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contemplate their variety:-pastoral, passion, mock-while the virtues he omitted from his catalogue are heroic, translation, satire, ethics,-all excellent, and essential to the justice due to a man. often perfect. If his great charm be his melody, how comes it that foreigners adore him even in their diluted translation? But I have made this letter too long. Give my compliments to Mr. Bowles.

To J. Murray, Esq.

Yours ever, very truly,

BYRON.

Mr, Bowles appears, indeed, to be susceptible beyond the privilege of authorship. There is a plaintive dedication to Mr. Gifford, in which he is made responsible for all the articles of the Quarterly. Mr. Southey, it seems, "the most able and eloquent writer in that Review," approves of Mr. Bowles's publication. Now, it seems to me the more impartial, that, notwithstanding that the great writer of the Quarterly entertains opinions opposite to the able article on Spence, nevertheless that essay was permitted to appear. Is a review to be de voted to the opinions of any one man? Must it not vary according to circumstances, and according to the subjects to be criticised? I fear that writers must take the sweets and bitters of the public journals as they occur, and an author of so long a standing as Mr. Bowles might have become accustomed to such incidents; he might be angry, but not astonished. I have been reviewed in the Quarterly almost as often as Mr. Bowles, and have had as pleasant things said, and some as unpleasant, as could well be pronounced. In the review of "The Fall of Jerusalem," it is stated that I have de

Post scriptum.-Long as this letter has grown, I find it necessary to append a postscript,-if possible, a short one. Mr. Bowles denies that he has accused Pope of "a sordid money-getting passion;" but he adds "if I had ever done so, I should be glad to find any testimony that might show me he was not so." This testimony he may find to his heart's content in Spence and elsewhere. First, there is Martha Blount, who, Mr. Bowles charitably says, "probably thought he did not save enough for her as legatee." Whatever she thought upon this point, her words are in Pope's favour. Then there is Alderman Barber-see Spence's Anecdotes. There is Pope's cold answer to Halifax, when he proposed a pension; his behaviour to Craggs and to Addison upon like occasions; and his own two lines-voted "my powers, etc. to the worst parts of mani

"And, thanks to Homer, since I live and thrive, Indebted to no prince or peer alive-"

cheism," which, being interpreted, means that I worship the devil. Now, I have neither written a reply, nor

letter to you, that I thought "that the critic might have praised Milman without finding it necessary to abuse me;" but did I not add at the same time, or soon after (apropos, of the note in the book of travels), that I would not, if it were even in my power, have a single line cancelled on my account in that nor in any other

written when princes would have been proud to pen-complained to Gifford. I believe that I observed in a sion, and peers to promote him, and when the whole army of dunces were in array against him, and would have been but too happy to deprive him of this boast of independence. But there is something a little more serious in Mr. Bowles's declaration, that he "would have spoken" of his "noble generosity to the outcast, Richard Savage," and other instances of a compassionate and publication?-Of course, I reserve to myself the privigenerous heart, "had they occurred to his recollection when lege of response when necessary. Mr. Bowles seems in he wrote." What! is it come to this? Does Mr. Bowles a whimsical state about the article on Spence. You sit down to write a minute and laboured life and edition know very well that I am not in your confidence, nor of a great poet? Does he anatomize his character, in that of the conductor of the journal. The moment moral and poetical? Does he present us with his faults I saw that article, I was morally certain that I knew the and with his foibles? Does he sneer at his feelings, and author "by his style." You will tell me that I do not doubt of his sincerity? Does he unfold his vanity and know him: that is all as it should be; keep the secret, duplicity? and then omit the good qualities which so shall I, though no one has ever entrusted it to me. might, in part, have "covered this multitude of sins ?" He is not the person whom Mr. Bowles denounces. Mr. and then plead that “they did not occur to his recollection?" Bowles's extreme sensibility reminds me of a circumIs this the frame of mind and of memory with which the stance which occurred on board of a frigate, in which illustrious dead are to be approached? If Mr. Bowles, I was a passenger and guest of the captain's for a conwho must have had access to all the means of refreshing siderable time. The surgeon on board, a very gentle his memory, did not recollect these facts, he is unfit for manly young man, and remarkably able in his profes his task; but if he did recollect, and omit them, I know sion, wore a wig. Upon this ornament he was extremely not what he is fit for, but I know what would be fit tenacious. As naval jests are sometimes a little rough, for him. Is the plea of "not recollecting" such promi- his brother-officers made occasional allusions to this nent facts to be admitted? Mr. Bowles has been at a delicate appendage to the doctor's person. One day a public school, and, as I have been publicly educated young lieutenant, in the course of a facetious discusalso, I can sympathize with his predilection. When we sion, said, "Suppose, now, doctor, I should take otř were in the third form even, had we pleaded on the your hat." "Sir,” replied the doctor, "I shall talk no Monday morning, that we had not brought up the Satur- longer with you; you grow scurrilous." He would not day's exercise because "we had forgotten it," what even admit so near an approach as to the hat which would have been the reply? And is an excuse, which protected it. In like manner, if any body approaches would not be pardoned to a school-boy, to pass current Mr. Bowles's laurels, even in his outside capacity of an in a matter which so nearly concerns the fame of the editor, "they grow scurrilous." You say that you are first poet of his age, if not of his country? If Mr. Bowles about to prepare an edition of Pope; you cannot do so readily forgets the virtues of others, why complain better for your own credit as a publisher, nor for the re so grievously that others have a better memory for his demption of Pope from Mr. Bowles, and of the public own faults? They are but the faults of an author; taste from rapid degeneracy.

