asked one of his friends, who was the author of this poem? and this was the first time I heard Klopstock's name. believe, I fell immediately in love with him. At the least, my thoughts were ever with him filled, especially because his friend told me very much of his character. But I had no hopes ever to see him, when quite unexpectedly I heard that he should pass through Hamburg. I wrote immediately to the same friend, for procuring by his means that I might see the author of the Messiah, when in Hamburg. He told him that a certain girl at Hamburg wished to see him, and, for all recommendation, showed him some letters, in which I made bold to criticise Klopstock's verses. Klopstock came, and came to me. I must confess, that, though greatly prepossessed of his qualities, I never thought him the amiable youth whom I found him. This made its effect. After having seen him two hours, I was obliged to pass the evening in a company, which never had been so wearisome to me. I could not speak, I could not play; I thought I saw nothing but Klopstock. I saw him the next day, and the following, and we were very seriously friends. But the fourth day he departed. It was a strong hour the hour of his departure ! He wrote soon after, and from that time our correspondence began to be a very diligent one. I sincerely believed my love to be friendship. I spoke with my friends of nothing but Klopstock, and showed his letters. They rallied at me, and said I was in love. I rallied them again, and said that they must have a very friendshipless heart, if they had no idea of friendship to a man as well as to a woman, Thus it continued eight months, in which time my friends found as much love in Klopstock's letters as in me. I perceived it likewise, but I would not believe it. At the last Klopstock said plainly, that he loved; and I startled as for a wrong thing. I answered that it was no love, but friendship, as it was what I felt for him; we had not seen one another enough to love (as if love must have more time than friendship!). This was sincerely my meaning, and I had this meaning till Klopstock came again to Hamburg. This he did a year after we had seen one another the first time. We saw, we were friends, we loved; and we believed that we loved; and a short time after I could even tell Klopstock that I loved; but we were obliged to part again, and wait two years for our wedding. My mother would not let marry me a stranger. I could marry then without her consentment, as by the death of my father my fortune depended not on her; but this was an horrible idea for me; and thank heaven that I have prevailed by prayers! At this time knowing Klopstock, she loves him as her lifely son, and thanks God that she has not persisted. We married, and I am the happiest wife in the world. In some few months it will be four years that I am so happy, and still I dote upon Klopstock as if he was my bridegroom.

If you knew my husband, you would not wonder. If you knew his poem, I could describe him very briefly, in saying he is in all respects what he is as a poet. This I can say with all wifely modesty . . . . But I dare not to speak of my husband; I am all raptures when I do it. And as happy as I am in love, so happy am I in friendship, in my mother, two elder sisters, and five other women. How rich I am! Sir, you have willed that I should speak of myself, but I fear I have done it too much. Yet you see how it interests

me.

I have the best compliments for you of my dear husband. My compliments to all yours. Will they increase my treasure of friendship? I am, Sir,

Your most humble servant, M. KLOPSTOCK.

To MR. RICHARDSON

Hamburg, May 6, 1758.

It is not possible, sir, to tell you what a joy your letters give me. My heart is very able to esteem the favour that you, my dear Mr. Richardson, in your venerable age, are so condescending good, to answer so soon the letters of an unknown young woman, who has no other merit than a heart full of friendship-and of all those sentiments which a reasonable soul must feel for Richardson, though at so many miles of distance. It is a great joyful thought, that friendship can extend herself so far, and that friendship has no need of seeing, though this seeing would be celestial joy to hearts like ours, (shall I be so proud to say as ours?) and what will it be, when so many really good souls, knowing or not knowing in this world, will see another in the future, and be then friends!

It will be a delightful occupation for me, to make you more acquainted with my husband's poem. Nobody can do it better than I, being the person who knows the most of that which is not yet published; being always present at the birth of the young verses, which begin always by fragments here and there, of a subject of which his soul is just then filled. He has many great fragments of the whole work ready. You may think that persons who love as we do, have no need of two chambers; we are always in the same. I, with my little work, still, still, only regarding sometimes my husband's sweet face, which is so venerable at that time! with tears of devotion and all the sublimity of the subject. My husband reading me his young verses and suffering my criticisms. Ten books are published, which I think probably the middle of the whole. I will, as soon as I can, translate you the arguments of these ten books, and what besides I think of them. The verses of the poem are without rhymes, and are hexameters, which sort of verses my husband has been the first to introduce in our language; we being still closely attached to rhymes and iambics.

