fifteen hundred verses, the words attributed to Solomon, that "all is vanity." Fifteen thousand verses might be written on this subject; but wo to him who says all which can be said upon it!

At length Queen Anne dying, the mi

PRIOR, BUTLER, AND SWIFT. It was not known to France that Prior,nistry changed, and the peace adjusted who was deputed by Queen Anne to by Prior being altogether unpopular, he adjust the treaty of Utrecht with Louis had nothing to depend upon except an XIV. was a poet. France has since re- edition of his works; which were subpaid England in the same coin, for Car-scribed for by his party: after which he dinal Dubois sent our Destouches to died like a philosopher, which is the London, where he passed as little for a usual mode of dying of all respectable poet as Prior in France. Prior was ori- Englishmen. ginally an attendant at a tavern kept by his uncle, when the Earl of Dorset, a good poet himself and a lover of the bottle, one day surprised him reading Horace; in the same manner as Lord Ailsa found his gardener reading Newton. Ailsa made his gardener a good gemetrician, and Dorset made a very agree-A struggle which cost so much blood able poet of his vintner.

Hudibras.

There is an English poem which it is very difficult to make foreigners understand, entitled Hudibras. It is a very humorous work, although the subject is the civil war of the time of Cromwell.

and so many tears, originated a poem It was Prior who wrote the history of which obliges the most serious reader to the soul under the title of Alma,' and smile. An example of this contrast is it is the most natural which has hitherto found in our Satire of Menippus. Cerbeen composed on an existence so muchtainly the Romans would not have made felt, and so little known. The soul, ac-a burlesque poem on the wars of Pompey cording to Alma, resides at first, in the extremities; in the feet and the hands of children, and from thence gradually ascends to the centre of the body at the age of puberty. Its next step is to the heart, in which it engenders sentiments of love and heroism: thence it mounts to the head at a mature age, where it reasons as well as it is able; and in old age it is not known what becomes of it; it is the sap of an aged tree which eva-series of faction. The intrigues of women, porates, and is not renewed again. This work is probably too long, for all pleasantry should be short; and it might even be as well were the serious short also.

and Cæsar, or the proscription of Anthony and Octavius. How then is it that the frightful evils of the League in France, and of the wars between the king and parliament in England, have proved sources of pleasantry? because at bottom there is something ridiculous hid beneath these fatal quarrels. The citizens of Paris, at the head of the faction of Sixteen, mingled impertinence with the mi

of the legates and of the monks, presented a comic aspect, notwithstanding the calamities which they produced. The theological disputes and enthusiasm of the puritans in England, were also very open Prior made a small poem on the battle to raillery; and this fund of the ridicuof Hochstet. It is not equal to his Alma; lons, well managed, might pleasantly there is however one good apostrophe to enough aid in dispersing the tragical horBoileau, who is called a satirical flattererrors which abound on the surface. If for taking so much pains to sing that the bull Unigenitus caused the shedding Louis did not pass the Rhine. Our ple- of blood, the little poem "Philotanus nipotentiary finished by paraphrasing, in was no less suitable to subject; and it is

only to be complained of for not being so gay, so pleasant, and so various as it might have been; and for not fulfilling in the course of the work the promise held out by its commencement.

time, a commentary is eternally necessary. Pleasantry requiring explanation ceases to be pleasantry; and a commentator on bon mots is seldom capable of conveying them.

Of Dean Swift.

How is it that in France so little is understood of the works of the ingenius Doctor Swift, who is called the Rabelais of England? He has the honour, like the latter, of being a churchman and an universal joker; but Rabelais was not above his age, and Swift is much above Rabelais.

