672 
years: and that, under this system, in 
the year 1810, every creditor, public or 
paral, subject or alien, to whom the 
aw as it then siood, and as it now 
stands, had secured the payment ofa 
pound weight of standard gold for 
exery 46]. 14s. 6d. of his just démand, 
would be obliged to accept in full sa- 
tisfaction about 104 ounces, or not 
more than seventeea shillings in the 
pound; witha prospect of a still further 
reduction in every subsequent year : 
it is impossible to conceive that the at- 
tention and feelings of parliament 
would not have been: alive to ali tbe in- 
dividual injustice and ultimate public 
calamities, incident to such a state of 
things; and that they would not have 
provided for the termination of the 
restriction, before it should have 
wrought so much mischief, and laid 
the foundation of so much confusion in 
all the dealings and transactions of the 
community.” 
Mr. Huskisson afterwards goes on 
more mivutely to illustrate his posi- 
tions on the effect of the act of 1797. 
In stating -some of the assertions, 
and examining the arguments and ex. 
planations of those who have main- 
tained the sound and undepreciated 
state of our present wretched paper 
currency, Mr. Huskisson shews great 
acuteness. The explanations which 
have been offered by those who have 
endeavoured to shew that the high 
price of gold in England is not con- 
nected with any excess in the enormous 
issue of bank paper, are next consider- 
ed. Mr. Huskisson next enquires what 
aid the question of our foreign ex- 
change can afierd, in explanation of 
the difference between the standard of 
our coin, and the actual value of our 
paper currency. 
It being, as Mr. Huskisson conceives, 
«* placed beyond all doubt that our 
paper, currency is much depreciated, 
éthatits depreciation is to be ascribed 
altogether, to an excess in. the issue of 
that paper ; and that without the re- 
striction law no such excess could have 
existed, or at least have been perma- 
nently maintained, it follows, that the 
repeal of that temporary law is the ob-° 
vious remedy for this great evil. 
| POETRY. 
‘* The Genius. of the Thames, a. 
‘* Lyrical Poem, in two Parts. 
** Tuomas Lovs Peacock.” | 
The first part of this well: written 
poem opens with an autumual night 
on the banks of the Thames ; followed 
By 
y the characters of several rivers of 
Retrospect of Domestic Literature—Poetry. 
Great Britain, a view of some of the 
principal sireams of Europe, Asia, 
Africa, and-America, an illustration of 
the singular pre-eminence of Thames, 
the port of Londen, the naval domi- 
nion of Britain and her commerce, and 
the tradition that an immense forest 
once occupied the site of the metro- 
polis. Closing with an episode ofa 
druid, supposed to have taken refuge 
in that forest, after the expulsion of 
the order from Mona, 
The following we consider to be no 
mean specimen of the author’s talents. 
«* Along thy course no pine-clad steep, 
No Alpine summits proudly tower ; 
No woods, impenetrably deep, 
O’er thy pure mirror darkly lower ; 
The orange-grove, the myrtle bower, 
The vine, in rich luxuriance spread; 
The charms Italian meadows shower, 
The sweets Arabian vallies shed ; 
The roaring cataract, wild and white, 
The lotos-flower of azure bright, 
The fields, where ceaseless summer smiles, 
The bloom that decks the #gean isles ; 
The hills that tonch the empyreal plain, 
Olympian Jove’s sublime domain ; 
To other streams all these resign : 
Still none, oh Thames! shall vie with thine ; 
For what avails the myrtle bower, 
Where beauty rests at noon-tide hour ; 
The orange-grove, whose blooms exhale 
Rich perfume on the ambient gale ; 
And all the charms in bright array, 
Which happicr climes than thine display 2 
Ah! what avails, that heaven has rol/’d 
A silver stream o’er sands of gold, 
And deck’d the plain, aud reared the grove, 
Fit dweiling for primeval love; 
If man defile the beauteous scene, 
And stain with blood the smiling green ; 
lf man’s worst passions there arise, 
‘Fo counteract the favouring skies ; 
If rapine there, and murder reign, 
And human tigers prow] for gain, - 
And tyrants foul, and trembling slaves, 
Pollute their shores,and eurse their waves?”?. 
The second part opens with the in- 
fluence of spring on the scenery of the: 
river, contrasting the tranquil beauty: 
of the vallies of the Thames with the: 
sublimity of more open and elevated 
regiens, 
‘¢ Not here, in dreadful grandeur piled, 
The meuntain’s pathless masses rise, 
Where wandering fancy’s lonely child 
_ Might meet the spirit of the skies :- 
Not here, from misty summits hoar,_ 
Where shattered firs are rooted strong 5 
With headlong force and thundering roar _ 
The bursting forrent foams along: 
These have their charms, sablimely dread ; 
For nature on the mountain’s head ~~ 
Delights the treasures to dispense - 
Of allher wild magnificence: 
But thou art sweet, my native stream ! 
Thy waves in liquid lustre play, 
