had practised strict economy, he would, | ner, was sufficient to enable the retired after all his losses, have had a mode- Governor to live in comfort, and even rate competence; but in the manage-in luxury, if he had been a skilful ment of his private affairs he was im- manager. But he was careless and prudent. The dearest wish of his profuse, and was more than once unheart had always been to regain Dayles- der the necessity of applying to the ford. At length, in the very year in Company for assistance, which was which his trial commenced, the wish liberally given. was accomplished; and the domain, alienated more than seventy years before, returned to the descendant of its old lords. But the manor house was a ruin; and the grounds round it had, during many years, been utterly neglected. Hastings proceeded to build, to plant, to form a sheet of water, to excavate a grotto; and, before he was dismissed from the bar of the House of Lords, he had expended more than forty thousand pounds in adorning his

seat.

He had security and affluence, but not the power and dignity which, when he landed from India, he had reason to expect. He had then looked forward to a coronet, a red riband, a seat at the Council Board, an office at Whitehall. He was then only fifty-two, and might hope for many years of bodily and mental vigour. The case was widely different when he left the bar of the Lords. He was now too old a man to turn his mind to a new class of studies and duties. He had no chance of receiving any mark of royal favour while Mr. Pitt remained in power; and, when Mr. Pitt retired, Hastings was approaching his seventieth year.

The general feeling both of the Directors and of the proprietors of the East India Company was that he had great claims on them, that his services to them had been eminent, and that his misfortunes had been the effect of Once, and only once, after his achis zeal for their interest. His friends quittal, he interfered in politics; and in Leadenhall Street proposed to reim- that interference was not much to his burse him the costs of his trial, and to honour. In 1804 he exerted himself settle on him an annuity of five thou-strenuously to prevent Mr. Addington, sand pounds a year. But the consent against whom Fox and Pitt had comof the Board of Control was necessary; bined, from resigning the Treasury. and at the head of the Board of Con- It is difficult to believe that a man, so trol was Mr. Dundas, who had himself able and energetic as Hastings, can been a party to the impeachment, who have thought that, when Bonaparte had, on that account, been reviled with was at Boulogne with a great army, great bitterness by the adherents of the defence of our island could safely Hastings, and who, therefore, was not be intrusted to a ministry which did in a very complying mood. He refused not contain a single person whom to consent to what the Directors sug-flattery could describe as a great statesgested. The Directors remonstrated. man. It is also certain that, on the A long controversy followed. Hast-important question which had raised

ings, in the mean time, was reduced to Mr. Addington to power, and on which such distress that he could hardly he differed from both Fox and Pitt, pay his weekly bills. At length a com- Hastings, as might have been expected, promise was made. An annuity for agreed with Fox and Pitt, and was life of four thousand pounds was decidedly opposed to Addington. Resettled on Hastings; and in order ligious intolerance has never been the to enable him to meet pressing device of the Indian service, and cermands, he was to receive ten years' tainly was not the vice of Hastings. annuity in advance. The Company But Mr. Addington had treated him was also permitted to lend him fifty with marked favour. Fox had been a thousand pounds, to be repaid by in-principal manager of the impeachment. stalments without interest. This relief, To Pitt it was owing that there had though given in the most absurd man-been an impeachment; and Hastings,

