CHAPTER VI.

PROGRESS OF THE NATION FROM THE REVOLUTION TO 1760.

The Church after the Revolution--The Non-Jurors--The Act of

Toleration--Comprehension Bill--Laxity of Religion--The Wesleys

and Whitefield--Foundation of Methodism--Extension of the

Movement--Literature--Survivors of the Stuart Period--Prose

Writers: Bishop Burnet--Philosophers: Locke--Bishop

Berkeley, etc.--Novelists: Fielding, Richardson, Smollett,

and Sterne--Dr. Davenant--Bentley--Swift--Addison--Addison

and Steele--Bolingbroke--Daniel Defoe--Lady Mary

Wortley Montagu--Poets: Pope--His Prose Writings--Gay,

Prior, Young, etc.--James Thomson, Allan Ramsay,

Gray, and Minor Lights--Dramatists--Physical Science:

Astronomers--Mathematicians--Electricians--Chemists--Medical

Discoverers--Music: Purcell--Italian Music--Handel--Church

Music--The Academy of Ancient Music and other

Societies--Architecture--Wren and his Buildings--St. Paul's--His

Churches and Palaces--Vanbrugh--Gibbs--Hawksmoor--Minor

Architects--Painting and Sculpture: Lely and Kneller--Other Foreign

Painters and Decorators--Thornhill--Other English Artists--Hogarth

and his Works--Exhibition of British Artists--Sculptors--Shipping,

Colonies, Commerce, and Manufactures--Increase of Canals--Woollen

and Silk Trades--Irish Linens--Lace--Iron, Copper, and other

Industries--Increase of the large Towns.

The Revolution of 1688, which overthrew absolutism in the State,

overthrew it also in the Church. The political principles of William

of Orange, and the Whigs who brought him in, were not more opposed to

the absolutism of the Stuarts than the ecclesiastical principles of

the new king and queen, and the prelates whom they introduced into the

Church, were to the high-churchism of Laud, Sancroft, Atterbury, and

their section of the Establishment. When Parliament, on the accession

of William and Mary, presented the Oath of Allegiance to the Lords

and Commons, eight of the bishops, including Sancroft, Archbishop of

Canterbury, refused it; and of these, five were of the number of the

seven who had refused to sign James II.'s Declaration of Indulgence,

and thus gave the immediate occasion to the outbreak ending in the

Revolution. Thus a fresh faction was produced in the Establishment,

that of the Non-jurors, who were, after much delay and patience,

finally excluded from their livings. As the existing law could not

touch the non-juring bishops so long as they absented themselves from

Parliament, where the oath had to be put to them, a new Act was passed,

providing that all who did not take the new oaths before the 1st of

August, 1689, should be suspended six months, and at the end of that

time, in case of non-compliance, should be ejected from their sees.

Still the Act was not rigorously complied with; they were indulged

for a year longer, when, continuing obstinate, they were, on the 1st

of February, 1691, excluded from their sees. Two of the eight had

escaped this sentence by dying in the interim--namely, the Bishops of

Worcester and Chichester. The remaining six who were expelled were

Sancroft, the Primate, Ken of Bath and Wells, Turner of Ely, Frampton

of Gloucester, Lloyd of Norwich, and White of Peterborough. In the room

of these were appointed prelates of Whig principles, the celebrated

Dr. Tillotson being made Primate. Other vacancies had recently or did

soon fall out; so that, within three years of his accession, William

had put in sixteen new bishops, and the whole body was thus favourable

to his succession, and, more or less, to the new views of Church

administration.

Having obtained a favourable episcopal bench, King William now

endeavoured to introduce measures of the utmost wisdom and

importance--measures of the truest liberality and the profoundest

policy--namely, an Act of Toleration of dissent, and an Act of

Comprehension, by which it was intended to allow Presbyterian ministers

to occupy livings in the Church without denying the validity of their

ordination, and also to do away with various things in the ritual

of the Church which drove great numbers from its community. By the

Act of Toleration--under the name of "An Act for exempting their

Majesties' Protestant subjects dissenting from the Church of England

from the penalties of certain laws"--dissenters were exempt from all

penalties for not attending church and for attending their own chapels,

provided that they took the new oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy, and

subscribed to the declaration against Transubstantiation, and also that

their chapels were registered, and their services conducted without the

doors being locked or barred. As the Quakers would take no oaths, they

were allowed to subscribe a declaration of fidelity to the Government,

and a profession of their Christian belief.

