artificial conduct of the plot, the rudeness and ferocity of the characters, and the marvellous turn of the incidents, did he imagine that the plea of having imitated Eschylus would be sufficient to render it palatable, or even tolerable, to readers of an age like the present? If Eschylus wrote thus, and was admired for thus writing, it was because no better style being then known, he and his contemporaries considered this as a good one. "Emma" is somewhat better than "Odin ;" but still it is "on the Greek model;" the long-winded odes of the chorus are insufferably tiresome, and the "severe simplicity of the fable" precludes all interest. And what are all the odes about? Gentle reader, that is a puzzling question-there is one to Spring, one to Summer, one to Autumn, and one to Winter. Hark! Summer loquitur. "Tis mine to bless the fruitful vales; And but for my effulgent ray, The groves, that shadowy wave, lie, Save when with noontide blaze I fill the burning sky." There is likewise an "Ode to Envy,” whom he thus addresses: "Come forth, and show to the revealing sun Thy form which all should see, that all who see may shun." There is a good deal too about antient Britons, "Deva's wizard Flood;" Charactacus, Madoc, and Hoel; Hesus, and Taranis, and so forth-names of barbaric celebrity, which in the mineteenth century might perhaps be suffered to sink into oblivion without any great loss to mankind. The style of our author is not always so correct as might be expected from a scholar; for instance→→→ -" seem'd Solemn to utter loud mysterious sounds. Mournful o'erspread my breast." How can the soul be fateful? "Dreadly" is a new coinage to which we shall not contribute to give currency. We conceive that there is an anachronism in making the followers of Odin knights. Cherubic thought" is no very happy novelty. verse. In the poem entitled "Britannia,” after indignant mention of the execution of Louis XVI. Mr. Richards proceeds thus: "Yet to desert hall human-kind be true, And virtue meet on earth her awful due: Ages to come shall annual pomps bestow, The hallow'd taper o'er thy tomb shall shine; And give the consecrated day to woe: And sacred hymns be chaunted round thy shrine. While pious millions at their altars bend, And bless the spirit of their martyr'd friend. The pensive priest with sad delight shall tread The solemn spot where holy Louis bled: There melting Pity of thy fall shall tell ; There on thy memory lonely Thought shall dwell; And weeping Freedom endless vigils keep, O sainted Sufferer, where thy ashes sleep." Is it by virtue of his poetic function, or his degree of M. A. that our Oxonian ventures to add a saint to the calendar? "The Aboriginal Britons," the best of these poems, is only a republication. ART. XXI. Poems, sacred, moral, and descriptive: to which are added four Essays. By JOSEPH JEFFERSON. 8vo. pp. 195. IN this methodistical volume there is dulness possesses of assimilating every a striking instance of the power which thing to itself. While Vict'ry wav'd the palm of war, done. "One single soldier, sad and pale, Amidst the lengthen'd file, Could heave a sigh at woe's dread tale, And pensive, on his musket lean'd the while. What! my brave soldier,-why so griev'd, (A martial hero cries), Why is the pensive sigh thus heav'd While shouts of glorious vict'ry rend the skies?' An't please your honour, 'twas replied, While I this scene survey,What numbers by this musket dy'd! Sad thought! I fight for a few pence a day." The reply of the soldier to the duke of Marlborough, which is thus doggrel ized, was simply this-" An't please your honour I was thinking what a hard day's work I've done for sixpence!" Never was there a better specimen of that precious alchemy which transmutes gold into lead. Mr. Jefferson has an Essay on the Conduct of Calvin in the Affair of Servetus. When he adduces proofs that Melancthon approved of this persecu tion, and that all the reformers thought it right to persecute; so far he shows his individual learning. But when he excuses or justifies the execution by saying that Servetus had indeed long disturbed the church, by propagating the most blasphemons heresies, waxing worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived; he then shews what is the principle of the United Calvinists, and what would be their practice. ART. XXII. The Grampians desolate; a Poem. By ALEXANDER CAMPBELL. 8vo. PP. 316. "LET the astrologer," says Milton, "be dismayed at the portentous blaze of comets, and impressions in the air as foretelling troubles and changes to states; I shall believe there cannot be a more ill-boding sign to a nation (God turn the omen from us!) than when the inhabitants, to avoid insufferable grievances at home, are inforced by heaps to forsake their native country." Mr. Campbell is no poet, and but a very bad versifier: but his intentions are excellently good, and he has brought to gether in his notes much curious informa. tion respecting the original system and habits of life of the Highlanders. The best lines in his volume are those which occur in the beginning. "Amid these Alpine wilds remote I roain From thee, my Clementina, far from home Where erst the hall resounded in high joy; Save where yon shepherd and his dog in haste To toil ainong, as far they stray at large, Tis vain to murmur, since no powerful arm Is left to save a land from hopeless harm!"Where now the guardian chiefs huDispers'd some wander—many sleep in dust While some, to honour lost, mind nought save gain: mane and just? But few, alas! of sterling worth remain!