we fear, was on this occasion guided ever good the breakfasts at Dayles by personal considerations, rather than ford may have been, and we are by a regard to the public interest. assured that the tea was of the most The last twenty-four years of his aromatic flavour, and that neither life were chiefly passed at Daylesford. tongue nor venison-pasty was wantHe amused himself with embellishing ing, we should have thought the his grounds, riding fine Arab horses, reckoning high if we had been forced fattening prize-cattle, and trying to to earn our repast by listening every rear Indian animals and vegetables in day to a new madrigal or sonnet comEngland. He sent for seeds of a very posed by our host. We are glad, howfine custard-apple, from the garden of ever, that Mr. Gleig has preserved this what had once been his own villa, little feature of character, though we among the green hedgerows of Alli- think it by no means a beauty. It is pore. He tried also to naturalise in good to be often reminded of the inWorcestershire the delicious leechee, consistency of human nature, and to almost the only fruit of Bengal which learn to look without wonder or disdeserves to be regretted even amidst gust on the weaknesses which are found the plenty of Covent Garden. The in the strongest minds. Dionysius in Mogul emperors, in the time of their old times, Frederic in the last century, greatness, had in vain attempted to with capacity and vigour equal to the introduce into Hindostan the goat of conduct of the greatest affairs, united the table-land of Thibet, whose down all the little vanities and affectations supplies the looms of Cashmere with of provincial blue-stockings. These the materials of the finest shawls. great examples may console the adHastings tried, with no better fortune, mirers of Hastings for the affliction of to rear a breed at Daylesford; nor seeing him reduced to the level of the does he seem to have succeeded better Hayleys and Sewards. with the cattle of Bootan, whose tails are in high esteem as the best fans for brushing away the mosquitoes.

When Hastings had passed many years in retirement, and had long outlived the common age of men, he again Literature divided his attention with became for a short time an object of his conservatories and his menagerie. general attention. In 1813 the charter He had always loved books, and they of the East India Company was rewere now necessary to him. Though newed; and much discussion about not a poet, in any high sense of the Indian affairs took place in Parliaword, he wrote neat and polished lines ment. It was determined to examine with great facility, and was fond of witnesses at the bar of the Commons; exercising this talent. Indeed, if we and Hastings was ordered to attend. must speak out, he seems to have been He had appeared at that bar once bemore of a Trissotin than was to be ex-fore. It was when he read his anpected from the powers of his mind, swer to the charges which Burke had and from the great part which he had laid on the table. Since that time

played in life. We are assured in twenty-seven years had elapsed; pubthese Memoirs that the first thing lic feeling had undergone a complete which he did in the morning was to change; the nation had now forgotten write a copy of verses. When the his faults, and remembered only his family and guests assembled, the poem services. The reappearance, too, of a made its appearance as regularly as man who had been among the most the eggs and rolls; and Mr. Gleig re- distinguished of a generation that had quires us to believe that, if from any passed away, who now belonged to accident Hastings came to the break- history, and who seemed to have risen fast-table without one of his charming from the dead, could not but produce a performances in his hand, the omission solemn and pathetic effect. The Comwas felt by all as a grievous disap-mons received him with acclamations, pointment. Tastes differ widely. For ordered a chair to be set for him, and, ourselves, we must say that, how- when he retired, rose and uncovered.

There were, indeed, a few who did not as is rarely enjoyed by those who attain sympathize with the general feeling. such an age. At length, on the twentyOne or two of the managers of the im- second of August, 1818, in the eightypeachment were present. They sate sixth year of his age, he met death in the same seats which they had oc- with the same tranquil and decorous cupied when they had been thanked fortitude which he had opposed to all for the services which they had ren- the trials of his various and eventful life. dered in Westminster Hall: for, by the With all his faults,-and they were courtesy of the House, a member who neither few nor small,-only one cehas been thanked in his place is consi-metery was worthy to contain his redered as having a right always to oc- mains. In that temple of silence and cupy that place. These gentlemen reconciliation where the enmities of were not disposed to admit that they twenty generations lie buried, in the had employed several of the best years Great Abbey which has during many of their lives in persecuting an innocent ages afforded a quiet resting-place to man. They accordingly kept their those whose minds and bodies have seats, and pulled their hats over their been shattered by the contentions of brows; but the exceptions only made the Great Hall, the dust of the illusthe prevailing enthusiasm more re-trious accused should have mingled markable. The Lords received the with the dust of the illustrious accusers. old man with similar tokens of respect. This was not to be. Yet the place of The University of Oxford conferred on interment was not ill chosen. Behind him the degree of Doctor of Laws; the chancel of the parish church of and, in the Sheldonian Theatre, the Daylesford, in earth which already undergraduates welcomed him with held the bones of many chiefs of the tumultuous cheering. house of Hastings, was laid the coffin These marks of public esteem were of the greatest man who has ever soon followed by marks of royal fa- borne that ancient and widely extended vour. Hastings was sworn of the name. On that very spot probably, Privy Council, and was admitted to a fourscore years before, the little Warlong private audience of the Prince ren, meanly clad and scantily fed, had Regent, who treated him very gra- played with the children of ploughciously. When the Emperor of Rus-men. Even then his young mind had sia and the King of Prussia visited revolved plans which might be called England, Hastings appeared in their romantic. Yet, however romantic, it train both at Oxford and in the Guild- is not likely that they had been so hall of London, and, though sur- strange as the truth. Not only had rounded by a crowd of princes and the poor orphan retrieved the fallen great warriors, was every where re- fortunes of his line-not only had he ceived with marks of respect and ad-repurchased the old lands, and rebuilt miration. He was presented by the the old dwelling-he had preserved Prince Regent both to Alexander and and extended an empire. He had to Frederic William; and his Royal founded a polity. He had adminisHighness went so far as to declare in tered government and war with more public that honours far higher than a than the capacity of Richelieu. He seat in the Privy Council were due, had patronised learning with the juand would soon be paid, to the man dicious liberality of Cosmo. He had who had saved the British dominions been attacked by the most formidable in Asia. Hastings now confidently combination of enemies that ever sought expected a peerage; but, from some the destruction of a single victim; and unexplained cause, he was again dis-over that combination, after a struggle appointed. of ten years, he had triumphed. He had at length gone down to his grave in the fulness of age, in peace, after so many troubles, in honour, after so much obloquy.

