■■ 



Shall she not mourn the PEOPLE'S griefs, 

 Their dying sons, their weeping dames? — 

 Nor shall she ev'n with tearless eye 

 Yon gallant Navy e'er descry 



Returning o'er the western flood, 



For, ah ! the laurel's greenest bough 

 That ever crown'd Victorias brow 

 Is surely ting'd with blood! 



Though blaze the splendid fires around, 



Though Arcs of Triumph proudly rise, 

 Though Fame her loudest Paean sound, 

 And notes of Conquest rend the skies, — 

 Alas ! in some sequester d cell 

 Her slaughter'd lover's funeral knell 

 In every shout the Virgin hears ! 

 And as the strain of victory flows, 

 More swell the widow'd Matrons woes, 

 And faster fall her tears ! 



Though from this clifF while Fancy views 



Yon squadrons darken half the main, 

 She dress in Glory's brightest hues 

 The pride of Albion's naval reign, 

 Yet, as Reflection's mirror shows 

 Th' attendant scene of death and woes, 

 Th' exulting hopes of conquest cease, 

 She turns from Wars delusive form 

 To deprecate th' impending storm, 



And breathes her vows for PEACE, f 



Henry James Pye, Poet Laureat. 



Moreover, the instinct of curiosity, and the thirst of novelty, which are so universally implanted in human nature, whereby various 

 nations and different people so ardently wish to be customers to each other, is another proof that the curious manufactures of one nation 

 will never want a vent among the richer inhabitants of another, provided they are reasonably cheap and good; so that the richer one nation 

 is the more it has to spare, and the more it will certainly lay out on the produce and manufactures of its ingenious neighbour.— Do you 

 object to this? Do you envy the wealth, or repine at the prosperity, of the nations around you?— If you do, consider what is the con- 

 sequence, viz. that you wish to keep a shop, but hope to have only beggars for your customers. 



As things are thus constituted by God, it is really astonishing to think with what applause and eclat the feats of conquerors, in- 

 human monsters! are transmitted down, in all the pomp of prose and verse, to distant generations: nay, let a prince but feed his 

 subjects with the empty diet of military fame, it matters not what he does besides, in regard to themselves as well as others; for the 

 lives and liberties, and every thing that can render society a blessing, are willingly offered up as a sacrifice to this idol, glory.— 

 Were the facts to be examined into, you would find, perhaps without a single exception, that the greatest conquerors abroad have 

 proved the heaviest tyrants at home. —However, as victorxr, like charity, covereth a multitude of sins, thus it comes to pass that reason- 

 able beings will be content to be slaves themselves, provided they may enslave others; and while the people can look up to the glorious 

 hero on the throne, they will be dazzled with the splendour that surrounds him, and forget the deeds of the oppressor. Vide our Philo- 

 sophy of Politics, chapter on War, vol. ii. p. 83. 



+ How sweetly does the poet endeavour to bring kings and people to a right knowledge respecting War, depicting the miseries it creates 

 in language that cannot fail to move the heart, and at the moment of expected victory deplores its bloody trophies, and "breathes the 

 vow for PEACE !" Yet I hope it will be understood, that neither the Poet Laureat, nor myself, wish to inculcate pusillanimity. « Dulce 

 et decorum est pro patria mori."— We deplore only that ambition and folly in rulers which create Wars, from jealousy of trade, or for 

 territorial aggrandisement! 



