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larity of his correspondence, by saying "there is no paper in Mull." He remained only five months in the island, and returned to Glasgow for his fifth session. In one of his notes he says:

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revenue contracted beneath what he had contemplated, he formed arrangements to proceed to Virginian America, but the state of his health set them aside. He then returned with his family to Edinburgh, worked hard for the booksellers, mixed amongst the lite"After my return from Mull, I supported my-rary society of Edinburgh in 1798, and comself during the winter by private tuition. Among menced to write The Pleasures of Hope." other scholars, I had a youth named Cunning- He resided at this time in a small house on hame, who is now Lord Cunninghame, in the Jus- St. John's Hill; and of the young men then ticiary Court of Edinburgh." resident in Edinburgh, with whom he associated, several raised themselves to eminence and consideration. Amongst them we find the names of the present Lords Cockburn and Brougham. The "Pleasures of Hope" were finished while the author was still in his 20th year, and sold to the Mundalls for £60 in cash and books; "but for two or three years the publishers gave him fifty pounds on every new edition."

From a letter of his lordship to Dr. Beattie, he appears to have been boarded in Mr. Campbell's family during this session. Campbell was greatly captivated by the lectures of Professor Miller, under whom the late Lord Melbourne studied for some time, and from whom he probably imbibed those constitutional principles to which he was strongly attached. Professor Miller nearly succeeded in making the poet a lawyer, that task in which the solicitor had failed; and he

says:

"At that time, had I possessed but a few hundred pounds, to have subsisted upon in studying law, I believe I should have bid adieu to the Muses, and gone to the bar; but I had no choice in the matter."

Perhaps it was well for the world that he was so constrained and shut in by poverty on every side. This session closed his college life; and he began the world as a tutor in the family of General Napier, who was residing at Downie; but he disliked the profession.

LITERARY LIFE.

The poet made many attempts to become a lawyer. He went to Edinburgh-proposed to establish a magazine-found employment, through Mr. Cunninghame's recommendation, in the Registry House-was subsequently engaged in the office of a Mr. Whytt," and being introduced to Dr. Robert Anderson, received through him an engagement for an abridged edition of" Bryan Edwards's West Indies," for which he was to be paid £20. He returned to Glasgow, to meet a brother whom he had never seen, and to finish his abridgment. The idea of publishing a magazine still haunted him, but funds were wanting, and the intention was dropped. At that time he wrote "The Wounded Hussar" and "The Dirge of Wallace," two of his most popular lyrics. At the age of nineteen he was again in Edinburgh, fagging for Messrs. Mundall and Son, the publishers, at a very limited rate of remuneration. Finding his

The poem, although cheaply sold, acquired for the author a standing in literary society which he did not previously possess; and, perhaps, the publishers made a sufficient risk in giving even £60 in hand for a poem, by "a young man" whose fame still moved within a narrow circle.

Although his famous and spirit-stirring lyric, "Ye Mariners of England," was not published until several years afterwards, when it appeared first in the Morning Chronicle, yet Dr. Beattie thinks that it was composed in Edinburgh during 1799, after the model of an old song, "Ye Gentlemen of England." He entered into an engagement with Mr. Mundall for another poem, descriptive of Scottish history, under the title of Queen of the North;" and arrangements for its illustration were made with Mr. Williams, a landscape painter, but the work was never completed.

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THE GERMAN PILGRIMAGE.

In the summer of 1800, the poet and his brother left Leith for Hamburgh. The object of the journey, to a young man whose finances were not in a gratifying state, is not rendered clear. His reception amongst the British residents at Hamburgh was highly flattering, for the "Pleasures of Hope" had preceded their author. From Hamburgh he went forward to Ratisbon, from which he dates on the 10th August, and where he arrived in time to witness the defeat of the Austrians, under Klenau, by the French. His letters describe the German scenery with more enthusiasm than accuracy. He explains the fascination of one valley, as caused from its combination of the wildness of a Scotch glen with the verdure of an English garden.

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ny; by whom it was first sung, and on whose account it had been composed. Campbell passed the winter of 1800 and 1801 at Altona, making occasional excursions into other parts of Germany. His beautiful verses addressed to Judith, the Jewess, were also written in Altona. To his residence in Germany we are indebted for some of his best lyrics-of those splendid compositions whose every line is a household word, and which will live while our language endures. The "Battle of Hohenlinden," and the "Soldier's Dream," were undoubtedly of German origin. The "Wounded Hussar" was written before he saw the banks of the Danube; and he never was in America, although the scenery of Wyoming is said to be accurately described in his "Gertrude."

