The commencement of the poem is happily animated:

Tear from thy guilty brow that vernal wreath,
Chase from thy train those wanton airs which breathe
Of Joy, and Love, and Life! let nought appear
To gratulate thy course, disastrous year!
Away with all the Season's gawdy trim,

Cold be thy zephyrs, and thy suns be dim!' &c.

The personages who figure in this poetical necrology are, the Countess Dowager of Jenison Walworth, John Dunnage, Esq., the Hon. Mrs. Ellis, Mrs. Greville, La Duchesse de Grammont, Sir William Hamilton, and Lady Harriet Hamil

The lyrical stanzas on the latter are intitled to particular commendation: but where all is elegant and pathetic, it is hazardous to attempt selection. We shall first extract the subsequent passage, without asserting that it, is among the best in the performance:

And art thou gone, Parent and friend revered!
Parent of her by ev'ry charm endear'd
To this love-beating heart, to whom I owe
All that of bliss mankind can hope below!
Yes, thou art gone! thy Susan, far away,
Smiled no sweet sunshine on thy closing day,
Not on her breast thy drooping forehead hung,
Not to her lips thy summon'd Spirit clung,
Ah! no-whilst others watch'd thy ebbing breath,
And lighten'd by their love the load of Death,
Haply thy Susan, in a distant land,

E'en at that hour the scheme of pleasure plann'd
To meet once more on Danube's happy plain,
And clasp a Mother to her heart again!

Nor shall the mournful chronicle forget
One who with honest truth my friendship met +;
To him farewell! -thy morning clouds were past,
And all thy days seem'd bright'ning to the last,
Youth was thy season of distress and tears,
But Pleasure met thee in the vale of years,
Scarce in the vale, ere all thy sand was run,
And thy life ended when thy joys begun,
To thee farewell-and oh! when Summer leads
To Cambria's woodland rocks and streamy meads,
Each scene of Nature's pageantry review'd,
Each scheme of social happiness renew'd,
Each rural day, each festive night shall be
A dear, a long remembrancer of thee!

The Countess Dowager of Jenison Walworth, Mrs. Spencer's

mother, died at Heidelberg in Germany.'

John Dunnage, Esq.'

REV. NOV. 1804.

+ Scarcely.
U

Began.
Ọ think

O think not fruitless are the griefs which rend
The heart of Friendship o'er a buried friend;
Are they not vouchers of distinguish'd days,
Of active virtues, and decided praise?

The man, when summon'd to the realms of Death,
Who unlamented yields his useless breath,
Though no foul crimes done in his mortal state
The fearful hour of retribution wait,

Yet long in cold obstruction dark he lies
Unwept on earth, unwelcomed in the skies!
Whilst ev'ry tear o'er Friendship's ashes pour'd
Blots out some frailty from the dread record,
And ev'ry sigh breathed on the fun'ral sod,
Wafts the loved Spirit nearer to his God!'

The approaching marriage of the beautiful Lady H. Hamilton is thus joyously hailed, and her sudden death thus pathetically lamented:

Fresh flowers which on the fountain brink

The breath of day-spring rears,

Whose dainty blossoms only drink

The rainbow's diamond tears;

Such flowers alone my hand shall wreathe

For Harriet's genial bow'r,

Such flowers alone their sweets shall breathe
On Harriet's bridal hour.

Pure as Elysian mornings break,

Fond hopes her fair cheek flush,

Pure as the sinless thoughts which wakę
The cherub's infant blush!

'Oh! for a voice, if such there be,
Which sighs have never broke,
Oh! for a harp, whose melody
Of sorrow never spoke!

For thee, Tyrone, their strains should flow,
Since ev'ry bliss divine

Which saints believe, or seraphs know,

With Harriet's heart is thine.

Yes, thine are joys beyond the scope
Of fiction's brightest theme,

Brighter than all which youth can hope,

Or Love, or Fancy dream.

Smile on thy green hills, Erin smile,

Thy woes, thy wars shall cease,

An angel to thy troubled isle

Bears Concord, Joy, and Peace!

The Lady Harriet Hamilton, eldest daughter to John James Marquis of Abercorn, was shortly to have been married to Henry de la Poer, Marquis of Waterford, Earl of Tyrone.'

Ah check the song!

Too well, when first I tuned the mournful strain,
My boding heart presaged severer pain.

Tis past-and thou hast struck, disastrous Year!
Thy master-stroke of desolation here.-

'Tis past-young, fair, and faultless Harriet dies,
Lovely in youthful death the slumb'rer lies,
Still hope and peace her gentle features speak,
Life's farewell smile still lights her fading cheek!
Soft was the voice which call'd her spirit hence,
Death wore no shape to scare her parting sense;
A white-robed messenger of light he seem'd,
His looks with smiles of heavenly promise beam'd,
Skywards were spread his wings of feathery snow,
And lilies wreath'd his alabaster brow.
Stanmore through all her joy-deserted seats
No lamentation hears, no sigh repeats;
Silent like thee, whose virgin bier they dress,
Silent like thee, whose pale-rose lips they press,
Thy mourners speak no grief, no dirge prepare,
Thy dirge is silence, and their grief despair!
Oh! mourn, illustrious mourners! with my strain
A nation's sympathy accords in vain.
He who the world's expected mis'ry bears
Claims the sweet solace of congenial tears,
When unforeseen calamities surprise,
Radiant with life and joy when Harriet dies,
Sorrow beyond communion or control
In dumb distraction settles on the soul.
When Evening's wintry veil th' horizon palls,
Frequent for aid the lated wand'rer calls,
When the tornado shakes his demon wings,
And sudden midnight o'er the noon-day flings,
Aghast he sinks beneath th' untimely gloom,
And crazed with speechless horror meets his doom

Let us not withhold, also, the concluding apostrophe:

To those who witnessed the affliction of a family not more distinguished by rank and talents, than happy in domestic affections, this description may appear to have every fault, except that of exaggeration."

