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evening they were looking eastward still, obstinately affirming that still the sun was there." (1) 1, on the contrary, altered my position as the world went round. For so doing, Mr. William Smith is said to have insulted me with the appellation of RENEGADE; and if it be indeed true that the foul aspersion passed his lips, I brand him for it on the forehead with the name of SLANDERER! Salve the 'mark as you will, Sir, it ineffaceable! You must bear it with you to your grave, and the remembrance of it will outlast your epitaph.

And now, Sir, learn what are the opinions of the man to whom you have offered this public and notorious wrong,-opinions not derived from any 'contagion of the times, nor entertained with the unreflecting eagerness of youth; nor adopted in connection with any party in the state; but gathered patiently, during many years of leisure and retirement, from books, observation, meditation, and intercourse with living minds who will be the light of other ages.

laws. Let it not, however, be supposed that the disease is healed, because the ulcer may skin over. The remedies by which the body-politic can be restored to health must be slow in their operation. The condition of the populace, physical, moral, and intellectual, must be improved, or a Jacquerie, a Bellum servile, sooner or later will be the result. It is the people at this time who stand in need of reformation, not the government.

The government must better the condition of the populace; and the first thing necessary is to prevent it from being worsened. It must no longer suffer itself to be menaced, its chief magistrate insulted, and its most sacred institutions vilified with impunity. It must curb the seditious press, and keep it curbed. For this purpose, if the laws are not at present effectual, they should be made so; nor will they then avail unless they are vigilantly executed. I say this, well knowing to what obloquy it will expose me, and how grossly and impudently my meaning will be misrepresented; but I say it, because if the licentiousness of the press be not curbed, its abuse will most assuredly one day occasion the

Greater changes in the condition of this country have been wrought during the last half century, than an equal course of years had ever before pro-loss of its freedom. duced. Without entering into the proofs of this This is the first and most indispensable measure; position, suffice it to indicate, as among the most for without this all others will be fruitless. Next in efficient causes, the steam and the spinning engines, urgency is the immediate relief of the poor. I differ, the mail-coach, and the free-publication of the de- toto cœlo, from Mr. Owen, of Lanark, in one main bates in parliament: hence have followed, in na-point. To build upon any other foundation than tural and necessary consequence, increased activity, religion is building upon sand. But I admire his enterprise, wealth, and power; but, on the other practical benevolence,-I love his enthusiasm,—and hand, greediness of gain, looseness of principle, half-knowledge (more perilous than ignorance), vice, poverty, wretchedness, disaffection, and political insecurity. The changes which have taken place render other changes inevitable; for ward we must go, for it is not possible to retrace our steps: the hand of the political horologe cannot go back, like the shadow upon Hezekiah's dial; when the hour comes, it must strike.

I go far with him in his earthly views. What be has actually done entitles him to the greatest attention and respect. I sincerely wish that his plan for the extirpation of pauperism should be fairly tried. To employ the poor in manufactures is only shifting the evil, and throwing others out of employ, by bringing more labour, and more produce of labour, into a market which is already overstocked.

Wise and extensive plans of foreign colonisation Slavery has long ceased to be tolerable in Europe: contribute essentially to keep a state like England the remains of feudal oppression are disappearing in health; but we must not overlook the greater faeven in those countries which have improved the cility of colonising at home. Would it not be deleast nor can it be much longer endured that the sirable that tracts of waste land should be purchased extremes of ignorance, wretchedness, and brutality, with public money, to be held as national domains, should exist in the very centre of civilised society. and colonised with our disbanded soldiers and There can be no safety with a populace half Luddite, sailors; and people who are in want of employment, half Lazaroni. Let us not deceive ourselves. We dividing them into estates of different sizes accordare far from that state in which any thing resembling ing to the capability of the speculators, and allotting equality would be possible; but we are arrived at to every cottage that should be erected there a certhat state in which the extremes of inequality are tain proportion of ground? Thus should we make become intolerable. They are too dangerous, as immediate provision for those brave men whose well as too monstrous, to be borne much longer. services are no longer required for the defence of Plans which would have led to the utmost horrors their country; thus should we administer immeof insurrection have been prevented by the govern-diate relief to the poor, lighten the poor-rates, give ment, by the enactment of strong but necessary occupation to various branches of manufacture, and

(1) I quote my own words, written in 1809.

provide a permanent source of revenue, accruing from the increased prosperity of the country. There

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never was a time when every rood of ground maintained its man; but surely it is allowable to hope that whole districts will not always be suffered to lie waste while multitudes are in want of employ ment and of bread.

