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POEMS,

ESSAYS AND OPINIONS;

BEING

SELECTIONS FROM WRITINGS IN THE "MIRROR OF THE TIME,"
FROM AUGUST 7th, 1850, TO THE END OF FEBRUARY, 1851.

BY

ALFRED BATE RICHARDS, ESQ.,

BARRISTER-AT-LAW.

AUTHOR OF CREESUS, KING OF LYDIA, A TRAGEDY; CROMWELL, A DRAMA;
VANDYCK, A PLAY OF GENOA; DEATH AND THE MAGDALEN, AND OTHER
POEMS; THE DREAM OF THE SOUL AND OTHER POEMS; OXFORD UNMASKED;
AND PART II. OF BRITAIN REDEEMED.

"The images we reflect will be varied as Time itself; but our opinion shall
be a Daguerreotype illumined by the sun of Truth alone."

IN TWO VOLUMES.

VOL. I.

LONDON:

AYLOTT AND JONES, PATERNOSTER ROW.

TO THE

LIBERAL CONSERVATIVES OF ENGLAND,

These Volumes

ARE INSCRIBED BY

THE AUTHOR.

PREFACE.

I HAVE been encouraged to republish the contents of these volumes by one or two friends-not relations. Relations always think that it is a pity you should write, until you have achieved a name. Even then they would libel your greatness, should you be gifted with the transcendent genius of a BYRON, and merge if they possibly could, your literary excellence in your imputed moral frailty. "Can any good come out of Nazareth?" I must own that I entertain, in the present instance, some doubt and hesitation. as to the judgment, not the kindness, of my friends. However, I suppose that my own inclination chimed with their opinion, and so, gentle Public, I come before you with all my imperfections on my head, to receive, I trust, a mild award, in the event of condemnation.

My public views I eonfess to be nondescript. I glory in the title of a political anomaly. I am aware that the greater part of our Legislative writers and talkers do not pretend to see otherwise than with the eyes of party or prejudice. If a man abuse the Universities he is a If he attack the monstrous abuse of Chanhe is a Chartist. If he would touch the revenues of

Radical.

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