1798.]

fence, are also made here in great numbers. Moft part of the town of BIRMINGHAM is quite modern, and its population is faid to be now near 70,000 inhabitants. Were that numerous affembly of people employed in cultivating the wafte lands in the kingdom, they would render a much more effential fervice to the public in return for their fupport. This town stands in a fine, open, and very pleafant fituation, and the country around it is cheerful: a canal, which communicates with different parts of the country, comes up to it. The streets are mostly uniform, pretty wide and clean, but not univerfally fo. Coals are cheap and plentiful here, which is very favourable to the manufacturer. New buildings, and even new ftreets, are rifing on almost every fide of the town. An idea may be found of the progreffive increase of inhabitants from the number of births and burials at different periods: in the year 1555 there were 37 births and 27 burials; in 1690 there were 127 births and 150 burials; and in 1791 there were no fewer than 3,310 births and 3,280 funerals.

Auguft 11, I went from BIRMINGHAM to WOLVERHAMPTON, in Staffordshire, 14 miles. The country extremely populous, large villages filled with manufacturers of guns, piftols, locks, buttons, buckles, nails, &c. wages are very high, even the women in thefe manufactures earn confiderably by filing. The war is ufeful to most of thefe bufineffes. The buildings in this district are good, made with brick and tile, but look dirty and black, as do the inhabitants, which is probably the confequence of their employ; the furface is generally level, the afpect of the country pleasant, rather open, but it is far from being deftitute of wood. The foil various, but chiefly clay with a mixture of fand, and in feveral parts rather barren; but it abundantly compenfates for that defect by affording plenty of fine coals, which are got clofe by the road. This is the first coal county I have met ince I left the North. In travelling on this road, I was furprised to fee a number of small fires burning in a field of oats; on enquiry I was told, that the field contained feveral old coal-pits, which, by fome means or other, were fet on fire, and could not be extinguished. Here are feveral large works for forging iron, which belong to Mr. Wilkinson, of CaftleBead, in Lancashire. Warwickshire is much noted for iron and fteel manufactures, but I did not observe any fuperio

39

rity in its agricultural department: it contains feveral elegant feats of noblemen and gentlemen, parks, and tracts of woodland; its air is pure, water generally plentiful, and buildings good. The farms are of all fizes, but more land in fmall than in large ones. The surface of the country pretty level, with here and there a little elevation: foil contains much clay, but not, in general, of the most fertile nature, and it need not be repeated that it produces free-ftone and coal. WOLVERHAMPTON is a large manufacturing town, and is fuppofed to contain near 20,000 inha bitants: its manufactures are chiefly the heavier forts of hardwares, fuch as axes gridirons, trowels, fmoothing irons, locks, &c. there are alfo fome manufactures of fpectacle cafes. The streets of this town are very narrow and dirty, but many of the houfes are pretty good, and the furrounding country is pleasant. A canal comes up to this town. It is very remarkable that in these fouthern counties the poor and labouring claffes of people have a great hatred to canals: these canals, fay they, are the ruin of the country; the farmers by their means can fend the corn, and other productions of their farms, where they please, at a trifling expence, and thereby keep up the prices, feveral refpectable tradefmen alfo entertain the fame fentiments, and further add, that canals fpoil and deftroy much good land, Thefe people view the fubject with a microfcopic eye; for did they confider the effects of canals with respect to the kingdom in general, they would fee that whatever contributes towards leffening labour, reducing the number of horses, and facilitating the conveyance of differ ent articles from places where they are lefs wanted to other parts where they are more wanted, at a fmali expence, is a great national gain and convenience. thefe navigations are occafionally abufed in conveying corn more fnugly out of the kingdom when wanted at home, the fault is not in the canals, but in the criminal negligence of the officers who are appointed to fuperintend the exportation bufinefs. I took a walk one pleafant evening into a field near Wolverhamp ton, and looking to the N. W. faw a mountain at a distance, and afterwards two or three more; thefe I underftand were the Shropshire hills, and were the first eminences I had feen, that could be called mountains, fince I left Yorkshire and Derbyfire.

(To be continued.)

IF

ORIGINAL

D

ELEGY ON SPRING. ELIGHTFUL (prig, I tafte thy balmy gales

Pregnant with life, my fadden'd foul they chear,

Creation fmiles, the woods. the hills, the vales, Hail the pure morning of the new-born year. Expand, ye groves, your renovated bloum;

Warble, ye ftreams; ye fwelling buds unfold; Waft all the plenty of your rich perfume; And wave, ye florets, wave your leaves of gold.

'Rapt in the maze of nature's boundless charms,

gaze infatiate, wonder, and admire; Ah, how they footh th' impaffion'd hearts alarms,

And wake to transports short the woe-ftruck lyre!

But foon the profpect blackens on the view, Thefe fcenes of beauty, man, infenfate, mars; Cloaths fmiling nature with a mournful hue, Blafts all her blooms, and with her mufic jars.

O might the moral spring but once evolve

It's infant bioffoms 'mid the noontide blaze, Barbaric paffion's low'ring mifts diffolve,

While dawn'd pure reason with ferener rays! O fool to think it! winter, bleak and foul,

There broods eternal, hope creates in vain Fantastic forms, which chear the chated foul, Poor air-built fabrics of the poet's brain. Sce, life and health caliven all around,

O'er lawns and woods,the eye delightedroves; While pour an artlefs harmony of found Flocks from the fields and warblers from the groves.

Luxuriant verdure here adorns the plain,

There the grey fallows, and the toiling team, The farms neat manfion, and the village fane, Whofe mofs-clad tower reflects the folar gleam.

