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"He was in truth a strange character,' added Somerville, for that very evening we supped together at his own request, and before one o'clock in the morning he grew as wildly merry as he had before been despondent; took up quite readily my notions of becoming a great man upon the strength of a single poem; then, in a style the most grotesque, but very graphic, and with great animation, he went on to tell in what fashion he would live, through what countries he would travel, and all the grand things he would do after his fortune was made. Nor was this altogether in joke; for the time present, at least, he was quite serious in his plans. Indeed, I suspect that Campbell had, after his own wayward fashion, a great deal of ambition. I used to tell him that he had got, somehow or other, a cross of the Spanish Hidalgo in his character; for, notwithstanding his discontent with his own verses, he had a great share of pride and hauteur in his composition; and would fire up at the remotest indications of an intentional slight or affront.'"

Of the wonderful popularity of the poem when it was at last published-of its peculiar merits-and of the vast range of society to which its celebrity introduced the author,-it is quite unnecessary to speak in this cursory notice. It has been justly said, "that the lover presented it to his mistress-the husband to his wife-the mother to her daughter, the brother to his sister; and that it was recited in public lectures, and given as a prize volume in schools." Indeed, its popularity cannot be said to have ever suffered any diminution, amidst the vast loads of comparatively good poetry which have since been publishedthe volume of Campbell is still read with the same delightful feelings by the young of the present generation, as were excited by the fact of its first publication-and still remains a wonderful instance of precocious talent, and of poetry and sentiment, in their purest, their most elevated, and most delightful form.

A great deal of interesting reading respecting this portion of the poet's history will be found in the volumes before us-but we have no space for further quotation.

After living in unexampled celebrity among the most refined and literary societies of Edinburgh, Campbell was induced,-very much, we believe, by the advice of Walter Scott-to visit Germany, that he might there become better acquainted with a kind of literature which was then beginning to draw much attention, and which, it was believed, would be much to the taste of the poet, and be a means of carrying his accomplishments to yet more glorious pre-eminence. On the incidents of his German Tour, we do not, at present, intend to enlarge; but when, in 1801, he had returned to Britain, and was on his way, by ship, from London to Edinburgh, an incident occurred which is so characteristic of all the parties concerned, that we cannot refrain from giving it in the poet's own words.

It was well known that Campbell was deeply imbued with demo. cratic tendencies he was also known to be very free in the expression of his opinions-the government of the country was alarmed by rumours of recent intrigues-and as Campbell had been on the Continent, and was known to have come home in the same ship with Donovan, a noted character in those days, a warrant was actually out against the poet for high treason. The poet could not have met with a judge more dis

posed to do everything that was liberal, or less disposed to listen to unfounded rumours, nor more likely to pass over any foolish accusations with a benevolent and hearty jest, than the truly excellent person, Sheriff (afterwards Baron) Clerk, to whom the poet made application on this occasion. But the account given by the poet is so graphic-so perfectly characterestic of the good Sheriff-and withal so scrupulously true to the facts, that it must here be given in the words of the young poet himself:

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Returning to Edinburgh by sea, a lady passenger by the same ship, who had read my poems-but was personally unacquainted with me-told me, to my utter astonishment, that I had been arrested in London for high treason was confined to the Tower, and expected to be executed! I was equally unconscious of having either deserved or incurred such a sentence. "At this time, my mother, now a widow, lived in Edinburgh; and on reaching her house, I found her seriously alarmed by the rumours about my high treason. I pacified her fears; and, late as it was, I despatched a note to the Sheriff of Edinburgh, Mr. Clerk, stating that I would wait upon him to-morrow morning, to refute the calumny that was abroad against me. I accordingly waited upon Mr. Clerk next morning, between eight and nine o'clock, and found the Sheriff under the hands of the barber. He behaved to me with a kindness that touched me with gratitude-but at the same time with a credulity in my guilt that made me almost laugh outright. Beckoning his hair-dresser to retire, he said to me very gravely, Mr. Campbell, I wish you had not come to me; there is a warrant out against you for high treason. 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. But I know there is a general unwillingness among those in power to punish your error; so take my advice, and do not press yourself on my notice!

Mr. Clerk,' I said, 'I owe you my best thanks for your good wishes; but this charge fills me with astonishment! Do I live to hear a sensible man like you, talking about a boy like me conspiring against the British Empire? And where are the proofs ? O, you attended Jacobin clubs at Hamburgh, and you came over from thence in the same vessel with Donovan who commanded a regiment of the rebels at Vinegar-Hill.'

