that the little boat, to which he had entrusted himself had gone down; but indeed without this having occurred, his escape was in every point of view singular in the extreme; for not only was night fast approaching, but in half an hour more his destruction would have been inevitable, as his limbs were benumbed, while a violent pain in his side, a dizziness in his head, and an inclination to sleep, were the forerunners of that death, which in a few minutes more most certainly awaited him.

After taking the necessary refreshments, and recovering from his bruises, his weakness, and his agitation, the subject of this memoir, determined to testify his gratitude. He accordingly, on Tuesday the 23d of September, repaired on board the brig, in company with Colonel Jackson, and distributed fifty guineas among the ship's crew. To Captain Rankin he presented ten guineas and a silver cup; while John Jones, John Dayley, James Napier, and John Woodman, the four men who had ventured in the boat, received five guineas each.

We lament to add that Mr. Sturt only recovered from this hair-breadth escape, to be exposed to still greater misfortunes. In the first place, all his political hopes and connexions were dissolved and cut off, in consequence of his exclusion from the borough of Bridport. In the next place, having brought an action for damages, on account of a supposed intrigue between the Marquis of B. and his wife, instead of receiving a verdict in his favour, as he and his friends expected, he was subjected to the

contumelious reproaches of the counsel of his antagonist, who, in consequence of a present of wine anterior to the discovery of the amour, is said to have termed this much-injured gentleman "a cold-hearted man, whose blood was composed of Madeira!"

Thirdly, as if to complete the climax, happening to be on the continent at the commencement of the present war, he was detained contrary to the general usage of all civilized nations, and with others of the English, transferred to Verdun.

But as if this were not sufficient to overwhelm him, being suspected as a naval officer, to have made some inquiries respecting the coasts and navy of France, he has been suddenly transferred to the fortress of Bitche in Alsace, confined in a dungeon, condemned to sleep on straw, and only permitted during one hour in the day to ascend the battlements, as if with a view, not to cheer, but to protract existence, by permitting just as much misery as the human mind can bear, without being driven to that state when either wretchedness entirely ceases in consequence of death, or bcomes unfelt from the drangement of our intellects!

In 1788 Mr. Sturt became connected with the noble family of Shaftesbury, by a marriage with Mary Anne Ashley, by whom he has had four children a son and three daughters.

523

MR. M. P. ANDREWS,

M.P. FOR BEWDLEY IN WORCESTERSHIRE.

“DOYE, DIAVOLO! MESSER Ludovico, avetE PIGLIATO TÁN¬ TO COGLIONERIE?"-CARD. D'ESTE TO ARIOSTO.

To be at times gay as well as grave, to laugh and moralise by turns, are not unworthy of a philosopher. Herpes cannot always be either described or contemplated, and while history occupies the hours spent in our closet, a lighter species of reading is more appropriate to the parlour or the anti-chamber. Horace himself, who was at once a man of letters and a fine gentleman, frankly owns that it is agreeable sometimes to trifle

(DULCE est desipere in loco.)

It is thus that a dull, grave, and almost obsolete man, ought to apologise, when he slumbers at the threshold of a theatre, or makes his aukward bow in the circles dedicated to fashion!

Mr. Miles Peter Andrews is the son of a respectable merchant in the city, and was himself originally destined for the counting house. It was with this view, perhaps, that he was educated abroad: having been sent early in life to Utrecht, whence it was intended that he should proceed to Aleppo; but this scheme was never realised. He therefore returned to the British capital, where instead of thumbing over the waste-book and the ledger in a foreign land, he became enraptured with the poets of ancient and modern days, and wooed the Muscs with considerable success.