Shall boast new charms, and more than they have lost.
Then each in its peculiar honours clad,
Shall publish even to the distant eye
Its family and tribe. Laburnum, rich
In streaming gold; syringa, ivory pure;
The scentless and the scented rose; this red,
And of a humbler growth, the other tall,
And throwing up into the darkest gloom
Of neighbouring cypress, or more sable yew,
Her silver globes, light as the foamy surf
That the wind severs from the broken wave:-
The lilac, various in array, now white,

Now sanguine, and her beauteous head now set
With purple spikes pyramidal, as if

Studious of ornament, yet unresolved

Which hue she most approved, she chose them all;-
Copious of flowers the woodbine, pale and wan,
But well compensating her sickly looks
With never-cloying odours, early and late;—
Hypericum all bloom, so thick a swarm

Of flowers, like flies clothing her slender rods,
That scarce a leaf appears;-mezerion too,
Though leafless, well attired, and thick beset
With blushing wreaths, investing every spray ;-
Althea with the purple eye: the broom
Yellow and bright, as bullion unalloyed
Her blossoms; and luxuriant above all
The jasmine, throwing wide her elegant sweets,
The deep dark-green of whose unvarnish'd leaf
Makes more conspicuous, and illumines more
The bright profusion of her scatter'd stars."

H.

MUSIC OF POLITICS.

Οὐδαμου γαρ κινουνται μουσικης τζόπαι ἄνευ Πολιτικῶν νόμων τῶν μεγισίων. PLATO de Repub. 1. iv.

THERE, Mr Editor, "I give you in three," to make a good translation of this Greek. I've tried my hand on it in vain. The first version I made stood thus, "A change of measures is apt to breed revolutions in the state:" but exclusively of a natural dislike to the term measures (which is but a tailor-like sort of a word,) the passage has too much the air of a truism: then, it savours something of the thick and thin ministerialist; and to tell you a secret, I have not as yet found my place in the ranks of that class of politicians. There was nothing, therefore, to do, but to give a dash of the pen through the line, and begin again. My second attempt was as follows, "When a minister takes a crotchet in his head, let him look that he does not endanger the constitution." Upon the whole, this renders the sense of the original with sufficient spirit, and is not so much amiss; but then it is too radical for the "New Monthly," and VOL. II. No. 8.-1821.

So,

ibi omnis effusus labor. Neither was my third trial more fortunate. "When every whipper-snapper gives himself airs, and thinks to set the world to a new tune, then the Habeas Corpus should be suspended, and the press vigorously restrained." This is an evident begging of the question; and, as I am no beggar, I leave the matter to those that are.

By the time I had gotten thus far, I was fully convinced that "Chi ben comincia ha il mezzo del opra;"

and had already passed through most of those customary stages of mortified authorship, which find vent in such expressions as "the deuce take the Greek ;"" the devil's in the Greek;" “ I wish Plato and his Republic were "&c. &c.; when in the moment of giving that energetic clench of the teeth which accompanies the act of rending the paper into fifty stripes, it fortunately occurred to me that the motto would look very well as it is. A translation is of no use to the learned, and the unlearned may mistake the type for a grotesque vignette, or liken it to the text of a sermon, which, on the authority of Sterne, I pronounce to be indifferent to the commentary, and which, since the catechistical days of my grandmother, no one thinks the most important part of the discourse: so, with your permission, Mr. Editor, we'll just let it stand by itself, and leave the interpretation to every man's own conscience.

"To each his taste allow,

Well said the dame, I ween, who kiss'd her cow."

Without further preamble then, you must know that it was a whim among the ancient philosophers, that there exists a secret connexion between the music of a nation, the character of the people, and the nature of their government. For a long time, I must own, that notwithstanding a great respect I entertain for whatever the ancients ever said or did, good, bad, or indifferent, this notion appeared to me one of those absurdities, of which philosophers were long ago said to have a monopoly (there never having yet been nonsense too gross to find its way into their writings); but a closer observation, and a more attentive reflection on the subject, have led me to conclude with Papilion in the play, "Dat dere is more in dese tings den some men vill

tink."

Not to dwell upon such worn-out thread-bare remarks, as that none but primitive nations have national melodies, or that the Irish music is a mere type and abstract of the Irish disposition, it is sufficient to regard the common parlance of mankind -an index, by the by, which is rarely consulted without advantage. Are not nations, when not engaged in open hostilities, (and only employed in undermining each other's commerce, and spying into, thwarting, and undermining, each other's cabinet

measures,) technically considered as living in harmony? Are not all diplomatic affairs, (notwithstanding the new-fangled terms of protocols and circulars) carried on by means of notes ? Are not ambassadors and plenipotentiaries bound to lay a base (bass) for their negotiations, and compelled to act according to the tenor of their instructions? Do not the belligerent powers, when tired of squandering the wealth and blood of the people, begin to approach each other by means of overtures? În conformity with this last remark is the common observation, that the loss or gain of a great battle makes the high contracting parties change their tone.

In the interior management of national affairs, we find the oppositionists eternally exclaiming that ministers have brought matters to a pretty pitch, and endeavouring to make them sing small; while all propositions receive their character and qualification by their relation to the motive, and it is a sufficient objection to the most valuable reforms, that they do not suit the time.

But in all such speculations as the present there is nothing like an appeal to facts. The old legitimate government of France was perfectly well defined "un despotisme temporé par des chansons," and the wisest ministers were the most aware of the necessity of watching the Parisian vaudevilles, those safetyvalves for giving vent to a nation's disquietudes. There is so much in this remark, that politicians of all classes are now pretty nearly agreed in assigning, as the chief cause of the revolution, that the monarchy was no longer worth an old song.

