LORD CHESTERFIELD. - Philip Dormer Stanhope, Earl of Chesterfield, 1694-1773, "the philosopher of flattery and dissimulation," occupied a conspicuous position in society and in affairs of state, and was ambitious of equal distinction in the world of letters.

"He was at the head of the ton, in days when in order to be at the head of the ton it was not sufficient to be dull and supercilious."-Macaulay. Chesterfield was intimate with Pope, Swift, Voltaire, Montesquieu, etc. Seeking to play the patron to Dr. Johnson, the latter addressed to him that celebrated and rather churlish letter which is so often quoted. Chesterfield's Speeches in Parliament were often of a high order of eloquence. His claim to a permanent place in literature, however, rests almost entirely upon his Letters to his Son. These are graceful and elegant compositions, but are noted for the worldly, selfish, and even at times immoral character of the advice given. "Their publication is much to be regretted by every friend of this accomplished, witty, and eloquent peer."- Chambers.

Junius-Sir Philip Francis.

Sir Philip Francis, 1740-1818, was an accomplished political writer, contemporary with Burke, Fox, and Pitt.

Sir Philip took an active part in the famous trial of Warren Hastings, and was conspicuous as a statesman and a member of Parliament. The conjecture that he was the author of the Letters of Junius, was early broached, and after much discussion was nearly abandoned, notwithstanding the advocacy of such men as Macaulay and Brougham, until the year 1871, when the authorship of the Letters was put almost beyond question by the examination of the handwriting of Junius and of Sir Philip Francis by a professional expert.

Letters of Junius. - The Letters of Junius appeared at intervals in the Public Advertiser, of London, during the years 1769-72. By the boldness of their invective and the masterly style in which they were written, they attracted universal attention, and they exerted a prodigious influence upon the public mind. That influence was intensified by the impenetrable secrecy in which the authorship was shrouded. The writer was evidently well acquainted with important state secrets ; he was one whose abilities were of the first order, and who could not well live in obscurity; yet of all the men eminent in letters and position, then living, there was not one whom it seemed possible to asso

ciate with the authorship of these Letters. Conjectures pointed to one after another, but some fatal mark was found that seemed to exclude each in succession, until the hunt was almost given up in despair. The public mind had well-nigh settled down in the conclusion that the mystery was insoluble. At length, in 1871, a volume appeared, entitled The Handwriting of Junius Professionally Investigated, by Mr. Charles Chabot, an Expert, which seems to settle the question. Its object is to prove by a minute and exhaustive examination of the Junian manuscripts and of the letters of Sir Philip Francis, that both were written by the same hand. The proof is of the strongest kind, amounting almost to a demonstration, and will go far to put this vexed question

at rest.

As specimens of style, the Letters of Junius are, in their kind, absolutely perfect.

"The classic purity of their language, the exquisite force and perspicuity of their argument, the keen severity of their reproach, the extensive information they evince, their fearless and decisive tone, and above all, their stern and steady attachment to the purest principles of the Constitution, acquired for them, with an almost electric speed, a popularity which no series of letters have since possessed, nor, perhaps, ever will; and, what is of far greater consequence, diffused among the body of the people a clearer knowledge of their constitutional rights than they had ever before attained, and animated them with a more determined spirit to maintain them inviolate. Enveloped in the cloud of a fictitious name, the writer of these philippics, unseen himself, beheld with secret satisfaction the vast influence of his labors, and enjoyed, though, as we shall afterwards observe, not always without apprehension, the universal hunt that was made to detect him in his disguise. He beheld the people extolling him, the Court execrating him, and ministers, and more than ministers, trembling beneath the lash of his invisible hand."-John Mason Good.

William Murray, Lord Mansfield, 1704-1793, is known as one of the most eminent and upright of English judges.

Lord Mansfield was a native of Perth. He was educated at Oxford; rose to be Attorney-General, and finally Lord Chief-Justice of England. His reputation as an orator and statesman was second only to that of Pitt, but to the present generation he is known almost exclusively as one of the purest and most eminent judges that ever sat upon the English bench. All that is left to us of his labors is embodied in a Treatise on the Study of Law (the joint production of Mansfield, Ashburton, and Thurlow), and in the law reports of Cowper, Douglass, and Burrow, containing his decisions. Lord Mansfield may be said to be the author of the English Commercial Law. What, before his time, was a mass of crude beginnings and isolated cases, became, under him, an admirable system of sound principles. During the Junius controversy,

Lord Mansfield was the object of much popular dislike, on the suspicion of being opposed to the liberty of the press.

Sir William Blackstone, 1723-1780, one of the most celebrated of English jurists, is known everywhere by his Commentaries on the Laws of England.

Blackstone's Commentaries is a standard text-book in the legal profession throughout England and America. Though strictly professional, it has given the author a place in letters, because of the excellence of its style. Indeed there is little doubt that much of the celebrity of Blackstone is due, not merely to his legal learning and acumen, but to the purity of his English and the clearness and elegance with which he expresses himself. "A good gentleman's law book, clear, but not deep."- Horne Tooke.

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RT. HON. WILLIAM PITT, Earl of Chatham, 1708-1778, was the most powerful orator that ever illustrated and ruled the senate of this empire. For nearly half a century he was not merely the arbiter of the destinies of his own country, but the foremost man of all the world." -London Quarterly.

