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 England, there are cotton factories, 36 1,070 28 1,523 182,092 4,134 In England, there are power looms, 97,564 1,516 In England, there are silk factories, 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, Siccine nos genii ruimus? stat pulvere cretus ?" Which may be thus rendered into English: We, spirits eternal, offspring of high heav'n, Inhabit regions shut out from all light, "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 (Oh empress of the earth and seas, and queen That thou should'st sit down to the feast of gods? Thy barren faith, thy empty hope deceives! Milton, B. ix.: "Empress of this fair world." "Sov'ran mistress." 532, etc. v. 568. "So gloz'd the tempter, and his prom tun'd," 549. "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, 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 Original. Ramsay says to the same effect: Tum cœlum inlabi, et circum tremere omnia visa: 5 Styx, Acheron, Phlegethon, Chaos, et regua invia luci Then were seen The heav'ns to fall; all Nature trembled: Styx, Yawn'd, and belch'd flames; and at the sudden horror Ran foul, and went to rack with fearful signs.) "And again, on a like occasion: Ecquid ad hoc cœlum non sudas? Terra tremiscis? (Oh sky, dost thou not sweat some drops at this? 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 Curl'd many a wanton wreath in sight of Eve, "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 (Finding the sacred breast impregnable |