Now tired of war, with havock sated,
And rich with battle's glorious spoil;
The ship of state with daggers freighted,
Its chief unfit for further toil.

He, knowing that his reign is over,
That death's cold hand is o'er him flung,

Calls to his tent the desert-rover,

And bids these warning words be sung.

"I Saladine, long Asia's wonder,
Lord of the land where Nilus flows;
Whose word went forth arrayed in thunder,
Who fed his crocodiles on foes;
Now being aged, my sinews failing,
And weakness creeping through my bones,
Leave these few words to conquerors sailing
O'er seas of blood to short-lived thrones.

"Of birth and parentage most lowly,
I came Noureddin's troops to lead;
And ere I warred against the unholy,
I grasped the sceptre of his seed.
Ye know my deeds, by fame recorded,
My power and valour stand confessed,
But know, the realms o'er which I lorded
Like mountains lie upon my breast.

"Why came, ye'll ask, regret unto him?
Mourn hunters when they win the game?
Why crept the chill of horror through him?
What grieved, since he had won him fame?
Ye 'll not talk thus, when ye are jaded
With toils of war, and youth has flown;
Ye'll not ask why, when ye have waded
Through blood and carnage to a throne.

"But ye will ask why the red torrent
At all rushed from the battle field;
And ye shall seek but find no warrant
For the stained cimiter and shield.
Nought shall the fame on which ye prided
Avail you in the dying hour;

Then could ye see your realms divided,
So ye were free from Eblis' power.

"Now wherefore does the soldier cherish
His thirst, unsated and uncloyed?
Reckless he sees whole nations perish,
And none repeopling the void.

What gains he by his deeds of violence?
By blossoms cropt like flowers by frost?
A rood of land:-a little while hence
He goes to count its awful cost.

It was stated in a New York Paper a short time since that the Moon was nearer the Earth at the present time than it has been for 500 years previous.

ing lines were suggested by the fact.

Mild Queen of light and loveliness,

I hail thy nearer smile; for thou
Dost love with thy chaste look to bless
The stricken heart;-and even now
While I am gazing on thy face,

I feel the cooling tears come stealing,
As if they knew thy light should chase
Away the shades of tearless feeling.
Why comest thou, with that sweet smile
Of eloquence, so near us now,
Gazing with thy calm look the while,
As if our world were pure as thou,
And thou did'st love to gaze and dwell
Upon our path, as we on thee?

Perhaps thou'rt sad, and there's a spell
Of soothing in our sympathy;
Or haply thou art come to bring
The weary ones of earth away,
And I should be with thee a-wing,
Unshrouded from these robes of clay.
Canst thou not send some minister
Of thy pavilion down, to lead
My spirit where thy chariots are,
When from its earthiness 't is freed?
I long to stretch my flight away-
My pinion's plumage fades beneath
The dampness of this weight of clay-
'T would brighten at the touch of death;
And with the flood of hope and feeling
Which mingles in thy silver light
Pour'd on my soul, and thy revealing
To make my aery vesture bright,
Oh I would wing it up with thee
To the pure source of light and love,
And sweep my lyre eternally
To the sweet airs they sing above.

ROY.

The follow

CRITICAL NOTICES.

Westminster Review for April, 1825.

The first article in this number treats of the "Law of Libel and

Liberty of the Press." It contains much ingenious reasoning which our limits will not permit us to analyze, in support of the following positions, which the reviewers, in conclusion, consider as fully estab lished:

"That the law of England, as delivered by its authorized interpreters, the judges, however earnestly the same judges may occasionally disavow this doctrine, prohibits all unfavourable representation with respect to institutions, and with respect to the government and its acts: and, consequently, that if any freedom of discussion is permitted to exist, it is only because it cannot be repressed; the reason why it cannot be repressed, being, the dread of public opinion."

The greater part of the reasoning of course relates to public libels. The following extract exhibits the opinion of the reviewers concerning private libels.

"In most law books, if we look for a definition of libel, we find nothing but a fiction. Libel is punishable, we are there told, because it tends to provoke a breach of the peace. The person libelled, may, out of resentment, commit the crime of assault against his accuser; it is fit, therefore, that the law should extend its protecting shield over the libeller, and save him from the chance of a broken head, by inflicting upon him a year's imprisonment. A tweak by the nose, according to this doctrine, should be more criminal than any libel, for it is certainly far more likely to provoke the species of retaliation alluded to. Miserable as this fiction is, it has served as a foundation to lawyers for building up the excellent law maxim, the greater the truth, the greater the libel.' A bad man, it is alleged, is more easily provoked than a good man! and a true accusation, being usually more cutting than a false one, exposes the accuser to a greater hazard of being knocked down!

6

""One might almost as reasonably contend,' says Mr Mence, that it ought to be criminal in point of law for any person to carry money about him, lest it should tempt some scoundrel to pick his pocket or knock his brains out. The punishment in such a case, as the law now stands, would fall upon the thief, instead of the tempter. And the peace would be at least as well secured, and the interests of morality much better consulted, in cases of alleged libel, by punishing not the man who exposes vice and holds it up to deserved infamy; but the man whose vicious conduct is exposed, and who to his crimes has added the farther crime of braving the disgrace, and committing violence upon the person who may justly and meritoriously have exposed him.'

