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LITTELL'S LIVING AGE.-No. 470.-21 MAY, 1853.

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POETRY: Love, 449; How to Write a Sweet Poem, 501; Jane Markland, a Tale, 509; I Wait for Thee, 512.

SHORT ARTICLES: James Thomson, 449; Sir Robert Peel's Speeches, 481; German Commerce - Principles and Effects not Patentable, 484; M. De Buch, 488; A Second Solomon -Spring is Coming, 492.

NEW BOOKS: 488.

LOVE.

FOND mother, who dost gaze with joy upon
That darling little baby, all thine own;
Thinking how much of loveliness and grace
Are centred in its little form and face;
Loving, with all thy heart and soul and mind,
The child whose helplessness thy soul doth bind;
Oh! let not all thy love be chained to one,
A mortal like thyself to God alone
Thy soul with highest, strongest love should soar,
Loving him first, him last, him best, forevermore.
For know, the human heart, e'en on this earth,
Is capable of greater love and higher,
Than any being of mere mortal birth,

However sweet or lovely, can inspire.
Young maiden, hearing first those mystic words,
Which thrill thy heart to its most secret chords,
And bind thy soul, by the sweet chain of love,
To one whose truth thy future life must prove;
Thou thinkest that he, 'mid all of mortal race,
Has the most noble heart, the most of manly

grace;

And thou may'st trust him, for he loves thee well,
With a deep devotion words would fail to tell ;
Yet first, would'st thou be blest, love Him above,
Whose love surpasses far all human love;
He whom thou canst love, e'en on this earth,
With a devotion deeper, purer, higher,
Than any being of mere mortal birth,

However great or noble, can inspire.

Thou aged traveller, who art passing now
Through the late evening of thy life on earth;
I see thee turn with calm and loving brow,
To the dear partner of thy home and hearth;

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now?

Faded her face! and wrapped in clouds her brow!
No more th' ungrateful verdure of the plain;
No more the wealth-crowned labors of the swain ;
These scenes of bliss, no more upbraid my fate,
Torture my pining thought and rouse my hate.
The leaf-clad forest, and the tufted grove,
Erewhile the safe retreats of happy love,
Stript of their honors, naked now appear;
This is, my soul! the Winter of their year!
The little noisy songsters of the wing,
All shiv'ring on the bough, forget to sing.
Hail, rev'rend silence, with thy awful brow!
Be music's voice forever mute.
e-as now;
Let no intrusive voice my dead repose
Disturb- no pleasure disconcert my woes.
In this moss-covered cavern, hopeless laid,
On the cold cliff I'll lean my aching head,
And, pleased with winter's waste, unpitying, see
All nature in an agony with me!
Rough rugged rocks, wet marshes, ruined towers,
Bare trees, brown brakes, bleak heaths, and

rushy moors,

Dread floods, huge cataracts, to my pleased eyes
(Now, I can smile!) in wild disorder rise.
And now, the various dreadfulness combined,
Black melancholy comes to doze my mind.
See! night's wished shades, spreading through
the air,

And the lone, hollow gloom, for me prepare!
Hail solitary ruler of the grave!
Parent of terrors! from thy dreary cave!
Let thy dumb silence midnight all the ground,
And spread a welcome horror all around.

But hark! a sudden howl invades my ear!
The phantoms of the dreadful hour are near.
Shadows, from each dark cavern, now combine
And stalk around, and mix their yells with mine.
Stop, flying Time! repose thy restless wing;
Fix here nor hasten to restore the Spring.
Fixed my ill fate, so fixed let Winter be,
Let never wanton season laugh at me!

Now, beyond its undoubted merit and its many fine strokes of careful observation, this Winter's Day possesses an interest of an unusual kind. It was the original, I conceive, of Thomson's" Winter;" though actually printed in Savage's Miscellany, 1726, as the production of the author of "William and Margaret," meaning David Mallet. The Scotch

clergyman was the Rev. Robert Riccaltoun, assistant to the minister of Bowden, near Melrose, and afterwards (1728) minister of Hobkirk, near Edman, where the author of "The Seasons" was born, and the Eminent Hand was, as I suspect, not Mallet, but no less a person than Thomson himself.

In a letter from Thomson, written from Barnet about September, 1725, is the following passage: Nature delights me in every form; I am just now painting her in her most lugubrious dress for my own amusement, describing Winter as it presents itself. . . . Mr. Riccalton's poem on Winter, which I still have, first put the design into my head. In it are some masterly strokes that awakened me. Thomson was a friend of Cave's, and from the author of The Seasons" Cave most likely received this poem. I place little reliance on the testimony of Savage's Miscellany when it appears against the evidence of the Gentleman's Magazine, which, in 1740, might in some respects be called a Second Savage's Miscellany.

