enough, and looks like fatality almost. But the fiercest animals have the fewest numbers in their litters, as lions, tigers, and even elephants, which are mild in comparison."* of Suabia, Wenceslaus, and, at length, Rodolph of Hapa "Italy.-Davila, Guicciardini, the Guelphs and Ghibel lines, the battle of Pavia, Massaniello, the revolutions of Naples, &c. &c. "Hindostan.-Orme and Cambridge. "America.-Robertson, Andrews' American War. "I have a notion (he says) that gamblers are as happy as many people, being always excited. Women, wine, fame, the table,--even ambition, sate now and then; but every turn of the card and cast of the dice keeps the gamester alive; besides, one can game ten times longer than one can do any thing else. I was very fond of it when young, that is to say, of hazard, for I hate all card games, even faro. When macco (or whatever they "Robertson's Charles V.-Cesar, Sallust, (Catiline spell it) was introduced, I gave up the whole thing, for I and Jugurtha,) Lives of Marlborough and Eugene, loved and missed the rattle and dash of the box and dice, Tekeli, Bonnard, Buonaparte, all the British Poets, both and the glorious uncertainty, not only of good luck or bad by Johnson and Anderson, Rousseau's Confessions, Life luck, but of any luck at all, as one had sometimes to throw of Cromwell, British Plutarch, British Nepos, Campbell's often to decide at all. I have thrown as many as fourteen Lives of the Admirals, Charles XII. Czar Peter, Cathe mains running, and carried off all the cash upon the table rine II. Henry Lord Kaimes, Marmontel, Teignmouth's occasionally; but I had no coolness, or judgment, or cal-Sir William Jones, Life of Newton, Belisaire, with thouculation. It was the delight of the thing that pleased me. sands not to be detailed, Upon the whole, I left off in time, without being much a winner or loser. Since one-and-twenty years of age I have played but little, and then never above a hundred, or two, or three " * 'LIST OF HISTORICAL WRITERS WHOSE WORKS I HAVE PERUSED IN DIFFERENT LANGUAGES. "History of England.-Hume, Rapin, Henry, Smollet, Tindal, Belsham, Bisset, Adolphus, Holingshed, Froissart's Chronicles, (belonging properly to France.) "Scotland.-Buchanan, Hector Boethius, both in the Latin. "Ireland.-Gordon. "Rome.-Hooke, Decline and Fall by Gibbon, Ancient History by Rollin, (including an account of the Carthaginians, &c.) besides Livy, Tacitus, Eutropius, Cornelius Nepos, Julius Cæsar, Arrian, Sallust. "Greece.-Mitford's Greece, Leland's Philip, Plutarch, Potter's Antiquities, Xenophon, Thucydides, Herodotus. "France.-Mezeray, Voltaire. "Spain.—I chiefly derived my knowledge of old Spanish History from a book called the Atlas, now obsolete. The modern history, from the intrigues of Alberoni down to the Prince of Peace, I learned from its connexion with European politics. "Portugal.-From Vertot; as also his account of the Siege of Rhodes,-though the last is his own invention, the real facts being totally different.-So much for his Knights of Malta. "LAW. "Blackstone, Montesquieu. "PHILOSOPHY. "Paley, Locke, Bacon, Hume, Berkeley, Drummond, Beattie, and Bolingbroke. Hobbes I detest. "GEOGRAPHY. "Strabo, Cellarius, Adams, Pinkerton, and Guthrie. "POETRY. "All the British Classics, as before detailed, with most of the living poets, Scott, Southey, &c.-Some French, in the original, of which the Cid is my favourite.-Little Italian.-Greek and Latin without number;—these last ] shall give up in future.-I have translated a good dea from both languages, verse as well as prose. " ELOQUENCE. Chironomia, and Parliamentary Debates. from the Re "Demosthenes, Cicero, Quintilian, Sheridan, Austin? volution to the year 1742. " DIVINITY. "Blair, Porteus, Tillotson, Hooker,-all very tiresome. I abhor books of religion, though I reverence and love my God, without the blasphemous notions of sectaries, of belief in their absurd and damnable heresies, inysteries and Thirty-nine Articles. "MISCELLANIES. thousand. “Turkey.-I have read Knolles, Sir Paul Rycaut, and Prince Cantemir, besides a more modern history, anonymous. Of the Ottoman History I know every event, from Tangralopi, and afterward Othman I. to the peace of Passarowitz, in 1718,-the battle of Cutzka, in 1739, and the treaty between Russia and Turkey, in 1790. "All the books here enumerated I have taken down "Russia. Tooke's Life of Catherine II. Voltaire's from memory. I recollect reading them, and can quote Czar Peter. passages from any mentioned. I have, of course, omitted "Sweden.-Voltaire's Charles XII. also Norberg's several in my catalogue; but the greater part of the above Charles XII.-in my opinion the best of the two.