The Mermaid. BY DR. JOHN LEYDEN. ON Jura's heath, how sweetly swell But softer, floating o'er the deep, The mermaid's sweet sea-soothing lay, That charmed the dancing waves to sleep, Before the bark of Colonsay. Aloft the purple pennons wave, As, parting gay from Crinan's shore, From Morven's wars the seamen brave Their gallant chieftain homeward bore. In youth's gay bloom, the brave Macphail Still blamed the lingering bark's delay; For her he chid the flagging sail, The lovely Maid of Colonsay. And "raise," he cried, "the song of love, "When on this ring of ruby red Shall die," she said, "the crimson hue, Now, lightly poised, the rising oar "Softly blow, thou western breeze, Before my love, sweet western gale: "Where the wave is tinged with red, "If, from that unbottomed deep, With wrinkled form and wreathed train, O'er the verge of Scarba's steep, The sea-snake heave his snowy mane, "Unwarp, unwind his oozy coils, Sea-green sisters of the main, And, in the gulf where ocean boils, The unwieldy wallowing monster chain. "Softly blow, thou western breeze, Softly rustle through the sail ! Soothe to rest the furrowed seas, Before my love, sweet western gale!" Thus, all to soothe the chieftain's woe, He seemed her parting sigh to hear. The lonely deck he paces o'er, Impatient for the rising day, The moonbeams crisp the curling surge, Their course, a female form was seen. That sca-maid's form of pearly light Borne on a foamy-crested wave, She reached amain the bounding prow, Then clasping fast the chieftain brave, She, plunging, sought the deep below. Ah! long beside thy feignèd bier, The monks the prayers of death shall say, And long, for thee, the fruitless tear Shall weep the Maid of Colonsay! But downwards, like a powerless corse, The eddying waves the chieftain bear; He only heard the moaning hoarse. Of waters, murmuring in his ear. The murmurs sink by slow degrees; No more the surges round him rave; In dreamy mood reclines he long, Nor dares his trancèd eyes unclose; Till, warbling wild, the sca-maid's song Far in the crystal cavern rose; Soft as that harp's unseen control, In morning dreams which lovers hear, Whose strains steal sweetly o'er the soul, But never reach the waking car. As sunbeams through the tepid air, When clouds dissolve the dews unseen, Smile on the flowers that bloom more fair, And fields that glow with livelier green; So melting soft the music fell; 66 It seemed to soothe the fluttering spray Say, heardst thou not these wild notes swell?" Like one that from a fearful dream Yet fears to find the vision true, He heard that strain so wildly sweet, "This yellow sand, this sparry cave, Compare to her of Colonsay?" Roused by that voice of silver sound, Her pearly comb the siren took, And careless bound her tresses wild; Still o'er the mirror stole her look, As on the wondering youth she smiled. Like music from the greenwood tree, Again she raised the melting lay;"Fair warrior, wilt thou dwell with me, And leave the Maid of Colonsay? "Fair is the crystal hall for me, With rubies and with emeralds set; And sweet the music of the sea Shall sing, when we for love are met. "How sweet to dance with gliding feet Along the level tide so green; Responsive to the cadence sweet, That breathes along the moonlight scene! "And soft the music of the main Rings from the motley tortoise-shell; While moonbeams, o'er the watery plain, Seem trembling in its fitful swell. "How sweet, when billows heave their head, And shake their snowy crests on high, Serene in Ocean's sapphire-bed, Beneath the tumbling surge to lie; "To trace, with tranquil step, the deep, "Then shall the summer sun, from far, Pour through the wave a softer ray; While diamonds, in a bower of spar, At eve shall shed a brighter day. "Nor stormy wind, nor wintry gale, That o'er the angry ocean sweep, Shall c'er our coral groves assail, Calm in the bosom of the deep. "Through the green meads beneath the sea, Though bright thy locks of glistering gold, And when the moon went down the sky, Fair maiden of the foamy main! Thy life-blood is the water cold, While mine beats high in every vein. "If I beneath thy sparry cave, Should in thy snowy arms recline, Inconstant as the restless wave, My heart would grow as cold as thine." As cygnet down, proud swelled her breast, Is there no heart for rapture here? "These limbs, sprung from the lucid sea, Does no warm blood their currents fill: No heart-pulse riot, wild and free, To joy, to love's delirious thrill?" "Though all the splendour of the sea Around thy faultless beauty shine, That heart that riots wild and free, Can hold no sympathy with mine. "These sparkling eyes, so wild and gay, "Even now, within the lonely isle, Her eyes are dim with tears for me; And canst thou think that siren smile Can lure my soul to dwell with thee?" An oozy film her limbs o'erspread; Unfolds in length her scaly train: She tossed, in proud disdain, her head, And lashed, with webbed fin, the main. "Dwell here alone!" the mermaid cried, "And view far off the sea-nymphs play; Thy prison wall, the azure tide, 66 Shall bar thy steps from Colonsay. 