Having contracted a sudden acquaintance at Drury Lane Theatre, he says: "Hearing I could write, he desired me to write a few songs for him; this I did the same night, and conveyed them to him the next morning. These he showed to a Doctor of Music, and I am invited to treat with this Doctor, on the footing of a composer, for Ranelagh and the Gardens. Bravo! hey, boys! up we go!"

B. 1759.

RICHARD PORSON.

D. 1808.

SOME angry person having said to the learned Porson, "My opinion of you is most contemptible," he answered, "I never knew an opinion of yours that was not contemptible."

B. 1759.

ROBERT BURNS.

D. 1796.

BURNS, not without reason, thought his noble ode, "Bruce's Address to his Troops at Bannockburn," to be in his "best manner," and so thought Mrs. Dunlop, who belonged to the Wallace family. One of the finest letters of Burns to this lady discloses how sweet to the poet was her praise. Woman's praise is always sweet. He writes:

"I am truly sorry I was not at home yesterday, when I was so much honored with your order for my copies, and incomparably more by the handsome compliments you are pleased to pay my poetic abilities. I

your

am fully persuaded that there is not any class of mankind so feelingly alive to the titillations of applause as the sons of Parnassus; nor is it easy to conceive how the heart of the poor bard dances with rapture when those whose character in life gives them a right to be polite judges honor him with their approbation. Had you been thoroughly acquainted with me, madam, you could not have touched my darling heart-chord more sweetly than by noticing my attempts to celebrate illustrious ancestor, the savior of his country." In writing to "Clarinda," in 1793, he complains about a "dry, distant” letter received from one who, as he says, "can write a friendly letter, which would do equal honor to his head and heart, as a whole sheaf of his letters I have by me will witness; and though Fame does not blow her trumpet at my approach now as she did then, when he first honored me with his friendship, yet I am as proud as ever; and when I am laid in my grave, I wish to be stretched at my full length, that I may occupy every inch of ground which I have a right to."

B. 1756.

WILLIAM GODWIN.

D. 1836.

GODWIN was affronted with Charles Lamb because he told him his book about sepulchres was better than Hervey, but not so good as Sir Thomas Browne.

B. 1758.

LORD NELSON.

D. 1805.

ENGLAND'S greatest naval hero was not deficient in self-assertion. In our own country we can hardly conceive that a scarcity of bread was ever a possibility; but in the year 1800 the price of a quartern loaf of bread in England rose to one shilling and tenpence halfpenny; and it became the fashion to give dinners where the guests were asked to bring their own bread. To one of these Nelson was invited, perhaps without notice of such a condition. At any rate, when he found himself without bread, he called his servant, and before the whole company gave him a shilling, and ordered him to go and buy a roll, saying aloud, "It is hard that after fighting my country's battles, I should be grudged her bread." The feelings of the host may be imagined.

It may not be generally known that Nelson's last signal was not "England," but "Nelson, expects every man to do his duty." It has been asserted that the officer to whom the order was given affected to have misunderstood the egotistical direction, and substituted the sounding rhetoric which was then and has been ever since received with so much enthusiasm by Englishmen.

B. 1759.

WILLIAM PITT.

D. 1806.

IN August, 1776, when the world was agitated by the news that Mr. Pitt, the Great Commoner, had become Earl of Chatham, his son, Little William, exclaimed, "I am glad that I am not the eldest son. I want to speak in the House of Commons like papa.'

B. 1762.

GEORGE IV.

D. 1830.

GEORGE THE FOURTH was dissolute, and false in all things, and having nothing upon which even personal vanity could be truthfully supported, he strangely claimed to have been present at the Battle of Waterloo. This claim often taxed the politeness of the Duke of Wellington, who could only say in reply to his recollections, "I have often heard your Majesty say so."

B. 1762.

WILLIAM COBBETT.

D. 1835.

THE author of "Peter Porcupine," the "Weekly Political Register," and the "Twopenny Trash," with many other works, was a burly and potent demagogue, suffering two years of imprisonment for his indiscretions; but as an English writer and controversialist he was distinguished by the singular force and simplicity of his style; and yet he made no impression in Parliament when he entered, and soon after died,

having passed the age of seventy. In one of his best works, "Rural Rides," he does not conceal his knowledge of his own importance when he says, "I wish to see many people and to talk to them, and there are a great many people who wish to see and talk to me."

In the dedication of his "Legacy to Parsons," he observes that he calls "it a legacy because I am sure that, long after I shall be laid under the turf, this little book will be an inmate of the cottages of England;" and although he "was born in a cottage and bred to the plough, that men in mighty power were thirty-four years endeavoring to destroy him; that in spite of this he became a Member of Parliament, freely chosen by the sensible and virtuous and spirited people of Oldham, and that his name was William Cobbett."

Cobbett was a most prolific writer, and, exclusive of his newspaper, wrote what he with some propriety called his library. “When I am asked what books a young man or young woman should read, I always answer, let him or her read all the books I have written."

6

Cobbett published an excellent grammar, but made use of it occasionally, as Johnson did of his dictionary, to convey satire. "Sometimes the hyphen is used," he says, "to connect many words together, as the never-to-be-forgotten cruelty of the borough tyrants.' Again, "Nouns of number, such as mob, Parliament, rabble, House of Commons, regiment, court of King's