four millions yearly (C.4,700,835.) Thus it appears, that we have had supplies from abroad, beside the additional supplies at home; and from both of which it is reasonable to infer an increased consumption, or in other words, an increased population.' P. 198.

New these additional supplies at home may be justly doubted. Inclosures are by no means favourable to the increase of corn; and the writer needs only look into an inclosed country to be convinced of the unfavourable difference between the number of acres laid down for corn in its inclosed and its open state.

But we would not criticise too closely our author's arguments, and are more inclined to think favourably with him, than to despond. The picture he draws of the present state of the country is so flattering, that no one would wish to detect a single flaw it may contain. Our commercial system,' says he,

has displayed its effects within Britain, through her civil liberty, internal order, prosperity and power. As to our civil liberty, if viewed (1st.) in its source, that is, our constitution; and if beheld (2d.) in its results, that is, the protection of our lives. liberties, and properties, neither Rome in all its pride, nor Greece In all its glory, invested its citizens with such rights as a subject of Britain at this day may boast of. As to our internal order, it is so wisely founded (1st.) upon our civil government, that when nations were shaken to the centre by a shock that pervaded the globe, Britain scarcely felt its influence: (2d.) it is so wisely founded upon our moral government, that when surrounded by awful and contagious vice, the virtues of Britain remained sound and incorrupt. As to our prosperity, it transcends the bounds of parallel, and almost of credibility, were there not authentic documents whereby the unerring facts of our growth in strength and opulence are demonstrated clearly and incontrovertibly No enthusiast in his imaginary prospects could have surpassed, none has kept pace with its real progress Such is the improved state of our financial strength, that it not only alleviates our burdens at present, but accelerates their total removal. And in addition to these important effects there exists another of great magnitude and consideration, namely, without one farthing of further increase to our taxes we are prepared for war, by a growing provision already formed for the redemption of £.275,980,827. As to our powers that let our victories tell. But our growing commerce, national and capital finances, our extended agriculture, population, and force; out increased and still increasing strength and opulence, all prove our resources to be more than adequate to our necessities Such are the reBufts of our national economy in all its parts; and so proud and so wite a period no nation could ever boast of.' P. 206.

ART. X. Narrative Poems. By I. D'Israeli 4to. 45.6
Boards. Murray.

1803.

AN ode, which precedes these narrative poems, prematurely expresses the fears of the author lest some ravenous critic should cruelly pounce upon his loves :

LOVES like THESE,

Thine owl as butterflies shall seize.'

OUR Owls never quit their secret recesses to PREY upon butterflies, but are often allured from embowering shades to mark and admire their gaily-gilded trim.'

The brilliant insects of Mr. d'Israeli flutter, in no vulgar array of paper or type, on variegated wings of tender, elegant, and attractive colouring, mingled with gaudy tints of affectation, To discriminate his offenand dusky spots of incorrectness. sive hues must exercise the keen glances of his favourite critic.' We shall attempt to amuse our readers by his more fascinating dies.

The Carder and the Carrier, Cominge, and a Tale addressed to a Sybarite, are titles to the poems over whose airy texture our eyes are wandering.

The influence of the graceful carder is elegantly described.
If o'er the flax, her tapering fingers strayed,
On the light fibres of his heart they played,
Or shooting quick the line along the frame,
The shifting shuttle would his heart inflame;
Quick as her wheel, her eyes their radiance dart,
And restless as her wheel, his fluttering heart!'

P. 3.

Our young readers will not be insensible to the lines
Minutes are drops of time - Love's feverish rage
Drinks days and months, and thirsts, and asks an age!' F. 8.
'with a thousand fancies.

PASQUIL, the amorous carrier, wild,' in dalliance with his mistress amidst bowers of Arcady, perishes by an accident strangely poetical.

With laughter gay her rosy lips unclose
Two lines of polished pearls in even rows;
He, while his sparkling eyes wild fancy warms,
Asks, what fine art that ivory beauty forms?

She said (while modesty her cheek suffused)
For simple charms may simple arts be used;
Cares for her teeth a maiden's thoughts engage;
Each morn I press them with a leaf of sage.

Beside the laughing boy, a sage-plant grew,
That in luxuriant growth its foliage threw

He tried the verdant leaf with art to strain,
The verdant leaf but yields a darker stain.
She caught the leaves, and with a gesture bland
Played o'er his teeth her soft and sportive hand.'

P. 12.

In the égarement of her passion, the lady had unfortunately mistaken a poisonous plant for the sage-leaf.

Hark, from his quivering lips a parting groan!
She leans, his figure seems to sleep in stone!
Cold on her neck his marble arm is hung,

Cold to her breast his marble face is clung.' P. 14.

The Bee of the Glaciers' attracted us en passant.

Ah, me! in Pleasure's warm delicions scene,
When man but sports, comes hideous Death between !
So near a glacier oft, his race of glee,

All light with life, attempts some wandering bee;
Deep in the juniper's sweet shrubs to rest,

Darts his sharp trunk, and loads his little breast;
Now glittering in the sun he winds along,
The child of heat, of sweetness, and of song!
When lo! the rushing storm, the snow-wind's tide,
Sweeps the poor vagrant up the glacier's side,
To instant death the summer's inmate brings,
And fixed in frost he spreads his gelid wings *.'