He lived about four years longer, in the enjoyment of good spirits, of faculties not impaired to any painful or degrading extent, aud of health such

UU

FREDERIC THE GREAT.

(APRIL, 1842.)

Those who look on his character | population and revenue the fifth among without favour or malevolence will pro- them, and in art, science, and civilisanounce that, in the two great elements tion entitled to the third, if not to the of all social virtue, in respect for the second place, sprang from a humble rights of others, and in sympathy for origin. About the beginning of the the sufferings of others, he was de-fifteenth century, the marquisate of ficient. His principles were somewhat Brandenburg was bestowed by the lax. His heart was somewhat hard. Emperor Sigismund on the noble family But though we cannot with truth de- of Hohenzollern. In the sixteenth censcribe him either as a righteous or as a tury that family embraced the Lutheran merciful ruler, we cannot regard with- doctrines. It obtained from the King out admiration the amplitude and fer- of Poland, early in the seventeenth tility of his intellect, his rare talents century, the investiture of the duchy of for command, for administration, and Prussia. Even after this accession of for controversy, his dauntless courage, territory, the chiefs of the house of his honourable poverty, his fervent zeal Hohenzollern hardly ranked with the for the interests of the state, his noble Electors of Saxony and Bavaria. The equanimity, tried by both extremes of soil of Brandenburg was for the most fortune, and never disturbed by either. part sterile. Even round Berlin, the capital of the province, and round Potsdam, the favourite residence of the Margraves, the country was a desert. In some places, the deep sand could with difficulty be forced by assiduous tillage to yield thin crops of rye and Frederic the Great and his Times. Edited, oats. In other places, the ancient fowith an Introduction, by THOMAS CAMP-rests, from which the conquerors of the BELL, Esq. 2 vols. 8vo. London: 1842. Roman empire had descended on the THIS work, which has the high honour Danube, remained untouched by the of being introduced to the world by hand of man. Where the soil was rich the author of Lochiel and Hohenlin- it was generally marshy, and its insaden, is not wholly unworthy of so dis-lubrity repelled the cultivators whom tinguished a chaperon. It professes, its fertility attracted. Frederic Wilindeed, to be no more than a compila- liam, called the Great Elector, was the tion; but it is an exceedingly amusing prince to whose policy his successors compilation, and we shall be glad to have agreed to ascribe their greatness. have more of it. The narrative comes He acquired by the peace of Westdown at present only to the commence-phalia several valuable possessions, and ment of the Seven Years' War, and among them the rich city and district therefore does not comprise the most of Magdeburg; and he left to his son interesting portion of Frederic's reign. Frederic a principality as considerable It may not be unacceptable to our as any which was not called a kingdom. readers that we should take this oppor- Frederic aspired to the style of roytunity of presenting them with a slight alty. Ostentatious and profuse, negsketch of the life of the greatest king ligent of his true interests and of his that has, in modern times, succeeded high duties, insatiably eager for frivoby right of birth to a throne. It may, lous distinctions, he added nothing to we fear, be impossible to compress so the real weight of the state which he long and eventful a story within the governed: perhaps he transmitted his limits which we must prescribe to our- inheritance to his children impaired selves. Should we be compelled to rather than augmented in value; but break off, we may perhaps, when the he succeeded in gaining the great obcontinuation of this work appears, re-ject of his life, the title of King. In turn to the subject. the year 1700 he assumed this new The Prussian monarchy, the youngest dignity. He had on that occasion to of the great European states, but in undergo all the mortifications which

