Obrázky stránek
PDF
ePub

Gentleman's Magazine:

AND

Historical Chronicle.

From JULY to DECEMBER, 1819.

VOLUME LXXXIX.

(BEING THE TWELFTH OF A NEW SERIES.)

PART THE SECOND.

PRODESSE ET DELECTARE.

E PLURIBUS UNUM.

By SYLVANUS URBAN, Gent.

LONDON: Printed by JOHN NICHOLS and SON,

at Cicero's Head, Red Lion Passage, Fleet Street;

where LETTERS are particularly requested to be sent, POST-PAID;

AND SOLD BY

J. HARRIS and SON (Successors to Mrs. NEWBERY),
at the Corner of St. Paul's Church Yard, Ludgate Street;

and by PERTHES and BESSER, Hamburgh. 1819.

TO SYLVANUS URBAN, GENT.

On completing his LXXXIXth Volume.

As on the fair translucent tides,

The silver Swan majestic rides,

His graces all appear;

So, Urban! thro' thy polish'd lines,
Magnificence with grandeur shines;

Thus brilliant thy career.

What joys supreme, and pleasures high,
Thy different works the mind supply,

The eye with transports fill;
For wand'ring 'mid thy classic store,
Vast heaps are found of richest lore,
Arrang'd with taste and skill.

Whether tempestuous storms arise,
Or driving snows obscure the skies,

Or heavy rains descend;
Should lightnings thro' the welkin play,
If Sol emits a scorching ray,
Sylvanus proves a friend.

Precluded, then, abroad to stray
Thro' laughing fields of coru so gay,
Or thro' the verdant mead;
How sweet to take thy Volumes down,
To search for deeds of great renown,
And gallant actions read.

Or turn to high behests of State;
The Senate's long and warm debate,
The speaker's skill admire;
The various Marriage Lists unfold;
The Births of noble heirs behold;
What Barons great expire.
Thy critical remarks review,
Replete with Learning, candid, true,

As various Works arise;
Should censures keen the book assail,
Or commendations just prevail ;
Amusement each supplies.
Occurrences, lo! next appear,
As circling thro' each varied year,
Momentous, high, and great;

Such as at Air Chapelle were seen,
Where mighty Sov'reigns grac'd the scene,
And Ministers of State.

There to consult fair Europe's weal,
Her deep and bleeding wounds to heal,

That flow'd thro' every land;
And o'er the universe to bring
Sweet Peace on silken downy wing,

With Commerce in her hand.
The Nations all, with one accord,
Hail Alexander, Russia's Lord;

Who War's fierce horrors brav'd;
Forgetting Moscow's burning flame:
His just retort was not the same,
But stately Paris sav'd.
While Time on rapid pinion flies,
Events Domestic, see! arise,
And joy prevails around;
The Bells send forth the merry notes,
The Canuons ope their brazen throats;
The strains of Musick sound.
Heirs to the Throne, behold! are given,
Ordain'd by all-indulgent Heav'n,
To favour Britain's land;
When these its potent Sceptre wield,
May they the choicest blessings yield,
Beneath their mild command.

Tho' Envy with a thousand stings,
And Malice with envenom'd wings,
Urban did once assail;
Like dew before the morning heat
Vanquish'd, they sought their foul retreat,
Their shafts could not prevail.
Unrival'd now thy Mag. bears sway
O'er Publications of the day,

On which the eye may pore;
Its excellence in ev'ry page
Shall gild and decorate the age,
Till Time shall be no more.

Teversal Rectory,
Dec. 31, 1819.

INDEX το THE PLATES.

Abbey House, Sherborne 209

Bayeux Cathedral, in Normandy 17
Bede's Chair 877

Bell Tower, Salisbury 305

Benbow, Vice-Admiral, Portrait of 9
Carfax Church, Oxford 201

Chesterfield Church, co. Derby 497
East Meon Church, Hants 297

Eaton House, Cheshire 393

Jews' Hospita, Whitechapel, London 489
Old Queen's Head and Artichoke, Regent's

Park 401

WILLIAM RAWLINS.

[blocks in formation]

PREFAСЕ.

IN announcing a continuation of our labours, we have

once more to thank our numerous and kind Friends. In taking a Review, however, of the Times, as usual, we feel ourselves much in the situation of Eneas, when he made his perilous journey to visit the shade of his father Anchises. We have to pass a River Styx, and the courts where Minos is sitting in judgment, and inflicting punishment upon various Revolutionary Ixions, Tityuses, and Prometheuses, in order to arrive at those peaceful classical shades, where the spirit of Musæus sings in heavenly strains the grand elementary principles of creative power. We trust, however, that those Giant Sons of Earth, Anarchy and Irreligion, will not remove the mountains which the Parliamentary power of our Constitutional Jupiter has laid upon them.

In a Country like our own, not dependent upon territory, but on commerce, arts, and a paper circulation, it is impossible that any other than pure selfish Adventurers can desire Revolution. Annihilate the Funds and our Bank Notes, what property is there left in England? We believe that it was Mr. Burke who said, that, if all the real property of England was divided in equal shares among the whole population, there would not be more than one week's subsistence. Commerce could not subsist without security, peace, law, a circulating medium, and property guaranteed. But whence could those arise, in an unsettled state of things? Conceive an annual income of fifty millions, spent among the people, diverted from trade and luxury in the greater part, and the arts thrown for support and encouragement upon the ignorant, who do not regard them. We do not wish to see that venerable matron Britannia, "the Old Lady in Threadneedle-street," placed in a course of the most violent and poisonous medicines by our political quacks, because we believe, that the insulting process would certainly end in her dissolution; and that the treatment would be infamously misapplied to a character, slandered indeed, but

1

« PředchozíPokračovat »