It is seldom the task of the biographer, in the lives of literary men, to record such vicissitudes as marked the career of Charles Leslie. The pleasing duty, unfortunately, is still more rarely to be exercised of describing, as in his case, unshaken adherence to principle amid the reverses of fortune, and the most perfect mildness in an age of peculiar bitterness. Though born in Ireland, Leslie was of Scottish parentage, he being the second son of Dr John Leslie, first bishop of Orkney, next of Raphoe, and finally of Clogher. In the place of his birth, the North of Scotland, there are still several ancient families of the same name, who claim kindred with the bishop of Orkney. This prelate was eminently remarked for scholarship, to which, indeed, he owed his promotion to the Episcopal dignity at an unusually early age. His first Irish translation took place in 1633, the second in 1661, and he died in 1671, having occupied the see of Clogher during ten of the most eventful years in the history of his country.

Of the early life of his still more distinguished son, the author of the three masterly treatises included in the present volume, little is known with certainty. Even the date of his birth is undetermined. From the epithet jail-bird, however, which some unfeeling controversialist has attempted to fix upon him, taken in connection with a tradition in his family that he was born while his father's episcopal castle at Raphoe sustained a siege by the parliamentary troops, it is probable his birth took place soon after Cromwell's expedition into Ireland, in 1649. Or if the circumstance refer to the subsequent imprisonment of his father and family, for defending the house which he had built and fortified at his own expense, it would fix our author's birth so late as 1656.

In what manner Leslie received his elementary education is also unknown, but it is certain he studied at Trinity College, Dublin, where he took the degree of M.A. If originally destined for the Church, he appears for a time to have renounced this intention, for on the death of his father he went to London, and entering the Middle Temple, studied English Law for several years. This profession he finally relinquished for the study of Divinity, took orders in 1680, and after holding some minor appointments, was made Chancellor of the See of Connor in 1687. His talents, learning, and firmness, now began to be publicly appreciated by the protestant party in Ireland. The same year in which he was made Chancellor, the protestant Bishop of Clogher died, and James II. invested the Catholic bishops with the temporalities of the See. Thus encouraged, the Catholics shewed themselves-what with power they ever have been, and always will be,-insolent and intolerant. The new bishop set about establishing a drone-hive of monks, celebrated pompous visitations of his clergy, and challenged the protestants to public disputations. Two of these were held, and Mr Leslie was on both occasions unanimously put forward as the protestant champion. We are not inclined to attach much importance to exhibitions of this sort, fashionable though they be in our days. Of either party it is, in all cases, true,

That even though vanquish 'd, they can argue still. Seldom, indeed, are such fruits obtained as resulted from Mr Leslie's management of the controversy; for at the close of the second meeting a Catholic gentleman of property and influence, named Stewart, declared the force of argument and truth to be so decidedly in favour of the Protestant advocate, that as an honest man, he must renounce his former erroneous faith; nor was the example a solitary instance of the triumph of truth.

"Take the nineteen shillings now, we shall have the pound afterwards," is the avowed principle of Papists in our days. The same seems to have been the case in Leslie's time. Having got possession of the ecclesiastical revenues of the country, the Catholics resolved to grasp at all other dignities, and even elected

