the conquest of Russia, by Buonaparte, as a "change which would lay the foundation of future improvement in the dominions of the Czars." fellow-student in astrology, and are known to have assisted I have not been travelling out of the record while thus incidentally noticing a personage with whom you, Sir, are more naturally and properly associated than I have been with Mr. Wordsworth, this your colleague and you being the Gog and Magog of the Edinburgh Review. Had it not been for a difference of opinion upon political points between myself and certain writers in that journal who laid claim to the faculty of the second sight, I suspect that I should never have incurred your hostility. What those points of difference were I must here be permitted to set forth for the satisfaction of those readers who may not be so well acquainted with them as you are they related to the possibility of carrying on the late war to an honourable and successful termination. It was in our state of feeling, Sir, as well as in our state of knowledge, that we differed, in our desires as much as in our judgement. They predicted for us nothing but disgrace and defeat: predicted is the word; for they themselves assured us that they were "seriously occupied with the destinies of Europe and of mankind; " "As who should say I am Sir Oracle!" They ridiculed "the romantic hopes of the English nation," "Harry, the wish was father to that thought!" a "Si mens sit læta tibi crederis esse propheta," says an old Leonine rhymester. And as for expecting MUTINY (hear Germany! for so they qualified it!) amongst the vassal states of France, it would be as chimerical," they said, "as to expect one amongst the inhabitants of BourAnd here these lucky prophets were peculiarly felicitous; the inhabitants of Bourdeaux having been the first people in France who threw off the yoke of Buonaparte's tyranny, and mounted the white cockade. "Omnia jam fiunt, fieri quæ posse negabam." Poor Oracle! the face is double-bronzed; and yet it is but a wooden head! I stood upon firm ground, while they were sticking in the Slough of Despond. Hinc illæ lacrymæ ! I charged them at the time with ignorance, presumption, and pusillanimity. And now, Sir, I ask of you, were they or were they not ignorant? Here are their assertions! — Were they or were they not presumptuous? Here are their predictions! Were they or were they not pusillanimous ? Have they or have they not been confuted, and confounded, and exposed, and shamed, and stultified, by the event? They who know me will bear witness, that, before a rumour of war was heard from the Peninsula, I had looked toward that quarter as the point where we might hope first to see the horizon open; and that, from the hour in which the struggle commenced, I never doubted of its final success, provided England should do its duty: this confidence was founded upon a knowledge of the country and the people, and upon the principles which were then and there first brought into action against the enemy. At the time when every effort was made (as you, Sir, well know) to vilify and disgust our allies, to discourage the public, to impede the measures of government, to derange its finances, and thereby cut off its means, to paralyse the arm and deaden the heart of England; when we were told of the irresistible power and perfect policy of Buonaparte, the consummate skill of his generals, and the invincibility of his armies, my language was this: "The one business of England is to abate the power of France: that power she must beat down, or fall herself; that power she will beat down, if she do but strenuously put forth her own mighty means." again,—“For our soldiers to equal our seamen, it is only necessary for them to be equally well commanded. They have the same heart and soul, as well as the same flesh and blood. Too much, indeed, may be exacted from them in a retreat but set their face toward a foe, and there is nothing within the reach of human achievement which they cannot perform." And again; -"Carry on the war with all the heart, and with all the soul, and with all the strength, of this mighty empire, and you will beat down the power of France." Was I wrong, Sir? Or has the event corresponded to this confidence? 'Αμέραι ἐπίλοιποι Μάρτυρες σοφώτατοι. And Bear witness Torres Vedras, Salamanca, and Vittoria ! Bear witness Orthies and Thoulouse ! Bear witness Waterloo, and that miserable tyrant, who was then making and unmaking kings with a breath, and now frets upon the rock of St. Helena, like a tiger in his cage! O DE S. ODE, WRITTEN DURING THE NEGOTIATIONS WITH BUONAPARTE, IN JANUARY, 1814. 