:

QUEEN's troops when called on to give up his sword, he broke it across his knee, and requested his enemy to shoot him, as he knew he would subsequently be massacred if conducted to Barcelona. But he was not so fortunate as to meet a soldier's death, and he was brought into this city, from which his friends have made many efforts to have him transferred to the head quarters of CORDOVA, where they knew he would be taken care of under the Eliot Convention. The other prisoners were then called out by name, according to their rank, and a musket being placed at the head of each, 67 unfortunate men, among whom were 10 officers, perished under the fire of these assassins."

But the savage murderers did not stop here-even death did not satiate their vengeance. "The lion preys not upon carcasses," but the exaltados of Spain, as we had occasion formerly to observe, have more of the nature of the wolf than of the lion. Our Correspondent thus describes the demoniac orgies that followed the act of butchery

Hear our Correspondent again :

"After the massacre had been completed in the citadel, the crowd rushed to the two other prisons, and finding in one-20, and in the other, the same number of unfortunate Carlists, led them out and shot them one by one, every death being the signal for cheers and vivas. An officer contrived to escape, but was followed by a dragoon and cut down in the open street; and to show how systematically the murder was carried on, another, who, by the connivance of a friend among the rioters, had escaped, was found wanting as the list was called for—and it was with difficulty that the leaders could be appeased, as they declared that nothing short of the full number would satisfy them."

Such are the [men] that disgrace the name of liberty by inscribing it on the banners of fiend-like revenge.

It is a circumstance also worth remarking, that the arms with which the ferocious Urbanos executed their deeds of blood were the English muskets, recently delivered to them out of a British vessel of war-by virtue of the quadruple treaty. Well may the writer ask,

"Is this the Government that we are pledged to support? Is it the assassins of the Monks of Madrid and Saragossa-is it the murderers of the prisoners at Barcelona, that we are bound to by the quadruple treaty? Is it to put weapons into their hands for the midnight murder of prisoners in the QUEEN's citadel, that we are furnishing arms and ammunition-and is it to give the means of massacring to the Urbanos of Barcelona, that we have landed from the Rodney, I know not how many thousand muskets! Is it to be made a common gaol that our British man-of-war is stationed in the harbour? Has not the time come for England to speak out, and tell the

QUEEN'S Government, "If you have neither honour, integrity, nor strength —if you are unable to preserve your prisoners and to execute the laws against the guilty, we cannot be compromised. We must withdraw from the alliance. England is not in league with the assassin.'"

We hope and trust that the whole of these matters will be brought under the notice of Parliament in the ensuing session, and that our FOREIGN SECRETARY will be called upon, without reference to party politics, to give such explanations as a regard to the national character and the national interests demands. In a question affecting the rights of humanity and the very elements of civilization, the last thing we think of is party politics. Whoever violates those rights and gives examples of barbarism to a civilized age, be he whig, tory, or radical, we do, and ever shall denounce. The interests of humanity are of far more value in our eyes than the selfish objects which mere politicians pursue. If the Spanish Liberals cannot be made ashamed of their crimes, let them not become, at least, familiar to the mind of the English people, by being accustomed to see them narrated in other than terms of strong and merited indignation. They are wretched pretenders to free principles, who associate the name of freedom with crimes disgraceful to human nature. Where true liberty is, there is generous sentiment, high honour, manly courage, and that clemency from which courage receives its finest lustre. *

Eulogy in the British Parliament on the Spanish Government! -Feb. 8, 1836.

Ir would have been a great stain on the character of the British House of Commons, if that part of the Speech from the Throne which eulogised the "prudent and vigorous conduct of the present Government of Spain," had been passed over without indignant notice of the inhuman atrocities that, contrary to the usages of civilised war, have been committed, both by officers and partisans of that Government, and which the "vigorous" Government has not had the virtue to repress, or chastise.

Surely a Government that had "vigour," unless it connived [+ See pp. 164, 166, 168.]

at such outrages, could have prevented the storming of the monasteries under its own eyes-in the capital-in open day— by a mob of assassins; who, assisted by some troops of the brave Urbanos, butchered the defenceless monks without mercy, and desisted not until they were satiated with blood! Surely a Government that had "vigour," and some touch of humanity along with it, could never have tolerated the burnings, pillagings, and shootings in cold blood, which distinguished the campaigns of the inhuman RODIL; nor could it have suffered in patience its character to be tarnished, and its authority disgraced, by any supposed approbation of the sanguinary proclamations, and exterminating policy of the merciless MINA!† IS the decimation of the unarmed inhabitants of villages suspected of Carlism-is the brutal massacre of the monks of Saragossa or Madrid-is the butchery of the Carlist prisoners at Barcelona-is any, or all, of these savage and revolting atrocities, matter upon which the Ministers of the Crown of England should, through the lips of their sovereign, congratulate the British people? *

In the British Parliament, eulogy upon such a Government might have been spared, at least until it had given unequivocal evidence of contrition for past misconduct, and some earnest of a determination to act more conformably with the laws of justice, honour, and humanity, for the future.

