e English lyre, which
I, 'the meanest of the throng,' thus feebly, but heartily, have paid
them."

Towards the close of 1822, Mr. Moore published "The Loves of the Angels,"
a poem of exquisite tenderness and beauty. The object of the poet is,
by an allegorical medium, to shadow out the fall of the soul from its
original purity--the loss of light and happiness which it suffers, in the
pursuit of this world's perishable pleasures--and the punishments from
conscience and Divine justice.

Soon after the death of Lord Byron, in 1824, Mr. Moore became involved
in a dispute which involved many private feelings. The facts may be thus
briefly stated:--It appears that about two years previous to his death,
Lord Byron wrote his own Memoirs, which, according to Captain Medwin,
were given "to Moore, or Moore's little boy, at Venice," with the
observation of "Here's 2,000_l_. for you, my young friend;" and that
they were not to be published till after his lordship's death. On the
completion of the Memoirs, Lord Byron wrote to his lady, proposing to
send them for her inspection; but she rejected the offer, desiring that
they might never appear, and finishing with a threat. Lord Byron
concluded his reply by saying, that "she might depend on their being
published;" and his lordship further says, "It was not till after this
correspondence that I made Moore the depositary of the MS." Mr. Moore
subsequently disposed of the MS. to Mr. Murray, the bookseller, for the
sum of 2,000 guineas; but, at the anxious wish of some of Lord Byron's
relatives, the purchase-money was returned to Mr. Murray, and the MS. was
burnt. The circumstances being so recent, we do not think it requisite to
enlarge upon them. Mr. Moore has since entered into an agreement with his
publishers for a Life of Lord Byron, and a few weeks since the first
portion of the copy was sent to the printer.

Almost simultaneous with the above affair was the publication of Mr.
Moore's "Memoirs of Captain Rock, the celebrated Irish Chieftain,"--a
work of political, humorous, and satirical character, turning upon the
wrongs and riots of Ireland, with which, as our readers will allow,
we have here little to do. It contains great historical research, and
had its day; but the gratification in the perusal is of a very mixed
character. Its success, however, was sufficient to induce the publication
of an imitative work entitled "Captain Rock's Letters to the King," which
was "cert