Whig party should be called to the king's councils. Lord Russell gives the following account of the negotiations which ensued : "Nothing could be more unpalatable than such advice. Still the weakness which the Duke had pointed out was felt; and the death of Lord Egremont, which happened soon after, made it necessary to hit on some new expedient for keeping the great Whig chiefs out of power. At this emer kind Providence and your Grace's abilities, that day is now come; and well it is so, for, independent of all other private considerations, the state of my health is such, and any constant application to business is declared to be so fatal to me, that I find myself under the unpleasant necessity of putting my much-loved sovereign in mind of his promise. I have done so; and after scenes that I can never forget, his tenderness for me has got the better of his partiality to my poor endeavors to serve him, and he approves my determination.gency the Duke of Bedford was again applied to, Since this, I have often talked with his Majesty on the subject of a new administration, and he is come to the final resolution of putting the Treasury into Mr. Grenville's hands, as the only person in the House of Commons in whom he can confide so great a trust; Mr. Fox having taken the king's word when he first entered on the management of his affairs, that, the peace made, he might be permitted to go to the House of Lords. Three things the king is determined to abide by, and to make the basis of his future administration as they have been of his present. "1st Never upon any account to suffer those ministers of the late reign, who have attempted to fetter and enslave him, ever to come into his service while he lives to hold the sceptre. "2dly. To collect every other force, and above all, that of your Grace and Mr. Fox to his councils and support. 66 3dly. To show all proper countenance to the country gentlemen acting on Whig principles, and on those principles only supporting his government."-pp. 223, 224. It is scarcely necessary to dwell on the inaccuracies of this letter. If one thing be more obvious than another, it is that Bute had from the first been designed for the office he filled, and that his retirement, so far from being part of a preconcerted plan, was induced by fear, and was in direct opposition to the wishes of the king. The obstinacy of the monarch would have braved a storm before which the weaker and more timorous favorite quailed. The exclusion alluded to, obviously points to Newcastle and Pitt, with whom, however, ere many months had passed, Bute was again in correspondence with the design of forming another administration. Moreover, the Whigs, and Whig principles, were the objects of his special hatred. He had compassed their exclusion from power, and had raised up as their competitors a knot of reconciled Jacobins, who were content to forward the policy of the Stuarts under the house of Hanover. The Duke of Bedford, in his reply to Bute's application, pointed out the weakness of the administration which it was proposed to form, and advised that one should be constituted on a broader and more stable basis, particularly urging that the leading members of the and a special agent was sent to Blenheim with or- course. The proposals made by Mr. Pitt were, according to the only accounts which were pub lished, somewhat extraordinary. It is said that he not only desired to form a compact ministry of the principal Whigs of the kingdom, but that he refused to allow Mr. Grenville the office of paymaster, and put an absolute veto on the Duke of Bedford, as well as all others who had been concerned in the peace of Paris. It is to be lamented that a letter of Mr. Pitt relating to these transactions, has not been made public. The interview ended with a declaration of the king, which broke off the negotiation Mr. Pitt, this will never do. My honor is concerned.' : "What is certain is, that the king, who had hitherto been so cautious and reserved, spoke openly of Mr. Pitt's conditions, and took pains to inflame the anger of the proscribed. In particular, he told Lord Hertford that Mr. Pitt proscribed several, particularly his friend Lord Powis, had said little of Mr. Legg, and still less of the Duke of Grafton.' He desired Lord Sandwich to inform the Duke of Bedford that Mr. Pitt would not even consent that he should hold a place in the household. Bedford should advise the king to send for Mr. "It seems not a little strange that the Duke of Pitt, and that Mr. Pitt's first condition should be the exclusion of the Duke of Bedford from the king's councils. What Mr. Pitt really said to the king is not yet known. But there is no reason to doubt the duke's own assertion, that he did not wish for office. His inclinations, however, were changed when he found himself proscribed. In the heat of his indignation, inflamed by the king's personal