At that time he had not seen an English garden, and could scarcely be deemed a competent witness. At Ratisbon he lay for a considerable time, while the country around was being devastated by contending armies. He was detained in that city until October, 1800. He heard there of the death of Mr. Mundall, and seems to have entertained great fears that his arrangements with the house would be quashed in consequence. These fears were partially relieved, and on the 4th of November he was writing to Mr. Richardson, from Altona. During his German journey, he professed, at all proper intervals, to be still engaged on the "Q. N." His letters from Germany are not very interesting. They are most frequently addressed to Mr. Richardson, and are full of anticipations regarding their future journeys. From detached hints in the letters, it appears that Mr. Perry, of the Morning Chronicle, was, at the time, paying Mr. Campbell for his poems from the seat of war. In his correspondence from Altona, Campbell mentions "The Exile of Erin" in a way that should settle the foolish dispute once raised in Ireland regarding its authorship. Poets have their tricks of trade like publishers and other men. In one of the letters to Richardson, initialed "T. C.," we find him saying, "I request your caution most earnestly, about what I have said about the Queen of the North.' Keep up the public mind." From Perry he expected fifty pounds for twenty-four pieces of poetry, to be polished in the best style that a regard for his reputation could induce. Next year he was to fur-heart are still as warm to it as they were when I nish twenty pieces for the same sum. The price was to be raised. He calculated that in Hungary he could live with his friend Mr. Richardson at a cost of ten shillings per week for each; and "for four pounds apiece they could walk from Altona to Munich."

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Mr. Campbell rebutted the charge respecting the "Exile of Erin," most decisively. The question was conclusively settled by the certificate of Lord Nugent, a relative of the person by whom the song was said to have been composed; and who intimated that, for a considerable period, Mr. Nugent, the supposed author, by the Monaghan version, was quite familiar with the song; knew it in Campbell's Works, and never hinted a doubt of the authorship. The curious charge was The curious charge was chiefly got up by the editor of a provincial paper, in a small Irish town, who professed to draw his information from Mr. Nugent's sister. The circumstances connected with the song were all well known to a party of Irish exiles whom Campbell met in Germa

All his countrymen must regret that his "Queen of the North" never appeared. She was the subject of his day-thoughts and night-dreams, in Germany. All his letters refer to his projects in reference to this great work; and we can hardly forbear from quoting the following outline of what he meant to do for Edinburgh in the matter:

"But to finishing my 'Queen of the North.' I have already mentioned how shocked I should be at the idea of leaving my honor unfulfilled. I expect, besides pieces to Perry, to have much done in it before you come out, but for want of matter I subject fertile in good episodes. The parting cannot possibly perfect it till then. I find this apostrophe to Edinburgh is supposed to be from shipboard, by moonlight. The feelings of my

saw it vanishing. I then mean to transport myself, in imagination, to the castle height, and describe the sensations that would naturally arise from taking in with the eye the most remarkable scenery visible from that point. I mean to describe the view from Queen Street; then if anything romantic or classical can be connected with it, any of the mountain scenery obvious to the eye from that point. The plain pastoral sublimity of Arthur's Seat is next to be noticed-and if any the poem. One of the places of Mary's refuge is scene be visible from thence, it will find a place in to be seen from its top. After a sketch of the murder-closet of Rizzio, and the hall of the Scottish kings, an episode on the college will conclude the poem."

The extract shows that Campbell was not familiar with Edinburgh. "If any scene be visible from Arthur's Seat?" In the absence of a thick fog there is scenery visible from Arthur's Seat sufficient to serve an indefinite number of poets. Early in the spring of 1801 war was declared against Denmark, the English residents were obliged to abandon

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mined to wait on the sheriff, Mr. Clerk, and report his position. That worthy functionary frankly told him that they were aware of his guilt; but they did not want to see him. He asked the grounds of their charge, and was told that "it seems you have been conspiring with General Moreau, in Austria, and with the Irish at Hamburgh, to get a French army landed in Ireland. You attended Jacobin clubs at Hamburgh, and you came over from thence in the same vessel with Donavan, who commanded a regiment of the rebels at Vinegar-hill."

