Whither in sacred ecstasy, BACCHUS, when full of thy divinity, Dost thou transport me? To what glades? What gloomy caverns, unfrequented shades? In what recesses shall I raise My voice to sacred Cæsar’s deathless praise, Amid the stars to bid him shine, Ranked in the councils of the powers divine? Some bolder song shall wake the lyre, And sounds unknown its trembling strings inspire. Thus o’er the steepy mountains’ height, Starting from sleep, thy priestess takes her flight: Amazed, behold the Thracian snows, With languid streams where icy Heber flows Or Rhodopé’s high-towering head, Where frantic choirs barbarian measures tread. O’er pathless rocks, through lonely groves, With what delight my raptured spirit roves! O thou, who rul’st the Naiad’s breast; By whom the Bacchanalian maids, possessed With sacred rage inspired by thee, Tear from the bursting glebe th’ uprooted tree; Nothing or low, or mean, I sing, No mortal sound shall shake the swelling string. The venturous theme my soul alarms; But warmed by thee the thought of danger charms. When vine-crowned Bacchus leads the way, What can his daring votaries dismay?—ED.] [The preceding Ode, written in the character of Charles Howard, eleventh DUKE OF NORFOLK, refers to the famous toast, “Our Sovereign’s health—THE MAJESTY OF THE PEOPLE,” proposed by his Grace at a Banquet at the “Crown and Anchor Tavern,” Strand, on the 24th January, 1798, given to celebrate the birth-day of C. J. FOX. For this toast and other sentiments promulgated at the meeting, his Grace a few days after received notice of his dismissal from the Lord-Lieutenancy of the West Riding of Yorkshire and his Colonelcy in the Militia, and on the 6th of February Earl Fitzwilliam was gazetted to the former office, vice the Duke of Norfolk, _resigned_. But sixteen years earlier, this _Toast_ was not considered seditious; for in the _General Advertiser_ of the 13th of April, 1782, then edited by Perry (afterwards the eminent proprietor of the _Morning Chronicle_), we find an account of a dinner of the electors of Westminster held the preceding day at the Shakespeare Tavern, _Earl Fitzwilliam_ in the chair. The first toast given by his Lordship was, “THE MAJESTY OF THE PEOPLE”. It was drunk by the Earl of Effingham, the Earl of Surrey (afterwards Duke of Norfolk, and the subject of the present remarks), Mr. Secretary Fox, Burke, Windham, Dean Jebb, J. Churchill, Brand Hollis, Dr. Brocklesby, &c. Thus the identical toast was proposed and drunk by the Earl of Fitzwilliam, to whom the Lord-Lieutenancy now taken from the Duke of Norfolk was given. It is not a little remarkable that Lord