M the third volume; leaving a great portion of tale to be told at a future day, which Mr. Cooper has promised to do in a sequel to "Homeward Bound:" how soon it will be published we do not know, but sooner the better say we, and we think the reader will join in the exclamation with us. In conclusion we desire to remark, that, disposed, indeed, as we are to consider that the importance of any branch of literature is to be measured by its influence on society, we regard the occasional survey of that to which we have in this article called the reader's attention, as among our most necessary duties. The time has been long past in which it was the fashion to dispute the right of fictitious compositions to any respect among well-educated, moral, and thinking people, and even a very prudent man would be looked upon as more than ordinarily severe who should be now heard arguing on the danger or worthlessness of a cleverly-written novel. We have oftentimes been necessitated to show that, in many instances, the public confidence has been abused both by authors and publishers; but it has been our general intention to give such a view of the best novels of the day as should serve to remove any undue prejudices which might still affect their circulation. With that class, the composition of which requires but a mere passing acquaintance with the external forms of society, and which serves only to teach that which is not worth knowing, or which had better not been known, we shall wage incessant war. ART. X.-The Correspondence of Sir Thomas Hanmer, Bart., Speaker of the House of Commons; with a Memoir of his Life. To which are added, Other Relicks of a Gentleman's Family. Edited by SIR HENRY BUNBURY, Bart. London: Moxon. 1838. THERE exists at this moment in this country, we believe and trust, an increasing demand for authentic memoirs and the correspondence of eminent individuals, whether these be illustrative of history, human nature, or literature, at any given time. And if this be the case, it ought to be held as symptomatic of a healthier and more promising tone of feeling, judgment, and taste, than the popularity of cheap compilations and the greedy appetite for tinselled or purely fictitious publications have for years indicated. Transient excitement, highly seasoned food for the imagination, yet greatly diluted aliment for the intellect, so that much of it may be speedily and easily swallowed, never, however, to be properly digested, have been injuriously in fashion; while an excessive fondness for variety argues that the public taste has been pampered and vitiated. And yet, if healthful amusemeut, vivid indications of character, or passages of life calculated to gratify curiosity and yield lessons of pointed instruction in a great variety of forms, and under exceed ingly diversified conditions, be required, we counsel our readers to have recourse to such works as the present, whenever they desire profitably to obtain relief from cares or amid severe studies by means of a light sort of literature. We call the volume before us valuable as well as delightful; and were all the representatives of ancient and eminent names in the annals of Great Britain to open their muniment chests, and edit the choice contents of them in the same able and pleasant manner that Sir Henry Bunbury has here done, an amount of historical, biographical, epistolary, and antiquarian literature would become public property, the preciousness of which it is impossible to calculate. In the meanwhile, we are thankful for what we have now got, and proceed to present some specimens as well as to give some account of the volume's various contents. These contents are of an exceedingly miscellaneous description, the only things in common between a great proportion of them being this, that, with the exception of the Memoir and the illustrative notes, the whole have been taken from the family chests of the editor, all being originals, and all having come to him from sources with which he has in some way or another a family connexion. The personage who principally figures in the volume is, of course, Sir Thomas Haumer, with whose family that of the editor's became closely connected by marriage in the lifetime of Sir Thomas. Both were of ancient descent; and both, we presume, have met in the editor's person as a principal branch or the stem of the genealogical tree. The subject of the memoir was born in September 1677,-was educated at Westminster and Oxford, his reputation being that of a good classical scholar,-and when little more than twenty-one, mairied the widow of Charles, the first Duke of Grafton,-a lady reputed to have been a great beauty even at that time, though ten years older than the future speaker. By this marriage, his fortune and rank were greatly and favourably influenced, while his owu nanners, character, talents, and inheritance rendered him one of the most considerable personages of the age. He was elected to represent his native county of Flint, in the first parliament of Anne and for many years afterwards he took a prominent part in politics as well as maintaining a distinguished position among parties. He was a Tory, his toryism evidencing itself chiefly by a uniform and strenuous endeavour to uphold the landed interest, and still more, it would appear, the ascendency of the Anglican church. He hated the Dissenters perhaps more than the Catholics, and hovered for a time between favouring the House of Stuart and the House of Hanover. He wished to be considered independent, and seems to have been far above the influence of money, though his caution and reserve, perhaps justly, may have exposed him to the charge of being a trimmer. Of Orford and Bolingbroke, Sir Thomas cannot, from the evidences before us, tory though he was, have entertained any very favourable or confident opinion; and though they were anxious to win him entirely to their views, merely on account, however, of his abilities and of the consideration in which he was held, yet he was reluctant to take place under them, or along with chiefs between whom there was not only no cordiality, but upon neither of whom could he depend. At length, towards the close of the Queen's reign he consented to be proposed as speaker of the House of Commons, to which eminent situation he was unanimously elected. But it is unnecessary for us to notice particularly his political career, or advert to the various party struggles and the distractions of the times; for we are anxious to pass on to certain matters possessing a literary value, as well as to quote from the correspondence some letters which on account of the celebrity of the writers or the subjects to which they relate, possess, in our estimation, particular interest. The first of these epistolary documents was addressed by a remarkable man to Sir Thomas when the latter held the speakership; and refers to the exertion made by the Queen's ministers to expel the writer of it from his seat in the House of Commons. " · FROM RICHARD STEELE TO SIR THOMAS HANMER. March, 19th, 1713-4, Bloomesbury-square. " SIR, "The vote which passed upon me last night has, as far as