adding, "that, heretofore he had imputed | Leone Company Bill, the New Forest

his conduct to madness alone; but that now he was fully convinced there was more of malice than of madness."

Bill, the Union with Ireland, the Bank
Restriction Bill, and other subjects.

In 1803, Lord Sheffield was unanimously chosen President of the Board of Agriculture. In 1809, he was appointed a Member of the Board of Trade, and sworn of His

At the head of a detachment of the Northumberland militia, Colonel Holroyd suppressed the ravages of the mob, at the house of an eminent Roman Catholic dis- || Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council. tiller, named Langdale, on Holborn Hill. He was also F.R.S., and F.S.A. His

Hill, in Buckinghamshire. By this lady, who died in 1793, he had issue :—

On the 9th of January, 1781, Colonel || Lordship was thrice married: first, in 1767, Holroyd was advanced to the Peerage of || to Abigail, only daughter of Lewis Way, Ireland, by the title of Baron Sheffield, of || of Richmond in the county of Surrey, Esq., Dunamore, in the county of Meath; and, || and heiress of the families of Lockay and on the 9th of October, 1783, His Majesty || was pleased farther to create him Baron Sheffield, of Roscommon, entailing the honour, in failure of heirs male, on his issue female. He was created a peer of Great Britain, by the title of Baron Sheffield, of Sheffield, in the county of York, on the 29th of July, 1802; and advanced to the dignity of Earl of Sheffield and Viscount Pevensey, in Ireland, on the 22d|| of January, 1816.

1. John William, died young; -2. Maria Josepha, married, in 1796, to Sir John Thomas Stanley, of Adderley Park, in the county of Chester, Bart. ;-3. Louisa Dorothea, married, in 1797, to Lieutenant General Sir William Henry Clinton, G.C.B., Colonel of the 55th Foot, eldest son of the late General Sir Henry Clinton, K.B., Commander-in-Chief in North America, Governor of Gibraltar, and grandson of Francis, sixth Earl of Lincoln.

The Earl married, secondly, in 1794, the Lady Lucy Pelham, third daughter of Thomas, first Earl of Chichester; by whom (who died in 1797) he had a son, still-born.

It was in the year 1796, that Lord Sheffield published the "Miscellaneous Works of Edward Gibbon, Esq., with Memoirs of his Life and Writings, composed by him- || self; illustrated from his Letters, with occasional Notes and Narrative." Amongst numerous and valuable tracts, of which His Lordship's third wife, whom he his Lordship was the author, may be par- married on the 20th of January, 1798, was ticularly mentioned, "Observations on the Lady Anne North, second daughter of the Trade of the American States and of || Frederick, second Earl of Guilford, K.G. Great Britain," published in 1783; "Ob- || By her he had a son, to whom his present servations on the Manufactures, Trade, || Majesty and the late Queen Caroline, and present State of Ireland," 1783; "Ob- || servations on the Project for abolishing the Slave Trade," 1790; "Observations on the Corn Laws," 1791; "Remarks on the Deficiency of Grain, on the Means of Present Relief and of Future Plenty, with an Appendix, containing Accounts of all Corn imported and exported, with all the Prices, from 1697, to the 10th of October, 1800," &c. In Parliament, he also distinguished himself by speaking on the proposed abolition of the Slave Trade, the Corn Laws, the Quebec Bill, the Sierra

then Prince and Princess of Wales, stood sponsors; and a daughter, Anne Frederica, born on the 25th of December, 1805.-His Lordship died on the 30th of May, 1821, and was succeeded by his only son,

George Augustus Frederick Charles, the present Earl. His Lordship was born on the 16th of March, 1802; and, as mentioned at the commencement of this Memoir, he married, in 1825, the Lady Harriet, eldest daughter of the Earl of Harewood.

CONTEMPORARY POETS AND WRITERS OF FICTION.
No. XXII.-VISCOUNT DILLON.

