Imágenes de página
PDF
ePub
[blocks in formation]

And sunk-I strive in vain to follow her-
-I weep, I rage-so sudden came we here;
Thus sudden has she fled, I know not where.

I grow at once earth's half in bulk--one foot
I place on Cuba-thousands now of miles
Upward I leap, in fantasy of ire,
Then fall at once, th' Atlantic's length; my sides
Dashing the ocean over Europe's face,
And o'er Columbia's, to the peaceful sea:
My heels in rage against the icy pole
Beating full hard; while to the low south moon
My clinching fists are stretched. From posture
prone

I spring, and with a butcher's cleaver cut
The globe in twain. The parts unite. Enraged
I take a tray and chopping-knife; and soon,
First plucking Luna from her changeful course,
Make fair mincemeat of all-then leaving all,
Tray, cleaver, chopping-knife, and earth and

moon,

I scud away in th' dark: for dark it seems,
Yet seems not long. I lose my pantaloons;
And in my great coat pocket find a pair
Of Holland skates well strapt. Before me lies
The brilliant surface of a cold glass ocean,
Level, outspread t' infinitude all round.
-The earth and moon seemed not; but all the
stars,

The planets and their master spirit Sol,
Are almost in my grasp. With skates equipt
I fly the surface, making distance nought.

What stands before me? 'Tis an aged oak
Full of fresh blossoms. Let me see its fruit.
Ha! tempting full ripe plums, and nasty toads,
With open mouths, each pendant by a leg.
I set me in a chair, and in the shade
I rest. What figures play about the tree?
Heads without bodies. Lo! the chin of this
Touches his eyebrows. There another flits,
Whose ears grow from his shoulders. Round

the trunk

Walks one whose head two ankle necks support, All face and feet. And there stands one whose visage

Is horizontal, ever looking up,

Stuck on a neck that never turns, though turns Constant the head, round, round, and round again.

Here is a foot race. See the youthful look Of that, prepared to start: he has six legs, And his competitor but one, or two made one, Like two snakes twisted close in lust or rage. The sexiped is distanced. There's a sheep With long green wool, how glossy, like the silk Pendant from cartop of the rip'ning corn.

[ocr errors]

She drives away the wolves. What fair forms these?

Ladies of tender looks. Oh! what an eye
Of piercing black: next blue so languishing:
Three, four, five, six, sev'n, eight, nine, ten,
eleven:

"What, will the list stretch out to th' crack of doom?"

Still they succeed each other; beauteous all; But none like her who left me on the flood.

At what are yonder horses laughing there? The horse-laugh's common; but a grinning horse Till now I never knew. Begone, begone. There is a Madagascar bat, that bites One of these laughing steeds-Lord, how he bites.

Deaths here I see, six, eight, a dozen deaths, A score of deaths with horns: in each right hand Is a dead infant, in the left a goblet Full of black wine. Black, broadbrim'd, flapping hats

They wear. See how with glee they dance; how

shake

Their loose and rattling bones. They vanish all, "Searing my eye-balls." Now, with lightning speed

On skates I baste; the same smooth sea before me;

The planet Venus right ahead. Stop, stop:
Where are my pantaloons? To Venus go
Without them? No. My coat I cannot button
--How the wind blows beside me, urging on,
In spite of effort to remain, I haste.

I pass a fellow with an empty meal bag
Striving to gather wind. He's out of sight.
I strike on Venus: bushes, brush and trees--
Is this the silv'ry Venus? bush and brush

So like old earth? Dwells no man hereabouts?
-I'll not stay here 'n the woods--I'll straight

away.

But where's the glassy plain? Gon"; who knows where?

I seem to take a rap; and, dozing, dream
Of being on the earth. Am inuch in doub
Whether I dream or not; and whether i
Am here or there. At length I seem to wake;
But, since I've been asleep, where, where is gone
This planet Venus? Sunk, and from me fallen
A million million leagues; a trifling distance
For those who ride on light. Here in midspace
I swing self-balanced; neither this way moved
Nor that. Mars, Jupiter, the Sun, the Bear,
Saturn, Orion and the Pleiades,

And nameless others, seeming all within
The flight of half an hour; gaze intense.
Now start I for the globe of Sol. I fly
By mere volition: and, approaching, see
Whence are his spots. The summites some vast

tracts

Of new land have been clearing: after Lurning
The wood and brush, an awful, toul, black smoke
Spreads over many a thousand solar leagues,
Still shifting with the wind. There's such a stench
Far off salutes my nose, I'll not endure it.
-I'm off. And now for Jove. When half way
there

I'm much impeded by a thousand swans
Of septemdecem locusts. Here a gate
Before me stands; and o'er it leans a sage,
"His head all white, his beard all hoary gray,"
Who me, approaching, with gold headed cane,
Strikes. Stunned, down to the earth I quickly fali ;

And when revived, I find myself outstretched
Upon a green and sloping meadow fair,
Which, Doctor, I now see as visibly

As that nose on your face. Now up I rise
And stretch myself: when lo, the lovely maid,
Whom couching on the billows I had lost,
I see advancing, fairer than before.
How joy my eyes to ken so much of heaven.
-There with her comes a married youth, who
leads

His beauteous spouse, at whose side, robed in white,

A child, his right hand round his mother's fingers
Clinging, runs doubling her maternal steps.

