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To the Editor of the Bombay
Courier.

was "The Scenes of Infancy;" a descriptive poem, in which he sung, in no unpleasing strains, the charms of his native mountains and streams in Tiviot-dale. He contributed several small pieces to that collection of poems called the Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, which he published with his celebrated friend Walter Scott. Among these the Mermaid is certainly the most beautiful. In it he has shewn all the creative fancy of a real genius. His Ode on the Death of Nelson is undoubtedly the best of those poetical effusions that he has published since he came to India. The following apostrophe to the blood of that bero has a sublimity of thought and happiness of expression which never could have been attained but by a true poet :

Sir, I enclose some lines which have no value but what they derive from the subject: they are an unworthy, but sincere, tribute to one whom I have long regarded with sentiments of esteem and affection, and whose loss I regret with the most unfeigned sorrow. It will remain with those who are better qualified than I am to do justice to the memory of Doctor Leyden: I only know that he rose by the power of native genius from the humblest origin to a very distinguished rank in the literary world. His studies included almost every branch of human science, and he was alike ardent in the pursuit of all. The greatest power of his mind was, perhaps, Amid the waste of waters blue; shewn in his acquisition of modern and ancient languages. He exhibited an unexampled facility not merely in acquiring them, but in tracing their affinity and connection with each other; and from that talent, combined with his taste and general knowledge, we had a right to expect, from what he did in a very few years, that he would, if he had lived, have thrown the greatest light upon the more abstruse parts of the history of the East. this curious, but intricate and rugged path, we cannot hope to see his equal.

"Blood of the brave, thou art not lost

The tide that rolls to Albion's coast
Shall proudly boast its sanguine hue;
And thou shalt be the vernal dew
To foster valour's daring seed;
The generous plant shall still its stock
renew,
And hosts of heroes rise when one shall
bleed."

It is pleasing to find him on whom nature has bestowed eminent genius, possessed of those more essential and intrinsic qualities which give the truest excelIn lence to the human character. The manners of Doctor Leyden were uncourtly, more perhaps from his detestation of the vices too generally attendant on refinement, and a wish, (indulged to excess from his youth) to keep at a marked distance from them, than from any ignorance of the rules of good breeding. He was fond of talking, his voice was loud, and had little

Doctor Leyden had from his earliest years cultivated the Muse with a success which will make many regret that Poetry did not Occupy a larger portion of his time. The first of his Essays which appeared in a separate form

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or no modulation, and he spoke in the provincial dialect of his native country; it cannot be surprising, therefore, that even his information and knowledge, when so conveyed, should be felt by a number of his hearers as unpleasant, if not oppressive. But with all these disadvantages (and they were great) the admiration and esteem in which he was always held by those who could appreciate his qualities, became general wherever he was long known; they even who could not understand the value of his knowledge loved his virtues. Though he was distinguished by his love of liberty, and almost haughty independence, his ardent feelings, and proud genius, never led him into any licentious or extravagant speculation on political subjects. He never solicited favour; but he was raised, by the liberal discernment of his noble friend and patron, Lord Minto, to a situation that afforded him an opportunity of shewing, that he was as scrupulous and as inflexibly virtuous in the discharge of his public duties, as he was attentive in private life to the duties of morality and religion.

It is not easy to convey an idea of the method which Doctor Leyden used in his studies, or to describe the unconquerable ardour with which these were pursued. During his early residence in India, I had a particular opportunity of observing both. When he read a lesson in Persian, a person near him whom he had taught, wrote down each word on a long slip of paper, which was afterwards divided into as many pieces as there were words, and pasted in alphabetical order, under different heads of verbs, nouns, &c. into a blank book, that

formed a vocabulary of each day's lesson. All this he had in a few hours instructed a very ignorant native to do, and this man he used in his broad accent to call "one of his mechanical aids." He was so ill at Mysore, soon after his arrival from England, that Mr. Anderson, the Surgeon, who attended him, despaired of his life; but though all his friends endeavoured at this period to prevail upon him to relax in his application to study, it was in vain. He used, when unable to sit upright, to prop himself up with pillows, and continue his translations. One day that I was sitting by his bed-side the Surgeon came in: I am glad you are here," said Mr. Anderson, addressing himself to me, you will be able to persuade Leyden to attend to my advice. I have told him before, and I now repeat, that he will die, if he does not leave off his studies and remain quiet." 'Very well, Doctor," exclaimed Leyden, "you have done your duty, but you must now hear me: I cannot be idle; and whether I die or live the wheel must go round to the last :" and he actually continued, under the depression of a fever, and a liver complaint, to study more than ten hours each day.

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The temper of Doctor Leyden was mild and generous, and he could bear with perfect good humour, raillery on his foibles. When he arrived at Calcutta in 1805, I was most solicitous regarding his reception in the society of the Indian capital. "I entreat you, my dear friend," I said to him the day he landed, " to be careful of the impression you make on your en tering this community; for God's sake learn a little English, and be

silent upon literary subjects, except among literary men.' "Learn English," he exclaimed, "no ne. ver: it was trying to learn that language that spoilt my Scotch; and as to being silent, I will promise to hold my tongue, if you will make fools hold their's."

