to take a public part in national concerns, would not behold his setting sun with less complacency for having been the faithful inflexible remonstrant against ambition, corruption, and war. The principal article in this pamphlet, is the speech respecting what has been called the Holy Alliance.' Mr. F. was anxious to seize one more occasion of impressing on the minds of his fellow citizens the hatefulness of that wide-wasting system of destruction which has desolated the Continent, and exhausted and corrupted the people of this island; and the perniciousness and delusion of that military spirit which has thence been created among every people, and which so many horrors and miseries have not cured. In this anomalous Treaty of Alliance he found the great military monarchs solemnly declaring against this war-system and this martial spirit, and professing their earnest approbation of all the charities of the Christian religion. He had seen some of them perfectly idolized in this country; it was at least matter of etiquette in the assembly which he addressed, to hold them sincere in their professions, and it was but policy to assume that sincerity, and thus bring the highest authorities in the world in argument against that destructive system which it could not now be pretended that only cloistered monks, and moralists, and sentimentalists, and economists, joined to reprobate. The most convenient way of availing himself of these paramount authorities, was in the form of moving an address to the Head of our Government, to become a party to the league. He foresaw, undoubtedly, the fate of the motion; but he gained his substantial object, that of making a public, well authorized protest against the military spirit still too prevalent. The Speech contains a number of just sentiments and striking facts, illustrative of the character of that monster of evil, which all its ravages have not sufficed to divest of its attractions in the view of the suffering nations. 6 The publication is introduced by an address to the Lord Mayor, Aldermen, and Common Council, inculcating the same important considerations; and it is followed by a short Address to the Christian World,' first printed in 1813. A leading purpose of this serious address, is to inculcate on good men the duty of giving a greater prominence to that view of Christianity, in which it is most specifically opposed to the military madness of the age,-in their instructions, their social religious transactions, and their public meetings. This duty, evident. enough on general grounds, will have been made still more palpable to any reflecting man who shall have heard a tenth part of the pompous and elated references to heroes, martial glory, and the like, which have been made and echoed in assemblies avowedly met for the promotion of the Christian illumination of the world. Art. XIII. 1. Monody on the Death of the Right Honourable R. B. Sheridan, Written at the Request of a Friend, to be spoken at Drury Lane Theatre 8vo. pp 12 Price 1s. Murray, 1816. 2. A Garland for the Charles Phillips, Esq Hailes, 1816. MR. Grave of Richard Brinsley Sheridan. By R. CHARLES PHILLIPS tells us, in reference to the object of his idolatry, the unhappy Sheridan, That Ignorance worshipped the path which he trod.' His meaning is rather ambiguous, it must be confessed, but the assertion is literally true. The path which Sheridan trod, only Ignorance could worship. But it has conducted him to the Grave, and therefore, whatever follies and whatever crimes characterized the man while living, whatever, to adopt the phrase of the Author of the Monody, seemed' to be Vice,' he is, it appears, no longer to be spoken of, but in the language of adulation, as one of the rarest specimens of humanity. We are to sigh That Nature formed but one such man, And broke the die-in moulding Sheridan.' Yes: he was one of those thirty thousand deities to which modern Idolatry has allotted an apotheosis; for this apparent reason, that their talents were somewhat above, and their vices somewhat below, the ordinary level of humanity. We have no pagans now in this country, except Mr. Thomas Taylor, and therefore we have no priests to bring forth the sacrifice in honour of this demi-god, and to shout," The gods are come "down in the likeness of men." Otherwise, it would seem that had Paul and Barnabas visited us, they would have been in less danger of being saluted with Divine honours, than the poor shattered wreck of Genius, the late manager of Drury Lane Theatre. So far from being pagans, we profess to be even protestants, and the farce of canonization is justly held in derision. Otherwise, like one of the crew of the Victory who said he thought St. Nelson as good a saint as any in the Calendar, we might have our St. Pitt, St. Fox, and St. Burke, The wondrous Three, Whose