his application was incessant. His days were devoted to painting, his summer evenings to reading, and those of winter to drawing by lamplight. It was during this period that he gained nearly his whole knowledge, acquired correctness of eye, with obedience of hand, and those principles which laid the foundation of his future excellence.

SHUTER.

This once celebrated comedian is said to have owed his advance in life to a singular incident. When very young he was pot-boy at a public house in the neighborhood of Covent Garden. A gentleman came in late one evening, and after taking some refreshment, sent Shuter to call a hackney-coach for him. On reaching home, the gentleman missed his pocket-book, and suspecting he had left it in the coach, the number of which he did not know, he hastened the next morning to the house from which it had been ordered, and inquired of Shuter if he knew the Rumber of the coach. Poor Shuter could neither read nor write, and was totally unskilled in numerals; but he knew the signs by which his master scored the quarts and pints of porter which were drank at his house, and these were fortunately sufficient to express the number of the coach; he therefore readily replied to the gentleman's inquiry, by saying, "Two pots and a pint (771)." This to the gentleman was unintelligible, till the landlord explained its meaning. The coachman was summoned, and the pocketbook recovered. This acuteness of the boy so pleased the gentleman that he immediately placed him in school, and became his patron through life.

HENRY KIRKE WHITE.

This youthful bard, whose premature death was so sincerely regretted by every admirer of genius, manifested an ardent love of reading in his infancy; it was a passion to which everything else gave way. "I could fancy," says his eldest sister, "I see him in his little chair, with a large book upon his knee, and my mother calling, 'Henry, my love, come to dinner;' which was repeated so often without being regarded, that she was obliged to change the tone of her voice before she could rouse him. When he was about seven, he would creep unperceived into the kitchen, to teach the servant to read and write; and he continued this for some time before it was discovered that he had been thus laudably employed. He wrote a tale of a Swiss emigrant, which was probably his first composition, and gave it to this servant, being ashamed to show it to his mother." "The consciousness of genius," says Mr. Southey," is always at first accompanied with this diffidence; it is a sacred solitary feeling. No forward child, however extraordinary the promise of his childhood, ever produced anything truly great."

When Henry was about eleven years old, he one day wrote a separate theme for every boy in

his class, which consisted of about twelve or
fourteen. The master said he had never known
them write so well upon any subject before, and
could not refrain from expressing his astonish-
ment at the excellence of Henry's own. At the
age of thirteen he wrote a poem,
"On being
confined to School one pleasant Morning in
Spring," from which the following is an extract:

"How gladly would my soul forego
All that arithmeticians know,
Or stiff grammarians quaintly teach,
Or all that industry can reach,
To taste each morn of all the joys
That with the laughing sun arise;
And unconstrained to rove along
The bushy brakes and glens among;
And woo the muse's gentle power,
In unfrequented rural bower:
But, ah! such heav'n-approaching joys
Will never greet my longing eyes;
Still will they cheat in vision fine,
Yet never but in fancy shine."

The parents of Henry were anxious to put him to some trade; and when he was in his fourteenth year he was placed at a stocking-loom, with the view at some future period of getting a situation in a hosier's warehouse; but the youth did not conceive that nature intended to doom him to spend seven years of his life in folding up stockings, and he remonstrated with his friends against the employment. His temper and tone of mind at this period, when in his fourteenth year, are displayed in the following extract from an address to Contemplation.

"Yet still, O Contemplation! I do love
T' indulge thy solemn musings; still the same
With thee alone I know how to melt and weep,
In thee alone delighting. Why along
The dusty track of commerce should I toil,
When with an easy competence content,
I can alone be happy; where with thee
I may enjoy the loveliness of nature,
And loose the wings of Fancy? Thus alone
Can I partake of happiness on earth;
And to be happy here is man's chief end,
For to be happy he must needs be good."

Young White was soon removed from the loom to the office of a solicitor, which was a less obnoxious employment. He became a member of a literary society in Nottingham, and delivered an extempore lecture on genius; in which he displayed so much talent, that he received the unanimous thanks of the society, and they elected this young Roscius of oratory their professor of literature. At the age of fifteen he gained a silver medal for a translation from Horace; and the following year a pair of globes, for an im

aginary tour from London to Edinburgh. He determined upon trying for this prize one evening when at tea with his family; and at supper he read to them his performance. In his seventeenth year he published a small volume of poems, which possessed considerable merit. Soon after he was sent to Cambridge, and entered of St. John's College, where he made the most rapid progress. But the intensity of his studies ruined his constitution, and he fell a victim to his ardent thirst for knowledge. He died about two years after, aged twentyone, leaving behind him several poems and letters, which gave earnest of the high rank he would have attained in the republic of letters, had his life been spared.

