in a free-and-easy, conversational tone, has no more right to decide about the conversation of such a man as Lord Byron, than has a pert apprentice to pronounce ex cathedrá-from his one shilling gallery, to wit-on the dialogue of a polite comedy. We can easily believe, that Lord Byron never talked his best when this was his Companion. We can also believe that Lord Byron's serious conversation, even in its lowest tone, was often unintelligible to Mr. Leigh Hunt. We are morally certain, that in such company Lord Byron talked, very often indeed, for the mere purpose of amusing himself at the expense of his ignorant, phantastic, lack-a-daisical guest; that he considered the Magnus Apollo of Paradise Row as a precious butt, and acted accordingly. We therefore consider Mr. Hunt's evidence as absolutely inadmissible, on strong preliminary grounds. But what are we to say to it, when we find it, as we do, totally and diametrically at variance both with the substance and complexion of Lord Byron's epistolary correspondence; and with the oral testimonies of men whose talents, originally superior beyond all possibility of measurement to Mr. Hunt's, have been matured and perfected by study, both of books and men, such as Mr. Hunt never even dreamed of; who had the advantage of meeting Lord Byron on terms of perfect equality to all intents and purposes; and who, qualified as they probably were, above any of their contemporaries, to appreciate Lord Byron, whether as a poet, or as a man of high rank and pre-eminent fame, mingling with the world in society such as he ought never to have sunk below, all with one voice pronounce an opinion exactly and in every particular, as well as looking to things broadly and to the general effect, the reverse of that which this unworthy and ungrateful dependent has thought himself justified in promulgating, on the plea of a penury which no Lord Byron survives to relieve. It is too bad, that he who has, in his own personal conduct, as well as in his writings, so much to answer forwho abused great opportunities and great talents so lamentablywho sinned so deeply, both against the society to which he belonged and the literature in which his name will ever hold a splendid place it is really too bad, that Lord Byron, in addition to the grave condemnation of men able to appreciate both his merits and his demerits, and well disposed to think more in sorrow than in anger of the worst errors that existed along with so much that was excellent and noble-it is by much too bad, that this great man's glorious though melancholy memory

Must also bear the vile attacks
Of ragged curs and vulgar hacks'

whom he fed ;-that his bones must be scraped up from their bed of repose to be at once grinned and howled over by creatures

who,

who, even in the least hyena-like of their moods, can touch nothing that mankind would wish to respect without polluting it.

We are of opinion that we shall present our readers with the best possible review of Mr. Leigh Hunt's Reminiscences of Lord Byron, by transcribing a few stanzas which appeared in the Times newspaper immediately on the publication of this quarto, and which have been universally attributed to one of the very few persons introduced in Mr. Hunt's book, whom it is possible to hear mentioned among Lord Byron's contemporaries' without laughing :'Next week will be published (as "Lives" are the rage) The whole Reminiscences, wondrous and strange, Of a small puppy-dog, that lived once in the cage Of the late noble lion at Exeter 'Change.

Though the dog is a dog of the kind they call " sad,"
"Tis a puppy that much to good breeding pretends;
And few dogs have such opportunities had

Of knowing how lions behave-among friends.
'How that animal eats, how he moves, how he drinks,
Is all noted down by this Boswell so small;

And 'tis plain, from each sentence, the puppy-dog thinks
That the lion was no such great things after all.
'Though he roared pretty well-this the puppy allows-
It was all, he says, borrowed-all second-hand roar;
And he vastly prefers his own little bow-wows
To the loftiest war-note the lion could pour.
"Tis, indeed, as good fun as a Cynic could ask,
To see how this cockney-bred setter of rabbits
Takes gravely the lord of the forest to task,

And judges of lions by puppy-dog habits.
'Nay, fed as he was (and this makes it a dark case)
With sops every day from the lion's own pan,
He lifts up his leg at the noble beast's carcass,
And-does all a dog, so diminutive, can.

However, the book's a good book, being rich in
Examples and warnings to lions high-bred,

How they suffer small mongrelly curs in their kitchen, Who'll feed on them living, and foul them when dead. ( Exeter 'Change. T. PIDCOCK.' So much for Mr. Leigh Hunt versus Lord Byron: the other contemporaries that figure in this volume are, with two or three exceptions, persons whose insignificance equals that of the author himself; and as they have had no hand, that we know of, in this absurd exposure of themselves, we should be sorry either to waste our time or to wound their feelings by any remarks on Mr. Hunt's delineations of them. Mr. Shelley's portrait appears to be the

most

6

most elaborate of these minor efforts of Mr. Hunt's pencil. Why does Mr. Hunt conceal (if he be aware of the fact) that this unfortunate man of genius was bitterly sensible ere he died of the madness and profligacy of the early career which drew upon his head so much indignation, reproach, and contumely—that he confessed with tears that he well knew he had been all in the wrong? And, by the way, why did Mr. Hunt inflict on Mr. Horatio Smith so great an injury as to say, after describing his acts of generous friendship to the unfortunate Mr. Shelley, that he (Mr. Smith) differed with Mr. Shelley on some points,' without stating distinctly what those points were-namely, every point, whether of religious belief or of moral opinion, on which Mr. Shelley differed, at the time of his acquaintance with Mr. Smith, from all the respectable part of the English community? We are happy to have this opportunity of doing justice, on competent authority, to a person whom, judging merely from the gentlemanlike and moral tone of all his writings, we certainly should never have expected to meet with in the sort of company with which this, no doubt, unwelcome eulogist has thought fit to associate his name.