But the Comprehension Bill was not so fortunate. Ten bishops, with

twenty dignified clergymen, were appointed as a commission to make

such alterations in the liturgy and canons, and such plans for the

reformation of the ecclesiastical courts as, in their opinion, best

suited the exigencies of the times, and were necessary to remove

the abuses, and render more efficient the services of the Church.

The list of these commissioners comprised such men as Tillotson,

Stillingfleet, Sharp, Kidder, Hall, Tenison, and Fowler. They met

in the Jerusalem Chamber, and began their labours preparatory to

this great comprehensive bill. In order to sanction these changes,

Convocation was summoned, and then the storm broke loose. The Jacobites

and the discontented cried out they were going to pull the Church down;

the High Churchmen declared it was a scheme to hand over the Church

to the Presbyterians; the Universities cried that all the men engaged

in the plan were traitors to the true faith, and the king himself was

not spared. The High Churchmen who were included in the commission

fled out of it amain, and Convocation threw out the whole reform as

an abomination. Convocation having given this blow to all hopes of

ecclesiastical reform, was prorogued to the 24th of January, 1690, and

on the 6th of February was dissolved with the Parliament, nor was it

suffered to meet again for business till the last year of the reign of

William.

Burnet describes the state of religion and intelligence in the nation

at the period of Anne's reign as most lamentable, the clergy as "dead

and lifeless: the most remiss in their labours in private, and the

least severe in their lives," of all that he had seen amongst all

religions at home or abroad; the gentry "the worst instructed and

the least knowing of any of their rank that he ever went amongst;"

and the common people beyond all conception "ignorant in matters of

religion." The words of Atterbury, a high Tory, were quite as strong.

A description of the state of religion in the country, drawn up by

him, was presented by Convocation to the queen, which stated that "the

manifest growth of immorality and profaneness," "the relaxation and

decay of the discipline of the Church," the "disregard to all religious

places, persons, and things," had scarcely had a parallel in any age.

Dr. Calamy, a great Nonconformist, equally complains that the "decay of

real religion, both in and out of the Church," was most visible. Under

the Georges much the same state of affairs prevailed. The episcopal

bench was Whig, though very apathetic; while the clergy were Tory, and

disinclined to listen to their superiors.

It was at this era of religious apathy that John Wesley (_b._ 1703;

_d._ 1791), and Charles, his brother (_b._ 1708; _d._ 1788), and

George Whitefield (_b._ 1714), came forward to preach a revival, and

laid the foundation of Methodism. These young men, students at Oxford,

all of them originally of clerical families but Whitefield--who was

the son of an innkeeper--with Hervey, afterwards the author of the

well-known "Meditations amongst the Tombs," and some others of their

fellow-collegians, struck by the dearth of religious life of the time,

met in their rooms for prayer and spiritual improvement. They were soon

assailed with the nicknames of "Sacramentarians," "Bible Moths," and

finally, "Methodists," a term current against the Puritans in those

days, and suggested by the appellative _Methodistæ_, given to a college

of physicians in ancient Rome, in consequence of the strict regimen

which they prescribed to their patients.

In 1734 the Wesleys commenced their career as preachers to the

people, and were soon followed by Whitefield. This may, therefore, be

considered the date of the foundation of Methodism. None of them had

any the remotest idea of separating from the Church, or founding new

sects. The Wesleys made a voyage to Georgia, in America, and, on their

return, found their little party not only flourishing in Oxford but

in London, where they had a meeting-house in Fetter Lane. Whitefield,

however, was the first to commence the practice of field-preaching,

amongst the colliers at Kingswood, near Bristol; but in this he was

soon imitated by Wesley. As they began to attract attention by the

ardour of their preaching and the wonderful effect on the people,

this became necessary, for speedily all church doors were closed

against them. John Wesley had a peculiar genius for the construction

of a new religious community, and he was ready to collect hints for

its organisation from any quarter. The most prolific source of his

ordinances for his new society was the system of the Moravians,

whose great settlement at Herrnhuth, in Germany, he visited, and had

much consultation with its head, Count Zinzendorf. From it he drew

his class-meetings, his love-feasts, and the like. In framing the

constitution of his society, Wesley displayed a profound knowledge of

human nature. He took care that every man and woman in his society

counted for something more than a mere unit. The machinery of

class-meetings and love-feasts brought members together in little

groups, where every one was recognised and had a personal interest.

