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saw it stick, not to follow it up? This was told | Our company consists, at this present writing, of after dinner to-day, in presence of all the company, the persons following:-Lord Camden, Miss Pratt, except the ladies. Lord Beauchamp, it was also said, rides an Irish bishop. This the bishop bolted out one day, out of patience with hearing himself accused of stinginess for not living up to the apparent value of his income.

"Lord Dartry says, Penn, the proprietor, is living in Philadelphia in a state of the utmost indigence. After paying rent-charges created in favour of younger children, &c., or what encumbrances there are, he does not receive so much as £200 a-year. This is what Lord Dartry is in a way to know; Lady Dartry being a great-granddaughter of the first Penn's.

"1781, September 29.-Miss Pratt, Bowood, to J. B., ibid. Challenge given in drollery, under the name of Brookes :

"SIR,-Your ungentlemanlike behaviour, the last time I dined at his Lordship's, did not pass unnoticed. I am, sir, a man of honour, though, I believe, you did not think so. Sir, behind the lodge is a convenient place, where I shall expect you to give me satisfaction for winks and nods, and, in short, sir, behaviour that I don't understand, and won't take tamely. Swords or pistols, choose your weapons, as they are equal to your humble and offended servant,

"J. BROOKES.

and Mr Pratt (his Lordship's son and daughter,) Mr William Pitt (Lord Chatham's brother: there are such a heap of Pitts, it is necessary to distinguish.) Mr Banks (your Banks,) Colonel Barré, Mr and Mrs Dunning, Mr and Mrs, and two Miss Sturts (Sturt, member for Dorsetshire,) Miss F— (the daughter of Stephen, the late Lord H- -) I have already mentioned. All these, Miss Fexcepted, are actually at supper. Mrs Dunning came on Tuesday; she is just ready to fall to pieces. Mr Dunning to-day after dinner, very much fatigued with the hard work which you have seen and heard of. Mrs Dunning is a perfect mistress of the harpsichord, and a very agreeable woman, though not very young nor handsome; but that's Mr D.'s concern, not mine. Miss Pratt sings extremely well, and plays on various instruments; she is lively, sensible, good-natured, and has every accomplishment but beauty, in which, however, she is not remarkably deficient. Miss F is a sprightly good-natured little girl, not fourteen, but forward for her age; she too plays on the harpsichord.

"Monday, half after ten at night.

"By to-morrow a whole posse of people will be gone; some of them to my very great regret : among them Mrs Dunning and Miss Pratt. Mr and Mrs Dunning went off in a violent hurry this "By seven o'clock to-morrow I shall be at the morning, under the apprehension of Mrs D.'s being place appointed. No seconds."

"Calne, September y 29th.

"Bowood, 30th September, 1781. "Sunday night, half after ten. "HONOURED SIR,-To day, at dinner, I had the favour of yours of the 29th, as to my not seconding my last letter sooner. My own reproaches anticipated yours; but the fact is, it is with the utmost difficulty I have been able to find time for even this short tribute of duty, whatever it may prove. All the time I can get in the morning before breakfast, I find it absolutely necessary for my health to devote to exercise. Nor is even that always enough; for between breakfast and dinner, even although there should be no party made for any thing, I sometimes find it necessary to get on horseback and shake myself. It is but now and then that I have been able to get a morning to bestow upon any book, or on a few letters which, for one purpose or another, I have had occasion to write. After dinner, while the gentlemen are still at their bottle, I steal away to the library, where I meet Lady Shelburne, and wait on her to her dressingroom: there we have music of some kind or other, unless there happen to be ladies in the house, who are not musically disposed. When the gentlemen leave the dining-room, or if the weather permit of it, have done walking, we meet them again in the library to drink coffee; after which, unless Lady Shelburne wants me to make one at whist, it is absolutely necessary I should be in readiness to play at chess with Miss Fox, whose Cavaliere Serviente I have been, ever since she came here from Warwick castle in exchange for Miss V.

brought to bed. If it had not been for this aceident they would have staid some time. I had not an opportunity of exchanging ten words with him, so that I had not time to make an acquaintance with him, which was what, for Mrs D.'s sake much more than for his, I greatly coveted. Miss Pratt, while she was here, drew Miss F-'s picture, and has just been making me a present of it. Before coffee was over, they made me leave the company and come with them into Lady Shelburne's dressing-room, where we very frankly avowed to one another our regrets at parting. There we had been about an hour, when Lady S. stole away from the company, and staid with us almost another hour, leaving the Sturts to take care of themselves! She took the precaution, however, to cut them out employment, some at cards, some at chess, that they might not come and interrupt us. They are but odd sort of people: Miss Sturt has been suffered to fancy she plays in a superior manner upon the harpsichord, without having the least notion of it. Would you have thought of my being in such favour with the ladies? yet so it is; and, to crown all, it was under favour of a good word which was put in for me by Miss V, notwithstanding all her reserve, that I first got the entrées of this same dressing-room, which I am so fond of.

