was one of the chief means of bring. ing the deluded seamen to a sense of their duty. When his Majesty was shot at by Hatfield at Drury-lane theatre, Mr. Sheridan took a very active part in the whole of the enquiry, and, in his anxiety to discover whether any thing like a conspiracy existed, evinced the greatest affection for their Majesties and the whole Royal family. In the year 1809, the inhabitants of the Metropolis, and of the countries many miles round, were thrown into great alarm by a tremendous conflagration, which broke out suddenly, in Drury-lane theatre, about 11 o'clock at night, on the 24th of February. "Mr. Sheridan was then in the House of Commons, when some of the Members immediately, out of respect to him, proposed an adjournment; but though he was evidently much affected, he said in a low tone of voice, that he did not think the misfortune, however heavy it might be to himself, was of so much consequence that the proceedings of the Legislature should be thereby suspended. His only consolation, he said, was in witnessing the attachment of his friends, and in the reflection that, as far as he had been able to ascertain, no lives were lost." The last Chapter details the following melancholy particulars: Death of Mr. Sheridan-particulars of his funeral-account of his family-poetical tributes to his memory-Review of his Character. Of his private character, his Biographer observes, that "He always lived and acted without any regular system for the government of his conduct; the consequence of which was, as might have been expected, that he became the sport of capricious friendship, and when the winter of his days approach. ed, he experienced the mutability of political connexions, and the folly of neglect ing those resources which alone can support the mind in every exigency, and minister to its comfort in the dreariness of solitude. Continual straits was the result of such a course of life, and the effects of it upon his constitution, which had been naturally a very robust one, soon appeared in his countenance and manners. Some days before his death, the Bishop of Lon don, who is a near relation of Mrs. She. rid an, desired Dr. Baine to ask if it would be agreeable to bis patient to have prayers offered up at bis bedside, to which Mr. Sheridan assented, and appeared to join with humility and aspiration, clasping his hands, and lifting up his eyes, 23. Poems descriptive of Rural Life and Scenery. By John Clare, a Northamptonshire Peasant. 12mo. pp. 222. Taylor and Hessey. (Chiefly from the New Times.) THE efforts of the uncultivated mind-the outpourings of genius unimbued with scholastic lore, must ever moulded by scholastic system and unture, and the observer of human nabe interesting to the lover of literabeen extensive, and whose taste has ture. Few men whose reading has been refined by an acquaintance with the classical productions of antient and of modern times, venture to lay before the world their real meditations. They dare not speak " as they ruminate, unless supported by the consciousness of powerful genius. They become readers and critics, but seldom soar into the regions of poetry, where such alarming competition awaits them. We have seldom an opportunity of learning the unmixed and unadulterated impression of the loveliness of nature on a man of vivid perception and strong feeling, equally unacquainted with the arts and reserve of the world, and with the riches, rules, and prejudices of literature. Such a man is Clare. In moments snatched from the labour by which be earned a scanty subsistence, with no other writing apparatus than his hat, a scrap of paper, and a pencil, he eagerly endeavoured to express the thoughts which crowded upon his mind, or to describe the objects around him which delightedhis fancy. 1820.] Review of New Publications. fancy. How difficult a task this must have been to an untaught peasant, ignorant even of grammar, will be conceived by every one who has a spark of poetic feeling. There is scarcely a man breathing, however education may have assisted him, who has not at times found how inadequate words are to the expression of the workings of an active imagination, how far passion expressed falls short of passion felt. Clare himself complains of the painful consciousness of his inability to utter "The bursts of thought with which his soul's perplexed." This poverty of his vocabulary obliged him frequently to coin words and to use provincialisms. In some instances he is fortunate: those in which he is not so, we are willing to pass over without particular censure; there is little danger of his being quoted as an authority for alterations or innovations. Many expressions which are considered vulgar and provincial, are forcible and not unpoetical: but in making the selection of those which may be adopted, much care and discrimination should be exercised. The Poems are preceded by an Introduction, containing the particulars of the life of Clare, which we subjoin, and some remarks on his productions. It is written in an unaffected style, and the friend of the humble poet has bad the good taste to abstain from that extravagance of panegyrick which usually disfigures prefaces on similar subjects. "John Clare, the Author of this volume, was born at Helpstone, near Peterborough, Northamptonshire, on the 13th of