how or another I attracted his attention in passing, and he gave me one of the most fiendish scowls, accompanied with a frightful glare of the eye, I ever encountered. It passed from his face in an instant, and was succeeded by a smile, as he nodded repeatedly to persons who saluted him. The look he gave me haunted me, and, added to the exhaustion I felt from the heat of the room, occasioned my swooning." Though I felt faint at heart while listening to her, I laughed it off, and said it must have been fancy. "No, no, Doctor, it was not," she replied, " for the Marchioness of saw it too, and no later than this very morning, when she called, asked me if I had affronted Mr Stafford."

Could it be so? Was this "look" really a transient ghastly out-flashing of insanity? Was his great mind beginning to stagger under the mighty burden it bore? The thought agitated me beyond measure. When I coupled the incident in question with the mysterious hint in the daily print, my fears were awfully corroborated. I resolved to call upon Mr Stafford that very evening. I was at his house about eight o'clock, but found he had left a little while before for Windsor. The next morning, however-Sunday -his servant brought me word that Mr Stafford would be glad to see me between eight and ten o'clock in the evening. Thither, therefore, I repaired, about half-past eight. On sending up my name, his private secretary came down stairs, and conducted me to the minister's library—a spacious and richly furnished room. Statues stood in the window-places, and busts of British statesmen in the four corners. The sides were lined with book-shelves, filled with elegantly bound volumes; and a large table in the middle of the room was covered with tape-tied packets, opened and unopened letters, &c. &c. &c. A large bronze lamp was suspended from the ceiling, and threw a peculiarly rich and mellow light over the wholeand especially the figure of Mr Stafford, who, in his long crimson silk dressing-gown, was walking rapidly to and fro, with his arms folded on his breast. The first glance shewed me that he was labouring under high excitement. His face was pale, and his brilliant eyes glanced restlessly

from beneath his intensely knit brows.

My dear Doctor-an age since I saw you!-Here I am-overwhelmed, you see, as usual!" said he, cordially taking me by the hand, and leading me to a seat.-" My dear sir, you give yourself no rest-you are actually-you are rapidly destroying yourself!" said I, after he had, in his own brief, energetic, and pointed language, described a train of symptoms bordering on those of brain-fever. He had, unknown to any one, latterly taken to opium, which he swallowed by stealth, in large quantities, on retiring to bed; and I need hardly say how that of itself was sufficient to derange the functions both of body and mind. He had lost his appetite, and felt consciously sinking every day into a state of the utmost languor and exhaustion-so much so, that he was reluctant often to rise and dress, or go out. His temper, he said, began to fail him, and he grew fretful and irritable with every body, and on every occasion. "Doctor, Doctor, I don't know whether you'll understand me or not-but every thing GLARES at me!" said he. "Every object grows suddenly invested with personality-animation-I can't bear to look at them!-I am oppressedI breathe a rarified atmosphere!""Your nervous system is disturbed, Mr Stafford.”—" I live in a dim dream-with only occasional intervals of real consciousness. Every thing is false and exaggerated about me. I see, feel, think, through a magnifying medium-in a word, I'm in a strange, unaccountable

state."

"Can you wonder at it-even if it were worse?" said I, expostulating vehemently with him on his incessant, unmitigating application to public business. "Believe me," I concluded, with energy, "f you must lie by, or be laid by."" Ah-good, that tease! But what's to be done? Must I resign? Must public business stand still in the middle of the session? I've made my bed, and must lie on it."

I really was at a loss what to say. He could not bear "preaching" or "prosing," or any thing approaching to it. I suffered him to go on as he would-detailing more and more

symptoms like those above mentioned-clearly enough disclosing to my reluctant eyes, reason holding her reins loosely, unsteadily!

*

"I can't account for it, Doctorbut I feel sudden fits of wildness sometimes-but for a moment-a second!-Oh, my Creator! I hope all is yet sound here, here!" said he, pressing his hand against his forehead. He rose and walked rapidly to and fro. "Excuse me, Doctor, I cannot sit still!" said he. * * "Have I not enough to upset me?— Only listen to a tithe of my troubles, now!-After paying almost servile court to a parcel of Parliamentary puppies, ever since the commencement of the session, to secure their votes on the bil-having the boobies here to dine with me, and then dining with them, week after week-sitting down gaily with fellows whom I utterly, unutterably despise-every one of the pack suddenly turned tail on me-stole, stole, stole away-every one-and left me in a ridiculous minority of 43!"-I said it was a sample of the annoyances inseparable from office.-"Ay, ay, ay!" he replied, with impetuous bitterness, increasing the pace at which he was walking. "Why why is it, that public men have no principle-no feeling-no gratitude -no sympathy?" he paused. I said, mildly, that I hoped the throng of the session was nearly got through, that his embarrassments would diminish, and he would have some leisure on his hands.

