tion, during his reign, were for the most part plausibly respected, and a system was organized for managing, instead of opposing, the checks which the constitution had provided against the overbearing ascendancy of the power of the crown. This system was neither openly avowed nor publicly practised; but, as all the avenues of civil preferment and social distinction were constantly shut against those who affected political independence, so, in the course of this long reign, all who have not yielded, have been obliged to bear their cross, till martyrdom became romantic, because unavailing. Hence the policy of many late Parliaments; hence the long and frightful wars, to indulge the prejudices of the court and Tory faction; and hence all the alloys of our domestic peace and prosperity. GENERAL CONCLUSIONS. It would be difficult, (says a cotemporary writer,) to conceive a monarch on the throne of this country, whose sentiments, mind, and conduct, could be more adjusted to the general perceptions of the people over whom he ruled, than those of his late Majesty. To be abstemious, true, just, plain, methodical, punctual, a good husband, father, and master, is precisely the national idea of a good moral character; just as to be free, unostentatious, settled in principle, persevering (sometimes to excess), and possessed of a high degree of what is emphatically called common, as distinguished from profound sense, is the most prevalent British notion of practical mental superiority. It cannot be denied for a moment, that, though we may fall back in certain branches of prosperity, our scientific and literary progress as a people, during the reign of George III. has been most conspicuous, and ought to be allowed to reflect credit upon the ruier. Externally, we may allude to the extraordinary progress of maritime discovery and scientific precision in all which relates to geography, in its capacious and extended sense. At home, inland navigation, manufacturing ingenuity, agricultural improvement, planting, useful roads, works, and undertakings; in short, all which can be comprised under the head of political economy, or form objects of what it is now fashionable to entitle statistical survey, has been extended in a surprising degree under George III. The best things which he may be said to have personally influenced, were his patronage of the fine arts; the encourage ment of voyages of discovery; the example, in whatever taste, which he set to the revival of agriculture; and the strong and unexpected countenance which he gave to the Lancaster schools. The last in particular does him great honour, because it was a direct and voluntary departure from the usual selfish policy of kings. The worst things in his reign, and nothing can in a public sense be worse, were the obstinacy with which he pursued his wars, and the consequent frightful increase of debt, misery, and poverty; and of the influence of the crown. The late Bills are a proof that public liberty has not advanced in his time; and the late unpunished murders and other crimes at Manchester, and the exhibition of Master David Wroe, aged eleven years, in his pinafore, at the bar of a court of justice, within a few days of the monarch's death, for the alleged crime of wickedly selling a libel in his father's shop, is a feature of the close of the reign, which would not have marked its commencement. A writer, not characterized by his liberality, concludes of him thus: "We should say, then, of George the Third, that he was a prince of little real intellect, of a good deal of animal vivacity and courage, of considerable self-will, of homely and frugal habits, and of correct moral conduct, according to the reigning opinions on that subject. He was good-naturedly inclined; but had narrow views, and too arbitrary a temper, for an English sovereign. He wanted real dignity both in his manners and amusements; the former being too hurried and flippant, and the latter too mechanical, childish, and uninformed." CONTRAST OF 1760 AND 1820. ..... .... 1760. 1820. Quartern Loaf .... ..... .... Years of War.. Years of Peace Country Banks Currency ......... ... 850 33 .... 28s. .... 658. .. 65 ...... 25 .... ....... 300 30 mullions 25 INSCRIPTION ON HIS COFFIN. DEPOSITUM Serenissimi Potentissimi et Excellentissimi Monarchia GEORGII TERTII. Dei Gratia, Britanniarum Regis, Fidei Defensoris, Regis Hanoveræ, ac Brunsvici et Luneburgi Ducis, Obiit xxix die Januarii, Anno Domini MDCCCXX. Etatis suæ LXXXII. Regnique sui LX. COLLECTIONS FROM AMERICAN LITERATURE. N the accounts which English travel lers have given of America, and its citizens, there may probably be much which, from igStance or inattention, is foreign to the truth. This, even if it were carried to a much greater extent, should not excite the anger of the Americans; for all such accounts are received by sensible people with many grains of allowance. The consciousness of their aberration from truth, if it be so, should make such shafts fall harmless. It is no new thing in this world, to bear undeserved reproach; and the Americans should remember the saying of Socrates, who, when one of his friends was lament ́ing that an innocent man should perish, exclaimed, "Had you rather then that I died guilty." There would not, perhaps, be much magnanimity in passing over such misrepresentations in calm silence, or, at most, the answer of a wise man would be couched in dispassionate language. It is not, however, by words, that such charges should be refuted, but by deeds; and