Numbers of men, who had no higher ambition, could enjoy the distinction

of class-leaders. It did not require a man to go to college and take

orders to become a preacher. Thomas Maxwell with Wesley, and Howel

Harris with Whitefield, led the way from the plane of the laity into

the pulpits of Methodism, and have been followed by tens of thousands

who have become able if not learned, and eloquent if not Greek-imbued,

preachers. Wesley divided the whole country into districts, into

which he sent one or more well-endowed preachers, who were called

circuit preachers, or round preachers, from their going their rounds

in particular circuits. Under the ministry of these men sprang up

volunteer preachers, who first led prayer-meetings, and then ascended

to the pulpit in the absence of the circuit preachers, and most of

them soon discovered unexpected talents, and edifying their own local

and often remote or obscure little auditories, became styled local

preachers. Out of these local preachers ever and anon grew men of large

minds and fertilising eloquence, who became the burning and shining

lights of the whole firmament of Methodism. It was Wesley's object not

to separate from the Church, and it was only after his death that the

Wesleyans were reckoned as Nonconformists.

Whitefield and Wesley soon separated into distinct fields of labour,

as was inevitable, from Whitefield embracing Calvinism and Wesley

Arminianism. Whitefield grew popular amongst the aristocracy, from the

Countess of Huntingdon becoming one of his followers, and, at the same

time, his great patron. Whitefield, like the Wesleys, made repeated

tours in America, and visited all the British possessions there. When

in England, he generally made an annual tour in it, extending his

labours to Scotland and several times to Ireland. On one of his voyages

to America he made some stay at Lisbon. Everywhere he astonished

his hearers by his vivid eloquence; and Benjamin Franklin relates a

singular triumph of Whitefield over his prejudices and his pocket.

He died at Newbury Port, near Boston, United States, on the 30th of

September, 1770. If Whitefield did not found so numerous a body as

Wesley, he yet left a powerful impression on his age; and we still

trace his steps, in little bodies of Calvinistic Methodists in various

quarters of the United Kingdom, especially in Wales.

[Illustration: JOHN WESLEY.]

The literature of this period is more distinguished for learning and

cleverness than for genius. There are a few names that rise above the

smartness and mere accomplishment of the time into the regions of pure

genius; but, with very few exceptions, even they bear the stamp of the

period. We have here no Milton, no Shakespeare, no Herbert, no Herrick

even, to produce; but De Foe, Addison, Steele, Thomson, and Pope, if

they do not lift us to the highest creative plane, give us glimpses and

traits of what is found there. For the rest, however full of power,

there hangs a tone of "town," of a vicious and sordid era, about

them, of an artificial and by no means refined life, a flavour of the

grovelling of the politics which distinguished the period, and of the

low views and feelings which occupied and surrounded the throne during

the greater portion of this term.

Some of the writers of the last period were still existing in this.

Dryden was living, and wrote some of his most perfect works, as his

"Fables," and his "Alexander's Feast," as well as translated Virgil

after the Revolution. He was still hampered by his miserable but far

more successful dramatic rivals, Shadwell and Elkanah Settle. Nathaniel

Lee produced in William's time his tragedies, "The Princess of Cleves,"

and his "Massacre of Paris." Etherege was yet alive; Wycherley still

poured out his licentious poems; and Southern wrote the greater part

of his plays. His "Oronooko" and his "Fatal Marriage" were produced

now, and he received such prices as astonished Dryden. Whilst "Glorious

John" never obtained more than a hundred pounds for a play, Southern

obtained his six or seven hundred.

[Illustration: From the Picture in the National Gallery of British Art.

DOCTOR JOHNSON IN THE ANTE-ROOM OF LORD CHESTERFIELD, WAITING FOR AN

AUDIENCE, 1748.

BY E. M. WARD, R.A.]

[Illustration: INTERIOR OF THE JERUSALEM CHAMBER, WESTMINSTER ABBEY.]

