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POETRY.

Poems on various Occafions: In which is a most beautiful and novel Defcription of his Majesty's Review of the Kentifh Volun teers, Auguft the firft, 1799. By William Pinn. 8vo. Pr. 120. 2s. 6d.

IT

T is hardly poffible to refift the ftrong temptation to a quibble. which is offered by the name of this author; and, therefore, we hope our readers will excufe our faying, that this Pin fhews no point and a very little head, and we are afraid the public will not care a pin for any of his works. He ftates in the firft of his poems, that he does not write to please the critic, but himself; and he has truly described his own poetical merits in the following elegant ftanza:

No Mufe invoke, but little quote,

No education mine;

Juft as I talk, I write by rote,

No grammar to refine.”

When we tell our readers that he gives the following words as rhymes, they will, we conceive, feel no great anxiety for any larger citation, viz. wars, caufe year, care; ftore, poor; fun, turn: Noah, before large, George; learn'd, confonant: &c. &c. &c.

The Holy Land: A Poem. By Francis Wrangham, M. A. Member of Trinity College, Cambridge. 4to. Pr. 14. Mawman. London, 1800.

THIS poem obtained the reward left by M. SEATON'S will, and was affigned to the author laft year by the Vice Chancellor of the University, and the Master of Clare-Hall, The author is a great admirer of the late Mr. CowPBR, and feems to have formed his blank-verfe on the model of that excellent poet. What JOHNSON faid of facred poetry, in general, is applicable to the work before us. It touches upon thole fubjects that are too lofty for the Muse. There is vigour in the compofition but not much warmth. The author, however, poffeffes a poetical mind, and the following extract will, doubtless, gratify readers of tafte as well as thofe of a more ferious turn..

"Whence was that ftar, which through the blue profound
From eastern climes advancing, hung its lamp
O'er royal Bethlehem; not with comet-glare

Portending war to nations, but of ray
Pacific? Twas the harbinger of morn:

That Sun's glad herald, from whole living fpring
Natures, fcarce finite, in perennial ftream
Draw floods of intellect, and bathe in light

Strong

Strong beyond human ken. In thickeft cloud
Shrouding his native glories, left the blaze
Of orient DEITY with mortal flash

Should blaft the gazer's vifion, He arose---
So darken'd, yet refulgent. Through the cell
Of maniac Guilt, exulting in his chain,
Darted the fudden dawn. Their rigid clafp
Inftant his bonds remit: with night's foul train
His cherish'd frenzy flies: and freed he springs
On Faith's firm wing, to liberty and heaven.

"Thofe deeds, high-favour'd Land, 'twas thine to see
In that bright day of wonders, which have shed
O'er all thy lakes and hills a holy light,
Glowing with inexftinguishable flame,

Though thou and thine are proftrate. In the duft
Thy fcatter'd relics fhine; and radiant still,

By time's fucceffive billows uneffaced,

The pilgrim tracks the footsteps of his Gop.

"Ah! deeds-the pride of ISRAEL, and his fhame!

His pride, that unto him alone difplay'd

The mighty Workman ftood, of other eyes

Seen by reflected beam; his fhame, and crime

Of coftlieft expiation (yet unpaid--

Though Scorn with finger ftretch'd, and biting Wrong,
Untired purlue the exile) that He flood

Difplay'd in vain! Yet nature knew her Prince;

And prompt, as when at firft th' Almighty Word
Awed the conflicting elements to peace,

Obey'd His powerful voice. Th' infuriate ftorm,
Which with rough pinion lafh'd JUDAA's wave,
Fled at His bidding; and in ftilleft calm
Th' obfequious billow flept. On bed of fire
Wan Fever pined: He fpake; and ready Health
Sprang from her roleate bower, with priffine bloom
To light the faded cheek. Departed faints,
Dread spectacle! their yawning tombs forfook,
To hail the Victim-Gon. But ISRAEL faw,
Prompt at His voice, th' infuriate ftorm retire;
Saw ready Health on Fever's faded cheek
Shed priftine bloom; faw yawning fepulchres
Refign their fhrouded captivesceptic ftill,
And unconvinced; nay, to thì accurfed tree.
(Oh guilt most worthy of the Flavian (word,
And centuries of anguish!) doom'd his King,
And stretch'd his own MESSIAH on the crois,'

