SIR WILLIAM TEMPLE has left a name of some distinction in our literature; it is, however, as a diplomatist and statesman that he is most entitled to remembrance. Strictly speaking, his public career extends only over about half the space that intervened between the Restoration and the Revolution; but during that memorable period he was, although not perhaps so conspicuous a figure as some others, yet one of the most active and influential personages of our political drama. He was certainly also one of the most honest. His

VOL. X.

B