The Consul mentioned in this document is Vice-Consul Biliotti. Where did he get the "subsidies" which he sent to the insurgent Lazes? And who authorised him to promise them "the moral and material support of England?" That he acted on his own responsibility is, of course, out of the question. And while these intrigues were going on, Sir Austen Layard was moving heaven and earth to rouse public opinion in England to fever heat against the cession of Batoum to Russia, and this, too, after the cession had already been agreed to by the English Government in the Salisbury-Schouvaloff Memorandum. We hear much of "Russian intrigues." What should we have said during the Indian Mutiny had we discovered that the leader of the Mutiny was an ex-officer of the Russian army in confidential relation with the Russian Ambassador at Constantinople, and that a Consul under the jurisdiction of the same Ambassador was organising an insurrection in another part of our dominions, and promising the insurgents "the moral and material support of Russia"? If the Government really desire "peace with honour," they ought to lose no time in removing Sir Austen Layard from Constantinople.

MALCOLM MACCOLL.

VOL. CCXLIII.

NO. 1774.

E E

SIR JOHN SUCKLING.

BRIEF career, marked occasionally by brilliant, but still more

A and ematic episodes, is associated with

the author of the "Ballad upon a Wedding." This exquisite poem finds a place in every collection of lyric verse, yet of its writer comparatively little is known. Anticipating the wits and courtiers of the Restoration, we find their idiosyncrasies prefigured in Suckling like them, he wore his life and his heart upon his sleeve; like them, he spent his substance upon gorgeous apparel and riotous living, while the thunderbolts of a nation's anger were being forged; and like many of the minions of Charles II., he ended a life of extremes by a violent and miserable death. But there was a touch of true chivalry in Suckling's nature absent from those later men, whom Macaulay describes as possessing "foreheads of bronze, hearts like the nether millstone, and tongues set on fire of hell." Suckling fought creditably in the field during the Thirty Years' War. Moreover, by his counsels, he did all that was possible to check the drifting tide cf events which ultimately alienated Charles I. from the great body of his people. A letter now extant, written by the poet to his friend Jermyn (afterwards Earl of St. Alban's), is distinguished for its wise political judgment, and its remarkable foresight. To this letter some subsequent references will be made. It is, however, as a poet that Suckling chiefly deserves to be, and will continue to be, remembered. In the course of a chequered existence he had many moments of true inspiration. Recklessness and debauchery could not utterly eradicate the gleams of genius, and in his happiest effusions he touches a point of excellence far beyond the reach of a Sedley or a Rochester.

Suckling was born at Twickenham, early in the year 1609. On both sides he appears to have been well connected. From a memorial of the poet published by one of his descendants some forty years ago, we learn that his mother was sister to Sir Lionel Cranfield, afterwards created Earl of Middlesex and Lord Treasurer. His father, who was returned in 1601 as Member for Dunwich, was subsequently created principal Secretary of State and Comptroller of the Household to

King James I. As an evidence of the efficiency and zeal with which he transacted the duties of these high offices, on the death of the King, Charles I. sustained him in his important posts, and further conferred upon him the dignity of a Privy Councillor. Parliamentary honours appear to have run in the poet's family, for Suckling's father was the youngest son of Robert Suckling, Esquire, of Woodton, in the county of Norfolk, who represented the city of Norwich in the two Parliaments of 1570 and 1585. The ancestors of this gentleman had possessed estates in the village of Woodton from the year 1348. There is a prevalent theory-illustrated by the case of Milton and many other instances-that the mental constitution of men, of genius is inherited from the maternal side; whether this be the case or not, the upholders of such theory may cite Suckling in further illustration of it. A contemporary affirmed that the poet derived his vivacity and his wit from his mother, and that "his father was but a dull fellow." The King's Comptroller, however, must have exhibited more solid, if less conspicuous and dazzling qualities than those which were afterwards developed in his son. A man of genius may squander an estate, but it takes a man of sound judgment, shrewdness, and perspicacity to acquire it. Suckling's biographer, indeed, remarks of the Secretary of State, that he "possesses letters, written by him on matters of family business, in which a solidity of judgment and a knowledge of human nature are displayed, in language of remarkable vigour; nor can it reasonably be imagined that, without qualifications somewhat above an ordinary standard, Sir John (the father) would have been selected by his Sovereign as a Privy Councillor, in times which, verging fast towards turbulence and rebellion, were already marked by increasing difficulties and open dissatisfaction." In 1621, when Lord Brooke resigned the Chancellorship of the Exchequer, Sir John Suckling the elder and Sir Richard Weston were named for the office. Weston was eventually appointed, but the fact that Suckling was his only rival is evidence of his political parts, ability, and influence. It is not uninteresting also to note that the statesman occasionally strayed into that field where his son subsequently gained his laurels the field of poesy. Amongst the panegyrical verses prefixed to Coryat's "Crudities," published in 1611, is the following Sonnet by the elder Suckling, which is not without a certain incisiveness of expression :—

Whether I thee should either praise or pitty,

My senses at a great dilemma are:

For when I thinke how thou hast travail'd farre,
Canst Greeke and Latin speake, art curteous, witty;

I thee in these, and, thee for them, commend ;

But, when I thinke, how thou, false friends to keepe,

Dost weare thy body, and dost leese thy sleepe,

I thee, then, pitty, and do discommend.

