was fure it must take, as it was at once perfonal, poetical, and political. It had accordingly a rapid and extenfive fale; and it was often afferted by his admirers, that Mr. Churchill was a better poet than Mr. Pope. This exaggerated adulation, as it had before corrupted his morals, now began to impair his mind; feveral fucceeding pieces were published, which being written without effort, are read without pleasure. His Gotham, Independence, The Times, feem merely to have been written by a man who defired to avail himself of the avidity of the public curiofity in his favour, and are rather aimed at the pockets than the hearts of his readers.

How fhall I trace this thoughtless man through the latter part of his conduct; in which, leaving all the milder forms of life, he became entirely guided by his native turbulence of temper, and permitted his mind to harrafs his body through all the various modes of debauchery? His feducing a young lady, and after living with her in shameless adultery; his beating a man, formerly his friend, without any provocation, are well known. Yet let us not be fevere in judging; happy were it for him, if ours were the only tribunal at which he was to plead for thofe irregularities, which his mental powers rendered but more culpable.

THE ingenious, man

who

makes the fubject of this flight memoir, was one of thofe whofe life affords little variety to the hiftorian, and whofe chief hif tory lies in that of his own productions.

Mr. Hogarth was born in London, in the parish of St. Bartholomew; to which he was afterwards, as far as lay in his power, a benefactor. His father, being one of the lower orders of tradesmen, had no higher views for his fon, than binding him apprentice to an engraver of pewter-pots, which, it must be owned, is, of all the fpecies of the painting art, the loweft. In this humble fituation, Hogarth wrought through his apprenticeship, and seemed, through the whole of his time, to have no higher views than those of his contemptible employment.

Upon leaving his apprenticeship,

he refolved upon higher aims, and pursued every method of improving himself in the art of drawing, of which his former mafter had given him but a very rude conception. The ambition of the poor is ever produ&tive of diftrefs; fo it was with Hogarth, who, while he was furnishing the materials for his fubfequent excellence, felt all that contempt and indigence could produce. I have heard it from an intimate friend of his, that being one day arrefted for fo trifling a fum as twenty fillings, and being bailed by one of his friends, in order to be revenged of the woman who arrested him (for it was his landlady) hế drew her picture as ugly as poffible, or as painters exprefs it, in caricatura; and in that fingle figure gave marks of the dawn of fuperior genius.

How long he continued in this state of indigence and obfcurity, we

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cannot learn; but the first piece in which he diftinguished himself as a Painter, was in the Figures of the Wandsworth Affembly. These are drawn from the life, and without any circumstances of his burlesque manner. The faces are faid to be extremely alike, and the colouring is rather better than in fome of his beft fubfequent pieces. But we muft obferve in general of this excellent Painter, that his colouring is dry and difpleafing, and that he could never get rid of the appellation of a mannerift, which was given him early in life. His next piece was probably that excellent picture of the Pool of Bethelda, which he prefented to St. Bartholomew's Hofpital, in which parith, as we have already faid, he was born.

We have hitherto only feen him in grave hiftory paintings; a walk in which he has many competitors; but he foon launched out into an unbeaten track, in which he excelled all that ever came before, or have fince fucceeded him. His being first employed to draw defigns for a new edition of Hudibras, was the inlet to his future excellence in the burlesque; we mean in his life pictures, for fuch we will venture to call them. It is unjust to give thefe the character either of burlesque or grotefque pieces, fince both the one and the other convey to us a departure from nature, to which Hogarth almost always strictly adhered. That work of this kind, which first appeared, was his Harlot's Progrefs. The ingenious Abbe Du Bos has often complained, that no hiftorypainter of his time went through a feries of actions, and thus, like an hiftorian, painted the fucceffive fortunes of an hero, from the cradle to the grave. What Du Bos wifhed

to fee done, Hogarth performed. He launches out his young adventurer a fimple girl upon the town, and conducts her through all the viciffitudes of wretchedness to a premature death. This was painting to the reafon and to the heart: none had ever before made the art fubfervient to the purposes of morality and inftruction; a book like this is fitted to every foil and every obferver, and he that runs may read.

