and of immoveable apathy. But Sir Elijah hurried up to town on the moment of receiving my first letter communicating my intentions of attempting to gain an honest livelihood, with such an alacrity of friendship, and so eagerly pressed our acceptance of an immediate apartment under his hospitable roof, that it was only by a most condescending act of grace that he suffered himself to wait for our actual arrival till Christmas-and now Christmas is come: and we must set off on Sunday. Well! if stability had been attainable in this world, I flattered myself with its exemplification in my own personbut even an oyster, I see, may not only be crossed in love, but also become partner in a post-chaise. Mrs. Halhed, who has long been as anxious to move, as I to be stationary, is no less alarmed than myself at the thoughts of submitting to the elegant comforts of an extensive establishment, and the unrestrained enjoyment of a friendly circle. But I hope we are in no imminent danger of life or limb from the experimental apprenticeship we are just undertaking-while we have both long seemed to be out of our time; and above all, we look forward with eagerness to the opportunity of consulting the oracles of friendship at Daylesford, and of personally presenting the offerings of inviolable esteem at the shrines of unwearied bounty and ever fostering benevolence in that quarter. "To-morrow, my dear Sir, as Mrs. H. tells me, is your birthday, "jure solemnis mihi"-for you have done much for the world, and all for me who in fact have never done any thing fit or worthy to be done, for myself. In sheer equity therefore your nativity should be, as it is, of much more importance to me than my own--for which I never concern myself; but the 17th December,-it is one of the very brightest days in the year to me--" namque ex hac Luce Mocænas Meus affluentes!" "This the blest day, from whose auspicious sun "Twixt these extremes extends a wasteful void, His be the prize, whose lengthening days we find Improv'd by use, and mellowed in the heart. On Hastings, then, ripe wisdom's meed we fix, But then, I could Oh! would it were seventy-six ten years hence! hardly live to see what a divine old man you will make at eighty-six ; to which period you certainly will arrive, unless the world, which I will not insure, should tumble about your ears in the mean time. God bless you, my dear Sir, and our ever esteemed Mrs. Hastings and keep you both from all the intermediate calamities-is Mrs. H.'s constant prayer and mine; and most heartily wishing you all the compliments of the approaching season, with a codicil for those of all the rest of the year, I beg you to believe me, Your most sincerely devoted We have marked a line or two in the above in Italics as containing a prophecy, or at any rate a remarkable coincidence. Mr. Hastings died in his eighty-sixth year—and Mr. Halhed's aspiration of seeing the fine old man at eighty-six was gratified. Our readers have already seen how quietly Mr. Halhed could pun without laying that emphasis on it which so often spoils the jest. In the letter that follows, from Mr. Hastings to his friend, they will see a specimen of his humour, in which he easily assumes the newspaper tone of the day. Dylesford House, 20th December, 1808. MY DEAR HALHED,-Accept my most hearty thanks for your two kind letters, for the last especially; and a sentiment of acknowledgment which thanks cannot express for the admirable verses contained in the last. Praise from the heart is always pleasing, and is justifiably pleasing; but when adorned with the brightest graces of poetry and blended with the philosophy (and that of a Reeshee could not be better expressed than yours) it is most delightful. I congratulate you and our dear Mrs Halhed on your emancipation from what you call your apprenticeship, your apprenticeship of twice seven years; the length of a patriarch for his wife; and I verily think that your Rachel deserves that compliment more than Jacob's did, if she had any share in the motive of it. I feel a little something like a grudge that Sir Elijah has the first possession of you; for Mrs. Hastings and I had meditated the same design upon you; but deferred the execution of it till the spring of the approaching year, for two reasons: the first, because we had the promise of a visit from a great personage, whom you would not like to meet on your first return to society, as we were uncertain how he would be accompanied, nor when he would come. He will be with us to-morrow. The other evasion is not one which of itself would have prevented us making the effort to engage you. It is our wish to share with you the blessings-such we estimate them of a Daylesford sun, preferably to the coldest atmosphere that the winter engenders on the southern division of England. This I give under my hand, and fingers too, which scarcely feel the pen that indites it. But I have your promise, and we shall claim the performance of it at as early a period as you please of the next year. I am glad, however, that our friend Sir Elijah will have the benefit of a friend near him, who can administer to him so well as you can, the consolation which he may require, on the privation of his most justly beloved son; and who can inspire him with the fortitude to sustain even the apprehension of it. I suspect however that he will be quit with the apprehension only, as I know of no foreign service to which his son can be called, but Spain; and the chances are many, that Spain will be completely subdued, before another embarcation can be formed, or any which may be now ready put to sea. Mrs Hastings desires me to send her affectionate remembrances to you and Mrs. Halhed; and we both join our fervent wishes,—and our wishes are prayers,—that God may bless you both through the ensuing year and render it more fortunate that any of the past. I must tell you that she made me read your letter to her a second time, and was at least as much pleased with the poetry of it as myself. All is well that ends well. She had before censured you