The Express.
London, England, 1859-01-25 00:00:00

AT THE CITIITAL PALACE.

We hall this MOTU,
A otatury's noblest birth ;
A Poet pseitant-born,
Who more of Fames immortal dower
Unto his country brings,
Than all her Hinge
A. lamps high set
Upon some earthly eminence,—
Amt to the game brighter thence
Than the sphere-lights they Gnat,—
Dwindle in distance and die tut,
While no star waneth yet ;
8o through the past's far-reaching night,
Only the star-souls keep their light.
A gentle boy,—
With moods of sadness and of mirth,
Quick tear. and sudden joy,—
Grew up beside the peasant's hearth.
His father's toil he shares;
But half his mother's cares
Prom his dark searching eyes,
Too swift to eympathise,
Hid in her heart she bears.
At early morn,
His father calla him to the field ;
Through the stiff soil that clogs his fart,
Chill rain sad harvest heat,
He pinde all day ; return, at eve outworn,
To the rude fare • peasant's lot doth yield ;
To what else was ha born ?
The God-made King
Of every living thing
(For his greet heart in love could hold them all) ;
The dumb eyes meeting Ms by hearth and stall,-
0 Med to andetstnnd !
Knew it and sought his hand ;
And the most timorous creature had not fled,

Which fain all feeble things had blasid and shattered.

To Natures fesst,—.
Who knew her noblest guest
And entertained him best,—
Kingly he came. Her chambers of the mat
She drep'd with crimson and with gold,
And potted her pure joy-wines
For him the poet-mead.
For him her anthem rolled,
From the storm-wind among the winter pines,
Down to the alerait.nat note
Of a love-warble from the linnet's throat.
But when begins
The array for battle, and the trumpet blowy,
A king must leave he feast, and lead the fight.
And with its mortal foes—
HAM gathering hosts of sorrow end of sins—
Each human soul mast doe..
And Faros her trumpet blew
Before him ; wrippd him in her purple state;
And made him mark for all the shafts of fate,
That hesueforth round him flew.
Though he may yield,
Hard-passed and wounded fall
Forsaken on the field; •
His regal vestments sal;
Hls mown of half ita jewels gain;
He lea King for all.
Had he but stood aloof
Had he array'd himself in armour proof
Against temptation's darts I
So yearn the good ;—eo those the world calls wise,
With vain presumptuous hearts,
Triumphant moralise.
Of martyr-woe
A sawed shadow on his memory rests;
Tears have not ceased to fi tw ;
Indignant grief yet stirs impetuous breasts,
To .htak,--above that noble soul brought low,
That wise sad soaring spirit herd, easlav'd—
Thus, thus he had been eared I
It might not be I
That heart of harmony
Had been too rudely rent;
Its silver chord', which any hand could wound,
By no hand could be ttio'd,
Save by the maker of the instrument,
Its every string who knew,
And from profaning touch his heavenly gift withdrew.
Regretful love
Ilia conotry fain would prove,
By grateful honours lavished on his grave ;
Would fain redeem her blame
That he so little at her hands can claim,
Who unrewarded gave
To her his life-bought gift of song and fame.
The land he trod
Bath now become • place of pilgrimage ' •
Where dearer ate the daises of the sod
That could his song engage.
The hoary hawthorn, wreathed •
Above the bank on which his limbs he Sung
While some sweet plaint he breath'd ;
The streams he wander'd near;
The maidens whom ha toed the songs he sung ;
All, all are dear I
The arch Mee eyes--
Arch but he love's cod
Scotland a daughter", soften at his strain;
Hat hardy sona sent forth across the main
To drive the ploughshare through earth's virgin soil.,
Lighten with it their toils;
And sister lands laws levied to love the tongue
In which such ampere sung.
For doth not Song.
To the wbols world belong
Is it not given wherever tears can fall,
Wherever hearts can melt, or blushes glow,
Or mirth and sadness mingle es they flow,
A heritage to all ?

We are glad to learn that the Swab Eastern
Railway have offered to the widow of the Rev. T. Wood,
Wesleyan minister, who died from injuries real Vel fa the
shocking accident at Chilhare last summer, the coat of
1,5001. as compensation. Mr. Wood left a widow end eight
childree.

The preparations necessary for fitting the Great
Eastern for sea have at last been decided ce. The con-
trsctore are to commence their work on the 16th of February,
and are bound under penalties to complete all In fits month.
from that date. The first trial trip will therefore take place
about the middle of July, when it is latenad to run out
from Weymouth to the nal.ldle of the Atlantic, and try the
ship under ell possible coeditions of la and slow.