met him in a cock and pinch, my companions promised him, as willingly as I did, to be silent.

With this quizzical appearance, there were in Bean's swarthy face, and in his dark eyes, the strongest indications of a clear intellect, a steady mind, and an excellent heart; all which he had in perfection. He had been placed at Westminster in the hope of his getting into college; but being a day scholar, and having no connections acquainted with the school, he had not been put in the way of doing this, so that when the time came for what is called standing out, while all the other candidates were in the usual manner crammed by their helps, Bean stood alone, without assistance, and consequently failed. Had the mode of examination been what it ought to be, a fair trial of capacity and diligence, in which no cramming was allowed, his success would have been certain; and had he gone off from Westminster to either University, he would most certainly have become one of the most distinguished men there; every thing might have been expected from him that could result from the best capacity and the best conduct. But he failed, and was immediately taken from school to learn his father's profession. I had too sincere a regard for him to lose sight of him thus; and several times in summer afternoons, when the time allowed, walked to Camberwell Green just to see and shake hands with him, and hurry back. And this I continued to do as long as I remained at Westminster.

In 1797 or 1798, he stopped me one day in the street, saying he did not wonder that I should have passed

without recognising him, for he had had the yellow fever three times, and not having long recovered, still bore strong vestiges of it in his complexion. He had gone into the army in his professional line, and had just then returned from the West Indies. I never saw him more. But going along Camberwell Green some ten years ago, and seeing the name still over the door, I went in and inquired for him of his brother, who immediately remembered my name, and told me that William had been doing well in the East Indies, and that they soon hoped for his return; upon which I left a message for him to be communicated in their next letter, and my direction, whenever he might arrive. Shortly after this I became acquainted with poor Nash, whose father's house was nearly opposite to Bean's; and to my great pleasure I found that Nash knew him well, had seen him at Bombay, and spoke of him as having proved just such a man as I should have expected, that is, of sterling sense and sterling worth. You may imagine how I was shocked at learning subsequently, through the same channel, what had been his fate. Tidings had been received, that going somewhere by sea (about Malacca I think) upon a short passage, with money for his regiment, of which he acted as pay-master at that time, for the sake of that money he had been murdered by the Malay boatmen.

He had saved 5000l. or 60007. which he left to his mother, an unhappy and unworthy woman who had forsaken her family, but still retained a strong affection for this eldest son; and wished, when he was a boy, to withdraw him from his father. With

that view she came one day to Westminster, and waited in the cloisters to way-lay him when the school was over. A scene ensued which was truly distressing to those who felt as they ought to do, for he flew from her, and both were so much agitated as to act and speak as if there had been no spectators. I was not present, but what I heard of it strengthened my regard for him; and I had his situation with respect to his mother in my mind when certain passages in Roderick were written.

Dr. Pinckland has mentioned him with respect in his notes on the West Indies, as one of the assistants in some military hospital in which the doctor was employed. I was pleased at meeting with this brief and incidental notice of his name while he was yet living, though with a melancholy feeling that the abler man was in the subordinate station. That brief notice is the only memorial of one, who, if he had not been thus miserably cut off, would probably have left some durable monument of himself: for during twenty years of service in all parts of the globe, he had seen much, and I have never known any man who would more certainly have seen all things in the right point of view, morally as well as intellectually. Had he returned I should have invited him hither, and he would have come; we should have met like men who had answered each other's expectations, and whom years and various fortunes, instead of alienating, had drawn nearer in heart and in mind. That meeting will take place in a better world.

THE

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE

OF

ROBERT SOUTHEY.

CHAPTER I.

SCHOOL FRIENDSHIPS. THE FLAGELLANT.- IS COMPELLED TO LEAVE WESTMINSTER.-WRECK OF HIS FATHER'S AFFAIRS AND HIS DEATH.- IS REFUSED ADMITTANCE AT CHRIST CHURCH, AND ENTERS AT BALLIOL COLLEGE, OXFORD.—COLLEGE LIFE.HIS STUDIES.

PHILOSOPHICAL SPECULATIONS. -EXCURSION TO HEREFORDSHIRE. -VISIT TO BRIXTON. JOAN OF ARC.RETURN TO BRISTOL.LETTERS ON A UNIVERSITY LIFE, ETC. FITS OF DESPONDENCY.- - POETRY AND PHILOSOPHY.MR. LOVEL. AMERICA. NUMBER OF VERSES DESTROYED

AND PRESERVED. — A.D. 1791-1793.

My father has entered so fully into the history of his family and the details of his early life, that it is only needful for me to take up the thread of the narrative where he has laid it down. I cannot, however, but regret that he had not at least completed the account of his schoolboy days, and given us a little more insight into the course of his studies, feelings, and opinions, at that period, and also into