they distinguish themselves, but they sink when difficulties accumulate around them. Persons with large brains, on the other hand, do not readily attain their appropriate place; common occurrences do not rouse or call them forth, and, while unknown, they are not trusted with great undertakings. Often, therefore, such men pine and die in obscurity. When, however, they attain their proper element, they are conscious of greatness, and glory in the expansion of their powers. Their mental energies rise in proportion to the obstacles to be surmounted, and blaze forth in all the magnificence of self-sustaining energetic genius, on occasions when feebler minds would sink in despair. POLITICAL ECONOMISTS. There were in this period several writers on the science of political economy, 'treating of the formation, the distribution, and the consumption of wealth; the causes which promote or prevent its increase, and their influence on the happiness or misery of society.' Adam Smith laid the foundations of this science; and as our population and commerce went on increasing, thereby augmenting the power of the democratical part of our constitution, and the number of those who take an interest in the affairs of government, political economy became a more important and popular study. It now forms one of the subjects for lectures in the universities of Cambridge and Oxford. BENTHAM-MALTHUS-RICARDO-SADLER, ETC. A singular but eminent writer in this department, and in the kindred studies of jurisprudence and morals, JEREMY BENTHAM (1748-1832), was for more than half a century distinguished as an author and utilitarian philosopher. He lived in intercourse with the leading men of several generations and of various countries, and was unceasingly active in the propagation of his opinions. Bentham was the son of a wealthy London solicitor, and was educated at Westminster School and Queen's College, Oxford. He was only thirteen when he entered college, but even then he was known by the name of 'the philosopher.' He took his degree of B.A. in 1763, and afterwards studying the law in Lincoln's Inn, was called to the bar. He had a strong dislike to the legal profession, and never pleaded in public. His first literary performance was an examination of a passage in Blackstone's Commentaries, and was entitled, A Fragment on Government, 1776. The work was prompted, as he afterwards stated, by a passion for improvement in those shapes in which the lot of mankind is meliorated by it.' His zeal was increased by a pamphlet which had been issued by Priestley. In the phrase, "the greatest happiness of the greatest number," I then saw delineated,' says Bentham, 'for the first time, a plain as well as a true standard for whatever is right or wrong, useful, useless, or mischievous in human conduct, whether in the field of morals or of politics.' The phrase is a good one, whether invented by Priestley or Bentham; but it still leaves the means by which happiness is to be extended as undecided as ever, to be determined by the judgment and opinions of men. To insure it, Bentham considered it necessary to reconstruct the laws and govern ment-to have annual parliaments and universal suffrage, secret voting, and a return to the ancient practice of paying wages to parliamentary representatives. In all his political writings this doctrine of utility, so understood, is the leading and pervading principle. In 1778 he published a pamphlet on The Hard Labour Bill, recommending an improvement in the mode of criminal punishment; Letters on Usury, 1787; Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Politics, 1789; Discourses on Civil and Penal Legislation, 1802; A Theory of Punishments and Rewards, 1811; A Treatise on Judicial Evidence, 1813; Paper relative to Codification and Public Instruction, 1817; The Book of Fallacies, 1824, &c. By the death of his father in 1792, Bentham succeeded to property in London and to farms in Essex yielding from £500 to £600 a year. He lived frugally, but with elegance, in one of his London houses-kept young men as secretaries-corresponded and wrote daily-and by a life of temperance and industry, with great self-complacency, and the society of a few devoted friends, the eccentric philosopher attained to the age of eightyfour. His various productions were collected and edited by Dr (afterwards Sir) John Bowring and Mr John Hill Burton, advocate, and published in eleven volumes. In his latter works Bentham adopted a peculiar uncouth style or nomenclature, which deters ordinary readers, and indeed has rendered his works almost a dead-letter. nately, however, part of them was arranged and translated into French by M. Dumont. Another disciple, Mr James Mill, made known his