The Wheeling repository — Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.], 1807-08-06 00:00:00, page 1

GRIGluVAL POE TR T.
Epistles.
To a Friend in England.—[Concluded.]
Do me more justice. Pindar’s rhyme
lias made us merry many a time,
And e’en Josiah will allow
I laugh’d as loud as he or thou.
Indeed I were an envious calf,
To lose the jest, restrain the laugh,
Or show my hatred by a sneer,
Because he lives in Devonshire.*
Have I once utter’d the untruth,
Gifford is harsh, or Young uncouth ?
That Seward’s cadence, Cowper’s line,
Nay Darwin’s burnish’d phrase, not fine’.?
Do I warm Feeling’s tear refuse
Fo Charlotte’s heart-bewitching muse ?
Hepel the homage which inspire
Merry’s bold harp and Coswav’s lyre ?
No! colder criticB may disown
ri he genial flow, th’impassion’d tone,
And, stilted on the mounds of Taste,
Lav Della Crusca’s glory waste
a , loss correct, must blundering stray
Through all die mazes of his lay;
At every step, where’er I turn,
Feel the wild-fire of pathos burn :
Jjow to the ppw r that strikes iny heart,
C.ives the fierce throb,the gush,the start—
Thrills, when in rippling accents flow
Pity’s bland notes, or Grief’s faint glow;
Or moves, when in more pensive strains,
Love, disappointed love, complains.
Yr.T treason never pass’d these lips
Against the Chief! whose language trips
The heels of Praise, that, gasping, falls,
And at respectful distance bawls.
Nor have I tho’t the heav’n-born mind
Of Genius (cobwebbed!) was confin’d
fo Avon’s brook and your big Thames,
Swoll’n with their golden freight of
[names.
Have Britons candour ? Turn thine eye
I o regions of a clearer sky
Yon western world, to them unknown,
Has Popes and Drydens of its own.
* This i« an allufion to tbc clotted gream
[o f mom in that country.
1 f Shahefpeaie.
\
THE
v
WHEELING REPOSITORY
(VOL. I.)
Thursday, 6th August, 1807.
(No. 23.)
How Prejudice maintains its place,
And cuts its nose to spite its lace 1
How strange that I should give the news,
I hat Yankees claim a polish’d Muse;
And to my English- friends proclaim
An Hopkinson’s, a Barlow’s name,—
I rum pet forth Humphreys’, Trumbull’s
praise ;
Spread the renown of At.sop’s lays;
Bid Cooper's strains float on the gale,
And Hornor’s rising glorv hail ;
Or name a Smith, a Paine4 a Dwight,
1 o prove that we can read and write.
Philepia too, in sylvan bowers,
Has vainly rear’d poetic flowers.
If only British lungs can breathe
Fame’s sparkling halo round her wreath.
Ect Candour judge, not Prejudice,
Our countries’ merit as it is,
And she, without offence to thine,
Perhaps will yield the palm to mine.
! Is this too much ^ a poor Perhaps ?—
—But softly these arc cutting slaps
To breasts like ours, that not less feel
The pointed feather than the steel.
To make at once my patriot-friends
For these rude rubs complete amends,
I give them all a kind—adiku,
Remaining in my friendship, true,
And (to wind up with mv best fine)
With warm affection theirs and thine.
t Robert Treat Paine, Efq. nf PoCon.
"«'•« < •» < •<•< < -4 «> > »• »■
I-ake Country.
From Oswego to the most southern
j extremity of Lake Michigan, is 1200
miles by water, navigable for vessels of
8 or 10 feet draught, excepting a carry
ing place of eight miles at Niagara falls.
From Oswego to the mouth of the ri
ver St. Louis, on lake Superior, is 1500
miles by water, navigable for vessels
»also ot 8 or 10 feet draft, excepting at
Niagara and the portage of St. Mary’s.
The lakes are about three times as large
as .th.e Ba'tic sea* The lands south and
adjoining these vast sheets of water, are
of a deep, rich, and fertile soil; and the
lake markets will unquestionably com
; mand, in that direction, the surplus of
i more cultivatable acres than give life j
and activity to the three respectable na
tions of Denmark, Sweden and Russia
united. Added to which, the mildness
of this climate justifies the expectation,
that the soil in that region will produce
most of" the staples of a much lower la
titude on this side' th6 Allegheny moun
tains. A sample of the rice of the
lakes, .which grows spontaneously, we
have in our possession, for the inspec
tion of any who have the curiosity to ex
amine it. [Neiv-Tork pap.
The period has at length arrived when
it must be decided* whether the Ameri
can government is worthy of the support
of the people, and whether the Ameri
can people deserve the name of an inde
pendent nation. If the lives of our ci
tizens may be assailed and destroyed
in sight of our harbours if the protec
tion of government cannot reach and c£.
ver them within ten miles of our shore,
it is time for us to give up the farce of
empire, and implore the protection of
some power, able to afford us security
against murderous outrage. Was a case
like this ever before heard of ? The foe
slaughters our citizens, and then, in cool
contempt, returns to his anchorage in
our harbour.
But this event, degrading and painful
as it is, may be the forerunner of the
most splendid and useful consequences.
It is an event which, sinking all party
feuds and local divisions, will blend us
together as one people, and unite us in
one exertion. While we deplore the
loss of those citizens who have been sa
crificed by this unparalleled violence,
and lament with those who suffer, we
should not look on the occurrence as a
calamity. In a national point of view
there is nothing to regret in it. For
fourteen years we have been the foot
ball of European arrogance and injus
tice—Plundered, beaten, and murdered
in every sea, by every power, we were
rapidly plunging so deep in-contempt,
that, in a little while, it would have been
impossible to insult us. Eagerly pur*
suing the acquisition of wealth, envt