Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

mouth, where he displayed the same activity and ability which constantly marked his character, while the unim paired state of his body permitted him to engage in a more interesting department of the service. Sir Thomas married Mary, daughter of Thomas Heywood, Esq. Chief Justice of the Isle of Man, who died in 1788, and was buried at Avignon, in France; by whom he had two daughters, Maria, married to Captain Sabine, of the Guards, and Magdalen. He died at his seat, near Alton, Hampshire, aged 74.

the slightest previous intimation, been turned adrift, with my helpless family, to all the horrors of want. Had I had any other resource, probably I might have saved them the trouble of a dismission; but the little money I gained by my publication, is almost every guinea embarked, to save from ruin an only brother, who, though one of the worthiest, is by no means one of the most fortunate of men.

In my defence to their accusations, I said, that whatever might be my sentiments of republics, ancient or modern, as to Britain, I abjured the idea: That a CONSTITUTION, which, in its original principles, experience had proved to be every way fitted for our

BURNS's Letter to MR ERSKINE of happiness in society, it would be insa

MAR.

From "Reliques of Robert Burns."

SIR,

DE

Dumfries, 13th April, 1793.

EGENERATE as human nature is said to be; and in many instances, worthless and unprincipled it is; still there are bright examples to the contrary examples that even in the eyes of superior beings, must shed a lustre on the name of Man.

Such an example have I now before me, when you, Sir, came forward to patronise and befriend a distant obscure stranger, merely because poverty had made him helpless, and his British hardihood of mind had provoked the arbitrary wantonness of power.My much esteemed friend, Mr Riddel of Glenriddel, has just read me a paragraph of a letter he had from you.Accept, Sir, of the silent throb of gratitude; for words would but mock the emotions of my soul.

You have been misinformed as to my final dismission from the Excise; I am still in the service. Indeed, but for the exertions of a gentleman who must be known to you, Mr Graham of Fintray, a gentleman who has ever been my warm and generous friend, I had, without so much as a hearing, or

nity to sacrifice to an untried visionary theory:-That, in consideration of my being situated in a department, however humble, immediately in the hands of people in power, I had forborne taking any active part, either personally, or as an author, in the present business of REFORM. But that, where I must declare my sentiments, I would say there existed a system of corruption between the executive power and the representative part of the legislature, which boded no good to our glorious CONSTITUTION; and which every patriotic Briton must wish to see amended. Some such sentiments as these, I stated in a letter to my generous patron Mr Graham, which he laid before the Board at large: where, it seems, my last remark gave great offence; and one of our supervisors general, a Mr Corbet, was instructed to enquire on the spot, and to document me-" that my business was to act, not to think; and that whatever might be men or measures, it was for me to be silent and obedient."

Mr Corbet was likewise my steady friend; so between Mr Graham and him, I have been partly forgiven; only I understand that all hopes of my getting officially forward, are blasted.

Now, Sir, to the business in which

I would more immediately interest you. The partiality of my countrymen, has brought me forward as a man of genius, and has given me a character to support. In the poet I have avowed manly and independent sentiments, which I trust will be found in the man. Reasons of no less weight than the support of a wife and family, have pointed out as the eligible, and situated as I was, the only eligible line of life for me, my present occupation. Still my honest fame is my dearest concern; and a thousand times have I trembled at the idea of those degrading epithets that malice or misrepresentation may affix to my name. I have often, in blasting anticipation, listened to some future hackney scribbler, with the heavy malice of savage stupidity, exulting in his hireling paragraphs" Burns, notwithstanding the fanfaronade of independence to be found in his works, and after having been held forth to public view, and to public estimation as a man of some genius, yet, quite destitute of resources within himself to support his borrowed dignity, he dwindled into a paltry exciseman, and slunk out the rest of his insignificant existence in the meanest of pursuits, and among the vilest of mankind."

In your illustrious hands, Sir, permit me to lodge my disavowal and defiance of these slanderous falsehoods.Burns was a poor man from birth, and an exciseman by necessity: but I will say it! the sterling of his honest worth, no poverty could debase, and his independent British mind, oppression might bend, but could not subdue. Have not I, to me, a more precious stake in my country's welfare, than the richest dukedom in it?

I have a large family of children, and the prospect of many more. I have three sons, who, I see already, have brought into the world souls ill qualified to inhabit the bodies of slaves.

- Can I look tamely on, and see any machination to wrest from them the

birthright of my boys,-the little independent Britons in whose veins runs my own blood?-No! I will not! should my heart's blood stream around my attempt to defend it!

Does any man tell me, that my full efforts can be of no service; and that it does not belong to my humble statien to meddle with the concern of a nation?

I can tell him, that it is on such individuals as I, that a nation has to rest, both for the hand of support, and the eye of intelligence. The uninform'd mob, may swell a nation's bulk; and the titled, tinsel, courtly throng, may be its feathered ornament; but the number of those who are elevated enough in life to reason and to reflect; yet low enough to keep clear of the venal contagion of a court;-these are a nation's strength.