the first example which the Americans should give of the falsity of the accusations of those whom they deem their enemies, should be to show them, that they can at least forbear. This, however, and the assertion is not made to exasperate, is not an American virtue. They have done so much, and their conduct stands so high in their own opinion, that, to deny their merit, maddens them. To persons of the above opinions, the appearance of a work, by Mr. WALSH, in which all these antipathies and animosi ties are set in the strongest light,-in which all the ribaldry and coarse jokes of the English writers on the subject of America, are carefully collected: "all their faults observed, Set in a note-book, learned, and conned by rote, To cast into their teeth." And all this, only to reply with discourteous acrimony to light and unmeaning remarks:-the appearance of a work like this, will to such persons be a source of serious lamentation. By this means, the foolish, and perhaps unjust, aspersions which, in their separate shape, must have been innocuous, even if discovered, are dragged forward in one formidable array to the eyes and execration of all American patriots. Every illiberal remark, every sneer of contempt, which the author could collect from the Journals of Great Britain, are laudably drawn into one focus, in order that the concentrated rays might kindle the glow of resentment in the bosom of America. What is the object of all this? Will the English, if they have really been unjust, feel gratified by this not very polite exposition of their error, or will they be convinced that America is free from faults, because the author endeavours to fix on the character of England imputations of a deeper dye? As the impartial judgment of an uninterested umpire, this work can never have any weight. It is not written in the temper to gain credence; and he must be a man of weak discernment indeed, who would give his faith to a production like the present. It would be against the spirit for which we are contending, to attribute any bad motives to the author; on the contrary, this volume was doubtless intended as a laudable effort of patriotic zeal,—an attempt to free his country from the stigma which had been cast upon it by Englishmen, and a convincing exposure of the falsity of their assertions and opinions on the subject of America: but, with all this, it is perhaps one of the most unpa triotic tasks which the writer could have undertaken. But, let us come to closer quarters with our author, and hear his own words. The volume is entitled "An Appeal from the Judgment of Great Britain, respecting the United States of America; Part first: containing an Historical Outline of their Merits and Wrongs as Colonies; and Strictures upon the Calumnies of British Writers. By ROBERT WALSH, esq. 1819." And the following motto, sufficiently expressive of the views and temper of the author, is subjoined: Quod quisque fecit, patitur: autorem scelus Repetit, suoque premitur exemplo nocens, Seneca. And that the work may not escape theeyes of those whose conduct it is written to explore, it is published in London as well as in Philadelphia. A more explicit declaration of Mr. Walsh's intention, however, is given in the preface, in which he says, "I fell upon the plan of making up, in the interval, a preliminary volume, which should embrace a view of the disposi tions and conduct of Great Britain towards this country, from the earliest pe riod, and a collateral retaliation for her continued injustice and invective." Mr. Walsh is careful to mark the word retuliation in italics, lest the reader should by any accident mistake the spirit in which the book is written: he is careful enough to tell us, that he does not write for the sake of justice, but of revenge; not only to wipe off the stain from the character of America, but at the same time to blacken England. One of the prologues to the annual play, which is represented by the Westminster scholars, seems particularly to have roused Mr. W.'s indignation; and he has been at the pains to translate it, that its merits might not be lost to his more unlettered countrymen. The thing itself is low and coarse enough, it is true; but it is mere buffoonery, a caricature, which one would think could not excite anything but a good humoured laugh, or, at most, a smile of disdain; yet it is said, by our author, that "whatever the writings of the British travellers could furnish that was injurious and inṣulting to the American people, is here elaborately condensed and imbued with a new and more active venom." And all this great commotion is made about the following senseless ribaldry: Walsh quarrels. He has discovered that Tory and Whig are all equally inimical to the glory of Columbia; and that that unfortunate country fell under the lash even of the latter description of persons whenever they wished ́“to embarrass and discredit the ministry, or to promote some domestic ends, such as those of checking emigration, and counteracting extravagant plans of parliamentary reform." A great part of the volume is taken up with a history and vindication of the war of the colonies with the mother-country, which it would be too long a task to examine in this place. Then follows a more entertaining portion, on the reviews of Great Britain, in which Mr. Jeffry, Mr. Gifford, and their associates, will with great pleasure see all their sharp sayings on America carefully collected and arranged. The following heads, amongst others in the table of contents, relate to this subject.