with the present generation, at least to make me understand why I understood so little. In addition to these instructions, I have to acknowledge my obligations to the multitude of "abridgments," "systems," and "short methods," both for history and science, by the assistance of which, grown gentlemen, whose education, like my own, has been somewhat neglected, are enabled to make a show, and by dint of an imposing manner, and a loud authoritative voice, to pass current in society as men of infinite information. The vast variety of novel objects, by which I was surrounded during my journey to Paris, and my residence in that city, have furnished incessant matter for occupation; and they have been very instrumental in banishing a natural melancholy, which at first crept over me on reflecting that all my contemporaries were dead, and that I was alive in the world. Not but that I have been much assisted in this matter by an observation of society, in which I find the mass of mankind living and moving with great contentment under much the same circumstances. Nobody.loves, nobody respects any body, or any thing. Every body makes use of every body; acquaintances meet without inquiry when it suits, and part without regret when circumstances change; and the death of one half a city would not prevent the other from making as good a dinner as they could procure. What could the survivor of an avalanche do worse? Often, however, in spite of myself, memory will recur to the last century but one, and fancy will fondly turn to the image of my poor father, with his straight hair and broad bands-that worthy and honest antiquarian, Mr. Dodsworth. Nor can I help smiling through my tears, to think how the old man would have delighted in his son, could he have possessed in him such a curiosity as I now am. Thus encouraged, doubtless he would have made a voyage to the Polar ice in search of a frozen megatherion, or a preserved mammoth, to be thawed by the burning of a Norway forest, and turned loose into the national menagerie; besides adding ten more volumes to the one hundred and sixty he has already made of MS. compilations. But not to dwell longer upon myself, however agreeable the theme, 1 must remark that England is much changed since my youthful days. London, in particular, is grown out of all knowledge, insomuch that I cannot find my way about any part of the town west of Temple-bar; and even in the city the great fire has so altered its external appearance, that I am often posed to know where I am. One thing I cannot but admire; and that is the ill taste of those who have swept away the handsome portly signs, which used to swing across the streets in glorious pageantry, displaying golden dragons, red lions, radiant suns, cerulean mermaids, and gilt-horned rams. Cruel also was the fault of him who abated the improving projection of the upper stories of houses, which at once showed the skill of the architect in rearing inverted pyramids, and gave increase of accommodation to the tenant. Your theatres, it must be confessed, are wonderfully improved in amplitude, and in their decorations and machinery; but I cannot say so much for your actors! In tragedy especially, there is a lamentable falling off. Your actors take no pains, as ours did, to raise their voices to the highest pitch: they neither move with a stiff but imposing formality, nor stamp their feet, nor flourish their arms; and in the most violent bursts of passion, they do not express themselves with much more vehemence, than might be expected in real life;-so that they do not in the least look like actors. Still I hear your critics complain of ranting, which shows how much the judgment of the moderns is fallen off in this particular. From the popularity of some of your books, lately published, called Historical Novels, I conclude that the present generation are very curious in investigating the private and public history of my own times. The covenanters, for example, are made to figure bravely, and with singular verisimilitude, in some of these works of imagination. There is no such great wonder, after all, in this; for, some trifling changes of habiliment and outward manner excepted,-nothing can more resemble a saint of one generation than a saint of another. Our independents and presby. terians were more learned than your modern polemics, whose writings are advertised in strings in your newspapers; but for the rest, they were not a whit more intolerant, nor more presumptuous. I was lately incog. at one of your meeting-houses, near Holborn-hill, where I heard a man hold forth, the very antitype in matter, and in manner too, of my old acquaintance Praisegod Barebones. One thing in these novels gave me great pleasure; and that was to learn that Charles the Second was so amiable a monarch, never wreaking revenge on his political opponents, but, with a Christian forbearance and charity not sufficiently to be admired, granting them pensions;-a method of quieting troublesome politicians, which, I am told, has succeeded "usque ad delicias votorum," in this latter time. Writing of politics and religion, the pen readily digresses to the third great subject of orthodoxy,-dress: and in no respect has poor Old England more derogated from the ancient and chartered liberties of the land, than in this. In my young days, fancy had a far wider field to range in. Neither men nor women were tied down servilely to imitate each other, from the peer to the attorney's prentice and a free-born Englishwoman would have died before she copied the deformities of French costume; though this independence, I hear, was lost in the succeeding reign. When I recollect the variety of costume that distinguished the round-head and the