ALEXANDER AND LA HARPE.

One

The attachment of the present emperor of Russia to his preceptor, La Harpe, is well known; it was rather filial than that of a pupil; his greatest delight was in his society, and he would cling round his neck in the most affectionate embraces, by which frequently his clothes were covered with powder. "See, my dear prince," La Harpe would say, "what a figure you have made yourself." "Oh, never mind it," Alexander replied; "no one will blame me for carrying away all I can from my dear preceptor." day he went to visit La Harpe, as was his custom, alone; the porter was a new servant, and did not know him; he asked his name and was answered Alexander. The porter then led him into the servant's hall, told him his master was at his studies, and could not be disturbed for an hour. The servant's homely meal was prepared, and the prince was invited to partake of it, which he did without affectation. When the hour was expired, the porter informed La Harpe that a young man of the name of Alexander had been waiting some time, and wanted to see him. "Show him in." But what was La Harpe's surprise to see his pupil! he wished to apologize; but Alexander placing his finger on his lips, said, "My dear tutor, do not mention it; an hour to you is worth a day to me: and besides, I have had a hearty breakfast with your servants, which I should have lost had I been admitted when I came." The poor porter's feelings may be better imagined than described; but Alexander, laughing, said, "I like you the better for it; you are an honest servant, and there is an hundred roubles to convince you I think so."

EARLY PHILANTHROPY.

The following anecdote is related as a fact, by Madame de Genlis, in her admirable work of the Little Emigrants.

"One morning when we came to the mill, we did not find Lolotte, who was in the fields; while we were waiting for her, my father and I conversed with the miller's wife. I had brought Leveral playthings for Lolotte; and the miller's wife laughing, told me that they would not please

her so well as a little flour. How?' said I. She replied, for three weeks Lolotte has cared for nothing but heaping up flour: every morning she comes to beg some of my husband, who gives her a handful; besides this, she invents a thousand little schemes to get some from me; and when she sees me in a good humor, or when I caress her, I am sure she is going to say, Give me a little flour.' The other day we had made some muffins, and I carried one to her; her first movement was to take it; then she considered, and said, 'Keep your muffin, and give me a little flour.' This is odd,' said my father; and what does she do with all this flour?' 'She has asked us for a large sack,' replied the miller's wife, and there she puts it; the sack is by her bedside, and it must now be almost full.' During this conversation I said nothing; but reflecting upon it, and perfectly knowing Lolotte, I guessed the cause. I remembered that I had often come to see her with M. and Madame d'Ermont; that we had frequently spoken of France before her; that M. d'Ermont had mentioned the scarcity of bread, and had said, that the counter-revolution would be affected by famine. I doubted not but Lolotte's store of flour had some connexion with this; but lest I might be deceived, I kept silence. At last Lolotte returned from her walk; after having embraced us, she sat upon the knee of my father, who did not fail to question her with regard to the flour. Lolotte blushed, and evaded answering by saying we would laugh at her; but when she was closely pressed to explain herself, I saw her countenance take that moving expression which it always has when she is going to cry; and then she said with a broken voice, It is because I knew that very soon there would be no more bread in France, and I want to send a provision of flour to my nurse Caillet.'"

BROTHERLY LOVE.

A little boy seeing two nestling birds pecking at each other, inquired of his elder brother what they were doing. "They are quarrelling," was the answer. "No," replied the child, "that cannot be; they are brothers."

CAPTURE OF PARIS.

When Paris was attacked in 1814 by the allied armies, the Parisian artillery placed on the heights of Montmarte was served by the pupils of the Polytechnic school, who were principally from twelve to fifteen years old. They of course were inexperienced in war; yet they rivalled in ardor the veterans with whom they associated; and their well-directed fire filled the approaches to the positions with the dead bodies of the enemy. Thus transformed into disciples of war, they served the batteries with all the enthusiasm of valor, and never shrunk from their post whilst it could be retained. Several hundred of these | youths fell in the dreadful conflict.

