ly to signify to me, that I should remain in this office, but to add, that if I would name to you one of more value, which would be more commodious to me, you would favour me in it. I am going out of any particular dependance on your Lordship; and will tell you with the freedom of an indifferent man, that it is impossible for any man who thinks, and has any public spirit, not to tremble at seeing his country, in its present circumstances, in the hands of so daring a genius as yours. If incidents should arise, that should place your own safety, and what ambitious men call greatness, in a ballance against the general good, our all depends upon your choice under such a temptation. You have my hearty and fervent prayer to heaven, to avert all such dangers from you. I thank your Lordship for the regard and distinction which you have at sundry times showed me; and wish you, with your country's safety, all happiness and prosperity. Share, my Lord, your good fortune with whom you will: while it lasts, you will want no friends; but, if any adverse day happens to you, and I live to see it, you will find I think myself obliged to be your friend and advocate. This is talking in a strange dialect from a private man to the first of a nation; but to desire only a little, exalts a man's condition to a level with those who want a great deal. But I beg your Lordship's pardon; and am with great respect, my Lord,

"Your Lordship's most obedient, and most humble servant,

'Rich. Steele.'

Such were the magnanimity, the fearless disregard of power, and the noble scorn of pelf, that distinguished the character of Steele. Besides this disinterestedness in politics, he was in private life good-natured, generous, and tender. His purse was always open to distress, while his fortune supplied him with the means of relieving it, and when adversity came on him, "he gave to misery all he had, a tear." In no tumult of public affairs, or turbulence of faction, did he forget his duties to his wife and children; and his letters to them in this collection display such an unaffected love and such a virtuous constancy, as ought to make modern fashionable husbands blush when they read these records of his affection. We must add to our quotations a few

more of these letters to his wife, which are written in a negligent strain of exquisite fondness:

'March 26, 1717.

'My dearest Prue,

;

'I have received yours, wherein you give me the sensible affliction of letting me know the continual pain in your head. I could not meet with necessary advice but according to the description you give me, I am confident washing your head in cold water will cure you; I mean, having water poured on your head, and rubbed with an hand, from the crown of your head to the nape of your neck. When I lay in your place, and on your pillow, I assure you I fell into tears last night, to think that my charming little innocent might be then awake and in pain; and took it to be a sin to go to sleep.

'I am under much mortification from not having a letter from you yesterday: but will hope that the distance from the post, now you are at Blancorse, is the occasion. 'I love you with the most ardent affec

tion, and very often run over little heats that have sometimes happened between as with tears in my eyes. I think no man living has so good, so discreet a woman to his wife as myself; and I thank you for the perseverance in urging me incessantly to have done with the herd of indigent unthankful people, who have made me neglect those who should have been my care from the first principle of charity.

'I have been very importunate for justice to the endeavours I have used to serve the public; and hope I shall very soon have such reparation as will give me agreeable things to say to you at our meeting; which God grant to you and your most obsequious husband,

but

that pleasure. When Jonathan answers my letters, I shall know what to do; if I thought quite so ill of him as the rest of his relations do, I should wholly decline the thought of serving him. I never had any thought of making an expense at Carmarthan but on a fairer prospect than 1 ever yet saw.

'I have had abundance of reflection since we parted; and in the future part of my life, you will find me a very reserved man, and clear of all hangers-on. I find by all the care and industry which a man uses for others, if they are beholden to your pocket, they are only ashamed they were obliged to you, and leave your interest. I shall therefore, hereafter make my expense upon my own way of living, and mv own household and little family. Though my wife gives herself whimsical airs of saying, "if she is unworthy, yet the children"-I say, though you talk of the children, if I will not mind you; I tell you--they are dear to me more that they are yours, than that they are mine: for which I know no reason, but that I am, in spite of your ladyship's coyness and particularities, utterly yours

Dear Prue,

'Rich. Steele.' June 20, 1717. I have yours of the 14th, and am infinitely obliged to you for the length of it.

I do not know another whom I could commend for that circumstance; but, where we entirely love, the continuance of any thing they do to please us is a pleasure. As for your relations; once for all, pray take it for granted, that my regard and conduct towards all and singular of them shall be as you direct.

I hope by the grace of God, to continue what you wish me, every way an honest man. My wife and my children are the objects that have wholly taken up my heart; and as I am not invited or encouraged in any thing which regards the public, I am easy under that neglect or envy of my past actions, and cheerfully contract that diffusive spirit within the interests of my own family. You are the head of us; and I stoop to a female reign, as being naturally made the slave of beauty. But, to prepare for our manner of living when we are again together, give me leave to say, while I am here at leisure, and come to lie at Chelsea, what I think may contribute to our better way of living. I very much approve Mrs. Evans and her husband; and, if you take my advice I would have them have a being in our house, and Mrs. Clark the care and inspection of the nursery. I would have you entirely at leisure to pass your time with me, in

diversions, in books, in entertainments and no manner of business intrude upon us but at stated times: for though you are made to be the delight of my eyes, and food of all my senses and faculties, yet a turn of care and house-wifery, and I know not what prepossession against conversation pleasures robs me of the witty and the handsome wo man, to a degree not to be expressed. I will work my brains and fingers to procure us plenty of all things; and demand nothing of you but to take delight in agree. able dresses, cheerful discourses, and gay sights, attended by me. This may be done by putting the kitchen and the nursery in the hands I propose; and I shall have nothing to do but to pass as much time at home as I possibly can, in the best com pany in the world. We cannot tell here what to think of the trial of my Lord Oxford; if the ministry are in earnest in that, and I should see it will be extended to a length of time, I will leave them to themselves, and wait upon you.

