after this, an event of a public and political nature moved him still more highly than any pecuniary loss could have done. This was the sanguinary capture of Warsaw in 1831, and the national miseries with which Poland was afterwards visited. He had embraced the cause of that most injured and most afflicted of the nations with a poet's enthusiasm; and now he predicted the final result of its wrongs with a poet's prophetic prescience. His words upon the subject are well worth considering—for are they not, even at the present day, after a lapse of twenty-one years, undergoing their fulfilment? "All is over now; and a brave nation is thrust a second time, assassinated, into her grave. Mysterious are the ways of heaven! We must not question its justice—but I am sick, and fevered with indignation at Germany, for suffering this foolish Emperor of Austria; he fears letting his people taste a little freedom, more than resigning his own freedom to Russia, for he will soon be the very vassal of the inhuman Sclaves, which will be worse for him than if he had a free parliament under his nose—and so also will the King of Prussia be henceforth! All continental Europe, I distinctly anticipate, will be enslaved by Russia. France and Austria will worry each other till they are exhausted; and then down will Russia come on all the south of Europe, with millions and millions, and give law and the knout both to Germany and France." After such vaticinations, who can fail to recognize the truth of the following lines of Cowper:—
"So when remote futurity is brought
Before the keen inquiry of her thought,
A terrible sagacity informs
The poet's heart; he looks to distant storms;
He hears the thunder ere the tempest lowers;
And, arm'd with strength surpassing human powers,
Seizes events as yet unknown to man,
And darts his soul into the dawning plan."
It is gratifying to add that when Campbell's heart was thus occupied, he did not, like too many, withdraw from the throng, that he might brood in solitude over the luxury of sensibility. Instead of this, he spoke, wrote, declaimed upon the miseries of Poland, pictured them in poetry and in prose, appealed against them in companies of every political shade of belief, exerted himself to make all feel that instead of being a mere party question, it was the common cause of justice, honour, and humanity; and, to evince his sincerity, bestowed liberally, not only of his time and labour, but also of his money, in behalf of the Polish sufferers, at a season when money was the commodity which he least could spare. And his labours were not in vain. He awoke a deep sympathy in behalf of Poland wherever his influence extended, and succeeded in associating the Polish committee in London, which for years has been so successful in relieving thousands of the expatriated.
While employed in these avocations, the literary duties of Campbell still continued to be of a varied character. After his editorship of the "New Monthly Magazine" had ceased, he was employed in the same capacity in the "Metropolitan;" and subsequently his attentions were occupied with letters and pamphlets in support of the London University, and upon the subject of education in general; with reviews on works of classical history and fiction; and with a wide and laborious correspondence in French, German, and Latin, which employed him four hours every morning. To these, also, was added his "Life of Mrs. Siddons," a work to which he devoted himself with all his
