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but woe be to them, if no measure be meted out to them but what they have dealt to others. The madness of the people raging every where and perturbing the nations, gave a dreadful picture of our nature and species! Ah! how romantic and fictitious all the visions and dreams heretofore indulged by refinement and philosophy, of our philanthropy, and social aptitudes! Do not those prodigious masses of men, mustered by the demon of discord, and armed with implements of mutual destruction, who lately agitated and once more agitate sea and land, by their deadly encounters, most effectually expose such chimeras! and paint us in our natural colour as tigers and monsters ambitious only of tearing each other to pieces,

A lunacy peculiarly inveterate and dismal, indulging one black invariable propensity to bloodshed, is actually become the disease of the human race, and developes more numerous and tremendous horrors in its course, than all thefamines, plagues, and yellow fevers, that ever desolated our unhappy globe! It would seem, the minds and hearts of men, have lost all those principles of brotherly sen'sibility and cordial attachment, which hitherto glued and fastened them together as one body animated and directed by one soul; and that society itself is reduced at last to the shattered condition of some dilapidated edifice, the parts of which are so wasted and rotten, as no longer to retain the powers of adhesion ! The fabric, however skilfully designed, or magnificently constructed, composed of materials thus unsound and decayed, must inevitably sink to ruin, and gradually moulder away! And does not the whole complicated frame of artificial life, probably from the same causes of age and debility decline, and, for aught we know, even now verge on the last stage of dissolution? From an obvious relaxation in all the tightenings of eordiality and social union, the fatal progress of our decomposition seems actually begun. It alarms! it is rapid, it rushes with the velocity of a torrent'

"O thou preserver of men vouchsafe on that important crisis to be our keeper, that the souls thou hast inspired may not fail before thee, but survive the extinction of our system and be safe in the hollow of thy hand, when sun and moon and stars are sunk in everlasting night. On this grand impressive theme Addison lavishes the brightest effulgence of his genius and all the fervour of his heart. The stars shall fade away, the sun himself

Grow dim with age, and nature sink in years;
But thou shalt flourish in immortal youth
Unhurt amidst the war of elements

The wreck of matter, and the crash of worlds!

"What a sweet comment are these exquisite verses on the lofty thought of our immortal dramatist. Our finest poets are never so lovely and charming perhaps as in illustrating the beauties of each other, and more especially on the serious and affecting subject of our highest interests."

Look how the floor of heaven

Too thick inlaid with patines of bright gold;

There's not the smallest orb which thou behold'st,

But in his motion like an angel sings,

Still quiring to the young-eyed cherubims:

Such harmony is in immortal souls.

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SHAKSPEARE.

The introductory chapter contains an ingenious and eloquent, but rather too elaborate History of Man.

Remarks on the Injustice and Impolicy of our late Attack upon Denmark, 8vo. p. p. 70. Mathews and Leigh Strand, 1807.

If the policy of the late expedition to Copenhagen be not clearly made out, and the necessity of it shewn to be extremely urgent, as a measure intimately connected with the national safety; then will the attack on Denmark deserve to be stigmatized as unjust. The King's Declaration will be followed by a strict parliamentary investigation, and the most ample discussion; and, for ourselves, we have little doubt but the justice as well as policy of the proceeding will be satisfactorily demonstrated. In the mean time, however, the author of this well-written pamphlet advances many arguments to prove that Ministers have been guilty of an indefensible violation of the law of nations, and a shameful departure from the admitted rules by which the necessity of war is guided.

Paley allows as a justifying cause of war" the necessity of maintaining such a balance of power amongst neighbouring nations, as that no single state, or confederacy of states, be strong enough to overwhelm the rest.' It is upon this plea (observes the ingenious writer of these Remarks) that our conduct must be defended; or rather upon one that is a corollary to it, viz. that if the balance of power is so weakened, as that a state which has hitherto helped to maintain it, is so far reduced by a relative change of situation, as to be in danger of being compelled, to the manifest disadvantage of the general security, and of its individual interests, to throw the weight of its influence into the scale of a power more mighty than the rest, any nation, whose safety is more endangered by the probability of such a change, than any other, is justified in the pursuance of such measures, even to the prejudice of that state, as are absolutely necessary to provide and maintain its own security. If this plea, which undoubtedly allows the utmost possible extent to, the argument of necessity, can be admitted upon all occasions as a justification of war, it must be understood with many limitations; otherwise it resolves itself at once into that most absurd and profligate of all doctrines, that utility is a sufficient cause for the