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As to the Jacobin clubs,' I replied,' if there be any such at Hamburgh, I never heard of them; and as to my embarking with Donovan, I knew little or nothing of his history; or-even if I had never knew that he was to be my fellow-passenger, until I met him on the deck. But to be short, Mr. Sheriff-Clerk,' I said, 'I will not drop this matter in which my character is implicated; and you must either prosecute or acquit me.'

"Ah, then what shall I do? quoth the Sheriff; I do not like to send you to prison; but will you come and undergo a rigorous examination at my office in the course of to-day?'

Ay, that I will,' said I, 'to the most rigorous examination you can establish. At what hour? After dinner?' At five o'clock.'

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Well to the office I went, and there were clerks ready to note down my answers. I forgot, however, to mention, that on going ashore at Yarmouth, I had left a box full of papers and letters to be forwarded to Edinburgh. These had been seized at Leith, and the proofs of my high treason were supposed to be contained in these manuscripts. But, on exainination, they were found to be such innocent papers, that the Sheriff began to smoke the whole bubble, and said, 'This comes of trusting to 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 treasonable papers?'

"With all my heart' said I, and among my treasonable papers, was found a copy of Ye Mariners of England!

"The Sheriff, of course, dismissed me in good humour."

There are two qualities of Campbell's correspondence, which are strikingly manifested by this account, and which pervade and distinguish the whole of the letters, which make up the greater part of these invaluable volumes. These are the perfect truthfulness of all his delineations and statements-insomuch that he never permitted his fancy, in a single instance, to give a colouring to facts, which either carried them beyond the truth, or in the slightest degree distorted them. And the second peculiarity of his correspondence is the evidence which it everywhere affords of the gratitude with which he ever received any token of kindness-and his readiness to express his thanks and his admiration, when he could not repay the good offices that were done him, by any more substantial tokens of his heart-felt respect.

These qualities we repeat will be found to characterise the whole of his correspondence, and while they enhance the character of the poet immeasurably in our esteem, they give also an interest and a trust-worthiness to his letters which render them invaluable.

We shall close these cursory notices, which, however, we hope to continue in some future number, with the following amusing account of the personal appearance of the poet, after his return to Edinburgh from his German Tour.

"In his letter to Sir Walter Scott, already quoted, Campbell mentions that, in Edinburgh, his favourite promenade was along the North Bridge, where, owing to his frequent recitation of his friend's poetry," the whole fraternity of coachmen knew him by tongue, and quizzed him as he passed." He was at that time scrupulously neat in his dress, which, agreeably to the fashion of the day, consisted of a blue coat, with bright gilt buttons; a white waistcoat and cravat; buff nankeens, and white stockings, with shoes and silver buckles. His hair was already falling off; and to remedy this inconvenience, he adopted the peruke, which was never afterwards laid aside. Any one desirous to see the author of The Pleasures of Hope' was sure to find him on the North Bridge,' any morning about noon, in company with one or more of those congenial spirits who, like himself, had risen into early and permanent fame. I am informed by the same authority, to whom I owe these interesting minutiæ, that, in society, the young Poet was by no means unconscious of his mental superiority. The ingenuous candour' with which he gave vent to his opinions was not always palatable to those who, from their station, science, or seniority, had a claim to respect and deference. But to those who knew him intimately, his freedom of speech and arrogance on certain points were often compensated by sound criticism, playful wit, and warm-hearted philanthropy."

By the

"Presbytery Examined:" an Essay, Critical and Historical, on the Ecclesiastical History of Scotland, since the Reformation. DUKE OF ARGYLE. London: Moxon. 1848.

The primary title of this volume has been borrowed from the Presbytery Examined," of " the right Reverend John Sage,” a work which was, at one time, of some note, and whose fuller description of itself runs thus: "The Fundamental Charter of Presbytery, as it hath been lately established in the Kingdom of Scotland, examined and disproved, by the history, records, and public transactions of our nation. Together with a preface, wherein the Vindicator of the Kirk is freely put in mind of his habitual infirmities."

