The remainder of his life presents few features of interest. Domestic calamity had overtaken him. His wife, whom he loved affectionately, had been taken from him of his two sons, one died in infancy, and the other was afflicted by an incurable malady. His cwn health became impaired. He gradually withdrew from public life, and died at Boulogne on 15th July 1844, at the age of sixty-seven. His last hours were soothed by the affec tionate care of his relatives and friends ; nor did his countrymen forget the poet in his death, for his remains were solemnly interred in Westminster Abbey, with the honours of a public funeral.
Few poets of reputation, whose span has been extended nearly to the threescore and ten allotted years, have written so little as Campbell : at the same time it must be con fessed that there are fewer still whose works are likely to be prized by posterity in the like proportion with his. If we throw out of consideration altogether Theodric, though some might demur to such an excision, if we overlook the Pilgrim of Glencoe, and weed from his lyrical garden such plants as have little charm either from their colour or their fragrance, there will still remain a mass of poetry familiar to the ear and the heart, such as hardly any other writer of this century has been able to produce. We may regret that Campbell was not more diligent in the cultiva tion of his poetical genius, that he did not apply himself more sedulously in his earlier years to some serious effort, and that he allowed other pursuits and designs to interfere with his peculiar calling. But who can venture to say what success might have attended his efforts had he acted otherwise than he did ] We blame the poet for apparent indolence, not reflecting that inspiration is not to be com manded at will. It is not only possible but easy for the man who is practised in versification to write a certain given number of lines within a certain specified time ; but genuine poetry never was and never will be the product of Egyptian taskwork. It cannot be produced to order it must be spontaneous ; and its quality must depend entirely upon the mood of mind under which it is com posed. The greater part of the poetry or rather the verse of Southey, a considerable portion of that of Scott, and a vast deal of that of Wordsworth, was not conceived or written under the poetic impulse. On such occasions these celebrated men were writing verse, as they might have written prose, without enthusiasm or anything like the feeling of passion ; and although their ordinary thoughts were far higher, bolder, and more subtle than those of the million, they still were not attempting to rise beyond their ordinary intellectual level. One can see at a glance when they were inspired, and when they were merely versifying. Of the poets who adorned the first half of the present century, Coleridge and Campbell were conspicuous for their abstinence in writing except under the influence of real emotion. Of the former it may be said that he has hardly penned a line of mere mechanical verse ; the latter did not do so until his inspiration seemed to have abandoned him. Undoubtedly, however, to have recourse to a hackneyed, though by no means an unmeaning phrase, it is the duty of the poet to woo the muse, not to wait for her courtship. He must seek for the waters of Castaly, not tarry till they arc conveyed to him ; and it is in this respect probably that Campbell principally erred. He did not sufficiently endeavour to awake his genius ; he was too much a dreamer, and may at times have lost his opportunity from the sheer weight of indolence. And yet, considering the value of the legacy he has left, we have no reason to complain. Critics may dispute regarding the comparative merits of his longer works ; and, as they incline towards didactic or narrative poetry, may prefer the one composition to the other. Both are entitled to high praise and honour, but it is on his lyrics that the future reputation of Campbell must principally rest. They have taken their place, never to be disturbed, in the popular heart ; and, until the language in which they are written perishes, they are certain to endure.
son of the Rev. George Campbell, D.D., by Magdalene, the only daughter of John Hallyburton, Esq. of Fodderance, was born at Cupar, Fife, on 17th September 1779. His father was for fifty years the parish minister of Cupar. For a few years young Campbell studied at the United College, St Andrews, where he met Thomas Chalmers. In 1800 he was entered as a student at Lincoln s Inn, and became a pupil of the well-known special pleader Mr Warren, the master of Lyndhurst, Denman, and Cottenham. A few days after his entrance, as he records in his Lives of the Chancellors, he saw and heard Lord Thurlow speak in the House of Lords. After a short connection with the Morning Chronicle he was called to the bar in 1826, and at once began to report cases decided at Nisi Prius (i.e., on Jury Trial), in the courts of King s Bench and Common Pleas, and on the home circuit. Of these Reports he published altogether four volumes, with learned notes ; they extend from Michaelmas 1807 to Hilary 1816. Campbell also devoted himself a good deal to criminal business, but in spite of his unceasing industry he failed to attract much attention behind the bar ; briefs came in slowly, and it was not till 1827 that he obtained a silk gown and found him self in that " front rank " who are permitted to have political aspirations. When George IV. died (26th June 1830) and Parliament was dissolved (24th July), Campbell, like all the new Whig men of the day, resolved to enter Lord Grey s Parliament. With the help of his relative Major Scarlett he contested the borough of Stafford, which he represented in 1830 and 1831. In the House he showed an extraordinary, sometimes an excessive zeal for public business, speaking on all subjects with practical sense, but on none with eloquence or spirit. His main object, however, like that of Brougham, was the ameliora tion of the law, more by the abolition of cumbrous technicalities than by the assertion of new and striking principles. Thus his name is associated with the Fines and Recoveries Abolition Act (3 and 4 Will. IV. c. 74) ; the Law of Descent Act (3 and 4 Will. IV. c. 106); the Law of Dower Act (3 and 4 Will. IV. c. 105); the Statute of Limitations (3 and 4 Will. IV. c. 27) ; the Execution of Wills of Real or Personal Property Act (1 Viet. c. 26) ; one of the Copyhold Tenure Acts (4 and 5 Viet. c. 25) ; and the Imprisonment for Debt Act (1 and 2 Viet. c. 110). All these measures were important and were carefully drawn ; but their merits cannot be explained in a bio graphical notice. The second was called for by the prefer ence which the common law gave to a distant collateral over the brother of the half-blood of the first purchaser ; the fourth conferred an indefeasible title on adverse possession for twenty years (a term shortened by Lord Cairns in 1875 to twelve years) ; the fifth reduced the number of witnesses required by law to attest wills, and removed the vexatious distinction which existed in this respect between freeholds and copyholds ; the last freed an innocent debtor from imprisonment only before final judgment (or on what was termed mcsne process), but the principle stated by Campbell that only fraudulent debtors should be imprisoned was ultimately given effect to for England and Wales in 1869.[1] In one of his most cherished objects, however, which formed the theme of his maiden
speech in Parliament, Campbell was doomed to disappoint-- ↑ Two of his later Acts, allowing the defendant in an action for libel to prove verita-s, and giving a right of action to the representatives of persons killed through negligence, also deserve mention.
