POETRY.

FROM THE EXAMINER OF JUNE.

Harry Brown to his cousin Thomas Brown, Jum

LETTER I.

Here, here sweetly murmur the bees,
Here talk the quick birds in the trees,
And the pines drop their nuts at their ease.

THEOCRITCS.

DEAR TOM, who enjoying your brooks and your bowers,
Live just like a bee, when he's flushest of flowers,-
A maker of sweets, busy sparkling, and singing,
Yet armed with an exquisite point too for stinging,—
I owe you a letter, and having this time

A whole series to write to you, send them in rhyme;
For rhyme, with it's air, and it's step-springing tune,
Helps me on, as a march does a soldier in June,
And when chatting to you, I've a something about me,
That makes all my spirits come dancing from out me;

I told you, you know, you should have a detail

Of Hampstead's whole merits,-heath, wood, hill, and vale,And threatened in consequence (only admire

The metal one's turned to by dint of desire)

To draw you all near me,-vain dog that I was,—

As the bees are made swarm by the chinking of brass. (By the bye, this comparison, well understood,

Is modestly speaking, still better than good;

For a man who once kept them in London, they say,
Found out that they came here to dine every day.)
But at present, for reasons I'll give when we meet,

I shall spare you the trouble,—I mean to say, treat;—
Yet how can I touch, and not linger awhile,

On the spot that has haunted my youth like a smile?

On it's fine breathing prospects, it's clump-wooded glades,
Dark pines and white houses, and long allied shades,
With fields going down, where the bard lies and sees
The hills up above him with roofs in the trees?
Now too, while the season,-half summer, half spring.-
Brown elms and green oaks,—makes one loiter and sing;
And the bee's weighty murmur comes by us at noon,
And the cuckoo repeats his short indolent tune,
And little white clouds lie about in the sun,

And the wind's in the west, and hay-making begun?

Even now while I write, I'm half stretched on the ground, With a check-smoothing air coming taking me round, Betwixt hillocks of green, plumed with fern and wild flowers, While my eye closely follows the bees in their bowers.

People talk of "poor insects," (although, by the way,
Your old friend, ANACREON, was wiser than they;)*
But lord, what a set of delicious retreats

The epicures live in,-shades, colours, and sweets!
The least clumps of verdure, on peeping into 'em,

Are emerald groves, with bright shapes winding through 'em;
And sometimes I wonder, when poking down by 'em,
What odd sort of giant the rogues may think I am.
Here perks from his arbour of crimson or green

A beau, who slips backward as though he were seen!-
Here over my paper another shall go,

Looking just like a traveller lost in the snow,

Till he reaches the writing,-and then, when he's eyed it,
What nodding, and touching, and coasting beside it!
No fresh-water spark, in his uniform fine,

Can be graver when he too first crosses the line:-
Now he stops at a question, as who should say "Hey?"
Now casts his round eye up the yawn of an A:
Now resolves to be bold, half afraid he shall sink,
And like GIFFORD before him, can't tell what to think.

Oh the wretched transition to insects like these
From those of the country! To town from the trees!
Ah Toм,-you who have run the gay circle of life,
And squared it, at last, with your books and a wife,-
Who in Bond-street by day, when the press has been thickest,
'Have had all the "digito monstror" and "hic est,"
Who've shone at great houses in coach-crowded streets,
Amidst lights, wits, and beauties, and musical treats,
And had the best pleasure a guest could befall,

In being, yourself, the best part of it all,

Can the town (and l'am fond of it too, when I'am there)
Can the town, after all, with the country compare?

But this is a subject I keep for my last,

Like the fruit in green leaves, which concludes a repast.--
Adieu. In my next you'll hear more of the town;
Till when, and for ever, dear Coz.

HARRY BROWN.

