XVIII. Most fortunate, most fortunate, for now Peoples, and empires; Chaos frowns on man With midnight threatening; Reason is o'erthrown ; And frenzied Anarchy makes earth her own; Hope trembles; and Religion, with a sigh, Shrieks as her burning shrines rejoice the Atheist's eye. XIX. Yet, Queen of Nations, yet in thee are found For all beside were bleeding, faint, or bound: Hell's spectral legions, and in shadows melt; Crush'd is the serpent breed,-the unholy crew, And triumph wreathes thy brows on deathless Waterloo ! xx. I listen, for a sound salutes mine ear Of harmony divine; beneath the star Of Eve, 'tis borne across the waves afar, From isles that studding Ocean's robe appear: Hearken ye now to Adoration's tones! At Truth's pure shrine the heathen bows the knee! His trust in Him who bled on Calvary! 'Mid the blue main the sailor stays his oars, Wondering at incense such from lone Pacific shores. XXI. Not yet, not yet, not yet Heaven's sunlight darts And Moloch's monstrous shrines are dew'd with human blood. XXII. And these know not the name of Liberty; XXIII. Then spake the Spirit-" Turn thee to the West, For clouds on the blue air, with shadowy skim, For shadows shew'd themselves, and then, erased, Bright forms, some fair like Hope, and some like Fear, XXIV. Now, 'twas Elysian, bright and beautiful, And now a chaos; though, sometimes, a star, Through tempest-clouds that made its lustre dull. That dim seem'd that which first I had survey'd ; That almost I could see the golden gates of Heaven. XXV. Beneath 'twas peace and purity; the sword Throbb'd in his veins, and turn'd his thoughts to joy; Nations were link'd in brotherhood; and Crime XXVI. Then I saw Angels coming down from Heaven, Was heard no more; Sin's storm was in its grave; And o'er each mountain-top the banners stream'd of Peace. XXVII. In the same lair the tame beast and the wild Together caved; the lion and the kid, Half by the palm-tree's noontide shadow hid, Roll'd mid the wild-flowers with the fearless child, When sudden darkness fell: the crackling skies I knew the end of human destinies,1 1 "Having played our parts," quaintly observeth Old erudite Burton, "we must for ever be gone. Tombes and monuments have the like fate : Data sunt ipsis quoque fata sepulchris. Kingdoms, towns, provinces, and cities, have their periods, and are consumed. In those flourishing times of Troy, Mycena was the fairest city of Greece; Grecia cunctæ imperitabat; but it, alas! and that Assyrian Nineveh, are quite overthrown. The like fate hath that Egyptian and Beotian Thebes, Delos, commune Grecia consiliabulum, And speechless awe oppress'd my shrinking soul: When stood an angel, earth's unburied o’er, And swore by him that lives, that "Time should be no more!" XXVIII. This was the end of all things, and I turn'd Nor wind-nor wave-nor cloud-nor storm-nor shine Wide universal chaos wrapt the scene, And hid the Almighty's countenance divine. Then died my heart within me; I awoke, And brightly on mine eyes the silver moonshine broke. XXIX. I knew the trees above me-heard the rills With mysteries manifold the future strewn ; And Heaven's o'erarching dome, eternal and sublime! the common council-house of Greece; and Babylon, the greatest city that ever the sun shone upon, hath nothing now but walls and rubbish left. Quid Pandioniæ restant, nisi nomen, Athenæ ? Thus Pausanias complained in his times. And where is Troy itself now, Persepolis, Carthage, Cyzicum, Sparta, Argos, and all those Grecian cities? Syracuse and Agrigentum, the fairest towns in Sicily, which had sometimes 700,000 inhabitants, are now decayed: the names of Hieron, Empedocles, &c., of those mighty numbers of people, only left. One Anacharsis is remembered among the Scythians; the world itself must have an end, and every part of it. Cetera igitur urbes sunt mortales, as Peter Gillius concludes of Constantinople; Hac sanæ quamdiu erunt homines, futura mihi videtur immortalis; but 'tis not so; nor size, nor strength, nor sea, nor land, can vindicate a city; but it and all must vanish at last. And, as to a traveller, great mountains seem plains afar off, at last are not discerned at all; cities, men, monuments decay :— Nec solidis prodest sua machina terris. The names are only left, those at length forgotten, and are involved in perpetual night." Nothing can be more beautiful in itself, or more illustrative of our subject, than that passage in the epistle of Servius Sulpitius to Cicero, wherein, from the contemplation of national, he endeavours to bear him up against personal calamities. "On my return from Asia, as I was sailing from Ægina towards Megara, I began to contemplate the prospect around me. Ægina was behind, Megara was before me; Piræus on the right, Corinth on the left; all which