"Oh no, no, no!-my difficulties and perplexities increase and thicken on every side!-Great heavens! how are we to get on?-All the motions of government are impeded-we are hemmed in-blocked up-on every side the state-vessel is surrounded with closing, crashing icebergs!-I think I must quit the helm !-Look here, for instance. After ransacking all the arts and resources of diplomacy, I had, with infinite difficulty, succeeded in devising a scheme for adjusting our differences. Several of the continental powers have acquiesced—all was going on well -when this very morning comes a courier to Downing Street, bearing a civil hint from the Austrian cabinet, that, if I persevered with my project, such a procedure will be considered

equivalent to a declaration of war! So there we are at a dead stand!

'Tis all that execrable Metternich!

Subtle devil! He's at the bottom of all the disturbances in Europe!Again-here, at home, we are all on our backs!—I stand pledged to the

bill. I will, and must go through with it. My consistency, popularity, place-all are at stake! I'm bound to carry it-and only yesterday the and and families'gad!-half the Upper House-have given me to understand I must give up them, or the bill!-And then we are all at daggers-drawn among ourselves-a cabinet-council like a cockpit, and eternally bickering!-And again-last night his Majesty behaved with marked coolness and hauteur; and while sipping his claret, told me, with stern sang-froid, that HIS consent to the bill was 66 utterly out of the question." Must throw overboard the a measure that I have more at heart than any other!-It is whispered that is determined to draw me into a duel; and, as if all this were not enough, I am perpetually receiving threats of assassination; and, in fact, a bullet hissed close past my hat the other day while on horseback, on my way to -! I can't make the thing public 'tis impossible; and perhaps the very next hour I move out, I may be shot through the heart!—Oh, God, what is to become of me? Would to heaven I had refused the seals of the

office!-Doctor, do you think the nonsense of medicine apartdo you think you can do any thing for me? Any thing to quiet the system-to cool the brain? Would bleeding do? Bathing? What?But mind-I've not much time for physic-I'm to open the tion to-morrow night; and then every hour to dictate fifteen or twenty letters! In a word"

ques

"Colonel Lord —, sir," said the servant, appearing at the door.

"Ah, execrable coxcomb!" he muttered to me. "I know what he is come about-he has badgered me incessantly for the last six weeks!I won't see him-not at home!" to the servant. He paused. Stay, sirrah!-beg the colonel to walk up stairs." Then to me, can command his two brothers'

"The man

votes-I must have them to-morror night.-Doctor, we must part," he a ing approaching footsteps. "I've been raving like a madman, I fearnot a word to any one breathing! Ah, colonel, good evening-good evening!" said he, with a gaiety and briskness of tone and manner that utterly confounded me walking and meeting his visitor half-way, and shaking him by the hands. Poor Stafford! I returned to my own quiet home, and devoutly thanked God, who had shut me out from such splendid misery, as I witnessed in the Right Honourable Charles Stafford!

Tuesday.-Poor Stafford spoke splendidly in the House, last night, for upwards of three hours; and at the bottom of the reported speech, a note was added, informing the reader, that" Mr Stafford was looking better than they had seen him for some months, and seemed to enjoy excellent spirits." How little did he, who penned that note, suspect the true state of matters—that Mr Stafford owed his "better looks" and "excellent spirits" to an intoxicating draught of raw brandy, which alone enabled him to face the House! I read his speech with agonizing interest; it was full of flashing fancy, and powerful argumentative eloquence, and breathed throughout a buoyant elastic spirit, which nothing seemed capable of overpowering or depressing. But Mr Stafford might have saved his trouble and anxiety -for he was worsted-and his bill lost by an overwhelming majority! Oh! could his relentless opponents have seen but a glimpse of what I had seen, they would have spared their noble victim the sneers and railleries with which they pelted him throughout the evening.

