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THE VILLAGE BRIDAL

AND OTHER POEMS:

lith a Fragment of Autobiography.

ALSO,

TWO LECTURES

ON

"THE POETRY OF FEELING AND THE POETRY OF DICTION,"

AND

"THE BEST MEANS OF ELEVATING THE WORKING CLASSES."

BY

JAMES HENRY POWELL.

LONDON:

WHITTAKER AND CO., AVE-MARIA LANE;
LONGMAN AND CO., PATERNOSTER ROW;
LIVERPOOL: E. HOWELL;

BIRKENHEAD: WARD AND PARKER.

MDCCCLIV,

ENTERED AT STATIONERS' HALL.

TO THE

RIGHT HON. VISCOUNT GODERICH, M.P.

MY LORD,

THE many services you have generously rendered the Working Classes, so as to enable them, by their own intelligence and united industry, to produce for mutual interest, and to rise morally and socially to a more elevated position, are the true evidences of how much your Lordship deserves both their gratitude and that of the community at large.

And as the simple but heartfelt expression of the deep conviction felt in the usefulness of your Lordship's public career, the humble efforts contained in the present volume are respectfully dedicated by

Your Lordship's most obedient servant,

ENGINEER,

CANADA WORKS, BIRKENHEAD,

Sept. 16, 1854,

J. H. POWELL.

A FRAGMENT OF AUTOBIOGRAPHY.

I HAVE always considered an author must possess a considerable share of vanity who attaches an autobiography to his work; and whenever a book of any description has come under my notice with an elaborate review of its author, written by himself, I have felt an unwillingness to give entire credence to the account rendered. Thus gradually a prejudice has grown with the growth of my mind; and nothing would have induced me to append, by my own hand, this brief outline of my life, but that those who shall read the Poems may know some of the disadvantages under which they were written, and may not be too severe in their judgment.

I was born in London in the year 1830, and am now in my twenty-fifth year. I received my school education partly at free and partly at weekly schools. My father (an engineer by profession) and mother were in comparatively comfortable circumstances during the earlier part of my life, so that my youth was not fraught with the amount of misery and perpetual drudgery endured by the sons and daughters of the poorer classes. I was no laggard during the time I attended school, but seemed to acquire the rudiments of education as quickly as the majority of my schoolfellows. I was ever desirous of emulating my competitors in the school, and I well remember my struggles to acquire proficiency in reading and spelling in order to get at the head of the class. Such an education as was afforded in the schools it was my lot to attend, during eight years of my life, I certainly acquired, but I have lived to learn that the education rendered in the schools of the working classes during my boyhood was vastly deficient; for, when I left school, I found the fragments of really useful knowledge

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