EDWARD, a dramatist of the last century, was the son of a dissenting minister, and was born at Abington in Berkshire in 1712. He followed the business of a linen-draper for some time in London, but was forced by ill fortune to become a literary adventurer. His first poetical work, entitled Fables for the Female Sex (1744), imitated with success the pungency and flowing versification of Gay. It speedily became popular, and secured for its author the patronage of several men of influence. A favour shown him by Lord Lyttelton was the occasion of his next work, a complimentary effusion, styled The Trial of Selim the Persian. Moore then turned his attention to the drama. His two comedies, The Foundling (1748), and Gil Blas (1749), were unsuccessful. But his rare power of riveting the attention by a tale of domestic sorrow secured for his tragedy The Gameter a footing on the stage, which it still retains. It was published in 1753, and has been often reprinted. Hitherto the labours of Moore had not been sufficiently remunerative. He was therefore installed as editor of The World, a periodical which had been established by his friend Lyttelton, for the purpose of affording him a sure income. In this office he continued until the serial was brought to a close in February 1757. By this time sixty-one papers had been contributed by his own hand. He died while the last number of his periodical was passing through the press. A quarto edition of his Poems, Fables, and Plays was published in 1756, and a separate issue of his Dramatic Works appeared in 1788.

Dr John, was the son of a clergyman, and was born at Stirling in the year 1730. He received his medical education at the university of Glasgow, and at the age of seventeen he served with the army in Flanders. After the conclusion of peace, he prosecuted his medical studies at Paris, where he was appointed surgeon to the household of the English ambassador, Lord Albemarle. On his return to Scotland he settled as a surgeon at Glasgow, where he quickly rose to extensive and successful practice.

In the year 1769 he was called, in his medical capacity, to attend the young Duke of Hamilton, which led to his subsequently accompanying the brother of his patient to the Continent. An extensive and long-continued tour through Italy, France, and Germany, opened a wider range to his observation of character than he had hitherto enjoyed. After spending five years abroad, he settled as a physician in London; and about the same time commenced his literary career by publishing the fruits of his travels in his *View of Society and Manners in France, Switzerland, and Germany*, 2 vols., Lond. 1779. This work was so well received, that in 1781 he added to it two volumes, entitled *A View of Society and Manners in Italy*. In 1785 he published his *Medical Sketches*, consisting chiefly of observations on the animal economy and the treatment of fevers. His next performance, which appeared in the year 1789, was a novel entitled *Zeluco*, in which he has exhibited a character so atrocious as rather to excite horror than afford amusement or instruction. It was much admired, however, on its first appearance, and was hailed as a work of very great power.

In 1792 Dr Moore accompanied Lord Lauderdale to Paris, where he witnessed some of the principal scenes of the Revolution, of which he published an interesting account on his return to England, entitled *A Journal of a Residence in France during the Revolution* 1792-4. The same journey supplied him with materials for his *View of the Causes and Progress of the French Revolution*, which was published in 1795. The scenes which Dr Moore had hitherto exhibited, both in his travels and fictitious compositions, were copied from the manners of other countries. The novel of *Edward*, which he published in 1796, is entirely confined to the illustration of our domestic usages and national customs. *Mordauant, or Sketches of Life, Character, and Manners in Various Countries*, possesses something of the same sort of merit as *Edward*, but in an inferior degree. He survived the publication of *Mordauant* only two years, and died at London in 1802. In addition to the works already signalized, Dr Moore published an edition of Smollett's works in 8 vols., with a *Life of the author*, Lond. 1797.

The reputation of Dr Moore with posterity will rest on his travels and novels. As long as they are read, he will be acknowledged as a writer endowed with admirable good sense, a rich vein of original humour, keen insight into human nature, and a capacity of describing its intricacies with force and discernment.

A complete edition of his works, in 7 vols., with a Memoir of his life, was published by Dr Robert Anderson, Edinburgh, 1820.

Sir John, a consummate British general, a brave soldier, and an accomplished gentleman, was born at Glasgow on the 13th of November 1761. He was a son of Dr Moore, the author of *Zeluco* and other works, noticed in the preceding article; and received the principal part of his education on the Continent, whilst his father attended the Duke of Hamilton in his travels. In 1776 the Duke of Hamilton procured him an ensigncy in the 51st regiment, then quartered in Minorca; and he afterwards obtained a lieutenancy in the 82d, with which he served in America until 1783, when he was reduced with his regiment. By the interest of his former patron he was subsequently brought into Parliament for the Lanark district of burghs, which he for a short time represented. In 1787 or 1788 he obtained the rank of major in the fourth battalion of the 60th regiment, then quartered at Chatham, but afterwards negotiated an exchange into the 31st. In 1790 he succeeded by purchase to the lieutenant-colonelcy of the same regiment; which, the following year, he accompanied to Gibraltar. After some other movements, he was sent to Corsica, where, owing to a misunderstanding between the military and naval commanders, General d'Aubant resigned the command to him under the most critical circumstances; and here, though still a young officer, and without parliamentary friends, he was called to fight the battles of the army against a domineering old admiral, Hood, who possessed great influence at home, and who had shown himself capable of the most outrageous violence. By dint of firmness, however, he succeeded in controlling this daring, obstinate, clever man; and was at length relieved from the difficult and embarrassing situation in which he had been placed by the arrival of Sir Charles Stuart, who having assumed the command of the army in 1794, appointed Moore to command the reserve. At the siege of Calvi which followed, the latter particularly distinguished himself, and received his first wound in storming the Mozzello fort. He gave his opinion against besieging Bastia, which afterwards surrendered after a very feeble defence, though the place was strong and the garrison numerous; but this, as a military judgment before the event, was nevertheless sound and just, for Moore never could have anticipated that General Gentili would neglect to avail himself of the means in his power, "because he wished to do his duty and no more," and had property in England.

