ON BRINGING THE GOOD SHIP GENTLEMAN'S MAGAZINE SAFE INTO PORT, DECEMBER 31, 1805. To Honour as the Needle true, Her glorious beacon kept in view, Thou ftemm'ft the billows' force; 2001 Steady thy helm, well-trimm'd thy fail, be Though rough the tide and bleak the gale,gtons Right onward fpeeds thy course. V. May Heaven direct and guard thy way; While gentler currents round thee play, And winds propitious court:. May thy freight thrive from year to year; To block thy fight of port! Cheyne Walk, Chelsea. WEEDEN BUTLER, JUN, PREFACE TO VOLUME LXXV. THE emotions with which we addrefs our Readers on the present occafion are of a very mixed kind indeed. When we contemplate the height of Glory to which this Nation has arrived by a series of Naval Victories to which the History of the World affords no parallel; when we confider the extent of our Commerce, the wonderful increase of our National Wealth; when we examine the progreffive improvement of Learning and the Arts among us; we feel the value and importance of the English Character; our hearts expand with confidence and hope, and we glance forward to fucceeding years of profperity and happiness. But, looking far beyond ourfelves to the Nations. around us, the scene is very different, the afpect of the heavens gloomy and lowering. We are compelled to fee antient and hereditary Kingdoms tottering to their fall, Sovereigns degraded, the Nobles of the Earth fcattered before the defolation of War. We behold principles of the most pernicious tendency and operation daily increafing in force and strength, and as it were a new Epoch commencing in the Hiftory of Mankind. From this reprefentation, and these appearances, what is the inference that every Briton fhould draw as a rule of conduct for himself and his Countrymen? The dying words of the departed and immortal NELSON here prefs upon our recollection; and we record them as an indelible maxim, which, to ourfelves at leaft, fhall be a path from which no chance or changes |