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POETRY.
yOK TUB REFLECTOR.
Strange that a country cannot have a bard
Tc sing- it:—ours is worthy of a soitjr.
ayiugn’s x. s.
THE MISSISSIPPI.
OLD Itomar, first of bards besides bis pods,
Heroes, and battles, smooth Scamandcr sung;
And other petty 'brook» to mighty rivers
Swol'n by bis floods of verse. The Homan poets
The Tiber:—Tiber was a creek near Rome,
Muddy, and insignificant indeed,—
Hut Tiber was an honorable stream ;
Tor in it madam Amphitrite bath’d,
And water-nymphs, that snorted round theijtpicen j
Whilst dwelt in playful Eddy’s dimpled cheek
Sweet smile, and courted Wavelets amorous sigh’d :
All vulgar fish, like salmon, shad und trout,
Mention made never honorable speech of,
Or Eiction’9 net clear’d from the heaven-sprung ooze :
Yes Neptune’s spouse, oft gadding from iter lord,
Forsook her coral bott’is, her courts in ocean,
To honor with her presence, nobleTiber.
I*o, Danube, cold Tanais, Helespont,
The sounds 1 caught in fame’s long trumpet murm nfry,
Where Nilus, Tigris, Ganges liv’d to run.
" Soft flowing Avon,” signs the British muse ;
" Soft flowing Avon,” echoes thro* the land ;
So Avon ’s'Vio is an honorable stream i
And Tweed, whose once-werc-chrystal waters Scott
Hath render'd dirty with his brains’ vile wash,
Hislow-liv’d rhymes ; and Teviot, likewise clouded,
And with the same abominable suds,
Maugre the muck, arc very honorable ;
And Shannon, river in the Emerald Isle ;
And Thames, whose bosom pillows sleeping thunder,
Are, either, highly honorable streams
These few I’ve counted out just to compare with,
Many' of which arc Europe’s pride and boast,
Are Europe’s sickly, puny, ditty brats,
Lov’d, lauded, and "caress’d for want of worthier.
But here’s a river worth the noticing,
A many-footed giant, lo, she stands
On earth’s broad central line, lifting her head,
Crown’d with Canadian forests, towards the pole ;
She streaches wide her arms, and in embrace,
Binds (admirable sight,) a continent
With one hand, she unbars the gates of morning,
And, with the other, heads the evening in;
The Moon, her paramour, her bosom 1
Wantons; she blushes for his glowing kisses,
And tlicn, as if to flatter him so highly.
Bids a young Breeze, her charming waiting maid,
Whisper the pride of increase in his car.
Alternately the seasons wait on her:
Autumn throws on her lap her golden harvest,
And it were churlish to withhold good thanks ;
She smiles on spring, who sticks her’rouml with flow’rs,
Binds her high brow withtbays of haughty fir.
And hangs her arms about with speckled wreaths :
When summer huffucates with sultry heat,
She bathes her temples in the distant north ;
When winter throws his icy arms about her,
She warms her freezing feet at southern fires
Now, why not Mississippi Ganges’ equal ?
Scamander’s, Tiber’s, Thames’, Teviot'?,
TVs, Helespont’s, or vast Etcetera’# ?
As soft h« name, as sweet to taste her waters ;
Birds as melodious, and eke as fine,
Carol about her,- youths as bright, and virgins
As fair, heave sighs as warm, troth love as true,
As any river’s presence e’er bore test to.
Then where’s the ’vantage weighing those so heavy,
And lifting'Tins so light she kicks the beam ■
Islt, that bn the banks of other rivers,
We stop to read great nation’s epitaphs,
That makes those rivers lovelier than our own ?
If so, the grave is lovelier than the cradle.
Is it the hulk of years, the freight of ages?
If age’s awful spoils, sunken in might,
Whereof we scarce may hold the memory ;
If Troy’s proud walls, or itpme’s ambitious spires ;
If Egypt’s pyramids, that scarcely seem
To groan beneath time’s century-measur’d march,
Speak mighty things s or, (come to modern days,)
If Briton’s commerce, and her thousand keels ;
If Europe's allied kings, and musltroon tlironcs;
If great Napoleon, over-mateb’d in war;
If Phoenix Moscow, fired at victory’s sun ;
Or, all together, speak of mighty th.ngs,
A people’s freedom speaks of mightier things !
A crowded population gather not,
’Tis true, upon the river’s healthier banks i
Better small villas, single habitations
Stand here and there; so virtue shall prevail,-
And hospitality shall entertain
The Stranger. Mankind, gather'd into heaps,
Like zenith sim-beams on the rotten shore
Of lake, or reedy sea, that reptiles breed,
Brood on the nits of strife and hatch out vices.
