Nor have we more than two works of primary importance to notice in biography. First, 06 "The Life and Original Correspon"dence of Sir George Radcliffe, Knight, L. L. D. the Friend of the "Earl of Strafford." By THOMAS DUNHAM WHITAKER, L. L. Ď. A publication which tends to throw considerable light on the unhappy times of Charles the first. The summary of the characters of Strafford and Radcliffe is peculiarly interesting. The other work is entitled, "Memoirs of the late Noel Desen"fans, Esq. containing also a Plan for "preserving the Portraits of distin. "guished Characters, Poems, and Let"ters." Noel Desenfans, Esq. was born in the year 1745, at Douay in Flanders, at the college of which place, as well as in the University of Paris, afterwards he gained distinguished honours. At the age of eighteen Mr. Desenfans wrote a work, entitled "L'Eleye de la Nature," which procured him an introduction to Jean Jaques Rousseau. He afterwards distinguished himself by other literary productions on various subjects, and particularly in a dramatic piece, intitled, "La Fete du Coulange," founded upon Marmontel's tale of Laurette. The literary work however which gained him most credit was the vindication of Fenelon, against the reflections on his character in one of Lord Chesterfield's Letters to his Son. His next production was "a plan for promoting the arts of this country by the establishment of a national gal. lery of paintings." When the Prince Primate of Polaud, brother of the late amiable monarch of that country came to England, Mr. Desenfans received the appointment of Consul General of Poland; and was requested by the sovereign to form a collection for him of the works of the best masters. The collection of pic tures, however, in consequence of the Polish troubles, were left upon bis hands: and the subsequent change which took place in the sentiments of the Emperor Paul towards this country frustrated even the hope which Mr. Desenfans had formed that the Prince who possessed so great a share of Poland, would feel himself bound to discharge the obligations of the deceased monarch. Mr. Desenfans bequeathed his own exquisite collection of pictures to Sir Francis Bourgeois. He died July 8th, 1807. The plan for a national gallery follows the life, and is preceded by a short review of the fine arts. The volume also contains a few copies of French verses; a letter from Mr. Desenfans to Mrs. Montague, in French; another from M. Thomas to Mr. Desenfans on his vindication of Fenelon, with a translation; and some lines addressed to Mr. Desenfans by Mr. Taylor. POLITICS, POLITICAL ECONOMY, &c. It will not be easy to name a more important production in this class than that on the "Effects of the Continental Blockade upon the Commerce, Finances, Credit and Prosperity of the British Islands. By Sir FRANCIS D'IVERNOTS, Translated from the Third French Edition, revised; corrected, and enlarged; to which are added, Observations on certain Statements contained in a late Work, entitled "A View of the Notural and Commercial Circumstances of Ireland. By THOMAS NEWENHAM, Esq. "A Letter from LORDVISCOUNT ME. VILLE to the Right Hon. SPENCER PER. CEVAL, On the Subject of Naval Tim. ber," is another publication of considerable moment. The advice his lordship gives is principally founded on the report of the commissioners ap pointed to enquire into the condition of the woods and forests of the crown in 1792. He strongly urges the neces sity of husbanding and preserving the timber now remaining in the kingdom, as well as the providing means, without delay, for supplying the wants of the navy at a future period. And also points out such resources as may be collaterally useful in the interval. In this class also we have a republication to report in a new edition of Natural and Political Observations and Conclusions, upon the State and Condition of England, 1696." By Gus GORY KING, Esq. Lancaster Herald. Το To which is prefixed, a Life of the Author, by GEORGE CHALMERS, F.R.S. S.A. The life is founded on certain notes which Mr. King himself left in manuscript, and which are still extant in the Bodleian library at Oxford. "The Question concerning the De"preciation of our Currency stated and examined by W. HUSKISSON, Esq. · M. P." Mr Huskisson having taken a part in the discussion which preceded the Report of the Bullion Committee has here given an explanation of his opinions respecting the deplo. rable state of our currency and circulation, and of the grounds on which those opinions were founded. To do justice to the merits of his pamphlet here would be impossible; we can only hope to communicate a faint notion of the valuable facts and argunients which it contains. In