Nevertheless, it must not, be forgotton, that certificates, bearing testimony of a seaman's being an American citizen, are very easily obtained by a little hard swearing. A dollar and a false oath, very often, transform a foreigner into an American; and if this ready-made countryman of ours be impressed into a British ship, we clamour loudly about the cruelty and injustice of Britain's naval officers.-Not many months since, an English lad, not quite nineteen, who had deserted from a British man of war, wished to go out, from NewYork, to the East Indies, as a seaman, with an American captain. The captain represented the danger of his being impressed by the British, and advised him, at all events, to go, and get a certificate of his being a native American. The seaman followed this advice, and returned, within a few hours thereafter, flourishing a certificate, testifying, that he was born in America. Captain-How did you get this certificate, Tom-Sailor-I went into street, where I saw an Irishman standing; and I asked him to go along with me to the proper officer, and swear, that I was born in America; to which he agreed, and I got my certificate.-Captain-How much did you give the Irishman for swearing?-SailorTwo dollars.-Captain-That was too much; you should have gotten him to do it for less.-Sailor-I tried to beat him down to one dollar, but he insisted upon it, that two dollars were little enough, in all conscience, for a false oath; and that he would not perjure himself for less. The impressing our own seamen, our real, bonâ fide, American citizens, however, is a most glaring outrage upon our rights and privileges, as an independant nation, and ought, not only, to be desisted from, in future, but to be recompensed, as far as such an injury can be recompensed, by Britain. (To be continued.) EPISTLES, ODES, AND OTHER POEMS, by Thos. Moore, Esq. IN (Continued from Vol. 2. No. 3. page 178.) N the first epistle, addressed to Lord Viscount Strangford, Mr. Moore shews, that he is capable of throwing no common hand over the strings of his poetic lyre; the followlowing lines are beautiful, and, towards their close, breathe the spirit of sublimity.” "The sea is like a silvery lake, And o'er its calm the vessel glides The slumber of the silent tides ! Hath hung its shade on Pico's height, Cling darkly round his giant form!"- "Omnia scripsisset!!!". Had he written always thus, to praise him would be superfluous, and to censure him vain.-And is it possible that the same fountain should send forth streams of water both sweet and bitter?-It is even so, as will be soon, too plainly seen. For, in order to prevent us from entertaining too high an opinion of him, Mr. Moore takes care to tell us, that—he intends to give back to God his soul, which he had borrowed," sullied but little, or brightly the same." So said Jean Jacques Rousseau, with whose character we are all very sufficiently acquainted.-Yet this doctrine is altogether contrary to Christianity, which alone teaches us the true relation, in which we stand towards our Creator, and alone, points out the means of present peace, and future bliss. But, perhaps, Mr. Moore would be ashamed of having Christianity imputed to him;-he, certainly, cannot plead guilty to the charge, if it were ever made against him!—as his book, now under review, most flagrantly proves. He is, however, so well pleased with the thought of his, (like Rousseau)—giving back his soul to God, as pure as he received it, that he, immediately exclaims, "The thought was ecstatic! I felt as if heaven Had already the wreath of eternity shewn,"-&c. &c. Nevertheless, as Mr. Moore, himself, observes from Plato, a poet may be "three removes from truth,―ITATOS ATO TNS aλnas."-And three removes, whatever you may think of it, Sir, are, to all intents and purposes, as bad as three hundred thousand, from truth, as to any power of imparting ought, which conduces to present consolation, or future hope. We have, then, a complete specimen of Mr. Moore's happiest manner of blending ribaldry with impiety, of clothing obscenity and blasphemy in smooth and pretty language.—He informs us,—that a certain lyre had the property of repeating all the love-sighs, and whisperings, and kisses, and love-etceras, which it heard ;-that a nymph and a swain stole regularly to the shades, to indulge in love;-that the lyre told all that had passed, and the world, the malignant world, censured the lady for having been so very lavish of her charms, and for having followed the dictates of those passions, which nature gave her, &c. &c.