manca. June 22, 1812.--The Victory of Vittoria. June 21, 1813.-The Battle of the Pyrences. 1814.-The Entrance into Toulouse. July 12, 1814. -and the Dukedom of Wellington conferred, 1814.

Each of these subjects is most correctly represented in it's separate compartment, and in the exquisite grouping of them, Mr. Stothard has been fully equalled by the execution of the artists employed to carry his designs into effect.

The Shield itself is of massive silver, richly gilt; and the centre groupe in very high alto relievo, of what is called dead gold, which opposed to the bright burnished rays that form the background to the figures, gives them an effect perfectly indescribable. The surrounding compartments, also in dead gold, are in bas-relief, and again relieved by the burnished border, which, circled, by an ornamental wreath, constitutes the edge of the Shield, and completes it's form.

The Columns, cach about three feet high, are intended to stand, one on either side of the shield. Each consists of an incurvated triangular base, the sides exquisitely adorned with characteristic figures of various nations, in low relief, cultivating the arts, or enjoying the pleasures of that peace, which the triumphs of Wellington have secured to them. From this base rises the trunk or body of a palmtree, at the foot of which are three soldiers in graceful positions: in one a Spaniard, a Portuguese, and a Sepoy, with their colours; and on the other an English Grenadier, an Irish Light Infantry man, and a Highlander; all of whom have been commanded by the Hero. At the angles of the base, cannon, and other various implements of war are piled in useless disorder. The tops of the tree-columns are surmounted, the one by Victory with a laurel wreath, and the other by Fame with her Trumpet. The whole is most admirably executed from the designs of R. Smirke, Esq. R.A. and the toute ensemble is exceedingly grand as well as beautiful.

We cannot contemplate works of this nature but with great interest, not only from the national glory connected with themselves, but as associated

with the splendid remains of antiquity, as well as with those which appeared on the revival of the arts in Italy, under the patronage of the Medici family and the Pontiffs of Rome. At that period the arts were put in requisition, to consecrate not only every form of the ornamental, but of the defensive kind; and we may trace the state of designs in that day, in the armour embellished by the hand of Benvenuti Cellina, Julio Romano, and the other distinguished masters. The three pieces we have now described, are, as far as our experience teaches, by far the noblest specimens of the kind ever wrought in England; and the utmost credit is certainly due to Messrs. Green and Co. and the artists employed by them, for accomplishing their very diflicult task in a style which does honour to our arts generally, and raises our reputation in one of the most ornamental which taste and luxury can call into display. The design of the Shield is also a work on which Mr. Stothard may securely rest his future fame, and consign his professional glory to posterity. If for the Hero of Waterloo it was reserved to win the most splendid wreath that ever encircled the brow of valour, so was it reserved for Mr. Stothard to impress upon futurity the esteem in which great and patriotic actions are held in this country, and afford a noble proof of his own skill in giving such actions" a local habitation and a name." So will he participate the immortality which he has conferred, and share a portion of that fame with which he has consecrated the deeds of Wellington.

To Messrs. Green and Co. the public are much indebted for the very polite and general permission given to inspect these unrivalled specimens of their artists' ability, and for the very particular attention paid to their numerous visitors; by which means thousands have been gratified, who would have known of these splendid trophies only by description. It remains only to add, that the entire cost of the Shield and Pillars is a trifle under £11000, and it is a curious fact, that of £1100 paid to artists for sketches, £300 only have been received by Mr. Stothard, even for adding his professional superintendance to his inimitable designs,

Although a large majority of our readers may conceive that we have already sacrificed too many pages in animadverting upon Lord Byron's last and most disgraceful Poem of Cain, and though we are ourselves half inclined to coincide in that opinion, we are yet bound in the discharge of our impartial duty to give insertion to it's defence; the more especially as it is the first that we have seen, and comes from the pen of, perhaps, the only individual bardy enough to defend it, the noble author himself. The epistle containing it, is from Lord Byron to Mr. Murray, and, like most other of his Lordship's letters, is a very remarkable production, but we defer all observations to the finale.

