Page images
PDF
EPUB

composed of, shall have the weight of England on its side; and if there can be any of any other frame, they must, in the end, prove miserable, rotten reeds."

I have only to apologise to the House for having occupied so much of their time, and to thank them for the indulgence with which I have been heard.

NOTES.

As the writings of the Abbé de Pradt are not in general circulation in this country, the passages quoted from his work, entitled Des Colonies, printed at Paris in 1817, are given from the original.

1.

Depuis 25 ans on s'est beaucoup élevé contre la suprématie de la France, contre le joug imposé par Napoléon; c'était la mode du temps. Il était dur ce joug, il faut le reconnaître, et plus mortifiant encore que dur; mais celui de l'Angleterre, revêtu d'apparences moins repoussantes il est vrai, est-il moins réel, est-il moins dur, est-il plus facile à secouer, touche-t-il à moins d'intérêts? Assurément non.-Tom. ii. p. 70.

2.

Si l'Europe sentait déjà le poids d'un Gibraltar, ne sera-t-elle pas écrasée par une chaîne de Gibraltar tendue autour du monde, qui en rende tous les habitans captifs dans une enceinte, dont un seul geôlier tient la clé ?—Tom. ii. p. 77.

3.

Disons-le, sans balancer; sans l'indépendance des Colonies, l'Europe n'a rien de mieux à faire, qu'à brûler tous ses vaisseaux, car il n'y en a pas un seul, qui ne soit destiné à être traîné en triomphe à Londres.-Tom. ii. p.

257.

4.

Quatre principes constituent l'ordre et la puissance coloniale.

1. Proportionner les colonies aux métropoles, soit pour l'étendue, soit pour la population.

2. Proportionner la marine aux possessions coloniales, et à celles des autres peuples maritimes et coloniaux.

3. Proportionner l'industrie et les capitaux, dont le travail est la source, aux besoins des colonies, de manière à ce qu'elles ne soient pas attirées trop fortement vers les communications avec les étrangers.

4. Donner aux colonies une administration intérieure, qui diminuera pour elles le besoin de recourir à la métropole. Tom. i. p. 323.

The application of these principles to the conduct of the different European powers, occupies two long chapters, and concludes thus:

Les peuples qui ont co-ordonné leur conduite aux principes de l'ordre colonial, ont conservé leurs colonies; ceux qui s'en sont écartés, les ont perdues. Les effets ont correspondu exactement aux causes; et, comme il est juste, chacun a fini par recueillir ce qu'il avait semé.—Tom. ii. p. 65.

5.

Présenter toutes les richesses du monde, comme un fonds commun, créé par le ciel, pour que chaque membre de la grande famille du genre humain y puise suivant les degrés de son travail et de son industrie.-Préface, p. xvii.

TO THE CHARGES BROUGHT BY

THE REVIEWER OF SPENCE'S ANECDOTES,

IN THE

Quarterly Review,

FOR OCTOBER 1820,

AGAINST

THE LAST EDITOR OF POPE'S WORKS;

AND AUTHOR OF

" A LETTER TO MR. CAMPBELL,” ON "THE INVARIABLE PRINCIPLES OF POETRY."

BY THE REV. W. L. BOWLES.

'Pudet hæc opprobria nobis

Et dici potuisse, et non potuisse refelli.

ORIGINAL.

LONDON: 1820.

DEDICATION.

TO WILLIAM GIFFORD, ESQ.

DEAR SIR,

In a most obliging note which I received from you, in London, in May last, with some compliments on a composition which you said did "equal honor to my head and heart," you added, that, as far as "you could discern it, you always pursued the straight line of criticism." An article having appeared in the Review, of which you are the Editor and responsible Conductor, totally at variance, in my opinion, with what you yourself kindly expressed towards me, and still more at variance, I believe, in the opinion of every impartial judge, with what you have termed the "straight line of criticism;" I feel compelled to enter into a public vindication of myself, from some of those charges in your Review, which appear to me not only thus at variance with your own candidly expressed opinions, but equally remote from sense, justice, liberality, or

TRUTH.

The article is every thing but a fair or scholar-like discussion o critical opinions. The parts, however, of those critical opinions in which I am brought under notice, relate to what I have said o Pope's moral character, in the life prefixed to his works in ten volumes; to the propositions I had laid down, as necessary to be kept in mind, in order to judge rightly of the characteristics of what is most intrinsically poetical; and, to the "principles of poetry," as farther explained in a letter to Campbell.

As you have allowed the article to appear, which I am about to examine, if you will do me the favor of reading dispassionately the fol lowing pages, I am convinced you will admit I have been charged

Mr. Southey, the most able and eloquent writer in this very Review, wrote to me the warmest and kindest letter on the occasion.

WRONGFULLY. In a subsequent investigation, I have little doubt I shall be able to prove to you, should I be so happy as to draw your further attention, that I have been charged "FOOLISHLY;" and if so, I leave it to your sense of equity to pronounce, whether, in admitting an article, as intemperate as it is unjust and foolish, you have consulted the interest of the valuable work you superintend.

I trust and believe the appeal which I am compelled to make, will convince every dispassionate and fair-judging mind; and there is certainly no one whom I should more anxiously wish to convince than yourself, because I am firmly persuaded you would not have admitted the accusing article, unless you conscientiously conceived the accusations to be just. Begging, therefore, your candid attention to what follows,

I remain, dear Sir,

Your very sincere and faithful servant,
W. L. BOWLES.

Bremhill, Oct. 25, 1820.

« ՆախորդըՇարունակել »