from no woman not of vicious tastes. The work was a compilation of all the most displeasing scandals of the British Court; only the authoress was prudent enough to screen herself from punishment, by giving fictitious names to the real actors and places, of which her story treated. No one was spared. Her personal enemies, and her political focs (the Whigs), were lashed with severity: but none met with mercy, the turning whom to ridicule could make the book more amusing. The great men in power were furious. The printer and publisher were seized under a warrant, from the Secretary of State, Lord Sunderland. On this, De la Riviere heroically gave herself up, appearing before the Court of King's Bench as the author. Lord Sunderland wanted to know who had supplied her with the information for her publication. She supposed "inspiration had guided her, because knowing her innocence, she could account for it in no other way." His lordship returned, that "inspiration used to be on a good account; but that her writings were stark naught." To this the lady retorted, that "his lordship's observation might be true; but as there were evil angels, as well as good, that what she had wrote might still be by inspiration." His lordship, being thus foiled, ordered her to be locked up; and she was confined in a messenger's house without pen, ink, or paper. But her counsel, suing out her "habeas corpus" at the King's Bench bar, she was admitted to bail. Eventually, proceedings were dropped; but not till she had several times opposed the court, before the bench of judges.

Having escaped thus easily, in the case of the "New Atalantis," she continued to write on the same plan. In "The Adventures of Rivella," which is her autobiography she gave her version of all the incidents and contentions of her life, only throwing over the discreditable revelations the flimsy covering of false names. "The Secret History

of Queen Zarah," is the history of the notorious Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough. Her grace's maiden name was Jennings; so Queen Zarah's mother's name is Jenisa. In the same way, celebrated characters are dealt with in the "Memoirs of Europe," and "Court Intrigues." Little can be said in praise of these works. They contain in a most active and mischievous form, all the vicious qualities of "the Satirist." Certain passages they have which display agreeable powers of description, but they are never employed, save when the writer desires to embellish a picture peculiarly offensive to decency. It would be difficult to find in the whole course of English literature, Lord Rochester and his fraternity not excepted, an author so immoral, and so delighting in voluptuous license as De la Riviere Manley. She imitated and caricatured the worst points of Aphara Behn, and must ever be a name used to support the position that pre-eminent amongst the vicious scribes of every nation, are women.

Besides her works of fiction (founded on fact), Mrs. Manley was a political writer under the guidance of Swift. A very able "Vindication of the Duke of Marlborough," came from her pen. And when Swift relinquished "The Examiner," it was the authoress of the "New Atalantis" who.succeeded him in its management.

In her life, as in her writings, Mrs. Manley followed in the footsteps of Mrs. Behn. Avowedly a woman of pleasure and intrigue, she passed from one lover to another, received bountiful measures of flattery from a large circle of admirers, and spent her days in that dissipation which was the mode of the age. Swift, in his journal to Stella, continually made mention of her, but scarcely ever without associating her name with ombre, claret, and jolly evenings.

In that celebrated diary, kept by the Dean, there is a passage worth reading. "Jan. 28, 1711-12. Poor Mrs. Manley, the author, is very ill of a dropsy and sore leg: the

printer tells me he is afraid she cannot live long. I am heartily sorry for her: she has very generous principles for one of her sort, and a great deal of good sense and invention; she is about forty: very homely and very fat.'

De la Riviere did not regard herself with the Dean's eyes, if we may trust her own description of her personal charms in "The Adventures of Rivella." By the bye, it is worth taking some trouble to get hold of the "Adventures," if it be only to admire the frontispiece, a picture of Somerset House, and the garden in which stand the Chevalier d'Aumont, and Sir Charles Lovemore conversing about Rivella, and enjoying the breeze which comes from the Thames, in which river are swimming two swans with exquisitely graceful necks. The passage alluded to is the following:

"Her person is neither tall nor short; from her youth she was inclined to fat, whence I have often heard her flatterers liken her to the Grecian Venus. It is certain, considering that disadvantage, she has the most easy air that one can have ; her hair is of a pale ash colour, fine, and in large quantity. I have heard her friends lament the disaster of her having had the small-pox in such an injurious manner, being a beautiful child before that distemper; but as that disease has now left her face, she has scarce any pretence to it. Few, who have only beheld her in public, could be brought to like her; whereas none that had been acquainted with her could refrain from loving her. I have heard several wives and mistresses accuse her of fascination; they would neither trust their husbands, lovers, sons, nor brothers, with her acquaintance, upon terms of the greatest advantage. But to do Rivella justice, till she grew fat, there was not, I believe, any defect to be found in her body; her lips admirably coloured, her teeth small and even; a breath always sweet: her complexion fair and fresh; yet with all this, you must be used to her before she can be thought thoroughly agreeable. Her hands and arms have been publicly cele

brated: it is certain, that I never saw any so well turned; her neck and breasts have an established reputation for beauty and colour; her feet small and pretty."

And it was this fascinating Rivella, with a neck of “n established reputation," that the Dean could write of as "very homely, and very fat." Was he honest? Or, did he artfully assume a tone of kindly contempt, so that dear little Stella might not be jealous?

On the eleventh of July, 1724, De la Riviere expired at the house of Alderman Barber (with whom she had been living for years) on Lambeth Hill. She was interred in the middle aisle of the church of St. Bennet, Paul's Wharf, where a marble stone was erected to her memory.

Why has this poor woman been dragged up from the grave with all her sins hanging loosely about her like her cerements, and been made to figure before the correct public of our own day? Because, though not a writer of the highest genius or acquirements, she made her influence felt amongst writers of fiction. From her, Swift took many a hint for elaborating his "Gulliver's Travels," in satirizing the foibles and vices of the men and parties amongst whom he lived, and gratified his inordinate passion for hating. The Dean was not indebted more to "Rabelais” than he was to Mrs. Manley. And, without doubt, the "New Atalantis" was the parent of Smollett's admirable political satire, "the Adventures of an Atom."-Again it was Mrs. Manley who brought into fashion the plan of writing novels in the form of letters. Probably, she was first instigated to construct letters for publication by the popularity of the amatory epistles between our old friend Astrea and Lycidas. The scheme was good; Eliza Heywood (whose " Court of Arimania," and "New Utopia," are imitations of the Mrs. Manley's "New Atalantis,") Smollett, Richardson, and a host of others, adopted it. And it is in the correspondential shape that we have some of the best achievements of Mr. Thackeray.

CHAPTER VI.

HENRY FIELDING.

"Our immortal Fielding," says Gibbon, "was of the younger branch of the Earls of Denbigh, who drew their origin from the Counts of Hapsburgh, the lineal descendants of Eltrico, in the seventh century, Dukes of Alsace. Far different have been the fortunes of the English and German divisions of the family of Hapsburgh; the former, the knights and sheriffs of Leicestershire, have slowly risen to the dignity of a peerage. The latter, the Emperors of Germany and Kings of Spain, have threatened the liberty of the old, and invaded the treasures of the New World. The successors of Charles V. may disdain their brethren of England; but the romance of 'Tom Jones,' that exquisite picture of human manners, will outlive the palace of the Escurial, and the Imperial eagle of Austria."

Henry Fielding was born April 22, 1707, at Sharpham Park, near Glastonbury, in Somersetshire. The man who is generally known as "the father of the English Novel " was a babe puling in his long clothes, when Jonathan Swift, Alexander Pope, Richard Steele, and Joseph Addison, were in the prime of their days, between thirty-five and forty years of age. He was a young gentleman unusually precocious in his "habits," if he was breeched by the time Sir Roger was introduced by the "Spectator" into the families of our ancestors. His father, Lieut-General Fielding, a grandson of the first Earl of Denbigh, was guilty of matrimony no less than four times, and had as large a family as he deserved.

Little Harry Fielding was placed, while yet in very