Sir Charles Stuart having been recalled in consequence of a disagreement with the viceroy, Colonel Moore returned to England in 1795, and being immediately appointed a brigadier-general in the West Indies, he was attached to a brigade of foreign troops, consisting of Choiseul's hussars, and two corps of emigrants. On the 25th of February 1796 he received orders to take charge of and embark with Perryn's brigade, destined to join the expedition to the West Indies under Sir Ralph Abercromby. Having hurried to Portsmouth, where he had scarcely time to prepare a few necessaries, he sailed for the West Indies on the 28th, with no other baggage than a small portmanteau. He arrived at Barbadoes on the 13th of April 1796, and there waited on the commander-in-chief, who had preceded him in the Vengeance line-of-battle ship. That calm and sagacious observer soon appreciated his merit; and in the operations against St Lucia, which immediately followed, employed him in every arduous and difficult service. During the siege of Morne Fortunée, his conduct, as expressed in general orders, was the admiration of the whole army; and after the capitulation he was appointed to the government of the island, notwithstanding he had earnestly requested permission to accompany the commander-in-chief and the troops in the reduction of the other islands. In this situation, beset with all manner of difficulties, his conduct was not less admirable than in the field, and, tempering justice with humanity, the severity of military examples with a due consideration of the circumstances which palliated the conduct of the Negroes and republicans, he subdued discontent, restored order, and re-established security.

Having completely re-established tranquillity in St Lucia, Moore was relieved from the command of the island, and returned to England in August 1797. In November, Sir Ralph Abercromby having received the command of the forces in Ireland, desired that General Moore should be placed on his staff, and the latter accordingly accompanied him to Dublin in the beginning of December. During the period immediately preceding the rebellion he held an important command in the south of Ireland, which, being much disaffected, was considered as the quarter where the enemy were, in the event of an invasion, likely to attempt a landing. His headquarters were at Bandon, and the troops under his command, amounting to 3000 men, formed the advanced guard of the south. When the insurrection broke out in 1798, he was at first employed under Major-General Johnstone at New Ross, but was afterwards detached towards Wexford, at that time in the hands of the insurgents. On this occasion he had only the 60th sharpshooters, 500 light infantry, 50 of Hompesch's dragoons, and 6 pieces of artillery; and with these troops he had not proceeded above a mile when a large body of insurgents appeared on the road advancing to attack him. The rebels, amounting to about 6000 men, headed by one Roche, attacked with great spirit, and maintained the conflict with much obstinacy, but were at length defeated, driven from the field, and pursued with great loss. After the action he was joined by two regiments from Duncannon, and took post for the night upon the ground where the combat had commenced. Next day, when he had resumed his march, he was met by two men from Wexford with proposals on the part of the insurgents to lay down their arms and submit on certain conditions; but General Moore, having no power to treat, declined entertaining these proposals, and continued his march to Wexford, which he delivered from the power of the insurgents. He was afterwards employed to suppress a remnant of the rebellion in Wicklow, where many of the insurgents had taken refuge amongst the mountains and bogs, whence they issued to wage a sort of desultory warfare. Speaking of this affair in his journal, he says, that moderate treatment by the generals, and the preventing of the troops from pillaging and molesting the people, would soon restore tranquillity; that the latter would certainly be quiet if the gentlemen and yeomen would only behave with tolerable decency, and not seek to gratify their ill-humour and revenge upon the poor; and he adds, that he judged their harshness and violence had originally driven the farmers and peasants to revolt, and that they were as ready as ever to renew their former ill-usage of them.

These and other similar observations on the insurrection of 1798, extracted and published from General Moore's journal, do equal honour to his head and heart, evincing the discriminating and unimpassioned sagacity of the statesman, united with that high and liberal feeling which forms the greatest ornament in the character of the accomplished soldier.

Immediately after quitting Ireland, General Moore engaged in the memorable expedition to Holland. The Dutch, whom we sought to rescue from the alleged tyranny of the French government, made common cause with the enemy. They received the French as friends and deliverers, because the House of Orange, aided by Prussia, had destroyed their republic, suppressing their constitution and liberties; and hence, after a short struggle, the Duke of York was obliged to capitulate. But the troops displayed their usual gallantry, particularly those under the command of General Moore, who, after being wounded in the hand and thigh, received a musket-ball in the face, and was with difficulty brought from the ground. Being carried back to his quarters, a distance of 10 miles, he was taken thence to the Helder as soon as he could be moved, and embarked on board the Amethyst frigate, which arrived at the Nore on the 24th of August. Soon after his return to England the King conferred on him the command of a second battalion which had just been added to the 52d regiment; and his wounds having closed in the course of five or six weeks, he joined his brigade at Chelmsford on the 24th of December.

Early in 1800 it had been resolved to send a body of troops to the Mediterranean under the command of Sir Charles Stuart, and General Moore willingly consented to serve under that officer, whom he greatly esteemed. The first intention was, that the expedition should consist of 15,000 men; but it afterwards turned out that the regiments destined for the service, part of which had lately been employed in Holland, mustered only 10,000 effective soldiers. About the middle of March the first division, amounting to 5000 men, embarked under General Pigott. But at this time a change took place in the plan, if not in the destination, of the expedition. Sir Charles Stuart, having some misunderstanding with ministers, resigned his command; and Sir Ralph Abercromby being appointed to succeed him, named as one of his major-generals, Moore, who, along with Pigott and Hutchinson, sailed about the end of April with the second division of the troops. During this expedition, which a variety of causes conspired to render abortive, General Moore had little opportunity of signalizing his exertions; nor was it until the following year, when his troops were ordered to proceed to Egypt under Sir Ralph Abercromby, that a theatre of action opened for the display of his talents. On his arrival at Malta he was sent forward to Jaffa to inspect the Turkish army, and judge as to the amount of co-operation which might be expected from it; but his report being unfavourable, Sir Ralph determined to land in the Bay of Aboukir, and to march immediately upon Alexandria. In the affair of the landing on the 4th of March 1801, in the combat of the 13th, and again in the battle of the 21st, where he received a wound in the leg, General Moore was actively engaged, and as usual, greatly distinguished himself. On recovering from his wound, which occasioned him much suffering, he continued to serve with the army in Egypt until the surrender of Alexandria, when he returned to England, where he received the honour of knighthood and the Order of the Bath.

