the house of Lovat. After the death tinued faithful to the government until of High, tenth Lord Lovat, the title the arrival of the Chevalier in 1745. and estate of Lovat were disputed be- Allured by the hopes of plunder, and tween his Lordship's daughter, heir tempted by the high promises of perof line, and Thomas Fraser, heir male. sonal preferment, he agam began to Simon, in order to combine the claims waver; and, with his usual duplicity of both houses, proposed an alliance of character, endeavoured to hold a with the daughter of Lord Hugh; stake with both parties, until the sucbut being thwarted through the inter- cess of the Chevalier's army at Presference of the Marquis of Athole, the tonpans, confirmed him in the resolulady's uncle, who gave her away in tion of joining the Prince's standard. marriage to another, Simon Fraser Still, however, it was in an underland came to the desperate and unaccount-manner; he did not join the army able resolution of forcing a marriage himself, but compelled his son to head between himself, and the Dowager a detachment of the Clan, although Lady Lovat, daughter of the Marquis he pretended to the government party, of Athole, a lady advanced in life, of that his son had joined the Chevalier's respectable character, not certainly of army contrary to his injunctions.an inviting person; but who, in virtue Lovat was not present at the battle of of her jointure, was in possession of Culloden; nor had he, previous to a considerable part of the estate of that event, had an interview with the Lovat. This design he actually put Prince in whose cause he had involved în execution :—' he went through the himself. It was not till after that famock ceremony of a wedding; had her tal day, that the vanquished Charles, dress cut from her person with a dirk, with his few attendants, came gallopand subjected her to the last extremi-ing with full speed to the remote and ty of brutal violence, while the pipes solitary mansion of Castle Dounic, played in the next apartment to drown bringing the fatal intelligence of the her screams. For this unwarranted ruin of the cause, and the dispersion outrage, he was obliged to fly to the of his adherents. Thus Lovat saw continent; and, having been tried in all his hopes blasted, and his doom his absence, was declared an outlaw. at length sealed. Old and infirm, he He repaired to the court of St. Ger- attempted to seek his safety in flight, mains, entered into some plans for the although obliged to be carried on the restoration of the exiled family of shoulders of his attendants; but after Stuart, came over privately to Scotland, lurking for some time, he was at last but his plot failing, he was, on his re- discovered in the hollow trunk of a turn to France, thrown into prison. tree, and carried prisoner to London.

It was not until the troubles of He displayed to the last all the pe1715 commenced, that government, culiarities of his character. In a sinforeseeing the advantage of securing gular letter which he wrote to the such a powerful and numerous Clan Duke of Cumberland, he endeavoured in their interest, gave a pardon to Lo- to excite his compassion, by telling vat, and invited him to return for the him, how often he had carried him in purpose of heading his Clan in behalf his arms when a child, and offered to of King George. To secure his al-make such discoveries as would be of legiance, he had a pension granted to an hundred times more advantage to him, besides some other offices of dis-government than the sacrifice of an tinction which he held and he con-old grey head. During his trial, he

made an excuse, that his deafness pre-away upon her morning excursion, the

young fairy, which you, by this time, father; and the song, of which you have have discovered he was, was tended by his

vented him from ascertaining the nature of the accusations against him: on the scaffold, he preserved that un-a translation, is sung by the old wives of daunted firmness, mingled with a sa- the Highlands till this day, as the lullaby tirical causticity of humour, for which which he used to croon to the boy, in the he was remarkable; and died with the absence of the mother. I am, Mr. Editor, Your well-wisher, words of the old Roman in his mouth,

Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori,'

That such a person should assume such sentiments, in his last moments, must certainly appear singular.

His life, from the outset, was one tissue of falsehood and deceit. His public conduct was invariably influenced by views of self-interest, not by the good of his country; in private life, he was harsh, tyrannical, and ungenerous, with not one redeeming virtue to palliate his many vices.

