g a masterly command over the resources of our language, ting a keen wit and a lively fancy to the best and noblest ses. In her latter days there was perhaps a tincture of ary gloom or severity in her religious views; yet, when we her unfeigned sincerity and practical benevolence—her exerinstruct the poor miners and cottagers-and the untiring a which she laboured, even amidst severe bodily infirmities, cate sound principles and intellectual cultivation from the o the cottage, it is impossible not to rank her among the efactors of mankind. reat success of the different works of our authoress enabled ve in ease, and to dispense charities around her. Her sisters cured a competency, and they all lived together at Barley a property of some extent, which they purchased and im From the day that the school was given up, the existence whole sisterhood appears to have flowed on in one uniform of peace and contentment, diversified only by new appearHannah as an authoress, and the ups and downs which she others met with in the prosecution of a most brave and huxperiment-namely, their zealous effort to extend the blesseducation and religion among the inhabitants of certain viltuated in a wild country some eight or ten miles from their who, from a concurrence of unhappy local and temporary cirnces, had been left in a state of ignorance hardly conceivable present day.'* These exertions were ultimately so successful, sisterhood had the gratification of witnessing a yearly festiebrated on the hills of Cheddar, where above a thousand chilwith the members of female clubs of industry—also established n-after attending church-service, were regaled at the expense r benefactors. Hannah More died on the 7th of September ged eighty-eight. She had made about £30,000 by her writand she left, by her will, legacies to charitable and religious tions amounting to £10,000. 834, Memoirs of the Life and Correspondence of Mrs. Hannah by William Roberts, Esq., were published in four volumes. se we have a full account by Hannah herself of her London nd many interesting anecdotes. SAMUEL AND WILLIAM HENRY IRELAND. IUEL IRELAND, a dealer in scarce books, prints, &c., was au-f several picturesque tours, illustrated by aqua-tinta engravbut is chiefly remarkable as having been made by his son, a of eighteen, the unconscious instrument of giving to the world iety of Shakspearean forgeries. WILLIAM HENRY IRELAND -1835) was articled to a conveyancer in New Inn, and, like Quarterly Review, 1844. Chatterton. began early to imitate ancient writings. His father was morbidly anxious to discover some scrap of Shakspeare's handwriting, and this set the youth to manufacture a number of documents, which he pretended to have accidently met with in the house of a gentleman of fortune. 'Amongst a mass of family papers,' says the elder Ireland, the contracts between Shakspeare, Lowine, and Condelle, and the lease granted by him and Hemynge to Michael Fraser, which was first found, were discovered; and soon afterwards the deed of gift to William Henry Ireland (described as the friend of Shakspeare, in consequence of his having saved his life on the river Thames), and also the deed of trust to John Hemynge, were discovered. In pursuing this search, he (his son) was so fortunate as to meet with some deeds very material to the interests of this gentleman. At this house the principal part of the papers, together with a great variety of books, containing his manuscript notes, and three manuscript plays, with part of another, were discovered.' These forged documents included, besides the deeds, a Protestant Confes. sion of Faith by Shakspeare, letters to Anne Hathaway, the Earl of Southampton, and others, a new version of King Lear, and one entire original drama, entitled 'Vortigern and Rowena.' Such a treasure was pronounced invaluable, and the manuscripts were exhibited at the elder Ireland's house, in Norfolk Street. A controversy arose as to the genuineness of the documents, in which Malone took a part, proving that they were forged; but the productions found many admirers and believers. They were published by subscription, in a large and splendid volume, and Vortigern' was brought out at Drury Lane Theatre, John Kemble acting the principal character. Kemble, however, was not to be duped by the young forger, being probably, as Sir Walter Scott remarks, warned by Malone. The representation of the play completely broke up the imposture. The structure and language of the piece were so feeble, clumsy, and extravagant, that no audience could believe it to have proceeded from the immortal dramatist. As the play proceeded, the torrent of ridiculous bombast swelled to such a height to bear down critical patience; and when Kemble uttered the line, And when this solemn mockery is o'er, the pit rose and closed the scene with a discordant howl. We give what was considered the "most sublime passage' in 'Vortigern:" With icy hand thou tak'st him by the feet, pudent and silly a fabrication was perhaps never before thrust blic notice. The young adventurer, foiled in this effort, atto earn distinction as a novelist and dramatist, but utterly In 1805, he published a confession of the Shaksperean forn Authentic Account of the Shakspeare Manuscripts,' in which s this declaration: I solemnly declare, first, that my father was y unacquainted with the whole affair, believing the papers nly the productions of Shakspeare. Secondly, that I am mythe author and writer, and had no aid from any soul living, I should never have gone so far, but that the world praised ers so much, and thereby flattered my vanity. Thirdly, that lication which may appear tending to prove the manuscripts , or to contradict what is here stated, is false; this being the Count.' Several other novels, some poems, and attempts at roceeded from the pen of Ireland; but they are unworthy of and the last thirty years of the life of this industrious but uned littérateur were passed in obscurity and poverty. EDMUND MALONE--RICHARD PORSON. IND MALONE (1741-1812), who was conspicuous in the detec1 exposure of Ireland's forgeries, was an indefatigable draritic and commentator, as well as a zealous literary antiquary. ed Shakspeare (1790), wrote Memoirs of Dryden, Sir Joshua ds, W. Gerard Hamilton, &c.; was the friend of Goldsmith, and Johnson, and still more emphatically the friend of Johnographer, Boswell; and in nearly all literary questions for half ry he took a lively interest, and was ready always with notes trations. Mr. Malone was the son of an Irish judge, and born lin. After studying at Trinity College, he repaired to Lonas entered of the Inner Temple, and called to the bar in 1767. e, however, was devoted to literature, in which he was a usedelighted pioneer. fame of English scholarship and classical