EPISTLE FROM THOMAS CAMPBELL, ESQ. TO HORACE SMITH, FROM ALGIERS.
Dear Horace, be melted to tears;
For I'm melting with heat as I rhyme ;-
Though the name of this place is All-jeers,
'Tis no joke to be caught in its clime.
With a shaver from France who came o'er,
To an African inn I ascend;
I am cast on a barbarous shore,
Where a Barber alone is my friend.
Do you ask me the sights and the news
Of this wonderful city to sing?
Alas! my hotel has its muse;
But no muse of the Helicon's spring.
My windows afford me the sight
Of a people all diverse in hue:
They look black, yellow, olive, and white,
Whilst I, in my sorrow, look blue.
Here are groups for the painter to take,
Whose figures jocosely combine,—
The Arab, disguised in his haik,
And the Frenchman, disguised in his wine.
In his breeches, of petticoat size,
You may say, as the Mussulman goes,
That his garb is a fair compromise
'Twixt a kilt and a pair of small-clothes.
The Mooresses, shrouded in white,
Save two holes for their eyes that give room,
Seem like corpses in sport or in spite,
That have slily whipp'd out of the tomb.
The old Jewish dames make me sick:
If I were the Devil, I declare,
Such hags should not mount a broom-stick
In my service, to ride through the air.
But, hipp'd and undined as I am,
My hippogriff's course I must rein
For the pain of my thirst is no sham,
Though I'm bawling aloud for Champagne.
Dinner's brought; but their wines have no pith,— They are flat as the Statutes at Law;
And for all that they bring, my dear Smith,
Would a glass of brown stout they could draw.
O'er each French trashy dish as I bend,
My heart feels a patriot's grief;
And the round tears, O England! descend,
When I think on a round of thy beef.
Yes, my soul sentimentally craves
British beer.-Hail! Britannia, hail!
To thy flag on the foam of the waves,
And the foam on thy flaggons of ale.
Yet I own, in this hour of my drought,
A dessert has most welcomely come;
There are peaches that melt in the mouth,
And grapes blue and big as a plum.
There are melons, too, luscious and great;
But the slices I eat shall be few;
For from melons incautiously eat,
Melon-cholic effects might ensue.
"Horrid pun!" you'll exclaim; but be calm,
Though my letter bears date, as you view,
From the land of the date-bearing palm,
I will palm no more puns upon you.
For Britons honour Cobbett's name,
Though rashly oft he spoke;
And none can scorn, and few will blame,
The low-laid heart of oak.
See, o'er his prostrate branches, see,
Ev'n factious hate consents
To reverence in the fallen tree
His British lineaments!
Though gnarl'd the storm-toss'd boughs that braved
The thunder's gather'd scowl,
Not always through his darkness raved
The storm-winds of the soul.
Oh, no! in hours of golden calm
Morn met his forehead bold;
And breezy evening sung her psalm
Beneath his dew-dropp'd gold.
The wren its crest of fibred fire
With his rich bronze compared,
While many a youngling's songful sire
His acorn'd twiglets shared
The lark, above, sweet tribute paid,
Where clouds with light were riven ;
And true-love sought his blue-bell'd shade,
"To bless the hour of Heav'n."
Ev'n when his stormy voice was loud,
And guilt quaked at the sound,
Beneath the frown that shook the proud,
The poor a shelter found.
Dead Oak, thou liv'st! Thy smitten hands,
The thunder of thy brow,
Speak, with strange tongues, in many lands,
And tyrants hear thee Now!
LINES BY MR. WORDSWORTH ON HEARING OF THE DEATH OF HOGG THE ETTRICK SHEPHERD.
WHEN first, descending from the Moorlands,
I saw the stream of Yarrow glide
Along a bare and open valley,
The Ettrick Shepherd was my guide.
When last along its banks I wandered,
Thro' groves that had begun to shed
Their golden leaves upon the pathways,
My steps the Border Minstrel led.
The mighty Minstrel breathes no longer,
'Mid mouldering ruins low he lies;
And death upon the Braes of Yarrow
Has closed the Shepherd-poet's eyes:
Nor has the rolling year twice measured,
From sign to sign, his steadfast course,
Since every mortal power of Coleridge
Was frozen at its marvellous source;
The rapt One of the Godlike forehead,
The heaven-eyed Creature, sleeps in earth;
And Lamb, the frolic and the gentle,
Has vanished from his lonely hearth.
