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Revealing, on its conscious countenance,'
The shadows of the clouds that float above :-
Upon its central stone the heron sits
Stirless, as in the wave its counterpart,-
Looking, with quiet eye, towards the shore

Of dark-green copse-wood, dark, save, here and there,
Where spangled with the broom's bright aureate flowers.—
The blue-wing'd sea-gull, sailing placidly
Above his landward haunts, dips down alert
His plumage in the waters, and, anon,
With quicken'd wing, in silence re-ascends.
Whence comest thou, lone pilgrim of the wild?
Whence wanderest thou, lone Arab of the air?
Where makest thou thy dwelling-place? Afar,
O'er inland pastures, from the herbless rock,
Amid the weltering ocean, thou dost hold,
At early sunrise, thy unguided way,-
The visitant of Nature's varied realms,-
The habitant of Ocean, Earth, and Air,-
Sailing with sportive breast, mid wind and wave,
And, when the sober evening draws around
Her curtains, clasp'd together by her Star,
Returning to the sea-rock's breezy peak.

III.

And now the wood engirds me, the tall stems
Of birch and beech tree hemming me around,
Like pillars of some natural temple vast;
And, here and there, the giant pines ascend,
Briareus-like, amid the stirless air,

High stretching; like a good man's virtuous thoughts
Forsaking earth for heaven. The cushat stands
Amid the topmost boughs, with azure vest,
And neck aslant, listening the amorous coo
Of her, his mate, who, with maternal wing
Wide-spread, sits brooding on opponent tree.
Why, from the rank grass underneath my feet,
Aside on ruffled pinion dost thou start,

Sweet minstrel of the morn? Behold her nest,
Thatch'd o'er with cunning skill, and there, her young
With sparkling eye, and thin-fledged fusset wing:
Younglings of air! probationers of song!
From lurking dangers may ye rest secure,
Secure from prowling weasel, or the tread
Of steed incautious, wandering 'mid the flowers;
Secure beneath the fostering care of her
Who warm'd you into life, and gave you birth;
Till, plumed and strong, unto the buoyant air,
Ye spread your equal wings, and to the morn,
Lifting your freckled bosoms, dew-besprent,
Salute, with spirit- stirring song, the man
Wayfaring lonely.-Hark! the striderous neigh !—
There, o'er his dogrose fence, the chesnut foal,
Shaking his silver forelock, proudly stands,—
To snuff the balmy fragrance of the morn :-
Up comes his ebon compeer, and, anon,
Around the field in mimic chase they fly,
Startling the echoes of the woodland gloom.

IV.

How sweet, contrasted with the din of life, Its selfish miseries, and ignoble cares,

Are scenes like these; yet, in the book of Time,
Of many a blot, there is a primal leaf,
Whose pictures are congenial to the soul,
Concentring all in peace, whose wishes rest ;-
With rapture to the Patriarchal days—
The days of pastoral innocence, and health,
And hope, and all the sweetnesses of life-
The thought delighted turns; when shepherds held
Dominion o'er the mountain and the plain;
When, in the cedar shade, the lover piped
Unto his fair, and there was none to chide ;-
Nor paltry hate-nor petty perfidy:

But Peace unfurl'd her ensign o'er the world;
And joy was woven through the web of life,
In all its tissue; and the heart was pure;
And Angels held communion with mankind.

V.

Far different are the days in which 'tis ours
To live; a demon spirit hath gone forth,
Corrupting many men in all their thoughts,
And blighting with its breath the natural flowers,
Planted by God to beautify our earth:-

Wisdom and worth no more are chiefest deem'd
Of man's possessions; Gain, and Guilt, and Gold,
Reign paramount; and, to these idols, bow,
All unreluctant, as if man could boast

No loftier attributes, the supple knees
Of the immortal multitude. Ah me!