'Whene'er, like Ocean's scaly brood, I cleave, with rapid fin, the wave, Far from the daughter of the flood, Conceal thee in this coral cave. "I feel my former soul return; It kindles at thy cold disdain : And has a mortal dared to spurn A daughter of the foamy main?" She fled; around the crystal cave The rolling waves resume their road; On the broad portal idly rave, But enter not the nymph's abode. And oft beneath the silver moon, And oft, to many a melting tune, The shell-formed lyres of ocean ring. Still rose, in dreams, his native plain, And oft he thought his love was by, And charmed him with some tender strain. And heart-sick, oft he waked to weep, When ceased that voice of silver sound; And thought to plunge him in the deep, That walled his crystal cavern round. But still the ring of ruby red Retained its vivid crimson hue; When seven long lonely months were gone, "O give to me that ruby ring, That on thy finger glances gay, Except thou quit thy former love, And when I here return again, I plight my faith to dwell with thee." An oozy film her limbs o'erspread, While slow unfolds her scaly train. Proud swells her heart! she deems, at last, In softer, sweeter strains she sung, O sad the mermaid's gay notes feil, And ever as the year returns, The charm-bound sailors know the day; For sadly still the mermaid mourns The lovely Chief of Colonsay. י outbreak of nullification, so hardly compromised sixteen years ago, will convert grumbling into resistance, resistance into revolt, and revolt into separation. The vanity of the American is a truly national feeling, equally shared by northern and southern men. When he visits another country, not content with following out the nil admirari system, or of damning a wonder by faint praise, he runs down everything he sees, and runs up its parallel in his own land. He cannot content himself with claim ing a due admiration for the enterprise and industry of his country, and for the grandeur and beauty of his father-land, but he must have it admitted to be beyond all others excellent-the finest nation between the poles. Self-respect is the proper virtue of every nation and every human being. Without it no nation, and no individual, can rise to eminence, or endure through difficulties and dangers; but carried to an excess, it either tyrannizes over the opinion of the world, or excites ridicule from society. To a certain extent self-adulation was not unsuited to the rise of the republic: "the necessity for it no longer exists." It is difficult enough, even in old monarchical states, to retain under one rule, and one system of legislation, nations diverse in their habits and their pursuits under a republican government that difficulty is fearfully increased. The case of the United States is in point. We have so long been used to regard that vast assemblage of states as one people, that we are hardly aware how completely divided in territory, in pursuits, and in manners, the southern states are from their northern brethren. Following the course of the Potomac, from the Bay of Chesapeak until it runs into the Ohio, and then along that vast stream until it falls into the vaster Mississippi, with the exception of the one small state of Maryland, we have the line of demarcation between the northern free, and the southern slaveholding states. According to the population re turns of 1840, four states, Maine, Massachusetts, Vermont, and Michigan-with a population of more than a million and a half-had not one slave among "Good policy," says Sam Slick," dictated the expetheir inhabitants. Seven more states, New Hamp-diency of cultivating this self-complacency in the people, shire, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, Penn- however much good taste might forbid it. As their sylvania, Ohio, and Indiana-combining a popula- constitution was based on self-government, it was intion of nearly seven millions-retained but one dispensable to raise the people in their own estimation, hundred slaves between them. Two other northern and to make them feel the heavy responsibility that rested states, Illinois and New Jersey, still retained about upon them, in order that they might qualify themselves a thousand slaves, among a population of above for the part they were to act. As they were weak, it eight hundred thousand. Thus, to the northward was needful to confirm their courage by strengthening of the river line before described, thirteen states, elevate their tone of mind, by constantly setting before their self-reliance. As they were poor, it was proper to claiming nine millions and a half of the popula- them their high destiny; and as their republic was tion of the United States, some entirely, some viewed with jealousy and alarm in Europe, it was imgradually, may be claimed as practical advocates portant to attach the nation to it, in the event of aggres and approvers of the cause of abolition. To the sion, by extolling it above all others. The first generasouth of this river line lie twelve states of slave- tion, to whom all this was new, has now passed away; holders, to whom one small state to the north of the second has nearly disappeared, and with the novelty, that line Maryland—must be added to complete the excess of national vanity which it necessarily engenthe slave-holding states. These thirteen states ders will cease also."