no effect upon the blind bigotry and determined rancour of men enflaved by the furious fpirit of JACOBINISM, and hence these Poets are still at work; they still endeavour to fhow that the prefent ftate of morals and feeling are the refult of prejudice, and to debauch the paffions of the lower and middle orders of the people. Such poets can contemplate the downfall of an empire, the deftruction of a nobility, and all the horrors which a revolution may pro duce, with philofophical tranquillity; but the fight of a beggar, the fall of a leaf, and even the decay of an old tree, awaken in their tender bofoms the moft exquifite emotions of fympathy. Some of our Oppofition Prints are in the constant habit of conveying to the public the poetic effufions of thefe very fufceptible bards, and there are bookfellers of congenial principles, who gather their flowers of feeling, and present them to the world in the form of an annual bouquet. The work before us is chiefly a collection of this kind; moft of the pieces which it contains are of the tendency which we have defcribed. To fhew our impartiality we shall felect what may perhaps be deemed one of the beft fpecimens of the kind of pathos to which we have alluded, and the good fenfe of our readers will enable them to determine whether the diftreffes it reprefents arife from the imprudence of the fuppofed cha racters, or neceffarily depend on the prefent ftate of fociety which fuch wri ters are inceffantly labouring to overthrow.

"A wedding Sir,

Two of the village folk. And they are right

To make a merry time on't while they may.

Come twelve-months hence, I warrant them they'd go
To church again more willingly than now

So all might be undone."

He always was a well-conditioned lad,

One who'd work hard and well; and as for drink,

Save now and then may hap at Christmas time,

Sober as wife could wish."

TRAVELLER.

"Then is the girl

"A fhrew, or elfe untidy. One who'd welcome

Her

Her husband with a rude unruly tongue,
Or drive him from a foul and wretched home
To look elsewhere for comfort. Is it fo?"
WOMAN.

"She's notable enough, and as for temper

The beft good-humour'd girl! d'yee fee that houfe?
There by the afpin tree whofe grey leaves fhine
In the wind? fhe lived a fervant at the farm,
And often as I came to weeding here,
I've heard her finging as the milk'd her cows
So chearfully,I did not like to hear her,
Because it made me think upon the days
When I had got as little on my mind,
And was as chearful too. But the would marry,
And folks muft reap as they have fown.

TRAVELLER.

God help her!"*

"All this I have heard at church!

And when I walk in the church-yard, or have been

By a death-bed, 'tis mighty comforting.

But when I hear my children cry for hunger

And fee them fhiver in their rags,-God help me!
I pity thofe for whom these bells ring up

So merrily upon their wedding day,

Because I think of mine."

TRAVELLER.

"You have known trouble,

Thefe haply may be happier."

WOMAN

WOMAN.

"Why for that

I've had my fhare; fome ficknefs and fome forrow,
Well will it be for them to know no worse.
Yet had I rather hear a daughter's knell

Than her wedding peal, Sir, if I thought her fate
Promifed no better things."

TRAVELLER.

"Sure, fure, good Woman,

You look upon the world with jaundiced eyes!

All have their cares; thofe who are poor want wealth,
Thofe who have wealth want more, fo are we all
Diffatisfied, yet all live on, and each

Has his own comforts."

WOMAN.

"Sir! d'ye fee that horfe

Turn'd out to common here by the way fide ?
He's high in bone, you may tell every rib
Even at this diftance. Mind him! how he turns
His head to drive away the flies that feed

On his gall'd fhoulder! there's juft grafs enough
To difappoint his whetted appetite.

You fee his comforts Sir!"

"In truth it is not Sir!

For when the horse lies down at night, no cares
About to-morrow vex him in his dreams;
He knows no quarter-day, and when he gets
Some mufty hay or patch of hedge-row grafs,
He has no hungry children to claim part
Of his half meal!"

TRAVELLER.

"Tis idleness makes want,

And idle habits. If the man will go
And spend his evenings by the ale-houfe fire,
Whom can he blame if there is want at home?
WOMAN.

"Aye! idlenefs! the rich folks never fail
To find some reason why the poor deferve
Their miferies! is it idlencfs I pray you
That brings the fever or the ague fit?
That makes the fick one's fickly appetite
Turn at the dry bread and potatoe meal?
Is it idleness that makes fmall wages fail

For

For growing wants? fix years agone, thefe bells
Rung on my wedding day, and I was told
What I might look for,-but I did not heed
Good counfel. I had lived in fervice, Sir,

Knew never what it was to want a meal;

Laid down without one thought to keep me fleepless
Or trouble mein fleep; had for a Sunday

My linen gown, and when the pedlar came
Could buy me a new ribbon :—and my husband,—
A towardly young man and well to do,

He had his filver buckles and his watch,
There was not in the village one who look'd
Sprucer on holydays. We married, Sir,

did not.