To the Editor of the Melange. Mr. EDITOR, A young man, whose occupation was the herding of cattle, among the wild mountains of the Highlands of Scotland, in his wanderings after his flock, one day, met a most beautiful young woman seated on the bank of a little river. At his approach she did not seem to shrink; but looked up to him, with an enchanting expression of countenance, when he spoke to her, and bade him rest himself, and oblige her with his company. He sat down beside her, and, as he gazed upon her for a while in admiring rapture, she clasped his neck, and kissed him. Encouraged by this, the shepherd took her all in his arms, and the yielding maiden melted in his grasp. The fruit of the embrace, was a young son, who was brought to the world long before the ordinary course of nature warranted. The mother always paid the shepherd and child a visit every day, bringing wild berries and flowers, and the speckled tenants of the brook to the youngster, both for food and amusement. At night, she brought him out, and washed him in a pool, formed by a part of the river on whose banks he was begotten, when the fairy train of a neighbouring knoll responded

to the wild note which she sang while engaged in this operation. While she was

S. M. R.

stops,

She'll lave you in yonder clear fountain.
And soft is the song that she sings you to rest with,
As the cold waters stream o'er your bosom;
And the chorus is swell'd by the friends you are
And their theme is the young fairy blossom.
blest with,
And its inmates come forth light and cheerly;
The portal of yonder green knoll opens wide,
For they know what the hullaby sung should betide,
And they reel 'neath the moonlight so clearly.
And your mother and you join the sprightly cotillion
Till morn paints the welkin with streaks of vermik
And the minstrelsy aye makes ye cheery:
Ye ne'er of the revelry weary.
Glasgow, 4th Nov. 1822.

lion,

FISHER-BOY OF NAPLES. In the year, 1647, there lived at Naples, a poor fisher-boy of the name of Tomaso Anello, vulgarly corrupted into Masaniello. He was clad in the meanest attire, went about barefooted, and gained a scanty livelihood by angling for fish, and hawking them about for sale. Who could have imagined that, in this poor abject fisher

الة الامل

boy, the populace were to find the the nobles and cavaliers should deliver being destined to lead them on to one up their arms to such officers, as he of the most extraordinary revolutions should give commission to receive recorded in history? Yet so it was. them. The order was obeyed. Ile No monarch ever had the glory of ordered that men of all ranks should rising so suddenly to so lofty a pitch go without cloaks, or gowns, or wide of power, as the barefooted Masaniello. cassocks, or any other sort of loose Naples, the metropolis of many fertile dress, under which arms might be cone provinces, the queen of many noble cealed; nay, that even the women,. cities, the resort of princes, of cava- for the same reason, should throw liers, and of heroes-Naples, inhabit- aside their farthingales, and tuck up ed by more than six hundred thousand their gowns somewhat high. The souls, abounding in all kinds of re-order changed in an instant the whole sources, glorying in its strength-this fashions of the people, not even the proud city saw itself forced, in one proudest and the fairest of Naples' short day, to yield to one of its mean- daughters daring to dispute, in the est sons, such obedience as in all its least, the pleasures of the people's history it had never before shown to idol. Nor was it over the high and its liege sovereigns. In a few hours noble alone that he exercised this unthe fisher-lad was at the head of one limited ascendancy. The fierce dehundred and fifty thousand men; in mocracy' were as acquiescent as the a few hours there was no will in Naples titled few. On one occasion, when but his; and, in a few hours, it was the people, in vast numbers, were as freed from all sorts of taxes, and re- sembled, he commanded, with a loud stored to all its ancient privileges. voice, that every one prssent should, The fishing-wand was exchanged for under pain of rebellion and death, the truncheon of command, the sea- retire to his home. The multitude boy's jacket for cloth of silver and instantly dispersed. On another, he gold. He made the town be en- put his finger on his mouth to comtrenched; he placed sentinels to mand silence; in a moment every guard it against danger from without; voice was hushed.