66

“ Pisa, February 8, 1822. "DEAR SIR, "Attacks upon me were to be expected; but I perceive one upon you in the papers, which I confess that I did not expect. How, or in what manner, you can be considered responsible for what I publish, I am at a loss to conceive. If "Cain" be blasphemous, "Paradise Lost" is blasphemous; and the very words of the Oxford Gentleman, "Evil, be thou my good," are from that very poem, from the mouth of Satan;-and is there any thing more in that of Lucifer in the Mystery? Cain is nothing more than a drama, not a piece of argument. If Lucifer and Cain speak as the first murderer and the first rebel may be supposed to speak, surely all the rest of the personages talk also according to their characters; and the stronger passions have ever been permitted to the drama. I have even avoided introducing the Deity, as in Scripture, though Milton does, and not very wisely either, but have adopted his angel, as sent to Cain, instead, on purpose to avoid shocking any feelings on the subject, by falling short of, what all uninspired men must fall short in, viz. giving an adequate notion of the effect of the presence of Jehovah. The old Mysteries introduced him liberally enough, and all this is avoided in the new ones.

"The attempt to bully you, because they think it will not succeed with me, seems to me as atrocious an attempt as ever disgraced the times. What! when Gibbon's, Hume's, Priest

ley's, and Drummond's, publishers. have been allowed to rest in peace for seventy years, are you to be singled out for a work of fiction, not of history or argument? There must be something at the bottom of this, some private enemy of your own,-it is otherwise incredible.

"I can only say, 66 Me,- -me adsum qui feci," that any proceedings directed against you, I beg may be transferred to me, who am willing, and ought to endure them all; that if you have lost money by the publication, 1 will refund any, or all of the copyright; that I desire you will say, that both and you Mr. Gifford remonstrated against the publication, as also Mr. Hobhouse; that I alone occasioned it, and I alone am the person who either legally, or otherwise should bear the burthen. If they prosecute, I will come to England,

that is, if by meeting it in my own person I can save your's. Let me know,-you sha'n't suffer for me if I can help it. Make any use of this letter which you please.'

"Your's, ever,

"BYRON."

From this extraordinary composition then it is palpably evident, that his Lordship felt a priori that his Mystery was reprehensible, and calculated to provoke animadversion;-it is also equally plain, that not only his Lordship's publisher, Mr. Murray, and that Mr. Gifford objected to it's appearance; but that even the noble poet's fidus Achates, Mr. Hobhouse, protested against Cain being made public. John Cam Hobhouse, Esq. protested! this last admission speaks volumes; for, considering the natural partiality of Mr. H. for his Right Honourable friend, his abilities as a critical judge, and the known disposition of his mind towards the freest side of things, his opinion ought to have had some weight, and happily might have spared Lord Byron from the mortification of publishing a workwhich has been almost universally held to be execrable, and which, by being forbidden in every family, has consequently greatly injured the circulation of his less objectionable writings. His Lordship's offer to refund all, or part of the price of the copyright which, under such circumstances, the laws cannot protect from piracy, is an effort of generosity as astonishing as any part of

this very astonishing letter. The weak sophistry of his Lordship's defence of the Mystery's impious blasphemy, on the ground of his characters merely speaking in character, has been already successfully combated, and is certainly as untenable in argument as it is paltry in subterfuge. With respect to the noble Peer's independent remarks upon what be, so elegantly terms the attempt "to bully" Mr. Murray, as we have heard of no such attempt, it would be loss of time to reply to it at any length. Mr. Murray would indeed be the most dangerous party of the two to try to bully; for he is here to defend himself, while his Lordship is a "banished man" at Pisa, abusing others. Nothing has been done to the publisher of Cain that has not been done to the publishers of all other

