Page images
PDF
EPUB

to enabled us to preserve that naval superiority, without which, our right to respect neutral bottoms would be a shadow. Surely, if the right be of importance, that which empowers us to vindicate the right is incomparably more so; the right is comparatively of temporary value, but the system, on which alone it is. preserved, is of permanent necessity; and yet, such is our infatuation, that we often manifest a disposition to fritter away the essence of a system, even while. we hazard the existence of the empire in pursuit of inferior objects."

This isequally argumentative and patriotic; it is to speak serious truth in undissembling language; and to utter the warning voice of sound sense and public spirit, to awaken, on a subject of awful import, the unprejudiced consideration of the government and of the nation.

66

After substantiating these observations and principles by unde-. nied and undeniable facts, and by calculations which display great patience and accuracy of enquiry; and after having clearly shewn that, not merely our naval force, but the whole dependence and utility of our colonies, is intimately connected with the question he discusses;"this spirited and intelligent author calls the attention of the statesman and the merchant to the further mischiefs which the suspension of the navigation laws must produce.

"1st. As it must promote a clandestine intercourse between America and the islands."

"2dly. As it must enable America directly to supply foreign markets with the produce of the sugar islands."

[ocr errors]

3dly. As it must transfer to foreigners the supply trade of the West Indies."

From these doctrines, not merely advanced, but demonstrated, deductions are drawn of a very awful nature, and calculated to interest every man who has the prosperity of his country at heart. A general but brief and forcible recapitulation follows; and the work concludes in a very unostentatious but cloquent manner.

"To these details I might easily add more of great importance and weight; but enough, I hope, has been already said, to satisfy the public, that the navigation laws cannot be suspended or violated without much private mischief and public danger. I shall, therefore, only further observe, that the arguments I have already advanced, have issued from no enmity to Americans or to America, or to the individuals of any nation. My writings and efforts, for the last twenty years, in favour of the great palladium of our marine, have, indeed, excited against me in America, some asperity and ill-will; and these pages may possibly renew the enmities which have so often attempted to arraign my intentions, and disprove my observations. If, however, I had been inclined to inveigh against the Americans, various circumstances and facts are within my knowledge, which would have enabled me to indulge such a spirit. But far from being disposed to avail myself of occurrences not immediately connected

with my subject, I have sought and am anxious only to maintain, in a manner however inadequate, the most valuable and indispensable code of my country, and satisfied with this motive, I shall feel as little inclined as I have hitherto been, to reply to the angry or fallacious answers of speculative and prejudiced opponents. Such former answers as I have read, I have read without conviction, and I did not think it incumbent on me to reply to arguments which, as I conceive, were intended only to embarrass or pervert the question. The same silence, as long as I possess for it the same grounds, I shall certainly preserve. It will be enough for me, if the publication of opinions, which a long experience, and a twenty years accumulation of proofs, have only tended to confirm, should induce men to deliberate with caution on new treaties, which may subvert, or at all impair the established laws: and I shall account my reward very high if, by this, or by former writings, I shall be thought to have contributed any thing to the progress of British trade, and yet more to the maintenance of the British navy."

My Lord, your recompence is already obtained. British trade, and the British navy, have amply benefited by your patriotism and your labours; and every well-informed and honest man, who reads your writings, will say---These are the useful monuments of public spirit!

We have extended our view of this valuable pamphlet, as well on account of the subject discussed, as of the excellence of the discussion. The work has already excited great attention, and has drawn forth the public thanks of some respectable meetings of merchants and others. But it merits the thanks of the nation--and while so many of the pamphlets we are called on to review are little more than the tenues sine viribus umbras, we rejoice to be able to give our most unqualified approbation to the "Strictures" before us.

Pleasures of Solitude: with other Poems. By P, L. Courtier. Third

Edition. 12mo. pp. 144. 6s. Rivingtons. 1804.

By any reader who has examined and compared the works of our elder poets with critical attention, it will have been found that they sedulously endeavoured, by very laudable exertion, to render each edition of their respective performances more accurate and polished than the preceding. This is peculiarly observable in the poems of Spenser, Daniel, Drayton, Drummond, and Crashaw: several of their productions were actually re-written. By some of their successors, about a century afterward, the same process of laborious revision was perseveringly adopted; and Pope and Thomson, Akenside and Shenstone, may be mentioned as having exhibited striking instances of this exemplary mode of expurgation. We are pleased to find that Mr. Courtier may be reputably numbered with the few

living sons of the Muses, who have evinced a similar care for the progressive culture of their literary offspring. He has employed judgment as well as diligence in the supervisal of his deservedly favourite poem, the Pleasures of Solitude; whence his additions must be regarded as acquisitions, and his alterations as improvements. In our review for Oct. 1802, we noticed some valuable augmentations to the second impression of this work, which has been highly and justly recommended in a sonnet from the pen of Mr. Polwhele; and we shall now extract a few of those additional stanzas, which amount in this third edition to about twenty.

The following is a forcible delineation, and depicted by the hand of an experienced master.

