Where ev❜n the peasant with a liberal air,
Could bend his pliant limbs in polish'd grace;
And fmile divefted of corroding care,

Though born a fufferer of the human race.

Through lengthened years, where fcience too had reign'd,
And where the arts their faireit trophies wore
Though fuperftition many a virtue feign'd,
Yet true compaffion fed the plaintive poor.

Britons! furvey the change with trembling eyes,
Mark the fad woes in curft ambition's train ;
And flee thofe fancied rights which gave them rife;
For promifed freedom gave a nation pain.

Once ye were told, for fo their poets fung,
That univerfal peace fhould fpread around;
Sure fome dire demon with deluding tongue,
Had each prophetic mind in falfehood bound.

The Age of Reafon call ye this; for shame
Reafon and juftice cannot difagree;
The Age of Folly is its proper name,
Unless in abject flavery man be free.

See ruddy youth! the peafant's harmless fon,
Dragged from the forrowing parents fond embrace,
Configned to fink in war, ere he has run

A fhort proportion of man's little race.

Poor penfive boy! his bofom perhaps has heaved
The figh of truth for fome fair fpotless maid
She too, alas of every hope bereaved,
Declining, foon will cold in earth be laid,

Yes, fad diftraction will her bosom tear;
From native tenderness, excefs of woe
Her timple rural mind is doomed to bear,
For from that fource her keeneft forrows flow.

See favage hands imbrued in female gore,
The tender fexes violated form;
Dragged from its wonted hofpitable door,

With every cruel mark of mifcreant scorn.

A wretched woman doomed by Nature's law,
To woes enough to melt the hardest heart;
Her infant fcarce allowed its breath to draw,
Before the new-made relatives muft part.

No reverence paid to either fex or age,
A bending father filvered o'er with years,
A fettered object of vindictive rage,

Mingles his forrows with an infant's tears.
For lo! a curfed faction, hell-bred rules,

A Monarch milder than the fummer's gale,
Deceived, and ruined by thefe frantic fools,
Now only lives in melancholy's tale.

He bent his head in meeknefs to the ftroke,
The best of Kings that ever Gallia knew;
For though vile cruelty his heart-strings broke,
He loved his God, and loved his country too,
Not fo his hardened and ambitious foes,

Faithlefs they lived, and without hope they died;
Nor fhall a Saviour's bofom give repofe,

To men who can a Saviour's power deride.

Ye fons of fcience, fee in ruins laid,
Whatever art or fancy could devife;

What havock rude barbarian hands have made;
Ah! catch the fympathy from wifdom's eyes!
For well it seems her gentle fons to mourn
The graces fled in frighted beauties train;
Fled like fair commerce, never to return,

In fearch of freedom o'er the boisterous main.

May Heaven, attendant on the patriot's prayer,
Save ONE FREE COUNTRY from ambition's grafp;
Let England ftill enjoy thy foftering care,
And only blefs the prefent as the past.

Then fhall fair freedom flourish with her train,
Amidst the bleffings of returning peace;
And fportive ruftics, chearful on the plain,
Find that a life of labour tends to ease.

HISTORY.

SUMMARY OF POLITICS.

LONG deftined, as we have been, to record the astonishing progrefs, and dreadful fucceffes, of vice combating against virtue, regicide against loyalty, and anarchy against order; to behold the triumphant banners of atheifm and treafon floating on facred fanes

and

and regal palaces; and the whole civilized world threatened with
utter fubverfion;-the gratification we experience on viewing the
reverfe of this horrid picture, on watching, with trembling
anxiety, and eager hope, the approach of that dreadful day of retri-
bution, when the traitor will be punished, and the libeller of his
God be crushed, may more eafily be conceived by our readers than
expreffed by ourfelves. Still we will not indulge in the language of
exultation; we know too well the inftability of human affairs,
we know too well what flight obftacles will frequently turn the
tide of fuccefs, on what trivial circumftances events the most im-
portant depend, to drew hady conclufions from the flattering prof-
pect, or to give way to a blind and dangerous confidence.
No, we
will confine ourselves, like the Chriftian hero, whose name will, to
the latest po erity, adorn the page of Lritifh hiftory, to offering up our
grateful thanks, for recent victories, to that Almighty being, whofe
FIAT filled the empty globe, and whofe breath would fuffice to
produce its annihilation; joining to them our fervent vows that he
will be gracioutly pleafed to continue his protection to those who
fight in bis name, again. bis enemies, and the enemies of his crea-
tures!

