remonstrances, and some hostile demonstrations, the dissolution was at length effected by the votes of the members. A new Congress had been collected when the last intelligence was dispatched from Mexico, who are represented as engaged in the discussion of the system by which the country is hereafter to be governed. We should consider the establishment of an independent and good government in that extensive and interesting country to be not only a benefit to its inhabitants, but to the whole of the civilized world. It is certainly a melancholy spectacle to behold a region so favoured by nature as Mexico, enjoying a soil and climate generally so well adapted to the productions most desirable in every part of the world, kept from rising to usefulness and enjoyment by subjection to a power who only ruled it by restrictions and monopolies. The first of these evils will be removed by securing independence; the latter, by the moderation, intelligence, and public spirit, which it is the duty and interest of those who may have the lead in the national councils to exercise. In warm climates the disposition to indolence is so powerful, that without an extensive diffusion of knowledge no great impulse will ever be directed towards improvement. Spain, miserably deficient at home in regard to every species of knowledge, could hardly be expected to use any extraordinary exertions in communicating it to her distant provinces. The improvements in every art and science, which have of late been making an astonishing progress in all other parts of the world, may find in a country like Mexico, from which they have been hitherto excluded, a field in which to display their most powerful influence. The general diffusion of elementary knowledge may create excitements to excel, and these will raise up in due time individuals of such pre-eminence in the different useful departments of society as may give a general tone and a powerful impetus to the whole community.

From the situation of Mexico, with her western shores at nearly the same distance from India as her eastern shores are from Europe, she is admirably situated for commercial intercourse with both. The productions in which each excels may be advantageously exchanged for that surplus which security and industry will enable the soil and the mines of Mexico abundantly to dispense. With the introduction of the comforts to which the nations are accustomed who have farther advanced in civilization, the general desire to obtain them will naturally grow up; thus a stimulus will be given, which, if well directed, must tend to promote the means of communication between the distant parts of this extensive country, and thus give scope to an internal com

merce,

merce, the best foundation, perhaps, of national wealth and perity.

pros

As no external enemy is likely to attack Mexico with success at present, the realising the prospect we have thus slightly sketched must depend wholly on its own rulers. We trust they will be found endued with the necessary qualifications for the high duties to which they are called, and that the population, the knowledge, the wealth and the happiness of their country will begin and continue to increase, till they attain the eminence which all the circumstances of their situation have placed within their reach.

ART. VIII.—Private Correspondence of William Cowper, Esq. with several of his most intimate Friends. Now first published from the Originals, in the Possession of his Kinsman, John Johnson, LL.D. 2 vols. 8vo. 1824.

THERE is something in the letters of Cowper inexpressibly

delightful. They possess excellencies so opposite-a naïve simplicity, arising from perfect goodness of heart and singleness of purpose, contrasted with a deep acquaintance with the follies and vices of human nature, and a keen sense of humour and ridicule. They unite the playfulness of a child, the affectionateness of a woman, and the strong sense of a man: they give us glimpses of pleasures so innocent and pure as almost to realise the Eden of our great poet, contrasted with horrors so deep, as even to exceed his power of imagery to express.

'Regions of sorrow, doleful shades, where peace

And rest can never dwell, hope never come,

That comes to all.'

With this variety of matter and manner, there is a sincerity and a reality in every thing that he says, which banishes from his reader's mind all suspicion of flourish or paradox. His pathos is no bright cold gleam of the imagination, but bursts warm from a heart in which every right and true feeling had its home. His opinions have the authority of evidently proceeding from deep and settled principle, even where deficient in sound judgment. In a word, he either writes because he has something to say, not because he would say something,' or he fairly tells you that he is going to trifle, and then his badinage is the most light and graceful in the world. For these reasons, we think him by far the most delightful letter-writer in our language.

6

The Epistles of Pope and his friends contain, it must be allowed, much that is useful et ad judicandum et ad vivendum : but the matter is often dragged in with some violence, and the

manner

manner is far too rhetorical and declamatory. Swift is perfectly free from these faults, and his letters are models of a clear business-like style. But what has that to do with the heart? and what is letter-writing without heart!

Gray, however, gives us a good imitation of nature, and wit and humour. But it is too sustained, too minute, too much like mosaic-working-an objection which has been urged, perhaps unfairly, against his poetry; but which is certainly a fault in letter-writing. Still he is a great favourite of ours; and we subscribe to the opinion which Cowper has expressed of his merits in the volumes which we are about to notice.

The style of Cowper is as peculiar as his matter. Periods determined only by the sense, with no affected brevity or terseness, like the choppings of a logician; still less

- with many a winding bout

Of linked dullness long drawn out,'

in mockery of the ore rotundo fullness of Cicero: and his words are, according to his own description, exquisitely sought;' not from a train of far drawn analogy, nor from the stores of learned coinage, but from the well of English undefiled,' with all its spirit and raciness of native idiom.

The very first page of the volumes before us offers a specimen of that happy mixture of archness and simplicity, which is, perhaps, the most striking characteristic of Cowper's letters.

'DEAR JOE, Huntingdon, July 3, 1765. 'Whatever you may think of the matter, it is no such easy thing to keep house for two people. A man cannot always live like the lions in the Tower; and a joint of meat, in so small a family, is an endless incumbrance. In short, I never knew how to pity poor housekeepers before; but now I cease to wonder at that politic cast which their occupation usually gives to their countenance, for it is really a matter full of perplexity.'-vol. i. p. 1.

