the province of satire, and its powers are extensive and as self-renewing, as the Hydra heads with which it has to cope:—

"The Grecian wits, who satire first began,
Were pleasant pasquins on the life of man;
At mighty villains, who the state opprest,
They durst not rail, perhaps, they lash'd, at least,
And turn'd them out of office with a jest.
No fool could peep abroad, but ready stand,
The drolls to clap a bauble in his hand.
Wise legislators never yet could draw
A fop within the reach of common law;
For posture, dress, grimace, and affectation,
Tho' foes to sense, are harmless to the nation.
Our last redress, is dint of verse to try,

And satire in our Court of Chancery." DRYDen.

}

We, however, differ in opinion from the poet in one point, and think that the dignity of satire is degraded by employing it against trifles; it is like breaking a fly on a wheel. It should be boldly levelled against those vices which are beyond the reach of the law, and those persons who are too great for it. It would be a combat worthy of itself, to see it, like another Hercules, strangle the Antæus, vice, in the mid regions. We agree with another luminary of

the law, that- to hang one rascal in ruffles, would prove a more beneficial example, than to tuck-up a thousand poor rogues in rags!'

Such is the province and power of satire, and, as there is a difference in mental as well as in corporeal disorders, a skilful satirist, like a skilful physician, should apply such remedies as are suited to each of them. The former, when there is a sense of shame left in the patient, should endeavour to rouse it; but, if he should be totally dead to it, he should be treated as in a desperate way. Hence, we may account for the difference of style, which we find in Horace and Juvenal; the former might well be courtly to those who received him at court ; and the latter could not be too severe on those who could be capable of so infamous an action, as that of sacrificing him to a stage-player. Hence, also, in this enlightened age, we may discern the reason, why Pindar and Hanger make use only of such polished, elegant, and courtly themes and phrases, as were in use during the Augustan age; it is because we have nearly attained, if not reached, or, perhaps, even exceeded that splendid æra! We cannot, however, avoid

giving the preference to the Colonel in one point; because no man has so great a right to expose to ridicule the follies of others, as he who begins with, and can pass sentence on his own. The Colonel, in the very outset of his work, has exhibited his own effigy, on a gibbet, whence the reader must conclude, that he has a proper idea of what would be for the good of society, and without such ideas, no man can ever be a person calculated for a satirist: but Peter Pindar has no such claim to our attention, as he has not even exhibited himself on a pillory!

The reader may here think he has a right to know what are our pretensions to public favour. We have only to answer, that we cannot look so far forwards into the Book of Fate as the Colonel; but we expect nothing short of the fate of writers in general-a garret, or, perhaps, a jail, unless they should smile upon the offspring of his brain; - or unless (which is by no means unlikely) his R-H- the Pof W who has shewn himself the Me

cænas of the present age, by patronising an institution for the relief of decayed Authors,

should think our performance has merit enough to induce him to extend his munificence toPerhaps, (for there is no end to

wards us.

vanity where it once gets a firm footing in the brain of man, especially of an author,) if he should ever ascend the throne, and we should live to see it, he may, in consideration of our endeavours to make his future subjects wise, honest, and industrious, deem us worthy of being his POET LAUREAT! We must confess that, next to the honour of the thing, we should very much relish the pay and the pipe of wine annexed to the office, as we are not of those inspired ones, who can write without a drop of something; nor of those who

And think their labours well repaid with fame."

-We are for substance as well as sound, and if ever we should escape that exaltation which the Colonel has predicted for himself, and arrive at that to which our own vanity prompts us to asspire, we shall, as in duty and gratitude bound, endeavour to sing, and not, like other poets, to feign, the glories of his reign, which we shall

conclude with somewhat like the following

stanzas:

"Sure such a wise king, and such loyal people,
Were just as well met as a church and a steeple:
So firmly united, no schisms could be made,
Th' one overlook'd-t'others drove a rare trade;
By which both were gainers, as will be the case,
Where a king, and a subject, both know their own place.
Sing hey diddle, ho diddle, hey didle dee;

Better land than Old England, I'd ne'er wish to see."

The above lines may serve not only as our recommendation to the important office; but also as a specimen of our abilities to perform the duties of it. At all events, we can promise to spend the salary and drink the wine, and that, perhaps, would be as much as many of our predecessors have done,—at least, to any good purpose.