Mr. N.'s declaration, that "the commercial profperity of Ireland has vifibly declined fince the union," is combated by Sir F. D'Ivernois by fhowing that, in order to make the balance of trade again ft Ireland, that author has taken the Official Rates, inftead of the real value of the feveral articles; by which real value the balance of trade, inflead of being (as ftted by Mr. N.) above a million against her, was, in 1808, between four or five millions in her favour. This is fhown from a table of rates given by Mr. N. in his own Appendix. The increase in the commercial profperity of Ireland is alfo fhown to be the foundation on which Mr. N. himself has objected to the number of Reprefentations allotted to her in the year 1800, as having become (in 1807) too fmall by one third, for her increafed population, revenue and commerce. This objection (the prefent author obferves) is grounded, not upon the official, but the real value of her exports and imports; though, when he is reprobating the union, as deftructive of her profperity, he fets before us only the official rates. The following important fuggeflion, refpecting Ireland, concludes this able and excellent work. "I have fcrupulously confined my remarks to that part of Mr. N.'s work which was in direct contradiction to mine. But if, as I fear, it be true that his attack has fomented the prejudices which too many perfons in Ireland entertained concerning the Union, it ought undoubtedly to be anfwered at large; more par. ticularly, because, as it feeems to me, the time is already come, when the way fhould be paved for the entire completion of the Union by a gradual confolidation of the financial concerns of the the two islands. With a view to an operation fo delicate, yet withal fo neceffary, I cannot but conceive that every impartial investigation and difcuffion of local circumstances, and even of prejudices, which may thwart it, must be highly useful,** P. xxiii.. 66 Were Many and useful have been the works of the able and pub. lic fpirited writer before us: but we do not recollect one fo interefting to the people of this country, and in its tendency, fo beneficial to the ations of the European continent, as that which we have now endeavoured to delineate. this Trt and the juftly admired" Letter" (by an American Gentleman) on the genius and difpofitions of the French Government" circulated as widely and perufed as attentively as their importance and merits deferve, whatever force might for a time controul the actions, one fentiment would pervade the minds of men, at least of all but the most profligate of mankind; a fentiment of enlarged and liberal policy, a detes. tation of commercial jealoufies, and a warm attachment to that that nation which alone oppofés a mound to the destructive tide of military despotism *. ART. III. The Lady of the Lake; a Poem. By Walter Scott, Efq. 4to. 419 pp. 212s. Longman and Co. 1819. Allo in 8vo. 2d Edition. 12s. To thofe ་་ O thofe who are truly and fteadily good," fays Plutarch, no honour is more dear than that of conferring ho nour on the defer 'ing; nor any diftinction more becoming, than that of giving distinction +." After the delight we have received from various compofitions of Mr. Scott, we should feel degraded in our own eyes if we felt a wifh to deny him the well earned title of a poet; or even to lower and diminish his fame by captious and invidious abatements. Such attempts, however called for by the cravings of fome readers, will never be made by the British Critic, whofe editors if they prefume not to take all the praife beftowed by Plutarch, are more ambitious to deferve it, than the utmost credit that could be gained by harshness and injuftice. If we lay then that the poet has confulted his own eafe in the verfification of this Poem, we do not mean to add that he has thereby defrauded the read, r of any gratification. M.ný perhaps may read the Poem without perceiving that the whole narrative is given in the eafieft, and generally the tameft measure that our language knows; the measure in which improvifatori, if England could produce them, would certainly fpeak or fing; the eight fyllable couplet; the verfe of Gay's Fables, Prior's Alma, &c. that the numbers which divide the pages, and certainly relieve the attention, are perfectly arbitrary, marking neither ftanzas, nor any artificial divifions, but mere paragraphs; and that the poem might as * Since writing the above we have received the third Edition of the original work in French. It contains the remarks on Hauterive's work, but not the Appendix on Mr. Newenham's "View of Ireland." In other refp.as it fe tems as ems as full as the English Edition, fo far as we have yet compared then, and being the original, is, as may be conceived, expreffed in more lively and energetic language. + Τοῖς ἀληθινῶς καὶ βεβαίως ἀγαθοῖς, τιμή τε καλλίτη τὸ τιμήσουν τινα τῶν ἀξίων καὶ κόσμος εὐπρεπέςαλος, τό ἐπικοσμήσαι. Ριυτ. Περὶ τοῦ ἀκούειν, Wyttenb. 14 well well be printed without them, except that the reader would then feel the want of relief, which always has been felt in long poems of this conftruction. But, having ventured upon this style of narrative, Mr. Scott, like a man of true genius, has ennobled it; he has infufed into it a vigour, which it has feldom, we might perhaps fay never, been known to poffefs. He has enjoyed the full benefit of its freedom, and has repaid it by ftrength and animation. In defcriptions more particularly, his touches are fo lively and picturefque, that it feems as if their effect would be damped and flattened by any other mode of verfification. Thus we actually fee the ftag fetting ́out before the hounds. "But, e'er his fleet career he took, That thickened as the chafe drew nigh*: Then, as the headmoft foes appeared, With one brave bound the copfe he cleared." P. 6. Nor is the following picture of a calm morning, amidst mountain fcenery, at all lefs animated. "The Summer dawn's reflected hue The grey mit left the mountain fide, Invifible, in flecked sky, The lark fent down her revelry; The repetition of the fame rhyme after only one couplet is an inadvertence easily corrected. Rev. The The black-bird and the fpeckled thrush, Her notes of peace, and rest, and love." P. 98. But, with all this command of the verfification he has chofen, the poet feems to have felt that it might want variety; for this reafon apparently it is, that he has begun each canto with a ftanza or two of alternate rhyme in longer measure, and throughout the whole poem has fcattered lyric pieces, some of them mere ballads, the chief advantage of which, in many inftances at least, is the effect of breaking the uniformity of cadence, which might otherwife hang heavy in fo long a narration. Some of them, undoubtedly, but for this confideration, might as well be abfent; though others have much. beauty. From the whole contrivance arrives a fpecies of tale, which if it be not eafily arranged under any known clafs, has only the greater air of originality; and poffeffes eminently the qualities of fixing the attention, exciting cu riofity, and repaying both, by pleafing images and fplendid pictures. The tale is in itself extremely interefling, more fo perhaps than that of either of the author's former poems. But it poffeffes alfo the powerful charm of painting real manners; and dif playing the character of an interefting because fingular people. The clan-fhip of the Highlands, the adherence of the people to their chiefs, the mode of calling them to arms, and other circumstances of their warfare, are all fo peculiar and fo remote from polished life, that they excite the ftrongest curiofity, when reprefented, as we have reafon to fuppofe, with truth as well as livelinefs. The following picture of the kind of ambush in which the Highland warriors could lie, among their mountains, is among the moft fingular and ftriking that poetry has ever sketched. The chief calls up five hundred warriors by a fingle fignal, who appear, and then as fuddenly are loft again. "Have then thy with. He whistled fhrill, * Why not cunew? Rev. From From fhingles grey their lances start, Then fix'd his eye and fable brow, Full on Fitz James-" How fay'it thou now? And, Saxon, I am Roderic Dhu !?? eyes, "Fitz James was brave: though to his heart It feem'd as if their mother earth + Fern. Rev. The |