affection, to be the guardian of her offspring during its national non-age! Hence a regular civil and military government was established, according to the most approved forms of antiquity, and consistent with all those habits of economy which successive generations have witnessed in the administration of the affairs of the old world. And as it could not be supposed that any one could be selected, at least for a considerable period, from the infant colonists themselves, it became necessary to send out proper official personages from the father-land, to regulate and instruct the novices in the arts of social life, and the mysteries of dispensing justice, and preserving order.

Again, it was not to be supposed that magistrates and constables were alone sufficient to rule the desart, which was designed for a plantation; or the bowels of the earth which were destined to be extracted in the shape of gold and silver,—clearly not; nor could the scales of justice contain all that existed of dispute and contention. Another staff than that of the peace-officer was necessary. Other nations might look upon the flourishing colony with eyes of desire. The subdued natives might rebel. Even the slave might shake his chains, and the convict forget his sentence.

It was obvious, therefore, that to maintain colonies in subjection, a large military force was necessary. Indeed, numberless wars had arisen out of the establishment and preservation of these dangerous "children" of the parent state. And it was most obvious that the brave protectors of these beneficial provinces, ought to be liberally remunerated. They voluntarily left (some, perhaps, had been compelled to leave) the land of their birth to endure all the vicissitudes of ungenial climes, to encounter peril of wave and tomahawk, and many to perish far from their homes,

"By strangers honor'd, and by strangers mourn'd ;"

it was just, therefore, that they should reap the first fruits of that prosperity which they had preserved, and which without them, perhaps, would never have existed.

Hence it was obvious that the necessary expence of these possessions formed a very formidable item on the debtor side of the account-current of colonial benefits; and it was remarkable that at the very moment when these children were capable of making some return for the expence of their breeding and education, they invariably threw off their allegiance. Whether this was owing to the want of wisdom in the parent, or of gratitude in the child, might be a question; but of the fact there could be no doubt, and such being the case, it

was rather difficult to discern the balance of benefit in any ordinary sense, in which that term could be applied.

Existence was, indeed, confessedly, a blessing; and at a distant time advantage would, no doubt, arise to some person in consequence of some of these colonial acquisitions; but, as between`a colony and its parent state, there was, in general, more trouble than profit.

The speculations which had been indulged in, regarding the benefits conferred by colonization on commerce, would have been very pleasing if they were true; and it was much to be lamented that they were false. So far from commerce being extended or improved by commerce, the truth was, that the connexion with colonies which we called our own, had the effect of limiting our intercourse with other nations. Instead of trading from port to port, as the interests of commerce might dictate, our merchants were constrained, in a great degree, in their dealings to the limited markets which were thus prescribed, and consequently capital was confined to flow in narrow and contracted channels. Thus commerce was, in truth injured, instead of being enlarged and benefited; and until these restraints were removed, the commercial mind remained unchanged; and it was only by the agency of great convulsions in society that we were thrown out of the trammels which such systems of antiquity had imposed, and that the great interests of the human race were placed upon an enlightened and liberal basis.

The fanciful ties of relationship between the colonies and mother country, had nothing whatever to do with national prosperity. The loss of colonies did not diminish trade, and unless it were voluntary it could not confer a benefit. Restriction was at variance with the true interests of every community.

It was indeed admitted, that evils accompanied the relative situation of the mother and daughter countries; but it was contended that they were not inherent. This, however, had not been shown. It might be dreamt of as a possibility. But reason conversed only with probabilities. We were scarcely competent to decide what was or was not possible. The finite powers of man were bounded by his experience; that which had always occurred, we must conclude, would occur again, and the same features were presented in the history of all these relationships. We had seen in every state and kingdom, from the wide provinces of the ancient mistress of the world, to the modern transatlantic dominions of Spain, Portugal, Holland, France, and England, that the same principle pervaded them all. At the commencement of the connexion, the colonies drained the parent states to establish

themselves, and when they were able to relieve the burthens which they had in fact created, they threw off their allegiance and proclaimed their self-dependency.

The simile of the parent and child was a mere metaphor. It was a political, not a natural connexion. The bonds of such a relationship were the slightest in the world, and the moment that personal interest interfered, the obligation was cancelled; and, though we might bewail the ingratitude of our children, the sentimental sorrow was a miserable substitute for wealth exhausted and exertions misapplied.

