"extended with her fame, and she was often able to assemble round her humble tea-table names, whose celebrity would have attracted attention in the proudest saloons of the metropolis."

6

Thus settled in London, and fortunately introduced into that society which she had so ardently coveted, she turned her attention to the drama, as a lucrative branch of literature. Whatever merit may have belonged to her theatrical productions, she found the obstacles to success so numerous and harassing, that after ample experience of the miseries of an expectant dramatist in the progress of intercourse with managers, she was compelled to relinquish her anticipations. She was then employed by Mr Bowyer, the engraver, to write a poem on the Slave Trade,' which, with two others, was published in a quarto volume, with illustrative engravings, in 1812. Her next productions were two anonymous novels, the success of which disappointed the expectations of her friend Mrs E. Hamilton, through whose recommendation they had been sent to the press. All these works displayed considerable merit, but they wanted something of regular and finished excellence; and her reputation as a cultivator of literature was not established till she engaged in biographical composition. She successively produced Memoirs of Mrs Eliz. Hamilton;' Memoirs of John Tobin, the dramatist;' and 'Notices of Klopstock and his Friends, prefixed to a translation of their Letters from the German.' In her ensuing work she took a higher flight, and employed her pen in delineating the history of the unfortunate Anne Boleyn, a subject in the selection of which she was very fortunate; and her production not only obtained an extensive circulation in this country, but it was also thought deserving of being translated into French.+ Encouraged by her success, Miss Benger attempted the history of Mary, Queen of Scots; and this was followed by her Memoirs of Elizabeth, Queen of Bohemia.' It appears that it was at one time the intention of Mrs Hamilton to have written the Life of this Princess, as a sort of companion to her Memoirs of Agrippina; and the circumstance probably influenced Miss Benger in her choice of this subject, which she has treated with considerable effect. This is the latest of her published works; though she had undertaken to compile Memoirs of Henry IV of France, the progress of which was prevented by her death, which happened, after a short illness, on the 9th of January 1827.

The character of Miss Benger is thus affectionately pourtrayed by the lady, to whose memorial of the worth of her deceased friend repeated references have been made in the course of this article:

* Ibid.

V. Revue Encyclopédique, tome xxxiii, p. 573.

"To those who knew her and enjoyed her friendship, her writings, eloquent and beautiful as they are, were the smallest part of her merit and her attraction. To the warmest, most affectionate, and grateful of human hearts, she united the utmost delicacy and nobleness of sentiment, active benevolence, which knew no limits but the furthest extent of her ability, and a boundless enthusiasm for the good and fair wherever she discovered them. Her lively imagination lent an inexpressible charm to her conversation, which was heightened by an intuitive discernment of character, rare in itself, and still more so in combination with such activity of fancy and ardency of feeling. As a companion, whether for the graver or the gayer hour, she had few equals; and her perfect kindness of heart and universal sympathy rendered her the favourite of both sexes, and of all classes and ages. With so much to admire and to love, she had everything to esteem. Of envy or jealousy there was not a trace in her composition; her probity, veracity, and honour, derived, as she gratefully acknowledged, from the early precepts of an excellent and meritorious mother, were perfect. Though free from pride, her sense of dignity was such, that no one could fix upon her the slightest obligation capable of lowering her in any eyes; and her generous propensity to seek those most who needed her friendship, rendered her, in the intercourses of society, oftener the obliger than the party obliged. No one was more just to the characters of others, no one more candid, no one more worthy of confidence of every kind.”*

CATALOGUE OF THE WORKS OF ELIZ. O. BENGER.

1. The Female Geniad; a Poem, written at the age of thirteen. London 1791. 4to.

2. The Abolition of the Slave Trade; a Poem, 1809. 4to..

3. The Heart and the Fancy, or Valsinore; a Tale. London, 1813. 2 vols. 12mo.

4. Klopstock and his Friends; a Series of Familiar Letters, from the German, forming a Sequel to his Life, by Miss Eliz. Smith. London, 1814. 2 vols. 12mo.

5. Memoirs, with a Selection from the Correspondence, and other unpublished Writings of the late Mrs Elizabeth Hamilton, 1818. 2 vols. 8vo.

6. Memoirs of Mr John Tobin, with a Selection from his unpublished Writings, 1820. 8vo.

7. Memoirs of Anne Boleyn, Queen of Henry VIII, 1821. 2 vols. 8vo.

8. Memoirs of the Life of Mary, Queen of Scots, 1823. 2 vols. 8vo. 9. Memoirs of Elizabeth Stuart, Queen of Bohemia, Daughter of King James I; including Sketches of the State of Society in Holland and Germany in the 17th Century, 1825. 2 vols. 8vo.

* Lit. Gaz. u. a.

THE

QUARTERLY

BIOGRAPHICAL MAGAZINE.

AUGUST 1828.

WILLIAM MITFORD.

IT may be remarked as a curious coincidence of accidental circumstances, that Mr MITFORD, who distinguished himself as the historian of ancient Greece, and Gibbon, the author of the History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, were both military officers, serving in the same regiment, (the South Hampshire Militia,) at the same period. The latter, in his account of his own life, says, "I diligently read and meditated the Memoires Militaires' of Quintus Icilius (M. Guichard,) the only writer who has united the merits of a professor and a veteran. The discipline and evolutions of a modern battalion gave me a clearer notion of the phalanx and the legion; and the captain of the Hampshire grenadiers (the reader may smile) has not been useless to the historian of the Roman empire."* Mr Mitford doubtless derived similar advantage from his professional experience, in developing the military details of Xenophon and Thucydides, and describing the wars of the Greeks and Persians. Both our celebrated countrymen also must have owed their literary eminence, in some measure, to those studies to which they were urged by the necessity of finding employment for the long intervals of leisure occurring in the course of their home campaigns.