-AI perused before the age of fifteen. Since I left Harrow translation of Schiller's Thirty Years' War, which contains the exploits of Gustavus Adolphus, besides Harte's Life of the same Prince. I have somewhere, too, read an account of Gustavus Vasa, the deliverer of Sweden, but do not remember the author's name. "Prussi L.-I have seen, at least, twenty Lives of Frederick II. the only prince worth recording in Prussian annals. Gillies, His own Works, and Thiebault,-none very amusing. The last is paltry, but circumstantial. "Denmark I know little of. Of Norway I understand he natural history, but not the chronological. I have become idle and conceited, from scribbling rhyme and making love to women. "B.-Nov. 30, 1807. "I have also read (to my regret at present) above four thousands novels, including the works of Cervantes, Fielding, Smollet, Richardson, Mackenzie, Sterne, Rabelais and Rousseau, &c. &c. The book, in my opinion, most useful to a man who wishes to acquire the reputation of being well read, with the least trouble, is, 'Burton's Ana tomy of Melancholy,' the most amusing and instructive medley of quotations and classical anecdotes I ever perused. But a superficial reader must take care, or his · Germany I have read long histories of the house intricacies will bewilder him. If, however, he has patience See Letter 536 to go through his volumes, he will be more improved for literary conversation than by the perusal of any twenty DETACHED THOUGHTS. other works with which I am acquainted-at least, in the English language." "When I belonged to the Drury-lane Committee, and was one of the Sub-committee of Management, the num ber of plays upon the shelves were about five hundred. Conceiving that among these there must be some of merit. in person and by proxy I caused an investigation. I dc In the same book that contains the above record of his studies, he has written out, also from memory, a "List of the different poets, dramatic or otherwise, who have distinguished their respective languages by their prove-not think that of those which I saw, there was one which tions." After enumerating the various poets, both ancient and modern, of Europe, he thus proceeds with his caalogue through other quarters of the world: Arabia.-Mahomet, whose Koran contains most sublime poetical passages, far surpassing European poetry. could be conscientiously tolerated. There never were such things as most of them! Maturin was very kindly recommended to me by Walter Scott, to whom I had recourse, firstly, in the hope that he would do something for us himself, and secondly, in my despair, that he would point out to us any young (or old) writer of promise. When "Persia. Ferdousi, author of the Shah Nameh, the Maturin sent his Bertram and a letter without his adPersian Iliad, Sadi, and Hafiz, the immortal Hafiz, the dress, so that at first I could give him no answer. oriental Anacreon. The last is reverenced beyond any I at last hit upon his residence, I sent him a favourable bard of ancient or modern times by the Persians, who answer and something more substantial. His play sucresort to his tomb near Shiraz, to celebrate his memory.ceeded; but I was at that time absent from England. A splendid copy of his works is chained to his monument. "America.-An epic poet has already appeared in that hemisphere, Barlow, author of the Columbiad.-not to be compared with the works of more polished nations. "I tried Coleridge too; but he had nothing feasible in hand at the time. Mr. Sotheby obligingly offered all his tragedies, and I pledged myself, and notwithstanding many squabbles with my Committed Brethren, did get Ivan' accepted, read, and the parts distributed. But, lo' in the very heart of the matter, upon some tepidness on *Iceland, Denmark, Norway, were famous for their Skalds. Among these Lodburg was one of the most distinguished. His Death-Song breathes ferocious senti-the part of Kean, or warmth on that of the author, ments, but a glorious and impassioned strain of poetry. "Hindostan is undistinguished by any great bard,-at least, the Sanscrit is so imperfectly known to Europeans, we know not what poetical relics may exist. *The Birman Empire.-Here the natives are passionately fond of poetry, but their bards are unknown. "China.-I never heard of any Chinese poet but the Emperor Kien Long, and his ode to Tea. What a their philosopher Confucius did not write poetry, with his precepts of morality! "Africa.-In Africa some of the native melodies are plaintive, and the words simple and affecting; but whether their rude strains of nature can be classed with poetry, as the songs of the bards, the Skalds of Europe, &c. &c. I know not. Sotheby withdrew his play. Sir J. B. Burgess did also present four tragedies and a farce, and I moved greenroom and Sub-committee, but they would not. "Then the scenes I had to go through!