Soon after his return to England, we find Sir John Moore actively occupied in the camp at Shorncliff, where his skill in training troops was proved to be equal to his courage in leading them. Many persons have been led to suppose that he was a harsh and odious disciplinarian; but this calumny has been refuted by the most irrefragable proof. "The officers of the regiments which were formed by his care," says Sir William Napier (Edinburgh Review, vol. lx.), "were ever after his warmest admirers. His discipline it has been their object to maintain; his maxims have been their guide; his reputation has been by them considered as a part of their own; his memory is cherished in their hearts to this day, and will be as long as those hearts retain an atom of a soldier's pride and honour." Such is the testimony of one who knew him thoroughly; and who, besides his pre-eminent qualifications for judging rightly, had the best opportunities of understanding his views and appreciating his real character.

On the renewal of the war after the short peace of Amiens, Sir John Moore's talents and services pointed him out as deserving of some important employment. He was accordingly sent to Sicily as second in command to Sir John Stuart; and when that officer had been superseded by General Fox, he virtually acquired the chief command in that island. Associated with such a nominal superior, Moore had full scope for the exercise of his ability and sagacity; and indeed his whole proceedings showed that his sense and judgment in civil matters were in no degree inferior to his talents in war.

When Sir John Moore arrived in England from Sicily, he was immediately sent with an expedition to Gottenburg, to aid Gustavus Adolphus IV., King of Sweden, against the encroachments of Napoleon. While engaged on this expedition, he became involved in a grave dispute with the unreasonable Swedish king; and had it not been for the ability and resolution which he displayed on that occasion, 10,000 of the finest soldiers of England would have been sacrificed. We come now to the expedition to Spain, which terminated Sir John Moore's earthly career. In 1808 he was appointed to the chief command of an army to be employed in Spain; and Galicia, or the borders of Leon, were fixed upon as the place for assembling the troops. He was ordered to send the cavalry by land, but it was left to his own discretion to transport the infantry and artillery either by sea or land; and being at the same time informed that 15,000 men were ordered to Corunna under General Sir David Baird, he was directed to give such instructions to that officer as should facilitate the junction of the whole force. Before he commenced his advance from Portugal, he was assured that his entry into Spain would be covered by from 60,000 or 70,000 men; and Burgos was the place fixed on for the junction of the different divisions. But he soon discovered that these assurances were fallacious, that little or no reliance could be placed upon the Spaniards, and that the patriotic enthusiasm which he had been taught to expect in the people had either never existed at all, or had entirely evaporated. Not only Burgos, but Valladolid, was in possession of the enemy; and he found himself, with an advance corps, in an open town, at the distance of only three marches from the French army, without even a Spanish piquet to cover his front. At this time he had only three brigades of infantry, without a single gun in Salamanca; and although the remainder were coming up in succession, the whole could not be assembled in less than ten days. At this critical moment the Spanish armies, instead of concentrating or uniting in a common effort with the British, were disseminated all over the Peninsula; Blake had been defeated, and his army totally dispersed; Romana, equally weak and obstinate, proved incapable of undertaking anything; and Sir David Baird, informed that the French were advancing upon him in two directions, was preparing to retreat upon Corunna, a movement which was countermanded by Sir John Moore, upon learning that the report was unfounded. (See Sir William Napier's History of the Peninsular War, vol. i.) Never was a general commanding an army placed in a more critical position than Sir John Moore; for, whilst he received information that there was now no army remaining in the field except his own, which was thus exposed to attack on all sides by overwhelming numbers, he was called upon to repel the most irritating interference, to guard against open treachery, and to counteract folly, equal in its effects to treachery. Yet, even in these circumstances, he was willing to attempt something for the cause, and even to risk the danger of an advance on the capital. With this view he commenced a forward movement from Salamanca on the 12th of December, intending to attack Soult on the Carrión, draw the mass of the French force towards the north of Spain, and thus afford the Spanish armies time to rally and adopt some new plan of operations. This movement, in a strategical point of view, was ably conceived, and it proved to be well-timed and successful; but Sir John Moore, with 23,000 men, could not maintain himself against the whole French army; and as Napoleon, having secured the capital, was now rapidly advancing at the head of from 60,000 to 70,000 men, a retreat became inevitable. It was now the depth of winter, and the retreat had to be effected through the mountainous region of Galicia, which necessarily led to much suffering and disorder. There were not wanting many who blamed this retreat for precipitancy, but this charge has long since been shown by the best authorities to be unfounded. (See Napier's History, vol. i.)

The rear-guard quitted Astorga on the 1st January; on the 3d it repulsed the enemy in a sharp skirmish at Calcabelos; on the 6th it rejoined the main body at Lugo, having three times checked the pursuers during the march. It suffered no misfortune; and the whole army offered battle at Lugo for two successive days without being accepted. The retreat recommenced; the troops reached Betanzos on the morning of the 10th, and Corunna on the 11th; and five days afterwards fought and won that celebrated battle in which their brave commander fell.

