In a piece denominated "The Beggars," the author exhibits a fair specimen of frivolous conceit, and infantine expression.

She had a tall man's height, or more;
No bonnet screen'd her from the heat;
A long drab-coloured cloak she wore,
A mantle reaching to her feet;

What other dress she had I could not know;
Only she wore a cap that was as white as snow.
Before me begging did she stand,

Pouring out sorrows like a sea;
Grief after grief;-on English land

Such woes I knew could never be ;

And yet a boon I gave her; for the creature

Was beautiful to see; a weed of glorious feature !

!

He is attracted afterwards by two boys, who are as like their mother as peas are like peas, or, according to the poet, as "like that woman's face as gold is like to gold."

They bolted on me thus, and lo!

Each ready with a plaintive whine

Said I, Not half an hour ago

Your mother has had alms of mine.'

;

That cannot be,' one answered, she is dead.'

Nay but I gave her pence, and she will buy you bread.'

She has been dead, Sir, many a day.'

Sweet boys, you're telling me a lie;

It was your mother as I say-'

And in the twinkling of an eye,

3

'Come, come!' cried one; and, without more ado,

Off to some other play they both t

flew.

Hearing a sort of scream as he is driving into Durham, the poet calls out to the post-boy to stop, and he finds little Alice Fell,' who fell a crying, at the back of the carriage. The child getting up behind the vehicle, had entangled her cloak in the wheels. The poet thus informs us of the circumstance.

'My cloak!' the word was last and first,
And loud and bitterly she wept,

As if her very heart would burst;

And down from off the chaise she leapt.

'What ails you, child?' she sobb'd, Look here !'

I saw it in the wheel entangled,

A weather beaten rag as e'er

From any garden scarecrow dangled.

Our philanthropist now takes the child into the carriage; that is, after he had extricated the garment. And then he proceeds with the pretty, pretty story.

'My child, in Durham do you dwell?
She check'd herself in her distress,
And said,' My name is Alice Fell;
I'm fatherless and motherless.
And I to Durham, sir, belong.''

And then, as if the thought would choke
Her very heart, her grief grew strong;
And all was for her tatter'd cloak.

The chaise drove on; our journey's end
Was nigh; and, sitting by my side,
As if she'd lost her only friend
She wept, nor would be pacified.
Up to the tavern-door wě post;
Of Alice and her grief I told;
And I gave money to the host,
To buy a new cloak for the old.
And let it be of duffil grey,

As warm a cloak as man can sell !'
Proud creature was she the next day,

The little orphan, Alice Fell!

31

Among some compositions called Moods of my own Mind,', we have the following glowing effusions of wonderful sympathy and affection.

My heart leaps up when I when I behold

A rainbow in the sky :

So was it when my life began';

So is it now I am a man ;

So be it when I shall grow old,

Or let me die!

Then comes the reason which produces all this, in which the metaphor very beautifully reverses the order of nature.

The child is father of the man ;

And I could wish my days to be

Bound each to each by natural piety.

"A Sparrow's Nest," draws forth the ensuing rapture.

Look, five blue eggs are gleaming there!

Few visions have I seen more fair,

Nor many prospects of delight

More pleasing than this simple sight.

As the greater includes the less, we presume the author is justified in saying he derives pleasure from objects of delight; it is besides so novel a remark that he must feel wonderful pleasure in the delight of having invented it.

Poetry is intended to please, by introducing agreeable and dignified

topicks, which also inspire genius by pleasant associations; according ly Mr. Wordsworth gives an account of 'A Blind Highland Bʊy, who living near the sea, could not be prevented from adventuring on the dangerous flood. He chose a singular vehicle of conveyance, and Mr. W. has introduced it with all the dignity of which it is susceptible. In such a vessel ne'er before

Did human creature leave the shore.
But say what was it?

A Household Tub, like one of those

Which women use to wash their clothes.

This sublime description is followed by sending out a real boat to bring back the boy, who sick of his adventure, promises never to do so no more, and so ends the tale.

If the reader is not already satiated, we think our concluding quotation, entitled Foresight,' will abundantly satisfy him.

That is work which I am rueing-
Do as Charles and I are doing!
Strawberry-blossoms, one and all,
We must spare them-here are many ;-
Look at it-the bower is small,
Small and low, though fair as any:

Do not touch it! summers two

I am older, Anne, than you.
Pull the primrose, sister Anne ;
Pull as many as you can.

