political infants of that day, who fweetly prattled of taxation and representation, and understood very little of either the one or the other.

It was chance, alfo, which made Mr. Burke a reformer. His great connections, fome of whom had, un-、 doubtedly, good intentions towards their country, were of opinion that a reform of some kind had become abfolutely neceffary. The very words-liberty and reform-are of prime confideration in the vocabulary of a patriot, and the great patriot in question was never niggard of them, as long as they could ferve his turn. A true difciple of St. Paul, and as capable as that great apoftle, of "being all things to all men,' now that he has, for the good of his dear country, asfociated with men to whom liberty and reform are an antidote, he has intirely abandoned the use of them, both in name and fubftance.

Confidering the country from whence he fprang, Mr. Burke has certainly, on one occafion, exhibited fome traits of becoming modesty of character. Unlike many of his precurfors and his pupils, in the courfe of oppofition-patriotism, who, their ends once obtained, never afterwards mention the word reformation, unless to expatiate upon the great danger of it to a state, whether in peace or war; he thought it prudent to fave appearances, and really laboured with commendable industry, in the operation of reforms of a certain fpecies. Thefe, however, he took efpecial care fhould be of that kind which could not endanger, for indeed they did not concern, the facred foundations of our political conftitution. As little did they concern the interefts of the people, who, as far as ever I could learn, were generally ignorant of their nature and intent, and totally indifferent as to their iffue. They were felt, fuppofe, in the public offices, and in the king's kitchen; and poffibly might contribute, for an hour or two, to enliven the natural infipidity of drawing-room converfation, In thofe circles, Mr. Burke's wonderful re

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forms, which "faved the nation," are no doubt still remembered, and poffibly with refpect; but had not himself taken the trouble to blazon them forth, or rather to point them out, the ftupid and ungrateful people had remained totally ignorant of his fervices, and infenfible of their own confequent falvation.

In one of his late addreffes to the ungrateful country, in the fhape of a pamphlet, what a tremendous ftorm. has the wizard Burke conjured up, and how easily has he allayed it with the touch of his magic wand. He brings the people of three mighty kingdoms to the very brink of civil blood, havoc, and confusion, and, in the very moment of impending deftruction, calms their boiling rage, allays their terrors, and fatisfies their fierce defires; How-patriotic reader, how?-By methodizing the office of paymaster-general, and regulating the establishment of his majesty's civil lift!!! -Greater than Tom Thumb the Great, the wonderworker Edmund, created ten thoufand proper giants, and then he killed them. He difcovered an invifible conflagration, which, with its mighty extent, was to envelope and devour whole nations; and he extinguished it with a school-boy's fquirt!

Making all poffible allowance for the inbred vanity of the man, for the vaunting garrulity of old age, for the eagerness to catch at the fhadow of exculpation, under a latent, jealous sense of guilt,--is it poffible? can we credit our eyes, or our understandings, when they inform us, that Mr. Burke, with all that penetrative power of mind, with all that fagacity, for which he has been fo long diftinguished, could publifh, by way of erecting trophies to his character, fuch puerile, fuch pitiable abfurdities? Were that at all needful in these days of infatuation, he has helped us to an additional and powerful argument, in proof of the pofition-that a man of great talents, under the controul of intereft and prejudice, may reason like a madman, and act like a fool.

This faviour of his country, "in one feffion, made an analysis of the whole commercial, financial, conftitutional, and foreign interests of Great Britain and its empire." He ftudied, it seems, political economy from his very early youth, to near the end of his fervices in parliament. Yet, ftrange to tell, notwithstanding his recondite ftudies, and his laborious fervices, our commercial and financial fyftems are ftill labouring and finking under inveterate errors and corruptions, both in principle and practice; and, for our conftitutional and foreign interefts, fo egregioufly and wilfully have they been mistaken, that we have obviously loft our former high rank among the nations, and have idly bartered away for a shadow, the internal tranquillity of the country. How unprofitably, then (alas! that I could ftop there) both for his country and mankind at large, has the life of this brilliant genius been spent!and yet, let us not fay, that Edmund Burke hath lived in vain. He fhall ftand recorded to pofterity as an eminent example of the inutility and danger of great and fhining talents, when unaccompanied with found judgment, or alienated from the facred caufe of truth. He fhall be read with caution as an author, whose wanton and glowing imagery, magically embodied in the fweetest, most appropriate, and moft harmonious language, ferves only to epicurize the taste, mislead the judgment, and corrupt the heart. He fhall be num