request, he accepted at once the office of President of the Council. But in resuming a place in the cabinet, he insisted that Lord Bute should retire from the king's presence and councils; and this indeed was the absolute condition in which the administration stood. Thus Lord Bute recommended the king to send for the Duke of Bedford, who proscribed Lord Bute; and the Duke of Bedford advised his Majesty to send for Mr. Pitt, who proscribed the Duke of Bedford. In this confu xxxix. The same course of intrigue was continued under the administration of Mr. Grenville, which led the Duke of Bedford to seek an audience with the king, in order to remonstrate against the system that was pursued. His conduct on this occasion has been variously represented, but we are bound to say that the defence of Lord John is substantially satisfactory: "There appears," he says, "no reason to doubt, that from the commencement of the reign there was a party called the King's friends,' who at tempted to exercise all real power, while the show of it was only left to the responsible ministers; that on them all favor was bestowed, and by them the measures of the court were directed that while such was their influence, they kept in the back-ground, occupying permanently lucrative subordinate places, and leaving the labor and the risk of political affairs in the ostensible rulers of the country that at a signal from the court, any minister was at once removed; and a subservient House of Commons were directed to transfer their votes to some other puppet, destined to hold a rank equally powerless, by a tenure equally preca rious. : Ad sion of persons and parties, a ministry was created his descendant has made against the fierce which lasted for nearly two years."-pp. xxxvii- onslaught of Junius. If we do not misread the signs of the times, there is a tendency amongst our political writers to depreciate unduly this most marvellous of anonymous assailants. Indiscriminate eulogy was formerly fashionable, and we are now in danger of going to an opposite extreme. mit all that can fairly be urged—and we confess that it is much-and the letters of Junius will yet remain amongst the most lucid, condensed, vigorous, and withering specimens of political writing in our language. At a time when men feared to write their thoughts, and the nation was refused a report of the debates of its representatives, this masked champion entered the lists, and by his undaunted bearing and weight of metal, bore down every opponent. That he was unscrupulous, we admit. The floating rumor of the day was adopted, private vices were dragged to light; even natural deformities, as with fiendish exultation, were dilated on, and where other materials were wanting, invention was permitted to enlarge, to aggravate, and to blacken, the follies or the misdeeds of those whom he sought to overwhelm with public infamy. The moral of Junius was inferior to the mental. His character, however, cannot be duly estimated, without regard being had to the circumstances and spirit of his age. The more healthy modes of expressing public opinion were suppressed. Men were forbidden to speak and write as they felt, while the sacredness of the constitution was violated, and public liberty openly assailed. It is not for the advocates of such a policy to censure the vices of Junius. They were the growth of their own measures, the stealthy, unscrupulous, and revengeful indignation with which an outraged people gave utterance to their maledictions. We would his letters had been free from these vices, but as the atrocities of the French revolution were the natural fruit of the heartless tyranny and sensualism of the ruling classes of that country, so the The Grenville administration is known untruths, the slanders, the bitter malevoin English history by one of the most im- lence of Junius, find their cause and explapolitic and mischievous pieces of legislation nation in the political condition of his ever perpetrated. The resolutions which times. One thing he accomplished, and it carried for imposing stamp duties on for this we shall never withhold our gratiAmerica, led to the revolt of the colonies, tude. He had great faults; but he won and ultimately to their independence. But we cannot enter on this theme. Our business is with the Duke of Bedford, and before closing our notice of his Correspondence, we must advert to the defence which "If there be truth in these delineations, it was surely the duty of an old counsellor of the Crown to warn the sovereign of his danger; to implore him to permit his authority and his favor to go together; and either to invest his ministers with the influence belonging to his royal station, or to produce in open daylight the secret depositaries of his confidence. By such conduct the Duke of Bedford showed that he well knew the eternal difference between a true and sworn friend of the monarchy, and a slippery sycophant of the court. "The king, having resolved to keep his favor for his private friends and the Bute party, told the chancellor that he considered the Duke of Bedford's remonstrance as a resignation; nor could it be considered unhandsome to his ministers, after the alternative had been put to him, that he should take his choice of the course he preferred. He was resolved not to govern as George the First and George the Second had governed, by means of open parliamentary ministers."