I suspect the gentleman who has made you acquainted with the Messiah, is a certain Mr. Kaiser, of Göttingen, who has told me at his return from England what he has done; and he has a sister like her whom you describe in your first letter.

And our dear Dr. Young has been so ill? But he is better, I thank God along with you. Oh that his dear instructive life may be extended!-if it is not against his own wishes. I read lately in the newspapers, that Dr. Young was made Bishop of Bristol; I must think it is another Young. How could the king make him only Bishop! and Bishop of Bristol while the place of Canterbury is vacant! I think the king knows not at all that there is a Young who illustrates his reign.

And you, my dear, dear friend, have not hope of cure of a severe nervous malady? How I trembled as I read it! I pray to God to give you at the least patience and alleviation. I thank you heartily for the cautions you gave me and my dear Klopstock on this occasion. Though I can read very well your handwriting, you shall write no more if it is incommodious to you. Be so good to dictate only to Mrs. Patty; it will be very agreeable to me to have so amiable a correspondent. And then I will, still more than now, preserve the two of your own hand-writing as treasures.

I am very glad, sir, that you will take my English as it is. I knew very well that it may not always be English, but I thought for you it was intelligible: my husband asked, as I was writing my first letter, if I would not write French? No, said I, I will not write in this pretty but fade language to Mr. Richardson (though so polite, so cultivated, and no

longer fade in the mouth of a Bossuet). As far as I know, neither we, nor you, nor the Italians have the word fade. How have the French found this characteristic word for their nation? Our German tongue, which only begins to be cultivated, has much more conformity with the English than the French.

I wish, sir, I could fulfil your request of bringing you acquainted with so many good people as you think of. Though I love my friends dearly, and though they are good, I have however much to pardon, except in the single Klopstock alone. He is good, really good, good at the bottom, in all his actions, in all the foldings of his heart. I know him; and sometimes I think if we knew others in the same manner, the better we should find them. For it may be that an action displeases us which would please us, if we knew its true aim and whole extent. No one of my friends is so happy as I am; but no one has had courage to marry as I did. They have married,-as people marry; and they are happy, as people are happy. Only one as I may say, my dearest friend, is unhappy, though she had as good a purpose as I myself. She has married in my absence: but had I been present, I might, it may be, have been mistaken in her husband, as well as she.

How long a letter this is again! but I can write no short ones to you. Compliments of my husband, and compliments to all yours, always, even though I should not say it.

M. KLOPSTOCK.

The last letter is made touching by the fact that the flattering hopes of the young wife looked to the event that was really to take her from the earthly to the heavenly joy. She died in childbirth.

To MR. RICHARDSON.

Hamburg, Aug. 26, 1758.

Why think you, sir, that I answer so late? I will tell you my reasons... But before all, how does Miss Patty and how do yourself? Have not you guessed that I, summing up all my happinesses, and not speaking of children, had none? Yes, sir, this has been my only wish ungratified for these four years. I have been more than once unhappy with disappointments: but yet, thanks to God! I am in full hope to be mother in the month of November. The little preparations for my child and child-bed (and they are so dear to me!) have taken so much time, that I could not answer your letter, nor give you the promised scenes of the Messiah. This is likewise the reason wherefore I am still here, for properly we dwell in Copenhagen. Our staying here is only a visit (but a long one) which we pay my family. I not being able to travel yet, my husband has been obliged to make a little voyage alone to Copenhagen. He is yet absent -a cloud over my happiness! He will soon return. . . But what does that help? he is yet equally absent! We write to each other every post. . . But what are letters to presence? but I will speak no more of this little cloud; I will only tell my happiness! but I cannot tell how I rejoice! A son of my dear Klopstock! Oh, when shall I have him! It is long since that I have made the remark, that geniuses do not engender geniuses. No children at all, bad sons, or, at the most, lovely daughters, like you and Milton. But a daughter or a son, only with a good heart, without genius, I will nevertheless love dearly.

