Villette alone; and his own lady, who had turned devotee, having died in November, 1718, the public conduct of the two lovers from that moment became less embarrassing. He first accompanied this lady to her estate at Marcilly, near Nogent sur Seine, and afterwards conducted her to the waters of Aix-laChapelle, where it was generally believed that they were married in May, 1720. It was also asserted, that Madame de Villette at the same time abjured the catholic religion: but the Abbe Alari, and all those intimate in the family, were fully persuaded that no abjuration had taken place, and that no marriage had ever been completed: it was convenient however to keep up appearances, although they never avowed their union until the month of July, 1722.

"The viscount loved the country, and Marcilly would have proved a most agree able residence; yet in 1719, he purchased the little estate of la Source, near Orleans, and converted it into an enchanting abode. There he spent many happy days in the arms of philosophy, the muses, and voluptuousness, assigning to his pleasures that portion of time which he had never refused them, reserving for study the hours formerly devoted to business; and re-uniting around him a society selected from men of letters, men of the world, and the most amiable of the other sex. Voltaire, who formed one of the party, declares he was enchanted with his visits: I have found,' said be, in this illustrious Englishman, all the erudition of his country, mingled with all the politeness of our own. I never heard any one pronounce our lan guage with more energy and propriety. This man, who has been all his life engaged in pleasures and business, has nevertheless found means to learn, and to retain every thing. He is as well acquainted with the history of the Egyptians as of the English. He is equally familiar with Virgil and Milton, and he loves French, Italian, and English poetry; but he loves them differently, because he perfectly discerns the different genius of each.'

Meanwhile, the mind of viscount Bolingbroke was continually busied about the means of returning to his native country. The earl of Stanhope, one of his most bitter enemies, was now dead, (1721); but sir Robert Walpole was still in credit; the earl of Sunderland, and the duke of Marlborough, who were his friends, did not long survive;

while the duchess Dowager, who professed a particular esteem for the man "who alone was worthy to praise her husband," no longer enjoyed any credit.

As means were about to be recurred to in London for repealing the bill of attainder, Madame de Villette was sent thither, and under the name of lady Bolingbroke acted in concert with lord Harcourt. All their solicitations however would have proved ineffectual, but for the patronage of the duchess of Kendal, who is said to have sold his lordship's pardon at an enormous price! Be this as it may, he arrived at Calais on the 11th of May, 1725, four days after it had passed the great seal: but on learning that it extended only to his life, and that he was deprived of the peerage and his estates, he immediately repaired to Aix-la-Chapelle.

In 1725, lord Bolingbroke at length re-visited his native country; and an act of parliament was soon after passed for the purpose of restoring his property to him; but the enmity, and it has been added, the jealousy of Walpole, prevented the restoration of his dignities. The conduct of the minister on this occasion excited the bitterest animosity on the part of Bolingbroke, who soon became one of the most violent, as well as most formidable, of his political foes, As his father was still alive, and in possession of the principal estates, the viscount resolved to settle at " Dawley," near Uxbridge, and there resigned hiinself to the enjoyment of country amusements, and the company of the learned, such as Swift and Pope. He also connected himself openly with the Opposition, and published many able letters in the Craftsman, besides a variety of pamphlets, which occasioned a great sensation. On the demise of George I. it was supposed that a change in the administration would have taken place; but Walpole was enabled to obtain a greater share of credit under that than the preceding reign. The viscount,

who was not discouraged by this unexpected circumstance, iininediately formed a strict union with William Pulteney, afterwards earl of Bath, and then at the head of a most powerful party.

Notwithstanding this, in 1735 he returned to France, and as he had sold the estate of la Source, he now hired the castle of Chanteloup, which was afterwards embellished by the celebrated duke de Choiseul, while an exile like hunself. Here, as usual, he resigned

himself

himself to study, to an intercourse with
men of wit, and to good cheer.