After the fight the British troops embarked and steered home directly from Corunna; a terrible storm scattered it; many ships were wrecked, and the remainder, driving up the Channel, were glad to put into any port. The soldiers, thus thrown on shore, were spread from the Land's End to Dover. Their haggard appearance, ragged clothing, and dirty accoutrements, things common enough in war, struck a people only used to the daintiness of parade with surprise; the usual exaggerations of men just escaped from perils and distresses were increased by the uncertainty in which all were as to the fate of their comrades; a deadly fever, the result of anxiety, and of the sudden change from fatigue to the confinement of a ship, filled the hospitals at every port with officers and soldiers; and thus the miserable state of Sir John Moore's army became the topic of every letter, and a theme for every country newspaper along the coast. The nation, at that time unused to great operations, forgot that war is not a harmless game, and judging of the loss positively instead of comparatively, was thus disposed to believe the calumnies of interested men, who were eager to cast a shade over one of the brightest characters that ever adorned the country. Those calumnies triumphed for a moment; but Moore's last appeal to his country for justice will be successful. And if authority be sought for in a case where reason speaks so plainly, future historians will not fail to remark, that the man whose talents called forth the praises of Soult, of Wellington, and of Napoleon, could be no ordinary soldier.

"Sir John Moore," says Soult, "took every advantage that the country afforded to oppose an active and vigorous resistance, and he finished by dying in a combat that must do credit to his memory." Napoleon more than once affirmed, that if Moore committed a few trifling errors, they were to be attributed to his peculiar situation, for that his talents and firmness alone had saved the English army from destruction. "In Sir John Moore's campaign," said the Duke of Wellington, "I can see but one error; when he advanced to Salamanca he should have considered it as a movement of retreat, and sent officers to the rear to mark and prepare the halting-places for every brigade; but this opinion I have formed after long experience of war, and especially of the peculiarities of a Spanish war, which must have been seen to be understood; finally, it is an opinion formed after the event."

The fall of Sir John Moore is thus described by Captain (now Sir Henry) Hardinge:—"I had been ordered by the commander-in-chief to desire a battalion of the Guards to advance, which battalion was at one time intended to have dislodged a corps of the enemy from a house and garden on the opposite side of the valley; and I was pointing out to the general the situation of the battalion, and our horses were touching, at the moment that a cannon-shot from the enemy's battery carried away his left shoulder and part of the collar-bone, leaving the arm hanging by the flesh. The violence of the stroke threw him off his horse on his back. Not a muscle of his face altered, nor did a sigh betray the least sensation of pain. I dismounted, and, taking his hand, he pressed mine forcibly, casting his eyes anxiously towards the 42d regiment, which was hotly engaged; and his countenance expressed satisfaction when I informed him that the regiment was advancing. Assisted by a soldier of the 42d, he was removed a few yards behind the shelter of a wall. Colonel Graham of Balgowan (Lord Lyndoch) and Captain (now Sir John) Woodford about this time came up, and perceiving the state of Sir John's wound, instantly rode off for a surgeon. The blood flowed fast, but the attempt to stop it with my sash was useless, from the size of the wound. Sir John assented to being removed in a blanket to the rear. In raising him for that purpose, his sword, hanging on the wounded side, touched his arm, and became entangled between his legs. I perceived the inconvenience, and was in the act of unbuckling it from his waist, when he said, in his usual tone and manner, and in a very distinct voice, 'It is as well as it is; I had rather it should go out of the field with me.' When the surgeons arrived, he said to them, 'You can be of no service to me; go to the soldiers, to whom you may be useful.' As he was carried slowly along in the blanket, he made the soldiers by whom he was borne frequently turn him round to view the field of battle, and listen to the firing, and he seemed pleased when the sound grew fainter. On arriving at his lodgings he suffered great pain, and could speak but little; at length, however, he said to Colonel Anderson, who for more than twenty years had been his friend and companion in arms, 'Anderson, you know that I always wished to die in this way.' He frequently asked, 'Are the French beaten?' and when he was told that they had been defeated at every point, he said, 'It is a great satisfaction for me to know that we have beaten the French;' adding, 'I hope the people of England will be satisfied; I hope my country will do me justice.' To Major Stanhope he said, 'Stanhope, remember me to your sister:' and having mentioned the name of his venerable mother, for whom he seemed anxious to offer up his last prayers, he lost all power of utterance, and in a few minutes afterwards expired without a struggle."

Thus fell, on the 16th of January 1809, in the forty-seventh year of his age, after gaining a victory which saved the remainder of the army from destruction, and which, in all its circumstances, was perhaps unparalleled in the annals of war, Lieutenant-General Sir John Moore, a perfect model of a British soldier at a time when such models were few, and a hero cast in the true classical mould. He was equally a stranger to fear and reproach, yet one whom the malignity of faction basely attempted to deprive of his just fame, whilst venal pens endeavoured to depreciate his achievements, and servile poets vainly sought to exclude his name from the list of the brave who had fought and fallen in the same struggle. But his country was well disposed to acknowledge his merits, and history has already placed his character and actions beyond the reach of contemporary injustice.

(J.B.—E.)

Thomas, one of the most accomplished and versatile authors of the nineteenth century, and pre-eminently the poet of Ireland, was a native of Dublin, in which city his father carried on business as a small grocer and spirit-dealer. He was born on the 28th of May 1779. His parents were of genuine Celtic-Irish descent, Roman Catholics, devoted to poetry and music, and possessing the quick sensibilities and warm domestic affections common among their countrymen. The poet's mother (to whom he was fondly attached) seems to have been a woman of great vivacity and spirit; and she joined with his first schoolmaster, Samuel Whyte (who had been the teacher of Richard Brinsley Sheridan), in cultivating in her son a taste for recitation, music, and theatrical performances, in which he early became distinguished. He was made a "show-child," as he confesses; and in a certain sense this character continued with him to the last, the scene being shifted from the gay social circles and private theatres of Dublin to the saloons of Holland House, Bowood, and other patrician mansions of the English aristocracy. Almost from infancy Moore had been accustomed to act, sing, and rhyme; and in his fourteenth year he appeared as a contributor to a Dublin magazine. His juvenile verses he afterwards characterized as "mere mock-birds' song," which is true of nearly all boyish rhymes; but in the department of versification the Irish poet, guided by an exquisite ear, was from the first correct and harmonious.

