Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 59, No. 363, January, 1846   By: Various

Edinburgh

MAGAZINE

VOL. LIX.

JANUARY JUNE, 1846.

[Illustration]

WILLIAM BLACKWOOD & SONS, EDINBURGH;

AND

37, PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON.

1846.

BLACKWOOD'S

EDINBURGH MAGAZINE.

No. CCCLXIII. JANUARY, 1846. VOL. LIX.

CONTENTS.

SIR WILLIAM FOLLETT, 1

LET NEVER CRUELTY DISHONOUR BEAUTY, 16

THE LAST HOURS OF A REIGN. CONCLUSION, 17

A CAMPAIGN IN TEXAS, 37

THE MOTHER AND HER DEAD CHILD, 53

THE GREEK AND ROMANTIC DRAMA, 54

MY COLLEGE FRIENDS. NO. III., 73

THE STUDENT OF SALAMANCA. PART III., 85

SICILIAN SKETCHES. SYRACUSIANA, 103

ÆSTHETICS OF DRESS. MILITARY COSTUME, 114

FROM GOETHE, 120

CHRISTMAS CAROL. 1845, 122

THE CRISIS, 124

EDINBURGH: WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS, 45, GEORGE STREET; AND 37, PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON.

To whom all Communications (post paid) must be addressed.

SOLD BY ALL THE BOOKSELLERS IN THE UNITED KINGDOM.

PRINTED BY BALLANTYNE AND HUGHES, EDINBURGH.

SIR WILLIAM FOLLETT.

The disappearance from the legal hemisphere of so bright a star as the late Sir William Follett, cast a gloom, not yet dissipated, over the legal profession, and all classes of society capable of appreciating great intellectual eminence. He died in his forty seventh year; filling the great office of her Majesty's Attorney general; the head and pride of the British Bar; a bright ornament of the senate; in the prime of manhood, and the plenitude of his extraordinary intellectual vigour; in the full noontide of success, just as he had reached the dazzling pinnacle of professional and official distinction. The tones of his low mellow voice were echoing sadly in the ears, his dignified and graceful figure and gesture were present to the eyes, of the bench and bar when, at the commencement of last Michaelmas term, they re assembled, with recruited energies, in the ancient inns of court, for the purpose of resuming their laborious and responsible professional exertions in Westminster Hall. It was impossible not to think, at such a time, of Sir William Follett, without being conscious of having sustained a grievous, if not an irreparable, loss. Where was he whose name was so lately a tower of strength to suitors; whose consummate logical skill whose wonderful resources taxed to the uttermost those of judicial intellect, and baffled and overthrew the strongest who could be opposed to him in forensic warfare? Where, alas, was Sir William Follett? His eloquent lips were stilled in death, his remains were mouldering in the tomb yes, almost within the very walls of that sacred structure, hallowed with the recollections and associations of centuries, in which his surviving brethren were assembled for worship on Sunday the 2d day of November 1845 the commencement of the present legal year at that period of it when his was erewhile ever the most conspicuous and shining figure, his exertions were the most interesting, the most important, his success was at once the most easy, decisive, and dazzling. Yes, there were assembled his brethren, who, with saddened faces and beating hearts, had attended his solemn obsequies in that very temple where was "committed his body to the ground, earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust," where all, including the greatest and noblest in the land, acknowledged, humbly and mournfully, at the mouth of his grave, that man walketh in a vain shadow, and disquieteth himself in vain; he heapeth up riches, and cannot tell who shall gather them ! Surely these are solemnizing and instructive reflections; and many a heart will acknowledge them to be such, amidst all the din, and glare, and bustle of worldly affairs, in the awful presence of Him who turneth man to destruction, and sayeth, Come again, ye children of men !