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EUROPEAN MAGAZINE

A View of the Mosque at Mounheer, from the S. E.

Published April 1.1788 by L.Sewell, Cornbill.

the Captain's intereft to use them with unneceffary feverity. I fay unneceffary, because a ítrict difcipline is not to be difpensed with, and as we may be fure they are not backward in ufing every means for the recovery of their liberty. This probably is the cause of most of the difmal tales which are related of this trade; when neceffity has compelled them to enforce obedience by acts that, to an indifferent reciter or hearer, might appear unjuft and cruel. By the fame reafoning we are taught to believe, that the Planter who gives a great price for a Slave, ufes every means in his power, by his feverity and oppreffion, to make an end of him as foon as he poffibly can; or at leaft he gives him up to those who he is confcious will do it for him. Is this credible? No, no more than that a man fhould give a great fum for a horfe, and then entrust him with thofe who he knows will foon difable him. It is impoffible, but that were they ever fo inattentive to their concerns, the knowledge of any unmerited feverity committed by their fervants, cannot be long hid from them; and whether it is their intereft to tolerate them, I have endeavoured to fhew. But the Planters are not, all, fuch inattentive beings; there are among them men of as much humanity as there are in any other department, who treat their Slaves with almost as much tenderness as their children. After all, an Act might be made to regulate this bufinefs, which might have beneficial confequences both to the Planter and Slave; and alfo to limit the Captains of hips from bringing more than a certain numiber at a time, proportionate to the fize or. burthen of their veffels, and with which our humane countrymen must reft contented. If we turn our eyes to a politi-",

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cal view of the confequences of its abolition, we fhall find ample matter to fhew the abfurdity of fuch an attempt. When we confider the prefent balance of power in Europe, and the increafing ftrength of our natural enemies, we may perceive that weare in no condition to give up the smalleft advantage that might be any way beneficial to them: the confequences might prove fatal to this nation; and the perfons who could advife fuch a measure, may rank with the worst of its enemies. I am rather of opinion, indeed, that French policy will be difcovered at the bottom of ail thefe humane proceedings.

It is well known what immenfe quantities of our manufactures are annually exported, what large returns are made. from the Weft-Indies, and, above all, what numbers of feamen are employed in it; at a moderate computation, 130 hips from different parts of England, and 5000 men! Should the abolition take place, what is to become of these? The confequence is obvious: Rather than return home and ftarve, or become an incumbrance on the nation, they would enter into the French service, to obt~in that bread they were denied at home-who we may be fure would receive them with open arms;-it would be a moft glorious acquifition to them; and if a war fhould foon break out between the two nations, they would prove of infinite fervice; while their mother country, with this principal fource and nuriery of hardy fearsen entirely taken away, would doubly feel the lots of every man.

I am, Sir, yours,

B. The VIEW mentioned by this Writer will be acceptable.

VIEW of a MOSQUE at MOUNHEER.

HE Town of Mounheer is fituated on the banks of the river Soane, at about two miles from its conflux with the great Ganges. This View of a Mosque at Mounheer is in the centre of the town, at fome fmall distance from the river, and is famous for its beauty. It was built in the year 1617, in the reign of Shah Jehan. guer, the ion of the Emperor Akbub, by a then Scubah of the District, both as a

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THE

LONDON REVIEW;

AND

LITERARY

JOURNAL.

THIS

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Lewefdon Hill, a Poem. Oxford: at the Clarendon Prefs. 1788.

HIS manly Poem is thus elegantly dedicated to a moft refpectable cha

racter:

To the

Right Reverend Father in God
JON

A T H A N
Lord Bishop of St. Asaph
Who in a learned free and liberal Age

Is himtelf most highly diftingwifhed
By extenfive useful and elegant learning

By a difinterefted Support of Freedom And by a truly Chriftian Liberality of mind

THIS POEM
With all Refpect is dedicated
By his Lordship's moft obliged

And most obedient Servant
THE AUTHOR.
It is prefaced by the Poet by the fol-
lowing advertisement :

