For that part of her friend, oft call'd aptly the better,

Let the sketch of its failings lie hid in the shade: God knows how he struggled to throw off their fetter,

And God will have mercy where mercy is pray'd.
Nor blazon his virtues,-at best, ah! so slender!
They call more for pardon than merit a boast:
Let her view him in habits that best may back
render

Those glimpses of life that endear it the most.
And has she not seen him, with lovers surrounded,
Receiving and giving the family kiss?-
Observ'd the affection at which the heart bounded,
By sincerity render'd the world's truest bliss?
At his side a kind wife, of near forty years fleeting,
Good-humour'dly preaching her turnips for health,
While he smir'd, and maintain'd that good beef
was good eating,

And mutton still better, when he got it by
stealth?

Not so learned was he as enamour'd of learning,.

And much he delighted to form the young spirit; To point out the truths which are worthy discerning, And show that the heart gives the head its best merit.

But now, thou stain'd Leaf! see thy limit is rounded!

Go, bid thy dear mistress, in judging his style, To think of those days when the Old Man's heart beunded

To receive as his daughter's the cheer of her smile.

Mr. D. having long resided in Jamaica, is qualified by local knowledge to execute the following happy piece :

The Bonja Song.

What are the joys of white man here?
What are his pleasures? say;
Me want no joys, no ilis me fear,
But on my Bonja play.

Me sing all day, me sleep all night,
Me hab no care, my beart is light;
Me tink not what to-morrow bring,
Me happy, so me sing.

But white man's joys are not like mine,
Dho' he look smait and gay:
He proud, he jealous, haughty,
While I my Bouja play.

fine,

He sleep all day, he wake all night,
He full of care, his heart no light,
He great deal want, he little get,
He sorry, so he fret.

Me envy not dhe white man dhen,
Me poor, but me is gay:
Me glad at heart, me happy when
Me on my Bouja play.

Me sing all day, me sleep all night,
Me hab no care, my heart is light;
Me tink not what to-morrow bring,
Me happy, so me sing.

The Greek Committee in London have published in a small pamphlet the very interesting and ably-drawn Report of Mr. Blaquiere, on the present state of the Greek Confederation, and on its claims to the support of the Christian World.

"The almost total destruction (says Mr. B.) of the Turkish army, which followed its attempt to invade the Morea in the autumn of 1822, as well as the various important events to which that memorable campaign gave rise, having induced the Provisional Government to convoke a general congress at Astros; the members of the executive and deputies had just reached Tripolizza as we arrived. Although the decree of convocation, which also pointed out the mode to be pursued in the new elections, toge her with the necessity of only returning men distinguished for their patriotism and virtue, merely specified the number of representatives prescribed by the law of Epidaurus; yet, such was the eagerness of the people throughout the confederation to contribute to the common weal, that above three hundred deputies had assembled by the beginning of April: there was also a large body of troops, nearly all the mihtary chiefs,

and many thousand casual visitors. The meetings and deliberations of congress were held under the shade of an orange and lemon grove, between sunrise and noon; while all those who were desirous of hearing the debates, or witnessing the proceedings, occupied the surrounding space thickly shaded with olive trees.

The first care of the Congress thus assembled, was to revise and correct such articles in the Constitution framed at Epidaurus sixteen months before, as experience had proved to be susceptible of amelioration. Adopting the most liberal institutions of Europe for their models, there was not a single clause added or retrenched, without a precedent being previously established, either in the practice of the British Constitution or that of the United States. Having decided that the seat of government should be fixed at Tripolizza, previous to its final establishment at Athens, the last act of Congress was an address to the people, in which the object of assembling and a succinct notice of the proceedings were detailed.

The result of each day's deliberation was watched with the most intense anxiety by all classes, representing the whole as a scene of the greatest enthusiasm and unanimity, with the exception of one single point-the propriety of distributing a portion of the national domains among the chiefs and soldiery. Aware that more than nineteen twentieths of the territory freed from the tyrant, had belonged to Turkish proprietors, it was extremely natural for those whose lives had been passed in the labours of agriculture as slaves, to feel anxious about the possession of a spot of ground, however small, which they could call their own; and there was

every disposition on the part of government and

congress to accede to their wishes.

