Nor less thy shade, oh! Addison, rejoice,
To find thy Cato made a Cato's choice.

Roused with the thought, and impotently vain,
I now would launch into a nobler strain;
But see! the captive Muse forbids the lays,
Unfit to sketch the merit I would praise;
Such, at whose heels no galling shackles ring,
May raise the voice, and boldly touch the string;
Cramped hand and foot, while I in a gaol must stay,
Dreading each hour the execution day;

Pent up in den, opprobrious alms to crave,
No Delphic cell, ye gods! nor sybil's cave;
Nor will my Pegasus obey the rod,
With massy iron barbarously shod;
Thrice I essayed to force him up the height,
And thrice the painful gyves restrain'd his flight.
So, when a sickly snake attempts to creep,
Or climb some slippery rock, or ditches steep,
Scarce half her length advanc'd, she backward falls,
And in slow volumes languishingly crawls."

Mr. Terence Connor was, equally with his friend, an unfortunate son of the Muses. He also, in the same situation and at the same time, composed a poem, dedicating it thus, "To Her Grace the Duchess of Queensbury; a poetical address, by Terence Conner, in the cells of Newgate." It was as follows::

"Laturam misero te mihi rebar opem."—OVID.

"Thou great Protectress of th' Aonian train, Support in each cotemporary reign;

Brightest devotress at the Delian shrine,

Oft

sung and courted by the sacred nine;

If e'er thy kindred, of immortal fame,

The muses lov'd, nor scorned the poet's name ;
If e'er thyself vouchsafe to touch the lyre,
And joined with open voice the tuneful quire;
If on the canvass, to describe the face
With animated bloom, and living grace,
To draw the vernal flower, and tinging shape
The peach, the melon, and the ripen'd grape,
To make each story, holy or profane,
Move in the landscape, and to vision plain;
If these, with courtly wit and eloquence,
Be gifts Apollo did to thee dispense,
Which sure they are; in Charity regard
The meanest of his sons, a captive Bard;
Far, far, alas! from home and native clime,
The first, perhaps, that wrote in Newgate rhyme.
The first, perhaps, beneath his dreadful doom,
That ever mounted the poetic loom.

O! born thyself of high Pierian blood,

Boast of the times, nor yet more learn'd than good;
Display thy bounty, where a life's at stake,
And save the wretched for the Poet's sake;
The Poet, pent in narrow darkling cell,
With vagrants and bandittis forc'd to dwell;
In pondrous gyves of iron rudely bound,
A stone his pillow, and his bed the ground;
One penny-loaf, the banquet of a day,
And chilling water, to dilute his clay;
Broke ev'ry morning of his painful rest,
The scorn of turnkeys, and the keeper's jest;
Sternly rebuk'd if he the least complains,
And menac'd with double load of chains.
Thus, day and night, disconsolate I spend,
Unpitied, and debarr'd of ev'ry friend;
Deserted by the muses, as by men,

Save Elegeia's visits now and then;

Daughter of Grief! and ever plaintive Muse,
Taught only songs of sorrow to infuse.
Dire comfort! thankful yet am I that she
Inspires these lines, O Queensbury ! to thee.
Thou, then, from infant years brought up at Courts,
Directress of their household and their sports;
The brilliant Grace of both the Georges' age,
In wit facetious, and in Council sage,
Allow'd as heretofore, the same access,
Pity this bard, and banish his distress;
Maintain the glory of thy former days,
And intercede to save a son of Gay's;
Nor be it ever said, in British land,

That a poor Bard was mercilessly hanged."

It does not appear that these effusions proved of the slightest weight in favour of the poor wretches, either with the youthful tragedian— the future George III., or with the duchess: the bards were hanged.

REMARKABLE CASE OF LORD AND LADY
KINNAIRD.

IN the above recorded Douglas trial, the Duke of Hamilton, the pursuer, brought forward several cases of pretended childbirth, which he alleged to be parallel with that of the defendant, Mr. Douglas. One of the most remarkable of these is that of Kinnaird, which possesses the additional interest that it belongs to a well-known and distinguished Scottish family. The case is among the decrees of the Commissaries of Edinburgh, of 1747. It was an action brought upon the 3rd of November, 1747, by Charles Kinnaird, Esq., against Charles Lord Kinnaird and his wife, for having introduced two supposititious children, with a view to deprive him of his succession to the title and family estates,

The family of Kinnaird is very ancient, and is descended from Radulphus, who had a charter of the barony of Kinnaird from king William the

was

Lion. The seventeenth in descent from Radulphus, first Baron of Kinnaird, was Sir George Kinnaird of Inchture, who was a faithful subject of King Charles during the usurpation of Cromwell, and on his Majesty's restoration knighted; and on the 28th of December, 1682, was raised to the dignity of a Peer of Parliament, with the title of Lord Kinnaird of Inchture. This nobleman left several sons, of whom it is only needful to mention the oldest, Patrick, who succeeded him, and the youngest, George. The latter was father of George Kinnaird, who married the Lady Helen Gordon, eldest daughter of Charles second Earl of Aboyne, by his wife the Lady Elizabeth Lyon, daughter of Patrick third Earl of Strathmore. This Lady Helen Gordon was sister, by the mother, to Charles fourth Lord Kinnaird; the Countess of Aboyne having for her second husband wedded Patrick third Lord Kinnaird. George Kinnaird and the Lady Helen Gordon were father and mother of Charles Kinnaird, who brought the action which is the subject of this case.

The first lord Kinnaird was succeeded by his eldest son Patrick, the second lord, who married the Hon. Anne Frazer, eldest daughter of Hugh ninth Lord Lovat, by whom he had Patrick third, and Charles fifth, Lords Kinnaird. Patrick third