Rock-ribb'd and ancient as the sun,-the vales
Stretching in pensive quietness between
The venerable woods-rivers that move
In majesty, and the complaining brooks

That make the meadows green-and, poured round all,
Old Ocean's grey and melancholy waste,—
Are but the solemn decorations all

Of the great tomb of man. The golden sun,
The planets, all the infinite host of heaven,
Are shining on the sad abodes of death,
Through the still lapse of ages. All that tread
The globe, are but a handful to the tribes
That slumber in its bosom.-Take the wings
Of morning, and the Barcan desert pierce,
Or lose thyself in the continuous woods
Where rolls the Oregan, and hears no sound
Save his own dashings—yet, the dead are there,
And millions in those solitudes, since first
The flight of years began, have laid them down
In their last sleep-the dead reign there alone.
So shalt thou rest-and what if thou shalt fall
Unnotic'd by the living—and no friend
Take note of thy departure! All that breathe
Will share thy destiny: the gay will laugh
When thou art gone, the solemn brood of care
Plod on, and each one as before will chase
His favourite phantom; yet all these shall leave
Their mirth and their employments, and shall come
And make their bed with thee; as the long train
Of ages glide away, the sons of men,

The youth in life's green spring, and he who goes
In the full strength of years, matron, and maid,
The bow'd with age, the infant in the smiles
And beauty of its innocent age cut off,—
Shall one by one be gathered to thy side,
By those, who in their turn shall follow them.
So live, that when thy summons comes to join
The innumerable caravan, that moves

To the pale realms of shade, where each shall take
His chamber in the silent halls of death,
Thou go not, like the quarry slave at night,
Scourged to his dungeon, but sustain'd and sooth'd
By an unfaltering trust, approach thy grave,
Like one who wraps the drapery of his couch

About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams.

This may be all very gorgeous and imposing; but it is very far from satisfactory to us, as to all the nobler purposes of philosophy,

or

or what truly deserves that title. It would afford us no imaginable consolation in the hour of death to reflect that we were about to lose each human trace, to surrender up our individual being, and mix for ever with the elements. We really have not, even in anticipation, should still less have in actual, fearful reality, a single thought to bestow on the "magnificence of our couch," or the illustrious company with which it might be shared. The question, the awful momentous question of our future and immortal destiny, is not to be got rid of in this way; nor could any other than Christian Philosophy, founded on the hopes and promises of the Gospel, and confirmed to us, individually, by faith in Him who died, and rose again, yield us either consolation or support in such

a crisis.

But it is quite time for us to close this article, which has already exceeded the limits we proposed to ourselves, and seduced us into more frequent and copious quotations than we originally intended to indulge. From the poetry of Mr. Eastburn and his friend who bring up the rear of American poets (with the exception of some "Fugitive Pieces,") we cannot possibly venture on further extract, and we let them pass with less regret because Dr. Drake has previously done them full justice.

It only remains for us, in conclusion, to express our hopes, which we do most cordially, for the increasing literary fame of America; more particularly in the department of Poetry. The elements of this refining, this noble and elevating art, are, we think, scattered around those of her children who may feel themselves called upon to exercise the poetical functions, in lavish profusion. The vastness, and magnificence of her scenery, which, though not rendered classical by its connexion with the past, may be equally inspiring by its association with the future; combined with those feelings and recollections which we doubt not still exist in the breasts of her nobler sons for the Parent Country, appear to us to open sources of the loftiest and most touching inspiration, admirably adapted to the rising literature of a great Empire. The two most formidable impediments to the advancing fame of the American muse, in our view, are the sordid influence of a calculating, money-getting spirit, and the no less baneful blight of party feeling, arising from narrow and mistaken ideas of patriotism: to the former she is naturally exposed by the extended and extending influence of America as a commercial power; and to the latter we admit she has some, perhaps peculiar, provocations. Her better sense, her nobler feeling, must guard her against both these evils. A spirit merely mercantile, is, whether in England or America, equally hostile to poetry: to its sordid dictates we would reply in the eloquent

language

language of a living poet :-" If to feel rightly be of more importance than to think wisely, since we more often act from impulse than from thought, it will be found that poetry holds no contemptible place in the scale of moral causes. Many persons, unthinkingly, are ready to say 'What is the use of poetry? there is not any information contained in it.' Is it of no use, then, to have thy brute appetites chastened to exalted delight? to connect ideal charms with all the visible creation? to learn to trace a moral character, and feel a taste excited, and a passion without price gratified, by every object of pure beauty that presents itself? Is it of no importance for minds of sensibility to be led from the world of art, too often full of disappointment, disease, and discontent, to the more simple, noble, and glorious world of nature, which is full of beauty, and peace, and harmony? Is it of no importance to be rather independent and happy in thy feelings, than dependent and miserable? Ask thy heart these questions, and thou wilt have discovered how far the poetic gift is excellent, holy, and sublime.” On party feeling, so far as it is likely to affect the literature of America, or rather so far as its influence, unchecked by more generous emotions, might have this baneful tendency, we wish to say little, because we think it more likely to be insensibly counteracted by her own more enlightened spirits, than by European advice. Washington Irving has practically shown that an American author can feel for Old England as one of her descendants ought to feel; and we doubt not many of the best heads and hearts in America will understand and feel the full force of the following stanzas by one of their countrymen, published by Mr. Coleridge in his "Sybilline Leaves."

