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clear that the latter would be preferable, as being the least likely to derange the balance of power, her best and noblest safeguard; but with respect to conduct, both justice and policy seem to point out the same in either.

As long as the maxim of the Turkish government was perpetual war, it was undoubtedly the right and duty of Christians to combine for the expulsion or extirpation of their common enemy; nor was it without reason that the alliance between Francis and his contemporary Soliman was stigmatized as a reproach to Christendom. But the principles of the Porte are changed. No power is now less disposed to appeal to the sword. For centuries the princes of Europe have rivalled each other in courting the friendship of the Sultan; and the curtain which general consent has, at all times, closed around the Herculean infancy of empires, when once matured by establishment, can hardly be withheld, or rather withdrawn, from the unambitious successors of Mahomet. We are, perhaps, the more charitably disposed in this instance, as the severest inquisition of their rights would be attended with so little assurance of benefit to those who have most reason to lament their admission into Europe.

In a commercial point of view the Turkish empire may be regarded as a vast non-conducting barrier between the East and the West. On no part of the world has nature bestowed a more various profusion of marketable commodities; and never were the pride and indolence of man more successful in thwarting her bountiful intentions. To let in the light of heaven upon these hidden treasures, and to render them accessible to the daring industry of European commerce, however specious in the abstract, is an undertaking of too much risk to be permitted on such general grounds. Resources which, at present, sleep harmless beneath the shade of Turkish ignorance, might endanger our very existence when transferred to the hands of an active and aspiring enemy. Russia mistress of the Dardanelles and the Bosphorus, and France in possession of the shores of the Adriatic and Archipelago, are objects which, even at a distance, cannot be contemplated by this country without some degree of apprehension.

But as all our endeavours to prevent those contingencies, endeavours, as it would seem, prescribed by interest no less than duty, may ultimately fail, it is fortunate that we are not altogether without the means of counteracting their effects. The islands of the Archipelago, and perhaps the Morea, are always within the reach of our fleets. And if the experiment was not made during our last war with Turkey, the omission can only be attributed to that generous system of maintaining the ancient order of things, which we have so rigidly pursued, in opposition to the destroying fury of

the

the Revolution. Upon those islands, several of which are furnished with excellent harbours, and other naval resources, a maritime dominion, connected with the main empire by Malta and Gibraltar, and sufficient, perhaps, to counterpoize the new acquisitions of our rivals, might be securely established. One difficulty may be apprehended. The islands in their present state do not produce corn enough for their own consumption. But, besides that the possession of the Morea, which even now supplies the deficiency, and the improvement of the larger islands, would speedily remove that drawback, the advantages of the whole establishment, in the case supposed, would amply repay the expense, and the means would not be difficult, of provisioning it from without. There, as in the British isles, our position would secure us from attack, while our naval superiority would enable us to command the surrounding coasts. Half the commerce of Constantinople would be at our mercy, while so many points of connection with the neighbouring continents would not fail to open new and wider channels of trade to the activity of our merchants. The Greek, whose busy temper finds something congenial in the speculations of traffic, would naturally attach himself to the power most able to gratify his propensity, and to protect the fruits of his labour. The mildness of our laws, and the equity of our administration, would afford him the best atonement for the loss of national independence; and England would willingly surrender every feeling of commercial jealousy to the noble pleasure of promoting the welfare of men, to the example of whose ancestry she may be said to owe a portion of her own prosperity.

It is here, if any where, that the mind may amuse itself with an Utopia of Grecian regeneration, not realized in the possession of empire, but in the revival of literature, the cultivation of the arts and sciences, the improvement of the intellectual powers, and, perhaps, the restoration of the language. Where could such patriots as Coray, and those who, like him, aspire to raise a wellearned fame on the literary advancement of their country, find a home more adapted to their feelings, or more favourable to the progress of their labours? Where could the genius of Greece expect a more congenial element? An air so pure and elastic that to breathe it is a sensual enjoyment-the keen perception of freedom recently obtained-the energy of new institutions-the protection, example and encouragement of England, would not fail to inspire the human mind with unusual vigour and alacrity.

If any one part of Buonaparte's policy be more disgusting than another, it is the systematic suppression of every thing pecu liar and characteristic. At his approach the customs of ages, the memorials of past times, the modifications of government and so

VOL. X. NO. XX.

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ciety,

ciety, even language itself, and all that constitutes a nation, must disappear. The laws of nature, it would seem, are not made for the pretended conqueror of the world. Wherever he turns the deluge of his dominion, the land, like the ocean, must present one plain unvaried surface.

In this, as in every other respect, we trust the conduct of England will ever display a contrast to his. How far it may be practicable, or expedient to lay a foundation for our future establishment in the Archipelago, by applying to the Ionian islands already in our possession such a system of government as would be suited to that establishment, whenever it might be required, we leave to the decision of higher authorities. Nor will we take upon ourselves to determine how far it may be possible to combine such a system of conciliation towards the Greeks as may be eventually useful to ourselves, with that line of policy towards the Porte which our present and prior interests demand. Much might be done by a judicious choice and distribution of our agents in the islands and maritime provinces of Turkey. In general, it may be remarked, that in proportion as England extends her communication, and strengthens her influence in the ill-connected parts of the Turkish empire, she will find herself able, in the decisive and inevitable moment, either to sustain the courage of the Porte, or to prevent the spoiler from engrossing the whole of his prey. This peculiar advantage she derives from the general loyalty of her principles, and the little inducement which she evidently has, either by nature or the genius of her government, to authorise any scheme of dismemberment.

