ADVERTISEMENT,

AFTER the very gratifying indulgence

with which the former Volumes of this Work have been honoured, I venture to add one more; a considerable part of which is formed from the communications of a Friend, on whose splendid talents it is unnecessary to enlarge. They appear conspicuously in the present and in some of the preceding Volumes; not only by his own elegant productions, but by the concurrent testimonials of his numerous friends and admirers.

As the animating spirit of Friendship is gratified by throwing any light into the minds of those who love to dwell on the records of departed worth; I have endeavoured, in an introductory Memoir, to raise a last slight tribute to the memory of one whose pleasure seemed chiefly to arise from the communication of it to others, and whose researches had for the most part in view the improvement and benefit of mankind.

Ennobled by a line of Ancestry who were Gentlemen in the antient acceptation of that title, Mr. GEORGE HARDINGE reflected back on them the Hereditary Honours of his Birth, with the additional

A 2

tional lustre which benevolence and integrity of life are capable of affording.

Many of the articles were communicated by Mr. Justice HARDINGE long before his death. Amongst these (not to mention his Father's "Latin Poems," which have been printed as an independent Volume) were, his Correspondence with Bishop WATSON and other Dignitaries of the Church; with HORACE WALPOLE, Mr. BRYANT, &c. &c.; and more especially the two Letters printed in pp. 15. 24; where Wit, Judgment, and Genius, shine forth in the description of delightful visits, in which the Reader cannot fail to participate when reflected by so clear a mirror to the imagination.

Many other of his original productions were announced by him as intended for publication; several of which have since been handsomely communicated by his Brother, Sir RICHARD HARDINGE, Bart.; and by his Nephew, the Rev. CHARLES HARDINGE, Vicar of Tunbridge in Kent, and of Crowhurst in Sussex. Of these some are given in this Volume; and others are for the present unavoidably postponed.

In the last Letter I received from Mr. HARDINGE, March 26, 1816, he says, "I mean to give you (apart from Lord CAMDEN'S Life) Memoirs of his wonderful Father, Sir JOHN PRATT. They are finished, and wait your commands. I shall annex (if I live) Lord CAMDEN'S Life, and that of my Father."

Of

Of the Life of his excellent Father, which he meditated to have written at some length, nothing has been found but the slight Fragment which I have prefixed to the "Latin Poems" of Mr. NICHOLAS HARDINGE.

The Lives of his other truly eminent and honourable Relatives may probably be published hereafter. "It is well known," I use the words of a muchvalued Correspondent, " that some of the last years of Mr. HARDINGE's life were occupied in the collecting and arrangement of materials for that purpose; and those who recollect the spirit and prompt facility which quickened all his exertions of a Literary nature, will not be at a loss to guess at the zeal and intrepid devotion with which he would sit down to this most interesting of all occupations. We may venture, methinks, to utter a word of prophecy, and say, 'Materiem æquabit opus !'-Among the numerous friends and correspondents of Mr. HARDINGE was the late Bishop WATSON, whose powerful intellect, discernible in every thing that he wrote (whatever may be thought of the temper of his Political opinions) will triumph over Time, and command the admiration of a distant posterity. In the Anecdotes of his Lordship's Life, lately published, are scattered several letters to Mr. HARDINGE; and the Bishop commences one of them with a judgment on the Work about which his classical Friend was at that time employing himself:- I have read your Letter,' says the Bishop, with great pleasure. I like to listen to a man of parts, multa & præclara minantem.

minantem. Of all your various projects, I most approve of a Life of your Uncle. This Life will afford you an opportunity of enlarging upon the injustice and impolicy of the American War; of delivering your sentiments on the causes and consequences of the French Revolution; and of divining the consequences of these two great events to ourselves, to Europe, and the world.

"In another Letter the Bishop says, 'Methodize the whole before you begin any part: imitate some of the best Lives of Plutarch, and fear not producing an excellent work, not an ephemeral farrago of newspaper trash, but a xinμά eis des worthy of you and of him.'-There is an entertaining passage in which the Bishop bears testimony, strongly though incidentally, to the wonderful facility, the wit, and unequalled energy of language, displayed by Mr. HARDINGE in correspondence with his friends: "Your letters are so classical, and your verba ardentia so electrical, that they almost fire my frozen age, and tempt me to discharge upon you a reciprocal lightning, &c."

Of Mr. HARDINGE's Poems, a few, more immediately connected with his personal history, and with that of his very heroic Nephew Captain HARDINGE, will be found in the present Volume. But I have an almost endless treasure of his poetical amusements, from which a Volume shall be selected, for a Collection of the worthy Judge's "Miscellaneous Writings in Verse and Prose," already in the press, as a separate publication; in which will be also found

many

many of his truly patriotic and excellent "Charges at the General Sessions in Wales," and some interesting "Sermons by a Layman."

When Mr. HARDINGE had nearly completed his Memoirs of Dr. SNEYD DAVIES, he directed that they should be inscribed, "To Lady KNOWLES, the zealous Enthusiast for Genius, Taste, and Virtue." And to that excellent Lady I have since been greatly indebted, not only for the particulars of Mr. HARDINGE's last illness and unexpected death, and for some of his original Poems-but for the communication of several of his Letters; in which the clever, playful, and witty style at once exhibits the active genius Mr. HARDINGE possessed, and also his passion for Literary acquirement to the latest period of his existence.

When we consider that few live to the advanced age Mr. HARDINGE attained without sustaining a loss in some material faculty, we shall more highly prize the rare gifts he enjoyed, both mentally and bodily; for, excepting the wrinkles and grey hairs which hoary Time by its iron grasp will leave on the strongest, his life may be said to have been mental youth, and his death a short interruption and passage to that blessed state of perfection which his goodness and philanthropy sought after while on earth.

The Letters to the Rev. RICHARD POLWHELE, Mr. EVANS, Mr. MUDFORD, and Mr. JOHNS, were communicated by the Gentlemen to whom they are severally addressed.

To