during that struggle, the wages and prize-money of the seamen were, as usual, scattered with unsparing profusion; and as British manufactured goods to a great amount were clandestinely conveyed into the United States through Nova-Scotia, as well as New-Brunswick, money was literally poured into the country: many persons, supposing that this unnatural state of things would continue always, acted with great imprudence, and involved themselves in serious difficulties. Hay, for instance, was at that period ten pounds per ton, and other articles of agricultural produce were proportionably high; a large influx of wealthy emigrants were expected from the mother country in consequence of these and other considerations, not a few substantial farmers became anxious to increase their real estate, and actually raised money to purchase new land, by mortgaging their improved property. The war ended, the circulation of money was diminished, the expected emigrants did

not arrive, the value of land was lowered, and, in many instances, the whole of the old family settlement was sold to meet the demands of the mortgagee. Since then the removal of the dock-yard establishment to Bermuda,-an ill-advised measure,the commercial embarrassments of the year 1825-6, which were SO painfully felt both at home and abroad; the events growing out of the struggle between the general Government of the United States and the Bank; the withdrawal of several thousand pounds per annum by the (in this instance at least) unwise saving plan adopted by Government, in reference to the garrison of Halifax; and last, though not least, the prevalence of that awful and mysterious pestilence, the cholera, which has been permitted to chastise the human race, have operated to the disadvantage of the country, and there is every reason to fear that the effects of their combined influence will be long and painfully felt. R. ALDER.

We have seldom been more gratified by the first perusal of any work than by that of the volumes now on our table. Hannah More lived in eventful times, and, for no inconsiderable portion of her life, among those whose very names bring before us one of the most distinguished eras of English literature. She was a close and constant observer of manners, characters, and events; and thus, though her own personal history may furnish few of those stirring incidents which occur in the lives of warriors, statesmen, and travellers, and which render their biography so interesting, especially to the young, and to those who read for amusement, yet is this deficiency more than supplied by the account of her intercourse with others, and of that honourable course to which she devoted herself, if not at a very early period, yet neither at a late one. Her biographer had a task of

no ordinary magnitude to perform, and in many respects he has executed it with much ability. Some, indeed, may think that more of narrative and anecdote, and somewhat less of correspondence, would have rendered the work more interesting without being less instructive; and,

to

a certain extent, the opinion would not be incorrect. At any rate, we do think that Mr. Roberts might have made his own connecting observations less didactic, and more biographical; for, after all, we have to collect the life of Mrs. More from the certainly abundant materials with which we are here supplied. We object not to the miscellaneous character of the work, but to the want of sufficient arrangement and connexion. We felt this, it must be acknowledged, more on the second than on the first reading. What with the anecdotes of distinguished men in the earlier portions of the memoir,

and the references throughout the whole to Mrs. More's interesting domestic life, her benevolent endeavours to promote the improvement of her neighbours, and her important and rapidly succeeding literary productions, we travelled at first with speed far too great for criticism. It was like a first journey in a steam-carriage on a railway. We have since been able to go over the road more leisurely, and to survey the different portions of the scenery with greater attention. Some of the results of the observations thus made will be given in the course of the present

article.

Mr. Roberts divides his work into five parts. The first contains "the early life of Hannah More to the death of Garrick: "-from 1745 to 1776. The second, "from the death of Garrick to her retirement to Cowslip-Green :”—from 1776 to 1785. The third, "from her retirement to Cowslip-Green, to her removal to Barley-Wood: "— from 1785, to 1802. The fourth, "from her settling at Barley-Wood, to her leaving that place:"-from 1802 to 1828. The fifth, "her removal to Clifton, her death, and character:"-from 1828 to 1833. These different parts we shall proceed to examine, collecting from them such a brief sketch of Mrs. More's life and character as our limits will allow, and as may appear likely to be interesting to our readers.