towns, once famous and flourishing, now lie overturned, and buried in their ruins," &c. How much and how often has the balance of power fluctuated among the different states of Europe, since the time that Italy was the leviathan among them? What is Italy now, though containing Rome, Genoa, and Venice, in its bosom, in comparison with Great Britain, with Russia, with France, with Austria, and others, which, at the era of her glory, were designated the "barbari," or "barbarians," with as little scrupulosity as a modern Parisian dancing-master desecrates the mob under the comprehensive epithet of the "canaille." As to Norway, her political importance is entirely past, or, at best, merged into that of Sweden; the chivalry of Spain has degenerated into monkish superstition; and Poland, dismembered and torn to pieces, has no place among the modern divisions of the earth's surface. VOL. XXIV. Labitur, et labetur in omne volubilis ævum! 3 A THE OLD SYSTEM OF TRADE AND THE NEW ONE. We think this an auspicious moment for employing a paper in shewing in detail the leading points of difference between the old system of trade of this country, and the new one. The "march" of free trade is at present suspended, and the country regards it with much animosity. It seems to have encountered some irresolution, if not diversity of opinion, in the Cabinet; and Ministers promise to examine what it has produced before they give it new victims. Notwithstanding all that has been said of the new system of trade," the country at large has no precise knowledge of the difference between it and the old one. The mass of those who laud it so furiously, prove by their language that they are grossly ignorant of both the systems. Very many well-meaning persons have been deluded into the belief that the old system loaded trade from beginning to end with grievous fetters and restrictions, which the new one has wholly removed. Mr Huskisson, Mr Charles Grant, and their partizans, continually put forth boasts of the prodigious merits of themselves and their changes, which are just as baseless, as they are indecorous and loathsome. All this, looked at in connexion with the state of many important portions of the community, forms in our eyes abundant reason for thinking as we have stated. We will, in the first place, describe the two systems generally, in respect of principle; and we will afterwards describe them in respect of actual shape and operation. In regard to exports, the two systems up to a high point agree; both profess great anxiety to encourage them; and in various important commodities both adopt the same regulations. They differ chiefly in what follows. The old system prohibits the export of sheep and wool of a peculiar kind. It does this on the ground, that such export, by putting into the hands of foreign manufacturers such wool as has been confined to our own, may injure the export of our woollen manufactures. The new system allows such export, on the ground that it will have no such effect. The old system stands on the opinion of the woollen manufacturers; the new one stands on abstract doctrine. In respect of effects, the old system confined the wool to our own manufacturers without producing any perceptible injuries of any kind. Under the new one, an export of sheep and wool is taking place; and as far as probability goes, it will realize the fears of the woollen manufacturers. This export is not yielding the least perceptible benefit. The old system prohibited the export of machinery. Its ground is, that such export will take from our manufacturers exclusive advantages, enable foreign ones to compete with them, and reduce our export of manufactures that it will injure general exports much more on the one hand, than it will benefit them on the other. When it is admitted on all hands, that our superiority in machinery is one of the great causes by which our manufacturers are enabled to compete successfully with foreign ones, it cannot be doubted that the loss of this superiority would greatly injure the export of manufactures. On this point, the old system stands on what is equal to demonstration. The new one allows in principle, but not yet in effect, the export of machinery, on the ground that it will be a benefit in itself without injuring the export of manufactures. It stands on abstract doctrine, which is opposed to common reason and conclusive evidence. In respect of effects, the old system produced no perceptible injuries of any kind, while it secured as far as possible their superiority in machinery to our manufacturers. The new one has not yet ventured to depart in any wide degree from it. The export of machinery is, we believe, still prohibited by law, although the Executive has in late years permitted it to a certain