The comparison which had been instituted of the two brothers, who were supposed to be benefited by trading with each other, was not carried far enough. The truth was, they were not in a state of independence; but of subjection. If the merchant was compelled to purchase of the manufacturer, although he could obtain the commodities he required at a cheaper rate from others, the "family" instead of being benefited, would be injured. And thus it was in the circumstances as they existed between nations and their dependencies. It was as impolitic as it was unjust, to use compulsory means where freedom only should prevail. On the whole, therefore, although it was desirable that new colonies should be established to fertilize the earth and extend the dominion of the human race, yet there ought to exist no political connexion between the new and the old countries; and the only ties by which they should be bound together, ought to be their mutual wants and interests. Trade should be free as the boundless ocean that bore its treasures, and commerce should be limited only by the hand of Nature, and not by the short-sighted policy of man.

SONNET.

AN INFANT'S GRAVE.

Beneath this narrow mound a guiltless form

Lies sleeping-never-never more to wake,
Till the last trump the charnel-house shall shake!

Young prey of death! Fair banquet for the worm!

Rescued from every sorrow-every storm.

There rests the heart grief might have doomed to ache;
Or destined others for its guilt to break :

Within that breast, with life so lately warm,

Extinguished every germ of passion lies;

That might have made the world a scene of woe,
Or lit up gladness in a thousand eyes;

Embryo of all accursed or blest below!

There slumbers, nipt in bud, what might have been,
A worn-out struggler through life's stormy scene.

J. B.

OH! ancient Crete! that wert the reverend dome,
Whence issued forth, as from their native home,
Right law and civil concord, and to Greece
Proclaim'd the discipline of truth and peace!
Amnisus, mart of wealthy ships, appear'd
Beneath fam'd Guossus, and her towers uprear'd,
Like the fair handmaid of a stately queen,

While freedom strengthen'd all the glorious scene!
The written laws of Minos, sage sublime!
Ministered duly in that simpler time,

Curbed the untoward will, and spread the smile
Of public safety o'er the generous isle :
The merchants, lords of traffic and the sea,
Like sons around thy hearth, Equality,

Met at the public meal of strength and health,
With them whose freedom was their only wealth;
VOL. III. PART I.

E

Whence unto these vile envy was unknown,
Fantastic pride to those,-but concord's zone
Bound them together nobly, cherish'd still
The strength untam'd, and every principle
Of their first fathers, and the rustic faith
That ran from son to sou, surviving death!
Then in those happy times, old story says,
'Twas pleasing to behold the rising race
Train'd in their schools, their labours, and their sports,
Placed e'er within great Minos' awful courts,
And his controlling eye, a docile band,
Though born to freedom, subject to command,
Pronouncing his dread laws in tuneful tones,

Or hymning bounteous heaven's immortal thrones,--
Or rescuing from the grave their heroes bold,
Resounding what the muse inspir'd of old.
There on the verge of manhood others met,
In heavy armour, thro' meridian heat,

To march with measur'd swiftness, and to climb
The rugged mountain's weary height sublime;
From hard-bent bows resistless shafts to send,
Or for the fame of prowess to contend,

While still breath'd o'er the war the warbling flute,
Staid solemn courage, grave and resolute,
Calm, cool, and thoughtful, changing headlong spite
To love of glory in the mimic fight.

Such were thine ancestors, taught from the birth,
In war or peace, to guard their native earth!
Such were, oh, ancient Crete, thy prime of days,
Storied of old in truth's immortal lays!*
But Candia is a fallen and sunken land,
A prey to sovereign vice and tyrant's hand;
Though smile her plains, and fertile be her fields,
To labour, Earth her products ever yields;
'But pride and slavery soon will quench that fire,
And labour with security expire;

For safety flies where freedom loses sway,
And terror reigns where hope hath pass'd away.

O, tyrant of the spacious gates of Crete,
Virtue had made thy royalty complete ;
But now I ken thy robes of state beneath,
The pang within, more fierce than that of death!
I trace thee to thy solitude, and there

Behold thee plagued with envy, wrath, despair!

* This exordium is adopted from a passage in Akenside's Pleasures of Imagination enlarged, book iii. lines 435-480.