24 Lines suggested by the Engraving of Lord W. Russell's Trial. 



given, would have been a decided improvement on the "Endymion/' 

 But "Hyperion" was never finished, the promise of the young poet 

 was nipped in the bud ; the unnatural and uncalled for hostility 

 shown towards his first work, damped his efforts, and chilled an 

 imagination sensitively alive to injury or contumely. He has left 

 behind him some other minor poems (which we shall consider in our 

 next), of surpassing excellence, to exemplify the truth of his own 

 melancholy maxim : 



" There never lived a mortal man, who bent 

 His appetite beyond his natural sphere 

 But starv'd and died !" 



LINES SUGGESTED BY THE ENGRAVING OF LORD 

 WILLIAM RUSSELL'S TRIAL. 



WHEN England wept aloud ; and her first hame 



Had lost its freshness in the sickly hue 



Of a consuming grief, that fed and fed 



Upon her matron cheek ; when none were near 



Nor dar'd if near, to raise her drooping head, 



Or pluck the fetters from her wasted limbs ; 



In that sad hour of his country's need, 



By cruel tyrants trampled, Russell rose : 



Her tears were his : her dream of better days _, 



Reflecting long past glories, but deep-dy'd, 



With indignation for her present fate, 



Were Russell's too : he at that trying hour 



Was true as steel : faJse friends and open foes, 



The treacherous and the fierce, could never daunt 



His bold yet generous soul : noble he stood 



When all around was base ; and when the times, 



Corrupt by in-born vice, required his blood 



To baptize freedom struggling in its birth, 



He gave the patriot pledge ! 



See, there he stands 

 Sustained in holy courage at the bar 

 Of mis-named justice ; whose unvalued seals 

 A tyrant's hate hath crush'd unto the earth ; 

 Mark yonder judges, worthy of the trust 

 By Pilate not abused ! mark too* a man 

 With legal finger uprais'd in the act 

 Of noting down some thought, on whose stem brow 

 Is seated vengeance ; and by the side of them 

 See twelve base men, who deem'd of little worth 

 And yielded up unto a tyrant's will 

 The bulwark of their rights so shamelessly. 

 That history frowns upon the recreant deed. 

 And where are Russell's friends ? in this sad chance, 

 This crisis of his fortunes, when the storm 



* The violent and inhuman Jeffries, who was at that time serjeant-at-law, and con- 

 ducted the case for the prosecution. 