"The reader may be curious to learn for what purpose this ludicrous fiction was invented. The purpose was to render libel a penal offence, instead of being merely a civil injury. Had it been classed among private offences, under the head of injuries to reputation, it would have been necessary to prove, in the first place, that an injury had really

been sustained; and then the damages awarded would not have exceeded a fair compensation for the actual injury which had been proved. To make it a public offence, it was erected into a sort of virtual breach of the peace, which, again, by another equally contemptible fiction, is the king's peace; and thus, a libel against an individual became an offence against the king. Englishmen, who have been accustomed to hear, and to believe, that the law is the perfection of human reason, will be astonished to learn, that there is scarcely one, even of its good principles, which has any thing better than such fictions as the above for its basis. In fictione juris semper æquitas, say the lawyers. It is an assertion which they would not venture to put forth, were not the apathy of the public a sufficient security for its being believed without inquiry. Yet here is, at any rate, one instance (and every one who has examined the law without a resolution to find every thing as it should be, can supply many more), in which such fictions have been devised for the most mischievous of all purposes."

The next article is devoted to "Schlegel's Lectures on Literature." The reviewer gives Schlegel the credit of learning and ingenuity, but accuses him of endeavouring to pervert the public mind; his opinion of the work is thus summed up.

"We close our remarks on a book, which, possessing many excellencies, and teaching many truths, aims principally at introducing into the mind, under cover of an artful eloquence, the principles of slavery; and at perpetuating the dominion of bigotry and despotism undisguised and unashamed. Mr. Schlegel stands forward, the unblushing advocate of the debasing principles of the Austrian government; and makes even his literary discussions the means of perverting the minds of the rising generation."

The third article gives a detailed account of the discoveries in " Magnetism," by M. Poisson in France, and Professor Barlow in England. It is an exceedingly elaborate as well as curious and interesting article. That part, which relates to M. Poisson's researches into the general laws of magnetism, we have not space to analyze, but must confine ourselves to a brief account of Professor Barlow's invention, which we noticed slightly in a former number of this Gazette. It has been observed of late years, that besides that variation of the compass needle, which takes place to a degree more or less considerable in different parts of the globe, and which is independent of any known external circumstances, except geographical position, there is another depending upon the local attraction of the iron, contained in ships. This has become more remarkable since the introduction of iron cables, ballast, capstans, water tanks, &c. Now it is obvious that the greater part of this mass of iron being between the compass, in its usual situation, and the head of the ship, it will have a powerful tendency to keep the needle in a direction parallel to the keel, or length of the vessel. It will therefore be of no consequence only when the ship is sailing on the magnetic meridian, or for the sake of clearness, throwing the natural variation out of the question, when she is steering north or south. On the contrary when she is steering east or west the local attraction will be exactly opposed to the natural direction of the compass, and not being known may lead to fatal accidents, as it undoubtedly has done in

many instances of otherwise unaccountable shipwrecks. This variation amounted in the Griper, swung for the purpose in the river Thames, to 14°, at east and west, making an extreme difference of 28°, or about two points and a half, and this increased so rapidly in high latitudes, that in some of the late northern expeditions, the compass was actually stowed away as an useless article. We are unable to detail the various experiments of Professor Barlow, with a view to the correction of this evil. It is sufficient to state generally, that he found that when the compass was placed over a large iron ball, the north end of the needle was attracted; when it was placed beneath it, the south end was attracted in like manner. By moving the ball vertically it was found to pass through a point which had no effect on the needle; and the same result was obtained, whether the ball was solid, or hollow with any thickness greater than one twentieth of an inch; or whether a ball, bar, or plate, was used. The result is, that he has been enabled to construct a plate, which, without being inconvenient from its size or weight, is sufficient when placed in a certain position abaft and near the compass, to counteract and neutralize the disturbing forces already mentioned. This nautical guide is thus restored to its former credit and usefulness; and the merit of its restorer is certainly akin to that of its first discoverer.

An article on Italy praises a work entitled "Rome in the Nineteenth Century, with a zeal and heartiness rather unusual among critics, and this praise is so well supported by the extracts from the book, that we cannot but hope it will be republished in this country. On the subject of the exportation of machinery, the reviewers are in opposition to the Quarterly. The reasoning is on the general principles of the advantages of free trade. Enable your neighbours, say they, to make silk, cotton, woollen, or any other goods, cheaper than they now do, and you will be able to buy them cheaper, your imports will be greater, and you will grow richer. You cannot sell without buying, and the cheaper your neighbours can manufacture, the better will be your bargain. In fact the policy of nations should be to sell any overplus that their neighbours will buy and if they, say the reviewers, can make every thing else, why, sell them machinery, which it appears they cannot make. It seems to us that this reasoning is correct. If the maxims upon which the removal of restrictions and prohibitions are founded, are good for any thing, they are applicable to every article, and if restrictions upon the cotton, the woollen, or the silk trade are absurd and impolitic, they are just as much so, when extended to the exportation of machinery. The maxim, that it is best to let the natural course of commerce alone, appears to be the one which governments, whether despotic, limited, or popular, are least willing to learn. The British government are leading the way in this department of improvement, with decided steps, and it is among the deepest mortifications, which an intelligent American is called on to suffer, that his government, whose very key-stone is the abolition of absurd prejudices, should still cling to the miserable dogmas of the theory of restriction and protection.

[To be continued.]