- Vol. i. p. 248. number little more than half the population of those to the north, unless to their four million and ble. Were the men of character and property, of We wish that we could believe this to be probaa half of whites be added more than half that numwhom America may justly be proud, the real rulers ber (2,480,000) slaves. In production and commerce the line of demarcation is equally clear. of the people, there would be little fear but that The southern states look to their cotton and this, as well as many other of the distinguishing their tobacco, the northern foster their young mavices of the people, would gradually disappear, and nufactures; the former export more than two-thirds the states be once more restored to their proper of the exports of the domestic produce of the coun- Washington, Franklin, and the virtuous of their station among nations. There was a time when try, the latter export more than four-fifths of foreign produce exports. "Protect our young manufac- contemporaries, were regarded as the examples of tures," cries the northern man, "and give us a high the people; when a breach of decorum in the legistariff, to aid us in combating with the matured pro-Senate was not the only body in which the respectlature was sure of public reprobation; when the ductions of the old country." able members of society were to be found, but when even the state legislatures-the present state beargardens were supported and honoured by their presence. Distinguished individuals still ornament America, still consent to stand as candidates for her officers. "But these excellent persons," says Mr. Featherstonhaugh, "with exceptions so few that they are scarcely worth enumerating, are rarely participators in the government of the country; for where the popular party predominates, they are excluded by the possession of those very qualifications that fit them for that high purpose. That the root of this evil was planted in very early years no one can doubt to whom the opinions f Jefferson are known." A tariff for revenue, not for protection," exclaims the man of the southern states: " you northern men can neither supply me with what I require for my slaves so cheap as England can, nor consume so much of my cotton and tobacco." In interests so diverse as these, the elements of separation are too strong to be long restrained by a democratic government. Give but a little more strength to the southern states, such as the addition of Texas would cause, and the next 1 Excursion through the Slave States, from Washington to the Frontiers of Mexico. By C.W.Featherstonhaugh. London: Murray. 1844. The Attaché; or, Sam Slick in England. Second Series. Bentley. 1845. Lyell's Travels in America. London: 1845. Few persons are aware how diverse the Ameri- the colonists; nor did the victory of the plains of cans of the present day are to those who followed Abraham restore that reputation; for the eight the banner of Washington, and how completely years that had elapsed, had accustomed the colonist they are the children of his compatriot Jefferson. to look upon his own colonial troops as the fit Justifying or not the declaration of our colonists, comrades in the field of the trained legions of the no unprejudiced person can deny to Washington old country. the character of the highest personal and political The victory of Quebec closed the war and the morality. Far different is his compeer and rival, French dominion in America. During the whole of Jefferson. No one has gone so far to poison the that contest the colonists had fought well and minds of his countrymen with principles utterly constantly for the maintenance of their possessions; subversive of society, and that at a time when, from had materially assisted the mother country in the the excited state of men's minds, these deleterious subjugation of the French possessions. What was principles were sure of the most extended and their reward?-the Stamp Act. It would have powerful effects on mankind. One-half, too, of the taken but little to have won the love of the colonists, colonists of America were bred up to hail rebellion at least of the best among them. They were conas their friend. The descendant of the English re-scious of the debt they owed to England for their publican proved himself no mean pupil of his an- defence; but they could not forget the assistance they had rendered in the arduous struggle; they could not forget that a colonial officer had rescued the defeated army of Bradock: and they weighed the services of Washington with the boon of selftaxation. cestor. 