tleman: he had many private virtues, which deserve to be recognized even by the bitterest of his political opponents.

"In this same corner, I had once attempted to cram Charles Jenkinson, Lord Hawkesbury, and the Earl of Liverpool : but I found his Lordship very shy, and unaccommodating, so that he would not fit the interstice. Lord Loughborough, however, on being applied, fitted instantly, which some may attribute to the thinness of his body, and the meagerness of his visage, which seem determined to realise the personification of one of our English satirists.

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A pert prim prater, &c.

My principles being always congenial to those that seated the Pope of Rome on the throne, I preserve a series of their portraits. I removed one great personage at the beginning of the American war, and another, since his conduct to the Princess of Wales, into the dark corner.

"Towards the right, and immediately over a bust of Marcus Junius Brutus, with the Ides of March on the pedestal, is placed a print of Earl Stanhope. His eye turns rather towards the unaccommodating Cassius, but his features are bold and manly.

"Honest James Martin," with a fine Roman cast countenance, and exactly as when I dined with him at Brand Holles, stands over the fire place. I would to God that we had but 200 such as the member for Tewkesbury in the Augean stables.

"Mr. Grey has an honourable part assigned to him, which he occupies in the room of Sir C., his father, whom I unhung at the very time he was refreshing himself under his own laurels at Martinico. I would have placed Captain Cochrane, of the navy, in his stead, but that I could not find an engraving of him.

"Lord Effingham, in the last war, and this gallant and able officer in the present, exhibit rare but honourable instances of military and naval integrity. O si sic omnes!"

Mr. Stephens wrote a great deal for the periodical press. The pages of the Analytical Review abound in learned and ingenious articles from his pen. He was also a very frequent contributor to the Monthly Magazine. Besides papers on the belles lettres, he was in the habit of furnishing biographical notices for that journal. "In facility of biographical writing, (says the Editor,) and in extent of information on the lives and actions of the contemporary generation, he was equalled by no writer of his age. His industry and integrity are proved by naming the works which proceeded from his pen, and though every variety of character passed in review before him, he never wrote an ill-natured paragraph, or aided the propagation of calumny."

Mr. Stephens's constitution was much impaired by intense study, added to the immoderate use of coldiam and other quack medicines, on the efficacy of which he placed great reliance. He suffered severely from the gout for the last two years of his life. He died somewhat suddenly, at his residence of Park House, Chelsea, February 24th, 1821.

His figure was tall and commanding; his voice powerful, his general deportment graceful, and his manners particularly gentlemanlike and conciliating.

In the course of his life Mr. Stephens had three times visited the Continent, and travelled over France, Holland, and Flanders.

The following is a List of his acknowledged Productions.

1. Jamaica; a poem.

2. The Templar.

3. A History of the Wars which arose out of the French Revolution; 2 vols. 4to. 1803.

4. Memoirs of John Horne Tooke; 8vo. 1813.

5. The nine first volumes of the Public Characters.

6. Letters from a Nobleman to his Son.

7. A Translation of the Life of Dr. Franklin.

8. The Annual Biography; vols. 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5, with several anonymous pamphlets on various subjects.

In the notice of this gentleman, given in the Biographical Dictionary of Living Authors, the Editor speaks of him with unjustifiable impertinence as a "literary adventurer," and of his works with the same flippant and gratuitous disrespect. It would be difficult to assign a reason for an attack altogether so unprovoked and ungenerous, did it not immediately occur to us, that the publisher of the imitation of the old Monthly Magazine, (and the person with whom the Dictionary of Living Authors originated,) could be supposed to have no very friendly feelings towards a frequent and important contributor to the work he desired to supersede; so far from being, as he is there represented, a "literary adventurer," Mr. Stephens was possessed of an ample fortune, and devoted himself to literary pursuits more as an amusement than as a source of profit.

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No. XIV.

JOHN HATSELL, Esq.

CHIEF CLERK OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS.

Of this gentleman but little information has been recorded beyond the notices we have been enabled to glean from his own publications.

Mr. Hatsell appears to have been bred at Cambridge. Certain it is, that on the 28th of May, 1764, when he was clerk-assistant, he obtained leave of absence from the House, for a few days, in order to attend the election of a high steward for that University, during the great contest between the Earls of Hardwicke and Sandwich.

On the 10th of May, 1760, in consequence of the recommendation of Dr. Akenside, he was appointed clerk-assistant to the House of Commons, by the late Mr. Dyson, to whom he was unknown. On his nomination, he proceeded towards the table, in the customary manner, when the Right Honourable Arthur Onslow, then Speaker, addressed him aloud in the following terms: "The clerk has appointed you to be his clerk-assistant; but now you are appointed, you are the clerk of the House; you are my clerk;" then, by his direction, he took his seat at the table. He remained for many years in this, which is a station of great confidence and labour, and when Mr. Dyson retired, he was appointed, in conjunction with Mr. Tyrwhitt, as the successor of the former. The office of "Clerk of the Commons House of Parliament," or "Under Clerk of the Parliaments, to attend the House of Commons," is granted by the king for life by letters patent, with a salary of 20%. a year; but it is a place of great emolument. In 1776, he published the first volume of an important work,

entitled, "Precedents of Proceedings in the House of Commons, with Observations," in 4to. It was dedicated to the Right Honourable Jeremiah Dyson, cofferer to His Majesty's household, &c. "The following cases," says he in the Preface, "are part of a larger collection, extracted from the Journals of the House of Commons, and other parliamentary records. The compiler of these has always been of opinion, that the easiest method of conveying to the public the very useful information contained in those voluminous collections, is, to select particular heads or titles; and having brought together every thing that has reference to any of these heads, to digest the whole in a chronological order, and to publish it in a separate volume. He has upon this principle, ventured to send forth this work, relating to privileges of members of the House of Commons, only by way of specimen, and as an example for those who may adopt this idea, and who may have more leisure to pursue so laborious an undertaking.

"The reader will not suppose that the observations on the several cases are made with a view of declaring what the law of privilege is, in the instances to which these observations refer; they are designed merely to draw the attention of the reader to particular points, and in some degree, to assist him in forming his own opinion upon that question. This work ought, therefore, to be considered only in the light of an Index, or a chronological abridgment of the cases to be found upon this subject. The public cannot but suppose that, notwithstanding his most accurate search, many instances must have escaped his observation; he has however endeavoured, with great diligence, to examine every work which he thought might contain any thing relating to this matter; and pretends to no other merit than the having faithfully extracted and published what appeared to him essential for the information of the reader."

The work is divided into five chapters. The first contains precedents from the earliest records to the end of the reign of Henry VIII.; the second occupies the interval to the demise

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