good reason for not admitting him into a club which consisted chiefly of Tories. His earnest attention, however, to literature and art, had for some years very much turned his thoughts away from politics. Nine years before this he had voted for his friend Horne Tooke, at the Westminster hustings; and then for twenty-two years together, he never took the trouble to vote on a contested election till another friend, Sir Samuel Romilly, was proposed as member for Westminster in 1818.

In 1806, his sister Maria Sharpe died; and in his 'Human Life,' he describes what all feel on such a loss in the following beautiful lines :—

'Such grief was ours-it seems but yesterday-
'When in thy prime, wishing so much to stay,
''Twas thine, Maria, thine without a sigh,
'At midnight in a sister's arms to die!
'Oh thou wert lovely-lovely was thy frame,
'And pure thy spirit as from Heaven it came !
'And when recalled to join the blest above,
"Thou diedst a victim to exceeding love,
'Nursing the young to health.'

The child here spoken of was my youngest brother Daniel, the Geologist, whom we lost in 1856, a few months after he had been chosen President of the Geological Society.

In 1806 also, after the funeral of his friend Charles James Fox, he wrote the 'Lines in Westminster Abbey,' in full admiration of Fox as a Whig statesman, and as a man of letters. He admired his speeches in favour of peace when we were at war with France, and he admired his love of Homer and Virgil. Nor

did he less like his taste in English poetry, and his love for Dryden's versification. The Statesman had also valued the friendship of the Poet; and when Mr. Rogers finished his house in St. James's Place, Mr. Fox begged to be invited to the first dinner party.

In 1809, when the Quarterly Review was set on foot, Hopner the painter, who had been engaged to write a Review of Shee's Elements of Art, applied to Mr. Rogers to join him in the task, saying that he had the authority of the editor to ask him. But he declined doing so. He did not like the promoters of the Quarterly Review, and he did not like anonymous writing. He never wrote more than part of one Review, which was that of Cary's Dante, in the Edinburgh. He used to say that nobody could write a severe article against another, under the shelter of a mask, without becoming the worse man for it.

In 1812, Mr. Rogers published his Columbus,' not separately, but in the volume with his other poems. He had printed it two years before, in order to circulate it privately among his friends, and perhaps to invite criticism. Hence, unlike his former poems which came out unlooked for and without a name, this had been much talked about, even by those who had not seen it. When published it did not fulfil the expectations raised; and he always spoke of it as the least valued among his poems. It was the poem least valued by himself. It aimed at a style very different from his earlier works, which with correctness and delicacy of expression, were marked with accuracy almost minute, and with most careful versification.

The 'Pleasures of Memory,' and the

Epistle to a

Friend,' are pictures of the Poet's mind, polished and refined in all its parts. 'Columbus,' on the other hand, with versification less regular, and with pauses which do not fall on the rhymes, aims at greater boldness and at loftier thoughts of creative fancy. To these heights of grandeur it often successfully reaches; but not always. It is an unfinished fragment, and does not please us equally throughout. It sometimes disappoints us, which is never the case with the earlier poems. The Edinburgh Review praised it cordially; but the Quarterly Review praised it rather faintly, and saw much to blame in it, as an attempt to enter upon a style new to the author, and one in which he was not likely to succeed.

When the poem of 'Columbus' was being written, America was still the land of hope with the friends of civilisation, while England had been frightened away from the very name of reform by the violence of the French Revolution. The English had not then given freedom to the Negro slave, nor had the Americans rivetted his chains tighter. Mr. Rogers had seen Dr. Priestley and other friends set sail for America, to escape from the oppression of the ruling class at home; and he speaks of it as a place of refuge for all who were oppressed in Europe:

'Assembling here all nations shall be blest;
'The sad be comforted; the weary rest;
'Untouched shall drop the fetters from the slave.'

This last prophecy has not yet been fulfilled; but

f

among the visitors to his house none received a more cordial welcome than the Americans.

In Europe, nothing was then heard of but the glories and miseries of war. Napoleon had defeated the Austrians and Prussians, and had conquered Holland, Italy, and Spain. In Portugal our army under Wellington, was struggling with masterly skill and courage, though with yet doubtful success against the French. At home we had been increasing our militia, illuminating our windows for supposed victories on the Continent, and filling St. Paul's cathedral with statues in honour of those who had been slain in battle, whether on the ocean or in Spain and Portugal. Such was the state of the nation's mind, when Mr. Rogers, true to his principles, wrote that fine opening to Canto VI. :

'War and the great in war let others sing,
'Havoc and spoil, and tears and triumphing ;
"The morning-march that flashes to the sun,
'The feast of vultures when the day is done,
'And the strange tale of many slain for one!

'I sing a man, amidst his sufferings here,

'Who watched and served in humbleness and fear,
'Gentle to others, to himself severe.'

It was only many years later, after peace was established, after, I believe, that he had become acquainted with the Duke of Wellington, that he added the Note to these lines beginning with the words, Not but that in the profession of arms there 'are, at all times, many noble natures.'

The poem of Columbus' begins with an introduction and ends with a postscript, both written in short lines, with rhymes returning irregularly; and this year on a third visit to the Highlands of Scotland, he wrote a short poem, which we have before quoted, which is also in lines of eight syllables, and with the same irregularity in the rhymes. He had lost his fondness for the regular couplet of the 'Pleasures of Memory,' and 'Epistle to a Friend,' in which the only irregularity allowed is an occasional triplet.

In 1814, he published 'Jacqueline,' in the same volume with Lord Byron's Lara. To these poems neither author added his name, though no secret was made of the authorship. Jacqueline is a playful little piece with exquisite versification. Like the Introduction to Columbus,' it is in lines of eight syllables with irregular rhymes, but with all the careful accuracy of the earlier poems. Mr. Murray the publisher paid to the authors the large sum of half-a-guinea a line for leave to print the first edition of Lara and Jacqueline, and instead of complaining of the bargain, had the generosity to own afterwards, that it had been very profitable to him. This was the only occasion on which Mr. Rogers did not take upon himself the charge of his own publications.

In the spring of this year, peace was made with France, on the retirement of the Emperor Napoleon to the island of Elba and the return of the Bourbons. Upon this the Continent was again open to English travellers; and Mr. Rogers, in the course of the autumn, set out for Italy with his sister Sarah. He