cavalier, the man of peace and the man of the sword, the youthful beau and the ancient justice, and when I look upon the dull sameness of deformity, which encompasses the outward man in the present day, I am lost in wonder how social order is maintained, and how all the different ranks of society are prevented from amalgamating in one chaotic equality, to the entire overthrow of good government and of sound religion. I went last Saturday night to the Opera, when-but I beg pardon: I forget how little experience I have yet had in this new world into which I have come; and that I am prating without book, according to the old-fashioned notions of my own times. I dare say you will think all this very absurd. However, I mean to study hard and prepare myself for the composition of an hundred volumes or so, of comparative observations on men and things, which, I doubt not, will entitle me to share in that praise bestowed upon my father of happy memory, by Hearne, "who, in a transport of antiquarian enthusiasm, blesses God that he was pleased, out of his infinite goodness and mercy, to raise up so pious and diligent a person, that should by his blessing so effectually discover and preserve such a noble treasure as is contained in * Biographical Dict. article Dodsworth. Nov.-VOL. XVII. NO. LXXI. 2 H these volumes." For this purpose, I have purchased a file of the John Bull, the entire series of the Quarterly Review, Mr. Southey's Book of the Church, Gulliver's Travels, Defoe's History of the Plague, and Robinson Crusoe,-as the most veracious historians, and the best calculated to fill up the interim of my long sleep in the snow. Pray can you tell me who was the Mr. Southey that wrote Wat Tyler? Also when and where a sect or nation flourished, remarkable for every vice under the sun, called "modern philosophers?" I suspect them to be an invention of some fanciful writers of theology: is this so? I wish likewise to be informed who is "The Great Unknown," and, also, in what reign a man called Mallagrowther was hung for treason? Your answering these questions will much oblige Your very obedient servant and constant reader, ROGER DODSWORTH the Younger. THE SOUND OF THE SEA. THOU art sounding on, thou mighty Sea, The ancient rocks yet ring to thee, Oh! many a glorious voice is gone The harp of Judah peals no more On Zion's awful hill: And Memnon's lyre hath lost the chord That breathed the mystic tone, And the songs, at Rome's high triumphs pour'd, Are with her eagles flown: And mute the Moorish horn, that rang O'er stream and mountain free, And the hymn the leagued Crusaders sang But thou art swelling on, thou Deep! Through many an olden clime, Thy billowy anthem, ne'er to sleep Thou liftest up thy solemn voice And all our Earth's green shores rejoice It fills the noontide's calm profound, And the still midnight hears the sound Ev'n as when first it roll'd. Let there be silence, deep and str ange, Thou speak'st of one that doth not change-- F. H. THE LIVES OF THE NORTHS.* THE interesting period between the Restoration and the Revolution of 1688, has been described, and with good reason, as one of the most singular and important in our history. The overthrow of the ancient system of government in a country remarkable for the stability of its institutions, the substitution of a new authority far less suitable to the genius and circumstances of the nation, and the restoration of monarchy without violence or bloodshed, are events of so striking a character as naturally to excite an anxiety to observe the succeeding acts of a drama, no less remarkable for the peculiar and distinguishing characteristics of the personages engaged in it, than for the vast importance and magnitude of its incidents. The high expectations of interest and excitement which may have been raised by the introduction to the reign of the restored dynasty are not likely to be disappointed by the sequel. The occurrences which fill up the space from the accession of Charles the Second to the expulsion of James, while they are such as no sagacity could have anticipated, present a bustling variety, which keeps attention perpetually on the stretch; and the contrasts and contradictions which the conduct of the several parties exhibits form one of the most striking pictures of human inconsistency to be found in the annals of the historian. Even a superficial and hasty view, brings within our observation the strange spectacle of a profligate prince and a loyal and devoted people; of jarring sects, all hating the hierarchy and the church, yet furthering their re-establishment; of friends of liberty insisting on the degradation of a portion of the community; of one conspiracy to introduce foreign force in order to establish despotism, and another in order by the sanie means to overthow authority; of a nation absolutely mad with dread and indignation at a fancied plot, hatched by desperate villany, and sustained by unparalleled assurance and diabolical atrocity, but blind for a long time to another scheme, whence there was rational ground to apprehend the destruction of their religion and liberty. In the midst of these events, the impulse which had been given to public spirit was not altogether inoperative; and the reign of a prince who cared not for laws or constitution, was signalized by the destruction of the most offensive relic of the feudal system, and by a practical and effectual legislative measure for the security of the liberty of the person. Of all the singularities of the period, the most extravagant, and the most reprehensible is the corrupt connexion of Charles with France. Of the character of that monarch in general it is impossible to speak in terms of approbation; but to this part of