much effect; for speeches are very unlike diamonds, and other precious stones, which owe half their beauty to their setting, whereas a speech owes half its beauty to the readiness, and unprepared state in which it meets the public.

Lord Grosvenor has caused to be built one of the finest, largest, and most expensively decorated palaces in England, and those who wish to know more of it may read Mr. Pope's account of Timon's villa; and from that let them turn over the leaves till they find the same writer's description of the man of Ross. The revenues of Lord G. in two days are equal to those of that simple plain man, for a year. In reading the description of Timon, and of that simple man, a lesson might be learned on the use and abuse of wealth, that would give more true pleasure to the man that followed it, than all the Greek, all the gilded ceilings, and all the painted windows in the kingdom.

Amongst the eccentricities of the English character, it is surprising that there are not some men who seek fame by patronising merit. We have men who drive four in hand, at the risk of their lives, others walk themselves into celebrity, and many are indebted to their taylors and boot-makers for notoriety. Some patronize boxers and bruisers, and can

talk in the true stile of coachmen and stable helpers, but we do not hear of any who seek notoriety by such means as Mr. Coram, (the founder of the Foundling Hospital), or the modest man of Ross. All this is for want of true taste, and a solid judgment. Nothing, in fact, is more tiresome than a gilded palace; no objects so pleasing as human faces beaming with contentment and gratitude; and a thinking man can never see the splendid abodes of misery, which the unthinking admire, without reflecting on the words of the wisest of men

"I made me great works I builded me houses

I planted me vineyards: then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, and on the labour that I had laboured to do, and behold all was vanity and vexation of spirit; and there was no profit under the sun."

GUSTAVUS IV.

EX-KING OF SWEDEN.

THIS prince is one of those unfortunate men who was ruined by following what is right without discretion, when it would have been wise to submit.

Sweden, a third-rate kingdom, both from its extent, riches, and geographical situation, has frequently played a first-rate part on the political theatre; and never was there a braver race of monarchs; but there is a time for all things; and this brave descendant of Gustavus Vasa was not attentive to that truth, and fell a victim.

Of all the old sovereigns of the continent who resisted Buonaparte with inadequate means, he was the bravest and the last, and he consequently fell. The French having no means of invading Sweden, applied the favourite means of bribery, and the noble youth was precipitated from the throne of his forefathers, in a manner equally cruel and unexpected.

The French, who for twenty years triumphed

over the different powers of Europe, went to work in the most systematical manner possible, and the mode was not less remarkable for its policy and cunning, than it was for its being systematical. When they went to war, they, by means of persuasion, and the power of the press, first gained over by flattery and false hopes all that they could delude, thereby lessening the number of their enemies, and dividing them: they next bribed and purchased with gold all that could be purchased. After they had thus reduced the number and strength of their enemies, and obtained secret partizans both in the cabinet and the field, they fought the remainder.

Sweden had always been in alliance with France. The son of the murdered Gustavus of Sweden would not aid those who had usurped the throne of the murdered Louis of France; and the Swedish people were too loyal and too true to be bought over to rebel; but a small party of traitors, at the instigation of the ruler of France, rose and dethroned one of the bravest young men that ever wore a crown.

His unconquerable attachment to the cause of legitimate sovereigns, and his bold resistance of a cruel tyrant, who aimed at banishing liberty from the earth, deserved a better fate, and deserves a kind remembrance on the part of those allied sovereigns

who have at last succeeded after many failures, and much loss. It should be remembered that the generous efforts made by this young monarch were at a time when the frown of the French tyrant appalled all the monarchs on the conti

nent.

That Gustavus did not succeed was not his fault. By yielding, like others, he might have preserved his throne; and to him we may apply the lines of the poet

Who noble ends by noble deeds attains,
Or, failing, smiles in exile, or in chains,
Like good Aurelius let him reign; or bleed

Like Socrates; that man is great indeed."

Nothing may be more contrary to the common practice of the world, than to resist the general torrent of opinion; to refuse to worship the idol of the day; or to abstain from shooting an arrow at the stricken deer: but miserable is the mind of that man who will meanly, or for interest, join in a general cry against his own conviction; and ignorant and unthinking must he be, if he joins without thinking on the subject, or mechanically follows the crowd.

The dynasty of Sweden, one of the most honourable in Europe, was changed during the triumph of