principles at home; Sir Samuel Romilly criticised them in the Edinburgh Review, and Sir James Mackintosh in the Ethical Dissertation which he wrote for the Encyclopædia Britannica. In the science of legislation, Bentham evinced a profound capacity and extensive knowledge: the error imputed to his speculations is that of not sufficiently weighing the various circumstances which require his rules to be modified in different countries and times, in order to render them either more useful, more easily introduced, more generally respected, or more certainly executed.' As an ethical philosopher, he carried his doctrine of utility to an extent which would be practically dangerous, if it were possible to make the bulk of mankind act upon à speculative theory. Fortu One of the most celebrated of the political economists was the REV. T. R. MALTHUS, an English clergyman, and Fellow of Jesus College, Cambridge. Mr Malthus was born of a good family in 1766, at his father's estate in Surrey. In 1798 appeared his celebrated work, an Essay on the Principle of Population as it affects the Future Improvement of Society. The principle here laid down is, that population has a tendency to increase faster than the means of subsistence. Population not only rises to the level of the present supply of food, but if you go on every year increasing the quantity of food, population goes on increasing at the same time, and so fast, that the food is commonly still too small for the people.' After the publication of this work, Mr Malthus went abroad with Dr Clarke and some other friends; and in the course of a tour through Sweden, Norway, Finland, and part of Russia, he collected facts in illustration of his theory. These he embodied in a second and greatly improved MR DAVID RICARDO (1772-1823) was author of several original and powerful treatises' connected with political economy. His first was on The High Price of Bullion, 1810; and he published successively Proposals for an Economical and Secure Currency, 1816; and Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, 1817. The last work is considered the most important treatise on that science, with the single exception of Smith's Wealth of Nations. Mr Ricardo afterwards wrote pamphlets on the Funding System and on Protection to Agriculture. He had amassed great wealth as a stock-broker, and retiring from business, he entered into parliament as representative for the small borough of Portarlington. He seldom spoke in the House, and only on subjects connected with his favourite studies. He died, much regretted by his friends, at his seat, Gatcomb Park, in Gloucestershire, on the 11th of September 1823. a year was conferred on Mr M'Culloch by the administration of Sir Robert Peel. edition of his work, which was published in 1803. The most important of his other works are, An Inquiry into the Nature and Progress of Rent, The opponents of Malthus and the economists, 1815; and Principles of Political Economy, 1820. though not numerous, have been determined and Several pamphlets on the Corn-laws, the Currency, active. Cobbett never ceased for years to inveigh and the Poor-laws, proceeded from his pen. Mr against them. Coleridge also joined in the cry. Malthus was in 1805 appointed Professor of MR GODWIN came forward in 1820, with an Modern History and Political Economy in Hailey-Inquiry concerning the Power of Increase in the bury College, and he held the situation till his Numbers of Mankind, a treatise very unworthy death in 1834. the author of Caleb Williams.-In 1830 MICHAEL THOMAS SADLER (1780-1835) published The Law of Population: a Treatise in Disproof of the Superfecundity of Human Beings, and developing the Real Principle of their Increase. A third volume to this work was in preparation by the author when he died. Mr Sadler was a mercantile man, partner in an establishment in Leeds. In 1829 he became representative in parliament for the borough of Newark, and distinguished himself by his speeches against the removal of the Catholic disabilities and the Reform Bill. He also wrote a work on the Condition of Ireland. Mr Sadler was an ardent benevolent man, an impracticable politician, and a florid speaker. His literary pursuits and oratorical talents were honourable and graceful additions to his character as a man of business, but in knowledge and argument he was greatly inferior to Malthus and Ricardo.-Among other works of this kind we may notice, An Essay on the Distribution of Wealth, and the Sources of Taxation, 1831, by the REV. RICHARD JONES. This work is chiefly confined to the consideration of Rent, as to which the author differs from Ricardo.