In our la political retrofpect we expreffed a hope that the victorious
allies in Italy would not ftop to lay a formal fiege to Mantua, "but
rapidly advance into Lombardy, compel the enemy to evacuate the
country and encourage the people to rettore their former govern-
ment." Happy are we to find that this plan of proceeding has been li-
terally followed. To trace, with pr cition, the military operations
of the Rulians and Autrians, under the command of the gallant
SUWARROW, whofe conduct in Italy has fully anfwered the high
character which Europe entertained of his talents, and the full con-
fidence which the two Emperors have repofed in him, would re-
quire a much greater portion of room than falls within our plan to
allot to a fummary of political events. All that military know
ledge, perfonal courage, vigilance, activity, perfeverance, and addrefs
could effect, has been atchieved by this celebrated General, i efore
his arrival, the Autrian General KRAY, after a feries of attacks,
conducted with a degree of kill, vigour, and perfeverance that has
never been exceeded, and in which the whole army, officers and
men, difplayed the mot heroic courage, expelled the French from
the Made, and compelled them, after having fulained confidera-
ble loffes, to relinquith their trong holds on the Mincio and the
Alige, and to retreat to the Adda. On the banks of this river,
rendered remarkable by the dear-bought victories which the great
plunderer of Italy, BUONAPARTE, obtained at the bridge of Lodi,
the French General MOREAU, whom the Directory had fent to take
the comand of their army, prepared for a vigorous defe ce.
thing that could give courage and confidence to his troops was neg-
Jested. Pntrenchments were thrown up wherever the river was
Contidered as parfable; and a fituation remarkably ftrong by
nature, was firengthened by every means which art could fp-
Ty In this pofition, however, SUWARROW, after having

No

driven in all his out-po's, refolved to attack him. Accordingly, on the morning of the 27th of April he forced the pailage of the river, at different points, attached the french in their entrenchment, and, after a mo defpera e action, obtained a complete victory, The French left fix thousand men on the fieid; and upwards of five thousand prifoners, including four Generals, fell into the hands of the allics, together with eighty pieces of cannon. The confequence of this action was the total expulfion of the French from the Milanese. The Trong fortrefs of Pechiera, on the lave of Garda, has been reduced; Novara, and Paria, and the cattle of Piacenza have been evacuated, and even Porcell, a town in the Piedmontefe. The French feem to be panic-ftric en; they fly on all fides, with the utmoft precipitation, no longer daring to op pofe the combined forces. The polition ta en by SUWARROW to the right and left of the Milanje, is calculated alike to prevent the junction of the difperfed relics of MOREAU' army with MasSENA in Switzerland; and the efcape of MACDONALD's army from Naples, where the loyal inhabitants of the country are in very great force, and in daily expectation of being joined by confiderable reinforcements from Sicily, and by a large body of Ruffians and Turks from Corfu. The Emperor has wifely published a general amnefty, for his revolted fubjects in Italy, and the beneficial confequences of this proceeding have been already made manifeft. The people have received their deliverers, with open arms, and fatiated, no doubt, with Gallic freedom, fubmit with joy to the tenperate authority of their lawful Sovereign. The Piedmontefe officers who have been taken, have, under the influence of SUWARRow, iffued a ftrong proclamation, inviting their countrymen to fly to the standard of royalty, and join them in reftoring their exiled monarch to the throne of his ancestors.

