Mr. Southey in the next paragraph says, that, ‘it is a nice question, in what degree he, as the author, partook of the sentiments expressed in the dramatic poem of _Wat Tyler_;—too nice a one for Mr. Wm. Smith to decide;’ and yet he accuses him of excessive malice or total want of judgment for deciding wrong. He then falls foul of the _Monthly_, and other Dissenting Reviews, for praising his _Joan of Arc_, and makes it the subject of a sneer at Mr. W. Smith, that his Minor Poems were praised by the same critical authorities on their first appearance. We might ask here, Did not Mr. Southey himself write in these Reviews at one time? But he might refuse to answer the question. ‘In these productions, _Joan of Arc_,’ &c. Mr. Southey observes, and observes truly, that Mr. W. Smith ‘might have seen expressed an enthusiastic love of liberty,’ (not a cold-blooded recommendation to extinguish the liberty of the press) ‘a detestation of tyranny in whatever form,’ (legitimate or illegitimate, not a palliation of all its most inveterate and lasting abuses) ‘an ardent abhorrence of all wicked ambition,’ (particularly of that most wicked ambition which would subject mankind, as a herd of cattle, to the power and pride of Kings) ‘and a sympathy not less ardent with those who were engaged in war for the defence of their country, and in a righteous cause’—to wit, the French! Mr. Southey, however, vindicates with still more self-complacency and success, the purity of his religious and moral character. ‘For while I imbibed the Republican opinions of the day, I escaped the atheism and leprous immorality which generally accompanied them. I cannot, therefore, join with Beattie in blessing ——“The hour when I escap’d the wrangling crew, From Pyrrho’s maze, and Epicurus’ sty;”