But if any one is still disposed to doubt the influence of music upon government, I would humbly beseech him to reflect upon the Ranz des Vaches, and remember the extraordinary effects of "ça ira" and the Marseillois hymn, which unsettled the strongest heads, and (like Dryden's music) had almost " untuned the spheres." In England the powers of "God save the King" and of "Rule Britannia" are well known; and in Ireland "Patrick's Day in the Morning," and "Croppies lie down," are either of them enough to breed a rebellion. These matters being duly considered, a deep politician or a curious philosopher would find it difficult to determine whether, after all, England is most indebted for her naval superiority to the Howes, the St. Vincents, and the Nelsons, or to poor Charles Dibdin, the Tyrtæus of Portsmouth. In Spain we have recently seen great consequences proceed from "Gulp it down, dog;" and (to come back once more to France) "Vive Henri quatre" followed so closely upon the battle of Waterloo, that a nice observer might be mistaken in determining which was cause or effect to the other.

. I am not one of those unfair persons who would go to the

devil to serve an hypothesis, and ride their hobbies "tucked up to their very chins, with whips across their mouths, scouring and scampering it away, like so many little party-coloured devils astride a mortgage." I shall not, therefore, lay any stress upon the story of Amphion, as taken in a literal sense, though something like an argument might be raised out of the walls of Jericho; but I conclude that, even as a metaphorical expression, the former story is decidedly favourable to my opinion as illustrative of that proverbial truism-Concordia res parvæ crescunt, discordia maximæ dilabuntur. In the same spirit of candour, I am disposed to make a proper deduction for the Greek hero who said, that though he could not play upon the lyre, he could make a small state great; which seems, I allow, to indicate a less intimate connexion between the two arts than belongs to the present hypothesis. But I must at the same time be allowed to remark, that I do not see how a little music could have done the gentleman any harm; and in my own private opinion there was "something too much" Charlatanerie in the answer to do great credit to any opinion. Further, however, it must be admitted, in abatement of my theory, that Nero, who was a good stick at a scrape on the fiddle," was a desperate bad king; and Farinelli himself, maugre his trills and his quavers, cut no great figure as minister to the king of Spain. With all these deductions, which I am free to admit with a liberality for which I am disposed to take no small credit, I consider my case as abundantly established. The reflecting reader will at once see the importance of the fact; and the light it throws upon that often canvassed question of men or measures. Some of us are old enough to have seen many changes in the cabinet, while affairs have continued to be carried on to the same tune, a tune for which we have all been too deeply called upon to pay the piper; whereas if the measures had been changed (xTOURTAL as Totas), the "old poleetical post-horses" (as Sir Archy calls them) might have served well enough to drag us out of the mire--but this, I own, is mere matter of opinion. I shall now, sir, proceed to make a very few miscellaneous remarks, which arise as corollaries from the first proposition; remarks which, while they illustrate the science of politics, will amply confirm the validity of the "forgone conclusion." And first we may observe, that the harmony of a government, like that of a concert, may be disturbed in two ways. Either the music itself may be bad, as in anarchical or despotic states (where demagogues or tyrants follow each other with the unpleasant effect of consecutive fifths); or the music, being good, may be spoiled by bad performance: and this last may arise either from the incapacity of the minister to keep in with his band, his missing his time, being out in his count, or stopping too sharp or too flat, and so

throwing all the performers wrong; or he may be too fond of execution, indulging in tricks, and in long-winded capriccios and embroideries. For it is a fault common to ministers and musicians (which has the worst possible effect), to interlard with their own crude notions the works of their classical predecessors, which not only destroys unity, but alters in toto the character and expression of the original. I have thus heard my favourite authors in song and government so miserably transmogrified, that they were difficultly cognizable as the same. Thus a crude and undigested modulation may be palmed on the public for the works of a great master; and the most radical changes effected under the notion of originality.

Success, in both arts, depends in a great measure upon the proper choice of instruments. A minister, in selecting his windinstruments for legislative assemblies, should take care that they have an agreeable quality of voice, are accurately set to the same pitch, and above all, are not too difficult to play upon. His trumpets should not have a braying cracked tone; his fiddles should be fresh from the universities, and his horns, the best the city can afford. Much likewise depends upon the management of the crescendo and diminuendo, letting a subject gently die away when it does not hit the humour of the times, and straining the forte till it rivals that of the opera at Paris, when the house is willing to bear a chorus.

In composition, (ministerial and musical) discords should neither be too frequent nor too few. Introduced apropos they are very useful, and produce an excellent effect. They should, however, be well prepared, and easily resolved: otherwise they give rise to sudden changes of key that may amount to a perfect revolution. There is nothing also more important to a good performance, either in music or government, than that each individual should be well adapted to the part he is to bear in the conduct of the piece, and should cultivate with assiduity his particular department. A finance minister may be termed the organ-blower of the nation, and should perfectly understand how to raise the wind. A commander-in-chief should be a good leader of the band; but he will obtain little credit by the practice of fugues. A master of the ordnance, on the contrary, will be all the better for knowing something about canons. Foreign ministers must modulate into the most cramped and difficult keys with facility and grace. Lords of the admiralty should be ready to take any part that offers, and all should be able to follow in a round, with promptitude and facility.

It is a part of excellent policy to be never unprovided with a certain number of voices "inopes rerum nugaque canora," which, when the subject lags, may fill a pause, and run an extempore cantabile of any required length without breaking down. Such