And there is much ease and gracefulness of trifling, blended with the qualities we have noticed, in the following letter to a fair unknown :-

'DEAR MADAM,

Feb. 19, 1781.

'When a man, especially a man that lives altogether in the country, undertakes to write to a lady he never saw, he is the awkwardest creature in the world. He begins his letter under the same sensations he would have, if he was to accost her in person, only with this difference, -that he may take as much time as he pleases for consideration, and need not write a single word that he has not well weighed and pondered beforehand, much less a sentence that he does not think supereminently clever. In every other respect, whether he be engaged in an interview or in a letter, his behaviour is, for the most part, equally constrained

and

and unnatural. He resolves, as they say, to set the best leg foremost, which often proves to be what Hudibras calls

Not that of bone,

But much its better-th' wooden one.

His extraordinary effort only serves, as in the case of that hero, to throw him on the other side of his horse; and he owes his want of success, if not to absolute stupidity, to his most earnest endeavour to secure it.

'Now I do assure you, Madam, that all these sprightly effusions of mine stand entirely clear of the charge of premeditation, and that I never entered upon a business of this kind with more simplicity in my life. I determined, before I began, to lay aside all attempts of the kind I have just mentioned; and being perfectly free from the fetters that self-conceit, commonly called bashfulness, fastens upon the mind, am, as you see, surprisingly brilliant.'—vol. i. pp. 82, 83.

There is a cant Spanish expression (what a history is contained in the fact of a language possessing it!) to sing in an agony,' applied to confession on the rack, which is not inapplicable to the union of humour and despair which sometimes occurs in Cowper's letters. It was this complicated feeling which produced his poem of John Gilpin during a fit of deep depression. In a letter to Mr. Newton, we have a specimen of this unnatural alliance, and in another a striking account of it:

'I do not at all doubt the truth of what you say, when you complain of that crowd of trifling thoughts that pesters you without ceasing; but then you always have a serious thought standing at the door of your imagination, like a justice of peace with the riot-act in his hand, ready to read it, and disperse the mob. Here lies the difference between you and me. My thoughts are clad in a sober livery, for the most part as grave as that of a bishop's servants. They turn too upon spiritual subjects, but the tallest fellow, and the loudest amongst them all, is he who is continually crying with a loud voice, Actum est de te, peristi. You wish for more attention, I for less. Dissipation itself would be welcome to me, so it were not a vicious one.'-vol. i. pp. 128, 129.,

'Indeed I wonder that a sportive thought should ever knock at the door of my intellects, and still more that it should gain admittance. It is as if harlequin should intrude himself into the gloomy chamber where a corpse is deposited in state. His antic gesticulations would be unseasonable at any rate, but more especially so if they should distort the features of the mournful attendants into laughter. But the mind, long wearied with the sameness of a dull, dreary prospect, will gladly fix its eyes on any thing that may make a little variety in its contemplations, though it were but a kitten playing with her tail.'-vol. i. pp. 60, 61.

We can give only one more specimen of his humour.

We hope that Patty has been falsely accused. But, however that may be, we see great cause to admire either the cogency of her arguments, or her husband's openness to conviction, who, by a single box on the ear, was so effectually assured of the innocence of his wife, as to

become

become more attached to her than ever. For the sake of good husbands, it is to be hoped that she will keep her nostrum a secret, or communicate it only to ladies in her own predicament, who have need of the most forcible proofs of their integrity.'-p. 359.

Having given our readers such a taste of the literary merits of these volumes, as may enable them to judge whether they will take the honourable station which their predecessors have long held in one of the most frequented shelves of our libraries, we must turn our attention to a subject of deeper but melancholy interest.

The volumes which Dr. Johnson (a cousin, and faithful friend of Cowper in his last sorrows) has published, contain much information hitherto withheld from the public, respecting the fearful sufferings of his relation, and their connection with his religious opinions. Painful as the details are, we cannot regret that any thing has been published which throws light on the long standing doubt whether those sufferings were increased or alleviated by those opinions. Dr. Johnson thinks the information now given decisive, and that Cowper's unhappiness must undoubtedly be referred solely to his alienation of mind. We agree with him that the evidence is decisive-the only question is, which way?

No one can have read the letters and memoirs of Cowper without being convinced that his imagination was too excitable and powerful to be in subjection to him who should have been its master. He would willingly have resigned that incessantly creative energy of genius, which he tells us (vol. i. p. 179.) caused jeux d'esprit to spring up like mushrooms in his imagination,' if he could at the same time have got rid of all the effects of its activity.

There is a certain perverseness, of which, I believe, all men have a share, but of which no man has a larger share than I-I mean that temper, or humour, or whatever it is to be called, that indisposes us to a situation, though not unpleasant in itself, merely because we cannot get out of it. I could not endure the room in which I now write, were I conscious that the door were locked. In less than five minutes I should feel myself a prisoner, though I can spend hours in it, under an assurance that I may leave it when I please, without experiencing any tedium at all. It was for this reason, I suppose, that the yacht was always disagreeable to me. Could I have stepped out of it into a cornfield or a garden, I should have liked it well enough; but being surrounded with water, I was as much confined in it as if I had been surrounded by fire.'-vol. ii. pp. 22, 23.

Such were his petty annoyances from a restless imagination, even when his health was comparatively good. Its uncontroulable force during periods of despondency may make a plain man

thankful