a High Sheriff of their own persuasion in the county of Monaghan. In this exigency, the Protestants had again recourse to our author, of whose legal knowledge and firmness of character they entertained deservedly the highest respect. "It will be," was his reply to these inquiries, "equally illegal in you to permit the High Sheriff to act, as for him to attempt it." At this conjuncture Mr Leslie was incapable of walking, from an attack of hereditary gout, but having been entreated to allow himself to be carried to the meeting of the quarter sessions, he was conveyed thither in much suffering, and as a justice of the peace, took a place on the bench. When the Sheriff in nomination appeared, and was proceeding to assume his seat, the question, "are you legally qualified?" was put to him: to this he answered smartly," "I am of the King's own religion, and it is his majesty's will that I should be Sheriff." Than Leslie's reply to this arrogant petulance, nothing could be more dignified or more acute. "Sir, we are not here inquiring into his majesty's religion, but whether you have qualified yourself according to law for acting as a proper officer of that law: the law is the King's will, and nothing else can be deemed such we his majesty's subjects generally, have no other way of knowing his will, but as it is revealed to us and them in his laws; and it must always be thought to continue as expressed in the laws, till the contrary is notified in the same authentic manner." Upon this, which placed their proceedings at once under legal sanction, the bench unanimously committed the pretended High Sheriff for contempt of Court. Whither has the spirit of ancient Protestantism fled,-the sacred spirit of calm, dignified, indomitable resolution, which animated our Protestant forefathers? In other contingencies of a similar nature, in this transition period of politics and religion, Leslie acted with equal propriety and firmness. With these qualities, with the learning and the influence which he possessed, there was hardly any promotion to which he might not have looked forward on the Protestant accession. Unfortunately, however, for his temporal interests, but most honourable as regards principle, he held himself bound by the distinction which conscience forced upon him between active obedience to a sovereign, whose acts are in opposition to religion and the constitution, and passive obedience to the same sovereign as the legal and anointed representative of an hereditary monarchy. He took the side, therefore, of those pious men and many of them were fully as wise, and learned, and patriotic as their more temporizing opponents-who, while they were ready to resist unto death the tyranny and bigotry of Jaines, could not be persuaded that the moral sanctities of the oath of fealty, taken or implied, could be a bargain of transference, a purchase, to be handed over, according to the shiftings of so unstable a thing as political power, whether obtained by popular favour, or seized by open force. Conscientiously deeming it impossible that the allegiance of a subject can be transferred, even from a monarch whose acts he may detest, this excellent man refusing consequently to take the oaths to William and Mary, was deprived of all his preferments, and like many others cast forth upon the world. What was worse, they were cast forth with a stigma attaching to some of the most blameless lives, to some of the acutest minds, that adorn the religion or the literature of England. It is time that this should be wiped away. We read for instance, in a biography, the following flippancy: "He got preferment in Ireland, which however he lost by refusing to take the oaths to King William; and spent several years in writing and conspiring for the exiled family," as if there were a necessary connection between conspiring against a recognized authority, and a conscientious but silent adherence to the solemn personal obligation of an oath. This, too, is said of the man of whom it is written in proof, "Consummate learning, attended by the deepest humility-the strictest piety, without the least tincture of moroseness-a conversation in the highest

degree lively and spirited, yet to the last degree innocent-made him the delight of all who approached him;" and of whom it is asserted by Dr Hickes, “he made more converts to sound faith, and a holy life, than any other man of his time."

With his relegation from the Church commences the literary history of Leslie. In 1689 he left Ireland, and, with his family, sought refuge in England. Here, in the course of twenty years, he took an active part with his pen in all the controversies in which the period of the Revolution was so fruitful. In the lapse of this time, he published twenty-eight acknowledged treatises, of which one was the Rehearsal, a periodical quarto paper, continued weekly for nearly seven years, and which is now collected in six volumes. Many of these compositions are doubtless upon controversies of merely temporary interest, but others, such as the "Principles of Dissenters, touching toleration and occasional conformity,"-" A Warning to the Church of England,"-" On Ireland being bound by English acts of Parliament,"-"The History of Sin and Heresy," -"The Church of Rome, and the Church of England," &c. are of permanent importance. The works, however, upon which his fame with posterity must rest, are those now presented to the reader, the first of which was published in 1697, the others in succession.

In 1709, Mr Leslie was pitched upon by the English party, who, from conscientious motives of royalty, though not of religion, adhered to the exiled family, to visit the son of James, then residing at Bas le Duc in France. That this mission was not of a political nature, there is evidence to prove. The English adherents of the house of Stuart were chiefly Protestants: they selected Mr Leslie, as the most accomplished polemic of the time, to visit him whom they and he regarded as their lawful sovereign, to endeavour, if possible, to bring the Pretender over to the Protestant faith. Letters written by Leslie to one of these gentlemen, who were his constituents, are stated by one of his biographers to have been recently in existence. In these, it is said he described the Prince as a most amiable and accomplished man in every other respect, but in religion pronounced him to be "a weak and incorrigible bigot." This character — whether coming from Leslie or not, and whether or not true of the son, was certainly true of the father-sealed, as is well known, the fate of both the Stuarts with the gentlemen of England.

