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close of the same year, a still larger and more enthusiastic assemblage took place at Clermont, the capital of lower Auvergne. Individuals from all parts of France and Germany flocked to the deliberations, which were held in an open square, for no apartment could contain the throng, the crowds, indeed, being forced to abide in tents, &c. On the eighth day of their sitting, the Pope addressed them from an elevated platform, and by his forcible appeal to their piety and their passions, wrought up their enthusiasm to the highest pitch. When he had concluded, cries of "Deus Vult!" «Deus le Vult!" "Deus el Vult!" resounded from every mouth. "It is the will of God!" was re-echoed by all; and Urban ordered that it should be their battle cry. "God wills, my children, that you should redeem his favoured land from pollution. The weak and infirm will remain in Europe, the rich will succour the poor, and my benediction shall attend you. Let every one wear on his breast or back the sign of the cross of our Lord, for he who takes not up his cross and follows him, is not worthy of him." Thus concluded the head of the visible church, and groans, acclammations, tears, and applause, were the responses of the throng. The multitude knelt, Cardinal Gregory petitioned heaven for their prosperity, and the Pope absolved and blessed them. Adhemar, bishop of Puy, was the first who received the sacred badge; and the proceedings concluded, after declaring the Truce of God perpetual from the evening of Wednesday till the morning of the succeeding Monday, and receiving the announcement of the accession of Raymond, Count of Thoulouse, to their cause.

AN INN.

FROM AN OLD PLAY.

No, Tom! an' I had from the empress Fortune
A roving license to go sail and seek

The galleon Pleasure, o'er the world's high sea,
Believe me, I'd content me to cast anchor
I' the land-locked harbour of a cozy tavern,
And bring her in with topsails to the wind,
Upon a spring-tide of such gallant liquor
As right Geneva,-Nantz Entire-or, may be,
The blood the cane of isles i' the Indian Sea
Yields-like the Spaniard of the rich Peru
By squeezing!

By the rood! an' your house were a hotbed,
Where pleasures grew as rife as chickweed, Tom,
I'd rather seek for joy within a hostell;—
For, to be worth the winning, you must get it
With less of trouble in the seeking for't

Than a good liar has in telling out
His fancy's coinage!

Line but thy doublet's pouch with ducats, man;
Place thee thy toe before the blazing log;
Pull down the curtain to keep in the light;
Cry "drawer" in a laughing lusty tone;
And if as much of pleasure's dear ubiquity
Be with thee not as e'er thou had'st at once-
Soon as the foaming or the smoking jug
Sails gaily in-I am then, Tom, indeed,
A shotten herring, or a skinless eel!

THE MOORISH CHIEFTAIN, ABDARAMAN'S,

ADDRESS TO THE

First Palm-Tree introduced into Spain, and transplanted, at its full growth, to Cordova.*

Like me, a stranger in this land, my country's spreading palm,
In thee I see my exiled type, though round thee breathing balm,
Even Algarabe's delicious airs come, kissing as they woo
Thy top that heavenward climbs, howe'er thy root be sheltered too.
Yet thou, though e'er so rich thy soil, thy stems though spreading
free,

Would shed the drops of bitterness, if thou couldst turn like me
And backward look upon the time that never comes again,
And the home that both have left, for aye, across the sandy plain!

But thou feelest not the wrongs of Fate, while 'neath thy kindred trees,

Whose roots the Forat's waters lave, I've nursed the heart's disease,
And wept my cruel fortune when the Abbasides more stern,
Made me forsake the land for which I yet so fondly yearn.

These palms have other leaves, that stream another rolling wave
Than what o'erheard my sighs, or bore my tears to their deep grave,
Like them, my country, thou retain'st no memory of me,
But silent shall this tongue be ere I cease to mourn for thee!

* See Southey's Sketch, Foreign Review, No. I.

LETTER

TO THE

HONOURABLE THE LORD PROVOST,

ON THE

Condition of Public Amusements in Glasgow, particularly with reference to the DRAMA.

MY LORD,

That I address you on the topics which the title of my letter points out, is certainly not because I presume you to have any predilection towards unbending from the cares and dignities of your high office in the enjoyment of those species of amusement which are usually termed public.

Although, from principle, I may almost say, as well as from taste, a tolerably constant frequenter of the resorts of these, when they promise to yield gratification to the one, without interfering with a tolerably systematic attention to the dictates of the other, it has not often been my fortune to meet with you among the throngs which occasionally do fill our Theatre and concert rooms, either before or since you attained the office, which no one more readily than myself will admit, you confer as well as receive an honour from sustaining.