PRINCE GEORGE AT SEVENTEEN. THE Princess of Wales, his mother, communicated to a friend the following character of the young Prince, at the age of seventeen. The passage is in Doddington's Diary. She said, that "he was shy and backward; not a wild, dissipated boy, but good-natured and cheerful, with a serious cast upon the whole; that those about him knew him no more than if they had never seen him. That he was not quick; but with those he was acquainted with, applicable and intelligent. His education had given her much pains. His book-learning she was no judge of, though supposed it small or useless; but she hoped he might have been instructed in the general understanding of things." He was brought up in great privacy, as far as regarded a familiar acquaintance with the prevailing manners of the young nobility; and the prejudices which George II. entertained against the Princess Dowager, effectually excluded his grandson from the splendors and allurements of a court.

PULPIT FLATTERY.

One of the first acts performed by the young monarch after his accession to the throne, was to issue an order, prohibiting any of the clergy who should be called to preach before him, from paying him any compliment in their discourses. His majesty was led to this from the fulsome adulation which Dr. Thomas Wilson, Prebendary of Westminster, thought proper to deliver in the chapel royal; and for which, instead of thanks, he received from his royal auditor a pointed reprimand, his majesty observing, "that he came to chapel to hear the praises of God, and not his own." This circumstance operated wonderfully on the reverend orator, as from that moment he became a flaming patriot. The doctor took part with Wilkes; was made liveryman of the Joiners' Company; and lavished large sums upon Mrs. Macaulay, the republican historian, in whose honor he caused a marble statue to be erected in his church at Walbrook; though before he died he caused it to be removed, not indeed so much from a sense of the impropriety of the thing, as out of resentment to the lady, who had displeased him by her marriage.

EARL OF BUTE.

Those who are accustomed to trace the most important events to causes the most trivial, will not be surprised to learn, that the first success of Lord Bute, and, consequently, all the good or evil which his great power occasioned, was ow. ing to the circumstance of an apothecary, in Lime Street, keeping a carriage. His lordship was living in a very domestic and retired manner at Richmond, attending only to the education

of his children, and not even allowing himself the indulgence of a carriage. Mr. M. an apothecary, whose country house was near that of Lord Bute, kept a chariot, and one day invited his lordship to take a place in it, to go to Mousley Hurst, where there was to be a great cricket match, under the auspices of Frederick, Prince of Wales, father of George III. The offer was accepted; and they had not been long on the ground when it began to rain. To amuse the prince during this cessation of the cricket, a rubber of whist was proposed; but only three persons could be found, of sufficient rank to entitle them to the honor; at last some one recollected that he had seen a nobleman in Mr. M's chariot. Lord Bute was accordingly invited to be of the party, where he so pleased the prince (who had never seen him before), that he invited him to Kew; an invitation which the Scotch lord did not hesitate in accepting. From that time Lord Bute became a great favorite of the prince and in 1737, he was appointed one of the lords of his bed-chamber.

THE QUEEN'S ARRIVAL.

Her

On the 6th of September the princess arrived at Harwich, and on the 8th reached town. highness alighted at the garden gate of St. James' Palace, and was handed out of the coach by his majesty's brother, the Duke of York. Upon her entrance into the garden, she sunk on her knee to the king, who in a most affectionate manner raising her up, saluted her, and then led her with his right hand into the palace, where she dined with his majesty, the Princess Dowager, and the Princess Augusta.

In the evening, at nine o'clock, the marriage was celebrated with great solemnity. Just previous to the ceremonial, the princess was observed to look more than usually thoughtful. The Duchess of Ancaster took the liberty of saying something to rally her spirits."Ah!" replied her highness," you have gone through the ceremony twice, and may think nothing of it; but to me it is too new and momentous an event not to fill me with apprehension."

QUEEN ANNE'S BED.

In the king's state bed chamber at Windsor Castle, formerly the public dining-room, there is an old-fashioned article of furniture within a recess, viz. the bed of Queen Anne, of illustrious memory. Being highly valued, it has always been preserved with great care, a crimson curtain being drawn over it, and a screen interposed in front, to guard it from the approach of idle curiosity. His majesty, being solicited to permit a more magnificent bed to occupy its situation, answered, "that he would not displace this

venerable relic, for the most splendid bed in the universe."

