Page images
PDF
EPUB

which the violence of party, and the phrenzy of disaffection, were driving them with alarming speed.

I have the Honour to be, my Lord, &c. &c.

CIVIS.

POETRY.

We have already hinted at the principle by which the followers of the Jacobinical Sect are restrained from the exercise of their own favourite Virtue of Charity. The force of this prohibition and the strictness with which it is observed, are strongly exemplified in the following Poem. It is the production of the same Author whose happy effort in English Sapphics we presumed to imitate; the present effusion is in Dactylics, and equally subject to the Laws of Latin Prosody.

THE SOLDIER'S WIFE.

Weary Way-wanderer, länguid ånd sick åt heart,
Travelling painfully ōvěr thě rūgged road,
Wild-visǎg'd Wanderer-āh for thy heavy chănce.

We think that we see him fumbling in the pocket of his blue pantaloons; that the splendid Shilling is about to make its appearance, to glitter in the eyes, and glad the heart, of the poor Sufferer.-But no such thing-the Bard very calmly contemplates her situation, which he describes in a pair of very pathetical Stanzas; and, after the following well-imagined topic of consolation, concludes by leaving her to Providence.

Thy

Thy Husband will never return from the War again;
Cold is thy hopeless heart, even as Charity;

Cold are thy famished Babes-God help thee, widow'd one!

We conceived that it would be necessary to follow up this general rule with the particular exception, and to point out one of those cases in which the Embargo upon Jacobin Bounty is sometimes suspended: with this view, we have subjoined the Poem of

THE SOLDIER'S FRIEND.

DACTYLICS.

Come, little Drummer Boy, lay down your knapsack here:
I am the Soldier's Friend-here are some Books for you;
Nice clever Books, by Toм PAINE the Philanthropist.
Here's Half-a-crown for you-here are some Hand-bills too;
Go to the Barracks, and give all the Soldiers some:
Tell them the Sailors are all in a Mutiny.

Exit Drummer Boy, with Hand-bills and
Half-crown.-Manet Soldier's Friend.

Liberty's friends thus all learn to amalgamate,
Freedom's volcanic explosion prepares itself,
Despots shall bow to the Fasces of Liberty,

Reason, Philosophy, "fiddledum diddledum,"
Peace and Fraternity, higgledy, piggledy,
Higgledy, piggledy, "fiddledum diddledum."
Et cætera, et cætera, et cætera.

SONNET TO LIBERTY.

Just Guardian of Man's social bliss! for Thee
The paths of danger gladly would I tread :
For Thee! contented, join the glorious Dead,
Who nobly scorn'd a Life that was not free!

But

But worse than Death it pains my Soul to see
The Lord of Ruin by wild Uproar led;
'Hell's first-born, ANARCHY, exalt his head,
And seize thy Throne, and bid us bow the knee!
What though his Iron Sceptre, blood-imbrued,
Crush half the Nations with resistless might;
Never shall this firm Spirit be subdu'd:

In chains, in exile, still the chaunted Rite,
O LIBERTY! to Thee shall be renew'd:

O still be sea-girt ALBION thy delight!

FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE.

D.

VENICE, NOV. 10.- The Articles of the Peace concluded between the EMPEROR and the French, have been circulated in this Town under the sanction of the French General SERRURIER. It appears that the Venetian Islands in the Levant, namely, Corfu, Paxa, Cephalonia, Ithaca, Zante, Santa Maura, and Cerigo, with Arigotto, as also Previzza, Larta, and Venizza, on the Main Land, are to remain to the French.

The four mock Ambassadors sent from this place to Paris, to prevent the Cession of Venice to the EMPEROR, have been stopped at Novorra (their Papers and Effects seized) and sent back to Milan, where they are detained separately under a strong guard. The other two, sent to BUONAPARTE at Milan, will be escorted to Venice.

General SERRURIER has been obliged to take the Military Command here, having understood that the Patriots, not being allowed to ransack the City, intended to set it on fire, rather than it should be given up to the EMPEROR.

Several

Several of the principal Patriots are in custody, and a great number of vagabonds have been sent away, with orders never to return. It is imagined that many of the former Nobles, who have taken an active part in the destruction of the Republic, will also leave the City.

MUNICH, Nov. 16. It is understood that the French Ministers at the Congress have orders to demand of the Empire the sum of Forty Millions of Livres, as an Indemnification for the Expences of the War.

The offer made by the Imperial Court to garrison the Town of Ratisbon, has been finally refused.

The Baron de REIHBERG, the Duke of DEUX-PONT'S Minister at the Diet, has been named by His Serene Highness for the Congress.

BERN, Nov. 14. - Yesterday the French General MURAT passed through this town, in his way from Milan to the Congress at Rastadt. General BUONAPARTE is expected to pass through on the 17th.

FRANCE.

OUR accounts from Paris are very confused: they agree, however, in representing the situation of that Capital, and of the Country, as extremely critical.

The Directory are divided amongst themselves-BarRAS, confident in his connection with BUONAPARTE, and relying upon the assistance of the Military, has ventured to separate himself from his Colleagues:-In his equipage and entertainments he exhibits a species of theatrical ostentatious parade; he even affects to pride himself upon his family, which it seems is ancient, and had hitherto

been

[ocr errors]

been a respectable one. In short, his whole conduct is expressive of the extreme contempt which he entertains for his present Partners in the Sovereignty, and seems to betray the secret of that design which is imputed to him, of establishing a Military Despotism. NEUFCHATEAU and LEPAUX are said to be wholly neutral and inactive.

On the other hand, MERLIN and REUBEL are indefatigable in their endeavours to re-establish the old Jacobin Societies, and to restore the Members and Leaders of them in every part of the Country, to the situations which they had held under ROBESPIERRE.

The Abbé SIEYES is considered as having connected himself with their Party, and is said to have openly declared himself in favour of what are called Extreme Measures of Public Safety; that is, for a revival, with some few variations, of the System of Terror. This System, however intolerable and atrocious, and however necessarily short-lived, would perhaps in its immediate establishment be attended with fewer difficulties than any other. The sentiment of fear, where it has once been strongly excited, is easily renewed. The Jacobins have only to establish their old connections and correspondencies; the Guillotine, indeed, their old instrument of Terror, is at present under a bad name, and has besides been so long in disuse, that it would hardly be safe to bring it into action as an engine of Government - But the power of arbitrary deportation has been fully recognized since the 4th of September, and it seems capable of being pushed to any extent; besides, that it is separated only by the slightest interval from the most effectual of all revolutionary processes the NoYADE, "Tabula dis"tinguitur unâ," a distinction which we cannot suppose that the Jacobins will long continue to admit.

The

« PreviousContinue »