Hannah More was the youngest but one of the five daughters of Mr. Jacob More, who kept a school at Stapleton, near Bristol, where Hannah was born in 1745. Her father was of a Norfolk family, and was educated at the Norwich GrammarSchool. At one period of his life his prospects are stated to have been very flattering, and his education was conducted accordingly; but an unsuccessful law-suit destroyed "his well-founded hopes, and sent him forth from his native county to the west of England.” From him, Hannah received at least the elements of a classical education. Her elder sisters were preparing, at the same time, to win for themselves that honourable independence in

which they spent the latter years of their life. When about twenty-one years of age, the oldest opened a school at Bristol; and Hannah, then about twelve, was taken under her care, that she, too, might, in due time, become a sharer in the tasks to which they all seem to have devoted themselves, and in which, by the blessing of divine Providence, they were ultimately so successful. She manifested very early a decided attachment to literary pursuits; and the elder Sheridan, and Ferguson the astronomer, visiting Bristol for the purpose of giving lectures, she formed an acquaintance with them, as well as with the celebrated Dr. Langhorne, with whom she for some time corresponded. At the age of twenty, having access to the best libraries in the neighbourhood, she cultivated the Italian, Spanish, and Latin languages, exercising her. self in translations and imitations, chiefly of Horace and Metastasio. She was acquainted at this time with Dean Tucker, and (happily, we believe we may say, for herself) with the excellent Doctor, afterwards Sir James Stonehouse, in whom she found a useful guide in the study of divinity, to which she was even then attached, and in her choice of theological writers.

When about twenty-two years of age she received the addresses of a gentleman of fortune, twenty years older than herself. More than once was a time fixed for the marriage, which, however, was always postponed by the gentleman himself. Her sisters and friends at last interfered, fearing, chiefly, as it should seem, on the ground of certain inequalities of temper, that her happiness would not be secured by the union. They were successful in preventing a renewal of the engagement. The gentleman could not be satisfied without settling on her such an annual sum as might enable her to devote herself to her favourite literary pursuits. By her, this proposal was at once rejected with dignity and firmness. It was at length arranged without her knowledge and consent, Dr. Stonehouse agreeing to become the agent and trustee. The gentleman

continued to respect her through life, and bequeathed to her a thousand pounds at his death. Miss More formed and kept the resolution of avoiding a similar engagement.

In 1774 she paid her first visit to London, but under what circumstances her biographer has not in formed us. It appears that she soon obtained an introduction to Mr. and Mrs. Garrick, with whom she continued on terms of the most intimate friendship to the end of their lives, spending with them, for the most part, a portion of every year. Through Mr. Garrick she was speedily introduced to the highest literary society, and from this time her London letters abound with the most interesting references and anecdotes. We find her associating with Dr. Johnson, Sir Joshua Reynolds, Dr. Percy, Edmund Burke, Mrs. Montagu, Mrs. Carter, Mrs. Chapone; and that she herself, if not as yet from performances, yet from her inclinations, talents, and pursuits, was regarded as a member of that truly royal society of literature which shed so much light on the earlier part of the reign of George the Third. Nor was it to high literary society alone that she obtained introduction. Gradually, her circle of fashionable acquaintance was enlarged, and she became an associate of rank as well as talent. Now, in fact, was her time of trial. We have no means of ascertaining clearly what, at this period, was the nature of her religious views, what the strength of her religious feelings. To us, indeed, with our Wesleyan enthusiasm, as most likely Mr. Roberts would term it, it appears one chief deficiency of the volumes, that they afford no opportunity of judging as to the circumstances which first led Miss More to resolve that religion should be the business, and the word of God the rule, of her life. But to this subject we may perhaps again advert. At the period of her life to which we have now arrived she evidently possessed great mental firmness and decision, and, so far as she understood religion, so far she appears to have resolved to adhere to its principles. To theatrical entertainments she was strongly at

tached, though more, perhaps, for their literary character, than for mere amusement, and pour passer le temps. Still, she stood on the enchanted ground; and it was happy for herself, and we trust for others, that she slept not there. Even at this period of fascination and allurement, she was not without very serious reflections, and she had, in Dr. Stonehouse, a watchful and admonitory Mentor. The first opera she attended, she resolved should be the last. Considering the time at which she came to London, we are somewhat surprised at the extent to which she carried her respect for the Sabbath. Whence had she this? Even among the more serious members of the Church of England, Sunday visiting was not thought to be inconsistent with the sacredness of the day. The old Nonconformists, indeed, had other and better views; and Hannah More, all High Church as she was, owed, perhaps, more to Nonconformity than she was willing to acknowledge. Mr. Roberts gives a letter from one of her relations, from which we extract a

sentence or two:

"Mrs. H. More's grandfather married into a family who were zealous Nonconformists. They boarded a Minister in their house, and assembled there at the hour of midnight to worship God according to the dictates of conscience, while Mr. More guarded the entrance with his

sword. In after-times, my mother has heard the old lady reproach her grandaughter as lightly esteeming the word of God, when they complained of fatigue after walking some distance in winter to a place of worship. She was a stanch Presbyterian, remarkable for the simplicity and integrity of her principles. She always rose at four, even in the winter, after she had reached her eightieth year; and she lived beyond her ninetieth."