July, 1793. He is the only son of Parker and Ann Clare, who are also natives of the same village, where they have always resided in extreme poverty; nor are they aware that any of their ancestors have been in better circumstances. Parker Clare is a farmer's labourer, and latterly he was employed in threshing; but violent colds brought on the rheumatism to such a degree, that he was at length unable to work, or even to move without assistance. By the kind liberality of Lord Milton he was then sent to the Sea-bathing Infirmary at Scarborough, where he found great relief; but returning home part of the way on foot, from a desire to save expenses, his exertions and exposure to the weather brought on the pain again, and reduced him to a more deplorable state 147 than ever. He is now a helpless cripple' and a pauper, receiving an allowance of 5s. per week from the parish. "John Clare has always lived with his parents at Helpstone, except for those short periods when the distance to which he was obliged to go for work prevented his return every evening. At his own home, therefore, he saw poverty in all its most affecting shapes, and when he speaks of it, as in the Address to Plenty, p. 48, 'Oh, sad sons of Poverty! Victims doom'd to misery ; Who can paint what pain prevails O'er that heart which want assails? Modest shame the pain conceals: No one knows but he who feels.'. "And again 'Toiling in the naked fields, Where no bush a shelter yields, Needy Labour dithering stands, Beats and blows his numbing hands; And upon the crumping snows Stamps, in vain, to warm his toes'he utters no idly-feign'd poetic pains:' it is a picture of what he has constantly witnessed and felt. One of our poets has gained great credit by his exterior delineations of what the poor man suffers; but in the reality of wretchedness, when the iron enters into the soul,' there is a tone which cannot be imitated. Clare has here an unhappy advantage over other poets. The most miserable of them were not al ways wretched. Penury and disease were not constantly at their heels, nor was pauperism their only prospect. But he has no other, for the lot which has befallen his father may, with too much reason, be looked forward to as his own portion. In the simple annals of the poor' want occupies a part of every page, except, perhaps, the last, where the scene changes to the workhouse; and then the burthen which is taken from the body is laid upon the spirit: at least it would be so with Clare; for though the contemplation of parochial relief may administer to some minds a thankless, hopeless sort of consolation, under the pressure of extreme distress, yet to the writer of the following lines it must be the highest aggravation of affliction : 'Oh, may I die, before I'm doom'd to seek That last resource of hope, but ill supplied; To claim the humble pittance once a week,` Which justice forces from disdainful pride!' p. 78. "While such was the destitute condition of his parents, it may seem extraordinary that Clare should have found the meaus to acquire any learning whatever; but by extra work as a plough-boy, and by by helping his father morning and evening at threshing, he earned the money which paid for his education. From the labour of eight weeks he generally acquired as many pence as would pay for a month's' schooling; and thus in the course of three years he received, at different times, so much instruction that he could read very well in the Bible. He considers himself to have derived much benefit from the judicious encouragement of his schoolmaster, Mr. Seaton, of Glinton, an adjoining parish, from whom he sometimes obtained 3d. a-week in rewards, and who once gave him 6d. for repeating from memory the third chapter of Job. With these little sums he bought a few books. "When he had learned to read tolerably well, he borrowed from one of his companions that universal favourite, Robinson Crusoe, and in the perusal of this he greatly increased his stock of knowledge and his desire for reading. He was thirteen years of age when another boy showed him Thomson's Seasons. They were out in the fields together, and during the day Clare had a good opportunity of looking at the book. It called forth all the passion of his soul for poetry. He was determined to possess the work himself; and as soon as he had saved a shilling to buy it with, he set off for Stamford at so early an hour, that none of the shops were open when he got there. It was a fine spring morning, and when he had made his purchase, and was returning through the beautiful scenery of Burghley Park, he composed his first piece of poetry, which he called, The Morning Walk.? This was soon followed by The Evening Walk,' and some other little pieces. "But the first expression of his fondness for poetry was before he had learned to read. He was tired one day with looking at the pictures in a volume of poems, which he thinks were Pomfret's, when his father read him one piece in the book to amuse him. The delight he felt, at hearing this read, still warms him when he thinks of the circumstance; but though he distinctly recollects the vivid pleasure which thrilled through him then, he has lost all trace of the incidents as well of the language, nor can he find any poem of Pomfret's at all answering the faint conception he retains of it. It is possible