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to the people, but to starve in their cabins, or die on the field of battle.

To illustrate this narrative of legislative wrong, we ask attention to the following table, drawn from an authentic source, by which we may perceive, at a glance, the comparative effects of this legislation on England and Ireland.*

In England, there are woollen factories, 1,102-Persons employed, 65,461
In Ireland,

In England, there are cotton factories,
In Ireland,

36 1,070 28

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1,523 182,092 4,134

In England, there are power looms,
In Ireland,

97,564

1,516

In England, there are silk factories,
In Ireland,

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Such has been the condition of Ireland. Such is a brief, but faithful outline of the manifold wrong and suffering which have been inflicted on that land. Such have been the oppression and restraint imposed under the iron sway of a despotism, worse than that of the East. Such are the causes which have driven the people into revolution; and when the superior power of the British crown had extinguished, in the blood of the people, the torch which was lighting them to freedom, still would drive them into those combinations in particular districts, where moral obligations were lost sight of, in the keen sense of the persecution thus inflicted.

In all the relief which it is pretended the government of Britain has extended to the people of Ireland, it may be safely said, not the slightest has ever sprung from a confession of wrong done to that unhappy people. If there has been any abatement in their suffering, it has been the consequence of fear. We do not recollect a single instance to the contrary; and each concession has been doled out with the wretched parsimony of the miser who parts with his gold. Within the last few years, an element of power has been given to the people of Ireland, that they never before possessed. The influence of sectarianism has been banished from the councils of their leaders, the excesses of licentious passion from the body of the people. The grand experiment of a peaceful revolution, has struck the world with admiration for the people by whom it is conducted. Hundreds of thousands of men, indignant at the wrongs under which they are suffering, peaceably meet and discuss the remedy, and depart

* Porter.

thence to their homes without the slightest disturbance. Whether this mode of seeking redress is likely to be successful-and, if successful, whether its proposed results will be conducive to the permanent happiness of the people,-are questions that we may discuss at another time. If successful, the civilized world will profit by the lesson. Peace will then boast a triumph mightier than war could accomplish: and the welcome of freedom will not be mingled with the lament of sorrow for its martyrs.

ART. II.-MILTON'S GENIUS.

1. An Essay on Milton's Imitation and Use of the Moderns. By Wм. LAUDER. 1750.

2. Sarcotis Carmen.

Co

Auctore P. JACOBO MASENIO. logne: 1644. Londini; et venit Parisiis, apud J. Barbou. 1771.

3. Poemata Sacra Andrea Ramsai Pastoris Edinburgeni. Edinburgi: 1663. Gentleman's Magazine: 1747. 4. Hugonis Grotii Adamus exul. Tragedia. Edition of the Hague: 1601. Gentleman's Magazine: 1747. 5. The Life of Milton; with Conjectures on the Origin of Paradise Lost. By WM. HAYLEY, Esq. 1796. 6. Remarks on the Character and Writings of John Milton. By Wм. ELLERY CHANNING. 1826.

7. Milton's Paradise Lost. Newton's Edition. Article on Mr. Prendeville's Milton, Blackwood's Magazine, May, 1840.

IN resuming our inquiries into the extent of Milton's imi. tation of the modern Latin authors here referred to, we find that we have no need to dwell longer upon the Sarcotis. The two remaining books go on to describe Avarice, Gluttony, Pleasure, Envy and Anger. The parallel between the two poems here ceases. Milton's plan led him to seek for hints elsewhere; and if he profited at all, as it is reasonable to think, by the work of Masenius, he here leaves him. It would be a task, as much beyond our power as our limits, but one which, performed with judgment, would be interesting, and at the same time not tend to lower our estimation

of Milton's genius, to trace and follow the different sources which contributed singly, and in succession, or in combination, to form the plan of Paradise Lost, and elicit the noble conceptions, images and language which fill it up. No doubt it were possible to discover most of these rudiments; still, our discoveries would only lead us to recognize more fully, the power and skill of the great Architect, who applied them so successfully as to produce an immortal work. Our anatomy might be ever so perfect, still we could give no account of the living soul, without which these disjecta membra are but vain monuments of something apart which presided over them, something wonderful, mysterious, and which, though connected with them, we yet deem to have had a prior and independent existence. We confine ourselves, therefore, to the partial glance, which the few authors enumerated enable us to throw on the subject; and our pages will be sufficiently occupied with those versions which, it seemed, ought to be full enough to show the resemblance of ideas or language in them to those of Milton, if any. The following extracts from the Poemata Sacra of the Rev. Dr. Andrew Ramsay, are found in the original Latin printed in the continuation of Lauder's charges against Milton, in the Gentleman's Magazine. We quote likewise the prefatory remarks:

"Milton represents Satan's malignity against Man, and envy at his happiness, as partly arising from the meanness of his origin, calling him a man of clay, son of despight, etc. Ramsay also expresses the same sentiments:

Nos genii æterni, cœlo quibus ortus ab alto,
Sedibus expulsi ætheriis, loca lucis egena
Incolimus, sine fine damus, proh! vindice poenas
Numine: & hic Adam, qui terræ filius, oras
Telluris tenet, & cæli spe devorat arces.

