In the desert a fountain is springing, In the wide waste there still is a tree, And a bird in the solitude singing, Which speaks to my spirit of thee. DARKNESS. I HAD a dream, which was not all a dream. Their chins upon their clenched hands, and smiled; Their funeral piles with fuel, and look'd up With mad disquietude on the dull sky, The pall of a past world; and then again With curses cast them down upon the dust, Where had been heap'd a mass of holy things For an unholy usage; they raked up, And shivering scraped with their cold skeleton hands The feeble ashes, and their feeble breath Blew for a little life, and made a flame And their masts fell down piecemeal; as they dropp'd, The waves were dead; the tides were in their grave, CHURCHILL'S GRAVE, A FACT LITERALLY RENDERED. I STOOD beside the grave of him who blazed On that neglected turf and quiet stone, With name no clearer than the names unknown, And gnash'd their teeth and howl'd: the wild birds Through the thick deaths of half a century; shriek'd, And, terrified, did flutter on the ground, And flap their useless wings; the wildest brutes Of famine fed upon all entrails-men Died, and their bones were tombless as their flesh; The birds and beasts and famish'd men at bay, And thus he answer'd—« Well, I do not know I know not what of honour and of light As 't were the twilight of a former sun, And therefore travellers step from out their way I see ye, ye profane ones! all the while, Because my homely phrase the truth would tell. And a firm will, and a deep sense, Which even in torture can descry. Its own concentred recompense, Triumphant where it dares defy, And making death a victory. PROMETHEUS. TITAN! to whose immortal eyes Were not as things that gods despise; The rock, the vulture, and the chain, Which speaks but in its loneliness, And then is jealous lest the sky Should have a listener, nor will sigh Until its voice is echoless. Titan! to thee the strife was given The wretched gift eternity Was thine-and thou hast borne it well. All that the Thunderer wrung from thee Was but the menace which flung back On him the torments of thy rack; The fate thou didst so well foresce, But would not to appease him tell: And in thy silence was his sentence, And in his soul a vain repentance, And evil dread so ill dissembled That in his hand the lightnings trembled. Thy godlike crime was to be kind, To render with thy precepts less In the endurance, and repulse Of thine impenetrable spirit, Which earth and heaven could not convulse, A mighty lesson we inherit: Thou art a symbol and a sign To mortals of their fate and force; Like thee, man is in part divine, A troubled stream from a pure source; His wretchedness, and his resistance, And his sad unallied existence: To which his spirit may oppose Itself an equal to all woes, ODE. On shame to thee, land of the Gaul! Oh shame to thy children and thee! Unwise in thy glory, and base in thy fall, How wretched thy portion shall be! Derision shall strike thee forlorn, A mockery that never shall die; The curses of hate, and the hisses of scorn, Shall burden the winds of thy sky; And proud o'er thy ruin for ever be hurl'd The laughter of triumph, the jeers of the world! Oh, where is thy spirit of yore, The spirit that breathed in thy dead, When gallantry's star was the beacon before, And honour the passion that led? Thy storms have awaken'd their sleep, They groan from the place of their rest, And wrathfully murmur, and sullenly weep, To see the foul stain on thy breast; For where is the glory they left thee in trust? 'Tis scatter'd in darkness, 'tis trampled in dust! Go look to the kingdoms of earth, From Indus all round to the pole, And something of goodness, of honour, and worth, Shall brighten the sins of the soul. But thou art alone in thy shame, The world cannot liken thee there; Abhorrence and vice have disfigured thy name Beyond the low reach of compare; Stupendous in guilt, thou shalt lend us through time While conquest illumined his sword, And wither'd the nations afar, Yet bright in thy view was that despot's renown, Then back from the chieftain thou slunkest away, Forgot were the feats he had done, The toils he had borne in thy cause; Thou turned'st to worship a new rising sun, And honour and faith were the brag of an hour, To him thou hadst banish'd thy vows were restored, What tumult thus burthens the air? What throng thus encircles his throne! A Fragment. June 17, 1816. In the year 17, having for some time determined on a journey through countries not hitherto much frequented by travellers, I set out, accompanied by a friend, whom I shall designate by the name of Augustus Darvell. He was a few years my elder, and a man of considerable fortune and ancient family-advantages which an extensive capacity prevented him alike from undervaluing or overrating. Some peculiar circumstances in his private history had rendered him to me an object of attention, of interest, and even of regard, which neither the reserve of his manners, nor occasional indications of an inquietude at times nearly approaching to alienation of mind, could extinguish. duct of my intended journey. It was my secret wish that he might be prevailed on to accompany me: it was also a probable hope, founded upon the shadowy restlessness which I had observed in him, and to which the! animation which he appeared to feel on such subjects, and his apparent indifference to all by which he was more immediately surrounded, gave fresh strength., This wish I first hinted, and then expressed: his answer, though I had partly expected it, gave me all the pleasure of surprise-he consented; and, after the requisite arrangements, we commenced our voyages. After journeying through various countries of