THE appearance of "Eccelino da Ro- Lord Dillon, educated at the University mano, surnamed the Tyrant of Padua, a of Oxford, has long been known in the Poem, in twelve Books, by Henry Augustus || literary world; particularly by his masViscount Dillon "-of which we have ob- terley translation, from the Greek, of tained one of the earliest copies-has led "The Tactics of Elian." We could us to introduce its noble author amongst also, we believe, indicate, as his producour Contemporary Poets and Writers of tions, two very extraordinary novels or Fiction. His Lordship "is the repre- romances, of a deeply metaphysical chasentative of the elder branch of the an- racter, constructed, in a great measure, cient family of Dillon, whose ancestor, upon the doctrine of Fate or Necessity Henry Dillon, obtained from King John, -a belief in which may also be traced while Earl of Mortaigne, a grant of a in many parts of the poem before us; large tract of country in Ireland, after- but, as those works have never been wards distinguished by the appellation of avowed, we do not feel ourselves at Dillon's Country." Amongst his Lord- liberty here to take them into consideraship's ancestors was Roscommon, the tion. poet-Wentworth Dillon, Earl of Roscommon, the son of James Dillon and Elizabeth Wentworth, sister to the Earl of Strafford-for whose biography we are indebted to Doctor Johnson, in his Lives of the British Poets. It may therefore be said that Lord Dillon has an hereditary claim to the inspiration of the Muse. Of himself, his Lordship thus speaks in his

Ninth Book of Eccelino da Romano:

Should any ask, perchance, who 'twas that pour'd
This unpremeditated lay, ofttimes

In unharmonious verse most quaintly cloth'd,
Oh, Clio, say, 'twas one who [whom] Fate decreed
Should wander from his hall and bower; who [whom]

Fate

Decreed, though willing, should not glory reap
In tented fields, though he had sought it far
In the vast wilderness, beyond the bounds
Where the Atlantic waves in mountains roll,
And on the dun Iberian plains; one in
The senate mute; one, for whom Ceres shakes
Her spiky head in vain, in vain doth shower
Her golden grains; one who, with buoyant heart,
O'er-rode the stormy wave and tempest high,
That persevering Fate had round him rais'd:
Who gazing on the sun liv'd and rejoic'd!
Of artificial man rejected, who,
Save Nature boon, no other parent own'd;
The mighty mother from whose paps he drew
This nourishment; she is my goddess, she
My parent dear, in her vast book I read,
And in her breast rejoicing still I live.
Nature, abhorr'd of tyrants and of fools;
Nature, whose pure code impious man doth blur,
Accept th' oblations of my grateful heart,
And if thou canst not govern fate, let me
Repose in thy kind arms; give me at least
My health and liberty. To thee I pour
My matin prayer, grateful to the bright smiles
Of the all-seeing sun, and when he bends
His western way, in gentle sleep repose.
Still Nature love I that all anguish soothes,
That from blind artificial man arose.

Lord Dillon is evidently a man of powerful mind-of commanding and even splendid genius. With such minds, superstition is not incompatible. Johnson was superstitious; and we doubt whether a man of genius ever lived who was wholly free from superstition-who had not, at some period or other of his life, notions of supernatural appearances,

• Lord Dillon published, in the year 1805, "A Letter to the Noblemen and Gentlemen who composed the Deputation of the Catholics of Ireland ;" and, in two volumes, in 1811 and 1812, "A Commentary on the Military Establishments of the British Empire;" a work for which he was in some measure professionally qualified, as he had been regularly educated for the army. His Lordship was, at one period, Colonel of the 100th regiment of foot. He was many years, during the life-time of his father, the late Viscount, one of the representatives in Parliament for the county of Mayo, a county in which his chief possessions lie. While he sat in the House of Commons, he generally voted on the popular side of the question. Though considered to be a steady Whig, he is known to be an ardent admirer of the late Mr. Pitt. It is remarkable that, although in possession of extraordinary conversational powers, his Lordship, when in Parliament, was a silent member.Lord Dillon married in the year 1810; and we promise ourselves the pleasure of very shortly adding to our Picture Gallery of the British Female Nobility, a portrait of his lady, the Viscountess a lady distinguished no less by her beauty, than by her talent, and the goodness of her heart.

omens, warnings, &c. Lord Dillon, unless we greatly mistake, entertains, or has entertained, such notions. His Lordship is also an adept in metaphysics, and in all the mysticism of the German school of philosophy. This-the latter at least is favourable to the production|| of poetry; and, in accordance with the mystical spirit, it will presently be seen, that, with reference to Eccelino da Romano, Lord Dillon has been eminently happy in his choice of subject.