a preface of nineteen pages he animadverts on several of the attacks made on the Committee's Report. la considering the main question, Mr. Huskisson sets out with some remarks on the various definitions of the word "money", and the different acceptations in which that word is used in the ordinary transactions of life. He afterwards applies these general observations to the particular money of this country. He assumes, as admitted, that in Great Britain, gold is the scale to which all prices are referred, and, since the 39th of the King, the only LEGAL TENDER except for payments under 251. He likewise assumes as unquestionable both in fact and law, 1. That a pound of gold, of our standard, is coined into 44 guineas and a half, and that any person may, at the King's mint, procure any quantity of gold to be so coined, free of any expence whatever; the officers of the mint being obliged to return, in coin, precisely the same quantity which inay have been deposited with them, without making any charge for the conversion of it into money. 2dly, That by law, these gaineas, which, when fresh from the mint weigh 5 dwts. 9 grains, and thirty-nine eightyninths of a grain each, cease to be a "legal lender" if, by wear or otherwise they are reduced below 5 dwts. 8 grains, which is a diminution in their value of a small fraction more than one per cent. "Consequently the law of England before the year 1797, distinctly secured to every man, that he should not be compelled to take in satisfaction of a legal debt, for every guinea of that debt, less than 5 dwts. 8 grains of gold of standard fineness; and, as distinctly that he should not be obliged to receive as the "representative" of a guinea, or a guinea's worth, any article or thing which would not purchase or procure that quantity of gold. Such was the state of our current coin before the year 1797." At this period, in consequence of a demand upon the bark for gold, altogether unusual, and arising from a combination of untoward circumstances and events, partly political and partly commercial, the directors of that institution felt themselves bound to state to the government the unprecedented difficulties and embarrassments of their situation. It is needless perhaps to add that an act was obtained for the temporary suspension of cash-payments." The nature of the change which this act created in the state of our circulation is ably explained by Mr. Huskis son. "If it had been proposed, at once, (he says) to make Bank Notes a legal tender," and in direct terms, to enact that every man should, theuceforward, be obliged to receive them as equivalent to the gold coin of the realm, without reference to the quantity of gold bullion which might be procured by a bank note of any given "denomination ;" such a proposition would have excited universal alarm, and would have forcibly drawn the attention of the legislature and the public to the real nature of our circulation, and to the possible consequences of such an innovation. But certainly, nothing of the sort was in the contemplation of any man when the first suspension act was passed. That it was then considered and proposed, as an expedient which would be but of short duration, the course of the proceedings in parliament abun dantly indicates. "Such being the original charac. ter of the measure it is not extraordi. nary that in that crisis, parliament without much hesitation, and without any suspicion of the ultimate possible consequences, should have afforded a temporary protection from arrest to a debtor, who should have made a tender of payment in bank notes. But, if, in the year 1797, it had been foreseen that this temporary expedient would be attempted to be converted into a system for an indefinite number years, years and that, under this system, in the year 1810, every creditor, public or private, subject or alien, to whom the Jaw as it then stood, and as it now stands, had secured the payment of a pound weight of standard gold for every 461. 14s. 6d. of his just demand, would be obliged to accept in full satisfaction about 10 ounces, or not more than seventeen shillings in the pound; with a prospect of a still further reduction in every subsequent year: it is impossible to conceive that the attention and feelings of parliament would not have been alive to all the individual injustice and ultimate public calamities, incident to such a state of things; and that they would not have provided for the termination of the restriction, before it should have wrought so much mischief, and laid the foundation of so much confusion in all the dealings and transactions of the community." Mr. Huskisson afterwards goes on more minutely to illustrate his