The Hill which gives title to the following Poem is fituated in the western part of Dorfetfhire. This choice of a fubject, to which the Author was led by his refidence near the spot, may feem perhaps to confine him to topics of mere rural and local defcription. But he begs leave here to inform the reader, that he has advanced beyond thofe narrow limits to fomething more general and important. On the other hand he trufts,

that in his fartheft excurfions the connexion between him and his fubject will eafily be traced. The few notes which are fubjoined be thought neceflary to elucidate the paffages where they are inferted. He will only add

this place, from Hutchins's Hiftory of Dorfeithne, (Vol. I. p. 366.) what is there fad of Leweldon (or, as it is now corruptly called, Lewfon): "This and Pillefdon Hill * fermount all the hills, though very high, "between them and the fea. Mariners "call them the Cow and Coif, in which forms they are fancied to appear, being eminent fea-niarks to thofe who fail upon ** the Coull."

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To the top of this Hill the Author defcribes himself as walking on a May morning.'

Denham's COOPER'S HILL, that prolific parent of Poems where a Hill is the fubject, has been praised for containing no thought or imagery but what may naturally be fuppofed to arife from the objects which furround the place where its author defcribes himself as in contemplation. This praife, however, our prefent author does not claim, but "begs leave to inform the reader, that he has advanced beyond thofe narrow limits to fomething more general and important.” In this we think him both commendable, and worthy to be followed. For the

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Of corn, and verdant pafture, whence the
kine

Returning with their milky treasure home
Store the rich dairy: fuch fair plenty fills
The pleasant vale of Marshwood; pleasant
now,

Since that the Spring has deck'd anew the
meads

With flowery vesture, and the warmer fun
Their foggy moiftnefs drain'd; in wintry
days

Cold, vapourish, miry, wet, and to the flocks
Unfriendly, when autumnal rains begin
To drench the fpungy turf: but ere that

time

The careful fhepherd moves to healthier foil,
Rechafing, left his tender ewes should coath*
In the dank pafturage. Yet not the fields
Of Evesham, nor that ample valley nam'd
Of the White Horfe, its antique monument
Carv'd in the chalky bourne, for beauty and
wealth

Might equal, though furpaffing in extent, This fertile vale; in length from Lewefdon's bafe

Extended to the fea, and water'd well

By many a rill; but chief with thy clear ftream,

Thou nameless rivulet, who from the fide
Of Lewefdon foftly welling forth, doft trip
Adown the valley, wandering fportively.
Alas, how foon thy little courfe will end!
How foon thy infant ftream fhall lose itself
In the falt mafs of waters, ere it grow
To name or greatnefs! Yet it flows along
Untainted with the commerce of the world,
Nor paffing by the noify haunts of men ;
But through fequefter'd meads, a little
fpace,

Winds fecretly, and in its wanton path
May cheer fome drooping flower, or minister
Of its cool water to the thirsty lamb:
Then falls into the ravenous fea, as pure
As when it iffued from its native hill.

But though pious and moral reflections, and warm fentiments in favour of Liberty, form the most prominent and interefting features of this elegant and fpirited Poem, our author has the art to make them as moftly refulting from the local objects before him.

The" nameless rivulet," fo beautifully apoftrophifed in the above lines, leads our author to the death of a child, moft probably a near relation.

So to thine e rly grave didst thou run on, Spotless Francefca, fo, after fhort courie, Thine innocent and playful infancy

Was fwallow'd up in death, and thy pure

fpirit

In that illimitable gulph which hounds
Our mortal continent. But not there loft,
Not there extinguifh'd, as fome falfely teach,
Who can talk much and learnedly of life,
Who know our frame and fashion, who can

tell

The fubftance and the properties of man, As they had feen him made; aye and flood by

Spies on Heav'n's work. They also can difcourfe

Wifely, to prove that what must be must be, And fhew how thoughts are jogg'd out of the brain

By a mechanical impulse; pushing on
The minds of us, poor unaccountables,
To fatal refolution. Know they not,
That in this mortal life, whate'er it be,
We take the path that leads to good or evil,
And therein find our blifs or misery?
And this includes all reasonable ends
Of knowledge or of being; farther to go
Is toil unprofitable, and the effect
Moft perilous wandering. Yet of this be
fare;