I know not how to apologize for the impertinent length of this epistle; but one small request I must ask of you farther When you have honoured this letter with a perusal, please to commit it to the flames. Burns, in whose behalf you have so generously interested yourself, I have here, in his native colours drawn as he is; but should any of the people in whose hands is the very bread he eats, get the least knowledge of the picture, it would ruin the poor Bard for ever!

My poems having just come out in another edition, I beg leave to present you with a copy, as a small mark of that high esteem and ardent gratitude with which I have the honour to be, SIR,

Your deeply indebted,
And ever devoted humble servant.

General Observations on SCOTTISH Songs, by BURNS,

(From the Same.)

HOWEVER I am pleased with the works of our Scotch poets, parti

cularly

cularly the excellent Ramsay, and the still more excellent Fergusson, yet I am hurt to see other places of Scotland, their towns, rivers, woods, haughs, &c. immortalized in such celebrated performances, while my dear native country, the ancient bailieries of Carrick, Kyle, and Cunningham, famous both in ancient and modern times for a gallant and warlike race of inhabitants; a country where civil, and particularly religious liberty have ever found their first support, and their last asylum; a country, the birth-place of many fainous philosophers, soldiers, and statesmen, and the scene of many important events recorded in Scottish history, particularly a great many of the actions of the glorious Wallace, the saviour of his country; yet, we have never had one Scotch poet of any eminence, to make the fertile banks of Irvine, the romantic woodlands and sequestered scenes on Aire, and the healthy mountainous source, and winding sweep of Doon, emulate Tay, Forth, Ettrick, Tweed, &c. This is a complaint I would gladly remedy, but alas! I am far unequal to the task, both in native genius and education. Obscure I am, and obscure I must be, though no young poet, nor young soldier's heart, ever beat more fondly for fame than mine

And if there is no other scene of being Where my insatiate wish may have its fill;

This something at my heart that heaves

for room, My best, my dearest part was made in vain.-

There is a great irregularity in the old Scottish songs, a redundancy of syllables, with respect to that exactness of accent and measure that the English poetry requires, but which glides in, most melodiously, with the respective tunes to which they are set. For instance, the fine old song of The Mill, Mill, O, to give it a plain prosaic reading it halts prodigiously out of measure; on the other hand, the

song set to the same tune in Bremner's collection of Scotch songs, which begins, "To Fanny fair could I impart, &c." it is most exact measure, and yet, let them both be sung before a real critic, one above the biasses of prejudice, but a thorough judge of nature,--how flat and spiritless will the last appear, how trite, and lamely methodical, compared with the wildwarbling cadence, the heart-moving melody of the first. This is particularly the case with all those airs which end with a hypermetrical syllable.There is a degree of wild irregularity in many of the compositions and fragments which are daily sung to them by my compeers, the common people,

a certain happy arrangement of old Scottish syllables, and yet, very frequently, nothing, not even like rhyme, or sameness of jingle, at the ends of the lines. This has made me sometimes imagine that, perhaps it might be possible for a Scotch poet, with a nice judicious ear, to set compositions to many of our most favourite airs, particularly that class of them mentioned above, independent of rhyme altogether.

There is a noble sublimity, a heartmelting tenderness, in some of our ancient ballads, which shew them to be the work of a masterly hand and it has often given me many a heart-ache to reflect that such glorious old bards,

bards who very probably owed all their talents to native genius, yet have described the exploits of heroes, the pangs of disappointment, and the meltings of love, with such fine strokes of nature--that their very names (O how mortifying to a bard's vanity!) are now "buried among the wreck of things which were."

O ye illustrious names unknown! who could feel so strongly and describe so well; the last, the meanest of the muses train--one who, though far inferior to your flights, yet eyes your path, and with trembling wing would sometimes soar after you-a poor rus

[ocr errors]

fic bard unknown, pays this sympathetis pang to your memory! Some of you tell us, with all the charms of verse, that you have been unfortunate in the world-unfortunate in love: he too has felt the loss of his little fortune, the loss of friends, and, worse than all, the loss of the woman he adored. Like you, all his consolation was his muse: she taught him in rustic measures to complain. Happy could he have done it with your strength of imagination and flow of verse! May the turf lie lightly on your bones! and may you now enjoy that solace and rest which this world rarely gives to the heart tuned to all the feelings of poesy and love.

[blocks in formation]

BAGDAD is seated on both banks of the river Tigris, in latitude 33° 20′ N. and latitude 43° 51' E.

The communication is by a bridge of boats from the one side, which is in Mesopotamia, to the other, situate in Persia; or, as geographical books call it, in Irak Arabi.

