Bishops except the late ones from Engld, the Duke of Wharton, Lord Molesworth, and many others: Now if the Chief Justice continues his keenness, the man may be severely punished; but the business may be inconvenient, because I am looked on as the author; and my desire to you is that you would please to prevayl on the Duke of Grafton to write to the Chief Justice to let the matter drop, which I believe his Grace would easily do on your application, if he knew that I truly represented the matter, for which I appeal both to the Duke of Wharton and Lord Molesworth. I have the honour to be many years known to his Grace, and I believe him ready to do a thing of good nature as well as justice, and for yourself I am confident that you will be ready to give me this mark of your favor, having received so many instances of it in former times. “I beg you will excuse the trouble I give you, and believe me to be with great respect, Sr, your most obedient, and most humble servant, JONATH. SWIFT." The pamphlet here referred to by the Dean, was the famous one called a " Proposal for the universal Use of Irish Manufactures,” to be afterwards followed by the still more famous "Drapier's Letters." The prosecution was allowed to drop, when the Duke of Grafton, as Lord Lieutenant, returned from England to Ireland. Persons of less note in the republic of letters were in the habit of cultivating the favour and countenance of Hanmer, than those whose correspondence has been above quoted. By the time that George the Second had ascended the throne, the stanch Tory, after having been gradually retiring into the back scenes of the political drama, had withdrawn entirely from public life. While this, George, however, was Prince of Wales, and in open hostility to the King, we find that Sir Thomas assumed a forward posture in the House of Commons, and ably opposed the Whig government, attaching himself heartily to the Prince. But by the time that the Prince filled the throne, and had confirmed Walpole as his minister, literature, domesticity, and the country seem to have engrossed the time and attention of Sir Thomas. Being a man of mark, possessed of great wealth and influence, and known in the literary world to be no mean critic, he was looked up to by the poor authors of the period, as a most desirable patron, and was therefore "fed with soft adulation all day long." Here is a specimen. 44 "Sr, You see it is dangʼrous to be a person of candour. It draws trouble upon you, from wch men of less Humanity and more pride are exempt. It is this yt occasions you a second piece of Poetry. Surely a desire to please men of worth proceeds from a better principle than vanity. If it does not, I feel I have occasion for more humility than has fal'n to my share to withstand it. I confess ye crime, and am very proud to have pleas'd Sr Thomas Hanmer. Some men are oblig'd to keep ye world at a distance to preserve themselves from contempt. If they suffer others to close with them, they immediately discover their weakness: I have therefore always judg'd a condescending nature to be a sign of a sound head and an honest heart; & I am certain I am not mistaken in this rule when I now apply it. S1, I should be wanting to my own satisfaction, if I should not wait upon you, I will search for an opportunity to gratify it: I am too proud not to desire to have ye honour of being, 64 Your most obedient and most "Stuston, July 17th, 1725." The editor suspects with good reason that the poem which the reverend writer of this letter refers to, is that in which he lays on flattery with such a deeply-dipped brush as dashed off the following lines: 66 Unhallow'd feet o'er awful Tully tread, And Hyde and Plato join the vulgar dead : The life of Sir Thomas after his retirement from the political world, was not, however, one of unmixed peace and happiness. His first wife had died only in 1723, leaving no children; and two years afterwards when a man of fifty he took to himself another partner, who was a great deal younger than himself; and the union was anything but happy. In short, the lady eloped with her husband's own cousin, the Hon. Thomas Hervey, a hair-brained fellow, who continued to pester the staid and formal baronet in various ways, sch as publishing letters to him. Still in his solitude Hanmer found solace in literary pursuits, and in the correspondence of some of the first spirits of the age, as well as in the respect of his equals and dependants. Most of the letters addressed to him, as now published, are disfigured to be sure, by adulation; it was the vicious fashion of the age. But here is one from Bishop Berkley, bearing date August 21, 1744, which is as plain and sensible as it is kind and complimentary. "SIR, "As I am with particular esteem and respect your humble servant, so I heartily wish your success in the