Meanwhile Marthal BELLEGARDE has fucceeded in his efforts to expel the French from the Engadine; and the oppreifed inhabitants of the fmaller cantons of Switzerland, encouraged by the hope of affiftance from the allies, have rifen upon their tyrants and put a number of them to the fword. Indeed, a fimilar difpofition prerails from the fhores of the Adriatic to the German ocean; fo anxious are the inhabitants of every country that has experienced the effects of French liberty, to thake off its fetters!

Amidit thefe important tranfactions, which reflect fo much honour on the fovereign by whofe means they have been effected, the inquifitive politician naturally directs his attention to thofe cabinets which ftill perfift in a fhameful and difhonourable neutrality. Of thefe the KING of PRUSSIA ftands foremoft;-a monarch on whose public conduct we have had too frequent occafion to animadvert. The crooked policy of the cabinet of Berlin fill fets at defiance every maxim of reafon, every dictate of wisdom, and every impulfe of fafety. How long a conduct which, from its effects on the general flate of Europe at this critical period is an object of public concern, will be continued, the utmost fagacity is infuthcient to determine. But the fpirit and magnanimity, which the EMPEROR

of

of RUSSIA has hitherto displayed, leads us to entertain a hope that his interpofition will be exerted to produce its speedy termination, The ARCHDUKE CHARLES ftill retains his fituation on the Banks of the Rhine, from Schaffhaufen to Bafil; he has received confiderable reinforcements, and, from the prefent fituation of affairs, it is probable he will very foon be enabled to act in concert with the troops in the Tyrol, and the victorious army in Italy, for the expulfion of the French from Switzerland.

The affaffination of two of the French Envoys at Raftadt, ROBERJEOT and BONNIER, has given rife to as many differtations as if the fate of Europe had depended on their existence. The violation of the Divine mandate to commit no murder certainly calls for reprobation and requires punishment. Accordingly no fooner was the Archduke CHARLES, whofe humanity, juftice, and courage are alike confpicuous, apprized of this event, than he put the commanding officer under arreft, ordered an enquiry to be immedi ately infiitted, and proclaimed his refolution to make a fignal example of the offenders. This was all that man could do. But the Directory, it feems, chofe to think otherwife; they converted this private act of a few defperate individuals into a meafure of public policy; as if the death of thefe two wretched mifcreants were of confequence to the enemies of the Great Nation; openly accused the Archduke of being inftrumental to the murder; denounced it to France and to Europe as a flagrant violation of the Law of Nations; as an act of the greateft atrocity that ever stained the annals of mankind; and called for fignal vengeance on the heads, not of the affaflins, but of the Emperor and his minifters! 'Tis truly curious to hear a gang of regicides, who have committed, in the fpace of the laft ten years, more murders than had blotted the page of hiftory for centuries before; a body of plunderers who had given the folemn fanction of their mock legiflature to the annihilation of all public law, and whofe conduct had been invariably regulated by fuch principle, proclaiming themfelves the champions of justice, and the guardians of the rights of nations! Do thefe vile impoftors fuppofe that the people of Europe have already erafed from their memories the daily proceedings of Republican France fince the ara of her regeneration; the proclamations of her rulers; the conduct of her committees; the refolutions of her Generals; and the acts of her Proconfuls? That they have forgotten the maffacres of September, 1792, committed under the eyes of the Legislative Affembly, and by the exprefs orders of its leading members? That they have forgotten the murder of Louis XVI. and the annual act of commemoration, ftill more atrocious than the deed itself? That they have forgotten the private affatlination of Beauvais, a member of the Convention, in the autumn of 1793, by order of the Committee of Public Safety? That they have forgotten the flaughtered myriads, whofe biccd literally dyed red the polluted fireams of the Loire, and whofe matfacre received the repeated applaufe of the Legiflature? That they have forgotten the public orders of BUONAPARTE to his troops (13th Fructidor 4th

year)