The soul is a fountain; and therefore it is not to die, though dust and darkness lie round its temple, because an ethereal fire has been breathed into it, which cannot be quenched though its breath expire. Is it the fountain, or the temple, that breathes, and has fire breathed into it?

Mr Montgomery apostrophizes the

Immortal beacons,-spirits of the just,'

and describes their employments in another world, which are to be, it seems, bathing in light, hearing fiery streams flow, and riding on living cars of lightning. The deathbed of the sceptic is described with what we suppose is meant for energy.

See how he shudders at the thought of death!
What doubt and horror hang upon his breath,
The gibbering teeth, glazed eye, and marble limb.
Shades from the tomb stalk out and stare at him.'

A man as stiff as marble, shuddering and gibbering violently, would certainly present so curious a spectacle, that the shades, if they came in his way, might well stare.

We then have the deathbed of a Christian made as ridiculous as false imagery and false English can make it. But this is not enough:-The Day of Judgment is to be described,—and a roaring cataract of nonsense is poured forth upon this tremendous subject. Earth, we are told, is dashed into Eternity. Furnace blazes wheel round the horizon, and burst into bright wizard phantoms. Racing hurricanes unroll and whirl quivering fire-clouds. The white waves gallop. Shadowy worlds career around. The red and raging eye of Imagination is then forbidden to pry further. But further Mr Robert Montgomery persists in prying. The stars bound through the airy roar. The unbosomed deep yawns on the ruin. The billows of Eternity then begin to advance. The world glares in fiery slumber. A car comes forward driven by living thunder.

"Creation shudders with sublime dismay,

And in a blazing tempest whirls away.'

And this is fine poetry! This is what ranks its writer with the master-spirits of the age! This is what has been described over and over again, in terms which would require some qualification if used respecting Paradise Lost! It is too much that this patchwork, made by stitching together old odds and ends of what, when new, was, for the most part, but tawdry frippery, is to be picked off the dunghill on which it ought to rot, and to be held up to admiration as an inestimable specimen of art. And what must we think of a system, by means of which verses like those which we have quoted-verses fit only for the poet's corner of

the Morning Post-can produce emolument and fame? The circulation of this writer's poetry has been greater than that of Southey's Roderic, and beyond all comparison greater than that of Cary's Dante, or of the best works of Coleridge. Thus encouraged, Mr Robert Montgomery has favoured the public with volume after volume. We have given so much space to the examination of his first and most popular performance, that we have none to spare for his Universal Prayer, and his smaller poems, which, as the puffing journals tell us, would alone constitute a sufficient title to literary immortality. We shall pass at once to his last publication, entitled Satan.

This poem was ushered into the world with the usual roar of acclamation. But the thing was now past a joke. Pretensions so unfounded, so impudent, and so successful, had aroused a spirit of resistance. In several magazines and reviews, accordingly, Satan has been handled somewhat roughly, and the arts of the puffers have been exposed with good sense and spirit. We shall, therefore, be very concise.

Of the two poems, we rather prefer that on the Omnipresence of the Deity, for the same reason which induced Sir Thomas More to rank one bad book above another. Marry, 'this is somewhat. This is rhyme. But the other is neither rhyme nor reason.' Satan is a long soliloquy, which the Devil pronounces in five or six thousand lines of blank verse, concerning geography, politics, newspapers, fashionable society, theatrical amusements, Sir Walter Scott's novels, Lord Byron's poetry, and Mr Martin's pictures. The new designs for Milton have, as was natural, particularly attracted the attention of a personage who occupies so conspicuous a place in them. Mr Martin must be pleased to learn, that, whatever may be thought of those performances on earth, they give full satisfaction in Pandemonium, and that he is there thought to have hit off the likenesses of the various Thrones and Dominations very happily. The motto to the Poem of Satan is taken from the Book of Job: - Whence comest thou?-From going to and fro in the earth, and walking up and down in it.' And certainly, Mr Robert Montgomery has not failed to make his hero go to and fro, and walk up and down. With the exception, however, of this propensity to locomotion, Satan has not one Satanic quality. Mad Tom had told us, that the prince of darkness is a gentleman; but we had yet to learn that he is a respectable and pious gentleman, whose principal fault is, that he is something of a twaddle, and far too liberal of his good advice. That happy change in his character which Origen anticipated, and of which Tillotson did not despair, seems to be rapidly taking place. Bad

VOL. LI. NO. CI.

habits are not eradicated in a moment. It is not strange, therefore, that so old an offender should now and then relapse for a short time into wrong dispositions. But to give him his due, as the proverb recommends, we must say, that he always returns, after two or three lines of impiety, to his preaching tone. We would seriously advise Mr Montgomery to omit, or alter, about a hundred lines in different parts of this large volume, and to republish it under the name of Gabriel.' The reflections of which it consists would come less absurdly, as far as there is a more and a less in extreme absurdity, from a good than from a bad angel.

