of Costume.' upon Mr. Planché a Civil List pension of 2001. yearly, in recognition of services which were, after all, but poorly rewarded by his heraldic position in a collegiate society, where pecuniary success depended upon the power of attracting rich clients, eager to trace their pedigrees up to fabulous ancestors......The 'Cyclopædia of Cos- 'Cyclopædia tume,' a work of immense labour and considerable expense, was commenced in 1875, and as a literary venture was fairly remunerative. The 'Testimonial Edition' of his extravaganzas, lately published in five handsome volumes, under the editorship of Mr. T. F. Dillon-Croker, F.S.A., and Mr. Stephen Isaacson Tucker, who succeeded him in his post of Rouge Croix Pursuivant at the Heralds' College, yielded a handsome sum for the benefit of the herald-author. ......Mr. Planché needs no panegyric to keep his memory alive in the hearts of his numerous friends. His brilliant wit and keen sense of humour, his archæological acumen, his blame- Blameless less private life, combined to make him sought private life. after by all who knew him. One of the most notable traits of his character was his tender solicitude for his widowed daughters and their families. Never a man of large means-for in all his literary labours he worked for the love of the subject rather than for the money it brought him-he remained at his post in the arena of life William Thomas lation and its at an age when most men would have considered themselves entitled to hang up their weapons and fight no more." The death of "the eldest of Mr. Mill's disciples," Mr. William Thomas Thornton, C.B., Thornton. is noticed on the 26th of June. He was born in 1813, and, like Mr. Mill, was a servant of the East India Company. "His scholarship was wide and varied; but, though no mere economist, his reputation rests principally on his Over-Popu- economic publications, especially Over-PopuRemedy. lation and its Remedy,' A Plea for Peasant Proprietors,' and 'On Labour.' In the first of these works he completely overthrew Mr. MacCulloch with reference to the effect of a wide distribution of landed property on the increase of population. Of all the failures in political prediction, none has been more signal than that of Mr. MacCulloch's confident anticipation that the law of partition would soon convert France into a pauper warren; and Mr. Thornton may be said to have predicted the failure. He also did much in this work to correct a popular misconception, of which Lord Macaulay was the eloquent exponent, with respect to the comparative prosperity of the labouring population 'On Labour' in past and modern times......The work 'On Labour' was reviewed by Mr. Mill in two Mill. articles in the Fortnightly Review, which have reviewed by John Stuart been republished in the fourth volume of. his Dissertations and Discussions.' Mr. Mill had long before, in the chapter on 'International Values' in his ' Principles of Political Economy,' traced part of his exposition of that subject to Mr. Thornton's suggestions." son. In No. ccccliii. of the Spectator, published on Saturday, August 9th, 1712, appeared the now well-known hymn "When all Thy mercies," "When all which has always been attributed to Addison. not by AddiThy mercies" Mr. Edward J. L. Scott, in the Athenæum of the 10th of July, refers to the "few words of introduction to the piece, as it appeared for the first time in the pages of the Spectator, which might have led to a different conclusion: 'I have already obliged the Publick with some Pieces of Divine Poetry which have fallen into my Hands, and as they have met with the Reception which they deserved, I shall from time to time communicate any Work of the same Nature which has not appeared in Print and may be acceptable to my Readers.'" Mr. Scott then goes on to state that he has found among the papers of John Ellis, Under-Secretary of State during the reign of Queen Anne, "an original letter, without date, addressed to John Ellis, and signed Richard Richmond, and the writer encloses as his own composition the above hymn, and founds thereon a plea for Richard Richmond. preferment in the Church. The letter runs as follows: Mr. Tom Your Piety And Prudence Your Charity and Candor Engrave Your Name for Posterity: As well as the Present Age to Admire Therein Appropriate this Most Excellent Hymn Suitable S' to Your Excellent Virtues. And hope it may prove A Motive for Your Honors Christian Benevolence To the Author in Adversity To Comfort the Sorrows in Life. Shall be Thankfull to Heaven And Your Worships Most Gracious hand RICHARD RICHMOND. ......The author, Richard Richmond, seems to have been rector of the parish of Walton-on-theHill, co. Lancaster, from 1690 to 1720, and subsequently patron of the same living. He also, so far as I can make out, was grandfather of Richard Richmond, vicar of Walton, who is curiously described in Baines's 'History and Antiquities of Lancashire' as Bishop of Soda ' in 1773. I suppose that Ellis on the receipt of the hymn handed it over to Addison to make what use of it he pleased." The death of Mr. Tom Taylor is recorded on the 17th of July. He was born in 1817. "In 1837 he was at Trinity College, Cambridge, of which he became a Fellow. For two years previously to his being called to the bar of the Inner Temple in 1845, he held the professorship of English Language and Literature at University College. Assistant-Secretary and then Secretary to the Board of Health, then Secretary to the Local Government Acts Office, he retired after twenty-one years' service with a pension. Two years later, in 1874, he succeeded Shirley Brooks as editor of Punch." Mr. Taylor Punch. had a hand in more than a hundred dramas, His dramas. "some of them, like 'The Ticket-of-Leave Man,' little more than translations, others, like 'Henry Dunbar' and 'Arkwright's Wife,' very creditable specimens of adaptation. What plays are wholly original, in the sense of being free from extraneous aid, it is not easy positively to declare." "Plot and Passion,' 'Lady Clancarty,'' Masks and Faces,' 'New Men and Old Acres,'' Still Waters Run Deep,' and 'An Unequal Match' retain a position, as acting comedies, and 'The Fool's Revenge,' ''Twixt Axe and Crown,' 'Joan of Arc,' and 'Anne Boleyn' have won acceptance as historical dramas. Questions as to the extent to which indebtedness to previous sources calls for acknowledgment caused some animated discussions between Mr. Taylor and the critics, and led to the publication in the Athenæum of a letter protesting against the charges brought against him, VOL. II. 2 G |