ANACREON, the wise," as PLATO called him, says in his delicious little de, that he looks upon the grasshopper as next to the Gods; and I do not scruple to say, with the license becoming one of the BROWNS, that he spoke in the true spirit of one himself,-enjoying the creature's enjoyment, without any of the pettier assumptions of humanity. CowLEY, by the way, who has felt all this spirit of his author, though he lost sight of his simplicity, has a beautiful line in his paraphrase:

Fed with the nourishment divine,

The dewy morning's gentle wine.

HORACE to his Muse, and PERSIUS in allusion to him:-
Totum muneris hoc tui est,

VOL. VIII.

Quod monstror digito prætereuntium

Romanæ fidicen lyræ:

Quod spiro, et placeo (si placeo) tuum est.

Lib. 4. Ode S.

To thee alone I owe, dear muse of mine,
That people point me out, passing along,
As leader of my country's lyric song:-
Yes, that I live and please (if please) is thine.

46

DOMESTIC LITERATURE.

HARRISON HALL has issued proposals for publishing, by subscription, DR. CAMPBELL'S WESTERN ANTIQUITIES; with additions, illustrations, and a biographical sketch of Dr. Campbell, by James R. Wilson, A. M. Dr. Campbell for many years had contemplated writing the history of Kentucky, where he resided. During his researches, with a view to that work, much of his attention was drawn to the antique forts, towns and natural curiosities which abound in the great central valley of North America; and he prepared, and determined to publish, a separate essay on those interesting subjects. The last three years of his life were almost wholly devoted to the collection of materials illustrative of the ancient history of our continent. The work will form one 8vo volume, illustrated with twelve engravings, and will be delivered to subscribers at $2 50, in boards. All the profits of the work will belong to Dr. Campbell's widow and children.

From some late London Magazines we understand that the poem of Ilderim (noticed in our last number) is the production of H. Gally Knight, esq.

In our notice of the Antiquary we stated that it was written by a Mr. Greenfield. It seems, however, that we were not altogether correct After making a great many pert remarks upon the subject (from which any body might know that they were tickled at possessing a secret), the Critical Reviews have this paragraph in their critique of the book:

We have also our opinion upon this point, not founded in speculation, but upon authority which we have no reason to doubt. We understand that the name of the author of " Waverly,” « Guy Mannering" and "the Antiquary" is Forbes; that he is the son of a Scotch baronet-that he was educated at the school of Dr. Valpy, at Reading, and that he is now in the twenty-seventh year of his age. We are not at liberty to disclose the source from whence we derive this information: it must suffice to say that the fact has our belief, and that it has been confirmed by circumstantial evidence."

FOREIGN LITERATURE AND SCIENCE.

FRANCE.-Douanes de France.—Tarif Général des Droits d'Entrée et de Sortie, dressé en vertu de la loi du 28 Avril, 1816, par les soins de M. le conseiller d'etat, directeur général, et approuvé par arrété de son excellence le ministre secrétaire d'état des finances, en date du 3 Juin, 1816. Prix 6 francs. A Paris, de l'imprimerie royale. Large 4to, pp. 124. 1816.

THIS tariff of French duties is upon altogether a new plan, and commerce must now owe to France as much as chymistry

has long owed, for the accuracy and order with which she has classified its various articles. The outline of the scheme is briefly this. Each page is divided into seven perpendicular columns; in the first of which the denominations of merchandize' are arranged in alphabetical sequence-beginning with the generic name, and thence descending through all the ramification of species. This column occupies about half the page, and the remaining six are devoted to the specification of duties on importation and exportation.

