During his absence his uncle, on the demise of the Earl of Anglesey, quietly succeeded to that title and immense wealth.

While forcibly detained in the plantations, Annesley suffered many severe hardships and privations, particularly in his frequent unsuccessful attempts to escape. Among other incidents which befell him, he incurred the deadly hatred of one master, in consequence of a suspected intrigue with his wife,-a charge from which he was afterwards honourably acquitted. The daughter of a second master became affectionately attached to him; but it does not appear that this regard was reciprocal. And finally, in effecting his escape, he fell into the hands of some hostile negroes, who stabbed him severely in various places; from the effects of which cruelty he did not recover for several months.

At the end of thirteen years, Annesley, who had now attained the age of twenty-five, succeeded in reaching Jamaica in a merchant vessel, and he immediately volunteered himself as a private sailor on board a man-of-war. Here he was at once identified by several officers; and Admiral Vernon, who was then in command of the British West India fleet, wrote home an account of the case to the Duke of Newcastle, (the Premier,) and, in the meantime, supplied him with clothes and money, and treated him with the respect and attention which his rank demanded."

The Earl of Anglesey no sooner heard of these transactions. on board the fleet, than he used every effort to keep possession of his usurped title and property, and "the most eminent lawyers within the English and Irish bars were retained to defend a cause, the prosecution of which was not as yet even threatened."

On Annesley's arrival in Dublin, "several servants who had lived with his father came from the country to see him. They knew him at first sight, and some of them fell on their knees to thank Heaven for his preservation, embraced his legs, and shed tears of joy for his return."

Lord Anglesey became so much alarmed at the probable result of the now threatened trial, that he expressed his intention to make a compromise with the claimant, renounce the title, and retire into France; and with this view he commenced

learning the French language. But this resolution was given up, in consequence of an occurrence which encouraged the flattering hope that his opponent would be speedily and most effectually disposed of.

After his arrival in England, Annesley unfortunately occasioned the death of a man by the accidental discharge of a fowling-piece which he was in the act of carrying. Though there could not exist a doubt of his innocence from all intention of such a deed, the circumstance offered too good a chance to be lost sight of by his uncle, who employed an attorney named Gifford, and with his assistance used every effort at the coroner's inquest and the subsequent trial to bring about a verdict of murder. In this, however, he did not succeed, although "he practised all the unfair means that could be invented to procure the removal of the prisoner to Newgate from the healthy gaol to which he had been at first committed;" and "the Earl even appeared in person on the bench, endeavouring to intimidate and browbeat the witnesses, and to inveigle the prisoner into destructive confessions." Annesley was honourably acquitted, after his uncle had expended nearly one thousand pounds on the prosecution.

The trial between James Annesley, Esq., and Richard Earl of Anglesey, before the Right Honourable the Lord Chief-Justice and other Barons of the Exchequer, commenced on the 11th November 1743, and was continued for thirteen days. The defendant's counsel examined an immense number of witnesses, in an attempt to prove that Annesley was the illegitimate son of the late Baron Altham. The Jury found for the plaintiff; but it did not prove sufficient to recover his title and estates; for his uncle" had recourse to every device the law allowed, and his powerful interest procured a writ of error which set aside the verdict." Before another trial could be brought about, Annesley died without male issue, and Lord Anglesey consequently remained in undisturbed possession.

It is presumed that the points of resemblance between the leading incidents in the life of this unfortunate young nobleman and the adventures of Henry Bertram in "Guy Mannering,"

are so evident as to require neither comment nor enumeration to make them apparent to the most cursory reader of the Novel. The addition of a very few other circumstances will, it is believed, amount to a proof of the identity of the two stories.

The names of many of the witnesses examined at the trial have been appropriated generally with some slight alteration -to characters in the novel. Among others, one of them is named Henry Brown, while Henry Bertram, alias Vanbeest Brown, is the hero of the story. An Irish priest was examined, named Abel Butler, while we find ABEL Sampson in "Guy Mannering," and Reuben BUTLER in the "Heart of Mid-Lothian," --all three corresponding in profession as in name. Gifford and Glossin, although somewhat alike in patronymic, resemble each other still more in character and the abuse of their common profession. Gifford had an associate in iniquity named " Jans,” while "Jans Jansen" is the alias assumed by Glossin's accomplice Dirk Hatteraick. Again, we find Arthur Lord Altham and Mr. MacMullan in the history, and Arthur Melville, Esq., and Mr. MacMorlan in the fiction. Kennedy and Barnes appear unaltered in each.

A remarkable expression used by one of the witnesses in reference to Annesley-" He is the right heir if right might take place”—has probably served as a hint for the motto of the Bertram family-“ Our right makes our might.”—Gentleman's Magazine, July, 1840.

Guy Mannering

ou the Astrologue

CHAPTER I.

He could not deny, that looking round upon the dreary region, and seeing nothing but bleak fields, and naked trees, hills obscured by fogs, and flats covered with inundations, he did for some time suffer melancholy to prevail upon him, and wished himself again safe at home.-TRAVELS OF WILL. MARVEL, Idler, No. 49.

T was in the beginning of the month of November 17, when a young English gentleman, who had just left the university of Oxford, made use of the liberty afforded him, to visit some parts of the north of England; and curiosity extended his tour into the adjacent frontier of the sister country. He had visited, on the day that opens our history, some monastic ruins in the county of Dumfries, and spent much of the day in making drawings of them from different points; so that, on mounting his horse to resume his journey, the brief and gloomy twilight of the season had already commenced. His way lay through a wide tract of black moss, extending for miles on each side and before him. Little eminences arose like islands on its surface, bearing here and there patches of corn, which even at this season was green, and sometimes a hut or farm-house, shaded by a willow or two, and surrounded by large elder-bushes. These insulated dwellings communicated