-MR NASSAU WILLIAM SENIOR (1790-1864), Professor of Political Economy in the university of Oxford, in 1831, published Two Lectures on Population. He was the ablest of all the opponents of Malthus. Mr Senior wrote treatises on the Poor-laws, on National Education, and other public topics. In 1864 he published Essays on Fiction, being a collection of articles on Scott, Bulwer Lytton, and Thackeray, contributed to the chief Reviews. He also contributed a valuable article on Political Economy to the Encyclopædia Metropolitana. The Elements of Political Economy, by JAMES MILL, 1821, were designed by the author as a school-book of the science as modelled or improved by Ricardo. DR WHATELY (afterwards Archbishop of Dublin) published two introductory Lectures, which, as Professor of Political Economy, he had delivered to the university of Oxford in 1831. This eminent person was also author of a highly valued work, Elements of Logic, which attained great popularity, and is a standard work; Thoughts on Secondary Punishments; and other works, all displaying marks of a powerful intellect. A good elementary work, Conversations on Political Economy, by MRS MARCET, was published in 1827.-The REV. DR CHALMERS on various occasions supported the views of Malthus, particularly in his work On Political Economy in connection with the Moral Prospects of Society, 1832. He maintains that no human skill or labour could make the produce of the soil increase at the rate at which population would increase, and therefore he urges the expediency of a restraint upon marriage, successfully inculcated upon the people as the very essence of morality and religion by every pastor and instructor in the kingdom. Few clergymen would venture on such a task !-Another zealous commentator was MR J. RAMSAY M'CULLOCH, author of Elements of Political Economy, and of various contributions to the Edinburgh Review, which have spread more widely a knowledge of the subject. Mr M'Culloch also edited an edition of Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations and the works of Ricardo, and compiled several useful and able statistical works, the most important of which are a Dictionary of Commerce, a Statistical Account of the British Empire, and a Geographical Dictionary. This gentleman was a native of Wigtownshire, born in 1789, and died at the Stationery Office, London, of which he was comptroller, November 11, 1864. A pension of £200 MISCELLANEOUS WRITERS. HANNAH MORE. HANNAH MORE adopted fiction as a means of conveying religious instruction. She can scarcely be said to have been ever 'free of the corporation' of novelists; nor would she perhaps have cared much to owe her distinction solely to her connection with so motley and various a band. Hannah withdrew from the fascinations of London society, the theatres and opera, in obedience to what she considered the call of duty, and we suspect Tom Jones and Peregrine Pickle would have been as unworthy in her eyes. This excellent woman was one of five daughters, children of Jacob More, who taught a school in the village of Stapleton, in Gloucestershire, where Hannah was born in the year 1745. The family afterwards removed to Bristol, and there Hannah attracted the attention and patronage of Sir James Stonehouse, who had been many years a physician of eminence, but afterwards took orders and settled at Bristol. In her seventeenth year she published a pastoral drama, The Search after Happiness, which in a short time went through three editions. Next year she brought out a tragedy, The Inflexible Captive. In 1773 or 1774 she made her entrance into the society of London, and was domesticated with Garrick, who proved one of her kindest and steadiest friends. She was received with favour by Johnson, Reynolds, Burke, &c. Her sister has thus described her first interview with the great English moralist : First Interview with Johnson. those who had less, we got a good store of gold in return; but how, alas! we wanted the wit to keep it. I love you both,' cried the inamorato-'I love you all five. I never was at Bristol-I will come on purpose to see you. What! five women live happily together! I will come and see you-I have spent a happy evening lives to shame duchesses.' He took his leave with so -I am glad I came-God for ever bless you! you live much warmth and tenderness, we were quite affected at his manner. If Hannah's head stands proof against all the adulation and kindness of the great folks here, why, then, I will venture to say nothing of this kind will hurt her hereafter. A literary anecdote: Mrs MedallaSterne's daughter-sent to all the correspondents of her deceased father, begging the letters which he had written to them; among other wits, she sent to Wilkes with the same request. He sent for answer, that as there