One day, when he had been struggling in the council, and torn to pieces by the multiplicity of petitions for redress, the behavior of his ministers, and the contentions of the parliament, he retired very pensively to her apartment. Seeing his distress, she inquired the cause. "Oh, Nell, what shall I do," was his exclamation, "to please the people of England? They tear me to pieces."

"If it please your majesty," said she, “there is but one way left." "What is that?"

"Dismiss your ladies, and mind your business: the people of England will soon be pleased."

This observation, the truth of which the king could not but acknowledge, struck him, but he never in his life had resolution enough to discharge one mistress, however disagreeable to the nation, or expensive to himself.

During the troubles between his son, the duke of Monmouth, and the duke of York, his majesty, who loved both his son and brother, behaved with so much indifference and negligence in the business, that it was with great difficulty he could be persuaded to attend the council, or despatch any affair whatever. One day, when the council had met and waited long for him, a member came to his apartments, but was refused admittance. His lordship complained to Nell of this dilatoriness, upon which she wagered him a hundred pounds, that the king would that evening attend the council.

Accordingly she sent for Killigrew, naturally a buffoon, but a free favorite with his majesty, and desired him to dress himself in every respect as if for a journey, and enter the king's apartments without ceremony. As soon as his majesty saw him: "What, Killigrew! are you mad? Why, where are you going? Did not I order that nobody should disturb me?"

"I don't mind your orders; not I," said Killigrew; "and I am going as fast as I can." "Why? Where?" said his majesty-" where are you going?"

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Going! why, to hell," said Killigrew.

"To hell? and what to do there ?"

"To fetch back Oliver Cromwell, to take some care of the national concerns, for I am sure your majesty takes none."

This expedient had the desired effect, for the king immediately went to council.

That his majesty had a great regard for Nell appears strongly in his last moments, when he desired his brother not to let "poor Nell starve."

After the death of Charles, she fell into obscurity; the bustle at court, the political cabals, the contentions between the Popish and Protestant interests, quite engaged the attention of the public, and she was lost sight of. For the remainder of her life she lived in retirement, and in that situation there is no account of her.

She was undoubtedly possessed of generous

and distinguished talent; united wit, beauty, and benevolence; and if she deserve blame for impurity, there are few who can claim encomiums for such eminent virtues.

MESSENGER MONSEY."

MESSENGER MONSEY was born in the year 1693, at a remote village in the county of Norfolk, of which his father was rector; but at the revolution, by declining the oaths, he forfeited his preferment. He was more fortunate than the generality of the nonjuring clergy, as he had some resource in a paternal estate, which is still in the family, and preserved him from those difficulties which too many at that time encountered, who sacrificed temporal interest to a steady adherence to their principles.

1

The subject of these memoirs received a good classical education, which his father chiefly superintended himself. He was then removed to St. Mary Hall, Cambridge, and, after five years spent at the university, studied physic some time under Sir Benjamin Wrench, at Norwich, from which place he went and settled as a physician, at Bury St. Edmund's, in Suffolk.

Here he married a widow, with a handsome jointure, who at her death left him one daughter. This lady became the wife of a gentleman of a reputable mercantile family, in the city of London.

At Bury, Dr. Monsey experienced the common fate of country physicians, being obliged to submit to constant fatigue, long journeys, and the inconvenience of an inadequate income. He has been heard to confess, that with the utmost exertion of unwearied application, his receipts never exceeded three hundred pounds a year, by efforts which, in an easy chariot, and in the streets of London, secured Dr. Warren nearly twenty times that income. Here, had it not been for a fortunate accident, his merits might have been confined to a provincial newspaper, and his fame to a country churchyard.

Lord Godolphin, the son of Queen Anne's lord treasurer, was seized with an apoplectic complaint, on his journey to his seat near Newmarket; the nearest medical help was at Bury, and Dr. Monsey, either by the assistance of nature or his own skill, was so successful as to save Lord Godolphin's life, and secure his warmest gratitude. Lord Godolphin was single, not very young, nor much addicted to company or dissipation. He felt, that by attaching himself to worth so superior to the situation in which he found it, he should obtain a rational companion for his leisure hours, and a

medical friend, so desirable in the decline of life. During the intervals of illness his regard for the doctor increased: and, after his lordship's recovery, his behavior was so unassuming, and his patron's offers so liberal, that he immediately accompanied him to the metropolis. Here he was not doomed to struggle with the painful disappointment of hope deferred, for he was treated at Lord Godolphin's as a friend and companion, and introduced to many of the first characters of the age. Among others, Sir Robert Walpole assiduously cultivated his acquaintance: and the late earl of Chesterfield always acknowledged, with gratitude, the benefit he derived from his medical skill and assistance.

He thus trod the pleasantest part of life, the midway between leisure and fatigue, while friendship, polished society, and literary amusement, might be said to strew it with flowers. He was made a fellow of the Royal Society, though his great age, for many years before his death, prevented his attendance at their meetings: and, on the death of Dr. Smart, physician to Chelsea hospital, he was appointed to succeed him. Although Lord Godolphin readily embraced every opportunity to forward the interest of his friend Monsey (as he always used to call him), yet he could not persuade himself to lose his agreeable society, which he was frequently heard to declare, was the solace and comfort of his life. He, there