Of lucky slaves, in his misgiving heart,
I would have begged thy leave to give it to,)
Yet not without some claims, though far apart."

Comment would but injure the effect of this delightfully anticlimactic effusion, which proves the author to be most blissfully ignorant of the laws which govern the true sonnet. The chief sentiment that it excites in us is that of wonder how the author's spirit could leap and look through his changed color, and how Southey could manage to survive the vital thrust aimed at him in that long parenthesis, even if he escaped the deleterious effects of having "a crew of lucky slaves in his misgiving heart."

and Southey, each after his own fashion. It therefore naturally occurred to him that, in order to rival these successfully, it was necessary for him to form a separate track of his own, and having no very decided genius to show him the way, he chose that which he deemed would best suit the spirit of criticism which was then arising. In this manner he formed his "system," and instead of modestly confining his genius to what it was suited for, he has been ever since pushing it into ambitious attempts, and aspiring to sit in the chair of the Like the frog in the fable, he has been master. aping the ox, and though his overstrained skin may never have burst, still it has been in such a ludiIn one of the early numbers of the "Noctes crous state of distention, that its own small but not Ambrosianæ," Wilson has a most savage review of inelegant proportions have been completely disa poem which he states to be by Hunt, in imitation guised. It is only when he is least ambitious that of Pomfret's "Choice." As we have never been he is pleasing. able to meet with this in any of the collective editions of his poems, we presume that it must have appeared in some magazine or newspaper, and that the author felt afterwards very properly ashamed of it. If we recollect aright, it commenced somewhat after this fashion

"I have been reading Pomfret's 'Choice' this spring,
A pretty kind of sort of kind of thing,
And yet, I know not; there is skill in pies,
In raising crusts, as well as galleries," &c.

His talent lies principally in the delineation of common characters, such as he could see around him any day in London or in his dearly beloved Hampstead, but of any thing beyond the most every day walk of life he has not the most distant idea. If, however, he were satisfied with this, he might have acquired some real and lasting reputation by confining himself in poetry to subjects such as Miss Austin has treated in prose, or by descriptions of natural feeling, such as the lines to a Sick Son, quoted above; but this is too low a pursuit It may, however, very likely, be but an outrageous for his ambition. He is continually attempting hoax of Wilson's, who had talent and impudence higher themes, but the cloven foot shows itself sufficient for any thing of that nature. Had it been through all, and he can never divest himself of his attributed to any one else, we should reject it with-cockney accent. Thus, in Rimini, a poem which out hesitation, but there is really no knowing of gives opportunity for the highest and most exquiwhat absurdity such a man as Hunt may not be guilty.

Since the date of the "Foliage" Hunt has published very little in verse. Some eight or ten years since he brought forth "The Legend of Florence," a drama, which was favorably reviewed at the time. It contains fewer faults of language and expression than his former pieces, but the characters are unnatural, and the plot devoid of interest. A year or two ago, he published some little metrical tales. These we have been unable to procure, but as far as we could judge from copious extracts given in a favorable critique of the time, he had retained his former style, and his "system" was still an incubus which weighed him down, and like Sinbad's old man of the sea, could not be shaken off.

In taking a general view of Leigh Hunt and his poems, we would say that he was a man with the materials for a moderately good poet, destroyed by attempting too much. He looked around and saw that all the chief poets of the age were forming schools for themselves, and writing each after his own genius, no longer recognizing any one as a model or as a master. There was Byron on one path, Shelley on another, Wordsworth on a third, Scott on a fourth, with Moore, Coleridge, Campbell

site delineation of character, there is not a personage who might not be found in nine houses out of ten throughout London. Were this intentional, it might be excused, though it would plead sadly against his taste, but he is evidently striving to render them more exalted, and, with such a mind as his,

"ceratis, ope Dodaleâ, Nititur pennis."

The mixture of finery and vulgarity produced by this is continually annoying.

In the Legend of Florence he takes a still bolder flight, and, resolved to shake off the trammels of the common-place, he soars into the impossible. The heroine is all goodness, self-devotion and meekness; the hero, one of those fiery, self-denying lovers, such as one meets with in sixth-rate novels and no where else; while the jealous husband, the necessary villain of the piece, is character such as the world ne'er saw; without loving his wife, he is ferociously and unaccountably jealous of her, ready to slaughter her, or to scold her on the slightest provocation, and yet mild and amiable to every one else. Altogether it is a tissue of absurdities.

