, his morning rays have enlightened the districts of Port Jackson; and, while he is setting to the countries round Lake Superior, he is rising to those about the banks of the Gauges." man. FRANCIS DUKE of bedford. I have little scruple in placing the late Duke among the list of worthies; nobody can entertain more esteem for that amiable and accomplished nobleMelancholy was the fate of both his parents: one died of a fall from his horse, the other pined away, dropping fruitless tears, "like Patience on a monument." How unlike many fashionable wives! Indeed, both characters were deserving of very high praise. The young Duke was brought up at Westminster, but retired in disgust; the motives for which extraordinary conduct I have not discovered: he went afterwards to Cambridge. In his earlier years the Duke was a most active and determined hunter; he hired a scat at a place called Quorn, in Leicestershire; and there, in the season, spent a considerable portion of his time. As a particular individual, the Duke was sprightly and agreeable; as a member of society, intelligent and sagacious; and, to the cause of his country, just and faithful. In Parliament he joined the opposition, and the views which he there gave of his politics were much listened to, as impressive and sensible. But that which most distinctly exhi bited and illustrated the colouring of his mind was his attachment to agriculture; in this he continued to merit the character he had obtained, of a reflecting observer as to the various causes and operations whereby it is susceptible of improvement. În numerous instances the Duke mingled with the mass of his people, affording a lively and striking example of industry; ever attentive to the great principle of his conduct-practical utility. His ample means and purposes were actively and steadily dìrected to the pursuit of this object. His useful works and ingenious plans at Woburn, and in the metropolis, received high commendations for the novelty, zeal, and research, displayed in them. From a sense of duty, an honourable independence of mind, the Duke had publicly alluded to Burke's pension; remarking on certain improprieties of conduct connected with it. This excited warm indignation in the latter, whose keen and vivid sense of painful feelings vented itself in mean and and dishonourable tirades on the Duke's ancestors. The attempt thus to disgrace and blemish the character of a living individual, was a glaring act of wrong. The Duke, whose moral excellencies were the result of a well-disciplined mind, whose principles rested on the sure foundation of virtue, was the great Leviathan of Mr. Burke. The great anxiety shewn by Calyban, thus roused from his lair, only accelerated the taking of still greater liberties with him by others. The Duke was munificent to his younger brothers, and liberal to Mr. Fox. DODD THE ENGINEER. Mr. Dodd, in one of his letters to a London merchant, made an observation which I transcribed, as worthy of preservation. He had (he said) professedly surveyed the four great rivers in the northern parts of this kingdom. In the River Eden he found the tide flowing up from Solway Frith only five miles; from the sea up the River Tyne, sixteen; from the sea up the River Wear, eleven; and up the Tees, twenty-one: adding, that the great altitude of the inland northern parts prevents the sea from throwing the tide far up any of those rivers. EENEVOLENCE. "A more splendid specimen of humanity cannot be exhibited than when its powers are exerted in releasing kindred man from his affliction, and in giving to its virtues the most beneficial direction." Without this, the most specious appearances are nothing: in this tenet, people in general are fixed; and Cicero, it seems, conceived things as we do. What can we think then of rulers? How clouded must their understandings be! How very odd their way of thinking! Who, from ill conduct, irregularities, or abuse of their faculties, in almost every form of government, are the common disturbers and plagues of our species! The views of the many thwarted to protect the separate interests of a few! Manifesting, at times, all the characteristics of maleficence! ORIGINAL POETRY. LINES ON NAPOLEON. [The following Lines were suggested on reading a notice in the Monthly Magazine for November, respecting a colossal bust of Napoleon, by Canova, lately removed by Sir Richard Phillips from its hiding place in France to London.] OH, mournful fact! Napoleon the Great Has met upon the barren rock his fate! What is it thus affrights the Bourbon king? Their best security's their people's love? S. TRIBUTARY STANZAS, I WOULD rather the cypress entwine It is better to go, and be quiet, To the house of the dying, or dead, Than to sit in the palace with monarchs and riot, Forgetting the worm must be fed, The chords of Hope's feelings are swept, When esteem has been wrought in the mind, And time has Love's secrecy kept, And the taste has been purely refin'd: But I know not a dearer control Than the chain of our earliest making; And how warm is the tear from our breast that will roll, When its beauty is silently breaking! Sensibility's