G. 2.

It will be easily perceived that the author is familiar with polished style and smoothly flowing verse. We shall only hint that he is, perhaps, too partial to continuous lines,—if so we may call those which carry on the sense, without a terminating pause. Their frequent recurrence ought certainly to be avoided in a short poem, composed in heroic measure.

May Mr. S. soon snatch his harp from the willow, and attune it to the notes of gladness!

Muir,

ART. X. The Costume of the Hereditary States of the House of Austria, displayed in Fifty coloured Engravings; with Descriptions and an Introduction by M. Eertrand De Moleville. Translated by R. C. Dallas, Esq. Imperial 4to. 61. 6s. Boards. Miller. 1804. HIS work, which forms the immediate sequel of the publication mentioned in our last Number, p. 179, does not profess to give all the dresses of the different states that compose the German Empire, but is confined to an exhibition of those which are most remarkable in the states belonging to the House of Austria. The form and colouring of the costume in these drawings are said to be faithfully copied from plates in a collection which lately appeared at Vienna, under the title of Costume des Etats de l'Empereur: but the publisher boasts of the superior execution of British engravers, of the new arrangement of the plates, and of the descriptions historical, geographical, topographical, and statistical, not to be found in the German performance, with which this elegant volume is enriched. We are unable to ascertain what degree of merit is due to the care here employed in arranging the engravings in a better order than was observed in the original: but it seems to us a strange negligence in this series of engravings, as well as in all the preceding volumes of the same kind, that the title of each plate is not inserted either at the top or the bottom of it; for should it be detached by accident from the accompanying description, the observer may be unable to ascertain what it represents. Dr. Johnson's remark on Epitaphs, that they ought always to include the name of the persons to whom they relate, may be fairly applied to plates exhibiting solitary figures; which may be easily mistaken, and obtain titles very different from those that were primarily intended. In one respect, however, these engravings possess an advantage over all the delineations of costume hitherto furnished by Mr. Miller, viz, the figures are relieved by a landscape back-ground. On the subject of the accompanying letter-press, the publisher speaks with much satisfaction of the assistance which he has obtained from M. Bertrand

de Molleville, who is said to have devoted his leisure hours to this undertaking.

Prefixed to the Descriptions separately allotted to each plate, is an Introduction, containing A Sketch of the History of the House of Austria and its hereditary dominions; which includes, in the first place, the pedigree of this illustrious family, and next the states which it has acquired by marriages and gifts, by treaties and partitions. The countries here enumerated are The Castle and County of Hapsburg, the Circle of Austria, the Kingdom of Hungary, and the Kingdom of Bohemia. Notice is taken of the first as having antiently belonged to this House, though it has formed no part of its dominions since the year 1415, from which period its property and possession have always remained vested in the Canton of Berne. Of the others, M. Bertrand de Moleville gives this short ac

count:

Austria, which is divided into Lower, Interior, and Upper, is the most southern part of Germany. It is bounded by Bohemia, Hungary, Italy, Swisserland, and Bavaria. Though mountainous, the soil is fertile, the country producing a great quantity of corn and wine, and abounding in wood, and particularly in pastures. It contains mines of iron, copper, gold, silver, and quicksilver.-The Austrian families of the different classes of the people are almost all descendants of the Sclavonians, or of the Vandals, and the nobility are of German extraction. The Roman Catholic is the established religion of these different states; but Greeks, Protestants, and Jews are tolerated. The number of the inhabitants in the circle of Austria is about 4,150,000.'

The kingdom of Hungary is stated to be about 300 miles long and 200 broad, and to contain 87,575 square miles. It is bounded on the North by Poland, on the West by Germany, and on the East and South by Turkey in Europe. It comprises at present three great provinces, Hungary, properly so called, Transylvania, and Sclavonia.-The number of inhabitants in Hungary is estimated at 4,991,775, at the rate of fifty-seven to each square mile; and that of the bannat of Temeswar, (which was ceded by the Porte to the Emperor, at the peace of Passarowitz in 1718,) at 450,000.

Bohemia, which is one of the most antient monarchies of Europe, consists of Bohemia proper, Moravia, and Silesia. It is about 478 miles long and 322 broad, and is bounded on the North by Saxony and Brandenburg, on the East by Poland and Hungary, on the South by Austria and Bavaria, and on the West by the Palatinate of Bavaria. A great part of Silesia belongs to the King of Prussia by virtue of the treaty of Breslaw of June 11, 1742, the Queen of Hungary's act of Renunciation,

U 3