ing to the calculation of his ardent fancy, millions of money were to be realized in this plan. He therefore procured a patent for his undertaking, and a machine was constructed in which the marine inhabitants were to enjoy a necessary portion of air and the salt element, as well as in any part of the ocean. The fish, however (as if by a wise conspiracy), defeated the alarming design against their species; for feeling their confinement too irksome, they so bruised themselves against the sides of the pool, that at the end of the voyage they were totally unfit for the delicate icthyophagists of London.

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Sir Richard therefore again ventured upon the sea of politics. The Peerage Bill, brought before parliament by the Earl of Sunderland, was of too aristocratical a nature not to alarm the jealousies of a free nation. It had for its object the permanent limitation of the number of peers, and would have taken away from the king the power of adding any new members to the upper house, except to supply the vacancies made by families that should become extinct. Though this bill on one side had the pular appearance of restraining the regal prerogative, yet on the other it contracted the avenues to honour, and nearly excluded all the commons for ever from the titles and privileges of nobility. A measure so antidemocratical, Sir Richard determined to oppose. He took up his pen against it, in a paper called the Plebeian, the first number of which was published on the 14th March, 1719. Addison unfortunately had imbibed more favourable opinions respecting the bill, and he replied to the arguments of his ancient friend and colleague in a paper entitled the Old Whig. Thus the concord, which long affection and similarity of pursuits had cemented between these two great men, was for a time interrupted by the warmth of political difference and it is remarkable that in the management of their controversy, the impetuous Sir Richard exhibited more delicacy of friendship, and calmness of temper, than his philosophical opponent. Steele had the victory on his side for the bill was rejected in the House of Commons by a very great majority of voices. His conduct in the whole of this affair was prudent, calm, and generous. The letter also, which he wrote at this time to Lord Oxford, * Vide Life of Addison, prefixed to the Spectator.

*

whose character he no longer viewed through a cloud of suspicion, is a specimen of ingenuous candour, and honest contrition.

"MY LORD,

"To the Earl of Oxford.

"I am very glad of the occasion wherein I have the good fortune to think the same way with your Lordship, because I have very long suffered a great deal of pain in reflecting upon a certain virulence with which my zeal has heretofore transported me to treat your Lordship's person and character. I do protest to you, except in the first smart of my disgrace and expulsion out of the House of Commons, I never writ any thing that ought to displease you, but with a reluctant heart, and in opposition to much good-will and esteem, for your many great and uncommon talents. And I take the liberty to say, thus publicly, to yourself, what I have often said to others, on the subject of my behaviour to you; I never had any other reason to lessen my lord of Oxford, than that which Brutus had to stab Cæsar-the love of my country. Your Lordship will, I hope, believe there cannot be a more voluntary unrestrained reparation made to a man, than that I make to you, in begging your pardon thus publicly for every thing I have spoken or written to your disadvantage, foreign to the argument and cause which I was then labouring to support. You will please to believe, that I could not be so insensible, as not to be touched with the generosity of part of your conduct towards me, or have omitted to acknowledge it accordingly, if I had not thought that your very virtue was dangerous; and that it was, as the world then stood, absolutely necessary to depreciate so adventurous a genius, surrounded with so much power as your lordship then had. I transgressed, my lord, against you, when you could make twelve peers in a day; I ask your pardon when you are a private nobleman; and as I told you when I resigned the Stamp-office, I wished you all prosperity consistent with the public good, so now I congratulate you upon the pleasure you must needs have, in looking back upon the true fortitude with which you have passed through the dangers, arising from the rage of the people, and the envy of the rest of the world."

With whatever liberality Sir Richard was willing to estimate the actions of others, he was not so fortunate as to obtain the same candid construction for his own behaviour. His opposition to the Peerage Bill gave so much offence that he was threatened with the loss of his theatrical patent; and the Duke of Newcastle, who was Lord Chamberlain, seemed resolved to make him feel the vengeance of insulted power. To avert a chastisement, which might sink him in pecuniary ruin, Steele defended his cause in a paper, which appeared twice a week, called The Theatre, commencing on the 2d of January, 1720. This did not pacify, perhaps it even exasperated, the wrath of the Chamberlain. Only a few numbers had come forth, when Sir Richard was deprived of his patent, and he had only the fruitless resource to lay before the public The State of the Case between the Lord Chamberlain of his Majesty's Household and the Governor of the Royal Company of Comedians. The loss of the patentee, according to his own calculation, was near ten thousand pounds. The Theatre was continued, under the assumed name of Sir John Edgar, to the extent of eight-and-twenty numbers: and in the mean time the author, though entangled in perplexities, and persecuted by power, was employed in warning his countrymen, and endeavouring to save them from the indigence, which threatened himself. His keen intelligence had penetrated the fraud of the infamous South Sea scheme, and he did not want the courage and philanthropy to avow his sentiments. Besides some notice which he had taken of the speculation in The Theatre, he published upon the subject The Crisis of Property, on the 1st of February, 1720, and on the 27th, A Nation a Family, which was a sequel of the Crisis.