In 1793 the penal laws against the Roman Catholics were relaxed, and Moore was enabled to enter Trinity College as a student of his native university. The country was then agitated by political excitement, the offspring of the French revolution, acting upon a keen sense of national wrongs and humiliation. The poet sympathized with his oppressed Roman Catholic countrymen, and was intimate with Emmet and the other young and ardent spirits who rushed into the memorable conspiracy and outbreak of 1798; but he joined in none of their secret unions or wild revolutionary schemes. He completed his college course and took his degree of B.A. in 1798, after which he proceeded to London. Of the small sum of money which he carried with him, part, he says, was in guineas, carefully sewed in the waistband of his pantaloons by his mother, and along with the gold she had inclosed a scapular, or bit of cloth blessed by the priest! The good woman's prayers no doubt accompanied this treasure, and were more potent than the charm. In repairing to London, Moore had two objects in view—first, to study law in the Middle Temple, and then, as subsidiary to this professional purpose, to publish a translation of the Odes of Anacreon by subscription. With the law he made little progress; but his subscription was highly successful. He obtained an introduction to the Earl of Moira; the Earl introduced him to the Prince of Wales; and the poet's winning address, his scholarship, singing, and genial buoyancy of spirits, soon made him a favourite in fashionable and influential circles. His Anacreon appeared in 1800, dedicated by permission to the Prince. All who had listened to the "warbling" of the young translator, and who took an interest in his fortunes, were loud in praise of the work; while by critics and scholars it was considered as at least better than any preceding version of the Greek poet, with the exception of the few inimitable paraphrases by Cowley. "Anacreon Moore," as he was now called, ventured next year on a volume of original verse, which he put forth under the title of The Poetical Works of the late Thomas Little, Esq. The name of "Little" was a thin disguise, thrown off after the first edition, and originally adopted in playful allusion to the poet's diminutive stature; for Moore, as Walter Scott observed, was the smallest of men, not to be deformed. He was, as Goldsmith said of Garrick, "an abridgment of all that is pleasant in man." The poems were amatory productions, elaborately polished, and remarkably melodious in style and diction; but the chief distinction and peculiarity of the volume was its Ovidian warmth and prurience, bordering on libertinism, which exposed its author to just and severe censure. Part was afterwards omitted from the collected edition of his works. Moore was not studiously immoral—his fancy played the profligate, not his heart; and one of his Irish friends, with a touch of native humour, compared him to "an infant sporting on the bosom of Venus." Through the influence of Lord Moira the poet obtained a government appointment—that of registrar to the Admiralty in Bermuda, which he took possession of in October 1804. The little islands, so delicious in climate, fruits, flowers, and foliage, appeared to him all fairyland; and his arrival was the signal for a succession of fêtes and gaieties. But when business was forced on his attention, it soon became obvious that the new appointment was no lucrative prize, and that even a Spanish war would not make his income worth staying for. Three months of Bermuda sufficed; a deputy was engaged, and the poet returned to England, travelling over part of the United States and North America, during which he visited, with a poet's enthusiasm, the Falls of Niagara. He reached London, after fourteen months' absence, in November 1804. The result of his journey was a volume of Odes and Epistles, published in 1806, and dedicated to Lord Moira. The work was well fitted to extend the poet's reputation. The Epistles contain many passages of beautiful and striking description, and are animated by a glow of generous sentiment, and a display of refined scholarly taste and subtle imagination peculiar to Moore among all the poets of his age. Some of the lyrical pieces in the volume—as the "Canadian Boat Song" and "The Woodpecker"—were set to music and instantly became popular. The work, however, was attacked with great asperity in the Edinburgh Review. Moore had indulged in severe strictures on the republican institutions and society of America, and some of the poems were tinged with that licentious freedom characteristic of the "Little" volume. Jeffrey branded the poet as a deliberate corrupter of the public morals. Moore replied by sending a challenge, and a hostile but bloodless meeting took place (August 12, 1806), which furnished a topic for nine days' wonder and ridicule, and proved the commencement of an acquaintance and life-long friendship between poet and critic.

About this time a musical publisher, Mr Power, projected a collection of the best original Irish melodies, with characteristic symphonies and accompaniments, and with words containing as frequently as possible allusions to Irish manners and history. Moore entered cordially into this patriotic undertaking, which ultimately became an important work, both as respected his fame and emoluments, and was extended to ten numbers. He knew the difficulty of the task. "The poet," he said, "who would follow the various sentiments which the airs express must feel and understand that rapid fluctuation of spirits, that unaccountable mixture of gloom and levity, which composes the character of his countrymen, and has deeply tinged their music." All this he felt and appreciated, and amply fulfilled. Burns alone has excelled Moore as a song-writer. If a third were added to form a lyrical trio, Béranger might be named; and all were intensely national, familiar with every shade of sentiment, prejudice, and feeling, in their countrymen. Moore has said that the real source of his poetic talent was the effort to translate into words the different feelings and passions which melody seemed to him to express; and his genius thus inspired, ranged over all the fields of Irish song and story,—now swelling into heroic and martial verse, now revelling in joyous festivity, love, and wine, and now melting in strains of mournful regret, tenderness, and pathos. The union of poetry and music, their natural affinity and blended power, was never more felicitously exemplified than in these lyrics of Moore—the most universally popular, and, it may safely be predicted, the most imperishable of all his works. To the Irish Melodies were afterwards added National Airs, Sacred Songs, Legendary Ballads, Evenings in Greece, a Set of Glees (with music, also by the poet), and a number of separate songs and ballads. The lyric department of his poetry was at once the most voluminous and the most popular, and was constantly receiving additions.