William Mitford was descended from an ancient family, settled originally in the north of England+; though his immediate pro

* Gibbon's Memoirs.-Autobiography, vol. xiv.

The surname of Mitford is of local origin; and we are told that John de Mitford, was lord of Mitford castle, in the county of Northumberland, in the reign of William the Conqueror. As he left no male issue, two collateral branches succeeded; the elder was related by means of an intermarriage of

VOL. I.-NO. II.

K

genitors were resident in Hampshire. William Mitford, Esq. of Newton-house, in the county of Hants, married Margaret, daughter of Robert Edwards, of Wingfield, in Berkshire, a London merchant, by whom he had a son, John, who became a member of Lincoln's-inn. The latter married Philadelphia, daughter of William Revely, Esq. of Newby, in Yorkshire, a lady who was first cousin to Hugh, first duke of Northumberland. Two sons were the fruit of this union, of whom the youngest has obtained distinction as a lawyer, and has been raised to the peerage by the title of Lord Redesdale. The elder son was the subject of this memoir, who was born in London, February 10th, 1744. He received his early education at a grammar school at Cheam, in Surrey, under the tuition of the Rev. William Gilpin, on whom he subsequently bestowed the vicarage of Boldre, in the New Forest. From this seminary Mr Mitford removed to Queen's College, Oxford, which he quitted without having taken a degree. The period of his academical residence was probably curtailed, in consequence of his destination to the profession of the law, and he consequently entered as a student at the Middle Temple. This pursuit however he also relinquished. The death of his father, which took place in 1761, put him in possession of the family estate at Exbury, near Southampton; and he probably consulted his own inclination in leaving his brother to profit by those advantages of connexion and patronage which awaited him in his career as barrister, and adopting a more independent mode of life.

In May 1766, he was married to Frances, daughter of James Molloy, Esq. of Dublin, who was maternally related to the present earl Bathurst. A few years after Mr Mitford obtained a commission in the South Hants Militia, and he first joined the regiment as captain, May 22nd, 1769. He was appointed lieutenant-colonel November 22nd, 1779; and having been promoted to the colonelcy August 9th, 1805, he held it till October 15th, the following year, when he resigned. In 1778, he was appointed to the office of Verdurer of the New Forest. At three different periods Mr Mitford occupied a seat in the House of Commons. He was first returned M.P. for the borough of Newport, in Cornwall, in 1785, to fill the vacancy occasioned by the death of Sir John Coghill, Bart. and he represented that place till the

his only daughter with the Bertrams, barons of Mitford; while from the younger were descended the Mitfords of Rollaston, the representative of whom, Robert de Mitford, received from Charles II a grant of Mitford castle. Robert Mitford, Esq. of Mitford, served the office of sheriff of Northumberland, in 1723; and William Mitford, Esq. held the same office, in 1772. William Mitford, of Newton-house, mentioned above, was the fifth in descent from Robert de Mitford.-Public Characters of 1807, p. 138.

close of the parliament, in 1790. From 1790 to 1796, he was not a member of the legislature; but in the latter year he was, through the interest of the duke of Northumberland, elected representative of the borough of Beeralston, where he succeeded his brother, now Lord Redesdale, who had sat for the same place in two preceding parliaments.

Mr Mitford was not a frequent speaker in parliament, nor does it appear that he attracted attention as a senator till 1798, when on the occasion of a proposition brought forward by Mr Secretary Dundas, (Lord Melville), for increasing the number of fieldofficers in the militia, and introducing innovations in the constitution of that branch of the army, he objected to the measures contemplated by the minister. He stated that he was as desirous as any one could be of augmenting the militia force of the country, but he thought that the militia should be governed by the militia laws; or if they were amended, the amendment should be made in the same spirit as the old militia law, instead of being regulated by those which governed the army. He insisted, at the same time, in conformity with these principles, that any additional power which might be requisite for the appointment of officers ought to be given to the lords-lieutenants of counties. He then entered into a brief history of the original establishment of the militia, and remarked on the constitutional jealousy with which the militia laws had been originally framed. He lamented at the same time, that in many respects the principles of these laws had been departed from in the enactment of subsequent statutes upon that subject, and that they were still further departed from in the proposed bill. He then concluded with giving it as his opinion that the qualifications of the superior officers should be greater than what was proposed by the bill; which opinion, however, he said, was not uttered from any distrust of any part of our military force, or from any want of confidence in his majesty's ministers.*

The subject of our military establishment also excited the attention of Mr Mitford, when Mr Pitt, in June 1804, brought forward his "Additional Force Bill." He condemned the measure as unconstitutional, by proposing to weaken the militia establishment, the safest and most approved part of our national defence;" and he also "severely reprobated the idea of increasing our standing armies to a degree inconsistent with public liberty. He referred to instances of the dangerous effects of the augmentation of a military standing force in a free state; and particularly attended to the case of France, where thirty millions of people, animated by the most enthusiastic love of liberty, had been gradually overawed by three hundred thousand soldiers into

* Public Characters, pp. 239, 240