Assiduously engaged in literary pursuits connected with his party, or in attempting to forward the hopeless religious mission which he had been induced to undertake, Mr Leslie remained nearly twelve years abroad, in France and Italy, from 1709 to 1722. Feeling that his days were numbered, his heart yearned towards his native land; and he resolved at all hazards to die there. Some powerful friends interposed in his behalf, and through Lord Sunderland's kindness, the good old man was permitted to land at London. It is said that a member of the House of Commons, thinking to do the state some service. waited upon his lordship with the important information that a poor, feeble, virtuous nonjuring clergyman had landed from France, and ought to be committed as a traitor. His officiousness obtained the reward it merited, in a very significant hint for the informant to withdraw. This pious and able divine had thus the consolation, after all the storms of life, to die in peace in his own home at Glaslough. in the county of Monaghan, on the 13th April, 1722.

The three treatises from the pen of Leslie contained in the present volume, embrace the ablest and most comprehensive defences of the Christian religion which have yet been given to the world. In the first tract, "The Truth of Christianity Demonstrated," we have an epitome of the general objectionof infidelity, with replies most acutely prepared or skilfully condensed. The second piece, "The Method with the Deists,' exhibits not only a most masterly view of the state of the argument with those special objectors, who would take from Christianity its vital character of a vicarious dispensation, but presents a new and most refined reasoning on a subject which seemed previously exhausted of novelty. Were it possible that any of the changing phases of human affairs could lend to topics of everlasting interest a more urgent claim to attention, existing circumstances would give an increase of value to the third of Leslie's treatises, which considers the case of the Jews. It is the best exposition ever written of the peculiar errors and their refutation, of that infatuated but most interesting people. It is altogether unnecessary, however, to enter upon a detailed examination of these tracts. The author styles them "Short and Easy Methods," and they are emphatically so, in the best acceptation of the words.

ANY appearance of exclusive Christianity has been most carefully avoided in the present volume. This recommendation, however, results more from the nature of the design than from premeditated plans of mere liberality. The original intention was to include whatever works have been proved, by their effects, to be most useful in the particular line of argument to be illustrated. Hence, the reader possesses some of the masterpieces of both Establishments, the dissertations of pious and learned laymen, with the acute and learned treatises of Leslie and Chandler, as representatives of those evangelical and conscientious separatists and dissenters, to whose labours the common Protestantism of both churches is deeply indebted.

The following tract, indeed, is not included among Dr Chandler's numerous writings in the lists published in the ordinary biographies; and singularly enough, is all but omitted in Watt's elaborate Bibliotheca. The "Plain Reasons" are here assigned to their author, upon the authority of Bishop Watson, who included them in his Theological Tracts, after careful inquiry into the question. That his lordship's investigations conducted to the correct result, abundantly appears from the evidence of Dr Harwood, in a letter to the Bishop, as follows:BLOOMSBURY, March 27, 1785. MY LORD, Yesterday I happened to take up, in a gentleman's house, your Lordship's Collection of Theological Tracts.

The selection does your Lordship's candour and judgment great honour. I, who am an old man, trembling on the brink of the grave with palsy, could not but rejoice in my melancholy condition in your Lordship's recommendation of my Introduction to the Study and Knowledge of the New Testament, which I hope will be useful to young students in Sacred Literature, when I am no more.

Your Lordship is correct in attributing "Plain Reasons for being a Christian," originally to my late father-in-law, Dr Chandler. It was written in conjunction with Dr Hunt, who, among the Dissenters, on account of his skill in Hebrew, went by the name of Rabbi Hunt. I am, &c.

EDWARD HARWOOD.

How to distribute the rights of authorship in this joint produetion, there now exist no records. But from Dr Hunt's name being only incidentally connected therewith, the presumption is, that Dr Chandler claims the almost undivided praise of having produced this plain, brief, and most efficient defence of Christianity.