We were furprised to find fuch a pleonasm in exhibited by a writer who is otherwife correct the fated hour Steals on"--and the word furtive,

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the following line with furtive Rep which has always a bad

a bad meaning, is particularly exceptionable, as it relates to the progrefs of the time when the SAVIOUR OF MANKIND fhall again defcend to teftify his glory upon earth.

Poems: To which is annexed, Lord Mayor's Day: a Mock Heroic Poem. By David Rivers, Author of "Letters on the Political Conduct of the Diffenters."-Editor of the Abridgement of Park's Travels.-Beauties of Saurin, &c. &c. &c. 8vo. Pr. 32. Rivingtons. London. 1800.

IT is difficult to fay whether this author deserves most praise as a poct or a politician; but, perhaps, our readers would, at once, decide upon perufing his works, that his claim to either title is equally frong. For a fpecimen of his poetical merits take the following couplet, which concludes with fome lines in favour of Mr. PYBUS, to whom, fpeaking of the capricious Emperor of Ruffia, our Bard fays

"His name fhall be erased from glory's fane,

While deathless honours deck thy Sovereign."

As a politician, our author proves his judgment by a zealous admiration of the late LORD MAYOR. But as this paffage exhibite a curious fpecimen of poetical numbers, we fhall indulge our readers with an extract.

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The Fate of Bertha: A Poem. By William Lucas. Small 4to. Pr. 32. Weftley. London. 1800.

THIS is a fimple, and not uninterefting, ftory, related in smooth and eafy verfification, though not much animated by poetical energy. The author makes his heroine fall a victim to the violent defires of a perfidious lover not to the arts of gradual feduction. This circumftance does not afford a moral likely to be generally useful. Few men of gallantry, at prefent, find it neceffary to accomplish their aims by a crime that may bring them to the scaffold, and when, too, the licentiousness of the times, and the prevalence of falfe philofophy, render female honour too eafy a conqueft. But this is the age of horrors, and the author, probably, thought that a rape would ftrike from its rarity, There are feveral paffages of pathos and defcription in this poem creditable to the author's talents.

MISCELLANIES,

MISCELLANIES.

Letter to the Right Honourable William Pitt, on the influence of the Stoppage of Ifues in Specie at the Bank of England; on the Prices of Provifions, and other Commodities. By Walter Boyd, Efq. M. P. 8vo. Pp. 112. 3s. 6d. Wright. London. 1801.

WHEN

WHEN Thomas Paine, fome few years ago ftood forth as Legiflator General for all the nations of the earth, the inquiries of mankind were very naturally directed to his birth, education, and connections, as the best means of afcertaining the extent of his qualifications for the office which he had affumed, and the nature of the motives which had led him to affume it. The fame difpofition will probably be felt by the public, respecting the author of the Pamphlet before us, who, thinking himself qualified to fpeak on matters of finance with the fame tone of decifion which Paine employed on the fubject of political conftitutions, arraigns, with equal modesty and decorum, the wisdom of the Minifter, and the integrity of the bank directors, proclaiming himself the only financial Solomon in the united kingdoms. But, before we repose implicit confidence in a man, who afferts the fuperiority of his own pretenfions, and betrays an anxiety to dictate the mode of conducting the fifcal concerns of this great commercial nation, it becomes us, at least, to enquire what prudence and ability he has difplayed in the management But, without tracing the origin and progrefs of Mr. Boyd, without marking his rife and profperity, his decline and fall; without following him, from his departure from the humble shed of his induftrious parents in Scotland, to his modeft habitation at Oftend ; from thence to his hotel at Paris where he fo narrowly escaped the guillotine; and to his fubfequent establishment in England, where his fplendour was unrivalled and his expences unbounded; and, finally, to his clofing scene in the Irish chamber † at Guildhall; one circumtance of his life will fuffice to fix our opinion of his prudence and ability. When Mr. Boyd had the good fortune, fome fix years ago, to af fociate himafelf with Mr. Benfield, the latter was worth 480,000l.;. now, he is an uncertificated bankrupt!!! This one fact is worth a volume of comminents. We fhall only add, that when fuch has been the refult of a man's fpeculations, we would much rather that he should fpeculate on his own account than on that of the public..

