should see ninety-nine of them gathering all they got into a heap; reserving nothing for themselves but the chaff and refuse; keeping this heap for one, and that the WEAKEST perhaps, AND WORST PIGEON OF THE FLOCK; sitting round, and looking on all the winter, whilst this one was decouring, throwing about, and wasting it; and if a pigeon more hardy or hungry than the rest touched a grain of the hoard, all the others instantly flying upon him and tearing him to pieces;-if you should see this, you would see nothing more, than what is every day practised and established amongst men. Among men you see the ninety-and-nine toiling and scraping together a heap of superfluities for one, getting nothing for themselves all the while, but a little of the coarsest of the provisions which their own labour produces, whilst the one for whom they toil and accumulate is oftentimes the worst or feeblest of the whole set,—a child, a woman, a madman, or a fool; whilst they calmly see the whole fruits of all their labour spent or spoiled; and if one of them take or even touch a particle of it, the others join against him and hang him for the theft." This extract contains the whole of the first chapter of the first part of the third book of "Paley's Principles of Moral and Political Philosophy." The following passages are found in the same work upon the same subject. "Another right which may be called a general right, as it is incidental to every man who is in a situation to claim it, is the right of extreme necessity; by which is meant a right to use the property of another, when it is necessary for our own preservation to do so; as a right to take, WITH OR AGAINST THE OWNER'S LEAVE, the first food, clothes, or shelter we meet with, when we are in danger of perishing through want of them;-of which right the foundation is this: that when property was first instituted, the institution was not intended to operate to the destruction of any; therefore when such consequences would follow, all regard to property is superseded."— Book II. ch. xi. "The introduction of property was consented to by mankind, upon the expectation and condition that there should be left to every one a sufficiency for his subsistence, or the means of procuring it. And therefore, when the partition of property is rigidly maintained against the claims of indigence and distress, it is maintained in OPPOSITION TO THE INTENTION OF THOSE WHO MADE IT, and of HIM* who is the Supreme Proprietor of every thing; and who has filled the earth with plenteousness, for the sustentation and comfort of all whom he sends into it."-Book v. ch. iii. He that oppresseth the poor reproacheth his Maker."-Proverbs, c. xiv. v. 31. It is quite clear that the application of these principles to the condition of the population of Ireland, would produce a little inconvenience to those enlightened and humane proprietors, who were astounded in 1838 by hearing for the first time the extraordinary information that property had its duties as well as its rights. It is equally matter of certainty, that if the Catholic clergy of that country had intended to give any disturbance to the possessions of these amiable persons, they might have more effectually accomplished their object by publishing a "penny Paley," and circulating the opinions of the university of Cambridge among the peasantry of Ireland, than by entering into a disquisition as to whether a man who stole a submultiple of a grain of wheat was guilty of a mortal or only of a venial sin. But we must return to our friend in the Quarterly Review;-of the sound, clear, and practical wisdom of whose philosophy we shall take leave to give one sample more, in addition to those which we have already adduced. There are "three distinct measures," quoth our wise man, "to be adopted, one or the other, as the first step to the cure of the ills of Ireland," page 126. Proceeding to the development of the subject, he until page 129, where we are told that the attainment of the first of the indispensable preliminaries is positively desperate, (second paragraph in the page). He proceeds, in the next place, to acquaint us, in the third paragraph of the same page, that the second of the "distinct measures is even more desperate than the first; whilst, in page 132, first line, he informs us that the third is the most desperate of all, being not only impossible in fact, but impossible in comprehension. Three things must therefore be done before we take the first step. Three steps must first be taken before the first, and these three degrees of indispensable anteprincipial progression are impossible. This looks like a very desperate state of affairs. But an obstruction made up of three impossibilities does not appear sufficient to deter the bold reviewer from the attempt to cure the "ills of Ireland." In the fourth page of his article, he says, that "so far from despair, perhaps the deepest observer of human nature, and of the state of the world" (i. e. the author of " Romanism in Ireland") in fear from almost every withdraw his may 66 eye *Dunciad. other portion of the globe, and fix it on Ireland, as the spot where, covered over with rubbish and ashes, and almost smothered by an oppressive influence, there is still a light burning, such as scarcely exists in any other civilized nation, and without which no nation can be great or good. In Ireland, as yet at least, THE SPIRIT OF FAITH is not extinct." Our readers will not forget that this hopeful population are the same community which the same writer has, in another part of the same article, compared-1st, to a convicted culprit struggling against an officer of justice, who had a warrant to arrest him; and 2dly, to a naked, starving, and infuriated maniac.