-the authors, and the authoresses, and the milliners, and the wild Irishmen,-the people from Brighton, from Blackwall, from Chatham, from Cheltenham, from Dublin, from Dundee, pity-who came in upon me! to all of whom it was proper to give a civil answer, and a hearing, and a reading. Mrs. Glover's father, an Irish dancing-master of sixty years, called upon me to request to play Archer, dressed in silk stockings, on a frosty morning, to show his legs (which were certainly good and Irish for his age, and had been still better,)-Miss Emma Somebody with a play entitled 'The Bandit of Bohemia,' or some such title or "This brief list of poets I have written down from production,-Mr. O'Higgins, then resident at Richmond, memory, without any book of reference; consequently with an Irish tragedy, in which the unities could not fail some errors may occur, but I think, if any, very trivial. to be observed, for the protagonist was chained by the The works of the European, and some of the Asiatic, I leg to a pillar during the chief part of the performance. have perused, either in the original or translations. In my He was a wild man of a salvage appearance, and the list of Enghsh, I have merely mentioned the greatest;-difficulty of not laughing at him was only to be got over to enumerate the minor poets would be useless, as well as by reflecting upon the probable consequences of such tedious. Perhaps Gray, Goldsmith, and Collins, might have cachinnation. "As I am really a civil and polite person, and do hate have added, as worthy of mention, in a cosmopolite account. But as for the others, from Chaucer down to Churchill, giving pain when it can be avoided, I sent them up to they are 'voces et præterea nihil;'-sometimes spoken of, Douglas Kinnaird,-who is a man of business, and suffirarely read, and never with advantage. Chaucer, not-ciently ready with a negative, and left them to settle withstanding the praises bestowed on him, I think obscene with him; and as the beginning of next year I went and contemptible:-he owes his celebrity merely to his abroad, I have since been little aware of the progress of antiquity, which he does not deserve so well as Pierce, the theatres. Plowman, or Thomas of Ercildoune, English living poets I have avoided mentioning-we have none who will not survive their productions. Taste is over with us; and another century will sweep our empire, our iterature, and our name, from all but a place in the "BYRON." annals of mankind. * * * * "Players are said to be an impracticable people. They are so: but I managed to steer clear of any disputes with them, and excepting one debate with the elder Byrne about Miss Smith's pas de-(something-I forget the technicals,)-I do not remember any litigation of my own. I used to protect Miss Smith, because she was like Lady Jane Harley in the face, and likenesses go a to my more bustling colleagues, who used to reprove me great way with me. Indeed, in general, I left such things seriously for not being able to take such things in hand without buffooing with the histrions, or throwing things into confusion by treating light matters with levity. "Knolles, Cantemir, De Tott, Lady M. W. Montague, Hawkins's Translation from Mignot's History of the Turks, the Arabian Nights, all travels, or histories, or books upon the East I could meet with, I had read, as well as Rycaut, before I was ten years old. I think the Arabian Nights first. After these, I preferred the history "Then the Committee!-then the Sub-committee !of naval actions, Don Quixote, and Smollet's novels, particularly Roderick Random, and I was passionate for the we were but few, but never agreed. There was Peter Roman History. When a boy, I could never bear to Moore who contradicted Kinnaird, and Kinnaird who read any poetry whatever without disgust and reluct-contradicted every body: then our two managers, Rae ance * * and Dibdin; and our Secretary, Ward! and yet we were Tall very zealous and in earnest to do good and so forth. furnished us with prologues to our revived old English plays; but was not pleased with me for complimenting him as 'the Upton' of our theatre, (Mr. Upton is or was the poet who writes the songs for Astley's,) and almost gave up prologuing in consequence. * * * but stood just behind the woolsack. * * in "In the pantomime of 1815-16, there was a representation of the masquerade of 1814 given by us youth' "When I came of age, some delays, on account of of Watier's Club to Wellington and Co. Douglas Kin- some birth and marriage certificates from Cornwal naird and one or two others, with myself, put on masques, occasioned me not to take my seat for several weeks. and went on the stage with the & modo, to see the When these were over and I had taken the oaths, the effect of a theatre from the stage:-it is very grand.that these forms were a part of his duty.' I begged Chancellor apologized