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Poetry.

Te neque vis Borex, nec terreat auster

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TUNE, Mary's Dream. WHEN war's dread trumpet sounds aloud,

And calls the soldier to depart,
When many a mother throbs with grief,
And sorrow rends the lover's heart;
That night before the fleet set sail,
A soldier sought the wave-worn shore,
And poured his sorrows to the gale,
And listened to the billow's roar.

He turned his eyes, bedimmed with tears,
Where Scotia's lofty hills arise,
While soft emotions thrilled his heart,
This strain he uttered 'mid his sighs-
"Farewell, loved Scotia's pleasant land,
Thy heathy moors and vallies dear,
Thy bow'rs of bliss, scenes of my youth,
Thy tow'ring hills and streams so clear.
Farewell, my parents, loving, kind,
My friends dear to the feeling heart;
Farewell, sweet Nancy, lovely maid,
Dearer than life,-Oh, we must part;
And part perhaps to meet no more,
My country calls and I must go,
To Egypt's hot and distant land,
To meet in battle our dread foe.

When tossing on the stormy wave,
I'll often raise my wistful eyes,
To where my native realms extend,
And hail from far my native skies.
I'll think on Nancy's lovely charms,
And pray kind heaven her to keep,
From danger and from terror free,
When distant far for her I weep.

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Oh could I hope e'er to return,
To see my moss-clad cot again,
To hail my native hills and woods,
And, raptured, hear the shepherd's strain;
To cheer my friends and dry their tears,
Safe from the battle's fierce alarms,
To hear the song of former years,
And rush to Nancy's longing arms.
But some good spirit in my breast,
Loud tells me I'll return no more,
But far from friends and sacred home,
My bones shall lie on Egypt's shore;
Where many heroes rushing on,
In front of battles dread array,
Shall bravely find a glorious bed,
And bid adieu to cheerful day.
When prostrate on the sand I lie,
May I be numbered with the brave,
And may my languid closing eye
See vict'ry's banners round me wave.
When this last strain my breast shall heave,
My country, for thy sake I die,
And, Nancy, to thy distant form,
I breathe my last, my fainting sigh."

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HOOT, awa, ye

havrel queen,

BURNS

Lassie, ha'e na ye a saul? Lassie, ha'e na ye twa een, Hauds our loupin' hearts in thrall ? Ken na ye that life's a feast, Spread before an unco crew? Sensual man a mensless beast, Kens na whan his kytes are fou? Whan he on the haggis fa's,

Tooth and nail-his wame he'll rive, Whan the barmie cap he blaws, Whack-he'll whaumle oure belyve. But the caunie, decent chiel,

Sib to nae sic shameless guttie, Keeps his maut aneath his meal, Mensfoulie thraws down his cuttie. Some wi' puddin' lade their muns, Some to parritch ask a blessin'

Ithers,

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Ithers chow their baps an' buns,
ithers on the lang kail fasten.
And whan one glaiket wish
Stechs an' connachs till it's staut ;
Out o' goud or timmer dish,

Dool an' wae thraws in the saut.
Now the weary warlish mess

Worried up by saunt an' sinner, Soon wad clag an' cloy the hause, Mak' us a' at sunket scunner. Didna' pleasure's gladd'nin' bow! Keep our senses a' frae reistin', Vivify the drousy soul,

Wonderfully help degeistin'?
Rowth o' whingin' torpid cuifs,

Throu' the kintra sichen rin,
Wearin' baith their tongues an' hoofs,
Kirsnen glee" ungodly sin."
Drauntin' gomrals—in a swarm,
Oure the hip o' Whigray's hill,
Bum awa, an' spew your barm
Whare ye drank your drumlie yill.

It isna biggin' haly wa's,

It isna sack-claith on the skin,
It isna inward sabbin thraws
The stark rigwoodie neck o' sin.
Lettin' a' our sheep an' gaits
Loup the wa's o' Reason's bught,
Lur'd by Folly's sensual baits,

In her briars an' brambles caught.
Vitiates the springs o' bliss,
Rusts the feelings, dims the sight,
Steeks the door o' happiness,

Sinks our sauls in mirkest night.
Tendin' weel our yows an' crocks,
Steekin' ilka hole an' gap,
Lest the sly an' wylie fox

Slip at eenin' through the slap.
Keeps our cotter souls prepar'd,
Nature's awfu' debt to pay,
Fits us a to face the Laird

On the siller clinkin' day.

Mackin' ilka passion tame,
Muzzlin' sic as growl an' grin,
Is the corner stane o' fame,
Is the nack o' libbin' sin.

Now my bonnie wunsom hen,
Tak' a skair o'gude advice,

Whan a wooster lad comes ben,

Pries your mou', an' spiers your price.