words were sparks of Immortality." Aye, and St. Sheridan also, enrolled in the Litany of the fashionable world, and Ora pro nobis devoutly warbled at their names. If this be thought an extreme supposition, we need only quote a few lines from Mister Phillips's Garland. He is gone to the Angels that lent him their lyre, The welcome of l'aradise pour.' But it would indeed be an insult to the age to suppose that these Monodies could be received in any other light, than that of a decent ceremonial tribute to a man of Genius, in which courtesy demanded that the utmost pomp of panegyric should be used, of which the style and titles of the deceased would admit. It is but matter of course for the herald to proclaim, when the ashes of the peer are consigned to the family vault, that the deceased was the Most Noble, or the Right Honourable, or His Grace, Duke, and Prince, or Earl, Viscount, and so forth. For they are all, all honourable men.' And would you but believe the escutcheon, and the marble, the weeping statues, the cherubs, and the achievement, there was grief on earth and joy in heaven at their departure. Besides, in this present case, the Monody' was written to be spoken at Drury Lane Theatre. Surely, in a place where grief and madness, and prayers and imprecations, and death itself, are so often acted, it would have been out of the question to exhibit Sheridan unmasked and in his native character. No: dresses enough were in readiness, to lend dramatic effect to the veteran of the drama, and the mimic clouds, the well-drest angels, and the unsubstantial heaven of the stage machinery, would serve to throw a fair illusion over his last scene. And if the monody was well spoken, who would think of inquiringis it true? The Monody is in itself beautifully written. We transcribe the opening lines. When the last sunshine of expiring day Even as the tenderness that hour instils When all of Genius which can perish-dies.' The following lines are a specious attempt to apologize for the immoral conduct of Sheridan, on the plea that what seem'ed vice might be but woe.' If the sentiment were not so utterly false in its application to a character which suffered so little injustice from calumny, one would exceedingly admire the spirit and the power with which the passage is written. Hard is his fate on whom the public gaze Is fixed for ever to detract or praise, These are his portion-but if joined to these Meet sordid Rage-and wrestle with Disgrace, What marvel if at last the mightiest fail? Breasts to whom all the strength of feeling given By clouds surrounded, and on whirlwinds borne, pp. 9—10. We have given a specimen of Mr. Phillips's "Garland." It is altogether, take the prose and verse together, one of the most exquisite pieces of tawdry bombast, that ever gained a young writer's self-complacency. Putting aside the extreme folly of representing Sheridan's death as an occasion for triumph, and alleging that He lived mid corruption, yet cloudless his name ; putting aside the impiety of the opening stanza; what shall we say to the taste displayed in the following lines, in reference to his dramatic works? Whose streams of liquid diamond, rolled Again: 'He is gone-but his memory sheds a ray As sinking in the ocean surge, Once more: • Erect not now earth's emblematic stone, Can but regenerate that deathless name!' The name of the writer of such a stanza as this, certainly needs be regenerated before it will be deathless not to dare make a reference to any other kind of regeneration of which he may personally stand in need. But let us present to our readers a specimen of the prose. 'What scene did not his life illumine! What circle has not his loss eclipsed! Another Burke may chain the senate-Another Shakspeare crowd the theatre-Another Curran fascinate the board Another Moore enchant the fancy, or another Hampden vindicate the land-but where shall we behold their bright varieties again combined, concentrating as it were their several lights, in one refulgent orb that left no cloud untinged-no charm uncreated.' This is followed by a parallel between the character and the fate of Sheridan, who is styled the human epitome of Ireland,' and the strange and peculiar characteristics' and pitiless condition of that unhappy island.' 'But this,' exclaims our Orator, is a subject from which I must pass away I cannot write on it without danger, for, thank God, I cannot think on it without indignation.' Our readers doubtless recollect Dr. Johnson's laconic reply to the message he received from Millar the bookseller, that he thanked God he had done with him;'- Dr. Johnson is very glad Mr. Millar has grace enough to thank God for any thing.' Mr. Phillips is known to the public, through the medium of the Newspapers and of the Edinburgh Review, as the Author VOL. VI. N. S. 2 S |