We may satisfy ourselves as to William's appreciation of poetry by

the fact that Shadwell was his first poet-laureate and Nahum Tate the

next. Dr. Nicholas Brady and Nahum Tate made the version of the Psalms

which long disgraced the Church Service. Sir William Temple, Baxter,

Sir George Mackenzie, Stillingfleet, and Evelyn, as well as some others

flourishing at the end of the last period, still remained.

Amongst the earliest of the prose writers may be mentioned the

theological authors. Cumberland was the author of a Latin treatise,

"De Legibus Naturæ," in which he successfully combated the infidelity

of Hobbes. Bull, who, as well as Cumberland, became a bishop,

distinguished himself before the Revolution by his "Harmonia

Apostolica," an anti-Calvinistic work, and by his "Defensio Fidei

Nicenæ." In 1694 he published his "Judicium Ecclesiæ Catholicæ." John

Norris, of the school of Cudworth and Henry More, and nearly the last

of that school called the English Platonists, published, besides many

other works, his "Essay on the Ideal World" in 1701 and 1702. He also

wrote some religious poetry of no particular mark.

Tillotson and South were the great authors of sermons of this period.

Tillotson was one of the most popular preachers of the time, but may

be said to have done more good by his liberal and amiable influence

at the head of the Church than by his preaching. There is a solid and

genuinely pious character about the sermons of Tillotson which suited

the better-trained class of mind of his age, but which would now be

deemed rather heavy. South has more life and a more popular style;

he was therefore more attractive to the courtiers of his day than to

the sober citizens, and he has larded his text with what were then

deemed sprightly sallies and dashing phrases, but which are now felt as

vulgarisms. Both divines, however, furnished succeeding preachers with

much gleaning.

Dr. Gilbert Burnet, Bishop of Salisbury (_b._ 1643) who figures so

prominently in the reign of William and Mary, and who rendered such

essential service to the establishment of religious liberty, is the

great historian of his time. Without his narratives of his own period,

we should have a very imperfect idea of it. With all his activity

at Court and in Parliament, he was a most voluminous writer. His

publications amount to no less than a hundred and forty-five, though

many of these are mere tracts, and some of them even only single

sermons. His earliest productions date from 1669, and they continued,

with little intermission, to the time of his death in 1715--a space of

forty-six years. His great works are "The Reformation of the Church,"

in three volumes, folio, 1679, 1681, and 1715; and his "History of

His Own Times," in two volumes, published after his death in 1724.

Burnet lays no claim to eloquence or to much genius, and he has

been accused of a fondness for gossip, and for his self-importance;

but the qualities which sink all these things into mere secondary

considerations are his honesty and heartiness in the support of sound

and liberal principles far beyond the majority of his fellow prelates

and churchmen. Whilst many of these were spending their energies in

opposing reform and toleration, Burnet was incessantly, by word and

pen, engaged in assisting to build up and establish those broad and

Christian principles under which we now live. Besides the great works

named, he wrote also "Memoirs of James and William, Dukes of Hamilton;"

"Passages in the Life and Death of Wilmot, Earl of Rochester;" a "Life

of Bishop Bedell;" "Travels on the Continent;" "An Exposition of the

Thirty-nine Articles," etc. etc.

Dr. Thomas Burnet is known for his eloquent and able History of

the Earth, "Telluris Sacra Theoria," first published in Latin, and

afterwards in English. This work, on which his fame rests, was greatly

read and admired at the time, but the discoveries of modern science

have reduced it to mere ingenious but unfounded theory. He was also

author of "Archæologica Philosophica," and some lesser treatises.

The great philosopher of this period was John Locke (_b._ 1632;

_d._ 1704). Locke had much to do with the governments of his time,

and especially with that extraordinary agitator and speculator,

Ashley, Lord Shaftesbury, whom he attended in his banishment, and

did not return till the Revolution. Yet, though so much connected

with government, office, and the political schemers, Locke remained

wonderfully unworldly in his nature. His philosophical bias, no doubt,

preserved him from the corrupt influences around him. He was a staunch

advocate of toleration, and wrote three letters on Toleration, and left

another unfinished at his death. In these he defended both religious

and civil liberty against Jonas Proast and Sir Robert Filmer, advocates

of the divine right of kings. His "Thoughts on Education" and his

"Treatises on Government" served as the foundations of Rousseau's

"Emile" and his "Contrat Social." Besides these he wrote numerous works

of a theological kind, as "The Vindication of the Reasonableness of

Christianity;" and in his last years, "A Discourse upon Miracles,"

