fable of Kennedie's poem is not without interest, and some poetical passages might easily be selected; but the execution is too much hinted by the Nilo Marinexo. Nor are the conceits introduced with that splendour, with which Marino dazzled the eyes of his cotemporaries, and drew into the vortex of his manner, the poetry not only of Italy, but of England, France, and Germany.

Whence the tale of Calanthrop and Lucilla is derived, I cannot determine. That it was not the production of the author's own imagination is sufficiently probable; for we meet with few poetical narratives of that age, which may not be traced to some great storehouse of invention. Such was, for a length of time, Sir Philip Sidney's Arcadia, which furnished numerous plots for dramatic poets, and fables for those who attempted to write epics. Quarles's Argalus and Parthenia, for instance, which, in the dedication, bears the date 1621, was confessedly taken from an episode in that very popular romance. The following outline of Kennedie's tale will perhaps lead a more experienced antiquary to discover the fountain-head, whence it was derived.

Calanthrop, King of Epirus, is introduced sitting in a grove, filled with birds and flowers, the metamorphosed objects of the wrath of offended deities. He is shortly after roused by the appearance of a beauteous lady, attended by many damsels. The latter "deroabe their mistress," and she plunges into a beautiful fountain, and occasions great uneasiness to the royal youth, who dreads the horns of Actaon, and is apprehensive, that already

-Megoera and Alecto come "For to coact his metamorphosis."

He is, however, pacified by the mild aspect of the lady, and a song of one of her attendants to the fair Lucilla. After a violent, but fruitless, alterca

tion, between Neptune, Æol, Vulcan, and Vesta, (signifying the elements,) who should possess this paragon of beauty, she departs, followed by the enamoured Calanthrop. Arriving at the sea-shore, he finds a bark, which the mariners inform him is destined for the fair Lucilla. According to the advice of his page, and of the mariners, he begs permission of the lady to accompany her over the water. She at first refuses, and, with great naiveté, pleads her fear of the male sex:

Let this suffice then, now as to your suite,

Sir, you shall know, that we vse not perMen in our comp'nie, lest thro' scand'

mit

lous bruit *

Our spotlesse names in question come,

but yet

Those mar'ners you perhaps esteeme as

*Bruit, for report, rumour, &c. seems also to signify the history, or the book, as in the ancient romance of Artour and Merlin, in the Auchinleck MS:

"Suich in the brout finde;" v. 2720. Again: "So ous seyt the brout forsoth;" V. 3476.

"The brut thereof is mi warraunt." v. 5218, of my transcript.

This adventure is very similar to that of Eglemor of Arteas, with the enormous boar, who, in the Scotish edi. tion, printed by Chapman and Millar,

infested the wood, and killed a young Prince, was soon to be combated by the Duke and his courtiers; he also recounts the history of Lucilla, and her father, the Duke of Calabria, which I will leave to the curiosity of the reader. The Knight goes to the city, where his page provides a black armour. Clad in this, he encounters the bear, who already had put to flight the whole court:

"The bear in midway meets him on the

plaines,

As loth to put a stranger to great paines." The monster being subdued, the unknown champion departs. Calanthrop is however soon suspected to be the vanquisher, and a recreant Knight, Philotomp, is prompted by malice to attempt his life. But he, and all his followers, are conquered by the single blade of the King of Epire, who begs his enemy's forfeited life, and is admitted to high favour. The intrigue with Lucilla is now carried on very successfully, and the happy pair, with the assistance of the very convenient lady Sophona, elope. But, as they are about to embark, the Duke and his Knights appear to rescue the fair, doomed by her father to a life of celibacy. A dreadful battle ensues by land and sea, in which, of course, the Cala

gods, that they strike the offender dead. Lucilla is suspected of the murder, and led to the place of execution; but Calanthrop, having obtained information of her fate, arrives, defeats the townsmen, and liberates his fair. He is crowned King of the country, but soon transfers that honour to a descendant of the last sovereign. At the funeral of the latter, the bearers are unusually troubled with a noise in the coffin, which suddenly bursts, and the corpse metamorphosed into a dreadful monster issues, and flies to the woods. A scroll is found, which declares the reason and manner of his death, and transformation. Calanthrop and Lucilla depart for Epire, where they are married, and subsequently dis

- cover themselves to the Duke of Calabria.

