And forsaken the Solway's sounding strand, For the calm repose of our mountain-land. Of thy feathered tribe hast thou suffered the scorn? No fear shall annoy thee-thy sorrows shall cease. I, too, have been torn by Adversity's blast,— I have warred with life's billows unpitied, unknown, And I have withdrawn from the warring crowd, In lowly glen or in woodland bower. Bird of the ocean! still linger here, Nor return to the rock, where the sea-waves career, Than man with his boasted dignity. The above is from the pen of WILLIAM PARK, farm-servant to the Rev. DR. BROWN of Eskdale Muir. Though in the humble sphere of a Scottish peasant, he has evinced considerable poetic talent, and only requires the fostering hand of the liberal and enlightened to give publicity to a volume replete with piety, purity and energetic feeling. He has contributed to several literary periodicals, among others to Blackwood's Magazine, and to the Edinburgh Christian Instructor, by the late talented Editor of which he was esteemed as well for his mental powers as for his unblemished integrity. Edinburgh, 18th Jan. 1832. ALEX. THOMSON. SAYINGS AND DOINGS OF THE BORDER LITERARY AND POLITICAL CLUB. No. I. REPORTED BY JOHN MACKAY WILSON. SCENE. A Temperance Coffee House, within our ancient, sober, and well-beloved town Berwick-upon-Tweed. Newspapers, Magazines, and cups filled with coffee upon the table.-Present Mr. Andrew Feuar, a Berwickshire farmer, residing not ten miles from the town aforesaid; -Mr. Roger Bell, another cultivator of the soil, and residing on the BORDER LITERARY & POLITICAL CLUB. No. I. 169 English side of the Tweed, at a distance not exceeding half an hour's quick riding from their present place of rendezvous ;-Thomas Neptune, Esq. merchant and ship-owner :-Mr. John Timpin, formerly a letterpress printer, and whilom Editor of a London Newspaper;-Jerry Jib, a skipper of the Port in better days;-Mr. David Dalton, a gentleman touched with poetry,-designed by his mother for a preacher, but now living on her legacy;-Dr. Ayton, a physician; and Francis Classum, Esq. a young solicitor ;-all inhabitants of the said good town.-Time,-Seven in the evening. Mr. FEUAR-Did ye see yon lang-leggit Adverteesment in the Newspapers the ither day, Doctor, about Patent French Brandy? Dr. AYTON-I did, Mr. Feuar. Mr. FEUAR-And what thocht ye o' it?-My certes! yon was shaking the nieve o' intemperance in the face o' the increasing sobriety o' the country wi' a vengeance! Dr. AYTON-Brandy is a good medicine in the hands of a skilful physician; but as a common beverage, it is swallowing sixpences at every mouthful, and purchasing disease and death at the highest price. If people are fond of suicide, whisky will accomplish their object at one-third of the cost. A man may murder himself very comfortably with three shillings' worth of whisky,-brandy would scarce stand him less than nine, and the unnecessary six would contribute considerably towards putting him decently in the dust. Mr. FEUAR-Od ye're a queer neegor, Doctor,-ye're as dry as the edge o' ane o' Packwood's razors. But ne'er a boddle care I for neither their brandy nor their whisky. My wife says to me,-Andrew, says she, ye're just another man a' thegither since ye joined the Temperance Society-there's nae sitting up to four o' the Sabbath morning waiting on ye now,-nae galloping hame like a madman,— nae fears o' broken legs, or broken necks-nae horses coming hame without ye now,-I'll declare I'm just the happiest woman on the face o' the earth!-Oh, had we had Temperance Societies twenty years sine, there wad been some riding their ain horse th' day that are breaking stanes by the road side; an' some hale and canty that the worms hae made their last meal on. An' Mr. BELL-Drat! .that's just what my Susan tells mye. as this sugaree or chicaree, or what d'ye ca' it, gies wur coffee such a flavour here, that I think it worth a' the smuggled gin that e'er came out o' Budale, I just ca'ed down at the Tea-office for a pund on't. Mr. DAVID DALTON-Well, Gentlemen, as I must deprecate the drinking habits of Society as well as the intoxicating habits,--let the cups be removed, and proceed with the business of the evening. Mr. Timpin, have you any subject to propose? [A bell rings, servant enters and removes the cups, &c.] Mr. TIMPIN-Gentlemen, the deep interest we all take in every matter which involves the welfare of our country,-and of our own beautiful borders in particular, renders it impossible that we can pass over the recent Anti-Reform meeting held at Greenlaw ;-you are all acquainted with its details, and I propose that our conversation this evening be headed THE BERWICKSHIRE CONSERVATIVE DISSECTED! OMNES---Agreed! agreed!