-pp. xliv-xlvi. for the people the right of free speech. He often penned untruths, and for this he is to be censured; but he established the claim of Englishmen to utter within the hearing of their rulers, the indignant re bukes of an insulted people. At the com- crimes charged upon him. No candid reamencement of his career his printer, Wood-der of the Introduction to this volume will fall, dared not publish, without considerable fail to acquit him, whatever estimate may alterations, a report which he had furnished be formed of his patriotism or ability. of one of Burke's speeches; but within two years that same printer published his celebrated "Letter to the King." The nation had found a champion, and they nobly sustained him. The Introduction itself forms an appropriate comment on the period to which the Letters refer. It is characterized by good sense and clearness of style, and may be read with advantage by the historical stuLord Russell has successfully defended dent. The noble author is, of course, his ancestor from the attacks of Junius. somewhat partial to the memory of his anThis is simple justice. Though not above cestor. It would have been strange had it the morality of his day, the Duke of Bed- been otherwise. His partiality, however, ford did not fall below it. He was not is seen, not so much in any exaggerated guilty in the special matters alleged by Ju-estimate of his worth, as in the denuncianius. He was probably incapable of the tion of his merciless assailant. From Tait's Magazine. CATALINA DE ERAUSO, THE NAUTICO-MILITARY NUN OF SPAIN. BY THOMAS DE QUINCEY. WHY is it that Adventures are so generally contemporary chronicles, and from several repulsive to people of meditative minds? official sources scattered in and out of Spain, It is for the same reason that any other want some of them ecclesiastical, the amplest of law, that any other anarchy, is repulsive. proofs have been drawn, and may yet be Floating passively from action to action, as greatly extended, of the extraordinary events a withered leaf surrendered to the breath of here recorded. M. de Ferrer, a Spaniard winds, the human spirit (out of which comes of much research, and originally incredulous all grandeur of human motions) is exhibit- as to the facts, published about seventeen ed in mere Adventures as either entirely years ago a selection from the leading doculaid asleep, or as acting only by lower or- ments, accompanied by his palinode as to gans that regulate the means, whilst the their accuracy. His materials have been ends are derived from alien sources, and are since used for the basis of more than one imperiously predetermined. It is a case of narrative, not inaccurate, in French, Gerexception, however, when even amongst such man, and Spanish journals of high authoriadventures the agent reacts upon his own ty. It is seldom the case that French difficulties and necessities by a temper of writers cerr by prolixity. They have done extraordinary courage, and a mind of pre- so in this case. The present narrative, mature decision. Further strength arises to which contains no sentence derived from such an exception, if the very moulding ac- any foreign one, has the great advantage of cidents of the life, if the very external co- close compression; my own pages, after ercions are themselves unusually romantic. equating the size, being as 1 to 3 of the They may thus gain a separate interest of shortest continental form. In the mode of their own. And, lastly, the whole is locked narration, I am vain enough to flatter myinto validity of interest, even for the psy-self that the reader will find little reason to chological philosopher, by complete authenti- hesitate between us. Mine will, at least, cation of its truth. In the case now brought weary nobody; which is more than can be before him, the reader must not doubt; for always said for the continental versions. no memoir exists, or personal biography, that is so trebly authenticated by proofs and attestations direct and collateral. From the archives of the Royal Marine at Seville, from the autobiography of the heroine, from On a night in the year 1592 (but which night is a secret liable to 365 answers), a Spanish "son of somebody," in the fortified * i. c., Hidalgo." town of St. Sebastian, received the disa-which," said the malicious old fellow, "my greeable intelligence from a