is built upon the assumption, that the enemy would be judiciously encountered; but to enable any General so to encounter them, you must put yourselves into a state of discipline, such as would render you capable of comprehending and fulfilling the orders of your leader. Observe this too, that, although it appears to me impracticable for the enemy ever to have any very serious force united in this country, you must always in war provide against dangers that seem beyond ordinary calculation. It is not to diminish the apprehensions of those who are listening to me, that I state the presumed inability of the enemy to assemble a large army on our territory, because I can well see that no apprehension exists among you. On the contrary, I read in every countenance the gallant eagerness with which you anticipate the contest with those, whose forefathers your forefathers were wont to seek and conquer in the heart of France, where every disparity of number was of course to be against our countrymen. Yet I cannot but feel an avarice with regard to every drop of precious Euglish blood that is to be exposed in such a contest, and I must be anxious that the extinction of the 'enemy's force should be obtained without the unnecessary loss of one of those estimable lives, which I see you are so willing to hazard in the struggle. Now if you prepare yourselves by proper discipline, you will enable the General commanding you to turn this plan against the enemy himself, and I congratulate you on this perfect ground of confidence, that the Generals now appointed to lead our army are of such a stamp in skill as insures to you that your valour will be employed upon terms that will give it every possible advantage. It is not probable that it would ever be thought requisite to lead the you in battalions against the enemy this I mention that the short time you have for discipline may not be unpro fitably employed in learning evolutions, which you are not likely to be called upon to practice in the field; a ready habit of priming and loading, and a facility of understanding and obeying the orders of your immediate officers, are the points which I deem the most essential for you to attain; I should imagine that the General under whon you serve would wish to detach you in small bodies, to hang upon the flanks and rear of the enemy, bidding you avail yourselves of every little bank or inequality of ground behind which you would cover yourselves, whilst your shot would do execution at its utmost range in the columns of the enemy, unavoidably obliged to keep in a compact body, instructing you tơ retire whensoever the enemy should advance in considerable strength against you, and to return to harrass them whensoever that detachment fell back to its main body; you must not think this is unworthy of your courage. If the safety of your country demanded the sacrifice of your lives, I should be the last to check the devotion which I know you would deliberately feel; but if that necessity did not really exist, it would be absurdity to prefer even a dignified death to the honest triumph of consciously participating in the glory of having crushed the invader of your country: were I to propose to you a principle for your conduct, it should be that which was held so praiseworthy by the Greeks of old, and which has been thus happily described: ORIGINAL POETRY. WAR SONG, ON THE THREATENED, FRENCH INVASION. WHO shall impede the Tyrant dread, With desolating brand, And flag unfurl'd, bestriding the world, Who but they, whom the waves obey, With bosoms steel'd, in the battling field,' Whose conquering sires, at Cressy their fires Who with Lion-port, at Agincourt, Held revelry supreme. And this is the foe, whose children now, And thy rights betray, which, ALBION, say, By the sacrifice dread, at Poictiers made, By the charter'd deed of Runnymede, By the hecatombs slain, on Blenheim's plain, Lead, lead the way, bid the "battle bray," C REBELLION DEFEATED. AN, ODE. Respectfully inscribed to those brave Defenders of their Country, whe quelled the late alarming Insurrection in the City of Dublin. VOL. I. BY A BROTHer Soldier. THOU, thy horrid shape still mantling In the gloomy garb of night, Gorgopi Gorgon-visag'd, bloody minded, With thy worse than tyger train! Save us, Heav'n! See mild KILWARDEN Mercy shuts the gates of pardon, As she views the Martyr's pangs. Massacre his mad pace quickens, Loyal cor'ses strew the ground. Valour, tho' surpris'd, undaunted Grasps his sword with hasty hand; On! ye hearts of sterling, value! . Let the red-wing'd vengeance fly; Round your loyal standard rally, God be praised for all his mercies! -- SELECTED POETRY. CONQUEST OR DEATH. LET the Christianiz'd Mussulman-Papist* of France, Can a lawless Marauder to Freedom pretend? ' The vain threats of an Atheist we Christians defie, Conquer or Die." HAFIZ. * Formerly Ali-BONAPARTE: now the hypocrite calls himself the Thrice-Christian Head the Catholic French Church :-a Mahometan in Egypt-a Christian in France. Here no Tyrant, no Autocrat poisons our Laws, Or enervates the will, which gives life to our cause : With our Swords bright with Freedom, French threats we defie- Let the Strutter come forth, nor be longer remiss, On our Shores we'll avenge all the wrongs of the Swiss, Gallic Slaves and Enslavers we scorn and defie, For the Motto of Freemen is " Conquer or Die." RICHARD LLWYD, THE BARD OF SNOWDEN, (1) Aborigines. YE, (1) whom Britain's earliest day Lords of realms, as yet unknown, Ere yet, the icy rocky North (3) Decreed to share a restless doom, A world, in vain, resisted Rome: Led by rapine, fraud and spoil, That Britain's offspring, fought, and fell. (2) Invasion of the Danes and Norwegians. (3) See an elegant version of the speech of Caractacus, before Claudius, in the Juvenilia of my accomplished friend J. H. L. Hunt, Esq. $ 2 Lost Lost your own paternal plains, Here amid her cliffs of snow, Till Concord came, with efforts blest, Your Sires (5) return, resume their own; O'er Britain's fair extended face, One brave, one rich, and potent race;- The first of nations-BOASTS YOUR NAME! BRITONS hear, that name's a host, The foe that racks a suffering world, Dares, and hopes, by threats and wiles, By genuine Freedom's holy flame, (4) The ridge of Snowdonia. (5) The restoration of the British line, in Henry the 7th, of the House of Tudor. (6) The battle of Bangor, upon the Dee. (7) That of Llanfaes in Anglesey. (8) Dial Rodri, or Roderick's Revenge at Cymryd, upon the River Conway. (9) In the forests of Euloe, in Flintshire, and on the mountain of Berwyn, the fortunes of Henry II, the Power of England, aided by a diversion from Ireland, upon the coast of Wales, and a full exertion of the old maxim, Divide et impera, gave way to a combination of elemental warfare, an inaccessible country, and the prowess of Owen Gwynedd. |