At once a slim tall villain rushes forth,
Seizes the child, and quite across a stream,
In width at least a rod, he tosses it
On the rough stones upon the other side.

I bid the nimble youth the scoundrel seize,
Who hastes away. He overtakes him. Blows
Num'rous succeed ere I arrive. And see,"
Exclaims the youth, how he has given me
An eye the colour of my hat." I seize
The villain by the collar, raising high
My left hand. Aiming at my eye he strikes
My forehead. With my right clenched fist I

[blocks in formation]
[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small]

Of all my dreaming, the foregoing is the most singularly wild that I can remember. I threw it into chitchat blank verse the forenoon after the dream; the image being still as distinctly before me as if all had been fact. I have ever thought, contrary to the opinion of some, that the thinking power is never wholly suspended. My strong argument arises from my own experience: I never wake without some recollection, however indistinct, of having dreamed of something. Equally confident am I that, almost ever, much that has occupied the attention the day and evening previous, is more or less the subject of wildfancy on the pillow. Such was the case in the present instance, though there are many scenes and images of which a madman would hardly entertain an idea.

It has been asserted that no image is presented in sleep which was not before known. This may be true, though of its truth I am by no means certain. That the combinations of images and chain of events are often such as never before entered the mind, can admit of no doubt.

A turtle from the water crawls, &c. In the course of the preceding evening it was observed in conversation, that the American snapping, or mud turtle, afforded as rich a soup as the West-India green turtle.

And, swift as sight, "smooth sliding without step." Of rapid flights in the air, and Milton's "smooth sliding without step," probably every reader's dreaming experience has afforded examples.

'Twixt Cape May and Cape Charles. We had been speaking of a glass-house lately erected, and one of the company remarked that the sand, of which the glass was mostly made, was brought from the shores of the Delaware. This probably occasioned the dreaming of a glass ocean, and of the place where I seemed to be.

Palpable odours. In going to my lodgings after supper, I overtook a female, of what character or complexion I know not, whose abundance of perfumery vext iny nostrils for several rods.

The trade winds stop our passage. While at supper, some conversation arose respecting the course of herring and shad, the passage of the herring from Africa to the gulf of Mexico, &c. I can assign no particular cause for dreaming of the lady who flew with me, other than that the ladies had been, as usual, in part the topic of conversation, and that beauty is perhaps too often the subject of my contemplations. No words can describe the holy beauty and expression of the mens divinior in her imagined countenance.

I grow at once earth's half in bulk. I had observed to my companions, that I had seen a calculation, that from one female herring, should the offspring all live, in ten years the bulk would be many times greater than that of the earth.

What occasioned the wild thought of dividing, or making mincemeat of the earth and moon, I could not conjecture, till I recollected that we had some mince-pie with supper, and one of

the company complained that the chopping-knife had not been sufficiently used.

Before going to sleep I recollect doubting whether I had, or not, seen or heard of a work describing a tour among the planets; and I remembered having read, twenty years ago or more, a whimsical account of a journey with an air balloon, the parachute attached to which was injured by striking against the planet Jupiter.

Figures the most uncouth, and sometimes forms the most beautiful, are familiar to those who have suffered in a high fever, have been taking opium, or have been otherwise indisposed; as are difficulties with respect to one's

clothes, inability to proceed, &c. as well as to dream it is doubtful whether or not we are dreaming.

The married lady appeared to be one with whom I had been intimately acquainted. Not having seen her for two years, I had, the day previous, received a letter from a friend, informing me that she was married, and had lately become a mother. Hence the appearance of the child.

Thus could I trace the causes of part of my dreaming fancies. It was a fact that each knuckle of the fingers and the thumb was sorely bruised, not healing in a fortnight.,

ART. 12. MONTHLY SUMMARY OF POLITICAL INTELLIGENCE.

EUROPE.

GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND.

TH

HE army supplies for the present year were voted, March 2d, in the House of Commons without a division. The establishment is considerably reduced, the number of the land forces, for the present year, being as follows. For England 25,000; for Ireland, 20,000; for the colonies 33,000; for the territories of the East India Company 17,360; for the British contingent in France 20,126. The estimate of expense is 6,494,2907. it being less than the expense of the last year by 188,0271. The reduction in all the departments of the military expenditure is 418,000l.

