into his fancy as Tom Moore: that his soul seemed as if it were a particle of fire separated from the sun, and was always fluttering to get back to that source of light and heat. »

Towards the autumn of 1803, Mr Moore embarked for Bermuda ;' where he had obtained the appointment of Registrar to the Admiralty. This was a patent place, and of a description so unsuitable to his temper of mind, that he soon found it expedient to fulfil the duties of it by a deputy, with whom, in consideration of circumstances, he consented to divide the profits accruing from it. From this situation, however, he never derived any emolument; though, a few years since, he suffered some pecuniary inconvenience, owing to the misconduct of his deputy. Alluding to his trip across the Atlantic, in a work published soon after his return to Europe, he says: Though curiosity, therefore, was certainly not the motive of my voyage to America, yet it happened that the gratification of curiosity was the only advantage which I derived from it. Having remained about a week at New York,» he continues, << where I saw Madame, the half repudiated wife of Jerome Buonaparte, and felt a slight shock of an earthquake, the only things that particularly awakened my attention, I sailed again for Norfolk, where I proceeded on my tour northward through Williamsburgh, Richmond,» etc. In October 1804, he quitted America on his return to England, in the Boston frigate, commanded by Capt. Douglas, whom he has highly eulogized for his attention during the voyage. In 1806, he published his remarks on the Manners and Society of America, in a work entitled Odes and Epistles. The preface to this little work sufficiently evinced the talent of Mr Moore as a writer of prose.

The fate of Addison with his Countess Dowager holding out no encouragement for the ambitious love of Mr Moore, he wisely and happily allowed his good taste to regulate his

The scene of Shakspeare's inimitable tragedy of « The Tempest,» is said to have been laid in the island of Bermuda,

choice in a wife, and some years ago married Miss Dyke, a lady of great personal beauty, most amiable disposition, and accomplished manners, in whose society he passes much of his time in retirement at his cottage near Devizes, diversified by occasional visits to London. To complete this picture of domestic happiness, he is the father of several lovely children, on whose education he bestows the most judicious and attentive care.

Mr Moore appears equally to have cultivated a taste for music as well as for poesy, and the late celebrated Dr Burney was perfectly astonished at his talent, which he emphatically called « peculiarly his own.» Nor has he neglected those more solid attainments which should ever distinguish the well-bred gentleman, for he is an excellent general scholar, and particularly well read in the literature of the middle ages. His conversational powers are great, and his modest and unassuming manners have placed him in the highest rank of cultivated society.

The celebrated poem of Lalla Rookh appeared in 1817; in the summer of which year our poet visited the French capital, where he collected the materials for that humorous production, The Fudge Family in Paris.» In the following year, he went to Ireland, on which occasion a dinner was given to him, on the 8th of June, 1818, at Morrison's Hotel in Dublin, which was graced by a large assemblage of the most distinguished literary and political characters. The Earl of Charlemont took the head of the table; Mr Moore sat on his right hand, and Mr Moore sen. (since dead), a venerable old gentleman, the father of our bard, was on his left. As soon as the cloth was removed, Non nobis, Domine, was sung by the vocalists present; numerous loyal and patriotic toasts followed. The Earl of Charlemont then proposed the memory of the late lamented Princess Charlotte, which was drank in solemn silence, after which a sweet and plaintive song was sung, in commemoration of her late Royal Highness. After

a short interval, the Earl of Charlemont again rose, and, with a suitable eulogium, proposed the health of the distinguished Irishman who had honoured the country with his preWhen the applause had subsided, Mr Moore rose much affected, and spoke to the following effect :

sence.