criticism descended Bentley to Porson. RICHARD PORSON (1759-1808) was in 1793 nously elected Professor of Greek in the university of Cam Besides many fugitive and miscellaneous contributions to al journals, Porson edited and annotated the first four plays ipides, which appeared separately between 1797 and 1801. He ed the Harleian manuscript of the 'Odyssey' for the Grenville of Homer (1800) and corrected the text of Eschylus and part odotus After his death, his Adversaria, or Notes and Emens of the Greek Poets,' were published by Professor Monk and C. Blomfield--afterwards Bishop of London-and his Tracts iscellaneous Criticisms' were collected and published by the Rev. T. Kidd. The most important of these were the 'Letters to Archdeacon Travis' (1790), written to disprove the authenticity of I John, v. 7, and which are admirable specimens of learning, wit and acute argumentation. Porson as a Greek critic has never perhaps been excelled. He rose from a humble station-his father was a parish-clerk in Norfolk-solely by his talents and early proficiency; his memory was prodigious, a'most unexampled, and his acuteness and taste in Greek literature were unerring. The habits of this great scholar were, however, fatal to his success in life. He was even more intemperate than Sheridan, careless of the usual forms and courtesies of society, and impracticable in ordinary affairs. His love of drink amounted to a passion, or rather disease. His redeeming qualities, besides his scholastic acquirements and natural talents, were his strict integrity and love of truth. Many of his pointed sayings were remembered by his friends. Being on one occasion informed that Southey considered his poem Madoc' as likely to be a valuable possession to his family, Porson answered: Madoc" will be readwhen Homer and Virgil are forgotten.' The ornate style of Gibbon was his aversion. There could not,' he said, 'be a better exercise for a school-boy than to turn a page of "The Decline and Fall" into English.' He disliked reading folios, because,' s id he, we meet with so few milestones'-that is, we have such long intervals between the turning over of the leaves. On the whole, though Porson was a critic of the highest order, and though conceding to classical literature all the respect that can be claimed for it, we must lament, with one of his friends, that such a man should have lived and laboured for nearly half a century, and yet have left little or nothing to the world that was truly and originally his own.' WILLIAM COBBETT. 666 WILLIAM COBBETT (1762-1835), by his 'Rural Rides,' his 'Cottage Economy,' his works on America, and various parts of his 'Political Register,' is justly entitled to be remembered among the miscellaneous writers of England. He was a native of Farnham, in Surrey, and brought up as an agricultural labourer. He afterwards served as a soldier in British America, and rose to be sergeant-major. He first attracted notice as a political writer by publishing a series of pamphlets under the name of Peter Porcupine. He was then a decided loyalist and high-churchman; but having, as is supposed, received some slight from Mr. Pitt, he attacked his ministry with great bitterness in his 'Register.' After the passing of the Reform Bill, he was returned to parliament for the borough of Oldham; but he was not successful as a public speaker. He was apparently destitute of the faculty of generalising his information and details, and evolving from them a lucid whole. His unfixedness of principle also operated strongly against him; for no man who is not consid ered honest and sincere, or who cannot be relied upon, will ever lasting impression on a popular assembly. Cobbett's inconas a political writer was so broad and undisguised, as to come proverbial. He had made the whole round of politics, tra-Toryism to ultra-Radicalism, and had praised and abused every public man and measure for thirty years. Jeremy m said of him: 'He is a man filled with odium huJeneris. His malevolence and lying are beyond anyThe retired philosopher did not make sufficient allowr Cobbett: the latter acted on the momentary feeling or e, and never calculated the consequence to himself or others. ividual in Britain was better known than Cobbett, down to nutest circumstance in his character, habits, and opinions. ›te freely of himself as he did of other men; and in all his writere was much natural freshness, liveliness and vigour. He had ver of making every one who read him feel and understand comwhat he himself felt and described. The idiomatic strength, sness, and purity of his style have been universally acknow; and when engaged in describing rural subjects, or depicting lanners, he is very happy. On questions of politics or critie fails, because he seems resolved to attack all great names tablished opinions. He remarks on one occasion that anybody at the time he wrote, be made a baronet, since Walter Scott adley Coutts Trotter (what a classification!) had been so elevaIt has become,' he says, ' of late years the fashion to extol the s of potatoes, as it has been to admire the writings of Milton hakspeare;' and he concludes a ludicrous criticism on 'Paraost' by wondering how it could have been tolerated by a people st whom astronomy, navigation, and chemistry are understood! obbett had a taste for what may be termed the poetry of nature. loud in his praises of the singing-birds of England-which he so much in Amer ca-and he loved to write on green lanes eadows. The following description is like the simple and ng passages in Richardson's 'Pamela:' Boyish Scenes and Recollections. r living within a few hundred yards of Westminster Hall. and the Abbey - and the Bidge, and looking from my own windows into St. James's Park, buildings and spots appear inean and insignificant. I went to-day to see the I formerly occupied. How small! It is always thus: the words large and re carried about with us in our minds, and we forget real dimensions The ch as it was received, remains during our absence from the object. When I d to England in 1800, after an absence. from the country parts of it. of sixteen he trees, the hedges, even the parks and woods, seemed so small! It made h to hear little gutters that I could jump over called rivers! The Thames was creek!' But when. in about a month after my arrival in London. I went to m, the place of my birth, what was my surprise! Everything was become so small! I had to cross, in my post-chaise, the long and dreary heath of Bghen. at the end of it, to mount a hill called Hungry Hill; and from that hill I hat I should look down into the beautiful and fertile vale of Farnham. My uttered with impatience mixed with a sort of fear. to see all the scenes of my od; for 1 had learned before the death of my father and mother. There is a |