Millions, millions, have been slaughter’d,
      In the fight and on the deep;
    Millions, millions more have water’d,
      With such tears as captives weep,
    Fields of travail,
      Where their bones till doomsday sleep.

    Mercy, Mercy, vainly pleading,
      Rent her garments, smote her breast,
    Till a voice from Heaven proceeding,
      Gladden’d all the gloomy west,—­
    “Come, ye weary,
      Come, and I will give you rest!”

    Tidings, tidings of salvation! 
      Britons rose with one accord,
    Purged the plague-spot from our nation,
      Negroes to their rights restored;
    Slaves no longer,
      Freemen,—­freemen of the Lord.

ANDREW SCOTT.

Andrew Scott, known as the author of the popular ballad of “Symon and Janet,” has claims to a wider reputation.  He was born of humble parentage, in the parish of Bowden, Roxburghshire, in the year 1757.  He was early employed as a cowherd; and he has recorded, in a sketch of his own life prefixed to one of his volumes, that he began to compose verses on the hill-sides in his twelfth year.  He ascribes this juvenile predilection to the perusal of Ramsay’s “Gentle Shepherd,” a pamphlet copy of which he had purchased with some spare halfpence.  Towards the close of the American war, he joined the army as a recruit, and soon thereafter followed his regiment across the Atlantic.  His rhyming propensities continued; and he occupied his leisure hours in composing verses, which he read for the amusement of his comrades.  At the conclusion of the American campaigns, he returned with the army to Britain; and afterwards procuring his discharge, he made a settlement in his native parish.  For the period of seventeen years, according to his own narrative, he abandoned the cultivation of poetry, assiduously applying himself to manual labour for the support of his family.  An intelligent acquaintance, who had procured copies of some of his verses, now recommended him to attempt a publication—­a counsel which induced him to print a small volume by subscription.  This appeared in 1805, and was reprinted, with several additions, in 1808.  In 1811 he published “Poems, chiefly in the Scottish Dialect,” Kelso, 18mo; another duodecimo volume of poems, at Jedburgh, in 1821; and his last work, entitled “Poems on Various Subjects,” at Edinburgh, in 1826.  This last volume was inscribed, with permission, to the Duchess of Roxburghe.

The poet’s social condition at Bowden was little favourable to the composition of poetry.  Situated on the south side of the Eildon hills, the parish is entirely separated from the busy world, and the inhabitants were formerly proverbial for their rustic simplicity and ignorance.  The encouragement desiderated at home, the poet, however, experienced elsewhere.  He visited Melrose, at the easy distance of two miles, on the day of the weekly market, and there met with friends and patrons from different parts of the district.  The late Duke of Roxburghe, Sir Walter Scott, Mr Baillie of Jerviswoode, Mr John Gibson Lockhart, and Mr G. P. R. James, the novelist, who sometimes resided in the neighbourhood, and other persons of rank or literary eminence, extended towards him countenance and assistance.