The poem of Hupibras of which I speak, seems to be a composition of the satire of Menippus and of Don Quixote. It surpasses them in the advantage of verse and also in wit; the former indeed does not come near it; being a very middling production; but notwithstanding his wit, the author of Hudibras is much beneath Don Quixote. Taste, vivacity, the art of narrating and of introducing adventures, with the faculty of never Our curate of Meudon, in his extravabeing tedious, go farther than wit; andgant and unintelligible book, has exhimoreover, Don Quixote is read by all bited extreme gaiety and equally great nations, and Hudibras by the English impertinence. He has lavished at once alone. erudition, coarseness and ennui. A good story of two pages is purchased by a volume of absurdities. There are only some persons of an eccentric taste who pique themselves upon understanding and valuing the whole of this work.The rest of the nation laugh at the humour of Rabelas, and despise the work; regarding him only as the first of buffoons. We regret that a man who possessed so much wit, should have made so miserable an use of it. He is a drunken philosopher, who wrote only in the moments of his intoxication.

Butler, the author of this extraordinary poem, was contemporary with Milton, and enjoyed infinitely more temporary popularity thau the latter, because his work was humorous, and that of Milton melancholy. Butler tnrned the enemies of King Charles II. into ridicule, and all the recompense he received was the frequent quotation of his verses by that monarch, The combats of the knight Hudibras were much better known than the battles between the good and bad angels in Paradise Lost; but the court of England treated Butler no better than the celestial court treated Milton; both the one and the other died in want, or very near it.

A man whose imagination was impregnated with a tenth part of the comic spirit, good or bad, which pervades this work, could not but be very pleasant; but he must take care how he translates Hudibras. It is difficult to make foreign readers laugh at pleasantries which are almost forgotten by the nation which has produced them. Dante is little read in Europe, because we are ignorant of so much of his allusion; and it is the same with Hudibras. The greater part of the humour of this poem being expended on the theology and theologians of its own

Dr. Swift is Rabelais sober, and living in good company. He has not indeed the gaiety of the former, but he has all the finesse, sense, discrimination. which is wanted by our curate of Meudon.His verse is in a singular taste, and almost inimitable. He exhibits a fine vein of humour, both in prose and in verse; but in order to understand it, it is necessary to visit his country.

In this country which appears so extraordinary to other parts of Europe, it has excited little surprise that Doctor Swift, dean of a cathedral, should make merry in his Tale of a Tub with Catholicism, Lutheranism, and Calvinism : his own defence is, that he has not meddled with Christianity. He pretends to re

spect the parent while he scourges the children. Certain fastidious persons are of opinion, that his lashes are so long, they have even reached the father.

of ecclesiastics and monks against civ.l orders, which are very frequent, called privileged offences; and these offences common which regard only ecclesiastical an-discipline, cases that are abandoned to the sacerdotal hierarchy, and with which the civil power does not interfere.

This famous Tale of a Tub, is the cient story of the three invisible rings, which a father bequeathed to his three children. These three rings were the Jewish, the Christian, and the Mahometan religions. It is still more an imitation of the history of Merɔ and Enegu by Fontenelle. Mero is the anagram of Rome. Enegu of Geneva, and they are two sisters who aspire to the succession of the kingdom of their father. Mero reigns the first, and Fontenelle represents her as a sorceress, who plays tricks wtth bread and effects conjuration with dead bodies. This is precisely the Lord Peter of Swift, who presents a piece of bread to his two brothers, and says to them, "Here is some excellent burgundy, my friends; this partridge is of a delicious flavour." Lord Peter in Swift performs the same part with the Mero of Fontenelle.

The church having no jurisdiction but that which sovereigns have granted it, and the judges of the church being thus only judges privileged by the sovereign, those cases should be called privileged which it is their province to judge, and those common offences which are punishable by the prince's officers. But the canonists, who are very rarely exact in their expressions, particularly when treating of regal jurisprudence, having regarded a priest called the official, as being of right the sole judge of the clergy, they have entitled that privilege, which in common law belongs to lay tribunals, and the ordinances of the monarch have adopted this expression in France.

