T

INBURGH FROLIC. pted one of the comforfeited by the late There, Steele indulged the manners of low did entertainment O pick up all the the streets as his ay in collecting a found himself surLacters. After they th punch, ale, and Addison that, bety bellies, he had omedy.

the State Paper plea of his Parlia

d Steele, Knt., sethis Action in debt is Majesty's Court nereon against the ag a Writ of Error, uncil Chamber, but rosecution, was non evable but by bringment. He therefore ute a Writ of Error

manner. 1717.

le write to Lady Steele, le, a pound of coal, or a Low."

expelled by vote, March 15th of the same year. On the accession of George the First he was knighted, obtained official employment, and in 1722, desirous of again sitting in Parliament, stood for Wendover, and as before addressed himself especially to the ladies. He provided a handsome entertainment at the principal inn, and invited every voter, with his wife, to partake of it. Having by his humour, with the aid of wine, wrought his company up to a high pitch of mirth, Sir Richard took occasion to address the ladies, telling them that if what he was about to offer were agreeable to them, he hoped for their interest with their husbands to choose him as their representative. The women were all impatient to hear what he had to propose, and then Sir Richard said, "Ladies, I hope there is none here but who wishes herself to be the mother of a male child; and as an encouragement for all to use their best endeavours, I promise to each of you twenty guineas for every male child you shall bring into the world within these twelve months, and forty provided you bring twins." The time and manner of saying it, produced a good deal of love and a good deal of laughing; it gained upon the wives, and the wives upon their husbands; so that Sir Richard carried his election against a powerful opposition by a great majority.

STEELE'S TRIAL.

WHEN Steele was brought to trial by the Tory party, in the reign of Queen Anne, the Whigs rallied to his support with what strength they could. Walpole and Stanhope took their place on either side of him as he waited at the bar, and Addison prompted him throughout his spirited and temperate defence. But the most interesting occurrence of that day was the speech of Lord Finch. This young nobleman, afterwards famous as a minister and orator, owed gratitude to Steele for having repelled in the Guardian a libel on his sister, and he rose to make his maiden speech in defence of her defender. But bashfulness overcame him, and after a few confused sentences he sat down, crying out as he did so, "It is strange I cannot speak for this man, though I could readily fight for him!" Upon this, such cheering rang through the house, that suddenly the young lord took heart, rose again,

1 See the General Dictionary by Birch and by Lockman, 10 vol. folio. Lond. 1741, art. 'Steele.' Also Steele's Correspondence by Nichols, (1809,) vol. i. p. 328-333.

and made the first of a long series of able and telling speeches. But of course it did not save Steele, who was expelled by a majority of nearly a hundred in a House of four hundred members.-Quart. Rev. cxcii.

ADDISON'S ACCOUNT OF STEELE'S EDINBURGH FROLIC.

IN 1717 Sir Richard Steele was appointed one of the commissioners for inquiring into the estates forfeited by the late rebellion in Scotland. During his stay there, Steele indulged his taste for humour by searching into the manners of low life. With this view he prepared a splendid entertainment at Edinburgh, and ordered his servants to pick up all the beggars and poor people they could find in the streets as his guests. The servants had no difficulty in collecting a numerous company. Sir Richard soon found himself surrounded by above a hundred motley characters. After they had dined very heartily, he plied them with punch, ale, and whiskey. From this frolic, he declared to Addison that, besides the pleasure of filling so many empty bellies, he had derived enough humour to furnish a good comedy.

STEELE IN TROUBLE AGAIN.1

THE following document, preserved in the State Paper Office, would appear to be Sir Richard's plea of his Parliamentary Privilege.

Upon the humble Petition of Sir Richard Steele, Knt., setting forth that John Cox, Gent., brought his Action in debt for one thousand one hundred pounds in His Majesty's Court of Exchequer, and obtained Judgment thereon against the Petitioner. That the Petitioner, by bringing a Writ of Error, did remove the Proceedings into the Council Chamber, but the said Writ of Error, for want of prosecution, was non pros't, and the Petitioner is no way relievable but by bringing a Writ of Error returnable in Parliament. He therefore prays His Majesty to bring and prosecute a Writ of Error accordingly.

