than three years after he made the scheme public. Although one of the
most important,[4] this is not the only public-spirited event of this
description, in Mr. Campbell's life; for he was instrumental in the
establishment of the Western Literary Institution, in Leicester Square;
and at the present time he is, we believe, in conjunction with other
eminent literary men, organizing a club to be entitled the Literary
Union, whose lists already contain upwards of 300 men of talent,
including Sir Walter Scott and all the principal periodical writers
of the day.

[4] Still, Mr. Campbell's name does not occur in the List of Council
or Professors of the University, in the British Almanac for the
present year.

Campbell, as has already been observed, was educated at Glasgow, and
received the honour of election as Lord Rector, three successive years,
notwithstanding the opposition of the professors, and the excellent
individuals who were placed against him; among whom were the late
minister Canning, and Sir Walter Scott. The students of Glasgow College
considered that the celebrity of the poet, his liberal principles, his
being a fellow-townsman, and his attention to their interests, entitled
him to the preference.

In person, Mr. Campbell is below the middle stature, well made,
but slender. His features indicate great sensibility; his eyes are
particularly striking, and of a deep blue colour; his nose aquiline;
his expression generally saturnine. His step is light, but firm; and
he appears to possess much more energy of constitution than men of
fifty-two who have been studious in their habits, exhibit in general.
His time for study is mostly during the stillness of night, when he
can be wholly abstracted from external objects. He is remarkable for
absence of mind; is charitable and kind in his disposition, but of quick
temper. His amusements are few; the friend and conversation only; and
in the "flow of soul" there are few men possessing more companionable
qualities. His heart is perhaps one of the best that beats in a human
bosom: "it is," observes a biographer, "that which should belong to
the poet of _Gertrude,_ his favourite personification."

To exhibit the poet in the social circle, as well as to introduce a very
piquant portrait, drawn by a friend, we subjoin a leaf or two from Leigh
Hunt's _Lord Byron and some of his Contemporaries_[5]--displaying
all the graphic ease for which Mr. Hunt is almost