Works.-Chatham took no pains to write out and publish his great speeches, and the reporting art did not then exist as it does now. The specimens of his oratory that survive, therefore, are meagre and unsatisfactory. We have, however, Letters to his Nephew, and the Chatham Papers, containing his official correspondence.

Hume.

David Hume, 1711-1776, is universally known as the author of the most popular History of England yet written, and as a writer of great power on subjects connected with political economy, morals, and religion. In the works last named he is a thorough-going infidel, attacking Christianity on metaphysical grounds chiefly. This class of his writings. has been of most baleful tendency.

Hume was a Scotchman, a native of Edinburgh. He abandoned business and the study of the law for literature; was Secretary of the French Embassy, 1763-4; and Under-Secretary of State, 1767-8. His life was always uneventful, and, with the exception of the few years when he served in Government offices, was passed in studious retirement, chiefly in London.

Publications. In 1737 he published his Treatise of Human Nature; in 1741, his Essays, Moral and Political; in 1748, his Phiiosophical Essays on the Understanding; in 1751, An Inquiry concerning the Principles of Morals; in 1752, Political Discourses; in 1755, Natural History of Religion. The History of England was published in the interval between 1754 and 1762.

As a writer alone, no one, perhaps, in England, has been made the object of more violent attack than Hume. Each of his writings has been alternately extolled and denounced. Inasmuch as they cover such debatable ground, and discuss their subjects with the utmost freedom of opinion, it is only natural that they should find favor with no party in particular.

Merits as a Historian. — With regard to Hume's merit as a historian, it is not easy to arrive at any very decided opinion. His history has ever been, and will continue to be, until superseded by a better, the most readable general work on the English past. In one respect, at least, its merits are unquestionable the pureness and grace of his style. Gibbon declares that he always closed one of Hume's volumes "with a mixed sensation of delight and despair." As an investigator into the facts and truths of history, on the other hand, Hume is undoubtedly weak and untrustworthy - not merely because he wrote his work from the point of view of one political party (the Tory), or that he is guilty of many inaccuracies; but because, as is evident from the time spent in its composition, and from outside evidence as to Hume's mode of study and composition, the writer was superficial and careless. In this respect, Hume differs widely from his contemporary Gibbon, whose work was the result of protracted years of the most exhaustive study. Besides, the official publication, in the present century, of old records and state papers has thrown upon the world an immense mass of hitherto buried knowledge, which the English historian who would be true to his mission must carefully digest and assimilate, at the expense, perhaps, of a radical change of his views on many a fundamental point. For instance, Queen Elizabeth, as revealed in the light of contemporaneous documents, is anything but the "Good Queen Bess" of popular tradition.

Influence of his Philosophical Opinions.— Hume's influence as a writer on morals and philosophy is even greater, perhaps, than that as a historian. His position, as before remarked, is that of a thorough-going infidel. His "Essay on Miracles." the most celebrated of all, is still, in one form or another, the battle-ground between believer and unbeliever. By reason of the vigor and grace of its style, it has always been the most formidable engine of attack upon Christianity. Hume was not merely a metaphysical thinker, however. His politico-economical essays are masterpieces of clear thinking applied to practical subjects. They have been highly praised by subsequent leaders in the science, and may be considered as the forerunner, and in methodical arrangement the superior, of Adam Smith's celebrated dissertation.

Gibbon.

Edward Gibbon, 1737-1794, by his great work, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, created for himself a permanent place in literature.

Career.

Gibbon belonged to an ancient family in Kent. He studied first at the Westminster school, and then at Oxford, but his health was delicate, and his progress in knowledge was but little; and he left the University after a residence of fourteen months. Falling in with the writings of Bossuet and Parsons, he was convinced of the unsoundness of Protestantism and became a Catholic. Partly for the benefit of his health, and partly to separate him from certain unfavorable influences, his father placed him under the care of a Protestant minister at Lausanne, in Switzerland. After residing here for eighteen months, Gibbon abjured his new faith, and was received again into the communion of the Protestant Church. He continued to reside at Lausanne for several years, pursuing his studies.

Love Affair. Gibbon formed an attachment for a beautiful and accomplished lady of Lausanne, Susan Curchod; and the devotion of the young Englishman was understood to be acceptable to the lady. But his father interposed, and the matter was dropped. The lady afterwards became the wife of the celebrated Necker, and the mother of the equally celebrated Madame de Staël. Gibbon says that the wound was insensibly healed by time, but he never married. "Since the failure of my first wishes, I have never entertained any serious thoughts of a matrimonial connection."

Literary Ambition. - On returning to England, in 1758, after an absence of five years, Gibbon was dazzled and stimulated by the literary fame of Addison, Swift, Hume, Robertson, and others, and he formed the purpose of emulating in some way their illustrious example. He made several attempts at authorship, with only indifferent

success.

First Inception of his Great Work. It was about six years later, in 1764, in his twenty-eighth year, while on a visit to the Eternal city, that the idea of his great work first flashed upon him. "It was at Rome, on the 15th of October, 1764, as I sat musing amidst the ruins of the Capitol, while the barefooted friars were singing vespers in the temple of Jupiter, that the idea of writing the decline and fall of the city first started to my mind."

Publication. The first volume of The Decline and Fall came out in 1776. Its success was immediate and great. "I am at a loss to describe the success of the work, without betraying the vanity of the writer. The first impressions were exhausted in a few days; a second and third edition were scarcely adequate to the demand; and the bookseller's property was twice invaded by the pirates of Dublin. My book was upon every table, and almost on every toilette; the historian was

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