As to the excesses attributed to the Greek soldiery, it would appear that the number of able and eloquent writers who have advocated the cause of Greece, have brought forward such facts and ar guments as must satisfy every impartial observer, that these excesses, like every other subject calculated to prejudice the cause, have been most wantonly exaggerated. In common with all the friends of the Greek cause, 1 lament, most deeply lament, the excesses which marked the early stages of the contest: but I would entreat those who judge them, not to pronounce before they become thoroughly acquainted with the innumerable provocations which, in war at least, would fully justify still greater excesses, without referring to those centuries of galling and intolerable oppression which the Greek people had to avenge. Would it be possible for the most able pen, or eloquent tongue, to describe the scenes which followed the executions of the capital, at Adrianople, Salonica, Cassandra, Mount Athos, Smyrna, Scala Novo, Aivali, Rhodes, Cyprus, Candia, and Scio? Had the cries reached our country, of infants torn from their mothers' breasts and flung into the sea, or dashed against the rocks, as at Scio and various other places-of fathers, husbands, and brothers, butchered before the eyes of mothers, wives, and sisters, who were themselves destined either to share a similar fate, o be dragged into that hopeless slavery in which thousands languish at this moment,-it is needless to say that every British heart would have melted, and every British hand been stretched out to succour or to save a perishing community!

The almost miraculous deliverance of the Morea, at a time when the most sanguine friends of the Greek cause in England had nearly given it up as lost, may be justly hailed as a totally new and brilliant epoch in the contest; for, there is no instance on record subsequently to the capture of Napoli de Romania, one of the first fruits of the triumphs gained on the Plain of Argos, in which the Greeks have not completely disproved the accusations of their enemies, by showing every disposition to conduct the war on principles strictly conformable to the laws of civilized nations; and they have acted thus in the midst of incessant provocations on the part of the Turks, whose excesses continue unabated to this hour. It is not my intention to become an indiscriminate panegyrist of the Greeks at the expense of truth, or to deny the existence of vices among them-vices which are partly insepa rable from our nature, but much more generally derived from the peculiar circumstances of their enslaved and degraded condition: but I will say, from the observation and inquiry of many years, that I am justified in pronouncing them to be an eminently moral and religious people.

The political code of the confederation, or law of
Épidaurus.

1

Epidaurus, as it is more commonly called, esta-
blished that the system of government should be
elective, consisting of representatives chosen by
the people, and an executive of five members se-
lected from the legislative body. There are, besides,
ministers of finance, war, interior, public instruc
tion, and police, named by the executive for carry-
ing its decrees into effect; also a secretary general,
charged with the manageinent of foreign relations:
this last office is now held by Prince Mavrocordato,
the late president. The duties and powers allotted
to each department of the state were prescribed by
the law of Epidaurus. The amount of revenue
collected for this year is necessarily very limited,
and chiefly derived from farming out the crops on
the national domains-of which only a small portion
were sown. The crops on the plain of Gastouni, in

the Morea, one of the finest in the world, and which
was even this year worth five millions of francs,
only yielded a sum of 800,000, owing to its vicinity
to Patras. That of Argos, equally rich, though of
much less extent, has been in fallow ever since the
invasion of last year: there is, however, little doubt
of its being all turned to account in the coming
season. The produce of Candia, in oil alone,
amounts on an average to 400,000 barrels per an
num; and each of them brings an average price
of eight Spanish dollars in the markets of France and
Italy.

Although nearly the whole male population of the
Morea capable of carrying arms is provided with
pistols and attagans, the number which can take the
field is comparatively limited, depending almost
entirely on the means possessed by the leaders,
each of whom has hitherto been unable to employ
more followers than he could provide for out of his
personal resources and the scanty and precarious
aid of government. These troops are also supplied
with muskets, and are led by several chiefs or
capitani. The wants and privations of the Greek
army are of a nature the most discouraging. There
is not more than a third of the number, thus em-
ployed in saving a whole people from extermina-
tion, supplied with sufficient clothing to shelter
them from the inclemencies of a mountain warfare;
that they often march forty miles a day, almost in-
variably sleep in the open air, and frequently pass
two or three days without any other food than the
herbs of the field. Though the number of horses
taken from the Turks, and now in the Morea, is
suficient to mount from five to eight thousand ca-
vairy, it will be impossible for the government to
avail itself of this species of force until provided
with funds. The Greek army receives no pay what-
ever. The general mode adopted by the chiefs, is
to advance a small sum to each soldier previous to
entering the field: with this he provides himself
with bread, tobacco, and whatever other necessa

ries he may require, as far as the supply will go

for it very seldom exceeds two Spanish dollars.