With respect to his versification, nothing can be

said that will be too harsh, nor any thing that can lies in a nut shell. Byron's vanity, and Hunt's be harsher than it is itself. He is continually cen- intense self-esteem and egotism could not, of course, suring all the poets of the eighteenth century for coalesce, and Byron's powerful mind naturally bore their smoothness and harmony, and giving us to down the weak one of his companion. To such a understand that he alone understands the true man as Hunt, this would take the form of a posilaws of rhythm and melody, while, in the numerous tive injury, aggravated by his brooding over it, and and copious passages that we have quoted, the by the sense of real benefits received from the inreader can scarcely find half a dozen really melo- jurer. This feeling long rankled in his mind, dious lines; his ear, indeed, seems to have been growing stronger and stronger each day, until it singularly defective, and what he wanted in know- finally burst forth in mingled froth and venom in ledge he made up in assumption. He even seems the volume mentioned, after the removal by the ignorant of the fundamental law, that the further death of Byron of the barrier which kept it in. in the line that we place a misaccentuation the The chief curiosity in the book, however, is the more glaring it becomes, for, when he wishes to" Notices of the Author's Life," appended to it. relieve us from the pains of regular versification, Hunt seems to have felt the same reverence towards he usually substitutes a trochee for the iambus of himself that Boswell did for Johnson, and accordthe fourth foot, in the heroic line. In one place, he compares Pope and the subsequent poets to a church-bell, where the Elizabethan men represent the organ. If this be the case, he may truly be likened to a set of pan-pipes, emulating the latter, but without the regular fulness and power of the one, or the varying and spirit-moving harmony of the other.

Another thing which militates strongly against Hunt's taking a high rank as a poet, is his want of imagination. He seems to be aware of this himself, and to have generally endeavored to get on without it. The only pieces of any length in which he has endeavored to exercise any play of imagination are the "Descent of Liberty," "Feast of the Poets," and "The Nymphs," and these, at least in our humble opinion, are utter failures. To this constitutional coldness we may also attribute his inability to project himself into the characters of his story, a power so necessary to the success of a great poet. When we take up one of Byron's poems, we see that he identified himself, for the time being, with the character which he was describing, and that he felt the same passions, griefs and triumphs which he was depicting. This is the true secret of success, and without it, it is impossible to awaken the interest and sympathies of the reader. Shelley's Revolt of Islam, though beautiful as a poem, and full of the most exquisite passages, never thoroughly arrests the attention, while his unpretending Rosalina and Helen, or magnificent "Cenci" moves the deepest recesses of the spirit. The poet must feel, or seem to feel what he is writing, and he will then write in earnest. This is the art beyond all art of which Hunt was totally ignorant.

We began with the intention of only considering Hunt's poetical works, or we should certainly venture some remarks upon that miserable book, triply born of monstrous egotism, sickly vanity and envious hatred the "Notices of Lord Byron and some of his Contemporaries." The true secret of Hunt's course in respect to this book, we think,

ingly he, "Boswells" himself most completely, relating every little anecdote of his infancy, his boyhood and his maturer years, and giving copious portraits and anecdotes of his ancestors, relations, friends and schoolmates, with their acquaintances, servants and tutors. The English language may challenge the world to produce such another biography-the only one that has a chance of rivalling it is Goethe's, with its tiresome portrait galleries. That of Hunt is interesting in one point of view, at least, as it enables the observer to trace out all the small passions and motives of his little soul; indeed, he frequently does this himself, and anatomizes and lays bare his petty feelings with a candor quite remarkable. Rather than have nothing to say of himself, he would say ill.

We suspect that, notwithstanding his unpleasant literary course, Leigh Hunt has always been a happy man. He is a good husband and father, (if we take his own word for it,) and a pleasant friend where his vanity is not concerned. His views of life are singularly just and cheerful, much more so than we should expect in one with the bitter experience he has had. We can not resist quoting a few lines from the preface to "Foliage" as a good instance of his way of thinking, and of the execrable style of his prose. "For my part, though the world as I found it, and the circumstances which connected me with its habits have formerly given me no small portion of sorrow, some of it of no ordinary kind, my creed, I confess, is not only hopeful, but cheerful; and I would pick the best parts out of other creeds too, sure that I was right in what I believed, or chose to fancy, in proportion as I did honor to the beauty of nature and spread cheerfulness and a sense of justice among my fellow creatures."

How few are there who, after the continual attacks which Leigh Hunt had borne, could have given utterance to such a sentiment!

Philadelphia, July, 1844.

HENRY C. LEA.

