That your Petitioner has had a liberal education and fortune, and expects this term a sentence worse than death for the same:

That he is under the greatest sorrow and contrition for this his high offence against so good and gracious a Queen; and shall hereafter abhor and avoid all licence in speech and writing unbefitting a quiet, humble, and peaceable subject.

Your Petitioner, therefore, most humbly prays, &c.

The people without-doors were not disinterested spectators of the transactions within. They were roused with libels and pamphlets, which zealots, on both sides, poured daily from the press; and they suffered themselves, as usual, to be deceived by the designing, or inflamed by the violent and weak. Among the publications concerning the proposed invitation of the presumptive Heir of the Crown to England, one commanded the attention, and incurred the censure of Parliament. Sir Rowland Gwynn, a busy, selfish, forward, and intriguing man; violent in his principles, suspicious through weakness, deceiving others, and perhaps deceived himself by seeing objects through the muddy medium of a clouded understanding, had repaired to the Court of Hanover, to gain the favour of the Electoral Family, by alarming their fears concerning the succession of the British Crown. Upon the subject of the invitation to the Princess Sophia, Gwynn wrote a letter to the Earl of Stamford, which found its way to the press. This ill-worded, unmeaning, and confused performance, though it seemed to approve of the principles of the Whigs, severely censured that party for refusing their consent to the proposed invitation of the Princess Sophia into England. The Commons, on the eighth of March, voted Gwynn's Letter a scandalous, false, and malicious libel. The Lords concurred with them in an address upon this occasion to the Queen; who replied, that, being fully sensible of the pernicious tendency of the paper which they had censured, she would comply with their request, and give orders to prosecute the printer and author." Hist, of Great-Britain, sub ann. 1705.

6. TO MRS.* SCURLOCK.

MADAM,

[SATURDAY, AUG. 9,] 1707 †.

YOUR wit and beauty are suggestions which may easily lead you into the intention of my writing to you. You may be sure that I cannot be cold to so many good qualities as all that see you must ob

Mrs. Mary Scurlock, afterwards Lady Steele, daughter and sole heiress of Jonathan Scurlock, esq. of the county of Caermarthen, was at this time a beautiful young lady about the age of eight or nine-and-twenty. Sir Richard has drawn a very amiable character of her in a dedication prefixed to the third volume of "The Ladies Library." She is styled here, according to the mode of the time when this letter was written, not Miss, but Mistress Scurlock, though her mother was still living. The appellation of Miss was then appropriated to the daughters of gentlemen under the age of ten, or given opprobriously to young gentlewomen reproachable for the giddiness or irregularity of their conduct. See "The Tatler," vol. I. No 10, note; and No 13, and note.

The day of the month is cut out from this and a few of the following letters; and in some others the figures have been altered, in order to disguise the exact dates. Many concurring circumstances, however, confirm the conjectural dates here inserted in hooks.-In the Muses Mercury for January 1706-7, are some humorous lines by Steele, " to a young lady who had married an old man ;" and in that for February is the following lively Song by him:

"Me Cupid made a willing slave,

A merry wretched man;

I slight the Nymphs I cannot have,
Nor doat on those I can.

This constant maxim still I hold,
To baffle all despair;

The absent ugly are and old,

The present young and fair."

serve in you. You are a woman of a very good understanding, and will not measure my thoughts by any ardour in my expressions, which is the ordinary language on these occasions.

I have reasons for hiding from my nearest rela→ tion any purpose I may have resolved upon of waiting on you if you permit it; and I hope you have confidence from mine as well as your own character, that such a condescension should not be ill used by, Madam, your most obedient servant,

RICH. STEELE.

7. TO MRS. SCURLOCK *.

MADAM,

[AUG. 11,] 1707. I WRIT to you on Saturday by Mrs. Warren, and give you this trouble to urge the same request I made then; which was, that I may be admitted to

* The admirers of Steele will recognise this letter, which they have read so frequently in the Tatler, No 35; where it is thus introduced as an article from White's Chocolate-house: "I know no manner of news from this place, but that Cynthio, having been long in despair for the inexorable Clarissa, lately resolved to fall in love the good old way of bargain and sale, and has pitched upon a very agreeable young woman. He will undoubtedly succeed; for he accosts her in a strain of familiarity, without breaking through the deference that is due to a woman whom a man would choose for his life. I have hardly ever heard rough truth spoken with a better grace than in this his letter." Mrs. Warren, in the Tatler, is changed to Mrs. Lucy; and so it is in the MS. whence the letter is now printed.

wait upon you.

I should be very far from desiring this, if it were a transgression of the most severe rules to allow it. I know you are very much above the little arts, which are frequent in your sex, of giving unnecessary torment to their admirers; therefore hope you will do so much justice to the generous passion I have for you, as to let me have an opportunity of acquainting you upon what motives I pretend to your good opinion. I shall not trouble you with my sentiments till I know how they will be received; and as I know no reason why difference of sex should make our language to each other differ from the ordinary rules of right reason, I shall affect plainness and sincerity in my discourse to you, as much as other lovers do perplexity and rapture. Instead of saying "I shall die for you," I profess I should be glad to lead my life with you. You are as beautiful, as witty, as prudent, and as good-humoured, as any woman breathing; but I must confess to you, I regard all these excellencies as you will please to direct them for my happiness or misery. With me, Madam, the only lasting motive to love, is the hope of its becoming mutual. I beg of you to let Mrs. Warren send me word when I may attend you. I promise you I will talk of nothing but indifferent things; though, at the same time, I know not how I shall approach you in the tender moment of first seeing you after this declaration which has been made by, Madam,

Your most obedient

and most faithful humble servant,

8. TO MRS. SCURLOCK.

MADAM,

[AUG. 14,] 1707.

I CAME to your house this night to wait on you; but you have commanded me to expect the happiness of seeing you at another time of more leisure. I am now under your own roof while I write; and that imaginary satisfaction of being so near you, though not in your presence, has in it something that touches me with so tender ideas, that it is impossible for me to describe their force. All great passion makes us dumb; and the highest happiness, as well as highest grief, seizes us too violently to be expressed by our words.

You are so good as to let me know I shall have the honour of seeing you when I next come here. I will live upon that expectation, and meditate on your perfections till that happy hour. The vainest woman upon earth never saw in her glass half the attractions which I view in you. Your air, your shape, your every glance, motion, and gesture, have such peculiar graces, that you possess my whole soul, and I know no life but in the hopes of your approbation: I know not what to say, but that I love you with the sincerest passion that ever entered the heart of man. I will make it the business of my life to find out means of convincing you that I prefer you to all that is pleasing upon earth. I am, Madam, your most obedient, most faithful humble servant, RICH. STEELE.