Lord Suffolk died in 1733; in the following year his relict quitted Court; and in the next married the Hon. George Berkeley, youngest son of the second Earl of Berkeley. He died in 1746, and, if we may form a judgment from his letters here given, atoned by the cordiality of his affection for her former conjugal unhappiness. By him she had no issue; by her first husband she had a son, afterwards Earl of Suffolk. Lady Suffolk died in July, 1767. The papers from which these volumes are selected were bequeathed by her to her nephew the Earl of Buckinghamshire, and by him to his daughter the present Dowager (we beg pardon, Emily,) Marchioness of Londonderry. The list of correspondents is most brilliant; scarcely a personage of those days distinguished for rank or wit can be named who is not among them; but the reader must not expect to be dazzled by the splendour of this galaxy. As a whole the collection is dull. Some bright sparks here and there break out: but if the post-bags of our own days are filled in like manner, we cannot but congratulate the venerable Mr. Freeling, that he is no longer expected, like Lord Lovell and other official predecessors, diligently to inspect and to give an account of their contents.

66

The correspondence opens and concludes with letters from Lord Chesterfield. They are among the best in the collection; but there are passages in them which out of regard for his lordship's acknowledged pre-eminence as an arbiter elegantiarum, might have been safely omitted; and it is at best but an incautious eulogy in the editor to speak of that nobleman as “ having enjoyed the highest reputation for all sorts of merit that any man ever, perhaps, obtained from his contemporaries." We need not more distinctly allude to certain kinds of merit to which Lord Chesterfield made no pretence; and the want of which perhaps may add, in the opinion of some, to the sovereignty of his politeness. While ambassador at the Hague his days were not spent quite according to his taste; if we may judge from the following picture.

"My morning is entirely taken up in doing the King's business very ill, and my own still worse; this lasts till I sit down to dinner with fourteen or fifteen people, where the conversation is cheerful enough, being animated by the patronazza, and other loyal healths. The evening, which begins at five o'clock, is wholly sacred to pleasures; as, for instance, the Forault till six; then either a very bad French play, or a reprize at quadrille with three ladies, the youngest upwards of fifty, at which, with a very ill run, one may lose besides one's time, three florins; this lasts till ten o'clock, at which time I come home, reflecting with satisfaction on the immo

cent amusements of a well spent day, that leave no sting behind them, and go to bed at eleven, with the testimony of a good conscience." Vol. I. P. 289.

Lord Chesterfield's letters from Bath and Scarborough are written with considerable ease and gaiety, and may be acceptable as curious, and probably as faithful sketches of the society frequenting those places. The chief interest however has passed away with the local nothings to which they related; and it is troublesome to be compelled to read with a perpetual commentary.

"Your kinswoman, the Duchess of Norfolk, had like the other day to have been the innocent cause of Mrs. Buckley's death. Mrs. Buckley was bathing in the Cross Bath, as she thought, in perfect security, when of a sudden her Grace, who is considerably increased in bulk even since you saw her, came, and like the great leviathan, raised the waters so high, that Mrs. Buckley's guide was obliged to hold her up in her arms to save her from drowning, and her about like a child." Vol. II. P. 162. carry

In the two following letters, written in masquerade, we think Horace Walpole bears the bell away from his rival wit.

"LORD CHESTERFIELD (in the Character of his Footman) to LADY SUFFOLK.

"Bath, Nov. 6, 1766. "May it please your Ladyship,-My lord told me as how that it was your ladyship's orders that I should write you a card to acquaint you how he did after his journey hither; but with submission to his lordship, I thought that that would be too great a presumption in one like me, to a lady of your quality, to send you such a card as we carry twenty times a day in town, and therefore I chose the way of a letter, as the most respectful of the two. For you must know, that we London footmen pick up a sort of secondhand good manners from keeping good company, and especially from waiting at table, where we glean up some scraps of our masters' good-breeding-if they have any.