A Fragment.

June 17, 1816. duct of my intended journey. It was my secret wish In the year 17-, having for some time determined that he might be prevailed on to accompany me: it was on a journey through countries not hitherto much fre- also a probable hope, founded upon the shadowy restquented by travellers, I set out, accompanied by a friendlessness which I had observed in him, and to which the whom I shall designate by the name of Augustus Dar- animation which he appeared to feel on such subjects, vell. He was a few years my elder, and a man of con- and his apparent indifference to all by which he was siderable fortune and ancient family-advantages which more immediately surrounded, gave fresh strength. an extensive capacity prevented him alike from under- This wish I first hinted, and then expressed: his answer, valuing or overrating. Some peculiar circumstances in though I had partly expected it, gave me all the pleasure his private history had rendered him to me an object of surprise-he consented; and, after the requisite ar of attention, of interest, and even of regard, which rangements, we commenced our voyages. After journeyneither the reserve of his manners, nor occasional indi-ing through various countries of the scuth of Europe, cations of an inquietude at times nearly approaching to our attention was turned towards the east, according alienation of mind, could extinguish. to our original destination; and it was in my progress through those regions that the incident occurred upon which will turn what I may have to relate.

an oppression on his mind, and a solemnity in his manner, which ill corresponded with his eagerness to proceed on what I regarded as a mere party of pleasure, little suited to a valetudinarian; but I opposed him no longer -and in a few days we set off together, accompanied only by a serrugee and a single janizary.