disburthened of all contribution." And in another place this great statesman says, "the prosperity and improvement of nations has generally increased with the increase of their revenues; and they will both continue to grow and flourish, as long as the A duty scarcely less urgent than that of dimin- balance between what is left to strengthen the efishing the burthen of the poor-rates, is that of pro- forts of individuals, and what is collected for the viding for the education of the lower classes. Go- common efforts of the state, bear to each other a due vernment must no longer, in neglect of its first and reciprocal proportion, and are kept in a close corparamount duty, allow them to grow up in worse respondence and communication." This opinion than heathen ignorance. They must be trained in is strikingly corroborated by the unexampled prosthe way they should go they must be taught to perity which the country enjoyed during the war, "fear God and keep his commandments, for this a war of unexampled expenditure: and the stuis the whole duty of man." Mere reading and pendous works of antiquity, the ruins of which at writing will not do this they must be instructed this day so mournfully attest the opulence and according to the established religion; they must be splendour of states which have long since ceased to fed with the milk of sound doctrine for states are exist, were in no slight degree the causes of that secure in proportion as the great body of the people prosperity of which they are the proofs. Instead are attached to the institutions of their country. A therefore of this senseless cry for retrenchment, moral and religious education will induce habits of which is like prescribing depletion for a patient industry; the people will know their duty, and find whose complaints proceed from inanition, a liberal their interest and their happiness in following it. expenditure should be advised in works of public Give us the great boon of parochial education, so utility and magnificence. For if experience has connected with the church as to form part of the shown us that increased expenditure during war, establishment, and we shall find it a bulwark to the and a proportionately increasing prosperity, have state as well as to the church. Let this be done, let | been naturally connected as cause and consequence, saving banks be generally introduced, let new chan- it is neither rash nor illogical to infer, that a liberal nels for industry be opened (as soon as the neces- expenditure in peace upon national works would sities of the state will permit) by a liberal expen-produce the same beneficial effect, without any of diture in public works, by colonising our waste the accompanying evil. Money thus expended will lands at home and regularly sending off our swarms flow like chyle into the veins of the state, and abroad, and the strength, wealth, and security of nourish and invigorate it. Build, therefore, our the nation will be in proportion to its numbers. monuments for Trafalgar and Waterloo, and let no paltry consideration prevent them from being made worthy of the occasion, and of the country ;—of the men who have fought, conquered, and died for us ;

Never, indeed, was there a more senseless cry than that which is at this time raised, for retrench- | ment in the public expenditure as a means of alleviating the present distress. That distress arises from a great and sudden diminution of employment, occasioned by many coinciding causes, the chief of which is that the war-expenditure of from forty to fifty millions yearly has ceased. Men are out of employ the evil is that too little is spent,-and, as a remedy, we are exhorted to spend less! Every where there are mouths crying out for food because the hands want work; and at this time, and for this reason, the state-quack requires further reduction! Because so many hands are unemployed, he calls upon government to throw more upon the public, by reducing its establishments and suspending its works! O lepidum caput! And it is by such heads as this that we are to be reformed!

"Statesmen," says Mr. Burke, “before they value themselves on the relief given to the people by the destruction (or diminution) of their revenue, ought first to have carefully attended to the solution of this problem-whether it be more advantageous to the people to pay considerably, and to gain in proportion; or to gain little or nothing, and to be

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of Nelson, of Wellington, and of Great Britain. Let them be such as may correspond in splendour with the actions to which they are consecrated, and vie, if possible, in duration, with the memory of those immortal events. They are for after-ages ; the more magnificent they may be, the better will they manifest the national sense of great public¦ services; and the more will they excite and foster that feeling in which great actions have their root. In proportion to their magnificence, also, will be the present benefit, as well as the future good; for they are not, like the Egyptian pyramids, to be raised by bondsmen under rigorous taskmasters the wealth which is taken from the people returns to them again, like vapours which are drawn imperceptibly from the earth, but distributed to it in refreshing dews and fertilising showers. What bounds could imagination set to the welfare and glory of this island, if a tenth part, or even a twentieth of what the war expenditure has been, were annually applied in improving and creating harbours, in bringing our roads to the best possible state, in co

under the wrong, and treat your attack with the same silent contempt as I have done all the abuse and calumny with which, from one party or the other, Antijacobins or Jacobins, I have been assailed in daily, weekly, monthly, and quarterly publications, since the year 1796, when I first became

lonising upon our waste lands, in reclaiming fens and conquering tracts from the sea, in encouraging the liberal arts, in erecting churches, in building and endowing schools and colleges, and making war upon physical and moral evil with the whole artillery of wisdom and righteousness, with all the resources of science, and all the ardour of enlight-known to the public? The place where you made ened and enlarged benevolence ? the attack, and the manner of the attack, prevent this.