He was

The reader of his book, or of his biography, may possibly come to the conclusion that this Mr. Sage was a worthy man in his way, although a pedant withal, and of that school of pedants too, whose souls are the narrowest but even here already it is obvious that he was boastful in his self-confidence, and sufficiently tedious, at least in title-pages. We learn that he was born in the parish of Creich, and under the Commonwealth, because in the year 1652. ordained in 1668, by Ross, archbishop of Glasgow, as a minister of "the Church in Scotland,"-that Church "in rebuilding which," as his biographer for the Spottiswood Society tells us with a quaint originality," the Government of Charles II. acted with questionable moderation." After the death of Charles, Sage obtained an appointment to a professorship in St. Andrews, which however, like many other good things in possession or expectancy by "the Church in Scotland," was rendered void at the Revolution. He survived the rabbling times, if not quite skaithless, at least, with little to complain of; and became the minister of a meeting-house, then "thronged with people of the best quality and sense," somewhere in Edinburgh; but unhappily the claim to his services is still unsettled between Carruber's and Skinner's Closes. The "oath of allegiance and assurance," however, having been disrelished and refused by him-a peculiarity of taste which of course non-jurors then deemed quite harmless, or even highly virtuous-he was silenced, and banished forth of the city. In the circumstances, this sentence was, upon the whole, both a reasonable and a mild one. Nevertheless, our modern non-jurors now recognise in it a blot on the Presbyterian character for the one part, and a kind of martyrdom in the cause of conscience for the other: as if the punishment by William and Mary, of a confessedly bad subject, had anything to do with Churches and consciences. A curious optical instrument, truly, is the non-juring mind, the mind still, it seems, of the "Scottish Churchman." For ourselves, we heartily wish that no such hardships had occurred at the Revolution.

But we

are quite as much grieved that Sage was a Jacobite, as that he was looked after for being so.

He was consecrated in Edinburgh on the 24th of January, 1705; not so much to meet any actual want of the Episcopal Church at the time, as merely to preserve what his recent biographer calls the "Sacred Deposit," whatever that may be. For this " Sacred Deposit" the Tridentine fathers sought long, and with the best intentions also; but, if Sarpi may be credited, quite unsuccessfully. We, therefore, greatly fear that the editors, or even the entire council of the Spottiswood Society, might labour in vain to solve the dark mystery. Like some other deposits, this, it may be suspected, has been so effectually hidden, that nothing but imagination, and perhaps dreams likewise, can make anything of it. Still, be it what it might, the "Sacred Deposit" must be supposed to have passed into other hands in 1711, when the worthy bishop died, after having written and published "Presbytery Examined," etc. His controversial antagonist, "the vindicator of the Kirk,” was Gilbert Rule, who, having passed through a variety of vicissitudes and sufferings in the opposite cause, became principal of the University of Edinburgh after the Revolution. He had "habitual infirmities," no doubt and we hope he was not the worse of being " freely put in mind" of them. Clearly he had abundance of Sage; and the mediciners ask, "Cur moriatur homo cui salvia crescit in horto ? To the very reverend principal, we daresay the herb might sometimes be bitter enough, but it would be rash to conclude that it was therefore unwholesome. Even now some slight decoction of the leaves may be taken with profit, as a mild tonic, by Presbyterians of weaker digestion; while, obviously, it is greedily swallowed by "Scottish Churchmen," of the right breed, as precious nectar, or even the true elixir vitæ. We also had tried the medicine, that is, had read the book, with considerable curiosity, some benefit, and, including the modern Editor's notes, no little amusement. But we had not ventured to expect, for ourselves or others, any such advantages from it as have been conferred on many by the Duke of Argyle's distillation of it in his "Essay."

The Essay was originally intended for publication in one of our periodicals, as a review of the Spottiswood Society's publications in general, and of Sage's work in particular: and although it is not merely written with all the usual freedom and latitude of such compositions, but has also a special aim of its own, apart from considerations of literary censorship, still the author's mind was naturally much engaged in the course of it by the dark and intricate history of Prelacy in Scotland. The chieftain of the race of Diarmid possesses a hereditary claim to the attention of Scotchmen when he speaks on this theme, even though their expectations had not been previously excited by efforts of great promise, though of less ambitious scope. And, making allowance for the greatly altered times, the present Duke of Argyle remains true to the ancient faith and principles of his princely house. Gillespie Grumach himself was not more thoroughly Protestant and Presbyterian-nor that good Earl who, on the scaffold, proclaimed his "heart-hatred of Popery, Prelacy, and all superstition