to me for the delay, observing, Douglas danced among the figuranti too, and they were puzzled to find out who we were, as being more than him to make no apology, and added, (as he certainly had their number. It was odd enough that Douglas Kinnaird shown no violent hurry,) 'Your Lordship was exactly and I should have been both at the real masquerade, and like Tom Thumb' (which was then being acted) — You afterward in the mimic one of the same, on the stage of did your duty, and you did no more.' the Drury-lane theatre." * "In 1812," he says, "at Middleton, (Lord Jersey's,) among a goodly company of lords, ladies, and wits, &c. there was * * * * * "I have never heard any one who fulfilled my ideal of harlequin delivery. Pitt I never heard. Fox but once, an orator. Grattan would have been near it, but for his and then he struck me as a debater, which to me seems Erskine, too! Erskine was there; good, but intoler-sifier from a poet. Grey is great, but it is not oratory. as different from an orator as an improvisatore, or a ver able. He josted, he talked, he did every thing admirably, Canning is sometimes very like one. but then he would be applauded for the same thing twice not admire, though all the world did; it seemed sad Windham I did over. He would read his own verses, his own paragraph, sophistry. Whitbread was the Demosthenes of bad and tell his own story, again and again; and then the taste and vulgar vehemence, but strong, and English. Trial by jury!!! I almost wished it abolished, for I sat next him at dinner. As I had read his published speeches, there was no occasion to repeat them to me. "C**(the fox-hunter,) nicknamed 'Cheek C**,' and I, sweated the claret, being the only two who did so. C**, who loves his bottle, and had no notion of meeting with a ‘bon-vivant' in a scribbler, in making my eulogy to somebody one evening, summed it up in- By G-d, he drinks like a man! "Nobody drank, however, but C✶✶ and I. To be sure, there was little occasion, for we swept off what was on the table (a most splendid board, as may be supposed at Jersey's) very sufficiently. However, we carried our Liquor discreetly, like the Baron of Bradwardine." Holland is impressive from sense and sincerity. Lord Lansdowne good, but still a debater only. Grenville I like vastly, if he would prune his speeches down to an himself, and I think the greatest favourite in Pandemo hour's delivery. Burdett is sweet and silvery as Behal niumi, at least I always heard the country gentlenen and the ministerial devilry praise his speeches up stairs, and run down from Bellamy's when he was upon his legs. I impression. I like Ward-studied, but keen, and someheard Bob Milnes make his second speech; it made no times eloquent. Peel, my school and form-fellow, (we sate within two of each other,) strange to say, I have never heard, though I often wished to do so; but from what I remember of him at Harrow, he is, or should be, among the best of them. Now, I do not admire Mr. Wilberforce's speaking; it is nothing but a flow of words words, words alone.' "At the opposition meeting of the Peers, in 1812, at Lord Grenville's, when Lord Grey and he read to us the correspondence upon Moira's negotiation, I sat next to "I doubt greatly if the English have any eloquence the present Duke of Grafton, and said, 'What is to be properly so called; and am inclined to think that the Irish done next?''Wake the Duke of Norfolk,' (who was had a great deal, and that the French will have, and have snoring away near us,) replied he: 'I don't think the had in Mirabeau. Lord Chatham and Burke are the negotiators have left any thing else for us to do this turn.' nearest approaches to orators in England. I don't know "In the debate, or rather discussion, afterward in the what Erskine may have been at the bar; but in the House of Lords upon that very question, I sat immedi-House, I wish him at the bar once more. Lauderdale is ately behind Lord Moira, who was extremely annoyed at shrill, and Scotch, and acute. Grey's speech upon the subject; and, while Grey was to me, * * speaking, turned round to me repeatedly, and asked me "But among all these, good, bad, and indifferent, I whether I agreed with him. It was an awkward question never heard the speech which was not too long for the who had not heard both sides. Moira kept repeat-auditors, and not very intelligible, except here and there ing to me, 'It was not so, it was so and so,' &c. I did The whole thing is a grand deception, and as tedious and not know very well what to think, but I sympathized with tiresome as may be to those who must be often present. the acuteness of his feelings upon the subject." I heard Sheridan only once, and that briefly, but I liked "The subject of the Catholic claims was, it is well his voice, his manner, and his