His father having died in 1740, lord
Bolingbroke received a considerable
augmentation to his fortune; and in
1742, on the change of ministers, he re-
turned a second time to England. He
now obtained the confidence of the
prince of Wales, father of the reigning
monarch in our own time, to whom he
addressed, and for whom indeed he is
said to have written, one of the most
celebrated of his works.

"

He spent the chief part of his time in Wiltshire, and at Battersea, near London, where he had a library, equally valuable on account of the number and the rarity of the books contained there. Bolingbroke, during the latter part of his life, was considered as an oracle, and regularly consulted as such by states. men and men of letters. He was in full possession of glory, and was enjoying himself in the bosom of opulence and repose, when he became completely miserable from a single shock from the hand of blind Destiny. The imarchioness de Villette, after languishing for several years, died on the 18th of March, 1750, and he regretted her during the short remainder of his own life, which was only twenty months continuance. Throughout the whole of that period, this philosopher never passed a single day without shedding tears. He himself was at length attacked by a slow and lingering malady, which put his constancy to the severest proofs. An ulcer in his face gave him great pain; but he supported his anguish with a stoicism, which had always constituted the basis of his principles. He died at Battersea, November 25, 1751, at the age of 79, and his fortune devolved on his nephew.

Immediately after the demise of the lady just alluded to, her relations commenced a process against lord Bolingbroke, which not only tended to deprive him of his property in France, but to throw discredit on a person who had been so long dear to him. The cause was heard, and the sentence pronounced proved unfavourable to the hopes and wishes of the subject of this memoir, whose life closed before he was enabled to take the proper means for cbtaining a reversion of the judgment. But the marquis de Matignon, actuated by the impulse of that mutual regard which had

Au chateau de Lydiard, dans la pro

vince de Wilts."

subsisted so long between them, imme: diately appealed to the parliament of Paris, and obtained a final decision at a period when his friend was no more, with a view of rescuing his character and fortune from unmerited censure and loss.

The character of Bolingbroke has afforded a fertile subject of discussion, both to his friends and his enemies. The earl of Orrery, on one hand has observed, "that he united in himself the wisdom of Socrates, the dignity and ease of Pliny, and the delicacy of Horace. both in his writings and conversation." He has been also praised by two great men, the earls of Chatham and Chesterfield; as well as by Swift, Pope, &c. On the other hand, Sheridan, Hervey, the bishop of Cloyne, with a multitude of others, have attacked his memory; and indeed it has been, for many years past, the fashion to condemn his principles without scruple, and without remorse. The French editor of his works, maintains that he was not an atheist. On the contrary, he asserts, on the credit of Mrs. Mallet, who died about fifteen years since, at the age of eighty," that himself, Swift, and Pope, constituted a society of pure deists; and that although the second of these, being dean of St. Patrick's, was somewhat more reserved than the rest, yet he was fundamentally of the same way of thinking.”

MISCELLANEOUS.

"Lettres Inedites de Mirabeau."-Unpublished Letters of the late Count de Mirabeau: containing Memoirs, and Extracts of Memoirs, written in 1781, 1782, and 1783, during his Law-suits at Pontarlier and Provence; the whole, forming an Appendix to the Letters written from the Dungeon of Vincennes, from 1777 until 1780, inclusive. Published by J. F. Vitry, formerly employed in the foreign department. Published at Paris, and imported by M. De Boffe, Nassaustreet, 1810. 1 vol. 8vo.

The motto to this article is admirably adapted to the work, as it conveys the idea, "that most of those who declaim against the private vices of an illustrious man, prove rather that they envy his talents, than that they are incited by the public good. The character of Mirabeau, however, will not bear investiga

"La plupart de ceux qui s'emportent avec fureur contre les vices domestiques d'un

homme illustre, prouvent moins leur amour pour le bien publique, que leur envie contre les talens; envie qui prendsou vento, à leur yeux, le masque d'une vertu, mais qui n'est

1

tion, even for a single moment; and whether it be from envy or from jastice, certain it is, that all men seem to have agreed to praise ins talents, and condemn Is morals.