the south of Europe, our attention was turned towards the east, according to our original destination; and it was in my progress through those regions that the incident occurred upon which will turn what I may have to relate. The constitution of Darvell, which must, from his appearance, have been in early life more than usually robust, had been for some time gradually giving way, without the intervention of any apparent disease: be had neither cough nor hectic, yet he became daily more enfeebled: his habits were temperate, and be neither declined nor complained of fatigue, yet he was evidently wasting away: he became more and more o We had determined, on our arrival at Smyrna, on an excursion to the ruins of Ephesus and Sardis, from which I endeavoured to dissuade him, in his present state of indisposition-but in vain : there appeared to be an oppression on his mind, and a solemnity in his man on what I regarded as a mere party of pleasure, little suited to a valetudinarian; but I opposed him no longer -and in a few days we set off together, accompanied only by a serrugee and a single janizary. I was yet young in life, which I had begun early; but my intimacy with him was of a recent date: we had been educated at the same schools and university; but his progress through these had preceded mine, and he had been deeply initiated into what is called the world, while I was yet in my noviciate. While thus engaged, I had heard much both of his past and present life; and, although in these accounts there were many and irreconcilable contradictions, I could still gather from the whole that he was a being of no common order, and one who, whatever pains he might take to avoid re-silent and sleepless, and at length so seriously altered, mark, would still be remarkable. I had cultivated his that my alarm grew proportionate to what I conceived acquaintance subsequently, and endeavoured to obtain to be his danger. his friendship, but this last appeared to be unattainable; whatever affections he might have possessed seemed now, some to have been extinguished, and others to be concentred that his feelings were acute, I had sufficient opportunities of observing; for, although he could control, he could not altogether disguise them: still hener, which ill corresponded with his eagerness to proceed had a power of giving to one passion the appearance of another in such a manner that it was difficult to define the nature of what was working within him; and the expressions of his features would vary so rapidly, though slightly, that it was useless to trace them to their sources. It was evident that he was a prey to some cureless disquiet; but whether it arose from ambition, love, remorse, grief, from one or all of these, or merely from a morbid temperament akin to discase, I could not dis-lead to the few huts yet lingering over the broken cocover there were circumstances alleged which might lums of Diana-the roofless walls of expelled Christia- ! have justified the application to each of these causes; nity, and the still more recent but complete desolation of but, as I have before said, these were so contradictory abandoned mosques-when the sudden and rapid illand contradicted, that none could be fixed upon with ness of my companion obliged us to halt at a Turkish ceaccuracy. Where there is mystery, it is generally sup-metery, the turbaned tombstones of which were the sole posed that there most also be evil: I know not how this may be, but in him there certainly was the one, though I could not ascertain the extent of the other-and felt loth, as far as regarded himself, to believe in its existence. My advances were received with sufficient coldness; but I was young, and not easily discouraged, and at length succeeded in obtaining, to a certain degree, that common-place intercourse and moderate confidence of common and every-day concerns, created and cemented by similarity of pursuit and frequency of meeting, which is called intimacy, or friendship, according to the ideas of him who uses those words to express them. Darvell had already travelled extensively, and to him I had applied for information with regard to the con We had passed half-way towards the remains of Ephe sus, leaving behind us the more fertile environs of Smyrna, and were entering upon that wild and tenantless track through the marshes and defiles which indication that human life had ever been a sojourner in this wilderness. The only caravansera we had seen wa left some hours behind us; not a vestige of a town, or i even cottage, was within sight or hope, and this city of 1 the dead» appeared to be the sole refuge for my unfor- į tunate friend, who seemed on the verge of becoming the last of its inhabitants. In this situation, I looked round for a place where be might most conveniently repose:-contrary to the usual! aspect of Mahometan burial-grounds, the cypresses were in this few in number, and these thinly scattered over its extent: the tombstones were mostly fallen, zad worn with age: upon one of the most considerable of these, and beneath one of the most spreading trees Darvell supported himself, in a half-reclining posture, with great difficulty. He asked for water. I had some doubts of our being able to find any, and prepared to go in search of it with hesitating despondency-but he desired me to remain; and, turning to Suleiman, our janizary, who stood by us smoking with great tranquillity, he said, «<Suleiman, verbana su,» (i. e. bring some water,) and went on describing the spot where it was to be found with great minuteness, at a small well for camels, a few hundred yards to the right: the janizary obeyed. I said to Darvell, «How did you know this?» -He replied, « From our situation; you must perceive that this place was once inhabited, and could not have been so without springs: I have also been here before.» "You have been here before!