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killed in the field of battle, and five hundred taken prifoners, of whom feventy-nine were wounded. They were all confined in Wefton church, where five of them died of their wounds. About five hundred more were taken prisoners in the purfuit, and upwards of five hundred were apprehended afterwards by the civil officers and others.

"Immediately after the battle, the Earl of Feverfham ordered twenty-two of the prifoners to be hanged on the fpot, four of whom were hanged in chains. The fate of one man in particular is too extraordinary to be paffed over. This perfon, who was remarkably fwift of foot, was prevailed upon, on condition of being pardoned, to entertain the general with an inftance of his agility. Accordingly having ftripped himself naked, a halter was put round his neck, and the oppofite end of it was fastened to the neck of a horfe. They started at a place called Buffex-rhine, and ran from thence to Brintsfield bridge, a diftance fomewhat exceeding half a-mile; and though the horfe went at full fpeed, the man kept pace with him the whole way. But, notwithstanding this exertion of his ability, and the terms of the agreement, the inhuman general ordered him to be hanged with the reft *.

"The barbarity of the foldiers, who were employed in burying the flain, was yet greater. Several unfortunate men of the Duke's party, who lay wounded on the field, were thrown into the earth with the dead; and fome endeavouring, with the little ftrength they had left, to crawl out of their graves were prevented by the unfeeling foldiers, who difpatched them with their spades!"

* Alluding to the barbarities practifed by the Earl of Feverfham, towards his prifoners, Mr. Grainger remarks, "His uncle, the famous Marshal Turenne, who knew and practifed every part of generalfhip, never treated his prifoners in this manner.' Toulmin's History of Taunton.

VOL. VIII.

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Upon

Upon reading this horrible account of Sedgemoor battle, and its attendant cruelties, emotions of grief muft arife within our breaft. On fuch occafions we may well exclaim with a modern poet :

-Spirit of death,

That through the ranks of WAR doft range unfeen!
O God of battles! when fhall flaughter ceafe,
And man awake from this ftrange dream of life?
Will not the tears of pity and the cries

Of countless orphans, and the fhrieks of death,
Relentless power! nor even the fuppliant look
Of mildly beaming mercy, ftay thine arm?
It were a fight that would high heav'n rejoice,
If the proud victor, in the awful hour
Of widely wafting war, and with the wreathe
Of glory crown'd, amid the loud acclaim
Of warlike foldiery, flush'd with crimson pride
Of conqueft-o'er the dying and the denu,
If haply HE thould caft one pitying look,

Drop his red fword, and weep the work of death!

WAR is in itfelf one of the greatest maladies that can afflict mankind. It is indeed that tremendous evil which Providence employs to puni guilty nations, when inferior chaftifements have failed in their falutary operation. In its train follows a fcene of congregated horrors. Nor is any individual able to form an adequate judgment of its mifchiefs, except he has been an eye-witnefs to its devaftations. The late Mr. Mafon (a refpectable clergyman of the church of England) has moft juftly furnished us with the following picture of its effects; it is death perfonified as a

warrior:

Hark! heard ye not yon footstep dread,

That hook the earth with thundering tread;

'Twas death!-in hafte

The Warrior paft:

High tower'd his helmed head;

I mark'd his mail; I mark'd his fhield;

I spy'd

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I fpy'd the fparkling of his spear,

I faw his giant arm the faulchion wield;

Wide wav'd his bickering blade and fir'd the angry air! Defenfive war alone, indeed, can be juftified by the dictates of reafon or the precepts of Revelation. The Quakers, a moft refpectable body of people, are, however, of opinion, that no war will admit of a fatisfactory vindication. They contend that their religion fʊlemnly prohibits every fpecies of deftruction. Certain it is, that the doctrines of Chrift are of a moft pacific tendency; that thofe perfons who have imbibed most of their fpirit, are leaft inclined to contention, and, finally, the prophecies affure us, that when revelation hall have attained to its full efficacy on the human race, WAR SHALL BE NO MORE! In the mean time we muft lament the bloody contefts with which the world is filled; nor can we help admiring Miss More's beautiful lines:

O blind to think

That cruel WAR can pleafe the Prince of Peace!
HE who erects his altar in the heart,
Abhors the facrifice of human blood,
And all the falfe devotion of that zeal,
Which maffacres the world he died to fave.