P. 15.

We were pleased, too, with the pathetic exclamation of humble love.

Born in Desire and nursed by chaste Delight,
Our infant Love the stranger eye would fright;
The child of Solitude and Fear would fly,
Nor to the world would trust it's infancy.
Think not, ye rich! in Poverty's rude sphere
We feel no rapture from a heart that's dear;
Think not, ye delicate! we take no part
In all the tender magic of the heart.'

P. 19.

The catastrophe of the poem is affecting:

Bowing her head, the plant of poisonous breath
She sucked, and blest the vegetable death.

Quick thro' her veins the flying poisons dart,
And one cold tremor chills her beating heart.

She kneels, and winds her arms round Pasquil's breast,
There, as 'twere life to touch, she creeps to rest;
On him once more her opening eyes she raised,
The light died on them as she fondly gazed;

The bees flying about the neighbouring rocks, to regale upon the flowers of Genepi, are frequently surpri ed by storms, which hurrying them up the glacier, they must perish almost instantly. We found in an almost inaccessible solitude a number of dead bees, but no other animals.-Bourrit's Journey to the Glaciers of Savoy.'

P. 20,

With quick short breath, catching at life, she tried. To kiss his lips, and as she kissed, she died.' For the subject of Cominge,' the poet is indebted to a novel of madame Tencin.

To the monastery of La Trappe, Cominge, unfortunate in his loves, had retired. In the same monastery, his disguised mistress, who had long remained unknown, concealed as a monk of the same severe order, is discovered by Cominge in the agonies of death. The favourite critic' of Mr. d'Israeli might perhaps remark, that an adorned narrative, of various adventure, is not entirely accordant with the situation of a dying woman.-The Eloisa of Pope seems to have been perpetually present to the author of this poem, and to have animated its embellishments-We discover descriptive and pious passages.

'Twas where La Trappe had raised its savage seat,

Of grief and piety the last retreat;

And dark the rocks, and dark the forest lay,
And shrill the wind blew o'er the abbey grey,
House of remorse, of penitence and care,
Its inmate Grief, its architect Despair! P. 23.

Oft by some river's brink, with wistful eyes
Leaning I viewed the soft inverted skies;
How oft, my spirit darkened by despair,
I breathed a sigh to find a passage there!
Yet then with sweet enchantment to my mind
On Earth's green bed some curious plant inclined;
Some tender bird the woodland song would troll,"
And leave the melting music in my soul;
Gazing on lovely Nature while I greve,

I think on Nature's author-fear and live!'

P. 33.

The air was still, the sleepy light was grey,
When faint and sad I crossed my hands to pray;
The evening star illumed her bashful beam;
The holy abbey in the twilight gleam,
Breathed a celestial calm-How rapturous stole
The oraison from my delighted soul!
'Twas inspiration all, ecstatic prayer!

I bend, and lo! a vision fills the air!

Heaven opens here, and here its seraphs dwell!-
I hear your vesper's sweet responses swell!
Amid the choral symphonies ye sung,

I hear the warblings of my lover s tongue!'

P. 34.

To the sultry souls' of his Sybarites, the poet offers unreal delights in alluring diction.

Imagination; beauty of the soul,
Thy charms mysteriously the sex controul;

With thy celestial grace, a spirit blest
Opes an Elysium in a woman's breast;
Moves like a god to her enamoured eye,

And makes perpetual her delicious sigh.' r. 47.

Perhaps dreams will scarcely induce Sybarites to exclaim→ "What Genins gives this thrill intense,

Charming my senses with a novel sense? P. 40.

Our owls have now sagely remarked MANY beauties, and dropged no gall on the butterflies of Mr. d'Israel. We trust we may retire with the hope that we have merited the eulogium in his ode-

There are among ye SOME, whose soul
The spells of ancy can control."

ART. XI.-On the State of Europe before and after the French Revolution; being an Answer to L'Etat de la France à la Afin de l'An Vill' By Frederick Gentz, Counsellor at War to His Prussian Majesty, &c. &c. Translated from the German by John Charles Herries, Esq. 8vo, ss. Boards. Hatchard. 1302.

THE state of France is described by M. Hauterive with a flattering pencil; and, if he had not so incessantly attacked the British character, no one could complain of his endeavours to. exalt his own country. A native of England, on the contrary, might be suspected of partiality, were he to attempt a refutation; but a Prussian may be supposed to enter upon the task without any undue bias. Mr. Gentz is well known as a proficient in the science of politics; and the translator has been happily engaged in communicating his merits to the English reader. The pretensions of the French are examined with great coolness and moderation; their grounds of complaint against the English are investigated with precision; and the balance turns with apparent impartiality in our favour. In con sidering the political state of Europe before the revolution, our attention is chiefly directed to the treaty of Westphalia, and the inquiry whether a system of public law was thereby established in Europe. Upon this point the author discriminates, with great good sense and logical precision, between a system of public law for Europe at large, and that system which was limited to a regulation of an individual part of the continent; and he shows that this famous treaty has always been misconceived, when considered in so extensive a sense.

The peculiar merit of this famous treaty, is, in fact, entirely conSned to Germany. It was by fixing the uncertain relations between the