"To say the truth, I cannot very well understand why my lord would rather employ my hand than his own in writing to your ladyship; and if I dare say so, I think he was a good deal out in point of breeding; which I wonder at the more, because I have heard him say that there was nobody in the world that he honoured and respected more than your ladyship, and that you was the oldest acquaintance, friend, and fellow-servant that he had: and indeed, I believe he spoke what he thought; for you know he could have no reason for telling an untruth in my hearing, who was not then very likely to have an opportunity of telling it you again.

But to come to the point, my lord was very much fatigued

with his journey, not being (as I heard him say) what he was thirty years ago-I believe he might have said fifty. However, he is pretty well for him; but often complains that he feels a sensible decay both of body and mind, and, between you and I, I think not without reason; for I, who see him every day, can, notwithstanding, observe a considerable alteration in him, and by no means for the better: and so I rest, with duty and respect, &c. "THOMAS ALLEN."

"HORACE WALPOLE (in the Character of Lady Suffolk's Maid) to LORD CHESTERFIELD.

[In answer to the foregoing. The letter is indorsed Lady Suffolk to Lord Chesterfield,' but it is in Walpole's hand; and the praise of Lady Suffolk certainly never came from her own pen.]

"Lack-a-day, Mister Thomas, I niver was yet in such a parlous confusion, to be sure now in my life's-time. Says my lady's woman, says she, "Betty, my lady says as how you must write to Mister Thomas, my Lord Whatdycallum's man." Me, ma'am?" says I.-"Yes," says she, "you," says she." Blessid fathers!" says I, "I never writ to a man in my days," says I, "but our farmer, and he can't read ; but I know he gets the doctur to read it for him-and so that's no sin you know."-" Nay, nay," says she. "Well, wel!," says I, "God's will and my lady's be done.We poor folks must do as we are bid: Heaven is above all; and if grate folks makes us do ill, they are ansurable for it."-Howsumdever, I wishes I had gon to my Lady Huntintun; I mout have bettir'd myself, and had vails, and gon to Heavn into the bargin. But I must be a fool, and needs see Lundun town; and now see what cums on it.-And so now I am talkin of Lundun, I wishes you and your lord were at Old Nick-God forgive me!for here have I been turmoilin and puzelin my poor brains to write to a Jackadandy, and mist my Lord Mare's show, and the grate Alderman Becford, and Lord Timple, and the Duke's Grace of Northumberlandshire, and all the fine folks; and Jeny has seen um, and got a sweet-hart into the bargin: nay, and what's worserur and worserur, I supose I shall only be flouted and jeer'd by you and your fello sarvants; for they says as how your lord is the gratest wit in all England, and so I suppose you fansis yourself the secund, and will make a mock of a poor girl. But I says my prairs, and goes to hear Doctur Madin, and he says if we be scorn'd of man, we shall get bettir plases in next world, if we cums with a charactur; and he has been so graseful as to promis me one for half-a-crown; and to be sure now he shall have the first I gits, aftur I have bout me a negligee and a few odd things that I wants. And so my lady is pure well, only she coffs a litel now and then, all day long, and she says, and so says Mister Rusil, our butler, that your lord may be asham'd of himself-so he mayto say he grows old; for he niver was spritlier in his born days; and to be sure, between you and I, my lady is hugely fond of him,

and I wishes with all my heart, so I do, that it prove a match, for she is as good a lady as ever trod in shoolether; and so, with love to all frinds-excusin this scraul, I rests

"Mister Thomus Allen.

"Yours til deth,

ELIZEBETH Wagstaff.”

Vol. II. P. 334.

Gay was much distinguished by Mrs. Howard. He writes thus to her from Dijon.