most unjust actions. If a war be undertaken upon this ground, the necessity of it-more especially in this case than in any other-must be made manifest to the whole world. The people against whom the effects are directed, must be shewn, not by general assertions, but by the most certain and indisputable proofs; they must be convinced, if possible, that an attack on them is absolutely necessary, not merely for the interest, but for the very salvation of the state which is driven to attack them. The nation undertaking the war must be convinced, to rescue it from the charge of unprincipled inhumanity, not only that the end is just and attainable, but that the means are adequate to the end; and that whilst it violates the sanctity of a treaty nominally to preserve itself from the influence of overwhelming power, it does not under that pretext aim merely at consulting its individual advantage; that whilst it dooms an unoffending people to the horrors and calamities of war, its ministers will not be inhuman enough to plead for their excuse a vague and visionary report; or base enough to stain their country's honour with eternal disgrace in the pursuit of a trivial or uncertain good. It is indeed the height of folly and impolicy, as well as of savage injustice, to attack a nation at amity with us, under the pretence of checking the growing power of a neighbouring state; when we are certain that the means which we employ will be so far from gaining the desired object, that it will take from that nation its best means of defence, and will, therefore, by throwing it into the hands of its more dangerous enemy, increase, instead of diminishing the weight of power against us. It does not seem to require much sagacity to determine whether or not the expedition against Denmark has been undertaken and conducted upon an adherence to these principles.

The author examines his Majesty's declaration, and contends that the assertions herein are not borne out by any evidence, and that the posture of affairs on the Continent was not such as to authorize the statements made by the King's ministers. He is of opinion, from a review of the whole argument, that the evils resulting from the attack upon Copenhagen are incalculable by any human foresight. "Whilst the advantages which we reap from it are momentary and of small importance, the ill effects of it for ages to come, will be visited on our posterity; will

continue, indeed, as long as the execration produced by an unprovoked attack upon the independence and security of an unoffending nation shall endure in their remembrance. By the animosity we have excited in the Danish nation, we have put it in the power of the French to accomplish to a far greater extent, than they could have before done by compulsion, their schemes for the destruction of British commerce. The Danes will not now want an excuse for closing the passage of the Sound, and shutting up "our accustomed channels of communication with the Continent." These purposes for the prevention which ministers would have persuaded us that the expedition was in a great measure undertaken, were it was evident to common sense, the natural result of such a measure; instead of obviating, we have increased to an absolute certainty, the probability of those eoents taking place. The court of Denmark will now be completely subject to French influence, whilst the hatred which our conduct has excited, will manifest itself to a degree that may even be prejudicial to its own interests. The anger however, which is blind, is also destructive in its effects; and we may rest assured, that whatever can be accomplished, by means of French assistance, to the injury of our commerce, will not be prevented by any considerations which prudence or sober policy might suggest. Or supposing that the Danes would not be willing to carry to the utmost extent the means which they possess for the anihilation of our trade in the Baltic, yet the inflexible obstinacy of the power, into whose hands they are thrown, is equal to his subtlety, and what instigation cannot accomplish, may now be easily effected by compulsion."

The Pamphlet discovers considerable ingenuity, the objections are well put, the arguments supported by the most respectable authorities, and the style is extremely forcible.

Another Word or Two; or Architectural Hints Continued, in Lines to those Royal Academicians who are Painters, addressed to them on the Re-election of Benjamin West, Esq. to the President's Chair, 10th December, 1806. By Fabricia Nunnez, Spinster; with Dedication, Preface, Notes, and Appendix, 8vo. Payne, Pall Mall. 1807.

Fabricia's former work we have not seen, but we observe enough in the present to convince us that (whether

she be an unsexed female or no) her Muse is very goodhumoured, that her versification is easy and flowing, her object commendable, and her knowledge of the subject which employs her pen, very complete. Fabricia is the secret, and we readily concur in the propriety of all the gentle censures she passes, and the measures she recommends. Mr. Wyatt was certainly a very unfit man to be placed at the head of the Royal Academy, even admitting with our author, which we believe to have been the case, that the choice of him arose from jealousy among the portrait painters, who did not elect Mr. Wyatt as the fittest person to fill the chair, but as a consenting party to fill up the gap till they could settle among themselves to whom the presidentship should be next assigned, or to whom it ought to be regularly conceded.

As a specimen of our Spinster's poetry and pleasant satire, we subjoin the following extract. It is a paraphrase of Horace's" Humano capiti cervicem pictor equinam," &c. with application to the election of an architect, to preside over that superior class of artists---the painters.

Horace relates to Pisoes' writing,

With witty aim, and truth reciting,
Should some strange fancied Painter place
Beneath the noble human face,

Of art a strange farago dish,

The silv'ry scales and tail of fish,

The world would laugh at the Burlesque,

When seen a figure so grotesque !

And then, to take still further range,

Extend the thought, 't were equal strange
O'er women's lovely form to spread
The feathery wings with fish's head;
Each to it's suited place applied,

Or else the Artist we deride,

And view his works with strange surprise,
Nor deem his judgment great and wise:
So, in a building we should wonder

To find the door above, and windows under.

It is evident to whom Fabricia refers when she hints at the successor of Mr. West, to whose genius a handsome and well merited tribute is paid. We here also agree with the poet, and think that the choice, should it fall upon him, would be judiciously, made, and that the duties of the important office of president would be most ably discharged by the party alluded to. It is impossi

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