happened to be nothing extraordinary in those he had received, he had burnt or lost them. On which the faithful editor of her father's works sent back to say, that if Mr Wilkes would be so good as to write a few letters in imitation of her father's style, it would do just as well, and she would insert them. In 1777 Garrick brought out Miss More's tragedy of Percy at Drury Lane, where it was acted seventeen nights successively. Her theatrical profits amounted to £600, and for the copyright of the play she got £150 more. Two legend We have paid another visit to Miss Reynolds; she had sent to engage Dr Percy-Percy's Collection, now you know him-quite a sprightly modern, instead of a rusty antique, as I expected; he was no sooner gone than the most amiable and obliging of women, Miss Reynolds, ordered the coach to take us to Dr Johnson's very own house: yes, Abyssinian Johnson! Dictionary Johnson! Ramblers, Idlers, and Irene Johnson! Can you picture to yourselves the palpitation of our hearts as we approached his mansion? The conversation turned upon a new work of his just going to the press-the Tour to the Hebrides-and his old friend Richardson. Mrs Williams, the blind poet, who lives with him, was introduced to us. She is engaging in her manners, her conversation lively and entertaining. Miss Reynolds told the doctor of all our rapturous exclamations on the road. He shook his scientific head at Hannah, and said 'sheary poems, Sir Eldred of the Bower and The was a silly thing!' When our visit was ended, he called for his hat, as it rained, to attend us down a very long entry to our coach, and not Rasselas could have acquitted himself more en cavalier. We are engaged with him at Sir Joshua's on Wednesday evening-what do you think of us? I forgot to mention, that not finding Johnson in his little parlour when we came in, Hannah seated herself in his great chair, hoping to catch a little ray of his genius: when he heard it he laughed heartily, and told her it was a chair on which he never sat. He said it reminded him of Boswell and himself when they stopped a night, as they imagined, where the weird sisters appeared to Macbeth. The idea so worked on their enthusiasm, that it quite deprived them of rest. However, they learned the next morning, to their mortification, that they had been deceived, and were quite in another part of the country. In a subsequent letter (1776), after the publication of Hannah's poem, Sir Eldred of the Bower, the same lively writer says: If a wedding should take place before our return, don't be surprised-between the mother of Sir Eldred and the father of my much-loved Irene; nay, Mrs Montagu says if tender words are the precursors of connubial engagements, we may expect great things, for it is nothing but child,' 'little fool,' 'love,' and 'dearest.' After much critical discourse, he turns round to me, and with one of his most amiable looks, which must be seen to form the least idea of it, he says: 'I have heard that you are engaged in the useful and honourable employment of teaching young ladies.' Upon which, with all the same ease, familiarity, and confidence we should have done had only our own dear Dr Stonehouse been present, we entered upon the history of our birth, parentage, and education; shewing how we were born with more desires than guineas, and how, as years increased our appetites, the cupboard at home began to grow too small to gratify them; and how, with a bottle of water, a bed, and a blanket, we set out to seek our fortunes; and how we found a great house with nothing in it; and how it was like to remain so till, looking into our knowledge-boxes, we happened to find a little larning, a good thing when land is gone, or rather none; and so at last, by giving a little of this little larning to Bleeding Rock, formed her next publication. In 1779, the third and last tragedy of Hannah More was produced; it was entitled The Fatal Falsehood, but was acted only three nights. At this time, she had the misfortune to lose her friend Mr Garrick by death, an event of which she has given some interesting particulars in her letters. Death and Character of Garrick. at that From Dr Cadogan's I intended to have gone to the Adelphi, but found that Mrs Garrick was moment quitting her house, while preparations were making for the last sad ceremony; she very wisely fixed on a private friend's house for this purpose, where she could be at her ease. I got there just before her; she was prepared for meeting me; she ran into my arms, and we both remained silent for some minutes; at last she whispered: 'I have this moment embraced his coffin, and you come next.' She soon recovered herself, and said with great composure: The goodness of