for travelling, and premeditating it, on a Sunday; which you may receive as indirect and unintended praise; for I confess that we ourselves have not unfrequently committed the same trespass on the Sabbath. She requests you will tell Mrs. Halhed that on the receipt of your letter she sent to recal a turkey and a ham, which had been actually despatched to her, intending to reserve both for your return home. Adieu, my very dear friend, and believe me ever, "I have written through the force of habit with a vacancy left for the direction of a single letter, though I expect a frank for it. "Give our affectionate regards to Sir Elijah and Lady Impey, and our dear Marian." "I desire that you will give me your opinion of the following specimen of a political newspaper. "Letter from an Officer at Cadiz, 15th December, 1808. "The advices from the north are of an unpleasant nature. Castanos with the eastern division of the army had established his head quarters at Irun. The consequence was, that on the first appearance of the enemy, his soldiers took fright, and fled. The other division, under Blake, suffered a check at Wrynose, and this was followed by a total defeat at Sorenose. He has been since superseded in his command by an officer of a promising name, and a prominent character;* but it is thought that the army will not be again in a condition to face their opponents. The commander indeed endeavors to countenance a different opinion, and gives out that though the Spaniards * i. e. Romanos, corruptly written Romana. have been beat in two encounters, he is confident of success with one more. "Our little friend, Billy Dulgerid, has been deputed by the acting Governor of Gibraltar to the States of Barbary, to solicit their assistance. He wrote some time ago, that the Moors were ready to transport a formidable army to the coast of Spain, only desiring, as a preliminary condition, to be put in possession of a good provision of hand Grenades. This requisition appeared so extraordinary to the Governor, who knew that the Moorish forces consisted wholly of cavalry, and were unacquainted with these missiles of European warfare, that he suspected some mistake, and the rather, as Billy could not speak a word of Arabic, which is the language of the country, and in the hurry of his departure had left his interpreter behind. Under this persuasion he sent back the messenger with a letter requiring an explanation. By tempestuous, weather in the passage, and other stoppages on shore, many weeks elapsed before Billy's reply was received, which cleared up the mistake, and shewed it to have been committed, not by him, but by the Governor,-the words which he had read for "a good provision of hand Grenades," (not indeed very legibly written) having been intended by the writer to state the condition, that the Moors should be put in possession of "the good province, or land, of Grenada," which is known to have been the object of their continual regrets, ever since their expulsion from it in the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella. The correction of the error came unfortunately too late. The tide of affairs had turned :--the troops which had been assembled for the proposed enterprize had consumed all their provisions, and were disbanded; so that all hopes of aid from that quarter have vanished. Such is the fatality of all our measures, which are ever defeated by indecision and procrastination, arising from the most frivolous causes.' "We stop the press to insert the following extract of a letter just received from our correspondent in Finland : *tic "The king of Sweden has nominated General Duke, an Tartar by birth, to the command of the army in this province. We marched under his orders this morning at day-break. We had not come a mile before we fell in with a strong post of the enemy, defended by eight men and a boy. It was taken by a coup de main without loss on either side. The affair was not great; but it was a feather to our commander, who wanted it: for he had scarcely assumed "This hiatus was caused by the friction of the package containing the letters. We cannot find any word that will make out the name in the geographical dictionary. Baltic and Adriatic, that is, the seas of those names, lie too distant from Tartary; and Emetic belongs, as we believe, exclusively to another science.' "The above written nonsense was finished more than a week ago, and intended to mix with your other and better ingredients for a merry Christmas: but a spark of remaining modesty, suggested by the want of a frank, easily induced me to lay it by till I got one. Bad as the composition is, it is better by What was to have followed is forgotten, a letter from Newick when I had written thus far having discouraged me from proceeding. I could not send a composition of levity to the house of affliction." the command of the army, when he found it in hot water. The soldiers were sick of the war: so were the officers; many of these had thrown up their commissions. This, with other well timed discharges had allayed the bad humors; but symptoms of risings still continued to break out from time to time." Our readers, we presume, will not grudge the space we devoted to a few of Mr. Halhed's poetical compositions. The sonnet was a favorite vehicle with him in his visits to Parnassus. His effusions embrace a great variety of topics,-grave, gay, or mythical. To Lady Mawbey. "Say not, beloved friend, that Heaven at strife But Reason, stern instructess, must supply Whate'er of good or grateful they produce Not from themselves is drawn, but from their temp'rate use." Surely there is exquisite tenderness and beauty embodied in this sonnet. To Mr. Halhed. "O, let me under my Louisa's care Be gather'd to my fathers! Let me feel, For both our souls! while her kind fingers steal Attest not, her dear cheek laid close to mine; So Our next selection relates to an event connected with that tall bully-like pillar stigmatised by Pope, as lying where it stands. Some of us are old enough to remember the circumstance. |