led by the inquiring bent of his mind, to form no opinion without satisfactory data and ample deliberation: and here he considered himself not sufficiently qualified by knowledge and experience to decide. This conduct forms a marked contrast to the presumptuous forwardness of pretenders in politics, who commonly deem questions of this nature so peculiarly easy of comprehension, that the occasional reading of a newspaper will enable a child to dispose of them. Of the soundness of his views as to the state of the country, and his clear foresight of impending events, a remarkable instance is given in his prophetic advice to James the Second.

"He minded him of the uncontrollable influence of an universal discontent; that no branch of his affairs, especially those of his colligible revenues would move with any content to him. People would go on continually exaggerating each other's discontents, and mutual encouragements would take place therein, and among persons that should appear fair to him; and neither he nor any of his ministers would discover any such their secret practices and engagements; and if there happened any advantages to cover attempts, all would burst out in a flame as if a mine fired under him. And although the Duke of Monmouth was gone, there was a P. of O. on the other side of the water. And as to his army, his lordship said, that upon an universal discontent he would find it a broken reed; that the people would grow upon it or wear it out by their intermixed conversation. Men naturally fall in with parties and their interests among whom they live, and they will not have the reproaches of their women and pot companions, without falling into harmony with them. That it was utterly impossible to bring the people to a reconciliation with his persuasion; and that the more they were urged or even showed it, the worse they would be. And that the sectaries were false and treacherous, and would infallibly, at a pinch, whatever countenances they showed him to the contrary, not only desert his party, but turn against him; for they never were nor would be friends, really, to the royal family; and their peculiar way and means of working was by fraud.'

Sir Dudley North, whose life is the second in the series, was educated in London. He showed at an early period a bold and active disposition. An anecdote of his conduct at school exhibits with no inconsiderable force his steadiness of determination and mercantile regard for the preservation of the balance between the Debtor and Creditor sides of his accounts, for which we must refer to the work itself.

After his retirement from busy life, he passed his time in the attentive discharge of the social duties which devolved on him, in the enjoyment of conversation, in which he took great delight, and in the study and practice of mechanics, in which he possessed considerable skill. He died in December 1691.

The life of Dr. North is necessarily less diversified by events than the lives of his brothers. He was educated at St. Edmund's Bury, in Suffolk, in the school of a steady and earnest cavalier. Thence he removed to Jesus College, Cambridge. He was early distinguished for his learning and ability. His principal defects of character appear to have originated in want of physical vigour and animal spirits, and not in any evil disposition or intellectual feebleness. "Natural timidity" is mentioned as the most prominent, and several singular instances are related. From these he appears to have been of that temperament, which in our time is oddly enough styled nervous.

His first preferment was to a benefice in Wales. He was afterwards Clerk of the Closet to Charles the Second, and ultimately Master of Trinity College. His college life was passed in unintermitting study, and in the scrupulous discharge of his moral and religious duties. Although his progress was rendered slow by excessive care in composition, he had projected and partly written several works of considerable extent, when he was interrupted by illness. He remained a valetudinarian until his death in 1683. In obedience to his positive injunction, all his manuscripts were destroyed by his brother, the Lord Keeper, who was his executor. The candid and unreserved history which is given of his habits, pursuits, virtues, and failings,

is highly interesting, and presents many valuable practical lessons to all who from choice or chance may pursue the same course of life.

Of this work altogether it may be truly said, that it combines in an unusual manner the various attractions of biography. The time during which the personages flourished of whom it treats, was one of stirring interest; the personages themselves were of sufficient rank to excite curiosity, and of sufficient substantial merit to rouse and gratify a rational spirit of inquiry; and the biographer had abundant opportunities of amassing materials for his work. Of these he has fully availed himself. The common fault of life-writers is, that they are too general. They deal in statements too broad to mark individuality. There are some, it is true, who have fallen into an opposite extreme, but this is the more common and the more injurious defect. North has preserved a happy medium. He has written naturally and freely, and has thus done much more than would have been effected by greater caution and labour. In no respect is the truth of his delineation more evident than in the family likeness of the brothers; and the reader, who has been accustomed to the examination of intellectual portraits, will find some entertainment in discovering the particular features of fraternal resemblance, and in tracing the conduct of men of similar character in different situations, and under different circumstances.

