my dear surviving sisters-my brothers-my friends, some faint details yet remain in a few letters to my heart's confidant that he preserved: but they are truly faint, for my satisfaction was always damped in recording it to him who so fondly wished to partake of it, and whose absence from that participation always rendered it incomplete.

And, on one great source of renovated felicity, I did not dare touch even by inference, even by allusion

that of finding my gracious royal mistress and her august daughters as cordial in their welcome, as trustingly confidential, and as amiably condescending, I had almost said affectionate, as if I had never departed from the royal roof under which, for five years, I had enjoyed their favour. To have spoken of the Royal Family in letters sent to France under the reign of Bonaparte, might have brought destruction on him for whom I would a thousand times sooner have suffered it myself.

Madame d'Arblay to Mrs. Broome.

Aug. 15, 1812.

In a flutter of joy such as my tender Charlotte will feel in reading this, I write to her from England! I can hardly believe it; I look around me in constant inquiry and doubt; I speak French to every soul, and I whisper still if I utter a word that breathes private opinion.

We set off for Canterbury, where we slept, and on the 20th proceeded towards Chelsea. While, upon

2.

some common, we stopped to water the horses, a gentleman on horseback passed us twice, and then, looking in, pronounced my name; and I saw it was Charles, dear Charles! who had been watching for us several hours and three nights following, through a mistake. Thence we proceeded to Chelsea, where we arrived at nine o'clock at night. I was in a state almost breathless. I could only demand to see my dear father alone: fortunately, he had had the same feeling, and had charged all the family to stay away, and all the world to be denied. I found him, therefore, in his library, by himself-but oh! my dearest, very much altered indeed-weak, weak and changed-his head almost always hanging down, and his hearing most cruelly impaired. I was terribly affected, but most grateful to God for my arrival. Our meeting, you may be sure, was very tender, though I roused myself as quickly as possible to be gay and cheering. He was extremely kind to Alex., and said, in a tone the most impressive, "I should have been very glad to have seen M. d'Arblay!" In discourse, however, he re-animated, and was, at times, all himself. But he now admits scarcely a creature but of his family, and will only see for a short time even his children. He likes quietly reading, and lies almost constantly upon the sofa, and will never eat but alone! What a change!

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES

TO THE

SIXTH VOLUME.

AIKIN, JOHN, M.D., a voluminous author of the last century, and contributor to periodicals. He published or brought out new editions of many of the principal English poets: but is now chiefly remembered by his "Evenings at Home.'

BARBAULD, ANNA LETITIA, sister to Dr. Aikin: a name familiar to every reader by several works she wrote for the use of children. She also published numerous volumes, in prose and poetry, between the years 1773 and 1812, among which she edited the correspondence of Richardson, in 6 vols. ; the British Novelists, in 50 volumes; Selections from the British Essayists; the Poetical Works of Collins; and Akenside's Pleasures of Imagination.

CHAPONE, HESTER, Authoress of "Letters on the Improvement of the Mind," and one or two works of less merit, published towards the conclusion of the last century. She died in 1801. CUMBERLAND, RICHARD, an author in various departments of literature, particularly criticism, poetry, the drama, and prose fiction. He was employed in 1780 in a diplomatic capacity, when he visited the courts of Lisbon and Madrid. His residence in Spain furnished him with materials for his "Anecdotes of Spanish Painters." He was the editor of the London Review, and author of a collection of essays called "The Observer,” and he wrote several novels and poems long since forgotten: but of his numerous plays, "The West Indian," "The Jew," and "The Wheel of Fortune," still support his reputation. He was born in 1732, and died in 1811.

DUNCAN, ADMIRAL VISCOUNT, the hero of the great naval victory of Camperdown, over the Dutch. He was born in 1731; entered the service at an early age, was promoted till he attained the rank of Post Captain, in 1761. In 1762, he was at the taking of the Havannah; in 1779, was present at Rodney's victory over the Spaniards; became Rear-Admiral of the Blue in 1789, and ViceAdmiral of the White in 1794, and was honoured with a peerage and a pension after the battle of Camperdown.