Allowed in the usual manner.

14th Nov., 1717.

A year previous to this (Nov. 20, 1716) Steele write to Lady Steele, "We had not when you left us an inch of candle, a pound of coal, or a bit of meat in the house; but we do not want now."

WHISTON'S CHARACTER OF STEELE.

SIR Richard was indeed eminent for wit, yet destitute of true wisdom, in the whole conduct of his life. He wrote very well, but lived very ill. He was a Christian in principle, but not in practice. However, not to go far out of my way in his character, I shall only set down one encounter I had with him at Button's Coffee-house, when he was a Member of Parliament, and had been making a speech in the House of Commons (in the days of George I.) to please the court, but against his own conscience. It was in favour of the South-sea Scheme, then under the great disgrace of the nation, and against which he had previously written weekly papers; but changed his course on finding that he could not else recover his post of Theatrical Censor, which used to bring him in some hundreds per annum. I accosted him thus: "They say, Sir Richard, you have been making a speech in the House of Commons for the South-sea Directors!" He replied, They do say so." To which I answered, "How does this agree with your former writing against that Scheme ?" His rejoinder was, "Mr. Whiston, you can walk on foot, and I cannot."

CHARACTER OF STEELE.

MACAULAY, in his powerfully sketched character of Steele, says, "Steele had known Addison from childhood. They had been together at the Charter House and at Oxford; but circumstances had then, for a time, separated them widely. Steele had left college without taking a degree, had been disinherited by a rich relation, had led a vagrant life, had served in the army, had tried to find the philosopher's stone, and had written a religious treatise and several comedies. He was one of those people whom it is impossible either to hate or respect. His temper was sweet, his affections warm, his spirits lively; his passions strong, and his principles weak. His life was spent in sinning and repenting; in inculcating what was right, and doing what was wrong. In speculation he was a man of piety and honour; in practice was much of the rake and a little of the swindler."

Against which rather severe strictures the able writer of the article "Steele," in the Quarterly, excii., appeals, and

it is thought successfully. The inquirer should read both

articles.

ADDISON'S CATO.

WHEN Addison was a student at Oxford, he sent up his tragedy of Cato to his friend Dryden, as a proper person to recommend it to the theatre if it deserved it; who returned it with great commendation, but with his opinion that on the stage it would not meet with its deserved success. But though the performance was denied the theatre, it brought its author to the public stage of life. For, persons in power inquiring soon after of the head of the college for a youth of parts, Addison was recommended, and readily received, by means of the great reputation which Dryden had just then spread of him as above.-Young.

There is considerable discordance in the evidence as to when Cato was written. Tonson, who was very likely to know, says he wrote the first four acts abroad; and Mr. Macaulay, in the same opinion, says, "It is well known that about this time (when he was in Venice in 1701) he began his tragedy, and that he finished the first four acts before he came to England.” Mr. Macaulay thinks, too, that he was indebted for the hint to a ridiculous play of the name performed during the Carnival.-Tickell says, "The tragedy of Cato appeared in public in the year 1713, when the greatest part of the last act was added by the author to the foregoing, which he had kept by him for many years. He took up a design of writing a play upon this subject when he was very young, at the University, and even attempted something in it there, though not a line as it now stands. The work was performed by him in his travels, and retouched in England, without any formed resolution of bringing it upon the stage, till his friends of the first quality and distinction prevailed with him to put the last finishing to it, at a time when they thought the doctrine of liberty very seasonable."

THE tragedy of Cato was first acted in the year 1713, and was brought upon the stage in a great measure owing to Mr. Hughes. It had been affirmed by good judges that Cato was not a proper subject for a dramatic poem. That the character