"Paraphrases of St. Paul," and "An Essay for the Understanding of

St. Paul's Epistles;" a work "On the Conduct of the Understanding,"

and "An Examination of Father Malebranche's Opinion of Seeing all

Things in God." But his great work is his "Essay concerning the Human

Understanding." This may be considered the first pure and systematic

treatise on metaphysics in the English language; and though the pursuit

of the science since his time has led to the rejection of many of his

opinions, the work will always remain as an able and clearly-reasoned

attempt to follow the method of Bacon in tracing the nature and

operations of the understanding.

In the department of philosophy flourished also Bishop Berkeley (_b._

1684; _d._ 1753), author of "The Principles of Human Knowledge,"

whostartled the world with the theory that matter has no existence in

the universe, but is merely a fixed idea of the mind; Dr. Mandeville,

a Dutchman by birth, who settled in London, and published various

medical and metaphysical works of a freethinking character; Hutchinson,

an opponent of Dr. Woodward in natural history, and Newton in natural

philosophy; and David Hartley, author of "Observations on Man." Bishop

Butler, Warburton, Hoadley, Middleton, author of "A Free Inquiry

into the Miraculous Powers of the Church," and Secker, Archbishop of

Canterbury, were the leading theologians in the Church; but Dissent

could also boast of its men of light and leading in Dr. Isaac Watts,

author of a system of Logic and of the popular Hymns; Calamy, the

opponent of Hoadley; Doddridge, and others.

In the department of novel writing, no age had yet produced such a

constellation as Fielding, Richardson, Sterne, and Smollett. Their

works are still read with admiration by all who have a relish

for vivid and masterly delineations of life; their only drawback

being, that they are all more or less stained with the grossness and

licentiousness of the age. From these faults Samuel Richardson (_b._

1689; _d._ 1761) is most free, and in his "Sir Charles Grandison"

he hasshown himself ahead of his age in the wisdom and liberality

of his ideas. He discountenanced duelling, and taught the soundest

principles of honour and morality. The photographic minuteness of his

style prevents the general reading of his works in the present day

of abundant new literature. The principal novels of Henry Fielding

(_b._ 1707; _d._ 1754), "Joseph Andrews," "Tom Jones," and "Amelia,"

abound in wit, vigour, and knowledge of human nature. He wrote also

some plays, and edited several periodicals. His sister, Sarah, also

wrote "David Simple," a novel, and translated Xenophon's "Memoirs

of Socrates." Tobias Smollett (_b._ 1721; _d._ 1771) paints life in

strong, bold, but somewhat coarse lines, full of vigour, but with

even more grossness than Fielding uses. "Peregrine Pickle," "Count

Fathom," "Roderick Random," "Humphrey Clinker," and "Sir Launcelot

Greaves," if not now generally read, have been carefully studied and

made use of by some of our modern novelists. Smollett, besides, wrote

plays, satires, poems, and edited "The Briton," a weekly newspaper.

Laurence Sterne (_b._ 1713; _d._ 1768) struck out a style of writing

peculiar to himself, and which still defies all successful imitation.

Notwithstanding attempts to represent his pathos as grimace, and his

humour as tinsel, the felicity of touch in "Tristram Shandy," and the

flashes of wit and feeling in his "Sentimental Journey," will, in spite

of detractors, and of the occasional indecency of the author, always

send readers to Sterne.

One of the pioneers of the science of political economy at this time

was Dr. Davenant, the son of Sir William Davenant, the poet. He had

no genius for drawing principles and theories from accumulated facts,

but he was a diligent collector of them, and his porings amongst State

documents and accounts have served essentially the historians and

political economists of our day.

During this period Richard Bentley, Master of Trinity College,

Cambridge, and archdeacon of Ely, figures prominently as one of the

most profound classical scholars that Great Britain has produced,

and, at the same time, as one of the most quarrelsome, arrogant, and

grasping of men. The circumstance which made the most noise in his

career was his controversy with the Hon. Charles Boyle regarding the

authenticity of the Epistles of Phalaris and the Fables of Æsop. In

this dispute he had to contend with Drs. Atterbury, French, King,

and Smallridge, who made the reply to him in their "Examination of

Bentley's Dissertation on the Epistles," in the name of Boyle. Swift

also attacked him in "The Battle of the Books." The controversy made an

immense noise at the time, and Bentley completely proved his assertion,

that both the Epistles of Phalaris and the Fables of Æsop, in their

present form, are spurious. The services of Bentley in publishing

corrected editions of various classical works are of no ordinary kind.

