1823.] 
Yor that part of her friend, oft cali’d aptly the 
better, 
Let the sketch of its failings lie hid in the shade: 
“God knows how he struggled to throw off their 
fetter, 2 
And God will have mercy where mercy is pray’d. 
Wor blazon his virtues,—at best, ah! so slender! 
They call more for pardon than merit a boast: 
Let her view him in habits that best may back 
render 
Those glimpses of life that endear it the most. 
And has she not seen him, with lovers surrounded, 
Receiving and giving the family kiss ?— 
Observ’d the affection at which the heart bounded, 
By sincerity render’d the world’s truest bliss? 
Athis side a kind wife, of near forty years fleeting, 
Good-humour’dly preaching lerturnips for health, 
While he smil’d, and mauintain’d that good beef 
was good eating, 
And mutton still better, when he got it by 
stealih ? 
Not so learned was he as enamour’d of learning, 
And much he delighted to form the young spirit ; 
To point out the truths which are worthy discerning, 
Aud show that the heart gives the head its best 
merit, 
But now, thou stain’d Leaf! see thy limit is 
rounded! 
Go, bid thy dear mistress, in judging his style, 
To think of these days when the Vld Man’s heart 
bounded 
To receive as his daughter’s the cheer of her smile. 
Mr. D, having long resided in Jamaica, 
is qualified by local knowledge to execute 
the following happy piece :— 
Lhe Bonja Song. 
What are the joys of white man here? 
What are his pleasures? say; 
Me want no joys, no ills me fear, ; 
But on my Bonja play. 
Me sing all day, me sleep all night, 
Me hab no care, my heart is light; 
Me tink not what to-morrow bring, 
Me happy, so me sing. 
But white man’s joys are not like mine, 
Dho’ be look sinurt and gay: 
He proud, he jealous, haughty, fine, 
While I my Bonja play. 
He sleep all day, he wake all night, 
He full of care, his heart no light, 
He great deal want, he litile yet, 
He sorry, so he fret. 
Me envy not dhe white man dhen, 
Me poor, but me is gay: 
Me glad at heart, me happy when 
Me ou my Bonja play. 
Me sing all day, me sleep all night, 
Me hab no care, my heart is light ; 
Me tink not what to-morrow bring, 
Me happy, so me sing. 
The Greck Committee in London have 
published in a small pamphlet the very 
snteresting and ably-drawn Report of Myr. 
Blaquiere, on the present state of the 
Greek Confederation, and on its claims to 
the support of the Christian World. 
“The almost total destruction (says Mr. B.) of 
the Turkish army, which followed its attempt to 
invade the Morea in the autumn of 1822, as well as 
tlie various important events to which that me- 
morable campaign gave rise, having induced the 
Provisional Government to conyoke a general 
congress at Astros; the members of the executive 
and deputies had just reached Tripolizza as we ar- 
rived. Although the decree of convocation, which 
also pointed out the mode to be pursued in the 
new elections, togei:her with the necessity of only 
returning men distinguished for their patriotism 
and virtue, merely specified the number of repre- 
sentatives peesoniie by the law of Epidaurus; yet, 
such was the eagerness of the people throughout 
the confederation to contribute to the common 
weal, that above three hundred deputies had as- 
sembled by the beginning of April: there was also 
a large body of troops, nearly all the military chiefs, 
Literary and Critical Proémium. 
359 
and many thousand casual visitors, The meetings 
and deliberations of congress were held under the 
shade of an orange and lemon grove, between 
sunrise and noon; while all those who were de= 
sirous of hearing the debates, or witnessing the 
proceedings, occupied the surrounding space thickly 
Shaded with olive-trees. 
‘The first care of the Congress thus assembled, was 
to revise and correct such articles in the Consti- 
tution framed at Epidaurus sixteen months before, 
as experience had proved to be susceptible of ame- 
liorauon. Adopting the most liberal institutions of 
Europe for their models, there was not a single 
clause added or retrenched, without a precedent 
being previously established, either in the practice 
of the British Constitution or that of the United 
States. Having decided that the seat of govern- 
ment should be fixed at Tripolizza, previous to its 
final establishment at Athens, the last act of Con- 
gress was an address to the people, in which the 
object of asserabling and a succinct notice of the 
proceedings were detailed. 
The result of each day’s deliberation was watched 
with the most intense anxie.y by all classes, repre- 
senting the whole as a scene of the grealest enthu- 
Siasm and unanimity, with the exception of one 
Single point—the propriety of distributing a portion 
of the national domains among the chiefs and sol- 
diery. Aware thit more than nineteen twentieths 
of the territory freed from the tyrant, had belonged 
to Turkish proprietors, it was extremely natural 
for those whose Eves had been passed in the labours 
of agriculture as slaves, to feel anxious about the 
possession of a spot of ground, however small, 
which they could call their own; and there was 
every disposition on the part of government and 
congress to accede to their wishes. 
AS to the excesses attribuied to the Greek sol- 
diery, 1t would appear that the number of able and 
eloquent writers who have advocated the cause of 
Greece, have brought forward such facts and ar- 
gumenis as must satigfy every impartial observer, 
that these excesses, like every other subject calcu- 
lated to prejudice the cause, have been most 
wantonly exaggerated. In common with all the 
friends of the Greek cause, 1 lament, most deeply 
lament, the excesses which marked the early 
stages of the contest: but 1 would entreat those who 
judge them, notte pronounce before they become 
thoroughly acquainted with the innumerable provo- 
cations which, in war at least, would fully justify 
sul greater excesses, without reterring to those 
centuries of galling and intolerable oppression 
which the Greek people had to avenge. Would it 
be possible tor the most able pen, or eloquent 
tongue, to describe the scenes which followed the 
executions of the capital, at Adrianople, Salonica, 
Cassandra, Mount Athos, Smyrna, Scala Novo, 
Aivah, Khodes, Cyprus, Candia,and Scio? Had the 
cries reached our country, of infants torn from their 
mothers’ breasts and flung into the sea, or dashed 
against the rocks, as at Scio and various other 
places—of fathers, husbands, and brothers, buich- 
ered before the eyes of mothers, wives, and’ sisters, 
who were themselves destined either to share a 
6imilar fate,wr be dragged into that hopeless slavery 
in which thousands languish at this moment,—it is 
needless to say that every British heart would have 
melted, and every British hand been stretched out 
to succour or to save a perishing community ! 
‘Lhe almost miraculous deliverance of the Morea, 
at a time when the most sanguine friends of the 
Greek cause in England had nearly given it up as 
lost, may be justly hailed as a totally new and bril- 
liant epoch in the contest; for, there is no instance 
on record subsequently to the capture of Napoli de 
Romania, one of the first fruits of the triumpks 
goited on the Plain of Argos, in which the Greeks 
lave not completely disproved the accusations of 
their enemies, by showing every disposition to con- 
duct the war on principles strictly conformable to 
the laws of civilized nations; and they have acted 
thus in the mids of incessant provocations on the 
part of the Turks, whose excesses continue un- 
abated to this hour. It isnot my intention to be- 
come an indiscriminate panegyrist of the Greeks at 
the expense of truth, or to deny the existence of 
vices among them—vices which are partly insepa~ 
rable from our nature, but much more generally des 
rived from the peculiar circumstances of their en- 
slaved and degraded condition: but I will say, 
from the observation and inquiry of many years, 
that I am justified in proncuschis them to be an 
eminently moral and religious people. 
Tye political code of the confederation, or law of 
Epidaurus, 
