on better terms than if Fell had remained editor! The Middlesex Journal, too, was still to go on (Hamilton of the Town and Country Magazine had come to the rescue, and taken it up); so that here also he should be no worse off than before! Nor were these anticipations falsified. For the Freeholder, indeed, he does not appear to have written much after this date; the only subsequent contribution to its pages that can with tolerable certainty be traced to him being a letter, in the Junius style, to the Premier, Lord North, which was not published till the August number. But for the Middlesex, under Hamilton, he continued to write busily. At least five letters have been disinterred from the columns of this old newspaper, all printed in the month of May, 1770, which there is good reason to believe were Chatterton's. They are all signed "Decimus." The first, published May 10th, is addressed to the Earl of H-h (Hillsborough, Minister for the American colonies); the second, published May 15th, is to the P— D— of W- - (ie. the Princess Dowager of Wales); the third, published May 22nd, is to the Prime Minister himself; the fourth, published May 26th, is not a letter, but a kind of squib, proposing a series of subjects for an exhibition of sign-board paintings; and the last is a letter "To the Freeholders 1 These letters were first reprinted from the Middlesex Journal, by Mr. Dix, in his Life of Chatterton. of the City of Bristol," bidding them shake off their lethargy, and imitate the glorious example of London. We may quote a sample or two of these effusions: From the Letter to the Earl of Hillsborough, May 10.— 'My Lord,-If a constant exercise of tyranny and cruelty has not steeled your heart against all sensations of compunction and remorse, permit me to remind you of the recent massacre in Boston. It is an infamous attribute of the ministry of the Thane, that what his tools begin in secret fraud and oppression ends in murder and avowed assassination. Not contented to deprive us of our liberty, they rob us of our lives; knowing, from a sad experience, that the one without the other is an insupportable burden. Your Lordship has bravely distinguished yourself among the ministers of the present reign. Whilst North and the instruments of his royal mistress settled the plan of operation, it was your part to execute; you were the assassin whose knife was ever ready to finish the crime. If every feeling of humanity is not extinct in you, reflect, for a moment reflect, on the horrid task you undertook and perpetrated. Think of the injury you have done to your country, which nothing but the dissolution of a Parliament not representing the people can erase. Think of the recent murders at Boston. O my Lord! however you may force a smile into your countenance, however you may trifle in the train of dissipation, your conscience must raise a hell within," &c. &c. . From the Letter to the Princess Dowager of Wales, May 15.-"I could wish your R— H would know how to act worthy your situation in life, and not debase yourself by mingling with a group of ministers the most detestable that ever embroiled a kingdom in discord and commotion. Your consequence in the Council can arise only from your power over his M-y; and that power you possess but by the courtesy of an unaccountable infatuation. Filial duty has nothing to do with the question: a king has no mother, no wife, no friend, considered as a king: his country, his subjects, are the only objects of his public concern.". From the Letter to the Premier, May 22.-" Fly to the Council, with your face whitened with fear; tell them that justice is at the door, and the axe will do its office; tell them that, whilst the spirit of English freedom exists, vengeance has also an existence; and, when Britons are denied justice from the powers who have the trust of their rights, the Constitution hath given them a power to do themselves justice." From the Squib describing an Exhibition of Sign-paintings, May 26.—“ No. 3. ‹ The Union:' An Englishman sleeping and a Scotchman picking his pocket.—ʻ The K-;' a sign for a button-maker. The painter, who has not fixed his design to this performance, is certainly a very loyal subject. His M- has that inno cent vacancy of countenance which distinguishes the representation of angels and cherubims; without guilt, without meaning, without everything but an undesigning simplicity." From the Letter to the Freeholders of Bristol, May 26.— "Gentlemen,-As a fellow-citizen, I presume to address you on a subject which I hoped would have animated an abler pen. At this critical situation, when the fate of the Constitution depends upon the exertion of an English spirit, I confess my astonishment at finding you silent. The second city in England should not be ashamed to copy the first in any laudable measure. ... Remember the speech of the glorious Canynge, in whose repeated mayoralties honour and virtue were not unknown in the corporation. When the unhappy dissensions first broke out between the houses of Lancaster and York, he immediately declared himself for the latter. His lady, fearful of the consequences, begged him to desist and not ruin himself and family. 'My family,' replied the brave citizen, is dear to meHeaven can witness how dear! But, when discord and oppressions begin to distract the realm, my country is my family; and that it is my duty to protect.' These few samples will show how well Chatterton had caught the trick of the Opposition politics of the day, and how expertly he could dress up the popular commonplaces. That his contributions, such as they were, were thought of some value by the conductors of the Middlesex Journal is proved by the fact that there was one of them in at least every alternate number during the whole month of May, and that two or three of these were printed in what was considered the chief place in the paper. But Chatterton was not content with writing only for the Middlesex. He probably tried others of the Opposition newspapers, including even the great Public Advertiser itself, which Junius had made illustrious. Then, as we shall see, there were various Magazines or Monthlies, besides the Freeholder, to which he sent more elaborate contributions in the same political strain for publication at the end of the month, or whenever else they appeared. Of these one was the Political Register. "Mind the Political Register," he says to his friend Cary in the end of June: "I am very intimately acquainted with the editor, who is also editor of another publication." The acquaintance had probably commenced before the end of May; and it is with the circumstance of his writing for this periodical that we are disposed to connect the story of his introduction to Beckford, as related by himself to his sister in his letter of the 30th of that month. The facts seem to be as follows:: Anxious from the first to get as near the centre of affairs as he could, and disappointed, by Fell's mishap, of his expected introduction to Wilkes, he had conceived the idea of making a bold stroke to bring himself into direct relations with the man who, for the time, was even more of a popular hero than Wilkesthe Lord Mayor Beckford. His plan was to write a letter to his Lordship on affairs in general, and more particularly in praise of his Lordship's conduct as the champion of the City in their struggle with the Government. Such a letter he did write. Here is a specimen of what it said: C. N |