Amongst the authors who have received the benefit of his critical

touches are Aristophanes, Cicero, Menander, Philemon, Horace, Nicander,

Phædrus, and Homer. In his editions of Horace and Homer, however,

he laid himself open to severe criticism by his rash and arbitrary

emendations of the text, and still more so by his edition of Milton's

"Paradise Lost," from the same cause. In this case he showed that he

was as deficient in the Italian and romantic learning, which Milton had

made himself master of, as he was great in his own classical field.

Bentley displayed himself as a theologian of great distinction by his

refutation of Collins's "Discourse of Freethinking," and his lectures

at Oxford in defence of the Christian religion.

With "The Battle of the Books" appeared "The Tale of a Tub;" and though

these were anonymous, it was soon well known that they were from the

hand of Jonathan Swift, a friend of Harley and Bolingbroke, who now

assumed a position in the public eye destined to be rendered yet more

remarkable. Swift was of English parentage, but born in Dublin in

1667. He was educated at Kilkenny and the University of Dublin. In

early life he became private secretary to Sir William Temple, and at

this time he wrote his "Tale of a Tub," which cut off all his hopes

of a bishopric. He edited a selection from the papers of Temple, and

then accompanied Lord Berkeley to Ireland as chaplain. Disappointed of

the preferment which he had hoped for, he went over from the Whigs to

the Tories in 1710, and thenceforward was an unscrupulous adherent of

Harley and Bolingbroke, defending all their measures in the "Examiner,"

and pouring out his vengeance on all opponents with unflinching

truculence. In his political character Swift has been styled the great

blackguard of the age, and certainly with too much truth. In spite of

rare intellectual power, wit, and sarcasm, no principle or tenderness

of feeling restrained him in his attacks on his enemies. If Harley and

Bolingbroke are guilty of inflicting the disgraceful peace of Utrecht

on the nation, simply to avenge themselves on the Whigs, no man so

thoroughly abetted them in that business as Swift. His "Conduct of the

Allies," his "Public Spirit of the Whigs," and other political tracts

and articles, bear testimony to his unscrupulous political rancour.

His "Drapier's Letters," and his treatment of Wood in the affair of

the Irish halfpence, show that no means, however base and false, came

amiss to him in serving the objects of his ambition. The great work of

Swift is his "Gulliver's Travels," a work characterised by a massive

intellect and a fertile invention, but defiled by the grossness that

was inseparable from his mind, and that equally pollutes his poems,

in which there is much wit and humour, but not a trace of pathos

or tenderness. There is none of that divine glow of love and human

sympathy, mingled with the worship of beauty and truth, which courts

our affections in the works of the greatest masters. When we are told

that Swift's grossness is merely the grossness of the time, we point

to "Robinson Crusoe," to "The Seasons" and "Castle of Indolence" of

Thomson, and to the works of Addison, for the most admirable contrast.

Swift--who died in the famous year of the '45--was one of the most

vigorous writers of the age, but he was one of the most unamiable. He

was the Mephistopheles of the eighteenth century.

What a contrast immediately presents itself in the generous nature

of Steele, in the genial and pure writings of Addison! Both Addison

and Steele were poets, Steele principally a dramatic poet, of

considerable success; Addison was the author of "Cato," a tragedy,

and the "Campaign," celebrating the victory of Blenheim, with other

poems. But the reputation of both Steele and Addison rests on their

prose. They were the introducers of essay and periodical writings,

and carried these to a perfection which has never been surpassed.

Richard Steele (_b._ 1671; _d._ 1729) has the honour of originating

this new department of literature--a departmentwhich has grown into

such importance, that the present age would scarcely know how to exist

without it. He started the "Tatler" in 1709, issuing it three times a

week, and was joined by Addison in about six weeks. The interest with

which this new literary paper was expected at the breakfast tables of

that day, can only be likened to that which the morning papers now

excite. In 1711, the "Tatler" having come to an end, the "Spectator"

was started on the same plan, jointly by Steele and Addison, and, this

ceasing in 1712, in the following year the "Guardian" took its place.

