As it is morally impossible for me to describe how the company felt at the conclusion of this wild ballad, I shall abstain altogether from attempting it, and hasten to settle my Tuesday affairs, by informing the reader, that Willie Dandison, and a few more unbelievers, were converted.

They needed not a sterner sound,
To marshal them for death!

So mov'd they calmly to their field,
Thence never to return,

Save bearing back the Spartan shield, Or on it proudly borne.

MEETINGS OF THE WELSH BARDS.

THE character of sanctity attached to the ancient British bards, in the times when the nature of their institutions entirely separated them from all other orders of men, was not upheld by any of those mysterious ceremonies or pretensions to supernatural power, which operate so forcibly upon the minds of an unenlightened people. The means of obtain ing such an ascendancy were in their hands, as their system embraced a knowledge of all the discoveries and inventions belonging to science in those early days; but the principle so nobly expressed in the motto of the order, "The Truth against the World," was beautifully exemplified in the actions and regulations of the men who vindicated their claim to

flowers

Eurotas wander'd by,

of Britain," and "Those who are at Liberty through the World." It is a

Of solemn harmony.

Was it the shepherds' choral strain,

That hymn'd the forest-god?

Or the virgins, as to Pallas' fane,

With their full-ton'd lyres they trod?

But helms were glancing on the stream,
Spears rang'd in close array,
And shields flung back its glorious beam
To the morn of a fearful day!

And the mountain-echoes of the land
Swell'd through the deep-blue sky,
While to soft strains mov'd forth a band
Of men that mov'd to die.

darkest ages of papal superstition, the Bards drew upon themselves the implacable enmity of the priesthood, by the zeal and courage with which they unanimously exposed the corruptions and abuses of the Romish Church, and strenuously exerted themselves to maintain the original purity of the Christian religion. In conformity with some of their leading maxims, the Gorseddau, or meetings of the Bards, were ordained to be held in the open air, on some conspicuous situation, whilst the sun was above the horizon, or, according

blast,

Nor bade the horn peal out, And the laurel-woods, as on they pass'd, Rung with no battle shout!

They ask'd no Clarion's voice to fire

Their souls with an impulse high; But the Dorian reed, and the Spartan lyre, For the sons of Liberty!

And still sweet flutes their path around Sent forth Eolian breath;

on these occasions, "in the face of the sun, and in the eye of light." The places set apart for this purpose were marked out by a circle of stones, called the Circle of Federa

During the time when the Bardic Institution was universally acknowledged throughout Britain, these meetings were frequently held upon Salisbury Plain.

tion. The presiding Bard stood on a large stone (Maen Gorsedd, or the Stone of Assembly) in the centre. The sheathing of a sword upon this stone was the ceremony which announced the opening of a Gorsedd, or meeting; and was emblematic of that universal peace and good-will, the inculcation of which was the fundamental precept of the Bardic Order. The Bards always stood in their uni-coloured robes, with their heads and feet uncovered, within the Circle of Federation; and, after the recitation of their ancient traditions, which was an indispensable duty at the celebration of these solemnities, they deliberated and determined upon whatever business might be laid before them. At the close of a meeting, the sword was taken up from the Stone of Assembly, but not unsheathed, and the ceremonies were concluded with a few words appropriate to the occasion.

The following was the general form of the proclamation with which the proceedings commenced: "The truth against the world. Under the protection of the Bards of the Isle of Britain, are all who repair to this place, where there is not a naked weapon against them; and all who seek for the graduation and privilege appertaining to Science and Bardism, let them demand it from Jolo Morganwg, Hywel Erysi, &c. &c. they being all graduated Bards of the Isle of Britain.-The truth against the world. +”

These particulars will sufficiently explain the allusions in the following lines, written for an Eisteddvod, or meeting of Welsh Bards +, held in London, May 22, 1822.

The Bard, wherever he appeared in his uni-coloured robe, was considered as a herald of peace. If he interposed between two armies, even in the heat of action, they would immediately desist; and such was the veneration attendant upon his character, that he could pass unmolested from one hostile country to another.

+For the above particulars, see Owen's Translation of the Heroic Elegies of Llywarg Heu.

The term Eisteddvod was more particularly applied to the provincial meetings.

the Public, it is, of course, not our intention to enter into any detail respecting it. Our object in noticing it, at present, is to enquire whether, after having witnessed his performances of this and the last year, persons are to be found, who still persist in affirming that Mr Mathews is no more than an accomplished mimic? When he first began to give to the public his extraordinary exhibitions, this worse than cant about mimicry (for envy and malignity are worse even than cant) obtained a temporary circulation-taking its rise among would-be critics, and thence unaccountably propagating itself to many of the public, in the face of what must have been nothing less than an absolute conviction of its futility. But it must be confessed, that the said Public (with all respect be it spoken) is a little headstrong, and not very ready to be "convinced against its will." Seeing that Mathews combined in himself the qualities of almost every kind of acting, in a degree that it had never before witnessed, it was a little staggered at first, and was not very ready to admit that such could be the case: for there are numerous instances of people not believing the evidence of their own senses and understanding. Taking advantage of this belief, or rather unbelief, certain beforementioned would-be-critics, (who naturally enough see no "soul of goodness" in that which cannot be found fault with,) with their usual left-handed logic, argued, or rather asserted, that, in point of fact, it could not be so; for no other apparent or divineable reason except that, so it was! We refrain from arguing at any length against this impudent and self-destroying paradox, because we believe that it has now become altogether needless. If ingenuity itself can frame a definition of an actor which shall exclude Mr Mathews, the public will perhaps again be willing to allow that he is not one; but not till then. And even if that time should ever arrive, we shall then ask the question, If he is not an actor, who is? Did any one ever think of asserting that John Kemble's performance of Coriolanus was nothing more than an admirable piece of mimicry? The very question

has a gratuitous extravagance about it, which makes it sound ridiculous "to the meanest capacity." But is it less ridiculous, and less ungrateful, to apply the title of a mimic to him who has created, and indelibly impressed upon our minds, almost as many original and exquisitely discriminated characters, as the author of the Scotch Novels has? The old Scotchwoman, Dr Prolix, Mr Hubblebubble, and the bone-and-muscleman of last year, and Mr M'Llewellin and Major Magnum of this, are equal, as far as truth and distinctness go, to Bailie Jarvie, Dumbiedykes, and Dominie Sampson; and if they have less force, richness, and variety of detail, than these latter, it must be considered, that they are hit off before us in an hour or two, while the author of the Novels has two or three volumes, in which to develop and work up his concep tions. In fact, speaking with reference to their respective comic charac ters alone, and, of course, without meaning to place them on any thing like a level, even in this respect, we have no scruple in asserting, that if Mr Mathews is only a mimic, the Great Unknown is no better.

It will be seen, that in the view we are taking of the subject, we are considering this Artist as the virtual author and discoverer of the chief, if not all the original characters be brings forward. And such he is, in fact, understood to be. This entertainment may be arranged and "got up," as it is called, by others; but it is now pretty generally known, that Mathews himself furnishes all that part of the materiel which relates to character. Away, then, with this vulgar and ignorant cant about mimicry! When Mathews is imitating his brother actors, he is a mimic, and he pretends to be no more; but when he is detecting and developing the various characters and passions of his fellow-men, or, to use a favourite phrase of the old poets-their "humours"-then he is a great and distinguished actor; and to regard him in any other light is to defrand him of that fair fame which is his the due, and which (if he possess genius we think he does) is pr bably more the object of his search, and dearer to him, when attained.