this last mentioned anxiety, even induced him to cherish rather than restrain it. He suffered himself, as it were, to get nervous upon principle, and reproached himself if ever he felt a moment of security. His attendance at a dull chapel of the French refugees on Sundays, or at a school upon the weekdays, where reading, writing, and arithmetic, together with Latin, were taught, appeared of slight avail. The preacher struck him as monotonous and sleepy but the pedagogue was lively enough. Of his profession, indeed, he knew nothing, except the most important art of flogging upon aristocratic principles. The name in which he rejoiced was not less euphonous than it was appropriate,-being no other than Flack! He scourged without mercy the sons of all the barbers, bakers, and butchers in the neighbourhood; more especially after the torments of an ever returning rheumatism had occasioned him a sleepless night. But the children of a goldsmith and jeweller, thought genteel, and reputed to be rich, found marvellous favor in his eyes. Samuel Romilly and his brother kept their skins scathless, do whatever they might whilst in the bosom of the former, such shameless partiality served to engender and confirm an abhorrence of oppression and injustice, which never afterwards diminished. Their father, however, perhaps seeing that they scarcely acquired anything at school, established it as a rule at home, that French 'should be spoken in the family on a Sunday;' and so Samuel learned French: and the same worthy parent being particularly desirous that he should acquire Latin, that he might distinguish himself in the law, he therefore went to work at sixteen, and with the assistance of an instructor named Paterson, engaged as a private tutor, he made respectable proficiency in that language also. For some interval, it had nevertheless been difficult to determine whether the lad should be articled to an attorney, or inducted into the counting-house of Sir Samuel Fludyer and Company. Those gentlemen were family connexions on the paternal side; and golden prospects appeared to open at one time in that direction. Mighty and suitable preparations were accordingly plunged into, that the wheel of fortune might not roll towards him in vain. It 'was resolved that I should learn the art or science (I know not 'which it should be called) of keeping merchants' accounts. A 'master was provided for me. I was equipped with a set of 'journals, waste books, bill books, ledgers, and I know not what; and I passed some weeks in making careful entries of ideal transactions, keeping a register of the times when fictitious bills 'of exchange would become due, and posting up imaginary ' accounts.' More time would have been lost in this ridiculous employment, had not his tutorial accountant suddenly decamped to avoid his creditors; and Sir Samuel Fludyer died of an apoplexy. Nobler destinies awaited him in future; although still

for many years his path ran along the gentler slopes and declivities of the busy world. His father had an immense business, not very well managed. His gross returns were £20,000 per annum; yet his profits seem to have been no more than sufficient to support himself in common comfort. Samuel Romilly, therefore, having averted his eyes and thoughts for the present, as well from the execrable dustiness and dulness of the only solicitor's office whose interior he knew, as also from the tripods and ledgers out of which the Fludyers had won fortunes and baronetcies, quietly assumed an unobtrusive station behind the paternal

counter.

Here he enjoyed two inestimable advantages, which a mind gifted as his was knew right well how to improve. His superiors were kind to him; and as great a portion of leisure fell to his lot, as can be good for any young man. Hence his home remained identified with his sphere of duty; whilst his greediness after knowledge developed itself in every possible direction. History, criticism, and poetry, absorbed him by turns. In respect to the last, like many other aspirants after fame, he soon grew persuaded that he had received, as Forster says, a diploma from Apollo. He strung together tolerable rhymes, and mistook them for productions pregnant with Promethean fire. His father, brother, and sister, with one or more cousins, constituted an admiring audience; and the shop of course became increasingly distasteful. These matters, however, gave him an interest in devoting his leisure hours to harmless instead of injurious pursuits. An illimitable horizon of science, information, and genius enlarged around him. His mind fed, and got more hungry the more it did so. The Roman language, already acquired, was now cultivated. Before reaching the verge of manhood, he had read every prose writer of the ages of pure Latinity, except those treating of technical subjects merely, such as Varro, Columella, and Celsus.' He had thrice perused the whole of Livy, Sallust, and Tacitus; all Cicero with very inconsiderable exceptions; besides going through Cæsar, Terence, Ovid, Virgil, Horace, and Juvenal, again and again. Greek he attempted, but with no success. Travels without end contributed to his general and geographical stores. He attended several courses of lectures on natural philosophy given by Martin, Ferguson, and Walker; as well as those on painting, architecture, and anatomy, at the Royal Academy. A rich relation of Mrs. Romilly just then died, bequeathing her husband a handsome fortune, and her three children from £7000 to £9000 amongst them. This wealth proved well bestowed; since it brought virtuous independence, and contented happiness upon its wings. Samuel had for his own individual share at first £2000, and afterwards £700 or £800 more. The grateful apostrophe into which he breaks out in his

6

secret memorandum reflects credit upon so young a person, as far we mean as his human benefactor was concerned. Blessed be 'his memory,' he writes, for this kindness. But for these lega'cies, the portion of my life which is already past must have been 'spent in a manner the most irksome and painful, and my present 'condition would probably have been wretched and desperate. I should have engaged in business; I should probably have failed ' of success in it; and I should at this moment have been without 'fortune, without credit, and without the means of acquiring 'either; and what would have been most painful to me, my 'nearest relations would have been without resources.' His father soon removed into a house at Marylebone, where he had before lived in lodgings when it was a village in the country; but by the increase of buildings it had now ceased to be such, and was merely the outskirts of London.

The successful barrister full often looked back in after life to many happy hours spent in High Street; where, although the paternal mansion was in appearance low and narrow, with its two small windows on a floor, and the little square piece of ground 'behind it dignified with the name of a garden,' yet nevertheless peace and satisfaction reigned in no ordinary degree. It would be cruel to withhold the following exquisite domestic picture, since it affectingly unveils the cunabula rerum in a united English family.