I was yet young in life, which I had begun early; but my intimacy with him was of a recent date: we had been educated at the same schools and university; but The constitution of Darvell, which must, from his his progress through these had preceded mine, and he appearance, have been in early life more than usually had been deeply initiated into what is called the world, robust, had been for some time gradually giving way, while I was yet in my noviciate. While thus engaged, I without the intervention of any apparent disease: he had heard much both of his past and present life; and, had neither cough nor hectic, yet he became daily although in these accounts there were many and irre- more enfeebled: his habits were temperate, and he concilable contradictions, I could still gather from the neither declined nor complained of fatigue, yet he was whole that he was a being of no common order, and evidently wasting away: he became more and more one who, whatever pains he might take to avoid re-silent and sleepless, and at length so seriously altered, mark, would still be remarkable. I had cultivated his that my alarm grew proportionate to what I conceived acquaintance subsequently, and endeavoured to obtain to be his danger. his friendship, but this last appeared to be unattainable; We had determined, on our arrival at Smyrna, on whatever affections he might have possessed seemed an excursion to the ruins of Ephesus and Sardis, from now, some to have been extinguished, and others to be which I endeavoured to dissuade him, in his present concentred: that his feelings were acute, I had suffi-state of indisposition-but in vain: there appeared to be cient opportunities of observing; for, although he could control, he could not altogether disguise them: still he had a power of giving to one passion the appearance of another in such a manner that it was difficult to define the nature of what was working within him; and the expressions of his features would vary so rapidly, though slightly, that it was useless to trace them to their sources. It was evident that he was a prey to some cureless disquiet; but whether it arose from ambition, love, remorse, grief, from one or all of these, or merely from a morbid temperament akin to disease, I could not dis-lead to the few huts yet lingering over the broken colcover: there were circumstances alleged which might umns of Diana-the roofless walls of expelled Christihave justified the application to each of these causes; anity, and the still more recent but complete desolation but, as I have before said, these were so contradictory of abandoned mosques—when the sudden and rapid illand contradicted, that none could be fixed upon with ness of my companion obliged us to halt at a Turkish accuracy. Where there is mystery, it is generally sup- cemetery, the turbaned tombstones of which were the posed that there must also be evil: I know not how this sole indication that human life had ever been a sojourner may be, but in him there certainly was the one, though in this wilderness. The only caravansera we had seen I could not ascertain the extent of the other-and felt was left some hours behind us; not a vestige of a town loth, as far as regarded himself, to believe in its exist- or even cottage, was within sight or hope, and this "city ence. My advances were received with sufficient cold-jof the dead" appeared to be the sole refuge for my unness; but I was young, and not easily discouraged, and fortunate friend, who seemed on the verge of becoining at length succeeded in obtaining, to a certain degree, the last of its inhabitants. that commonplace intercourse and moderate confidence In this situation, I looked round for a place where he of common and every-day concerns, created and ce- might most conveniently repose:-contrary to the usual mented by similarity of pursuit and frequency of meet- aspect of Mahometan burial-grounds, the cypresses ing, which is called intimacy, or friendship, according to were in this few in number, and these thinly scattered the ideas of him who uses those words to express them. over its extent: the tombstones were mostly fallen, and Darvell had already travelled extensively, and to him worn with age: upon one of the most considerable ef i had applied for information with regard to the con- these, and beneath one of the most spreading trees

We had passed half-way towards the remains of Ephesus, leaving behind us the more fertile environs of Smyrna, and were entering upon that wild and tenantless track through the marshes and defiles which

"Why?"

66 You will see."

"The ninth day of the month, you say?"
"The ninth."

Parvell supported himself, in a half-reclining posture, with great difficulty. He asked for water. I had some doubts of our being able to find any, and prepared to go in search of it with hesitating despondency-but he desired me to remain; and, turning to Suleiman, our As I observed that the present was the ninth day of janizary, who stood by us smoking with great tranquil- the month, his countenance changed, and he paused. As lity, he said, "Suleiman, verbana su," (i. e. bring some he sate, evidently becoming more feeble, a stork, with a water), and went on describing the spot where it was to snake in her beak, perched upon a tombstone near us; be found with great minuteness, at a small well for and, without devouring her prey, appeared to be stedcamels, a few hundred yards to the right: the janizary fastly regarding us. I know not what impelled me to obeyed. I said to Darvell, “How did you know this?" | drive it away, but the attempt was useless; she made a -He replied, "From our situation; you must perceive few circles in the air, and returned exactly to the same that this place was once inhabited, and could not have spot. Darvell pointed to it, and smiled: he spoke-I been so without springs: I have also been here before." know not whether to himself or to me-but the words "You have been here before!-How came you never were only, ""T is well!" to mention this to me? and what could you be doing in a place where no one would remain a moment longer than they could help it?"

To this question I received no answer. In the meantime, Suleiman returned with the water, leaving the serrugee and the horses at the fountain. The quenching of his thirst had the appearance of reviving him for a moment; and I conceived hopes of his being able to procced, or at least to return, and I urged the attempt. He was silent-and appeared to be collecting his spirits for an effort to speak. He began.

"This is the end of my journey, and of my life-I came here to die but I have a request to make, a command-for such my last words must be.-You will observe it?"

"Most certainly; but have better hopes."

"What is well? what do you mean?"

"No matter: you must bury me here this evening, and exactly where that bird is now perched. You know the rest of my injunctions."

He then proceeded to give me several directions as to the manner in which his death might be best con cealed. After these were finished, he exclaimed, “You perceive that bird?" "Certainly."

"And the serpent writhing in her beak?"

"Doubtless: there is nothing uncommon in it; it is her natural prey. But it is odd that she does not devour it."