The editor tells us, that this volume Will complete the works of his illustrious Countryman. It contains the particuJars of one of the most memorable, and indeed the most tumultuous, periods of his life; and has been snatched from the dust of the law-offices, the maps to be found in the syndical chambers, and the parliamentary decices. Here are to be found," it is added, v many portions of eloquence worthy of the days of antiquity; and Mirabeau, always great, will re-appear exactly the same as when he shone in the constituent assembly, to the astonishment of all Europe. Yes, such as he seemed at that most brilliant pe riod, he will be here found in his famous Pleadings which I now restore; in his dis cussions equally luminous and profound; equally close and explanatory in that masculine logic, that inflexible courage, which could never be subdued; that comprehensive and sound reason, which never for a moment forsook him."

The extracts have been chiefly taken from seven volumes of Memoirs and Observations, which the author drew up with an incredible degree of rapidity, in the course of a process that ensued, after a detention of forty-two months. This work, therefore, occupies the biographical chasm between his liberation from the dungeon of Vincennes, and the conclusion of the year 1784.

The publication now before us con

tains:

quence hitherto unknown to our bar. barous age, I am unacquainted with what constitutes this seductive and rare gift of Heaven."* This may be very true, but it is not very modest!

4. Mirabeau's correspondence subsequently to his leaving Pontarlier, and on the epoch of his return to Provence with the marquis de Marignane, his father-inlaw, and his wife.

5. Ilis speech at Aix respecting his wife, of which he himself gives the fol lowing account: "I myself pleaded my own cause, and on this occasion omitted to insist on my rights as a husband. Ac. cordingly, I only employed supplications. I painted the picture of madame de Mirabeau in the most lively as well as most pleasing colours. I demanded of her a return of her affections, in the name of that son whom we had both lost, and whom I regarded as our common mediator. I caused tears to flow on this occasion. It was then, as now said, had madame de Mirabeau but heard her husband, she would have rushed into his arms;' so great was the effect of my oration, and so much commended my acknowledged moderation.”

6. A variety of remarkable fragments, extracted from the second, third, and fourth, volumes of Observations, at the end of the Pleadings.

7. Several extracts from Mirabeau's Memoir to the great Council; his opinion in 1784, respecting the indissolubility of marriage, and the essential distinction between a divorce and a separation.

In a letter dated at Bignon, July 28, 1781, this singular man expresses himself with the utmost confidence to a friend, respecting his intended re-union with his wife, and perhaps hints, or rather broadly avows, the object he had in view

"I beg leave to communicate to you, and to you alone, that it is very possible 1 shall immediately set out for Provence to conclude that great and important affair which I have hitherto managed so well, and which will restore to me the possession rent. A great progress has been already of sixty thousand livres per annum of made; and women never retract, or at least never retract but with fools. These charming and timid creatures do not alwould wish; but, on the other hand, ways advance so far as they themselves they never retreat, except when they are afraid of ingratitude.

“Adieu, my good friend; for it will be

.

While at Bignon, Mirabeau transmitted a copy of his celebrated work on. Lettres de Cachet," and also his, "Eloge Historique de M. Turgot," which: he was obliged to print in a foreign. country.

He also communicates the in

telligence that he had received from his
brother, who was aide-major-general of
bis division, and "one of the masters of
the ceremony," on that occasion, "an
account of the surrender of the army un-
der Lord Cornwallis.", "This is a sad
for a brave man to see
lot," adds he.
himself reduced to such en humiliating
situation, solely through the fault of the
Engish cabinet."

Here follows the epitaph, which consists with an account of ancient Italy, and

of no more than four lines:

Avec Myrthé ne pleurez plus mon sort;
Songez plutôt à De porter envie;
C'est dans ses bras que j'ai perdu la vie;
Qui ne voudroit expinerde ma mərt?”

Soon after this, in another letter, after
alluding to a certain female wch, known
to him and his correspondent, he trans-
cribes the following Latin distich, which
he begs may not be translated to the fair
lady in question, if he values his eye-
sight:

"Aspide quid pejus? Tigris; quid Tigride?

Dæmone quid? mulier; quid muliere?
nihil."