-upon which the lyre and the lovers were taken to heaven, where-they all three do as they did on earth. This is merely the heaven of a brutalized Turk,—the paradise of Mahomet, where all is but the broad shame of a brothel;-not the heaven described in the impressive and the awful language of inspiration ;-" Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things, which God hath prepared for them that love him." We e are, next, favoured with some tame, feeble lines upon a-"Flying fish,"-and some common-place cant upon Mr. Moore's love of virtue. That the reader may be convinced, that we do not despise this nonsense without sufficient cause, we will present him with a few lines, which are equal to any of the productions of Sir Richard Blackmore, or Mr. Creech: "Oh Virtue! when thy clime I seek, Ohe! jain satis est, et superque satis. And in a note subjoined to this performance upon the flying fish, the author, who never lets slip an opportunity of displaying his vast erudition, says, "It is the opinion of St. Austin, upon Genesis, and I believe, of nearly all the Fathers, that birds, like fish, were originally produced from the waters; in defence of which idea, they have collected every fanciful circumstance, which can tend to prove a kindred similitude between them-συγγένειαν τοις πετομένοις προς τα νηκτα. With this thought in our minds, when we first see the flying-fish, we could almost fancy, that we are present at the moment of creation, and witness the birth of the first bird from the waves.' Not now to notice the flight of Mr. Moore's vigorous fancy, which makes him, together with his friend, the flyingfish, present at the creation,--we beg leave to remark, that his faith, in this instance, surpasseth his understanding. If he will read the Fathers a little more attentively, perhaps, he will find it necessary to alter his creed in this respect. Did he find this theory of Austin supported in the pages of Ireneus, of Lactantius, of Theophilus of Antioch, of Clement of Alexandria, of Origen, of Cyprian of Carthage, of Tertullian, of Chrysostom, &c. &c. ?-If he did, he will do well to add their names to that of St. Austin, in the next edition of his poems. We have, next, some smooth lines, to his sister, written from Norfolk, in Virginia, amidst which the halting of occasionally intrudes, as, the verses, beginning with "Must come, alas! through every fate Of time and distance, cold and late! &c. prose In the poetry, Mr. Moore strongly hints, that the American character is degraded and vile;—but he defers the full proof thereof, till he should see and know more of the people of the United States, among whom he had but just arrived, VOL. II. 2 H when he penned these lines to his sister.-In a note, however, affixed to this second Epistle, he amply compensates himself for his prudery and coy reluctance to blame America; for, there, he says, "Such romantic works, as the "American Farmer's letters,” and the account of Kentucky by Imlay, would seduce us into a belief, that innocence, peace and freedom, had deserted the rest of the world, for Martha's Vineyard, and the Banks of the Ohio. The French travellers, too, almost all from revolutionary motives, have contributed their share to the diffusion of this flattering misconception. A visit to the country, is, however, quite sufficient to correct even the most enthusiastic prepossession. "In the ferment, which the French revolution excited among the democrats of America, and the licentious sympathy, with which they shared in the wildest excess of Jacobinism, we may find one source of that vulgarity of vice, that hostility to all the graces of life, which distinguishes the present demagogues of the United States, and has become, indeed, too generally, the characteristic of their countrymen. But there is another cause of the corruption of private morals, which, encouraged as it is by the government, and identified with the interests of the community, seems to threaten the decay of all honest principle in America. I allude to those fraudulent violations of neutrality, to which they are indebted for the most lucrative part of their commerce, and by which they have so long infringed, and counteracted the maritime rights and advantages of this country. This unwarrantable trade is necessarily abetted by such a system of collusion, imposture, and perjury, as cannot fail to spread rapid contamination around it." In answer to this very serious charge against the American people, which represents them as very little better than a mere horde of banditti, a nest of miserable swindlers, we say, that altho' French influence exercises too much of its pestilential, deadly, controul over our present administration of government; yet it is a well-known truth, that, by far the greater portion of the men of property, of intellect, and of virtue in this country, that is, of the men, who compose the high, the national character of America, are as decidedly hostile to jacobinism, as a man of exalted honour can be to a foot-pad, a house-breaker, a murderer, an incendiary, or a traitor. And, as to the covering trade, which we, by no means, defend, for it is an accursed traffic, polluted with every meanness, and black with every crime, that can render the human character infamous, it must be remembered, that its influence |