Those who had hearts to feel in what real pleasure consists might have here found a lively, youthful, and accomplished society, blest with every enjoyment that an endearing home can afford; a society united by a similarity of tastes, dispositions, and affections, as well as by the strongest ties of blood. They would have admired our lively, varied, and innocent pleasures; our summer rides and walks in the cheerful country which was close to us; our winter-evening occupations of drawing, whilst one of us read aloud some interesting book, or the eldest of my cousins played and sung to us with the most delicate taste and expression; the little banquets with which we celebrated the anniversary of my father's wedding, and of the birth of every member of our happy circle; and the dances, with which, in spite of the smallness of our rooms, we were frequently indulged. I cannot recollect the days, happily I may say the years, which thus passed away, without the most lively emotion. I love to transport myself in idea into our little parlor with its green paper, and the beautiful prints of Vivares, Bartolozzi, and Strange, from the pictures of Claude, Caracci, Raphael, and Corregio, with which its walls were elegantly adorned; and to call again to mind the familiar and affectionate society of young and old intermixed, which was gathered round the fire; and even the Italian greyhound, the cat, and the spaniel, which lay in perfect harmony, basking before it. I delight to see the door open, that I may recognise the friendly countenances of the servants, and above all of

the old nurse, to whom we were all endeared, because it was while she attended my mother that her health had so much improved. But yet, with such means of happiness, and in the midst of enjoyments so well suited to my temper and disposition, I was not completely happy. The melancholy to which I had from my childhood been subject, at intervals oppressed me; and my happiness was often poisoned by the reflection, that at some time or other it must end!'

-Vol. i. pp. 27, 28.

Meanwhile the old man of antiquity shook his hour-glass, sharpened his scythe, and realized these touching apprehensions, with regard to many persons and many things around Samuel Romilly. His dislike towards any retail business increased daily: yet the mind within him urged him to awake and be working; for his former playfellows and numerous acquaintances were launching their barks one after another, as if to leave him far behind. Once more it was determined that he should enter upon some department of the law; and at length he had been articled to William Michael Lally, Esq., one of the Six Clerks in the Court of Chancery. It was during his engagement, indeed, with this gentleman, that by far the largest portion of his juvenile acquisitions came to be made. Mr. Lally possessed a strong natural understanding, improved by general reading, much knowledge of the world, a high sense of honor, the purest integrity, a very brilliant fancy, and no ordinary talents for conversation. He seems to have performed for his young pupil exactly the part which the Swiss pastor at Lausanne did for Edward Gibbon. All unfounded prejudices against what is really useful and honorable were judiciously weeded out from a very hopeful and promising soil. An instructor could hardly have been selected more suitable than Mr. Lally. Not that he saw at once what the lad consigned to his care could really do; but various delightful encouragements were afforded to look upwards rather than downwards. His able clerk began slowly to feel his own strength; inwardly and not unfrequently dwelling and ruminating over a favorite expression of Virgil,—

'Aliquid jamdudum invadere magnum

Mens agitat mihi, nec placidâ contenta quiete est!'

Changes had occurred, moreover, at the French Chapel where the family attended, to the pastoral charge of which the Rev. John Roget now succeeded; having come over from Geneva, and settled in England for that purpose. In due course this amiable and gifted clergyman formed the warmest friendship with young Samuel Romilly, and finally married his sister. He too discerned the vast mental powers of his companion, and exercised

from first to last considerable influence over him. Lally dissuaded him from dreaming about the bar, erroneously conceiving his diffidence to be an insurmountable obstacle to success. Roget, on the other hand, judged far more accurately in this instance, nor ever let his brother-in-law rest, until with the rather reluctant consent of various relatives, he was at length entered at Grays Inn, after having completed the twenty-first year of his age. The works of Thomas had fallen into his hands. He had read with admiration his eulogium upon Daguesseau ; and the career of that illustrious magistrate excited to a very great degree his ardor and ambition. He had connected himself with Mr. Spranger, a chancery draftsman, through the advice of his recent master; nor was there any reason for repentance with regard to his choice. Mr. Spranger smoothed away many difficulties; throwing an interest even into those technical preliminaries indispensable to subsequent progress. Romilly passed all his mornings, and most of his evenings, in a very large library. Commonplace books enabled him to study legal reports with immense advantage. He also attended both houses of parliament on various occasions; neither neglecting any opportunity that of fered for improving his elocution, nor failing to cultivate the severest principles of classical taste upon a plan suggested by Quinctilian. The acquisitions of the scholar were blending themselves with those of the lawyer: whilst genius of the highest and most philosophical order presided over the union, and blessed it with its happiest auspices. He used to recite in abstracted thought any speeches or arguments he might have lately heard; answering them according to his own views of affairs as he passed through crowded streets; or polishing away what he deemed the roughnesses of his style whenever riding on horseback for needful exercise into the adjacent country. His health, which had never been strong, began to fail rapidly.

An alarming illness, attacking M. Roget about this period, augmented his cares. Change of air, the waters of Bath, total suspension of all intellectual pursuits, and recommended courses of medicine, appeared for months to produce very little beneficial effect. His nights were sleepless; his days restless and agitated; nor could the slightest exertions, whether physical or mental, be indulged in, without being immediately followed by fearful palpitations of the heart. Just as some of these distressing symptoms began to subside, the riots of Lord George Gordon, in 1780, again revived them. He had a morbid horror of mobs from his childhood and now the students of the various Inns of Court armed and enrolled themselves for their own defence. He, therefore, felt called upon under such circumstances to act as others did. For one whole night he remained out in the open air, ashamed of being or seeming ill at the crisis of danger.' During

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