This excellent person, and learned divine, was born in 1692, at Hungerford, in Berkshire, where his father, the Rev. Mr Samuel Chandler, had the pastoral charge of a very respectable and numerous congregation. To this church Mr Chandler had been removed from Malmesbury. Descended from ancestors

who had given former ornaments to the dissenting pulpits, and bad suffered long for conscience' sake and non-conformity, he possessed much consideration with his brethren. Both the situations in which he officiated in the ministry had witnessed his domestic happiness. At Malmesbury, in 1687, his daughter Mary was born, whose poems were much esteemed by Pope and Rowe, and whose private virtues procured for her the friendship of the amiable and accomplished Countess of Hereford, afterwards Duchess of Somerset. She died in 1745, and ber productions are included in Cibber's edition of the British Poets; they are distinguished for elegance and piety, and no inconsiderable share of learning and vigour, for example, the two, Solitude" and "Bath."

Young

Intended by his parents for the ministry, and from his connections destined to hold an influential place among his own body, our author received an education on which great pains, and, considering the resources of his family, great expense must have been bestowed. To these facts he feelingly alludes in the introduction to the treatise before us, as a primary case in favour of Christianity, applicable to every individual who, from parental kindness, has received a virtuous education. From his earliest years, he evinced the greatest love of study, and before quitting the paternal care, had made, for his years, unusual progress, particularly in Greek-a language for which he retained a preference through life, and in which he was eminently skilled. His father, indeed, was well qualified, by literary as well as moral attainments, to have been his only instructor. But domestic tuition alone is but incomplete preparation, at best, for the business of a world which, under its happiest contingencies, demands wisdom as well as innocence. Chandler was, therefore, in due time sent to an academy at Bridgewater, but whether a dissenting establishment does not appear. His next seminary certainly was not exclusive in this respect, though superintended by Mr Jones, a Presbyterian clergyman of deserved reputation, who, first in Gloucester, and afterwards in Tewkesbury, drew to his instruction youth of all denominations. There Chandler had, as fellow-students, Joseph Butler, afterwards bishop of Durham, and Thomas Secker, subsequently archbishop of Canterbury. It is honourable to these distinguished individuals, that no change in their future lot wrought any alteration in the friendship of their youth. They continued through life to correspond; and when the two latter became dignitaries in the Establishment, they warmly pressed the former associate of their studies to accept their patronage. We have a right to infer, that nothing but conscientious, consequently, whether right or wrong in principle, rational and sacred objections could have induced Dr Chandler to refuse offers which only the most amiable and respectful considerations could have dictated.

Our author now removed to Leyden, and in this university, long the favourite seminary of the English Dissenters, when these were more profoundly educated than they have since been, he completed his studies in literature and theology. In the summer of 1714, he was ordained to the ministry, and being from the first distinguished as a preacher, received, little more than a year afterwards, from the Presbyterian congregation of Peckham, in Surrey, a call to be their pastor. In this situation he lived for some years very happily, having married a lady, who was a member of his church, and possessed of some fortune. Seeing, however, his family increasing, and naturally anxious to embrace what seemed an opportunity of securing a more ample provision for them, he unfortunately engaged in the South Sea scheme of 1720, and, with thousands equally misled, lost his all. Under these circumstances, his income as a clergyman being inadequate to the immediate wants of those depending upon his exertions, he opened a bookseller's shop in the Poultry, as among the few secular employments not altogether inconsistent with the discharge of his professional duties.

His partner's name was Gray, who afterwards relinquished business, and took orders in the Church of England. In this concern Dr Chandler continued for two or three years, during which period, in addition to his stated ministrations at Peckham, where his family continued to reside, he also officiated in turn as weekly evening lecturer to the Presbyterian meeting in Old Jewry, along with the learned and pious Lardner. This was his first introduction to a congregation, the most respectable in London, to whose spiritual edificatior and growth in grace he

ministered with singular acceptation during forty years, first in the assistantship, to which he was appointed in 1725-26, and afterwards as pastor.

Henceforth the life of Dr Chandler is marked by hardly any events beyond the publication of his numerous writings, and the increasing honours and respect which these procured for their author. In the year 1748, while on a visit to Scotland with his friend the Earl of Findlater, the Universities of Edinburgh and Glasgow, and, according to other authorities, Aberdeen also, transmitted to him unsolicited diplomas of D.D. Soon after his return to London, the Royal Society, and the Society of Antiquaries, elected him a fellow of their distinguished bodies.