The Persian side is more than twice as large as the other, both in breadth and length; on the banks of the river they are nearly equal, an extent of upwards of three miles. The breadth of each side is very irregular. I shall first attempt to describe the Mesopotamian side. It has neither wall, gate, nor castle; and the breadth is so irregular as to defy description, Beginning at one end, on the banks of the river, and walking round (as nearly as possible) until I came to the other extremity on the same banks, I found the distance to be four thousand two hundred and twenty-five of my paces, exclusive of that side next the banks of the river. Jan. 1809.

This division of the city is governed by an aga, called the great aga, with other inferior agas, whose houses are situated at such a convenient distance from each other as to enable them easily to assemble, to quell any riot or disturbance. An officer, and a certain number of janisaries, mount guard at or near the houses of each of the agas; this is the military government. The civil magistrates are, the cadi or judge, and a mufti, who is chief of the law and of religion; both these are dependant on, and appointed by, the great cadi and mufti of Bagdad, properly so called; the agas are appointed by the pasha of Bagdad.

As the other side is the residence of all the chief men, (the court or the pasha's seraglio being there) as well as all the public offices, there are not to be found in the bazars any thing, except provisions, worth noticing, the opposite side being the great mart for merchandise from all parts of Persia and India, by the way of the Per

sian gulph, through Bussora and Arabia. No khans, or caravanseras of any note, for the reception of mer-. chant strangers and their goods, are built in this district; yet the inhabitants have advantages which those of the other side do not possess; first, in. the articles of provisions, which they have cheaper and in greater variety; as the many hords of Arabs, who supply the city with all kinds of diet, are in the neighbourhood. Besides, houserent is cheaper; as they have in the suburbs many handsome broad streets, with large houses and pleasant gar-dens, for the most part inhabited by eminent merchants, who find it more convenient to reside here, though they transact their business in their magazines (warehouses) in the khans on the other side, to which they repair every morning, and return in the evening, on horseback. Here are also the houses of many eminent men in public stations, who go daily to the other side, to the duty of their respective

offices,

offices, and return in the evening to their houses, which are so open and airy, with large gardens, as to supply the place of country houses. For several miles in the environs the country is much more pleasant and convenient for the inhabitants, with their families, to make the little excursions, which they frequently do, by way of giving their wives and children little airings and exercise on horseback, previously sending their servants with a tent and provisions, as there is not any town, village, or caravansera, nearer than three hours ride fit for people of condition to resort to. The greatest part of the public gardens and meadows are likewise on this side, which occasions cheese, butter, milk, fruit, and garden-stuff, to be cheaper than on the other; all which advantages make it a much more desirable situation than the great city, (which the other is called,) especially to those who have leisure to pass frequently from each.

From the banks of the river, on each side, and directly opposite to each other, are built two immense walls, which project from the banks into the river, which are sixty-six feet in length, by twenty-eight in breadth.These walls serve as jetty heads, and are built of excellent and well-burnt brick, so high as not to be overflowed when the water is highest.

The bridge consists of thirty-five boats, all of the same construction and dimension, the bows being sharp like the London wherries, the stern like wise bearing a near resemblance; their length is thirty-tour feet six inches, and their breadth fourteen feet eight inches. The distance from the jetty heads to the first boat on each side is eight feet six inches, the space between each boat six feet four inches, which makes the river Tigris, at Bagdad, to be, from bank to bank, eight hundred and seventy-one feet and four inches broad. From one side of the river to the other, wo massy iron chain. are

extended; the iron bars with which the links are made are as large as a man's wrist; the ends of those chains are fastened to the rings of two extremely large anchors, which are buried in the earth, two within the wall of the great mosque on the Persian side, the other two within the wall of a great warehouse on the opposite side. Each of those chains pass over the bows of twenty-nine of the boats, and are kept in their proper places by one of the links being placed over an iron bolt, which stands erect on the bow of each boat. Over these twenty-nine boats a stage is laid, made of strong planks, gravelled over, with railing on each side, nearly four feet high; the space between each railing is nearly twenty four feet, which gives the breadth of the bridge. The other six boats, of which the bridge is formed, are contrived so as to be moved when rafts or vessels pass down the river from Mosul (the antient Nineveh,) or up the river from Bussorah, or any other place, which is performed in this manner: from the jetty heads a stage is laid to the first boat, which reaches across that boat; from this boat another is laid over the second and third boats, which reaches and is fastened to the stage on the fourth, as the stage over the first boat is fastened to that over the second on each side. When boats or large vessels want to pass, it is sufficient to loosen the first boat on that side where the boat or vessel chuses to pass; the boat with the stage on it immediately swings off itself with the current, and is soon replaced; but when large rafts pass, the next two boats with the stages on them must likewise be let loose, which causes an impediment to the passage over the bridge for at least half an hour.

People who walk over the bridge ought to be very careful, as a great concourse of people on foot, as well as on horses, mules, and asses, are continually passing and repassing; particularly early every morning, when ma

ny

« ZurückWeiter »