over by a dapper fellow, who neither is sensible of any awe bimself, nor wishes to impress it upon those whom he addresses.

I am, Sir, your obedient servant,

THE CONTRAST.

C. S. H.

INCLUDING COMPARATIVE VIEWS OF BRITAIN, SPAIN, AND FRANCE: ADDRESSED TO AN ENGLISH NOBLEMAN,

PART I.

FROM realins, my lord, where pow'r unlicens'd reigns,
And cheated vassals seem to hug their chains;

Where trembling slaves suppress the heart-felt sigh,
And, gall'd by fetters, rave of liberty!
From cities sack'd and villages on fire,

Where scarce is sav'd the crutch'd or bed-rid sire;
Where near her hour of trial shrieks the wife,
And the scar'd babe untimely springs to life;
Welcome, thrice welcome, to your native land,
Where still fair Freedom makes her awful stand;
Where still Religion holds her sacred sway,
And points to regions of eternal day.

O! cast the vision of the wond'ring mind
O'er the tremendous deserts left behind;

Deserts where once sweet Flora dress'd her bowers,
And loveliest Nature put forth all her powers.
But, ah! since these no more a home afford
To the sad remnants of the victor's sword,
Far from the lov'd, lamented, scenes they haste,
To quit the terrors of the sanguine waste;
Far from the well-remember'd paths they fly,
No
pause allow'd to heave one parting sigh;
No soft relief, no fondly-lingering view,
To sooth the rigours of a last adieu!

Escap'd from these, and his imperial doom,
Of half mankind the butcher and the tomb,"
Thou com'st, my lord, when ev'ry smiling grove
Glows with the charm of Beauty and of Love;
When Zephyr woos and wins the blooming May,
And Flora weaves for both her garlands gay;
When, on her fav'rite Season, she bestows
Her sweetest violet and her tend'rest rose;
When ev'ry well-remember'd object round
Conspire to deck thy lov'd paternal bound.

To Mem'ry precious these, to Fancy dear,
And the full heart receives them with a tear:
And these shall greet you; but not these alone,
For, ah! yet prouder blessings are your own;

A thousand voices raise th' inspiring sound,
A thousand echos the glad notes rebound:
Each zephyr wings them thro' your fair domains,
Till Winborn's farthest meads repeat the strains.
And, ah! the lov'd associates of your life,
The blooming daughter and the faithful wife,
Dear, dear companions of your foreign care,
Proud ev'ry grief as ev'ry joy to share ;

Those who your sorrows soften'd, while they bore,
'Mid War's dread clamours, on a hostile shore;
Say-for you best can tell-with what delight
Will these in all your gracious acts unite;
Explore with you each recollected shade,
And view the happy beings you have made;
O'er the wide circuit of your bounty roam,
And see, at ev'ry pause, some blissful home;
Survey each well-known cottage of the green,
There the gay garden, there the orchard scene;
Here, or the swain's or housewife's pride; and there,
The domes of learning, industry, and pray'r!

And, oh! the Dome where in profound repose→→
Secure from foreign or domestie foes;

Secure from ruffians, diff'ring but in name,
Patriots or hirelings, their vile end the same;
For equal he, who, mask'd in midnight gloom,
Disturbs for gold the tenant of the tomb;
Or who, obedient to a tyrant's nod,
Worships his idol or blasphemes his God;
The mob's vain idol, gibbetted or crown'd,
For what excess can mad ambition bound?
A saint, or devil, canoniz'd by turns,
As faction rages or ambition burns;
Alike, who force the chambers of the dead,
Plunder the trophied tomb or briery bed :--

The seat of Lord Shaftesbury is within two short miles of Cranbourn, in Winborne Hundred. It is finely wooded: the grotto is an object of the traveller's curiosity; the country surrounding it is richly diversified; and the mansion house, though placed somewhat in a low and humid situation, is on a scale of magnificence, suitable to the rank of the noble proprietor. Passing thus hastily, not contemptuously, the traveller is eager to give the reader's heart the intelligence of what far surpasses these things, by conducting him to the various humble dwellings, whether situated in the adjacent towns and villages or embosomed in the shades, where the inhabitants are clothed, fed, or comforted, by a benevolence that is hereditary in the Shaftesburys; and which has lost nothing of its genial glow by time or by descent.

Safe from all these, within the hallow'd shrine,
Repose the relics of the COOPER line.

Proud of her husband's honour, fame, and life,
Your great progenitor, whose tender wife,
With fond affection, and with pious care,
The marble rais'd,--to mark his virtues there.
The noble Ashleyt, too, whose taste refin'd,
And polish'd wisdom, spoke th' ennobled mind.
Illustrious band! whom Piety reveres,

Whom Virtue honours, and whom Love endears!