His memory was most tenacious, and he sometimes loaded it with lumber. When he was at Mysore, an argument occurred upon a point of English history: it was agreed to refer it to Leyden, and, to the astonishment of all parties, he repeated verbatim the whole of an Act of Parliament in the reign of James I. relative to Ireland, which decided the point in dispute. On being asked how he came to charge his memory with such extraordinary matter, he said that several years before, when he was writing on the changes that had taken place in the English language, this Act was one of the documents to which he had referred as a specimen of the stile of that age, and that he had retained every word in his

memory.

:

His love of the place of his nativity was a passion in which he had always a pride, and which in India he cherished with the fondest enthusiasm. I once went to see him when he was very ill, and had been confined to his bed for many days; there were several gentlemen in the room he inquired if I had any news; I told him I had a letter from Eskdale; and what are they about in the borders? he asked. A curious circumstance, I replied, is stated in my letter; and I read him a passage which described the conduct of our volunteers on a fire being kindled by mistake at one of the beacons. This letter

mentioned that the moment the blaze, which was the signal of invasion, was seen, the Mountaineers hastened to their rendezvous, and those of Leddesdale swam the Ewes river to reach it. They were assembled (though several of their houses were at a distance of six and seven miles) in two hours; and at break of day the party marched into the town of Hawick (a distance of twenty miles from the place of assembly) to the border tune of "Wha dare meddle wi' me?" Leyden's countenance became animated as I proceeded with this detail; and at its close he sprung from his sick bed, and with strange melody, and still stranger gesticulations, sung aloud, "Wha dare meddle wi' me, wha dare meddle wi' me?" Several of those who witnessed this scene looked at him as one that was raving in the delirium of a fever.

These anecdotes will display more fully than any description I can give the lesser shades of the character of this extraordinary man. An external mauner certainly not agreeable, and a disposition to egotism, were his only defects. How trivial do these appear, at a moment when we are lamenting the loss of such a rare combination of virtues, learning, and genius, as were concentrated in the late Doctor Leyden!

I am, Sir, your obedient servant,
JOHN MALCOLM.

Where sleep the brave on Java's strand,
Thy ardent spirit, Leyden ! Red.
And fame with cypress shades the land,
Where genius fell, and valour bled.
When triumph's tale is westward borne,
On border hills no joy shall gleam:
And thy lov'd Tiviot long shall mourn
The youthful Poet of her stream.

Near

Near Jura's rocks the mermaid's strain
Shall change from sweet, to solemn lay;
For he is gone, the stranger swain,
Who sung the Maid of Colonsay.
The hardy Tar, Britannia's pride,
Shall hang his manly head in woe :
The Bard who told how Nelson died,
With harp unstrung, in earth lies low,
I see a weeping band arise,

I hear sad music on the gale;

Thy dirge is sung from Scotia's skies,
Her mountain Sons their loss bewail.
The Minstrel of thy native North
Pours all his soul into the song;
It bursts from near the winding Forth
And Highland rocks the notes prolong.
Yes, he who struck a matchless lyre,
O'er Flodden's field, and Katrine's wave;
With trembling hand now leads the choir
That mourn his Leyden's early grave.

MANNERS,

462

MANNERS, CUSTOMS, &c.

OF

NATIONS AND CLASSES OF PEOPLE.

THE ARAB PIRATES.

(From Morier's Travels in Persia.)

THE

HE Arabs in every age, have been alike distinguished for a spirit of commerce and of plunder: and were early and great navigators, both as merchants and as pirates. In the time of Mahomed there existed a predatory tribe, whose chief is described in the Koran, according to Ebn Haukal, as "the King, who forcibly seized every sound ship." This empire is said to have been founded prior to the time of Moses; and if the continuance of the same occupations on the spot be a proof of the identity of the people, it may be traced to the Arabs of the present day.

The Portuguese power was often violated by these pirates: and in the same age the English interests in the East were so much endangered by them, that one of the agents in Persia (who had all indeed successively made representations on the necessity of sending an armed force to destroy them) declared, that "they were likely to become as great plagues in India,

as the Algerines were in Europe." Some of these ships had from 30 to 50 guns and one of their fleets, consisting of five ships, carried between them one thousand five hundred men. Within the last few years, their attacks have been almost indiscriminate; nor had they learnt to respect even English colours, as the instance in the text, and the subsequent capture of the Minerva, Capt. Hopgood, proved too well. The British government, however, knowing the intimate connection of these pirates on the coast with the Wahabee, proceeded in the suppression of the evil with cautious judgment; and when, by the extension of these outrages to themselves, they were driven to vindicate the honour of their flag, and to extirpate their enemies, they regarded all the ports, which had not actually included the British within their depredations, as still neutral; and endeavoured to confine their warfare to reprisals, for specific acts of violence, rather than to commit themselves generally against the Wahabee, by extending the attack to those of that alliance who, amid all their piracies, had yet not violated the commerce of England.

We

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