"Tuesday Morning.

"This morning departed Lord Camden and Miss Pratt, the Sturts, Will Pitt, and Banks; it was the first time of Banks' being here. Mr Pratt stayed after the rest, but goes away to-morrow.

Mr Hamilton is expected here in a day or two. | gether. This is, at least, the sixth time of his It was at Fonthill t'other day, I believe, that breakfasting with us since I have been here. Lord Shelburne first met with Banks; and it was from seeing him with Pratt and Pitt, who were come with him from Kingston Hall (Banks' house,) that he took occasion to invite him here. There he likewise saw Count Cernichef, and had some conversation with him, but did not invite him hither, though, as he says, he ought to have done it. It was rather odd he did not, considering the notice he takes of foreigners in general. The reason he mentioned was the awkwardness of his having his Polish tutor with him. Some little time ago, I had the pleasure of hearing of you from a Mr Brookes. You know, I suppose, that I must be at Oxford before the 17th, and on what account. I have wrote to Poore, as he desired me. How I shall be disposed of in the mean time, I do not exactly know; but my paper is at an end. Pray send me back Wilson's letter.-Yours, &c. "JEREMY BENTHAM.

"I see, by the Dutch papers that are come today, that the Dutch despair of saving their Prince William. This will be a great loss to them, as she is one of the most capital ships they have, or can have a seventy-four.

"JEREMIAH BENTHAM, Esq., at Bath."

"Bowood, October 2d, 1781.

"Affairs seem to wear a very unfavourable aspect in Minorca. Barre's character of Murray is, that he is obstinate and wrongheaded, but brave to desperation. He has seen a letter from Draper to a person here, who is a government man. Draper says that the effective men in garrison are but 1500 regulars; consisting, upon Barré's computation, of two battalions English; three of Hanoverians: upon paper, 2400. The Spanish account speaks of 400 of the latter deserting. God forbid this should be true! Draper writes that, with infinite perseverance, he has succeeded in putting and keeping himself upon good terms with the general; but that he is the only man in the island who is so, reckoning as well the army as the inhabitants. Barré, who has been in the island, speaks of Fort St Philip as being exces

a surprising manner; that the fault of it, if it has any, is that of being overworked; the souterrains so intricate, that a man must have a better head than the governor to understand them.

"It was a cd foolish thing of me to set my-sively strong; the garrison covered every where in self such a task as that of sending you a diary of every thing that passes here; and, now, I do not recollect where I left off. Oh, I think it was on Saturday that I despatched my letter, and I think I told you of Banks' coming in from Fonthill, with Pratt and William Pitt.

"Sunday, September 30.-Came in to dinner a whole heap of Sturts, likewise from Fonthill: Mr and Mrs Sturt, Miss Sturt, a girl of seventeen or eighteen, and Miss Eliza Sturt, about eleven. Banks, it appeared, is intimate in that family. After dinner came in Dunning, piping hot from Bristol.

"Monday, yesterday, 1st October.-A party of us went to Methuen's, at Cosham, about five miles from this place, to see his pictures. It is a famous collection, made by Sir Paul Methuen. The family were not at home: they are at Lord Boston's, who married a daughter of Methuen's; I should have said Methuen's daughter, as he has but one. The party consisted of Lady Shelburne, Lord Camden, Miss Pratt, and Miss F, in Lord S.'s coach; Pratt, Pitt, Banks, and your humble servant, on horseback. On our return, to my great mortification, we found Mr and Mrs Dunning were set off for London. It was absolutely necessary. Mrs Dunning and her maid were expecting every hour to fall to pieces.

“Tuesday, October 2.-In the morning, before breakfast, Lord Camden and Miss Pratt went off for Herefordshire; Banks and Pitt for Kingston Hall, Banks' house in Dorsetshire; the Sturts to their house, which is four miles from Kingston Hall.