'Miss Moll grows a mighty beauty, and she shall be very prettily dressed, as likewise shall Betty and Eugene; and, if I throw away a little money in adorning my brats, I hope you will forgive me. They are, I thank God, all very well; and the charming form of their mother has tempered the likeness they bear to their rough sire; who is, with the greatest fondness, Your most obliging, and most obedient husband,

Ten thousand times

Rich. Steele.""

July 11, 1717.

My dear, dear, pretty Prue,

'I have been in very great pain for having omitted writing last post. You know the unhappy gaiety of my temper when I have got in; and indeed I went into company without having writ before I left my house in the morning, which I will not do any more. It is impossible to guess at all the views of Courtiers; but, however, am of opinion that the Earl of Oxford is not in so triumphant a way of bill, as his friends imagine. He is to be prosecuted by way of bill, or act of parliament, next session, in order to punish him according as he shall appear to deserve; and in the mean time, to be accepted out of the act of grace, which comes out next week.' Please to take the advice you give me on this subject, and keep your conversation out of the dispute. Your letter has extremely pleased me with the gaiety of its and, you may depend upon it, my ambition is now only turned towards keeping that up in you, and giving you reasons for it in all things about you. Two people

who are entirely linked together in interest, in humour, and affection, may make this being very agreeable; the main thing is, to preserve always a disposition to please and to be pleased. Now as to your Ladyship, when you think fit, to look at you, to hear you, to touch you, gives delight in a greater degree than any other creature can bestow; and indeed it is not virtue, but good sense and wise choice, to be constant to you. You did well not to

dwell upon one circumstance in your let ter; for, when I am in good health, as I thank God I am at this present writing, it awakes wishes too warmly to be well borne when you are at so great a distance. I do not see any mention of your man Sam; I hope the doctor's prescription has been useful to him.

Think, dream and wish for nothing but me; who make you a return in the same affection to you. Forever, Your most obsequious, obedient husband,

Pray date your letters.'

Rich. Steele.'

We have now only to notice the celebrated friendship between Steele and Addison; and willingly would we draw a veil over the selfishness of the latter, were it not necessary that posterity should do justice to the former, and that as he did not receive the reward of his attachment during life, he should at least enjoy the heroism of it after his death. If that can be called friendship in which the affection appears to have existed almost entirely on one side, the connexion between these two great men may be so denominated: but if we consider that Addison had it greatly in his power to serve, and did not serve, his friend, that in the high office of Seeretary of State he neglected the man whose labours, more than those of any other contributed to effect that change of things which produced his own elevation, that in the harshest mode he exacted payment of the bond which he held of Steele,--that after

ward, in the character of the Old Whig, he contemptuously stigmatized the partner of his studies, his writings, and his life, as "little Dicky, whose trade it was to write pamphlets," and if we consider that Steele suffered this neglect and this ill-treatment without complaint or retort, it is impossible not to feel an increase of our admiration of the one, and a diminution of our high respect for the other. Addison patronized Tickell, because he did not fear him but he neglected Steele, because (must we say?) he knew that his genius would have rivalled his own, had his exertions been unclouded by all the embarrassments which poverty and its attendant anxiety threw over them.

As a politician, however, Steele had his faults. He was among the many whom, at this period, according to Swift, "party made mad ;" and in the fury of his mania, he attributed opinions and doctrines to others which they never held. Although born in Ireland, too, he, unlike Swift, soon forgot the suffering, degraded place of his nativity; and having adopted another country, he made it both the theatre and the object of his actions. He imbibed an invincible hatred to the Stuart family and cause, for which no good Whig can be inclined to blame him: but what candid person can read his Romish Ecclesiastical History of Late Years, and his State of the Romish Catholic Religion throughout the World, without lamenting that a man of such a head and such a heart should have incurred the hazard of repeating the commonplace prejudices and absurd falsehoods which prevailed in his time, and which we have seen but too much countenanced in the present day!

THESE Pamphlets contain the result of some ingenious observations and experiments, made by Dr. Richardson, of Clonfecle near the Giant's Causeway in Ireland, on a very interesting department of Natural History and Agriculture.

