culties arose in the treaty between France and England, respecting their possessions in North America; but after long disputes, these were arranged, though, as it was thought, too little to the advantage of England. The emperor of Austria still demurred to some parts of the treaties, and demanded time for consideration. This was granted, but meanwhile the treaties were completed so far as Britain, Portugal, Savoy, Prussia, and the states-general were concerned. The queen of England informed the parliament of her proceedings, and received the thanks of both houses for having brought about a safe and honourable peace. It was publicly proclaimed at London on the 5th of May, 1712. About the same period the Chevalier de St George conveyed a printed remonstrance and protest to the ministers of the allied powers at Utrecht, against all that might be determined to his prejudice. But the king of France had bound himself to abandon him, and to acknowledge the title of Queen Anne and the protestant succession. After the treaty had been concluded, the pretender repaired to Lorraine, and the parliament of England addressed the queen, imploring that she would urge the duke of Lorraine, and all the princes and states in amity with her, to exclude him from their dominions. Violent debates arose in parliament respecting the articles in the treaty relating to commerce, with which the British merchants were generally dissatisfied. It was said that the queen's ministers had, in this respect, sacrificed the interests of the country; and it was indeed but too evident that they hurried this part of the negotiation, and had betrayed considerable ignorance of British interests, or inattention to them. The Scottish portion of the parliament now made loud complaints of the violation of the treaty of union, and especially deprecated the subjection of their country to the malt-tax, which it was now deemed necessary to levy, to meet the heavy burdens of the nation. A motion was made for the repeal of the union, and powerfully supported; but at length the ministry triumphed in all their measures. One of the most

remarkable occurrences of this period took place at the expiration of the term of Dr Sacheverel's suspension. It sufficiently indicated both the temper of the queen and the principles of her ministers. The Dr having passed the period of silence and suspension, was appointed by the house of commons to preach before them, which he accordingly did, and received their thanks for his sermon. The queen also promoted him to a rich living. This event greatly exasperated the friends of the revolution and the whig party, and had well nigh thrown the country into a state of riot and rebellion. A new parliament was called in 1713; but the elections had been so managed as to secure the predominance of the tory party. But the new parliament was prorogued several times, owing partly to the queen's illness and partly to the divisions that had arisen among her leading ministers. Lord Oxford and Lord Bolingbroke, formerly Mr St John, were rivals for power and fame. Bolingbroke gained the favour of Mrs Masham, and by that means a powerful ascendancy over the queen. This was employed to injure and overthrow his rival. The queen was sensibly affected by these contentions and animosities. Under these circumstances, Lord Oxford, finding his influence on the wane, talked of retiring from office. But meanwhile the queen was taken ill, and retired to Windsor. This revived all the hopes of the Jacobites, produced a sudden fall in the 30

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public funds, and a run upon the bank. This alarm was greatly increased by the report of an armament preparing in France. But the queen recovered, and sent assurances to town that she would immediately open the parliament. The report was soon detected to be a mere party trick, and the excitement which had prevailed in the city a false alarm. The parliament was soon after opened, and the queen informed them of the conclusion of the treaty with Spain, by which King Philip acknowledged the queen and the protestant succession, and agreed to renounce the pretender. By this treaty also Gibraltar and Minorca were ceded to the possession of Great Britain, while the kingdom of Sicily was secured to the duke of Savoy. The parliament voted loyal and affectionate addresses to the queen; but still they were divided into hostile factions, which were headed by the leaders of the whigs and tories. Much excitement also prevailed through the country by means of pamphlets and other publications. In these were employed the pens of Addison, Steele, and Halifax, on the side of the whigs, while Swift maintained the cause of the tories. Sir Richard Steele was expelled the house for writing The Englishman,' and the Crisis.' Publications were issued, setting forth the title of the pretender, and many symptoms appeared of a disposition on the part both of the queen and her ministers, to favour his designs. Many of his warm and well-known friends were admitted into her service. The whigs and friends of the revolution were zealous and active in endeavouring to prepare against any danger that might arise. They held frequent consultations with Baron Schultz, the resident on behalf of the elector of Hanover, and maintained correspondence with the duke of Marlborough and the elector. The queen's health was in such a precarious state, that these measures seemed to be prudent on the part of all those who were friends to the protestant succession.

