Poetry THE VIOLET. [Translated form Goethe.]

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume II, Issue 106, 5 August 1846, Page 4

Poetry THE VIOLET. [Translated form Goethe.]

A violet blossom'd on the lea, Half hidden from the eye, As fair a flower as you might see ; When there came tripping by A shepherd maiden fair and young, Lightly, lightly o'er the lea ; Care she knew not, and she sung Merrily ! " O were I but the fairest flower That blossoms on the lea ; If only for one little hour, That she might gather me — Clasp' me in her bonny breast !" Thought the little flower. " O that in it I might rest But an hour !" Lack a-day ! up came that lass Heeded not the violet ; Trod it down into the grass ; Though it died, 'twas happy yet. " Trodden down although I lie, Yet my death is very sweet— For I cannot choose but die At her feet I" Blackwood't Magazine.

Anecdotes from the Life of Lord Eldon. — Very curious instances of character occur in the experience of counsel. Lord Eldon gives one of them as occurring to himself. „ " Once," said he, " I had a very handsome offer made to me. I was pleading for the rights of the inhabitants of the Isle of Man. Now I had been reading in Coke, and I found there that the people in the Isle of Man were no beggars," (the words are * The inhabitants of this Isle are religious, industrious, and true people, without begging or stealing') " I therefore do not beg their rights I demand them. This so pleased an old smuggler who was present, that when the trial was over, he called me aside and said, ' Young gentleman, I tell you what, you shall have my daughter if you will marry her, and one hundred thousand pounds for her fortune.' That was a very handsome offer, but I told him that I happened to have a wife who had nothing for hex fortune, therefore I must stick to her." Cross-examination may sometimes produce peril to the performer. At the assizes, Scott once examined a barber severely. The barber got into a great passion, and Scott desired him to moderate his anger, and that he should employ him to shave him as he passed through Kendal to the Lancaster assizes. The barber said, with great indignation, " I would not advise you, lawyer, to think of that, or risk it." On a vacancy in the Common Pleas, he was promoted to the chief justiceship in 1779, and at the same time raised to the peerage by the title of Baron Eldon. It is an instance of the dutiful and affectionate nature, which long connexion with the world and the pride of success — the two strongest temptations to heartlessness — could not extinguish, that he made a point of writing the first letter which he signed with his title to his aged mother. In this interesting document, after mentioning his double promotion, and attributing it, " under the blessing of Providence." to the lessons of virtue which he had received from his parents ; he adds — " I hope God's grace will enable me to do my duty in the station to which I am called. I write in some agitation of spirits ; but lam anxious to express my love and duty to my mother, and affection to my sisters, when I first subscribe myself, your loving and affectionate son — Eldon. He held the chief justiceship only a year and a-half, when he was raised to the summit of the bar, and sat down lord chancellor. But the mere official routine of a chancellor's life is tremendous. Lord Eldon's account of one of his days shows at what a price the honour of the Seals must be purchased. In one of his letters he says — " Mine has been no easy life. I will tell you what once happened to me. I was ill with the gout, it was in my feet, and so I was carried into my carriage, and from it was carried into court. There I remained all the day, - and delivered an arduous judgment. In the evening, I went straight from my court to the House of Lords. There I sat until two in the morning, when some of the lords came

and whispered to me, that I was expected to speak. I told them that I really could not, that I was ill, and .could not stand. , It was an important question, (the peace, of, Amiens,) I forgot my gout, and spoke for two hours. Well, the House broke up, I was carried home, and at six in the morning, I prepared to go to bed. My poor left leg had just got in ; when I recollected that I had important papers to examine ; so I put on my clothes, and went to my study. I examined the papers ; they related to the Recorder's Report, which had to he heard that day. I was again carried into court, where I had to deliver another arduous judgment. I again weut to the House of Lords, and it was not till the middle of the second night that I got into bed !" Such desperate performances do not occur every day in the life even of lord chancellors ; but the judicial labours, combined with the political, are too heavy a task for the body or the mind of any man. Lord Eldon as a warrior — " During the war," says his lordship, " I became one of the Lincoln's Inn Volunteers — Lord Ellenborough, at the same time, being one of the corps. It happened, unfortunately for the military character of both of us, that we were turned out of the awkward squad/or awkwardness! I think Ellenborough was more awkward than I was ; but others thought that it was difficult to determine which was the worse." Lord Thurlow's oddity and abruptness, both sometimes amounting to brutality, were the constant source of amusement — at least to all but the sufferers. On a trial in which an attorney gave evidence respecting the will of a man whose death was in question, the attorney^ after some puzzling said — " My lord, hear me, the man is dead ; I attended his funeral ; he was my client." " Why Sir," said Tburlow " did you not mention that at first? a great deal of time and trouble might have been saved. That he was your client is some evidence that he was dead ; nothing was so likely to kill him." Thurlow, on being asked, how he got through all his business as a chancellor, answered — •' Just as a pickpocket gets through a horse pond. He must get through." Dunning, when a similar question was put to him, answered in much the same spirit, though in a more professional style. " I divide my business into three parts : one part Ido ; another does itself ; and the third I leave undone."

Sheep Dogs in South America. — When riding, it is a common thing to meet a large flock of sheep, guarded by one or two dogs, at the distance of some miles from any house or man. I often wondered how so firm a friendship had been established. The method of education consists in separating the puppy, while very young, from the bitch, and in accustoming it to its future companions. A ewe is held thrie or four times a-day for the little thing to suck, and a nest of wool is made for it in the sheep pen. At no time is it allowed to associate with other dogs, or with the children of the family. From this education, it has no wish to leave the flock ; and just as an other dog will defend its master, man, so will these the sheep. It is amusing to observe, when approaching a flock, how the dog immediately advances barking, and the sheep all close in his rear, as if round the oldest ram. These dogs are also easily taught to bring home the flock at a certain time in the evening. Their greatest fault when young is their desire of playing with the sheep ; for, in their sport, they sometimes gallop their poor subjects most unmercifully. The shepherd dog comes to the house every day for some meat, and immediately it is given him, he skulks away as if ashamed of himself. On these occasions the house dogs are very tyrannical, and the least of them will attack and pursue the stranger. The minute, however, the latter has reached the flock, he turns round and begins to bark, and then all the house dogs take very quickly to their heels. In a similar manner, a whole pack of hungry wild dogs scarcely ever (I was told by some never) venture to attack a flock guarded evenby one of these faithful shepherds. The whole account appears to me a curious instance of the pliability of the affections in the dog race. F. Cuvier has observed, that all animals that readily enter into domestication consider man as a member of their society, and thus fulfil their instinct of association. Inthe above case the shepherd dogs rank the sheep as their fellow brethren; and the wild dogs, though knowing that the individual sheep are not dogs, but are good to eat, yet partly consent to this view, when seeing them in a flock, with a shepherd dog at their head.'