We have alluded to his Lordship's hereditary claim to the inspiration of the Muse. After what has been said, is it not a little remarkable that his ancestor, Lord Roscommon, should appear to have indulged-to have had cause for indulging-a belief in supernatural intimations? Dr. Johnson, in his life of the Earl, thus quotes from Aubrey's Miscellany :

"The Lord Roscommon, being a boy of ten years of age, at Caen, in Normandy, one day was, as it were, madly extravagant in playing, leaping, getting over the tables, boards, &c. He was wont to be sober enough; they said, 'God grant this bodes no ill luck to him!' In the heat of this extravagant fit, he cries out, My father is dead. A fortnight afterwards, news came from Ireland, that his father was dead. This account I had from Mr. Knolles, who was his governor, and then with him, since secretary to the Earl of Strafford; and I have heard his lordship's relations confirm the same."*

• Dr. Johnson adds and thereby he displays his own feeling upon the subject-" The present age is very little inclined to favour any accounts of this kind, nor will the name of Aubrey much recommend it to credit; it ought not, however, to be omitted, because better evidence of a fact cannot easily be found than is here offered; and it must be by preserving such relations, that we may at last judge how much they are to be regarded. If we stay to examine this account, we shall see difficulties on both sides: here is the relation of a fact, given by a man who had no interest to deceive, and who could not be deceived himself; and here is, on the other hand, a miracle which produces no effect; the order of nature is interrupted to discover not a future, but only a distant event, the knowledge of which is of no use to him to whom it is revealed. Between these difficulties what way shall be found? Is reason or testimony to be rejected? I believe, what Osborne says of an appearance of sanctity, may be applied to such impulses or anticipations as this: "Do not wholly slight them, because they may be true;

||

In the present day, the production of a poem in twelve books, and exceeding in quantity the Paradise Lost of Milton, must be regarded as no ordinary phenomenon. In justice to Lord Dillon-in justice also to the reader of this hasty sketch-we feel it necessary, before we enter on an actual notice of the poem of Eccelino da Romano, to quote the noble author's preface entire. This will best tend to shew the rich and grand material of the structure. His Lordship thus writes:—

Eccelino Count da Romano was descended from a German family, who were settled for some, generations in the March of Treviso. He was born in the Castle of Romano, April 26, 1195, and died of wounds received in battle, in the Castle of Soncino, in the Cremonese, September 27, 1259.

His character is well adapted to the song of the heroic Muse; inasmuch as he combined the warlike genius of Napoleon with the sanguinary policy of Maximilian Robespierre; the reckless bravery of our Richard III., crowned by the romantic ambition and wild superstition of Macbeth. The renown of his deeds in arms, however, surpassed the horror of his crimes; and his memory became an object of admiration, even whilst the tradition of his dreadful cruelties struck mankind aghast.

The beauty, the address, the skill in magic, or the black art (then much practised in Padua), of his mother Adelaide, prepared the way for his ascendancy over the Ghibellin party, as well as the matrimonial alliances which he had contracted; for he was four times married, although he left no issue. One of his wives was a natural daughter of the Emperor Frederick II. of Germany, of the Suabian line; the patron and protector of the Ghibellins; the instigator of the deadly feuds, as well as the invader of Italy.

Adelaide was a noble lady of Tuscany, sister to the Count of Mongona. Rolandini tells us that she was an adept in the arcana of astrology, an interpreter of dreams and omens. She is said on her death-bed to have disclosed to her son the terrible secret of his birth; that he was the offspring of her adulterous intercourse with the demon. This wonderful avowal, proclaimed by himself, gave Eccelino vast power over the dark and wild passions of that age of tremendous energy.

