the gentle river, winding its course through beautiful and diversified scenery; or, to use the author's own words,

"Our fertile fields, our meadows, and our plains."

To sum up this branch of the comparison, in poetry as in painting there are different styles of excellence, and each is a chef-d'œuvre of

the master.

39

With respect to the execution of these poems, it must be admitted, that in the majestic march of his verse, and in framing the long resounding line," Mr. Pye has a great advantage over the newsman, from the use of compound epithets. The "full-orbed moon,' the "torrent-braving mound," the “ wide-water'd coast," are flights of sublimity, to which the newsman cannot attain. He has indeed made one attempt of this kind, in the "full-thronged city:" but as, if the city is..full.it must be thronged, and if it is thronged it must be full, he has only added to the words without adding to the sense: whereas, a true compound epithet brings out two ideas at once, just as a double-barrelled gun brings down two birds out of the same covey.

In correctness and propriety of expression, the newsman may claim the palm. Several instances of inattention to these requisites occur in the Ode of the poet-laureat; among which the following are too glaring to escape notice.. He says, .

There

"We scan the torrent wild of war,

Resistless spread its iron reign.'

may certainly be an iron torrent, that is of cast iron; and I presume Mr. Pye caught the idea of this simile at a foundry: but how a torrent can be said to reign I cannot conceive,

(To be concluded in our next.)

CORRESPONDENCE.

SEVERAL communications should have appeared this month which are necessarily deferred till our next, the cause of which will be evident to the respective writers."Les Memoires de M. le Comte de Puisaye" have not yet been received.

With the present number is published the Appendix to Vol. 31, containing, besides a review of foreign literature, Mr. Pickering's speech, correctly given at length as delivered in the American senate, in which he developes the Gallician policy of Jefferson, and his pre-determined hostility to this country; and also Bishop Milner's Letters respecting the royal veto on the nomination of Irish Roman Catholic bishops, with the observations and strictures which have appeared on them, both in Ireland and England. These documents will be found important to the historian of the times, and are equal in extent to the usual contents of three half-crown pamphlets.

THE

ANTIJACOBIN

Review and Magazine,

&c. &c. &c.

For FEBRUARY, 1809.

"Un historien ne peut jamais nous reprocher avec trop de force nos préjugés, nos erreurs, et nos vices. Jamais sa philosophie ne causera aucun trouble ni aucun désordre; les sots ne l'appercevront pas; les gens d'esprit corrumpus la siffleront; mais elle familiarisera peu-à-peu les bons esprits avec la vérité, elle leur fera connoître nos besoins, et nous disposera, s'il est encore possible, à ne pas nous refuser aux remedes quis nous sont necessaires, MABLY.

The History of Barbados [Barbadoes], from the first Discovery of the Island, in the Year 1605, till the Accession of Lord Seaforth, 1801. By John Poyer. 4to. pp. 700. 11. 11s. 6d. Mawman. Mawinan.- 1808. .

EVERY science is to be estimated according to its

tendency to furnish improvement, whether in private virtue or professional duty. To promote the advancement of public and private virtue, to supply such a degree of amusement as may supersede the necessity of recurring to frivolous pursuits for relaxation, and to furnish us with the collected wisdom and experience of ages; such is the province of history. An acquaintance indeed with history is essential to all persons of education; and in a country where every individual is an effective member of the constitution, and a politician, it is the best school of politics. In all ages, the writing of history has employed the ablest men, and scarcely any writer enjoys a more extensive (or what will probably be a more lasting) reputation, than a good historian. The endless variety of subjects in history renders it interesting to every description of persons. It may be either grave or gay, as it supplies materials with equal facility for the sallies of wit and the gravest disquisitions in philosophy. It is so connected with all kinds of moral and political knowledge, that even the novelist or essayist who does. not illustrate his subject by historical facts or allusions, No. 128, Vol. 32. Feb. 1809.

I

seldom attains even any temporary fame. Thus, while history serves to amuse the imagination, engage our rational faculties, improve the understanding, enlarge the mind, and strengthen our virtuous sentiments, it more than any other science extends our powers of conversation, and prepares us for the higher enjoyments of social intercourse. How far Mr. Poyer's ponderous quarto volume is likely to answer this desirable purpose of history, remains to be seen.