He smiled in a ghastly manner, and said, faintly, "It is not yet time!" As he spoke, the stork flew away. My eyes followed it for a moment; it could hardly be

"I have no hopes, nor wishes, but this-conceal my longer than ten might be counted. I felt Darvell's death from every human being."

weight, as it were, increase upon my shoulder, and,

"I hope there will be no occasion; that you will re- turning to look upon his face, perceived that he was cover, and-"

"Peace! it must be so: promise this." "I do."

"Swear it by all that". of great solemnity.

dead!

I was shocked with the sudden certainty which could not be mistaken-his countenance in a few minutes

He here dictated an oath became nearly black. I should have attributed so rapid a change to poison, had I not been aware that he had

"There is no occasion for this-I will observe your no opportunity of receiving it unperceived. The day request; and to doubt me is————”

"It cannot be helped, you must swear."

I took the oath it appeared to relieve him. He removed a seal-ring from his finger, on which were some Arabic characters, and presented it to me. He proceeded

"On the ninth day of the month, at noon precisely (what month you please, but this must be the day), you must fling this ring into the salt springs which run into the Bay of Eleusis: the day after, at the same hour, you must repair to the ruins of the temple of Ceres, and wait one hour."

was declining, the body was rapidly altering, and nothing remained but to fulfil his request. With the aid of Suleiman's ataghan and my own sabre, we scooped a shallow grave upon the spot which Darvell had indi cated: the earth easily gave way, having already received some Mahometan tenant. We dug as deeply as the time permitted us, and throwing the dry earth upon all that remained of the singular being so lately departed, we cut a few sods of greener turf from the less withered soil around us, and laid them upon his sepulchre. Between astonishment and grief, I was tearless.

*

Parliamentary Speeches.

DEBATE ON THE FRAME-WORK BILL, IN THE
HOUSE OF LORDS, FEBRUARY 27, 1812.
THE order of the day for the second reading of this
bill being read,

LORD BYRON rose, and (for the first time) ad-
dressed their lordships, as follows:
75

2 z 2

MY LORDS-the subject now submitted to your lordships for the first time, though new to the House, is by no means new to the country. I believe it had occupied the serious thoughts of all descriptions of persons, long before its introduction to the notice of that legis. lature, whose interference alone could be of real ser vice. As a person in some degree connected with the

suffering county, though a stranger not only to this chinery, in that state of our commerce which the counHouse in general, but to almost every individual whose try once boasted, might have been beneficial to the attention I presume to solicit, I must claim some por-master without being detrimental to the servant; yet, tion of your lordships' indulgence whilst I offer a few in the present situation of our manufactures, rotting in observations on a question in which I confess myself warehouses, without a prospect of exportation, with deeply interested. the demand for work and workmen equally diminished;

but the spade was in other hands: they were not ashamed to beg, but there was none to relieve them: their own means of subsistence were cut off, all other employments pre-occupied, and their excesses, however to be deplored and condemned, can hardly be subject of surprise.

