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wanting, eccentricity of character alone will sometimes produce narrative both amusing and instructive; and accordingly the names of persons in humble stations, have often been recorded merely on account of some singularity which attends them not generally observed in others in the passing scenes of life.

John Smith, born in or about the year 1719, although not destined to fill an elevated station, was by no means obscure; for few men were better known in the great circle of his movements.

But little can be learned of his early life, and it was not until he had the good fortune to be admitted into His Majesty's printing office, as “ errand carrier,” which title he converted into “ King's messenger,” that he became a conspicuous character. From that moment his conduct corresponded to the idea he entertained of his own importance. After the appointment, he assumed a singular appearance, and affected a dignity of manner which he never laid aside. His official duties frequently called him to both chambers of parliament, as well as to all the great public offices connected with the crown; and “Old John,” as he was familiarly called, gene

; rally excited a smile from the great officers of state, as well as the heads of the various departments, in succession, during a period of fourscore years.

It was the business of his humble station, to carry on his back, a bag loaded with His Majesty's speeches, bills, addresses, proclamations, &c. on which occasions, the privacy of the inner chambers of the Treasury and Exchequer was not sacred from his intrusion. The doors of a secretary of state, and the gates of the palace at Lambeth, flew open on his appearance.

“ His antiquated and greasy garb corresponded with his grotesque shape, and an immense cocked hat was in continual motion, to assist him in the bows of the old school: the recognition or nod of great men in office was his delight. But he imagined that this courtesy was due to his character, as being identified with the state; and the Chancellor and the Speaker were considered by him in no other view than as

persons filling departments in common with himself; for the seals of the one, and the mace of the other, did not, in his estimation, distinguish them more than the bag used by himself in the transmission of the dispatches entrusted to his care. The imperfect intellect given to him, seemed only to fit him for the situation he filled. Take him out of it, he was as helpless as a child, and easily became a dupe to those who were inclined to impose upon him. With a high opinion of his own judgment, however, he diverted himself and others by mimicking the voice and manner of his superiors, when he thought he perceived any assumption of character. John could imitate the strut and swell of the great man, and even the frivolity of the fop. Sceing in his time packets to the . same individuals addressed from plain “ Mr.” to “the Right Honourable," afforded him subject for much joke; and he frequently used to observe, that it would shortly come to Old John's turn to become an Esquire or Knight himself.

'He had a high veneration for ecclesiastical dignitaries, and never visited a church unless a Bishop was to preach. The infrequency of that opportunity disposed him, at one period of his life, to fit up his room as a chapel, with an altar and a figure of his own contrivance, dressed in canonicals, before which he used to read the church service.

Though his ruling passion was vanity, yet he never despised money; avarice laid hold of him, and his delight was to count his wealth. A few years ago, a fellow came to him in a great hurry from a meeting of noblemen at the Crown and Anchor, requiring his attendance with a bag of silver for change to give away to the poor, for which he would get double the value in notes; the rogue succeeded in his stratagem, and poor John was caught in the snare. +

About this time a few gentlemen at Westminster had his

а

* This figure was originally a general officer, as the editor has been assured by indisputable authority; but he contrived to blackeu the gaudy uniform, and form an archiepiscopal wig, by means of chalk.

+ The Right Hon. George Rose, liberably contributed towards the loss of his old friend and contemporary, on this occasion; indeed Johu always considered him as one of his colleagues.

likeness taken; and engraved copies of John's picture were distributed among all his friends, of whom he reckoned a great personage to be one, having heard that a print was sent to Windsor, and a pension for his long services was expected from that quarter. Seeing his portrait hung up in the first offices in the kingdom, the poor fellow felt that he had attained the summit of human distinction; the measure of his ambition was full, and he looked in vain to his former pursuits for his accustomed pleasure.

It had been recoupted of him, that he was dutiful to an ancient mother, and sacrificed his own comforts for a parent's support: but it was not known that he ever felt the tender passion of love. It was now John's fate, at fourscore and ten, to discover himself to be a son of Adam. Female warmth melted the seals set on his thrifty bags, and the soothings of a daughter of Eve converted the miser into the spendthrift; the fair one, having squandered his all, left him. The poor fellow, though a great man, was honest; and the liberal establishment to which he belonged, adhered to him in his last moments.

Like the leaves of Autumn, generations of men are swept away, and are soon forgotten ; and though the station of this singular being was humble, yet as his hand has conveyed papers of state to most of the great men of the last and present century; ministered with fidelity in this way from the days of Sir Robert Walpole, beyond the time of the second William Pitt, and bearing on his back the mighty results of their labours, poor old John, who was as important in his own conceit as any statesman of his time, may put in his claim also for his share of renown."

At length « Old John,” | forced to drop his “ bag,” by the same stern hand, that would oblige a Lord Chancellor to resign the seals, died at his apartments in Shoe Lane, January, 9, 1818, aged 99,

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ANNE-LOUISE-GERMAINE NECKER was the daughter of James Necker, a Swiss, whose financial career contributed probably more than any other cause to accomplish the overthrow of the French monarch, and of Susan Curchod, of whom we knew little till she became the wife of Necker, except that she was the daughter of a Protestant clergyman in Switzerland, admired by Gibbon during his residence in that country, and at one time a governess in the family of De Vermenoux.

Anne-Louise was born at Paris in the year 1766, and, displaying what her parents might well consider to be precocity of talent, was educated entirely under their immediate inspection. The incipient fame of her father seems to have grown · with her growth; and she must have been about twelve years of age, when, in consequence of his eulogy on Colbert (for which he was crowned by the academy), and other publications, he was raised to the office of Director of the Finances.

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Necker, though of humble birth, being the son of a tutor in the college of Geneva, had previously realised a large fortune as a partner in the great Parisian banking-house of Thellusson and Co. which he originally entered as a clerk. His success as a private individual, was taken as an augury

of success as a public minister, which was miserably disappointed by the result. It is unnecessary to follow the fortune of the father through the fluctuations of his ministerial life; now dismissed, and now recalled; now the staunch advocate for royalty, and now the friend of the people; now “ the adored Minister,” and now the abhorred peculator; now borne in triumph from Basle to Paris on the shoulders of an enthusiastic nation, and now flying from Paris to Geneva amid the curses of an enraged populace. These things were common in France ! Neither does it enter into our design to dwell upon the literary attainments of the mother, her charities and philanthropy. Suffice it to record, that while Necker published political pamphlets, views of finance, and statements of administration, his spouse was no less devoted to works of benevolence; as is honourably testified by her“ Essay on precipitate Burials," “Observations on the Founding of Hospitals,” and “ Thoughts on Divorce.”

Our only reason for touching on the progenitors of Mademoiselle Necker, is to account for her early predilection for literary pursuits. She was educated for an author. Her first perceptions were directed to Science and Literature. Her infant ideas were associated with the intelligence of Marmontel, Diderot, Buffon, St. Lambert, Thomas, and all the learned of Paris who formed the circles of her mother. Her talents were cultivated, her taste was modelled, the bent of her mind was given, her opinions were confirmed, in short, her intellect was formed in this school; and the philosophy then prevalent in France, too often concealing dark principles under brilliant wit, and lapsing from the light of reason into the perplexities of abstract metaphysics, became the dominating principle in her nature, and imparted the tone to all her writings and life. As love of change and ambition were the ruling passions

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