Gin his heart is leal an' warm,
Gin his gait, his leuk, an' person,
Savours o' that nameless charm

Whilk nae poet e'er cou'd kirsen.
Makin' Andrew Martin's Nell
Daily threip an' nightly dream,
That her grousom joe himsel'
Is a comely cherubim.

Dinna fauld your han's and pray

For strength the tempter to withstan'; Tak' up your-parable an' say.

Here's my heart, an' there's my han'.
Syne like maukins spang away,,
Sowder hearts an' kipple han's,
Like gude bairns wha ay obey

Mither nature's strict comman's.
But gin lads are skeigh an' scaur,
For the pickle siller priggin',
Here's a heart that spurns like glaur,
Mailen, tocher, gear an' biggin'.
Speel wi' me life's craigy brae,

Blythe as onie mavis liltin',
Trouth my dow ye'll ablins hae

Some ill-faurder bodes ere beltin'. Glourin' doun the scroggie glen, Garnish'd roun' wi' birken spray, Stans a hauddin' o' my ain', Theiket weel wi' turs an' strae. Gaits and gimmers I ha'e gat; Stools and stoups and corket bottles; Twa gude pingles and a pat,

Whare the sonsie haggis tottles.
As for bags an' bings an' hoords,
Maister Girnal's riften fou',
And at parritch-time affords

Ay wherewith to lyth my broo.
Neist, my happiness to crown,
I ha'e tragi-comic Willie;
Mauchlin Rab, that unco loco,
And his bonnie Enbrough billie.
Sleekit Allan's rural glee,

Jamie Tamson's deathless page;
And twa bunkers heapit wi'
Monie a douce auld farrant sage,
Gae wi' me an' tend the yows
Whare the birks wi' fragrance drap,
Whare the limpid burnie rowes,
Meandring nature's velvet lap.
Like twa linties we'll enjoy
Simmer's bonnie gowden hour;
Rich wi' bless whilk ne'er can cloy
Pleasures rational an' pure.
Whan the blythe gudeman o' day

I' the dawn slips on his shoon,
Yokes his yauds an' skelps away,
Gladd'nin' a' the kintra roun'.

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The TRIAL of LORD VISCOUNT

MELVILLE.

(Concluded from p. 625.)

Thirteenth Day-May 15. THE business of this day opened with the evidence on the part of the Noble Defendant

An order of Council was produced, and read by Mr Barlow, dated the 27th of February 1795, by which it appeared, that the salaries of the Principal Secretaries of State, of which Lord Melville was one, were augmented to 6oool. a-year, and of the Under Secretary to isool.

Wm. Pollock, Esq. was called, and underwent a long examination, with respect to the salaries which had been received by the Noble Defendant, for various posts he held in the Executive Government; the result of which Mr Plomer stated to be, that, for the Home Department, Lord Melville had relinquished 86481. 135. d. in the War Department, 26,0311. 78 5d making a total of 34,68cl. os. 7d. which, in the magnanimity of his disposition, he had surrendered to his country.

Mr Adam now rose to conclude the case on the part of the noble defendant, which he did to the following effect:

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My Lords, I am now to discharge an awful duty, rendered in one respect still more arduous by the emphatical and powerful reasoning submitted to your Lordships by my learned colleague. I hope I shall have resolution to perform what I have undertaken, to collect, arrange, and deliver my thoughts in a way to make myself intelligible; and my best apology for intrud ing myself upon your Lordships notice is this, that I shall endeavour to say nothing that is not completely to the purpose.

"It is my intention to discuss the law in the first instance, unembarrassed by the facts in evidence, that the legal part of the enquiry may not be so blended with the narrative as to render them both obscure.

"Before I staté the construction I apply to the 25th Geo. III. let me entreat your Lordships to recollect one fact, and to retain it in your minds through all the ramifications of this important case, and it is this: That the noble and eminent person who is under your adjudication, is, at the, moment that I am speaking to you, and has been ever since he left the office of Treasurer of the Navy, in this situation; he owes not a shilling to the public; he had paid up every farthing due from him, and not only this, but the navy has suffered no impediment, and the country has sustained no loss; no payment was ever procrastinated during the whole time his LordSept. 1806.

ship was engaged in this public duty. This is a very conspicuous feature in this case, and it is fit that it should not escape the attention of your Lordships, or of the public

"The noble defendant is accused of having been the breaker of that law which he himself framed. Before such a charge is considered just, it is right that the law should be narrowly examined, and correctly understood.

“The object of the legislature manifestly was, to prevent the extraction of the public money, until it was actually wanted for the service, and by this expedient, to prevent, as much as possible, any outstanding balances in the hands of the officers of the establishment. The Treasurer was to require the money to be paid from the Exchequer to the Bank, but à preliminary circumstance was, that the Exchequer was to be called upon by the Board, and to pay the sums of money wanted to the Treasurer.

