members of the same, and therefore good members of society. Let them see that such is our only design; and though some may sneer at first, all will in the end be grateful, as soon as they have felt, and learned to appreciate, the extent of the benefit that has been conferred upon their order. While this paper is passing through the press, it gives us unspeakable satisfaction to hear that the beginnings of an improved system are made. The order, if we be rightly informed, has gone forth that no new barrack shall be erected without having both a chapel and a school-house attached. The wants of Corfu and Cephalonia are both under consideration; and at home the principal chaplain has entered upon a course of visitations, from which he will never, it is to be hoped, be required to withdraw. Here and there-at Weedon, at Chatham, at Portsmouth, for example-increased spiritual aid is afforded, and a new zeal awakened. May the righteous work proceed; and may honour be to those at the War-Office, at the Board of Ordnance, and not least at the Treasury, who have thus bent themselves to the performance of it. We must not look to reap the benefit of their exertions in a day: such undertakings as these are slow to mature themselves. But if the seed be sown, and carefully nurtured, it must bring forth fruit. ART. IV. Leaves from a Journal, and other Fragments in Verse. By Lord Robertson. 8vo. London, 1845. THIS HIS is a very pleasing as well as a beautiful little volume; pleasing because it is a proof that the successful pursuit of a profession little akin to such relaxations has not hardened the heart or perverted, and, as it were, dried up the taste of the learned author; and beautiful because it really abounds in excellent poetry-more than many of the volumes put forth by professed bards. We must add that there is no small novelty in the event of song being heard from the bench; for we have no recollection of this in any former case, unless it be some happy translations and smaller pieces of Sir William Jones, and some celebrated, and justly celebrated, verses of Mr. Justice Blackstone. Lord Robertson gives in his preface a very simple and modest explanation of the occasion to which we owe the public appearance of these Leaves and Fragments. He had, on his elevation from the Bar, now first an opportunity of gratifying his wish to visit Italy, and he showed some friends the pages of his Journal when he returned. Their commendations rather unexpectedly rewarded rewarded his labours and his confidence; and this led naturally enough to his extending the circle of his readers. We may truly say that having very often heard the subject mentioned, and mentioned with some surprise, both among those who only had known the professional and the social qualities of the excellent author, and among those who only knew of his judicial rank, we have never heard but one opinion expressed, and that all allowed this ci-devant brilliant advocate and humourist to have been successful in his courtship of the Muses, When we proceed to our critical task, let it not betoken any faultfinding spirit, but rather, perhaps, a peculiarity of our own nature, which we share, however, with great critics, our predecessors, that we begin by confessing our dislike of blank verse, and our regret that his Lordship should so cautiously have avoided the charms of rhyme. The very great rarity of success in this rugged line seems to sanction our opinion. Milton, of course, at once presents himself to the mind when the question is raised. But then so is there present the multitude of passages which in even Milton are hardly readable; and so, too, is there present the inimitable beauty of his diction, its wondrous picturesque effect, its mingled learning and sweetness, its music and its force, above all, on grand occasions, its unapproachable sublimity. Assuredly Milton's success is rather fitted to create despair than to induce attempts at imitation. Thomson comes next, and much that has been said of Milton may be repeated here; yet as a landscape painter only, a painter of still life, is Thomson known in blank verse, and beyond all comparison his finest poem is that in which he shows himself a master of rhyme. Of Cowper it is difficult to speak too highly; and after Milton he is the only exception to our rule. Akenside alone remains of all our sons of song, excepting the poets of our own day; and of him it may truly be said that, though successful, he is far behind his predecessor, while of them we may surely be allowed to say that time has not yet been given for ascertaining how the decrees of the great judge the public-will ultimately and permanently be pronounced. That Mr. Wordsworth himself has shown great powers of versification in rhyme, as did Milton in his sonnets, is a circumstance to be flung into our scale-admitting, as we at once do, that many high authorities are against us, and citing, as we are ready to do, in Lord Robertson's behalf the dictum of his celebrated yoke-fellow of the bench,' so long a brother magistrate in our own literary commonwealth, that he could read any number of lines in blank verse, how easily soever he might be tired with middling rhymes.' However, we have said thus much in fairness towards the subject, and also towards the author; for for if we have found ourselves pleased and never wearied with his blank verse, it has been because of various merits therein displayed, and in spite of the natural inclination of our taste. We cannot say as much of his rhythm. Here Lord Robertson And pomp, what are ye, to this scene compar'd? To point the way unto that God who rides Amidst the storm-nor slumbers in the calm.'-pp. 56-7. There are not many descriptions to our mind more pleasing than those of Pompeii and Pozzuoli. The former has been more cited and commended, but the latter abounds in merit. The opening description is full of spirit, and some of the lines are admirably picturesque, as those that paint The lonely pillars of Serapian Jove, Glassed in the wave which laves their oozy feet.'-p. 30. Then Then follow those beautiful verses, in which we have no objection to urge against what has been a matter of exception, the comparison of Vesuvius to jealousy; for the idea is quite correct and natural, though not obvious, the lava being the very cause of the vegetation which it is afterwards to destroy by new eruptions: flames, 'What scenes, O Nature, hast thou spread around! And finds in western climes a fitter home.'-pp. 30-2. Rome is, of course, the great object in all descriptions of Italy; and Lord Robertson has done well here, though we much prefer his lesser pieces. The following passage is excellent-he follows Byron and yet maintains his dignity well: the closing picture being both true and touching-and his own 'Nor suits the scene the pensive heart alone. Or if he pant to realize the past, Let him contemplate that majestic mound VOL. LXXVI. NO. CLII. 2 G And And drunk with blood, sat consuls, emperors, kings;- Seem dim amidst the stern arena's waste.'-pp. 40-1. One other quotation we give, because its truth is correct and the numbers are pleasing, and the idea is ingenious. It is in France:' 'He who loves Thy rule, O Nature! knows, where'er Thou art, -- Where is the stony place-if not within ?'-pp. 58-9. When we stated our preference of the smaller fragments on Italy to the larger description of Rome, we might have extended our remarks to the largest and the most ambitious piece of the whole Milton and Galileo'-which is very far from being the most successful of our author's efforts, and is also remarkable for containing more sins against the rules of correct versification than all the rest of the book besides. Not that the lesser pieces are free from such lines, neither to be scanned nor forgiven, as Inwrought mosaic-from walls and ceilings.'-Pompeii, p. 35. But |