use of Tar Water may justifie the kind things you say on that subject. But since you are pleased to consult me about your taking it, I shall without further ceremony tell you what I think, how ill soever a Physician's may become one of my profession. Certainly, if I may conclude from parallel cases, there is room to entertain good hopes of yours; both giddiness and relaxed fibres having been, to my knowledge, much relieved by tar water. The sooner you take it, so much the better. I could wish you saw it made yourself, and strongly stirred. While it stands to clarify, let it be close covered, and afterwards bottled and wellcorked. I find it agrees with most stomachs when stirred even five or six minutes, provided it be skimmed before bottling. You may begin with a pint a day, and proceed to a pint and a half or even a quart, as it shall agree with your stomach. And you may take this quantity either in half pint or quarter pint glasses, at proper invervals in the twenty-four hours. It may be drunk indifferently, at any season of the year. It lays under no restraint, nor obliges you to go out of your usual course of diet. Only in general I suppose, light suppers, early hours, and gentle exercise, (so as not to tire) good for all cases. With your tar water, I wish you may take no other medicines. I have had much experience of it, and can honestly say, I never knew it do harm. The ill effects of drugs show themselves soonest on the weakest persons: such are children; and I assure you that my two youngest children (when they were one three, and the other not two years old) took it, as a preservative against the small-pox, constantly for six months together without any inconvenience. Upon the whole, I apprehend no harm and much benefit in your case, and shall be very glad to find my hopes confirmed by a line from your self, which will always be received as a great favour by Sir, yr most obedient and Of Hanmer's own literary acquirements, his edition of Shakspeare forms a sufficient testimony. Dr. Johnson declares him to have been a man eminently qualified by nature for such studies;" and also says, "As he never writes without careful inquiry and diligent consideration, I have received all his notes, and believe that every reader will wish for more." To be sure he involved himself in a bitter quarrel with Warburton by his splendid work, and provoked that dignitary's unmeasured scurrility. Still it is a performance, which, together with others presumed to be by him, entitles him to an enviable degree of regard and consideration. The only circumstance to which we further allude on the subject of Shakspeare concerns the drawings which were made for the edition in question, viz., a contract by which the provident and cautious old politician "tethers down the artist with a notable strictness." November the 28th, 1740. "An agreement enter'd into and made this present day between Sir Thomas Hanmer, Bart., and Francis Hayman, Gent. 1st. The said Francis Hayman is to design and delineate a drawing to be prefix'd to each play of Shakespeare, taking the subject of such scenes as the said Sir Thomas Hanmer shall direct; and that he shall finish the same with Indian ink in such manner as shall be fit for an engraver to work after them, and approved by the said Sir Thomas Hanmer. 2nd. That the said Sir Thomas Hanmer shall pay to the said Francis Hayman the sum of three guineas for each drawing, taken one with another, as soon as the whole number shall be finish'd. Upon this condi tion, nevertheless, and it is declared and mutually consented to, that if the whole number shall not be compleated in the manner before-mentioned by Lady Day, which shall be in the year of our Lord 1741, the said Francis Hayman shall not be entitled to receive any payment or consideration whatsoever for any part of the said work. "THO. HANMER. Sir Thomas died in 1746, having reached the verge of the span of life which the Psalmist accords to man as a good old age; nor did Dr. Johnson think it an unworthy office to translate from the Latin an elegant and eulogistic epitaph over him. Here is the Baronet's portrait taken from recollection. "Of the personal appearance and manners of Sir Thomas Hanmer, in his latter days, I have heard something from a yeoman at Mildenhall, whose father was one of his tenants. His description of the great man of the village accorded well with the Montalto of Pope, and with the outward and visible signs of his character which may be gathered from other sources. My informant spoke of the baronet as a portly old gentleman, of a very stately carriage, accustomed to walk solemnly to church twice on every Sunday, followed by all his servants, and moving from his iron gates to the porch of the church between two ranks of his tenants and adherents, who stood, hat in hand, bowing reverently