The poems therein contained were not absolutely without merit, but they were not worth much. The book was fiercely assailed in the Edinburgh Review, and the sarcasms of that periodical stung Byron into being a poet. His satire, English Bards and Scotch Reviewers, was written in reply to the article in the Edinburgh, and a great sensation was caused by a play of wit and a mastery of versification unequalled since the days of Pope. During a babble of praise, Byron withdrew from England, and only returned in 1812, when he brought out the commencement of Childe Harold, as noticed above. After a career in part made glorious by the inspirations of genius, and in part debased by dissipation, Byron died at Missolonghi on the 19th of April 1824.

Sir Walter Scott's remarks on the death of Lord Byron will be read with interest :

Amidst the general calmness of the political atmosphere,' says Scott, 'we have been stunned from another quarter, by one of those death-blows which are pealed at intervals, as from an archangel's trumpet, to awaken the soul of a whole people at once. Lord Byron, who has so long and so amply filled the highest place in the public eye, has shared the lot of humanity. He died at Missolonghi on the 19th of April 1824. That mighty genius which walked

whose powers were beheld with wonder, and something approaching to terror, as if we knew not whether they were of good or of evil, is laid as soundly to rest as the poor peasant whose ideas never went beyond his daily task.

'We are not Byron's apologists; for now, alas! he needs none. His excellences will now be universally acknowledged, and his faults (let us hope and believe) not remembered in his epitaph. It will be remembered what a part he has sustained in British literature since the appearance of Childe Harold, a space of nearly twelve years. There has been no reposing under the shade of his laurels--no living upon the resource of past reputation-none of that cooling and petty precaution which little authors call "taking care of their fame." Byron let his fame take care of itself. His foot was always in the arena; his shield hung always in the lists; and although his own gigantic renown increased the difficulty of the struggle, since he could produce nothing, however great, which exceeded the public estimate of his genius, yet he advanced to the honourable contest again and again and again, and came always off with distinction, almost always with complete triumph.

'As various in composition as Shakespeare himself (this will be admitted by all who are ac

quainted with his Don Juan), he has embraced every topic of human life, and sounded every string on the divine harp, from its lightest to its most powerful and heart-astounding tones. There is scarcely a passion or a situation which has escaped his pen; and he might be drawn, like Garrick, between the weeping and laughing muse, although his most powerful efforts have certainly been dedicated to MelpoHis genius seemed as

mene.

prolific as various. The most prodigal efforts did not exhaust his powers, nay, seemed rather to increase their vigour. Neither Childe Harold nor any of the most beautiful of Byron's earlier tales contain more exquisite morsels of poetry than are to be found scattered through the cantos of Don Juan, amidst verses which the author appears to have thrown off with an effort as spontaneous as that of a tree resigning a leaf to the wind.'