Friday. I this afternoon had an opportunity of conversing confidentially with Mr Stafford's private secretary, who corroborated my worst fears, by communicating his own, and their reasons, amounting to infallible evidence, that Mr Stafford was beginning to give forth scintillations of madness. He would sometimes totally lose his recollection of what he had done during the day, and dictate three answers to

the same letter. He would, at the public office, sometimes enter into a strain of conversation with his astounded underlings, so absurd and imprudent, disclosing the profoundest secrets of state, as must have inevitably and instantly ruined him, had he not been surrounded by those who were personally attached to him. Mr- communicated various

other little symptoms of the same kind. Mr Stafford was once on his way down to the House, in his dressing-gown, and could be persuaded with the utmost difficulty only to return and change it. He would sometimes go down to his countryhouse, and receive his lady and children with such an extravagantsuch a frantic display of spirit and gaiety, as at first delighted, then surprised, and finally alarmed Lady Emma into a horrid suspicion of the real state of her husband's mind.

I was surprised early one morning by his coachman's calling at my house, and desiring to see me alone: and when he was shewn into my presence, with a flurried manner, many apologies for his "boldness," and entreaties-somewhat Hibernian, to be sure, in the wording-that I " would take no notice whatever of what he said" he told me that his master's conduct had latterly been "very odd and queer-like." That on getting into his carriage, on his return from the House, Mr Stafford would direct him to drive five or six miles into the country, at the top of his speed-then back again-then to some distant part of London, without once alighting, and with no apparent object; so that it was sometimes five or six, or even seven o'clock in the morning before they got home! "Last night, sir," he added, "master did 'som'mut uncommon 'stroardinary-he told me to drive to Greenwhich-and when I gets there, he bids me pull up at the and get him a draught of ale-and then he drinks a sup, and tells me and John to finish it-and then turn the horses' heads back again for town!"-I gave the man half a guinea, and solemnly enjoined him to keep what he had told me a profound secret.

What was to be done? What steps could we take? How deal with such a public man as Mr Stafford? I felt

myself in a fearful dilemma. Should I communicate candidly with Lady Emma? I thought it better, on the whole, to wait a little longer-and was delighted to find, that as public business slackened a little, and Mr Stafford carried several favourite measures very successfully, and with comparatively little effort, he intermitted his attention to business, and was persuaded into spending the recess at the house of one of his relatives, a score or two miles from town-whose enchanting house and grounds, and magnificent hospitalities, served to occupy Mr Stafford's mind with bustling and pleasurable thoughts. Such a fortnight's interval did wonders for him. Lady Emma, whom I had requested to write frequently to me about him, represented things more and more cheerfully in every succeeding letter -saying, that the "distressing flightiness," which Mr Stafford had occasionally evinced in town, had totally disappeared; that every body atHouse was astonished at the elasti city and joyousness of Mr Stafford's spirits, and the energy almost amounting to enthusiasm, with which he entered into the glittering gaieties and festivities that were going on around him. "He was the life and soul of the party." He seemed determined to banish business from his thoughts, at least for a while; and when a chance allusion was made to it, would put it off gaily with-"sufficient for the day is the evil thereof." All this filled me with consolation. I dismissed the apprehensions which had latterly harassed my mind concerning him, and heartily thanked God that Mr Stafford's splendid powers seemed likely to be yet long spared to the country-that the hovering fiend was beaten off from his victim-might it be for ever!

The House at length resumed; Mr Stafford returned to town, and all his weighty cares again gathered around him. Hardly a few days had elapsed, before he delivered one of the longest, calmest, most argumentative speeches which had ever fallen from him. Indeed it began to be commonly remarked, that all he said in the House wore a matter-of-fact business-like air, which nobody could have expected from him. All this was

encouraging. The measure which he brought forward in the speech last alluded to, was hotly contested, inch by inch, in the House, and at last, contrary even to his own expectations, carried, though by an inconsiderable majority. All his friends congratulated him on his triumph.

