MEMOIR OF TOBIAS MARTIN. WHEN the pen of the historian is required to record the tatalogue of crimes, which too frequently even in the hineteenth century, are found darkening the lives of many men, it performs its office with regret. Willingly would it blot their deeds from the registers of time, and, drawing a veil over the past, consign them to everlasting forgetfulness. But when its efforts, however weak, are called into exercise for the more interesting purpose, of inscribing on the tablets of the memory, a knowledge of such actions in the lives of men, as dignify the human character, no matter how low the individual may have ranked in the grades, which power and the possession of wealth, have, during the lapse of ages succeeded in establishing in society, it engages with lively interest and delight in the task, and rapidly moving on the B whitened sheet, stamps the knowledge thereof in characters of immortality. Not often, however, are the annals of fame found recording the history of individuals, unless their lives have been marked, either by remarkable incidents, elevated rank, splendid attainments, or brilliant performances. Men who in life have traversed the trackless deep in search of adventures, or passed a winter amidst the icebergs of the pole, or explored the burning deserts and inhospitable regions of interior Africa—the daring exploits of the military hero— the noble actions of the patriot statesman-the benevolent exertions of the philanthropist-or the enterprising achievements of the man of science, too generally are deemed the only proper subjects of the historic page; and in order effectually to secure these characters a place in the esteem of posterity, the talents of the poet and the biographer, have been successively called into exercise. The compiler of the present work, however, entertains a hope that, without incurring the reproach of presumption, he may be allowed to conceive it not absolutely necessary, that a man should be found engaged in the labours of the tented field, or performing prodigies of valour amid the sanguinary conflict of the battle's rage; nor that senators should have listened with rapture to the enchanting eloquence of his lips; or a nation have applauded him as a saviour of his country, to render him worthy a place in the chronicles of the future; neither does he consider it essential, that the literary or scientific world, should have been beholden to the subject of his pen, for the discovery of a northern passage, to cause his memory to be respected by succeeding ages. Under such a conviction, he has been encouraged to proceed in his endeavour, to rescue the manes of his ancestor from that obscurity, to which he was subjected by birth and circumstances, while living, with the humble hope that there will be found, at least, one era of his existence interesting to those who may peruse the subsequent pages. In the task which he has imposed on himself, in thus attempting a memoir of the author of the poems contained in this volume, he is aware that he cannot offer to the notice of his reader, proofs of genius worthy of, or likely to excite, their highest admiration. He cannot say of its subject, that the nobles of the land, have lost in him one, whose actions shed a lustre on elevated rank, or illustrious descent-neither can he unite with the learned of the age in |