710 



Monthly Review of Literature, 



[JUNE, 



A bubble and a universe. I dance 



Around the circles of the vortices, 



And see the ship go down in a strong trance, 



And hear the shriek, one, yet how manifold ! 



There, where the steeds o' the tempest foam and 



prance, 



Am I ; their wild manes o'er wild ocean roll'd, 

 Like fire-flakes, wreathe the billows, and their 



neigh 

 Doth chide the clarion-clang of ocean old. 



I dash amidst them, eager for the fray ; 

 Doth plunge my charger with me ; he doth swim, 

 Wild in his fierceness, through the flashing spray ; 

 As if a lightning-stroke had blinded him, 

 And darted phren/y to his brain, and he 

 Were maddened with the torture in each limb, 

 And sweat' and shrieked in sightless agony, 

 And made huge havoc in his maniac might, 

 'Till his heart burst. Then on the exhausted sea 

 The waves drop down, and, in the dull twilight, 

 Lay sluggishly about the riven hulk, 

 O'er which the day rose sunless as the night, 

 Or glared portentous on the sail-less bulk 

 With a red eye and fiery. Lo, I 

 Chafe ocean, that he waken from his sulk 

 Awhile, and blow a gale though weariedly 

 And brief ; yet unto me the billows spring, 

 Wild playmates, and a low-breathed harmony 

 We utter round the hopeless bark, and sing 

 A doleful and predestinating dirge. 



Resources of the United Kingdom, or, 

 The present Distresses considered, and their 

 Causes and Remedies pointed out, fyc. ly 

 Capt. Pettman, R. N. Captain Pettman's 

 remedy for the existing evils of the country is 

 at the bottom a National Bank, by the agency 

 of which the Government shall have the power 

 to increase its expenditure at will, which -will 

 is to be limited by the number of unemployed 

 persons. As soon as all are employed, it is 

 to suspend its issues. Captain Pettman seems 

 to apprehend nothing whatever from the cor- 

 ruption of governments. Supposing, for a 

 moment, the creations of paper not forthwith 

 to depreciate not to be in a short time, in 

 spite of all imaginable securities, mere French 

 assignats is it nothing to arm a government 

 with a power to command all classes, great 

 and small ? So that money gets into circula- 

 tion and employment, to Capt. P. it matters 

 nothing by what means. It matters nothing 

 who spends it. He would as lieve it should be 

 laid out and distributed by legions of troops 

 or of pensioners. To get money spent is all in 

 all, the remedy for all evils, for the source of 

 them is the want of employment and high 

 wages. Employ the labourers, and at high 

 wages, and every other class will proportion- 

 ally prosper. Therefore, no matter how they 

 are first got into employment, at whose loss 

 or at whose gain, in the outset, for ultimately 

 all will be gainers. If we again misunder- 

 stand Capt. Pettman, it is his fault; he 

 should make himself clearer. We have en- 

 deavoured to catch his meaning, and we 

 sometimes think we have done so, but as 

 often that we have not so paradoxical does 

 he often appear, and we have little doubt 

 really is. We do not ourselves believe the 

 currency is the sole source of national evil, 

 but only one of many. The whole nation is 



not in distress. There are too marry poor, 

 and too many rich : the enormous inequali- 

 ties of property is the predominant, is the 

 one, if all must be referred to some one, great 

 evil that lies at the root of all. These gross in- 

 equalities have been brought about largely by 

 our financial arrangements ; by speculations 

 in the funds ; by the facilities of credit ; by 

 accumulations of capital and machinery ; by 

 the doctrines of economists, urging the land- 

 lords to throw small farms into the gulf of 

 large ones, and convert men from free la- 

 bourers into brute beasts : and the remedy, 

 the sole one probably, is, treading back some 

 of our steps as fast as we can flinging the 

 burden of the state, for the present, wholly 

 upon the rich destroying half the machin- 

 ery breaking down new enclosures, and 

 passing something of an agrarian law or 

 adopting Mr. Wilmot Horton's sagacious 

 scheme of banishing two or three millions of 

 labourers, stopping, at the same time, all 

 further importations from the modern oificina 

 gentium, Ireland. 



Tales of the Colonies, ly John Howison, 

 author of Sketches of Upper Canada, 2 vols. 

 I2mo. These tales are more unequal, in 

 point of interest, than is usual in tales pro- 

 ceeding from the same source of invention, 

 though only two of them strictly answer to 

 the general title. The first is the story of a 

 half-pay lieutenant of the navy, condemned 

 to vegetate on some lone spot on the Irish 

 coast, and dying of ennui, wearying of exist- 

 ence, and panting for excitement. In this 

 state of feeling, approaching to one of despair, 

 luckily a stranger, of most mysterious bear- 

 ing, lands on the coast, who by degrees 

 makes his acquaintance, and finally gives 

 him his confidence. He proves to be the 

 last of a crew of buccaneers, who had long 

 plundered the Mexican shores, and in a soli- 

 tary isle off the coast, along with other spoil 

 equally precious, had buried a mass of 

 church -plate. This valuable booty the old 

 man proposes to the lieutenant to go in pur- 

 suit of he himself renouncing all claim, and 

 professing only now to be preparing for the 

 grave. The lieutenant of course accedes, as 

 much for the sake of the adventure as of the 

 plunder, and, receiving the necessary informa- 

 tion, starts forthwith. His adventures in 

 securing the prize constitute the staple of the 

 tale, which is full of improbabilities, and 

 presents little inducement to the reader to try 

 the next. The next, however, is considerably 

 better the incidents are more stirring and 

 striking, leaving the impression of actual 

 reality, though of a very singular cast. The 

 scene is placed in the heart of Antigua, 

 remote from other plantations, where the 

 worst passions might be indulged, unchecked 

 by the awe of a neighbourhood. But the 

 third tale takes by far the strongest hold of 

 the feelings. A young man of good family, 

 who, having wasted a very considerable pro- 

 perty of his own, and much of his mother's, 

 is, in a moment of perplexity, precipitated 



