In 1812 Campbell gave six lectures on poetry at the Royal Institution, which attracted large audiences. For several years he published nothing except a few occasional short pieces. In 1818 he made a second visit to Germany, and after his return in the following year his ' Specimens of the British Poets' appeared in 7 volumes, 8vo. (re printed in 1841, in one volume, Svo, with additional notes by Mr. P. Cunningham). The 'Essay on English Poetry' by which this work is introduced is written in many passages with great beauty and eloquence. In 1820 Campbell delivered a course of lectures on English Poetry at the Surrey Institution. In 1820 also he undertook the editorship of the New Monthly Magazine,' which he retained till 1830. In 1824 he published his Theederie, a domestic tale; ' it wants the force and fire of some of his other poetry, but is perhaps the sweetest of all his poems. He never wrote anything more touching than the letter of Constance towards the close of this poem. It was however received by the public with groat coldness, very much to the annoyance of the author. For some years after this he was much occupied by the interest he took in the emancipation of Greece and of Poland, and also in the project of the London University, now University College, which he always claimed the credit of originating, but the successful carrying out of the idea was certainly due to others.
In 1S27 he was elected Rector of the University of Glasgow, and he was re-elected to the office in the two following years. He lost his
wife in 1828. Of two sous, one died in infancy ; the other survived his father, but was early found to be the subject of mental derange ment. In 1831 Campbell established the 'Metropolitan Magazine' upon relinquishing or losing the editorship of the 'New Monthly,' but retained its management in his own hands only for a short time; and in 1832 he paid a visit to Algiers, an account of which he published in the 'Metropolitan Magazine' in a series of papers, afterwards, in 1837, collected and reprinted in two volumes, Svo, under the title of 'Letters from the South.' The other publications of his last years, none of which brought him much reputation, were a 'Life of Mrs. Siddona,' 2 vole. Svo, 1834 ; a Life of Petrarch,' 2 vols. Svo, 1841; ' Life and Times of Frederick the Great' (of this ho professed to bo only the editor), 4 vols. Svo, 1841, and 1843 ; and the 'Pilgrim of Glencoe,' a poem, Svo, 1842. In the summer of 1S43 his health and circumstances being both much impaired, be retired, accompanied by it niece, to Boulogne; and he died there on the I5th of Juno 1844. His body was brought over to England, and interred on the 3rd of July iu Westminster Abbey, near the centre of Poet's Corner, close to the tomb of Addison, where a marble statue of him by Marshall has since been placed.
(Beattie, Life and Letters of Thomas Campbell.)