-The Berwickshire Conservative Dis sected. Mr. TIMPIN-Gentlemen,-this meeting in question,-this mighty meeting, this meeting in a village on the middle of the moor,-this meeting which arrogates for its object the salvation of our own, our beautiful land, this Berwickshire meeting-this meeting, on which, in the eloquent language of David Milne, Esq. younger of Milne Graden, "the ark of the state has at length found a solid resting place!"-this meeting, gentlemen, was attended by no less than one hundred and fifty individuals, comprising the inhabitants of the hamlet. Of the talents of William Hay, Esq. of Dunse Castle, (their chairman,) I am as ignorant as I am incapable of giving what he calls the view halloo, and my lungs have been used to some purpose in their day and generation. Mr. FEUAR-Save us a'! Mr. Timpin, do ye no ken what the view halloo is?—I'll let ye hear it if ye like. Mr. TIMPIN-I know it does not mean music for a room, and will dispense with it. However, the antiquity of Mr. Hay's family justly entitles him to a first place among our resident gentry. But, gentlemen, I loathe, I abominate the dishonest, the cuckoo strain, which six out of every ten men use, on being called to preside over a meeting, about their own inability, and wishing the chair had been filled by an abler person-while you can see pride, self-complacency and satisfaction shooting little glances across their eyes, like a gold fish twittering in a glass bottle, and each with all his humility thinks himself the ablest man in the assembly. Mr. BELL-Well, Mr. Timpin, I dint knaw whether they mean what they say or not, but I knaw, that chairmen without ability are as common as stubble after harvest. Mr. TIMPIN-Any gentleman taking such an office, and confessing, and conscious of his own insufficiency, is insulting the meeting over which he undertakes to preside. Mr. Hay is one of those, who cry out respecting lack of talent. With what ability he discharged his duty, deponent sayeth not; judging from the reading of his speech, I should suppose creditably. And in that speech, gentlemen, the sneering, depreciating insinuation, which he casts upon the talents of our honest, unpretending, sound-headed Chancellor of the Exchequer, Lord Althorp, demands our reprobation. It is true, Lord Althorp did keep fox-hounds, as he informs us, but I beg to inform him in return, that there is not a member in the House of Commons, whose speeches produce a deeper impression upon the "collective wisdom," those of Lord Althorp. His exalted rank-as the eldest son of the venerable, learned, and patriotic Earl Spencer, commands respect ;and his strong good sense and experience make every sentence he utters be received as a maxim. I have heard him speak in the house. He is no orator, but a deliberate, calm and enlightened statesman, with more solid knowledge and fitness for office, than a thousand Goulburns. His Lordship is not young, and has been an upright and indefatigable member of parliament from his earliest manhood. Have you, gentlemen, forgotten him,-has the country forgotten, or has Mr. Hay of Dunse Castle forgotten,--the unwearied-the bold-th than manly resistance, which Viscount Althorp made against the abominable, the horrible laws, which some years ago threatened to render the phrase-Free born Briton synonymous with-Base born slave!—I ask you, gentlemen, if ye have forgotten the debt of obligation and gratitude which we owe to his wise, his resolute, his noble opposition to those disgraceful measures?-Yet this is the statesman, whom Mr. Hay of Dunse Castle, profaning the language of the immortal Shakspeare, compares to a little wanton boy swimming on a bladder!-He tells us, that if the Reform Bill pass, confidence will be shaken throughout the country, and the poor consequently unemployed!— Heaven and earth! gentlemen!-Where has the proprietor of Drumelzier been for the last six years?-Does he say confidence will be— will be-will be shaken? Does he not know,-has he not discovered,— has he not felt, that confidence was-not only shaken, but broken down throughout the country about the close of the year 1825? Does he not know, that the bubbles which then burst-exploded it into fragments? And does he not know, that for six years, those fragments have been crumbling into atoms? Has he to learn that every dealer looks upon his buyer with suspicion while he knows his honesty? Has he to be informed, that commercial confidence was a phrase which our fathers once understood, but which the present blessed system of blessings and privileges renders their sons unable to comprehend!-What is the language of our merchants?—what is the language of our manufacturers? what is the language of our farmers-of our ship-owners -of our tradesmen ?