* *

A box, with a number of his papers, had been seized at Leith, in the expectation of finding treasonable documents amongst his

rather have been against him at this pinch, but "Ye Mariners of England" was also found in the arrested box, and turned the scale. The end of his examination is told by himself. "The sheriff began to smoke the whole bubble, and said, 'This comes of trusting a Hamburgh spy. Mr. Campbell,' he said, this is a cold, wet evening-what do you say to our having a bottle of wine during the examination of your democratic papers?""

The fate of Donovan was fortunate, and his story, as told by Mr. Campbell, is ridiculous:

Altona, and Campbell sailed for England on the 6th of March. They were allowed to pass the Danish batteries without molestation, and sailed under convoy to England. Thus the poet lost his promised summer tour in Germany; and the world gained, in the language of his biographer, "his noblest lyric, the Battle of the Baltic."" There were only two Scottish vessels in convoy, and they were carried to Yarmouth along with the English fleet. Mr. Campbell's first visit to England was therefore made involuntarily, and it was the cause of great regret to him. He landed in London with only a few shillings in his pocket, for all his resources had been expended in assisting a friend at Altona. In London he found none of his acquaintan-manuscripts. "The Exile of Erin" would ces, and he had never seen Mr. Perry of the Morning Chronicle. He was obliged, notwithstanding, to call upon him and to explain his situation. Mr. Perry was a generous friend, to whom many young men were indebted for their advancement in life. Writing to one of his Scotch correspondents, the poet says, I have found Perry. His reception was warm and cordial, beyond what I had any right to expect. I will be your friend,' said the good man. I will be all that you could wish me to be." In reference to this first visit to London, he says, in his own notes," Calling on Perry one day, he showed me a letter from Lord Holland, asking about me, and expressing a wish to have me to dine at the King of Clubs. Thither with his lordship I accordingly repaired, and it was an era in my life. There I met, in all their glory and feather, Mackintosh, Rogers, the Smiths, Sydney, and others." So by accident and mishap he was thrown into the centre of the Whig literary coteries; but an affliction was prepared for him even then; for a friend, meeting him on the streets of London hinted to him the serious illness of his father in such terms as led him to anticipate that parent's death. His worst fear on the subject was realized. His father had completed his ninety-first year; and of his seven sons, who had reached the years of manhood, "not one was present to close his eyes.' While proceeding to Leith, by sea, for the purpose of visiting his mother, a lady who had read his poems, without knowing Mr. Campbell, surprised him by expressing her regret that the poet had been arrested in London on a charge of high treason, was confined in the Tower, and would probably be exected. On arriving at Edinburgh, he found his mother acquainted with, and greatly troubled by, the rumor. He therefore deter

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"A twelvemonth afterwards 1 met Donovan in London, and recognized my gaunt Irish friend, looking very dismal. Ha! Donovan,' said I,‘Í wish you joy, my good fellow, in getting out of the Tower, where I was told they had imprisoned William Wallace. Och,' said he, good luck yon, and were likely to treat you like another Sir to the Tower-black was the day-and it was only a week ago that I was turned out of it. Would that any one could get me into it for life!' My stars! and were you not in confinement?'

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"Tschach! ne'er the bit of it. The Government

allowed me a pound sterling a-day as a State
prisoner. The Tower gaoler kept a glorious
table; and he let me go out to walk where I liked
all day long, perfectly secure that I should return
at meal-times. And then, besides, he had a nice
pretty daughter.'
And don't you go

and see her in the Tower? Why, no, my dear
fellow. The course of true love never yet ran
smooth. I discovered that she had no money;
and she found out that my Irish estates, and all
that I told her about their being confiscated in
the Rebellion, was sheer blarney. So, when
the day arrived that your merciless Government
ordered me to be liberated as a State prisoner, I
was turned adrift on the wide world, and glad to

become a reporter to one of the newspapers.''

Mr. Campbell's domestic concerns bore heavily upon him at this juncture.

His

mother and sisters were dependent on him for support. His brothers were either too far away or unable to share the debt; but the poet nobly met this duty; and through his lifetime never shrunk from any expenditure necessary to secure the comfort of his relatives. No man ever better discharged in these respects the duties of a son and of a brother. The companionship of gay and wealthy friends never dazzled him into forgetfulness of his humble but esteemed relatives; although often the means necessary to secure their comfort were obtained under great privations-to them, and to many of the friends amongst whom he moved altogether unknown.