Mr. Hunt received from the hand of nature talents which, if properly cultivated and employed, might have raised him to distinction; and, we really believe, feelings calculated to procure him a kind reception from the world. His vanity, a vanity to which it is needless to look for any parallel even among the vain race of rhymers, has destroyed all. Under the influence of that diseasefor it deserves no other name-he has set himself up as the standard in every thing. While yet a stripling, most imperfectly educated, and lamentably ignorant of men as they are, and have been, he dared to set his own crude fancies in direct opposition to all that is received among sane men, either as to the moral government of the world, or the political government of this nation, or the purposes and conduct of literary enterprise. This was the Moloch of absurdity' of which Lord Byron has spoken so justly. The consequences-we believe we may safely say the last consequences of all this rash and wicked nonsense are now before The last wriggle of expiring imbecility appears in these days to be a volume of personal Reminiscences; and we have now heard the feeble death-rattle of the once loud-tongued as well as brazen-faced Examiner.

us.

We hope and trust the public reception of this filthy gossip will be such as to discourage any more of these base assaults upon Lord Byron's memory. Some of the epitaphs at Ferrara-(said he, in one of those many letters which breathed an ominous presentiment of early death)-some of the epitaphs at Ferrara pleased

me

426

Lord Byron and some of his Contemporaries.

me more than the splendid monuments of Bologna; for instance, Martini Lerigi implora pace; Lucrezia Picini implora eterna quiete. Can any thing be more full of pathos? These few words say all that can be said or sought.

The dead had had

enough of life; all they wanted was rest, and this they implore. Here is all the helplessness, and humble hope, and death-like prayer that can arise from the grave. IMPLORA PACE! I hope whoever may survive me will see these two words, and no more, put over me.'-It is possible that Mr. Leigh Hunt will read these words without a blush; but to what other ear will the IMPLORA PACE of Lord Byron be addressed in vain?

ART. V.-1. Corn Trade, Wages, and Rent. By Edward Cayley, Esq. London. 1826.

2. Observations on the Corn Laws. Addressed to W. W. Whitmore, Esq., M.P. London. 1827.

WE E beg our readers will not take alarm and imagine that we are about to argue this eternal question as a mere dispute about profit, carried on between the agricultural and manufacturing classes. Admitting, for the sake of discussion, that certain classes in this country would derive profit from a free trade in corn; that a greater number of manufacturers would be employed, clothed, and fed, if the ports were open to the free admission of foreign grain, still we conceive that this advantage, whatever might be its amount, would be infinitely counterbalanced by the impolicy and danger of making this island the seat of numberless establishments, where foreigners may bring their surplus corn to be consumed in fabricating the manufactured articles which they require. Let us imagine that the opening of our ports to the foreign grower might end in bringing into this country a permanent annual supply of 10,000,000 of quarters of corn; this would ultimately bring about an increase of our manufacturing population to the amount, we will say, of 3,000,000 workmen, employed in fabricating commodities to be exported in exchange for this corn. We should thus have, within the limits of this country, 3,000,000 manufacturers entirely dependent upon foreign countries for employment and subsistence. This necessary supply of foreign corn might be partially, or even totally, cut off by natural causes-by deficient crops or bad harvests-or by political estrangement and foreign caprice. That such interruption of the usual supply of corn would excite serious disturbances among the manufacturers thrown out of work, no one, who has attended to the domestic history of these realms for the last thirty years, can

doubt.

doubt. Such an event would inevitably compromise the tranquillity of the country; nor do we conceive that any amount of profit would constitute an adequate compensation for the risk, to which such a state of things would expose the community.

But we must go deeper still. The increase of our manufacturing system has, unquestionably, effected already a considerable revolution in the morals and habits which had previously characterised the bulk of the inhabitants of this country; the confined and crowded state of manufactories has a decided tendency to shorten the average duration of human life, and to corrupt the feelings of the workmen employed in them. We, therefore, doubt whether any augmentation of profit to be expected from a great additional extension of our manufacturing system would, in the eye of an intelligent and humane legislator, compensate for the moral and social evils unavoidably connected with it.

Those who maintain the expediency of encouraging the importation of foreign corn on a great scale, would have us believe, that this supply could never be cut off, as it must always be the interest of other nations to furnish it. But without adverting to those directly hostile movements which interrupt the commercial relations subsisting between two nations, other circumstances, of a less violent character, may deprive us of this supply. A deficient crop, or a bad harvest, is a calamity against which no foresight can guard: this would cause prices to rise very rapidly on the continent, and the clamours of the common people would speedily compel the continental governments to prohibit the exportation of corn. France has already organized a system of laws prohibiting the exportation of corn, when the market price of wheat amounts to about 49s. per quarter. It is not to be expected that any government will permit corn to be exported, when the market price indicates that the produce of the year is barely sufficient to supply the wants of the native population.

Another cause of more extensive operation would gradually diminish, and in the end cut off entirely the supplies which, under a free trade in corn, would be sent to the English market. We will suppose that Prussia should send into this country corn sufficient to maintain 20,000 workmen employed in manufactures; and that the Prussian government should eventually succeed in establishing manufactories at home, wherein this corn would be consumed in fabricating the wrought commodities which the Prussian people now obtain from abroad. The 20,000 workmen employed here to supply the manufactured goods required by Prussia, would then be thrown out of work, and cast upon the community in a state of destitution. This is an interruption of the foreign supply of corn, which does not in the least depend

upon