To enter into any detail of the riots would be super-frames of this description tend materially to aggravate fluous: the House is already aware that every outrage the distress and discontent of the disappointed sufferers. short of actual bloodshed has been perpetrated, and But the real cause of these distresses and consequent that the proprietors of the frames obnoxious to the disturbances lies deeper. When we are told that these rioters, and all persons supposed to be connected men are leagued together not only for the destruction with them, have been liable to insult and violence. of their own comfort, but of their very means of subDuring the short time I recently passed in Nottingham-sistence, can we forget that it is the bitter policy, the shire, not twelve hours elapsed without some fresh act destructive warfare of the last eighteen years, which of violence; and on the day I left the county, I was in- has destroyed their comfort, your comfort, all men's formed that forty frames had been broken the preced- comfort? That policy which, originating with "great ing evening, as usual, without resistance and without statesmen now no more," has survived the dead to bedetection. come a curse on the living, unto the third and fourth Such was then the state of that county, and such I generation! These men never destroyed their looms have reason to believe it to be at this moment. But till they were become useless, worse than useless; till whilst these outrages must be admitted to exist to an they were become actual impediments to their exertions alarming extent, it cannot be denied that they have in obtaining their daily bread. Can you, then, wonder arisen from circumstances of the most unparalleled that in times like these, when bankruptcy, convicted distress. The perseverance of these miserable men in fraud, and imputed felony are found in a station not their proceedings, tends to prove that nothing but abso- far beneath that of your lordships, the lowest, though lute want could have driven a large, and once honest once most useful portion of the people, should forget and industrious, body of the people, into the commission their duty in their distresses, and become only less of excesses so hazardous to themselves, their families, guilty than one of their representatives? But while the and the community. At the time to which I allude, exalted offender can find means to baffle the law, new the town and county were burthened with large detach-capital punishments must be devised, new snares of ments of the military; the police was in motion, the death must be spread for the wretched mechanic, who magistrates assembled; yet all the movements, civil and is famished into guilt. These men were willing to dig, military, had led to-nothing. Not a single instance had occurred of the apprehension of any real delinquent actually taken in the fact, against whom there existed legal evidence sufficient for conviction. But the police, however useless, were by no means idle : several notorious delinquents had been detected; men, liable to conviction, on the clearest evidence, of the capital crime It has been stated that the persons in the temporary of poverty; men who had been nefariously guilty of possession of frames connive at their destruction; if lawfully begetting several children, whom, thanks to this be proved upon inquiry, it were necessary that such the times! they were unable to maintain. Considerable material accessaries to the crime should be principals injury has been done to the proprietors of the improved in the punishment. But I did hope, that any measure frames. These machines were to them an advantage, proposed by his majesty's government, for your lordinasmuch as they superseded the necessity of employing ship's decision, would have had conciliation for its basis; a number of workmen, who were left in consequence or, if that were hopeless, that some previous inquiry, to starve. By the adoption of one species of frame in some deliberation would have been deemed requisite; particular, one man performed the work of many, and not that we should have been called at once withthe superfluous labourers were thrown out of employ-out examination, and without cause, to pass sentences Yet it is to be observed, that the work thus by wholesale, and sign death-warrants blindfold. But executed was inferior in quality; not marketable at admitting that these men had no cause of complaint; home, and merely hurried over with a view to exporta- that the grievances of them and their employers were tion. It was called, in the cant of the trade, by the alike groundless; that they deserved the worst; what name of "Spider work." The rejected workmen, in inefficiency, what imbecility has been evinced in the the blindness of their ignorance, instead of rejoicing at method chosen to reduce them! Why were the military these improvements in arts so beneficial to mankind, called out to be made a mockery of, if they were to be conceived themselves to be sacrificed to improvements called out at all? As far as the difference of seasons in mechanism. In the foolishness of their hearts they would permit, they have merely parodied the summer imagined, that the maintenance and well-doing of the campaign of Major Sturgeon; and, indeed, the whole Industrious poor were objects of greater consequence proceedings, civil and military, seemed on the model of than the enrichment of a few individuals by any im- those of the Mayor and Corporation of Garratt.—Such provement, in the implements of trade, which threw marchings and counter-marchings! from Nottingham the workmen out of employment, and rendered the to Bullwell, from Bullwell to Banford, from Banford to Jabourer unworthy of his hire. And it must be con- Mansfield! and when at length the detachments arrived fessed that although the adoption of the enlarged ma- at their destinations, in all "the pride, pomp, and cir

ment.

bring this measure into effect) by decimation? place the country under martial law? depopulate and lay waste all around you? and restore Sherwood Forest as an acceptable gift to the crown, in its former condition of a royal chase and an asylum for outlaws? Are these the remedies for a starving and desperate populace? Will the famished wretch who has braved your bayonets, be appalled by your gibbets? When death is a relief, and the only relief it appears that you will afford him, will he be dragooned into tranquillity? Will that which could not be effected by your grenadiers be accomplished by your executioners? If you