It is not our present intention to enter into any detail of all the subjects which the tariff embraces, but to transcribe that part only which relates particularly to this article. We learn, in the preliminary observations, that, "independently of the customs (droits de douanes), which, upon books imported in French vessels, are 25 francs; if in foreign vessels, 27 francs, 50 centiemes to the 100 kilogrames, or 2007. English; all books, printed in foreign countries, and brought into France, must pay a duty of 150 francs to the 2001. (if they are in the French language) and 75 francs (if in any living foreign language). Those which are printed in France, and thence carried to other countries, pay 51 centiemes by the 100 kilogrames (2007) or 15 centiemes by the 100 francs in value-at the option of the owner or exporter. No importation can take place without the permission of the minister of the general police, pointing out the port of entry. Books presented, without such permission, are to be seized-at least if they are not addressed to the minister himself. Notices of the permits which have been granted must be sent to the custom-house officers (directeurs des douanes), in order to prevent all surprise. Books, admitted in virtue of special authorizations, must be immediately despatched to the nearest prefecture, with a specification of the number of the permita precaution which must also be scrupulously observed in the transmission of books destined for Paris. Travellers (voyageurs) are relieved of formalities; but to the catalogue of the books which they have with them, and which they aver are for their own use, they must subscribe a promise that they will not dispose of them; and there must be duplicate catalogues of such as are reputed the objects of commerce." Such are what the French minister of finance is pleased to denominate the formalities of importing and exporting books. We have no very good means of ascertaining the state of the press in the interior of France; but we know that six individuals have lately incurred the sentence of transportation for an alleged libel, and that several others have been sentenced to ten and twenty years' imprisonment, for a similar offence against the government. Some printers, however, have been bold enough to republish translations of some elementary English school books, such as Blair's Universal Preceptor and Grammar of Philosophy, Goldsmith's Elementary Geographies, together with some others, which are equally free from dangerous political tendencies. The following

extracts from British publications contain the only information we can present our readers relative to the state of French literature:

Among the curiosities of the day, we must not entirely pass over the fac simile copies of the last letter, or will, of Marie Antoinette of Austria, queen of France, written Oct. 18, 1793. It has been copied with the most scrupulous exactness, by more than one engraver, at Paris.

ROSES AND LILIES.-The work on lilies, by M. Redouté, which has been some years in a course of publication, is at length concluded in Eighty numbers, forming eight volumes in folio: the price is 3,200 fr. (150) subscription price. This seems to be a sufficient homage paid to a single flower, which, however, presents among the curious, a great variety of species, each marked by its proper form, manners, and beauties.-M. Redouté, whose work on lillies is now closed, proposes to direct his attention to a similar work on roses. He observes, very justly, that the culture of the rose is of late become a subject of study among a great number of naturalists and amateurs:--that most gardens of any magnitude, contain collections of roses, more or less extensive; while this beautiful flower, by its form, its fragrance, and its colours, has established its reputation, as an object of fashion, and, in short, may be deemed popular. When the rose was less in request, a small number of varieties was all that was known; and these were placed in gardens without much consideration or display; but, now, the number of beautiful species is increased, and these are more sought after and preferred. The author proposes to treat the rose as he has already treated the lily; that is to say, to furnish an exact representation of each species, drawn from nature, with a summary description; the whole coloured, &c. with strict fidelity. The subscription price for each number, containing six plates, is about sixteen shillings.

De Montucci occupies himself incessantly in advancing his Dictionary of the Chinese Language. About the end of the year 1814, he had cut 14,000 new characters; and he expected to be able to complete the number wanted-and being many more than 10,000, before the present year was far advanced.

The principal French journals, at present, in a course of publication, are, Magazin Encyclopedique, or Journal of Sciences, Letters, and Arts, by the Chevalier Millin. Yearly subscription, 42 francs-Annales de l'Agriculture Française; by M. M. Tessier and Bose. Subscription, 25 francs-Bibliotheque PhysicoEconomique, by Arthur Bertrand. Subscription, 10 francs.Annales de Chimie. Subscription, 21 francs.-Journal de Médecine, by Dr. J. J Leroux. Price, 10 francs.-Gazette de Santé, by Drs. Gardanne, Pinel, Poulet, Montégre. Subscription, 18 francs.-Journal de Physique, de Chemie, d'Histoire Naturelle, et des Arts, by J. C. de la Metherie. Subscription, 27 francs.Journal des Mines. Subscription, 21 francs.-Journal des Audi