work, that no poet of this country
ever produced, at so early an age, a more elaborate and finished
performance. For this work, which for twenty years produced the
publishers between two and three hundred pounds a year, the author
received at first but L10, which was afterwards increased by an
additional sum, and by the profits of a quarto edition of the work. By
a subsequent act of the legislature, extending the term of copyright,
it reverted again to the author; but with no proportional increase of
profit. Campbell's pecuniary circumstances are said to have been by no
means easy at this time and a pleasant anecdote is recorded of him, in
allusion to the hardships of an author's case, somewhat similar to his
own: he was desired to give a toast at a festive moment when the
character of Napoleon was at its utmost point of disesteem in England.
He gave "Bonaparte." The company started with astonishment. "Gentlemen,"
said he, "here is Bonaparte in his character of executioner of the
booksellers." Palm, the bookseller, had just been executed in Germany,
by the orders of the French.

After residing nearly three years in Edinburgh, Campbell quitted his
native country for the Continent. He sailed for Hamburgh, and there made
many acquaintances among the more enlightened circles, both of that
city and Altona. At that time there were numerous Irish exiles in the
neighbourhood of Hamburgh, and some of them fell in the way of the
poet, who afterwards related many curious anecdotes of them. There
were sincere and honest men among them, who, with the energy of their
national character, and enthusiasm for liberty, had plunged into the
desperate cause of the rebellion two years before, and did not, even
then, despair of freedom and equality in Ireland. Some of them were
in private life most amiable persons, and their fate was altogether
entitled to sympathy. The poet, from that compassionate feeling which
is an amiable characteristic of his nature, wrote _The Exile of Erin_,
from the impression their situation and circumstances made upon his
mind. It was set to an old Irish air, of the most touching pathos,
and will perish only with the language.

Campbell travelled over a great part of Germany and Prussia--visiting
the Universities, and storing his mind with German literature. From
the walls of a convent he commanded a view of part of the field of
Hohenlinden during that sanguinary contest, and proceeded afterwards in
the track of