« I feel this the very proudest moment of my whole life; to receive such a tribute from an assembly like this around me, composed of some of the warmest and manliest hearts that Ireland can boast, is indeed a triumph that goes to my very heart, and awakens there all that an Irishman ought to feel, whom Irishmen like you have selected for such a distinction. —Were my merits a hundred times beyond what the partiality of the noble chairman has invested me with, this moment, this golden moment of my life, would far exceed them all. There are some among you, gentlemen, whose friendship has been the strength and ornament, the 'dulce decus' of my existence; who, however they differ from my public sentiments, have never allowed that transient ruffle on the surface to impede the progress of the deep tide of friendship beneath; men who feel that there is something more sacred than party, and whose noble natures, in the worst of times, would come out of the conflict of public opinion, like pebbles out of the ocean, but more smooth and more polished from their asperities by the very agitation in which they had been revolving. To see them beside me on a day like this, is pleasure that lies too deep for words. To the majority of you, gentlemen, I am unknown; but as your countryman, as one who has ventured to touch the chords of Ireland's Harp, and whose best fame is made out of the echoes of their sweetness; as one whose humble talents have been ever devoted and, with the blessing of God, ever shall be devoted to the honour and advancement of his country's name; whose love for that country, even they, who condemn his manner of showing it, will at least allow to be sincere, and perhaps for→ give its intemperance for its truth setting him down as

'one who loved, not wisely, but too well:'-to most of you, gentlemen, I say, I am but thus known. We have hitherto been strangers to each other; but may I not flatter myself that from this night a new era of communion begins between us? The giving and receiving of a tribute like this is the very hot-bed of the heart, forcing at once all its feeling into a fulness of fruit, which it would take years of ordinary ripening to produce; and there is not a man of you who has pledged the cup of fellowship this night, of whom I would not claim the privilege of grasping by the hand, with all the cordiality of a long and well-cemented friendship. I could not say more if I were to speak for ages. With a heart full as this glass, I thank you for your kindness to me, and have the sincere gratification of drinking all your healths. >>

Lord Allen gave « the memory of Mr Curran;» on which a very modest, pathetic, and eloquent speech was delivered by his son, in a tone and manner that produced the most lively emotion throughout the room.

A gentleman afterwards sang a lively and well-written song, composed for the occasion. The subject was the poets' Election in Olympus, at which there were several candidates, such as Byron, Scott, Southey, etc.; but which ended in a due return of Moore, who had a great majority of votes. This jeu d'esprit produced much merriment, and the health of the author was drank with applause.

Lord Charlemont then gave the living Poets of Great Britain;' on which Mr Moore said :

"

Gentlemen, notwithstanding the witty song which you have just heard, and the flattering elevation which the author has assigned me, I cannot allow such a mark of respect to be paid to the illustrious names that adorn the literature of the present day, without calling your attention awhile to the singular constellation of genius, and asking you to dwell a little on the brightness of each particular star that forms it. Can I name to you a Byron, without recalling to your hearts

recollections of all that his mighty genius has awakened there; his energy, his burning words, his intense passion, that disposition of fine fancy to wander only among the ruins of the heart, to dwell in places which the fire of feeling has desolated, and, like the chesnut-tree, that grows best in volcanic soils, to luxuriate most where the conflagration of passion has left its mark? Need I mention to you a Scott, that fertile and fascinating writer, the vegetation of whose mind is as rapid as that of a northern summer, and as rich as the most golden harvest of the south, whose beautiful creations succeed each other like fruits in Armida's enchanted garden'one scarce is gathered ere another grows!' Shall I recal to you a Rogers (to me endeared by friendship as well as genius), who has hung up his own name on the shrine of memory among the most imperishable tablets there? A Southey, not the Laureate, but the author of «Don Roderick,» one of the noblest and most eloquent poems in any language? A Campbell, the polished and spirited Campbell, whose song of «Innisfal» is the very tears of our own Irish muse, crystalized by the touch of genius, and made eternal? A Wordsworth, a poet, even in his puerilities, whose capacious mind, like the great pool of Norway, draws into its vortex not only the mighty things of the deep, but its minute weeds and refuse? A Crabbe, who has shown what the more than galvanic power of talent can effect, by giving not only motion, but life and soul to subjects that seemed incapable of it? I could enumerate, gentlemen, still more, and from thence would pass with delight to dwell upon the living poets of our own land ;-the dramatic powers of a Maturin and a Sheil, the former consecrated by the applause of a Scott and a Byron, and the latter by the tears of some of the brightest eyes in the empire; the rich imagination of a Phillips, who has courted successfully more than one muse- -the versatile genius of a Morgan, who was the first that mated our sweet Irish strains with poetry worthy of their pathos and their force. But I feel I have already