Long of their patron's gusto let them tell,
Whose noblest native gusto—is to sell:

To sell, and make (may shame record the day)
The state receiver of his pilfer'd prey!
Meantime, the flattering feeble dotard West,
Europe's worst dauber, and poor Britain's best,

ments of Grecian architecture; to tear the works of Phidias and Praxi. teles from their original position, and demolish fabrics, which time, war, and barbarism, had respected during twenty centuries. The French, whose rapacity the voice of Europe has so loudly and so justly censured, did not incur the guilt of dismantling ancient edifices: they spared the walls, and contented themselves with statues and paintings, and even these they have collected and arranged in halls and galleries, for the inspection of travellers of all nations; while, if report does not deceive us, our plunderers have ransacked the temples of Greece to sell their booty to the highest bidder, or, at best, to piece the walls of some obscure old mansion with fragments of Parian marble and of attic sculpture." (Eustace's Classical Tour through Italy, p. 158.) But alas! all the monuments of Roman magnificence, all the remains of Grecian taste, so dear to the artist, the historian, the antiquary; all depend on the will of an arbitrary sovereign, and that will is influenced too often by interest or vanity, by a nephew, or a sycophant. Is a new palace to be erected (at Rome) for an upstart family? the Coliseum is stripped to furnish materials. Does a foreign minister wish to adorn the bleak walls of a northern castle with antiques? the temples of Theseus or Minerva must be dismantled, and the works of Phidias or Praxiteles be torn from the shattered freize --That a decrepid uncle, wrapt up in the religious duties of bis age and station should listen to the suggestions of an interested nephew, is natural; and that an oriental despot should undervalue the master-pieces of Grecian art, is to be expected; though in both cases the consequences of such weakness are much to be lamented: but that the minister of a nation, famed for its knowledge of the language, and its veneration for the monuments of ancient Greece, should have been the prompter and the instrument of these destructions, is almost incredible. Such rapacity is a crime against all ages and all generations: it deprives the past, of the trophies of their genius and the title deeds of their fame; the present of the strongest inducements to exertion, the noblest exhibitions that curiosity can contemplate; the future, of the master pieces of art, the models of imitation. To guard against the repetition of such depredations is the wish of every man of genius, the duty of every man in power, and the common interest of every civilized nation." (Ibid. p. 269.) * * * "This attempt to transplant the temple of Vesta from Italy to England may, perhaps, do honour to the late lord Bristol's patriotism, or to his magnificence; but it cannot be considered as an indication of either taste or judgment." (Ibid. p. 419.)

With palsied hand shall turn each model o'er,
And own himself an infant of four score*-
Be all the bruisers call'd from all St. Giles,

That Art and Nature may compare their styles:
While brawny brutes in stupid wonder stare
And marvel at his lordship's "stone shop," theref
Round the throng'd gate shall sauntering coxcombs

creep

To lounge and lucubrate, to prate and peep,
When many a languid maid with longing sigh,
On giant statues casts the curious eye-
The room with transient glance appears to skim,
Yet marks the mighty back and length of limb,
Mourns o'er the difference of now and then,
Exclaims-" These Greeks, indeed, were proper
men".

Draws slight comparisons of these with those,

And envies Lais all her Attic beaux.

When shall a modern maid have swains like these?

Ah! would Sir Harry were yon Hercules!
And last of all, amid the gaping crew,
Some calm spectator, as he takes his view‡
In silent admiration, mix'd with grief,

Admires the plunder, but abhors the thief.

* Mr West on seeing the " Elgin collection" (I suppose we shall hear of the Aber-show and "Jack Shephard's collection) declared bimself a mere "Tyro in art."

Poor Crib was sadly puzzled when exhibited at E. House. He asked if it was not a "stoneshop." He was right---it is a shop.

Un sot trouve toujours un plus sot qui l'admire :---(Boileau, La Rochefoucault, &c.

Loathed in life, scarce pardoned in the dust,
May hate pursue his sacrilegious lust;

Link'd with the fool who fired th' Ephesian dome,
Shall vengeance follow far beyond the tomb.
EROSTRATUS and Elgin e'er shall shine
In many a branding page and burning line.
Alike condemn'd, for aye to stand accursed,
Perchance the second viler than the first;
So let him stand, through ages yet unborn,
Fix'd statue on the pedestal of Scorn!
Though not for him alone revenge shall wait,
But fits thy country for her coming fate;

Her's were the deeds that taught her lawless son
To do what oft Britannia's self had done-
Look to the Baltic blazing from afar,
Your old ally yet mourns perfidious war-
Not to such deeds did Pallas lend her aid,
Or break the compact which herself had made;
Far from such councils, from the faithless field
She fled-but left behind her Gorgon shield,
A fatal gift, that turn'd your friends to stone,
And left lost Albion hated and alone.

"Look to the east, where Ganges' swarthy race Shall shake your tyrant empire to its base, Lo! there Rebellion rears her ghastly head, And glares the Nemesis of native dead, Till Indus rolls a deep purpureal flood,

And claims his long arrear of northern blood

So may ye perish-Pallas, when she gave
Your free born rights, forbade ye to enslave.

"Look on yon Spain, she clasps the hand she hates,
But coldly clasps, and thrusts you from her gates—
Bear witness, bright Barossa! thou can't tell
Whose were the sons that bravely fought and fell-
But Lusitania, kind and dear ally!

Can spare a few to fight and sometimes fly;
Oh! glorious field! by famine fiercely won,
The Gaul retires for once, and all is done!
But when did Pallas teach that one retreat
Retrieved three long Olympiads of defeat.

"Look last at home-ye love not to look there,
On the grim smile of comfortless despair;
Your city saddens, loud though revel howls,
Here Famine faints, and yonder Rapine prowls ;
See all alike of more or less bereft-

No misers tremble when there's nothing left-
"Blest paper credit,"
," who shall dare to sing?
It clogs like lead Corruption's weary wing;
Yet Pallas pluck'd each premier by the ear,
Who gods and men alike disdain'd to hear.
But one repentant o'er a bankrupt state,
On Pallas calls, but calls, alas! too late;
Then raves for Stanhope, to that Mentor bends,
Though he and Pallas never yet were friends,

Him senates hear, whom never yet they heard,
Contemptuous once, and now no less absurd-
So once of yore, each reasonable frog
Swore faith and fealty to his sovereign "Log"-
Thus hail'd your rulers their patrician clod,
As Egypt chose an onion for a god.

"Now fare ye well! enjoy your little hour, Go grasp the shadow of your vanish'd power:

Gloss o'er the failure of each fondest scheme
Your strength a name, your bloated wealth a dream-
Gone is that gold, the marvel of mankind,
And pirates barter all that's left behind ;*

No more the hirelings, purchas'd near and far,
Crowd to the ranks of mercenary war;
The idle merchant, on the useless quay
Droops o'er the bales no bark may bear away,
Or back returning sees rejected stores

Rob piecemeal on his own encumbered shores;
The starv'd mechanic breaks his rusting loom,
And desperate mans him 'gainst the common doom:
Then, in the senate of your sinking state,

Show me the man whose counsels may have weight,
Vain is each voice, where tones could once command

E'en factions cease to charm a factious land;

Yet jarring sects convulse a sister isle,

And light with maddening hands the mutual pile.

*The Deal and Dover trafickers in specie.

VOL. IV.

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