I think that about this time a nephew of mine will wait on you. His name is von Winthem, a young rich merchant, who has no bad qualities, and several good, which he has still to cultivate. His mother was, I think, twenty years older than

I, but we other children loved her dearly like a mother. She had an excellent character, but is long dead.

This is no letter, but only a newspaper of your Hamburg daughter. When I have my husband and my child, I will write you more (if God gives me health and life). You will think that I shall be not a mother only, but nurse also; though the latter (thank God! that the former is not so too) is quite against fashion and good-breeding, and though nobody can think it possible to be always with the child at home! M. KLOPSTOCK.

FROM THE ACCESSION OF GEORGE III. TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION.-A.D. 1760 TO A.D. 1789. FREDERICK Prince of Wales, the son of George II., having died in 1751, the Prince's son became King George III. upon the death of his grandfather in October, 1760. The old king died in his seventyseventh year; his successor, well-disposed but illeducated and without natural ability, was not yet twenty-three. About a year after his accession, the young king married the Princess Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz. John Stuart, Earl of Bute, who had been Lord of the Bedchamber to the Prince Frederick, retained the confidence of the Princess Dowager. He used his influence after the death of George II. to drive William Pitt from office, and reverse his policy, which then triumphed in Europe. Pitt became a private member of the House of Commons, Bute Secretary of State, and, in May, 1762, First Lord of the Treasury. He at once gave places to Scotch friends, and displeased the nation by making a peace with France and Spain, of which the prelimi

naries were signed at Fontainebleau on the 3rd of November, 1763. Lord Bute in the place of William Pitt, and sudden peace in the place of successful war, were widely unpopular. John Wilkes had entered the House of Commons in 1757 as member for Aylesbury. On the 29th of May, 1762, when the Earl of Bute was nominated First Lord of the Treasury, Tobias Smollett set up a periodical called The Briton, to support his government. John Wilkes, on the following Saturday, the 5th of June, set up another periodical, The North Briton, to reply to it, and to attack Lord Bute. The two papers battled together. The Brion came to an end on the 12th of February, 1763; Lord Bute resigned on the 8th of April; and The North Briton, of which No. 44 had appeared on the 2nd of April, ended its course with the publication of No. 45 on the 23rd of April. That number criticised a King's Speech, and was interpreted as treason by the Government. Wilkes was seized, and committed to the Tower under a general warrant from a Secretary of State. A few days later the Chief Justice of Common Pleas decided that general warrants were illegal, and Wilkes was set free, to the delight of the populace. In November, when the Government caused No. 45 of The North Briton to be burnt by the hangman, that act was the cause of a riot. This is, with the notes that were added when the whole series of papers was re-published as a volume in 1764,

NO. XLV. OF THE NORTH BRITON.*

The following advertisement appeared in all the papers on the 13 of April.

The NORTH BRITON makes his appeal to the good sense, and to the candour of the ENGLISH nation. In the present unsettled and fluctuating state of the administration, he is really fearful of falling into involuntary errors, and he does not wish to mislead. All his reasonings have been built on the strong foundation of facts; and he is not yet informed of the whole interior state of government with such minute precision, as now to venture the submitting his crude ideas of the present political crisis to the discerning and impartial public. The SCOTTISH minister has indeed retired. Is HIS influence three wretched

at an end? or does he still govern by the tools of his power, who to their indelible infamy, have supported the most odious of his measures, the late ignominious Peace, and the wicked extension of the arbitrary mode of Excise The NORTH BRITON has been steady in his opposition to a single, insolent, incapable, despotic minister; and is equally ready, in the service of his country, to combat the triple-headed, Cerberean administration, if the Scor is to assume that motley form. Ву HIM every arrangement to this hour has been made, and the notification has been as regularly went by letter under HIS HAND. It therefore seems clear to a demonstration, that HE intends only to retire into that situation, which He held before He first took the seals; I mean the dictating to every part of the king's administration. The NORTH BRITON desires to be understood, as having pledged himself a firm and intrepid assertor of the rights of his fellowmubjects, and of the liberties of WHIGS and ENGLISHMEN.