The history of Dr Chandler's literary labours is too extensive, and the number of his publications much too great for even a brief analysis here. The first in order of time of Dr Chandler's works, is a small treatise in 8vo. "Reflections on the conduct of modern Deists," which appears to have been mainly instrumental in procuring the appointment of lecturer in the Old Jewry. This treatise was enlarged, and subsequently republished in 1727, a fact which appears to have escaped most biographers, who have thence erred in their accounts of the above appointment. The nature and design of the lectureship will best explain the origin and object of his next more important production. A number of wealthy and right thinking individuals, belonging to various denominations of Protestant dissenters in London, observing the rapid progress which deistn was making, and the boldness with which it was propagated in the capital, bethought themselves of overthrowing its antichristian doctrines with its own boasted weapons of reason and argument. Accordingly, having provided the necessary means, they elected, as already stated, Doctors Chandler and Lardner lecturers, to preach alternately one evening in the week during the winter halfyear. Afterwards, in order to give more consistency and wholeness to the exercises, one of the lectureships was discontinued; and Dr Chandler alone was requested to complete a course of the evidences of natural and revealed religion, with answers to the principal objections against them. These discourses having given the utmost satisfaction, were published at the request of the congregation in 1725, under the title, "A Vindication of the Christian Religion." The work is divided into two parts, the first containing a dissertation on the nature and use of miracles, an admirable vindication, but which is now superseded by the more complete, if not more philosophic, treatise of Campbell, which enriches the present volume. The second part contains refutations. The value, however, of this latter division, is deteriorated by discussions of too temporary a nature, that is, by answers to books then in repute, now forgotten, instead of general developments of the great arguments-a classification of the objections, not individual replies. We have touched more at length on this work, because it proved the source of its author's success, Archbishop Wake bore evidence to its excellence—it spread abroad the name of the writer, and prepared the minds of the congregation in the Old Jewry to accept of Dr Chandler as their minister.

A Vindication of Daniel's Prophecies, and various controversial pieces, rapidly followed in the course of the next three years. In 1730, appeared the translation of Limborch's History of the Inquisition, with a long and learned introduction, of which some late writers on the history of Christian persecution have made advantageous use. Controversial treatises and sermons occupied our author during the five succeeding years, and in 1735 was published in 4to, "A Paraphrase and Critical Commentary on the prophecy of Joel." This was only the introductory volume of a series, in which he intended to illustrate, in like manner, all the prophetical books. In the prosecution of this, one of the many useful designs which he had formed, he proceeded nearly through Isaiah, but before completing the "evangelical prophet," having met with some manuscript lectures, and the Arabic dictionary of Schultens be perceived that much remained yet to be done by a profounder study of the Oriental tongues. The design, therefore, was laid aside as a continuous study, to be resumed only at intervals, as more extended philological research enabled the solicitous commentator to proceed with certainty, but it never advanced in publication beyond the first volume. Dr Chandler's time was, however, indefatigably employed. Year after year beheld sermons, tracts, catechisms, and dissertations, following

in close succession. One of the most successful of these, "Remonstrance against Popery," published during the Rebellion in 1745, went through ten editions in the course of eighteen months.

In 1760, a sermon on the death of George II. gave origin to Dr Chandler's largest and most elaborate performance. On that occasion, he had passed in review the life and character of the deceased monarch, in comparison with the character of David, the man after God's own heart." The printed discourse was attacked in a pamphlet, the author of which, after reviving all the malicious misrepresentations of Bayle and others against the royal Israelite, complained of the insult offered to the memory of the British sovereign by the parallel. This insidious publication was first refuted in the following year by a small work, entitled, "Review of the character of David;" and subsequently, its errors, and the aspersions of all preceding infidels, were exposed and refuted, in "A Critical History of the Life of David," in 2 vols. 8vo. This is an admirable work, containing the occurrences of David's reign in chronological order, with an analysis of the Psalms, referring to, or composed by him, and is written always with learning and discernment, often with beauty and feeling. As this performance is the best, so it was the last of Dr Chandler's labours. While it had not yet entirely passed through the press, and while engaged in revising its last sheets, the learned and reverend author was seized with a severe attack of a distressing disease, under which he had long suffered with uncomplaining resignation, and which cut him off on the 8th of May, 1766, in the seventy-third year of his age.