That sorrow's "long still work" hath drawn me to thy quarters in "a few weeks," the company of Artil

and with a moity of it proceed to a distant post in North Carolina, which can scarcely furnish comfortable accommodation for one company, much less for one and a half, its present garrison.

wards the south-east, and about three quarters of a mile off, was stationed the Assistant Surgeon; and to the north, and about half a mile off, were stationed the subalterns and the body of the company, there not being sufficient quarters in its im- But let me return to the instructions of the mediate vicinity for the Captain and Surgeon. All President given on the 21st of December, 1843; these separately hired buildings. Instead of the and ask "Fair Play" if unofficial intelligence of troops returning to their proper public quarters in a these instructions did not reach Augusta Arsenal, "few weeks," as was ordered, this state of things Georgia, on or about the 26th of December, 1843, continued all summer, and in the fall, the Captain and if it were not after this time, and about a had to give up his quarters and crowd himself, month or six weeks from the time of their having subalterns, men, and all, into the same building, signed this petition, that some fifteen of the four which had formerly been used to accommodate, as hundred who had signed said petition, "withdrew a summer residence, one family; and some cor- their signatures by letter;" and who it was? that rect idea can be formed of its value, when I inform thus, and about this time, "made known and exyou, that the rent paid for it was only one hun-plained to them the operation" of said petition; dred dollars a year, and such was its shattered and finally, if it were not upon the reception of condition, that this rent had, according to agree these asked for, counter letters, that the Honorament, to be expended in repairing the house before ble Secretary of War, J. M. Porter, changed the it could be made habitable at all; whilst the public President's instructions of the 21st December. building occupied by the subaltern of Ordnance, A "hired guard" of fifteen men was established cost the Government eleven thousand dollars, the at Augusta Arsenal, in the spring of 1841, to prolegal interest on which, in Georgia, would be eight tect the public property therein deposited, because hundred and eighty dollars. Thus we have a sub- a company of Artillery could not then, as formeraltern of Ordnance, luxuriating in quarters at ly, be spared from the field for this purpose, (see nearly nine hundred dollars a year, whilst a senior letter of the chief, I mean senior officer, of the Captain of Artillery, three subalterns, and whole Ordnance Department, dated Washington, March company, are furnished at the rate of one hundred; 24th, 1841); and although this was a species of yet "Fair Play" can not see the odious distinc-soldiery not known to the laws of our country, yet tion referred to by "a Subaltern."

the exigencies of the service at that time required In August or September, 1843, the Mayor and its employment. But did not this necessity cease City Council of Augusta petitioned the Secretary to exist after the arrival of the company at the of War to have the company restored to their pro- post? and if so, as was most undoubtedly the case, per quarters in the Arsenal, but finding that this why were not these men at that time discharged, had no effect, they sent on a petition to the Presi- as we have seen above was directed by the Honodent of the United States, signed by themselves rable Secretary of War? But so far from this and about four hundred respectable citizens of Au- having been done, we find by the following extract, gusta and its vicinity, praying the President to re- taken from the letter of remonstrance of the Acmove the company from its uncomfortable quarters ting Chief of the Ordnance Corps, that these hired and to put them in the Arsenal. This petition was men had increased to twenty-five-viz: "The sent to Washington early in December, 1843, and force now at the post consists of one officer and on the 21st of the same month the President grant- seven ordnance men, and twenty-five hired persons, ed their prayer by giving directions for the whole making in all thirty-three; a night guard or watch company of Artillery in question, to be ordered is maintained, and it is believed that the safety of back into Augusta Arsenal. These instructions of the stores is assured by the means adopted and purthe President lay dormant somewhere in the War Department, not having reached the proper pro- For the nine months, commencing with April 1st, mulgating authority until the 5th of January, 1844, 1843, the day on which the company of Artillery at which time an order came out from the Hono- first took up its quarters within the walls of the rable Secretary of War, J. M. Porter, a mutilation Arsenal, to the 31st of December of the same year, of the one above referred to, by which the company the amount, for wages alone, paid to these hired of Artillery was divided, one half of it sent into the men, was six thousand one hundred and sixty-three Arsenal under a Subaltern, who was junior to the dollars, and forty-one cents, of public money: "generous, courteous, magnanimous above all praise, which for the year, at this rate, would make eight and gallant" subaltern of Ordnance; thereby secu- thousand two hundred and four dollars and fiftyring to this gallant young soldier the command of four cents; to say nothing of all the incidental exthis military post, with the additional benefit of its penses connected with the purchase of timber, being made a double ration one, by this very ac-metals, paints, tools, &c., &c., necessary to keep cession of troops; whilst the senior Captain of up this show of the mechanic operations which are Artillery was forced to dismember his company,' nominally expected to be going on at this post-I

sued for some time past."

