estimate their importance, neither can we calculate the loss that would be sustained by their non-existence, now that society has become so much influenced by their dictates.

"They hold, as 't were, a mirror up to Nature,

To show virtue its own image-vice its own deformityThe very age and body of the time its form and pressure."

While thus adverting to the newspaper press, we are reminded that reading is an admirable incentive to well-doing, by withdrawing the desires from scenes of mirth and ribaldry, to be closeted with one's own mind, and a favourite author, and our mind very naturally pronounces the printing press to be the great moral and political regenerator of the age in which we live. It possesses in itself a power for good or for evil, which has extensively contributed to the taste, comfort, amusement, and instruction of the world. By its invention, and the use of moveable types, the rare and valuable manuscripts of our early authors have been removed from cloisters and universities, and placed, for a comparative trifle, in the hands of the public. Thus is it that the press stamps the impress of current and fast-flying thoughts indelibly on the far future, and proves itself a clairvoyante, in whom the utmost credence may be placed -a magician, whose talisman "the last man will claim as his heirloom; for never till, colossus-like, the angel of Revelation shall stand with one foot on

the earth and the other on the sea, proclaiming that time shall be no more, will this, the harbinger of millennial glory, cease to scatter its leaves of gospel truth "wide as the poles asunder."

With such advantages, shall Britain lag behind in the march of mind-shall not the character of her noble sons and gentle daughters outshine those of less favoured nations. Let, then, the nobility of mind, and the monarchy of morals-the pride of character and not of caste-the wealth of worth, and not the dust which decays-the sunlight of reason, and not the borrowed moonlight of mere filthy lucre, be that which is most highly prized amongst us; and Britain shall stand forth, in learning and in liberty, a gem of the first water-a star of the first magnitude-till of her it may be said

"Her song of victory the nations sing;

Her triumphs are the triumphs of mankind."

Let us labour, then, to maintain the libérty of the press. A free and unfettered, though, by no means, a licentious press, is the pride of Britain. Labour to keep it so, for assuredly there are minds that would devise evil. Let it not be said that Britain will imitate infidel France; but let it rather be said of her that she won liberty by no vile means-that she has mounted to renown among the nations of the earth as a free, commercial, and manufacturing wonder, without the baseness and licentiousness of neighbouring

states. Thus will our countrymen, in their social, political, and personal character, retain that power and influence for which, hitherto, they have been so distinguished; and from Britain will go forth an example which must irradiate even sunny Spain and scarce less fertile France-a voice which might find its echo for good in the forum of the Eternal City, send fear to the iron heart of the Russian bear, and resound along the corridors of time with the fleetness of lightning, and the significance of the fierce thunder rolling.

U

EXTEMPORE STANZAS,

SUGGESTED BY VISITING POET'S CORNER, WESTMINSTER

ABBEY.

TREAD softly, stranger, and with humbled head! Here know that, slumbering, rest the gifted dead Of ages gone. No vile plebeian bones

Here turn to dust, though common be their doom. Go, read the volumed worth these silent stones Have chronicled-revere the simple tomb Where now thou stand'st, and drop with me the grate

ful tear

O'er memoried greatness consecrated here.

And thou, my feeble Muse! go, bear me back, On memory's wings, along the boundless track Of history, and recall for me the worthMy country's pride, her eloquence, and powerThat mingle here in nothingness with earth: Now do I greet the hopes of boyhood's hour, And wander where, of yore, my fancy flew, Ere that my mind the world's dark by-ways knew.

Monarch and flatterer here keep common state
In Death's levee. Those are the truly great,

In such embrace, who "lived laborious days," And bettered mankind by their better thoughts; From forth this darkened temple stream the rays Of Genius, that to the far future floats,

A line of radiant truth, glittering with gems,
Purer than power-encircling diadems.

My thoughts, e'en now, would eagle wings assume, And break the lone deep silence of the tomb;

For fain my mind the secrets would explore That rest with those to whom the past was known. Ah! well I know beyond Time's dreary shore Genius her sparks of living light hath strewn: The long, long lingering gaze the sunset claims, So thus the sculptured slabs that bear such names.