J92 Jl ATI-WAYS AND CAtfALS. 



be taken to obviate the necessity of applications to Parliament at all. 

 The immense sums thus expended, would abundantly suffice for 

 carrying a railway, by a private company, though by a more cir- 

 cuitous course, and through the lands or' consenting proprietors. 

 When it is remembered that the splendid canal undertakings of the 

 late Duke of Bridgewater were executed by one private fortune, and 

 without any parliamentary advantages whatever, we cannot doubt 

 that, amongst the wealthy speculators in this great nation, there are 

 abundant resources for the intersection of the kingdom with railways, 

 carried on from town to town by private individuals, or small com- 

 panies alone. It is indeed devoutly to be wished, that in -the present 

 stagnant condition of our commerce, these works may be seen to 

 proceed with rapidity, and that the renovated spirit of our reformed 

 institutions may influence the progress of a system, the results of 

 which will be boundless to the future welfare of mankind. 



ITALY. 



WE gaze on thee and grieve, so sweet and sad 



Thy beauty shows like some fair creature crossM 

 By love, and lured to ruin though still clad 



With all that fatal beauty which hath cost 



A life of sighs, the lovely and the lost. 

 Our tribute is a heart-ache unto thee ; 



But on thy sons, whose shameless brows arc gloss'd 

 With smiles, while shackles load their limbs, the Free 

 Scowl down, as Honour scowls on abject Infamy. 

 Time spares thy mortal glories but the soul 



The Roman soul that sway'd the world erewhile 

 His stream hath quench'd, or the abhorr'd. control 



Of Vandal-Robbers dared not now defile ( Jnft tlH 



Thy hallowed halls with foot-stains of the vile : 

 A mournful lustre the too-brilliant day 



Throws still o'er many a huge old haughty pile, 

 Alas ! Perdition gluts on nobler prey 

 The free and fiery race that rear'd them where are they-? ' 

 Sadly the heart surveys thy callous shame, 



And sickens on its moral, when the tide 

 Of swelling Fate upon the heights of Fame, 



Exalts the nations, from their tumid pride, 



Down with the shrinking ebb they sink, to hide 

 Their humbled heads in blank Oblivion's grave ; 



Or, darker doom ! are broken down to bide, 

 Like thee, the wretched portion of a slave, 

 Resigning, with a smile, the noblest boon God gave ! 



But Sibyl-Ruin's bodement, like a blight, 



Thus hails Earth's proud ones, from this wreck of doom : 

 " Your haughty Noon but ushers such a Night, 



Time for the mightiest reareth such a tomb ; 



Ay, sceptic Scorn's lip-curling port assume 

 But what she was, are ye or can ye be ? 



Dream ye absorbing Ruin fails of room 

 For pettier victims, at fell Fate's decree? 

 Annihilation's breath shall blast the phantasy!" W. G. A. 



