The joyous SEASONS, eager pour Of AA' plain the pride-or boast of AFRIC's shore !!- Now, the MIRTHFUL-GOD inspires And gave HER back the Joy to HER the CHARM divine ! !— And each, by turns, rejoice-and each, the boon extol.' and can This is either the very quintessence of absurdity, the ottar of nonsense, or it is an etherial extract of sublimity, discernible only by disembodied intelligences, and hermetically sealed from mortals: he whose ears can comprehend the sounds of vowels and consonants dancing in mysterious confusion through these inimitable lines, may lie awake at midnight and -listen to the music of "the nine unfolded spheres." Shall we analyse the passage ?-No!-Yes! but we wil!,-at least we will try.-Recollect, reader! that it is the nymph of taste with whom we have to deal; that she is taste all over, lap turtle soup with her little finger, or devour venison pasty with her eyes. Now for it! Compare the verses with the paraphrase as we go along. Taste speaks to the admiring crowd; that is, the sense by which we relish roast beef and plumb pudding makes a speech, like a quack doctor from a platform to a multitude all agape to swallow his word and his nostrums. What she says is not said in the book, and we shall therefore say nothing about it. But mark, "The social pleasures," that is Eating and Drinking personified, attend her; we wonder much that tobacco was not personified also, presenting a lighted pipe to her. Then come "Art and Nature,"-Art we presume with a dish of soup-maigre, and Nature with a trough full of acorns and potatoes ;--afterwards "the joyous seasons," by which it is not unreasonable to suppose the author meant spring, summer, autumn, and winter, bring Each rich profusion of their fruitful store, Of Asia's plain the pride, or boast of Afric's shore.' It is pretty evident that the Author here meant all the exquisite tropical fruits; but it is the first time, we believe, that the European seasons ever visited the torrid zone, either in prose or rhyme, and the natives of these splendid regions must have been wonderfully delighted to see such a strange company under their vertical sun, and yet more astonished when they found that these northern adventurers were neither come for gold nor slaves, but only for a cold collation of cocoas and bananas for the Goddess of Taste.-We are already wearied, and so are our readers, though the wine is yet to come, and wine too" invented by Heaven;" but we will not taste a drop, for we are irresistibly disposed to sleep, under favour of the darkness that covers the remainder of the stanza, a darkness so palpable that it can not only be felt, but tasted, like a London fog. Before we dismiss the subject, our readers may expect that we should, according to our practice, give them some idea of the plan of this poem; to tell the truth, we have not found an idea in the poem, —an idea that we can understand; and we have not one concerning it, except that we never saw the like before, and hope we shall never see the like again. Art. XI. Clarkson's History of the Rise, Progress, and Accomplishment of the Abolition of the African Slave Trade, by the British Parlia▾ (Concluded from p. 930.) ment. IMMEDIATELY after the formation of the committee, in June, 1787, this flower of moral chivalry rode forth, with a more benevolent and resolute self-devotion than any former knight-errant from the days of Bellerophon, to deliver the human race from a calamity more formidable in the complexity and extent of its destructive powers than the Chimæra itself, or any subsequent monster, A very minute and singularly interesting account is given of Mr. C.'s journey to Bristol, Liverpool, and other places, with the design of collecting authentic details, and procuring living evidence to be produced before parliament, of the mode of obtaining, conveying, and treating negro slaves, the extent and value of this branch of commerce, and its influence on the character and welfare of the seamen employed in carrying it on. In the course of these inquiries, a train of most horrible and affecting stories rose up successively to his view, like the spectres of the miserable enslaved and murdered victims, at once terrifying and encouraging their eventual avenger, and stimulating his ardent mind to a constant agony of feeling and effort that could never be sustained, or indeed realized, by any ordinary man. The compassion due to suffering, and the hatred due to crime, were aggravated and combined into one simple intense feeling of horror, that perpetually impelled him to exertion with the energy of a natural instinct, and the steadiness of a primary habit; no stronger impulse could have been given to a human mind, except that of a possessing spirit; reflection was never needed to reinforce an influence so powerful and permanent, and had no other task than that of directing it to the best means, and restraining it from an inordinate and fatal activity. We confess we have been often moved to envy Mr. Clarkson the feeling of such a noble enthusiasm; and in the midst of little and subordinate duties, undertaken and persevered in at the suggestion of present expediency, or, at most, of a conscientious sense of obligation, we have ardently longed for an employment whose object was so precise, so distinct, so proximately connected with every exertion to advance it, so interesting to the best affections, and so sublime in its vastness, as to be qualified to excite such a feeling and to merit the agency of celestial intelligences. From Bristol, where Mr. C. had formed connexions and discovered facts of great importance, he proceeded to Liverpool, having procured a valuable fellow-traveller in Mr. Alexander Falconbridge, formerly a surgeon on board a Guinea-man. In every part of his journey, he was diligently employed in diffusing just views and feelings on the one subject which engrossed his own mind, among all classes of men; and so entirely was he absorbed in meditations or efforts of this nature, that for many months he had not relaxed or diverted his attention so far as to indulge even in the perusal of the newspapers. At Liverpool, he found ample occupation. The host of malignant and cruel rebels against the authority of heaven and the rights of humanity felt and dreaded and hated him as their evil genius; the destroyer was among them, searching out the secrets of their atrocity before their very faces, preparing the weapons of their final prostration, already undertaking to