The naval efforts of the confederation, like those
of the army, have been principally, if not altogether,
supported by the patriotism and public spirit of a
few individuals at Hydra, Spezzia, Ipsara, and

Samos. There have not been less than a hundred
ships and vessels of various sizes employed at the
expense of about thirty ship-owners, ever since the
commencement of the struggle; and the number
has, on more than one occasion, extended to one
hundred and eighty. The Greek seamen, who
amount to about 20,000 of the most expert in Europe,
receive no regular pay: all they require for their
services, is the means of subsistence for their fa-
milies. It is with such means as I have thus shortly
pointed out, that above a hundred thousand of the
infidels, whose path was marked with carnage and
devastation during the first two years of the con-
test, have been destroyed; and the whole of the
Morea, Livadia, Negropont, a great portion of
Romelia in Epirus, together with the islands of
Candia, Milo, Naxia, Tino, Myconos, Skyro, Samos,
Andro, Zea, Patmos, Serpho, Hydra, pezzia, and
Iusara, have been conquered;-there being only a
few isolated points in the enemy's possession, viz.
Acro, Corinth, Patras, Modon, Coron, and Carysto,
on the continent;-and Canea and Retymo, in
Candia; and all of these places are either in a state
The number of
of siege, or closely blockaded.
Turks shut up within the walls, and who cannot
leave the gates without falling into the hands of the
Greeks, does not exceed ten thousand men, two-
thirds of whom forra the garrison of Patras. Un
provided with battering and field trains, the chief
means possessed by the Greek forces for reducing
the above points, are confined to a rigorous system
ot blockade, and occasional assaults.

Popular Tales and Romances of the Northern Nations have appeared in three very elegant volumes, with some fine specimens of vignettes, in wood. They are curious, and often interesting, but rather too gloomy and too superstitions to be recommended to general reading. The ig norant population of every district in Europe might supply their local tales of this kind. The fire-sides of farm-houses, cottages, and public-houses, in Wales, Scotland, or Ireland, would soon fill three such volumes as the present, if they were worthy of being preserved. In his preface, the editor introduces the following observations.-"The legends of these voJumes have been gathered from various sources, and, of course, will be found to have characters as varions; the elegant and playful Musäus has nothing at all in common with the dark, wild fancy of La Motte Fouqué; just as little similarity is there between Veit Weber and the author of the Freischutz; and, though supernatural agency forms the basis of all, the superstructures vary with the varying characters of the authors."-"It must, however, be allowed that, with the Ger mans, fancy has had too much sway, for it has seldom been under the guidance of sound taste, and the consequence is, that the multitude of their original fictions is disgraced by the most barbarons absurdities. The same may, in some measure, be said of their modern romance; but at the same time the reader cannot fail to be delighted with the variety and richness of its inventions, diablerie with the Germans being as inexhaustible as the fairyism of the Eastern world. Sometimes it is presented to us under its most terrifie forms; at others it appears, as in Musans, under a light veil of irony, in a tone half jest, half earnest, and that is, indeed, its most beautiful form. Few tales are more pleasing than the "Spectre Barber," one of the happiest illustrations of this class of writing, where a playful fancy sports with a fiction, that was at no distant time the delight and terror of the peasant's fireside. La Motte Fouqué, on the contrary, is altogether a magician of darkness, who loves to treat the wild and impossible as serious matters, but who always endeavours to draw from them some moral conclusions. Veit Weber, another great name of romance, builds his tales on the dark times of chivalry, when the knights plundered the people with the sword, and the monks plundered`the Ottmar and knights with the Bible.