The following is an official statement of the quarter's revenue, ending the 5th April 1818, compared with the correspondent quarter of last year. Produce of the Revenue of Great Britain, in the quarters ending the 5th of April, 1817 and 1818.

[blocks in formation]

during the last year, amounted to 351,122 pieces, or 10,974,473 yards. The narrow cloths, milled 132,607 pieces, or 5,233,616 yards, it being an increase over the manufacture of the preceding year of 2,422,135 yards. In this statement shawls and pelisse cloths are not included.

London, March 31.-Another report has been presented from the select committee on the poor laws. A very valuable appendix is annexed to it.

It gives the assessment for the relief of the poor in 1748, 1749, and 1750, by which it appears that on the average of those three years about 690,000l. per ann. was applied to the relief of the poor, in the year 1776, the sum of 1,531,000l. was expended on account of the poor; in 1783, 4 and 5, the sum of 2,000,000l. per annum; in 1803, 1804, 4,268,000l. and in 1813, 14 and 15, the average sum of about 6,130,000l. per annum, was expended for the maintenance of the poor. But the sums raised by poor rates and any 1818. other rate or rates in these years was, in 2,003,664 1813, 8,651,438; in 1814, 8,392,728; in 5,151,805 1815, 7,460,855. The number of pau1,588,759 pers relieved in 1813, was 971,913; in 336,000 1814, 953,993; in 1815, 895,973. 917,414 The appendix closes with some impor178,295 tant observations. 73,270

868,104
154,550
98,595
£9,510,211 £10,249,207

Arr. of Property Tax 1,623,718, 254,190
From this statement it appears that the
quarter just ended is better than the cor-
responding quarter by the sum of 738,9907.
If the charge upon the consolidated fund
this quarter be estimated at 8,800,0007. the
surplus this quarter will be 1,449,2077. It
did not exceed 700,000l. in the corres-
ponding quarter. Hence the surplus
this quarter is more than double.

The manufacture of broadcloths, milled

The number of persons relieved permanently, both in and out of any workhouse, on the average of the last three years, appears to be 516,963; ditto, occasionally, being parishioners 423,663; total 940,626; exclusively of any children of those permanently relieved out of the house.

Four thousand and ninety-four parishes, or places, maintain the greater part of their poor in workhouses, averaging for the last three years, 93,142 persons.

The population of England and Wales, as taken from the abstract laid before parliament, in the year 1811, appears

to have been 10,150,615; so that the number of persons relieved from the poor rates appears to have been 94 in each 100 of the population.

The total of the money raised by poor rates, appears to have averaged for the last three years, the sum of 8,168,3407. 13s. 944. being at the rate of 16s. 1d. per head on the population, or 3s. 1d. in the pound of the total amount of the sum of 51,898,4237. 12. 64. as assessed by the property tax in the year 1815.

The amount of money expended in suits of law, removals, and expenses of parish officers, for purposes of, and for all other purposes, is, independent of the maintenance of the poor, 2,162,7991.

The number of persons belonging to friendly societies appears to be, for the last three years, nearly 8 in the 100 of the resident population.

The area of England and Wales, according to the latest authorities, appears to be 57,960 square statute miles, or 37,094,400 statute acres; wherefore, the number of inhabitants in each square mile, containing 640 acres, averages 175 persons.

The greater proportion of the population of England and Wales appears to be employed in trade and manufactures, there being 770,199 families returned employed in agriculture, and 959,632 in trade, manufactures and handicraft; besides 413,316 other families.

The duke of Richmond has been appointed captain general and governor in chief of the Canadas, Nova Scotia, &c. &c. in place of sir John Sherbrooke, who returns home in consequence of ill health, he having suffered a paralytick stroke. Sir Peregrine Maitland goes out as governor of Upper Canada. He is son-inlaw to the duke.

The marriage of her royal highness the princess Elizabeth, (third daughter of their majesties) with Philip Augustus Frederick, the hereditary prince of Hesse Homburg took place at the queen's palace on the 7th instant.

On the 15th April, lord Castlereagh, in consequence of a message from the prince regent, brought forward a proposition in the House of Commons, for some further provision for the dukes of Clarence and Cambridge, on their intended marriage, the former with a princess of Saxe Mcinungen, and the latter with a princess of Hesse. A proposition to reduce the amount was carried against ministers by a vote of 1923 to 184.