We can afford room only for a single quotation. We give one taken at random-neither worse nor better, as far as we can perceive, than any other equal number of lines in the book. The Devil goes to the play, and moralizes thereon as follows:

• Music and Pomp their mingling spirit shed
Around me; beauties in their cloud-like robes
Shine forth,-a scenic paradise, it glares
Intoxication through the reeling sense
Of flush'd enjoyment. In the motley host
Three prime gradations may be rank'd: the first,
To mount upon the wings of Shakspeare's mind,
And win a flash of his Promethean thought,-
To smile and weep, to shudder, and achieve
A round of passionate omnipotence,
Attend the second, are a sensual tribe,
Convened to hear romantic harlots sing,
On forms to banquet a lascivious gaze,
While the bright perfidy of wanton eyes
Through brain and spirit darts delicious fire:
The last, a throng most pitiful! who seem,
With their corroded figures, rayless glance
And death-like struggle of decaying age,
Like painted skeletons in charnel pomp
Set forth to satirize the human kind!-
How fine a prospect for demoniac view!

"Creatures whose souls outbalance worlds awake!"
Methinks I hear a pitying angel cry.'

Here we conclude. If our remarks give pain to Mr Robert Montgomery, we are sorry for it. But, at whatever cost of pain to individuals, literature must be purified from this taint. And, to show that we are not actuated by any feelings of personal enmity towards him, we hereby give notice, that, as soon as any book shall, by means of puffing, reach a second edition, our intention is, to do unto the writer of it as we have done unto Mr Robert Montgomery.

ART. X.-Enquiries with respect to the Nature and Influence of Taxation. Pp. 81. London. 1830.

HE admirable and well-timed work of Sir Henry Parnell on Financial Reform, and the able and luminous speeches of Mr Goulburn on bringing forward the budget, and of Mr Poulett Thomson on moving for a committee to enquire into the state of taxation, have diffused a great deal of valuable information with respect to our financial situation. The work of Sir Henry Parnell is sound, clear, and comprehensive. The Honourable Baronet has gone over the whole field of our expenditure; he has presented every item in the most striking point of view, and pointed out the reductions that might be made without injury to the public service. But as this is a subject on which we propose entering at some length on a future occasion, we shall confine ourselves at present to a few remarks on the modifications proposed to be made in our system of taxation.

We believe the truth to be, notwithstanding all that has been said as to the enormous weight of taxation in this country, that we suffer infinitely more from the erroneous mode in which taxes have been imposed, than from their absolute weight. Were a few of the present taxes repealed, and others modified, we entertain no doubt that the same amount of revenue that is now raised might be obtained without any difficulty. The radical error into which most of our financiers have fallen, has consisted in their supposing, in contempt of the well-known remark of Dr Swift, that to increase or diminish a tax, was to effect a corresponding increase or diminution of the revenue. The whole of Mr Vansittart's financial policy was bottomed on this fallacious hypothesis. To think of adding to the revenue by lowering the duty on any article, appeared to him to involve a contradiction. He took for granted, and the House of Commons did not choose to question so great an authority, that whether the price of an article rose or fell, its consumption would remain constant!

It is from the effects of this precious system, if so we may term it, that the country is now suffering. Of all the articles on which duties have been laid-and our readers are aware how very comprehensive is the list-there is hardly one which is not overtaxed-that is, there is hardly one that would not yield more revenue were the duty upon it reduced. And such, we believe, is now the opinion of most of our public men. No sooner had his Majesty been graciously pleased to call Mr Vansittart to the

House of Lords, than his successor, demonstrated by the evidence of fact and experiment, what every one acquainted with the subject had predicted on general grounds, that the revenue might be increased by reducing duties.

Mr Vansittart was the very best friend, and Mr Robinson the worst enemy, of the smuggling interest. During the administration of the former, the duties on spirits in Ireland and Scotland had been raised to 5s. 6d. the wine gallon; and in consequence of this disproportionately heavy tax, smuggling, with the rapine and outrage inseparable from it, was carried to such a height, that not one-third of the spirits consumed in these parts of the empire paid duty. In 1824, the duties were reduced from 5s. 6d. to 2s. the wine gallon; and the revenue derived from spirits, as we showed in our last number, has increased in Ireland from L.912,288, to L.1,395,120; and in Scotland from L.727,650, to L.809,559. Smuggling has, at the same time, been completely put down. It is, besides, wholly false to affirm, that there has been any increase of drunkenness; spirits legally distilled have been substituted in the place of those that were illegally distilled, and that is all.

Fortunately, too, this is not a solitary instance of the comparatively great productiveness of moderate duties. In 1806, when the duty on coffee was 1s. 8d. a-pound, the revenue derived from it amounted to L.152,759. In 1809, when the duty had been reduced to 7d., the revenue, instead of falling, increased to L.245,886; and in 1828, when the duty was 6d., the revenue amounted to L.425,389; the consumption being about fifteen times as great as in 1806. In other articles, such as wine, the duties, on which had been carried to an oppressive height, their reduction has been followed by similar effects.

Now, all that we desire of ministers is, that they should vigorously prosecute this course. We do not call upon them to relinquish revenue, for we know that a very large revenue is absolutely necessary to meet the pressing exigencies of the public service. But we call upon them to avail themselves of the experience afforded by the reductions made during the administration of Mr Robinson,-to repeal such duties as, from being injurious to industry, tend to dry up the sources of all revenue; and to modify and reduce such as, from being carried to an oppressive height, have become highly burdensome to the public, without being so productive as they would be were they lower.

Ministers, we are happy to be able to say, appear to be satisfied that this is the proper course to follow. And though