• The passages included within the inverted commas are the only pany to which any objection is made in the INFORMATION filed in the King's Hench by the Attorney General against the publisher, Mr. George Kenraley,

↑ The caris of Egremont and Halifax, and G. Grenville, Esq.

Genus ORATIONIS atrox, & vehemens, cui opponitur lenitatis & mansuetudinis. CICERO.

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"The King's Speech has always been considered by the "legislature, and by the public at large, as the Speech of the Minister. It has regularly, at the beginning of every "session of parliament, been referred by both houses to the "consideration of a committee, and has been generally can"vassed with the utmost freedom, when the minister of the crown has been obnoxious to the nation. The ministers of "this free country, conscious of the undoubted privileges of so spirited a people, and with the terrors of parliament before "their eyes, have ever been cautious, no less with regard to "the matter, than to the expressions, of speeches, which they "have advised the sovereign to make from the throne, at the "opening of each session. They well knew, that an § honest "house of parliament, true to their trust, could not fail to "detect the fallacious arts, or to remonstrate against the "daring acts of violence, committed by any minister. The 'Speech at the close of the session has ever been considered as the most secure method of promulgating the favourite "court creed among the vulgar; because the parliament, "which is the constitutional guardian of the liberties of the "people, has in this case no opportunity of remonstrating, or of impeaching any wicked servant of the crown.

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"This week has given the public the most abandoned in"stance of ministerial effrontery ever attempted to be imposed on mankind. The minister's speech of last Tuesday, is not "to be paralleled in the annals of this country. I am in doubt, whether the imposition is greater on the sovereign, or on the nation. Every friend of his country must lament "that a prince of so many great and amiable qualities, whom England truly reveres, can be brought to give the sanction "of his sacred name to the most odious measures, and to the "most unjustifiable, public declarations, from a throne ever "renowned for truth, honour, and unsullied virtue." I am sure, all foreigners, especially the king of Prussia, will hold the minister in contempt and abhorrence. He has made our sovereign declare, My expectations have been fully answered by the happy effects which the several allies of my crown have derived from this salutary measure of the definitive Treaty. The powers at war with my good brother the King of Prussia have been induced to agree to such terms of accommodation as that great prince has approved; and the success which has attended my negotiation, has necessarily and immediately diffused the

Anno 14 G. II. 1740. Duke of Argyle.

The King's Speech is always in this House considered as the Speech of the Ministers. LORDS Debates, vol. 7, p. 413.

Lord Carteret.

When we take his Majesty's Speech into consideration, though we have heard it from his own mouth, yet we do not consider it as his Majesty's speech, but as the speech of his ministers, p. 425.

Anno 7 Geo. II. 1733. Mr. Shippen.

I believe it has always been granted, that the speeches from the Throne are the compositions of ministers of state; upon that supposition we have always thought ourselves at liberty to examine every proposition contained in them; even without doors people are pretty free in their remarks upon them: I believe no Gentleman here is ignorant of the reception the speech from the Throne, at the close of last session, met with from the nation in general. CoMMONS Debates, vol. 8, p. 5.

Anno 13 Geo. II. 1759. Mr. Pulteney, now earl of Bath.

His Majesty mentions heats and animosities. Sir, I don't know who drew up this speech; but whoever he was, he should have spared that expression : I wish he had drawn a veil over the heats and animosities that must be owned ONCE subsisted upon this head; for I AM SURE NONE NOW SUBSIST, vol. 11, p. 96.