The London papers state, that, about 1 o'clock, on the 8th of April, lieutenant

David Davis, of the 62d regiment of foot, went to the war office, and inquired of lord Palmerston's messenger if his lordship was in the office. The messenger informed him that he was not, that he expected him in every moment; he desired him to walk into the waiting-room and write his name on the list of visitors, as is usual. Lieut. Davis declined doing so, and waited about the lobby, frequently asking if his lordship would soon come.-A little before two, his lordship arrived at the war office, alone, and was going up the stone stairs when the messenger informed licut. Davis, that "he was lucky, for his lordship was come, and there was no visitor before him." Lieut. Davis immediately followed his lordship up the stairs, and taking a pocket pistol from under his coat, fired it at his lordship. The assassin ran down stairs with the pistol in his hand, saying, “I've done for him.” The messenger immediately seized him, and with the assistance of others, secured him until a constable of St. Margaret's Parish, Westminster, arrived, and conveyed him to Queen-square police office. His lordship was taken into the office, his top coat was taken off, and Mr. Astley Cooper being immediately sent for, he very soon arrived, and examined his lordship's wound, from which, we are happy to say, there is not the slightest danger. The pistol was loaded with ball, which lacerated his lordship's right side: the ball did not lodge in the flesh, but passed through it, and fell on the stone stairs. Mr. Cooper attended lord Palmerston to his house, in his carriage. In the mean time lieut. Davis had been conveyed to Queen-square by the constable, assisted by the messenger, where he was examined before Mr. Markland, the magistrate. Crowds of persons collected round the office.

[blocks in formation]

753,000,000

The whole amount of revenue which it is estimated will be received this year, is about Leaving a balance unprovided for of about 221,000,000 The valuation of debts to be liquidated is finished; they amount to 1,700,000,000 francs-equal to $318,750,000.

The interesting nature of the following extract from the report of M. Beugnot, one of the commission of finance, made to the Chamber of Deputies on the 23d. of March, will excuse its length.

After giving the estimates, and detailing the manner in which the ways and means had been provided, he goes on to say:-"It was at first difficult to procure subscribers to the loan in France, but afterwards persons who had witnessed and were surprised at the speculations of foreigners, were satisfied to purchase at sixty francs that for which six months before they had refused fifty; but, considering the whole of the risks and trouble which the original leaders were put to, to make good their treaty, the profits were not more than 9 per cent, which could not, under all the circumstances, be considered exorbitant, nor could the cost of the loan be deemed as very heavy on France, when the results of it were taken into consideration. Trade was assisted by it; circulation of money was quickened, and the payments of the government were made with a punctuality beyond all former precedent.-By the treaties for the loan in the last year, 9,999,000 of francs of rentes were sold for the first loan; 8,000,000 for the second; and 9,000,000 for the third. In the present year ministers wanted a credit of 16,000,000 of rentes to make good the deficit of the revenue.

"Henceforth" continued the reporter, "there will be a competition among the contractors. The French capitalists, encouraged by the past, will no longer have occasion for the assistance of foreigners.This resort to our market from the funds of different nations, will have the most beneficial effects. But at whatever rate of interest the loan is made, it shows our distress, it accuses the present, and threatens the future. Thus your commission has sought, with the most watchful anxiety, the means of ascertaining the limits of such great and deplorable sacrifices.

"Your commission, perfectly persuaded that there is no longer credit, nor, perhaps, existence in France, but by an alleviation of the burden which depresses her, has been anxious at length to ascer

tain the period of our financial emancipation, as inseparable from our political liberation. It wished to have given you, above all, some positive information with respect to the individual demands of foreigners, demands whose vagueness and uncertainty still fetter our most useful works, arrest the rising wing of credit, and impress on peace itself the character of hostility.

"Your commission have applied to the ministers of the king, in whom they discovered hearts entirely French; but they have not been able completely to satisfy

us.

[ocr errors]

According to the very terms of the treaty of November the 20th, the enfranchisement of our territory can only be in consequence of a deliberation, which the allied sovereigns have reserved to themselves the right of holding, on the expiration of the first years of occupation. But can this result be doubtful? Those sovereigns will ennoble policy in rendering it subordinate to justice.

"The occupation of our territory could not exceed two years, unless France were a prey to convulsions which endangered Europe. France is calm; she wishes peace: she wishes it as ardently as she waged war.

There remains to us, gentlemen, a last motive of conviction, but it is a painful one; it is this, that France has now arrived at a degree of exhaustion, in which it would be impossible for her much longer to support the burdens that have pressed her down during the last three years. It becomes our duty to declare this to you, since the inquiry in which we have been engaged for three months past, has forced upon us an intimate persuasion of its truth. Here is the termination of our sacrifices, because here is the termination of our means. We may, therefore, now calculate on the retreat of the foreign troops at the expiration of the present year.

Fixing the amount of the claims of strangers on France is at present the subject of a negotiation. There is room to hope that you will know the result before the end of the session, and that it will put an end to those exaggerations which have had so unpleasant an influence on our credit. But it is necessary to supply the demand for the present service, without which, all, even hope would be compromised."

France has recognised the accession of Bernadotte to the throne of Sweden; he is now acknowledged by every civilized power.

A private letter from Paris, received

« AnteriorContinuar »