The Rake's Progress fucceeded the former, which, though not equal to it, yet came fhort only of that single excellence; no other could come near him in that way. His great excellence confifted in what we may term the furniture of his pieces; for, as in fublime fubjects, and hif tory pieces, the fewer little circumftances there are to divide the fpectator's attention from the principal figures, is reckoned a merit; fo in life-painting the greater variety there is of thofe little domeftic images, gives the whole a greater degree of force and refemblance. Thus in the Harlot's Progrefs we are not difpleafed with James Dalton's wig-box, on the bed-tefter in her lodgings in Drury-Lane; particularly too, if it be remembered, that this James Dalton was a noted highwayman of that time. In the pieces of Marriage Alamode, what can be more finely or fatyrically conceived, than his introducing a gouty lord, who carries his pride even into his infirmities, and has his very crutches marked with a coronet?

But a comment, or panegyric, on pictures, is of all fubjects the most difpleafing; and yet the life before us offers very little elfe. We may indeed, in the manner of biographers, obferve, that he travelled to

Paris

Paris for improvement; but scarce any circumftance remains by which he was diftinguished in this journey from the rest of mankind, who go thither without defign, and return without remark. Perhaps his general character of the French may be thought worth remembering; which was, that their houses were gilt and b-t.

About the year 1750, he published his Analyfts of Beauty, which, tho' it was ftrongly oppofed, yet was replete with those ftrokes which ever characterise the works of genius. In this performance he fhews, by a variety of examples, that round fwelling figures are most pleasing to the eye; and the truth of his opinion has of late been further confirmed by an ingenious writer on the fame fubje&t.

Little elfe remains of the circumftances of this admirable man's life, except his late conteft with Mr. Churchill: the circumftances of this are too recent in every memory to be repeated. It is well known that both met at Westminster - Hall; Hogarth, to catch a ridiculous likenefs of the poet; and Churchill, to furnish a natural defcription of the Painter. Hogarth's picture of Churchill was but little effeemed, and Churchill's letter to Hogarth has died with the fubject. Some pretend, however, to say, that it broke the latter's heart; but this we can, from good authority, fay is not true; indeed, the report falls of itfelf; for we may as well say, that Hogarth's pencil was as efficacious as the poet's pen, fince neither long furvived the contest.

HE character of the Right Ho

tioned, being already fufficiently known, we shall pass over what the writer fays concerning Mr. Legge's integrity and abilities, and confine ourfelves to the much-talked-of papers which are faid to have paffed between him and the right hon. the earl of Bute, of which we are prefented in this performance with the following account and copies.

UPON the prefent duke of Bolton's acceffion to his title in the year 1739, Mr. Legge was folicited to fucceed his grace, as one of the reprefentatives of the county of Southampton, his own feat in parliament chancing, at that time, to be va

cant.

He could not well have been importuned to an undertaking more unpleasant to him, and he declined

it more than once, without reserve. The bustle of a popular election was unnatural to his liberal mind and manners, and a relation of that kind to a large county, in which he refided, might appear inconvenient to him, whofe hands were at that time filled with public bufinefs. But he was prevailed with to accept the offer, by the repeated intreaties of his friends, which were enforced by the plea, that his fortune and character would do credit to a party, which had all his life been countenanced by government, and with which he had ever acted uniformly, tho' with undiffembled moderation and good-humour towards the other party. And he had the farther encouragement, of hoping, from the intereft of the crown exerted in his favour, in conjunction with that of

the

the then prevailing party in the county, as well as with his own perfonal intereft, which was very confiderable, that his election would not be contested.

However, he fell into the difagreeable work of a conteft. His competitor was Mr. Stuart, now Sir Simeon Stuart; and he found Mr. Stuart's intereft adopted by a noble lord, with whom Mr. Legge was not at variance; who had no apparent relation of any kind to the county; whom therefore Mr. Legge did not think of confulting, before he refolved to comply with the defire of his friends.

After the county had been canvaffed on both fides, Mr. Stuart thought fit to decline, and Mr. Legge received the following letter:

66

Downing-Street, Nov. 25th, "Dear Sir, Monday evening.