Where Freedom is not, there no Virtue is :
If there be none, this world is all a cheat,
And the divine ftability of Heaven
(That affured feat for good men after death)
Is but a tranfient cloud; difplay`d fo fair
To cherish virtuous hope, but at our need
Eludes the fenfe, and fools our honest faith,
Vanishing in a lie. If this be fo,
Were it not better to be born a beast,
Only to feel what is, and thus to fcape
The aguifh fear that fhakes the afflicted
breaft

With fore anxiety of what shall be ;

And all for nought? fince our most wicked

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*To coath, Skinner fays, is a word common in Lincolnshire; and fignifies, to faint. He derives it from the Anglo-Saxon, CODE, a disease. In Dorfetfhire it is in common ufe, but is ufed of sheep only: a coathed theep is a rotten theep; to coath is to take the rot. chafing is also a term in that country appropriated to flocks: to chase and rechafe is to drive theep at certain times from one fort of ground to another, or from one parish to another.'

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That

That with falfe weapons of Philosophy
Fights against Hope, and Senfe, and Nature's
Strength!

The allufion of the death of a promifing child to that of a pure infant ftream almost immediately loft in the "falt mafs of waters," is, we believe, new, and as ftrikingly poetical as it is affecting and tender. The philofophical reflections which naturally follow are manly, and are, with the following lines, greatly fuperior, in point of energetic reafoning, to the diffufe manner of the Night Thoughts of Dr. Young.

Above the noise and stir of yonder fields
Uplifted, on this height I feel the mind
Expand itself in wider liberty.
The diftant founds break gently on my fenfe,
Soothing to meditation: fo methinks,
Even fo, fequefter'd from the noisy world,
Cou'd I wear out this transitory being
In peaceful contemplation and calm ease.
But confcience, which still cenfures on our
acts,

That awful voice within us, and the fenfe
Of an hereafter, wake and roufe us up
From fuch unthap'd retirement; which were

elfe

A bleft condition on this earthy ftage.
For who would make his life a life of toil
For wealth, o'erbalanc'd with a thousand cares;
Or power, which bafe compliance must up-

hold;

Or honour, lavish'd most on courtly flaves;
Or fame, vain breath of a misjudging world;
Who for fuch perishable gaudes would put
A yoke upon his free unbroken fpirit,
And gall himself with trammels and the rubs
Of this world's bufinefs; fo he might stand
clear

Of judgment and the tax of idleness
In that dread audit, when his mortal hours
(Which now with foft and filent ftealth pace
by)

Muft all be counted for? But, for this fear,
And to remove, according to our power,
The wants and evils of our brother's state,
'Tis meet we juftle with the world; content,
If by our fevereign Mafter we be found
At loft not profitlefs: for worldly meed,
Given or with-heid, I deem of it alike.

In both the above paffages, it is evident that Hamlet's celebrated foliloquy has been clofe under our author's eye, though he has not fallen into fervile imitation. The fry of infect critics are ever on the watch to find a moft diftant refemblance between a former and a later writer, and pafs their confident fentence, as if the later one neither would nor could have written fo, if the former had not led the way; which is just as good as to affert,

that a man cannot have a ferious thought rifing in his own breaft, becaufe Confucius or fome other philofopher thought feriously before him. There are fentiments and reafonings common to all men. A rofe is a rofe, a tree is a tree, and a ftream a ftream, in all ages; and he is the true poet who can place both fentiment and the beauties of nature in the moft forcible and pleafing views, which, with all their famenefs with former poets, may bear no mark of fervile imitation. He were a foolish painter who would draw rofes as blue and black, because others had defcribed thofe flowers as red and white. But our fpirited author has another fort of imitation of which we cannot approve we mean his frequent ufe of elifion, after the manner of Milton; and alfo his freedom of adopting phrafes, and in a manner paraphrafing whole pallages from that great poet. Even in Milton, a poet of the last century, the elifion is a blemish; it cannot, therefore, be a beauty in a poem of the prefent day. When we read in our author fuch paffages as these,

homeward bound From Havre or the Norman ifles

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