No. X.

SOME ACCOUNT of the life OF RACHAEL WRIOTHESLEY LADY RUSSELL; BY THE EDITOR OF MADAME DU DEFFAND'S LETTERS. FOLLOWED BY A SERIES OF LETTERS FROM LADY RUSSELL, TO HER HUSBAND, WILLIAM LORD RUSSELL, &c. &c. 1819. 8vo.

MANY letters of Lady Russell, concerning the tragical fate of her husband Lord William, have been long before the public. As to the present work, the best idea of it will be formed from the following advertisement, prefixed by way of preface: "These letters were sorted and arranged for the Duke of Devonshire, by a friend, to whom he had permitted the examination of a considerable mass of family papers. They were returned to the Duke with the following letter, when he was solicited by several persons, to whom he had communicated Lady Russell's correspondence, in its present state, to allow of its publication: the same friend was applied to for some account of her life. It is here prefixed to the letters.

"Those of Lady Russell will be found devoid of every ornament of style, and deficient in almost every particular, that constitutes what are generally called entertaining letters. Their merit must arise entirely from a previous knowledge of the character and habits of their writer, and from the interest which the subsequent circumstances in which she was placed inspire. They are sometimes overcharged, sometimes confused by a repetition of trifling details; and sometimes the use of words antiquated in the signification here given to them adds to this confusion. Very inconsiderable alterations might have removed many of these difficulties; but from every alteration the editor has carefully abstained. The value of the letters

of Java; and met his death there, after only three days' illness, on the 28th of August, in the thirty-sixth year of his age, in consequence of a search after some Javanese curiosities, in a room which had been shut up for some time; "so that the confined air was strongly impregnated with the poisonous quality which has made Batavia the grave of so many Europeans."

His friend, Sir John Malcolm, observes," that he rose, by the power of native genius, from the humblest origin, to a very distinguished rank in the literary world. His studies included almost every branch of human science; and he was alike ardent in pursuit of all. The greatest power of his mind was, perhaps, shown in his acquisition of modern and ancient languages. He exhibited an unexampled facility, not only in acquiring these, but in tracing their affinity and connection with each other; and from that talent, combined with his taste and general knowledge, we had a right to expect, from what he did in a very few years, that he would, if he had lived, have thrown the greatest light upon the most abstruse parts of the history of the East. In this curious and intricate, but rugged path, we cannot hope to see his equal."

No. X.

SOME ACCOUNT OF THE LIFE OF RACHAEL WRIOTHESLEY LADY RUSSELL; BY the Editor of Madame du DEFFAND'S LETTERS. FOLLOWED BY A SERIES OF Letters FROM LADY RUSSELL, TO HER HUSBAND, WILLIAM LORD RUSSELL, &c. &c. 1819. 8vo.

MANY letters of Lady Russell, concerning the tragical fate of her husband Lord William, have been long before the public. As to the present work, the best idea of it will be formed from the following advertisement, prefixed by way of preface: "These letters were sorted and arranged for the Duke of Devonshire, by a friend, to whom he had permitted the examination of a considerable mass of family papers. They were returned to the Duke with the following letter, when he was solicited by several persons, to whom he had communicated Lady Russell's correspondence, in its present state, to allow of its publication: the same friend was applied to for some account of her life. It is here prefixed to the letters.

"Those of Lady Russell will be found devoid of every ornament of style, and deficient in almost every particular, that constitutes what are generally called entertaining letters. Their merit must arise entirely from a previous knowledge of the character and habits of their writer, and from the interest which the subsequent circumstances in which she was placed inspire. They are sometimes overcharged, sometimes confused by a repetition of trifling details; and sometimes the use of words antiquated in the signification here given to them adds to this confusion. Very inconsiderable alterations might have removed many of these difficulties; but from every alteration the editor has carefully abstained. The value of the letters

depends, not on their intrinsic excellence, but with the reader's previous acquaintance with that of their author.

"On Lady Russell's death, these letters, together with other papers, fell into the hands of the Duchess of Devonshire, her only surviving child. That the letters of Lord Russell should not have been preserved by his wife, is hardly credible; yet none of the letters addressed to her are extant, either in the Cavendish or Russell families, except two or three fragments found among Lady Russell's papers, which are given in the following pages. The editor has to regret the very insufficient materials from which the following account has been attempted. Such as it is, it pretends to little more than the merit of a biographical notice, in which the omission of all supposed and doubtful facts must compensate for the brevity, and sometimes for the insignificance of those recorded."

It appears from the address to the Duke of Devonshire, that several letters from other distinguished correspondents have been added by way of elucidation.

"They are followed," says our fair editor, " by eleven letters from Dorothy Sidney, Countess of Sunderland (the Saccarissa of Waller), to the Marquis of Hallifax, written in the year 1680. These letters belong immediately to the same period: they throw light on Lady Russell's correspondence; and are the more interesting, because the views and principles of the writers are in direct opposition to each other.

"Lady Sunderland's letters are entertaining because they detail the views and politics of the day; but those of Lady Russell have an interest and a charm peculiar to that admirable writer.

"The volume of her letters already published have already shown her in the exalted characters of an heroine, and a saint. In the present letters, where we are admitted into the inmost recesses of her heart, she appears in the captivating form of the most tender and attached of women. The strain of artless passion,- of love exalted by every sentiment of the heart, and of the understanding, which

certainly the most touching love-letters I ever read; while the almost prophetic exhortations they contain, both to him, and herself, to be prepared for the loss of a happiness she appreciated so justly, give them a singular interest, when combined with her subsequent misfortune, and the deep, and lasting manner in which she felt it. In short, diving so much into her history, by reading so many of her letters, and observing her conduct in every relation of life, I am become such an enthusiast for her character, that I feel proud at being of the same sex and country with her; and among the many honourable distinctions you (the Duke of Devonshire) inherit from your ancestors, none appear to me more enviable, than your near alliance to her blood, her virtues, and her fame."

Lady Rachael Wriothesley was the second daughter of Thomas Wriothesley Earl of Southampton, by his first wife, Rachael de Rouvigny, of an ancient Hugonot family in France. The time of her birth is not exactly ascertained, but it was about the year 1686. Her mother died in her infancy; and her father married, for his second wife, Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Francis Leigh, afterwards created Earl of Chichester, by whom he had four other daughters, one of whom only survived him. Of her education but little is known; but as to her religion, she was educated a strict protestant, and on the death of her other father, Lord Southampton, a nobleman of great piety and virtue, she was a co-heiress to a large portion of his

estates.

About the year 1658, the subject of this memoir became the wife of Edward Noel, son of Viscount Campden, created afterwards Earl of Gainsborough. This match was settled, according to the fashion of that day, by the intervention of parents: both parties were extremely young; and the lady afterwards, speaking of early marriages, observes, perhaps with a reference to her own," that it is acceptance rather than choosing on either side."

After his death, Mr. Russell, then a younger brother of the house of Bedford, paid his addresses to her, and was at length