PERCY.

Nor muft I quit this almoft boundless subject, without communicating to you the following anecdote, related by a very modern traveller-" I vifited," fays he, "with intereft and attention, the plain where the famous battle was fought between the Czar Peter the Great, and Charles of Sweden. The mound ftill remains that was built with the bodies of the flain! On being dug into, it exhibits an awful melange of the keletons of men and horfes, with the iron heels of boots, rufty fpears, and broken weapons."

This account accords with a curious paffage to be found in the firft Georgic of VIRGIL, which fhews

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that fuch fpectacles are by no means peculiar to mo

dern times:

Agricola, incurvo terram molitus aratro
Exefa inveniet fcabra rubigine pila,

Aut gravibus raftris galeas pulfabit inanes
Grandiaque effoffis mirabitur offa sepulchris.
The labouring peafant with the crooked share,
Turning the glebe, fhall plough up javlins, furr'd
With eating ruft; and with the pond'rous rakes
Clafh against empty helmets; and admire
Big manly bones, digg'd from their open'd graves!

TRAPP.

In the year 1789, I myself went over the Plains of Culloden, near Inverness, where the rebels where defeated with great flaughter, by the Duke of Cumberland, April 16, 1746. Though near fifty years had elapfed fince that period, yet the fpot where the flain were interred was perfectly distinguishable from the rest of the moor by its funken ftate and extraordinary fertility! I picked up half a skull, which was found juft beneath the furface of the ground, and brought it with me to England, as a relic of that memorable day. By this victory the hopes of an unrelenting enemy were extinguished, and the bleffings both of liberty and of the Proteftant religion, secured to us and to our pofterity.

For this digreffion I make no apology-an hatred of war and the love of peace, are indiffolubly connected with the comfort and happiness of mankind.

Paffing on from Bridgewater towards Wells, a lovely profpect opened to us on the left, which might be pronounced almoft unrivalled for its charming variety. Part of Somerfetfhire, the Bristol Channel ftudded by the two little islands called the Holmes, and in the further part of the landscape the mountains of Wales, rofe to view in rich and grand fucceffion. The counties of Glamorgan and Monmouth were distinctly discerned

in the skirts of the horizon-the latter of which, containing the place of my birth (natale folum) gave rise to pleafing fenfations. I involuntarily thought of many dear relatives and friends, encircled by their native hills, and enjoying the honeft gains of their peaceful industry. The whole group of objects now engaging the attention, conftituted no ordinary fcene, and was contemplated by us with no common emotions. The union of land and water enters into a highly beautiful landscapehere we beheld them in perfection.

We foon reached the ancient town of Glastonbury. Here are the fine ruins of an abbey, once called the Mother of all Saints, which juftly attract the attention of the traveller. It is pretended that the bodies of Jofeph of Arithmathea, of King Arthur, and of King Edward the Confeffor, were buried here, for the place was distinguished in the earliest periods of our history. At prefent the town is large and well built, containing two parish churches. On a fteep hill near this place, ftands a very ancient tower, commonly called Glaftonbury Tor, commanding an extenfive prospect, and ferving as a land-mark for feamen. Its history is involved in profound obfcurity. Upon the fummit of this Tor the laft Abbot of this famous place was hung by the order of that cruel defpot Henry the Eighth, for not acknowledging his fupremacy.

The hill was alfo remarkable for the holy thorn, which was faid, in former times, to bloffom yearly on Christmas-day. The ftory is, that it fprung from St. Jofeph of Arithmathea's ftaff, ftuck by him in the ground. It would difcompofe the moft ferious gravity to read what Hearne, Broughton, and Camden, have written on this curious fubject. Dr. James Montague, Bishop of Bath and Wells, in King James the First's days, was fo wonderfully taken with the holy thorn, that he thought a branch of it a prefent worthy the acceptance of the then Queen Anne, King James's confort, Natural hiftorians have fince difcovered, that

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