(Vol. i., p. 9.)

Such a mother would not fail to teach her son to "remember the Sabbath-day to keep it holy;" and from a father so instructed, Hannah would receive, while young, lessons which at that day were every thing but fashionable, but of which she herself appears never to have lost sight. The English admirers of a Parisian Sunday will shrug up their

shoulders at that degree of precise ness which was observable in her conduct sixty years ago; but, under God, that preciseness, that Puritanism, saved her. Had she yielded,and there were times when her resistance was in danger,-she would have lost all; but she clung to the Sabbath, and was kept from being carried away by the powerful torrent into which she had entered. She thus writes to her sisters in 1775 :

"Thank my dear Dr. Stonehouse for his kind and seasonable admonitions on my last Sunday's engagement at Mrs. Montagu's. Conscience had done his office before; nay, was busy at the time: and, if it did not dash the cup of pleasure to the ground, infused, at least, a tincture of wormwood into it. I did think of the alarming call, What doest thou here, Elijah?' and I thought of it to-night at the opera.

"Sunday night, 9 o'clock. "Perhaps you will say, I ought to have thought of it again to-day, when I tell you I have dined abroad; but it is a day I reflect on without those uneasy sensations one has when one is conscious it has been spent in trifling company. I have been at Mrs. Boscawen's; Mrs. Montagu, Mrs. Carter, Mrs. Chapone, and myself only were admitted. We spent the time not as wits, but as reasonable creatures; better characters I trow. The conversation was sprightly but serious. I have not enjoyed an afternoon so much since I have been in town. There was much sterling sense; and they are all ladies of high character for piety; of which, however, I do not think their visiting on Sundays any proof; for, though their conversation is edifying, the example is bad. For my own part, the more I see of the 'honoured, famed, and great,' the more I see of the littleness, the unsatisfactoriness, of all created good; and that no earthly pleasure can fill up the wants of the immortal principle within."

(Vol. i., p. 57.)

Her career as an author commenced in 1775, when she published two small poems, Sir Eldred of the Bower, and the Bleeding Rock, which, in usual phrase, were very favourably received. She was now frequently in Johnson's company; and certainly, the family letters written to her sisters place the venerable sage in a far more amiable point of view than that in which he

is placed by the formal and meddling, but still entertaining Boswell, and the clever, but evidently irritated Mrs. Thrale. Thus :

"Yesterday was another of the few sunshiny days with which human life is so scantily furnished. We spent it at Garrick's. He was in high good humour, and inexpressibly agreeable. As they knew Johnson would be with us at seven, Mrs. Garrick was so good as to dine a little after three. I hardly ever spent an evening more pleasantly or profitably. Johnson, full of wisdom and piety, was very communicative. To enjoy Dr. Johnson perfectly, one must have him to oneself, as he seldom cares to speak in mixed parties. Our tea was not over till nine; we then fell upon Sir Eldred: he read both poems through, suggested some little alterations in the first, and did me the honour to write one whole stanza; but in the Rock he has not altered a word. Though only a tea-visit, he stayed with us till twelve." (Vol. i., p. 64.)

On

And on a subsequent occasion,"Johnson came to see us the next morning, and made us a long visit. Mrs. Garrick's telling him she was always more at her ease with persons who had suffered the same loss with herself, he said that was a comfort she could seldom have, considering the superiority of his merit, and the cordiality of their union. He bore his testimony to the liberality of Garrick. He reproved me with pretended sharpness for reading Les Pensées de Pascal,' or any other Port-Royal authors, alleging that, as a good Protestant, I ought to abstain from books written by Catholics. I was beginning to stand upon my defence, when he took me with both hands, and with a tear running down his cheeks, Child,' said he, with the most affecting earnestness, I am heartily glad that you read pious books, by whomsoever they may be written."" (Vol. i., p. 211.)

Through her intimacy with Garrick she had opportunities of seeing sights, some of which are become matters of history, at least in its minor details. We could occupy more than the space which we can afford to the whole work by the insertion of anecdotes of this sort which, especially from the inartificial manner in which they are related, seem to make the events themselves pass before us. We must find room for two or three :