This story is related by Salici; by Benvenuto da Imola; by Albertino Mussato, in his tragedy; by Henri de Spondanus, in his Con

but do not easily trust them, because they may be false.""

to be no otherwise an object than as it might
minister to the gratification of his master passion
of demoniacal atrocity. Insensible to the attrac-
tions of woman, the sexes were equally his vic-
tims, and age and infancy alike the sport of tor-
ture and murder. His crimes would be incre-
dible, if they were not remarkably well authenti-hundred of the victims survived.
cated by the agreement of all contemporary
writers, and they excited universal horror even
in an age when inhumanity towards enemies
was almost too common to be a reproach. By
day and by night, in the cities under his sway,
the air rang with the agonising shrieks of the
wretched sufferers who were expiring under the
dreadful variety of torture. All that was dis-
tinguished in the Trevisan March for public
virtue, birth, station, or wealth, even for private
qualities or personal beauty, fell under the sus-
picion and hatred of the gloomy tyrant. A
silent and fearful submission reigned through
his dominions; resistance to his numerous
satellites was hopeless, and flight impossible.

posed a third of his troops, and he could place
no dependance upon their fidelity. Dextrously,
therefore, disarming them in succession, he
threw the whole number into prisons; and when
famine and massacre, and the sword of the exe-
cutioner had done their office, no more than two

In the second year of his pontificate, Alexander IV. animated the indignation of mankind by preaching a crusade against this enemy of the human race. The cause was truly a sacred one, and it had been well if worldly hostility had never been worse directed under the sanction of religion. Yet, such was the selfishness of Italian faction, that the war was at first undertaken only by Guelf animosity, and the monster found puissant allies in the Ghibellin name. Under the command of the papal legate, the Guelf cities of northern and central Italy united their forces with those of the Marquess of Esté, and other nobles of the same party in the Trevisan March; and the whole of the Paduan exiles, with many of the Venetians, assuming the cross, swelled the numbers of the army.

Eccelino, strengthened by Ghibellin aid, was equal to his enemies in numerical force, and infinitely superior in activity and skill. The legate proved himself wretchedly incompetent in the conduct of the war; but a fortunate accident in the first campaign gave the possession of Padua to the Crusaders, in the absence of Eccelino, who was ravaging the Mantuan territory with fire and sword. The numerous and crowded prisons of Padua were thrown open, and among the miserable captives, many of whom had been mutilated by torture, were found aged persons of both sexes,

and delicate young females, all bowed down by privation and suffering: but it was at the appearance of crowds of helpless children, whom the fiend had deprived of their eyes, that horror and pity most agitated the shuddering spectators. Eccelino had not yet inflicted the last calamity of his reign on the unhappy Paduans. Eleven thousand of the flower of the citizens were serving in his army when the city was taken: they com

Notwithstanding the loss of Padua, the power and abilities of Eccelino enabled him, with the aid of his allies, to support the war for two years, and finally even to rout and disperse the crusading army. This victory was followed by the subjection of Brescia, where the Ghibellin faction acquiring the ascendancy, opened their gates to Eccelino. But this was the last material success of the tyrant, and his fall was prepared by that perfidy in his nature which he could not refrain from indulging, even towards his friends. The Ghibellin nobles, who had hitherto supported him, endured with shame the reproach of his enormities; and the discovery of his treacherous designs against themselves, soon after the capture of Brescia, completed their disgust and alienation. They united with the Guelf confederation by a treaty, in which the contracting parties solemnly swore that no consideration should turn them aside from the destruction of the inhuman and faithless Eccelino.

Their purpose was shortly consummated. Eccelino made vigorous efforts in the field, but his enemies were now every where superior, and near Cassano their armies enclosed the monster in the toils. Defection began to spread in his ranks; and, forsaken by his myrmidons, furious with desperation, and covered with wounds, he fell into the hands of the confederates. In captivity he preserved an obdurate silence; he repulsed all surgical aid, tore open his wounds, and died in a few days, after a reign of blood and terror, which had lasted without intermission for twenty-four years.

Of the Earl of Roscommon, Dr. Johnson observes" He is elegant, but not great; he never labours after exquisite beauties, and he seldom falls into gross faults. His versification is smooth, but rarely vigorous; and his rhymes are remarkably exact." Nothing like this will be said of Lord Dillon. He, in fact, is of all minor points, all minor beauties of utterly and most reprehensibly regardless composition. Persons and tenses are to him as nought; and he appears, as will repeatedly be evident from the extracts which we shall have occasion to offer, to hold in absolute scorn even the slightest attention to the structure, rhythm, metre, quantity, pause, and accentuation of verse.