—“ Edinburgh Review; its system of derision and obloquy-How distinguished from the Quarterly in this respect—Instances of its malevolence and inconsistency-Sneers and calumniesReprisals upon Great Britain—The Quarterly Review, its elevation,—its implacable enmity, false logic, unworthy proceeding, invectives, and misrepresentations." The following are some of Mr. Walsh's observations on the review of the Life of Washington, which appeared in the Edinburgh." At the appearance of another American work, of the highest possible interest as to the subject, and proceed "Nor is it easy to say whether the tenor of their manners is more to be admired for simplicity or elegance, ** a beau will strip himself to the waist, that he may dance unincumbered and with more agility. Do you love your glass, every hour brings it a fresh bumper. * Bridewell and the stews, furnishing from the first law dignitary of the them with senators, and their respectable American republic, not more respectable chief-justice is a worthless scoundrel. by his exalted situation than by his geDoes a senatorial orator desirously aim neral talents, and private virtues, I mean to convince his antagonists? He spits the Life of Washington, by Chief-Justice plentiful in his face; and, that this spe- Marshall, a fair opportunity was afforded cies of rhetoric may be more effectual, the Edinburgh illuminati to resist "the tobacco furnishes an abundance of saliva impertinence and vulgar insolence," and for the purpose. The highest praise of a the "bitter sneering" of the ministerial merchant is his skill in lying. Then party with respect to American concerns, their amusements! To gouge out an eye by the force of example, in a generous with the thumb, to skin the forehead, to exposition of the merits which they bite off the nose, and to kill a man, is an might discover in the performance: a admirable joke." scrupulous abstinence from harsh and supererogatory reflections on the author or his country, and a commemoration of those traits in the American Revolution which distinguish it as the purest and noblest amongst the most important and celebrated in the history of the world. Nothing would have seemed more remote from probability, than that the disciples of Fox could, on the occasion of reviewing an authentic biography of Washington, labour mainly to appear And this effusion is absolutely quoted, as a ground of serious dispute with this country. And our author strengthens his own opinions with some equally wise and judicious remarks from the Portfolio. Does not the art of caricaturing exist in America? or is it supposed that the above is meant as a fair and infpartial picture of American manners? But it is not with the supporters of government amongst us only that Mr. MONTHLY MAG. No. 337. U smart smart and knowing, at the expense of the nation which had produced this model of heroes, and even insult the faithful and unassuming biographer, who had been his companion in arms, had enjoyed his intimate friendship, and shared with him the labours and honours of his civil administration. Whether they pursued so unworthy a course, and how far they improved the opportunity above-mentioned, to the very reverse of the proper ends, may be ascertained from the following short extracts from the article under consideration: 'Mr. Marshall must not promise him self a reputation commensurate with the dimensions of his work." Mr. Chief-Justice Marshall preserves a most dignified and mortifying silence respecting every particular of Washington's private life, &c. Mr. M. may be assured, that what passes with him for dignity, will by his readers be pronounced dulness and frigidity. Then follow some more quotations that the king can do no harm: so, in Mr. Walsh's opinion, an American can do no harm; or, at least, he does less harm than an Englishman, or the native of any other country. Take the following as a specimen of his reasoning: are heart-struck and broken-spirited, if not hardened and enranged?” Not content with the proofs of the inferiority, barbarity, wretchedness, and meanness of England, which are contained in the body of the work, Mr. Walsh has industriously added an appen dix of notes, where he descends into more minute particulars, and where every disgusting anecdote of oppression, cruelty, and immorality, which disgraces the columns of our newspapers, is set forth in due order. Thus we have a long interesting note on cruelty, shewing that the science of gouging is understood in England as well as in America. We have a quotation from the Courier of Jan. 18, 1819, shewing how D. Donovan bit off the nose of M. Donovan; and how J. J. Wakeman bit off part of the tongue of R. Cotton, in order to furnish a setoff, we suppose, to the Westminster prologue! The critique on Barlow's Columbiad draws forth the following angry expostu lation: "The Life of Washington having failed to draw the Edinburgh wits from the course to appearance so little in unison with their professions, which was pursued with the Letters of Mr. Adams, we cannot be surprised if the Columbiad of Barlow wrought no better effect. It seems to have been committed to the Momus of the fraternity for special division. Accordingly, the American epic is introduced with refined humour, as "the goodly firstling of the infant Muse of America;" and by way, no doubt, of manfully resisting ministerial imperti nence, and generously soothing the feelings of the poet's countrymen for the sentence which it might be necessary to pass