"Lord Bute fent to me this morning, and told me, that having an opportunity of faving you, he had cmbraced it, and done you an act of friendship; for that Mr. Stuart having been with him for his advice, whether to leave or pursue the election, as fome of Mr. Stuart's friends thought this criticalifeafon of an invasion hanging over the kingdom to be a very improper time for parliamentary contests, his lordship had determined the point for relinquishing the pursuit ; in consequence of which Mr. Stuart was to acquaint you with his refolution of declining a poll. Lord B. added, that neither he, nor the greater perfon, whofe name hath been used during the competition, would ever treat you with the more coldness for what hath happened, your part having been taken under an ignorance of their views and intentions; that lord B. expected however, as he had a

claim upon you, in right of friendfhip, that you will concur with him, and give your aid to the perfon he fhall recommend, at a future election. I answered to the last point, that I knew not, how far you would think yourself bound in honour to act with the body of Whigs on fuch an occafion; but if this confideration did not hinder, I was fure you would be happy, to give him that or any other evidence of your refpect for him.

"You will be pleased therefore to confider well, and (if you please) with the advice of your friends, before you give an answer on this head, that may tie you down, for on that anfwer, you plainly fee very much will depend. I am dear Sir, Faithfully your's,

S. M. To this letter Mr. Legge returned the following anfwer:

"Holte, Dec. 5th, 1759. "Dear M,

"I return you many thanks for your letter. Since I received it, I have had an opportunity of feeing a little more of the fpirit and temper of the county, and can answer it better, than I could have done fooner. L-r He do me great juftice in fuppofing I was totally ignorant of their concerning themselves at all in the Hampshire election, at the time my engagements were taken. I am obliged to lord B. for any intentions he had to fave me, by the advice he gave to drop the oppofition; but if Mr. Stuart, or his friends, had accepted the offer I made, with the concurrence of my friends, at the beginning, and as foon as I difcovered what turn the election might take, every with of Mr, Stuart's had been fecured, the

peace

peace of the county never been interrupted, little less than five thoufand pounds a-piece faved to us both, and what is still of more confequence, a month's fermentation of parties been intirely prevented, which never fails to turn them all four. Many of these good confequences had likewife been obtained, if the gentlemen had confulted, and enabled lord B. to put an end to the conteft, before I left London, when you know how unwilling I was to push it to extremity.

"As to the event of the election, there was not the least doubt about it. The county was thoroughly canvaffed, and upon as exact returns, as I believe ever are or can be made in a cafe of this kind, I could have given Mr. Stuart all the doubtful ones and all the neuters, in addition to his own poll, and yet have carried the election by a majority of 1400. I did not come into a fingle town, (except Alton) where it was not expected every day, that the oppofition would be given up, and where almost any odds would not have been laid, that it never came to a poll. Nor do I think, any confultation would have been held about dropping the affair, if all the money fubscribed against me, and more, had not been expended, and all probability of carrying the point intirely vanished. This is my own firm opinion and belief, and yet whoever reads my advertisement will fee, that I have acted with the utmost candour, and given my opponents credit for fuch motives of retreat, as I am fure do them no difhonour. The expence, indeed, would have been enormous, if the difpute had been carried thorough, and fo far I own there is a faving to us both, for I am convinced it would

have amounted to above 20,000l. a-piece. This is a fum I should have felt feverely, and yet, after my offer to compromife had been rejected, I must and would have spent it, and could have done it, without mortgaging my eftate. I leave you to judge, what effect it would have had on Mr. Stuart's.

"After faying thus much, I am very far from having any perfonal diflike to Mr. Stuart; on the contrary, I think he has been cruelly treated by fome of his friends, and if the prevailing party in this county will receive him without oppofition, I fhall be very well fatisfied and glad of it: but if the Whigs and diffenters, who are very numerous in this county, will make a point of oppofing him, it will be impoffible for me to declare for him, and abandon those, who have fupported me, to take part with those, against whom they have fupported me.

This would not only put my own election in jeopardy, but be fo ungrateful and difreputable a part for me to act, that it would in the fame proportion make my assistance ineffectual to the perfon I should join with. I am, &c.

H. B. Legge." Upon this anfwer, Mr. Legge received a verbal meffage from lord B. by Mr. M. Dec. 12, 1759, the purport of which was, as it ftands upon Mr. Legge's paper, "that he fhould bid adieu to the county of Southampton at the general election, and affift, as far as lay in his power, the P-of W's nomination of two members;" to which meffage a categorical answer was required, and Mr. Legge fent the following, in writing, on the same day.

"Mr. Legge understanding it to be expected, that he (who had never

enga