BLACKWOOD'S EDINBURGH MAGAZINE
NO. CCCXXXII. JUNE, 1843. VOL. LIII.
CONTENTS.
- MARSTON; OR, THE MEMOIRS OF A STATESMAN.
- THE VIGIL OF VENUS. TRANSLATION FROM THE LATIN
- CHAPTERS OF TURKISH HISTORY. RISE OF THE KIUPRILI FAMILY—SIEGE OF CANDIA.—NO. IX.
- A PASSAGE IN THE LIFE OF A MAÎTRE-D'ARMES
- AMMALÁT BEK. A TRUE TALE OF THE CAUCASUS, FROM THE RUSSIAN OF MARLÍNSKI.—CONCLUSION
- MR BAILEY'S REPLY TO AN ARTICLE IN BLACKWOOD'S MAGAZINE.
- THE VICAR OF WAKEFIELD. ILLUSTRATED BY MULREADY
- THE ATTORNEY'S CLERK IN THE MONK'S HOOD.
- IGNACIO GUERRA AND EL SANGRADOR; A TALE OF CIVIL WAR
- MEMORANDUMS OF A MONTH'S TOUR IN SICILY.
- COMMERCIAL POLICY—RUSSIA.
- [FOOTNOTES]
- INDEX TO VOL. LIII.
MARSTON; OR, THE MEMOIRS OF A STATESMAN.
PART I.
"Have I not in my time heard lions roar?
Have I not heard the sea, puft up with wind,
Rage like an angry boar chafed with sweat?
Have I not heard great ordnance in the field,
And heaven's artillery thunder in the skies?
Have I not in the pitched battle heard
Loud 'larums, neighing steeds, and trumpets clang?"
SHAKSPEARE
Why I give the world a sketch ofmy career through it, is not amongthe discoveries which I intend tomake. I have been a public man;let those who know public life imaginewhat interest may be felt inreviewing the scenes and struggles ofwhich such a life is full. May therenot be a pleasure in conceiving onceagain the shapes and circumstances ofthings, as one sitting by his firesidesees castles and cottages, men, women,and children in the embers, and shapesthem the better for the silence and thesolitude round him? Let the readertake what reason he will. I have seenthe world, and fought my way throughit; have stumbled, like greater men,have risen, like lesser; have been flunginto the most rapid current of the mosthurried, wild, and vivid time that theworld has ever seen—I have livedthrough the last fifty years. In all thevigour of my life, I have mingledin some of the greatest transactions,and been mingled with some of thegreatest men, of my time. Like onewho has tumbled down Niagara, andsurvived the fall, though I have reachedstill water, the roar of the cataractis yet in my ears; and I can even surveyit with a fuller gaze, and strongersense of its vastness and power, than,when I was rolling down its precipice.
I have been soldier, adventurer,traveller, statesman. I have been lover,husband, father—poor and opulent;obscure and conspicuous. Thereare few sensations of our nature, orcircumstances of our life, which Ihave not undergone. Alternatelysuffering to the verge of ruin, andenjoying like an epicurean deity: Ihave been steeped in poverty to thelips; I have been surcharged withwealth. I have sacrificed, and fearfully,to the love of power; I havebeen disgusted with its possession.I figured in the great Babe