- loose! How changed of late!-The chieftains of Behold with apathy to distant climes The mild contentment of their former state, That shelter'd from the storm his hoary head: Save heath-spread ridges, or some moss-clad mound, No trace of ancient times can now be found! "More recent evils, Stranger! I deplore The Gael are banish'd from their native shore !" The rural economy which is noticed in these lines is thus explained: "As the Tighearna, Cean-Finich, or chief, had under his patriarchal protection, chieftains, and heads of families, and those again still more subordinate adherents of still lower condition, besides mere labourers or herdsmen, the possessions were of consequence subdivided conformable to this order; and accordingly we find that the laird, lord, or tighearna, had his place of residence on a bold projecting rock hanging over a sea arm, or on an islet in a lake; or at the confluence of a river, to which several mountain-streams are tributary; along the banks of which, among the windings of the narrow glens, the houses and huts of the subordinate chieftains, heads of families, lesser branches, poorer relatives, and menial dependents, had their in-field and out-field possessions; of which traces are still observable where those subdivisions of arable lands took place. Now the farms consisted of three divisions, viz. in-field, out-field, and hill-pasture. The in-field was so called from the circumstance of its being that division of the arable ground which was inclosed with either a turf, or stone wall, and was kept in constant tillage. The out-field was that division immediately adjoining the former, which was but occasionally ploughed; and, after it had afforded a few successive crops, was suffered to acquire a sward spontaneously; after which it was again tilled, and a few more scanty crops reaped, till it was completely exhausted. This mode of agriculture requires no comment. Those two divisions were subdivided into what is termed runnig, rig-and-rennet, or rig-andkalk, a wretched relic of feudal times, when the conflict of the clans raged throughout the Grampians and western isles. In order that each individual should have an interest in common to stimulate him in the defence of the cause, his possessions lay dispersed here and there among those of his neighbours. And the one rig (ridge) running in a direction (generally curvelinear) to that of another, with interstices, consisting of stones heaped up that were gathered year after year when labouring the ground, which was called the balk; or, if free from stones, those interstices served for pasture, on which the calves were tethered during summer and autumn; and also, (particularly on the bo ders), those interstices being always clear of any corn-crop, whenever a marauding pay made their appearance, the alarm was given. and each male capable of defending his property ran up the rig to oppose them hard : hand." Sometime in May the cattle of every description were driven to the hill pas tures, where they were kept till to ward the end of autumn. In the green coves or vallies of the mountain which were called airidh, the huts or bothan were pitched. Whole families removed together in this manner to the summer ceive a mode of life more favourable to pastures. It is scarcely possible to con health and happiness. The division of lands was strictly feudal. "The ancient usage, privilege, or right, of the Gael, which, simply considered, amounts to neither more nor less than inheriting, a they were wont time immemorial, their duas, duchas, or hereditary possessions in the order already specified, according to their proximi ty to the chief, of whom the chieftains, beads of families, or principal tacksmen, sub-tenants, viz. small farmers, crofters, and cot tars, held their lands and places of abode. The chieftains and principal tacksmen were in the rank of gentlemen. The sub-te nants, or small farmers, were half-gentlemen, (a term very well understood among the higher classes), the crofters and cottars, were what were called, by way of distinction, comMONITS, (another term very well understood among the highland noblesse) on whom devolved the lower employments of the field, fold, oar, &c. Some of the chieftains who had not been provided with free possessions from their chief or common progenitor, were tacksmen, and held in lease a pretty considerable stretch of country, consisting of infield and outfield or arable land, common-moor, and hill-pas ture; and those were let in lease again in smaller lots to sub-tenants, crofters, and cottagers. The ancient mode of computing the value of such possessions, was very simple and con venient; which was either in money, or in grain; in the former case, lands were valued at pennies, halfpennies, farthings, elitings, placks, bodies, &c.; in the latter case sheaves, half-sheaves, &c. A principal tacks man possessed lands to the value of from twenty to forty or more pennies, for which he paid a yearly rent during the currency of his tack or lease. Of this extensive portion fland he