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guilty of many detestable acts of oppression, and pursued with secret and unrelenting vengeance such as offended his'arrogance by any failure in the servile homage which he made it his glory to exact, are charges proved by undeniable facts ; but it has already been observed, that the most atrocious of the crimes popularly imputed to him, remain, and must ever remain, matters of suspicion rather than of proof.

“ His conduct during the younger part of his life was scandalously licentious; latterly he became, says Camden, uxorious to excess.

In the early days of his favour with the Queen, her profuse donations had gratified his cupidity, and displayed the fondness of her attachment; but at a later period the stream of her bounty ran low; and following the natural bent of her disposition, or complying with the necessity of her affairs, she compelled him to mortgage his barony of Denbigh for the expenses of his last expedition to Holland. Immediately after his death, she also caused his effects to be sold by auction, for the satisfaction of certain demands of her treasury. From these circumstances, it may probably be inferred, that the influence which Leicester still retained over her, was rather a chain of habit, than a tie of affection; and after the first shock of final separation from him whom she had so long loved and trusted, it is not improbable that she might contemplate the event with a feeling somewhat akin to that of deliverance from a yoke under which her haughty spirit had repined without the courage to resist.”

Notwithstanding this, the death of a man who had been for thirty years the object of her kindness, left a void in Elizabeth's existence, which she however, appears soon to have filled up by her attachment to a new object. This proved to be the Earl of Essex, a young nobleman lately introduced at court, with a view of counterpoising the growing influence of Raleigh; and who from the very first stood second to none in the good graces of Her Majesty. In the course of a short time he caught such a hold of her affections, that his influence and her attachment appear to have far exceeded all that had been enjoyed on the part of his predecessor.

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“ But Essex,” we are told, “ however gifted with noble and brilliant qualities, totally deficient in Leicester, was on the other hand, confessedly inferior to him in several other endowments still more essential to the leader of a court party. Though not void of art, he was by no means master of the profound dissimulation, the exquisite address, and especially the wary coolness, by which his predecessor well knew how to accomplish his ends in spite of all opposition. His character was impetuous, his natural disposition frank, and experience had not yet taught him to distrust either himself or others.”

The misconduct of this favourite both in England and Ireland, his frequent disputes with the Queen, and his subsequent rebellion, are facts well known to every reader of English history. But his memory was still dear to his sovereign, and his

. execution by her orders, appears to have embittered the remainder of her days, as may be learned from the following interesting anecdote :

“ The Countess of Nottingham, who was a relation but no friend, of the Earl of Essex, being on her death-bed, entreated to see the Queen ; declaring that she had something to confess to her before she could die in peace. On Her Majesty's arrival, the Countess produced a ring, which she said the Earl of Essex had sent to her after his condemnation, with an earnest request that she would deliver it to the Queen, as the token by which he implored her mercy; but which, in obedience to her husband, to whom she had communicated the circumstance, she had hitherto withheld; for which she entreated the Queen's forgiveness.

“ On sight of the ring, Elizabeth instantly recognised it as one which she had herself presented to her unhappy favourite on his departure for Cadiz, with the tender promise, that of whatsoever crimes his enemies might have accused kim, or whatsoever offences he might actually have committed against her, on his returning to her that pledge, she would either pardon him, or admit him at least to justify himself in her presence. Transported at once with grief and rage, on learning the barbarous infidelity of which the Earl had been the victim, and herself the dupe; the Queen shook in her bed the dying Countess; and vehemently exclaiming that God might forgive her, but she never could, Aung out of her chamber. Returning to her palace she surrendered herself without resistance to the despair which seized her heart at this fatal and too late disclosure. — Hence her refusal of medicine, and almost of food; hence her obstinate silence, interrupted only by sighs, groans, and broken hints of a deep sorrow which she cared not to reveal; hence the days and nights passed by her seated on the floor, sleepless, her eyes fixed, and her finger pressed upon

her mouth; hence in short, all those heart-rending symptoms of incurable and mortal anguish, which conducted her in the space of twenty days, to the lamentable termination of a long life of power, prosperity, and glory. The Queen expired on March 24th, 1603."

We have thus given a short account of some of the principal incidents of the Court of Elizabeth, and must refer our readers to the work in question, for the grand political events of this interesting reign. The author is the daughter of Dr. Aikin, and niece of Mrs. Barbauld, two names well known, and highly respected in the literary world. This young lady, as is generally the case, commenced her career, we believe, by sacrificing to the muses; and in the course of the two volumes now before us, has exhibited much taste, great discrimination, and no common talent for composition.

No. II.

MEMOIRS OF THE PRIVATE LIFE OF MY FATHER.

BY THE

BARONESS DE STAEL-HOLSTEIN. TO WHICH ARE ADDED MISCELLANIES, BY M. NECKER.

MADAME DE STAEL, the beloved daughter and only child of M. Necker, very justly observes it "to be natural that public curiosity should be excited respecting a man, whose political career must occupy a distinguished place in the annals of Europe." She represents him as one "marked out for combat with fate, and with mankind;" as 66 a man endowed with every quality that can stimulate to the gratification of an immeasureable ambition; yet whose ambition was invariably kept subordinate to the dictates of the most scrupulous conscience a man whose genius was bounded by the circle of his duties and affections, and whose rare faculties overstept every barrier but that of virtue : - a man who, after a transient glimpse of the most splendid prosperity, was plunged into misfortunes which obscured the lustre of his glory; and who, when presented to posterity, will be appreciated only by those beings, whose souls possess some sparks of a congenial nature.

"It will be my task," adds this affectionate daughter, “at some future period, if my mind should ever recover from that fatal stroke which has cruelly blasted its hopes of happiness, to present to the world a portrait of my father in public life, as a statesman and an author: but as such a work must inevitably touch on that great epoch in the history of Europe, the French Revolution, I shall postpone to a more distant period the performance of a duty which might rouse the malignant passions now slumbering in the grave.

"Had it been the fate of M. Necker to spend his life at

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Geneva, in the obscurity of a private station; had he for ever remained a stranger to the seductions of a French Court, and to all those conflicts of interest, inseparable from power and from ambition, I am persuaded that, merely as a citizen and a man, it would have been impossible to contemplate his character without mingled emotions of reverence and admiration ; but what sentiments must not this character inspire, when examined in all its purity — its elevation, its delicacy, and benignity unsullied by temptation - impregnable to reproach, during that perilous career which was calculated to create a thousand impetuous or vindictive passions; to call into action a thousand harsh or revolting sentiments ?”

We find that M. Necker arrived at Paris at the early age of fifteen ; alone, unknown, unprotected, and with but a very slender patrimony, for the improvement of which his family had procured him a commercial situation. During the first twenty years he devoted his whole life to fulfil the duties incident to his station; and not only abstained from the pleasures, but even from the amusements of a luxurious capital. At the age of thirty-five, he united himself to a female, possessed of various talents and accomplishments, and with whom he appears to have lived with as eager an attachment at the last, as at the first moment of their union.

The pursuits incident to commerce naturally developed many qualities essentially necessary in the political department, particularly finance ; but they were eminently hostile to literature; and yet we are told, that he excelled in both. The first calculator of the age became one of the most elegant prose-writers in the French language; equally distinguished by the splendour of his diction, and the magnificence of his imagination; and we are here reminded, that it is in the re-union of opposite qualities, we recognise the character of a master-mind.

M. Necker often told his daughter, that he might have doubled his fortune, bad he not retired early from business ; and that if wealth or power had been the object of his ruling passion, he might have amply gratified it with either, or both.

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