that has enflaved every people it could approach but its decided, unfwerving enemies; they wifhed for liberty, and they courted the protection of the most defpotic and unfeeling tyrants that ever oppreffed mankind; they defired to raise the Roman Catholic religion to fplendour and power, and they tried to effect that purpose by the aid of men who abhor every religion, and that of Rome above all the reft; they fighed for the recovery of the property forfeited by their ancestors centuries ago, and they apply for affiftance to thofe according to whose revolutionary inftitutes the antiquity of their claim would destroy its merits; they complained of not having fufficient commerce, and, to gain wealth, they propose partnerfhip with a bankrupt; with a country that, notwithstanding her immenfe extent of coaft, can hardly send out a fhallop that our cruizers do not feize." The bombastic folly of Mr. Grattan, whofe oratory, when skilfully analyzed, will generally be reduced to mere verba et voces, is treated with proper contempt. "Mr. Grattan obferves, that Ireland owes her monopoly in the British Linen Market to the power of the separate Parliament to maintain hoftility with England in prohibitory duties;—as well might a little Westminster Grocer hold competition with the East-India Company!" After a variety of pertinent obfervations relative to the past and prefent ftate of Ireland, the author thus fums up the advantages to be derived from an incorporating Union. "On the whole I feel perfuaded that the Union between Ireland and Great Britain will be attended with at least as many advantages as have followed, or could be expected, from any fimilar confolidation of Legislative powers that has been hitherto or that may hereafter be effected. In Ireland the good confequences of the Union will be very speedily experienced, in the mild adminiftration of penal juftice; in the profcription of perfecution of every name and degree; in the alleviation of the fufferings of the hitherto deftitute poor; in the curbed and creft-fallen pride of the village oppreffors; in the placid brow of innocence, confident of protection; in the animated countenance of independent and afpiring induftry; in augmented commerce; in improving agriculture; in accumulating capital; in the fecurity of the higher and the meliorated condition of all the inferior orders; in the increase of the middle clafs of fociety, and the foftered and better harmonized and blended fhades of the different ranks; in a word, the Union will make Ireland foon be as England now is; while, in receiving the domeftic peace, it will promote the profperity, and conduce to the aggrandizement, of the whole empire." The author's fentiments on foreign politics are perfectly correct. He prefents the French with a new conftitution for the next year, founded entirely on their own principles. He propofes a plan for confolidating and extending the power of fome of the Continental Potentates for the purpose of enabling them to meet with effect, the encroaching spirit of their Gallic neighbours. We perfectly agree with him that "if France be left at the peace in poffeffion of all her prefent territories, the independence of Italy and Germany and by by confequence, that of the reft of Europe, will not be worth three years' purchase."The ftyle of this tract is generally perfpicuous and forcible, though the frequent fubftitution of that for which is highly offenfive to a correct and claffical ear. ART. XXXI. A Reply to the Speech delivered in the Irife Houfe of Commons, on Wednesday, Jan. 15, 1800, by Mr. Grattan, on the Subject of a Legislative Union. By an Abfentee. 8vo. Pr. 18. Hatchard. 1800. THE Speech of Mr. Grattan has not yet fallen under our cognizance; but from the paffages quoted from it in this reply, (which, by the bye, was never fpoken) we can form a tolerable guefs of its nature and tendency. The reply is fpirited and humorous, and contains fome "palpable hits." ART. XXXII. Thoughts on the Letter of Bonaparte on the Pacifie Principles and laft Speech of Mr. Fox. By a Suffolk Freeholder. 8vo. Pr. 31. 1s. Bickerstaff. 1800. WE are always happy to meet with an old friend, and more efpecially with fuch a one as the Suffolk Freeholder, whom we are fure of never meeting with a new face. This able affailant of Meffrs. Fox and Sheridan here renews his attack on the former of these champions of oppofition, with his accustomed fpirit and animation. He briefly traces his fentiments and declarations refpecting the origin of the war and the practicability of peace, and fhews their perfect conformity with thofe of the minifters and rulers of the French Republic. Irony is the weapon which he wields in the prefent fkirmish, and it must be confeffed that he uses it with confiderable fkill and effect. He congratulates Mr. Fox on his recent discovery that neither the external nor internal politics of the French Revolution are to be defended, and that they refemble the defpotifm of the Bourbons. 