protect or avenge individuals who had suffered under the fangs of their relentless avarice, yet walking amidst the perils and snares they spread for him, circumspect indeed, for his life was precious, but erect in the integrity of his heart, and intrepid in the importance of his cause and the supremacy of his Master. The account of his residence in this seat and metropolis of unholy commerce is perhaps the most interesting part of the work; the reader may in some measure judge of it from the following extract. The temper of many of the interested people of Liverpool had now become still more irritable, and their hostility more apparent than before. I received anonymous letters, entreating me to leave it, or I should otherwise never leave it alive. The only effect, which this advice had upon me, was to make me more vigilant when I went out at night. I never stirred out at this time without Mr. Falconbridge And he never accompanied me without being well armed. Of this, however, I knew nothing until we had left the place. There was certainly a time, when I had reason to believe that I had a narrow escape. I was one day on the pier-head with many others, looking at some little boats below at the time of a heavy gale. Several persons, probably out of curiosity, were hastening thither. I had seen all I intended to see, and was departing, when I noticed eight or nine persons making towards me. I was then only about eight or nine yards from the precipice of the pier, but going from it. I expected that they would have divided to let me through them; instead of which they closed upon me and bore me back. I was borne within a yard of the precipice, when I discovered my danger; and perceiving among them the murderer of Peter Green, and two others who had insulted me at the King's Arms, it instantly struck me that they had a design to throw me over the pier-head; which they might have done at this time, and yet have pleaded that I had been killed by accident. There was not a moment to lose. Vigorous on account of the danger, I darted forward. One of them, against whom I pushed myself, fell down. Their ranks were broken. And I escaped, not without blows, amidst their imprecations and abuse.' pp. 409, 410. Among other curious details of Mr. C.'s laborious, but unsuccessful endeavours, to verify certain stories of the murder of seamen in the Guinea trade, and to bring the murderers to justice, there is an account of his romantic and rather indiscreet passage over the Severn in a very stormy night, to obtain evidence on a trial of this kind, which, unexpectedly to him, was to come on within a few hours at the Old Bailey; he succeeded in forwarding his witnesses to London in time, but they were prevented, by the unlucky absence of an attorney, from attending in court till an hour or two after the prisoner had been discharged for want of a prosecutor or witness against him. The labours of the committee, during Mr. Clarkson's journey of five months, had been chiefly devoted to the circulation of tracts, and to other methods of exciting the pub, lic indignation against the trade. In this they had been so successful, that by the middle of February thirty-five petitions against its continuance had been delivered to the House of Commons. Such a general and animated concern - among the people excited the attention of government, and a committee of the Privy Council was ordered to take the state of the African trade into consideration. The remainder of this volume is occupied with an account of the evidence produced before this committee, an account of the author's interviews with Messrs. Pitt, Grenville, and Fox, preparatory to the first discussion of the subject in parliament, and an account of the debates on that discussion, and of the origin, progress, difficulties, and final success of Sir W. Dolben's Bill to regulate the number of slaves per ton which each vessel should be suffered to carry. Never was the utter corruption and baseness of heart among the dealers in men more evident, than in the unblushing pertinacious opposition they made to this most necessary bill for mitigating the horrors of the middle passage; and never did any public man more completely involve himself in dishonour than Lord Thurlow, by his violent and insidious efforts to defeat it. Mr. C. describes very distinctly the demeanor of Messrs. Pitt, Grenville, and Fox, in his first interviews with each of them; the scepticism, and eventual but cautious admission of conviction, which he ascribes to the Premier, the warm feeling and ready assent of his colleague, the short deliberation and strong decided assurance of a support that never shrunk or wavered till it finally triumphed, of their political adversary, are curiously marked, and are in some degree characteristic of the men. It is but just, however, to recollect, that the statesman had a responsibility to consult, from which the leader of an opposition was wholly exempt. Mr. Fox might also have bestowed much more attention on the subject, than his celebrated rival, prior to this interview; if the fact was otherwise, this was an instance of that remarkably rapid and almost intuitive perception of truth, however extensive and complex, which was a singular prerogative ofhis mind; it would seen that he was endowed with a vast compass and strange clearness of mental vision, that enabled him to comprehend at once and decide instantly, while other men were beginning to take one of the contracted surveys, from the sum of which they expected at length to obtain some general notions to regulate their practice. Mr. Clarkson appears very desirous of redeeming the memory of Mr. Pitt from the disgraceful charge of insincerity, founded on his having failed to effect the Abolition of the Slave Trade, though professing to be one of its warmest friends. The excuse amounts to this; that Mr. Pitt, being opposed by Lords Thurlow and Liverpool, and Mr. Dundas, in the cabinet, and being withstood by "a difficulty still more insuperable, in an Occurrence which took place in the year 1791, but which is much too delicate to be mentioned," could never bring forward the question as minister of state: Mr. Clarkson had reason to be convinced of his sincerity, and to be satisfied with his exertions, as a private memberof the house. He avoids explaining what that "greater number of favourable circumstances" was, by which his official successors obtained so much greater an influence in both houses of Parlia full 4 |