ERSKINE, THOMAS LORD, the admirable advocate_and_judge, youngest son of David Henry Erskine, tenth Earl of Buchan. He wrote a political romance, in two volumes, called "Armada," and some political pamphlets; but his fame rests upon the ability he displayed in the several legal offices he filled from 1778, when he was called to the bar, till he ceased to hold the dignity of Lord Chancellor. He died in 1823, at the age of 73.

LALLY TOLENDAL, LE MARQUIS DE. The father of this nobleman, the Comte de Lally Tolendal and Baron Tullendally in Ireland, was the French governor of Pondicherry, when that place was taken by the English. The Comte de Lally returning to France, said, "J'apporte ici ma tête et mon innocence;" but in 1766, he was unfairly tried and unjustly executed for the surrender, and in 1778, his son, the Marquis de Lally Tolendal, by great perseverance and exertions, obtained a reversion of the attainder, and cleared his father's memory. This Marquis de Lally Tolendal, was in 1780, deputed to the Etats Généraux. He emigrated to England in 1792 in company with Madame de Staël, the Princesse d'Henin, Talleyrand, M. de Narbonne, and the Chevalier d'Arblay. He returned to Paris in 1801, was called to the Chambre des Pairs in 1815, and in 1816 to the Académie Française. His principal literary works were, "Lettres à Edmond Burke," Plaidoyer pour Louis XVI. in 1795," and "Essai sur la vie de Strafford." His eloquence obtained for him the appellation_of "The French Cicero," but Madame de Staël called him "Le plus gras des hommes sensibles." He died at Paris in the year 1820.

MASON, THE REV. WILLIAM, Author of several poems, of various satirical pieces, and of "An Essay on Church Music." He was born in 1725; obtained the living of Aston, in his native county, Yorkshire, and was appointed one of the royal chaplains; but from the latter office he was dismissed for his republican opinions. The excesses of the French Revolution, however, very much cooled his enthusiasm for liberty, and towards the conclusion of his life, which terminated in 1797, his sentiments had undergone a decided change. The works by which he is now remembered are, "The English Garden," a poem in four books, his edition of the works of Gray, and his beautiful Elegy on the Death of Lady Coventry.

MORELLET, THE ABBE. André Morellet, born in 1727, was the son of a stationer at Lyons, and studied in the Jesuits' College in that city; after which he was admitted to the Sorbonne, where he formed a friendship with D'Alembert and Diderot. In 1762, he wrote his "Manuel des Inquisitions;" but having offended the Princesse de Robecq by a passage in one of his pamphlets, he was shut up in the Bastille at her instigation, and after two months' confinement he owed his liberty chiefly to the interference of

J. J. Rousseau. His most important works were, "Theorie du Paradoxe," "Refutation des Dialogues sur le Commerce des Bleds par Galiani," "Analyse de l'ouvrage sur la Législature et le Commerce des Grains, par Neckar," and "Mélanges de Litérature et de Philosophie du 18me Siècle." In 1772, the Abbé Morellet visited England, where he became intimate with Lord Shelburne and Franklin. He opposed alike the abuses of the French aristocracy and the excesses of the Revolutionists, and was called by Voltaire "the Abbé Mords-les." He died in 1819.

NARBONNE, LOUIS, COMTE DE, was Minister at War under Louis XVI.; and emigrating to England at the French Revolution, he was for a time settled with Madame de Staël and her party at Juniper Hall, in Surrey. He accepted employment under Bonaparte, by whom he was created a Lieutenant-General, and sent as ambassador to Vienna. He accompanied the French army to Moscow, and died in the retreat, at Torgau, 1813. M. de Narbonne's manners and conversation are said to have abounded in grace and finesse; some of his repartees are preserved, though without his name being given, in M. de Jouy's work, "L'Hermite de la Chaussée d'Antin."

ROGERS, SAMUEL, ESQ. It may be recorded, that the first production of this elegant poet, "An Ode to Superstition, with other Poems," bears the date of 1786; just sixty years since: and we are happy to say its accomplished author, so well known by his "Pleasures of Memory," still survives.

WEDGWOOD, JOSIAH, famous for the vast improvement made by him in the manufacture of English china, and founder of the extensive potteries at Etruria. He died in 1795.

END OF VOL. VI.

London: Printed by WILLIAM CLOWES & SONS, Stamford Street.