"Yes, I HAVE triumphed at last," he said, emphatically, as he left the House. He went home, late at night, and alarmed-confounded his domestics by calling them all up, and it is lamentable to have to record such things of such a man-insisting on their illuminating the Housecandles in every window-in front and behind! It was fortunate that Lady Emma and her family had not yet returned from House, to witness this unequivocal indication of returning insanity. He himself personally assisted at the ridiculous task of lighting the candles, and putting them in the windows; and when it was completed, actually harangued the assembled servants on the signal triumph he and the country had obtained that night in the House of Commons, and concluded by ordering them to extinguish the lights, and adjourn to the kitchen to supper, when he would presently join them, and give them a dozen of wine! He was as good as his word; yes, Mr Stafford sat at the head of his confounded servants-few in number, on account of the family's absence, and engaged in the most uproarious hilarity! Fortunately, most fortunately, his conduct was unhesitatingly attributed to intoxication-in which condition he was really carried to bed at an advanced hour in the morning, by those whom nothing but their bashful fears had saved from being similarly overcome by the wine they had been drinking. All this was told me by the coachman, who had communicated with me formerly-and with tears, for he was an old and faithful servant. He assiduously kept up among his fellow-servants the notion that their master's drunkenness was the cause of his extraordinary behaviour.

I called on him the day after, and found him sitting in his library, dictating to his secretary, whom he

directed to withdraw as soon as I entered. He then drew his chair close to mine, and burst into tears.

"Doctor, would you believe it," said he, "I was horridly drunk last night I can't imagine how-and am sure I did something or other very absurd among the servants. I dare not, of course, ask any of them-and am positively ashamed to look even my valet in the face!"

"Poh, poh-Semel insanivimus omnes," I stammered, attempting to smile-scarce knowing what to

say.

"Don't-don't desert me, Doctor!"-he sobbed, clasping my hand, and looking sorrowfully in my face -"Don't you desert me, my tried friend. Every body is forsaking me! -the King hates me-the Commons despise me the people would have my blood, if they dared!-And yet why? What have I done?-God knows, I have done every thing for the best-indeed, indeed I have!" -I continued grasping his hand in silence.

"There's a terrible plot hatching against me!-Hush!" He rose, and bolted the door. "Did you see that fellow whom I ordered out on your entrance?"-naming his private secretary-"Well, that infamous fellow thinks he is to succeed me in my office, and has actually gained over the King and several of the aristocracy to his interest!"

"Nonsense- nonsense-stuff!You have wine in your head, Mr Stafford," said I, angrily, trying to choke down my emotions.

tor

"No, sir-sober enough now, DocI'll tell you what (albeit unused to the melting mood) has thus overcome me: Lady Emma favours the scoundrel! They correspond! My children, even, are gained over!-But Emma, my wife, my love, who could have thought it!" * * * I succeeded in calming him, and he began to converse on different subjects, although the fiend was manifest again! "Doctor

I'll intrust you with a secret—a state secret! You must know that I have long entertained the idea of uniting all the European states into one vast republic, and have at last arranged a scheme which will, I think, be unhesitatingly adopted. I have written

to Prince on the subject, and expect his answer soon! Isn't it a grand thought!" I assented, of course. It will emblazon my name in the annals of eternity, beyond all Roman and all Grecian fame," he continued, waving his hand oratorically; "but I've been-yes, yes-premature!— My secret is safe with you, Doctor

66

Oh, certainly!" I replied, with a melancholy air, uttering a deep sigh. "But now to business. I'll tell you why I've sent for you." I had called unasked, as the reader will recollect. "I'll tell you," he continued, taking my hand affectionately, "Doctor, I have known you now for many years, ever since we were at Cambridge together," (my heart ached at the recollection,) “and we have been good friends ever since. I have noticed that you have never asked a favour from me since I knew you. Every one else has teased me

but I have never had a request preferred me from you, my dear friend." He burst into tears, mine very nearly overflowing. There was no longer any doubt that Mr Stafford-the great, the gifted Mr Stafford, was sitting before me in a state of idiotcy of MADNESS! I felt faint and sick as he proceeded."Well! I thank God I have it now in my power to reward you-to offer you something that will fully show the love I bear you, and my unlimited confidence in your talents and integrity. I have determined to recall our ambassador at the court of —, and shall supply his place"-he looked at me with a good-natured smile" by my friend Dr!" He leaned back in his chair, and eyed me with a triumphant, a gratified air, evidently preparing himself to be overwhelmed with my thanks. In one instant, however," a change came o'er the aspect of his dream." His features grew suddenly disturbed, now flushed, now pale; his manner grew restless and embarrassed, and I felt convinced that a lucid interval had occurred, that a consciousness of his having been either saying or doing something very absurd, had that instant flashed across his mind. Ah, I see, Doctor -!" he resumed, in an altered tone, speaking hesitatingly, while a vivid glance shot