229 
1811.] yin Anticipation of the Tear SOOO. 
which other countries, and empires more 
populous than theirs, had submissively 
paid: his lordship, however, conde¬ 
scended merely to make before ‘ the 
Father of the Chinese world/ the same 
courtly bow, which George the third re¬ 
ceived, seated on his throne! This 
obeisance, the Englishman haughtily 
names, ‘ the honours paid by the emperor 
of the West to the emperor of the East!’ 
“ When Lord Nelson surveyed the 
city of Copenhagen at a distance, through 
a telescope, after he awoke from a reve¬ 
rie, his lips were heard to murmur, in 
an abrupt hoarse tone, * Thank God ! 
it will burn ! we shall succeed Red 
hot balls were instantly prepared. This 
mixture of savage delight, and of the 
highest heroism, was a frequent trait in 
the character of the English.—-At the 
battle of Trafalgar the same admiral issued 
no orders, and few signals, even at the 
commencement of the attack ; but he 
spake to his fleet by a telegraph, Eng¬ 
land expects every man to do Ms duty ! 
A threat is rarely accompanied with 
flattery so delicate, and with encourage¬ 
ment so heroic ! There appeared in this 
martial people something most extraor¬ 
dinary. 
The benevolent Howard, invited at 
Vienna to dine in state with the emperor, 
appeared calm, and superior to royalty. 
* What opinion do the English entertain 
-ofmy prisons?* the emperor condescended 
!to enquire. * Sire, the English would 
choose rather to be executed in their own 
free country, than to be sulTocated in 
your subterraneous burial-holes: their 
prisons of punishment are palaces.’ A 
life devoted to charitable pursuits had 
not humbled the pomp and the grandeur 
of British spirik 
The plans of these islanders were 
more gigantic than the most extensive 
schemes of the Romans. If the empire 
ot the latter embraced Europe, ji part of 
Asia, and a quarter of Africa, that of the 
former comprehended within its ample 
range fifty six millions of subjects in In¬ 
dia, the mighty sweep of the Canadas, 
and of Polar America, which are wider 
than Europe, or the Russian monarchy, 
the populous Archipelago of the West 
Indies, the vast district of New Holland, 
that fifth division of the globe, and, in the 
year 1807, the astonishing fertility, the 
crowded flocks and herds, the gold and 
silver mines, the wide territories of La 
Plata, Surinatn, Issequibo, and Dema- 
rara ; the island of Malta, and the flou- 
settieoients of Sierre Leone; the 
Cape of Good Hope, and the golden 
coasts of Gambia and Senegal; in one 
word, the most civilized portion of Eu¬ 
rope, the most genial climate in Asia, 
the most spacious provinces in either 
America, the most improvable plantations 
in Africa, or New Holland, and those 
connecting islands, that series of settle¬ 
ments which formed a commercial zone 
around the habitable globe. Had United 
America continued its allegiance, the 
English name and power would have also 
boasted of a central portion in the New 
World, which, comprising 10,000 miles 
in length, and in breadth 4000, would 
have separately exceeded-(in the aggre¬ 
gate of North American domain) either 
the Russian, or the Chinese, monarchy. 
“ The national undertakings and the 
imperial works of this western people 
were as daring and incredible as their 
dominion was extensive. Their canals 
exceeded in magnitude those of every 
preceding age, and of every nation, 
Chaldea, Egypt, China, Brabant, or 
Russia. Their bridges over the Thames 
were unrivalled, even in the Roman em¬ 
pire; and those which were built in pre¬ 
cipitous situations, even in their distant 
counties, were formed boldly of cast iron, 
and exhibited one gigantic arch, or ain- 
phitheatrical span ! Their naval or mi¬ 
litary hospitals, their infirmaries, asylums, 
and charitable establisliments, their pub¬ 
lic dock-yards and fcommercial basons, 
their general custom-house in London, 
their magnificent India ware-houses, 
their collection of public offices in 
Somerset palace, the hundreds of their 
libraries of a private or public na¬ 
ture, the more numerous scholars and 
learned men—these are circumbtances 
in which Europe and Asia have, in no 
age, reached their envied pre-eminence; 
unwilling to copy, they aspired to lead 
other nations in vast labours and acute 
inventions. 
“ They were the first people wfljo pro¬ 
jected a subterraneous road beneath the 
bed of a river so majestic as the Thames ; 
they vvould have sloped a descent to tins 
novel turnpike, over a space of one mile, 
and have raised an oblique ascent from 
this low level, w/hich covered the same 
quantity of rising ground : an inn, or a 
turnpike gate, was proposed to he built 
in tlie centre of this singular load, in 
A.D. 1809, marking the centre of the 
river, and elucidating the presumptuous 
confidence of the architects. Lamps, 
even at the mid-day, were intended to 
give light to the travellers and the car¬ 
riages ; 