Bet ah! while nature pours th' enlivening breath,

Paints her fair forms, and spreads her trea

fures here;

'er other hores black fweeps the cloud of death,

Glares the red faulchion and the murcherous

To leave thy poor, thy fmall don eftis tra'n, For toils of arms o'er billowy deeps toroam? No bears of glory clear thy hapless lot,

Thy name defcends not to a future age, Impell'd to combat for thou know'ft not what, And urg'd to flaughter by another's rage. Thy widow'd wife, thine orphan children weep, And beg their feanty meal from door to dot, While, gafh'd with wounds, thy I'mbs difhonor'è fleep,

And waste and moulder on a foreign fhore. In vain, alas, we boaft of civil worth,

And vaunt of virtue, in religion's robe, If calm we view ambition iffing forth. Her brood of fcorpions to infeft the globe: The bonds of nature we afunder part,

Led by the blaze of paffions fanguine ftar, Peace on the lips, and murder in the heart, To favage, fell, accurft, infernal war. Hark! a glad found my wandering thoughts recalls,

The diftant sheep-bell fills the quivering

breeze,

The fhade, flow-deep'ning, o'er the landscape falls,

And veil'd in mifts the dim horizon flees. As the poor fhepherd folds his fleecy care,

Loud chaunts the nightingale his evening lay; Sing on, fweet warbler, homeward 1 repair, Warn'd by thy requiem to the closing day. SYDNEY. Of the above elegy, the three first stanzas are fet to mufic by Mr. Wheeler, and the 12, 13, 14, by the Rev.-Richmond, of Trin. Col. which will appear in the next Harmonic publication of the Cambridge Society.

SUSAN.

Nay, Edward, fink nor thus in vain diftrefs, Torturing my heart with needlefs wretchedness; Hadit thou been doom'd, an outcaft wretch, to go

Where endless winter piles the plain with fnow,
I would have luil'd thee even there to reft,
Pillowing thy forrows on thy Susan's breast.
Or were we left to fojourn on fome thore,
Where the woods echo to the lion's roar,
Though danger feream'd in every paffing wind,
Still I were bleft if Edward were but kind.
Here we are fafe, on this pacific fhore
No tygers prowi, no mighty lions roar,
No howling wolf is heard, nor fecret brake
Conceals the venom of the coiling frake;
Indulgent heaven a milder brood beftows,
A milder clime to foothe the exile's woes.
Soft as in England, fmile the fummers bere,
As gentle winters clofe the dying year;
Nor here is heard th' autumnal whirlwind's
breath,

Nor vernal tempefts breathe the blast of death.
Could I one fmile on Edward's face Lut fee,
This humble dwelling were the world to me.

EDWARD.

Ah, Sufan! humble is indeed this cot, And well it fuits the outcaft's wretched lot Well fuits the horror of this barren fcene, A mind as drear as comfortlets within. 'Tis just that I fhould tread the joyless thore, Lift to the wintry tempeft's fullen roar, Plough up the ftubborn and ungrateful foil, Earn the faut pittance of a fulon's toil, And fleep feare shelter'd from the nightly dew, Where howls around the damal Kangaroo, This I have merited, but then to know Sufin partakes her barbarous husband's woe, Unchang'd by infult, cruelty, and hate, Partakes an outca fi's bed, a felon's fate, To fee her fondly ftrive to give relief, Forget his crimes, and only fhare his griefAnd then on all my actions paft to dwell, My crimes, my crueltiestis wife than hell.

SUSAN.

Oh fpare me, fpare me! ceafe to wound my breaft,

Be thou content, and we shall both be bleft.
What are to me the idle's gay reloits,

The buz of cities and the poinp of courts?
Without one vain regret to call a tear,
To wake one with, I feel contented here;
And we shall yet be happy: yonder ray,
The mild effulgence of departing day,
As gayly gilds this humble dwelling o`er,
As the proud domes on England's diftant fhore;
As brightly beams in morning's op'ning light,
As faintly fading finks in fhadowy night.

EDWARD.

[Jan.

LAURA LEAVES ARTHUR, TO MAKE A VISIT TO A FRIEND BY THE SEA SIDE.

"TRUST not he 'aid," the dang`rous fea,

"Which fmiles too often to deceive,
"Ah! dearest Laura, think on me,
"Nor once the fafer fand-beach leave."
Laura's fond heart, too full to speak,

To Arthur figh'd a soft adieu!
Love's gentle tear ftole down her cheek,
As Arthur mournfully windrew.
Lausa, at ev'ning's hour ferene,

Lov'd by the murin'ring fea to stray;.
And there, by all unheard, unfeen,

To faithful love her homage pay. In vain her gay companions fought

To tempt her on the failing main, "I cannot c'en," the faid," in thought, «Give Arthur's heart one moment's pain. "O then, forbear to urge me more ; "Beneath yon cliff's impending brow, "I'll for your fate return to thore,

To ev'ry Nereïd off'rings vow." Impatient Arthur, from the cares

Of worldly bus'nel's now releas'd, With ardor to the spot repairs,

Where all his cares in rapture ceas'd. With beating heart, and falt'r ng tongue,

"Where is my Laura ?" Arthur cries"Wandering, the fea-bound fhore along" Like lightning, Arthur thither flies. "Beneath yon cliff, there fits my love!" But ah, fond youth! no more for theeThe mounta n torrent burfts above, And bears its victim to the fea. O'erwhelm'd with grief, long Arthur stood, And on the cliff till fix'd his eye; Then madly cry'd, "In yonder flood, "Shell Arthur with his Laura die. "It is by ny ii-omen'd care,

"That Laura finds à watry grave, "I fee, Iice yon beat's crew there, Securely ride the briny wave. "They land! and with them Laura's friend! "Again I hear the tortent roar, "See her t'wards me her footsteps bend, "Oh heaven!"-he fell, and rofe no more ANNABELLA PLUMPIRE.

ORIGINAL