—p. 124. Here we must part company with the Professor, of whom, to say the truth, we are very heartily sick. We had anticipated that he would make some attempt at excusing or palliating his enormous conduct. He has, however, died without making any sign, and we venture to hope that the gentle chastisement which we have felt it our duty to inflict upon him for the monstrous falsehoods which he has uttered against our most calumniated country, and our most holy religion, will operate as a salutary warning to any other person who may be disposed to follow the footsteps of the Professor in a career of so disgraceful a nature. ART. VII.—1. Poems by Richard Monckton Milnes. 2 Vols. London: 1839. 2. Poetry for the People, and other Poems, by Richard Monckton Milnes. London: 1840. T HE very extensive and favourable reputation attained by Mr. Milnes' first publication will have led many to entertain hopes of his second, which, we fear, are not likely altogether to be fulfilled. The author of the "Lay of the Humble," and the very many smaller poems, remarkable alike for exquisite workmanship, and beauty of thought and feeling, which thickly strew his two earlier volumes, should not have lightly hazarded his fame by another, of which the best that can be said is, that in it are some gleams of the high poetic qualities which, strongly and throughout, marked its predecessors. The present volume, Poetry for the People, and other Poems, bears many marks of haste. Golden flashes of thought there doubtless are here also, and true and touching delineations of feeling: but the high tone of Mr. Milnes' first publication is not equally sustained, while the public surely ought to be content only with an improvement. We fear that there is much in this new volume which has been written only for the unworthy purpose of making up a volume of suitable size. The contents of the first two volumes were elaborated in quiet; but Mr. Milnes has since become an actor in the world of politics, and exchanged the brooks and dewy fields, which we must suppose that he formerly haunted, for the hum and glare of men's busy life. If the distractions of politics and society have thus made havoc with the poet's craft, it is one consolation, that the fountain of his poetry remains pure; for there is more than enough in the present volume to show that the world has not worked beyond the surface, and that Mr. Milnes retains the forms of young imagination, a quick apprehension of the beautiful and the good, simple, and fresh feelings,— "A young lamb's heart amid the full-grown flock." Mr. Milnes is one of what may be considered a class of poets which has arisen within the last few years, the members of which, with many individual characteristics, have certain chief features in common, and acknowledge for the most part the same influences. The consciousness that belongs to a later age of poetry is strongly developed in all of them. They are all casuists and inward philosophers, vexing themselves with the mysteries of the world and of humanity. They have cultivated with great care the harmony of their natures, and, as beseems later poets, are masters of metre. The external influences which have chiefly worked on them are the poetry of Wordsworth and Shelley, and the philosophic and critical writings of Mr. Coleridge. In the poems of all of them also is discernible the influence of another and younger poet, Mr. Tennyson, who, though he has not yet won his way to fames's high eminence, has given to the world, in the two small volumes which he has published, unmistakeable and brilliant tokens of genius, and has already produced a visible effect on contemporary poetical literature In this class we would place,-besides Mr. Milnes,-Mr. Alford, a diligent student of nature; Mr. Trench, who has brought to the service of the Muses a deep and most devout soul; and Mr. Sterling, who has finely mingled thought, feeling, and imagination, in strains of exquisite melody. Mr. Milnes need not fear a comparison with any of the writers whom we have named. With a less rich and refined poetic temperament than that of Mr. Sterling, who, without seeming effort, pours forth profusely loveliest sounds and images, he has succeeded by cultivation in making himself his superior as an artist. The melody of Mr. Milnes' verse is generally perfect; his language chaste, correct, and nervous. Thought, feeling, and fancy abound in his poems: and there are not a few, especially in the earlier volumes, which prove him capable of the highest efforts of "shaping imagination." On the whole, however, there is a scarcity of imagery in these poems. We must not forget to mention, that the beauty of Mr. Milnes' verses is sometimes marred by affectation; and that he is too prone to the grand and the mysterious, a fault which we regret the more in one who often shows himself no stranger to the strength and loveliness of simplicity. Though some time has now elapsed since the publication of Mr. Milnes' two earlier volumes, and many extracts have appeared in periodicals, we shall yet venture to select also from them, as being better fitted than the last to convey a just notion of Mr. Milnes' great and varied power. The verses which we shall extract will be new to many of our readers. We do not quote any portions of the "Lay of the Humble," perhaps the happiest of Mr. Milnes' efforts, because injustice will be done to it by quoting a mere portion, and the whole is too long for quotation, and because this poem has become very extensively known. We may say the same of "The Brothers," a poem illustrating the fraternal affection, not in the same way as Mr. Wordsworth's well known and beautiful verses of the same name, but hardly inferior to this in pathos, and pervaded by a high tone of imaginative language, which reminds us of some of the finest passages of "The Excursion." But we cannot enumerate all the passages on which we should be glad to fix attention, and which our limits will not allow us to quote. A short poem, entitled "Mutability," a tale of every day, most simply and touchingly told, is a gem worthy of Coleridge. The first part is a picture. "I saw two children intertwine Their arms about each other, As gaily they ran on, |