God to me is inexpressible; I desired to die, but it is his will that I should live, and He has convinced me He will not let my life be quite miserable, for he gives astonishing strength to my body, and grace to my heart; neither do I deserve; but I am thankful for both.' She thanked me a thousand times for such a real act of friendship, and bade me be comforted, for it was God's will. She told me they had just returned from Althorp, Lord Spencer's, where he had been reluctantly dragged, for he had felt unwell for some time; but during his visit he was often in such fine spirits, that they could not believe he was ill. On his return home, he appointed Cadogan to meet him, who ordered him an emetic, the warm bath, and the usual remedies, but with very little effect. On the Sunday, he was in good spirits and free from pain; but as the suppression still continued, Dr Cadogan became extremely alarmed, and sent for Pott, Heberden, and Schomberg, who gave him up the moment they saw him. Poor Garrick stared to see his room full of doctors, not being conscious of his real state. No change happened till the Tuesday evening, when the surgeon who was sent for to blister and bleed him made light of his illness, assuring Mrs Garrick that he would be well in a day or two, and insisted on her going to lie down. Towards morning, she desired to be called if there was the least change. Every time that she admin-resolved to devote exclusively to high objects. istered the draughts to him in the night, he always The gay life of the fashionable world had lost its squeezed her hand in a particular manner, and spoke to charms, and, having published her Bas Bleu, she her with the greatest tenderness and affection. Imme- retired to a small cottage and garden near Bristol, diately after he had taken his last medicine, he softly where her sisters kept a flourishing boardingsaid O dear!' and yielded up his spirit with a groan, school. Her first prose publication was Thoughts and in his perfect senses. His behaviour during the night was all gentleness and patience, and he frequently on the Importance of the Manners of the Great made apologies to those about him for the trouble he to General Society, produced in 1788. This was gave them. On opening him, a stone was found that followed in 1791 by an Estimate of the Religion of measured five inches and a half round one way, and the Fashionable World. As a means of counterfour and a half the other; yet this was not the immediate acting the political tracts and exertions of the cause of his death; his kidneys were quite gone. I Jacobins and levellers, Hannah More, in 1794, paid a melancholy visit to the coffin yesterday, where I wrote a number of tales, published monthly under found room for meditation till the mind burst with the title of The Cheap Repository, which attained thinking.' His new house is not so pleasant as Hampton, to a sale of about a million each number. Some nor so splendid as the Adelphi, but it is commodious of the little stories-as The Shepherd of Salisbury enough for all the wants of its inhabitant; and, besides, Plain-are well told, and contain striking moral it is so quiet that he never will be disturbed till the and religious lessons. With the same object, eternal morning, and never till then will a sweeter voice than his own be heard. May he then find mercy! our authoress published a volume called Village They are preparing to hang the house with black, for Politics. Her other principal works are-Striche is to lie in state till Monday. I dislike this pageantry, tures on the Modern System of Female Education, and cannot help thinking that the disembodied spirit 1799; Hints towards forming the Character of a must look with contempt upon the farce that is played Young Princess, 1805; Calebs in Search of a over its miserable relics. But a splendid funeral could Wife, comprehending Observations on Domestic not be avoided, as he is to be laid in the Abbey with Habits and Manners, Religion and Morals, two such illustrious dust, and so many are desirous of testify- volumes, 1809; Practical Piety, or the Influence ing their respect by attending. I can never cease to of the Religion of the Heart on the Conduct of remember with affection and gratitude so warm, steady, Life, two volumes, 1811; Christian Morals, two and disinterested a friend; and I can most truly bear volumes, 1812; Essay on the Character and Writthis testimony to his memory, that I never witnessed in ings of St Paul, two volumes, 1815; and Moral any family more decorum, propriety, and regularity, Sketches of Prevailing Opinions and Manners, than in his; where I never saw a card, nor even metexcept in one instance-a person of his own profession Foreign