Another fortunate revolution took place in his affairs. Mr. Walpole, in April 1721, being raised to the chancellorship of the exchequer, endeavoured to cancel the injury which official malice had done to Steele, and therefore restored him to his former emoluments and privileges at the Theatre. By this act of justice more than a private benefit was conferred: for Sir Richard, probably, without this retribution would not have ventured upon a further trial of his dramatic genius. Encouraged by his situation, he brought forward, in 1722, the Conscious Lovers, the last

and best of his productions for the stage. In this he took for his groundwork the Andria of 'Terence; and by combining morality without dulness, and tenderness without affectation, he accomplished what he had long desired, a specimen of pure comedy. The piece was distinguished by the most successful reception, and his Majesty, to whom it was dedicated, remunerated the author with a present of five hundred pounds.

But Sir Richard, by his misfortunes and by his imprudence in pecuniary matters, was now in that situation in which no moderate prosperity could save him from penury, although it might give a temporary alleviation of his distress. In consequence of his embarrassments, he disposed in 1723 of the share which he had in the theatre. He was also entangled in a law-suit with the managers, probably less in conformity with his own conviction and desire than at the instigation of others, to whom he was obliged to consign the direction of his affairs. When (according to Cibber's account) he withdrew himself from all trouble in the concerns of the theatre, the managers thought themselves entitled to a remuneration of £1. 13s. 4d. every acting day for their extraordinary labour. In this demand, Sir Richard for three years patiently acquiesced; and, therefore, when he (or his trustees) disputed it in a court of justice, the claim of the managers was considered to be fairly established.

But much more bitter sorrows and mortifications were reserved for him. In 1725 he was compelled to leave the metropolis, the seat of his pleasures and the empire of his reputation. He was so deeply involved in debt, that he resigned his property into the hands of his creditors, and upon their benevolence was maintained in the house of a mercer in the city of Hereford. From this place he removed to his own seat at Llangunnor, near Caermarthen, where the mortgagee permitted him to reside. In the meanwhile, paralysis had made those ravages in his body, which keen remorse and disquietude had inflicted on his mind. After suffering all the evils that can embitter the close of life, he expired on the 21st of September, 1729.

Steele was twice married. By his first lady, who died without issue, he acquired considerable property in the island of Barbadoes. His second alliance was with Mary

daughter of Jonathan Scurlock, Esq. of Llangunnor; and with her he gained an estate of about £400 per annum. After living with her husband in much connubial affection, she died on the 26th of December, 1718, at the age of forty. She brought Sir Richard four children, none of whom lived to mature life, except Elizabeth, who was married in May 1731, to the Hon. John Trevor, a Welsh judge, afterwards created Baron Trevor of Bromham.

In estimating the moral character of Sir Richard Steele, we cannot but deplore to find it disfigured with so large a portion of frailty and imperfection. Some virtues he possessed in an eminent degree: warmth of affection, frankness and sincerity of heart, with a most generous and diffusive benevolence, distinguished his character: his intentions, however imperfectly he fulfilled them, were universally just and upright: and although he often found virtue too difficult to practise, he never corrupted his understanding by confounding her dictates with the persuasions of vice. But all his excellences were clouded and impaired by the want of prudence and regularity, by incurable habits of pleasure and dissipation. This immoderate love of gaiety involved him in perpetual embarrassments, was a constant obstruction to his prosperity and peace of mind, and finally brought ignominy and suffering on the close of a life, which in many respects deserved to be rewarded with affluence and distinction.

Dr. Johnson, in his life of Savage, has related two anecdotes, which strongly illustrate the wretched expedients to which Steele was reduced by his profligacy, and prove how little he was qualified by private strictness of conduct to assume the title of "Censor of Great Britain."

"Sir Richard Steele, having declared in his (Savage's) favour with all the ardour of benevolence which constituted his character, promoted his interest with the utmost zeal, related his misfortunes, applauded his merit, took all the opportunities of recommending him, and asserted, that the inhumanity of his mother had given him a right to find every good man his father.'

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"Nor was Mr. Savage admitted to his acquaintance only, but to his confidence, of which he sometimes related an

* Plain Dealer. Dr. J.