low, while the great man acknowledged their salutations by a few words and a dignified condescension." Among the diversified and curious contents of the present volume, certain extracts from the Account-Book of Hanmer's first wife, Duchess of Grafton, are not the least interesting. The editor first of all tells us, that the caligraphy and orthography of this distinguished lady are not of the most perfect kind. Yet she was the only daughter of Henry Bennet, Earl of Arlington, one of the principal ministers of Charles the Second. The Duchess ("Isabella Grafton is my name," as the cover of the Account-Book has it,) seems to have been a great frequenter of play-houses, and to have been much addicted to cards; so that though her pin-money allowance from Hanmer was £500 per annum, we surmise that additional drafts must have been resorted to, to keep up her various and in certain particulars inconsiderate expenditure. There is to " Ben the Chairman, £13," in one entry; and to " Chairmen," in another, £16. 14s. Od., which look very like charges for evening gaieties. "To the Opera," is frequently mentioned, 10s. 9d. per. visit, and 8s. at a later period; these appearing to be the money paid at the door. She is constantly losing at cards, and large sums too, for the age and for a lady. It is fortunate that on one occasion, we observe her husband to have been the gainer from her of £7. 10s. 6d. The players are often recipients of her bounty; and the Christenings, she often patronised, appear never to have cost less than about ten guineas of what, the editor calls, self-inflicted taxation. In matters of dress she seems to have been lavish and fanciful; silk stockings coming very frequently into the accounts. But what is still more to be remarked, there are for drops of brandy a fearful frequency of entry after 1713-14. Usquebaugh also is honoured. We suspect these drops were taken upon the sly; for one shilling and other small sums are often the charges marked. It would, as the editor suggests, be charitable to suppose that her Grace was a martyr to the toothache: but then it must be borne in mind that there is no falling off in the number of outgivings to the poor, at card-parties, and the usual occurrencies of activity and gaiety, in juxtaposition with the spiritual recordings in this curious diary. The last entry we shall mention is "For Raddell, 2s. ;" to which the editor affixes this note-" This item, which appears frequently after 1711, is, I fear, synonymous with rouge. The coarse red stuff with which farmers mark their sheep, is still called raddell.” The next contribution we come to as produced from the Hanmer archives is a quaint account of France, written in 1648, by another Sir Thomas, grandfather of the Speaker. We like the account not only because it bears the true characteristics of the age in which it was written, but because it exhibits an accomplished, generous, and acute English gentleman graphically sketching the state of France in its many capacities as presented during the minority of Louis the Fourteenth. A sketch of the young king is all that we can find room for, from this curious and elegant document, which would fill ordinary foolscap octavo volume of our day. an The ffonntaine of all honour and justice is the king, who comes to the crowne by succession of the male line, not by any kind of election. Hee (out of his owne regality and power) makes lawes, repeales or interprets them, makes peace, declares warr, coynes money, grants pardons, naturalises strangers, legitimates bastards, layes what taxes and impost hee pleaseth, and disposeth of the money, erects courts of justice and universities, makes all governours, creates offices; and, in a word, is absolute. The present monarch is Lewis, the fourteenth of that name, borne at St. Germains en Lay, the 5th of Septembar new style, anno Dmni. 1638; stiled by many A Deodatus, the king and queene having beene married 26 yeares before his birth without any issue. Hee is the son of King Lewis the 13th, and the grandchild of King Henry the 4th, who was the first king of the House of Bourbon, which lyne entered into the succession of the crowne by their Salike law, as the next male lyne after the extinction of that of Valois, in Henry the Third. 66 His mother is Anne of Austria, eldest sister to Philip the Fourth, the present King of Spaine. The tender age of this young prince will not afford muth to bee said of his person; no judgement can yet be made of his inclinations, but his countenance promises as much sweetnes and goodnes as any that ever I behield; his complexion is pure and delicate (therein resembling his mother's side), his haire faire, his eyes black, and all his features perfectly good and lovely; the shape of his body is answerable, his Im's streight and well proportioned, and strong enough. |