gem will arise, And the throb of the heart will increase, When we hear of the good, and the wise, Have died on their pillows in peace; But emotions to nature and duty Are appeased when we placidly think, That their spirits exist in celestial beauty, And are safe from mortality's brink. O, spirit departed! thy worth Will never be buried in dust: Dear Butler! it lives on the earth More valued than painting or bust; Thy books of instruction and merit Will nurture and ripen the mind, Till the sweetness of knowledge and lore it inherit, And shine in its orbit assign'd. How treasure, I was proud with thy pupils to share. What feelings of grateful return I owe to my guardian and guide; Thy method was easy to learn,— It was kindly and aptly applied: How rich are the fruits I have cherish'd! They serve me for food and repast; While fashions have flicker'd, and follies have perish'd, My thoughts will be sweet to the last. Yet I cannot but fly to my lyre, Tho' long it hath slumber'd so still! And my fingers give tone to the wire, As I look up Immensity's hill: Thou art risen to rest in the heaven, Thou art pure in the essence of light, Thou hast won thy reward, which is holily given, And secur'd to thy glory and sight. How lov'd round the Deity's throne, How peacefully blest in His beam, Are they who have usefully shone In the course of mortality's stream; Whose precepts are noble and charming, Examples so touching and true, That the heart is improved as the mind is in forming In the virtues and sciences too. To encourage the innocent heart In youth's garden of flowers and weeds, I would offer my feminine part, And select Immortality's seeds: While the pulse of my bosom is dyingly beating, Death's notes will have life in my song. LINES ON A FAVOURITE DOG NAMED BUSY. By Dr. T. FORSTER. In mortem canis. Vos o Camœnæ carmina eburneo Fidelis omni tempore vixerit STANZAS. THOU who dost shine in Fashion's sphere, Not all the precious shining gems, Nor the cornelian gay ;-. They do their beauties all retain, Within themselves they're found; But not in thee,-thou can'st not gain A beauty from the ground. Steal not the essence of a flower, Nor pilfer Nature's sweet, To suit the sense for one short hour,To be a counterfeit. Rob not a rose of its perfume, To sprinkle o'er thy vest; The queen of flowers for such a use Shedding her odours most profuse, The toilet's lavatory store, To make thy skin look fair; With musk, from India's eastern shore, And each extraction rare. Arabia cannot boast of smells More various than thy room; Take not the vermeil for thy cheek, Affection, wisdom, truth; C. A. NOVELTIES NOVELTIES OF FOREIGN LITERATURE.' E have been much amused with at least as good as any among Mr. D'Israeli's; and, in point of keenness and acerbity, equal to Lord B.'s and Mr. Bowles's, between two foreign critics, regarding the comparative renown of the writers of the different states of Italy. It appears that the character of the more northern literati has, of late, been advanced to distinguished eminence by numerous productions of uncommon merit, while that of the Tuscan writers is accused of having proportionally deteriorated, in place of maintaining the high rank it held during several centuries. This charge is contained in the "Italian Bibliotèque," on a review of the proceedings of the Della Cruscan Academy, in the following words: "For some length of time, the best writers, both of prose and poetry, are no longer those of Tuscany. The Tuscan people of this day speak the best Italian, and the learned among them write the worst of any in Italy." In answer to this sweeping accusation, a Tuscan writer, dating his letter from Empoli, steps forward in vindication of the reputation of his contemporaries; and, in a spirited attack upon the editor, remonstrating against the injustice of such a dictum, he endeavours to overwhelm his adversary with the number and the lustre of the living geniuses of Tuscany. It will be worth our while to touch upon a few passages, if it were merely to give our readers an idea of some of the leading characters, so distinguished at present for their writings in the various branches of art and literature. "You take care," observes the anonymous Tuscan, "to bring forward Paoli, and Franckini, but you seem to have forgotten Fossombroni, who is no less one of the first mathematicians of Italy, because he is now become a secretary-of-state, and moreover one of the most correct and profound writers we have, as his works sufficiently declare, and fully deserving of the character given of him by his illustrious fellow-citizen Pignotti: chiavelli," his work on Petrarch, and taste and elegance, and challenging the very best productions of your first biographers. You cannot be ignorant that Tuscany prizes itself in the fame of that noble lady, whom both Alfieri and Monti allow to have been possessed of the power of touching the inmost recesses of the soul,— "Ai severi defficili nipoti Di Curio e di Camillo." And from whose lips "Fiu che mel dolci d'eloquenza i fiami,” led Alfieri himself to wish for the honour "De suoi carmi impensati andarne onusto." And yet you