RESIGNATION OF MR. PITT, 1761. When Mr. Pitt resigned the seals, his majesty expressed his concern for the loss of so able a servant; and to show the favorable sense he entertained of his services, he made him an unlimited offer of any rewards in the power of the crown to bestow. His majesty at the same time expressed entire satisfaction with the late decision of the majority of his council, by which they declined the proposal of attacking Spain, while she was yet meditating, (as the family compact proved), but unprepared for, hostilities. Mr. Pitt was sensibly touched with the grandeur and condescension of this proceeding. "I confess, sir," said he, "I had but too much reason to expect your majesty's displeasure. I did not come prepared for this exceeding goodness. Pardon me, sir, if overpowered, it oppresses me "-he burst into tears. Next day, a pension of £3,000 a year was settled upon Mr. Pitt for three lives, and a title conferred upon his lady and her issue.

DR. ROBERTSON.

Of the early interest which his majesty took in the advancement of English literature, we have a striking proof, in a letter from Lord Cath cart, to Dr. Robertson, the historian, dated July 20, 1761, in which there is the following passage: "Lord Bute told me the king's thoughts, as well as his own, with respect to your History of England, and a wish his majesty had expressed to see a History of England from your pen. His lordship assured me every source of information which government can command would be opened to you; and that great, laborious, and extensive as the work must be, he would take care your encouragement should be proportioned to it."

DR. JOHNSON.

In the second year of his reign, his majesty granted a pension to Dr. Johnson of three hundred pounds a year, it having been represented to his majesty that he was a very learned and good man, without any certain provision. The Earl of Bute, then prime minister, announced this instance of his sovereign's bounty to the doctor; who it is said, felt some hesitation in accepting it, after the definitions he had given in his Dictionary of pension and pensioner. Lord Bute, at the time of presenting him with it, expressly said to him, "It is not given you for anything you are to do, but for what you have done."

WELCH CHARITY SCHOOL.

The first public address presented to the young Prince of Wales, was from the Governors of the Society of Ancient Britons who solicited his patronage for an institution, which educates,

clothes, and supports, a number of poor and destitute natives of the principality from which his royal highness derived his title. The address was presented on St. David's Day, the 1st of March, 1765, when the prince was not quite three years of age. "Your royal parents," said the address," remember no period of their lives too early for doing good; and when a few years shall call forth your virtues into action, your royal highness may perhaps reflect with satisfaction upon your faithful Ancient Britons thus laying themselves at your feet." The prince made the following answer: "Gentlemen, I thank you for this mark of your duty to the king, and wish prosperity to this charity." This answer is said, in the journals of the day, to have been delivered with great propriety and suitableness of action. The prince, at concluding it, presented the treasurer of the charity with a donation of £100.

BISHOP WARBURTON.

In the letters of this literary Colossus, left for publication by his friend, Bishop Hurd, there is the following characteristic anecdote, in which the urbanity of the monarch stands well contrasted with the roughness of the controversialist. "I brought," says the bishop, (Feburary 20, 1767), as usual, a bad cold with me to town; and this being the first day I ventured out of doors, it was employed, as in duty bound, at court, it being a levee day. A buffoon lord in waiting (you may guess who I mean) was very busy in marshalling the circle: he said to me, 'Move forward, you clog up the door.' I replied with as little civility, Did nobody clog up the king's doorstead more than I, there would be room for all honest men.' This brought the man to himself. When the king came up to me, he asked why I did not come to levee before? I said, I understood there was no business going forward in the house in which I could be of service to his majesty.' He replied, He supposed the severe storm of snow would have brought me up.' I replied, 'I was under the cover of a very warm house.' You see, by all this, how unfit I am for courts."

The king, when in conversation with Dr. Johnson, observed, that Pope made Warburton a bishop. "True, sir," said Johnson; "but Warburton did more for Pope-he made him a Christian!" alluding no doubt to his ingenious comments on the Essay on Man.

EDWARD, DUKE OF YORK.

The king's brother, Edward, Duke of York, who died in Italy in the year 1768, had the reputation of being a prince of very lively and gallant parts. Bishop Newton adds his personal testimony in confirmation of the popular opinion, and expresses his conviction, that had he outlived the years of dissipation, he would have proved an honor to his king and country. The duke possessed, by all accounts, much of the family quality of courage. He accompanied the unfortunate expedition to Cherbourg; and was

always foremost where danger called. On one occasion he advanced so near the town, as to expose his person to some shot from the enemy. A ball grazing en ricochet near the spot where he stood, a serjeant sprung before him, to defend his royal highness with his body. The prince was so pleased with this uncommon mark of courage and attachment, that he rewarded the man with a handsome gratuity.

