'Twas the hour of noon, Noon in Hesperia! The sweet convent bells Wild as his laughing self,-and the neat cot And longer had the pleasing trance enthrall'a Not a breath Stirred on the mountains; but the churning foam And madly writh'd and wrestled to be free, That rush to mutual strife; and the tall ship Glar'd forth bright noon-day, with its blazing spires Of pitchy darkness, cloud in cloud involved, Commingled, and a low and hollow groan, It was a scene to blanch the stoutest hearts, On whose blanched cheek thrice twenty winters' wrath Ye would have deemed his tender soul had fled, The spirit still was there, though inly wrecked Of the rejoicing Sun shot from the midst, Down to the blackening ocean. Then at once Green shores, peace-breathing mountains, and blue skies, Shone out in Summer loveliness. The seas Where had Euphemia gone- Kircher states, that after the clouds which had gathered over it had dispersed, nothing but a dismal and putrid lake was to be seen, where the city had stood. Enwrapt thee, thoughtless, in his blood-stained arms, And with demoniac fury hauled thee down A people swept at once into the tomb! And now the mariners thronged the busy deck, Whispering, and o'er the varying murmur ye might hear In tones that told the speaker's inward dread; Of the fair city; but no further went Their lamentations; none were "native there" He threw an eager glance, with terror fraught And feverish expectation. Then at once A thousand harrowing feelings pierced his brain, And goaded it to madness! "Twas too much Next morn some villagers, By its lone brink, with folded arms, and eyes That gazed upon its waveless breast, as if They pierced its depths, and summoned from below And he said, "That the sweet convent-bells did ever ring, And that beneath the waters he beheld TAXES ON KNOWLEDGE-DUTY ON PAPER-DIRECT AND WE boast that we belong to "The Movement;" that is, to the class of Reformers who maintain that the great measure of Reform obtained, is only a means to an end; that the Reformed Parliament must proceed to lop off every thing that is rotten in our institutions, in order that the machine of Government may work well for the labouring classes, whose interests and undeniable rights have hitherto been sacrificed by Tory oppressors to increase the wealth of the aristocracy. In this important work, to which Ministers and the Reformed Parliament have to address themselves, we farther maintain, that there must be no delay. He has looked with a very superficial eye at what has been going on in this country for some years past, who has not discerned that the spirit of Reform, which has been so conspicuously active, and which has already produced so grand a result as the Reform Bill, has been itself urged to activity by another spirit. The ancient mariner tells us of the spirit" which maketh the ship to go." There is a spirit which maketh the car of Reform to go; that has supplied the force which has kept the wheels of the car in motion, and will continue to impel it forward, in all probability at an accelerated pace, for years to come, and with a force which it will be impossible to resist. The Spirit of Power to which we allude, is the GENIUS of WANT. He it is, although not always visible to the careless observer, who has called every Reform Meeting, who has dictated every Reform Petition, who has set in motion every Reform procession. While Mr. Brodie, as chairman of the Edinburgh Political Union, occupied the precentor's desk in the Cowgate Chapel, we indistinctly saw the Genius of Want in the superior pulpit, presiding over the president We saw him affixing the placards on the public places of Edinburgh, summoning the Political Union to the King's Park, the first great public meeting of the citizens of Edinburgh in the open air. We saw his dusky form immensely dilated, leaning over the chairman at that meeting, and obscuring the sky above the assemblage of twenty thousand people. The same potent spirit was visible to us, at the same place, when the still greater multitude afterwards assembled there, the Whig leaders being compelled by his influence to that unwonted act of decision, the taking part in an openair meeting. Again, we saw him on the same spot overhanging an immense multitude, his features expressing terrible determination, a large black scription, "REFORM or DEATH." Once more we saw him, with his hagflag in his hand, exhibiting a skull and cross bones, with the ominous ingard features relaxed into a grim smile, heading the Jubilee Procession. But it were vain to state where we have seen him. He has been the great actor in every revolution, and in every measure of Reform that has taken place. His terrific power is exerted always by one of these two instruments, Reform or Revolution; and the choice is left to the aristocracy, or the privileged orders of the nation, in which he establishes himself. Forty years ago, the French nobles chose the one way: our aristocracy has wisely given way to the wishes of the people, and chosen the other and better alternative. As this terrible spirit has not taken his departure, and will not, until the people, whom he has stirred up to demand Reform, obtain a redress of all their grievances, it behoves the Ministry and the Parliament to address themselves seriously to their task. The Genius of Want endures no trifling. By a single movement of one of his gigantic limbs, he can overthrow the whole framework of Government; and great would be the misery before any other form could be substituted and order restored. Again, we say to the Ministers and the Parliament, proceed in the good work which must be done. You must abolish monopolies, extinguish tithes, cut off all pensions and sinecures, take off the malt tax, and abolish the corn laws; shorten the duration of Parliaments, and give voters the protection of the ballot. All these things must be done before the Genius of Want will be satisfied, and take his departure from our land. All these things you should therefore do quickly. But there is one pestilential impost, which, if you will take off, we shall feel satisfied as to the certainty of your intentions to do everything which the suffering people have a just right to demand; and shall ascribe any delay of the other measures to difficulties which you suppose to be at present beyond your control. Abolish the taxes on knowledge. Let there be no restraint on the poorest of the people acquiring a knowledge of their rights. Do this, and we shall give you the fullest credit for upright intentions, and use what influence we possess to restrain the natural impatience of the people for the other measures of Reform, on the justice and necessity of which they have long made up their minds; although many of you whose mental vision should be more acute than theirs, and would be so were you as immediately accessible to the impulse of the Genius of Want as they are, still are, or affect to be, unenlightened in regard to the same measures. We are not now about to discuss the expediency of the removal of the odious Taxes on Knowledge; that has been done by so many journals, so ably and so often, as to make any demonstration of their nature and effects wholly unnecessary, except as to one particular, to which we are how to call your attention. Suffice it to say, that we are of the common opinion, that the reduction of the stamp duty on newspapers should be great, and the papers conveyed free of postage, otherwise the circulation of newspapers would be confined in a great measure to their own places of publication; each hamlet or village having its own paltry newspaper, instead of the metropolitan papers, which will always be the ablest and most liberal in their views, circulating widely, and disseminating sound principles over the whole country. The duty on all periodicals, we think, should be one penny per sheet; at least on all containing news or political discussions. On the propriety of placing any duty on merely literary publications, we have great doubts; and are inclined to think they should be exempted from duty, unless they wish to avail themselves of circulation by post. The Taxes on Knowledge consist of the stamps on newspapers and the duty on paper. There are some minor taxes affecting knowledge: such as the stamp duty on pamphlets, and on almanacks, and the eleven copies of books required by Stationers' Hall. But these are so trifling, that remark on them is needless. They will be taken off, with the others, as a matter of course; also those needless and vexatious regulations as to finding security against publishing blasphemous and seditious libels. General as has been the complaint against the newspaper stamps, there |