"Wednesday, October 3.-This morning, before breakfast, Pratt went off for Bath, where he is gone to cultivate his belly; so that there is nobody left but Barré and I. Sir E. Bayntun has been breakfasting here. One would think he came here as a spy of the court; for he always comes at breakfast; the time that people are collected to

"This morning (Wednesday,) I received yours of Saturday, September 29. As to all that concerns my adventures in the family, and the footing I am upon, I must be as concise as possible; there would be no end in giving the details; and, as these are things there is no danger of my forgetting, there is no occasion for it. What I fill my letters with, in preference, are anecdotes concerning persons, places, number, weight, and measure, which, relating to persons I have no personal acquaintance with, and therefore making but a faint impression, might be lost, if they were not quickly consigned to paper; temporary ones more especially, as, for example, the foregoing. The greater part, however, are inevitably lost, either on account of their being but imperfectly heard (for my hearing is, in reality, very dull,) or but imperfectly related; the relaters having their reasons for not being perfectly explicit, or, in short, but imperfectly remembered. A disadvantage I labour under is, the want of power to cross-examine. A thousand considerations intervene to limit the exercise of this power, which, however, I do exercise, at least as much as is agreeable to the deponents; the fear of being troublesome; the fear of galling them, by obliging them either to give an answer, apparently evasive, or to betray any thing which would subject them either to disrepute, or some other inconvenience.

"Suffice it that I tell you, in very general terms, that with Dunning I could have no communication; there was no time for it, except a joke or two, which the devil tempted me to crack upon him, immediately upon his coming in. With Lord Camden I had but little, for reasons I will tell you at large; with Miss Pratt, who is a charming girl in every respect but beauty, pretty much.

She has given me a sketch of Miss F- in crayons, which she was two days about; it is not ill done, considering, and has some resemblance. With Mrs Sturt, who is a good, fine woman, at the age of forty-two, after bearing eighteen children, fourteen of whom are alive, I had a little flirtation, but left her after seeing a little more of the ton of the family, which I did not like. With Sturt I had some general conversation; but saw nothing about him that made him very interesting to me. With Barré, although we have few ideas in common, I am upon terms of some familiarity, owing to the good nature and companionableness of the man. Dunning's health seemed not so much amiss, notwithstanding the fatigue he underwent at Bristol; he had got up a good deal before that happened to throw him back; and, the morning he went away, he told me he had already recovered himself to a considerable degree. All these are heads for you to examine me upon: as such, I set them down without further particu-, larity.

Lord Sandwich. Or, if it should happen that the king could be prevailed with to give up Lord S., which he could not vouch for, he was sure it could not be done upon any other terms than that of a very honourable provision being made for him. That, in this case, whoever should come into the Admiralty, it must not be Admiral Keppel : that Charles Fox could not be received, at least immediately, int any of the high and confidential offices, such as that of Secretary of State; but that, as to any lucrative office out of the great line of business, such as that of Treasurer of the Navy, there would perhaps be no objection; that after the length he had gone, and the offences he had given, it could not be expected that his majesty should be immediately reconciled to the idea of a confidential communication with him; but that such a place as was suggested might serve him as a place of probation, and that it would give him opportunities of smoothing the way to a more perfect reconcilement.

"Thus far I am perfectly clear, not only as to "As to my health, it is still but so-so; but I the facts, but as to the colouring. This being repromise myself something from the ease and com- ported to Lord Rockingham, he returned an anfort of Thorpe, and something more from the win-swer of himself, without consulting with the party; ter, which seems to agree best with me. For a my recollection is not clear as to the stipulations long time I had no notion of riding out, because contained in it, but I think he stood out for Kepmy lord did not ask me; but at last I found outpel, and insisted that the Duke of Richmond and that his reason for not asking people to ride out with him was, that all he rides out for is to superintend his workmen, which takes up all his attention for the time, and is rather sitting on horseback than riding; since that, I have taken heart of grace, and ride out almost every day, before breakfast, independently of casual excursions in company. As to the Duke of Bedford's being an Opposition-man, I understand as much from Lord Shelburne.

Charles Fox should be secretaries of state. In all this, it does not appear that any thing was said about Lord Shelburne. Upon Lord Rockingham's communicating the offer and the answer to the Duke of Richmond, the duke blamed him for including him in such a proposition; whether as meaning that he would not serve the king on any terms, or not on those terms, I did not understand. The duke intimated, at the same time, that there 'were other persons' (meaning, as I understood, "I desire no reflections upon Miss Mercer; it Lord Shelburne himself,) with whom, considering is the greatest satisfaction to me imaginable to such and such things, it would have been but dehear of handsome girls falling in love with ugly, cent to consult. It seemed to me that the inforfellows. Alas! poor Clark! commend me to mation of this negotiation had come to Lord S., them and the St Pauls, with whom I please my-first from the Duke of Richmond; though it seems self with the thoughts of spending a comfortable day or two ere the month is out."

