following jeu d'esprit will show. It appeared early in 1833, when the Reform Bill was supposed to be in danger, and when its friends in Glasgow exhibited an unusual degree of anxiety respecting it. T-m A-k-n is the late Mr. Thomas Aitkinson, bookseller, who was a very keen Liberal politician. M'P―n was his neighbour Mr. M'Phun, likewise a bookseller and agent for the Sun newspaper. Sir D. K. S-f-d is the late Sir D. K. Sandford, the accomplished Professor of Greek in the University of Glasgow, who was at that time an ardent reformer, and whose premature and much-lamented death was probably accelerated by the excitement of that miserable period. With these explanations this clever trifle will be intelligible :

THE REFORMER'S GARLAND.

AN EXCELLENT NEW SONG.

Tune-" Young Lochinvar."

T-m A-k-n mounted his berry brown steed,
Thro' all the West Country unequalled for speed;
And, save an odd threepence to pay for the toll,
He carried no weight but a placard in scroll.
So lightly and jaunty he Eastward did hie,
With the Bill in his heart, and the Mail in his eye-
He swore that, for once, he would e-clipse the SUN, *
And darken the shine of his neighbour, M‘P—n.
Camlachie folk stared, and Tollcross stood abeigh,
So rapid he rode, and the steed was so skeigh;
But Tom did not value his horsemanlike skill,

His thoughts were "Reform," and "nought but the Bill."
Yea, even in passing the scene at Carmyle,t

The Whig field of honour seemed worthless the while-

For still he expected to e-clipse the SUN,

And darken the shine of his neighbour, M‘P—n.

* This is an allusion to the Sun, London newspaper, at that time forwarded by special express to Glasgow.

The scene of a recent duel, with the distance marked out by two bricks.

Then onward he sped, till he came to a turn

Of the road, when the Guard of the Mail cried-"Adjourn!"
And about ship went Tom, and the spur did apply,

And the Stationer, truly, for once seemed to fly.

His Tontine constituents soon did he hail,

For near eighteen minutes he distanc'd the Mail;
The Adjourn' was repeated, e-clipsed was the SUN,
The shine was o'erclouded of neighbour, M‘P—n.
Sir D. K. S-f-d next mounted his beast,

With its tail to the West and its head to the East,
And on like a War Knight the brute he did urge,
To nose the effect of the fam'd "Russell Purge;"

But at Bothwell the Mail Guard roar'd out-"Lost by Eight!"
When about went the prad, as it had taken fright;
Sir Dan he stuck on, and again 'clipsed the SUN,

To the utter confounding of neighbour, M'P-n.

That MOTHERWELL's prospects were improved by a removal to Glasgow may be admitted, since that city, from its greater size, would necessarily afford a wider field for the display of his abilities; but I have many doubts whether the change was friendly to the development and cultivation of his poetical faculty. The charge of a three-times-a-week paper leaves little leisure for the prosecution of a formal course of study, while the distracting anxieties which are inseparable from political warfare are altogether incompatible with that repose of mind which is essential to the achievement of distinction in any walk of literature. It is my impression, therefore, that his muse was comparatively idle in Glasgow, and that his attention was directed to the improvement of old rather than to the composition of new poems. This idea is partially confirmed by an inspection of two quarto volumes of manuscript pieces which he left behind him, the one of which is nearly a transcript of the other, and was obviously executed at Glasgow; and it is farther strengthened by the fact, that he published little after he came to this city which had not been written long before. It would be idle to talk of

the genius loci in such circumstances, for the character of that mysterious lady must be much the same in both places, and it is not particularly spiritual in either; but there may be something in the disruption of old and established ties— something in the absence of familiar faces and well-known voices, and something in the destruction of those secret and inexplicable material sympathies which make one spot of earth more than another the home of a man's soul. Whether any or all of these influences may have affected him I shall not take upon me positively to affirm, but I think myself so far justified in the conclusion at which I have arrived by the subsequent steps of his history, which indicate a sluggish action if not an absolute torpor of his creative energies.