sub-set a third part, and sometimes two-thirds, to small farmers, crofters, and Cottars. Each farmer may possess one sheaf, one and a half, or two sheaves of valued land, or in Scots money, one farthing, one halfpenny, or one penny, according to the specifie agreement of parties. A crofter has a all lot of arable ground called craft or croft, on which he has a house or hut, a alyard, ground for raising as much crop as will ke keep a cow, which yields him milk and hutter to his meal and potatoes. A collar is only a cot or shed of the humblest sort, a bail-yard, and a small piece of ground for potatoes. This then was the order of the abdivision of land, according to ancient sage, privilege, or right, of the several classes of the inhabitants of the Hebrides and Grampian mountains, till within these forty or fiveand-forty-years; when those rights were disregarded; and the duchas of the tacksman which had descended from father to son for many generations, as a species of patrimony, sacred as the heritage of the proprietor himself, was entirely abolished. Before this, however, took place, the tacksmen lived comfortably as gentlemen: the sub-tenants, or farmers, lived decently in their huts, grouped, it is true, with but little regard to cleanliness, or much comfort, forming, as it were, a comunity, in which their privileges and rights were scrupulously respected and maintained; and while their five-stock grazed in common beyond the head-dykes, and through the Land-pastures in summer and autumn, their arable lands were divided yearly by lot, as already noticed; and thus the whole demesnes of the chief, or common father, was apportioned, according to the rank or condition of ach individual of the miniature commonwealth;a mode the most congenial with he patriarchal system; and the best adapted For a peculiar people, such as the Gael, or habitants of the Hebrides and Grampian istricts." up The conduct of the Scotch lairds is as legal as it is inhuman and iniquitous. Our best laws are those which have Town out of custom; what has been the Custom of the country for time immemoial is the law of the country. Every ndividual of a clan has as legal a claim o his inheritance as the chieftain. But, f what avail is the right when it canot be vindicated? The law is impar ial, but not the administration of aw; between equals it is equal; but if The life of the late lord Lonsdale were ecorded, volumes of facts would apear to prove that it is possible to comit the most barefaced and wanton acts of injustice, and yet set the law at defiance. The gates of law do not stand open day and night; they are closed, and will open to none but those who bring with them the master-key of gold. The Scotch chieftain gives warning to his clan to quit their hereditary possessions; they have no alternative but that of wandering to seek employment, or emigrating that of starving at home, or encountering the yellow fever abroad. It is not easy, says Mr. Campbell, to conceive the manifold miseries to which many of the ejected inhabitants of the Grampians are exposed, when they wander to any of the towns or cities of the low country, without any determinate object in view; and they can have no determinate object, having been wholly accustomed to agriculture, which every where finds sufficient hands. One melancholy instance fell under this gentleman's own observation. gave "It was in the depth of winter (in the year 1781); a heavy fall of snow had lain long on the ground; the north wind blew keenly, and chilled one almost to death, when Alexander Lawson, a well disposed person (by trade a weaver) came to me and requested my charity for a poor, destitute family, who had taken shelter in a wretched curiosity being excited by the description he hovel, a few doors from his workshop. My of their deplorable condition, I accordWe desingly followed him to the spot. cended a few steps into what had once, per haps, been a cellar. A small lamp placed in called a habitable place, gave hardly suffici one corner of this hole, for it could not be ent light to shew the miserable state of those persons who had taken shelter in it from the bed of straw made on the cold damp floor, inclemency of the storm. In one row, on a for they were highlanders, and their dissoluwere laid three men: their only covering plaids, tion seemed fast approaching. A woman, apparently past the middle period of life, who supported the head of the eldest on her lap, lifted up her eyes, as we entered, looked wistfully at us, and shook her head, but uttered not a word, nor did a sigh escape her."Alas! good woman," said 1, “have you no one to look after you, in this destitute coudition ?" She can converse in no other save that of her native tongue," said my conductor; and I addressed her in that language, when she instantly raised her eyes, in which a faint gleam of joy seemed to sparkle. Laying the head of her husband (for such the eldest of the three men was) gently down on the straw, she suddenly sprang up, came forward, seized me by both hands, cast a look upwards, and exclaimed, "O God whom hast Thou sent to comfort they had saved from the sale of their effects, was gone; and they now were reduced to a state of absolute want. To beg they were ashamed; but starve they must, in the event they could find no