"Bowood, Monday, 17th September, 1781. "Relation of an overture made by Lord North to the Rockingham party for a coalition, in the summer of 1780, as given by Lord Shelburne to Mr W. Pitt, on Sunday, September 16th, 1781, after dinner-present, Lord Chatham, Mr Pratt, and J. B.

"It was introduced with some little preparation, as if in compliance with a request made on some former occasion. Lord North, meeting his cousin Montague upon the steps of the House of Commons, went up to him and said, he was glad to understand there was a disposition among his friends to coalesce; that, if that disposition were real, he would authorize him to propose such terms as the court meant on their part to insist upon. That, however indelicate it might sound in his mouth, yet it was necessary he should say, that, at all events, he must be continued where he was that the case was the same with respect to

as if the matter had afterwards been the subject of discussion betweeen the former and Lord Rockingham. The interpretation put upon Lord R.'s answer, whatever it was, is a matter of contestation between him and Lord S. Lord R. calls it an absolute rejection of the offer, and a virtual refusal to treat: Lord S. considers it as an acceptance of the treaty, and thereby as a sort of treachery, or, according to the footing they were then upon together, at least a violation of amity towards himself. Pitt or Pratt asking Lord S. what it was that in all this business Lord R. was expecting for himself, the answer was, Nothing that he ever heard of; clearly nothing, unless, perhaps, it might be that he had Ireland in view, on account of the advantage it might give him in thwarting the Absentee Tax; but this was not pretended to be any thing but surmise. Was not this very creditable to Lord R.? From what I have heard of him, since I have been here, I am disposed to entertain a good opinion of him: I have heard a good deal against him in the way of general disapprobation; but as to any grounds for it, I have heard of none,

but what appeared to me to be either inconsistent, nugatory, or unintelligible. Being asked what was to have been done for Burke, he answered that he was not clear; that certainly he was not to have been neglected, but that there was something of an inferior negotiation, in which he was more particularly concerned. The terms were so ambiguous, that I could not distinguish who were the parties, with whom he was meant to be represented as having been negotiating; whether the ministry, or the people of his own party; or even so much as whether he was himself a party to this under or interior negotiation, in which, in point of interest, he was represented as being concerned. There is a prodigious deal of ambiguity in the general tenor of Lord S.'s language on party subjects; whether genuine or affected I cannot be certain: I rather believe it genuine; because I find it the same on subjects in which party has nothing to do. As to the negotiation above mentioned, it is scarcely necessary to add that the demands on Lord Rockingham's side being such, no reply was given.

"In Burke's pamphlet on the affairs of Ireland, at least in one of his late pamphlets, if I do not mistake, he tells us that Lord Rockingham had not apprized anybody of his determination to apply for the audience he had about Ireland with the king. Lord S.'s account of that matter is, that about one o'clock on that day, Lord R. came to him, to take his advice about it, mentioned his determination to demand the audience, but that he wished for Lord S.'s advice about what he should say; and to know, in general, whether he approved or disapproved of it. Lord S. observed to him, that it was too short a warning by much, for taking a step of so much importance; for, considering what it was then o'clock, they should not have more than half-an-hour to deliberate upon it. I am not certain whether it was not that Lord R. wished Lord Shelburne to go with him; whichever was the case, he confessed to us that, from reasons regarding his own reputation, he declined taking a part either way, on a sudden. Considering the importance that it might appear to be of to the nation, that the king should hear what information Lord R. had to give him, he, Lord S., did not care to have it said that he had put his negative upon it; and, on the other hand, there might, for aught he could satisfy himself about on a sudden, be other reasons, which he did not state, especially why it might not be advisable to him to be known to have concurred in it."

"Bowood, October 7, 1817.