For some years Moore was partially dependent on Lord Moira, and resided at his lordship's seat of Domnington Park. In 1811, however, he ventured on a step which gave a new turn to his feelings and prospects; he married a young Irish actress, Miss Dyke, the faithful "Bessy" of his Journal, who appears to have been every way worthy of his affection. Literature was now necessary as a profession; and in order that he might prosecute it with less interruption, Moore fixed his residence in an English village. He had an idea that the Irish neither fight nor write well on their own soil, and he seems never to have contemplated returning permanently to Ireland. He went to Kegworth in Leicestershire, but in the same year removed to Mayfield Cottage, near Ashbourne, in the county of Derby; and this spot may claim the honour due to scenes of poetical interest and veneration, for there Moore composed the best of his Melodies, and the greatest of his poems, Lalla Rookh. There was still a lingering hope that Lord Moira might be able to obtain some favourable appointment for the poet. His lordship was not indisposed to exert his influence, but his power was small; and in 1812 the removal of this nobleman to India put an end to Moore's expectations. He was averse to any application being made in his behalf to the ministry, and was resolved, he said, to work out his independence by industry. He had a justifiable reliance on the facility and versatility of his pen, and only wanted prudence to be one of the richest, as he was one of the best rewarded, of modern authors.

In 1813 Moore produced a political satire, Intercepted Letters, or the Two-penny Post-Bag, a series of light yet pungent rhyming epistles, suggested, perhaps, by Anstey's New Bath Guide, and which hit the public taste so well that thirteen editions were called for in a twelvemonth. The new and successful vein thus laid open was well cultivated in after years. Moore had previously tried the stately or Juvenalian style of satire; and in the years 1808 and 1809 produced three poems, Corruption, Intolerance, and The Sceptic, but they were heavy productions, and excited no attention. The lighter form of weapon to which he now betook himself was not only, he said, more easy to wield, but more sure to reach its mark. Up to the close of his poetical career Moore continued to throw off political squibs or satires on the topics of the day, and they are unsurpassed in our whole literature for wit, ingenuity, and brilliancy. They were published in the columns of the Morning Chronicle and Times, and seem to have brought their author an income of £400 or £500 a year. His imagination, he said, was the sole or chief prompter of this satire. It was possible, he conceived, to shower ridicule on a political adversary without allowing a single feeling of real bitterness to mix itself with the operation. Without a lively and fertile imagination such things could not indeed have been written; but Moore was a partisan as well as a poet; he felt keenly on all questions affecting his Irish Roman Catholic brethren, he was in daily association with the Whig leaders, and he had, besides, the natural antipathy of wit and genius to official dulness and pretence. But perhaps the main cause why a poet so little prone to bitterness should have so often and so long persisted in the use of this "flying artillery" of party warfare, was the unexampled popularity of his satires, and the large sums of money he obtained for them. When a few hours' occasional labour, that partook as much of amusement as of task-work, produced a cheque for a hundred pounds, and elicited immediate congratulation and applause, little else was required to stimulate the imagination. Moore was a man of quick rather than of strong or deep feeling; to such indignation or hatred as that of Swift he was a stranger. The political wrongs and injustice that lacerated the soul of Swift only awakened the poetical fancy and exercised the lively satirical ingenuity and wit of Moore.

The circumstances attending the publication of Lalla Rookh form an interesting chapter in literary history. In December 1814 the Messrs Longman, publishers, stipulated to give Moore the sum of £3000 for a poem of the same length as Scott's Rob Roy. They had seen no part of the work, and had to encounter, of course, the risk of failure; but they placed implicit trust in the genius and honour of Moore, and in the almost unbounded popularity of his name. After more than two years' delay the transaction was completed by the publication, in May 1817, of this eastern romance; and it is gratifying to be able to add that the enterprising and confiding publishers were fully compensated for their liberality and boldness; the poem having in the first year gone through seven editions. It possessed, indeed, all the elements of instant and decided success. Lalla Rookh abounds in picturesque and highly-wrought delineations of Eastern scenery and manners. It has the interest and attraction of four romantic tales, happily linked together by a small golden thread of narrative; it has a profusion of similes and sparkling imagery, and in some of the characters and incidents there are pictures of the loftiest heroism and the tenderest love. The versification is varied, spirited, and harmonious. The poet moves in the fetters of rhyme, whether in the heroic measure of Dryden or in the octo-syllabic verse of Scott, with the ease and grace of Ariel himself; and Ariel could not have desired a greater command of voluptuous sweets—of bowers of roses and nightingales, crystal fountains and fragrant groves, made radiant by the Hours of the East. The subject justified a large amount of this ornamental splendour and sensuous beauty; and the poet drew his materials from diligent study of oriental histories and books of travel. All is correct in external embellishment, costume, and decoration. The defect of the poem is its very riches. There is too much glitter and perfume; too many startling contrasts of loveliness and deformity, of rapture and agony; too visible a presence of art and preparation. The reader is lost in admiration, but gets fatigued as in a picture-gallery or hot-house, and sighs for the fresh breeze and simple aspects of nature.