immediate employment. But, from humane and charitably disposed persons they at last were obliged to implore assistance; and by this means they found their way to Edinburgh; where, soon after, the unfortunate lad whom they had carried in the way already mentioned, from Aberdeen, was admitted a patient into the Royal Infirmary. It was now the beginning of harvest. The high price of labour in the north of England, compared with that in the south of Scotland, induces many of our highlanders to go thither, in order to earn as much as possibly they can, during the sea. son of reaping in that quarter. This poor family, among other reapers, travelled southward:-but it was a sad journey to them: for being soon seized with fever and ague, thus were they at once plunged into the deepest distress, far from their native home, and without a friend in the world to look after them. Not even suffered to remain any time in one place, they were barbarously hur ried from parish to parish, as the custom is, till they reached Edinburgh, where being safely placed in the hospital, they soon recovered. But, on making enquiry after the lad left behind when they went to England, they were informed of his death, which hap pened a few days before their admission into the infirmary. They now were dismissed cared;-but, where to take shelter they knew not! for they had not a soul in the city to assist them in the smallest matter. Feeble, tottering, and faint with hunger, they wandered about the streets until the evening. when they crept into that wretched hovel, in which I found them." us!" Then looking me stedfastly in the face, she said, “In this wretched condition you thus see me among strangers. My husband, and these my two sons, are fast hastening to their graves. Nine days and nights has their blood boiled in the malignant illness you now see wasting them. It is now almost three days since I tasted the last morsel of bread." She then turned to her dying family, wrung her hands, and remained silent. On turning from this affecting scene, I observed a decent old woman coming forward to enquire for the unhappy sufferers; and, by the interest she seemed to take in their welfare, it led me to hope that, through her kind assistance, I should be enabled to afford them some relief. Having in the mean time ordered them an immediate supply of things absolutely necessary, I made haste to call in medical assistance; but, alas! it was too late; for the fever had already wasted the living energy in them; and, notwithstanding every possible aid art could administer under such unfavourable circumstances as their cases presented, when I called next morning, I found the father and his eldest son in the agonies of death. All was silent. In a few minutes, the young man breathed his last. And now quivering in the pangs of dissolution, the old man lay on his back-his eyes fixed-the death-film covering them, and the dead rattle, as it is called, indicating the near approach of the end of his earthly troubles. When a reasonable time had elapsed, I learned the story of this family from the unfortunate widow herself, the particulars of which, so far as I recollect, are nearly the following.There was not a happier pair in the whole parish, (which lay on the banks of the Spey), than the father and mother of this poor family, till, by reason of the introduction of a new set of tenants from a distant part of the country, The conduct of government with re the small farmers were ejected; among whom were the subjects of this simple narrative. spect to the Highlands is truly praise. To add to their misfortunes, their third son, worthy as far as it goes. It is however a lad about fourteen, was affected with a to be wished that they would go to the white-swelling (as it is called) in his knee root of the evil, and pass a law to con joint, which prevented him from walking; firm these oppressed people in possession and, when the family took their departure of their inheritance. We are now driv for the low-country, the father and his other ing into exile a race of brave and gene two sons were obliged to carry this poor lame rous men, who have ever distinguished one on a hand-barrow; and thus travelled onward till they reached Aberdeen; where themselves in fighting our battles. Bethey got him put safely into the hospital of that fore they leave their native country they city; but he was soon after dismissed incu- swear to each other upon their broadrable; and their little all being nearly spent, swords to return and take vengeance if they were at a loss what next to do for sub- ever it shall be possible. Would it be sistence. They were advised to travel to strange if in some hour of natural indig Edinburgh, in order to procure medical as- nation they should swear rather to stay sistance for the lad; and get into some way and maintain their rights by the sword, of gaining an honest livelihood somewhere in or die upon their own fields? Such a or near the capital. To Edinburgh, therefore, they directed their course; and, after rebellion would undoubtedly be quelled, a tedious journey of many days, they found but it would lead government to those themselves within a short distance of the measures, which, if adopted now, mar city. But, by this time the little money prevent the possibility of evil. |