cumstance of glorious war," they came just in time to such objects demand it. I have traversed the seat of witness the mischief which had been done, and ascertain war in the Peninsula, I have been in some of the most the escape of the perpetrators, to collect the "spolia oppressed provinces of Turkey, but never under the opima" in the fragments of broken frames, and return most despotic of infidel governments did I behold such to their quarters amidst the derision of old women, and squalid wretchedness as I have seen since my return the hootings of children. Now, though in a free country, in the very heart of a Christian country. And what it were to be wished that our military should never be too are your remedies? After months of inaction, and formidable, at least to ourselves, I cannot see the policy of months of action worse than inactivity, at length comes placing them in situations where they can only be made forth the grand specific, the never-failing nostrum of ridiculous. As the sword is the worst argument that can all state physicians, from the days of Draco to the be used, so should it be the last. In this instance it has present time. After feeling the pulse and shaking the been the first; but providentially as yet only in the head over the patient, prescribing the usual course of scabbard. The present measure will, indeed, pluck it warm water and bleeding, the warm water of your from the sheath; yet had proper meetings been held in maukish police, and the lancets of your military, these the earlier stages of these riots,-had the grievances of convulsions must terminate in death, the sure consumthese men and their masters (for they also had their mation of the prescriptions of all political Sangrados. grievances) been fairly weighed and justly examined, I Setting aside the palpable injustice, and the certain do think that means might have been devised to restore inefficiency of the bill, are there not capital punishthese workmen to their avocations, and tranquillity to ments sufficient in your statutes? Is there not blood the county. At present the county suffers from the enough upon your penal code, that more must be poured double infliction of an idle military, and a starving forth to ascend to Heaven and testify against you? population. In what state of apathy have we been How will you carry the bill into effect? Can you complunged so long, that now for the first time the House mit a whole county to their own prison? Will you has been officially apprized of these disturbances! All erect a gibbet in every field, and hang up men like this has been transacting within 130 miles of London, scarecrows? or will you proceed (as you must, to and yet we, "good easy men, have deemed full sure our greatness was a-ripening," and have sat down to enjoy our foreign triumphs in the midst of domestic calamity. But all the cities you have taken, all the armies which have retreated before your leaders, are but paltry subjects of self-congratulation, if your land divides against itself, and your dragoons and your executioners must be let loose against your fellow-citizens. -You call these men a mob, desperate, dangerous, and ignorant; and seem to think that the only way to quiet the "Bellua multorum capitum" is to lop off a few of its superfluous heads. But even a mob may be better reduced to reason by a mixture of concilia-proceed by the forms of law, where is your evidence? tion and firmness, than by additional irritation and re- Those who have refused to impeach their accomplices, doubled penalties. Are we aware of our obligations when transportation only was the punishment, will to a mob? It is the mob that labour in your fields, and hardly be tempted to witness against them when death serve in your houses,-that man your navy, and recruit is the penalty. With all due deference to the noble your army, that have enabled you to defy all the lords opposite, I think a little investigation, some preworld, and can also defy you when neglect and ca-vious inquiry, would induce even them to change their lamity have driven them to despair. You may call the purpose. That most favourite state measure, so marpeople a mob; but do not forget, that a mob too often vellously efficacious in many and recent instances, speaks the sentiments of the people. And here I temporizing, would not be without its advantages in must remark, with what alacrity you are accustomed this. When a proposal is made to emancipate or reto fly to the succour of your distressed allies, leaving lieve, you hesitate, you deliberate for years, you temthe distressed of your own country to the care of Provi-porize and tamper with the minds of men; but a deathdence, or the parish. When the Portuguese suffered bill must be passed off hand, without a thought of the under the retreat of the French, every arm was stretch-consequences. Sure I am, from what I have heard, ed out, every hand was opened, from the rich man's and from what I have seen, that to pass the Bill under largess to the widow's mite, all was bestowed to enable all the existing circumstances, without inquiry, without them to rebuild their villages and replenish their gran- deliberation, would only be to add injustice to irritation aries. And at this moment, when thousands of misguided and barbarity to neglect. The framers of such a Bil but most unfortunate fellow-countrymen are strug-must be content to inherit the honours of that Athe gling with the extremes of hardships and hunger, as nian lawgiver whose edicts were said to be written not your charity began abroad, it should end at home. A in ink, but in blood. But suppose it past; supposo much less sum, a tithe of the bounty bestowed on Por- one of these men, as I have seen them,-meagre with tugal, even if those men (which I cannot admit with- famine, sullen with despair, careless of a life which out inquiry) could not have been restored to their em- your lordships are perhaps about to value at some ployments, would have rendered unnecessary the ten-thing less than the price of a stocking-frame-supder mercies of the bayonet and the gibbet. But pose this man surrounded by the children for whom doubtless our friends have too many foreign claims to he is unable to procure bread at the hazard of his exadmit a prospect of domestic relief; though never did istence, about to be torn for ever from a family which

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