and he established a system of police The reign of this prodigy of power within, which awed the worst banditti was indeed short, lasting only from in the world into fear. Armies passed the 7th till the 16th of July, 1647; in review before him; even fleets when he perished, the victim of another owned his sway. He dispensed pun-revolution in affairs. It was a reign ishments and rewards with the like marked too with many atrocious exliberal hand; the bad he kept in awe; cesses, and with some traits of indethe disaffected he paralysed; the wa- scribable personal folly; yet as long vering he resolved by his exhortations; as it is not an every-day event for a the bold were encouraged by his in- fisher-boy to become a king, the story citements; the valiant made more valiant by his approbation.

Obeyed in whatever he commanded, gratified in whatever he desired, successful in whatever he attempted, never was there a chief more absolute, never was an absolute chief for a time more powerful. He ordered that all

of Masaniello of Naples must be regarded with equal wonder and ad- · miration, as exhibiting an astonishing instance of the genius to command existing in one of the humblest situations of life, and asserting its ascendancy with a rapidity of enterprise to which there is no parallel in history.

course, then,"

every

pleasing art of
poetry, than any men
I know of. But, alas! even the great
deal that they did, was very little, in
comparison with what might have been
done. If their Rhyming Dictionaries
are examined, they will be found to
be mere farragos, in which nothing
is consulted but the sound.

THE RHYMESTER'S ORACLE; Or, Art of Poesy-making laid open. Every body in the world, that is, every genius, (and who is nota genius?) finds that it is necessary to write verses sometimes—an Epithalanium' on a friend's marriage, or a Monody' on his death; Lines to a New Born Infant,' or, On the unfortunate in-tum-a systematic work on Here, then, we perceive a Desideraon the Art of disposition of Poor Pompey,' my lady Rhyming; and such a work I have, B's Pug. after considerable labour and study, Now, this is a serious affair, let me tell you, Mr. Editor; these occasions completed. The rude and crude clippings of the aforenamed authors, I for versifying may occur frequently, of have digested into order, by selecting body in the the rhymes proper for every possible world' should be prepared for them. subject; and reducing them to systeWhat a pity it would be, if, when a matic arrangement. The whole is genius-like being had one of these explained and illustrated in the most glorious opportunities of signalizing familiar and pleasing manner. himself, he should fail to elicit unbounded applause; because, his satisfaction, and assure the public it I announce this work with great rhymes had an unmetrical rudeness, shall shortly be laid before them: in resulting from his unacquaintance with the mean time, to gratify, in some dewhat are assuredly the most important gree, the curiosity which I foresee will parts of the poet's study, the Me- prevail regarding it; and, to afford chanism of Feet and of Rhymes. some insight into the nature of my This much, regarding the useful-plan, I have transcribed, from the ness of the Art, and the necessity of MS., the following passages. obtaining a knowledge of it. It re- For the Eclogue, or pastoral diamains now to show, what has been logue, let the student conclude his done for it, and what remains to be lines with the rhymes underwritten; done.' In ancient times there was one always taking care to finish his sense Aristotle, and, I believe, one Horace, with the second rhyme, and at no time also, who wrote upon the subject; to suffer his verse to exceed the just but they lived so long ago, and, indeed, those ancient writers were such for this purpose, are these : measure of ten syllables. The rhymes barbarians, that their treatises cannot be recommended to you. To come down to the moderns, then-to come, at once, to those who have written, particularly on what I write about,to come to such men as Bysshe, and Gent, and several others, who have composed Dictionaries of Rhymes. These were indeed useful men-industrious pruners in the vineyards of Parnassus

who have rendered more as

shady brake
Lycidas awake.
careless rove
leafy grove.
fruitful field
harvest yield.
tuneful measures,

harmless pleasures,

nymphs and swains,

flowery plains..

&c.

'Should our student turn his

sistance to young practitioners, in the thoughts to panegyric, we would ad