We are far from being adverse to the publication of histories of our colonies, however small they may be, as they generally tend to enlighten the mother country on subjects with which she would otherwise perhaps never become acquainted. But the civil history of a small island, about twenty-one miles long and fourteen broad, and in its most prosperous days containing only between sixty and seventy thousand negroes, and about one fourth the number of whites, cannot require many bulky volumes to relate its principal political events during a period of little more than one hundred and fifty years. Mr. Poyer, however, has thought otherwise; and although he appears to have a still more limited idea of the legitimate objects of history than Mr. Fox, he tells us that, "in the progress of the work, due notice has been taken of the civil, military, and ecclesiastical establishments of the colony, its laws, and constitution. Their errors and imperfections are illustrated, and the abuses which have crept into the public administration are noted with decent freedom, in which candour has not been forgotten." So far it is well: but, in order to enable his readers to judge of the extent and propriety of these "civil and military establishments," it was necessary to have added some returns of the revenue, the annual products, exports and imports, shipping, &c., with their respective duties. It is the wantonness of absurdity to call any work "a complete and impartial history of a colony," which takes no notice of the revenue, products, and shipping, and only details the incessant contentions between the governor and his council on one side, and the Legislative Assembly, amounting to twenty-two persons, on the other! Of the manners, customs, and state of the arts, which directly minister to the progress of civilisation, we find nothing in Mr. Poyer's "History;" nor are we better informed of the state of literature: we hear of the bare existence of schools indeed, but of no scholars; balls and military revelries are often mentioned; but except the abstracts of some parliamentary speeches, which furnish

very respectable proofs of eloquence and talents, there are no traces of literary studies, no poets nor dramatists. Although the author extols the genius, urbanity, liberality, and above all the humanity of his countrymen, he has obliged his readers to dispense with his assertions, without furnishing them with any documents to corroborate his praises. The natives indeed of petty islands have long been celebrated as flatterers; and we supect that Mr. Poyer wishes not to detract from their celebrity in this respect, at least so far as it is applicable to his "dear native island." His own pretensions, however, are sufficiently modest; and he laments his want of an "academical education," and his inability to render greater justice to his native country by composing a more learned work: this volume nevertheless is written with considerable simplicity and neatness; and, considering the paucity of the author's materials, and the very circumscribed nature of the subject, it is more interesting than would generally be supposed. . As a specimen of the genuine spirit by which the people of Barbadoes are actuated, we find that not one of the author's countrymen would lend him Oldmixon's History of the British Empire in America, nor could he get "access to the journals of the colonial parliament!!" Such conduct sufficiently betrays the narrowminded illiberality of. these colonists, and fully justifies the author in lamenting "the envious malignity which has endeavoured to obstruct his pursuits." We have not been able to discover any sentiments in this book which would induce us to believe that the author had been a violent partisan, or that his political principles were such as to render him obnoxious either to the governor or the Legislative Assembly; of course we can conclude the existence of no other cause than "envious malignity," which would prohibit his inspection of the journals. To the Rev. Mr. Brome and Judge Hinds, however, he returns his grateful acknowledgements for their "unremitting endeavours to procure him the materials necessary for the completion of his work."

We shall pass over the author's defence of his country, against the torrent of illiberal invective with which our mistaken and misinformed trans-atlantic fellow-subjects continue to overwhelm a peaceful unoffending community, with the gross calumnies propagated concerning the treatment of slaves," to notice what is properly historical, or what relates to the present condition of the island, in which we doubt not negroes are now very humanely treated. Barbadoes

was first cultivated, or rather discovered, about the end of the 16th century, by the Portuguese, who called it A Itha Barbada (the bearded island), probably from its containing numerous Indian fig-trees. This name afterwards degenerated to As Barbadas (not Las Barbadas, as its historians erroneously suppose), which has been translated into English-Barbadoes. Thus far it is necessary to fix the true orthography of the name, which Mr. Poyer has wished to write Barbados, had not his printer very properly corrected him. Of the first settlements of Barbadoes, the author has furnished nothing but what was previously stated in Ligon's History, or the Rev. Mr. Hughes's Natural History of Barbadoes; and the grants and countergrants of this island, by the unprincipled Charles to the Earls of Marlborough and Carlisle, are not now worthy of detailing. The well-known story of Inckle and Yarico affords Mr. Poyer an opportunity of vindicating his country from the charge of inhumanity; and after relating the fact. from Isgon, of Inckle's selling Yarico (the woman who had preserved his life) for a slave, he adds:

-

"It will readily be perceived, how much this simple tale has been embellished by the creative imagination and descriptive powers of Addison. And it is painful to add, though it is too obvious to escape observation, that similar artifices and exaggerations have been successfully employed in later times to inflame the passions and prejudice the minds of the credulous misinformed Europeans on the subject of West-Indian slavery. It does not, however, appear, that the lady possessed any remarkable share of delicacy, since it is reported by Ligon, who was personally acquainted with her, and received many offices of kindness at her hands, that she would not be wooed by any means to wear clothes. Nor does she seem to have been much affected by the ingratitude of her perfidious betrayer. Her excellent shape and colour, which was a pure bright bay; and small breasts, with nipples of porphyrie,' were irresistible attractions, and she soon consoled herself in the arms of another lover. In short, chanced to be with child by a Christian servant, and lodging in an Indian house, amongst the other women of her own country, and being very great with child, so that her time was come to be delivered, she walked down to a wood, and there, by the side of a pond*, brought herself a-bed; and presently washing her child, in three hours time came home with a lusty boy, frolic and lively? Who could suppose that this is the same unfortunate fernale, of whom so much has been said and sung by moralists,

she

There is a pond in Kindall's plantation, which, from this circumstance, is called, at this day, Yarico's Pond.