All beat by wint'ry wind, or solar ray,
Behold their scanty locks with service grey :
Hearts that have brav'd the battle's rage unmov'd,
To forrow foften'd--for the Chief they lov'd.
In vain the rending figh bestows relief,
Or bounds the measure of heroic grief :
With pensive steps as o'er his grave they bend,
Still mem’ry points--the leader, guardian, friend.
If England's glory plans fome bold design,
They fee his presence animate the line;
No certain danger can their breasts control,
Each gen'rous Tar feels all his leader's soul.
Soon as the daring signal waves on high
The foe invokes the wind, and haftes to fly,
To seek for safety by a timely flight,
Nor try with Britain's sons ch' unequal light.
If midnight tempefts o'er the ocean sweep,
Pile wave on wave, and raise the yawning deep,
His mind serene affumes the pilot's art,
Saves from the storm, and cheers the drcoping heart.
Should toil or famine on the sailor'wait,
He shares his wants, and mitigates his fate.
And when Disease pours forth his blafts of death,
And fainting squadrons ficken at the breath,
The hero's bofom swells with tides of grief,

Prepares the balm, and gives the pang relief." Having described the blessings of peace, the poet thus ada verts to the

great cause of the war.
« Oh! had those halcyon days from year to year,
In long succession, press'd their bright career;
Nor left to damned deeds a ruthless age,
To fiends and furies worse than Vandal's rage.
From France, the nurse of manners, and of crimes,
The Hydra sprung, the Genius of the times :
Alike the tyrant and the Nave of Pow'r,'
On carnage bent, to plunder and devour:
See wearied Life with blood and torture vex'd,
And, oh! tremendous horror! doubt the next;
Hence laws defied that save from moral stains,
And present guilt that fears no future pains;
Hence polish d Order to confufiony ran,
All that degrades the savage from the man ;
The facred fane no more Mall incense raise,
Or Hallelujahs to Jehovah's praise;
The throne, the altar, to destruction hurl'd,
And worse than second chaos threats the world."

An

An animated description of the Battle of the Firft of June is next given ; and a note respecting fome circumstances of it ought to be preserved as an historical document.

“ The merits of this victory will always be appreciated from the obstinate resistance of the enemy. The fleets may be said to have been equal in force, as near as the number of ships in each can be reckoned : the French had most ships of the line ; but the English had more threedeckers. But, on the evening of the 29th of May, three fail, dir. abled, left the enemy's feet; and, by great good luck, they were joined, before the action of the First of June, by three others.

“ The French fleet was commanded by officers, who, in the lan. guage of Jacobinism, were said to be of • tried rizijn; the feamen were a chosen body, and all enthusiasts in the new order of things. A Commissioner of the Convention was, moreover, embarked on board the Montague ; partiy with a view to harangue the seamen, as had been so successiully done in the army ; and also to watch the conduct of the Admiral. The French certainly exceeded their usual naval bravery ; but British valour never appeared greater. In a general action there never was so much done in fo short a space ; for two Englith and seven French thips were totally dismafted in four hours. Some of the French Tips are reported to have had furnaces on board for heating shot; but they were, probably, never lighted. The French Captains, on leaving Breit, are faid to have taken an oath never to strike their colours ; but their consciences were leti pretty easy on that fcore, for the Englith fhot faved them the trouble.

" The following nore is taken from the second volume of the au. thor's work on the Difcases of the Fleet. As we may not ağáin have occafion to inention the Victory of the Firt.of June, we must beg leave to contradict the statement of some occurrences on that day, reJative to the finking of the Vengeur. It was faid that the Frenchmen who went down in that ship, as long as their heads were above Water, continued to cry aloud - Vive la Republique !'- and with this expression in their mouths funk to the bottom. Somehow or other his account got into the English papers, and soon reached France. But the whole is a talsehood; and I have it from the authority of the British oficers who attended to fare the people, and saw the dismal catastrophe. The feene presented a very different fpectacle :, all was horror and dismay; and no fuch words were ever uttered. Barrere, in the Convention, made a fine, text of the report, in expatiacing on the Naval Victory of his redoubtable friend Jean Bon St. Andre. Volive. tablers were inmediately decreed to the manes of the fufferers ; and a three-decker ordered to be built, and called Le Vengeur.' (Vide Med. Nautica, r., p. 19. Longman and Res."

59

NOVELS AND TALES.

Adelaide of Narbonne :' With Memoirs of Charlotte de Cordet. 4 vols.

12mo. Lane. London, 1800. IT T has long been the practice among novel writers to twine some

fanciful invention with historical facts, and produce from this connection a story of greater interest. The author of this book has availed herself (for we somehow imagine it to be the production of a female) of this custom, and with no little ingenuity has worked fiction and fact together, laying ber scene on the tangent line of La Vendée, introducing many well-known characters of the French, making their propensities and actions subservient to her well-told lale.--She holds the scale of politics with

so even an hand, as far as mere opinion reaches, that it were impoflible to learn her own decided lentiments; while she execrates the fanguinary horrors of a Revolution and all the miseries of republican France. For in her delineation of Charlotte de Cordet, she describes her as a repub, lican but a rational one ;' and in her charac'er of an Englishman she draws him “ as a rational royalist.”. By the way, thole who seem to have known that heroine well, do not consider her to have been a republican.