66 "The origin of the British colonists," says Mr. Featherstonhaugh, may be divided into two classes; those enterprising and speculative adventurers who went to Virginia in pursuit of wealth; and the Puritans, who left their native country for the sake of enjoying freedom of opinion. The southern, or Virginian colony, became in all material circumstances a copy of the mother country. Religion was established according to the form and discipline of the Church of England; each parish had its glebe and parsonage, and primogeniture and entails were the law of the land. Indeed, the broadest foundations appeared to have been laid for a loyal administration of the province, if the government at home, attending carefully to the development of its prosperity, had given to those individuals, distinguished for their intelligence and the stake they held there, a just share in the honours and advantages of their terri-discreet; it revealed to the colonists the weakness torial government."-Vol. ii. pp. 375, 376. It would have taken but little to have secured the loyalty of the southern colonists. To have shared a few of the colonial honours which were lavished on the needy hangers-on of the home nobility; to have been assured of the kind feeling of the mother country; to have seen their church fostered and supported, would have knit the southern Americans in an indissoluble bond to the home government. But when the direct contrary of all this was experienced by them, are we to be surprised that they so early sided with the naturally disaffected of the northern provinces? Naturally disaffected! Yes, the Puritan colonist of Massachusetts was naturally disaffected. His fathers had sought that land as refugees from spiritual tyranny, and had hastened to erect in their new country a spiritual tyranny of their own. The Puritan persecution of the Quakers, and the reputed witches, clearly showed that their religious freedom was freedom to think as the elders of the colonial churches thought; but persecution, most bitter persecution to whosoever should dare to question the dicta of the saints of Massachusetts. To them the Church was odious, as interfering with their spiritual rule: to them the State was odious, as able and willing to arrest their persecuting hands, and daring to contravene the edicts of the preachers. The love of spiritual and political independence became rooted in them, silent, indeed, for a time, until it burst forth in the rebellion of '75. .The commencement of the seven years' war with France, for the first time united the northern and southern colonists in the defence of their country, The defeat of General Bradock, in 1755, lessened the reputation of the British troops in the eyes of It is, strictly speaking, unjust to the memory of Mr. Grenville to speak of the "menace of the Stamp Act." That minister reasonably looked to the colonies for some contribution towards the annual expense of the American civil list, increased since the war five-fold. In this there was justice, but not prudence. In his announcing the Stamp Act among his resolutions of March, '61, and at the same time withdrawing that particular clause for a year, to give the colonists "the option of raising that, or some other tax," he was highly in of the minister's position. The greatest fault was the omission of rewards at the time he was pressing his demands. If the mother country had the legal right to ask for contribution from her colonists for services rendered, the colonists had an equitable claim on the mother country for their share in the war. But let us hasten on. The standard of rebellion was raised; the colonist who rescued the relics of Bradock's troops headed his fellows-the war lingered through mismanagement-the war closed--England retired from the scene of her disasters. There was at least this consolation: the government of the young republic was committed to one, whose public and private virtues seemed to guarantee the future character of the nation he was to organize and form. Mr. Jefferson was to counteract the principles of Washington. A Virginian by birth, educated as a lawyer by one of the bitterest political opponents of the government, he astonished even the legislature of his native state, when he commenced his carcer as a legislator, by introducing a bill to make an opening, as he boasted, for the aristocracy of virtue and talent, by reducing entailed estates into estates in fee simple. Some few among the Virginian legislators ventured to oppose his leveiling act: his answer was ready: "The eldest son could have no claim, in reason, to twice as much as his brothers and sisters, unless he could eat twice es much, and do double work." This reason was decisive, and entails were abolished in Virginia. Such was Jefferson's first step. His next was naturally directed against the Church. All sects were to be on the same footing as her. First came the suspension of the laws regulating the incomes of the clergy; next came their abolition whilst, to complete the overthrow, the overseers of |