§ The House of Commons in 1715 exhibited, Articles of impeachment of high treason, and other high crimes and misdemeanors, against Robert Earl of OXFORD, and Earl MORTIMER. Article 15 is for having corrupted the sacred fountain of truth, and put falsehoods into the mouth of Majesty, in several speeches made to parliament. Vide Vol. III. and Journais of the House of Commons, vol. 18, p. 214.

blessings of peace through every part of Europe. The infamous fallacy of this whole sentence is apparent to all mankind: for it is known, that the King of Prussia did not barely approve, but absolutely dictated, as conqueror, every article of the terms of peace. No advantage of any kind has accrued to that magnanimous prince from our negotiation, but he was basely deserted by the Scottish prime minister of England. He was known by every court in Europe to be scarcely on better terms of friendship here, than at Vienna; and he was betrayed by us in the treaty of peace. What a strain of insolence, therefore, is it in a minister to lay claim to what he is conscious all his efforts tended to prevent, and meanly to arrogate to himself a share in the fame and glory of one of the greatest princes the world has ever seen? The king of Prussia, however, has gloriously kept all his former conquests, and stipulated security for all his allies, even for the elector of Hanover. I know in what light this great prince is considered in Europe, and in what manner he has been treated here; among other reasons, perhaps, from some contemptuous expressions he may have used of the Scot: expressions which are every day echoed by the whole body of Englishmen through the southern part of this island.

The Preliminary Articles of Peace were such as have drawn the contempt of mankind on our wretched negotiators. All our most valuable conquests were agreed to be restored, and the East-India company would have been infallibly ruined by a single article of this fallacious and baneful negotiation. No hireling of the minister has been hardy enough to dispute this; yet the minister himself has made our sovereign declare, the satisfaction which he felt at the approaching re-establishment of peace upon conditions so honourable to his crown, and so beneficial to his people. As to the entire approbation of parliament, which is so vainly boasted of, the world knows how that was obtained. The large debt on the Civil List, already above half a year in arrear, shews pretty clearly the transactions of the winter. It is, however, remarkable, that the minister's speech dwells on the entire approbation given by Parliament to the Preliminary Articles, which I will venture to say, he must by this time be ashamed of; for he has been brought to confess the total want of that knowledge, accuracy and precision, by which such immense advantages both of trade and territory, were sacrificed to our inveterate enemies. These gross blunders are, indeed, in some measure set right by the Definitive Treaty; yet, the most important articles, relative to cessions, commerce, and the FISHERY, remain as they were, with respect to the French. The proud and feeble Spaniard too does not RENOUNCE, but only DESISTS from all pretensions, which he may have formed, to the right of Fishing-where? only about the island of NEWFOUNDLAND-till a favourable opportunity arises of insisting on it, there, as well as elsewhere.

"The minister cannot forbear, even in the King's Speech, "insulting us with a dull repetition of the word economy. "I did not expect so soon to have seen that word again, "after it had been so lately exploded, and more than once, "by a most numerous audience, hissed off the stage of our "English theatres. It is held in derision by the voice of the "people, and every tongue loudly proclaims the universal con"tempt in which these empty professions are held by this "nation. Let the public be informed of a single instance of "œconomy, except indeed in the household." Is a regiment, which was completed as to its compliment of officers on the Tuesday, and broke on the Thursday, a proof of economy? Is the pay of the Scottish Master Elliot to be voted by an English parliament, under the head of economy? Is this, among a thousand others, one of the convincing proofs of a firm resolution to form government on a plan of strict œconomy? Is it not notorious, that in the reduction of the army, not the

least attention has been paid to it. Many unnecessary expenses have been incurred, only to increase the power of the crown, that is, to create more lucrative jobs for the creatures of the minister? The staff indeed is broke, but the discerning part of mankind immediately comprehended the mean subterfuge, and resented the indignity put upon so brave an officer, as marshal Ligonier. That step was taken to give the whole power of the army to the crown, that is, to the minister. Lord Ligonier is now no longer at the head of the army; but lord Bute in effect is: I mean that every preferment given by the crown will be found still to be obtained by his enormous influence, and to be bestowed only on the creatures of the Scottish faction. The nation is still in the same deplorable state, while he governs, and can make the tools of his power pursue the same odious measures. Such a retreat, as he intends, can only mean that personal indemnity, which, I hope, guilt will never find from an injured nation. The negotiations of the late inglorious peace, and the excise, will haunt him, wherever he goes, and the terrors of the just resentment, which he must be to meet from a brave and insulted people, and which must finally crush him, will be for ever before his eyes.