nurse, that his pussy will never find her way out to a thorny wife had just presented him with a daugh- and dangerous world." Won't she? I suster. No present that the poor misjudg-pect, son of somebody, that the next time ing lady could possibly have made him you see "pussy," which may happen to be was so entirely useless for any purpose of his. also the last, will not be in a convent of any He had three daughters already, which hap- kind. At present, whilst this general renpened to be more by 2+1 than his reckon- dering of thanks was going on, one person ing assumed a reasonable allowance of only took no part in them. That person daughters. A supernumerary son might be was "pussy," whose little figure lay quietly stowed away; but daughters in excess were stretched out in the arms of a smiling young the very nuisance of Spain. He did, there- nun, with eyes nearly shut, yet peering a fore, what in such cases every proud and little at the candles. Pussy said nothing. lazy Spanish gentleman was apt to do-he It's of no great use to say much, when all wrapped the new little daughter, odious to the world is against you. But, if St. Sebashis paternal eyes, in a pocket handkerchief; tian had enabled her to speak out the whole and then, wrapping up his own throat with truth, pussy would have said:-" So, Mr. a good deal more care, off he bolted to the Hidalgo, you have been engaging lodgings neighboring convent of St. Sebastian; not for me; lodgings for life. Wait a little. merely of that city, but also (amongst seve- We'll try that question when my claws are ral convents) the one dedicated to that grown a little longer." saint. It is well that in this quarrelsome Disappointment, therefore, was gathering world we quarrel furiously about tastes; a-head. But for the present there was nosince agreeing too closely about the objects thing of the kind. That noble old crocoto be liked and appropriated would breed dile, papa, was not in the least disappointed much more fighting than is bred by disa- as regarded his expectation of having no greeing. That little human tadpole, which anxiety to waste, and no money to pay, on the old toad of a father would not suffer to account of his youngest daughter. He instay ten minutes in his house, proved as sisted on his right to forget her; and in a welcome at the nunnery of St. Sebastian as week had forgotten her, never to think of she was odious elsewhere. The superior her again but once. The lady superior, as of the convent was aunt, by the mother's regarded her demands, was equally content, side, to the new-born stranger. She, there- and through a course of several years; for, fore, kissed and blessed the little lady. as often as she asked pussy if she would The poor nuns, who were never to have any be a saint, pussy replied that she would, if babies of their own, and were languishing for saints were allowed plenty of sweetmeats. some amusement, perfectly doated on this But least of all were the nuns disappointed. prospect of a wee pet. The superior thank- Everything that they had fancied possible ed the hidalgo for his very splendid present. in a human plaything fell short of what The nuns thanked him each and all; until pussy realized in racketing, racing, and eterthe old crocodile actually began to cry and nal plots against the peace of the elder nuns. whimper sentimentally at what he now per- No fox ever kept a hen-roost in such alarm ceived to be excess of munificence in him- as pussy kept the dormitory of the senior Munificence, indeed, he remarked, sisters; whilst the younger ladies were run was his foible next after parental tender- off their legs by the eternal wiles, and had their chapel gravity discomposed, What a luxury it is sometimes to a cynic chapel, by the eternal antics, of this privithat there go two words to a bargain. In leged little kitten. self. ness. even in the convent of St. Sebastian all was grati- The kitten had long ago received a bap tude; gratitude (as aforesaid) to the hidal- tismal name, which was Kitty; that is, Cago from all the convent for his present, un- tharine, or Kate, or Hispanice Catalina. It til, at last, the hidalgo began to express was a good name, as it recalled her original gratitude to them for their gratitude to him. name of pussy. And, by the way, she had Then came a rolling fire of thanks to St. also an ancient and honorable surname, viz. Sebastian; from the superior, for sending a De Erauso, which is to this day a name future saint; from the nuns, for sending rooted in Biscay. Her father, the hidalgo, such a love of a plaything; and, finally, was a military officer in the Spanish service, from рара, for sending such substantial and had little care whether his kitten should board and well-bolted lodgings, "from turn out a wolf or a lamb, having made over found that Kate, with a sabre in hand, and well mounted, was but too serious a fact. The