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With respect to the volume which has led to these cursory remarks, we have confined ourselves to a simple report of its plan and general contents, without going into any critical examination of its merits in point of execution. The fact is that we wish to give every possible encouragement to so meritorious a work, and feel inclined rather to trust to time and experience, for the tion of any errors that may appear in it, than to appeal for a more hazardous remedy to the severe hand of criticism. Its faults are the faults of youth, and we may confidently hope that a riper age will remove them. That it is only by a steady perseverance in pursuits of this sort that the Greeks can hope to arrive at their favourite object of political emancipation, is confirmed to us by the evidence of a traveller, whose remarks we have already had occasion to commend. 'Weak and untutored minds,' says Mr. Douglas,* are seldom able to support with steadiness the sudden glare of reason: the event of the French revolution may inform us that

* Essay on the modern Grecks, pp. 197, 198.

a gradual

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a gradual progression is necessary, and the seeds of rational liberty will never prosper in a soil not prepared by proper cultivation to receive them. The Greeks have commenced, however, with mo. deration and wisdom; and if the wild fancies of politicians and en thusiasts do not hurry them out of the course in which they are advancing with cautious but accelerated steps, another age may witness the glorious period when the torch of knowledge shall conduct them to the enjoyment of happiness and freedom.

- Τόν δε, πορὼν γενεα θαυματὸν ὕμνον,

Εκ λεχέων ἀνάγει φάμαν παλαιὰν
Ευκλεῶν ἔργων· ἐν ὕπνω

Γὰρ πίσεν. ἀλλ ̓ ανεγειρομένα
Πρῶτα λάμπει, Εωσφόρος θα
ηλὸς ὡς, ἄσροις ἐν αλλοις.

ART. VIII. The Lay of the Scottish Fiddle. A Poem. In Five Cantos. Supposed to be written by W- S-, Esq. First American, from the Fourth Edinburgh Edition. 8vo. pp. 238, London; Cawthorn. 1814.

IT

T was to be expected that in the process of time an American wag should make his appearance. In a nation derived from so many fathers it has justly been matter of wonder that there should hitherto have existed so tame a uniformity, and that the composi tion of such various elements should produce the merest monotony of character that the world has yet seen. It is not our business to inquire into the cause of this phenomenon, or to trace why the thoughtless, dissolute, and turbulent of all nations should, in commingling, so neutralize one another that the result should be a people without wit or fancy. We will only observe that when the vulgar and illiterate lose the force of their animal spirits they become mere clods; and that the founders of American society brought to the composition of their nation few seeds of good taste, and no rudiments of liberal science.

As population thickens however, and intercourse spreads, the arts and manners of polished society must arise, and it may be safely prognosticated that America will in time produce poets, painters, and musicians.-But we must attend to the work before

us.

An intelligent observer of our theory will have anticipated that the first effort of American wit would necessarily be a parody. Childhood is every where a parodist. America is all a parody, a mimicry of her parents; it is, however, the mimicry of a child tetchy

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'tetchy and wayward in its infancy,' abandoned to bad nurses and educated in low habits.

The Lay of the Scottish Fiddle resembles the 'Lay of the Last Minstrel,' as small beer does champaign :-nor are the poetical powers of the parodist shamed by the soundness of his judgment. More than half the volume consists of notes, (under the name of Walter Scott,) giving, in a kind of tiresome drawl, rendered yet more oppressive by an affectation of smartness, a miserable detail of petty squabbles in huts and hamlets, of which neither the name nor the knowledge ever crossed the Atlantic. The story we can scarcely discover; the tendency is sufficiently clear-to calumniate the naval officers of Old England, and to libel its own countrymen of New England. The cause of hatred to Great Britain is obvious enough; the grounds of enmity to the New Englanders is the complimentary and, we believe, the just accusation of having approached more nearly than the other states to the feelings and manners of European society.

How the author contrives to combine his satires upon British naval officers and New-York innkeepers, we cannot (though we have read the poem with great diligence) presume to guess. The writer is, we perceive, very angry and very scurrilous; but we are not sufficiently versed in the scandal of American faction to be able to ascertain the objects of his individual attack. We only know that every Englishman is a 'Sir,' or a 'Childe,' and every American innkeeper a 'Lord;' but what the humour of this liberality of titles is we have not discovered. When we do understand any of our author's lucky hits, we hold it very stuff o' the conscience' to set them forth. Our readers therefore have the satisfaction of learning, that Sir John Warren (whom, for his sake, we are glad to find an object of American dislike) is pleasantly denominated Sir Bolus. Marry why?' aye, that indeed is worth inquiring. The worthy admiral was, it seems, not only christened John, but Borlase; and by dropping, and changing ase into us, we have the ingenious logogriphic title of Sir Bolus!

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Admiral Cockburn's name likewise affords the author some elegant allusions, though he has not been able to fashion it into so humorous an appellative; but he intimates that a 'cock' is a bird of spirit, and that there can be no 'burn' without fire. Childe Cockburn, therefore, must have the fire of a hero and the spirit of a cock. This is admirable; but the author has yet a higher stroke of wit in store: a cock has a red comb, and fire which burns is red, and therefore Admiral Cockburn's prime personal ornament must be a huge fiery-red nose.' This is a theme of unbounded pleasantry throughout the poem, and as it is really the best joke of all, it would be unjust not to say that we ourselves have seen Admiral Cockburn,

and

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