and Domestic, with Reflections on Prayer, at his table, of which Mrs Garrick, by her elegance of 1819. The collection of her works is comprised taste, her correctness of manners, and very original turn in eleven volumes octavo. The work entitled of humour, was the brightest ornament. All his pursuits Hints towards forming the Character of a Young and tastes were so decidedly intellectual, that it made Princess, was written with a view to the education the society and the conversation which was always to be of the Princess Charlotte, on which subject the found in his circle, interesting and delightful. advice and assistance of Hannah More had been requested by Queen Charlotte. Of Calebs, we are told that ten editions were sold in one yearThe tale is admirably written, with a fine vein of a remarkable proof of the popularity of the work. delicate irony and sarcasm, and some of the characters are well depicted; but, from the nature of the story, it presents few incidents or embellishments to attract ordinary novel-readers. It has not inaptly been styled a dramatic sermon.' Of the other publications of the authoress, we may say, with one of her critics, it would be idle in us to dwell on works so well known as the Thoughts on the Manners of the Great, the Estimate of the Religion of the Fashionable World, and so on, which finally established Miss More's name as a great moral writer, possessing a masterly command over the resources of our language, and devoting a keen wit and a lively fancy to the best and noblest of purposes.' In her latter days, there was perhaps a tincture of unnecessary gloom or severity in her religious views; yet, when we recollect her unfeigned sincerity and practical benevolence-her exertions to instruct the poor miners and cottagers-and the untiring zeal with which she laboured, even amidst severe bodily infirmities, to inculcate sound principles and intellectual cultivation from the palace to the Cottage, it is impossible not to rank her among the best benefactors of mankind. In 1782, Miss More presented to the world a volume of Sacred Dramas, with a poem annexed, entitled Sensibility. All her works were successful, and Johnson said he thought her the best of the female versifiers. The poetry of Hannah More is now forgotten; but Percy is a good play, and it is clear that the authoress might have excelled as a dramatic writer, had she devoted herself to that difficult species of composition. In 1786, she published another volume of verse, Florio, a Tale for Fine Gentlemen and Fine Ladies; and The Bas Bleu, or Conversation. The latter-which Johnson complimented as 'a great performance -was an elaborate eulogy on the Bas Bleu Club, a literary assembly that met at Mrs Montagu's." The following couplets have been quoted and remembered as terse and pointed : * In men this blunder still you find, Small habits well pursued, betimes Such lines mark the good sense and keen observa- These meetings were called the Blue-stocking Club, in consequence of one of the most admired of the members, Mr Benjamin Stillingfleet, always wearing blue stockings. The appellation soon became general as a name for pedantic or ridiculous literary ladies. Hannah More's poem proceeds on the mistake of a foreigner, who, hearing of the Blue-stocking Club, translated it literally Bas Bleu.' Byron wrote a light satirical sketch of the Blues of his day-the frequenters of the London saloons-but it is unworthy of his genius. The great success of the different works of our authoress enabled her to live in ease, and to disHer sisters also pense charities around her. secured a competency, and they all lived together at Barley Grove, a property of some extent, which way, the Earl of Southampton, and others, a they purchased and improved. From the day new version of King Lear, and one entire original that the school was given up, the existence of the drama, entitled Vortigern and Rowena. Such whole sisterhood appears to have flowed on in one a treasure was pronounced invaluable, and the uniform current of peace and contentment, diver- manuscripts were exhibited at the elder Ireland's sified only by new appearances of Hannah as an house, in Norfolk Street. A controversy arose authoress, and the ups and downs which she and as to the genuineness of the documents, in the others met with in the prosecution of a most which Malone took a part, proving that they brave and humane experiment-namely, their were forged; but the productions found many zealous effort to extend the blessings of education admirers and believers. They were published by and religion among the inhabitants of certain subscription, in a large and splendid volume, villages situated in a wild country some eight or and Vortigern was brought out at Drury Lane ten miles from their abode, who, from a concur- Theatre, John Kemble acting the principal charrence of unhappy local and temporary circum-acter. Kemble, however, was not to be duped by stances, had been left in a state of ignorance the young forger, being probably, as Sir Walter hardly conceivable at the present day.'