During the food riots at Edinburgh, in the year 1801, Mr. Campbell began part of a poem, entitled "The Mobiade," which was never printed until it appeared in this work, although it was in a style different altogether from his other poems. He seems to have been at the time unfavorable to monopolies to have been living before his age; and he might have effectually aided the Corn-law Rhymer, if his engagements and circumstances had permitted him to turn his mind

in that direction.

Our extracts are neither from the beginning nor the end of this curious poem :

"Thus, when Monopoly's briarean hands
Had dragg'd her harrow o'er a hundred lands;
ut chief, the terrors of her gorgon frown
Had scared Edina's faint and famished town;
Then want, the griffin, champ'd, with iron claws,
Our shuddering hearts and agonizing maws;
Chased from our plunder'd boards each glad regale
Of vermeil ham, brown beef, and buxom ale!
Ah me! no strepent goose at Christmas tide,
Hiss'd in the strangler's hand, and kick'd and died!
No trembling jellies, nor ambrosial pie,
Regaled the liquorish mouth and longing eye-
Red sunk December's last dishonor'd sun,
And the young year's-day pass'd without a bun!"

The poet runs on in the half-satirical, halfpleasant vein for some time, till he reaches his own wishes on the subject:

"Nor ceased my day-dream till the waning hours
Had shook fair fancy from her throne of flowers;
And o'er my heart's emotions, less divine,
Imperious warn'd th' esurient bard to dine!
Yet-when my bell its awful summons rung,
And menial Mary heard its iron tongue-
Not in plebeian prose I spoke aloud,
'When mortal wants th' immortal spirit bow'd,
Ill would it suit to ask a poet's food
n vulgar phrase, ignobly understood!'
Then stood the culinary maiden dumb,
And slowly twirl'd each circumvolvent thumb,
Astounded-list'ning to the voice sublime
Of oral thunders, and Iambic rhyme :—

Bring me the beef-the dulcet pudding bring; Or fry the mud-lark's odoriferous wing; Or simmering greens with soft rotation turn, Champ'd in the luscious treasure of the churn! Then pour the brown ale, rich as ever ran From Balder's horn, or Edin's creamy can! Blest in that honest draught, let none repine For nect'rous noyeau or ambrosial wine; But-lest my waning wealth refuse to raise So fair a feast, in these degenerate daysTake from this splendid shilling, what may find Some sweet refection of a sober mind, Yon earth-born apple, vegetable grace Of Erin's sons-a blunder-loving race; Well could that food of bulls delight me now, Mixt with the mantling beverage of the cow; My vaccine milk on 'tatoes sweet should pour, And fruit and liquor charm our fairy-footed bower !'"

Lord Minto, who had been employed on an extraordinary mission to the court of Vienna, and was acquainted with Germany, met Mr. Campbell, by his own desire, at the house of the late Dugald Stewart, and afterwards treated the poet with great respect. The Minto family are always engaged special missions. They have a turn for that work. The present Earl has had his share of it in Italy during the present year, to very little good purpose. His father was a Tory— Campbell was a Whig or a Radical-but it is greatly to the nobleman's credit, that in times when political differences ran high, he did not permit them to interfere with his private friendship, to which Campbell refers in the following extract:

"My history since I left you has not been much brighter than many other spots of my life. I was attacked again at Liverpool with a resurrection of my winter complaint. The remedy has been an obstacle to what I ought principally to have been employed in cultivating since I came to London, namely, my numerous introductions. I have not delivered above one half of my letters; nor have I found myself in spirits to call upon the generality of those persons whose acquaintance I have formed. I began letters to Graham and to Brougham, all of which I threw into the fire; for, unless one has pleasant thoughts to communicate, what is the use of correspondence? Horner would inform you of my present residence. Lord Minto has shown me great kindness, and conferred that kindness with delicacy. At an early period of our acquaintance I had a conversation with him on the ticklish subject of politics, in which it was my design that he should have my confession of faith; and if that were inconsistent with his good opinion, that our acquaintance should drop. I told him that my principles were Republican; and that my opinion of the practicability of a Republican form of government had not been materially affected by all that had happened in the French Revolution. I added that my oldest and best friends were even of the same creed, and attributed my opinion in politics to my

attendance on the lectures of John Miller. Lord Minto is a Tory of the Burke school. He censured the opinions of the opposite sect very strongly; but said that he never cherished an illiberal dislike to young and candid errors of judgment. I see him but once a day, at breakfast, for he is abroad the rest of the day. His conversation is very instructive, from his intimate acquaintance with political facts and characters; and, though his creed is not favorable to political liberty, it has no mixture of personal asperity."

