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period, and it will not be long before wee inioy that bleffed eftate which is promised to us in the Gofpell. This, I confeffe, is more proper for a divine then for myfelfe; but fince it is, in my opinion, the best argument in fo greate an affliction, I could not avoid the reprefenting the confideration of it to your ladyship, whom I am confident (if my lord could have a fenfe of worldly things) he would ftrictly inioyne to cease all unneceffary lamentation, ufelefs to him, and prejudicial to her whom he lovd above all earthly things. 1 fancy he commands me, who was his friend and neere relation, to offer this advife as a part of my duty, being, deare Madame, your ladyship's faithfully devoted ferLINDSEY."

vant,

Directed," To the Right Hon. the Countess of Yarmouth, thefe."

Mr. URBAN,

ONE

Oct. 13.

NE of your Reviewers has taken an exception, p. 833, to the two first flanzas of Mr. Polwhele's "Ode written after a Thunder-Storm," that appears to me unjuft; although he has ingeniously and candidly enough invented an apology for the supposed defe&. Mr. Polwhele I knew not; but I think his ftanzas entitled to vindication. In the conftant habit of obferving nature under every afpe&t that this happy clime permits, the circumstances of a thunderftorm have not escaped my obfervation, and the recollection makes me fentible of the jufinefs of Mr. P's outlines; outlines, that have probably derived their fuperiority of ftrength from the fine romantic fcenery of Devon. The point of harmony I wave, and confine myfelf to the meaning, which your Reviewer affirms to be obfcure.

The flanzas excepted to, and the three first lines of the third flanza, farm a fublime piece of poetic painting, ftrialy confonant to nature; and drawn in a ftyle of poefy correfpondent with the avle of Salvator Rofa and Van Huy fum in painting. Mr. P's meaning is forcible and clear; infomuch, that I not only comprehend, but bebold it. I ice the foreft-Reep, the fiream bordering its bale, and the narrow intervening level filled with trees and underwood: furious gufis, fetting directly againt the flope, impell the faplings and the underwood to lab it: the foliage, feparated from the boughs by the violence, defcends into the bourne, and, mixing with the aqueous foam therein, brinks into the interftices of the banks. The application of the verb lab to the action of the meas infiuenned by she wind is per

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fectly familiar in fylvan life. our faplings ftand too thick, we fay "they must be thinned, because they lafh one another: if they grow too near a building, we cut them down, "becaufe they lash the thatch or tiling;" cable to the kind of trees generally feen and the expreffion is peculiarly applinear streams, the ductility of these species occafioning their branches to yield to the power of the wind in the fame. manner as a fuitor yields to the motion of the hand. Striking with a switch is lafbing. Had Mr. P. avoided the verb lab, he must have used either the verb whip or beat; and laß, being most natural, is certainly most preferable, neither of them being elegant or fuavious. Were I not at prefent in a mood too indolent to recur to my books, I could (if my memory does not deceive me) produce many inftances, from the English translations of the Clafficks, of fome of our beft poets ufing this common verb in a manner fimilar, or nearly fo, to what Mr. P. has done. One inftance I have at hand.

"With houts the failors rend the starry skies, "Lab'd with their oars, the fmoaky billows rife." An. V. 1. 184.

So far as regards lafbing, the mind has as much power over trees, as men have over oars,-But enough of one

word.

With refpect to brinking, Polwhele may as well make the leaves brink, as Dryden make them dance,

"Such was the glitt'ring; fuch the ruddy wind,

And dancing leaves that wanton in the wind. Æn. VI. 1. 301.

In perfonifying the ftorm, the converfion of the verb brood into an adjec tive is only an expreffive poetic-paraphrafe on the common expreffion of

there's mischief brooding," and, IĮ think, one well fuited to the approaches of a storm.

By forked-azure, what can we underftand but lightning? especially whilft reading an ode on a thunder-florm. We know lightning is forked, and often azure-coloured, and that aught (except wind, which the term cannot apply to) can fhiver our "lofty-creted oaks;" befides, a farther explanation is dedu cible from the three concluding lines of the defcription.

It is in character with the fubftance of this letter to remark, that I am exe pecting impatiently an answer to a letter

figned Alphonfo, p. 402, concerning a kind of poplar, fuppofed to be unknown in England. If Alphonfo has obtained any information about it in a private manner, he would oblige me much by communicating it. If he has not, I advife him to apply to Mr. Crombie, nurseryman at New Crofs, near Deptford; who has the largest affortment of exotic foreft-trees Lever faw. I believe it was he who first imported the purple-beech into this country, a tree I have made honourable mention of in my vernal chronicle, p. 595, and which may be feen in great perfection in Mr. Crombie's plantation; but fince I did myfelf the honour of tranfmitting the chronicle, alluded to, to "The Gentleman's Magazine," I have been given to understand that this beautiful tree does not fucceed every where; and I faw one in a garden near Bath that appeared rather fickly.

I thall obey the command laid on me by Q. X. p. 806, with pleasure: I am flattered that he approves my labours.

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ming a grofs and mistaken notion of Chriflianity from their vulgar forms of worship, hold all religion in contempt; and that, with regard to their political character, they are reftlefs, ambitious, and treacherous, perpetually invading or infulting their neighbours.

They have been the conftaut difturbers of Europe for feveral ages. The wars they have excited, at different periods, have fpread deftruction and mifery over the Continent; and almoft the whole load of debt and taxes, under which Great Britain now labours, has been occafioned by the ambition, the impertinence, the perfidy, and the malignity of France.