* These Scott remarks, warned by Malone. The repreexertions were ultimately so successful, that the sentation of the play completely broke up the sisterhood had the gratification of witnessing a imposture. The structure and language of the yearly festival celebrated on the hills of Cheddar, piece were so feeble, clumsy, and extravagant, where above a thousand children, with the that no audience could believe it to have promembers of female clubs of industry-also ceeded from the immortal dramatist. As the established by them-after attending church- play proceeded, the torrent of ridiculous bombast service, were regaled at the expense of their swelled to such a height as to bear down critical benefactors. Hannah More died on the 7th of patience; and when Kemble uttered the line, September 1833, aged eighty-eight. She had made about £30,000 by her writings, and she left, by her will, legacies to charitable and religious institutions amounting to £10,000. In 1834, Memoirs of the Life and Correspondence of Mrs Hannah More, by William Roberts, Esq., were published in four volumes. In these we have a full account by Hannah herself of her London life, and many interesting anecdotes. SAMUEL AND WILLIAM HENRY IRELAND. SAMUEL IRELAND, a dealer in scarce books, prints, &c., was author of several picturesque tours, illustrated by aqua-tinta engravings; but is chiefly remarkable as having been made by his son, a youth of eighteen, the unconscious instrument of giving to the world a variety of Shakspearean forgeries. WILLIAM HENRY IRELAND (1777-1835) was articled to a conveyancer in New Inn, and, like Chatterton, began early to imitate ancient writings. His father was morbidly anxious to discover some scrap of Shakspeare's handwriting, and this set the youth to manufacture a number of documents, which he pretended to have accidentally met with in the house of a gentleman of fortune. Amongst a mass of family papers,' says the elder Ireland, the contracts between Shakspeare, Lowine, and Condelle, and the lease granted by him and Hemynge to Michael Fraser, which was first found, were discovered; and soon afterwards the deed of gift to William Henry Ireland (described as the friend of Shakspeare, in consequence of his having saved his life on the river Thames), and also the deed of trust to John Hemynge, were discovered. In pursuing this search, he (his son) was so fortunate as to meet with some deeds very material to the interests of this gentleman. At this house the principal part of the papers, together with a great variety of books, containing his manuscript notes, and three manuscript plays, with part of another, were discovered.' These forged documents included, besides the deeds, a Protestant Confession of Faith by Shakspeare, letters to Anne Hatha *Quarterly Review, 1844. And when this solemn mockery is o'er, the pit rose and closed the scene with a discordant howl. We give what was considered the 'most sublime passage' in Vortigern: O sovereign Death! That hast for thy domain this world immense; So impudent and silly a fabrication was perhaps never before thrust upon public notice. The young adventurer, foiled in this effort, attempted to earn distinction as a novelist and dramatist, but utterly failed. In 1805, he published a confession of the Shakspearean forgery, An Authentic Account of the Shakspeare Manuscripts, in which he makes this declaration : 'I solemnly declare, first, that my father was perfectly unacquainted with the whole affair, believing the papers most firmly the productions of Shakspeare. Secondly, that I am myself both the author and writer, and had no aid from any soul living, and that I should never have gone so far, but that the world praised the papers so much, and thereby flattered my vanity. Thirdly, that any publication which may appear tending to prove the manuscripts genuine, or to contradict what is here stated, is false; this being the true account.' Several other novels, some poems, and attempts at satire, proceeded from the pen of Ireland; but they are unworthy of notice; and the last thirty years of the life of this industrious but unprincipled littérateur were passed in obscurity and poverty. EDMUND MALONE-RICHARD PORSON. EDMUND MALONE (1741-1812), who was conspicuous in the detection and exposure of Ireland's forgeries, was an indefatigable dramatic critic |