"I am now at Dijon in Burgundy, where, last night, at an ordinary, I was surprised by a question from an English gentleman, whom I had never seen before: hearing my name, he asked me if I had any relation or acquaintance with myself, and when I told him I knew no such person, he assured me that he was an intimate acquaintance of Mr. Gay's at London. There was a Scotch gentleman, who all supper time was teaching some French gentlemen the force and propriety of the English language; and, what is seen very commonly, a young English gentleman with a Jacobite governor. A French marquis drove an abbé from the table by railing against the vast riches of the Church; and another marquis, who squinted, endeavoured to explain transubstantiation;

thing might not be what it really appeared to be, my eyes," says he," may convince you; I seem at present to be looking on you; but, on the contrary, I see quite on the other side of the table." I do not believe that this argument converted one of the heretics present; for all that I learned by him was, that to believe transubstantiation it is necessary not to see the thing you seem to look at.

"So much I have observed on the conversation and manners of the people. As for the animals of the country, it abounds with bugs, which are exceedingly familiar with strangers; and as for plants, garlick seems to be the favourite production of the country, though for my own part I think the vine preferable to it; when I publish my travels at large, I shall be more particular; in order to which, to-morrow I set out for Lyons, from thence to Montpelier, and so to Paris; and soon after I shall pray that the winds may be favourable, I mean, to bring you from Richmond to London, or me from London to Richmond; so prays, &c. J. GAY," Vol. I. P. 33.

It has been usual to impute great blame to the powerful friends who, it is said, so long amused themselves with and neglected Gay. Mrs. Howard, we think, is completely cleared by the following statement, and by the admirable reply of Lady Betty Germaine to a morose and snarling letter from Swift, already published in his 'correspondence, and republished in that now before us. But we cannot bring ourselves to call that an indecorous pride which refused the comparatively menial office of gentleman usher to a younger Princess; and we must hold that the Minister who

made Gay a Commissioner of the lottery, was as little" smit with the love of song," as that other, who made Burns an exciseman.

"Gay, beloved by every body, was supposed to be especially patronized by Mrs. Howard; but that patronage (and perhaps some indiscretions of the simple bard himself) ensured him, it is said, the discountenance of Queen Caroline, and the opposition of Sir Robert Walpole. Swift, displeased with Mrs. Howard on his own account, affected to quarrel with her for her imputed neglect of poor Gay. Lady Betty Germaine in, two excellent letters printed amongst those of Pope and Swift, defended the sincerity of Mrs. Howard; but it was not till after the death of both the queen and George II. that it was fully known how little was the influence of the favourite, and how absolute that of the queen. But, after all, there is reason to doubt whether Gay's grievances were not overrated. His tory friends, who did not choose to avow their own cause of quarrel against Walpole and the queen, were not unwilling to make a pretext of his. Let us endeavour to set right a point of literary history. Gay, far from being persecuted, appears to have been favoured by people in power. He was selected in 1714, to be secretary of the mission which conveyed to the Brunswick family the news of the illness of Queen Anne, and of its own approaching accession. Gay's friends confess that his own awkwardness and simplicity threw away this opportunity of recommending himself; and the truth is, that "in simplicity a child," he was wholly incapable of business. In 1724, we find him publicly and actively patronised by the prince's court. In 1727, on the accession of George II. he was offered the situation of gentleman usher to one of the young princesses. This office, Gay-under the advice of his friends-refused as an indignity. Where the indignity was is not easily discovered; the kind of place fit for Gay was a small sinecure which might afford him bread, and leave him leisure for his literary pursuits; and such was the office proposed to him: for one of higher and more important duties his temper and habits incapacitated him; nor does it seem such a violent indignity, that he, whose greatest merit at that time was his "Fables," written for one royal child, should have been appointed to a nominal office about another royal child. But a most important fact has not hitherto been noticed by any of Gay's biographers, though traces of it are to be found in his correspondence. He was, in 1722, during the height of Walpole's power, appointed a commissioner of the lottery, a place in the minister's immediate gift, of respectable emolument and little labour. It is true that his name was omitted from the commission in 1731, but surely that might have been fairly expected (even if his state of health did not account for the omission) after the publication of The Beggar's Opera, which he professedly wrote as a satire on the court, and on Walpole and Lord Townshend personally; and it is painful to find