BE

ON RETIREMENT,

For the Bee.

gone! ye noxious pleasures of the town, Where riot, woe, and difsipation stalk With giant stride: ye, gladly, I'd fergo, For joys, unmix'd unth guilt; for rural groves, Where health and innocence, triumphant, reign.

Hark! in the windings of yon fhady copse,
What charming concert lives! The joyous birds,
In lofty accents, carol forth their lays,
And deal a vocal harmony around!
Their thousand various notes (melodious more
Than am rous strains of midnight serenade,
With which Italian youths their fair one greet)
Surcharge the breeze and echo o er the plain.
Loud, and more loud, their tuneful airs prevail,
And a ount into the fky! Ye happy tribes!
No racking cares afflict your tender breasts,
Or from your eyes extract the frequent tear:
But, undisturb'd, you rove from hill to dale,
'Till silent night begins her cheerle's reign,
And spreads her sable mantle o'er the world;
Then, to some unfrequented glade retir'd,
Far distant from the walk of dreaded man,
Or savage school boy's ever hated haunt,
You lull yourselves to rest. When smiling morn,
Array'd in brightnefs and majestic pomp,
Dispels the dreary gloom, you all again,
In happy strains resume your wonted song.
O CONTEMPLATION come! light up my soul!
And whilst I wander o'er the flow'ry dale,
Or bend my course along the forest's glade,
Oh, let me not forget to muse on Him,
The great, th' eternal Sovereign of the skies;
Who form'd the azure canopy above,
And gave creation birth! Who inade us man,
In image nearest to his sacred self!
Can I behold this variegated mead,

Yon boundless fky, that veils imperial Heav'n;
You daming sun, who wheels his rapid course
Along the wide immensity of space;

And yet, forget the Gor, whose potent werd.
From Chaos rude, and infinite opaque,

It cannot be !

Confirm'd them what they are?
Reason condemns absurdity so grois;
Nor will admit, that man, distinguish'd man,
Can be so far embruted, as to fail

In lasting wonder, and unceasing praise.
Deign, mighty GoD, to fill my humble soul
With adoration, gratitude, and awe!
And help me, henceforth ever to extol
Thy sacred wisdom and thy boundless love!

Abstracted from the world, blest HEALTH secures,
RETIREMENT! 'mid thy fhades, and native groves,
Her constant reign. No sickly steams exhale
Around thy happy plains; no fetid scents
Of noisome stews, thy air, salubrious, taint.
Seldom, destructive pestilence is known
To sweep thy humble cottagers away,
Or stalk within tay reach: it most delights
To spread its havock in the crowded town,
And city's swarm, where to its direful rage
(As hapless London can too well declare *)
Thousands on thousands oft, lamented fall.
Thou, too, oh heav'n orn INNOCENCE! abhor'st
The city's guileful joys; and tak'st thy stand
Amid RETIREMENT's walks; where no fell scenes
Of lewd intrigue, or foul debauch, employ
Nocturnal hours, but where the peasant calm
As summer seas, when not a breath of air
Their surface skims, hies early to his couch,
And rises, cheerfully, at dawn of day.
RELIGION, too, fair offspring of the skies,
Is in RETIREMENT found: 'Tis there she keeps
Her happy court, untainted by the world,
Whos gilded pleasures (fraught with bitter woe!)
Intrude not to molest her sacred sway:

'Tis there, a thoughtful mind, in every scene,
May meditate at large; there undisturb'd,
And fearless of th' opprobrious sneer of man,
Break forth in raptures on almighty Love!
There 'tis that blest philosophy is gain'd,
Which, in the trying awful hour of death,
(When earth and all its vanities will prove
No more of moment than a grain of dust)
Will stand our sole support, and safely wing
Our souls immortal to the realms of blifs.

* Alluding to the ever memorable plague in London. VOL. Xviii.

L L

ADDITIONAL REMARKS ON THE CORN RETURNS.

