endeavoured to throttle him with the oath of allegiance. I leave also my religion to Dr. Cutts Barton, Dean of Bristol, hereby empowering the Sub-Sacrist to strike him on the head when he goes to sleep in church. My powers of utterance I give to the Reverend Mr. Broughton, hoping he will employ them to a better purpose than reading lectures on the immortality of the soul. I leave the Reverend Mr. Catcott some little of my free-thinking, that he may put on spectacles of reason and see how vilely he is duped in believing the Scriptures literally. I wish he and his brother George would know how far I am their real enemy; but I have an unlucky way of raillery, and when the strong fit of satire is upon me, I spare neither friend nor foe. This is my excuse for what I have said of them elsewhere. I leave Mr. Clayfield the sincerest thanks my gratitude can give; and I will and direct that whatever any person may think the pleasure of reading my works worth, they immediately pay their own valuation to him, since it is then become a lawful debt to me and to him as my executor in this case.*

I leave my moderation to the politicians on both sides of the question. I leave my generosity to our

* A writing in the shape of a will, drawn out at considerable length, when he had come to look deliberately to suicide as his ultimate resource in the event of the failure of his projects of literary ambition, is a sad display of cool recklessness of all that is involved in death and its consequences. The horror appropriate to such a prospect and intention is in fearful incongruity with the desperate levity of a series of satiric quips in the form of legacies. That act itself, committed in a far too deliberate determination to allow the plea of insanity in any such sense as to suspend responsibility, comes to complete the moral spectacle, in a character to which our sympathies are faintly and reluctantly given; and induces a willingness to let Chatterton retire towards oblivion.-ECLECTIC REVIEW.

present Right Worshipful Mayor, Thomas Harris, Esq. I give my abstinence to the company at the Sheriffs' annual feast in general, more particularly the Alder

men.

Item. I give and bequeath to Mr. Matthew Mease a mourning ring with this motto, "Alas, poor Chatterton!" provided he pays for it himself. Item. I leave the young ladies all the letters they have had from me, assuring them that they need be under no apprehensions from the appearance of my ghost, for I die for none of them.-Item. I leave all my debts, the whole not five pounds, to the payment of the charitable and generous Chamber of Bristol, on penalty, if refused, to hinder every member from a good dinner by appearing in the form of a bailiff. If in defiance of this terrible spectre, they obstinately persist in refusing to discharge my debts, let my two creditors apply to the supporters of the Bill of Rights. Item. I leave my mother and sister to the protection of my friends, if I have any.-Executed in the presence of Omniscience this 14th of April, 1770. THOS. CHATTERTON.

CODICI L.

It is my pleasure that Mr. Cocking and Miss Farley print this my Will the first Saturday after my death.-T. C.*

Chatterton's Will appears to have been written a few days before he left Bristol to go to London; when in consequence, as it should seem, of his being refused a small sum of money by a gentleman, whom he had occasionally complimented in his poems, he had taken a resolu

tion of destroying himself the next day. What prevented him from carrying this design at that time into execution does not appear, but the whole writing on this occasion is worth attention, as it throws much light on his real character, his acquaintance with old English writers, and his capability of understanding and imitating old French and Latin inscriptions, not indeed grammatically, but sufficiently to answer the purpose to which he often applied this knowledge. From this writing it also appears that he would not allow King David to have been a holy man, from the strains of piety and devotion in his psalms, because a great genius can affect anything; that is, assume any charaeter and mode of writing he pleases. This is an answer from Chatterton himself, to one argument, and a very powerful one, in support of the authenticity of Rowley's poems, but in so guarded a manner, that it is not easy to draw any certain information for or against their authenticity; though the parties on both sides have attempted it. The address to Mr. Barrett does no less credit to his own feelings, than to that gentleman's treatment of him; and the apology that follows to the two Mr. Catcotts, for some effusions of his satire upon them, is the best recompense he then had in his power to make to those gentlemen, from whom he had experienced much civility and kindness. -DR. GREGORY.

POLITICAL LETTERS.

SIR,

LETTER I.

To the Duke of G

Your resignation is a step which will cause as much speculation in the political world, as any harlequinade you have already acted. Those who imagine you are at last convinced of your insufficiency to support the measures you have hitherto endeavoured to establish, forget that the most striking part of your character is an obstinate perseverance in the wrong. Others, who are so little acquainted with you, as not to doubt your veracity, may be satisfied with your own reasons, and see the affair in whatever light you would choose to set it. But those who would know the real cause of your retreat, must trace it to the root of all authority and power-the Earl of Bute. It was the influence of this sun of state, that ripened your latent genius into life. He drew your talents out of obscurity; he raised you to the pinnacle of place, and you have (as in duty bound) been his pack-ass till your late retreat. 'Tis true, the measures which have set the nation in a flame, were executed by you: but they were planned

The letters under the signature of "Decimus" were published in the Middlesex Journal for 1770, and were reprinted for the first time in 1837, in Mr. Dix's Life of Chatterton.

by him, and his more inventive projectors. I would not seem to lessen your character as a minister; but it is well known your talent does not lie in scheming; and you are very incapable of guiding, but upon the lifeless, insipid plan you first set out on. These were qualifications in the eye of the Thane: a jesuitical minister, who has parts to intrigue for himself, will pay little regard to the instruction of another. Your happy vacuity of invention, raised you to that dignity you so nobly maintained. As an instrument, you acquitted yourself to general satisfaction. You bore the infamy of every unconstitutional measure with a temerity truly stoical; you have heard unmoved the cries of the wretched; and was pleased to countenance murder, by calling a just and commendable desire of liberty, riot and licentiousness. It was certainly a little galling to find, that, notwithstanding all your labour and public infamy, you could not be permitted to nominate a friend or dependant to a lucrative post, without the consent of the Thane first meanly obtained. Your little sense of honour might have been touched; but you submitted. After such a slavish submission to the evil genius of England, it was impossible to expect any other effects from your administration than what have happened. We saw every measure pursued with that erring obstinacy which characterizes the Earl of Bute: the ministry were ever in the wrong, and still insisting on the rectitude of their actions: but had their actions been right, we had been obliged to chance; for they cannot, dare not, assert the rectitude of their intentions.

But this may be wandering from the point, in regard to your late resignation. I will proceed to it immediately. The Thane grew weary of being obliged to dictate on every trifling occasion; if he was not continually advising,