-Do they not all declare, that they look forward eagerly to the passing of the Reform Bill and the following up of its principles as to a measure, which will Restore Public Confidence, that has long been lost. Such, gentlemen, while I was absent from Berwick-such, within these few weeks, is the language I have heard publicly used, by the greatest merchants-the greatest manufacturers in the world, and judge ye whether they or William Hay, Esq. of Dunse Castle should know most about public confidence. And does he say the poor will be consequently unemployed?-When were the poor employed? I will not bid you look at Manchester-at Leeds- or at Paisley, with their starving thousands. He perhaps meant only the peasant poor-the agricultural poor. Then I would ask him what lighted the recent torches of the incendiary?——— And who will not answer-Hunger!-torturing hunger!-maddening hunger!-Hunger raging over and devouring the famished, the shivering, the despairing, the death-stricken children of the soil! But, gentlemen, I need not go to manufacturing, nor to large agricultural districts, to produce examples of the wretched and unemployed poor we already have. Look down from the bridge of this town upon the Quay, where, we all remember, Commerce once went merry as a marriage-bell, and busy as a Carnival-and what do you behold now? I will not tell you to look at a few dead vessels—a very few and those few a dead weight to their owners-filling the shores with invaluable Ballast !-Ballast !-Ballast !-But I would bid you look upon those half frozen groups of ill-clad men, with their hands thrust in their bosoms-wandering to and fro over a little space, that their benumbed limbs, cold with the season and colder with hunger, sink not under them. And these men have families— they have human hearts, they have fathers' feelings-and their children are gnashing their teeth for food. These men were once cotters or labourers on the grounds of those who met at Greenlaw, till utter want of field and country employment, or the total inadequacy of their miserable pittance of seven or eight shillings a week to support themselves and family, drove them to this town, where they nowstarve! These things are these things have been for years,—yet Mr. Hay tells us, the poor will only then be unemployed!-True, the mere passing of the Reform Bill will not give them employment,— but the measures which will and must be adopted by a free, reformed parliament of the people, will find them employment. So much for the arguments of Mr. Hay. Mr. FEUAR-Famous!As sure as death, that's capital, Mr. Timpin. I'll hae my breath out in a little, but I see the Doctor's upon the fidgets. Dr. AYTON-Gentlemen, considering the weakness of the Reform cause, considering that it has nothing upon its side-but the King -the Commons--a considerable portion of the Lords-and the whole people of England, Scotland, and Ireland,-I say considering this poor, weak, ill-supported cause, we have reason to rejoice, that all the landed proprietors of Berwickshire were not at this immense and all-powerful, nation-saving meeting. But if even all the property had been there, this consolation would have been left, there was none of the talent for almost every orator confessed, and was very sorry, he had no abilities. The first resolution was moved by Lord Dunglass ; now, as to whether his lordship be young or old,-dark or fair,—tall or short-married or a bachelor, a widower or a wooer,-I am unable to enlighten your understanding; but his lordship delivered one of those clever, ready-made speeches, which was delivered at a Tory meeting with applause,―might have been delivered at a Whig one with cheers,-and by a radical multitude been encored. He said it was the duty of every one at this moment to come forward and range himself under the banners of saving his country. So say we Reformers--so say insatiable radicals. He said he was sure every one present loved the king. So do we Reformers,-so do Radicals-the whole nation is a prayer of-Long live King William and God bless him! He said we had a glorious constitution, but it had defects. So say we, so say radicals. This was what I call a cleverly, wellconceived, most convenient speech. George Baillie, Esq. younger of Jerviswoode, after saying that his Lordship after his clever speech had left nothing for him to say-said he was sure the present system in England had contributed greatly to the wealth and prosperity of the country-this would be admitted on all sides."Doubtless it will be admitted,-I admit-you admit-all the world admits, that the present perfect system has crushed us beneath an onerous load of debt, amounting nearly to a thousand millions!—A very pretty sum, gentlemen, to swagger with in sovereigns in your breeches' pocket!I hope you all admit, that debt is the only and infallible criterion of real wealth and prosperity. If any proofs be wanting to establish the fact of our wealth and prosperity-as Mr. Baillie did not bring forward those proofs-I will. Is not our soil rich? Is not our climate adapted to that soil? Do they not rear the |
