reading to make for such a purpose. He had directed his attention very little to the German poets, and

a good deal to their metaphysics and labours on Eastern literature. He found he could not do justice to German poetry within any

reasonable

compass

of time. It has been seen that to conquer existing difficulties was no part of his disposition.

The circumstance of his election to the lord rectorship of Glasgow in November, 1826, so highly flattering to his feelings as coming from his own university, provided him with a subject, in his letters to the students of Glasgow, of which he published the first in the month of July, 1827. The candidates opposed to him were men of no mean consideration, namely, Mr. Canning and Sir Thomas Brisbane. The votes were, for Campbell, 283 ; Brisbane, 196 ; Canning, 79. All were put in nomination without any previous knowledge or being consulted in the matter, a common though not uniform custom.

Campbell's inaugural address was delivered on the 12th of April, 1827, à garbled report of which only appeared in the newspapers. When he reached the college-green, so it was reported in Glasgow, the snow lay upon the ground, and he founds the youth pelting each other with snow-balls. That he was just going to deliver a solemn address to the same youth never for a moment crossed his mind. Such an absence on an occasion of similar importance, so incongruous, pompous doctors or stiff ceremonialists would have it, was not to be palliated. The feeling of his youth came upon him, the spirit of long past years animated his soul, creature of impulse as he ever was. He rushed into the melée, and joined in the frolic in his fiftieth year as if he had been but fifteen. He flung about his snowballs with no inconsiderable dexterity as well as rapidity, to the delight of all around. Then when the moment for delivering the address was come, the students being summoned, and he proceeding in the van, they entered the hall together. It was impossible to say who was most delighted at the scene, Campbell who had thus recalled a scene of perished years, or the youth at the vivacity of their new lord rector, whose celebrity and office would seem to inspire formality and the gravest carriage. The learned professors of the institution, no doubt, thought it greatly infra dig.—a matter of scandal.

Campbell was a second time unanimously elected lord rector in the month of November in that same year, so highly were the students pleased with their choice of the preceding year (1826). He went down to Glasgow in consequence.

On this second occasion the stus dents paid him a spontaneous mark of regard they had not shown to any preceding rector. As soon as the re-election had taken place, all the scholars of the university proceeded in a body, marching in regular procession and in the order of their classes, to the house in which Campbell was staying, that of Mr. Gray, in Claremont-place. A deputation then waited on the newly-elected lord rector to congratulate him on the unanimity which had prevailed among them in regard to their choice. Campbell threw up the window, and made an animated address to them, which was received with the highest marks of youthful enthusiasm. As soon as it was concluded the great body of the students went away, but a committee of the leaders among them remained to consult their rector on some steps which were then taking that threatened their right of electing a rector. Campbell recommended a petition to the commissioners, and promised to secure them the use of the great hall of the college in which to hold their meeting for the purpose.

THE OUT-STATION; OR, JAUNTS IN THE JUNGLE.

BY J. WILLYAMS GRYLLS, ESQ.

CHAPTER IV.

A MIDNIGHT MELÉE WITH THE UNCLEAN.

re

HAVING (between us) avenged the demolition of the “hope of the family," and of the tortoiseshell comb, by the slaughter of the female victimiser, the least we can do in common charity is to adopt her orphan progeny. Consequently, tying a handkerchief round the neck of each of the three half-smothered juvenile bruins, we march thein off in durance vile to enjoy a state of civilisation for the remainder of their ursine existence.

The sun beginning to get unpleasantly warm, we adjourn to the jungle habitation of our host, which the fair sex of the family (query, does a black woman constitute one of the fair sex ?) during our absence have put into a "company-expecting” state for us, by festooning the walls with snow-white drapery, and laying out a respectable spread of milk, plantains, honey, and rice-cakes on the table (female, unsophisticated, little niggers !) But it is no easy matter to rest, even during mid-day, in the jungle, where there are so many incitements to sally forth and penetrate its depths, and assert and prove the dominion of Man and Manton over those who dwell therein.

To pass time, we have the defunct bear hauled into the verandah, and there skin him; making the delighted native's sanctum very

much semble a slaughter-house both in appearance and odour, and a pretty mess of the business into the bargain. This accomplished, and it is no slight labour (as you may easily discover, reader, if you only try your hand at skinning one of the three hundred and sixty-five bears annually slaughtered at any barber's shop in the whole of London), we take a stroll to the adjacent garden (lucus a non lucendo), and assist the old “ pater familias,"

who never ventures abroad beyond, in planting his garlic or betelnut; and although, in the extremity of our officiousness and accommodating benevolence, we stick half the plants in the ground with their heads instead of their roots downwards, the native patriarch is overpowered at our condescension, and gives us an invitation on the spot to spend twelve months with him, at the very least (to begin with), if it be only to murder some of the pigs that pay nightly visits to his habitation, and will, ten to one, speedily undo all the work we have been attempting to accomplish in such a masterly manner.