pass Vittoria Colonna without so much as once mentioning her. You accuse yourself and your party, by confessing, that you think what too severe: they are not severe; the strictures upon Anguillesi someThe extreme youth of Benedetti, and they are unfounded and malignant. the genius shining through the most hasty of his productions, might have called for a little indulgence: but no; your Ghirardelli, just deceased, exhausted all your tenderness, because he happened to be a Lombard; and, now we are upon this point, if you will not listen to my opinion, hear that of all Italy. Since it appears to you that the preference given to De Lucca over the correctly-beautiful and polished able, know, that the writer of that Pindmonte, was so very unreasonarticle will have credit only for critical tact and discernment, when the palm Spartans over the Athenians, but not of learning shall be yielded to the before. Niccoline's work-Sulla Lingua,' "When you give an account of you call the author a man of powerful intellect: but that is not enough. You seem, in fact, to wish to include both him, and one of our rural poets, Bagnoli, whose new poem is about to appear (Poemetto Sule Agricultura,) under the title of "Peggio," which you so liberally bestow on those obnoxious to your literary dictatorship. If, however, you will have the courtesy so far to descend as to answer a simple question; can you tell me, whether you possess in Lombardy poets by the dozen, raised to an immeasurable dis3 Y tance tance above our Anguillesi, Bagnoli, not hear. The champion of Tuscany next proceeds to notice a long tirade, contained in the " Biblioteca," against the acts, or, to speak more correctly, the omissions, of which the great academy, whose constitution appears to be in a decline, has of late years been guilty. He then taxes the various criticisms which have appeared in the Review with partiality and a most illiberal spirit, which he attempts to show by quotations from the work. But here, we think, he fails in making out a good case against the editor and his party; as we are at a loss to perceive any thing, besides the general accusation already stated, which discovers a prejudiced and malignant tone, as asserted by the Tuscan champion, throughout a series of these reviews. This is clearly made out in the reply of the editor, Signor Acerbi, who has very fully and satisfactorily proved, both by annotations, point by point, affixed to the Tuscan's letter, and in a regular answer to the whole, that he and his friends have been actuated by no personal and illiberal motives in the opinions advanced in the review. It is, also, sufficiently galling and severe, exposing the weakest points of his adversary's letter, seriatim, in marginal notes, and repeating his blows in a single attack, and in a manner which shows, that he has not received the name of Acerbi without deserving it. There is, no doubt, a little angry feeling on both sides, arising from the state of literary parties, much more divided into separate interests in a country under different legislative authorities, like Italy. The fact appears to be, that most of the great writers of Tuscany had already appeared, before those of other parts of Italy came forward into notice; and, it is not in the least extraordinary, that the literary superiority characterizing the genius of Tuscany, at one period, should be in a degree transferred to the other states of Italy at another. We shall subjoin a few of the obnoxious criticisms which called forth the vindicatory letter of "a Tuscan," in order that our readers may have the opinions of a native critic upon the writings of some of the most distinguished characters of the age in which we live and may, at the same time, form a judgment, if not of the particular merits of each author, of the tone of feeling, and the spirit which dictated them. Among the productions of the last year, (1817) the Satires of the Cavalier d'Elci deserve honourable mention, though we could have wished to see a little more ease and flow of versification. But they are animated by a certain sententious and epigrammatical force, which promises to outlive many less powerful satirical pieces of the day. It would, indeed, be unjust, not to bring these satires, containing so many beauties, with commendation before the public. (No. XXV. p. 10.) Rossini, with singular modesty, observes, that no writer can now expect to hand down his name to posterity by the mere effusion of sonnets, capitoli, and canzoni. This redounds not a little to the credit of Signor Rossini, who has produced two small volumes of excellent little poems, every way entitled to a lasting reputation. (No. XXXVII. p. 59.) Among the Transactions of the Cruscan academicians, some doubtless do honour to that society of learned men, and Tuscany has reason to value them, whether we consider the purity of their language or the elegance of their style The exactness of their researches, and the utility of the objects they have in view, are equally en titled to our notice.-(No. XLI. p. 167.) Signor Zannoni has singular merit in the manner in which he has arranged his "Discourse,' |