wit; and he is the only one known, brought forward a second time thus session by of them I ever wished to hear at greater length. Lord Wellesley, whose motion for a future consideration "The impression of Parliament upon me was, that its of the question was carried by a majority of one. In members are not formidable as speakers, but reference to this division, another rather amusing anec-so as an audience; because in so numerous a body there very much dote is thus related. may be little eloquence, (after all, there were but twe thorough orators in all antiquity, and I suspect still fewer in modern times,) but there must be a leaven of though' and good sense sufficient to make them know what is right, though they can't express it nobly. "Lord✶✶ affects an imitation of two very different Chancellors, Thurlow and Loughborough, and can indulge in an oath now and then. On one of the debates on the Catholic question, when we were either equal or within one, (I forget which,) I had been sent for in great haste to a ball, which I quitted, I confess, somewhat reluctantly, to emancipate five millions of people. I came in late, and did not go immediately into the body of the House, "Horne Tooke and Roscoe both aro said to have declared that they left Parliament with a higher opinion of its aggregate integrity and abilities than that with which they entered it. The general amount of both in most Parliaments is probably about the same, as also the number of speakers and their talent. I except orators of course, because they are things of ages, and not of septennial or triennial reunions. Neither House ever struck me with more awe or respect than the same number of Turks in a divan, or of Methodists in a barn, would have done. Whatever diffidence or nervousness I felt (and I felt both in a great degree) arose from the number rather than the quality of the assemblage, and the thought rather of the public without than the persons within,-knowing (as all know) that Cicero himself, and probably the Messiah, could never have altered the vote of a single lord of the bedchamber or bishop. I thought our House dull, but the other animating enough upon great days. * "In society I have met Sheridan frequently: he was superb! He had a sort of liking for me, and never attacked me, at least to my face, and he did every body else-high names, and wits, and orators, some of them poets also. I have seen him cut up Whitbread, quiz Madame de Staël, annihilate Colman, and do little less by some others (whose names, as friends, I set not down) of good fame and ability. "Such was Sheridan! he could soften an attorney! There has been nothing like it since the days of Orpheus. "One day I saw him take up his own 'Monody on Garrick.' He lighted upon the Dedication to the Dowager Lady * *. On seeing it, he flew into a rage, and exclaimed, 'that it must be a forgery, that he had never dedicated any thing of his to such a d-d canting,' &c. &c. &c.—and so went on for half an hour abusing his own dedication, or at least the object of it. If all writers were equally sincere, it would be ludicrous. "He told me that, on the night of the grand success of his School for Scandal, he was knocked down and put into the watchhouse for making a row in the street, and being found intoxicated by the watchmen. "When dying, he was requested to undergo an opera. tion.' He replied, that he had already submitted to two, which were enough for one man's lifetime. Being asked what they were, he answered, 'having his hair cut, and sitting for his picture.' him extremely pleasant and convivial. Sheridan's hu mour, or rather wit, was always saturnine, and sometiines savage; he never laughed, (at least that I saw, and I watched him,) but Colman did. If I had to choose, and could not have both at a time, I should say, 'Let me begin the evening with Sheridan, and finish it with Colman' "I have met George Colman occasionally, and thought "The last time I met him was, I think, at Sir Gilbert Elliot's, where he was as quick as ever-no, it was not the last time; the last time was at Douglas Kinnaird's. *I have met him in all places and parties-at White-Sheridan for dinner, Colman for supper; Sheridan fo hall with the Melbourne's, at the Marquis of Tavistock's, claret or port, but Colman for every thing, from the at Robins's the auctioneer's, at Sir Humphrey Davy's, at madeira and champaigne at dinner, the claret with a Sam Rogers's,-in short, in most kinds of company, and always found him very convivial and delightful. "I have seen Sheridan weep two or three times. may be that he was maudlin; but this only renders more impressive, for who would see • From Marlborough's eyes the tears of dotage flow, It it Once I saw him cry at Robins's the auctioneer's, after a layer of port between the glasses, up to the punch