And we had children, but as wants increas'd
Wages
The filver buckles went,
So went the watch, and when the holyday coat
Was worn to work, no new one in its place.
For me you fee my rags! but I deferve them,
For wilfully like this new-married pair

I went to my undoing,"

*

TRAVELLER.

"But the Parish"

WOMAN.

"Aye, it falls heavy there, and yet their pittance
Juft ferves to keep life in. A blessed prospect,
To flave while there is ftrength, in age the workhouse,
A parifh fhell at laft, and the little bell

Toll'd hastily for a pauper's funeral !"

"Aye Sir, and were he dre

And clean, he'd be as fine a boy to look on

As the Squire's young mafter. These thin rags of his

Let comfortably in the fummer wind;

But when the winter comes, it pinches me
To fee the little wretch! I've three befides,
And-God forgive me! but I often wish

To fee them in their coffins.-God reward you!
Godbless you for your charity!"

TRAVELLER.

"You have taught me

To give fad meaning to the village bells!"

* "A farmer once told the Author of Malvern Hills, that he almoft conftantly remarked a gradation of changes in thofe men he had been in the habit of employing. Young men, he faid, were generally neat in their appearance, active and chearful, till they became married and had a family, when he had obferved that their filver buttons, buckles and watches gradually difappeared, and their Sunday's clothes became common without any other to fupply their place, but faid he, fome good comes from this, for they will then work for whatever they can get,”. Note to Cottle's MALVERN HILLS.

We

We beg leave again to afk where the fault lies, after this lamentable peal of the parish bells? If a man can maintain himself decently before marriage is the legislature to blame if he and the woman he marries grow negligent, and he pawn all his little articles of finery? Surely the refult of their jointindustry would render them more comfortable than before, and to their own negligence, indolence, and vice they are indebted for the poverty and wretchednefs which attend their union. The invidious note only implies the opinion of one unfeeling farmer; but, bad as the world is, men in general are glad to fee those whom they employ do their work chearfully, and make a decent appearance upon the produce of their industry.

A Peep at Provincial Routs. A Poem. 4to. Pr. 16. 15. Wright.

London.

1801.

GOOD intentions feebly executed. The poet juftly deplores the vices of Gaming, Luxury, and Diffipation; but his verses are deftitute of point, harmony, and ftrength.

The Challenge accepted. A Poem. By John Stewart. 8vo. Pr. 12. Stewart. 1801.

WE should fuppofe this to be the production of a foremast man who fights better than he writes. Never furely did loyalty wear a more homely garb. Both matter and manner fet all defcription at defiance, Ex. Grat.

"Our true and loyal firm defenders,
With our immortal brave commanders,
To face those boafting, vain offenders.
United Irene with Briton's true,
Shellaly and fteel face fix to two.
Dauntlefs, faithful, our Iflanders,
To Baltic's coaft, France, and Flanders,
Till laws of Nations doth prevail,
The fword of Juftice guard the scale :
Let them approach our hulls and decks,
'Then hear who fhall tow the wrecks.
When laws and compacts they have broke,
Then to our bull-dogs, fire and smoke.
Britannia, her main to plough,

What line can stop her breaking through!"

More Wonders! an Heroic Epistle to M. G. Lewis, Efq. M. P. Editor of "Tales of Wonder," Author of " The Monk"-" Caftle Spectre," &c. &c. With a Præfcript Extraordinary, and an Ode on the Union. By Mauritius Moonthine, &c. &c. &c. 4to. Pr. 36. 25. Barker. 1801.

FORTUNATELY for us thefe Wonders do not bear fo extravagant a price as thofe of Mr. Lewis of which we had lately occafion to fpeak, or, independently of our utter averfion to the old woman's tricks, which are coming. into fashion, at once to frighten and to please the grown Masters and Miffes of the age, and moft woefully to corrupt the public tafte, we should have an additional motive for execrating the reign of Wonders.

"Neither perfonal animofity," fays the author in his Præfcript," nor envious pride, dictated the following Epiftle; it is a defence of poetical

property