"I speak from high authority, when I quote from Lord Cowper, who tells us, that the wisdom and goodness of our laws appears in nothing more than in the humanity with which they are administered; of those laws, (says he) which are the glory of the country, and the envy of its neighbours. I hope, my Lords, that this sentiment will be treasured up in your minds, and that you will not admit the eloquence and dexterity of the honourable and learned manager to break in upon the clear meaning and boundaries of the evidence. Another subject I have likewise to implore your Lordships to remember, as a most important consideration in this case, that the noble defendant has not a shilling of the public money in his possession; that he paid over the whole, and that the public have not suffered a sixpence, either by pecuniary loss, or by any interruption for a moment to the progress of the official business.

The object of these charges is to shew, that Lord Melville had availed himself of money in his own hands, or of those of his deputy, for the purposes of private emolu. ment. The noble defendant is not here to be tried for petty delinquency, for an accidental occasional mistake, which industry and ingenuity may discover; but he is here upon his trial, under a prosecution by the Commons of Great Britain, in the situation of a state criminal, for having sys tematically and corruptly used the pub lic money for private lucre. Whether it was to gratify avarice, for satiating the demands of extravagance, for maintaining the state and dignity of his high office, is not

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now a matter for your consideration. The question is, the fact of the use, and of the motive for that use; for nothing is criminal but what proceeds from the heart.

Actio non est reus, nisi mens sit rea. "If I shew that the noble Lord has rejected at a stroke L. 34,000, which has gone to the coffers of the state; if I shew, that from an early period of life, when toiling in a laborious profession, he rose to the higher political dignity to which he ascended; if I shew, and my memory will enable me to do so, that the habits of his life were open, liberal, and generous; if all this be true, it will require a great deal of proof to convince your Lordships that he has searched in holes and corners, that he ransacked the dead bank note office; that he dealt in small purchases of stock; and that having overdrawn his banking account a trifling sum, he took up the public money to turn the balance, where no interest was charged. It would be a stretch indeed to arrive at the conclusions they draw; it would be a stretch indeed to find his exalted mind guilty of corruption; to detect Lord Melville filching a miserable pittance from the public monies.

"With regard to the first I..10,000, the charge is, that being a public accountant, he would not disclose how he had disposed of this money; the next is, (the implication) that he made use of it for his own emolument. With regard to this sum, he did not withhold the return of it to the public. At the time he made the declaration, which is alledged as a distinct crime, he had long before, returned the money to the coffers of the state. This seems to me to be very material. How the money was employed in the intermediate time, it does not appear to me to be incumbent on the counsel of Lord Melville to explain, and I confess, feeling convinced of this, I am not able to understand this part of the charge; he has returned the money, and where is the criminality of not disclosing the chest, or the individual with whom it might be deposited.

believed that I have administered the affairs of the country with integrity; money for secret service has been confided to me to an immense amount; and this very sum which I have taken, which has done to the coun try an extraordinary benefit, has been returned to its coffers. The fulness of time may come when I may reveal its application; until that period does arrive, I ought to be above suspicion' Thus, my Lords, I have placed Mr Pitt in the precise situation of the noble defendant, and I ask if that eminent person would, on such an explanation, have been put upon his trial on a charge of corruption?

"In the year 1796, the explanation of the truth would have not only involved the destruction of individuals, but might have been the ruin of the country, exposed as it was to a destructive war, and when the jaws of bankruptcy were opening upon us. My Lords, the time arrived when circumstances were altered, and Mr Pitt thought it right to reveal the fact. It was disclosed, and its application has been admitted; but the case might have been extremely different; and then enquiries might have been pre-sed with the same activity as on the present occasion, and yet the safety of the country would have required, that the silence of death ought to be preserved.→→ The grave itself would not have been more rigid in this observance than the late Chancellor of the Exchequer; and who would not have presumed his innocence? De te fabula narratur. Who was Mr Pitt? The intimate friend of Lord Melville, adop-. ting the same political maxims; a friend in public, and in private pursuing the same object; possessing the same confidence; sitting together in the assembly of the representatives of the people; and participating together in the esteem, respect, and support of that assembly. What is the difference you are required to make with respect to these two characters so long united in the same cause? You are not only to withhold the same confidence from Lord Melville, but you are expected to infer guilt. Lord Melville, then, with Mr Pitt, had obtained this money for secret services, and having so obtained it, restored it; the account was within the assigned balances; no injury whatever was suffered by the public; and when the fulness of time ar rived, the whole was explained. Their individual acts were the same; and whatever opinion your Lordships, or I, may entertain on the wisdom of these acts, the po