say nominally, for in reality, there is little or no-to petitions signed by large numbers of the most thing done here of a public constructive nature, respectable and enlightened inhabitants of the and indeed I think it would puzzle "Fair Play," place; to the repeated efforts of distinguished senaand even the " 'gallant, generous and magnani- tors and other members of Congress from Georgia, mous" Lieutenant himself, to point out half a dozen for the last six years, to have a company of troops gun carriages or other implements of war, that stationed at this military post. I appeal to the have been constructed at this Arsenal since his opinion of a late distinguished Secretary of War, stay there. It is true, that in 1842, some ten thou- the Honorable J. R. Poinsett, who, seeing the imsand dollars were appropriated by Congress for portance of having a company at this post, prothe repair of the public quarters, and the erection mised the civil authorities of Augusta, that as soon of a “ timber-shed" and "gun-house" at this Arse- as the exigencies of the service in Florida would nal, but so utterly unnecessary as a store-house, permit, he would withdraw a company from that for guns, was this latter building, that it was, soon quarter for this station; to the gallant Commanderafter its erection, converted into a stable and car-in-Chief of the Army; to the two Lieutenant Coriage-house, and used for these purposes by the lonels of Artillery, under whose immediate ausLieutenant of Ordnance, though borne on the official returns of the post as a “timber-shed" and "gun-house." Report says too, that of these ten thousand dollars, thus appropriated, six thousand were expended on the individual quarters of the Commanding Lieutenant, and the other four on this "timber-shed” and “gun-house," leaving the men's Barracks very much in want of repairs. Should we be misinformed on this head, perhaps "Fair Play" can set us right.

pices and care this military post was established; and indeed to every enlightened officer of the Army do I appeal for the propriety and expediency of the measure; and I would appeal to the clear and discriminating mind of a certain "Acting Chief," one "whose standing, during thirty years service, has been above reproach," were it not that the similarity of names has led me to suspect a relationship between this officer and the Lieutenant of Ordnance, whom "Fair Play" represents as the

"Fair Play" makes quite a to-do about the un-personification of a “courtesy and magnanimity, important error of "a Subaltern," in stating that above all praise." But I must carry my appeal a the company was quartered three miles, instead of little further, from older and enlightened heads, to half a mile off; but it would naturally strike one older and enlightened nations, and endeavor to as an additional argument against his cause, for light our path by the lamp of experience. Does had the company of soldiers been three miles off, England trust large collections of arms and munithere might have been some shadow of excuses for tions of war to the safe keeping of a handful of keeping this "hired guard" still in service at the mechanics? Does France? or in fact, do we find Arsenal. The company, however, being "scarce any of the old and experienced governments thus half a mile off," how can "Fair Play" justify the lax in their duty to the peaceful communities, enormous abuse of keeping in the employment of amongst whom they have established their depots Government, at an expense of nearly ten thousand of Arms? It may be said that the cases are not dollars a year, this heterogeneous soldiery, unau- analogous; that we are a peaceful people. Tis thorised by the laws of the country; against the true we are a peaceful people, and peace should be, instructions of the President; against the orders as it always is, the polar star of our policy; but we of the Honorable J. C. Spencer, who was well are nevertheless human nature, and subject to its acquainted with the duties of the Department of outbreaks, as the recent unfortunate circumstances War; against the first and unbiased orders of the in a neighboring city, but too clearly show. Near Honorable J. M. Porter, Secretary of War; and to this city is an United States Arsenal, and like against the reiterated orders of the Commander-in-that of Augusta, is made the repository of miliChief, on the authority of these two Honorable tary stores; and previous to these riots was not Secretaries of War?

66

“Fair Play," says, speaking of the Head of the Ordnance Bureau, 'He earnestly urged upon the Secretary of War the impropriety and inexpediency of the occupation of the Arsenal by the company intended as its garrison;" and "he stated the utter insufficiency of quarters to accommodate, both those employed in the public service for Ordnance purposes, then at the Arsenal, and the additional force not yet arrived."

supplied with a garrison of soldiers, but it was found necessary to send near a hundred miles for a company of Artillery to guard these stores herein deposited.

To show the utter fallacy of the objection on the score of insufficiency of quarters, it is but neces sary to state the fact, that from the time the post was established up to the time the troops were withdrawn for service in Florida, its regular garri son was never less than one company, and, that for Now, as to the propriety and inexpediency of nearly a year, it accommodated from two to five the measure, I must beg leave to appeal from the companies. During this time too, there was much opinion of "Fair Play" to the repeated applica- more duty of an Ordnance nature to be performed tions of the Mayor and City Council of Augusta; than at present, but instead of hiring men at au