his career nothing can be appropriate but the most severe and unqualified censure. It is idle to palliate his offence by imputing it to carelessness and indifference of temper. This may be some excuse for the private errors of a private person, though it cannot, even in that case, serve as any palliation for his abandonment of his duty as a citizen. If he sacrifice the interest of his country to a bribe from a foreign state, he is a traitor and a scoundrel; but these words are not strong enough to do justice to such an action in a king. It is a species of political self-murder, combined with all the aggravating circumstances which can attend the most detestable crimes against the well-being of others. Charles, in a great measure, owed his safety to his want of earnestness. He knew how to yield to popular violence during the mania excited by the plot of Oates, and always paused in his other schemes, soon enough to avoid exciting a dangerous expression of The Lives of the Right Hon. Francis North, Baron Guildford, Lord Keeper of the Great Seal under King Charles the Second and King James the Second; the Hon. Sir Dudley North, Commissioner of the Customs, and afterwards of the Treasury to King Charles the Second; and the Hon. and Rev. Dr. John North, Master of Trinity College, Cambridge, and Clerk of the Closet to King Charles the Second; by the Hon. Roger North. A new Edition, with Notes and Illustrations, Historical and Biographical. popular feeling :-the headlong bigotry of James was incapable of this temporizing policy. Fortunately for his country, he openly attacked her religion as well as her liberties, and the result was soon seen, in the abrupt termination of the brief and inglorious reign of the restored family. It was during this period that the eminent persons flourished, whose biography is contained in the volumes before us. It is a rare felicity for a family to produce three such brothers; and a piece of good fortune yet more rare, to possess also a fourth capable of describing and recording with ability the virtues and actions of the others. The Lord Keeper, Sir Dudley North, Dr. North, and the Hon. Roger North, were the sons of the second Dudley Lord North, Baron of Kirtling. The present work was first published in the years 1740 and 1742. The Life of the Lord Keeper has been more extensively circulated than the others, by a subsequent republication; but neither that nor the rest of the work has become so extensively known as its value and interest deserve. The Life of the Lord Keeper commences the series. Our author begins with expressions of astonishment and even of indignation, that the merits of his Lordship have been so sparingly noticed by contemporary writers. For his complaints there are, undoubtedly, some grounds; but the injustice is not, perhaps, so gross as he supposes. The fame of a lawyer, however eminent he may be, is but of a limited and transient character. The advocate who is the ornament and wonder of his court, lives no longer in memory after his career is closed, than the recollection of those who witnessed his triumphs; or at most is known by tradition only, to the next generation :-the judge who has simplified and illustrated difficult points and complicated cases, is the oracle of his day amidst his own profession, and is even heard of beyond those narrow boundaries, but he will probably find no historian; for in after-ages his wisdom will be sought for and cared about only by those whose business it is to search the pages of the Law Reports. It is true, indeed, that the Lord Keeper was, besides being a judge, a man of influence, not only at Court, but with a party of great weight and importance in the state. The king always received his opinion with respect, and the church party looked upon him as one of its principal supports. All this, however, was done quietly and unostentatiously, and as law ought to be the main business of a lawofficer, the world is generally disposed to sink any other character with which he may be invested, into that to which he is supposed to be principally devoted. The opportunities which Mr. North had of knowing the character and history of his noble brother, are such as seldom fall to the lot of a biographer. He was, indeed, throughout his life, his constant companion and intimate friend. That this circumstance, together with gratitude for many acts of kindness and liberality, should render him, to say the least, a favourable and indulgent narrator, is to be reasonably supposed. Something too is to be allowed for the influence of party spirit, for it is not to be disguised that the Norths were party men. The times in which they lived were no times for lukewarmness, temporizing, or indifference; still, however, facts are not misstated, and such misrepresentations as are committed, are committed evidently rather under the influence of feeling than with any deliberate design to mislead. The most important of these are pointed out and corrected in the notes of the editor, in which selections are judiciously made, for the purposes of illustration and comparison, from the pages of Burnet, Reresby, Evelyn, Dalrymple, Pepys, and other writers of that time. In point of style, the work is entitled to commendation. It is easy, natural, and agreeable, and the reflections with which it is interspersed are full of good sense and practical acuteness. The early part of the Lord Keeper's education, was directly opposed to the opinions which he subsequently entertained. His first schoolmaster “was a rigid Presbyterian, and his wife a furious Independent." So strict indeed was this lady in her religious tenets, that "She used," says our author, "to instruct her babes in the gift of praying by |