At that lone hour, Afar from thee, I'll look upon the sky, And think each breeze as low it murmurs by, And when that star Which we have loved together, brightly burns When thou art lone, And o'er thy heart Hope sheds no brightening ray; O sing the notes I loved in happier days— Days fled and gone. And when the shout Of mailed men is soaring through the sky, I'll think on thee; Thy name shall be my war-cry, and its swell But hark!-that swell! It is the trumpet's parting call-I come! F. M. REST. Or blessings here to man assigned Of seeming joys that fill the mind The Stateman lets a life roll by The mark of Envy's jaundiced eye The Soldier steels his strong right arm The Seaman ploughs the stormy main, Allured by sordid thirst of gain, And reckless if to die. The Lawyer wastes his days in courts, 'Mid subtle toils, and rude retorts, And worthless legal lore. The Merchant coldly files his mind To calculating schemes; But dreads the storm, and hears the wind Still howling in his dreams. The Poet muses all the day, Nor even in night dispels The cruel cares that cloud his way, As dark reflection tells. The Lover lives on fancied bliss Oh how immense! reward like this Away with all these idle hopes I ask for rest; for nought but rest; A. 1826.] CRITICAL NOTICES. The Claims of the Citizens of the United States on Denmark Examined. First Published in the Boston Monthly Magazine. By CALEB CUSHING. Boston. 1826. 8vo. pp. 18. THIS pamphlet contains a concise history of the depredations of Denmark upon our commerce between the years 1809 and 1812; the grounds of the claims of our merchants for indemnification; and the evasions that have hitherto been resorted to by that nation to avoid an adjustment of them. "either as to "Whatever doubt may exist," says Mr Cushing, the ability of Denmark to make us adequate satisfaction, or as to our own ability to exact it, will be partly removed, it is apprehended, by the consideration of a single circumstance. The truth is, that in a certain point she is peculiarly vulnerable. She is directly accessible to a blow from us by means of her little possessions in the West Indies. But she is still more dependant on our forbearance in another quarter. She enjoys the benefit of a privilege, more, as it respects us, by sufferance than of right, which it might not be amiss to inquire into a little, if she attempt to avoid our claim of indemnity. Every body knows there is such a thing as the sound duty, which the Danes require of all ships on their passing Elsinore. The exaction has been acquiesced in by our government, and this notwithstanding the immense sum of our claims on Denmark for spoliations. Our merchants, also, have continued unresistingly to pay it, because individually they cannot resist to any purpose. Few, perhaps, have either examined into the ground of the duty levied upon us, or ascertained and reflected But seeing that Denmark has upon its large aggregate amount. wantonly committed the grossest outrages upon our commerce and our national flag; seeing that she has refused or procrastinated our demands of indemnity; and seeing that she still retains the spoils of our industrious and enterprising mercantile marine, it seems quite natural to look into the necessity of our voluntarily paying her as we do, seventy, eighty, or ninety thousand dollars every year, without any value received. The imposition of such a tax, whether rightfully made or not, might, in the magnitude of our foreign commercial relations, pass without notice under ordinary circumstances. But Denmark holds too much of our property already, to be suffered to receive any more, without pretty severe scrutiny of the reasons therefor, and of the right whereby it is demanded. "The sound duties are paid in the shape both of a tonnage duty and of a duty on commodities. They are regulated by treaty be tween the Danes and Dutch, the British, Russians, Swedes, French, Prussians, and other nations. The basis of the rate of duty as paid by them, and more especially as paid by Americans, is the tariff established by the States General, in their treaty concluded with Denmark, in 1645, and known as the treaty of Christianople. The tariff is qualified, however, and sundry additions are made to it, distinguished by the name of usances, and the whole is published in the common form of a tariff of duties on goods. It is not easy to ascertain the precise amount paid by us, because the cargoes of our ships, which ascend the Baltic, are not generally made up at home, and therefore cannot be collected from our customhouse books. Indeed, the ships engaged in the Baltic trade, do not, for the greater part, sail direct for Denmark, Russia, or Sweden. For instance, the American shipping cleared out for Russia between October 1st, 1823, and September 30th, 1824, was only 2,201 tons, while the amount entered from Russia in the same period, rose up to 16,051 tons. Our ships generally take a cargo to some other port, and carry the proceeds, in cash or bills, to Russia, or take cash or bills to some intermediate port, and there purchase a cargo to be carried to Russia and exchanged for a homeward cargo. Of course, no records here enable us to calculate with exactness the amount of duty paid at Elsinore upon cargoes collected out of the country. But persons conversant in the Russia trade, estimate the number of American vessels, which have annually ascended the Baltic, one year with another, the last three years, to be about one hundred, and the duty paid by each to average from 1501, to 2007. sterling, making in all from 15,0007. to 20,0007. per annum." Mr Cushing has given in an appendix attached to his original observations, "a more particular account of the origin and history of the sound dues," together with passages from several works on national and maritime law, and remarks showing the application of their principles to the case in hand. Matilda; a Tale of the Day. Philadelphia. 1825. 12mo. pp. 307. THE author of this work in his preface admits that his incidents are trite; and so indeed they are, as the following analysis will show. Lord Ormsby meets Lady Matilda Dornton, to whom he had been attached and almost engaged before her marriage, to which marriage she had been persuaded by a report that his lordship was about to be married to another lady. Sir James Dornton becomes jealous of his lady, as well he might, upon witnessing such scenes as the author describes. He scolds her, and she elopes with Lord Ormsby; lives with him awhile, and at last sickens and dies very 1826.] penitent for her misdoings. This story, trite as it is, the author has contrived to make interesting, and the style is very good. We are sorry to see such talents wasted on such a story. However poetical justice may be done at last, we more than doubt the moral effect of representing amiable adulterers; we do not know how it may be in Europe, but we hope the day is far distant when, in in this country, persons of such delicacy of feeling on all other subjects, as the hero and heroine of this work are described to be, can coolly commit their crime, and complain that they should lose their respectability. Books of this kind tend, in our opinion, to lower the tone of public morals, and to lead their readers to look with less horror at vice;-they are therefore to be discouraged, and we should be wanting in our duty if we did not affix on such as come within our notice the mark of our reprobation. Tales of the Wild and the Wonderful. London. 1825. Philadelphia. 1826. 12mo. pp. 252. THIS book, with an occasional want of smoothness and undue ambition in the style, with some extravagance of description and exaggeration of emotion, is a work of no ordinary merit. It contains much lively narration, fanciful description, and powerful expression of feeling and passion. It consists of five tales. The first, called "The Prediction," is a description of a melancholy and imaginative intellect deranged by brooding over a horrid and malicious prophecy. In spite of occasional extravagance of thought and expression, we do not hesitate to pronounce this a striking exhibition of the workings and emotions of a distracted mind. "The Yellow Dwarf" is one of those tales of Genii and enchantments, which have always found so much favour in the eyes of men, by representing superior beings as taking a lively interest in the common concerns of human life, and bringing about man's good or ill, without putting him to the trouble of exerting his own faculties. Sprightly narration, graphic description of the persons and characters of the super-human agents, and high-coloured pictures of their magical operations, are essential to make stories of this sort pleasing. Of these sources of interest there is no lack in this amusing tale. "Der Freischütz," a translation from the well known German story of that name, is a tale of a young forester, who lost his skill as a marksman, and was in danger of losing his mistress, in consequence of his gun's being bewitched. In order to escape this catastrophe, he avails himself of the aid of the powers of darkness; and truly it strikes us, that if a man is exposed to suffer from their |