That centuries, in their lapse, should nothing bring
But change from ill to worse, that man, uncouch'd,
Blind to his interests, ever should remain-
The interests of his happiness; and prove,
Even to himself, the fiercest of his foes.
Look on the heartlessness that reigns around-
Oh, look and mourn; if springs one native joy,
Doth art not check it? In the cup of Fate,
If Chance hath dropp'd one pearl, do cruel hands
Not dash it rudely from the thirsting lip?
With loud lament, mourn for the ages gone,
Long gone, yet gleaming from the twilight past,
With sunbright happiness on all their hills,
The days, that, like a rainbow, pass'd away,-
The days that fled never to come again,-
When Jacob served for Leah; and when Ruth,
A willing exile, with Naomi came
From Bethlem-Judah; glean'd the barley-fields
Of Boaz, her mother's kinsman, trembling crept,
At starry midnight, to the threshing floor,
And laid herself in silence at his feet.

VI.

Thou, Nature, ever-changing, changest not-
The evening and the morning duly come-

And spring, and summer's heat, and winter's cold-
The very sun that look'd on Paradise,

On Eden's bloomy bowers, and sinless man,

Now blazes in the glory of his

power.

Yea! Ararat, where Noah, with his sons,
And tribes, again to people solitude,
Rested, lone-gazing on the floods around,
Remains a landmark for the pilgrim's path!
VOL. XXIV.

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such an endeavour from such a party deserves. The Liberals were so puffed up with a false idea of their own strength, that they vauntingly declared it was impossible the Government could go on without them, and that even if the official places were filled without their assistance, the first division in the House of Commons would show how completely triumphant they were in that assembly. They reckon ed without their host. The Tories, who had of late forsaken the House, sickened by the Liberalism of a part of the Treasury bench, yet unwilling to oppose a Government with the Duke of Wellington at the head of it, now rallied round a Ministry, to which they could give their full and hearty support; and the Liberals, even in the very hour of their boasting, were beaten into a ridiculous minority. The annals of Parliamentary conflicts scarcely furnish an example of such a complete overthrow in a trial of strength between parties. The next day,

"Their giantships were somewhat crest-fallen,

Stalking with less unconscionable strides."

The country, already disgusted with their folly, now laughed at their weakness, and the Liberals have sunk, we hope never to rise again. As to the fellows who put forth shallow nonsense in the newspapers, about "military government," they are hardly worth noticing, except that, in this age of superficial knowledge, they may have some effect upon those who have been taught to read, but not to think. We wish to tell these people, that a military government is one thing, and a civil government, partly administered by military men, another. It is impossible that, while our constitution lasts, we can have a military government; but if it so happen, that the habits of vigorous observation, and of prompt and decisive conduct, acquired in a military life, are useful for civil purposes, it would be the greatest conceivable folly not to make use of them, merely because they have been previously serviceable for military pur poses. This would be true at any time, but at present its truth is particularly obvious when the wavering and timorous, yet rash policy of the Liberals, has put our affairs in such a state as nothing but the habits we have just described would recover them from. Upon the

present state of the Government we have but to echo the hearty congratulations which are to be found in the mouth of almost every honest man, gentle or simple, throughout the country. It is not merely in places where politics form the chief subject of conversation, that these sentiments are to be found; it is not only in the clubs, and in London streets, but at fair and market, you see hale stout fellows meeting with a more vigorous shake of the hand than usual, and proposing an extra glass of ale to the health of the Duke and the new Ministry. Such is the triumph of honesty and plain dealing; the people are cheered at the sight of it, and England is herself again. The pleasure which men of observation feel at the change, is pro portioned to the danger from which they see the country delivered; for it was an alarming fact, that the system of the Liberals to entrap the young men who were coming out into public life, was pursued in many instances with the success that too frequently follows when flattery is applied to inexperience.

There was a set within the doors of the House, a knot of " bustling botherbys with nothing in 'em" but a confused mass of crude ideas upon every subject, who went buzzing and fizzing about, a-telling of the wonderful wonders of political economy, of their own philosophical and enlightened views, and pronouncing the subyersion of our constitution, and of all our ancient institutions, the sovereignst thing on earth for procuring the greatest happiness to the greatest number.

