صور الصفحة
PDF
النشر الإلكتروني

In garden bowers at twilight: like the sound
Of Zephyr when he takes his nightly round,
In May, to see the roses all asleep:
Or like the dim strain which along the deep
The sea-maid utters to the sailors' ear,
Telling of tempests, or of dangers near:
Like Desdemona, who (when fear was strong
Upon her soul) chanted the willow song,
Swan-like before she perished: or the tone
Of flutes upon the waters heard alone:
Like words that come upon the memory
Spoken by friends departed; or the sigh

A gentle girl breathes when she tries to hide

The love her eyes betray to all the world beside.' pp. 169-70. This picture of youthful and extinguished beauty has the same characteristic eloquence.

A word-a breath revives her! and she stands
As beautiful, and young, and free from care,
As when upon the Tyber's yellow sands
She loosened to the winds her golden hair,
In almost childhood; and in pastime run
Like young Aurora from the morning sun.
Oh! never was a form so delicate
Fashioned in dream or story, to create
Wonder or love in man. She was fair,

And young, I said; and her thick tresses were
Of the bright colour of the light of day:
Her eyes were like the dove's-like Hebe's-or
The maiden moon, or starlight seen afar,

Or like some eyes I know but may not say.

-

Never were kisses gathered from such lips,
And not the honey which the wild bee sips
From flowers that on the thymy mountains grow
Hard by Ilissus, half so rich:-Her brow
Was darker than her hair and arched and fine,

And sunny smiles would often often shine

Over a mouth from which came sounds more sweet

Than dying winds, or waters when they meet

Gently, and seem telling and talking o'er

The silence they so long had kept before.' pp. 181, 182.

But the most pathetic and delicate of these smaller pieces, in our estimation, is one entitled The Last Song,' supposed to be sung by a young and innocent girl, who feels herself dying of long cherished and undisclosed love. The sentiments and the diction appear to us to be equally exquisite-and the measure, though rather uncommon, to be eminently beautiful. It runs as follows.

Must it be?-Then farewell,

Thou whom my woman's heart cherished so long:

Farewell! and be this song

The last, wherein I say "I loved thee well.'

Many a weary strain

(Never yet heard by thee) hath this poor breath
Uttered, of Love and Death,

And maiden grief, hidden and chid in vain.
Oh! if in after years

The tale that I am dead shall touch thy heart,

Bid not the pain depart;

But shed, over my grave, a few sad tears.

Think of me-still so young,

Silent, tho' fond, who cast my life away,

Daring to disobey

The passionate Spirit that around me clung.

Farewell again! and yet,

Must it indeed be so-and on this shore

Shall you and I no more

Together see the sun of the Summer set?

For me, my days are gone!

No more shall I, in vintage times, prepare
Chaplets to bind my hair,

As I was wont: oh 'twas for you alone!

But on my bier I'll lay

Me down in frozen beauty, pale and wan,

Martyr of love to man,

And, like a broken flower, gently decay.' pp. 183, 184.

All this seems to us very delightful; and we are almost ashamed to say-hoary sages as we now are-how completely we have abandoned ourselves to the fascination of strains that may appear suited only to the ears of youths and virgins. But the heart, if well managed, does not grow soon old;-and we hope always to be young enough to dwell with delight on such verses as Mr Cornwall's, and to feel a very lively interest in their multiplication and success.

We hear that he is now engaged on an entire tragedy,-for the appearance of which we shall watch with some impatience. The diction, we are quite confident, will be more truly dramatic than any thing our age has yet scen ;-and of the pathos and poetry we feel almost equally secure. But we have some fears for the fable;-and are not without our misgivings as to his management of the bolder characters and more rapid scenes, without which the business of representation cannot well be got over. But, on the whole, we think he has a better chance of success than any one who has adventured in this way in the memory of the existing generation.

ART. XII. Speech of Lord John Russell in the House of Commons, on the 14th December 1819, for transferring the Elective Franchise from Corrupt Boroughs to Unrepresented Great Towns. 8vo. Longman & Co. London, 1820.

I

6

*

T is now two years since we promised to lay before the public such thoughts as had occurred to us on those plans of Constitutional Reform which might gradually unite the most ⚫ reasonable friends of Liberty, and of which we should not despair to see some part adopted under the guidance of a liberal and firm government. However uncertain the accomplishment of our hopes may now appear, the circumstances of the times will no longer allow us to delay the performance of this promise. The establishment of new constitutions in foreign countries, increases the general importance of this subject: But the progress of discontent and agitation at home, renders its consideration a matter of immediate and paramount

urgency.

