CANADA m THE BODLEIAN. 383 



St. Lawrence is, as we suppose again, intended. It is possible, however, 

 that here, and in the other places as well, where the word occurs in. 

 these extracts, "Indus" may be "the Indian," meaning the Indian 

 races. 



Our next excerpt is from the exercise of Thomas Baker, " Portionista," 

 as he is stjled, of Merton. " Portionista," pensioner, or exhibitioner, 

 has been strangely vernacularized at'^Merton into " postmaster." The 

 metre is epic or heroic. We again have allusions to the conquests of 

 Cape Breton and Canada; and the St. Lawrence is named. The battle 

 of Minden is celebrated; and the capture of Goree. He compares the 

 succes.ses of George II. over France on the continent of Europe to 

 those of Edward III. He thus speaks : 



Vidimus Edvardi veteres revirescere laurus; 

 Vidimus Angliacse metuentes signa catervse 

 Gallorum trepidare acies Germania priscsB 

 Conscia virtutis, Britonum mii-ata triumphos, 

 Nuper Mindeniffi obstupnit miracula pugnse. 

 Addam urbes Lybiss domitas, captteque Bretonte 

 Duplex obsidium ; dicam superaddita nostris. 

 Sub duce pro patria egregie moriente, triumphis 

 Arva, ubi Laurenti in latum se porrigit aquor. 



"We have seen renewed the ancient laurels of an Edward. We 

 have seen the Gallic armies tremble through fear of the standards of an 

 English cohort. Germany, mindful of valour evinced of old, full of 

 wonder already at triumphs won by Britons, lately stood amazed at 

 prodigies achieved in the fight at Minden. I will add the reduction 

 of African towns; the twofold blockade in the capture of Cape Breton : 

 I will name the accession to our conquests, under the Chief who for his 

 country so nobly fell, of the fields where the vast surface of the St. 

 Lawrence spreads itself abroad." 



This association of Minden with " the fields where the St. Lawrence 

 spreads itself" will remind the reader of a passage in Langhorne's 

 " Country Justice,'' the last line of which has become a stock quota- 

 tion. (He is speaking of a poor vagrant culprit, the child of a soldier's 



widow) : 



Cold on Canadian hills, on Minden's plain, 

 Perhaps that parent mourn'd her soldier slain ; 

 Bent o'er her babe, her eyes dissolved in dew, 

 The big drops mingled with the milk he drew. 

 Gave the sad presage of his future years, 

 The child of misery, baptized in tears. 