-How came you never to mention this to me? and what could you be doing in a place where no one would remain a moment longer than they could help it ?» To this question I received no answer. In the mean time, Suleiman returned with the water, leaving the serrugee and the horses at the fountain. The quenching of his thirst had the appearance of reviving him for a moment; and I conceived hopes of his being able to proceed, or at least to return, and I urged the attempt. He was silent-and appeared to be collecting his spirits for an effort to speak. He began. <<This is the end of my journey, and of my life-I came here to die but I have a request to make, a command-for such my last words must be.-You will observe it?»> Most certainly; but have better hopes.>> << Why?»> «You will see.» <<The ninth day of the month, you say?» As I observed that the present was the ninth day of the month, his countenance changed, and he paused. As he sate, evidently becoming more feeble, a stork, with a snake in her beak, perched upon a tombstone near us; and, without devouring her prey, appeared to be stedfastly regarding us. I know not what impelled me to drive it away, but the attempt was useless; she made a few circles in the air, and returned exactly to the same spot. Darvell pointed to it, and smiled: he spoke-I know not whether to himself or to me-but the words were only, «T is well!» What is well? what do you mean?»> No matter you must bury me here this evening, and exactly where that bird is now perched. You know the rest of my injunctions.>> He then proceeded to give me several directions as to the manner in which his death might be best concealed. After these were finished, he exclaimed, « You perceive that bird?» « << Certainly. >> «And the serpent writhing in her beak?» «Doubtless: there is nothing uncommon in it; it is her natural prey. But it is odd that she does not devour it.» He smiled in a ghastly manner, and said, faintly, « It is not yet time!»> As he spoke, the stork flew away. My eyes followed it for a moment; it could hardly be <« I have no hopes, nor wishes, but this-conceal my longer than ten might be counted. I felt Darvell's death from every human being.>> << I hope there will be no occasion; that cover, and--» « Peace! it must be so: promise this.»> << I do.» you will re weight, as it were, increase upon my shoulder, and, turning to look upon his face, perceived that he was dead! I was shocked with the sudden certainty which could not be mistaken-his countenance in a few minutes. << Swear it by all that»--IIe here dictated an oath became nearly black. I should have attributed so rapid of great solemnity. « There is no occasion for this-I will observe your request; and to doubt me is-——» « It cannot be helped,-you must swear.»> I took the oath: it appeared to relieve him. He removed a seal-ring from his finger, on which were some Arabic characters, and presented it to me. ceeded He pro «On the ninth day of the month, at noon precisely (what month you please, but this must be the day), ou must fling this ring into the salt springs which run into the Bay of Eleusis: the day after, at the same hour, you must repair to the ruins of the temple of Ceres, and wait one hour.»> a change to poison, had I not been aware that he had no opportunity of receiving it unperceived. The day was declining, the body was rapidly altering, and nothing remained but to fulfil his request. With the aid of Suleiman's ataghan and my own sabre, we scooped a shallow grave upon the spot which Darvell had indicated: the earth easily gave way, having already received some Mahometan tenant. We dug as deeply as the time permitted us, and throwing the dry earth upon all that remained of the singular being so lately departed, we cut a few sods of greener turf from the less withered soil around us, and laid them upon his sepulchre. Between astonishment and grief, I was tearless. Parliamentary Speeches. DEBATE ON THE FRAME WORK BILL, IN THE HOUSE MY LORDS-the subject now submitted to your lordships for the first time, though new to the House, is by no means new to the country. I believe it had occuThe order of the day for the second reading of this pied the serious thoughts of all descriptions of persons, bill being read, long before its introduction to the notice of that legisLORD BYRON rose, and (for the first time) addressed lature, whose interference alone could be of real sertheir lordships, as follows: vice. As a person in some degree connected with the suffering country, though a stranger not only to this House in general, but to almost every individual whose attention I presume to solicit, I must claim some portion of your lordships' indulgence whilst I offer a few observations on a question in which I confess myself | deeply interested. chinery in that state of our commerce which the country once boasted, might have been beneficial to the master without being detrimental to the servant; yet, in the present situation of our manufactures, rotting in warehouses, without a prospect of exportation, with the demand for work and workmen equally diminished: the distress and discontent of the disappointed sufferer But the real cause of these distresses and consequent disturbances lies deeper. When we are told that these men are leagued together not only for the destruction of their own comfort, but of their very means of sub To enter into any detail of the riots would be super-frames of this description tend materially to aggravate fluous: the House is already aware that every outrage short of actual bloodshed has been