It is likewise incumbent upon government to take heed lest, in its solicitude for raising the necessary revenue, there should be too little regard for the means by which it is raised. It should beware of imposing such duties as create a strong temptation to evade them. It should be careful that all its measures tend, as much as possible, to the improvement of the people, and especially careful that nothing be done which can tend in any way to corrupt them. It should reform its prisons; and apply some remedy to the worst grievance which exists, -the enormous expenses, the chicanery, and the ruinous delays of the law.

How far the writings of Mr. Southey may be found to deserve a favourable acceptance from after-ages, time will decide; but a name, which, whether worthily or not, has been conspicuous in the literary history of its age, will certainly not perish. Some account of his life will always be prefixed to his works, and transferred to literary histories, and to the biographical dictionaries, not only of this, but of other countries. There it will be related, that he lived in the bosom of his family, in absolute retirement; that in all his writings there breathed the same abhorrence of oppression and immorality, the same spirit of devotion, and the same ardent wishes for the melioration of mankind; and thatthe only charge which malice could bring against

Machiavelli says, that legislators ought to suppose all men to be naturally bad ;—in no point has that sagacious statesman been more erroneous. Fitter it is, that governments should think well of man-him was that, as he grew older, his opinions altered kind; for the better they think of them, the better they will find them, and the better they will make them. Government must reform the populace, the people must reform themselves. This is the true reform; and compared with this all else is flocci, nauci, nihili, pili.

Such, Sir, are in part the views of the man whom you have traduced. Had you perused his writings, you could not have mistaken them; and I am willing to believe that if you had done this, and formed an opinion for yourself, instead of retailing that of wretches who are at once the panders of malice and the pioneers of rebellion, you would neither have been so far forgetful of your parliamentary character, nor of the decencies between man and man, as so wantonly, so unjustly, and in such a place, to have attacked one who had given you no provocation.

concerning the means by which that melioration was to be effected; and that as he learned to understand the institutions of his country, he learned to appreciate them rightly, to love, and to revere, and to defend them. It will be said of him, that in an age of personality, he abstained from satire; and that during the course of his literary life, often as he was assailed, the only occasion on which he ever condescended to reply, was, when a certain Mr. William Smith insulted him in parliament with the appellation of renegade. On that occasion, it will be said, that he vindicated himself, as it became him to do, and treated his calumniator with just and memorable severity. Whether it shall be added, that Mr. William Smith redeemed his own character, by coming forward with honest manliness and acknowledging that he had spoken rashly and unjustly, concerns himself, but is not of the slightest ROBERT SOUTHEY.

Did you imagine that I should sit down quietly importance to me.

Heaven and Earth;

A MYSTERY. (1)

FOUNDED ON THE FOLLOWING PASSAGE, IN GENESIS, CHAP. VI.

"And it came to pass..., that the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose.

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AHOLIBAMAH.

Through the deep clouds, o'er rocky Ararat:How my heart beats!

Aho.

Our invocation. Anak.

I tremble.

Aho.

Let us proceed upon

But the stars are hidden.

So do I, but not with fear

My sister, though

Of aught save their delay.

Anah.

I love Azaziel more than--oh too much!
What was I going to say? my heart grows impious.
Aho. And where is the impiety of loving
Celestial natures?

Anah.

But, Aholibamah,

I love our God less since his angel loved me: Chorus of Spirits of the Earth.-Chorus of Mor- This cannot be of good; and though I know not

tals.

HEAVEN AND EARTH.

PART I.

That I do wrong, I feel a thousand fears
Which are not ominous of right.

Aho.
Then wed thee
Unto some son of clay, and toil and spin!
There's Japhet loves thee well, hath loved thee long:
Marry, and bring forth dust!
Anah.

I should have loved

A woody and mountainous District near Mount | Azaziel not less were he mortal; yet

Ararat.-Time, midnight.

Enter ANAH and AHOLIBAMAU.

I am glad he is not. I can not outlive him. And when I think that his immortal wings Will one day hover o'er the sepulchre

Anah. OUR father sleeps: it is the hour when they Of the poor child of clay which so adored him, Who love us are accustom'd to descend,

(1) Heaven and Earth was written at Ravenna, in October, 1821. In forwarding it to Mr. Murray, in the following month, Lord Byron says-"Enclosed is a lyrical drama, entitled A Mystery. You will find it pious enough, I trust—at least some of the chorus might have been written by Sternhold and Hopkins themselves for that, and perhaps for melody. As it is longer, and more lyrical and Greek, than I intended at first, I have not divided it into acts, but called what I have sent Part First: as there is a suspension of the action, which may either close there without impropriety, or be continued in a way that I have in view, I wish the first part to be published before the second; because, if it don't succeed, it is better to stop there, than to go on in a fruitless experiment. Though without delay revised by Mr. Gifford, and printed, this "First Part" was not published till 1822, when it appeared in the second number of the Liberal. The Mystery was never completed.

