landscape, on which the day never rises; and that kingdom was a word very improperly applied to those regions. In the last edition we find those three lines banished, and, in their room a more distinct and far more beautiful ice-landscape shewn to us beneath its proper horizon, lighted by moons, stars, and meteors, infinitely more luminous and vivid than they are ever seen in milder climates; but I regret to meet three prosaic lines, adhering to this fine description; I do not like, after being whirled by rein-deers over such a marbled expanse of hills, dales, and mountains, to be conveyed to Finland fairs. Having taken much affront at the banishment of my old acquaintance of the early edition, the sublime and shapeless bear, I was right glad to meet him again in this part of the consummate poem, stalking along with his icicles dangling about him, "Slow paced and sourer." There was no mending him ;-but here we have a Lapland spring, of which the elder edition makes no mention; and, having surveyed it, we pass over the Lake of Tornêa, and over Hecla, "burning amidst the waste of snows,”—all added scenery; and, in remotest Greenland, we find the Court of Winter, which had been less judiciously placed in the former copy. Thence, winding eastward to the coast of Tartary, we are presented with an improved picture of the frozen ocean, and a totally new description of the last habitable climate, and its sluggish inhabitants, on the dreary shores of the Obey-and with a spirited eulogium on the renowned Peter, civilizing his Russian empire. And here end the material contributions, which the strengthened powers of the bard gave to this his sublimest poem. The grand thaw appears nearly the same as in the earlier edition; it was there too perfect to want revision; and the noble conclusion remains the boast of his younger muse, and is perhaps the finest passage in the four priceless poems.Adieu! LETTER XV. RIGHT HON. LADY ELEAnor Butler. Lichfield, June 4, 1798. SINCE I had the honour and happiness to hear from your Ladyship and Miss Ponsonby, I fear your mutual peace has again been cruelly annoyed by the struggles of rebellion in your native country, rallying her dark forces. Happily, however, they meet nothing but defeat. The opinion seems very general, that ere long they will be finally subdued. May it prove so!-for if Ireland should fall into the power of France, a similar fate for this country cannot be distant. May the attempt to overthrow constitutional government in Ireland be such as to blast the hopes, and wither the exertions of those in our own nation, who suffer their just indignation against the cabinet-council of London to pass the bounds of reason and humanity, who are endeavouring to establish the tyranny of democratic sway in these dominions, though they perceive the lawless oppression it has produced in France, where extent of empire presents no compensation for the slavery under which her people groan. I hope to Heaven, that the force from England, necessary to quell Irish insurrection, will not exhaust our means of adequate protection, should the desperate French effect their invading purpose. If they can escape our fleets, they doubtless mean to make a descent on both countries at the same, or nearly the same, period. Obtaining footing in Ireland, the mischief to us of the disaffection there would indeed be terrible. I have always foreseen the consequence of provoking the majority of that nation, by the recal of Lord Fitzwilliam, and by the rejection of his conciliatory plan. That was the period, never perhaps again to recur, in which, granting to the Catholics equal privileges with the Protestants, would have softened the jealous and embittered spirit of a long-oppressed, a brave, but, when roused into resistance, a fierce, a rash, a cruel people;-would have united them, heart and hand with England, against the common foe, the tyrant of Europe. Our private friends are ever first and oftenest in our thoughts, beneath the lour of national calamity. I peruse and hear every syllable of Irish news with Lady Eleanor and Miss Ponsonby's image before my eyes, and every hope and fear on the subject passes through the medium of my sympathy with their feelings; especially since I learnt that their fortunes, as well as anxieties, from connection, are at stake in the conflict. My solicitude then became poignant indeed, in despite of every human probability, that, however the storm of rebellion may yet again gather and regather, ere its final dispersion, yet, if the French can be kept from those coasts, it will never be able to sink your hopes and your independence in the "dire vortex of French dominion.” What a mischievous madman has Lord E. Fitzgerald proved! You have deplored the fate of his gentle, his accomplished Adelaide-hard, indeed, if she loves the rash one, who hath trod the dark paths of her father's destruction. He will meet from this government, which he has deserted, an equal and an earlier fate. It will anticipate the destiny which he would doubtless have met from the French, had they, by his means, and those of his kindred spirits, drawn Ireland within the grasp of their power. 66 Thus deadly Atropus, with fatal shears, I am excessively gratified, that you think dear Honora lovely; that you honour her with a situa |