Dr Amory, his intimate friend, to whom he intrusted the publication of his manuscripts, thus sums up our author's character," Dr Chandler was a man of very extensive learning and eminent abilities: his apprehension was quick and his judgment penetrating he had a warm and vigorous imagination - he was a very instructive and animated preacher; and his talents in the pulpit, and as a writer, procured him very great and general esteem, not only among the Dissenters, but among large numbers of the Established Church." To his exertions, the English Dissenters are indebted for that very meritorious and useful institution, by which a provision is made for the widows and orphans of dissenting Protestant clergymen. He it was who devised and superintended the formation of this fund, and by his influence were procured most of the original subscriptions

which gave a commencement to the scheme. The principle of this provision suggested the widows' scheme in the Church of Scotland, so that Dr Chandler's foresight and prudence may justly be said to have conferred a lasting benefit on the whole Presbyterian Church in Britain.

Several posthumous publications, and a collection of sermons, in four volumes, all the manuscripts of which were enumerated in his will, and found prepared for the press, were subsequently given to the world by Dr Chandler's executors. These, however, and also the paraphrase, with notes, of the Epistle to the Galatians, met with but limited success. In his interleaved Bible, also, a large body of critical remarks were found, said to be of value, and written chiefly in Latin, a language in which he was profoundly conversant. Indeed, he first appeared before the world as an author, by an edition, with Latin notes, of the commentaries of Cassiodorus; this is the only English edition of the work of the Christian senator of the fifth century.

The Plain Reasons," first published in 1730, have been admitted into the present volume, as one of the simplest, yet most philosophical, expositions of the necessity of a Christian revelation, which is to be found in any language, or in any church. The treatise commences with the first impressions of religion on the mind. These are usually made, it is admitted, by education. But this consideration, so often turned against Christianity, is here very properly assumed to form a sacred obligation, binding every one to examine into the claims of that faith which pious and respected parents have taken pains, and been at expense, to teach. In proportion, then, to every man's regard for the dearest of all memories, a virtuous parent's love, will be an instant but reverential inquiry into the truth in which that parent lived and died, and which he bequeathed to his posterity. The inquiry thus commences in the affection cherished for an earthly, and leads us finally to rest in the love of a heavenly father. We are led on, step by step, from the first impressions of God on the mind, through a series of admissions, deductions, and convictions, that merge successively and irresistibly into each other. Unless we greatly misapprehend both the force of truth, and the nature of the human heart, the twelve propositions of which the treatise is composed, will be found perfectly conclusive on the three great points, the veracity and yet inherent imperfection of natural religion — the consequent necessity of a revealed system of divine knowledge, and the truth of Christianity as that revelation.

ON the morning of the last Sabbath which Lord Lyttelton spent on earth, while impressed with the hopelessness of recovery, and the near approach of death, he thus addressed his physician, with whom he had lived on terms of intimacy and friendship: "Doctor, when I first set out in the world, I had friends who endeavoured to shake my belief in the Christian religion. I saw difficulties which staggered me; but I kept my mind open to conviction. The evidences and the doctrines of Christianity studied with attention, made me a most firm and persuaded believer of the Christian religion. I have made it the rule of my life, and it is the ground of my future hopes. I have erred and sinned, but have repented, and never indulged any vicious habit. In politics and in public life, I have made public good the rule of my conduct. I never gave counsels which I did not at the time think the best. I have seen that I was sometimes wrong, but I did not err designedly. I have endeavoured in private life, to do all the good in my power, and never for a moment could indulge malicious or unjust designs upon any person whatsoever."