Thin population is day’s milder beam,
Is breeze, is sliow'r, is dew, heav’n's pearly gift,
’N'eatli which, the choicer products nature owns,
Find proper soil, and clime, and nourishment.
Athens, Feb. 28
characters.
CURRAN, THE IRISH ORATOR.
Mr. Curran was a native of the county of
Cork. His parents had nothing to bestow
upon him but the rudiments of a classical
education, which he completed in Trinity
college, Dublin. Shortly after he was cal
led-to the bar he married Miss O’Dell, a la
dy of respectable family but slender fortune,
w^th whom he became acquainted on cir
cuit. His splendid talents soon brought
liim into notico in his profession, in which
lie obtained a silk gown in the administra
tion of the duke of Portland. la 1784 wc
find him seated in the house of cbmmons
of Ireland, and seconding with much sport
ive humour, every effort of tine popular par
ty for the emancipation of the country, and
tlio establishment of its commercial free
dom and political independence. During
the arduous and interesting period in which
Mr." Fitzgibbon (late earl of Clare) filled
the oflieo of attorney-general, bo was one of
the leading men in opposition, and of course
came into frequent collision with that law
yer. The high tone of defence upon legal
constitutional questions, with which the at
torney general endeavoured to bear down
liis opponents, was more frequently ridiculed
by tne wit# than combated by the arguments,
of Mr. C; If, in this mode of contest, lie
did not always repel the blow he at least e-
vaded its force; and although lie could not
on every occasion, boast of victory, lie at
least escaped defeat. Of one of these con
tests the issue Vat more serious—it produced
a duel, but which itas attended with no in
jury to either party : this happened in the
administration of the duke of Portland.—
The dutchess of Rutland and a large party
of her female friends were present in the
„ulkvy during the discussion $ and the irri
tation excited by the keenness of Mr. Cur
ran's wit, it may bo easily supposed, was
not, allayed by such a presence. As a law
yer, he was not particularly distinguished
by the extent of bis knowledge, or the
depth of his researches: lie stood in this
respect only on an equality with his com
petitors ; it was as an advocate that he out
stripped them ; and no advocate ever made,
the cause «r his client so mueh ids own. So
powerful and persuasive were the allure
ments of his eloquence, that a Dublin jury
became* afraid of listening to his address,
and wont into the box upon their guard a-
gainsthis seductive powers. Some of his
speeches in defence of many of his unfortu
nate countrymen have been published, and
afford a satisfactory specimen of bis elo
quence .Next to*his eloquence, bis acuteness
in examining a witness challenged public
admiration. Tie. was considered sawder
than lord Erskine, and more poiisiwl than
sir W. Garrowi His parliamentary speech
es seldom possessed the excellence which
marked his professional eloquence; they
were desultory and irregular, lively hursts
and sketches, conceived more in the wanton-
ness of fancy, than the serious exertions of
his mind; keen strokes of satire, flying
shafts of xvit, instead of profound reasoning
His talents and his attachment to the popu
lar cause, rendered him, in the viceroyalty
of the duke of Bedford, a subject of care
next to the late lainriited Mr. Ponsonby.
While the latter was made, lord chancellor,
an arrangement with the late sic Michael
Smith, then -master of the rolls, by which
Mi-. Curran was appointed in his place ; a
situation in which lie particularly distin
guished himself for dear and correct deci
sions : this happened in the year L80G. Ilis
friends thought that his interests could not
be better consulted, but lie was of a-different
opinion: -it did not harmonizewith the. par
ticular course of his legal knowledge and
practice ; and be would have preferred the
ofllce of attorney-general, which he thought
would have led to the chief scat in the court
of King’s Bench. He lived to he convinced
of the weakness of this speculation. It ser
ved, however, to destroy some old friend
ships, and afford much uneasiness to his lat
ter days. Mr. Curran enjoyed a pension
of 3.000 pounds a year, settled upon him
on his resigning-his olTlce, in 1815, i.i
favour of sir Win. M’Mahon, tlsc present
roaster of the rolls in Ireland. Ilis oratory
was of a peculiar species ; it was complete
ly 8u> generis—ever the sudden burst of
strong and passionate feelings, which seem
ed to rise in proportion as the grand concep
tions of liis mind became more and marc il
luminated by the coruscations of his wit—
the lightning flashes of a vigorous and high
ly poetical imagination.—Gent. Magazine.
tar. C-urran was one of those characters
which the lover of human nature, and of its
intellectual capacities delights to contem-
platp. He rose from nothing; derived no
aid from rank and fortune; and ascended
by bis own energies to an eminence, which
throws rank and fortune into comparative
scorn. He was tho great ornament in liis
time of the Irish bar, and in forensic elo
quence lias certainly never been exceeded in
modern times. His rhetoric was the pure
amanation of liis spirit, a warming and
lighting-up of the soul, that poured convic
tion and astonishment on his heavers ! It
flashed in his eye, and revelled in the melodi
ous and powerful accents of his voice. Ilis
wit was not less exuberant than his imagina
tion ; and it was the peculiarity of Mr. Cur
ran’s wit, that even when it took the form of
a play on words, it acquired dignity from
the vein of imagery that accompanied it.