This learned gentleman is well known for the extent of his Geological Inquiries, and the variety of his opinions, concerning the original formation of the great wonder of Nature near which he resides. Satiated by the number, or wearied by the perplexities of these speculations, he has fortunately for the Public turned his attention of late to more practical objects of research. In the pursuit of these, he appears to us to have elicited from one of the most simple productions of Nature properties as important, as they are singular and unexpected; and which, we think, must even have astonished the shades of those men of mighty stature, who first kept watch over their flocks, on the same verdant summits, which are

now said to be covered by a vegetable of growth equally gigantic.

It is true, we anticipate the sneers that will play round the lips of an old practical Farmer, when he is informed that the discovery, of which we express ourselves in these terms, is no less than a scheme, set on foot in Ireland, for making hay at Christmas: and this, though the weather may be considerably marked by snow or rain. Nor shall we be at all surprised, if our more elevated readers,

"Intent on freighted wealth, or proud to

rear

"The fleece Iberian, or the pamper'd steer,"

sould be tempted at first sight, to class this Irish phenomenon with

those celebrated discoveries concern

ing sunbeams and cucumbers, made by the ingenious philosophers of Laputa, or with their more practical device of ploughing the ground by the rooting of hogs' snouts after buried acorns, to save the charges of implements, cattle, and labour. But we humbly entreat their candour and forbearance, until we have endeavoured to lay before them, from the abovementioned works, as plain and perspicuous a statement as we can, of the facts and circumstances, which have extorted from our impartial judgment the opinion just avowed.

As the subject is one of practical importance, and the really useful information is scattered amidst much repetition throughout the three pamphlets, we shall endeavour to condense the information contained in them; and shall bring the authors' facts and views before the public, by making our own arrangement under distinct heads, briefly illustrating each with proofs and extracts from the works themselves. The extracts will be principally drawn from the Letter to the Marquis of Hertford; not only because it is the latest publication, and is intended as an epitome of all former works on the subject; but also because it is not published, (though

printed for private distribution at the expense of the noble marquis,) and therefore is not generally accessible. The following division seems the most eligible:

1. The History and description of the Fiorin Grass.

2. Its useful properties, and the Mode of Cultivation.

3. The Advantages to be derived from it.

4. The doubts and objections which have been entertained concerning its value.

1. Dr. R. states "that his discovery of the inestimable qualities of the Fiorin Grass can scarcely be called accidental." He has long considered the grass department as little understood by farmers, and was anxious, by experiments and example, "to bring this branch of Agriculture within the pale of utility." The results of his experiments he has laid before the Irish Academy, who published them in their transactions, under the title of "Memoirs on the Useful Grasses." "But Fiorin (says Dr. R.) remained more extensive in its uses, and more diversified in its properties, than all the rest of the gramina taken together." This grass he has often heard mentioned under its own name Agrostis Stolonifera, and that of joint-grass; and it was always spoken of in Ireland very favourably; but no one had ever attempted to cultivate a distinct crop of it, or to institute any experiments relating to it. On the contrary, we believe, that the farmers both in England and Ireland, have been silly enough to use all possible endeavours, for these last five hundred years, entirely to extirpate this grass from their land; but, (as Dr. R. will perhaps think by the kindness of Provi. dence,) entirely without success.

The difference, which the learned Doctor found to exist between the na

ture of this and all other grasses, is so important to the due comprehension, if not to the belief of the facts founded upon it, and is so fully stated in the following extract from his Letter to lord Hertford, that we make no apology for inserting it at some length.

"Fiorin is the grass which botanists have distinguished by the name of Agrostis Stolonifera; some, it is true, deny their identity; but it is only those, who having overlooked or condemned this Agrostis as useless, are ashamed to retract; and defend themselves by asserting Fiorin, and Agrostis Stolonifera, to be different gras

ses.

"The pure (or culmiferous) gramina, are those which we generally cultivate.

"There is another description of grasses, called by botanists stoloniferous, endowed by nature with a third sort of pro duce in addition to the seeds and stalks. This tribe at their respective periods, emit long strings or runners,called stolones which, creeping along the ground, when unsupported take root at their joints, thus forming new plants. The stolones of the Fiorin are very numerous and attain a great length; Wray tells us twenty-four feet; but I must confess mine have rarely past ten. In these stolones the whole value of the Fiorin crop consists; it is therefore (as in the former case) the period of their greatest perfection we must look to for the time of severing.

"Here we are not, as with other grasses limited to a certain point, in the approach to which they improve, and when they pass it, fall off; the quality of the stolones is at all periods equal; we have to look to quantity alone; and that depends upon the length of the strings composing the crop. From the comparative view of the natural history of the stoloniferous and that no reasoning from analogy will apply culmiferous tribes of grasses, it is plain from one to the other, either in their cultivation or in the management of their crops; for no likeness whatsoever exists between them." (p. 11, 12. Letter to Lord H.)

Doctor R. then proceeds to state, that the stolones continue vegetating till Christmas; which is consequent