of his own.

The grand object of this tract is to perfuade the public, that the

*Mr, Boyd is not the only fifcal empiric which Scotland has prc. daced; the celebrated JOHN LAW was a North Briton; and the cynical obfervation of Voltaire refpecting that adventurer, is not inapplicable. to one of his fucceffors-" il n'avait d'autre métier que d'être grand joueur et grand calculateur."

† A room in which the commiffioners of bankrupts frequently hold their fittings.

NO. XXXI. VOL. VIII.

F

high

high price of every article of use and confumption is imputable to the ftoppage of payments in fpecie at the bank; and to the increase of bank notes which the author prefumes to have been the confequence of that measure. And, in the performance of this tafk, the author takes every poffible opportunity of holding up the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the governor and directors of the bank, to public contempt or indignation. In the outlet of his argument, he thus explains the fenfe in which he ufes one of his principal terms.

"By the words' Means of Circulation,' Circulating Medium' and Currency,' which are used almoft as fynonymous terms in this letter, I understand always ready money, whether confifting of Bank Notes or fpecie, in contradiftinction to Bills of Exchange, Navy Bills, Exchequer Bills, or any other negotiable paper, which form no part of the circulating medium, as I have always underflood that term. The latter is the Circulator; the former are merely objects of circulation."

This definition is not ftrictly accurate; for every fpecies of paper which may be negotiated forms, at times, part of the circulating medium, and, therefore ought to be comprehended under that denomination.

Mr. Boyd is particularly angry with the bank; but we think we defcry the motive of his indignation, in his remark, "that the embarrassed circulation of the metropolis and the consequent diftrefs all over the country, which began in 1796, and became fo alarming in 1797, proceeded folely from the particular line of conduct which the bank of England had thought proper to purfue, from the month of December 1795 to the end of February 1797." The conduct thus cenfured, was the attempt to check a growing fpirit of fpeculation, which had then rifen to an alarming height, by a limitation of discount; but we are wholly at a lofs to reconcile this cenfure of the bank" for the calamities produced by a starved circulation," with the feverer cenfure which he paffes on it for an oppofite line of conduct, In producing the "increase in the prices of almost all articles of ne ceffity, convenience and luxury" by an "addition to the circulating medium." By this curious mode of argument, it would appear that a confined circulation ditreffes the merchants and Speculators, and that an increafed circulation diftreffes the whole community. Between this Scylla and Charybdis of Finance, how the fifcal pilot is to steer clear of danger we cannot tell. But Mr. Boyd, it feems, in his own eftimation, at leaft, is the Palinurus who can fteer the veffel of the ftate with fafety, between these racks and whirlpools of partial and general diftrefs; although he has contrived to wreck his own bark.

There is scarcely a page of this pamphlet but prefents one or more inftances of fallacious, contradictory, or abfurd reasoning, fuch as that which we have just noticed. To comment on each of these would be an endless task, but the fubject itself is of too much importance, and the author himself too confpicuous a character, to fuffer them all to pafs without proper expofure and reprehenfion. Before, however, we proceed to do this, we fhall make fome brief obfervations on the leading topic of the book.

Mr.

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