Whether this, in the former case, is to be accounted for by your being a happy and domestic man, and, in the latter, by the rigid attention which you pay to the very minutest part of your civic duty, I know not, but regarding your Lordship as the ostensible leader of the town, so long as you hold an office, which, in Scotland, implies the right to so much more of aristocratic dignity and fashionable influence than even in the only two cities of England, which permit their chief magistrate to prefix the title of Lord to that of his civic name, is ever accorded to the holders of it, I beg permission, with every possible respect, to submit to you a few facts and considerations, which, I trust, I shall be able to show, are of importance enough, in so far as regards their subject, to render it neither inconsistent with the gravity of your station, nor value of your time, to condescend to notice them.

The character of a vast city's population, it will not be denied, must, in no inconsiderable degree, be modified by the influence of those pursuits with which it occupies the leisure that all in a greater or less degree possess. If that portion of time is, in the great majority of cases, employed in purely intellectual pursuits, the character of the popu

lation will be proportionably elevated, and intelligence will spread, and useful discoveries will be made, while health, comfort, and tranquillity will generally prevail, however dense the multitude of human beings congregated there. It is possible to conceive that what many have hitherto regarded as an Utopian dream, may yet be realized, and that our native city may attain this philosophical character for all its inhabitants. But it is in the meantime surely worthy of consideration, whether that portion of them who are as yet unable totally to elevate themselves above that craving for repose or an amusement, which shall but gently stimulate the intellect, or excite the physical energies, that seems so natural after severe labour of either mind or body, should not have opportunities furnished them of experiencing these agreeable sensations in a which shall at once be cheapest, or most easily obtained— permanently satisfying-and least deteriorating to the intellectual and bodily strength of the individual, and consequent general character of the population.

manner

Of that general character, you are the ostensible conservator, my Lord, not merely in that you are at the head of our civil and criminal police, but because we have been accustomed habitually to regard our chief magistrate as also our chief man. The amusements of your fellowcitizens, then, are not unworthy of your magisterial patronage and supervision, for, believe me, if more remotely and less obviously, yet not less surely will they have an influence upon general demeanour and appearance, but even upon particular examples of interference or coincidence with the public peace, as great as the Regulations for Pot-Houses, or Sabbath-day's traffic in spirituous liquors.

What, then, is the present condition of those places set apart for the more elaborate species of public diversion?

Although yielding a revenue to the city, I, of course, will not even glance at the mid-summer exhibitions which are now permitted to creep into the character of autumnal resorts, or their Caledonian prototype in vulgarity and filth-nor will I complain that Golf is obstructed, Fives forbidden, Cricket jealously watched, and Swiming confined to the sooty part of the population, for want of due accommodation, since these come not within my range. I shall at once and briefly advert to the Exhibitions-the Concerts-the Assemblies-and the Plays of Glasgow for under these, as we have neither horse nor boat races-reviews nor open-air spectacles of any kind—

our brief list of public diversions, to which either gentility or taste can resort, is easily comprised.

Our only exhibition, connected with the fine arts, at present is a tawdry daub of the Battle of Bannockburn, &c. which sends round its compartments and its sickening puffs in regular peristrephic-I believe that is the word-and daily revolution. What has become of the "Institution for the Encouragement of the Fine Arts in the West of Scotland ?"-Where be its titled patrons-its formidable committees-its list of subscribers-and its elegant and convenient hall? The latter is now a snug enough attic dwelling, and the former are, I must presume, truly Attic too. But as a Dilletanti Society, it is said, has recently elected itself into existence, or been called into being by some spirit that has moved upon our chaos of indifference to art, I shall say no more upon the subjects, of which we must suppose them to be conversant, than that their name is a sounding one-and the public, when they hear it, will naturally look for evidence of its being also potent. I shall wait.

Our Concerts?-Have we any, my Lord?-Could all the efforts of Mr. Archibald Hunter, and other scientific amateurs, keep up the subscriptions for one poor series of six per annum? When individuals tried the speculation, Dewar and Seymour's exertions did not succeed better than the machinery of committees in generating a taste for music, above mere ballad-singing, in Glasgow. We first heard the strains of Weber in a concert given by the members of one spirited professional family alone. And as for our Assemblies, my Lord, although I have seen your predecessor dance with both grace and glee, I have not yet had the pleasure of witnessing any saltatory effort of yours, for, in sober seriousness, a Glasgow Assembly is far too heavy an affair willingly to be encountered by any one who is not admitted into the half-dozen coteries of which it is made up, or who cannot dance "Cowcuddy," as I have seen it performed by a favourite wag, to the air of "Come to Kippen, Davy." But even his freaks it seems could not attract the ladies last winter, for, on one occa sion, there were but six on the floor an hour after the dancing was to have begun.

I come now to advert to the condition of our Theatre. In brief, then, it is ruinous and dilapidated—neglected and comfortless-and, of consequence, our theatrical attendance and our taste are on an equality of apathy and wretchedness. As for our amusements, they only astonish me in

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