They persuaded the young men of enthusiastic minds and unsettled opinions, with assurances that it was the most old-fashioned and stupidest thing in the world, to think, or speak, or act, as their fathers did before them. They extolled the wisdom and the wit of the rising generation, and then they mixed in a few modern witlings of their own brood, to act as decoys; smart young men for small affairs, who come up from the semi-whig university, brimfull of prate and pedantic affectation. These deafened their less fidgetty companions with endless argumentations about fiddle faddle, to which the others listened with sad civility, and if they remained proof against the flattery of the old ones, at

length gave in, through mere weariness and exhaustion, to the pertinacity of the young. It would be a curious calculation to see how many votes the cunning old stagers obtained, by making cat's-paws of the novi homines, whom they patted on the back, crying, "See what an interesting creature! with such a mind! he must be one of us. We trust that all this is now at an end, and not only so, but that those young men of ability who have, unfortunately for themselves and the public, become connected with the party of the Liberals, will see their error, and return to solid and fixed principles. It is indeed almost certain that this will be the case, because it will be the natural result of the progress of knowledge and experience the old stagers of the Liberals, we think, will find that their party must die with them. Independently of political distinction, it is necessary

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for the success of young men in good society, that they should get out from the circle of the Whigs and Liberals. A true gentleman, with manly feeling and a knowledge of the world, had rather, at any time, meet a furious bull, a mad dog, or another gentleman at twelve paces, than one of these pests who canvass for applause among Whig people of both sexes, as interesting young men. There is a class of persons advertised for in the streets, in bills a yard square, as spirited young men," to enlist at L.16 a-head, in the service of the African Company, whom we take to be far more respectable and useful members of society, than the smirking, mawkish, awkward apes of the other set. But we are wearied at the thought of them, and must bid the subject good by, ending, as we began, by the expression of our great joy, that the Liberals have fallen.

66

NORFOLK PUNCH.

AN INCANTATION.

TWENTY quarts of real Nantz,
Eau-de-vie of southern France;
By Arabia's chemic skill,

Sublimed, condensed, in trickling still;
'Tis the grape's abstracted soul,
And the first matter of the bowl.

Oranges, with skins of gold,
Like Hesperian fruit of old,
Whose golden shadow wont to quiver
In the stream of Guadalquiver,
Glowing, waving as they hung
Mid fragrant blossoms ever young,
In gardens of romantic Spain,-
Lovely land, and rich in vain!
Blest by nature's bounteous hand,
Cursed with priests and Ferdinand!
Lemons, pale as Melancholy,
Or yellow russets, wan and holy.
Be their number twice fifteen,
Mystic number, well I ween,

As all must know, who aught can tell
Of sacred lore or glamour spell;
Strip them of their gaudy hides,
Saffron garb of Pagan brides,
And like the Argonauts of Greece,
Treasure up their Golden Fleece.

Then, as doctors wise preserve

Things from nature's course that swerve,

Insects of portentous shape-worms,

Wreathed serpents, asps, and tape-worms,

Ill-fashion'd fishes, dead and swimming,
And untimely fruits of women;
All the thirty skins infuse

In Alcohol's Phlogistic dews.
Steep them till the blessed Sun

Through half his mighty round hath run-
Hours twelve-the time exact

Their inmost virtues to extract.

Lest the potion should be heady,
As Circe's cup, or gin of Deady,
Water from the crystal spring,
Thirty quarterns, draw and bring ;
Let it, after ebullition,
Cool to natural condition.
Add, of powder saccharine,
Pounds thrice five, twice superfine;
Mingle sweetest orange blood,
And the lemon's acid flood;
Mingle well, and blend the whole
With the spicy Alcohol.

Strain the mixture, strain it well
Through such vessel, as in Hell
Wicked maids, with vain endeavour,
Toil to fill, and toil for ever.
Nine-and-forty Danaides,

Wedded maids, and virgin brides,
(So blind Gentiles did believe,)
Toil to fill a faithless sieve;

Thirsty thing, with nought content,
Thriftless and incontinent.

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