Siccine nos genii ruimus? stat pulvere cretus ?"

Which may be thus rendered into English:

We, spirits eternal, offspring of high heav'n,
Banish'd from the etherial abodes,

Inhabit regions shut out from all light,
For evermore doom'd, (oh indignity!)
To God's avenging punishment: and here
This Adam, son of earth, of all the earth
Is lord, and with ambitious hope aspires
To heav'n's high palaces. Must we, we, gods,
Thus fall? and he stand, creature of the dust?

"Milton also represents the Devil as flattering Eve with lofty appellations, such as sovereign of creatures! universal dame! goddess humane! etc. Ramsay had done the same before:

O terræ pelagique potens! rerumque sub æthra
O regina! poli quæ sceptra capessere digna!
Et Jovæ trifidum moliri fulmen Olympo!
Quid terras habitas humiles? Aut si Dea terram
Sub ditione tenes, cur terræ excludere fructu?
Qui victum tenuem, pomumque parabile vobis
Invidet, an superum dabit ille adcumbere mensis?
Non dabit: etsi adversa sedet sententia mente,
Heu! te vana fides, et spes deludit inanis!
Hæc serpens: non incassum, non irrita vento
Verba volant."

(Oh empress of the earth and seas, and queen
Of all things under heav'n! thou who art worthy
Heav'n's sceptre to assume, and to direct
Jehovah's tri-fork'd lightnings in the sky!
Why livest thou on this mean earth? or if
Thou be'st divine, and earth is all thine own,
Why from its fruits art thou excluded then?
Will he who grudges thee such simple food,-
An apple only to be pluck'd,—consent

That thou should'st sit down to the feast of gods?
No-if thou thus imaginest, alas!

Thy barren faith, thy empty hope deceives!
So talk'd the serpent: not in vain his words,
Nor wasted on the air.)

Milton, B. ix.:

"Empress of this fair world."
"Queen of this universe." 684.

"Sov'ran mistress." 532, etc.

v. 568.

"So gloz'd the tempter, and his prom tun'd," 549.
"So talk'd the spirited, sly snake.” 613.

"Milton, after Eve's eating the forbidden fruit, represents Nature as conscious of her fault, and dreading its consequence, in these lines:

Earth felt the wound, and Nature from her seat,

Sighing thro' all her works, gave signs of wo,
That all was lost.

Again, on Adam's repeating the crime:

Earth trembled from her entrails, as again

In pangs, and Nature gave a second groan,

Sky low'r'd, and muttering thunder some sad drops
Wept at completing of the mortal sin

Original.

Ramsay says to the same effect:

Tum cœlum inlabi, et circum tremere omnia visa:
VOL. VI.-NO. 11.

5

Styx, Acheron, Phlegethon, Chaos, et regua invia luci
Dites, et horrisono stridentes cardine portæ
Panduntur, flammasque vomunt, subitoque tumultu
Tota coit signis infestis machina mundi."

Then were seen

The heav'ns to fall; all Nature trembled: Styx,
Acheron, Phlegethon, Chaos, the dark realms
Of Pluto,-and their horrid-creaking gates

Yawn'd, and belch'd flames; and at the sudden horror
All the machin'ry of the universe

Ran foul, and went to rack with fearful signs.)

"And again, on a like occasion:

Ecquid ad hoc cœlum non sudas? Terra tremiscis?
Ora uti Thessalicis Titan contacte venenis
Non palles? mundi non machina tola laboras ?"

(Oh sky, dost thou not sweat some drops at this?
Oh earth, dost thou not tremble? sun, grow pale,
As by Thessalian sorceries eclips'd?

And world, thy whole machinery run mad?)

"Milton has also an uncommon and remarkable simile, of a ship working into port against wind, to illustrate the Serpent's method of addressing our first mother:

With tract oblique

At first (as one who sought access, but fear'd
To interrupt,) side-long he works his way;
As when a ship, by skilful steersman wrought
Nigh river's mouth, or fore-land, where the wind
Veers oft, as oft so steers, and shifts her sails:
So vary'd he, and of his tortuous train

Curl'd many a wanton wreath in sight of Eve,
To lure her eye.

"The same appears in the following lines of Ramsay, with this difference only, that Ramsay applies it to Satan tempting our Saviour:

Ut sanctum pectus non hoc penetrabile telo
Viderit; ut vento portum qui forte reflante
Non potis est capere, is malos et lintea vela
Carbaseos que sinus obliquat, tendere rectâ
Qua nequit, incurvo radit vada cærula cursu:
Sic gnarus versare dolis, et imagine falsâ
Ludere Tartareus Coluber, contingere metam
Se non posse videns primo molimine, cursum
Mutat, et ad palmam converso tramite tendit."

(Finding the sacred breast impregnable
To these his arts, (as one who cannot reach
Perchance some port, the wind ahead, veers ship,
Shifts yard and swelling canvass, and thus where

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