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Of Riccaltoun, who assisted the studies of Thomson, too little is known. "The Rev. Mr. Riccarton," says Murdock, the bosom friend and biographer of Thomson, "a man of uncommon penetration and good taste, had very early discovered through the rudeness of young Thomson's puerile essays a fund of genius well deserving culture and encouragefather's approbation, the chief direction of his ment. He undertook therefore, with the studies, furnished him with the proper books, corrected his performances, and was daily rewarded with the pleasure of seeing his labor so happily employed." Nor was Thomson unmindful of his kindness. "It will be a great pleasure to me," he writes from London, "to hear of Mr. Riccalton's welfare, who deserves encouragement as much as any preacher in Scotland."

In the year 1836-for so long ago I commenced my collections for a life of Thomson minister of Southdean (the manse of the poet's -I wrote to the Rev. John Richmond, the father), for some particulars about Riccaltoun. All I could learn from him in reply was this that he was "said to have composed" a poem on "Ruberslaw," a high hill near Southdean: that it was descriptive of a storm gathering round the hill, and that he had heard of fifty copies" being printed off, "none of which are now to be found." By another memorandum I find that Riccaltoun was buried in Rule church-yard; his works (his poetry excepted) were edited by the Rev. Robert Walker, in 3 vols. 8vo. 1771. berslaw," I may add, is commemorated in "The Lay of the Last Minstrel"

66

Already on dark Ruberslaw,
The Douglas holds his weapon-schaw.

46 Ru

From the Quarterly Review.

1. Narrative of an Expedition to the Shores of the Arctic Sea, in 1846 and 1847. By JOHN RAE. 1850.

2. Arctic Searching Expedition: Journal of a Boat Voyage. By Sir JOHN RICHARDSON. 2 vols. 1851.

3. Stray Leaves from an Arctic Journal. By

Lieut. S. OSBORN. 1852.

4. Journal of a Voyage in 1850-1, performed
by the Lady Franklin and Sophia, under
the command of Mr. Wm. Penny. By P.
C. SUTHERLAND, M. D. 2 vols. 1852.
5. Papers and Despatches relating to the Arc-
tic Searching Expeditions of 1850-1-2.
Collected by JAMES MANGLES, R. N. 1852.
6. Second Voyage of the Prince Albert, in
Search of Sir John Franklin. By WM.
KENNEDY. 1853.

who have explored the North American coast, all that we yet know of him is, that he passed his first winter in a secure harbor at the entrance of Wellington Channel. Whether, when released from the ice in 1846, he advanced or receded, is not certainly known. In the absence of decisive evidence, the best

"all

authorities are at fault. One witness stated
before the last Arctic committee, it was
guess-work." The travelling parties, who
from Beechey Island surveyed every coast for
hundreds of miles, found not a cairn or post
Since
erected by the missing expedition.
Franklin entered Lancaster Sound, not one of
the cylinders which he was directed to throw
overboard has been recovered, nor has a frag-
ment of his equipment been found on any
shore. It has hence been inferred that he

7. Parliamentary Papers. 1848-53. 8. Chart of Discoveries in the Arctic Sea. must have left the harbor with the full intenBy JOHN ARROWSMITH. tion of proceeding homewards. Captain THESE books and papers comprise most of Austin believes that the ships did not go bethe discoveries made in Arctic regions since yond Beechey Island, but were lost in the we noticed Sir John Barrow's volume of Voy-ice, either by being beset when leaving winages in 1846. -Franklin had sailed in the ter quarters, or when attempting their return previous year, and in saying that we should to England. Commander Phillips is of the wait his reappearance with the anxiety of same opinion. the princess for the diver, we much rather But if Franklin did resolve to return thus anticipated that we should soon have to wel- early, what could have become of the ships come him with the goblet of gold, than that and men? That both vessels should be a seventh year should find us deploring his totally lost is contrary to all experience and continued absence, with no better clue to his probability, and that not a man should arrive fate than dismal conjecture could supply. is more unlikely still. One of the most expeThere was nothing in the nature of his enter-rienced Arctic seamen living, who went six prise to excite much fear for its results. The voyages in whalers before he sailed with Parseveral Arctic expeditions sent out since 1818 ry, and has since been in the expeditions of had returned in safety. Their records are the two Rosses, states that though it is posfull of peril, but full also of the resources of sible and he admits the supposition as but skill and courage by which peril may be over- a possibility-the ships may have been come. When this voyage was proposed by "walked over by the ice in Baffin's Bay," Barrow to the Royal Society, he urged that yet that "the men on such occasions are "there could be no objection with regard to always saved," by jumping on the ice and any apprehension of the loss of ships or making their way to the land or to the next men," as it was "remarkable that neither ship. The harborage chosen for the ships sickness nor death had occurred in most of the was so secure, that it is unlikely they could voyages made into the Arctic regions, north have been carried out from the Straits at the or south." Franklin was well experienced mercy of the ice, as were the ships of Sir in the navigation of frozen seas; his officers James Ross in 1849, and of the American and crews were picked men; and the strength expedition in 1850. Franklin did not take of his ships the Erebus and Terror - had up his winter quarters in haste, or from nebeen thoroughly tested—the first in the Ex-cessity. He must have dropped anchor while pedition of Sir James Ross to the South Pole the sea was comparatively open, and why - the second in the voyage of Back to Repulse Bay. He sailed, full of confidence in the success of his mission, on the 19th of May, 1845, and though nearly thirty vessels have since been despatched in search of him, besides parties

