The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1844-05-07 00:00:00

iLlttraturr.

P 0 E 'l' It Y.

SWEET BUDS, YE ARE BURSTING.

The following beautiful s•anzas were written in the spring of
last year, by fir. ROBERT STORY, author of "The Isles are
Awake," a:id several other stirring and animated pieces
poetry. The author is a tine son of genius. and was placed
in a humble lot; in this pretty effusion he describes the ne-
glect which he had experienced from those whom, he con-
ceived, should have extended to him their protection. We
are glad to say that Sir Robert Peel, some time ago, confer ed
upon the author an appointment in one of the government
offices,

Sweet buds, ye are bursting profusely to sight.
Th earth is becoming one fairy domain
And the hearts of its thou-ands are touched with delight,
By your promise of spring and her beauties again.

But my heart yet, Oh no! I will welcome ye still,
Sweet heralds of joy—not to me or to mine :
For, talk of bright days to the world as ye will,
To us ye speak neither of bloom nor of shine.

No summer to me shall the summer restore,
But one comfortless desert. all wintry and bare;
And hopeless, and heartless, and nerveless, no more
I battle with fortune, or cope with despair.

Perchance too much heat in the advocate woke:
'Twas so; for I am not, and cai:not be. one
Who flings o'er his thoughts and opinions a cloak,
Standing fair with all parties, but siding with none,

Ira I sung not for party, though partisan called;
But I sung what I felt—wh-it each Briton should feel,
When anarchy threateeed and peril appalled—
My k arty, my country; my motive, her weal!

And for this lam crushed ! Yet I blame not the men,
Destructives, indignant at missing their end :
It is human to crush an oppon ut ; but then
Is it not so to shield and to succour a friend?

It is, and 'tiere godlike, and worthy of those
Who have gained the high tower of their hopes, to declare
That each step of the ladder by w .ich they arose,
The lowest—the weakest—may challenge their care.

Vain hope ! The protection to principle due,
Some rebel may get ; but the patriot and bard
Shall die—bearing witness that loyalty true
Is its own—and is ever its only reward!

NOTICES.

The Library of Travel.

We have received Part I. of a neat and interesting work
under this title, being " A popular Description of Foreign
Countries, edited by Walter K. Kelly," and have been
much pleased with a hasty glance at its pages. It is ex-
ceedingly sell, and, we may add, elegantly written, the
object of the editor being to supply the very gist and mar-
row of the best modern narrarives of travel and adven-
ture, with reminiscences of the past ; and judging from the
specimen before us, we should say that he deserves the
highest success. This part is occupied with Syria, and
mire especially Beyrout, being the commencement of
" Syria and the Holy Land." 'Tile appearance of the
country--the town—the' varied and motley inhabitants,
and their equally varied and somewhat ant ivnist mari-
ners and customs, are all interestingly described, with
moving incidents interspersed, which impart to the whole
a peculiar degree of vivacity and entertainment. The
book, which is of very moderate price, is illustrated with
numerous well executed wood-cuts, of scenery, figures,
&c. In the prospectus forming the cover, the editor
states—

"Topography, archreology, and all other maters that
come within the scope of a traveller's speculations, will
enter of course int., the composition of our mosaic; but
they will be treated popularly, and always with reference
to the main purpose of the puqicatioo, which is to pre-
sent to the reader's imagination, not the bloodless ab-
stractions of science, but the tying and breathing forms
of nature and of men. In a word. it will be our endea-
vour to picture foreign scenes, and those who dwell in
them, as they meet the eye of the visitor ; to reflect in our
pages the striking features of nature and of art in distant
lands—the peculiar, social, domestic, and personal habits
they display—the ways of thinking and acting- of their
people, and all the pleasures and crossings, the perils and
adventures, the poetry, and romance, the whims, he•
toours, and surprises incident to the traveller's career.''
An extract or two will be found elsewhere.

Blackwood's Magazine.
There are several excellent articles in the number for
the present month, chiefly, however, of a solid character,
with a rather smaller sprinkling than usual of those of a
light and amusing vein. The first is No. 1. of a series of
papers on " Imprisonment and Transportation," with re-
ference, in this instance more especially, to the " Increase
of Crime." The author, we think, takes rather a gloomy
view of the subject, imputing—on the authority of some.
what exclusive statistics, the real accuracy of which may
be questioned, if indeed they be not ex parte—by far the
greater weight of our national delinquency to the increase
and demoralising influence of our manufacturing system.
Recent accounts from Preston and other towns state, on
the contrary, that—probably owing mainly to the opera-
tives being pretty fully employed—crime had during the
last three months decreased to about one-fourth of its
amount within the same period last year. Our author by
no means approves of the recent relaxations in our penal
code, which he considers altogether inoperative for good ;
and though we are not friendly, saving for the highest
offences, to extreme or sanguinary punishments, which
are the general resort of bad and arbitrary governments,
it must be admitted on behalf of his argument, that it has
become extremely difficult of late to visit great criminals
with condign punishment. We concur with him that the
progress of education, such as it generally is amongst the
working classes, has effected but a negative amelioration,
if any at all; for the heart must be improved by religious
and moral training, as well as the head, before men in a
dense and naturally vicious state of society can be re-
claimed. The mere mechanical art of reading and wri-
ting, and that imperfect in degree, without this, may be a
bane. Our author promises in his next paper to consider
the causes of the general failure in the recent relaxations
of the law, &c., and the means requisite for the diminu-
tion of crime. He will fail to convince us if be do not
include religious instruct;on, and the putting down, if
possible, of the too general resort to the intemperate use
of intbsicating liquors, with its concomitant evils of reck•
lessness and domestic improvidence.—" The Rhine and
Rhinelanders " will be read with interest, especially by
continental tourists. " The Monster Misery of Litera-
ture" is forcibly depicted s no literary production, how-
ever talentel, will command an adequate sum from a
bookseller, unless it be spun out to " three volumes," to
suit the ridiculous and immutable taste of the circulating
libraries. " The Memoirs of a Statesman" is continued,
and with increasing interest. There is an article on Indian
affairs during the last few years, which places the whole
within a glance, and vindicates Lord Ellenborough.
" The Freethinker" is well narrated, and, in conclusion,
imparts an admirable moral to all would-be atheists.
" Love in the Wilderness" is not much to our taste, but
de gustibus, &c. Finally, there is a paper on the Land-
lord and Tenant question in Ireland, showing that the
owners of the soil iu that country have been most grossly
maligned by the partisan O'Connell press; that the al-
leged extortions in rent have no existence •;find that the
sufferings and discontent of the Irish pantry must
have their origin and continuance in far different causes.
Some extracts will be found elsewhere.