Oh! why this vacilating policy?

Rouse, Romans! let your Eagles flaunt on high, &c.

This poem was written in spring 1821, when the Neapolitans were amusing us with their manifestoes in the cause of liberty-an object, I believe, every philanthropic Briton ardently wished they might obtain. But in Italy, the old Roman character seems to be entirely obliterated, and the descendants of those men who gave laws to the world, and who were not more celebrated for their conquests than admired for the wise laws and useful improvements they introduced into the provinces of that mighty empire, the fruits of which we of this island are plentifully reaping at the present day-the descendants, I say, of these renowned Romans, are domineered over by a number of petty tyrants, who have not left them so much as the shadow of freedom, and who have so debased their character, that they seem unworthy of it; for, from the pusillanimous spirit they exhibited when an opportuuity of regaining their liberty appeared, they do not deserve the sigh of compassion, the voice of pity, nor the tear of sympathy: we shall therefore leave them to hug their chains till such time as they are more firmly determined to make a more effectual struggle for their freedom, than a few blustering gasconades upon. paper.

As the attempt of old to chain the main.

Xerxes, having wintered at Sardis, sent ambassadors early in the spring to demand earth and water, as a mark of sub

T

mission, from the several Grecian republics. With regard to Athens and Sparta, he thought it unnecessary to observe this ceremony, as they had treated, with the most inhuman cruelty, and in direct contradiction to their own laws of war, the messenger entrusted with a similar commission by his father Darius. The slow march of his immense army, and still more, its tedious transportation across the seas which separate Europe from Asia, ill suited the rapid violence of his revenge. Xerxes, therefore, ordered a bridge of boats to be raised on the Hellespont, which, in the narrowest part, is only seven stadia, or seven-eights of a mile, in breadth. Here the bridge was formed with the greatest labour; but whether owing to the awkwardness of its construction, or to the violence of a succeeding tempest, it was no sooner built than destroyed. The great king ordered the conductor of the work to be beheaded; and proud of his tyrannic power over feeble man, displayed an impotent rage against the elements. In all the madness of despotism he ordered the Hellespont to be punished with three hundred stripes, and a pair of fetters to be dropped into the sea, adding these frantic and ridiculous expressions :-"It is thus, thou salt and bitter water, that thy master punishes this unprovoked injury, and he is determined to pass thy treacherous streams, notwithstanding all the insolence of thy malice."-Gillies's Greece, vol. 1st, page 419.

Who serve their king more than their God.

The cardinal, after his disgrace, had remained for some time at Richmond; but being ordered to remove to his See of York, he took up his residence at Cawood, in Yorkshire,

where he rendered himself extremely popular in the neighbourhood, by his affability and hospitality. In this retreat he lived, when the Earl of Northumberland received orders to arrest him for high treason, and conduct him to London, as a prelude to his trial. On his journey he was seized with a disorder, which turned into a dysentery; and it was with much difficulty he was able to reach Leicester Abbey. "I am come to lay my bones with you," said Wolsey to the abbot and monks who came out to receive him, and he immediately took to his bed, whence he never rose more."O! had I but served my God," cried he, a little before he expired, "as diligently as I have served my king, he would not have deserted me in my grey hairs."-History of Modern Europe, vol. 2, page 276.

A competence not more nor less,

Does most conduce to happiness.

See Agur's Prayer.—Proverbs xxx, verses 7, 8, and 9.

FINIS.

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