Thy feete have gone a painful pilgrimage,

Thou many nights dost wrong thy hands and eyes,
In writing of thy long apologies;

Thy tongue is, all the day, thy restlesse page.
For shame, intreate them better; I this crave,

So they more ease, and thou more wit shalt have.

The poet's mother died in the year 1613, when her son was not yet five years of age. Lady Suckling's mental accomplishments appear to have been an admirable complement to the excellence of her character. Her husband cherished her memory to the last, and amongst the items in his will is the following:-"I give to my oving brother-in-lawe, the Earl of Middlesex, my picture of my late dear wife, hanginge in my country house, amongst other pictures, in the little roome next the great hall; for the love he bore to my late deare wife, his most lovinge sister." Obscurity envelopes the early years of Suckling's career, At the age of five, being then deprived by death of a mother's care, he left the paternal roof, but nothing definite is known of his history until the year 1623, when he went to Cambridge, and matriculated at Trinity College. At this period he was scarcely fifteen years of age; and by way of further instance of his precocity it is mentioned that he spoke Latin at ten, and wrote it with fluency and purity at fourteen. Some inaccurate biographers have credited him with these and other acquirements at even a much earlier age.

With regard to Suckling's attainments in the arts and sciences, his descendant concludes that "he was a polite rather than a deep scholar. Music, languages, and poetry were the accomplishments he most cultivated, and in which he was most desirous to excel; nor is it agreeable to the acknowledged vivacity of his constitution, to imagine that more abstruse or graver subjects could very long engage his attention." He appears to have had a singular quickness of apprehension, but it would be unwarrantable to assume that in the studies just indicated he developed the talents which belong to extraordinary genius alone, seeing that the well-bred youth of both sexes in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries furnished numerous examples of equal devotion to and success in those branches of polite learning which distinguished Suckling.

The character of Suckling had to a large extent manifested itself at the time of his father's death in 1627. The brilliant youth, then

nearly nineteen, had been admitted to Court, had already mingled in its gaieties, and had become infected by its spirit. How this fact impressed a grave and careful man like the father, may be inferred from the circumstance that by his will the latter debarred his heir from entering upon full possession of the family estates until he had attained his twenty-fifth year. Suckling had already become the devotee of pleasure, and was one of her most ardent worshippers. He had a natural aptitude towards the frivolities which distinguished the bulk of the frequenters of the Court, and possessed as well many attractions of person and manner. The gilded butterfly life which was even now a characteristic of fashionable society exactly suited Suckling's temperament and disposition.

So, while Suckling the elder was appointing sermons to be preached, “acknowledging God's mercies and favours towards him," the younger had already begun that career which was to make ducks and drakes of the fortune and estate which had been accumulated and secured with so much labour. The father's early death was a disastrous event as affecting the future of the poet, for it threw him completely adrift upon a world of temptation, without a single check upon his passions and desires. Conspicuous alike by birth, fortune, and person, it was but natural that Suckling's friendship should be eagerly sought by men always ready to welcome a boon companion, of trenchant wit and satisfactory depth of pocket. Two years after the event which left him his own master, Suckling went abroad, travelling through France, Italy, and Germany. One of the old philosophers says that travel is good for youth; and if the wanderer opened his mind only to its legitimate influences, there could be no exception taken to the aphorism. In Suckling's case, however, the reverse happened; while not insensible to the value of the knowledge which might be gained of the various peoples among whom he travelled, he appears to have imitated the follies of those with whom he mingled, and to have exhibited but a transient admiration for their virtues.

In 1631, however, we come upon the poet under nobler auspices. At this time Europe was considerably agitated by the evil fortune which seemed to dog the footsteps of the Prince Palatine of the Rhine. The English sovereign being related to the unfortunate prince-the latter had married the King's sister—a movement began in his favour, and it speedily caught up some of the best spirits in this country. After much persuasion, King Charles granted a commission to the Marquis of Hamilton to take up arms in favour of the Prince Palatine. The troops raised landed in Germany on the 31st July 1631, and amongst others who were immediately attached to