of the night, and down to the grog, or gin and water, of daybreak-all these I have threaded with both the same. Sheridan was a grenadier company of life-guards, but Colman a whole regiment-of light infantry, to be sure, but still a regiment." "Sheridan's liking for me (whether he was not mystifying me, I do not know, but Lady Caroline Lamb and others told me that he said the same both before and after he knew me) was founded upon 'English Bards and Scotch Reviewers.' He told me that he did not care about poetry, (or about mine-at least, any but that poem of mine,) but he was sure from that and other symptoms, I should make an orator, if I would but take to speaking and grow a parliament man. He never ceased harping upon this to me to the last; and I remember my old tutor, Dr. Drury, had the same notion when I was a boy; but it never was my turn of inclination to try. I spoke once or twice, as all young peers do, as a kind of introduction into public life; but dissipation, shyness, haughty and reserved opinions, together with the short time I lived in England after my majority, (only about five years in "I have more than once heard him say, 'that he never all,) prevented me from resuming the experiment. As had a shilling of his own.' To be sure, he contrived to far as it went, it was not discouraging, particularly my extract a good many of other people's. first speech, (I spoke three or four times in all,) but just "In 1815, I had occasion to visit my lawyer in Chan-after it, my poem of Childe Harold was published, and cery-lane: he was with Sheridan. After mutual greet-nobody ever thought about my prose afterward, nor indeed ings, &c. Sheridan retired first. Before recurring to my did I; it became to me a secondary and neglected object, own business, I could not help inquiring that of Sheridan. though I sometimes wonder to myself if I should have Oh,' replied the attorney, 'the usual thing! to stave off succeeded." an action from his wine-merchant, my client.'-Well,' said I, and what do you mean to do?-Nothing at all for the present,' said he: 'would you have us proceed against old Sherry? what would be the use of it?' and here he began laughing, and going over Sheridan's good gifts of conversation. "Now, from personal experience, I can vouch that my attorney is by no means the tenderest of men, or particularly accessible to any kind of impression out of the tatute or record; and yet Sheridan, in half an hour, had found the way to soften and seduce him in such a manner, that I almost think he would have thrown his client (an honest man, with all the laws, and some justice, on his side, out of the window, had he come in at the moment. "When the bailiff (for I have seen most kinds of life) came upon me in 1815 to seize my chattels, (being a peer of parliament, my person was beyond him,) being curious, (as is my habit,) I first asked him,' What extents elsewhere he had for government? upon which he showed me one upon one house only for seventy thousand pounds! Next I asked him, if he had nothing for Sheridan? 'Oh-Sheridan!' said he ; 'ay, I have this,' (pulling out a pocket-book, &c.;) but, my lord, I have been in Sheridan's house a twelvemonth at a time—a civil gentleman-knows how to deal with us,' &c. &c. &c. Our own business was then discussed, which was none of the easiest for me at that ume. But the man was civil, and (what I valued more) ommunicative. I had met many of his brethren, years before, in affairs of my friends, (commoners, that is,) but this was the first (or second) on my own account. A civil man; feed accordingly: probably he anticipated as much." tion, was Scrope Berdmore Davies. Hobhouse is also very good in that line, though it is of less consequence to a man who has other ways of showing his talents than in company. Scrope was always ready and often wittyHobhouse as witty, but not always so ready, being more diffident." "I have heard that when Grattan made his first speech in the English Commons, it was for some minutes doubt"Lewis is a good man, rhymes well, (if not wisely,) ful whether to laugh at or cheer him. The début of his but is a bore. He seizes you by the button. One night predecessor Flood had been a complete failure under of a rout, at Mrs. Hope's, he had fastened upon me, notnearly similar circumstances. But when the ministerial withstanding my symptoms of manifest distress (for I part of our senators had watched Pitt (their thermome-was in love, and had just nicked a minute when neither ter) for the cue, and saw him nod repeatedly his stately mothers, nor husbands, nor rivals, nor gossips, were near nod of approbation, they took the hint from their hunts- my then idol, who was beautiful as the statues of the man, and broke out into the most rapturous cheers. gallery where we stood at the time)-Lewis, I