"May 23. 1814.
"I must send you the Java government gazette of July 3d, 1813, just
sent to me by Murray. Only think of _our_ (for it is you and I)
setting paper warriors in array in the Indian seas. Does not this
sound like fame--something almost like _posterity_? It is something
to have scribblers squabbling about us 5000 miles off, while we are
agreeing so well at home. Bring it with you in your pocket;--it
will make you laugh, as it hath me. Ever yours,
"B.
"P.S. Oh the anecdote!"
* * * * *
To the circumstance mentioned in this letter he recurs more than once in
the Journals which he kept abroad; as thus, in a passage of his
"Detached Thoughts,"--where it will be perceived that, by a trifling
lapse of memory, he represents himself as having produced this gazette,
for the first time, on our way to dinner.
"In the year 1814, as Moore and I were going to dine with Lord Grey in
Portman Square, I pulled out a 'Java Gazette' (which Murray had sent to
me), in which there was a controversy on our respective merits as poets.
It was amusing enough that we should be proceeding peaceably to the same
table while they were squabbling about us in the Indian seas (to be sure
the paper was dated six months before), and filling columns with
Batavian criticism. But this is fame, I presume."
The following poem, written about this time, and, apparently, for the
purpose of being recited at the Caledonian Meeting, I insert principally
on account of the warm feeling which it breathes towards Scotland and
her sons:--
"Who hath not glow'd above the page where Fame
Hath fix'd high Caledon's unconquer'd name;
The mountain-land which spurn'd the Roman chain,
And baffled back the fiery-crested Dane,
Whose bright claymore and hardihood of hand
No foe could tame--no tyrant could command.
"That race is gone--but still their children breathe,
And glory crowns them with redoubled wreath:
O'er Gael and Saxon mingling banners shine,
And, England! add their stubborn strength to thine.
The blood which flow'd with Wallace flows as free,
But now 'tis only shed for fame and thee!
Oh! pass not by the Northern veteran's claim,
But give support--the world hath given him fame!
"The humbler ranks, the lowly brave, who bled
While cheerly following where the mighty led--
Who sleep beneath the undistinguish'd sod
Where happier comrades in their triumph trod,
To us bequeath--'tis all their fate allows--
The sireless offspring and the lonely spouse:
She on high Albyn's dusky hills may raise
The tearful eye in melancholy gaze,
Or view, while shadowy auguries disclose
The Highland seer's anticipated woes,
The bleeding phantom of each martial form
Dim in the cloud, or darkling in the storm;
While sad, she chants the solitary song,
The soft lament for him who tarries long--
For him, whose distant relics vainly crave
The coronach's wild requiem to the brave!
"'Tis Heaven--not man--must charm away the woe
Which bursts when Nature's feelings newly flow;
Yet tenderness and time may rob the tear
Of half its bitterness for one so dear:
A nation's gratitude perchance may spread
A thornless pillow for the widow'd head;
May lighten well her heart's maternal care,
And wean from penury the soldier's heir."
* * * * *