98 Topic of the Month. (Sept. 1, 
-house, nearly in the same state as it was left by himself and Pope. In this 
per eens sabe man usually spent his evenings with his friends, when the 
seasons permitted ; also in the same summer-house, tradition has it, Mr. Pope, whilst 
his guest, gave to certain of his admirable productions their form and finish. Mr, Charles 
Heath, of Monmouth, in his “ Excursion to the Wye,” says, the poet came to Ross for 
change of air, being indisposed; whence, he infers, it was very easy for the man of 
letters and ‘the® benevolent country-gentleman to become acquainted; but Mr. 
Fosbrooke ascribes the poet’s knowledge of the character of “ the man of Ross” to the 
medium of a Catholic family, then living at a seat in the neighbourhood, called Over 
Ross ; whereas we are assured by Mr. Brooke, on the premises, that Mr. Pope’s health 
requiring a change of air, his publisher and friend, Mr. Bernard Lintot, ‘who was 
related to Kyrle, recommended the poet to his friend and relation, where he was 
certain he would meet with an agreeable companion and’ a hearty welcome. It was 
oet became that gentleman’s guest, and from this circumstance he had the 
er Peible means of scatitibe a knowledge of his character.—From the genealogy 
of Kyrle, it appears that that gentleman had for his maternal grandmother a daughter 
of Robert Waller, of Beaconsfield, which lady was a sister of the celebrated Edmund 
Waller, the poet and patriot, and consequently related to the illustrious Hampden. 
Subjoined is KYRLE’s FaRM-HOUsE, at a short distance from Ross :— = - 
‘ 
wm eels 
* For the Monthly Magazine. 
TOPIC OF THE MONTH. 
Spain. 
PAIN is unquestionably ‘the lead- 
+ ing topic of this month, and the 
Quarterly Review as unquestionably 
is not; but still there is some con- 
nexion between them. We had flat- 
tered ourselves, that, out of the pale of 
the lowest hirelings of the prostituted 
ortion of the daily press, and the 
owest hunters for office,—who would 
sell their own souls to the devil, or 
their father’s bones to the maker of 
hartshorn, if that would procure them 
the means of living at the expense of 
the public,—there was not one who 
would dare to palliate, far less to de- 
fend, the monstrous aggression of the 
Holy Alliance upon that country, and, 
through it, upon the liberties of man- 
kind: but we find we were egregiously 
mistaken; for, lo and behold! we find 
in the Quarterly Review a sort of 
whining, canting, and malignant, arti- 
ele, which, while it affects to be ex- 
tremely liberal, is yet; from beginning 
to end, one tissue of gross abuse of the 
liberal Spaniards, and of all who have 
aidedthem, and one stupid and sophis- 
ticated perversion of every principle 
of sound and manly policy, and of 
international law. One sentence o 
this precious production will be quite 
enough. _, 
“The government,” says this learned 
Theban, (quere, is he Southey?) ‘“ ge- 
nerally has the initiative of measures, 
and therefore chooses its course ; and, 
as no men can wilfully or perversely 
prefer wrong to right, it generally has 
happened, and generally must hap- 
pen, that the opposition have. the 
wrong side of the question.”—-Page 
636. 
We have been particular in quoting 
the page; because otherwise our 
readers might have had doubts if, in 
this learned and logical age, such a 
sentence could have been written. 
Yet here it is—‘‘No man or set of 
men prefers wrong to right,” ergo, the 
government must always be in the 
right, and the opposition in the wrong. 
“Well, but,” says the reviewer, ‘‘ you 
omit one circumstance,” and that is 
a material one ; ‘‘ government has the 
initiative (rather an odd having) of 
measures, and therefore chooses its 
course.” Granted; and has not a 
swindler who cheats you, a thief who 
robs you, or a murderer who cuts 
your throat, also the znitiatiwe, and 
therefore chooses his course; and SS 
nie e 