SIR,

To the Editor of the Bee.

THE public are certainly much obliged to you for directing their attention occasionally, in the course of your publication, to objects of great importance. In that clafs I reckon the letter to Mr Calderwood, published in last week's Bee, to hold a conspicuous rank. In addition to what you have there said I beg leave to state a few supplementary facts. which I request the favour of you to insert as early as possible.

At this moment there is in Leith harbour, a vefsel with a considerable cargo of wheat bought by a merchant here from another in England. It chanced that the merchant from whom the wheat was ordered lives on the banks of a small navigable river which divides two counties, and he purchased so much of the cargo on one side the river, and so much of it on the other side of it. Both were sent together to Leith, without the merchant here having known any thing of this circumstance. But it has since been discovered here, that exportation was allowable from the county where the merchant lives, though not from the other. The wheat that came from the first is therefore allowed to be landed; but that which came from the last must be returned.

Another case. A large vefsel belonging to another merchant is now also in Leith harbour with a cargo of wheat; which having come from a county whose nominal prices were higher than here, though the real selling price was lower, it cannot here be landed at all, and must be returned.

A third vefsel is under contract to fetch wheat from Lynn in Norfolk. It was taken up more than a fortnight ago with orders to sail directly, so as to be here before the 15th of the month; as nobody can tell how the prices may stand after that period. The contrary winds prevented the vessel from sailing; and the merchant finds it prudent rather to give the captain of the vessel a considerable sum to free him from the contract than allow him to proceed now on that voyage.

While all these things are going on, the bakers are experiencing a very great hardfhip for want of wheat. There are at present, to my knowledge, at least twentyone bakers in Edinburgh who have not a single boll of old wheat in their possession, and who would purchase it at almost any price; but it cannot be had. And there is not in Leith, or the lofts belonging to the bakers, as much wheat as can supply the consumption of Leith and Edinburgh for a fortnight.

I myself know something of the trade in corn; and I know, that under the operation of the present law, no merchant who gives an order can be certain that he can be supplied with the quantity ordered, without being liable to immense lofses which he cannot foresee or guard ägainst, which renders him timid and insecure, and greatly enhances the prices to the public.

It is easy to foresee many cases in which this law may be the source of grievous calamities to the country; I fhall put one that may naturally enough happen. Suppose that in a particular district a very rainy harvest were to happen, as in 1744, so that the corn in general was sprung, and of a very bad quality, so as not to be worth, perhaps more than half the price of good grain well got: the consequence must be that the real selling price of that kind of corn in that district must be

very low in comparison of that in the places where the corn is good; and the returns, if fair, must be so also. In consequence of these returns, exportation may be allowable in the first district, while it is forbid in the last; though the real selling price of good grain be much higher in the first than in the last. What must be the consequence ? No grain can be imported from abroad; none can be transported to it coastwise ; so that the inhabitants must be starved, if they cannot bring it by land; and be reduced to live upon their own unwholesome corn, till the price of that very bad stuff fhall rise to equal the good corn of other districts, before they can be permitted to have a single peck of good wholesome corn. This very case nearly took place with regard to pease in this county last year. Leith 13 Dec. 1793.

MERCATOR.

SIR,

TRAVELLING MEMORANDUMS
Continued from p. 110.

To the Editor of the Bee.

I WROTE to you from Tyrole, and gave you some cursory hints, concerning the magnificence and grotesque appearance of the Alpine mountains: Perhaps some account of their texture and component parts may be amusing to you. The Alpine mountains of Tyrole are chiefly composed of fine white stratified limestone, disposed in an horizontal position; and to me, who am accustomed to view nature in her great works and magnificent forms, this immense accumulation of lime is astonishing. Regular continued strata of limestone, began to appear by the road side, about two miles south of Heidlesburg; and it continued with me in my way by Augfburg, Inspruct, Trent, Ve. rona, &c. as far as I saw stone in my road to Venice,