208 



Biographical Memoirs of Eminent Persons. 



[FEB. 



mouth, was a young man of great single- 

 ness of heart, of superior talents, though of 

 humble birth, and much esteemed. His 

 means of livelihood were very limited, but 

 he possessed a feeling heart, commiserated 

 the fate of the young American, and when 

 his purse was exhausted, nobly divided with 

 him his own, scanty as it was. The edu- 

 cation of Graham at this time was very 

 superior to that of most English youths of 

 the same age ; besides having acquired the 

 learned languages, he had read for the law, 

 being designed for that profession in Ame- 

 rica, and he possessed much information as 

 far as respected standard English literature. 

 He certainly showed that precocity for 

 which our brethren across the Atlantic are 

 said to be remarkable. I can vouch, from 

 competent authority, that his education had 

 not been merely a superficial one. The 

 whole of his time he assiduously devoted to 

 sludy, and reading all the books he could 

 obtain ; and for the first time too, according 

 to his own statement, he tried his hand at 

 poetical composition. In the interim, efforts 

 were made to get him employment : but in 

 a vast seaport, where privateering and fit- 

 ting out vessels were the main objects, his 

 acquirements were of no use, though he 

 would gladly have engaged in the humblest 

 in which lie could have done any thing to 

 profit. Moreover, the fear of being taken 

 up as a prisoner of war after hostilities com- 

 menced, rendered Plymouth, a naval ar- 

 senal, an unsafe place for him, and on this 

 apprehension hung his future destinies. 



Once or twice he volunteered his services 

 in getting up an amateur play in the Ply- 

 mouth theatre, of which the sire of a certain 

 actress of Berkeley and Hayne notoriety, 

 was manager. For an actor, however, he 

 had no talents, though he would have gladly 

 become one to obtain a livelihood. Had he 

 possessed talent, however, the consideration 

 of his personal liberty must have speedily 

 driven him from it into concealment. 



In this distressing situation, and every 

 day expecting to be arrested as a prisoner of 

 war, his friend, who had so nobly assisted 

 him, at great personal inconvenience, intro- 

 duced him to the editor of the Plymouth 

 newspaper. It is utterly false, though it 

 has been thus stated by a correspondent in 

 the " Morning Herald," that Graham ever 

 gave any assistance in conducting that pub- 

 lication. He was too young, and too little 

 acquainted either with local intelligence or 

 European politics to render aid to that or 

 any similar undertaking. English litera- 

 ture was all of which he could be said to 

 possess any general knowledge, and this 

 might have availed him something in Lon- 

 don ; but in Plymouth at that time, except 

 among a very few superior minds, no lite- 

 rary interest existed. We have the autho- 

 rity of the editor himself for this affirmation, 

 and that he never saw a specimen of Gra- 

 ham's prose composition until he met him 



long after in London. At Plymouth, how- 

 ever, and for the first time, according to his 

 own statement, Graham tried his hand at 

 poetry, and the before-mentioned gentleman 

 has favoured us with the following specimen 

 of his composition, which, with two or three 

 sonnets in the poet's corner of the news- 

 paper, was all that he ever contributed to its 

 columns : 



ON LEAVING MY NATIVE LAND. 



Farewell, ye pleasant bowers, 

 Adorned with fragrant flowers, 

 Where passed my early hours- 

 Farewell ! farewell ! 



Farewell, ye verdant meads, 

 Ye deep romantic glades 

 And solitary shades,! 



Farewell! farewell! 



Farewell, ye towering hills, 

 Beside whose channelled rills, 

 Her song, sweet echo trills 

 Farewell! farewell! 



Farewell, ye hallowed spires, 

 Ye altars, where my sires 

 Would school my young desires- 

 Farewell 1 farewell ! 



Farewell, ye worthless few, 

 Whose bosoms never knew 

 The faith to friendship due 

 Farewell ! farewell ! 



Farewell, the'treacherous maid, : 

 Whose snares around me laid, 

 This too fond heart betrayed, 

 Farewell ! farewell ! 



Farewell, my long loved home 

 The dreaded hour is come, 

 A wanderer far I roam 



Farewell! farewell! 



Farewell, the filial fear* 

 That bade me linger here, 

 Nor wish my kindred dear 



Farewell! farewell! 



Farewell, the struggling sigh, 

 The tear drop in my eye 

 Proclaim how loth I cry 



Farewell ! farewell ! 



Farewell my country! Never 

 Will fate, that bids us sever, 

 Rejoin us 0, for ever! 



Farewell! farewell! 

 FcA.1813. 



The malignant wretch, whose falsehoods 

 have been copied into the " Times," al- 

 ludes to a report that he first quitted New 

 York for the same charge 1 as that for which, 

 fifteen years afterwards, he quitted England. 



* This is consistent with his own story, namely, 

 that his father was the individual whom he had 

 offended by his conduct, whatever the cause of the 

 offence might have been. 