1. WHо Counsels peace at this momentous hour, When God hath given deliverance to the oppress'd, And to the injured power? Who counsels peace, when Vengeance like a flood From the four corners of the world cries out Woe, woe to England! woe and endless shame, False to her feelings and unspotted fame, For by what names shall Right and Wrong be known,.. And France, who yearns even now to break her chain, That peace which Death and Judgement can bestow, 3. For sooner shall the Ethiop change his skin, Or from the Leopard shall her spots depart, Than this man change his old flagitious heart. Have ye not seen him in the balance weigh'd, And there found wanting? On the stage of blood Foremost the resolute adventurer stood; And when, by many a battle won, He placed upon his brow the crown, Curbing delirious France beneath his sway, Then, like Octavius in old time, Fair name might he have handed down, Effacing many a stain of former crime. Fool! should he cast away that bright renown! Fool! the redemption proffer'd should he lose! When Heaven such grace vouchsafed him that the way To Good and Evil lay Before him, which to choose. 4. But Evil was his Good, For all too long in blood had he been nurst, And ne'er was earth with verier tyrant curst. Bold man and bad, Remorseless, godless, full of fraud and lies, And black with murders and with perjuries, Himself in Hell's whole panoply he clad; No law but his own headstrong will he knew, No counsellor but his own wicked heart. From evil thus portentous strength he drew, And trampled under foot all human ties, All holy laws, all natural charities. 5. O France! beneath this fierce Barbarian's sway Disgraced thou art to all succeeding times; Rapine, and blood, and fire have mark'd thy way, All loathsome, all unutterable crimes. A curse is on thee, France! from far and wide It hath gone up to Heaven. All lands have cried For vengeance upon thy detested head! All nations curse thee, France! for wheresoe'er In peace or war thy banner hath been spread, All forms of human woe have follow'd there. The Living and the Dead Cry out alike against thee! They who bear, Crouching beneath its weight, thine iron yoke, Join in the bitterness of secret prayer The voice of that innumerable throng, Whose slaughter'd spirits day and night invoke The Everlasting Judge of right and wrong, How long, O Lord! Holy and Just, how long! 6. A merciless oppressor hast thou been, Thyself remorselessly oppress'd meantime ; Greedy of war, when all that thou couldst gain Was but to dye thy soul with deeper crime, And rivet faster round thyself the chain. O blind to honour, and to interest blind, When thus in abject servitude resign'd To this barbarian upstart, thou couldst brave God's justice, and the heart of human kind! Madly thou thoughtest to enslave the world, Thyself the while a miserable slave. Behold the flag of vengeance is unfurl'd! The dreadful armies of the North advance; While England, Portugal, and Spain combined, Give their triumphant banners to the wind, And stand victorious in the fields of France. Wait not too long the event, For now whole Europe comes against thee bent, His wiles and their own strength the nations know: Wise from past wrongs, on future peace intent, The People and the Princes, with one mind, From all parts move against the general foe: One act of justice, one atoning blow, One execrable head laid low, Even yet, O France! averts thy punishment. Open thine eyes! too long hast thou been blind; Take vengeance for thyself, and for mankind! 8. France! if thou lovest thine ancient fame, Revenge thy sufferings and thy shame! By the bones which bleach on Jaffa's beach; By the blood which on Domingo's shore Hath clogg'd the carrion-birds with gore; By the flesh which gorged the wolves of Spain, Or stiffen'd on the snowy plain of frozen Moscovy; By the bodies which lie all open to the sky, By the prayers which rise for curses on his head; 9. By those horrors which the night Witness'd, when the torches' light To the assembled murderers show'd Where the blood of Condé flow'd; By thy murder'd Pichegru's fame; By murder'd Wright,.. an English name; By murder'd Palm's atrocious doom; By murder'd Hofer's martyrdom ; Oh by the virtuous blood thus vilely spilt, The Villain's own peculiar private guilt, Open thine eyes! too long hast thou been blind! Take vengeance for thyself and for mankind! Keswick. ODE, WRITTEN DURING THE WAR WITH AMERICA, 1814. 1. WHEN shall the Island Queen of Ocean lay The thunderbolt aside, And, twining olives with her laurel crown, Rest in the Bower of Peace? 