The Press.
London, England, 1853-09-17 00:00:00

THE AGE OF DROSS.
We saw Old England in the van
Of nations, strong with arm and plan
To mould the world in beauty ;
With pomp she laid her Old Duke low,
With anguish let her warm tears flow
Upon the grave of Duty!

Was that a dream? No more the brunt
Is borne by England in the front
Of high and holy missions:
We sweep the shop, we tend the till,
Our bellies pack, and pockets fill—
Our chief aim, " cheap provisions."

Rouse, England! from thy guilty sleep,
Deplore thy error—wail and weep
Thy lost faith and dishonour.
Turn on the guardians of the State,
Turn mourning eyes, not looks of hate,—
These cowards not alone are.

War-burdened fogs creep o'er the West,
Now hardly heaves the jobber's chest,
And low his light is burning.
Rouse, England ! rouse ;—thou surely see'st
A STAR IR SETTING IN THE EAST,
Tho wain's the wrung way turning.

Let, over counters, PEACE be squeaked,
Or through the halls of Maininon shrieked,
By him whose soul but dross is ;
Net yet are Truth and Honour dead;
There yet aro higher things than trade,
And lower things than losses.

MR. OLIVEIRA ON THE WINE DUTIES.
GENERAL Scorr, when canvassing for the Presidentship of the United
States, began a letter on his candidature, " After a hasty dish of soup
I take up my pen," &c. Mr. OLIVEIRA, who is a candidate for fame of
various kinds—pugilistic, litigious, geographical, senatorial, and
bacchanalian, has—tipropos of the wino duties—commenced a letter
from Meurice's Hotel, Paris, to one of our evening paper►, " After a
delicious bottle of ehablis, that cost one shilling and threepence."
As every man in these days conceives that he ought to have a special
mission, Mr. OLIVEIRA fancies it is his part to head an agitation against
the wine duties, and put them in schedule A of his contemplated
Customs Reform Bill. He has already enlistei eighty M.P.'s in his
troop. "The six-hooped pot shall have ten hoops," says he,

And, rising to the festive eall,
!low answers each bold Bacchanal!.

True to his mission, he has spent the summer in a drinking tour
through France, and, as he has visited the principal cities in the wine
districts, he has probably gone the whole hogshead. He intends, he
says (but we must remember that this was written immediately after
the chablis), to attack monopoly in its stronghold—the city of London ;
and instead of raising, like the Wizard Coanr.s, a tempest in atea-kettle,
he intends appearing in the character of a bottle-imp. We are curious
to see in what shape he will dress up his advocacy of cheap wine. Will
his facts take a tabular form, as—

PLACIL

DRANK.

PHYSICAL STATIC. MORAL EFFECTS.
Wit lively, courage high.

Bordeaux. I —bottles of Claret. I Pulse, s 5.
Or will he throw them into a narrative form, as—
" I will mention a fact to the House which occurred to myself.
At a town in the Valais I looked at the list of wines, and seeing mal-
voisie, the drink of barons and knights, like Front-de-Bomf and De
Bracy in the olden time, I ordered a bottle. The wine was sweet, rich,
and oily. I drank more than one bottle, and will read from my journal
a statement of the effects produced Felt benevolent : gave the
waiter three sous. Spoke to several persons in the coffee-room, but
they did not seem to understand me.'" Should he eschew the un-
adorned style of eloquence, and, inspired by his subject, soar on
poetical wing, the theme is well adapted for ornament, thus :—" Where
Dijotes massy towers look o'er the purple slopes of gold, I've sipp'd
her ruby wine of flowers, and felt, like Charles le Temerairo, bold. In
Burgundy, though oft elated, I never was intoxicated."
We wish Mr. OLIVEIRA success. If the House dispute his facts,
let him move for a commission to roam about France to investigate
the subject. He would find plenty of members ready to serve on it;
and on his return he might publish his " Case Against the Wine
Duties; or, Notes of a Drinking Tour through France." If he never
sits down to pen his notes until he has drunk one bottle at least, we
doubt not his tour will be to the full as lively and amusing as was his
letter to the Globe.