day is come-the evening is comewhen our poor Kate, that had for fifteen years been so tenderly rocked in the arms of St. Sebastian and his daughters, and that henceforth shall hardly find a breathing space betweeen eternal storms, must see her peaceful cell, must see the holy chapel, for the fee simple of his own interest in the little Kate to St. Sebastian, "to have and to hold," so long as Kate should keep her hold of this present life. Kate had no apparent intention to let slip that hold, for she was blooming as a rose-bush in June, tall and strong as a young cedar. Yet, notwithstanding this robust health and the strength of the convent walls, the time was drawing near when St. Sebastian's lease in Kate the last time. It was at vespers, it was durmust, in legal phrase, "determine ;" and ing the chanting of the vesper service, that any chateaux en Espagne, that the Saint she finally read the secret signal for her demight have built on the cloistral fidelity of parture, which long she had been looking his pet Catalina, must suddenly give way in for. It happened that her aunt, the lady one hour, like many other vanities in our Principal, had forgotten her breviary. As days of Spanith bonds and promises. After this was in a private 'scrutoire, she did not reaching her tenth year, Catalina became choose to send a servant for it, but gave the thoughtful, and not very docile. At times key to her niece. The niece, on opening she was even headstrong and turbulent, so the 'scrutoire, saw, with that rapidity of that the gentle sisterhood of St. Sebastian, eye-glance for the one thing needed in any who had no other pet or plaything in the great emergency which ever attended her world, began to weep in secret-fearing through life, that now was the moment for that they might have been rearing by mis- an attempt which, if neglected, might never take some future tigress-for as to infancy, return. There lay the total keys, in one that, you know, is playful and innocent even massive trousseau, of that fortress impregnain the cubs of a tigress. But there the ladies ble even to armies from without. Saint Sewere going too far. Catalina was impetu- bastian ! do you see what your pet is ous and aspiring, but not cruel. She was going to do? And do it she will, as sure as gentle, if people would let her be so. But your name is St. Sebastian. Kate went woe to those who took liberties with her! back to her aunt with the breviary and the A female servant of the convent, in some key; but taking good care to leave that authority, one day, in passing up the aisle awful door, on whose hinge revolved her to matins wilfully gave Kate a push; and in whole life, unlocked. Delivering the two return, Kate, who never left her debts in articles to the Superior, she complained of arrear, gave the servant for a keep-sake aa head-ache-[Ah, Kate! what did you look which that servant carried with her in know of head-aches, except now and then fearful remembrance to her grave. It seem- afterwards from a stray bullet or so?]ed as if Kate had tropic blood in her veins, upon which her aunt, kissing her forehead, that continually called her away to the tro- dismissed her to bed. Now, then, through pics. It was all the fault of that "blue re- three-fourths of an hour Kate will have joicing sky," of those purple Biscayan moun- free elbow-room for unanchoring her boat, tains, of that tumultuous ocean, which she for unshipping her oars, and for pulling beheld daily from the nunnery gardens. Or, ahead right out of St. Sebastian's cove into if only half of it was their fault, the other the main ocean of life. half lay in those golden tales, streaming up- Catalina, the reader is to understand, wards even into the sanctuaries of convents, does not belong to the class of persons in like morning mists touched by earliest whom chiefly I pretend to an interest. But sunlight, of kingdoms overshadowing a new everywhere one loves energy and indomitaworld which had been founded by her kins-ble courage. I, for my part, admire not, men with the simple aid of a horse and a by preference, anything that points to this lance. The reader is to remember that this world. It is the child of reverie and prois no romance, or at least no fiction, that he founder sensibility who turns away from the is reading; and it is proper to remind the world as hateful and insufficient, that enreader of real romances in Ariosto or our gages my interest: whereas Catalina was own Spenser, that such martial ladies as the the very model of the class fitted for facing Marfisa, or Bradamant of the first, and Bri- this world, and who express their love to it tomart of the other, were really not the im- by fighting with it and kicking it from year probabilities that modern society imagines. to year. But, always what is best in its Many a stout man, as you will soon see, kind one admires, even though the kind be |