Though ages long have past

Since our fathers left their home,
Their pilot in the blast,

O'er untravell'd seas to roam,

Yet lives the blood of England in our veins!

And shall we not proclaim

That blood of honest fame
Which no tyranny can tame
By its chains?

While the language free and bold
Which the bard of Avon sung,
In which our Milton told

How the vault of heaven rung

When Satan, blasted, fell with his host;

While this, with rev'rence meet,

Ten thousand echoes greet,
From rock to rock repeat

Round our coast;

While the manners, while the arts,
That mould a nation's soul,
Still cling around our hearts-
Between let ocean roll,

Our joint communion breaking with the sun:
Yet still from either beach

The voice of blood shall reach,

More audible than speech,
"WE ARE ONE."

Go

ART. IV.-Law Abuses.*

1OOD laws are the most important benefit capable of being bestowed upon society. In proportion to the value of good laws is the value of every thing which has a tendency to produce them. Among the things which have a tendency to produce good laws, few are more powerful than the indications of the defects which belong to existing laws.

This is a truth which we shall take frequent opportunity of presenting to the notice of our readers. And it is a truth the value of which we deem it of cardinal importance to imprint on the public mind. It is of little or no use to dwell upon those particulars in which the laws completely answer the important ends of law. In those particulars there is need of no alteration. It suffices that the benefits accrue, and that things remain as they are. But it is of great importance to point out all those particulars in which the laws fail of answering the grand purposes of law: because, without such information, no amendment will take place. In as much, then, as good laws are a greater benefit than bad laws, in so much is the accusation and exposure of what is vicious in the laws, a greater benefit than silence. It is evident that any thing like praise bestowed upon the defective parts of the law is one of the greatest injuries which can be committed against society.

Vide A TREATISE ON THE ABUSES OF THE LAWS; particularly in Actions by Arrest-pointing out numerous Hardships and Abuses in the different Courts, from the Commencement of an Action to its Conclusion; and the various Extortions, from the High-Sheriff to the Bailiff's Follower: together with the System of the King's Bench Prison, and the Spunging-Houses in London, Middlesex, ared neighbouring Counties-shewing also the enormous Expense Parties are put to on small Debts; the cruel Practice of bringing numerous Actions, only to increase the Costs and the Necessity for establishing a Court, in which the Tradesman can recover his small Debts.-The whole tending to shew, that the Arrest on Common or Mesne Process (as now carried on) is equally oppressive to the Plaintiff and Defendant. By James Pearce, Gent. an Attorney of Twenty Years Practice in London, and who has served the Office of Under-Sheriff of London and Middlesex. London, printed 1814.

The

The sort of persuasion, then, which too much prevails, that it is good to be always applauding things established, and not good to be frequent in the exposure of faults, is a most pernicious PREJU DICE. It is not only at war, as every reader perceives, with the interests of truth; it is not only the direct course for being cheated of the truth, depriving the intellectual part of one's nature of its appropriate fruition; and so of weakening and depraving the intellect, holding it in a state of folly and delusion:-but it is the most effectual course for depriving society of all the advantages of improvement; of condemning it to the perpetual endurance of all the evils under which it may at any time happen to labour; of compelling it to be (what is the unavoidable result of imperfect laws) immoral and vicious; when it might be (what is the certain result of good laws) a pattern of morality and virtue;-compelling it, in short, to suffer physically, intellectually, and morally, when in all these respects it might flourish and enjoy.-On all occasions, unspeakably different is the man who speaks only to flatter, and the man who speaks only to inform : on no occasion is that difference more remarkable than when it is required to speak of the qualities of the laws.

On this account we bestow our highest approbation upon the gentleman who has benefited his country by the useful and most important little volume, which we now present to the notice of our readers, and which we should wish to be in the hands of every man in the kingdom; but which we have good reason to believe is in the hands of very few. We are extremely happy to see that Sir Samuel Romilly agreed with us on these important heads; and gave his sanction to this very seasonable attempt to disseminate a knowledge of some of the worst corruptions of the law, by manfully permitting the author to publish, that it was dedicated to him by permission. If the people at large could in sufficient numbers be made fully acquainted with the lamentable facts-the multitude of lamentable facts, which this work attests;-the vile, the ruinous, the disgusting scene, which it lays open to view; an alteration could not fail to be soon effected-an alteration by which a greater quantity of human misery-unnecessary, gratuitous human misery, would be prevented, than could be so immediately done by almost any other legislative act. It only requires a general dissemination of the knowledge of the case, to ensure the production of this most important effect. That dissemination, therefore, is one of the most momentous of all the services which an Englishman can render to his country.

The author begins with a remark, which, though in some degree incidental, we think of sufficient importance to be held up to view, that though the practices of the law were familiar to him during

the