The poem is written in the same stanza as Shakespeare, Venus, and Adonis, with the exception of the Forrester's tale, for which the author has chosen the long Alexandrine measure, and some lyrical pieces in a variety of

bark, and sail for Epire, but, touching at an island, are parted, but in what manner I am unable to say, as the copy is here imperfect :

Lucilla appears again as the crowned Queen of the tyrannical King of Cyrenaica. The tyrant attempting to celebrate the nuptial night, she so successfully implores the assistance of the cessfully implores the assistance of the

in 1508, is generally called "the bare:" "Till a clif then drawis he, He saw the bare cum fra the see, His morne drynk had hetane." v. 258. It is not impossible, that this might

not have confused Kennedie, who was perhaps no great adept in a language a gentury prior to his own.

SIR,

1

1807.

To the Editor.

HE Funding System is, on the of it, a system of forestalling and pri very face, and in the very nature vation; of prevention and anticipation. It gives a præternatural impetus to the efforts of to-day, by anticipating the resources of to-morrow. In every nation, it ought to be regarded as the arch-dæmon of the State. By holding out temporary and delusive resour

ces,

delusive and problematical objects, it stimulates ministers to grasp at and in nine instances out of ten, the substance is sacrificed for the shadow.

If Great Britain has risen to her present eminence, by anticipating the resources of generations yet unborn, these future generations must find themselves debilitated in the exact proportion that the present generation has been unduly and preternaturally stimulated.

To remedy the defects of this diabolical system, the great Pitt estabblished the Sinking Fund. We had at that time only about L.200,000,000 of debt, and it was his opinion that even then, the funding system had been carried too far. The sinking fund has been established above twenty years, and what has been the consequence? Is the national debt reduced? On the contrary, is it not more than tripled? Sinister events, and wars, have indeed intervened, but this is no more than might have been foreseen, and calculated upon.

But the more the sinking fund is considered, the more will its impolicy, injustice, and inefficacy appear. The government borrows L.600,000,000 from the nation, and then says to it, I owe you too much, and am unable to pay you, but give me another L.600,000,000, and I will pay you off. Is the nation a profiter by this transaction? It is the nation which must redeem the debt, and not the government. Had the operation of the sinking fund been applied exclusively to the exigencies of the State, or the diminution of the annual taxes, its effects would have been immediate and salutary. In the one case, it would have had a tendency to prevent, and in the other to diminish, the burdens of the nation. But as managed at present, the prospect is so distant, that even to the most sanguine, it must administer despair rather than consolation. In order to ensure its ultimate efficacy, we must have honest ministers, uninterrupted peace, increasing trade, manufactures, and national prosperity, and a continuation

of our present oppressive taxes for at least fifty years.

Fully aware that the Sinking Fund might be taken in a multiplicity of views, I took it in the most favourable. I supposed the return of peaceI supposed the national debt arrested and stationary. I supposed the sinking fund operating its full effect. In fact, I supposed every thing necessary for placing the argument in the fairest point of view, and estimated, that in ten years, L.120,000,000 of the national debt would be redeemed, and consequently Bank of England notes, to that amount, thrown into circulation, which must continue to circulate, till the bank replaced them by specie, to the amount.

It is here that your able and judicious correspondent J. L. most materially differs from me. I imagine that the redemption of the national debt, will cause an issue of paper money nearly to the full amount of the same redeemed. He, on the contrary, imagines, that it will not materially increase the issue of paper, because the bank annually receives the amount of the sum issued. I am sorry to retort the charge of misconception in so generous an antagonist, but I flatter myself a little consideration will undeceive him.

Every person in the kingdom, from the king to the beggar, contributes his proportion of taxes, and consequently his proportion of the sinking fund. In a word, the bank annually receives from the aggregate contributions of every individual in the state, the aggregate sum which it annually issues for the redemption of the national debt, and the aggregate property of the nation stands mortgaged, to insure the payment. But tho' the national property is mortgaged for the national debt, and an annual national contribution to redeem part of that debt paid into the bank, still the nation at large are not stockholders, andconsequently, tho' they contribute to the influx into the

bank,

bank, the reflux never reaches them. In order, therefore, to give even the force of plausibility to J. L.'s argument, it is necessary that every individual be a stockholder, and that the bank purchase from each, yearly, a tertain amount, exactly proportioned to the respective shares held by them. In this case, the money issued by the bank would flow into the identical channels from which it was drawn, and the contributor and the stockholder being identified, the result would be nearly as calculated by your respectable correspondent.

It is however well known, that the stockholders (comparatively speaking,) are few, and bear but a small proportion to the nation at large. Many of them are foreigners, and do not contribute a shilling directly or indirectly to the exigencies of the state. The money, therefore, issued by the bank is paid to a few, and the only return which the bank can have, is the share of taxes paid by that few; which, at best, bears only a trifling proportion to the sum issued. The sum issued is thus drawn from one channel, and thrown into another, without at all pervading the great mass of the people.

