with them, to the chance of being considered a hypocrite and a fop, if such a man as Horace Walpole would but leave other people's virtues alone, and not take up a baton sinister to lay it over the shoulders of the untitled? Horace's own friends and relations, including his father and mother, were tattled of in their day in connexion with all sorts of moral offences, gallantry in particular. Divorces and natural children, and open scandal, were rife among them. It was doubted by some, whether Horace himself was his father's own son! Yet we do not find the prince of gossips crying out against these things with the grief and agitation that afflict him at an honest marriage with the green-room. He makes pastime of them with his correspondents, -mere fun and drollery." But in an actress! or in a Duchess who has been an actress! calls relapsing into her " Pollyhood."

That he

Swift, on the other hand, did not wait for Duchesses to have been actresses, in order to think they might rank among the lowest of the sex. He speaks in one of his letters, of having been at a party the night before, where he saw my lady this and that, the "Duchess" of something, and “other drabs!" Nay, Horace himself might have said this, when in another humour; but here is one of the preposterous assumptions of the "great world," or rather the very heart of its mystery;-it is to be allowed to rail at itself, as much as it will, and for all sorts of basenesses, while simply to be the

great world gives it a virtue above virtue, which no plebeian goodness is to think of approaching.

Since Walpole's time, the spread of education, and the general rise of most ranks in knowledge (for the highest, with sullen folly, seem to think any addition to their stock unnecessary), have rendered it almost as ridiculous to make this sort of lamentation over a marriage with the green-room, as it would be to think of showing anything but respect to one with the learned professions. The Pepyses and Halfords have delivered" the faculty" from the "prohibited degrees;" and few would be surprised nowadays, at hearing that a Lawrence or a Carlisle had married the daughter of a nobleman. Almost as little does any one think of the Lady Derbys and Cravens with a feeling of levity or surprise. The staid conduct and previous elegance of a succession of coronetted actresses has tranquilly displaced the old barriers, which it shook the poor fashionable world to the soul to see touched; and by one of those curious compromises with morality, which always existed in that quarter, and betrayed its want of dignity, the riches and high title of the great banker's widow have strengthened rather than diminished the effect of unequivocal virtue itself, and left the stage in possession of the most unbounded rights of expectation. When an actress of celebrity now marries, the surprise of the public is, that she puts up with a private gentleman. Wealth is power, and power is everything with the gra

tuitously meritorious. It is not indeed to be despised by any body, inasmuch as it is substantial and effective; and hence the delusion of those who, because they are in possession of the remains of it, fancy they inherit it for ever, undiminished by the encroachments of the power derived from that very knowledge which, after all, is the only basis of their own, and which is sliding from under their proud and careless feet. Some real superiority, was it only in bodily strength or cunning, was the first exaltation of men above their fellows. The advantages derived from it gradually secured to them those of the superiority of knowledge; and a feeling has been increasing of later years, that knowledge and accomplishments, and the moral graces that attend them, now make the only real difference between the pretensions of decent people. "The shopkeepers of the next age," says Horace Walpole, in a sneer which now recoils on his memory, "will be mightily well born." They are better than that; they are mightily well-educated; that is to say, their children are brought up to be as accomplished and well behaved as those of their quondam superiors; and hence has arisen a change in society, which, if it has not yet completed the justice to be done in like manner to all classes (far, God knows, from it!), has at any rate put an end to the fine marriageable distinctions between a gentlewoman off the stage, whose attractions lie in the tombs of her ancestors, and a gentlewoman on it

-

who delights the eyes and understandings of thousands. The fair fames of the Derbys and Cravens, and the novels of Gore and Blessington, have avenged the vulgar insults offered to the sisters of the stage by the demireps of the days of Walpole and Montagu.*

* By a singular forgetfulness we have omitted one name in our list, well known in the annals of beauty and a trying life. But the omission is as well; considering that society is not yet in a condition to do thorough justice to the victims of its perplexities.

LADY MARY WORTLEY MONTAGU.

AN ACCOUNT OF HER LIFE AND WRITINGS.*

A party of wits and beauties.-Lady Louisa Stuart's Introductory Anecdotes.-Lady Mary's recommendation respecting marriage. Her early life and studies.-Marries Mr. Wortley. The union not happy.— Her introduction at court, and curious adventure there with Mr. Craggs.-Accompanies her husband in his embassy to Constantinople.—Excellence of her letters from Turkey.-Portraits of her.-Conjugal insignificance of Mr. Wortley.-Pope's unfortunate passion discussed.-Lady Mary the introducer of inoculation into England. - She separates from Mr. Wortley, and resides abroad for twenty-two years.-Reason of that sojourn.Her addiction to scandal.-Morality of that day.-Question for moral progress.—Alleged conduct of Lady Mary abroad.— Her return to her native country.—Her last days, and curious establishment.—Character of Wortley, jun.- Specimen of Lady Mary's wit and good writing; and summary of her character.

To have a new edition of "Lady Mary," with new particulars of her life, new letters, and a new por

* From the Westminster Review for 1837. Occasioned by Lord Wharncliffe's edition of her "Letters," &c.