"The great power of this Mystery is in its fearless and daring simplicity. Lord Byron faces at once all the grandeur of his

As he adores the Highest, death becomes

sublime subject. He seeks for nothing, but it rises before him in its death-doomed magnificence. Man, or angel, or demon, the being who mourns, or laments, or exults, is driven to speak by his own soul. The angels deign not to use many words, even to their beautiful paramours; and they scorn Noah and his sententious sons. The first scene is a woody and mountainous district, near Mount Ararat; and the time midnight. Mortal creatures, conscious of their own wickedness, have heard awful predictions of the threatened flood, and all their lives are darkened with terror. But the sons of God have been dwellers on earth, and women's hearts have been stirred by the beauty of these celestial visitants. Anah and Aholibamah, two of these angel-stricken maidens, come wandering along while others sleep, to pour forth their invocations to their demon lovers. They are of very different characters; Anah, soft, gentle, and submissive; Aholibamah, proud, impetuous, and aspiring-the one loving in fear, and the other in ambition." Wilson.-E.

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That he will single forth some other daughter
Of earth, and love her as he once loved Anah.

Anah. And if it should be so, and she loved him, Better thus than that he should weep for me.

Aho. If I thought thus of Samiasa's love, All seraph as he is, I'd spurn him from me. But to our invocation!-'T is the hour.

Anah.

Seraph!

From thy sphere!

Whatever star contain thy glory;

In the eternal depths of heaven

Albeit thou watchest with "the seven," (1) Though through space infinite and hoary Before thy bright wings worlds be driven, Yet hear!

Oh! think of her who holds thee dear!
And though she nothing is to thee,
Yet think that thou art all to her.

Thou canst not tell,-and never be
Such pangs decreed to aught save me,—
The bitterness of tears.
Eternity is in thine years,
Unborn, undying beauty in thine eyes;
With me thou canst not sympathise,

Except in love, and there thou must
Acknowledge that more loving dust
Ne'er wept beneath the skies.

Thou walk'st thy many worlds, thou see'st
The face of him who made thee great,

As he hath made me of the least

Of those cast out from Eden's gate:
Yet, seraph dear!

Oh hear !

For thou hast loved me, and I would not die
Until I know what I must die in knowing,
That thou forget'st in thine eternity

Her whose heart death could not keep from
o'erflowing

For thee, immortal essence as thou art!
Great is their love who love in sin and fear;
And such, I feel, are waging in my heart

A war unworthy: to an Adamite

Forgive, my seraph! that such thoughts appear,
For sorrow is our element;
Delight

And Eden kept afar from sight,

Though sometimes with our visions blent."
The hour is near

Which tells me we are not abandon'd quite.—
Appear! Appear!
Seraph!

(1) The archangels, said to be seven in number, and to
he eighth rank in the celestial hierarchy.

occupy

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Whose tenants dying, while their world is fall-
Share the dim destiny of clay in this;
Or joining with the inferior cherubim,
Thou deignest to partake their hymn-
Samiasa!

I call thee, I await thee, and I love thee.
Many may worship thee, that will I not :
If that thy spirit down to mine may move thee,
Descend and share my lot!

Though I be form'd of clay,

And thou of beams

More bright than those of day
On Eden's streams,

Thine immortality can not repay
With love more warm than mine
My love. There is a ray

In me, which, though forbidden yet to shine,
I feel was lighted at thy God's and thine.
It may be hidden long: death and decay
Our mother Eve bequeath'd us-but my heart
Defies it: though this life must pass away,

Is that a cause for thee and me to part?
Thou art immortal-so am I: I feel-

I feel my immortality o'ersweep
All pains, all tears, all fears, and peal,

Like the eternal thunders of the deep,
Into my ears this truth-"Thou livest for ever!"
But if it be in joy

I know not, nor would know;
That secret rests with the Almighty giver
Who folds in clouds the fonts of bliss and woe.
But thee and me he never can destroy;
Change us he may, but not o'erwhelm; we are
Of as eternal essence, and must war
With him if he will war with us: with thee

I can share all things, even immortal sorrow;
For thou hast ventured to share life with me,
And shall I shrink from thine eternity?

No! though the serpent's sting should pierce me
thorough,

And thou thyself wert like the serpent, coil
Around me still! and I will smile,

And curse thee not; but hold
Thee in as warm a fold

As--But descend; and prove
A mortal's love

For an immortal. If the skies contain

More joy than thou canst give and take, remain!

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