As to the investment of the money in the funds, &c. it does not benefit the bank in the smallest degree. A sells out L. 1000 stock, and receives payment. This he deposits at the bank till he have occasion for it. This sum the bank must repay when demanded. If he purchase bank stock, India stock, or government stock, the seller receives the L. 1000 in bank notes, and these must thus continue to circulate from hand to hand till replaced with specie by the bank.

To bring the merits of this case within a narrow compass, I shall only observe, that there is one essential re

quisite necessary to enable a nation to pay its debt, and that requisite is ability. If there is not hard cash in the nation to pay the interest, by what means is it proposed to redeem the capital? Under whatever sophistry this measure is disguised, it must finally hinge on this single point, that the sellers of stock have surrendered the government paper, and accepted that of the bank, and the necessary conse quence (as stated in my former communication,) must follow, "that the national debt is not redeemed, but merely transferred to the Bank of England."

Specie and paper have for a century past been so much identified as to serve nearly the same purposes, but still there is a most essential difference. Specie is property itself, but paper is merely the representative of property. When a government, or individual, purchases any commodity, and pays for it in specie, the transaction is equitable and final, because property is given for property. But when any commodity is purchased with paper, the seller does not receive property, but the representative of property, and the transaction neither is, nor possibly can be, final and conclusive, till the purchaser take up from the seller this representative, and replace it with real property to the full amount. The circulation of specie is, therefore, general and permanent, whilst that of paper is limited and precarious.

The bank may therefore issue as many paper representatives as it pleases to redeem the national debt, but this is not redemption, it is merely a contract or pledge for redemption, till these representatives are replaced with property to the full amount.

20th November, }

Amyntor.

Query

Query respecting LORD MOHUN.

Speak of me as I am.

SIR,

SHAKESPEARE.

To the Editor.

RRORS in books produce errors in opinions and conversation: to obviate this evil, every author who makes use of the labours of another, should not rely upon memory merely. He should immediately have recourse to his authority, and be enabled to give the page, &c. where the passage produced can be found.

I can give two good reasons for my opinion: first-although the tenet or fact stated should in reality exist, yet the majority of his accurate readers will accuse him of negligence, when they find that no such tenet or fact is to be found in the authority he has given. Second-Those who read and think upon the faith of another's accuraracy will be apt to form false opinions of the author quoted; and they will defend their assertions with greater or less confidence, in proportion as they value the author who has made the quotation. Allowing the credit of truth to what I have said, 'tis but a feeble defence that is proposable for

such omissions.

I was excited to these reflections by a discrepancy of the kind alluded to, which I have just detected in the "Account of the assassination of Duke Hamilton," in the Scots Magazine for February 1807. In a note appended to that article, it is asserted that "Dean Swift, in his four last years, says, that Lord Mohun had been twice tried for murder." Having newly finished reading that book, I think I can speak with some degree of accuracy as to its contents. It is true the Dean calls Mohun, son of infamous character." But I do not think that in his "" History of the four last years of the queen," any ther mention is made of Lord Mohun

66

a per

than in a paragraph which I shal transcribe; premising it by also observing, that this solitary paragragh is the only portion of that volume devoted to the recital of the event.After stating that Duke Hamilton and the "Lord Lexington" were appointed embassadors to France and Spain, "The Duke was preSwift adds,

paring for his journey, when he was challenged to a duel by the Lord Mohun, a person of infamous charac

ter.

He killed his adversary upon the spot, though he himself received a wound; and, weakened by the loss of blood, as he was leaning in the arms of his second, was most barbarously stabbed in the breast by LieutenantGeneral Macartney, who was second to Lord Mohun. He died a few minutes after in the field, and the murderer made his escape. I thought so surprizing an event might deserve barely to be related, although it be something foreign to my subject."

"The History of the four last years of the Queen." London 1758.

We have now seen the folly of quoting an author at random. And it only serves to leave me in the dilemma of uncertainty, until I hear whether any other historian makes mention of Lord Mohun. If you possess any source of information it would certainly be expedient to communicate it to your readers.

Having finished the detection of error in another's labours, I shall now fill up a chasm in my own. Last year I sent you an account of Matthew Buckinger. In the interval, and among researches of a different nature, I have discovered the following fact. Matthew died in Ireland, in 1739, at the age of sixty-five. A notice of his death will be found in page 375 of the Scots Magazine for 1739. Edinburgh, 9th Jan. 1808. 9

}

Alex. Henderson.

Tour