common fame can do it, made me a seditious man. The whole tenour of my life and actions has been such as gave me hopes of another treatment. My friends about me tooke me down when I was going to throw away my papers, and speake what I thought most materiall for the consideration of the house on that occasion; but that is now too late to think of. "I am pronounced a guilty man by an awfull assembly, but an assembly which cannot act in points of justice but in a discretionary or declarative way. They can say what they think of a thing, but I do not know whether they can go any further but by way of laying accusations before another court. ་ ཐ་ "I writ what I writ with the laws in my view, and thought myself safe as long as I had them on my side. I am sure I did what I did in order to preserve them, and they are now my refuge. It is some comfort to me that my adversaries were reduced to the lamentable shift of saying, that tho what I said were true, I should be an offender in saying it. This is a monstrous position, for hell is the only place which can be destroyed by truth. My reputation, which is dearer to me than my life, is wounded by this vote, and I know no way to heal it but by appealing to the laws of my countrey, that they may have their due effect in the protection of innocence. I therefore humbly desire proper questions may be put to bring about resolutions of this kind, to wit "That Mr. Steele, who is expelled this house for, may be prosequuted at law for his said offence, and that no non pros. or noli prosequi may be admitted in his case. 1 "That Mr. Steele is or is not capable of being re-elected into this present parliament. "I am accused of undutifulnesse to the Queen. I hope it will appear to all the world I have not deserved that imputation. If I have, through weakness, done any thing that will support such an accusation, I know she is mercifull, and I, who have erred (if I have erred) from a good motive, shall be a proper object on which to exert that disposition in my sovereign. I desire, if I have committed any crime, to owe my safety from punishment to no other being upon earth. "I assure you it is a painfull circumstance of my present mortification, that it robs me of the hopes of your acquaintance and friendship, which I fear it is against rules you should honour a man with, who is under the disgrace of those whome you represent. As for the rest, I ought not to be much troubled at my leaving a place wherein I was so unacceptable as not to be suffered, on the most popular subject imaginable, that of expressing my self, Sr, yr most obedient and RICHARD STeele." The Speaker's answer to this exhibits an acquaintance with the rules of the House, and a perspicuous statement of the principle and method of these rules; so that Sir Richard in his reply, among other things says, " You have added the authority of reason to an implicit relyance on your character in convincing.' Sir Thomas Hanmer must have kept up an extensive correspondence with many of the most notable characters of the age; for we find, in the selection before us, a great number of letters from statesmen, generals, authors, and other eminent personages. Mathew Prior often appears as a correspondent; and his letters are particularly characteristic. We go back to the year 1706 for a short specimen. "If you can bear wth the worst poetry in the world because the author is more than any man yor servant, my present will be very acceptable. I write you no news, for that is only proper for the Post-boy and the Gazette, and remarks upon news I leave to the Observator and Review. Prose, you see, Sr, is below me, I have left method for rage, and common sence for enthousiasm. As soon as I recover from this distemper, and can think my mare a better beast than Pegasus, you will be troubled wth me. mean time, and ever, I am, with great truth and respect, Yor most ob and most humble sert, Sr, In the "MAT. PRIOR. I dare not presume to give my respects to my Lady Duchesse, but to Mrs. Ramsey friendship and love in great abundance, and let her take it ill if she thinks proper." In a note, the editor says, "Sir T. Hanmer has indorsed this letter thus: Mr. Prior, sent with his poem on the victory of Ramillies.' Here is another from Mathew. "SIR, "The very reason of my not answering your letter sooner is, that I was out of town when it arrived here, so all the excuses I can take for not coming to Euston from my attendance at the board, or my care of the plantations, will be found frivolous and scandalous; about a fortnight hence, therefore, all fourberie apart, I will certainly mount my terrestrial steed, and you shall see a gentle squire come pricking o'er the plain. A fortnight hence; if Mrs. Ramsay makes the calculation, she will find that this falls into Bartholomew-fair-time, and consequently my passion for her is very boyling, since I can leave the rope-dancers' booth, my dear Betty in the city, and pigg and pork, for her, an arbour, and a Suffolk dumplin: so pray, Sr, desire her to be patient and discreet, and on this condition my person is at her service. I am not master of eloquence enough to thank you for the kindness of your invitation, at least I will lose no merit I can have to Mrs. Ramsay, by confessing I have a mind to come on any other acct than that of my laying myself at her feet. I think that last sentence was gallant.—I have no news to tell you. The west winds have driven our descent back, and we do not know if we shall first hear of a battle in Spain, Italy, or Flanders. God send us success, and keep me long in your good graces, wht next and immediately under those of the above-mentioned Mrs. Ramsay, I shall always strive to improve, as being with great truth and respect, Sr, "Your most obt and most humble sert, Mrs. Ramsay seems to have been the friend and frequently the companion of the Duchess of Grafton. Swift, in his Journal, December, 1712, speaks of a lady, then about fifty-five, whom the Duke of Ormond, Lord Arran, and he, one day met at dinner, and says, 66 we are all very fond of her." Let us see how the Dean himself writes to Sir Thomas in 1720. "There is a little affair that I engaged some friends of mine to trouble you about, but am not perfectly informed what progress they have made. Last Term, one Waters, a printer, was accused and tryed for printing a pamphlet persuading the people here to wear their own manufactures exclusive of any from Engld, with some complaints of the hardships they lye under. There was nothing in the pamphlet either of Whig or Tory, or reflecting upon any person whatsoever; but the Chancellor, afraid of losing his office, and the Chief Justice desirous to come into it, were both vying who should shew their zeal most to discountenance the pamphlet. The printer was tryed with a jury of the most violent party men, who yet brought him in not guilty, but were sent back nine times, and at last brought in a speciall verdict, so that the man is to be tryed again next term. The Whigs in generalle were for the pamphlet, tho' it be a weak, hasty scribble, and generally abominated the proceeding of the Justice, particularly all the |