* The church of St. Giles is an object of considerable attraction, and is situated on the north side of the parish, near the seat of Lord Shaftesbury, whose family burial place it is. There are several elegant monuments of the family, Those of the fourth earl, and that of the noble author of the Characteristics, are eminently beautiful, On the south side of the chancel is one of beautiful marble, exquisitely executed by Schumaker, representing a sarcophagus, under which is the following admirable inscription:

Mary Countess of Shaftesbury,

In testimony of her most tender and indissoluble regard to
The much loved memory of her affectionate
Husband, Anthony Ashley Cooper,
fourth Earl of Shaftesbury,

Who, from a consistency of virtuous conduct
in public and private,

Had as many friends and as few enemies
as ever fell to the lot of man.
Having lived in honour, he died in peace;
the result of a life well-spent,

And of hope grounded on the redeeming mercy
of that adorable, all-perfect Being
Of whose glory he was zealous,
to whose creatures he was kind,
whose will was his study,
and whose service his delight.
Having received and diffused happiness,
he departed this life,

Amidst the prayers of the rich and poor,

May the 27, 1771,

aged 61:

His works follow him.

On each side of the monument are two boys, one holding a torch inverted, the other a crown of glory, and looking up to a bust of the late Earl of Shaftesbury placed over the sarcophagus.

+ The inscription under the statue in St. Giles's church, representing the third Earl of Shaftesbury, author of the Characteristics, is as follows:

E'en views of frail mortality, my lord,
To British minds a solace can afford;

And, France! thy sacrilege, oppos'd to these,
May teach the softer forms of grief to please.
Beyond the grave the CONTRAST may extend,
For Britain guards the ashes of a friend.

Go, then-receive the richest, proudest store
That Rapture's tributary tide can pour!
If those, my lord, who ne'er a sorrow knew
Since first their wants and cares were known to you,
Can poor be call'd-your happy poor attend
To hail, with tears of joy, their Parent Friend!
From genial cots, your bounteous gifts, they come,
To greet your blest return to them, and home.
Around, in jocund groups, exulting throng
The grave, the gay, the aged, and the young:
They come in prayer, their incense to impart ;
Incense that heav'n best loves-a grateful heart!
Share, then, oh! share this transport of your plains,
The bosom jubilee of blissful swains;

Those blissful swains which still your bounty bless'd,
When this kind patron, captive and oppress'd
Amid the clamours of th' embattled host,
Was far remov'd from Albion's peaceful coast:
Himself unseen, his almoners* dispense

Th' untroubled stream of warm Benevolence.
"Tis thus that heav'n sends bounties from above,
While favour'd mortals its indulgence prove.
Thus falls its dews on drooping plant and flow'r ;
Fraught with abundance, thus descends its show'r;
Thus springs the fanning breeze, thus sunbeams shine,
Soft, silent, calm-to mark a hand divine!

With one uncheck'd and undiminish'd force

The blessing's seen----invisible the source!

PART II.

LONG may those scenes, my lord, be your's to greet
The heav'n-sav'd SHAFTESBURYS at their natal seat!

Polite Literature,

In the person of a muse, laments the death
of her most distinguished votary,
The Right Honourable Anthony Ashley Cooper,
third Earl of Shaftesbury;

He was born February 14, 1712.

Respective stewards are left in trust, not only for the lord of the domain, but for the poor of each parish, within the boundary of the whole property, an extent of nearly forty miles within a ring fence.

Long be it yours, from hated bondage free,
Still to pursue the works of charity!
To bid the rose of youth in beauty grow,.
And spotless, as your life, its lilies blow:
From thorny vice th' unsully'd breast to shield,
And rear Truth's altars on the flow'ry field;
Guard the pure bosom from the blight of art,
And nourish ev'ry blossom of the heart;
Watch the good fruit, the noxious weeds controul,
And graft your virtues on the poor man's soul:
Till a whole peasantry shall catch the flame,
And with their Maker's join your sacred name;
For your long life invoke the heav'nly pow'r,
And mark with tears of joy your natal hour :
Then, with bent kree, the Merciful implore,
To stay the time when you shall be no more!

Yet ere that time shall change to grief the tear,
Ah! may that Power prolong thy sojourn here.
Pardon the wish; but oh! may heav'n bestow
Virtue like thine to cheer this vale of woe:

While Health her chaplets round your bow'rs shall twine,
Chaplets-THOU MAN OF BLOOD! unlike to thine;
For while thy garland, red with human gore,
Leaves the deep stain of slaughter on each shore ;
On Nature's ruins rear'st thy throne of pow'r,
Planting new thorns, and cropping ev'ry flow'r ;
While, with foul deeds, thou fill'st the groaning earth,
And millions curse the hour that gave thee birth!
'Mid direst scenes of havock and of death,
Those millions supplicate thy closing breath.

O! cast once more the retrospective glance
O'er the degenerate sons of hapless France!
Behold, in hordes, from clime to clime they pour,
Frantic to grasp immeasurable pow'r;

Fraud in their oaths, and ruin in their smile,

Rav'nous and thick as locusts* of the Nile,

*The description given by Bowles, of the frequent swarms of locusts which infest Spain, gives a striking representation of the appearance of French troops, whether as friends or allies. In 1754 La Mancha was covered with locusts, and the horrors of famine assailed the fruitful provinces of Andalusia, Murcia, and Valencia. They have sometimes appeared in the air in such numbers as to darken the sky; the clear atmosphere of Spain has become gloomy, and the finest summer day in Estramadura been rendered more dismal than the winter of Holland. Their sense of smelling is so delicate, that they can discover a corn-field or a garden at a considerable distance, and which they will ravage almost in an instant.