try, I inveigh against the increase of our luxuries; and here also I expect the shout of modern politicians against me. For twenty or thirty years it has been the fashion to consider luxury as one of the greatest national advantages, and all the wisdom of antiquity in that particular as erroneous! Still, I must remain a professed ancient on that head, and continue to think those luxuries prejudicial to states, by which so many vices are introduced, and so many kingdoms have been undone."

After introducing his Deserted Village, as a specimen of but too many in this island, he proceeds

A time there was, ere England's grief began,
When every rood of ground maintain'd its man;
For him light labour spread her wholesome store,
Just gave what life requir'd, but gave no more.
His best companions, innocence and health;
And his best riches, ignorance of wealth.
But times are alter'd: trade's unfeeling train
Usurp the land, and dispossess the swain;
Along the lawn where scatter'd hamlets rose,
Unwieldy wealth and cumbrous pomp repose;
And ev'ry want to luxury ally'd,

And ev'ry pang that folly pays to pride.
Ye friends to truth, ye statesmen who survey
The rich man's joys increase, the poor's decay-
'Tis your's to judge how wide the limits stand
Between a splendid and a happy land.

He then describes that deceitful commerce,

which, with its concomitants, luxury and poverty, has now nearly brought this once happy country to ruin, in the following genuine colours—

Proud swells the tide with loads of freighted ore,
And shouting Folly hails them from her shore;
Hoards e'en beyond the miser's wish abound,
And rich men flock from all the world around;
Yet count our gains-This wealth is but a name,
That leaves our useful products still the same.
Not so the loss. The man of wealth and pride
Takes up a space that many poor supply'd;
Space for his lake, his park's extended bounds.;
Space for his horses, equipage, and hounds;
The robe that wraps his limbs in silken cloth
Has robb'd the neighbouring fields of half their
growth.

His seat, where solitary sports are seen,
Indignant spurns the cottage from the green;
Around the world each needful product flies,
For all the luxuries the world supplies,
While thus the land, adorn'd for pleasure all,
In barren splendour feebly waits its fall.
Thus fares the land, by luxury betray'd,
In Nature's simplest charms at first array'd;
But verging to decline, its splendors rise,
Its vistas strike, its palaces surprise;
Whilst scourg'd by famine from the smiling land,
The mournful peasant leads his humble band;
And while he sinks, without one arm to save,

The country blooms a garden and a grave.

THE following Extract from Prophetic Records, by the Rev. R. Clarke, and The Sights I have seen, by the Rev. Dutens, are well worthy of attention.

Under the very imperfect knowledge of the prophetical books, none of the commentators have sufficiently pointed out the chastisement and visitation denounced against disobedient kings, in the latter days. One reason of this deficiency in their knowledge is, that the revolutions of kings and kingdoms are seldom spoken of, excepting under the figures of the heavens-the sun, moon, and stars, moantains, &c. falling, or being put out, &c. But in Isaiah, who is peculiarly the prophet of the last age, or the evangelical prophet, there is an exception. Speaking of these times, he says, chap. xxiv. 21, " And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall punish, or as the margin reads, shall visit the host of the high ones that are on high, and the kings of the earth upon the earth. And they shall be gathered together as prisoners are gathered, and shut up (or confined.)" In reference to the same time, and for the purpose of bringing in the kingdom of righteousness, the same prophet declares, "Every mountain (every opposing power), shall be made low, and every valley exalted, and the Lord alone exalted in that day."

That most of the kings and powers of Christendom have long since given themselves over to the apostacy, has frequently been noticed in the course of this work; and our own experience proves this to have been the age of kingly visitation and punishment. Only during the short period between 1783, and the present time, of all the European monarchs then reigning, his Britannic Majesty George III. alone remains on the political theatre. In the short space of twenty-two years, the following sovereigns have been cast down and and blotted out of the heaven of power and authority, viz.

Louis XVI. of France, deposed, and executed. Charles IV. of Spain, deposed, and in captivity.

Ferdinand, his son, deposed, and a prisoner. Maria of Portugal, expatriated and insane. Joseph of Austria, dead: supposed to have been poisoned.

Catherine of Russia, died suddenly.

Paul, her son, assassinated.

Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden, deposed in 1810, and in exile.

Ferdinand IV. of Naples, driven from his kingdom, and superseded.

Emanuel IV. of Sardinia, abdicated and in exile.

Pope Pius VI. deprived of his temporal power. Selim II. dethroned, and murdered.

Frederic of Prussia, dead.

Frederic William III. of Prussia, abridged of his power and territory.

Pius VII. banished from Rome, and a pri

soner.

William, Stadtholder of Holland, deposed, and died in exile.

The minor sovereigns of Italy, all deposed. The reigning Duke of Brunswick, killed in battle.

The King of Denmark, insane, and dead. George III. of England, represented by a Regent.

A moralist, on this occasion, has observed, "that none of the political calamities which have ́befallen these monarchs, have been preceded by a timely attention to reform abuses, or to relieve the burdens of the people."

Another writer in the British Critic, probably without any intention of doing so, partly confirms the scriptural ideas which we entertain of this age and visitation, by remarking that,— "This period may be called the age of royal as well as of national revolutions."

Since the above was written, in the short space of eight years, the following additions may be made to the list:

Napoleon, Emperor of France, and King of Italy, twice deposed, and banished; first to Elba, then to St. Helena.