Lion of the north had let him feel the lashing of his angry tail.
Not of a temperament to bear calmly even a "look that threatened him
with insult," his Lordship seized the tomahawk of satire, mounted the
fiery wings of his muse, and, like Bonaparte, spared neither rank, nor
sex, nor age, but converted the republic of letters into one universal
field of carnage. The volume called English Bards and Scotch Reviewers
is, in short, to be considered, among other works, as one of those
playful vessels which are said to have accompanied the Spanish armada,
manned by executioners, and loaded with nothing but instruments of
torture.

This second work was of too sanguinary a complexion to beget a very
pleasant impression upon the public mind; and all men, who wished well
to peace, politeness and literature, joined in the paean sung by the
immediate victims of his Lordship's wrath, when he embarked to soften
his manners, and, as it were, oil his tempers, amidst the gentler
spirits of more southern climes. Travelling, indeed, through any climes,
may be expected to exert this mitigating influence upon the mind. Nature
is so truly gentle, or, to speak more justly, the God of nature displays
so expansive a benevolence in all his works; so prodigally sheds his
blessings "upon the evil and the good;" builds up so many exquisite
fabrics to delight the eyes of his creatures; tinges the flowers with
such colours, and fills the grove with such music; that anyone who
becomes familiar with nature, can scarcely remain angry with man. With
what mitigating touches the scenery of Europe has visited our author,
remains to be seen. That he did not disarm it of its force by regarding
it with a cold or contemptuous eye, he himself teaches us--

"Dear Nature is the kindest mother still,
Though always changing in her aspect mild;
From her bare bosom let me take my fill,
Her never-weaned, though not her favoured child.
O she is fairest in her features wild,
Where nothing polished dares pollute her path;
To me by day or night she ever smiled,
Though I have marked her when none other hath,
And sought her more and more, and loved her most in wrath." p. 79.

Our author having re-landed upon his native shores, his first deed is to
present to his country the work before us, as the fruits of his travels.
It is a kind of poetical journal of journeys and voyages through Spain
and Portugal, along the shores of the Mediterra