Every jest was a metaphor. But the great
charm and power of Mr. Curran’s eloquence
lay in its fervour. It was by this that be
animated liis friends, and appalled bis ene
mies ; and the admiration which he thus ex
cited was the child and brother of love. It
was impossible that a man xvhose mind was
thus constituted, should not be a patriot;
and certainly no man in modern times ever
loved his country more passionately, tliun
Mr. Curran loved Ireland. The same sin
cere and earnest heart attended Mr. Curran
through all liis attachments. He was con
stant and unalterable in his preferences and
friendship, public and private. He began
his political life in the connection of Mr.
Fox, and never swerved from it for a mo
ment. Prosperity and adversity made no
alteration in him. If he ever differed %-om
{hat great man, it was that he sometimes
thought his native country of Ireland \x*as
hot sufficiently considered. TJicre was no
thing fickle or wavering iu Mr. Curran’s c-
lection of mind. Thcinan that, from an en
lightened judgement, and a true inspiration
Of feeling, he chose, ho never cooled towards,
and never descried.—Monthly Magazine.
talents, hnd His uniform raRin p ti V l n ” n 1 ^^ f q,®
HENRY ERSKINE.
October 8. Died, at his seat at Ammon-
dell, the hon. Henry Erskine. Thus at
nearly the same moment the former great
leader and ornament of the Scots’ bar, as
well as that of the Irish, viz. the Rt. Hon. J.
P. Curran, has paid the debt of nature. Mr.
Henry Erskine was long the dean of facul
ty, to which he was raised by his brethren
dignity and independence of .the bar.
the return of the AVhigs to olhce, he was ap
pointed Lord, Advocate ol Scotland, at the
same time that his.brother was man? Lord
Chancellor of Great Bntain. H»s devotion
to the cause of civil and rel.gnuis Kbcr£
was ardent and sincere. He VM '■^xib'e
only in liberal opinions ; in all the relations
of private lire lie was most placable and con
ciliatory. It was peculiarly honorable to
the illustrious family of Buchan, that at one
and the same time, and for many years, the
two brothers of the noble carl should be
the universal leaders of the English and
Scottish bars ; both equally eminent, not on
ly for the ardour with which they maintain
ed the privileges, and guarded tho lives, lib
erties and properties of their ieltoxy citizens,
but also lor the brilliant wit, perfect integ
rity and irresistible persuasion, of their pro
fessional exertions. The conversational
-vnversof Mr. llenry Erskine were of the
urst order—prompt, gentle and luminous ;
his flashes of xvit irradiated every counte
nance, while his amenity left no sting be
hind. liis epigrams and bon mots were in
numerable, many of them are on record ;
and wc trust that the elegant effusions of Ins
muse, and his impromptus at table, "ill be
Collected by the biographer of liis honorable-
life.
[The following admired tribute to the memory of the
deceased, is from dir pen ut E, Jeffery, esq- Editor ot
the Edinburgh Review.]
Mr. Erskine was railed to the Scottish
bar, of which he xvas long the brightest or
nament, in the year 1768, and was tor seve
ral years dean of the faculty of advocates ;
he was twice appointed lord advocate, in
1782 and 1806, under the Rockingham am!
the Grenville administrations. During the
years 1806 and 1807. lie sat in parliament
for the Dunbar and Dumfries districts of hot
roughs.
In his long and splendid career at the bar.
Mr Erskine was distinguished not only by
the peculiar brilliancy of liis wit, and the
gracefulness, case and vivacity of bis elo
quence, but by the still rarer power of keep
ing those seducing qualities in perfect sub
ordination to liis judgement. By their as
sistance lie could not only make the most re
pulsive subjects agreeable, but the most ab
struse easy and intelligible. In bis profes
sion, indeed, all liis wit was argument, and
cacb'of bis delightful illustrations a material
step in liis reasonings. To himself it seem
ed always as if they were recommended
rather for their use than their beauty. And
unquestionably they often enabled him to
state a fine argument, or a nice distinction,
not only in a more striking and ploasing
way, but act nally with greater precision than
could have been attained by the severer
forms of reasoning.
