Who shar'd in Saragossa's doom,
And made their Utica, their tomb.
Bright be the am'ranth of their fame!
May Palafox a Lucan claim!

That Bard no more had fill'd his rhymes,
With Caesar's greatness, Caesar's crimes;
Another Caesar wak'd the string,
Alike usurper, traitor, king.
Another Caesar? rashly said!

Forgive the falsehood, mighty shade!
'Mong'st Julius' treasons, still we know
The faithful friend, the gen'rous foe;
And even enmity could see
Some virtues of humanity.

But thou! by what accursed name
Shall we denote thy features here?
In records of infernal Fame

Where shall we find thy black compeer?

Thou, whose perfidious might of mind Nor Pity moves, nor faith can bind; Whose friends, whose followers vainly crave That trust which should reward the brave; Whose foes, 'mid tenfold War's alarms, Dread more thy treachery than thine arms. The Ishmaelite, 'mid deserts bred, Who robs at last whom first he fed, The midnight murd❜rer of the guest With whom he shar'd the morning's feast, This Arab wretch, compar'd with thee, Is honour and humanity!

And shall that proud, that ancient land,
In treasure rich, in pageant grand,
Land of romance, where sprang of old
Adventures strange, and champions bold,
Of holy faith, and gallant fight,

And banner'd hall, and armour'd knight,
And tournament, and minstrelsy,
The NATIVE LAND OF CHIVALRY!
Shall all these "blushing honours" bloom
For Corsica's detested son?

These ancient worthies own his sway,

The upstart fiend of yesterday?
Oh, for the kingly sword and shield

That once the victor monarch sped,
What time from Pavia's trophied field
The royal Frank was captive led!
May Charles's laurels, gain'd for you,
Ne'er, Spaniards, on your brows expire;

*Addis. Cato.

"His enemies confess

The virtues of humanity are Caesar's."

Nor the degenerate sons subdue
The conq'rors of their nobler sire.

None higher 'mid the zodiack-line
Of sovereigns and of saints you claim,
Than fair Castilia's star could shine,
And brighten down the sky of fame.
Wise, magnanimous, refin'd,

Accomplish'd friend of human-kind,
Who first the Genoese sail unfurl'd,
The mighty mother of an infant world,
Illustrious Isabel! Shall thine,

Thy children, kneel at Gallia's shrine!
No: rise, thou venerated shade,
In heaven's own armour bright array'd,
Like Pallas to her Grecian band;
Nerve every heart and every hand;
Pervious or not to mortal sight,
Still guard thy gallant offspring's right,
Display thine Ægis from afar,
And lend a thunderbolt to war!

God of battles! from thy throne,
God of vengeance, aid their cause:
Make it, conq'ring one, thine own!
"Tis faith, and liberty, and laws.

"Tis for these they pour their blood;
The cause of man.....the cause of God!
Not now avenge, all-righteous power,
Peruvia's red and ruin'd hour:
Nor mangled Montezuma's head;
Nor Guatamozin's burning bed;
Nor give the guiltless up to fate,
For Cortes' crimes, Pizarro's hate!
Thou, who behold'st, enthron'd afar,
Beyond the vision of the keenest star,
Far thro' creation's ample round,
The universe's utmost bound;
Where war in other shape appears,
The destin'd plague of other spheres ;
Other Napoleons arise

To stain the earth and cloud the skies;
And other realms in martial ranks succeed,
Fight like Iberians, like Iberians bleed!
If an end is e'er design'd

The dire destroyers of mankind;
O be some seraphim assign'd,
To breathe it to the patriot mind!

What Brutus, bright in arms array'd,
What Corde bares the righteous blade?
Or if the vengeance, not our own,
Be sacred to thy arm alone;

When shall be sign'd the blest release
And wearied worlds refresh'd with peace?

O could the muse but dare to rise
Far o'er these low and clouded skies,
Above the threefold heaven to soar
And in thy very sight implore!

In vain.... While angels veil them there,
While faith half fears to lift her prayer,
The glance profane shall fancy dare?
Yet there around, a fearful band,
Thy ministers of vengeance stand.
Lo, at thy bidding stalks the storm;
The lightning takes a local form;
The floods erect their hydra head;
The pestilence forsakes his bed;
Intolerable light appears to wait;

And far-off darkness stands in awful state!

For thee, oh Time!