BRUTUS AFTER PHILIPPI.

He sat beneath a rock,

A little brook ran by,

'Twas after Philippi's battle-shock,
The death of Liberty.

He sat beneath the shade,

And talk'd of Rome enslaved,

The struggle he for her weal had made,

The peril he had braved.

His friends were offer'd up,

His hope had pass'd away,

And his Country deep had drunk the cup

Of lawless wrath that day.

He look'd upon the sky,

The stars were shining bright:

"O thou great Jove, in thy majesty,

Avenge the Roman right

"O spare my Country, spare!"

He said, and sorely sigh'd,

As he counted the names, to his followers there,

Of friends who that day died.

His foes were drawing nigh,
The victors' shout was heard,
He arose with a consul's dignity,
And drew a freeman's sword.

"We'll fly, my friends, with speed,

But not with feet we'll fly

We'll fly, my friends, in this hour of need,
With our hands from slavery.

"Though Fortune hath betray'd,
Rome, Rome, it is for thee

I grieve she gave not her fickle aid,
And not for mine or me.

go where men are free,

Where friends who have this day died shall meet,
In the fields of Liberty.

"Come, dust, and hide me then

From the name and sight of slave !"—

He said; and he rush'd from the chains of men
To a great and glorious grave!

REMINISCENCES OF A YOUNG FENCIBLE.

FIFTEEN years of age-a warrior of fifteen!-Eight and twenty years are passed away, and in those years it was my lot to mingle in scenes of carnage in every quarter of the world. The active bustle of a military life has obliterated dates from my recollection. I cannot trace the regular order of the various scenes as they occurred, yet they often flash upon my memory with all the vividness of a yesterday's occurrence. It was impossible that it should be otherwise. Just emerging from my childish years, I was launched from the peaceful mountains of my native country, Scotland, not to witness merely, but to share in the horrors of a sanguinary civil war. At fifteen, I entered into a regiment of Fencibles, and, being a tolerable proficient in music, was appointed one of the band. The regiment was soon after ordered to Ireland, during the rebellion of 1798, and thither of course I accompanied it. New Ross was the first place where it fell to my lot to witness human beings shedding human blood; and, not being politician enough to calculate its necessity, I shuddered with horror. I have since, Heaven knows, been cured of this weakness! The rebels advanced upon New Ross at daybreak, and soon made themselves masters of it, notwithstanding a spirited resistance on the part of the military force then in possession. In the course of the day, a reinforcement arrived, and the military again advanced to meet the rebels.

The conflict was bloody, but of short duration-they again retreated; but a third contest placed the Irish once more in possession of the town. Instead, however, of taking advantage of their success, they supplied themselves with whiskey, and soon became an irregular and riotous mob, utterly deaf to that control upon which only their safety depended. This state of things soon reached the ears of the regular troops, who under cover of the night re-entering the town with little or no resistance, or nothing that deserved to be so called, massacred the unfortunate wretches. They were literally shot like sparrows in the streets. I did not before credit it was in my nature to take life from an unresisting fellow creature, yet my sword (for as a bandman I carried no musket) was stained with the blood of my fellow men. As soon as the horrors of the time were over, and I had retired from the scene of slaughter, I vainly endeavoured to close my eyes in sleep. Every circumstance I had witnessed in the course of the preceding day and night was again acted before me; and as I gazed on my sword wet with human gore, I wept with a mixed sensation of horror and regret. Alas! these were then but the feelings of a child-I have since walked through the world in a manhood of blood with a heart and hand equally unshrinking-a perfect soldier!