THE PRETENDER.

The Duke of Gloucester, father of the present duke, when abroad in 1771, for the recovery of his health, frequently saw the Pretender in public. One of his attendants, speaking with levity of the destitute state of this aspirant to the British throne, was warmly reproved by the duke, who said, "I pity the distresses of that poor man extremely, and quite forget his efforts to dethrone my family. It was natural enough for him to aspire to a throne his ancestors once possessed; but surely those who, after inviting him to England, now suffer him to want bread, deserve the detestation of every generous mind;" alluding doubtless to the circumstance of the Jacobite Club in England, having ceased to pay the pension of £5000 per annum, which they had for several years remitted to the chevalier.

The king himself having been told of a gentleman of family and fortune in Perthshire, who had not merely refused to take the oath of allegiance to him, but had never permitted him to be named as king in his presence; "Carry my compliments to him," said the king, "but-whatstop-no-he may perhaps not receive my compliments as King of England-give him the Elector of Hanover's compliments, and tell him that he respects the steadiness of his principles."

His predecessor, George II. being at a masquerade, was recognized by a lady of Jacobite principles, who entering into conversation with his majesty, requested the disguised monarch to pledge her in a glass of wine to the health of the Pretender. The good-natured monarch immediately filled a glass, and said, "I drink with pleasure the health of all unfortunate princes."

THE SHAM PRINCESS SUSANNAH

CAROLINA MATILDA.

A female of the name of Sarah Wilson, who attended the honorable Miss Vernon, one of the maids of honor, having found her way into one of the royal apartments, broke open a cabinet, which she rifled of several valuable jewels, and carried them off. The robbery was soon discovered; and the thief being detected, was committed for trial, convicted, and sentenced to death; but through the gracious interposition of the queen, the culprit received a pardon, on condition of being transported for life. She was accordingly sent to Maryland, where she soon escaped from her master, and assumed the title of Princess Susannah Carolina Matilda, stating she was the sister of the queen. The clothes she carried with her favored the deception, espe

cially as she had retained a miniature of her ma jesty. The imposture was believed; she levied large contributions on the credulous, whom in return she permitted to kiss her hand. At length her master heard of the deception, and apprehended her as a runaway, to the great confusion of the good people of Carolina, who had been the dupes of her artifice.

J. J. ROUSSEAU.

Among other persons of literary eminence who were pensioned by the king in the early part of his reign, was the celebrated Rousseau; but his majesty, on making the grant, insisted that the matter should not be made public, which was intended as a peculiar mark of respect for that wayward and extraordinary character. The philosopher of Geneva, however, after having gratefully accepted the favor, and returned his thanks for the manner in which it was bestowed, returned it on quarrelling with his friend, David Hume. He did this however in a manner which plainly indicated a desire to keep the grant, provided he was courted to it; but having once declined the royal bounty, it was not thought proper to make the monarch a suppliant to an adventurer. Madame de Staël, in her extravagant panegyric on Rousseau, has most absurdly praised him for refusing a pension from the King of England, without however stating the particulars of the story, or noticing the excessive meanness of her hero, who actually endeavored to get the pension renewed when it was too late. Rousseau, however, bore testimony to the virtues of his majesty. "It is not," said he, "the great monarch whom I reverence, but the good husband, the good father, the virtuous, the benevolent man."

AMUSEMENTS.

The king's chief amusement in private was music, of which he was passionately fond. It was music of the highest character, for grandeur and sublimity of conception; by which he not only gratified a well-tuned ear, but exalted his devotional feelings. For the meretricious bravuras of the Italian stage he had no relish, and still less for the fantastic and bewitching movements of its ballet. He loved dancing, but strictly in the old style of mingled stateliness and vivacity; the voluptuous waltz was unknown, and had it sought for admission at court, would assuredly have sought in vain. Of his majesty's fondness for dancing we have the following pleasing picture, in a letter from Daniel Wray, Esq., formerly Deputy Teller of the Exchequer.

"We found all the world gaping at the King of Denmark. At the queen's ball, after several country dances, he asked his brother monarch (George III). whether his majesty was tired. Not at all, replied the king, and called for The Hemp Dressers, which he continued for two hours. At Carlton House, the same question was returned upon the Dane, who confessed himself abattu, and cried quarter."