O'er Swilly's rocks they soar,
Commission'd watch to keep;
Down, down with thundering roar
The exulting demons pour-
The Saldanha floats no more

On the deep!

The dreadful hest is past,

All is silent as the grave,

One shriek is first and last—

Scarce a death-sob drank the blast,

As sunk the quivering mast

'Neath the wave.

'Britannia rules the waves ;'

Oh vain and impious boast!

Go, mark, presumptuous slaves,
Where He who sinks or saves,

Scars the sands with countless graves,

Round your coast."

The following are on a very different theme, and in striking contrast to the preceding.

TO JULIA.

"Since you will needs my heart possess,
Julia, 'tis just I first confess

The faults to which 'tis given;

It is much more to change inclined
Than restless seas or raging wind,
Or aught that's under Heaven.

Nor will I hide from you the truth,
It has been from its very youth
A most egregious ranger;

And, since from me it oft has fled,
With whom it was both born and bred,

'Twill scarce stay with a stranger.

VOL. I.

The black, the fair, the gay, the sad,
It is so very, very mad,

With one kind look can win it ;
By nature 'tis so prone to rove,
'Twill quit success, for change, in love,
And what's more, glories in it.

And now, if you dare be so bold,
After the truths that I have told,
To like this arrant rover ;
Be not displeased, if I confess

I think the heart within your breast
Will prove just such another.”

CHAPTER XVIII.

Other Contributors to Brummell's Scrap Book-Lord Melbourne-His Lines on the Bust of Fox-The Dream-Translation of an Ode from Anacreon-The Honourable George Lamb-The Robber's Good-Night-R. Payne Knight-The Yellow Leaf-George Canning-His Squib on Mr. Whitbread's Speech at the Impeachment of Lord Melville-The Duchess of Gordon's Salute-Mrs. O'NeillStanzas by that Lady.

AMONGST the long list of distinguished persons who sent vers de société to Brummell, Lady Dacre, Lady Granville, and Lord Melbourne, are the only three individuals who now survive, and consequently the only persons to whom it was necessary to apply for permission to publish these evidences of their taste. and accomplishments.1 The reply that I received from Lord Melbourne was couched in terms of amiable circumspection, and perfectly in accordance with his known good-nature; he says, "I can have no objection to your inserting any poetry of mine in your intended work, which you think may add to its interest, provided there be in it nothing discreditable to the writer, nor injurious to the feelings of others; on

1 None of these "distinguished persons" is alive at the time (1885) this new edition is published.

both of which points, you will exercise a sound discretion." No objections of this nature can possibly be urged against the first, or the three succeeding trifles from his lordship's pen: they were probably written very early in life, and had been the elegant occupation of leisure hours passed, in reality, by the side of the tranquil Cam; but, in imagination, reposing on the banks of some streamlet wild in the classic island of Cythera. His lordship had, however, even at this time, not only distinguished himself by his classical, but by other and more solid attainments; and perhaps, the most flattering testimony of this was given by Fox, when he made his celebrated speech on the death of his friend the Duke of Bedford-one of the finest declamations of the heart ever made within the walls of the House of Commons. On that memorable occasion, he finished his painful task by introducing the following passage from the Essay of William Lamb, "Sur l'Avancement Progressif de l'Esprit Humain;" recited at the University of Cambridge in December 1798: "Le crime n'est un fléau que pour le temps où le succès le couronne, tandis que la vertu, soit qu'elle triomphe soit qu'on la persécute, est un bienfait du ciel, non seulement pour l'âge ou nous vivons, mais pour la postérité la plus reculée; elle sert au bonheur des hommes, dans le moment présent par ses actions, et dans l'avenir par ses exemples." Lord Melbourne's admiration for this great, though unsuccessful, statesman, is powerfully and simply expressed in the following apostrophe to his bust.

ON THE BUST OF CHARLES JAMES FOX.

"Live, marble, live! for thine's a sacred trust,
The patriot's name that speaks a noble mind;
Live, that our sons may stand before thy bust,
And hail the benefactor of mankind!

This was the man, who, 'midst the tempest's rage,
A mark of safety to the nation stood;
Warn'd with prophetic voice a servile age,

And strove to quench the ruthless thirst for blood.
This was the man, whose ever deathless name
Recalls his generous life's illustrious scenes;
To bless his fellow-creatures was his aim-
And universal liberty his means!"

The three succeeding pieces were also from his lordship's pen.

66

THE DREAM.

Hide, Sun, thy head! delay thy light,
And yield to Love's befriending night
Some portion of thy sway;

I would not change the airy form,
Which seems to meet me kind and warm,
For all the blaze of day.

In vain I sue-stern Fate denies :
My slumbers break, the Vision flies,
I lose my Laura's charms;
That taper waist, that bosom fair,
Dissolving into empty air,

Eludes my eager arms.

No wretch, his day of respite done,

Who sees his last uprising sun

And only wakes to die,