lords and members of the house of commons gave him considerable assistance.

In the year 1775 the war with America commenced. This event furnished Mr. Almon with another monthly publication, which he called "The Remembrancer." The design will be best explained by his own words: "The late interesting advices from America suggested the utility of a periodical collection of the best accounts of every important public transaction. Several events are expected during the summer, which probably will be the subject of discussion next winter. Many of these accounts being published in the newspapers, are frequently mislaid after the day of publication, and when afterwards wanted, are sometimes very difficult to recover: besides, being mixed with the common occurrences of the day, and published in the large folio size, render that mode of preservation awkward, disagreeable, and almost impossible." The obvious utility of the design gained to the work the esteem of all parties, and of nobody more than Mr. Edmund Burke, who recommended it with ardour and sincerity. Several persons both in England and America contributed very largely; it was continued to the end of the war, and is now become very scarce.

He revised, corrected, and made considerable additions to his own volumes of parliamentary debates, from 1742 to 1774, where the Parliamentary Register begins. It may be worth while to notice that Drake's Parliamentary History begins with the Conquest and ends with the Restoration of Charles II. Chandler's collection of debates begins at the Restoration, and

ends

ends in 1742. Almon's begins where Chandler's ends; so that there is a regular series of parliamentary history, by Drake, Chandler, and Almon, from the Conquest to the year 1780. Since which time the Parliamentary Register has been carried on by other hands.

In 1772 he made a collection of the " Protests of the House of Lords ;" and a short time after wrote his" Letter to the Earl of Bute," proving the continuation of that nobleman's political influence. Next appeared a tract, called "Free Parliaments; or, a Vindication of the Parliamentary Constitution of England, in answer to certain visionary Plans of modern Reformers."

In the Spring of the year 1760 the Rev. John Home produced his tragedy, called "The Siege of Aquilea," which was no other than the siege of Berwick, by the English King Edward III. disguised under Roman names. Mr. Almon attacked this imposition with peculiar severity, in a pamphlet which he entitled "A Parallel between the Siege of Berwick and the Siege of Aquilca;" which contributed not a little. to the ill success of the play, by stating the analogy, and developing the intention of the author.

In May 1778 the Earl of Chatham died. As no writer of the time knew more of his Lordship than Mr. Almon, so no person was more proper to become his biographer; and in this work he has assuredly obtained great credit to himself: it is entitled "Anecdotes of the Life of the Right Hon. William Pitt, Earl of Chatham, and of the principal Events of his Time; with his Speeches in Parliament from the Year 1736

to 1778." The first edition was in two volumes quarto; the second in four volumes octavo; the third, the fourth, the fifth, and sixth editions, have been in three volumes octavo. When the quarto edition was published, he sent a copy of it to the late Countess Dowager of Chatham, with the following letter:

"MADAM,

Box Moor, Herts.

"I beg your Ladyship's pardon for trespassing upon your retirement. It is to solicit, Madam, the honour of your acceptance of these volumes. Although they contain but a weak, yet it is a well intended effort to do justice to a great and splendid character.

"From your Ladyship's noble brother, the late Earl Temple, I received the most interesting part of these anecdotes; his Lordship honoured me with his friendship and esteem many years. From the first Lord Lyttelton, the late Lords Fortescue and Carysfort, the Right Hon. W. G. Hamilton, the Right Hon. R. Rigby, Governor Pownal, Mr. Calcraft, Mr. Rous, and a number of other noblemen and gentlemen, I received the remainder.

"After much labour and expence, I now presume to lay the work before your Ladyship, humbly hoping that it will be honoured with your approbation, and that I may have your Ladyship's permission to subscribe myself,

Madam,

"Your most obedient, and most humble servant,
J. ALMON.”

" SIR,

LADY CHATHAM'S ANSWER.

Burton Pynsent.

"I have received the obliging present of the books which you sent to me, the subject of which is so interefting to my feelings. I cannot delay desiring you to accept of my sincere thanks for this mark of your attention. The sentiments expressed by you of the abilities and virtues of my late dear Lord, are a sort of assurance to me, that I shall find his character and conduct painted in those colours that suit the dignity and wisdom that belong to them; the retracing of which will certainly afford me the highest satisfaction, mixed with the deepest regret, that myself, his country, family, and friends, have suffered by his death.

"I remain, Sir, your obliged and most humble servant,
"HESTER CHATHAM."

In the month of September 1779 died his friend Earl Temple, by a fall from his phaeton, at Stowe. This melancholy event determined the career of our author. The sudden loss of his patron extinguished

his hopes and his ambition. He thought little more of politics or of parties, simply only of times past, nothing of the future.

Upon the change of ministry, in the year 1782, he, however, wrote a tract of much celebrity, entitled "A Letter to the Right Hon. Charles Jenkinson," which went through six editions. This was soon after followed by another, entitled "A Letter to the Interior Cabinet," which went through three editions. Both these tracts were on the subject of what Mr. Burke called A Double Cabinet, of which Mr. Jenkinson was supposed to be the principal member. He also wrote some other pamphlets about this time, the names of which the writer does not know.

His last work, which was printed in three volumes octavo, was entitled "Biographical, Literary, and Political Anecdotes of several of the most eminent Persons of the present Age; never before printed." The persons were,

When he had finished this work, he retired to his house in Hertfordshire, where he still resides. In the account given of the Duke of Grafton in these vo

lumes,

lumes, there was occasion to mention the Letters of Junius, because that writer had incorrectly stated some matters respecting his Grace. Mr. Almon, in exposing these inaccuracies, described the writer of Junius's Letters. Upon which a relation of the Mr. Woodfall who originally printed the Letters of Junius, conceiving the consequence of his family abridg ed, by any body pretending to know who Junius was, came forward and asserted in the public newspapers that Mr. Almon's information was not true. In reply, Mr. Almon re-affirmed his assertion, and produced his proofs. After a short disputation, the clear fact came out, that Mr. Woodfall never knew any thing about Junius, and therefore Mr. Almon's account remains uncontradicted to this day. The whole of this affair, with Mr. Almon's letters, may be seen in the Life of Hugh Boyd, written by Captain Lawrence Dundas Campbell, prefixed to Boyd's Works, in two volumes octavo, printed for Cadell, in the Strand.

Mr. Almon has resided for some time past in Hertfordshire, where he possesses some property; but he occasionally visits town, and is well calculated, from the excellence of his memory, and the variety of his knowledge, to afford ample information, either by his conversation or his writings, relative to the early part of the present reign.

LIEUT. GEN. JOHN GRAVES SIMCOE.

THE utility of depicting the characters of those who have deserved well of their country is universally allowed, and on that account such works are sought

for