poéme s'est trouvé fait." The government of France shewed their estimate of the fine feeling which prompted this effusion, by taking from the poet his pension of fifty pounds a year, the only benefit he ever received from the sovereign to whose memory he sung a dirge. He is married, and lives a retired life, of moderate independence and quiet happiness.

Le Brun is soon again to come before the world. He has not only completed a series of lyric poems on Greece, but a play of his is now in rehearsal at the Theatre Français, which is meant to carry a step further than " Marie Stuart" the reformation, of which the author is most assuredly the prime mover.* The subject is one of those romantic stories which abound in the history of Spain; the title "Le Cid D'Andalouse."-Not venturing to give to this piece the hallowed title of tragedy, the author calls it a "comédie héroique ;" and we trust it may be a triumphant novelty in the present state of the French stage, and a fresh stimulus to the new-springing taste of France.

We cannot more agreeably conclude this article than by recording, that the principal influence in removing some objections of the censorship to the representation of this play proceeded from the interference of Monsieur de Chateaubriand-a pleasing, and not a solitary instance, that the literary mind of this ex-minister was too well filled, even when he was in power, to afford a cranny for the littleness of party prejudice.t

ON VISITING THE RUINS OF LEICESTER ABBEY.

GREY mould'ring walls, relics of other days,

How Time hath laid her withering hand on thee,
As envious of thy greatness! Thus she lays
The proud and mighty low; nor leaves to see
So much of what has been, to those who be;
Nor like the proud man in his fall, for thou
Hast still an honest friend left clingingly,
Bespeaking reverence for thy years, and now
An ivy garland wreathes thy venerable brow.
I stand where Wolsey stood, helpless and shorn
Of all his greatness-in his saddest hour-
His body bow'd down to the grave, though worn
Less with the lapse of years than loss of power:
For he had courted Fortune's highest dower,
And she had petted him; nor dream'd he then,
A face so clothed in smiles could ever lower-
That kings for sport do ever thus with men,

Raising them high, to hurl them down again.

The influence of M. Le Brun's example has been already felt and followed up by several able disciples-Jouy, Arnault, Soumet, and others.

The tragedy of "Pierre de Portugal," lately produced at the Theatre Français, from the pen of M. Arnault fils, author of Regulus, owed its appearance entirely to the interference of M. de Chateaubriand; an interference alluded to in the author's preface, but not as explicitly acknowledged as could have been wished.

SUGGESTIONS RESPECTING THE PLAN OF AN UN
IN LONDON. BY MR. CAMPBELL.

A DAY or two after the publication of a letter which
to Mr. Brougham, on the subject of a London University,
a message from a man of distinguished public charact
himself to raise 100,000l. for the project, and reque
draw up a plan for the establishment. Many other i
substantial influence and respectability, have honoured
same request. I certainly think that it would be b
person to prepare a digested plan of an university,
be afterwards subjected to the revision and correction of
than for a crowd of plans to be presented together:-
mission for such an undertaking is of grave importance,
not think myself justified in setting about it unless
general expression of consent from the public.

I think, however, that I shall do no injury to the scheme by offering a few farther suggestions as to its the first suggestion which I take the liberty of making ers is, to implore them not to take it up either with the or inward feeling of party spirit. The cause has, or at have, no connexion with politics; and whatever such co it, will be doing it a gratuitous injury. I have remark some newspapers, that an university in the metropolis account of the alleged abuses of existing universiti mand it on no such account. The universities canno tant from London. As little can they help its being p to be maintained with the same comfort more chea ̧ where others have to profit by his board and lodgi equally blameless for the impossibility of preventing rious evils, which naturally result, in spite of all hum men being crowded together, at a distance from home the wholesome restraints of domestic influence and to this, that the universities are overstocked, and in cessible to the middling classes of London. If th doners were to associate and agree to petition Parl to endow a great place of education, what langu them to address to Parliament ?-Not surely a s

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against the two venerablea bodes of English learners spes

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assemble a small, much less a great body of Lon meeting the most opposite opinions respecting th pursued at Oxford and Cambridge. But thousa of London, I believe, agree in this point, that dear for their purses; and that it would be conv a cheaper and nearer place of education.-Wh this plain fact with either praise or blame of the is unwise, unnecessary, and unjust. I even di-, it is the establishment an university on the Scottish in common with the Scottish universities, but th

Mace
Mere A

of MIS

man may

professors being chiefly maintained by fees fro branch of learning

SUGGESTIONS RESPECTING THE PLAN OF AN UNIVERSITY IN LONDON. BY MR. CAMPBELL.