"In vain will such a minister, or the foul dregs of his 66 power, the tools of corruption and despotism, preach up "in the speech that spirit of concord, and that obedience to the laws, which is essential to good order. They have sent the "spirit of discord through the land, and I will prophecy, that "it will never be extinguished, but by the extinction of their "power. Is the spirit of concord to go hand in hand with the "PEACE and EXCISE thro' this nation? Is it to be expected "between an insolent EXCISEMAN, and a peer, gentleman, free"holder, or farmer, whose private houses are now made liable "to be entered and searched at pleasure? Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, and in general all the Cyder countries, are "not surely the several counties which are alluded to in the "speech. The spirit of concord hath not gone forth among "them; but the spirit of liberty has, and a noble opposition "has been given to the wicked instruments of oppression. "A nation as sensible as the English, will see that a spirit "of concord, when they are oppressed, means a tame submis"sion to injury, and that a spirit of liberty ought then to "arise, and I am sure ever will, in proportion to the weight "of the grievance they feel. Every legal attempt of a contrary "tendency to the spirit of concord will be deemed a justifiable "resistance, warranted by the spirit of the English constitution. "A despotic minister will always endeavour to dazzle his "prince with high flown ideas of the prerogative and honour "of the crown, which the minister will make a parade of "firmly maintaining. I wish as much as any man in the kingdom to see the honour of the crown maintained in a manner truly becoming Royalty. I lament to see it sunk even to prostitution. What a shame was it to see the "security of this country, in point of military force, compli"mented away, contrary to the opinion of Royalty itself, and "sacrificed to the prejudices and to the ignorance of a set of

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people, the most unfit from every consideration to be con"sulted on a matter relative to the security of the house of "Hanover?" I wish to see the honour of the crown religiously asserted with regard to our allies, and the dignity of it scrupulously maintained with regard to foreign princes. Is it possible such an indignity can have happened, such a sacrifice of the honour of the crown of England, as that a minister should already have kissed his majesty's hand on being appointed to the most insolent and ungrateful court in the world, without a previous assurance of that reciprocal nomination which the meanest court in Europe would insist upon, before she proceeded to an act otherwise so derogatory to her honour?

But Electoral Policy has ever been obsequious to the court of Vienna, and forgets the insolence with which count Colloredo left England. Upon a principle of dignity and œconomy, lord Stormont, a Scottish peer of the loyal house of Murray, kissed his majesty's hand, I think, on Wednesday in the Easter week; but this ignominious act has not yet disgraced the nation in the London Gazette. The ministry are not ashamed of doing the thing in private; they are only afraid of the publication. Was it a tender regard for the honour of the late king, or of his present majesty, that invited to court lord George Sackville, in these first days of Peace, to share in the general satisfaction, which all good courtiers received in the indignity offered to lord Ligonier, and on the advancement of -? Was this to shew princely gratitude to the eminent services of the accomplished general of the house of Brunswic, who has had so great a share in rescuing Europe from the yoke of France; and whose nephew we hope soon to see made happy in the possession of the most amiable princess in the world? Or, is it meant to assert the honour of the crown only against the united wishes of a loyal and affectionate people, founded in a happy experience of the talents, ability, integrity, and virtue of those, who have had the glory of redeeming their country from bondage and ruin, in order to support, by every art of corruption and intimidation, a weak, disjointed, incapable set of-I will call them any thing but ministers-by whom the Favourite still meditates to rule this kingdom with a rod of iron.

The Stuart line has ever been intoxicated with the slavish doctrines of the absolute, independent, unlimited power of the crown. Some of that line were so weakly advised, as to endeavour to reduce them into practice: but the English nation was too spirited to suffer the least encroachment on the ancient liberties of this kingdom. "The King of England "is only the first magistrate of this country; but is invested

by law with the whole executive power. He is, however, "responsible to his people for the due execution of the royal "functions, in the choice of ministers, &c. equally with the "meanest of his subjects in his particular duty." The personal character of our present amiable sovereign makes us easy and happy that so great a power is lodged in such hands; but the favourite has given too just cause for him to escape the general odium. The prerogative of the crown is to exert the constitutional powers entrusted to it in a way, not of blind favour and partiality, but of wisdom and judgment. This is the spirit of our constitution. The people too have their prerogative, and, I hope, the fine words of DRYDEN will be engraven on our hearts,

Freedom is the English subject's Prerogative.