In 1832 a publication was started in Glasgow, under the direction of Mr. John Strang, the author of two interesting volumes of Travels in Germany, called The Day, to which MOTHERWELL Contributed largely. In that periodical there appeared for the first time the following poetical pieces from his pen :-The Serenade―The Solemn Song of a Righteous Hearte-Elfinland Wud-The Covenanters' Battle ChantCaveat to the Wind-What is Glory? What is Fame ?-A Solemn Conceit-The Parting-The Ettin Lang o' Sillarwood -and, Spirits of Light! Spirits of Shade !—all of which, with the exception of the two last, he afterwards embodied in his volume.* He also communicated to that work a series

* It is needless to add, that these were gratuitous contributions, and that their author neither expected nor received anything for them. It was in this year that "Jeanie Morrison" appeared in an Edinburgh magazine, and for that exquisite lyrical composition he was paid-thirty shillings! George Buchannan was not far wrong when he exclaimed three hundred years ago, Denique quicquid agis, comes assidet improba egestas Sive poema canis, sive poema doces. d

of humorous papers in prose, entitled, "Memoirs of a Paisley Bailie," which afforded considerable amusement at the time; and towards the end of this year he collected his scattered poetical fragments, and formed them into a small volume with the title of "POEMS, NARRATIVE AND LYRICAL," which he dedicated to his friend Kennedy. Most of these pieces, if not the whole of them, were reprints. I am not quite sure about the "Battle Flag of Sigurd," but I rather think it appeared originally in the pages of the Paisley Advertiser.

This volume was, upon the whole, well received. There could be no doubt about the high quality of the poetry which an unknown author had ventured thus to submit to the world, but its character was peculiar, and for the most part not fitted for extensive popularity; and the season which was chosen for its introduction was eminently unfavourable to its chances of immediate success. No adventitious murmurs of applause had announced its approach, and at a time when little was heard but the noise of political contention, it was perhaps too much to expect that a comparatively obscure bard should draw towards himself a large share of the public notice, let his abilities be what they might. This work, however, gave MOTHERWELL, what it had been the object of his life to attain, a place among the poets of Britain; and it carried his name into quarters which it never would have otherwise reached. A commendatory criticism in Blackwood's Magazine for April, 1833, proclaimed his pretensions wherever the English language is read; and though his nature was too modest and too manly for the display of any open exultation at the triumph which he had so honourably won, he never ceased to feel the deepest gratitude to the distinguished reviewer whom he knew to be

a consummate judge of poetical merit, and for whose genius and character he always felt and expressed the warmest admiration.

The last work in which MOTHERWELL engaged, and which he did not live to complete, was, a joint edition of Burns' works by him and James Hogg, the Ettrick Shepherd.* His share in this production consisted merely of occasional notes, critical and explanatory, which are marked with the letter M., and in which he exhibits much knowledge of the contemporary history of Burns' period, and his usual discrimination as a commentator. The fifth and last volume contains the life of the Ayrshire poet by Hogg; but before it appeared his comparatively youthful coadjutor was no more.†

In August, 1835, MOTHERWELL was summoned to London, to appear before a committee of the House of Commons which had been appointed to take evidence as to the constitution and practices of the Orange Society, with a view to its suppression. He had unluckily allowed himself to be enrolled as a member of that association, and was one of the district secretaries for the West of Scotland. There is no incident in his history which it more perplexes me to account for than this. He had no connexion with Ireland, direct or indirect, nor had he ever been in that island in his life, and

* The Works of Robert Burns, edited by the Ettrick Shepherd, and William Motherwell, Esq., 5 vols. Glasgow: Archd. Fullarton & Co., 1836.

It should have been mentioned in its proper place that in the year 1832 Motherwell supplied a preface of some length to Henderson's volume of Scottish Proverbs. Andrew Henderson was a portrait painter of considerable celebrity in Glasgow and an intimate friend of the Poet. He was a man of abrupt manners, but of great honesty of nature, and capable of both steadfast and warm attachments. He pre-deceased Motherwell by about six months.