upon his work, the reviewer immediately salutes them as follows: "These federal republicans are very much such people, we suppose, as the modern traders of Liverpool, Manchester, or Glasgow. They have a little Latin whipped into them in their youth, and read Shakspeare, Pope, and Milton, as well as bad English novels, in their days of courtship and leisure." "In admitting the deformity and evil of our negro slavery, we are far from acknowledging that any nation of Europe is entitled, upon a general comparison between our situation, as it is thus unluckily modified and known, with all appendages and ingredients, to assign to herself the pre-eminence, in fecility, virtue, or wisdom. On the contrary, we know of none with which we would make a general exchange of institutions; "and we are assured there is none, whose mode of being, on the whole, is not much more unfavourable than ours to the attainment of the great ends of society. Who can say that the negro slavery of these States, combined even with every other spring of ill existing amongst us, occasions proportionally as much of suffering, immorality, and vileness, as the unequal distribution of wealth, and the distinctions of rank, the manufacturing system, the penal code, Such harmless wrangling as this might the taxes, the tythes, the poor-rates, the serve very well to grace a contest beimpressment, in England? Are there tween two rival authors, but, to intronot as many of her inhabitants as the duce it in an appeal between two great whole number of our blacks, as effectu- nations, and to insist upon it as furnishally disfranchised, as entirely uninstructing any ground of dispute, shews that ed, in the last state of penury and distress, whose physical condition universally is hardly better than that of the most lowly plantation-slave, and who the author's zeal far outsteps his judg ment. The Edinburgh Reviewers, too, have called Dr. Dwight, Timothy! The latter part of the book is filled with an elaborate palliation and defence of the system of domestic slavery, as it at present exists in America, proving it to be one of the most mild, kind, and comfortable states of servitude which slaves ever enjoyed; and shewing at the same time that every Englishman's mouth is closed from mentioning the subject, because his country formerly coinmitted most atrocious inroads on the liberty of man. This is by far the most reprehensible part of the work, and plainly shews the principle on which it is written, a principle not unknown to our law when applied to the conduct of the sovereign, equally important and edifying; all which our author combats and refutes in the clearest manner,-plainly proving that works of much larger dimensions have been published in England. But, even had Mr. Walsh proved all he attempts to prove, had he set the injustice of England towards America in the most convincing light, which his intemperance has effectually prevented, still the same objections to the work would exist. No possible good can arise from it, while it revives and gives strength to animosities which, in a few years, must have been forgotten. It seems written to cause irritation, not repentance,—to defy, not to amend. With every sensible person, it will fail in producing any such sentiment. It seems, that the present volume only contains the first part of this gentleman's labours in the cause of his country. To what depth of degradation the character of England may be sunk in part the second, it is impossible to say. But of this we may be assured, that, though such angry recriminations may find savour in the eyes of the malevolent, or of those false patriots who imagine that the character of their country can be propped by arguments like these, we may be assured that, in the minds of discerning men, they will not weigh a feather in the scale of calın and correct judgment. ORIGINAL POETRY. Virgil. ODE TO FAME. Vitam volunt pro laude pacisci. And, bending at thine awful shrine, See where yon desolated plain Now, swell the song of glory high, Join all the chorus of the sky; Yes! they have well deserv'd that song,Deserv'd to be remembered long. Nelson! whose name in thunder hurl'd, Struck terror in a subject world; Content, when honour call'd, to die, Without a murmur or a sigh. Britain shall mourn thy loss, and twine The deathless laurel round thy shrine. Now, when the shades of evening rise, And rising darkness veils the skies, Souls of the brave! oh may you deign To visit mortals once again. But stop, my Muse, nor dare presume To call them from their glorious tomb; Tho' kingdoms totter to their fall, And dark oblivion shadows all, These, these shall flourish, as the oak Resists the woodman's hardiest stroke: LINES. BY GEORGE COPLAND. O snatch'd away, in beauty's bloom, On thee shall press no ponderous tomb, But on thy turt shall roses rear Their leaves, the earliest of the year, And the wild cypress wave in tender gloom. Lord Byron. HAST thou not gaz'd, nor with enraptur'd eye? On the rich crimson of an evening sky, Where sunken day, as on a couch of roses, Array'd in gorgeous, western pomp, reposes; Pursued thy wistful gaze, till, each bright die Curdling to gloom, it roll'd on vacancy; Presenting to the sense a rayless blank, Cheerless and chilly, with the night-dews dank. Midst the still shades of night's enchanted hour, When slumber's charming wand, with mystic power, Hath seal'd thy senses to "the things that be," When Hope, and Memory, mix without alloy, That every sense was blinded to the cheat,) U 2 Fast |