infidel and infamous works, except ir deed the Attorney General has hithert not interfered.-Those who felt the in jury the Mystery was doing to man kind, have endeavoured to expose it' errors, and to counteract it's purposes. and in that endeavour is to be foun all the bullying of Mr. Murray. And here for the present at least, we close thi very unpleasant subject. There ar two or three other parts of the letter which we might remark upon, but w leave them. Lord Byron had previousl elevated himself above Shakspeare and in this precious epistle his Lord ship exalts himself over Milton! Tha the noble poet is a great genius i most unquestionable, but that he lack it's most valuable accompaniment, i also as unquestionable, for his Lord ship is any thing but modest.

W really, Mr. Lyndsay, or only a

HETHER Mr. Lyndsay be,

protegé of our facetious brother critie, Christopher North; or whether he was aware previously to the compilation of his own dramas that Lord Byron was publishing the same subjects; is about of as much consequence, we take it, and will affect the literary world in as great a degree, as it would to understand whether the author "eats, sings, and dances" well, and which knowledge would interest such world pretty nearly the same as the success of" Carrington's Life Pills," or the sale of " Bradberry's Patent Spectacles." A mere appellation cannot give talent; and could but Signor Paulo make as broad a grin, or throw as exquisite and mind-like a somerset, as that most inimitable Emperor of all the Clowns, Joe Gri

maldi, why we would as soon squeezi ourselves into the little Theatre in Newcastle Street to witness his jocosity, as into the huge, monopolizing, and all-devouring Leviathan of Covent Garden. But as we do not know what Mr. Joseph Grimaldi can possibly have to do with the Author of the Dramas of the Ancient World, excepting indeed we could prove that the latter gentleman has been really painting his face and putting on a mask to hide the "human form divine," we proceed, in medias res, at once, and entreat our readers' “usgal and candid indulgence" whilst we place before them the qualifications Mr. Lyndsay has put forth, to be elected a member of the upper house of Parnassus.

The titles Mr. Lyndsay has given to his Dramas are, The Deluge, the

purpose

Robed as in some dark garment, like the cloak

Which ancient Chaos wore, before the smile

Of God, illumining the dark abyss, Created light.-He comes, the Terrible! In judgment mantled,-dark as darkest death!

Before him horror, and behind despair!"

We pass over the subsequent dramas, all of which, however, bear the stamp of merit, and some, like Rizpah, discover much energy and pathos, in order that we may have room for an extract from the Drama in which our author has more particularly come into competition with Lord Byron. We cannot flatter him so much as to say that he has generally attained the grandeur, and the energy, and the appropriateness of illustration, which characterizes his great precursor's deeds in the same course he has adopted; yet still enough has been done to rank him among the chiefs of the Greeks, although he may not, like Achilles, ultimately win an Ilion by his single endeavours. The following, from "The Death of Cain," at once convinces us that Mr. Lyndsay

is equal to far greater things than he has yet accomplished.

"Cain. My brother's grave

Is now my place of rest, for never more Shall I forsake that home. This is the bed Where I shall sleep for ever. Hark!

there is

A voice which whispers to my soul, and cries,

Thy wanderings are past, here lie thee down,

For thy last expiation! God, I pray thee,
Let not this be a mockery, for thou see'st
How all reject me. It is thy decree,
And now I murmur not; but, if thy will
Summon nie not, I shall devoted stand
Alone again, the outcast of the earth,
The loathed of all her sons. My strength is
gone,

And the dark fiend that doth beset my soul
Whispers me of despair. Oh! help me,
God!

The spurn'd of all, I turn me back to thee!

Give me not up to Hell. My punishment Hath mighty been, and mightily I have Borne the severe decree. My bloody

But crumble it to cinders, and upon
Thy wing of glory bear my mounting soul,
To seek for pardon at th' Almighty's
throne.

Come, God of Justice!-God of mercy!