1 The application of these principles to the conduct of the different European powers, occupies two long chapters, and concludes thus: Les peuples qui ont co-ordonné leur conduite aux principes de l'ordre colonial, ont conservé leurs colonies; ceux qui s'en sont écartés, les ont perdues. Les effets ont correspondu exactement aux causes; et, comme il est juste, chacun a fini par recueillir ce qu'il avait semé.— Tom. ii. p. 65. Présenter toutes les richesses du monde, comme un fonds commun, créé par le ciel, pour que chaque membre de la grande famille du genre humain y puise suivant les degrés de son travail et de son industrie.-Préface, p. xvii. . TO THE CHARGES BROUGHT BY །༄ལ་ས༅།* THE REVIEWER OF SPENCE'S ANECDOTES, IN THE Duarterly Review, FOR OCTOBER 1820, AGAINST THE LAST EDITOR OF POPE'S WORKS; AND AUTHOR OF A LETTER TO MR. CAMPBELL," ON "THE INVARIABLE PRINCIPLES OF POETRY." BY THE REV. W. L. BOWLES. Pudet hæc opprobria nobis Et dici potuisse, et non potuisse refelli. ORIGINAL. LONDON: 1820. DEDICATION. TO WILLIAM GIFFORD, ESQ. DEAR SIR, In a most obliging note which I received from you, in London, in May last, with some compliments on a composition which you said did "equal honor to my head and heart," you added, that, as far as "you could discern it, you always pursued the straight line of criticism." An article having appeared in the Review, of which you are the Editor and responsible Conductor, totally at variance, in my opinion, with what you yourself kindly expressed towards me, and still more at variance, I believe, in the opinion of every impartial judge, with what you have termed the "straight line of criticism;" I feel compelled to enter into a public vindication of myself, from some of those charges in your Review, which appear to me not only thus at variance with your own candidly expressed opinions, but equally remote from sense, justice, liberality, or TRUTH. The article is every thing but a fair or scholar-like discussion of critical opinions. The parts, however, of those critical opinions in which I am brought under notice, relate to what I have said of Pope's moral character, in the life prefixed to his works in ten volumes; to the propositions I had laid down, as necessary to be kept in mind, in order to judge rightly of the characteristics of what is most intrinsically poetical; and, to the "principles of poetry," as farther explained in a letter to Campbell. As you have allowed the article to appear, which I am about to examine, if you will do me the favor of reading dispassionately the following pages, I am convinced you will admit I have been charged Mr. Southey, the most able and eloquent writer in this very Review, wrote to me the warmest and kindest letter on the occasion. WRONGFULLY. In a subsequent investigation, I have little doubt I shall be able to prove to you, should I be so happy as to draw your further attention, that I have been charged "FOOLISHLY;" and if so, I leave it to your sense of equity to pronounce, whether, in admitting an article, as intemperate as it is unjust and foolish, you have consulted the interest of the valuable work you superintend. I trust and believe the appeal which I am compelled to make, will convince every dispassionate and fair-judging mind; and there is certainly no one whom I should more anxiously wish to convince than yourself, because I am firmly persuaded you would not have admitted the accusing article, unless you conscientiously conceived the accusations to be just. Begging, therefore, your candid attention to what follows, I remain, dear Sir, Your very sincere and faithful servant, Bremhill, Oct. 25, 1820. A REPLY, &c. &c. WHEN charges are brought, of no light weight, mingled with expressions of spleen and sarcasm, in a distinguished popular journal, and under the eye, and, I might add, with the sanction of such a character as Mr. Gifford, the charges ought to be deeply weighed by any one who has a regard to his own moral or literary character. If he is convinced, upon consideration, that the charges have not been made out, it is a duty he owes to himself and the public, to give his reasons for so thinking. If he has been affected by the expressions of ill-deserved sarcasm, he will show his sense of it, as far as possible, by disdaining, where its bitterest tone might in return be assuredly justified, to use language so unwarrantable, even in self-defence, his motives being solely those of truth and justice. Considering, then, what is said in the Review of Spence's Anecdotes, in the last number of the Quarterly, as far as regards myself, to be both unfair and unjust; I shall bring forward, as I am peremptorily called upon to do, some observations which may tend to divest the arguments there used, of their force, and the sarcasm, needlessly employed, of its sting! I trust it will not be necessary to say, that I have advanced no opinion which I did not conscientiously believe: I may have believed it, upon mistaken grounds; I may have been led into the belief too hastily; I may, unknown to myself, have been betrayed by latent prejudices, the progress of which I had not watched with sufficient care: these feelings may have silently operated upon my better judgment, when I was scarce conscious that they operated |