·

*

[Extract of a letter dated April 8, 1835, from the Spanish Correspondent of a Morning Paper ::-"The ferocious and sanguinary MINA has published an order of the day, the most barbarous, the most diabolical that ever was penned by the most savage of savages Let the following order be contemplated, and I then ask where is the human being who will not henceforth couple the name of MINA with all that is most horrible-all that is most revolting? The population of Navarre,' sets forth the order of the day, are hereby given notice, that if within the space of eight days all those who have taken arms in favour of Don Carlos do not return to their homes, the fathers of such rebels shall be immediately arrested, as well as the authorities of the village or city, and being collected together, every fifth man shall be shot, and, independent of this punishment, every house shall be burnt to the ground.' It then further states, that the same punishment awaits all doctors, surgeons, or apothecaries, who shall give their assistance to, or provide drugs for, the wounded Carlists."(See p. 164.-Ed.)]

6

Republican Government, Slavery, and Lynch Law.

*

Dec. 31, 1835.

THERE is one other subject treated of in the PRESIDENT'S [JACKSON's] Message which we cannot allow to pass in silence. It is the subject of slavery, and the attempts made by the lovers of human freedom to enlighten the minds, and soften the callous hearts of Republican owners of slaves. Of those philanthropic endeavours, the PRESIDENT speaks in the strongest terms of condemnation; but does not make the slightest allusion to the brutal and disgusting barbarities which have been recently committed by the organized bands of assassins, called "Lynch clubs," who trample on the authority of the laws to make a mockery of the forms of justice, and practise the foulest deeds of torture and blood, in defence of the slave system. This shows that a Republican Government has not the power to restrain the wild excesses of mobocracy, however opposed its acts may be to humanity, justice, civilization, and -what America has talked most about-the "inalienable rights of man." But power so atrociously abused, is sure in the end to be its own destruction.

On Poetic Originality and Imitation.—Written in 1820.

THE poet who draws from books will never be interesting; he who goes to nature for his inspiration can never be dull. The ancients studied nature; they held a constant communion with her grand and beautiful works with her sublime effects, whether in the inanimate world, or in the mind of man. They looked for her, whether in society or solitude. They formed their minds upon the contemplation of her elevating truth. They consequently enlarged their genius, by the habit of perpetual exercise, on subjects of the deepest interest, grandeur, beauty, or pathos. Their ambition was to be faithful to nature. Hence they are equally simple and original. Their poetry, whether descriptive of mind, manners, or the still-life -whether satirical or heroic, is always consistent with its proper character, and marked by that great and vigorous

observation which afforded them in the materials of truth, the elements of excellence.

Yet it is said, that of the two great epic poets of antiquity, one was the imitator of the other. He was not :-nothing can be more distinct than the Homerian and Virgilian schools. Their founders were both great original masters: but the one, later than the other in point of time-though capable of filling the earth with his glory from the resources of his own mind—yet did not disdain to profit by the enterprise of the great spirit who had trod before him the wilderness of a new world, and subdued it to his genius. Had Virgil imitated Homer, he would have lost his own peculiar character, and have received in return only the honour of being his greatest disciple. But Virgil made no such sacrifice, and looked for no such distinction. A spirit like his, was not formed to be content with subordinate fame; and, therefore, although he looked to Homer as a guiding light, he never lost sight of nature, the instructor of both.

It is the fate of imitation to catch only the exterior character of that merit which it servilely copies. The man who imitated Cato, hoping to become equally venerable, was only Cato in dress; and became as ridiculous as grave mimickry could make him. In the same way, the imitator of a great poet only catches something of his style, and all his blemishes; but the spirit of the original is never charmed from the body which it occupies, to give animation to his tame performance. There is no transmigration of souls in works of genius: the thoughts and expression of a great poet may be taken piece-meal, but they can never be put together with that divine workmanship, which the fire of intelligence comes from heaven to inhabit. Barbarous hands might demolish and carry off the materials of a Grecian temple, but could never put them together again so as to appear a residence for a god. Wherever there is genius, there is a peculiar character; and the preservation and improvement of that is dearer to every mind of talent, than the acquirement of what is clearly the property of another.

The genius of Virgil and Homer were essentially distinct; so are their works. The ardent and impetuous fire of the one, is