2. Not long may this unnatural strife endure Beyond the Atlantic deep; Not long may men, with vain ambition drunk, And insolent in wrong, Afflict with their misrule the indignant land A light for after times! Vile instruments of fallen Tyranny In their own annals, by their countrymen, For lasting shame shall they be written down. Soon may the better Genius there prevail ! Then will the Island Queen of Ocean lay The thunderbolt aside, And, twining olives with her laurel crown, Rest in the Bower of Peace. 3. But not in ignominious ease, Within the Bower of Peace supine, The Ocean Queen shall rest! Her other toils await,.. A holier warfare,.. nobler victories; And amaranthine wreaths, Which, when the laurel crown grows sere, Will live for ever green. 4. Hear me, O England! rightly may I claim Yea of such prophecy As Wisdom to her sons doth aye vouchsafe, 5. Nobly hast thou stood up Against the foulest Tyranny that ere, In elder or in later times, Hath outraged human kind. O glorious England! thou hast borne thyself Religiously and bravely in that strife; And happier victory hath blest thine arms Than, in the days of yore, Thine own Plantagenets achieved, Now gird thyself for other war; Afflict man's wretched race! 6. Powerful thou art: imperial Rome, When in the Augustan age she closed The temple of the two-faced God, Could boast no power like thine. Less opulent was Spain, When Mexico her sumless riches sent To that proud monarchy; And Hayti's ransack'd caverns gave their gold; Yet, O dear England! powerful as thou art, 7. For still doth Ignorance Dark and unblest amid surrounding light; The traveller on his way Bleak moorland, noxious fen, and lonely heath, Oh grief that spirits of celestial seed, Whom ever teeming Nature hath brought forth With all the human faculties divine Of sense and soul endued, .. 8. Must this reproach endure? The universal friend, The general benefactor of mar.kind; This foul reproach ere long shall be effaced, And future nations bless 9. Now may that blessed edifice They who from papal darkness, and the thrall Fitly for them was this great work reserved; So, Britain, shall thine aged monarch's wish Receive its due accomplishment, That wish which with the good, (Had he no other praise,) Through all succeeding times would rank his name, That all within his realms Might learn the Book, which all Who rightly learn shall live. 10. From public fountains the perennial stream O England! wheresoe'er thy churches stand, And bring forth fruits of life. 11. Train up thy children, England! in the ways Thy bulwarks where, but in their breasts? Shall not their numbers therefore be thy wealth, Thy strength, thy power, thy safety, and thy pride? Oh grief then, grief and shame, If, in this flourishing land, There should be dwellings where the new-born babe Doth bring unto its parent's soul no joy! Where squalid Poverty Receives it at its birth, And on her wither'd knees Gives it the scanty food of discontent! 12. Queen of the Seas! enlarge thyself; But with more precious gifts than Greece or Tyre If on Ontario's shores, Or late-explored Missouri's pastures wide, Or in that Austral world long sought, The many-isled Pacific,. . yea where waves, Now breaking over coral reefs, affright The venturous mariner, When islands shall have grown, and cities risen By whatsoever name the land be call'd, Beneath their own unwieldy weight; The imperishable mind The Continent was leagued, All shores were hostile to the Red Cross flag, Save where, behind their ramparts driven, Stood firm, and put their trust 3. Such perils menaced from abroad; A weak but clamorous crew, Pester'd the land, and with their withering breath Poison'd the public ear. For peace the feeble raised their factious cry: Oh, madness, to resist The Invincible in arms! Seek the peace-garland from his dreadful hand! And at the Tyrant's feet They would have knelt to take The wreath of aconite for Britain's brow. For in the day of danger thou did'st turn 4. Rejoice, thou mighty Isle, Till every steeple rock, And the wide air grow giddy with your joy! And ye victorious banners to the sun Now let the anvil rest; Shut up the loom, and open the school-doors, That young and old may with festivities Hallow for memory, through all after years, This memorable time: This memorable time, When Peace, long absent, long deplored, returns. Fear, Sorrow, and Repentance following close; 5. Not thus doth Peace return!.. A blessed visitant she comes, ... Honour in his right hand Doth lead her like a bride; |