extent. How far the mere recommendation of a Parliamentary Committee can justify the Executive in violating established laws, is a question which we shall not determine. This export of machinery has been trifling in its annual value, and it has yielded no perceptible benefit of any kind. The old system makes these two points the exception to its general rule, and its avowed object is, the benefit of the manufacturers and general exports. In so far as the new one has differed from it in operation, it has produced evil rather than good. All sides have for some years complained that foreign manufactures have been gaining rapidly on our own; and it nay be safely assumed, that they have been much aided in this by our export of machinery. The old system grants bounties in special cases expressly to encourage exportation. The new one withholds them, on the ground that they yield no benefit. By abolishing or diminishing bounties, it has manifestly injured the sugar refiners, and some other interests. The old system makes the bounty the exception to the rule. It grants it for a time to establish a new trade or to raise a declining one-or to save one that is threatened with destruction. It acts in granting it on sober calculation, and a prospect of adequate present or future profit. A bounty, when properly used, is a powerful instrument for establishing and extending trade. The old system, on this point, was always believed to produce benefits. The new one will not admit of any exception to its rule; it has evidently injured several trades, without yielding any perceptible benefit to trade generally. The old system, to promote exports, secured the colonial markets to the mother country. The new one opens these markets to foreign countries: it allows the latter to supply the colonies with salted provisions, linens, and other produce and manufactures, which before it came into operation were supplied by this country. On this point it has materially injured the export of produce and manufactures. In so far as the two systems differ touching exports, the difference is greatly in favour of the old one. The new system fetters and restricts the trade and manufactures of this country much more than the old one, and it has evidently done considerable injury to both since it came into operation. We will now turn to imports. On many of the most important ar ticles of foreign produce, the two systems do not differ. The old one makes the import of such articles as free, and encourages it as much, as the new one. The duties which it imposed on such articles, were not intended to be restrictive ones; they were imposed from necessity for the sake of revenue, and they bore no proportion in amount to those imposed on many articles of home production. Some of these duties have not been altered by the new system; and others have, not from any difference of principle, but through the reduced expenditure of the country. In the import of cotton, indigo, hides, wool, tallow, timber, sugar, tea, wine, spirits, &c. &c., the new system thus far does not differ from the old one in principle. It has reduced, in a greater or smaller degree, the revenue duties on some of these, and on others it has left the duties unaltered. If the duties on a part of them were to a certain extent protecting ones, it has in reducing them followed the general principles of the old system. Speaking generally, in all articles needed by our manufacturers, and in all articles of necessity or luxury not produced by this country, the two systems are the same. The old one does not in principle and intention fetter and restrict the trade in such articles a whit more than the new one. The more important points of difference between the two systems in respect of imports, now demand our attention. It has always been a leading principle with the old system, to establish and protect in this country any trade or manufacture, or the production of any articles, calculated to be a source of national benefit. In the application of this principle, it has been guided by prudence and calculation. It has never attempted to make this country produce wine, or sugar, or any article, which, from physical causes, could always manifestly be produced elsewhere at a much cheaper rate, and of much better quality. But while it has thus far followed the Economists, it has treated with contempt their dogma, that a nation should always buy where it can buy the cheapest and best, regardless of all other considerations. Whenever it has had proper reasons for believing, that in process of time, an article could be manufactured or produced about as cheaply and of about the same quality, all things considered, in this country, as in foreign ones, it has duly promoted its manufacture or production. It has |