The Sun.
London, England, 1826-06-30 00:00:00

[TUE MORNING 1110.11ALD.]

Some say it is a strange ambition of Mr. Southey
to get himself returned. to Parliament. Others ask
what can be his objects or hiS motives ? The ques-
tion may 'be resolved, by a moment's attention to his '
character and his past life. A man of undoubted ta-
lent, of much earnestness of purpose, and of an ex-
citable if not :impassioned temperament, lie has in
almost every instance neutralized his endowments, by,
undertakings infinitely beyond his reach, and wrong- ;
headed in themselves—in a word, by his extravagant
egotism, self-conceit, and 'obliquity of judgment.
Thus, when the. French Revolution broke out, he
went, beyOnd its Most visionary delirations. Morality
was prejudice, social gradation was oppression. Pan-
tisacracy,. as he and his brethren, of the day pedanti- '
cally called it, was his idol. The wheels of society
went for a time with terrific rapidity—and, he like his
prototype the fly, fancied it was he gave the 'impulse
to that by which he was only borne along. Cir-
cumstanees soon changed. there was a re-action
and retrogresSion. Mr. Southey soon changed
with the change, was as intolerant and extrava-
gant, as before, and again imagined that he was
every thing in the groat change, when he was but
mere creature—an accident of it. His poetical career is
like his political. He forsooth, would produce some-
thing to eclipse all epics that went before him—to ex-
plode even the very name—though that name was
sanctified by the genius of Homer, of Milton, of '
Virgil, and of Tasso. What hasbeen the consequence ?
Who now reads the Madoc of Mr. Southey—or his
Thataba—or his curse of Keharna, with their inco-
herent fancies and disorderly style ; or indeed any
thing of his but the solitary Roderick, in which by
some lucky accident the author for once proved that
he really had vigour of imagination, and the precions
talent of being really eloquent in verse. But an ex-
ception proves nothing, unless, indeed, it proves the
rule. His next effort at innovation, or rather revolu-
tion, was more strikingly decisive of his extreme con-
ceit and folly than any thing he had done before. He
made an eflbrt to substitute a whimsically disjointed
jargon of classic dactyls and spondees for the native
and admirable metre of Milton, Pope, and Dryden.
This was a brain blow to Mr. Southey, for he was
laughed at. His natne lost all his magic—his repu-
tation was gone by. The unkindest cut of all, how-
ever and that which it is' said he feels most keenly
is, his being thrown aside as too antiquated and,
worn by the Quarterly Review. The present edi,
tor of ;that publication was no sooner installed
than .he' struck. Mr. Southey off the roll, without re-
veolce to the laurel, as a mere incubus upon it—as
one w'.llo was stationary, and cherishing his own
conceits, adsltheories and antipathies, ,whilst the world
was changing around him—who would spend the in-
tolerance of his character, and the fustian and fury of
his long-winded declamation upon objects so obsolete,
or so indifferent to all but Mr. Southey, as to make
even the staunchest Tory yawn. His getting into Par-
limes may be regarded as an effort to gain the ground
which he has so signally, and in so many instances,
lost ; and to shame the Quarterly Review for its
IMissestithation'of his popular talents. if his success
.:f4T"itiliatnent were a matter of speculation at'Tatter-
naire, ;the .odds would be greatly against him. There
weaaotrie intention of bringing Doctor Johnson into
the House of Commons. • But even those who bowed
before. the supremacy of his "powers of conversation,"
thought he must mike an indi6rent, if not an intole-
rable orator. This may be considered as afinfiosi
against Mr. Southey, But in truth it is not, It is
only a simple cage in pOilit. if Doctor Johnson lived
in that days with Mr. Southey, he would' 'be' pro-
ng-towed:bite Mr. Southey, in
.consersations—a,bore.
If. Mr. SOUtliey had lived nri the time of DOCtor Joint
son, he most probably would have been called :a man
of " extraordinary powers of conversation." The
change is ahappy one---in the tone of conversation
and aociety—ease, freedorn, and equality, fur ela-
borate discussion, pretension, and dictation.

PRiSS.I

The accounts received from Batavia, by way of 1
Holland, give reason to believe that the Government
or the Netherlands has at length adopted a new line
o policy with regard to its foreign possessions. it is
perhaps unnecessary again to allude to the eficts
whiCh have been produced by the adherence of the
Dutch to the narrow system which so long directed all
their proceedings in
the Eastto the hostility which
had
it excited among the native tribes in their vicinity
the jealousy and animosity which its injustice
t,_,,produced among the European denizens their
'''''neutie.fe-to the discouragement which it had east

upon the commercial and manufacturing industry of
the Chinese population—and to the general gloom
which it had spread over the aspect of affairs, whether
commercial or political. All these calamities which
have befallen the Dutch are so many warnings to such
nations as have not adopted a liberal course, and
so many proofs of the wisdom of
,those principles
which our Government now so steadily act upon.
Complaints are sometimes heard of the backward-
ness of foreign nations to fall'in with our proposals of
reciprocity ; but those who make these complaints for-
get that there is one master who will teach at last the
most perverse, and bring the most stubborn to reason.
The natural course of things points out the necessity
of a free trade; and if the boon is once fairly offered
to a people as it has been offered by us, that people
will not willingly be restrained by their rulers from
seizing the gift presented to them ; and the conse-
quences of their perseverance, if carried to an extreme,
will be similar to those which have recently convulsed
the Dutch Colonies in the East. The arguments of
Socrates, by which he attempted.to prove that a wise
man was a King, was, perhaps, more ingenious than
solid ; but it is here exactly in point. if foreign na-
tions will not take our advice, and accept our propo-
Sala, they will be punished far more effectually by the
consequences of their obstinacy, - than they could pos-
sibly have been by any exertion of power on our part
to compel them.