"Lochiel's Warning" was written at Minto House, during the night. It has the character of an inspiration. The poet's evening thoughts had been turned to the wizard's warning, and in course of the night he awoke, repeating the idea for which he had been searching for days, rung for the servant, had a cup of tea, and produced "Lochiel's Warning" before day-dawn. Of that poem Mr. Telford wrote-"I am absolutely vain of Thomas Campbell. There was never anything like him-he is the very spirit of Parnassus. Have you seen his Lochiel? He will surpass everything ancient or modern -your Pindars, your Drydens, and your Greys. I expect nothing short of a Scotch Milton, a Shakspeare, or something more than either." There are some interesting particulars in the following extract regarding Lochiel's Warning:"

"It was justly remarked by a late physician of much experience, that vigorous bodily health and great aptitude for poetry are rarely united in the same frame. The rule has many exceptions; but the disposition to study is generally in an inverse ratio to a state of physical strength, the tone of which may be lowered without prejudice to the highest operations of the mind. Health and elastic spirits have a natural tendency to carry their possessor into active pursuits, away from study; whilst delicate health and a languid circulation have the opposite and necessary tendency of inducing habits of thought and meditation. Some of the finest compositions in our language appear to have been written while their authors were suffering from habitual ill health. It may be observed through the whole of Campbell's letters, that whenever his mind is actively engaged on any new theme, languor, lassitude, and all those ills that a parturient fancy is heir to, are subjects of frequent complaint. And so it turned out on the present occasion; for, while in one of his letters he says that, in London, his health was so depressed, that he had not even power to transcribe two or three pieces which Lord Minto requested for his own keeping'-he had composed both Lochiel' and 'Hohenlinden,' which afford abundant proof, that however depressed in physical health, his intellectual powers were in full and perfect vigor. As soon as these poems were finished, his health revived; and, returning to Edinburgh,

| he again took up his residence with his mother and sisters in Alison Square. The list of subscribers to the quarto edition of his poems could now boast of the most distinguished names in the kingdom; but to give the volume a new title to their patronage, it was agreed that it should contain several recent pieces, to which he was to give the finishing touches during the summer. "In answer to a letter, repeating the invitation to Roxburghshire, Campbell thus writes:

"TO THE RIGHT HON. LORD MINTO. Edinburgh, June 29th, 1802. "My Lord,-It gave me much pleasure to learn by your lordship's letter of the 28th, that the fever is now banished from your amiable family. congratulate your lordship upon your happy retirement among your paternal woods and mountains, and wish that I had the muse of Minto beside me, to indite that congratulation in numbers worthy of the scene.

"I returned to Edinburgh-not, to be sure, with all the satisfaction that one would feel in retiring to a paternal house and estate, but not without sincere delight in visiting the scene of so many friends and favorites. I have seen the worthy family of Lothian House; and, immediately on receipt of your lordship's letter, communicated to them the agreeable news of your young one's being recovered. Nothing could be so agreeable to me as to embrace your lordship's invitation to set out to Minto immediately; but my fear respecting my health having rather increased than diminished, and my spirits being in consequence subject to alarm and depression, I should wish to continue a little longer under that advice in which I confide so implicitly; and to come a strong and doughty wight, before I set off for Minto, to enter the lists with Bruce and Wallace.

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"I have shown Lochiel to several friends here, and have found your lordship's idea of the vulgarity of "hanging more than once suggested. I own, however, that I am not so lost to paternal affection as to have my eyes opened to the defects of my youngest fugitive. As to hanging, I have still a strong hankering after that punishment, from having learnt accidentally that Lochiel's brother actually suffered that death. Whether it might be proper to describe the process of hanging or not, I certainly think that some advantage might be taken of the above fact, in heightening the horror of the wizard's address. As soon as I have put the piece into its regenerated state, I will send it to your lordship, probably in two or three days. With sincerest and respectful compliments to all the family of Minto, I have the honor to be, your lordship's very grateful, humble servant,

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