Like clouds that rake the mountain summits,
Or waves that own no curbing hand,
How fast has Brother followed Brother
From sunshine to the sunless land!
Yet I, whose lids from infant slumbers
Were earlier raised, remain to hear
A timid voice, that asks in whispers
"Who next will drop and disappear?"
Our haughty life is crowned with darkness,
Like London with its own black wreath,
On which, with thee, O Crabbe, forthlooking
I gazed from Hampstead's breezy heath;
As if but yesterday departed,
Thou too art gone before; yet why For ripe fruit seasonably gathered Should frail survivors heave a sigh?
No more of old romantic sorrows
For slaughtered Youth and love-lorn Maid,
With sharper grief is Yarrow smitten,
And Ettrick mourns with her their Shepherd dead! "Rydal Mount, Nov. 30, 1835.”
LN.B. The figures within crotchets refer to the History.]
ABDUCTION, case of, at Castle Fleming,
Ireland, 29
Abercromby, Mr., proposed as Speaker
in opposition to Sir C. M. Sutton,
[17]; at first declines, [19]
Aberdeen, Lord, his speech relative to
Slave Abolition, [105]
Accidents: explosion at Rushby Park
colliery, 18; seven persons drowned
in the Mersey, 36; explosion in a
coal-pit at Wigan, 43; ditto at Ram-
hurst powder-mills, 67; ditto two
steam-boilers, Liverpool, 72; death
by lightning, 79; explosion of powder-
magazine, Munich, 80; death by
lightning, 88-90; accident occa-
sioned by steam-boats on the Thames,
90; two persons killed by the falling
of part of the West Tower of Durham
Cathedral, 94; coal-mine explosion at
Wallsend, 95; accident in a coal-pit,
102; accidents on the Thames, ib.;
accident on the Thames by a steamer,
106; nine men killed by the falling of
the tunnel of the London and Bir-
mingham railway, 108; a person en-
tombed alive twenty-three days by
part of a coal-mine falling in, 142;
explosion in a colliery near Dudley
Port, 153; steam-boat accidents off
Greenwich, 154, 162; bursting of a
dam at Greenock, 162; accidents in
the fog, 175; deaths by drowning in
the Serpentine, 177; ditto in the
canal, St. James's park, 178
Agricultural labourers, emigration of,
144
Airdrie, riot of Irish Roman Catholics
at, 105
Aldborough, sale of votes by the bur
gesses of, [243]
Algiers, treaty between the French and
Abdel Kader, [423]; subsequent hos-
tilities and losses on the part of the
French, [424]; another expedition
from France sent out, headed by the
Mascam,
Duke of Orleans, ib.;
Abdel Kader's capital, razed to the
ground, ib.
America, North-see Canada, Mexico,
United States.
America, South-see Buenos Ayres,
America, South, eruption of a volcano ;
Talca, Corico, &c., destroyed by an
earthquake, 36
Amsterdam, riots at, [473]
Arabia, unsuccessful attempt on the
part of Egypt to subdue it, [499]
Arago, M., his application of the doc
trine of probability to juries, [416];
account of severe winters by, 336
Argau, religious dissensions in the can-
ton of, [486]
Armansperg, Count, made arch-secre-
tary of state in Greece, [492]; exten-
sive powers conferred on him in that
capacity, [493]
Assassination, attempted on the King
of the French, [410]; do. President
of the United States, 17
Assizes and Sessions :-
Appleby: J. Greenwell,
Thomas Grisdale, 43
Armagh several Órangemen, &c., for
holding party processions, 57
Bedford: J. Burgoyne, &c., rioting, 110
Bristol: Mary Ann Burdock, murder,
283
Bury St. Edmond's: S. Brown, murder,
120
Cambridge: Hurston, clerk v. Fawcett,
bribery at the election, 48; do. v.
Canham, do., 50
Carlow T. Kehoe, &c., riot and assault
on E. Mulligan, 67
Greenwich:
Ingram, robbery at
Greenwich Hospital, 138
Derby: Christopher Bird, stealing, 48;
W. Wild, murder of Elizabeth Smith,
118.
Huntingdon: Fras. Beard, arson, 111
Lancaster: Norman Welch, murder of
W. Southgate, 50; John Orrell, mur-
der of his daughter, 54
Monmouth: The King v. T. Tims, inn-
keeper, refusing refreshment to a tra-
veller, 63
Taunton: W. Howe, and J. House,
murder of J. Harvey, 64
Warwick: W. Dollman, N. Hedge, and
J. Gough, murder of W. Painter, 61
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