fall to the lot of ambitious upstarts. of a member of the Roxburghe Club Compared with the other crowned heads for Caxtons. While the envoys of the of Europe, he made a figure resembling Court of Berlin were in a state of such that which a Nabob or a Commissary, squalid poverty as moved the laughter who had bought a title, would make in of foreign capitals, while the food placed the company of Peers whose ancestors before the princes and princesses of the had been attainted for treason against blood-royal of Prussia was too scanty the Plantagenets. The envy of the to appease hunger, and so bad that even class which Frederic quitted, and the hunger loathed it, no price was thought civil scorn of the class into which he too extravagant for tall recruits. The intruded himself, were marked in very ambition of the King was to form a significant ways. The Elector of Saxony brigade of giants, and every country at first refused to acknowledge the new was ransacked by his agents for men Majesty. Lewis the Fourteenth looked above the ordinary stature. These redown on his brother King with an air searches were not confined to Europe. not unlike that with which the Count No head that towered above the crowd in Molière's play regards Monsieur in the bazaars of Aleppo, of Cairo, or Jourdain, just fresh from the mum- of Surat, could escape the crimps of mery of being made a gentleman. Frederic William. One Irishman more Austria exacted large sacrifices in re- than seven feet high, who was picked turn for her recognition, and at last up in London by the Prussian ambasgave it ungraciously. sador, received a bounty of near thirteen hundred pounds sterling, very much more than the ambassador's salary. This extravagance was the more absurd, because a stout youth of five feet eight, who might have been procured for a few dollars, would in all probability have been a much more valuable soldier. But to Frederic William, this huge Irishman was what a brass Otho, or a Vinegar Bible, is to a collector of a different kind.

Frederic was succeeded by his son, Frederic William, a prince who must be allowed to have possessed some talents for administration, but whose character was disfigured by odious vices, and whose eccentricities were such as had never before been seen out of a madhouse. He was exact and diligent in the transacting of business; and he was the first who formed the design of obtaining for Prussia a place among the European powers, alto- It is remarkable, that though the gether out of proportion to her extent main end of Frederic William's adand population, by means of a strong ministration was to have a great milimilitary organization. Strict economy tary force, though his reign forms an enabled him to keep up a peace estab-important epoch in the history of mililishment of sixty thousand troops. These troops were disciplined in such a manner, that placed beside them, the household regiments of Versailles and St. James's would have appeared an awkward squad. The master of such a force could not but be regarded by all his neighbours as a formidable enemy and a valuable ally.

But the mind of Frederic William was so ill regulated, that all his inclinations became passions, and all his passions partook of the character of moral and intellectual disease. His parsimony degenerated into sordid avarice.

His taste for military pomp and order became a mania, like that of a Dutch burgomaster for tulips, or that

tary discipline, and though his dominant passion was the love of military display, he was yet one of the most pacific of princes. We are afraid that his aversion to war was not the effect of humanity, but was merely one of his thousand whims. His feeling about his troops seems to have resembled a miser's feeling about his money. He loved to collect them, to count them, to see them increase; but he could not find it in his heart to break in upon the precious hoard. He looked forward to some future tine when his Patagonian battalions were to drive hostile infantry before them like sheep: but this future time was always receding; and it is probable that, if his lite