1 "But, were defpots always the objects of Mr. Fox's abuse and abhorrence? Never, till they were either the allies of his country, or the enemies of his favourite republic. In the war with America, when Louis the XVIth affifted her, Mr. Fox, far from condemning, co-operated in that moft Bourbon like act, and contributed largely to its fatal fuccefs. "When His Majefty armed to prevent the aggrandizement of Ruffia, and the depreffion of the Porte, Mr. Fox, though he knew, or might have known, from his ambaffador at Petersburgh, that the Empress was at that time*, meditating the difmemberment of Poland, declared in Parliament, that both in and out of office, he had always regarded Ruffia as a defirable ally for this kingdom. Ruffia of all the powers in Europe, fcarcely excepting Holland, he conceived to be that power, with which the cultivation of reci * Annual Register, 1791. + Annual Register, 1792. procal procal ties of friendship, both commercial and political, was most natural and most important.' "Why then does Mr. Fox profcribe the Emperor Paul? Did he wade to the throne through the blood of his parents? Did he difmember Poland? Has he aggrandized himself at the expence of the Porte? Nil borum. He is the ally of England, he fights to overthrow the republic of France, and to reftore Europe to the ftatus quo ante bellum. These are crimes which Mr. Fox can never forgive, and he ridicules the magnanimity, misrepresents the motives, and calumniates the conduct of the Emperor. "Nor is his abufe confined to the Emperor: Suwarrow, the first general of the age, comes in for a fhare, and is vilified often fibly, for the flaughter at Praga, in reality for having refcued Italy from the iron gripe of the French republic. "Far different is his treatment of the Corfican Conful, and as he had maintained the new doctrine of the equality of man, to ferve the cause of France, he adopts the old ftoic's tenet of the equality. of crimes, in defence of Bonaparte. He condemns alike Qui teneros caules alieni fregerit borti, Et qui nocturnus Divum facra legerit, and affects to fee no difference between the remonftrances of England, and the ravages of the Conful. He goes farther, and juftifies all his enormities by English precedents, ancient and modern." From the difcuffion of the extraordinary bufinefs of the extraordinary miffion to Ruffia, or, in other words, of that "bigh treafonable misdemeanor," which Mr. Burke has fo ftrongly, and fo aptly, characterized, and which cannot be too often adverted to, both the mock Monarch, and his mock Ambaffador, fhrink with difmay. They have repeatedly been dared to stand forward and juftify their conduct, but in vain; ARCTICus ftill lives to expose and confound them. The fituation of Bonaparte is thus truly defcribed: "A foreigner, a Corfican, a military adventurer, the husband of Barras's mistress, is fuperior to Louis the XIVtb. in the plenitude of bis power; be is the Lord of the Republic, one and indivifible: the Sovereign of the Sovereign People, and of the Great Nation, with ber four and twenty millions of native inhabitants.” This tra& will afford amusement to all, and information to fome, readers. The ftyle is lively, perfpicuous, and ftrong; and the fentiments are thofe of a "True-born Englifhman." * Barrás and Mrs. Bonaparte; Hero and Heroine, whom thefe times adore, POETRY. POETRY. ART. XXXIII. Petrarchal Sonnets, and Mifcellaneous Poems. By William Dimond, the Younger. 12mo. Pr. 165. 5s. Cadell and Davies. 1800. WHEN HEN we confider thefe poems as the production of a youth of fixteen, we are really aftonished at the vigour of his mind, and the luxuriancy of his fancy. If we mention h's age, however, it is not with a view to try the merit of his productions by that standard, for they are in no need of fuch affiftance. They boldly challenge unqualified criticism, and they need not fear to ftand its teit. This little volume certainly exhibits unequivocal proofs of a poetical genius, difplayed in the various beauties of the Sonnet, the Elegy, and the Ballad. In proof of our affertion, we make the following extracts: "SONNET. XXII.—To WILL O'THE WISP. "Fantastic goblin of illutive light! 'Tis thy quaint fport at eve, in knavish play, And oft, when wilder'd on the iwampy wafte, He tracks thy fugitive deceitful fire, 'Till fome weed-mantl'd pool, to end the chace, "SONNET XXIX. THE SOLDIER'S RETURN. A far-glymps'd fwell of local fympathies Blue wav'ring wreathes of column'd fmoke arise His finger trembles on the yielding latch, he flies Son!' Hufband!' Father!' heart-felt, fweet alarms! Ah! 'tis his aged fire that haftes to gree; "Tis his fond wife that clafps him in her arms; 'Tis his blythe infant gambols at his feet!" "CANZONET. "When the dawn; with touch of roses, Hoarded fragrance o'er the dale; When foft Even, coyly peeping, Floated long in choral lay. When black Night, her orgies keeping, Shrouds in deepest gloom the skies, Subtle flumber hovers, steeping Poppy'd fpells in mortal eyes; Oh! what joy that dream to prove, We could have extracted many other fpecimens of equal merit, but these will fuffice to fhew that the author poffeffes thofe characteristics of a poetical mind, which fhould operate as a ftimulus to the farther cultivation of his talents. There is a vein of melancholy which runs through most of these poems which befpeaks a G NO. XXIII. VOL. VI. ftate |