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Many fears prevailed among the members of the house of lords as to secret favour shown to the pretender, and some lords withdrew their countenance from the ministry. Bolingbroke was charged with remitting money to the Highland clans, known to favour the pretender; and Lord Wharton had the boldness to propose a question to the house, whether the protestant succession was in danger under the present administration. A warm debate ensued, in which the ministry succeeded, though only by a small majority. It was now evident that their day of triumph was drawing to a close. At this period a bill was hurried through both houses levelled against the dissenters, entitled a bill to prevent the growth of schism, and to secure the church of England. It had received the queen's signature; but as she died before it took effect it became nugatory.

The state of the ministry became every week more embarrassing. The treasurer and the secretary fell into open altercation, and such was the effect of these domestic contentions and difficulties, that the queen's spirits sunk under them. She was taken ill in the month of July, and expired on the 1st of August, 1714. The whig party foreseeing her death, had sent for Marlborough, who had embarked, and before her death a council was held of all parties at Kensington-palace. A letter was despatched to the elector of Hanover, and troops collected around London. The heralds were kept in waiting under an escort of cavalry, ready to proclaim the new king, and every proper precaution to guard

the sea-ports and to overawe the friends of the pretender. Much praise is due to the vigilance and zeal of those friends to the protestant succession, who stood ready prepared for this perilous occasion. Happily their measures frustrated all the schemes and hopes of the opposite party.

It remains for us to add to this long historical exposition of public affairs immediately subsequent to the revolution, a few remarks on the state of our literature during the period now under consideration. Although we are enabled to open our literary series with the splendid names of Dryden and Locke, yet are we necessitated to confess the miserably degraded state into which public taste had fallen, in the acknowledgment that such a man as Shadwell was deemed worthy to succeed Dryden in the laureateship. Never was a literary reputation more easily to be purchased and maintained than during the period which elapsed betwixt the death of Dryden and the full ascendancy of Pope. To have written a few verses, or rather tagged together a few jingling rhymes, was sufficient to establish one's claim to notice. "Here is a young fellow," says Swift, in his Journal to Stella, "has writ some sea-eclogues,-poems of mermen, resembling pastorals of shepherds; and they are very pretty, and the thought is new. Mermen are he-mermaids; Tritons, natives of the sea. His name is Diaper. I must do something for him and get him out of the way. I hate to have any new wits rise; yet, when they do rise, I would encourage them; but they tread on our heels, and thrust us off the stage." Probably there are not many of our readers who ever heard of Diaper and his sea-eclogues before, though no less a personage than Swift praised his poetry, and dreaded the eclipsing influence of his fame in his own day. Pope put an extinguisher on these "sprats and minnows of poetry."

Queen Anne's wits, as they are usually called, were a generation of infinitely better promise, though happily even they are no longer regarded by us as models of excellence. It was their great ambition to write elegantly and wittily; and in this they succeeded, but beyond this they ventured not. "Their laurels," says one of the most distinguished critics of the present age, "were won much more by good conduct and discipline, than by enterprizing boldness or native force; nor can it be regarded as any very great merit in those who had so little of the inspiration of genius, to have steered clear of the dangers to which that inspiration is liable. Speaking generally of that generation of authors, it may be said that, as poets, they had no force or greatness of fancy,—no pathos, and no enthusiasm;—and, as philosophers, no comprehensiveness, depth, or originality. They are sagacious, no doubt, neat, clear, and reasonable; but, for the most part, cold, timid, and superficial. They never meddle with the great scenes of nature, or the great passions of man, but content themselves with just and sarcastic representations of city life, and of the paltry passions and meaner vices that are bred in that lower element. Their chief care is to avoid being ridiculous in the eyes of the witty, and, above all, to eschew the ridicule of excessive sensibility or enthusiasm; to be witty and rational themselves with a good grace, and to give their countenance to no wisdom, and no morality, which passes the standards that are current in good company. Their inspiration, accordingly, is little more than a

sprightly sort of good sense; and they have scarcely any invention but what is subservient to the purposes of derision and satire. Little gleams of pleasantry and sparkles of wit glitter through their compositions; but no glow of feeling, no blaze of imagination, no flashes of genius, ever irradiate their substance. They never pass beyond the visible diurnal sphere,' or deal in any thing that can either lift us above our vulgar nature, or ennoble its reality. With these accomplishments, they may pass well enough for sensible and polite writers, but scarcely for men of genius; and it is certainly far more surprising, that persons of this description should have maintained themselves for near a century at the head of the literature of a country that had previously produced a Shakspeare, a Bacon, and a Taylor, than that, towards the end of that long period, doubts should have arisen as to the legitimacy of the title by which they laid claim to that high station. Both parts of the phenomenon, however, we dare say, had causes which better expounders might explain to the satisfaction of all the world. We see them but imperfectly, and have room only for an imperfect sketch of what we see.