positions on the effect of the act of 1797. In stating some of the assertions, and examining the arguments and explanations of those who have maintained the sound and undepreciated state of our present wretched paper currency, Mr. Huskisson shews great acuteness. The explanations which have been offered by those who have endeavoured to shew that the high price of gold in England is not connected with any excess in the enormous issue of bank paper, are next consider. ed. Mr. Huskisson next enquires what aid the question of our foreign exchange can afford, in explanation of the difference between the standard of our coin, and the actual value of our paper currency, It being, as Mr. Huskisson conceives, placed beyond all doubt that our paper currency is much depreciated, that its depreciation is to be ascribed altogether, to an excess in the issue of that paper; and that without the restriction law no such excess could have existed, or at least have been permanently maintained, it follows, that the repeal of that temporary law is the obvious remedy for this great evil, Great Britain, a view of some of the principal streams of Europe, Asia, Africa, and America, an illustration of the singular pre-eminence of Thames, the port of London, the naval dominion of Britain and her commerce, and the tradition that an immense forest once occupied the site of the metropolis. Closing with an episode of a druid, supposed to have taken refuge in that forest, after the expulsion of the order from Mona. The following we consider to be no mean specimen of the author's talents. "Along thy course no pine-clad steep, No Alpine summits proudly toner; No woods, impenetrably deep, O'er thy pure mirror darkly lower; The orange-grove, the myrtle bower, The vine, in rich luxuriance spread; The charms Italian meadows shower, The sweets Arabiau vallies shed; The roaring cataract, wild and white, The lotos-flower of azure bright, The fields, where ceaseless suminer smiles, The bloom that decks the Egean isles; The hills that touch the empyreal plain, Olympian Jove's sublime domain; To other streams all these resign: Still none, oh Thames! shall vie with thine; For what avails the myrtle bower, Where beauty rests at noon-tide hour; The orange-grove, whose blooms exhale Rich perfume on the ambient gale; And all the charms in bright array, Which happier climes than thine display? Ah! what avails, that heaven has roll'd A silver stream o'er sands of gold, And deck'd the plain, and reared the grove, Fit dwelling for primeval love; If man defile the beauteous scene, And stain with blood the smiling green ; If man's worst passions there arise, To counteract the favouring skies; If rapine there, and murder reign, And human tigers prowl for gain, Aud tyrants foul, and trembling slaves, Pollute their shores, and curse their waves?" The second part opens with the influence of spring on the scenery of the river, contrasting the tranquil beauty of the vallies of the Thames with the sublimity of more open and elevated regions, "Not here, in dreadful grandeur piled, The mountain's pathless masses rise, Where wandering fancy's lonely child Might meet the spirit of the skies: Not here, from misty summits hoar, Where shattered firs are rooted strong; With headlong force and thundering roar The bursting torrent foams along: These have their charms, sublimely dread; For nature on the mountain's head Delights the treasures to dispense of all her wild magnificence: But thou art sweet, my native stream! Thy waves in liquid lustre play, And glitter in the morning beam, And chime to rest the closing day: While the vast mountain's dizzy steep The whirwind's eddying rage assails, The gentlest zephyrs softly sweep, The verdure of thy sheltered vales: While o'er the wild and whitening seas The unbridled north triumphant roars, Thy stream scarce ripples in the breeze, That bends the willow on thy shores: The battle-clangors ring, And bless a patriot king." The course of the Thames is next viewed from its source near Kemble meadow in Gloucestershire to the Nore. Toward the close of all we have a comparative adversion to the ancient state of the Euphrates and Araxes, at Babylon and Persepolis. At the end are a few explanatory notes. Another poem of merit, perhaps superior, will be found in " Constance de Castile," by WILLIAM SOTHEBY, Esq. Constance de Castile, the heroine of the poem, was the daughter of Peter the Cruel, king of that country, in whose right the same title was afterwards assumed by John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, her husband. The few anecdotes remaining to us on authentic evidence of Constance's life appear to have left Mr. Sotheby at full liberty as a