although it is impossible to consider such an expression of feeling as intended solely in honour to the dead. What we mean to assert is this, that the sentiment of pathos, the sensibility of taste, may exist where there is little real feeling, and less moral principle; that a poet may as easily attain the pathetic without strong natural affection, as the sublime without native grandeur of character. With regard to many productions of the affecting kind, the harrowing tale of madness, or despairing love, or frantic grief, the very skill displayed in such moral dissections, proves that the Author has more nerve than sensibility; or to change the figure, betrays the mind of an artist at leisure, coolly to attend to the costume of the passions he delineates. It is true that

The Poet's lyre, to fix his fame,
Should be the Poet's heart.'

The genuine language of poetry is the language of genuine feeling. But it is the recollection of passions and feelings by which at the time we were incapacitated for the measured utterance of art, rather than the presence of deep emotion, which constitutes the source of the inspiration.

• When the wounds of wo are healing,
When the heart is all resigned,'

then is the season for cherishing the joy of grief,' and for giving permanence to sentiments which when fresh were simply painful, even to agony. Yet after all, the deepest, tenderest, holiest feelings are such as, perhaps, no man really conscious of them would think of dilating into poetry; or if he should succeed in giving them external shape, he would be little disposed to exhibit them to the cold proud eye of the world. He that bares his heart to strangers, has nothing left for a friend.

Our readers must make their own application of these remarks, which are we believe, at any rate, just in themselves. Certainly the ostensible purpose of Lord Byron's poems, was that of indirect self vindication; and it is needless to say, that this purpose they did not answer.

Little remains to be said of the contents of the present pamphlet. The Verses addressed to Madame Lavalette, The Farewell to Malta, and the very fine and spirited Ode beginning

Oh, shame to thee, Land of the Gaul!'

which were given as Lord Byron's, in the different editions of The Seven Poems,' published by Messrs. E. Wilson, Edwards, Hone, Cox, &c. are omitted in this publication, we presume as spurious. The Star of the Legion of Honour, Waterloo, and Bonaparte's Farewell to France, are preserved. The two

latter are designated From the French,' as an apology for their being inserted among the acknowledged works of a man born an Englishman, His Lordship appears to be ambitious of the dignity of Poet-laureate to Napoleon Bonaparte, as his friend Mr. Hobhouse would seem to claim the post of historiographer to his Ex-Majesty.

From the original pieces we select the following stanzas, addressed, we believe, to his Lordship's sister.

• ΤΟ

When all around grew drear and dark,
And reason half withheld her ray-
And hope but shed a dying spark
Which more misled my lonely way;
In that deep midnight of the mind,
And that internal strife of heart,
When dreading to be deemed too kind,
The weak despair-the cold depart;
When fortune changed-and love fled far,
And hatred's shafts flew thick and fast,
Thou wert the solitary star

Which rose and set not to the last.
Oh! blest be thine unbroken light!
That watched me as a seraph's eye,
And stood between me and the night,
For ever shining sweetly nigh.
And when the cloud upon us came,

Which strove to blacken o'er thy ray-
Then purer spread its gentle flame,
And dashed the darkness all away.
Still may thy spirit dwell on mine,

And teach it what to brave or brook-
There's more in one soft word of thine,
Than in the world's defied rebuke.
Thou stood'st, as stands a lovely tree,
Whose branch unbroke, but gently bent,
Still waves with fond fidelity

Its boughs above a monument,

The winds might rend-the skies might pour,
But there thou wert-and still wouldst be
Devoted in the stormiest hour

To shed thy weeping leaves o'er me.

But thou and thine shall know no blight,
Whatever fate on me may fall;

For heaven in sunshine will requite
The kind-and thee the most of all.

Then let the ties of baffled love

Be broken-thine will never break;
Thy heart can feel-but will not move,
Thy soul, though soft, will never shake.
And these, when all was lost beside-

Were found and still are fixed in thee-
And bearing still a breast so tried,

Earth is no desart-ev'n to me.' p. 10-12.

These are followed by a short poem of an elegiac nature, a Song, dated 1808, and two poems, entitled Stanzas for Music. The Fare thee well,' and four of the other poems already published, make up the contents.

Art. XII. 1. Observations on Banks for Savings; by the Right Honorable George Rose. 8vo. pp. 58. Cadell and Davies, London,

1816.

2. An Essay on the Nature and Advantages of Parish Banks, for the Savings of the Industrious; By the Rev. Henry Duncan, 8vo. pp. 90. Oliphant and Waugh, Edinburgh.

3. A Summary Account of the London Savings Bank: including its Formation, Progress, and Present State: the Steps successively resorted to, and their Applicability in Various Circumstances. By Charles Taylor, Provincial Manager and Treasurer of the London Savings Bank. 8vo. pp. 60. price 1s. 6d. Taylor, Hatton Garden, 1816.

4. Friendly Advice to Industrious and Frugal Persons, in humble Stations of Life; Recommending Provident Institutions; or Banks of Saving. By William Davis. One of the Managers of the Provident Institution in Bath. 12mo. pp. 32. price 6d. John Robinson, Paternoster-Row, London, 1816.