"The channel thro' which the 40,000l. passed, is now known. Supposing the disclosure of this had been called for before the death of that illustrious statesman whom we all revere, what would have been the answer of that great man? Would he have sacrificed the public interests to his own character? and would all this conjecture, which the learned Manager has applied, have been directed to impeach the integrity of the late minister? Ilicy forms no part of the consideration. can easily suppose the sort of reply this ardent friend of Lord Melville would have made to such an enquiry. You have trusted in me for twenty long years; you have

These two friends enjoyed the public confidence for a term of eighteen years, and the inference of corruption, from this secrecy of Lord Melville, is most unnatural,

when

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when the whole conduct of his life, when his character so long established is directly opposed to it. It is, in short, against nature, and supported by nothing in the history of the individual.

"I have to return to your Lordships my sincere thanks for the indulgence you have given me. When you come, my Lords, to examine more at leisure this evidence-when you contemplate the liberality of the noble Defendant-when you recollect that his heart was never debased by avaricewhen you consider the whole tenor of his life, and compare every part of his history with the allegations contained in these charges-I am fully persuaded that his innocence will be completely established in your minds, and your Lordships will pronounce the verdict of Not guilty. I admit that the warrant signed by his Lordship might expose him to civil obligations, but whatever may be the extent of this contract, it is of no importance to the noble Lord on a criminal charge. I say, he has not been proved corruptly, intentionally, or at all to have taken a sixpence of the public money, and hence it is unnecessary to reason on the operation of the warrant. I contend also, that the argument from the statute is as clear as the reasoning from the facts and that both in law and fact he is clear of all guilt. The mens rea is what alone can establish hisconviction in this country, renowned for the humane policy of its penal code. I have endeavoured to shew, my Lords, the honourable silence of the noble Defendant, from his sense of public duty, personal honour, refinement, and delicacy; and I have contrasted these sentiments with the silence of Mr Trotter, from the motives by which it was dictated. The character of Lord Melville is now to be restored to him by your decision; he has borse his calamities with fortitude; and conscious of his own integrity, he will await that decision with a tranquil mind."

Fourteenth Day- May 16.

The Attorney General replied to the legal doctrines advanced by Mr Plomer, and remarked, that they were as erroneous as they were novel and dangerous. He then entered at great length into the meaning and import of the several statutes regulating the office of Treasurer; and in sisted that it was impossible for the most subtile reasoner, or expert casuist, to convince their Lordships that Lord Melville had not violated the act of 1786.

Mr Whitbread coincided perfectly in the law as stated by his learned Colleague, and thought it sufficiently answered the learned Gentlemen on the other side.

Mr Whitbread proceeded to comment on

the conduct of the Noble Defendant, as to his alleged inaccuracy in accounts-He was accurate enough to make up his own salary to 4000l. a-year; and, in his statement of the India Budgets, he was always sufficiently lucid and unembarrassed to repel the idea that he was not capable of accuracy in accounts. It was argued, that it was impossible to disprove all the objections to the conduct of a man who had been 24 years in office. Mr Douglas was dead; he could have explained all during his time, it was said; they then came to a later period; then all the papers were burnt which could throw a light on the transaction. Could Douglas have been called? Could the destroyed papers have been produced? How much might they not suspect they would have been able to have proved, judging from what they had been able to prove. The Learned Counsel had attempted to ridicule the fact of tracing the bank notes, but if the history of all the bank notes could have been unravelled, what a history might it not have disclosed!

They all heard of the book called Chrysal, or the Adventures of a Guinea. Suppose some such communicative guinea could now be found. It might tell them it found its way from the Exchequer into Mr Swaffield's iron chest at the Navy Office; from thence, it might say, "I expected to be transported to the pocket of some brave seaman, or seaman's widow; but judge of my surprise, when I was taken out to pay a bill of the Treasurer of the Navy. Soon afterwards I found myself in the House of Commons, and, to my astonishment, heard Lord Melville say he had applied me and ro,coo others to public purposes, but which he would never name. Subsequent to that, when I had made a few more transitions, I found myself in Westminster-hall, in the pocket of a Counsellor, who was pleading the cause of Lord Melville, who was most strictly endeavouring to controvert both the law and the fact; but what surprised me most was, to hear another Counsellor, professed to be on the same side, contradict his colleague point blank." Here the guinea tale must end. The books about which the Learned Gentleman differed it was impossible to open; no more than the spirit Giblyn could open the book of the Abbot of Melrose. The Hon. Manager contended, as he went along, that the evidence was conclusive of the guilt of the Noble Defendant, and concluded his speech of this day with declaring he had no feelings of personal animosity. His duty done, he should retire, and he trusted his name, in going down to posterity along with the cause, would not be dishonoured; but that which was honourable in itself would de

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