Primroses, the spring may love them→→

Summer knows but little of them :

Violets, do what they will,

Wither'd on the ground must lie :

Daisies will be daisies still;

Daisies they must live and die :

Fill your lap and fill your bosom,
Only spare the strawberry-blossom!

FASHIONABLE FOLLY.

la

Ar a certain rout which was given a few weeks ago, two young dies of fashion exhibited their charms so lavishly luxuriant, that it became a question among the beaux of the drawing-room, which of them, whether Miss **** or Miss ******, better understood the position of Brest harbour; which of them, in other words, exhibited the greatest knowledge of the subject. The unanimous determination was, that though Miss **** showed all, yet Miss ****** showed more.

It is not the disorder, but the physician; it is not a casual concurrence of calamitous circumstances; it is the pernicious hand of government, which alone can make a whole people desperate.

JUNIUS.

REVIEW of Mr. Giles's first Speech in the Senate of the United States, on the Resolution of Mr. Hillhouse to repeal the Embargo Laws.

Continued from page 22.

IN entering into an examination of the second branch of Mr. Giles's defence of the administration, for continuing the Embargo Laws, we confess ourselves disappointed and provoked, that the arguments of a man who bears the name of Statesman, should not be grounded upon any important series of facts, but depend for their support on theoretick and visionary calculations in national policy, which every test by which they can be tried, determines to be fallacious, and which sound reason and common sense must utterly disclaim. We are naturally surprised to observe a philosopher persist in maintaining an hypothesis in science, after a long course of patient and critical investigation has evinced it false and inconclusive. But when the subject of the experiment is changed to a great and populous nation, when the whole nervous system of the political body is laid bare to the cold and unflinching hand of an ignorant operator, when every touch of the lancet draws forth the groans and convulsions of the suffering victim; what words can express our sensations when the surgeon declares, in spite of his ill-success, that he must probe yet deeper into the wound? Must we not believe him capable, through enmity and disappointment, of plunging his instrument into the heart of the patient, and stifle in the grave both the throes of despair and the remembrance of the assassination. Mr. Giles admits that cries of distress resound from one end of the continent to the other; he confesses the inefficacy of the experiment in determining the truth of the hypothesis; but declares his intention of persevering in the errour, though the nation should rise in rebellion, and the constitutional building be shaken to its foundation. One principal topick in his vindication of the Embargo measure, has for its foundation the circumstance of its failure. How then can he favour its continuance, when its execution at home becomes every day more impraeVol. 1.

E

ticable and unpopular, and its operations abroad become every day less injurious. Having admitted its ill-success, &c. of what consequence is it to enquire how success has been frustrated? Suppose our party dissensions, suppose the revolution in Spain to have been the causes, (which we by no means admit,) the argument is directly in the teeth of administration; for the difficulties resulting from the Spanish revolutions and our domestick discontents, are evidently increasing, and if they have been sufficient reasons for the present failure, are much stronger against the further continuance of the policy. It is always thus with tyrannical and oppressive measures; their advocate must confound himself in contradiction or conceal himself in subtlety, when the errour is open and palpable to the plainest principles of moral honesty and common sense.

The Embargo it was easy to foresee would be ineffectual in its coercion of the belligerent powers (even if it had not been manifestly intended to favour the French nation, and if the result had not determined its futility) which will be evident if we consider the state of our commercial negociations at the time of its adoption, the difficulties which conspired to impede them, and the little probable injury Great-Britain would sustain in consequence of its operation. The sentiments of the new British ministry relating to neutral commerce had been promulgated in various shapes; but particularly in the decis ions of the admiralty courts, under Sir William Scott, and in the pamphlet of "War in Disguise," published before that ministry came into power. We know the sentiments of that work to be those of Mr. Canning, for they have since then been adopted in their utmost latitude. The President's rejection of the treaty obtained by Messrs. Munroe and Pinckney, and the news of the Chesapeak disaster, were received in England nearly upon the heels of each other; and the temper of the English government towards us was proved, by its complete acquiescence in that rejection, though the treaty was negotiated under circumstances more favourable to the interests of the United States, than ever before existed. But the principles insisted on by our government, were so far strained, that Lords Holland and Aukland, at the present moment in the opposition, declared in relation to our proposition, with respect to seamen in merchant ships, that the British " government could not adopt it without taking on itself a responsibility, which no ministry would be willing to meet, however pressing the emergency might be; and this language was used by the very ministry who had before welcomed our commissioners, in these terms, an attention which it will always be the pride of the foreign office to shew to the ministers of the United States, our half countrymen." It was clear,

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Page 110, 111 of documents published by order of our government, March 22, 1808. † Page 77, ibid.