Büsching are the antiquarians of romance, who have collected the scattered traditions of the peasantry, and retailed them to the world with little deviation from their originals. Madame Naubert is more akin in her genins to Musäus, though a spirit of an inferior order; her materials are generally of the light and playful kind; or,

if

if not, she makes them so by the manner in which she works them up. Laun is the historian of ghost-stories, which have really occurred, but which have subsequently been found capable of rational explanation; a translation of three or four of his tales has lately been published by Ackermann. The work is well executed, and affords much wholesome food for the over-credulous. Grimm is the collector of "Nursery Tales," and as such is well known to the English reader. Lothar has a volume on the plan of Ottmar's, the most essential difference being its inferiority. On the same principle are two volumes of "Popular Tales," published at Eisenach, without the author's name, but many of them are exceedingly entertain. ing. Lebrecht and Tieck are the authors of many beautiful legends, but they have generally trusted to their own fancy in stead of building themselves on antient traditions. Backzo's legends are something in the manner of La Motte Fouqué, though neither so fanciful nor so original, But to detail all the volumes of German legend and romance, would be to give a bookseller's catalogue; for, not only has Moravia, Silesia, Thuringia, and Austria, each its distinct legends, but every quarter of the Harz Mountains, east, west, north, and south, has its own exclusive terrors; and, when to these are added the fictions of later writers, the catalogue swells beyond all reasonable limit.

In our Magazine for July last, we noticed the death, and gave a sketch of the life, of WILLIAM COMBE, esq. the author of the Diaboliad, and various other satyrical works of temporary fame; and we have now before us a small posthu mous volume, entitled, Letters to Marianne, which are ascribed to that gentleman. The book is preceded by a well-written Advertisement, containing some eulogistic memorials of the life of Mr. Combe, and more particularly of its close, which was protracted to the age of eighty-three.

In the heaviest hours of his painful endurance," says his friendly biographer, "the estimable female, to whom these letters are addressed, ministered to his comfort, and cheered his heart by her unwearied attentions; which never failed to restore him to complacency, if at any time a transient gloom chanced to gather round his thoughts. "She was unto him as a daughter;" and when the world seemed to have deserted him, and life was fast receding to its lowest ebb, he confessed and rejoiced in the cherishing support of her truly filial ministrations." "The present little volume," continues this kind writer, "is submitted to the readers of his works, as containing a few of those pearls in 'which was set the gem of an honest heart. This heart is now fast mouldering into dust, within an unsculptured grave; but MONTHLY MAG. No. 388.

never did the marble legends of the titled dead record a worthier name than that with which virtue consecrates the undistinguished clay of the departed COMBE." These letters are forty-four in number, written in the course of about two years, from December 1896, to February 1809; and their contents remind us of the "Letters to Eliza." There is this difference, however, that in Sterne's case "half the convex world" intruded between the correspondents; while in these, the parties seem never to have been for two successive days asunder. They are warm, affectionate, and filled with assig nations; but all apparent taint is removed by the writer's perpetual allusions to his declining health and lengthened years, and by a strain of moral reflection which runs through the whole. At what period of life the amatory affections of a mau become purely platonic, we are still too young to determine. was a married man of sixty-seven, and Mr. Combe Marianne (Miss B-), had just emerged from her teens when the platonism began; and it appears that some of her relatives supposed "that he had acquired a greater influence over her than it became him to possess." Under such circumstances there are females (we hope not a few) who would have hesitated before publishing these reiterated pledges of eternal friendship; but we will not judge harshly: they promise profit, and poverty is a bitter draught. There is a silhouette portrait of Mr. C. fronting the title, and a few poetical pieces at the close of the volume, of which the following may be taken as a specimen :—

To Marianne.

And shall my gray hairs blend with those
Which round your youthful beauties flow?
And will you nurse the blowing rose

Amid the chill December snow?
Say, will you smooth my wrinkled brow
With fond affection's winning grace?
And bid the cheerful smile to glow
Upon my pale and faded fe?
Oh, while I tell of times long past,
Can you forget the flatt'ring throng?
And will you shun the gay repast,

To hear me sing my evining song?
And, when I've past life's feverish hours,
And long have bent to Fate's decree,
From Pleasure's dome, or Love's gay bow'rs,
Say, will you cast a thought on me?
And does a smile the promise give?
Oh, take then to thy friendly breast,
And in thy bosom let it live,
My last affection,-but my best.

LIST OF NEW WORKS.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.

18.

C. Baldwyn's classed Catalogue of Se-
cond hand Books for 1824.
Drawings, &c. for illustration. 1s.
C. Baldwyn's Catalogue of Portraits,

Messrs. Underwood's new Catalogue of
Medical Books, comprising modern and
approved works in Anatomy, Medicine,
Surgery, Midwifery, Chemistry, &c.

ЗА

BIOGRAPHY.