"Our first literature consisted of saintly legends, and romances of chivalry, though Chaucer gave it a more national and popular character by his original descriptions of external nature, and the familiarity and gayety of his social humour. In the time of Elizabeth it received a copious infusion of classical images and ideas: but it was still intrinsically romantic, serious, and even somewhat lofty and enthusiastic. Authors were then so few in number, that they were looked upon with a sort of veneration, and considered as a kind of inspired persons; at least they were not yet so numerous as to be obliged to abuse each other, in order to obtain a share of distinction for themselves; and they neither affected a tone of derision in their writings, nor wrote in fear of derision from others. They were filled with their subjects, and dealt with them fearlessly in their own way; and the stamp of originality, force, and freedom, is consequently upon almost all their productions. In the reign of James I., our literature, with some few exceptions, touching rather the form than the substance of its merits, appears to us to have reached the greatest perfection to which it has yet attained, though it would probably have advanced still farther in the succeeding reign, had not the great national dissensions which then arose turned the talent and energy of the people into other channels, first to the assertion of their civil rights, and afterwards to the discussion of their religious interests. The graces of literature suffered of course in those fierce contentions; and a deeper shade of austerity was thrown upon the intellectual chronicler of the nation. Her genius, however, though less captivating and adorned than in the happier days which preceded, was still active, fruitful, and commanding; and the period of the civil wars, besides the mighty minds that guided the public councils, and were absorbed in public cares, produced the giant powers of Taylor, and Hobbes, and Barrow, the muse of Milton, the learning of Coke, and the ingenuity of Cowley.

"The restoration introduced a French court, under circumstances more favourable for the effectual exercise of court influence than ever before existed in England: but this of itself would not have been sufficient to account for the sudden change in our literature which ensued.

It was seconded by causes of a more general operation. The restoration was undoubtedly a popular act;—and, indefensible as the conduct of the army and the civil leaders was on that occasion, there can be no question that the severities of Cromwell, and the extravagance of the sectaries, had made republican professions hateful, and religious ardour ridiculous, in the eyes of the people at large. All the eminent writers of the preceding period, however, had inclined to the party that was now overthrown; and their writings had not merely been accommodated to the character of the government under which they were produced, but were deeply imbued with its obnoxious principles, as those of their respective authors. When the restraints of authority were taken off, therefore, and it became profitable, as well as popular, to discredit the fallen party, it was natural that the leading authors should affect a style of levity and derision, as most opposite to that of their opponents, and best calculated for the purposes they had in view. The nation, too, was now for the first time essentially divided in point of character and principle, and a much greater proportion were capable both of writing in support of their own notions, and of being influenced by what was written. Add to all this, that there were real and serious defects in the style and manner of the former generation; and that the grace, and brevity, and vivacity of that gayer manner which was now introduced from France, were not only good and captivating in themselves, but had then all the charms of novelty and of contrast; and it will not be difficult to understand how it came to supplant that which had been established of old in the country,-and that so suddenly, that the same generation, among whom Milton had been formed to the severe sanctity of wisdom, and the noble independence of genius, lavished its loudest applauses on the obscenity and servility of such writers as Rochester and Wycherly.

"This change, however, like all sudden changes, was too fierce and violent to be long maintained at the same pitch; and when the wits and profligates of King Charles had sufficiently insulted the seriousness and virtue of their predecessors, there would probably have been a revulsion towards the accustomed taste of the nation, had not the party of the innovators been reinforced by champions of more temperance and judgment. The result seemed at one time suspended on the will of Dryden-in whose individual person the genius of the English and of the French school of literature may be said to have maintained a protracted struggle. But the evil principle prevailed. Carried by the original bent of his genius, and his familiarity with our older models to the cultivation of our native style, to which he might have imparted more steadiness and correctness-for in force and in sweetness it was already matchless he was unluckily seduced by the attractions of fashion, and the dazzling of the dear wit and gay rhetoric in which it delighted, to lend his powerful aid to the new corruptions and refinements; and to prostitute his great gifts to the purposes of party rage or licentious ribaldry.

"The sobriety of the succeeding reigns allayed this fever of profanity; but no genius arose sufficiently powerful to break the spell that still withheld us from the use of our own peculiar gifts and faculties. On the contrary, it was the unfortunate ambition of the next generation of authors, to improve and perfect the new style, rather than to return to