IV. Oh! God of hosts! in that dread hour, Hear the afflicted mother's cries, The wife's the daughter's-heartfelt sighs, 4. We ask not vengeance on our foe, That wretched war may cease; And, strengthen'd by thy mighty arm, And raise triumphant peace. VI. But, dreadful thought! Lord, shouldst thou frown, Suppliant, with penitence sincere, Whate'er our guilt, with trembling fear, LINES extracted from the Pavilion. And oh no future bliss I trace, E'en Hope has veil'd her flattering face. Dreading the blast of deep despair, MAJOR MAJOR TOPHAM. MAJOR EDWARD TOPHAM is the son of Francis Topham, Esq. LL. D. who was master of the faculties and judge of the prerogative court of York, at which place he resided. He was reckoned one of the most eminent civilians of his day; and it was in a great measure owing to the number of unfortunate cases that came before him as a judge, which he so strongly represented in a pamphlet addressed to the then Lord Hardwicke, that the act which put an end to the Fleet marriages passed. It was on this gentleman that Lawrence Sterne, better known under the name of Tristram Shandy, made his first essay in a little pamphlet which he called "The Adventures of a Watch. coat." Here Major Topham, who was then a boy at Eton, was first ushered into the world of literary warfare, from having it stated that his father, who was there held forth as a watchman, "wanted to cut the parish watch-coat into a dress for his wife, and a pair of small-cloaths for his son." The subject of all this originated, as we have heard, in a dispute with Dr. Fountain, the late Dean of York, who having neglected to fulfil an engagement made with Dr. Topham, engaged Tristram Shandy to endeavour to turn his breach of promise into ridicule. The best result was, that it became the means of first bringing forth into public notice, and afterwards into public admiration, Lawrence Sterne as an author, who was at that period a curate in the country, and till then totally unknown. Major Major Topham passed eleven years at Eton, where he was fortunate enough to be distinguished by frequently having his verses publicly read by the master in school, or, as it is there termed, by being sent up for good. He afterwards formed one of the numerous band of upper boys who were very severely punished for being engaged in the great rebellion that took place under Dr. Forster, then master, who was a great Latinist, a great Grecian, a great Hebraist, and every thing but a man of common sense. In the ways of the world he was a very Parson Adams, and of course not well qualified to govern the greatest public seminary in the kingdom, which at one time boasted five hundred and fifty students. After leaving Eton, Major Topham went as a fellow-commoner to Trinity College, Cambridge. About this time his father died, and in a few months afterwards his mother. His father, (which is somewhat singular) although presiding over the very depository of wills, died intestate, and Major Topham had thus a good opportunity of beginning life well for a young man, for he executed all that his father intended to have done; a circumstance not a little advantageous to his eldest sister Charlotte, who married Sir Griffith Boynton, Bart. (now nearly the oldest baronetage in England) and died in child-birth at Burton Agnes, in Yorkshire. At Cambridge, Major T. remained four years, long enough to put on what is there called "an Harry Soph's gown," which many people would think was exchanging a good for a bad gown; the gown of the fellow. |