that his chief gratification was in the harmony of the numbers, and that he had thoughts of his own floating onward with the verse very different from those which the same words would now suggest. The various melody of the earliest of his own compositions is some argument in favour of this opinion. "His love of poetry, however, would soon have spent itself in compositions as little to be remembered as that which has just been mentioned, had it not been for the kindness of Mr. John Turnill, late of Helpstone, now in the Excise, who was indeed a benefactor to him. From his instruction Clare, though he knew a little of the rudiments before, learnt writing and arithmetic; and to this friend he must therefore consider himself indebted, for whatever good may accrue to him from the exercise of those powers of mind with which he is naturally endowed. For it is very probable, that without the means of recording his productions on paper, Clare would not only have lost the advantage be may derive from the publication of his works, but that also in himself he would not have been the poet he is; that, without writing down his thoughts, he could not have evolved them from his own mind; and that his vocabulary would have been too scanty to express even what his imagination had strength enough to conceive. Besides, if he did succeed in partial instances, the aggregate amount of them could not have been collected and estimated." The last notice of Clare informs us, that he was living with his parents, working for any one who would employ him, without any regular occupation. A singular accident led to the publication of the Poems: "In December, 1818, Mr. Edward Drury, bookseller, of Stamford, met with the Sonnet to the Setting Sun, written on a piece of paper in which a letter had been wrapped up, and signed J. C. Having ascertained the name and residence of the writer, he went to Helpstone, where he saw some other poems, with which he was much pleased. At his request Clare made a collection of the pieces he had written, and added some others to them. They were sent to London, and the publishers selected those which form the present volume. They have been printed with the usual corrections only of orthography and grammar, in such instances as allowed of its being done without changing the words: the proofs were then revised by Clare, and a few alterations were made at his desire." The subjoined is an extract from a little Poem, on Helpstone, which was written before the Author was seventeen years of age. There is a grammatical error, which will not escape the Reader's observation. "Hail, humble Helpstone! where thy valleys spread, And thy mean village lifts its lowly head; Unknown 1820.] Review of New Publications. depend? Above the vulgar and the vain to rise. "Mysterious Fate! who can on thee [end: Thou opes the hour, but hides its doubtful In Fancy's view the joys have long appear'd [cheer'd; Where the glad heart by laughing plenty's And Fancy's eyes oft, as vainly, fill; At first but doubtful, and as doubtful still, So little birds, in winter's frost and snow, Doom'd like to me, want's keener frost to know; Searching for food and better life,' in vain, Each hopeful track the yielding snows retain ; First on the ground each fairy dream pur[view, sue, t 149 rial Cæsarean Society of Natural History at Moscow; and of the Dutch Society of Sciences at Haarlem; Author of "Sermons on the Epistles and Gospels, &c." and of "Church of England Principles opposed to the New Light, &c;" and Edi-`' tor of "The English Diatessaron, &c." In two volumes. 12mo. pp. 176. 218. Longman & Co. IN the progress of our literary labours, we have so frequently had the satisfaction of paying the justice to Mr. Warner, which he so well deserves, for his industry, his abilities, and his zealous endeavours to support the best interests of the Esta-' blished Church, and we are sorry to perceive that the present publication is likely to be his last : "Though most of the trifles," he says, "contained in these volumes, have already appeared in print, yet their previous publication can scarcely be predicated; since the limited circulation of a work confined to a few subscribers, precluded the extensive diffusion of some of them; and others were contributions to a local periodical publication, of short duration, and very contracted sale. Recommended by no depth of thought, and little novelty of remark, they may, possibly, be considered as hardly worth this endeavour to press them into wider notice; but something, perhaps, will be allowed to the partiality of an Author, who (claiming for them the praise neither of genius nor learning) is still willing to flatter himself that they may not be unuseful to the best interests of religion and morality. At all events, the offence of this publication (if an offence it be) will, it is hoped, find pardon, from the declaration which accompanies it, that it is a valedictory one: Hic cestus artemque repono.' I now leave the field to abler men; and shall quit it contented and grateful, if, in the estimation of an indulgent Publick, I may be numbered among the least of those writers who (to use the language of one of the brightest ornaments of English literature) have given confidence to virtue.' To this affecting prefatory address we shall only add, that there is not a single article in these volumes which does not add to the fair fame Mr. Warner has so long acquired. The subjects of the different Essays are these: "On the Decay and Loss of Intellect; a Letter to jun. esq.