bered among those who swim with an amazing speed, ftrength, and compafs upon the furface, and in the middle regions of the fea of knowledge; but who do not poffefs either weight, power, or inclination, fufficient to fathom its depth; fuch, as like ignes fatui, bewitch and fascinate the fouls of men, not seldom to their utter undoing; among that dangerous race, in fhort, which feems to juftify the wifdom of the old Grécian legiflator, who banished eloquence from his commonwealth.

GARRICK's

GARRICK'S MONUMENT.

ment is, at laft, erected to the memory of Garrick a tribute which the fplendid talents of the Englifh Rofcius well deferved, and which every lover of the drama has long and ardently wifhed to fee paid to him. We think, with many others, that it has been delayed much too long, and that it ought to have been beftowed by one who poffeffed a nearer and a dearer name than that of friend. But on this we will not dwell it is not our intention to give an account of what should have been, but of what has been done. To do this impartially, we fhall firft give what we confider as the artist's defcription of the monument, and then the opinion we have formed from a careful examination of it. The advertisement of the artist, for so we deem it, though his name is not affixed to it, (it having appeared among the advertisements in the Oracle of June the 13th) is as follows:

GARRICK'S MONUMENT IN WESTMINSTER

ABBEY.

"THIS interefting and well executed tribute of a private friend to the memory of a man, to whom the public owe amusement of the highest kind, being now opened for infpection, fome defcription of it, by way of explaining the fculptor's defign, may be useful and pro

per.

"GARRICK is reprefented at full length in an animated pofition, throwing afide a curtain, which difcovers the medallion of the great poet whom he has illuftrated; while Tragedy and Comedy, adorned with their refpective emblems, and half feated on a pedestal, feem to approve the tribute. The curtain itself is defigned to represent the veil of ignorance and barbarism

which darkened the drama of the immortal bard till the appearance of GARRICK. The careffing attitude, airy figure, and fmiling countenance of the Comic Mufe, is intended to defcribe the fatisfaction fhe derives from, at length, beholding a memorial to her fa-. vourite; while Meipomene, with a more majestic and dignified mien, raifing her veil, gazes with characteristic admiration on the "fovereign of the willing foul,' whom the at once delights in and deplores.

"The fimilitude to GARRICK will immediately be felt by every spectator who has his features in remembrance; and where is the perfon of tafte, who has ever once feen them, and can forget their resemblance? The whole is, indeed, very finely executed. The curtain is light and elegant; the back ground is compofed of beautiful dove-coloured marble, relieving the figures, which are in pure ftatuary marble; and thus the harmony of the compofition is complete.'

"The artift is WEBBER, who ferved his apprenticefhip to BACON, from whofe fuccessful school he went to Rome, and studied the antique.

"This monument of GARRICK was a subject worthy of his improved talents, and affords a happy earnest of what in future may be expected from them.

"The lines for the infcription were fupplied by the mufe of Mr. Pratt."

Such is, (if we may be allowed the phrase) the official defcription of Garrick's monument; and it now remains for us to fay how far the thing itself coincides with what is thus faid of it.

We will begin with the principal figure, which is that of Garrick. To the attitude of the body, we have not any objection; it is graceful and animated: but the fculptor muft furely have moft ftrangely forgot himself, to say no worfe, when he turned the head away from the light. By this glaring mismanagement he has entirely loft all the advantage which would