If still thou speed'st thy march of crime,
'Gainst all that's beauteous or sublime;

Still prov❜st thyself the sworn ally,
And author of mortality;

Infuriate earth, too long supine,
Whilst demon-like thou lov'dst to ride,

Ending every work beside,

Shall live to see the end of thine,

Her great revenge shall see!

By prayer shall move th' Almighty power
To antedate that final hour,

When the archangel firm shall stand,
Upon the ocean and the land;

His crown, a radiant rainbow sphere,
His echoes seven-fold thunders near,

The last dread fiat shall proclaim:
Shall swear by His tremendous name,
Who form'd the earth, the heavens, and sea,
TIME shall no longer be!

June 30.

THE BOSTON REVIEW,

FOR

SEPTEMBER, 1809.

Librum tuum legi, et quam diligentissime potui annotavi, quae commu tanda, quae eximenda, arbitrarer. Nam ego dicere verum assuevi. Neque ulli patientius reprehenduntur, quam qui maxime laudari me

rentur.

PLIN.

ART. 9.

Report of the committee appointed by the general assembly of the state of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, at the February session, A. D. 1809, to inquire into the situation of the Farmers' Exchange Bank, in Gloucester, with the documents accompanying the same. Published by order of the general assembly, March sessions, 1809.

THE improvements of machinery in the arts, since the days when the nymphs of antiquity spun with a distaff, can only be surpassed by the modern system of exchange, compared with those times, when the skin and the flesh of an animal were given for each other, and both were bartered for the gifts of Ceres or Bacchus, as the rude wants of mankind demanded. The introduction of stamped bits of gold and silver was a noble improvement, and satisfied nations for a long period of time. But the love of money is a passion that grows by what it feeds on; and it became necessary to multiply, artificially, the pecuniary wealth of mankind, till a system of finance has been gradually matured into so vast a scheme, that much study is requisite to its comprehension, and converted into such a labyrinth, that none but the initiated dare to enter it. The business of banking has at last in this, as in another country, come home to men's business and bosoms; and it now behoves every one to attempt at least to gain some knowledge of the metaphysical, as well as the solid qualities of money.

The prodigious increase of commerce in Great Britain, consequent to the disasters of other nations, occasioned by the wars of the French revolution, brought into operation a great number of country banks, the establishment of which was encourag

ed by Mr. Pitt. The same cause has produced a similar effect here, at a later period. Though founded on less real capital, the failures among our banks have been fewer, than among those of England; which is not owing to their having been better conducted, but to our unlimited confidence in paper money, and, till within these two years, a more steadily progressive prosperity. The distressed state into which the country was recently thrown, joined to the enormous abuses of some corporations, has rather tardily brought on a scene of confusion and distrust, that involves many of the innocent with the guilty. It will however produce eventual good, by confining the circulation of bills within their own district, and preventing for the future a corporation two hundred miles distant, with a fund of an hundred thousand dollars, from issuing bills to twice that amount, and fairly displacing in their own immediate market the bills of the banks in the metropolis, which are unable to circulate more than a tenth or a fifteenth of their capital.

The Farmers' Exchange Bank in Rhode Island, whose extensive impositions and failure first checked and turned the currents of bank bills back on their sources, was incorporated in 1804, to possess a capital of one hundred thousand dollars in two thousand shares. The committee report, that, when the bank commenced its operations, "the capital stock really paid in amounted to only the sum of three thousand and eighty one dollars and eleven cents." After some novel transactions in banking, the stock and the direction of its concerns were acquired by an individual, and we are informed, that "all his schemes and plans, however wild and extravagant, were carried into execution without reserve; that those of the directors who still pretended to superintend the concerns of the bank, took no care whatever to guard the interest of the stockholders, or the publick." The result may be easily imagined, and may be found in the words of the committee: "There is now in said bank eighty-six dollars and forty-eight cents in specie;" and "on the 9th of February, A. D. 1809, there had been emitted by said bank, six hundred and forty thousand eight hundred and forty three dollars of their bills, according to their books. That, owing to the extreme confusion in which their mode of keeping their accounts has involved all their transactions, it is impossible to ascertain with precision the amount of their bills now in circulation, but, from the inquiries and the examination made by the committee, they are of opinion, that the bills of said bank now in circulation amount to the enormous sum of five hundred and eighty thousand dollars."

The depositions and correspondence, annexed to the report, are curious documents; and shew the rude nature of the machinery and the bungling manner in which it was managed behind the curtain. Surely, after reading these, if the publick will continue to believe that every bit of printed paper, indiscriminately, is as valuable, as it pretends to be, merely because the words