It was in the first year of the reign of George III. that Rousseau, in France, published his "Nouvelle Héloise," and in 1762 appeared his "Contrat Social" | and his "Emile." These books energetically represented one side of the reaction that grew yearly in power until, in 1789, the great French Revolution gave warning to Europe of the force it had acquired. Impatience of authority supported by and supporting dead forms of social, political, and even religious life, became in fervid minds an impatience of all authority as force from without controlling impulses of nature from within. An unsubstantial sentiment served

In the first speech of James I. to his English parliament, March 22, 1603, are the following words, That I am a SERVANT is most true-I will never be ashamed to confess it. My principal honour, to be the GREAT SERVANT of the commonwealth. Journals of the House of Commons, Vol. I. p. 145.

Its origin

for the life of no small part of literature. was a disease of the soul in men of genius that became epidemic, spread like the Black Death in the Middle Ages, prostrated the weak minds, and laid hold especially upon the young. Like epidemics of a physical disease, its cause was to be found in unwholesome conditions of life. The cleverest man in England who became a victim to this epidemic— a clever man morally weak-was Laurence Sterne, whose "Sentimental Journey" appeared in the year of his death, 1768, and is clearly a product of those tendencies of thought which had been represented partly by the writings of Rousseau. Sterne's "Tristram Shandy" was appearing in the first year of the reign of George III., and in its whimsical irregu larities Sterne followed a rule of his time by defying rule.

Laurence Sterne was born in Clonmel Barracks on the 24th of November, 1713. Roger, his father, was a lieutenant in the 34th Foot, and grandson to Richard Sterne, who died Archbishop of York in 1683. Laurence's grandfather had been eldest son of the archbishop, a Simon Sterne, who married Mary Jaques, heiress of Elvington, five miles from York. Roger Sterne was the seventh child of Simon. His eldest brother, Richard, was heir of Elvington, and lived at Woodhouse, also his property, a mile and a half out of Halifax. The second son of the family was Jaques Sterne, who throve by church interest, and died an archdeacon in 1759. In 1711, when he was with the army in Flanders, Roger Sterne, then an ensign with 3s. 24d. a day for his pay, married Agnes, widow of Captain Hebert, and daughter of an Irish army sutler. The first child of the marriage, Mary, was born at Lisle in July, 1712. Then followed Laurence, in November, 1713, when the regiment was in barracks at Clonmel. It was the year of the Peace of Utrecht. All regiments raised since the Peace of Ryswick, in 1697, except two, were broken. Roger Sterne's regiment was disbanded, and he went home with his two babies to Yorkshire. After a few months the regiment was established again, and Ensign Sterne, with his family, joined it at Dublin in the winter of 1714. Presently they moved with the regiment to Exeter. A third child, named Joram, was born. After about a year at Exeter, they returned to Dublin, and Roger Sterne there ceasing to live in barrack, furnished a house, and occupied it three years. He was then ordered to join the Vigo expedition. Joram died of small-pox; a girl, Anne, was born. The family was for a time in the Isle of Wight, then went to Wicklow Barracks, where, in 1720, a son, Devisher, was born. For six months the family lived with a relation of Mrs. Sterne's who was vicar of Anamoe, seven miles from Wicklow. In 1721 they were for a year in Dublin Barracks, where the child Anne died. In 1724 a Catherine was born, who survived, with Mary and Laurence, the youngest and two eldest. Mary afterwards married a scamp, of whom her brother tells that he "used her unmercifully, spent his subsistence, became a bankrupt, and left my poor sister to shift for herself, which she was able to do but for a few months; for she went to a friend's house in the country, and died of a broken