Just won't we stop, my dear reader, now that we are here? not twelve months, but twelve hours, and see if we cannot polish off some of the “ unclean” (not meaning the “great unwashed,” but speaking Israelitishly) that intrude their snouts here, eradicating every germ of vegetability in the garden, and of charity in the heart of its cultivator.

The sun is setting bright and brilliantly ; every fleecy cloud in the lately blue, but now grey, expanse above us is tinged with a deep crimson glow, decreasing in lustre as the sun sinks further down, and finally settling into a border as of burnished gold; till the Moon, getting jealous,

pops its jolly round face above the horizon, and before we have time to say “What a glorious twilight !" the glare of day has melted into the hallowed stillness and subdued beauty of night-and now is our hour for action.

Without loss of time we proceed forth to pitch our bivouac (as some victim of poetic inspiration has immortalised it, but whether on a similar occasion or not we will not vouch),

By the moonlight alone,

At the grove at the end of the vale. And as we are to spend the night, or the greater part of it, here, we will take care, you may 'depend on it, provident reader ! to be furnished with antidotes against any of the rheumatically-charged airs of the late hours.

Every step we proceed evinces in what numbers the swinish multitude amuse themselves 6 μεσονυκτιαις ποθ' ωραις,” the ground being literally turned up in all directions, as if it had been operated upon by one of our modern patent subsoil excruciators—in search of what, Heaven and the pigs only know ! for often have I digged there for hours, expecting to find a nest of truffles, but might just as well have hoped, whilst I was about it, to have harpooned a Chubb's patent safe, full of old Roman denarii.

We are en route to a large open piece of ground some mile or so off, so spacious that at least two thousand porkers might go through Torrens's improved system of drill thereon, without treading on each other's heels or toes.

The still, stagnant pools (albeit looking clear in the moonlight), that we every now and then come upon, are on our close approach raised into a state of sudden and tempestuous commotion by the plunge of an alligator, whose calm imaginings on the bank our advent has merged into more egotistical and selfish considerations. In other pools, we merely perceive the head of one of these monsters appearing above the surface, star-gazing, or on the look-out for some poor paddy bird to alight on the water, in hopes of a quiet night's rest and pleasant dreams. These rascals (“ guanas” they are called in Ceylon), are nothing in comparison in point of size to the Egyptian crocodile, but they are the greatest drawbacks to shooting with dogs, more particularly spaniels, for as sure as a dog enters a pool

after a dead or wounded bird, so surely does he enter the ravenous maw of an alligator, who, with two inches of snout above the surface, seems all his life long to be actuated by the old nursery injunction of “ Shut your eyes and open your mouth, and see what Heaven will send you,” formerly accompanied to ourself, in pinafore days, with a huge lump of Spanish liquorice, or some other (then adored) abomination, until our confidence was destroyed by a huge dose of rhubarb one evening when we expected tamarinds at least.

There is no use shooting these “guanas," as we have been more than once tempted to do, by sending a ball into their neck, for they only prove so much nourishment to the other part of their family, and are soon gobbled down by a bereaved and hungry circle of acquaintance. They will generally attack every thing, man and beast, in their own proper element, water ; but meeting a human being on land, they invariably

cut their bamboos,” and take to the nearest pool.

At last, we emerge into an open plain covered with lemon

grass

about a foot in height, and bounded all round by the jungle. Following the directions of our “indigenous" guide, we plant ourselves at an opening through which the herd are expected to make their appearance, stationing ourselves at such a distance as to be able to keep up a cross fire without any great chance of immolating one another; and then squatting on the grass, or perching ourself on any rock that may accommodatingly be in our neighbourhood, we light a cheroot the more effectually to keep our mouths shut, and, like two Jobs in shooting jackets, await patiently the first squeak or grunt of the invaders.

Our guns are loaded with ball ; in addition to which we carry a crease a-piece, which we have borrowed from some of our Malays, with whom it is a favourite weapon, and almost the only one in use, in their own private quarrels or piratical crusades. In the Ceylon Rifles, nine men out of ten, if engaged in active service, carry their creases with them, and during the Cingalese rebellion where the regiment was employed, a hundred of the enemy were found to have been “creased” to each one that was shot; and a singularly unpleasant sensation it must produce ;-being bad enough in all conscience to be transfixed (at least so we should imagine) with a plain straightforward bayonet, instead of one of those zigzag, corkscrew-shaped things.