In this extraordinary talent, as well as in
the charming facility of his eloquence, and
the constant, radiance of good humour null
gaiety which encircled his manner in debate,
lie had no rivhl ill his own times, and has
yet had no successor. That part of eloquence
is now mute—that honour in abeyance.
As a politician he was eminently distin
guished for the two great virtues of inflexi
ble steadiness to his principles, and invaria
ble gentleness and urbanity in liis manner
of asserting them. Such, indeed, xvas the
habitual sweetness of his temper, and fas
cination of his manners, that though placed
by bis rank and talent in the obnoxious sta
tion of a leader of opposition at a period
when political animosities were carried to
a lamentable height, no individual, it is be
lieved, xvas ever known to speak or to think
of him xvith any thing approaching to per
sonal hostility. In return, it may be said,
with equal correctness, that though battled
in some of his pursuits, ami not quite hand
somely disappointed of some of the 11011001*8
to which his claim xva9 universally admitted,
he never allowed the slightest shade of dis
content to rest upon his mind, nor the least
drop of bitterness to mingle xvith his blood,
lie was. so utterly incapable of rancour,
that even the rancorous felt that lie ought
not to be made its victim,
He possessed, in an eminent degree, that
deep sense of revealed religion, and that
zealous attachment to the Presbyterian es
tablishment, which luid long been hereditary
in his family. His habits were always strict
ly moral and temperate, and in the latter
part of his lifo even abstemious. Though
the life and the ornament of every society
into which ho entered, he xvas always most
happy and most delightful at home, where
the buoyancy of liis spirits and the kindness
ofhis heart found all that they required of ex
ercise or enjoyment; and though without
taste for expensive pleasures in Ids own per
son, lie xvas ever most indulgent and” munifi
cent to his children, and a liberal benefactor
to all xvho depended on liis bounty,
He finally retired from the exercise of
that profession, the highest honors of which,
ho had. at least, deserved, about tbo year
1812, and spent the remainder of liis days
in domestic retirement at that beautiful villa
which bail been formed by bis own taste, and
in the improvement and adornment of which
he found liis latest occupation. Passing,
then, at once from all the hurtle and excite
ment of a public life to a scene of compara
tive inactivity, he never felt one moment ol
tift within a day or two of his death, nnl^.
ly all liis intellectual activity ami social a f.
flections, but, when not under the immediate'
affliction of a painful and incurable disease,
all that gaity of spirit, and all that playful
and kindly sympathy xvith innocent fcnjoy.
ment, which made him the idol of the young,
and the object of cordial attachment and um
enviable admiration to his friends of all ages.
THE TELESCOPE.
T HE Editor proposes to issue this papcrtwice
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Columbia, S. C.
VO Lli NTEElt ARTJLLEILY.
T HE members of the company are notified*
to appear, at the courthouse at eleven o’clock *
on the fourth Saturday in March—It is expected-,
that those who have pledged themselves to uni
form, will be completely equipped.
THAD. G. HOLT, Capt.
THE SUBSCRIBERS,
U NDER the firm of Scarbrough $ M'Kinnc,
(successors to Barna M’Kiune & Co.) hav-.
ing formed a connexion in business in this place,
they beg leave to oiler their services as general
Commission Merchants.
AVI LLI AM SCARBROUGH,
JOSEPH P. M‘KINNE.
Savannah, Jan. 24, 1818.
M ?KINNE & CO-. will make advances on
produce lodged with them to be forward
ed their friends, Scarbrough & M’Kinue, for sale.
Should the Savannah market not oiler accepta.-
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owner) will then be forwarded to the northward,
or a port in Great Britain or France, and in all
instances, for the customary commission,' they
will guarantee the responsibility of the parties
to whom it may bp consigned for ale.
Augusta, Jan. SO, 1818.
NOTICE..»
I N consequence of Mr. Barna M‘Kinne retir
ing from business, the subscribers have to an
nounce a contemplated dissolution of their con
cern, andlhat al| transactions after the first of
next month will be conducted by their successor?.
Scarbrough fit M’Kinnc; xvho they respectfully
beg leave to recommend to the same confidence
and eiicouragmcnt, that has been so kindly con
ferred on’them. BARNA M’KINNE & Co.
Savannah, Jan- 24, 18181
.. y- u. nine months citations g 5—one fourth
from their respect for tho superiority 0 f his J ennui or dejection, but retained unimpaired, £&& mry insWnc ' ! ’ !f nW * e,tled (or »«* «*
PHYSIC.
T HE public are informed that I have finally
located myself in this village, as a practi
tioner of Medicine—Applications made at capt.
Glovci'a shall be attended to, with that punctu
ality, which the nature of my profession require?.
JOHN G. SLAPPY.
MtOiticello, Geo. Feb. 18, 1818.
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