Than the belief thus expressed by the dying nobleman, it is not possible to imagine a manlier groundwork of Christian faith, -rational conviction; or a finer exemplification of Christian duty,-personal holiness and universal charity. Can any reader peruse a religious treatise by such a man, without feeling more

than an ordinary share of respect for his opinions, and confidence in his reasonings? To the formalist, the life, as a commentary upon the work which follows, declares that the author practised what he believed to the careless and the indifferent, to the thoughtless doubter and the sullen sceptic, an example is given of one equal to most in rank, inferior to few in talent, not without ambition in public life, and far from insensible to the pleasures which wait upon such a position, whose conversion, through divine grace, was the fruit of his own solicitous, honest searching into the truth. To every one who is sensible that he has not kept his heart open to conviction, such conduct says,Seek in like manner, and ye also shall find.

This elegant writer, and excellent man, was born in January, 1709, being the eldest of ten children of Sir Thomas Lyttelton, Bart. of Hagley, in Worcestershire. To employ literally a metaphorical expression of the great Apostle whose conversion he has so ably illustrated, "one born out of due time," he was supposed dead at his birth, and reared with extreme difficulty. He received his public education at Eton, and Christ's Church, Oxford. In the former seminary, his exercises were proposed as models to his school-fellows: at the university, he not only sustained his early reputation for taste and literature, but became an author both in verse and prose.

On leaving Oxford in the beginning of 1728, before he was

quite nineteen, our author set out on his travels, in the course of which, extending over a period of nearly three years, he not only

saw," as Johnson contemptuously expresses it, but, as is evident from his letters, studied "France and Italy." Intended also for public life, and sent abroad at an important political crisis, when the recent death of George I. the negociations ending in the treaties of Seville and Vienna, and the consequent phases assumed by the interests concerned in the quadruple alliance, agitated Europe, Lyttelton appears to have omitted no opportunity of improving himself in the knowledge necessary to a senator, as well as in those accomplishments which adorn the private gentleman. His letters to his father, Sir Thomas, while they exhibit a beautiful picture of family affection and filial reverence, often contain important political intelligence long before the information had transpired in either country.

In this respect there is one instance of his delicacy and discretion, highly honourable to a young man. His manners and conversation, so different from those of most of his countrymen on their travels, gained the confidence and esteem of the English plenipotentiaries at the congress of Soissons, and of the minister of Paris, who employed him occasionally (with Mr Poyntz, indeed, he lived for several months) copying important papers for him. He writes thus to Sir Thomas:"While I am not trusted with affairs, you shall know all I can gather; but afterwards nil quidem pater,"—not even to a father will I reveal a confidence. Finally, we refer the reader to letter 25th, the longest of the series on France, whether he will any where find a more admirable account of the state of the country at that time, or of the character and policy of that extraordinary man Cardinal Richelieu? Speaking, however, of a religious writer, we cannot help adverting with pleasure to the dotestation of vice which Lyttelton uniformly expresses. What more becoming, for instance, in a youth of twenty than the following extract from his first letter, dated Calais : -"I cannot recollect the tenderness you shewed me at parting, without the warmest sentiments of gratitude and duty to you. In reply to our long discourse, I only beg leave to say, that there is a certain degree of folly, excusable perhaps in youth, which I have never yet exceeded, and beyond which I desire no pardon. I hope my dear mother has dried her tears. My duty to her. Your very dutiful son, G. L."

Again," One of my chief reasons for disliking Luneville, was the multitude of Englishmen, who most of them were such worthless fellows, that they were a disgrace to the name and nation. With these I was obliged to dine, and sup, and pass a great deal of my time. You may be sure I avoided it as much as possible; but malgre moi, I suffered a great deal. To prevent any comfort from other people, they had made a law among themselves, not to admit any foreigner into their company, so that there was nothing but English talked from June to January. I will trouble you no more on this subject; but give me leave to say, that however capricious they have been in other things, my sentiments in this particular are the surest proofs I ever gave you of my strong and hereditary aversion to vice and folly."

