’ 
43° 
This enormous annual charge is exclu- 
five of the affeffed taxes, contributions, 
and new ratio on income, the latter of 
which is eftimated at twelve millions 
more*. What will the whole amount to 
annually, when all the arrears and contin- 
gencies of the prefent war are finally 
clofed, could peace be immediate ? How 
is it to be provided for and fupported 
when our commerce becomes circum- 
fcribed within its natural bounds, when 
the immenfe public expenditure which has 
of late been the animation of our home 
confumption 1s withdrawn, when our ex- 
terior commerce returns again to its old 
channels, and when our general trade op- - 
prefied with taxes wil] be aflailed by en- 
terprifing opponents, whofe exertions are 
confefledly not to be limited by the pre- 
{criptions of precedent ; and whole acti- 
vity when direéted to commerce and ma- 
nutacture command a wonderful combi- 
’ nation of new refources to enable them to 
furpafs all conjecture. 
‘Thefe remarks are not made to diffufe 
a fpirit of defpair, but to correét, if pof- 
fible, the prefent {pir it of infatuation and 
defperate prefumption, that our commerce, 
-inftead of retiring to its natural limits, 
mutt be fuperior to any controul. 
Dee. 14, 1798. Yi. 
Se zi 
For the Montily Magazine. 
Letter of the Marquis of Santillana to the 
Confiable of Portugal, on the Origin and 
Pragrefs of Spanija Poetry, written about 
A.D, 1456. [vide p. 33 of this vo- 
lume, | 
To the illuftrious lord Don Pedro the moft 
magnificent Conitable of Portugal, the 
Marquis of Santillana Count of Real, &c. 
health, peace, and due recommendztion. 
FEW days ago Alvar Gonzalez. of 
Alcantara, a fervant in the family 
of the infant Don Pedro, Duke of Coim- 
‘br2, your father, requefted me on your 
part, my lord, that I would fend my 
poems and fongs to your magnificence. 
In truth, ‘my lord, in other matters of 
more importance, and greater lahour, I 
Should defire to gratify you; but thefe 
works, or at leaft the greater part of then, 
are not on fuch ees nor fo well formed 
and compofed, as.to appear worthy of a 
memorable regifter ; becaufe as the apoftle 
fays, “ when Iwas a child, I thought 
and ae as a child,” ie thofe light and 
jocofe’ trifles agree with the noyelties of 
youth, that is 5 fay, drefinge , tourneying, 
and other fach court exerciles - and thus, 

4 
* The intereft of the old debt in 1791, 
after all the arrears of the American war was 
fettled, very little exceeded 92 millions. 
Letter of Marquis Santillana. 
[Dec. 
my lord, many things may pleafe you, 
which no longer pleafe me. For this 
reafon, and folely out of complaifance to 
you, I have cautfed to be copied in the 
order they were written, and now fend 
you, my poems in this little volume. 
I am pleafed with your tafte for poetry, 
which is only to be found in gentle minds, 
and elevated {pirits. 
What indeed is poetry, which in our 
common tongue we term Gaya jctencia, but 
a fiétion conveying ufeful oes co- 
vered with a. beautiful veil ; compoted, 
arranged, and {canned in reguiar mea- 
fures? Certainly, my lord, they err wha 
fuppefe that poetry tends only to vanity 
and lafcivioufnefs. It is, on the contrary, 
an elegant fruit produced only by culti- 
vated minds. 
The fuperior excellence of metre above 
profe is manifeft. In imitation of the 
Stoics,. who with great diligence inquired 
intothe originand caules of things, I could 
prove ar poetry is anterior in time to 
profe, and of greater perfection and au- 
thority. ‘Hidore of Carthage, the holy 
archbifhop ot Hifpala, teftifies this: and 
it appears that the firft who uled rimes 
or mug in metre, was Mofes; for in me- 
tre he {ung and prophecied the coming of 
the Meffiah, as after him Jofhua fung im 
prai ife of hie victory of Gabaon. David 
fung in metre the victory over the Philif- 
tines, and the reftitution of the ark ; and 
all the five book's of the Pfalter, of which 
the Jews fay that we cannot perceive all 
the f{weetnefs.. Solomon alfo wrote his 
Proverbs in verfe ; and fome parts of Job 
are in rime, particularly the’ anlwers of 
his friends. 
Among the Greeks the moft ancient 
were Achates of Miletus, and Pherocides 
of Tyre; end Homer, whom Dante ne- 
verthelefs ftyles the firft of poets, ) Among 
the Latins Ennius was the earlief ; though 
Virgil have attained the monarchy, as 
Danie fays, fpeaking in the name of Sor- 
@elio of Mantua. 
And to what purpofe may not thig 
noble art. be applied? In metre are com- 
poled epithalemia, or poems on new mar- 
ried people: others are in the name of 
fhepherds, and fuch are called bucolics ; 
others are clegies on the dead, ufed to 
xis day in fome parts of our country, and 
ae ‘Endechas. In thi way did Jere- 
miah fing the deftruétion of Jerufalem ; 
and Caius Cesfar, O€tavianus Auzuttus, 
‘Tiberius, and Titus, Emperors, “diftin- 
euithed themfelves in this mode of verfi- 
fication. 
But to leave the ancients, and approach — 
own times, Robert nee of 
; Naply 53 
nearer our 