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*In a recent Dundee newspaper we observe an account of a whale-ship, employed in the Greenland fishery for the last sixty-nine years. lost at last, not by the ice of the northern seas, but by being stranded on a reef near her porty. when returning with a full cargo.

winter there at all if he meant to return as soon as the open season again came round? We know that he contemplated the probability of an absence prolonged even beyond two winters. His last letter to Sabine from Whale Fish Islands entreats him to relieve the anxiety of Lady Franklin and his daughter, should he not return at the time they expected, as

You know well that, even after the second winter without success in our object, we should wish to try some other channel, if the state of our provisions and the health of the crews justify it.

any person to dishearten you on the length of
our absence, but look forward with hope, that
safely to you.
Providence will at length of time restore us

An anecdote is related of Franklin in Barrow's volume, which shows how superior he held the claims of duty to those of personal feeling or convenience. When about to leave England, in 1825, on his second expedition to explore the North American coast, his first wife was sinking under a fatal malady. She urged his departure on the day appointed, and he denied himself the sad satisfaction of waiting to close her eyes. She had employed some of the tedious hours of sickness in making for him a union flag, only to be unfurled when he reached the Polar Sea. This flag was hoisted when from the summit of Garry Island the sea, stretching free and unincum

Is it likely that the man who wrote thus to his nearest friend, would have returned after one winter, without effecting or attempting more than a passage to Barrow's Strait? Lieutenant Griffith, announcing his depart-bered to the north, appeared in all its majure from the ships with his transport, July, 1845, wrote

All are in the highest possible spirits, and determined to succeed, if success be possible. A set of more undaunted fellows never were got together, or officers better selected. I am indeed certain that, if the icy barriers will be sufficiently penetrable to give them but half the length of their ships to force themselves through, they

will do so at all risks and hazards.

ed to him viû Kamtschatka.

"We can carry

esty. His companions hailed the outspread banner with joyful excitement, and Franklin, who had learned that his wife died the day after his departure, repressed all sign of painful emotion that he might not cloud their triumph at having planted the British colors on this island of the Polar Sea. Was this the man to turn back after one winter spent

at the entrance of the strait where his enter

prise did but commenco?

It has indeed been much the fashion of late

and remarks of this nature have been made

much sail and do," he notes in his journal. "I can scarcely manage to get Sir John to shorten sail at all." So well was it understood that the ships would push forward through any open channel which might present itself, that the ice-master of the Terror, writing to his wife from Disco Island, July 12, 1845, warned her of the probability that they might be out much longer than was antic-ever of prestige he might have supposed him

Commander Fitzjames, who sailed in the Erebus with Franklin, speaks repeatedly, in the lively letters and journal he forwarded to complain of the employment of naval to his friends at home, of the determination commanders in a too advanced stage of life, which prevailed in both ships" to go a-head," and jestingly begs that, if nothing is heard on the ultimate commission of Franklin. We of him by next June, letters may be forward- saw him often, however, on the eve of his start, and assuredly, though well up in years, either in muscular fibre or animal spirits. We there was no sign whatever of any falling off may add that his government at Van Diemen's Land had not ended under altogether flattering circumstances, and, according to our information, few of his friends doubted that in embracing this new task he was not uninfluenced by a yearning to recover what

ipated :

:

self to have lost as a civil administrator, by another and a crowning display of tact and energy in the department of his original

distinction.