While I am making the fe general ob❤ fervations, fupported by the atteftations of many refpectable writers, both in this and other countries, I am extremely willing to allow, that there are in France, as in every other nation, innumerable individuals, whofe talents and virtues reflect an honour on their country. We may however, in a great meafure, afcertain the general character of the people by a few prominent features, and remarkable circumstances.

In England the punishment of crimes is tempered with mildness and human ty. The moft atrocious villain, when he has been tried and convicted by an equitable judge and an impartial jury, is put to death with all the lenity, that, can poffibly attend a capital punish

ment.

But in France, criminals are frequently executed with circumstances of the moft fhocking barbarity. The offender is condemned to the most hor rible tortures; he is racked in the brodequin, he is broiled, he is burnt alive, he is torn in pieces, or broken on the wheel. In the mean time, an innume rable multitude of both fexes are viewing the dreadful fpectacle with their ufual levity, and, for the most part, with an unfeeling and inhuman exultation.

If you would conceive a proper idea

WRITERS, who have endeavour of these horrid fcenes, read an account

ed to defcribe the temper and genius of our Gallic neighbours, have obferved, that they are, in general, vain, frivolous, and capricious; that, notwithstanding their cringing, adulation, and pretended politeness, they are frangers to fincerity and real friendfhip; that, with refpect to religion, a great part of them are bigots to the most abfurd and fuperfitious ceremonies of the Romish Church; and others, who conftitute a much greater number, for. 5

of the executions of Chatel, Ravillac, and Damien †.

The criminal is brought on the scaf

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What idea can we form of the polite nefs, the feeling, the humanity of thofe people, who can with to be prefent at fuch a fight, and view it, as they would view an object of curiofity, or a fcene of rejoicing!

On the contrary, confider the clemency, obferved in this country towards a miferable creature, guilty of the very fame crime as Chantel and Damien. These two wretched maniacs (for they were both infane) were executed with the foregoing infernal process of cruelty, in France; whereas the crazy delinquent, who attempted the life of her fovereign in England, was no otherwife punished, than by being confined in an hofpital of lunaticks for life.

Whatever atrocioufnefs there may be in the crimes of affaffins, it is hardly poffible for a cafe to exift, in which thefe inhuman executions are juftifiable. It should always be remembered, that an offender, deprived of his fenfes, is an object of compaffion, and the greateft criminal, a fellow-creature.

Read the hiftory of France, during the reign of Charles IX. When the Catholicks found, that the Proteftants could not be fuppreffed by force, they had recourfe to fraud; and the moit fanguinary project was concealed under the veil of kindness and friendship. The leaders of the Proteftants were invited to Paris, to celebrate the marriage of Henry of Bourbon, king of Navarre, with Margaret de Valois, fifter to King Charles. But what a marriage! The Furies lighted up the torch of Hymen; and rage, cruelty, horror, laughter, and impiety, prefided at the ceremony. In the middle of the night, preceding the feftival of St. Bartholomew, 1572, the fignal was given by a bell, for a general maffacre. The flaughter immediately commenced, and continued for hree days in Paris and the suburbs, In the mean time, the streets were ftrewed with dead bodies; the river, the pavements, the fquares, and the marketplaces, were dyed with human blood. The example of the capital was followed in all the towns, throughout the kingdom. The Proteftants were dragged from the moft fecret receffes; and

neither age nor fex efcaped the popular fury. In this maffacre 30,000 perfons* are faid to have been butchered with the most horrible barbarity. The facred obligations of morality and religion were turned into jeft; and dances were made to fome of the Pfalms of David +, in order to celebrate thefe diabolical tranfactions with more triumph and eclat!

The depredations and maffacres, lately committed at Paris, and other parts of France, make humanity fhudder, and betray an uncommon ferocity and cru. elty in the difpofition of the people t When they can murder thousands of their fellow-citizens, who are guilty of no offence, but that of difapproving their iniquitous proceedings, and refufing to violate their oaths of allegi ance; when they can disregard the prayers, the agonies, the groans, the fhrieks of the dying, they difcover a native malignity of heart, which before was concealed under the mafk of hypocrify, and a defpicable appearance of civility and politenefs.

While France, in this manner, exhibits a frightful fpectacle of rapine and barbarity, which is not to be paralleled among the favages of New Zealand, obferve the generous fympathy and compaffion, with which the people of England receive the antient clergy of France, and others, who have escaped the poniards of their fellow citizens, The honeft open-hearted Briton forgets all former injuries, all national animofities, all religious and political differences, and flies to the fuccour of the unfortunate, with a noble spirit of difinterefted benevolence. What recep tion we fhould have found at Paris, if circumftances had been inverted, we cannot eafily conceive-and may we never know by experience,

Hereafter, it is to be hoped, no Englifhman will fend his fons or his daugh ters into France, to be educated à-lamode de Paris; that is, to gain a few frivolous accomplishments, tinctured with the hypocrify, affe&tation, folly, and vices of the natives. On every occafion, let us beware of that bloodthirty and perfidious people. J. R.

Univ. p. 175.-Some writers afirm, that
* De Serres, an. 1572, Cellarii Hift.
100,000 perfons were, at that time, either
maffacred, or reduced to beggary. Vid.
Matthæi Theat. Hift. p. 1098.
+ Pfal. cxxix. &c.

See Gent Meg, for Sept. pp. 855, 856.
Mu

1

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6.nt: Magazine Oct. 1792 Pll p.881.

South-West View of dxminster Church, Devonshire.

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