Enough, indeed, though rural walks can charm,

While, rich with blooms, the fragrant breezes blow,
These to the city hie, in wild alarm,

When, torpid all, nor lulling waters flow,

Nor vernal scenes emerge from wintry snow.
Enough the shade of lawn and grove can bear,

To lawn or grove, when loitering thousands go;
When other notes resounding in the air,

Than wild-wood songsters yield-proclaim the mob is there!

Those love of change, not love of nature prize,
Whom custom yet the wonted circuit leads
From crowded pestilence and murky skies,
To gales salubrious and refreshing meads :
O! at each step to pause upon its deeds,
One mingled mass of grandeur, crime, and pain,
Where reason shudders, and where mercy bleeds,
If this the city's boast-to sigh in vain;
Untenanted by me may cities long remain !

Hapless his choice, while fills th' expanding sail,

'Mid threatening rocks and treacherous sands who steers:
Lo! adverse winds the flattering course assail;

Sinking his hopes, and borne alone by fears,
Tow'rd every port th' unsteady helmsman veers.

Life's early blandishments must they forego,
Who think in peace to greet their closing years;
Silence and thought in youth must bliss bestow,
The sweets of Solitude would aged bosoms know.

One more stanza, for its devotional sensibility and pious sublimity, we cannot pass without transcribing; though such a production, from its unity of design, and general moral interest, should be perused entire, to be perused with justice to the author, or suitable advantage to the reader.

Father of Truth and Life! the sins forgive

Which here o'ercloud our best and brightest days:
Dark unbelief, when thought by faith to live;
Acts that deny, though words declare thy praise.
Oft while thy works the grateful mind amaze,
Point us by these to better thinks on high;

From this low stage our vain affections raise;
Chasten our wanderings with a pitying eye;

And hear, ô GOD of Grace! the soul's returning sigh!

DRAMATIC.

Guilty or Not Guilty; a Comedy, in Five Acts, first acted at the Theatre Royal, Haymarket, May 26, 1804. Written by Thomus Dibdin. 2s. 6d. 8vo. Lackington, Allen, and Co. 1804.

THE theatre and the study are tribunals very differently constituted; and a verdict of acquittal at the former is not always confirmed at the bar of literary criticism. In the present instance, however, we may conscientiously declare the author to be-Not Guilty.

Comic Sketches; or, The Comedian his own Manager; written and selected for the Benefit of Performers in England, Ireland, Scotland, and America. Inscribed to the Performers in general, by Charles Lee Lewes, Comedian. The whole forming Matter sufficient for Two Evenings' Entertainment; originally intended for the East Indies, and as delivered by him, without an Apparatus, in many Parts of the Three Kingdoms, with distinguised Patronage. 12mo. 4s. Symonds. 1804.

THE SUCCESS of Collins's Evening Brush suggested to Mr. Lewes the idea of forming a similar entertainment, without an apparatus. Besides the idea, he borrowed from Mr. Collins several of his stories, which, with a variety of whimsical anecdotes and remarks, are contained in these Comic Sketches.

Mr. Lewes intended to have delivered them in the East Indies; but, on his arrival at Calcutta, in 1788, he was informed, by the private secretary to Lord Cornwallis, that as he had gone to India without leave from the Court of Directors, he could not be permitted to make any professional exhibition whatever in that settlement. To soften the effects of this prohibition, Lord Cornwallis generously presented him with a thousand rupees. The correspondence which took place between him and the secretary on this occasion, is given in the introduction; and also a biographical sketch of Mr. Lewes, for which, however, the writer has been solely indebted to the account inserted in No. 94, of this work.

THE BRITISH STAGE.

Imitatio vita, speculum consuetudinis, imago veritatis.

Cicero.

The Imitation of Life---The Mirror of Manners---The Representation of Truth.

OBSERVATIONS ON

THE TRAGEDY OF MAHOMET.

MR. EDITOR,

THE tragedy of Mahomet, as you, of course, well know, was written by Miller, (author of "The Humours of Oxford"-Mother-in-law” —“ Man of Taste”—“ Hospital for Fools"—" Universal Passion," &c. &c.)-but leaving it unfinished, Dr. Hoadly gave it the remaining touches, assisted, if I am not mistaken, by the pen of Mr. Garrick. A few cursory observations on this play, as they struck me on perusal, may not be deemed unacceptable.

It opens with Pharon, advising Alcanor to surrender Mecca to Mahomet, who is besieging it. Though this first scene is by no means long, yet there are several unharmonious lines, and rugged expletives, which is, however, made amends for, by some beauties and patriotic sentiments, particularly the following speeches of Alcanor

If, ye powers divine !—

Ye mark the movements of this nether world,

And bring them to account, crush, crush those vipers,

Who, singled out by a community

To guard their rights, shall, for a grasp of ore,

Or paltry office, sell them to the foe.

Again:

No, Pharon, no, I live not for myself;

My wife and children lost, my country's now

My family.

How applicable is the former speech to some modern patriots! A Scotchman reading it, would think the author endued with the gift of second sight!

It must also be remembered, that these few lines and the beefsteak club, were the causes of Mr. T. Sheridan's abdication of the Irish managerial throne, in 1754

« PreviousContinue »