perpetrated, and that the proprietors of the frames obnoxious to the rioters, and all persons supposed to be connected with them, have been liable to insult and violence. During the short time I recently passed in Nottingham-sistence, can we forget that it is the bitter policy, the shire, not twelve hours elapsed without some fresh act of violence; and on the day I left the county I was informed that forty frames had been broken the preceding evening, as usual, without resistance and without detection. destructive warfare of the last eighteen years, which has destroyed their comfort, your comfort, all men's comfort? That policy which, originating with « great statesmen now no more,» has survived the dead to be come a curse on the living, unto the third and fourth generation! These men never destroyed their loons till they were become useless, worse than useless; till they were become actual impediments to their exertions in obtaining their daily bread. Can you, then, wonder that in times like these, when bankruptcy, convicted fraud, and imputed felony are found in a station net once most useful portion of the people, should forget their duty in their distresses, and become only less guilty than one of their representatives? But while the exalted offender can find means to ballfe the law, new death must be spread for the wretched mechanic, who is famished into guilt. These men were willing to dig. but the spade was in other hands: they were not ashamed to beg, but there was none to relieve them their own means of subsistence were cut off, all other employments pre-occupied, and their excesses, however to be deplored and condemned, can hardly be subject of surprise. Such was then the state of that county, and such I have reason to believe it to be at this moment. But whilst these outrages must be admitted to exist to an alarming extent, it cannot be denied that they have arisen from circumstances of the most unparalleled distress. The perseverance of these miserable men in their proceedings, tends to prove that nothing but abso-far beneath that of your lordships, the lowest, though lute want could have driven a large, and once honest and industrious, body of the people, into the commission of excesses so hazardous to themselves, their families and the community. At the time to which I allude, the town and county were burthened with large detach-capital punishments must be devised, new snares of ments of the military; the police was in motion, the magistrates assembled; yet all the movements, civil and military, had led to-nothing. Not a single instance had occurred of the apprehension of any real delinquent actually taken in the fact, against whom there existed legal evidence sufficient for conviction. But the police, however useless, were by no means idle: several notorious delinquents had been detected; men, liable to conviction, on the clearest evidence, of the capital crime of poverty; men, who had been nefariously guilty of lawfully begetting several children, whom, thanks to the times! they were unable to maintain. Considerable injury has been done to the proprietors of the improved frames. These machines were to them an advantage, inasmuch as they superseded the necessity of employing a number of workmen, who were left in consequence to starve. By the adoption of one species of frame in particular, one man performed the work of many, and the superfluous labourers were thrown out of employ-out examination, and without cause, to pass sentences Yet it is to be observed, that the work thus by wholesale, and sign death-warrants blindfold executed was inferior in quality; not marketable at admitting that these men had no cause of complaint. home, and merely hurried over with a view to exporta- that the grievances of them and their employers were tion. It was called, in the cant of the trade, by the alike groundless; that they deserved the worst; what name of Spider work.» The rejected workmen, in inefficiency, what imbecility has been evinced in the the blindness of their ignorance, instead of rejoicing at method chosen to reduce them! Why were the military these improvements in arts so beneficial to mankind, called out to be made a mockery of, if they were to be conceived themselves to be sacrificed to improvements called out at all? As far as the difference of seasons in mechanism. In the foolishness of their hearts they would permit, they have merely parodied the summer | imagined, that the maintenance and well doing of the campaign of Major Sturgeon; and, indeed, the whole industrious poor were objects of greater consequence proceedings, civil and military, seemed on the model of than the enrichment of a few individuals by any im- those of the Mayor and Corporation of Garratt -Such provement, in the implements of trade, which threw marchings and counter-marchings! from Nottingham the workmen out of employment, and rendered the to Bullwell, from Bullwell to Banford, from Banford to labourer unworthy of his hire. And it must be con- Mansfield! and when at length the detachments arrived, fessed that although the adoption of the enlarged ma- at their destinations, in all the pride, pomp, and car ment. | It has been stated that the persons in the temporary possession of frames connive at their destruction; if this be proved upon inquiry, it were necessary that such material accessories to the crime should be principals in the punishment. But I did hope, that any measure proposed by his majesty's government, for your lordships' decision, would have had conciliation for its basis; or, if that were hopeless, that some previous inquiry, some deliberation would have been deemed requisite: not that we should have been been called at once with But |