the beginning of their persuits, have plunged themselves into an intricate warfare with Distress. Successful only in skirmishes, they retreat from a pitch'd battle with a foe who is overrunning their territory; and, hopeless of a radical cure, patch up the wounds which, at length, become mortal.

९

The tenderest mutual affection, between husband and wife, urged him to struggle hard against poverty, upon emergencies:-he travell'd from minor town to town, after managers who would engage him; he wrote novels for booksellers who would purchase, or advance a few guineas upon them, in his need ;— latterly, he labour'd to exist, more, I think, on account of her he loved than for himself; and, in tugging for life, the thread snapp'd:-I have every reason to believe he died of a broken heart.

A fever was the immediate cause of his dissolution; but circumstances, of which I am well inform'd, tend to confirm my belief that agony of mind, if it did not solely produce, fatally aggravated his bodily disorder.

He died on the 27th of March, 1809, at Plymouth Dock; in the theatre of which place he was, at that time, engaged he had completed the thirty-third year of his age.

Who can be surprised that the efforts of this young man, thrown upon the world as I have described, were deficient in order? From want of experience, he had the misfortune to begin wrong in the life-it is difficult to recover blots. His greatest

game

of

failings were errors, rather than vices; his virtues would have been conspicuous, perhaps, in men of better fortunes.

He was an attach'd and affectionate son, and brother; and, in all his professional dealings, I never heard any thing contradictory to that character of probity, which he maintain'd towards me, during his periodical engagements in the Haymarket theatre.

In the latter part of his life, conjugal love appears to have been the only sweet to qualify the bitters which he was destined to drain; and even this comfort produced misery, when coupled with the reflection that the death of the husband must leave the wife utterly destitute. Fortunately, they had no children: Providence did not encumber them with those tender pledges of luckless endearment; those inflictive blessings, which aggravate the solicitous distress of indigent wedlock.

On his demise, a benefit was given for the relief of Mrs. Palmer, his widow, by the proprietors of the theatre at Plymouth Dock:-the profits of which little more than enabled her to procure decent interment for the deceased, to settle the debts which he had, unavoidably, contracted on the spot, for immediate support, and to pay her passage, in the Plymouth coach, to London.

When she arrived in the metropolis, (the only place where she had any connexions, or the chance of procuring further assistance,) her own slender stock of wearing apparel, some few dresses and tri

fing stage-properties of her late husband, and a bank note of one pound, were all she possess'd in the world.

From respect to the principal subject of this narrative, I suppress various minute descriptions of a penury which might excite deep commiseration; but I owe no delicacy to others, who, in the time of her greatest need, and sorrow, ought to have afforded some succour, and consolation.

Mrs. Palmer has no living relatives, but through marriage. Her lodging, at Pimlico, in which she fix'd on her first arrival in town, was wretched as her finances, and within four or five minutes' walk of her deceased husband's Uncle; he has no children, and must certainly derive a respectable, though moderate, income, from his publick profession. With this gentleman, and the lady who is an inmate with him, the deceased nephew, and his widow, were on terms of amity; nor was there any misunderstanding between the parties, at the time of the nephew's death.

These persons, well acquainted with Mrs. Palmer's afflictions, apprised of her urgent necessities, and of her vicinity to their dwelling, so far from yielding the most trifling aid, abstain'd from offering, either personally, by letter, or by message, the slightest condolence, 'till she had found relief elsewhere.

Let us hope that, when her story was gaining publicity, it was generous repentance, and not worldly shame, which, at last, wrung from them some tokens of compassionate service; and which would have ap

χχίν

pear'd with much better grace, had they been manifested before the sufferer was rescued (not by relatives) from the danger of perishing by famine.

It is incumbent upon me, though very irksome, to state the above particulars, that I may account for the deplorable situation to which Mrs. Palmer was reduced, in the first instance, after the loss of her husband. She is entirely ignorant of my intentions to publish them.

The uncle's name is among the subscribers to the Novel, with no sum annex'd to it, for reasons assign'd at the end of the list. Thirteen other subscribers, who, at his instance, humanely consented to contribute, are under the same predicament.

The other relatives of the deceased Palmer were, either, at too great a distance, or incapable of affording help one sister, indeed, was thought to be in affluence at the time; but an evident reverse in her fortunes, which soon happen'd, made it probable that the case was otherwise.

A younger brother, Edward Palmer, abroad, and in the navy, on receiving the tidings of his sister-inlaw's embarrassments,occasion'd by his fraternal loss, wrote to her, with all the kindly feelings of an English sailor, proffering that pecuniary assistance which he conjectured to be, but which was not,within his ability to give. He had hopes that he might have a claim to some money, lodged in a London banker's hands, and sent her an authority to receive it; but it proved that he had not the power of drawing. His conduct does honour to his heart, and it is gratifying to record it.

After Mrs. Palmer had existed in her lodging (if such it can be call'd!) for nearly a fortnight, the extremity of her distress was fully explain'd to a lady, who is well known as a performer in the London theatres she visited the unfortunate individual, with whom she was acquainted; and, in three or four days afterwards, brought her to the house where she herself resides, requesting Mrs. Palmer to fix in it till a plan could be resolved upon to raise her a sum, which might, with the strictest economy, produce something like a subsistence.

But there was little hope.-It was, at length, recollected that, a year or two previously, Palmer had left a manuscript (now printed in the following. sheets) with Mr. Earle, the bookseller; who with more kindness of nature, than, in this instance, speculation in business, had advanced fifteen guineas upon it; and the papers had rested thus long dormant, upon his hands.

To be brief, the Novel was so far in Mr. Earle's possession, that it could not be publish'd for the benefit of the widow without his consent. An application was made to him on the subject: he agreed to it with the utmost readiness; and has, further,

Explain'd by Mr. Fawcett, on whom Mrs. Palmer had call'd during her severest trials, and (of course) received a tem porary assistance. He, afterwards, was zealous in promoting subscriptions (which appear in the list) at Covent Garden theatre. Fawcett possesses a regulated benevolence, among many other excellent qualities in a man whom I am always happy to have an opportunity of mentioning as my friend. Vol. I.