say, had Grattan's speech, indeed, deserved them; it was a chef-seized upon me by the button and the heart-strings, and d'œuvre. I did not hear that speech of his, (being then spared neither. W. Spencer, who likes fun, and do n't at Harrow,) but heard most of his others on the same dislike mischief, saw my case, and coming up to us both, question-also that on the war of 1815. I differed from took me by the hand, and pathetically bade me farewell his opinions on the latter question, but coincided in the for,' said he, 'I see it is all over with you.' Lewis then general admiration of his eloquence. went away. Sic me servavit Apollo. "I remember seeing Blucher in the London assemblies, and never saw any thing of his age less venerable. With the voice and manners of a recruiting sergeant, he pre tended to the honours of a hero,-just as if a stone could be worshipped because a man had stumbled over it." "When I met old Courtenay, the orator, at Rogers the poet's, in 1811-12, I was much taken with the portly reinains of his fine figure, and the still acute quickness of his conversation. It was he who silenced Flood in the English House by a crushing reply to a hasty début of the rival of Grattan in Ireland. I asked Courtenay (for I like to trace motives) if he had not some personal pro"When I met Hudson Lowe, the jailer, at Lord Holvocation; for the acrimony of his answer seemed to me, land's before he sailed for St. Helena, the discourse as I had read it, to involve it. Courtenay said he had; turned on the battle of Waterloo. I asked him whether that, when in Ireland, (being an Irishman,) at the bar of the dispositions of Napoleon were those of a great genethe Irish House of Commons, Flood had made a personal ral? He answered, disparagingly, 'that they were very and unfair attack upon himself, who, not being a member simple.' I had always thought that a degree of simplicity of that House, could not defend himself, and that some was an ingredient of greatness. years afterward, the opportunity of retort offering in the English Parliament, he could not resist it. He certainly repaid Flood with interest, for Flood never made any figure, and only a speech or two afterward, in the English House of Commons. I must except, however, his speech on Reform in 1790, which Fox called 'the best he ever that subject.' upon heard * " * * * * *L** was a good man, a clever man, but a bore. My only revenge or consolation used to be, setting him especially,-Madame de S— or H-, for example. But by the ears with some vivacious person who hated bores liked L**; he was a jewel of a man, had he been better set;-I don't mean personally, but, less tiresome, for he was tedious, as well as contradictory to every thing and every body. Being shortsighted, when we used to ride out together near the Brenta in the twilight in surn. mer, he made me go before, to pilot him I am absent at times, especially towards evening; and the consequence of this pilotage was some narrow escapes to the M** "I was much struck with the simplicity of Grattan's manners in private life: they were odd, but they were natural. Curran used to take him off, bowing to the very ground, and 'thanking God that he had no peculiarities of gesture or appearance,' in a way irresistibly ludicrous and ✶✶ used to call him a 'sentimental harle-on horseback. Once I led him into a ditch over which I quin. "Curran! Curran's the man who struck me most. Such imagination! there never was any thing like it that ever I saw or heard of. His published life-his published speeches, give you no idea of the man-none at all. He was a machine of imagination, as some one said that Piron was an epigrammatic machine. "I did not see a great deal of Curran-only in 1813; but I met him at home, (for he used to call on me,) and in society, at Mackintosh's, Holland House, &c. &c. and he was wonderful even to me, who had seen many remarkable men of the time. had passed as usual, forgetting to warn my convoy; once that is "I would give many a sugar cane * * "Madame de Staël was a good woman at heart and "The powers of Curran's Irish imagination were exhaustless. I have heard that man speak more poetry than I have ever seen written,-though I met him seldom and but occasionally. I saw him presented to Madame de Stacl at Mackintosh's-it was the grand confluence between the Rhone and the Saone, and they were both so the cleverest at bottom, but spoiled by a wish to be-she d-d ugly, that I could not help wondering how the best knew not what. In her own house she was amiable; in intellects of France and Ireland could have taken up any other person's, you wished her gone, and in her own respectively such residences." * * again." * One of the cleverest men I ever knew, in conversa- "I liked the Dandies; they were always very civil to |