While enjoying this new accession of fame and of release from the responsibility of an anxious engagement, Moore accepted an offer from Mr Rogers to accompany him to Paris. They spent a month in the French capital, and it furnished matter for Moore's next work, *The Fudge Family in Paris*, a satire which he says, "prospered amazingly—five editions in less than a fortnight, and his share of the profits for that time L350." The Marquis of Lansdowne had long wished the poet to take up his abode somewhere in his neighbourhood, and Moore removed to Sloperton Cottage, near Devizes, which was within an easy walking distance of Bowood. His settlement in this neat and modest poetical mansion (a thatched cottage, with garden, rented at L40 a-year) was followed by what seemed at first to be a serious and almost irremediable misfortune. His deputy at Bermuda proved faithless, having not only kept back part of the receipts of the office, but appropriated to his own use the proceeds of a sale of ship and cargo, deposited in his hands by some American merchants. The poet was involved, it was feared, to the extent of L6000; and a suit was instituted against him in the Admiralty Court. Attempts were made at a compromise with the crown and the American creditors; and while these were pending, the poet, ever sanguine and light-hearted, resumed his literary labours and social festivities. His next poem was a "flash satire," entitled *Tom Cribb's Memorial to Congress*, published in March 1819. In July the Bermuda cause was finally decided in court, and an attachment was issued against Moore's person. One friend advised him to seek an asylum for a short time in Ireland, another recommended a retreat to the sanctuary at Holyrood, and a third counselled him to fly to France. All offers of pecuniary assistance from his friends he steadily declined. He went to France; and shortly after his arrival in Paris (Sept. 1819) he went with Lord John Russell on a journey to Italy. They travelled together as far as Milan, the poet having by the way "shuddered and shed tears" over the mighty panorama of the Alps, which he saw in all its sunset glory. Lord John took the route to Genoa, and Moore proceeded alone on a visit to Lord Byron at his villa near Venice. He subsequently extended his tour to Rome, and was fortunate enough to fall in with two eminent English artists, Chantrey and Jackson, with whom he returned to Paris. This tour called forth a volume of *Rhymes on the Road*—miscellaneous pieces of unequal merit, but embodying the poet's impressions of the magnificent ascent of the Simplon, the appearance of Venice, and the glories of ancient art.

On all such subjects the inferiority of Moore to Byron, thus made apparent, was strikingly manifest. Some reviewing for Jeffrey, and some additional Melodies for Power, helped to supply the exigencies of life in Paris; but Moore's celebrity and multifarious acquaintance were fatal to anything like severe study. Had he taken refuge in Holyrood he would have been saved many temptations, but he would also have missed much enjoyment; and his satirical poetry would perhaps have lost some of the Attic point and polish which familiarity with high life and public affairs in different countries was fitted to impart. At length, in September 1822, Moore received the welcome intelligence that he might safely return to England. The Bermuda claims had been reduced to a thousand guineas; towards this sum the uncle of the deputy contributed L300, and the Marquis of Lansdowne deposited the remaining portion (L750) in the hands of a banker, to be in readiness for the final settlement of the demand. Moore allowed the deposit to be thus applied, but immediately reimbursed his noble friend by a cheque on his publishers for the amount. And thus the harassing claim which had hung as an ominous cloud over the poet's household for more than three years was easily and independently liquidated.

The first publication of Moore, after his return to his Wiltshire cottage, was another romantic poem, *The Loves of the Angels*, founded on eastern story and rabbinical fictions, that allegorized the fall of the soul of man from its original purity. He next resumed satire in poetry and prose, having published *Fables for the Holy Alliance* (1823) and *Memoirs of Captain Rock* (1824). The latter is a lively epitome of Irish history, in which, under the name of a celebrated Irish chieftain, he detailed the violence and insurrection that had sprung from systematic oppression. Though bearing the character of a party pamphlet or special pleading, this volume evinced considerable research and a happy talent for dealing with historical and statistical facts. The same qualities were more strikingly displayed in his *Life of Sheridan*, published in 1825. As a work of contemporary history and biography, illustrated by personal anecdote and criticism, Moore's *Life of Sheridan* told much that was new and interesting; it was fairly and candidly written, presenting passages of powerful reasoning and eloquence; and was only objected to on the ground that it was too full of ornament and metaphor, the author having intruded poetry into the sober domain of historical prose. His next work was still more ornate, but there embellishment was graceful and appropriate. *The Epicurean, a Tale*, published by Moore in 1827, is the story of a young Epicurean philosopher who, in the reign of Valerian, visits Egypt, falls in love with an Egyptian maid, and ultimately, through her counsels and martyrdom, becomes a convert to Christianity. The philosophy and pathos of this little tale, and its exquisite descriptions, render it unique and unrivalled for brilliance among our works of fiction.

In 1830 appeared *The Letters and Journals of Lord Byron, with Notices of his Life*, by Thomas Moore, 2 vols. 4to. Thus modestly was ushered into the world a work that had cost Moore infinite trouble and anxiety, and which forms by far the most important and valuable of his prose productions. The noble poet had written memoirs of his own life—an autobiography, more or less complete, up to 1820—which he presented to his friend for publication after his death. Pressed as he always was by pecuniary necessities, Moore in 1821 sold the Byron manuscript to Mr Murray for 2000 guineas. In 1824 that event occurred which fell upon all Europe with grief and surprise—Byron suddenly died; and his friends became alarmed on account of the disclosures that might be made in the memoirs. Mr Murray expressed his willingness to give up the manuscript on repayment of his money with interest, and Moore unhappily was led into an arrangement by which the 2000 guineas were refunded, and the manuscript reclaimed and burnt. That he acted from honourable and chivalrous feelings cannot be doubted. The pecuniary loss was to him a heavy sacrifice; but it must ever be matter of regret that he was precipitated into such a step. Byron had intrusted his defence to his hands; he owed a solemn duty to the memory of his friend and benefactor, and the public had a right to know

What desolating grief, what wrongs had driven That noble nature into cold eclipse.