[ocr errors]

It would be a fatal error to suppose that the destruction of despotism is necessarily attended by the establishment of liberty. Revolutions do not bestow liberty. They only give a chance for it;-a great indeed and unspeakable blessing, worthy of being pursued at every hazard; but not to be confounded with the institution of a free government. It is easy to burn a bad house, but sometimes difficult to build a good one in its stead: And the difference between destroying and constructing, is immeasurably greater in the case of government, than in that from which we have borrowed our illustration. It was long ago justly observed, by a writer of equal sense and wit, that it is impossible to settle any government by a model that shall hold, as men contrive ships and buildings: for governments are made, like natural productions, by degrees, according as their materials are brought in by time, and those parts that are unagreeable to their nature, cast off. A living writer, distinguished by a like union of eminent faculties, remarks, that Constitutions are in fact productions that can neither be cre⚫ated nor transplanted. They are the growth of time, not the ⚫ invention of ingenuity; and to frame a complete system of government, depending on habits of reverence and experience, is an attempt as absurd as to build a tree, or manufac

[ocr errors]

6

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

* Edinburgh Review, vol. xxxi, p. 199.

The Remains of Samuel Butler, vol. ii. p. 481.

ture an opinion.' These just and striking observations are not quoted to dishearten enslaved nations in the pursuit of liberty. We would not, if it depended upon us, repress their zeal; but we would, if it were possible, contribute somewhat to enlighten their judgment. We would earnestly exhort them, in their first attempts at legislation, to aim only at a sketch of those institutions, without which Liberty cannot exist,-to connect them, wherever it is possible, with the ancient fabric of their societies, and to leave the outline to be gradually filled up by their successors. When experience has ascertained the effects of their first legislation, and when generally acknowledged inconveniences require to be remedied by new laws,—without observing such principles, they are likely, in flying from an old despotism, to fall into the arms of some of those new tyrannies, which, under a thousand forms, lie in wait for all communities, but especially for those who are engaged in the enterprise of laying the first foundations of Liberty.

A difference of opinion may be entertained on the expediency of some civil institutions, and the importance of others; but that no nation can be free, without some Representation of the people, is one of the very few positions, in which all men who pretend to a love of liberty are agreed. Nothing then can be of more importance than the prevalence of right opinions on the mode of amending such a representation where it is thought defective, or of establishing it where it did not exist before. By such opinions only can free states be saved from convulsion; and by them alone, can revolution in absolute monarchies be rendered productive of permanent freedom.

Deeply, however, as we are interested in the fortune of foreign nations struggling for liberty, the condition of our own country has, at the present moment, still stronger claims on our consideration. The extent of the evils which at present threaten us is not denied by any party; and, least of all, by the adherents of the present administration: They are the foremost to tell us that our situation is more perilous than it has been at any period since the Revolution. It is said, on the one hand, that the proprietory and educated classes are the oppressors of the people. It is asserted with equal exaggeration on the other, that the body of the people are become determined enemies not only of the English constitution, but of all property, law and

Letter to a Neapolitan from an Englishman, 1815, printed in 1818; but unpublished, though peculiarly worthy, at the present crisis, of being considered by those Neapolitans who aim at establishing their liberties on a solid foundation.

religion. The most dispassionate observers cannot deny, that the bonds which hold together the various orders of society, have for the last six years been rapidly loosening; that many of the higher classes betray a dread of liberty, and many of the more numerous show an impatience of authority; and that it is the natural tendency of such a state of things, to terminate in a mortal combat between extreme and irreconcileable factions. Whatever supposition we may adopt respecting the origin of these evils,-whether we ascribe them, with some, to the sins of the people, or with others to the faults of the government, or with a third party to the distresses of the times, cooperating with either or both of the foregoing causes;-on all suppositions the evils themselves continue the same, and their probable termination remains equally uncertain and alarming. It is impossible to calculate either the time in which the causes of civil confusion grow to maturity, or the chances that, if that time be long, unforeseen circumstances may check their progress. But if they should now proceed to their natural close, we may continue to assert that there is much in the present structure and circumstances of our society to aggravate the common evils of political contention; and that, whoever may be the conqueror, the British Constitution must perish in the contest. What successive systems of liberty or tyranny may rise hereafter from its ruins, will depend on events which are beyond the reach of our controul, and even of our conjectures.

Pro

It cannot be denied, that one of the two expedients for suppressing national discontent has been fully tried. A fair experiment has been made on the force of arms and of laws. secutions and punishments have not been wanting. New penalties have been annexed to political offences. New restrictions have been imposed on the exercise of political rights. It may be safely stated, that coercion and restraint cannot be carried much further, without openly renouncing the forms of the constitution, or adopting new institutions for administering the law. And even if such new institutions could be adopted, it would be difficult to find men educated under the British Constitution who would be well qualified to take a part in those arbitrary and summary measures, which form the whole policy of the admirers of what is called vigorous government. With the best inclinations in the world for their new task, most of them would prove mere novices in oppression, and very clumsy instruments of tyranny. The old and deep-rooted feelings created by a system of law and liberty, like that of England, will occasion frequent misgivings in the minds of those who are called upon to execute new plans for restriction; while, on the other hand, VOL. XXXIV. NO. 68. G g

« السابقةمتابعة »