5. The Rules and Regulations of an Institution called Tranquillity, commenced in the Metropolis as an Economical Bank. By John

Bone. London. ·

6. A Plan for a County Provident Bank; with Observations upon Provident Institutions already established. By Edward Christian, of Gray's Inn, Esq. Barrister, Professor of the Laws of England, &c. &c. 8vo. pp. 78. Clarke and Sons, Portugal-street, London, 1816.

F we attentively contemplate the moral government of the world, and observe the economy of Providence in the administration of it, we find that a scheme of compensation is every where apparent. Evil, physical and moral, does indeed abound; but then, some coincident and comprehensive provision of mercy is ever at hand to convert it into an instrument for working out a greater sum of happiness than could, under the circumstances, exist in its absence.

The tendency of population to press beyond the limits of subsistence, is an evil which, from the days of Plato to the present period, has forced itself upon the attention of those who have speculated on the means of improving the condition of mankind. This has been the pregnant and perennial source of degradation, misery, and crime. As the number of labourers increases faster than the capital which gives them employment, many become unable to procure a livelihood by the honest exertion of their powers, and are goaded by want to the commission of violence and fraud. The aid afforded by individual benevolence and legislative provision, though it may sometimes prove a temporary palliative, ultimately heightens the symptoms of this moral and political disease. Such aid, by teaching the people to look to others for support, takes away from them the most powerful motives to the forming of frugal and prudential habits, increases improvident marriages, and illicit intercourse, augments the numbers of those for whom no employment can be found, and thus multiplies the misery which it is intended to remove. The truth of these observations is, unfortunately, verified, by the actual condition of the English poor. Though we have carried individual charity and legislative provision to an extent unparalleled in the history of the world, yet poverty and distress, so far from being checked, seem to be advancing in geometrical progression. One eighth of the population receives parochial aid, and the amount of the Poor Rates is seven millions. Throughout many counties a part of the wages of the labourer is paid by the parish; and if the system proceeds as it has hitherto done, the rental of the country will be swallowed up in the maintenance of the poor.

Now, the principle of population which, in all old countries, has presented obstacles hitherto insuperable to improving the condition of the people, and which seems at first sight to be rendered even more mischievously active, by the efforts made by the benevolent to correct the misery it creates, will be found, when we look narrowly into the nature of man, and the structure of society, not only capable of being duly controlled, but calculated to become the antecedent of a higher degree of civilization and happiness than could otherwise obtain. In this country, where political philosophy has been so successfully studied, and where the tendency to over-population has been so much increased by erroneous legislation, it is natural to expect that there should exist a general disposition to retrace the false steps formerly taken, and to devise and adopt the means of impressing prudential restraint upon the people, and of getting rid of a system of Poor Laws which, in its accelerating progress, threatens to absorb all property, and to sweep all inde

E

pendence from the land. Accordingly, we find that various plans for the attainment of these objects have, from time to time, been proposed by political philosophers and statesmen, and with laudable alacrity adopted by the people; until, at length, in the gradual advance of improvement, the happy thought of a Bank for Savings was suggested. Before we proceed to give an account of the nature and operation of this simple but invaluable invention, we will present our readers with a rapid sketch of some of the principal plans for benefiting the poor, which preceded it.

In 1772, Mr. Baron Mazeres, assisted by Dr. Price, published a proposal for enabling the industrious poor to purchase with their surplus earnings, life annuities, to commence at the period when vigour begins to fail, and to be secured upon the parish rates. Early in the ensuing session of parliament, Mr. Dowdswell brought in a bill for giving effect to that plan. This bill was supported by Mr. Burke, and all the most enlightened members of the Commons; but it was afterwards thrown out by the Lords. Indeed, the plan itself, though sanctioned by names so illustrious, was open to insuperable practical objections; and is now interesting, only as marking a period when the highest powers of intellect began to be seriously directed to the solving of that most difficult and most important problem in political science-the prevention of poverty. Repeated attempts were subsequently made to revive, under modifications and improvements, the scheme of deferred annuities; but without success. Mr. Pitt laboured most assiduously to improve the whole system of the Poor Laws; and at a later period, Mr. Whitbread attempted to legislate upon the same important subject: but both these statesmen fell into the common error of attempting to govern too much; and their plans were productive of no utility except that of impressing, by such conspicuous examples, the important lesson, that redundant population, with its consequent misery and dissoluteness, cannot be remedied by an Act of Parliament.

The origin of Friendly Societies has not been accurately traced. These societies are in fact insurance offices for disease, misfortune, and old age. A certain monthly or quarterly payment is made during the continuance of health and vigour, for which a specific allowance is made when this state is interrupted by accident, sickness, or the decay of nature. Now it is calculated, that when a great many individuals in the full enjoyment of strength, unite in a scheme of this kind, the chances being greatly in favour of health, they may afford, by regular contributions, not only to make a seasonable allowance to such of their number as may be rendered incapable of labour, but also to accumulate a considerable stock, out of VOL. V. N.S. 3 A