cutta. In this capacity he had a charge of police which "jumped with his humour well;" for the task of pursuing and dispersing the bands of robbers who infest Bengal had something of active and military duty. He also exercised a judicial capacity among the natives, to the discharge of which he was admirably fitted, by his knowledge of their language, manners, and customs. To this office a very considerable yearly income was annexed. This was neither expended in superfluities, nor even in those ordinary expences which the fashion of the East has pronounced indispensible; for Dr Leyden kept no establishment, gave no entertainments, and was, with the receipt of this revenue, the very same simple, frugal, and temperate student, which he had been at Edinburgh. But, exclusive of a portion remitted home for the most honourable and pious purpose, his income was devoted to the pursuit which engaged his whole soul; to the increase, namely, of his acquaintance witheastern literature in all its branches.. The expence of native teachers, of every country and dialect, and that of procuring from every quarter oriental manuscripts, engrossed his whole emoluments, as the task of studying under the tuition of the interpreters, and decyphering the contents of the volumes, occupied every moment of his spare time. "I may die in the attempt," he writes to a friend, "but if I die witheut surpassing Sir William Jones a hundred fold in oriental learning, let never a tear for me prophane the eye of a borderer." The term was soon approaching when these regrets were to be bitterly called forth, both from his Scottish friends, and from all who viewed with interest the career of his ardent and enthusiastic genius, which, despising every selfish consideration, was only eager to secure the fruits of knowledge, and held for sufficient re ward the fame of having gathered them. Dr Leyden accompanied the governor-general upon the expedition to Ja va, for the purpose of investigating the manners, language, and literature of the tribes which inhabit that island, and partly also because it was thought his extensive knowledge of the eastern dialects and customs might be useful in settling the government of the coun try, or in communicating with the independent princes in the neighbourhood of the Dutch settlements. His spirit of romantic adventure led him literally to rush upon death; for with another volunteer who attended the expedition, he threw himself into the surf, in order to be the first Briton of the expedition who should set foot upon Java. When the success of the well-concerted movements of the invaders had given them possession of the town of Batavia, Leyden displayed the same illomen'd precipitation in his haste to examine a library in which many Indian manuscripts of value were said to be deposited. A library, in a Dutch settlement, was not, as might have been expected, in the best order, the apartment had not been regularly ventilated, and either from this circumstance, or already affected by the fatal sickness peculiar to Batavia, Leyden, when he left the place, had a fit of shivering, and declared the atmosphere was enough to give any mortal a fever. The presage was too just; he took his bed, and died in three days, on the eve of the battle which gave Java to the British empire. Thus died John Leyden, in the moment, perhaps, most calculated to gratify the feelings which were dear to his heart; upon the very day of military glory, and when every avenue of new and interesting discovery was opened to his penetrating research. In the emphatic words of scripture, the bowl was broken at the fountain. His literary remains were intrusted by his last will to the charge of Mr Heber, and Dr Hare of Calcutta, his executors, under whose inspection it is hoped that they will soon be given to the public. They are understood to contain two volumes of poetry, with many essays on oriental and general literature. His remains, honoured with every respect by Lord Minto, now repose in a distant land, far from the green-sod graves of his ancestors at Hazeldean, to which, with a natural anticipation of such an event, he bids an affecting farewell in the solemn passage which concludes the Scenes of Infancy : The silver moon, at midnight cold and still, Looks, sad and silent, o'er yon western hill; While large and pale the ghostly structures SCOTTICISMS. IN common speech the word Scotti cism is employed in a very broad and general sense, not only to denote that perversion or misapplication of Engfish words or phrases peculiar to Scotland, but even to include Scotch words and phrases which have no existence whatever in the English language. A word or a phrase from a French or Latin author is never termed a Gallicism or a Latinism, but that abuse only of an English word or phrase, which arises from the adoption of the French or Latin idiom or phraseology. Yet this distinction, obvious as it is, has not been sufficiently attended to by any of the writers who have hitherto turned their attention to this subject. In the following list of Scotticisms, the author has endeavoured to avoid whatever does not appear to him to fall under the proper acceptation of the word. He has also endeavoured to avoid all those Scotticisms which have been already noted in other collections; though repetitions may very possibly occur, from the difficulty of collating, where there is no corresponding ar rangement, or common principle of comparison. A complete collection, comprehending all the Scotticisms already printed that come truly under that appellation, might be extremely useful and valuable, and would not be by any means so extensive as might at first appear, if it were confined to its proper object, and care taken, in gleaning from preceding authors, to exclude English vulgarisms, and other inaccuracies and improprieties of language not more incident to Scotch than to English writers and speakers; all words pure ly Scotch, especially the technical terms of our law, and of course all the phrases which are at the present day in use among our southern neighbours, without regard to their origin or introduc. tion. Such a work, however, ought to form a separate publication; and in compiling it, recourse must not only be had to the well-known collections of Dr Beattie and Mr Hume, but to every source of whatever authority, whence the smallest hint can be derived. Mr Elphinstone's criticisms will supply some useful suggestions; and a few genuine Scotticisms, not previously remarked, may be gathered from Sir John Sinclair's Observations on the Scottish Dialect, and from a collection of Scotticisms, vulgar Anglicisms, &c. printed at Glasgow in 1799, by Hugh Mitchell, master of the English and French academy. *An English friend, to whose revision these Scotticisms were submitted, on this head makes the following remark. "Professor Stewart, in his Philosophical Essays, speaks of his dislike at a certain mode of expression, which I take to be a decided Scotticism, rather unhappily placed, the subject being just then verbal criticism. But a Scotticism from such a writer of English as he is, is perhaps an honourable national distinction, rather than a blemish. I should not hesitate to say, a disgust at, though I should say, a dislike to any thing. In defence of this, I have only to plead my five degrees of latitude, which in these cases will hold good sometimes against more than five good reasons.” |