To conform himself to this custom, the judge of the church takes cognisance Thus almost all is imitation. The only of common crime; in respect to idea of the Persian Letters was taken privileged cases he can act only concurfrom that of the Turkish Spy. Boyardo rently with the regal judge, who repairs imitated Pulci; Ariosto, Boyardo; the to the episcopal court, where however most original wits borrow from one an- he is but the assessor of the judge of the other. Cervantes makes a madman of church. Both are assisted by their rehis Don Quixote, but is Orlando any-gister; each separately, but in one anthing else? It would be difficult to de- other's presence, takes notes of the course cide by which of the two knight-errantry of the proceedings. The official who is most ridiculed, the grotesque portrai- presides alone interrogates the accused; ture of Cervantes, or the fertile imagina- and if the royal judge has questions to tion of Ariosto? Metastasia has borrow-put to him, he must have permission of ed the greater part of his operas from our the ecclesiastical judge to propose them. French tragedies; and many English authors have copied us, and said nothing about it. It is with books as with the fires in our grates; everybody borrows a light from his neighbour to kindle his own, which in its turn is communicated to others, and each partakes of all. PRIVILEGE-PRIVILEGED CASES.

CUSTOM, which almost always prevails against reason, would have the offences

This procedure is composed of formalities, and produces delays which should not be admitted in criminal jurisprudence. Judges of the church who have not made a study of laws and formalities are seldom able to conduct criminal proceedings without giving place to appeals, which ruin the accused in expense, make him languish in chains, or retard his punishment if he is guilty.

Besides, the French have no precise law to determine which are privileged

his command, regarded as a defamatory libel, was burnt by the executioner at Bordeaux.

These examples have been very frequent. The maxim, that ecclesiastics are entirely ameniable to the justice of the king, like other citizens, has prevailed throughout the kingdom. There is no express law which commands it; but the opinion of all lawyers, the unanimous cry of the nation, and the good of the state, are in themselves a law.

strength is never exercised in its full energy and elasticity. The possessor of property, on the contrary, desires a wife to share his happiness, and children to assist in his labours. His wife and children constitute his wealth. The estate of such a cultivator, under the hands of an active and willing family, may become ten times more productive than it was before. The general commerce will be increased. The treasure of the prince will accumulate. The country will sup ply more soldiers. It is clear therefore, that the system is beneficial to the prince, "LIBERTY and property" is the great Poland would be thrice as populous and national cry of the English. It is cer-wealthy as it is at present, if the peasants tainly better than "St. George and my were not slaves. right," or "St. Denis and Mont-joie ;" it is the cry of nature.

PROPERTY.

From Switzerland to China, the peasants are the real occupiers of the land. The right of conquest alone has, in some countries, deprived men of a right so natural.

The general advantage or good of a nation, is that of the sovereign, of the magistrate, and of the people, both in peace and war. Is this possession of lands by the peasantry equally conducive to the prosperity of the throne and the people in all periods and circumstances? In order to its being the most beneficial system for the throne, it must be that which produces the most considerable} revenue, and the most numerous and powerful army.

We must inquire therefore, whether this principle or plan tends clearly to increase commerce and population. It is certain, that the possessor of an estate will cultivate his own inheritance better than that of another. The spirit of property doubles a man's strength. He labours for himself and his family both with more vigour and pleasure than he would for a master. The slave, who is in the power of another, has but little inclination for marriage: he often shudders even at the thought of producing slaves like himself. His industry is damped; his soul is brutalised; and his

Nor is the system less beneficial to the great landlords. If we suppose one of these to possess ten thousand acres of land cultivated by serfs, these ten thousand acres will produce him but a very scanty revenue, which will be frequently absorbed in repairs, and reduced to nothing by the irregularity and severity of the seasons. What will be in fact be, although his estates may be vastly more extensive than we have mentioned, if at the same time they are unproductive? He will be merely the possessor of an immense solitude. He will never be really rich but in proportion as his vassals are so; his prosperity depends on theirs. If this prosperity advances so far as to render the land too populous; if land is wanting to employ the labour of so many industrious hands-as hands in the first instance were wanting to cultivate the land-then the superfluity of necessary labourers will flow off into cities and seaports, into manufactories and armies. Population will have produced this decided benefit, and the possession of the lands by the real cultivators, under payment of a rent which enriches the landlords, will have been the cause of this increase of population.

There is another species of property not less beneficial: it is that which is freed from payment of rent altogether, and which is liable only to those general