We are all in good health and spirits, one and all appearing to be of the same determination, that is, to persevere in making a passage to the north-west. Should we not be at home in the It is by no means certain that because no fall of 1848, or early in the spring of 1849 [this record of him has been discovered beyond allowed for a four years' absence], you may antic- Beechey Island, none was left. Mr. Kenipate that we have made the passage, or are likely to do so; and if so, it may be from five nedy, when he explored Cape Walker last to six years it might be into the seventh spring ignorant that he had been preceded we return; and should it be so, do not allow by Captain Austin's parties mistook the

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large cairn they had erected for a part of the cliff, and actually walked over a smaller one deeply covered with snow, without for a moment suspecting that the spot had been previously visited. This fact has come out on Capt. Ommaney and Mr. Kennedy's comparing notes of their respective journeys. Sir Edward Belcher, in his recent despatches, states that the cairns erected by the well-organized expedition of his predecessors have in some cases been destroyed, and in others can with difficulty be recognized. For example, he says on August 14:

We have not been able, even with this very open season, to trace the large supplies left at Navy Board Inlet by the North Star, and no beacon marks their whereabout.

At Cape Warrender he found the cairn and post erected by Captain Austin's expedition,

but no document:

The tally having written on it Pull out Record was found beside the cairn, deeply impressed with the teeth of some small animal.

isthmus, joined the party he had left at Repulse Bay, and determined to leave any further survey until the spring, employing the remainder of the open season in making the best provision he could for the winter.

His stores had been calculated for four months' consumption only; he was entirely destitute of fuel; he could obtain no promise of supplies of any kind from the natives; the resources of the country were unknown to him; and the head of the bay had the character of being one of the most dreary and inhospitable of polar coasts. But Rae was inured to hardships, and, a first-rate sportsman, he had confidence in his own exertions.

He selected a sheltered site for his winter dwelling, near the river, on the northern shore leading to the lakes, and here established his fishing-stations. Collecting his men, some were sent out to bring in stones for building a house, others to set nets, to hunt deer, and to gather fuel. The walls were built two feet thick, the stones being cemented with mud and clay. Squares of glass were fixed in three In the opinion of this experienced officer, small apertures. As timber was unknown in there could have been no hurry in removing this bleak region, he used the oars and masts from Beechey Island, as everything bore the of his boats for rafters, stretching over them stamp of order and regularity. This is ut-oilcloth and skins for roofing. Deer-skins, terly opposed to the notion that Franklin had been forced away by the ice.

In the distressful uncertainty which clouds his fate it is our only consolation to reflect that government has shown all along the heartiest concern for its gallant servants. With other dispositions, indeed, better results might have been looked for. It is the misfortune of the Admiralty Instructions, we think, that they have said too much to leave the commanders of the expeditions entirely to their own discretion, and not enough to ensure a regular and systematic series of operations. Discovery, however, has not languished since Franklin's departure, and a sketch of what has been effected within the polar circle for the last six years will conveniently exhibit the efforts made for his relief, and show the lines of coast which have already been fruitlessly searched.

expe

When he sailed it was a disputed question whether an opening into that sea which washes the shores of North America might not exist in some part of Boothia Gulf. Mr. Rae has set that question at rest. His dition is a fine example of how much may be accomplished with very limited means. He started from Fort Churchill, on the west side of Hudson's Bay, with twelve men and two boats, on the 5th of July, 1846. On arriving at the head of Repulse Bay he crossed the isthmus which separated him from Boothia Gulf, a distance of 40 miles, and in six days reached the sea. But it was now the first week in August, heavy rains set in, and, finding progress impossible, he recrossed the

nailed over a framework of wood, made a weather-tight door. The interior of this house, to serve for twelve persons through eight winter months, was twenty feet long by fourteen wide; seven and a half feet high in front, sloping down to five and a half feet behind. Yet in these narrow dimensions Rae found room for a great part of his stores, and, by a partition of oilcloth, secured separate quarters for himself, where he worked his observations and kept his journal.

His fishing and hunting proved successful. His sporting-book for September showed a total of 63 deer, 5 hares, 172 partridges, and 116 salmon and trout. In the following month 69 deer were shot, but the nets produced only 22 fish. He was most at a loss for fuel. His men brought in a scanty supply of withered moss, heather, and the like, and this, being dried in the house, was piled into stacks. As the season advanced he built two observatories of snow, one for a dip circle, the other for an horizontally suspended needle, to test the action of the aurora. Snow-houses were also built for the dogs, for stores, &c. ; and all were connected together by passages cut under the frozen snow.

Early in January the thermometer sank 79° below the freezing point;' and even indoors it was commonly below zero.

This, says Rae, "would not have been unpleasant where there was a fire to warm the hands and feet, or even room to move about; but where there was neither the one nor the other, some few degrees more heat would have been preferable."

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