"Yours of the 29th September, I think, I acknowledged in my last, which I believe was dated Wednesday, the third instant; since then, nothing very particular has occurred in this place. That same day, I think it was, came Hamilton (of Payne's Hill) and his wife, from Bath. Lord Shelburne sent his carriage for them, and sent them

back yesterday. Hamilton has been giving his assistance in laying out the grounds here. He is an old man of seventy-five or seventy-six, and is, besides, very much afflicted, at times with the stone, but this time he was very cheerful and alert. There came, at the same time, a Mr Tonge or Tongue, who has no connexion with them, but, as it happened, came and went on the same day with them: an insipid, insignificant man, who lives at Bristol. I could perceive no other bond of connexion than the circumstance of his once having rented a house about a mile from Lord Shelburne's, which his lordship has just pulled down.

"On Thursday, came General Johnson, a neighbour of Lord Shelburne's: he is equerry to the king, and has been in waiting. He is an old man ; is deaf at times; and has got the nickname (so I learned by accident) of Old Sulky; he travels in a leathern conveniency of the same name. The account he gives of Governor Murray, quadrates very exactly with that which Barré was giving, and, being a government man, may the better be depended upon. He has a son there, to whom, he acknowledges, Murray has been very kind; so that there does not appear to be any thing of passion to corrupt his judgment.

"Since my last, I have received a letter from Q. S. P.,* at Bath, in which (blessed be God therefor) he tells me there will be no occasion for me to go to Oxford; for that C. Abbot has no competitor, and looks upon himself as sure. I had asked him about the price of woollen cloth, which, I had heard from Barré, was as cheap there as broad cloth in London, viz., 18s. Q. S. P., upon inquiry, confirmed that idea; and, in the overflowings of his affection, offered me a coat of it as a Bath present: so away go I on cock-horse tomorrow morning, to be measured for it. I shall return in the afternoon.

"A day or two ago I received a letter from Sam,† dated Catherineburgh, and Nigriaghill; the bad news it contains is-that he has lost a portable barometer, and gold to the value of £13 or £14, by the breaking of a phial of quicksilver by the overturning of a trunk. The good news-that the model of his plane-engine is finished, and succeeds to the satisfaction of everybody; the engine itself would have been finished, but for a vacation of six weeks, which the workmen have on account of the harvest; the time for which, in that country, being very short, requires as many hands as can be mustered. I wait only for Parson Townsend, to quit this place. I cannot think what has become of the man; he leaves me in an awkward predicament. He was to have been here on Wednesday. There is now nobody but Miss F— and Colonel Barré. Adieu. I send you a frank for Davies.”

* Queen Square Place, his father.-E. T. M. His brother, Sir Samuel Bentham, then in the Russian service.-E. T. M,

NO. LXXXV.-VOL. VIII.

(To be continued.)

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Vienna had learned to boast of him as the third glory of an era already illustrated by the names of Haydn and Mozart.

MORE than thirteen years have now passed since the death of the great composer Beethoven; and until lately, beyond a few scanty notices, no attempt had been made to preserve a record of his re- To the interest belonging to an achievement like markable existence. The memorials of men of this are added others, hardly less active, of a pergenius are among the most precious of their le-sonal nature: the affliction (of all that can befall gacies to the world: they give an additional value to the works by which they have become known; and in some cases furnish an interpretation, without which portions of these must ever remain enigmatical and obscure. This appears to have been, in no small degree, the case with Beethoven; in whom many other circumstances were united to attach a strong interest to the personal history of his

career.

He was the immediate successor and rival of the two great composers who had raised instrumental music in Germany to a point which it was thought could not be overstepped. While their fame was yet in its zenith, he had compelled their admirers to acknowledge in him the presence of another, and some thought, a greater power than theirs. Whether his boldness was admired or condemned, it was impossible to regard it with indifference; and as he continued to pour forth work after work, each surpassing its predecessor in grandeur and originality, those who had disputed his pretensions became silent, or were no longer heard amidst the general acclamation. Before his career was closed,

a musician, the hardest to endure) which was known to have vexed his latter years; the solitary manner of his life; the exaggerated rumours which got abroad of the gloomy energy of his character, and the eccentricity of his habits; and the hardships of poverty which were reported to have aggravated the burden of his last illness, and to have hastened his untimely death;-all these naturally sharpened the curiosity which always follows the history of those who have become eminent in word or deed. For some time there was reason to fear that this curiosity would be wholly disappointed; or satisfied in part only, with such scattered notices as could be given by those who, like Seyfried and Ries, had come but temporarily in contact with him. He was never married; lived from his early youth at a distance from his birth-place; had few intimates at Vienna; and appeared to have left little beyond his imperishable compositions, to preserve his memory after death. There was, indeed, one person from whom a biography of Beethoven might have been expected,

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