A DAY or two after the publication of a letter which I addressed to Mr. Brougham, on the subject of a London University, I received a message from a man of distinguished public character, pledging himself to raise 100,000l. for the project, and requesting me to draw up a plan for the establishment. Many other individuals, of substantial influence and respectability, have honoured me with the same request. I certainly think that it would be better for one person to prepare a digested plan of an university, which should be afterwards subjected to the revision and correction of a committee, than for a crowd of plans to be presented together:-but the commission for such an undertaking is of grave importance, and I should not think myself justified in setting about it unless I had a more general expression of consent from the public.

I think, however, that I shall do no injury to the success of the scheme by offering a few farther suggestions as to its propriety-and the first suggestion which I take the liberty of making to its well-wishers is, to implore them not to take it up either with the outward aspect or inward feeling of party spirit. The cause has, or at least it ought to have, no connexion with politics; and whatever such connexion you give it, will be doing it a gratuitous injury. I have remarked, with regret, in some newspapers, that an university in the metropolis is demanded, on account of the alleged abuses of existing universities. Now, we demand it on no such account. The universities cannot help being distant from London. As little can they help its being possible for a youth to be maintained with the same comfort more cheaply at home, than where others have to profit by his board and lodging;-and they are equally blameless for the impossibility of preventing other and more serious evils, which naturally result, in spite of all human care, from young men being crowded together, at a distance from home, and removed from the wholesome restraints of domestic influence and endearment. Add to this, that the universities are overstocked, and in point of fact inaccessible to the middling classes of London. If then a body of Londoners were to associate and agree to petition Parliament for a charter to endow a great place of education, what language would it become them to address to Parliament?-Not surely a string of complaints against the two venerablea bodes of English learning!-You could not assemble a small, much less a great body of London citizens, without meeting the most opposite opinions respecting the mode of education pursued at Oxford and Cambridge. But thousands of the inhabitants of London, I believe, agree in this point, that those places are too dear for their purses; and that it would be convenient if London had a cheaper and nearer place of education.-Wherefore, then, mix up this plain fact with either praise or blame of the two universities? It is unwise, unnecessary, and unjust. I even dislike predenominating the establishment an university on the Scottish plan. It has nothing in common with the Scottish universities, but the circumstances of the professors being chiefly maintained by fees from their pupils, and the youth being able to reside at home. But even at the Scottish universities the students are often from the country, and lodge in town, (an un

.

favourable circumstance); whereas London is sufficient to supply domesticated students, and we have a place better fitted than any Scottish town, to enjoy the benefits of united domestic and public education. Besides, the Scottish universities are, in certain respects, very defective, whilst the English and foreign universities are, in some points, more to be imitated than ours of the North. Let us abstain then from blending either polemic or national feelings with this proposal. What people choose to say or think about Cambridge or Oxford, we (the friends of the scheme) have no right to dictate. But if it be true that an university would be desirable in London, let that important truth rest simply on its own foundations, and let it not be pettishly deduced as a corollary from charges against Oxford and Cambridge. If those universities were even cheap places, they are still overstocked and of inconvenient access to the Londoners.

I now address myself not so much to the friends of the scheme, as to those who think unfavourably of it, or who may not have thought of it at all. The sanguine friends of the proposal tell me, that they consider all the objections urged against it as too ridiculous to be answered. I certainly regard the arguments of our opponents as very light; but still there are some of them connected with prejudices which are too pernicious to deserve the compliment of being treated with levity.

I have been asked, in the first place, if there are not plenty of places already existing for educating men for the learned and liberal professions. My answer is, that thousands who have not the honour of belonging to those professions, are nevertheless desirous of knowledge and education. The objecting question itself implies an opinion that if you educate the priest and lawyer and physician WELL, you need not trouble yourself farther about the liberal education of society. Bacon however has said, "that man is but what he knows ;" and in this metropolis, from its enlightened bishop down to its intelligent mechanic, there is a general persuasion that man is elevated by knowledge and degraded by ignorance. At the same time the persuasion is still too far from being universal. I have spoken with men, themselves well educated, who have told me that a little learning is a dangerous thing, and have objected to the scheme because half-educated men are more apt to have crude notions than men not educated at all.

Before I admit the bad effects of a little learning and of half-education, I must know what is meant by those terms. If you mean by half-education, a man having been well taught only half the things that can be learnt, I should be glad to be entitled to-morrow to the denomination. But if you mean a smattering in many branches of knowledge without a tolerable knowledge of any one branch, I grant that crude ideas will be the probable result of such learning. Recollect, however, that this is not to be HALF-EDUCATED; it is to be MIS-EDUCATED, and we are proposing no place of MIS-EDUCATION. the contrary, we propose a place where a man may be THOROUGHLY and CHEAPLY grounded in any single branch of learning or science, or in as many branches as he may choose. A great many prejudices on the subject of education arise from confounding two things, essentially opposite, namely, a scattered and confused acquisition of knowledge, and a small degree of knowledge properly acquired. A man may

On