HUNT 125 



the son of rustic parents, have been printed in two small 

 volumes, and contain some beautiful specimens of the 

 efforts of unassisted genius. The " Song of the Butterfly " 

 is so replete with poetry, simply yet harmoniously ex- 

 pressed, the imagery is so graphically drawn and so 

 judiciously disposed, that as a pastoral it may take its 

 place with anything in our language. 



Before I knew this part of the country I had frequently 

 read in the newspapers the speeches and the exploits of a 

 o-entleman who resided near Huntino-don. His name had 

 been associated and his politics classed with Hunt and 

 Cobbett, et sui generis ; but I am inclined to believe there 

 was an undercurrent that ran in an opposite direction to 

 the noisy advocacy he made in conjunction with these 

 worthies, and made him confine his attention to less 

 sjoeculative views and more attainable objects, those, too, 

 within his own immediate locality. 



He, like others of the same profession — he was a lawyer 

 — commenced his jDolitical career in the extreme West, 

 where he might the more readily attract the rays of the 

 risino- sun, that would hasten the o-rowth of his ambition 

 or his interest, and gain those advantages many had 

 acquired by pursuing the same course. If his assurance 

 was not equal to the blacking manufacturer's, his talents 

 and his position were far superior. If his principles were 

 not quite so lax as the powerful writer's in the 

 " Reo-ister," he had more tact and more influence in his 

 nei o;hbourhood . 



Like that great master of the pure and vigorous 

 English composition he vainly attempted to imitate, he 

 was the principal agitator in establishing a jDrovincial 