A short time after the battle of New Ross, our regiment was ordered to the North, and at daybreak we commenced our march to the beautiful air of "Croppies lie down." About a mile from the town we ceased to play, and the morning being remarkably fine, it was impossible not to feel an exhilaration of spirits as the grey dawn broke upon landscapes beautiful as the eye ever beheld. Eager to enjoy it to the utmost, and little dreaming of danger at that moment hovering near us, with three of my companions I walked considerably ahead of the band, which had advanced some hundred yards before the main body of the regiment. Suddenly the tops of the walls along the road by which we were proceeding, became as it were animated-while on either hand a horde of our enemies rushed out and surrounded us. The master of the band was with us, and displayed upon this occasion a degree of firmness (some, perhaps, will say of folly) worthy a better fate. We had scarcely time to recollect ourselves, so sudden was the attack, when we were disarmed and defenceless. "Down on your knees and pray for success to Erin and down with King George!" cried a man who apparently acted as leader. "Never," cried the master of the band with a stern voice and unbending aspect--in another moment he was a corpse. I felt by no means in a comfortable situation, and feared that the refusal of the master of the band would be taken as the refusal of us all. I remembered the old proverb, "The better part of valour is discretion," and my mind was so benevolently disposed-in such a state of perfect Christian charity-that I verily believe I should have prayed for the very Devil, had it been required. I felt considerably relieved when the same command was issued to my companion who stood next me; and fearful of his following the example of the deceased, I ventured to give him a slight nudge with my elbow. Whether he took this as a stimulus to follow the heroic example which had been shown us, or whether he took it as it was really meant, I know not; but certain it is that I respired with greater freedom as

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I heard him give utterance, upon his knees, to the prescribed prayer. His life was spared, as was also mine, together with that of our remaining comrade, upon the same conditions.

We were immediately ordered to accompany our new masters, who, turning from the main road, crossed the country with a rapidity which totally baffled pursuit, and with which, young and active as I then was, I was scarcely able to keep pace. In the course of a few hours we reached the main body, of which our captors formed merely a detachment. In all, they consisted apparently of about nine thousand men, irregularly armed, and worse disciplined. What their plans were İ I could, of course, at that time only surmise; though when my attention was subsequently drawn to the situation of the country, its history for the two years previous to the breaking out of the rebellion, the capture of its projectors, and the proceedings of the army with which I was a prisoner, unconnected with those of any of the other bodies which were in motion throughout the country, I perceived that they had no fixed plan of operation. They sought to engage the King's troops wherever they met them, under any circumstances that would give them a reasonable hope of success. With this view they determined to pursue the regiment from which I had been so unfortunately captured. In preparing for the march, they very unceremoniously placed a load of the luggage upon my shoulders, and bade me carry it. At this moment I observed an officer, for such I took him to be by his green uniform and gentlemanly appearance, passing the spot where I and my companions were about to be converted into beasts of burden. I immediately assumed courage to address him, and said, that it was hard that prisoners should be treated so harshly; that if we had been captured by Frenchmen, we should have been more honourably treated. At this period that system of horrible and indiscriminate massacre had not been commenced by both parties, which subsequently so disgraced and degraded both, even below the level of the brute creation. My appeal was heard favourably, and the camp equipage, if such it could be called, was ordered to be taken from off our shoulders. Just then the officer observing my clarionet at my side, immediately requested that I would give him a specimen of my performance. "Croppies lie down," as I have already said, is a very beautiful air; and I had assisted that morning in playing it to the regiment to which I belonged. I had just presence of mind enough to recollect that it might not be equally acceptable to the company in which I now found myself. I had a tolerable knack of accommodating myself to circumstances; and, although "The green flag flying before us" was a treasonable air, I played it with such skill as to call forth the warmest applauses from the enthusiastic patriot to whom I had addressed myself. The rebels, too, were all passionately fond of music, as what Irishman, from the but to the palace, is not? They immediately showed themselves anxious to heap favours upon me. They were delighted; and my comrades, perceiving my good fortune, before I had concluded, joined me upon their instruments, and thus shared in the subsequent applauses, which were lavished unsparingly upon us. I do not stop to inquire whether I was guilty of treason in thus acting; I leave that to such heroes as the master of the band;-prudence and self-preservation were my motto, and I acted accordingly.