The National Republican And Cincinnati Daily Mercantile Advertiser

CHARLES DARNLEY.

How brilliant an intellect may wither under the stroke of a single disappointment!
'Twas so with Darnley; none could have recognized in his premature and abject end, the being once so admired and beloved. The hand of nature lavished, on his person, her choicest gifts, in his mind he had stored the classic beauties of the ancients, with all the love of modern excellence, and when his own powers were called into action his arguments were of that rich, lucid and powerful mould that at once carries conviction with them; but alas! his feelings were too sensitive to bear up against defeat, and that weakness was the cause of his ruin. - His profession was the Bar-'twas the sphere for which he seemed created; there he met spirits congenial to his own, and formed a lofty interchange of sentiments far above the vulgarisms of common life.--There is something in the society of such a man, that indescribably draws from us the warmest feelings of admiration; and when one of such lofty and exalted powers, casts aside for a time the superiority of his station and descends to the humbler spheres of life, the halo of greatness that encircles him, places a barrier of constraint over our actions, and forbids familiarity.--True greatness consists not in the splendid display of knowledge, in the powerful bursts of eloquence, and the exercise of talent, but the blending of the high toned and lofty sentiments of virtue, with the warm and enthusiastic feelings of social intercourse--all this was Darnley; when the duties of his station called from him the exercise of his splendid powers, the breathless silence of the crowd spoke their eager desire to appreciate his talents and at once acknowledge his greatness; when in the private walks of life, the humble and the affluent, alike shared his society. I knew him when a boy; I had marked from the early period of his youth, the development of his great mind, and when after his entrance on his professional duties, I saw the high stand he took, there seemed no eminence that he was not destined to attain.

At the period of the end of the second year of his majority he married; his choice was not unworthy of him; although not from the hundreds that would have been proud to have laid their princely fortunes at his feet, but a lady of humble and obscure family, and one altogether unknown to the world until her name announced her as the writer of a series of publications that had caused a great excitement in the literary world to find out the author; in the choice of a wife he had disdained all pecuniary considerations; he had known Eliza Hartley as the playmate of his youth, the sweetheart of his school-boy days, even then he admired the dignity of her person, and the lofty bearing of her sentiments; he cherished her remembrance, he renewed her society, and won her heart; the tenor of her feelings blended harmoniously with his own.

"Each with the other blest.
Still bade eternal Eden smile around."

'Twas about a week before the commencement of the Session, and Charles Darnley was in that Session to bear a conspicuous part; he was an advocate in a cause of great importance, and for months had he been employed in framing arguments, searching authorities, and rendering his mind familiar with all the abstract points and technicalities, bearing the slightest allusion to the case; Opposed to him was the celebrated Lord [blank], and to a mind however well stored, yet as unpractised as Darnley's the opposition of such a man was fearful.

The court opened-every avenue was filled: with stern dignity sat the Judges on the Bench, with busy and important faces, the Lawyers--with folded arms walked the lobbies -with active and powerful authority did the myrmidons of justice quell into silence the bustling and eager crowd-the usual preliminaries were gone through, the jury was empanelled, and all silent. Slowly and with dignity Darnley rose from his seat; he stood for a moment silent, then setting his fine black eye upon the presiding judge, he proceeded to open the cause; for a few moments he spoke hurriedly, seeming confused; at length he became more animated, and poured forth a strain of rich and powerful eloquence that paralyzed with astonishment all that heard him: with a quickness of perception, equalled only by his depth of thought and inexhaustible fund of research, he unravelled every point, settled every doubt, and left the impression that no intricacy in the vast labyrinth of the law, no flaw, no shadow of a doubt was left to the advantage of his opponent: his ears were deafened by the cheers of the assembled crowd, that long and loudly pealed through the air: again all was silent, again the mellow richness of his voice, sounded like music on the ear--another powerful burst of eloquence accompanied with that splendid depth of thought that for one so young showed the brilliancy of his intellect, burst from his lips-that burst again called forth another volley of cheers and applause which thundered through the Court --Darnley again proceeded, and amid the incessant cheers of his auditors, brought to a close one of the most splendid arguments ever submitted to a jury. He wiped the moisture from his brow, and with his head resting upon his hand, seemed trying to gain the composure that his great efforts had exhausted; when he concluded, the slightest whisper might have been audibly heard throughout the apartment, so completely had he wound up the minds of his hearers, that for a moment they did not seem to know he had concluded, and when they saw that he had sunk into his chair, a simultaneous shout of the most deafening applause followed the solemn silence that had momentarily reigned.

Lord [blank] now rose, Darnley's eye was riveted upon him, his high forehead, his quick eye, spoke of an intellect within, and if his features made the impression, fully did his cool, calm, argumentative and persuasive manner corroborate it. He commenced his defence, and so ingeniously did that experienced and wily counsellor refute the most clear and simple facts, and render them perfectly submissive to his will, that the same multitude that a moment before had listened to the powerful effort of Darnley and applauded and believed him, now, through the subtlety of a practised lawyer, changed the current of their thoughts, and lavished upon him their applause; with a look neither of pity nor contempt, but one nearly allied to both, did he rest his eye upon Darnley, and turn into ridicule his splendid talents. He spoke of "school-boy eloquence," "acquired knowledge," and with a placid smile diffused over his countenance, he told the jury, that of a "boy" his "oration" was a good one, but that the few points in the case he had alluded to were entirely misconceived; and so completely did he change the current of affairs, that the jury, without retiring from their seats, gave their verdict in his favor. This was an unexpected blow to poor Darnley; he had placed such firm reliance on his cause, that although he had listened to the sarcastic speech of his opponent he had not once dreamed of a defeat. His months of incessant toil, his sleepless nights were spent in vain, trying to render every point familiar; but he never thought that wily artifice and ingenious trickery, could have so ghastly stood against the truth.

"On what a slender thread hangs every thing in life."

Darnley returned home: his lovely wife tried to soothe his agitated mind—he repulsed her from him; his aim had been ambition --his ambition was blasted; from that moment he was an altered man;--before, the intoxicating draught had never met his lips, now he sought a solace in its fumes-before, the quiet fireside of domestic life, the society of his angel wife, was a blessing that he gloried in enjoying; now, even they had lost their charms; and to quell his bursts of grief and disappointment, he sought the company of the dissolute and depraved.

Why dwell on the black scenes that brought his life to a premature end?--He squandered his wealth at the gaming table, and wasted his life in shame; his profession was forgotten, his energies were prostrated, his tender wife spurned from his side—but stop--they are dead-one grave contains them both-his epitaph is AMBITION!

New York Traveller.