We cannot refrain from transcribing some very touching stanzas by Mrs Gilbert of Nottingham, one of the well known authors of the incomparable "Hymns for Infant Minds."

Nay, love them not!-for thine no more,

This tender group shall be!

I've bought them!-Watch from yonder shore,
That vessel out at sea ;-

I've bought thy children,-o'er the waves
They go, to join my gang of slaves!

'I saw that gentle girl of thine
With anguish in her soul;

I marked the drops of burning brine
That down her cheeks did roll;
I heard her for her mother cry ;-
Yet, had I not a right to buy?

'Perchance, in some far field, away,
The lash may teach her toil;
While tears of anguish, day by day,
Shall slake the fervid soil;

But thou, her mother,―ne'er shalt know,
Where sheds thy child those tears of woe!

'Mothers, the fair, the firm, the free,

Of England's vaunted isle,
Tell me if griefs like this shall be,
And you be still the while!
No!-strong in woman virtue rise!
And heed the negro mother's cries!

When plighted hands, a living chain,
Unsevered, but to die,-
Crusaders, sally forth again

To heed that thrilling cry!-
A broken heart your ensign be,
Your watchword Love and Liberty!

'ANN GILBERT.'

Turning now from the Cloud to the Bow, we find the following spirited Ode from a noble poet.

'ODE ON THE ABOLITION OF SLAVERY.

'PROUDLY on Cressy's tented wold
The Lion-flag of England flew ;
As proudly gleamed its crimson fold
O'er the dun heights of Waterloo :
But other lyres shall greet the brave;
Sing now, that we have Freed the Slave.

The Ocean plain, where Nelson bled,
Fair Commerce plies with peaceful oar,
Duteous o'er Britain's clime to shed
The gathered spoil of every shore:
To-day across th’Atlantic sea
Shout-shout ye, that the Slave is Free.
'And Eloquence in rushing streams

Has flowed our halls and courts along,
Or kindled mid yet loftier dreams
The glowing bursts of glorious Song:
Let both their noblest burthen pour,
To tell that Slavery is no more.

Bright Science through each field of space
Has urged her mist-dispelling car,
Coy Nature's hidden reign to trace,

To weigh each wind, and count each star:
Yet stay, thou proud Philosophy,
First stoop to bid Mankind be Free.

< And Freedom has been long our own,
With all her soft and generous train,
To gild the lustre of the throne,

And guard the labour of the plain:
Ye heirs of ancient Runnymede!

Your Slaves-oh! could it be?-are Freed.

"Ah! for the tale the Slave could speak,
Ah! for the shame of Britain's sway,
On Afric sands the maddened shriek,
'Neath Indian suns the burning day:
Ye sounds of guilt-ye sights of gore--
Away! for Slavery is no more.

Mid the drear haunts of Force and Strife,
The Ministers of Peace shall stand,

And pour the welling words of Life

Around a parched and thirsty land;
While, spread beneath the tamarind tree,
Rise "happy homes, and altars Free."

'Ye isles, that court the tropic rays,
Clustered on Ocean's sapphire breast,
Ye feathery bowers, ye fairy bays,

In more than fable now-" the Blest:"
Waft on each gale your choral strain,
Till every land has rent the chain.

Oh! England, empire's home and head,
First in each art of peace and power,
Mighty the billow crest to tread,
Mighty to rule the battle hour,—
But mightiest to relieve and save,

Rejoice, that thou has Freed the Slave!

'MORPETH.'

We must make room for one more specimen; and we think we shall not lie open to the charge of undue partiality for selecting the following beautiful stanzas.

The groves whose clusters pendent
The wealth of commerce hold;
And sunny climes resplendent
With Afric's pliant gold.

Could all their bright profusion
In one vast altar rise,
Here, in our green seclusion,
A richer dowry lies.

For England hold a treasure,
Than all their glorious spoil
More costly beyond measure:-
The freedom of her soil.

'This, this she cannot barter
For wealth of land or sea;
But sends her royal charter,
To set the captive free.
'O bright and blessed mission!
When shall her sails convey
The tidings of fruition,

For sickening Hope's delay?

The voice of intercession

Through all our land that pleads,

Abjures the long oppression,
Whose final moment speeds.

Our oaken forests weaving
The garland of the sea,
Whose billows, proudly heaving,
Bear freedom, from the free;

'Shall boast a name more glorious,

More fraught with deathless fame,
Than all their fleets victorious
In battled line may claim.

Our flags that yielded never,

But to the tempest's sway,Our prows that boldly sever The ocean's pathless way,As borne on wings angelic, Shall waft the blest release: Not sealed till every relic

Of Afric's bondage cease.

‹ Their course o'er rock and shallow,
Awaits a prospering gale.

That course may Justice hallow,
And Heaven direct the sail !'

Among the other contributors to this interesting collection are, Archdeacon Wrangham, James Montgomery, Bernard Barton, James Edmeston, William and Mary Howitt, P. M. James, Allan Cunningham, Agnes Bulwer, Dr. Baldwin Brown, Dr. Bowring, James Douglas, J. J. Gurney, Miss Roscoe, Thomas Pringle, John Holland, Rev. Dr. J. P. Smith, Rev. William Marsh, Rev. Jos. Gilbert, Rev. C. W. Townsend, Rev. R. W. Hamilton, Rev. Eustace Carey, Rev. John Ely, Rev. J. W. H. Pritchard, Mr. and Mrs. Josiah Conder, T. F. Buxton, M.P., J. Parker, Esq., M.P., &c. &c. A galaxy of names, of varying magnitude, but all blending their rays in one stream of light: or, to speak without a metaphor, the contributors to this volume may be considered as composing a sort of literary anti-slavery association, in which it is pleasing to find some of every sect and party uniting. It would, indeed, have been delightful,' remarks the modest and intelligent Editor, if every hand which ' has been actively engaged in pulling down the prison-house, ' and striking off the fetters of the bondsman, would have put a stone into the monument here erected upon its ruins, to tell 'posterity where it stood, the curses it contained, and how it fell."

6

To many who have laboured long, and nobly, and successfully in this cause, the Editor had no means of access; to others, acknowledgments are due for the kind interest they have expressed in the plan and success of a work which various circumstances have prevented them from aiding. It is a subject for thankfulness, that so many have assisted in raising this memorial, which, though small in its dimensions, and humble in its design, the Compiler believes will be found a structure of moral and literary architecture in some degree worthy of the great occasion.'-Preface.

The entire profits arising from the sale of the volume will be devoted to the West Indian negroes.

Art. IV. 1. The Church and its Adversaries. A Sermon, preached at St. James's Chapel, Hampstead Road, on occasion of reading the King's Letter in aid of the Funds for building Churches and Chapels. By the Rev. Henry Stebbing, M.A. 8vo. pp. 24. London, 1834.

2. A Sermon preached in Barley Church, for the benefit of the Society for building and enlarging Churches and Chapels, March 16, 1834. By the Rev. W. H. Turner. 8vo, pp. 23. Royston, 1834.

3. A Letter to the Lord Chancellor on the Evils of our State Church, suggested by his late Remarks in the House of Lords. By Sir Arthur Brooke Faulkner, Member of the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge, and Dublin. 8vo, pp. 76. London, 1834.

VOL. XII.-N.S.

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