Whatever was objectionable in the memoirs (not amounting, according to Lord John Russell, to more than three or four pages) could easily have been expunged, or the publication might have been deferred for years, like the memoirs of Walpole, but now all was lost; and the rash act of destruction was equally a fraud on the memory of Byron and on the public. But though thus swayed by a fastidious delicacy and deference to Lord Byron's family and early friends, Moore was afterwards enabled to erect a suitable and lasting memorial of his friend. His Life of Byron is one of the most interesting and instructive of biographies, conceived in a right spirit, and executed with singular ability, care, and judgment. Considered merely as a composition, this work deserves, as Lord Macaulay has remarked, "to be classed among the best specimens of English prose which our age has produced." And as the fame of Moore was thus placed on its highest pinnacle, his fortunes were no less benefited. For the copyright of the Life Mr Murray gave the large sum of 4000 guineas, besides furnishing no inconsiderable part of the letters and journals with which the work is enriched.

With the Life of Byron may be said to close the happy and brilliant portion of Moore's literary career. He still held on his course, however, though with subdued vigour, and, until his faculties were clouded by mental disease, was rarely a day without some effort at composition. His social celebrity also continued. In 1831 he published a slight poetical performance, The Summer Fête, commemorating a holiday gathering at Boyle Park in Ireland; and the same year he issued Memoirs of Lord Edward Fitzgerald, the weak but amiable victim of Irish insurrection. In 1833 he ventured on a polemical, but to him congenial, subject, Travels of an Irish Gentleman in Search of a Religion. Moore, though indifferent to mere forms of faith, still adhered to his old Roman Catholic creed, and vindicated what he conceived to be its superiority to all others in truth and antiquity. In 1835 appeared the first volume of his History of Ireland, written for Lardner's Cyclopaedia, and extending to four volumes. He bestowed pains and research on this work, but without success adequate to his labour: it was too long and close for a popular digest, yet not sufficiently critical or learned to render it an authority on Irish history. In 1841 and 1842 he collected his poetical works, writing short prefaces to each volume, and adding some additional verses. He still occasionally threw off a squib or song, and he contemplated writing the life of Sydney Smith, a task well suited to his powers had it been required ten years earlier; but disease was now dealing with the accomplished and indefatigable worker. A softening of the brain took place, as in the cases of Swift, Scott, and Southey, and he sank by slow degrees into a state of helpless infirmity and childishness, though happily free from pain. The latter years of the poet had been darkened by domestic grief and calamity. His three children had predeceased him—one of his sons having by his imprudence seriously embarrassed his father, and occasioned to both parents the most poignant distress. In 1835 a pension of £300 per annum was conferred on Moore, and in 1850 a pension of £100 was settled on his wife, "in consideration of the literary merits of her husband, and his infirm state of health." The poet lingered on for two years longer, lost to the world, and died at Sloperton Cottage on the 26th of February 1852, being then in the seventy-third year of his age. It is a touching Moors, and characteristic trait of his last illness that he "warbled" or sung on the day of his death.

The Memoirs, Journals, and Correspondence of Moore, edited by Lord John Russell, have been published in eight volumes; and a volume of Notes from his letters to his music-publisher James Power, has also been given to the public. The best excuse for the voluminous, unconnected, and unsatisfactory work of Lord John Russell, is the fact that Moore left his papers for publication by his noble friend in order that some provision might be made for his family after his decease; and that Lord John obtained for the MSS. a sum of £3000, which was invested for the benefit of the poet's widow. Lord John did little as editor; at least one-half of the diary should have been thrown out, and explanatory notes added to much of the remainder, if not the whole recast; but what he has written of his friend is honourable to his taste, judgment, and feelings. From the diary and other biographical materials we know more of the Irish poet, of his outer and inner life, than of any other of his illustrious contemporaries. His daily round of existence was of a very uniform tenor. His mornings were chiefly spent in study, his best poetry being composed in his garden or in the neighbouring fields. His evenings were devoted to society, and no poet—not even Pope—ever lived more among the great. In the country he enjoyed the refined intellectual hospitalities of Bowood; in London his company was eagerly courted in all circles. His table was covered with invitations. Authors, artists, booksellers, and musicians, ran after him. His journal for weeks together, through successive years, is little else than a record of morning visits, dinners, balls, the opera and theatres. The time and money thus spent kept him perpetually in difficulties. He could rarely leave home without forestalling the fruits of his brain by drawing on the Messrs Longman, on Power (his friendly banker on all occasions), or on the editor of the Times, and his literary tasks were in this way often delayed, and at last hurriedly finished. He saw the folly of such a course of splendid dissipation, and throughout it all he retained a relish for the quiet pleasures of home. But he could not resist the fascination of popular applause—the tumultuous delight with which his presence was hailed by the great, the beautiful, the witty, and accomplished; and the tears which were profusely shed over the songs he sang with so much sweetness. Never was vanity more fully gratified, or life more thoroughly enjoyed. No shadow could remain long on so bright and sunny a nature—his elastic gaiety of spirit was an overmatch for fortune! With most men this kind of existence would have led to a coarse unamiable selfishness; it did so with Sheridan and Byron, and we do not say that Moore escaped from it without injury—his vanity, like his demands on publishers, was apt to be exorbitant and unscrupulous. It was too much at times for his truth and affection. But altogether Moore was a man cast in a kindly, generous, and happy mould. In his intercourse with the great, though fed with soft flatteries all day long, and "clearly loving a lord," as Byron said, he preserved in a remarkable degree his independence, his frank cordiality, and freshness of feeling. He was, like Pope and Gray, devotedly attached to his mother (to whom he wrote two letters a week), he loved his wife and children, took a warm interest in all cheap and innocent pleasures, and tried to make every one about him happy. His love of Ireland was a principle or passion of a nobler stamp. Her she served with all his soul and strength, uplifting her banner in the hour of darkness and danger; and with the names of Grattan and Curran as Irish patriots, that of Thomas Moore will be for ever associated.