Back to our “cochons.” In any other place, perhaps, our patience might get up a slight demonstration of mutiny and rebellion by way of an interlude, but here we feel we could wait all night even though nothing turned up. Our cheroots are excellent-our pocket-pistol not likely to be exhausted—and our train of thought the most amiable possibly to be imagined. Who could profane “ the solemn silence of that hour,” by the explosion of villanous saltpetre? Who, in this “stillness that leaves room for the full soul to open all itself,” could send to an untimely grave even the minutest of Heaven's

By Jove ! was that a squeak? Yes! Hark! another, and another, and another !--here they come !-hip! hip! (not loud but deep) hurrah! Ay, borne on the wings of one of those airy gusts that fitfully eddy down the miniature valleys in the jungle, comes the first faint squeak of piggy on his pilgrimage.

Louder and louder swells the chorus ! Grunts, such only as can issue from porkers starving or deeply insulted, become fearfully distinct ; until, at a swing trot, about two hundred fine savage swine, hog, sow, and

progeny promiscuously blended, burst through the opening where we have been expecting them on to the plain and appear at one coup d'oeil before

It is as light as day; and the animals in the moonlight look as white as if they had a prognostication of the fate that awaited them. Now they slacken their speed, and at once set about the business of the nightviz., grubbing. We crawl on in the rear, about twenty yards astern; then dropping quietly on our knee, we pour in our four barrels ; seizing the spare guns from our servants, we administer a second dose, our followers reloading the discharged weapons in the interim.

The pigs are evidently staggered. It is too much for their limited intellect to comprehend, and with the exception of three dead, and two lying on their backs, squaring away at the little of existence left (pardon the cribbage, oh Boz!), the herd “form square,” getting as close to each other as possible, and turning a front towards us as if determined to

us.

make a rush, but before they come to any fixed resolution on this point they get a third volley, and then every pig for himself"-away they toddle as fast as their trotters will

carry

them. Our wisest plan would have been to have provided ourselves with two ponies, in which case we could have followed them up until we had exterminated the entire herd ; but having no such appliances at hand, our only resource is to rattle after them on foot as quickly as we are able; of course they soon distance us, but presently arriving at a convenient place for another attempt at supper, they pull up and set to work.

Again we pepper away at them; and one or two, hit hard, make a rush at us; this we avoid by quickly making an echellon movement to the right or left, for it is no joke to come in contact with one of these wild fellows.

Their plan of attack is to rush at the legs of their adversary, and as they knock him over, to throw up their heads at the same moment with fearful force, inflicting a contused wound that would probably disable the receiver for life to say nothing of the gash they are capable of inflicting with their tushes, which are tremendously long and sharp. Should we be rendered insensible by one, the others would incontinently devour us, so it is not altogether such child's play as may appear to the reader on perusal.

Tired at length, and out of breath, we give up the chase; as for carrying the dead pigs away with us, we would if we could, but they are too numerous—we have killed upwards of a dozen ; so picking out the plumpest, we sling him on a pole, soon cut from the nearest bamboo tree, and placing either end of it on one of our followers' shoulders, we trudge home to quarters, calling in our way to pick up the bear captives of the morning, and arrive in time to “turn in” just as our little bantam greets the opening day with his first “cock-a-doodle-doo!"

CHAPTER V.

AN “ ESSAY” ON ELK.

TURNING out somewhat late in the day after our midnight excursion, and discussing a light déjeuner, consisting of a pineapple and diluted claret (the former article being wrenched out of the nearest hedge, and the latter subjected to an external application of saltpetre, which does duty in the jungle for the more extravagant luxury of ice), the next “divertissement” in out-station life is a demonstration of valour in the shape of an undress parade, at which we rout an imaginary unoffending enemy by twenty rounds of blank cartridge to each man, frightening the adjacent niggers and their poultry-yards out of all the little wits they possess between them, and, as in duty bound, doing “all our little possible” in keeping up the glorious taxes of Old England by a huge waste of gunpowder.

But however bloodless all this "pomp and circumstance of glorious war” is to the invisible foe, it is not so to us ; there is not a blade of grass on the whole parade ground that is not the local habitation of a leech ;-not content with the grass, they patronise the trees, and drop down into one's neck and hair without number, and so small are they, that they insinuate themselves through the button-holes in one's dress, and the