-On the Admiration of Talent and Learning, unassociated with Piety and Virtue: a Letter to the same.-The Sceptic Reclaimed. -Reason -Reason and Insanity: a Letter from a Gentleman under Derangement.-An Account of Monsieur Hamard, a French Emigrant; in a Letter to the Editors of --The Compilation of the Book of Common Prayer; an Historical Sketch.The Story-Teller, with Anecdotes.-The Jokes of Hierocles: translated from the Greek. A Biographical Sketch of the late Rev. William Gilpin, Vicar of Boldre." The last of these Essays, enriched as it is by various interesting Letters by Mr. Gilpin, is a Biographical article of great intrinsic value. From the "Story Teller," a good collection of original anecdotes, a few of the shortest shall be selected: "During the progress of the repeal of the Stamp Act, it was said by Lord Bute, and his friends, that the K-g was against the repeal. Lord Rockingham asserted that his M- -y had given his full approbation. This Lord Strange denied: on which Lord Rockingham said, it is ne cessary, then, that we should request an audience, that we may be clearly informed what his M-y's real sentiments are upon the subject.' The two noblemen, accordingly, applied for an audience, and were admitted to the royal closet. When they came out, Lord Rockingham remarked, you now see I am authorised to say, that his M- -y approves of the measure.' 'No,' replied Lord Strange, I do not see that by any means; though his My has expressed his approbation, I do not know that you are authorised to say so.' Nay, then,' cried Lord R. we must go in again.' They returned immediately to the K-g, and Lord R. informed his M-y of the doubts entertained by Lord Strange; and requested permission to take down his My's words in writing. Having obtained leave, he wrote the following sentence: His My has declared his approbation of the Stamp Act.' The K-g having read the lines, instantly took the pen, and wrote under them these words: When I said this, the conversation turn. ed only on the enforcement, or the repeal. No modification was then suggested.'" "When Mr. Fox was in the ministry during the American war, and a plenipotentiary had been appointed to the American States, Fox asked the K-g if it would be agreeable to him to receive an American Minister in return. His M-y It made a just and proper answer, specifically adapted to the unfortunate situation of public affairs. Mr. Fox, the phrase of your question rather surprises me. cannot be agreeable to me; but I can, and I do, agree to it.' Fox himself related this anecdote to the late David Hartley, acknowledging, that his own phrase agreeable was indeed unsuitable and inconsi derate; but that his M-y's answer was manly, frank, and noble." "The religious principles of the late Charles Fox have been frequently called in question, but without sufficient foundation; originating probably with free thinkers, who were desirous of sanctioning their own infidelity, by enlisting so superior a mind in their cause; or with political enemies, who thought to give the coup de grace to his reputation, by stamping his character with infidelity. His partiality for Paley's writings, which he read with avidity, proves, at least, that he had a taste for arguments in favour of Christianity. To this favourable symptom of the turn of his mind to subjects and discussions corroborative of our holy faith, may be added an article of his practice, which he communicated to a confidential friend; that, from early infancy, whenever he went to bed, whether early or late, under the influence of wine, or in his sober senses, he never omitted saying the Lord's Prayer." "When Sir John Sinclair moved in the House of Commons, in the year 1795, for a reward of 1000l. to be granted to Mr. Elkington, whom he stated to be the best artist for draining the country; Mr. Jekyll, who sat next to him, whispered in his ear, 'you forget the King of Prussia, and the Emperor of Germany; who have shewn themselves infinitely more successful artists for draining the country, and have already been much better paid for it." 25. America, and the British Colonies: an Abstract of all the most useful Information, relative to the United States of America, and the British Colonies of Canada, the Cape of Good Hope, New South Wales, and Van Diemen's Island, exhibiting at one view the comparative Advantages and Disadvantages each Country offers for Emigration, &c. By William Kingdom, jun. 8vo. pp. 360. Whittaker. 26. Observations on Emigration to the United States of America; illustrated by original Facts. By William Savage. 8vo. pp. 66. Sherwood and Co. the THE vain idea of substituting commerce and poor-rates, as remedies for growing population, instead of increase of territory, are leading causes of our present distress. The rush of males into effeminate trades, as weaving, &c. has augmented the evil, by confining colonization to the able-bodied aud valuable inhabitants, weavers having no employment in America (Kingdom, p. 53), and the settlers in Upper Canada, being chiefly Scotch and Irish, because at home they had not the resource of poor's rates. In short, |