After his return, Lyttelton seems for some time to have employed himself in correcting, probably, and reprinting his poetical effusions, at least we find the earliest extant editions dated 1735. But more active, if not happier, occupations than those of literature awaited him, for having obtained a seat in Parliament, he joined the ranks of the opposition. For many years might be read, in the divisions of every important debate, the names of the Lytteltons, father and son, voting on opposite sides Sir Thomas, a Commissioner of the Admiralty, supporting Walpole and the ministry. Lyttelton's accession seems to have been considered of value by his party, for in 1737, when the Prince of Wales, father of George III. was "driven from St James's," and held a sort of rival court, Lyttelton was made secretary, and is said to have enjoyed considerable influence with the prince and princess. His own explanation of the motives which induced him to accept this appointment, are honourable to his heart. Writing to his father, he says, "The situation the prince is in does, I dare say, give you great concern, as well as me. No submission, on his part, has been wanting, to obtain a pardon for the fault laid to his charge, and to avoid a rupture, of which that could be the cause; but those submissions have not been able to prevent one, and a door is

shut to all farther applications by his majesty's having forbade him to reply. Another subsequent order has occasioned some of his servants laying down their offices; and last Tuesday morning, Mr Pelham, contrary to the talk of the Court, and, I believe, to the expectation of the prince, resigned the seals, which his Royal Highness, unsolicited by me, and without my expecting it, immediately gave to me. I need not tell you, that while my being in his service would have brought any difficulty upon his conduct or mine, no considerations should have induced me to accept this, or any employment in his family; but those doubts no longer subsisting, I could not decline, with any respect to him, or credit to myself, the honour of serving him in the way that he desired." This letter is dated in August, and the prince was so well satisfied with Mr Lyttelton, that in October, writing to Sir Thomas, he says, his "Royal Highness had augmented his salary £ 240 a-year." When, at length, after a long struggle, the Walpole administration was broken up in 1744, Lyttelton, who had thus always stood in the foremost ranks of opposition, and had been one of the petitioners to the king for the removal of Walpole, now reaped the usual fruits of such victories. He was made one of the Lords of the Treasury, afterwards, Cofferer, Privy Councillor, and the year following, Chancellor of the Exchequer. "This, however," says a biographer, "was an office that required some qualifications, which he soon perceived himself to want." He speedily resigned it to Mr Legge; poetry and figures, except metaphorically, are rarely found united.

By the death of his father, in 1751, he had succeeded to the baronetcy some time before his political elevation. On the dissolution, in 1759, of the ministry with which he had acted, his services were rewarded with a peerage, and he took his seat in the upper house as Baron Lyttelton of Frankley, in the county of Worcester. Thenceforth, save in the quiet discharge of his duties as a legislator, he retired from the turmoil of political life. Over that life, however, something injurious to his fame has been attempted to be cast. Johnson remarks, "His zeal against Walpole was considered by the courtiers not only as violent, but as acrimonious and malignant; and when that minister was at last hunted from his place, every effort was made by his friends-and many friends he had to exclude Lyttelton from the secret committee." For this accusation of malignant enmity, so inconsistent with our author's personal character, I have not been able to discover just grounds: so grave a charge is not to be rested on a consequence which was the natural result of an able and determined contest between two nearly equal parties. The friends of the fallen statesman were, of course, equally desirous of removing from the committee all whose resolution or talents were formidable, just as their opponents were solicitous of planting such men there. Certain, however, it is, that Lyttelton forsook his family politics; and that in early life he owed many courtesies to Walpole, and from him received very important introductions when he set out on his travels. One of his first poems was dedicated to Edward Walpole, and he was employed abroad by Sir Robert's ambassadors. He was recalled also by his father from Italy, in consequence of the queen, the organ of the court or Walpole party, having expressed herself favourably of his character; and for some time his letters are dated from his father's apartments in the admiralty. To be sure," as Johnson has remarked, "his Persian Letters, published while he was at college, have something of that indistinct and headstrong ardour for liberty which a man of genius always catches when he enters the world, and always (except when it serves his purpose) suffers to cool as he passes forward."

As an orator, Lord Lyttelton's appearances in both houses commanded attention. His gentlemanly exterior, and wan, but highly intellectual countenance, bespoke of themselves a fair hearing. To these he added an easy elocution and graceful correctness of language. But, on the whole, though always distinguished for good sense, always bearing the marks of a cultivated mind, his oratory was deficient in that vigorous promptitude which sways a popular assembly. The following passage, among many others, from one of his speeches, is no

• The cause of offence was the Princess of Wales having come from the country, that her accouchement of her son, afterwards George III, might take place in St James's, nearer medical aid, and in more comfort.