poet. We have not room to state the outline of the story; but we present the reader with a short extract descriptive of the march through the Roncevalles pass, which may serve as a fortaste of numerous passages of equal spirit, should he feel inclined to peruse the whole. The banners wave, the signal's given, From Bourdeaux' towers the long array "Along the realm of Gasgony "Now the green vales are left behind: Through glens, where wolves at random prowl, And bay the moon with ceaseless howl. But the most important poem we have to notice, is "The Curse of Kehama," by ROBERT SOUTHEY. We cannot explain the intention of the poem better than in the words of the PREFACE. which of all false religions is the most "In the religion of the Hindoos, fatal in its effects, there is one remonstrous in its fables, and the most markable peculiarity. Prayers, penances, and sacrifices, are supposed to possess an inherent and actual value, in no degree depending upon the disposition or motive of the person who heaven, for which the gods cannot reperforms them. They are drafts upon fuse payment. The worst men, bent upon the worst designs, have in this inanner obtained power which has deities themselves, and rendered an made them formidable to the supreme Avatar, or incarnation of Veeshnoo the preserver, necessary. This belief poem. The story is original; but in is the foundation of the following all its parts consistent with the super. stition upon which it is built; and how. they might almost be thought credible ever startling the fictions may appear, of Hindoo mythology." when compared with the genuine tales contents of the poem, follows a brief Immediately after the account of the explanation of the mythological names used in it. The substance of the story seems to be that Arvalan, the son of the Rajah Kehamah, having been slain by Ladurlad, (to whose daughter he had offered violence,) his spirit invokes the vengeance of his father against the person who had deprived him of life. The latter pronunces a curse upon La. durlad, the operation of which is ex. hibited under a variety of forms. Kailyal, the daughter of Ladurlad, is made a prominent character through. out the poem, and presents an emi nent instance of virtuous fortitude. Kailyal and Kehama at last appear before the throne of Yamen the Hindoo judge of the dead. They both tast the amreeta or drink of immortality, which is to work the will of fate. To Kehamah it proves a stream of poison, "infinite everlasting agony." To Kailyal, the mysterious draught of mercy, While from the golden throne the lord of death, With love benignant, on Ladurlad smil'd, And geptly on his head his blessing laid. As sweetly as a chi'd, Whom neither thought disturbs nor care incumbers, Tir'd with loug play, at close of summer day, Lies down and slumbers, Even thus as sweet a boon of sleep partaking, By Yamen blest, Ladurlad sunk to rest. Blessed that sleep! more blessed was the waking! For on that night a heavenly morning broke, The light of heaven was round him when he woke, And in the Swerga, in Yadillian's bower, All whom he lov'd be met, to part no more " The poem itself occupies twenty four cantos or divisions, with the fol lowing titles. 1. The Funeral. 2. The Curse. 3. The Recovery. 4. The Departure. 5. The Separation. 6. Casyapa. 7. The Swerga. 8. The Sacrifice. 9. The Home Scene. 10. Mount Meru. 11. The Enchantress. 12. The Sacrifice compleated. 13. The Retreat. 14. Jaga-Naut. 15. The City of Baly. 16. The Ancient Sepul chres. 17. Baly. 18. Kehama's Descent. 19. Mount Calasay. 20. The Embarkation. 21. The World's Eud. 22. The Gate of Padelon. lon. 24. The Amreeta. 23. Pade The following short extract, from that called "Mount Meru," will speak its own merits. "They sin who tell us love can die. With life all other passions fly, All others are but vanity. For all her sorrow, all her tears, The description of the enchantress, from the eleventh canto, is another passage deserving the highest commendation: "She was a woman whose unlovely youth, Even like a cankered rose, which none will call Had withered on the stalk; her heart was full Of passions which had found no natural scope, Feelings which there had grown but ripened not; Desires unsatisfied, abortive hope, Repinings which provoke vindictive thought, These restless elements for ever wrought, Tormenting in her with perpetual stir, And thus her spirit to all evil mov'd; She hated men because they lov'd not her, Aud hated women because they were lov'd. And thus in wrath and hatred and despair, She tempted hell to tempt her; and resign'd Her body to the demons of the air, Wicked and wanton Zends who, where they will, Wander abroad still seeking to do ill, |