As her scene is in the neighbourhood of La Vendée, the time is that of Marat'; many of the numerous anecdotes, related about him and his contemporaries, are interspersed fo artfully as to become part of her story. While her sentiments on the form of government are undiscoverable, those of obedience to the laws--of strict morality of pure religion--are every where luch as do credit to her heart; and her work may be conlidered not less instructive than amusing.

Rofella. 4 vols. 12mo. Lane, London. 1800,

THIS novel upon novels, ridicules, with elegant fatire and delicate irony, the impossible events, unnatural incidents, and inde corous situations of contemporary writers. A mother who had her. self loved and married a-la-mode d'Heroine loses her husband in early life; but not cured of the circulating-library mania looks forward to see her daughter “ puzzled in the mazes and perplexed with the errors' which had so agreeably tortured the Hermiones, Jaquilinas, Geraldinas, Philippinas, Gipley Duchesses, and beggar, girls of the day. For this purpose she takes her daughter, an uns affe&ted and unconscious girl, a tour into Wales, that castle-bearing country; expecting in every dingle fome “ hair-breadth 'Icape, at every inn some surprising incident, and in every man some libertine adorer, or proring wain. The story is so artfully managed, we feel uncommon interest for the charming Rolella, and even the mere novel-reading Miss, who sees nothing " in the bent of the gale” beyond the story, will find her heart engaged in it.

The The characters are well diversified and nicely drawn ; betraying a mind of observation. The very touches of satire tickle rather than wound the feelings of thole writers who have deviated beyond nature and propriety.

Conftantia Neville : or, The Weft Indian. A Novel. By Helena

Wells, Author of the Stepmother, &c. 3 Vols, 125. Cadell

and Davies. London. Crouch. Edinburgh. 1800. WE most heartily deprecate the resentment of the fair author of this admirable work, for the neglect we have unintentionally been guilty of towards her. Our best apology will be found in the real truth, namely, that had we perceived in it the smallest traits of those opinions, which it is our duty to reprobate, it would much fooner have been held forth to the world in its proper point of view.

A novel, which by its own intrinsic merits hath so well made its way to public estimation, stands not in need of our commendation. We cannot however avoid, for our own fakes, declaring, that as moralists, we recommend it for the purity and soundness of its prin eiples; and as friends to the religion of our country, for that piety and Christian humility, which it so strongly inculcates. We envy not the powers of that understanding, nor the qualities of that heart which are not enlarged and amended by the perusal of this publication.

THE DRAMA.

Life. A Comedy in Five Aes. By Frederick Reynolds, Esq. 25.

Longman and Rees. London. 1800. HERE would be a degree of cruelty in trying the efforts of dramatic productions have been written on the immediate folly of the moment; his characters sketched from the fleeting fashion and adapted to fome peculiar performer. His language though not wit is something like it ; and his aim has been to raise a temporary laugh."

The present drama is, perhaps, the nearest to a regular comedy of any he has written ; but it was intended for the stage rather than the closet; where it has had sufficient success; and may be compared to bottled cyder, very lively, very palatable, very refreshing, and not very strong.

The Birth-Day: A Comedy in Three Aets. Altered from the German

of Kutzbue, and adapted to the English Stage. By Thomas Dibdin, Author of the Jew and the Doctor, &c. Longman and Recs. London. ' 2800.

THIS comedy is altered from “ Reconciliation,” a work of Kotzbue's, and, in our opinion, infinitely furpasses the original; it is, in short, one of the most interesting little pieces we have lately perused, and fully merits all the succeis it has received.

Antonio : or, The Soldier's Return.

THIS tragedy, which was anonymously played at Drury-lane, and completely coughed down on its only representation, is now published as the acknowledged production of the well-known Mr. Godwin. He has added a short preface to it, ftating it to be his first attempt in the dramatic line, and recommending it to a perusal in the clolet. Nothing but the vanity or the poverty of its author could have induced luch a publication, after the unequivocal marks of contempt with which an unbiassed audience decided upon its merits.

The plot, if it can be called one, when it wants every requisite, is beneath the rudest epoch of the stage. The language wants energy, Variety, and metre, except a few new•coined words can be called variety. It is totally destitute of incident, unless we call an unprovoked murder incident; nor is there any thing in the whole composition to excite a momentary intereit, it is printed as if intended to be inetrical; but there is no appearance of meafure, 'unless he wishes it to be clafled under the indefinite scanning of imperfect Jambics, while some of the lines are hexameter.

From Mr. Godwin's former productions we looked eagerly for fome new specimens of the new philosophy, nothing less could have induced us to read the play through; yet we could find none byt what he

may

soften down, if he pleafes, as a lentiment of the character and not his own. When Antonio reproaches his sister with marrying another, after being betrothed to his friend, before her dying father who placed their hands together, he adds-

" This was a marriage---thou'wert Roderigo's wife :
Wherever was a contract sealed with such
Solemnity in every circumstance,
So venerable--lo binding- ?

Adultress
And in another place:

what makes
A marriage . ? .conicnt of

parents. Phaugh-this imells rank.-We feel some regret that this gentleman's abilities are not at all calculated for the Itage, because we fancy he would never have

apa plied them that way, if he had not deserted his old wicked ways os they had not deserted him, We could will him to forbear puzzling himself and the public with metaphysical disquisitions which weither understand; but fear, from this ill success, that his delukory roind will be again s'exercing iis energies" in mischief.

Tui fcribimus indocti deftiguen lang 1: UW WST. 11:

POETRY.