Steele was the largest contributor to the "Tatler" and "Guardian,"

Addison to the "Spectator." Various of their contemporaries furnished

papers, Swift amongst the rest, but there are none which can compare

with the vigorous, manly writing of Steele, and the elegant, and often

noble, compositions of Addison. The mixture of grave and gay was

admirable. In these papers we find abundant revelations of the spirit

and manners of the times. The characters of Sir Roger de Coverley,

Will Wimble, etc., have an imperishable English interest. The poetic

and generous nature of Joseph Addison (_b._ 1672) was demonstrated

by his zealous criticisms on Milton's "Paradise Lost," which mainly

contributed to rescue it from the neglect which it had experienced.

Addison, after Sir Philip Sidney, was the first to call attention to

our old popular ballads, "Chevy Chase" and "The Babes in the Wood," the

eulogies on which probably led Bishop Percy to the collection of the

precious "Reliques" of the ballad lore of former ages. The "Spectator"

and "Guardian" were published daily. Steele afterwards published the

"Englishman," with which Addison had no concern, and it only reached

to fifty-seven numbers. These two fellow-labourers, both in literature

and Parliament, after nearly fifty years' friendship, were sundered

by a mere political difference--the question of limiting the royal

prerogative of creating peers, in 1719, the last year of Addison's life.

Bolingbroke (_b._ 1678; _d._ 1751) must be named with the prose writers

of the age. Amongst his writings there is little that will now interest

the reader. He wrote in a brilliant and pretentious style, as he acted;

and his writings, like his policy, are more showy than sound. As a cold

sceptic in religion, and a Jacobite in politics, proud and essentially

selfish in his nature, we are not likely to find anything from his

pen which can strongly attract us, or is calculated to benefit us. In

the Tory party, to which he belonged, he was one of those brilliant

and self-complacent apparitions, which have all the qualities of

the meteor--dazzling, but speedily sinking into darkness, though his

"Patriot King" had some temporary influence, and even furnishes the

keynote to some of the earlier writings of Lord Beaconsfield.

[Illustration: HENRY FIELDING. (_The Portrait by Hogarth; the Border by

James Basire._)]

A very different man was patriotic Daniel Defoe (_b._ 1663; _d._ 1731).

Defoe, who was engaged in trade, and was the introducer of pantiles,

was a thorough Whig, or, as we should now call him, a Radical in

politics. He was one of those rare men who look only at the question

before them, and who are, therefore, found almost as often calling

to account the party to which they nominally belong, as rebuking the

faction to which they are opposed. His principle was essentially

"measures, not men," and thus he was one of the zealous supporters of

Godolphin and his ministry in accomplishing the union with Scotland;

and equally so of Harley and Bolingbroke, for establishing a commercial

treaty with France. He was much more useful to reform than liked by

so-called reformers, and was continually getting into trouble for his

honest speaking. From the age of twenty-three to that of fifty-eight,

his pen had scarcely a moment's rest from advocating important

political and social subjects, and there was a force of reason, a

feeling of reality, a keenness of wit and satire, in his compositions

that gave them interest and extensive attention.

But whilst his political efforts did their work in his lifetime, his

literary labours are the basis of his present fame. These were almost

all produced after his sixtieth year; "Robinson Crusoe," by far the

most popular of all his writings and one of the most popular in all

the world's literature, "The Dumb Philosopher," "Captain Singleton,"

"Duncan Campbell," "Moll Flanders," "Colonel Jacque," "The Journal of

the Plague," "The Memoirs of a Cavalier," "The Fortunate Mistress; or,

Roxana," "The New Voyage round the World," and "Captain Carleton." The

life and fidelity to human nature with which these are written have

continually led readers to believe them altogether real narratives.

The "Journal of the Plague" was quoted as a relation of facts by Dr.

Mead; Chatham used to recommend "The Memoirs of a Cavalier" as the

best account of the Civil War; Dr. Johnson read the life of "Captain

Carleton" as genuine, and we continually see the story of "Mrs. Veal's

Ghost," written by Defoe to puff Drelincourt's heavy "Essay on Death,"

included in collections as a matter-of-fact account of an apparition.

This quality of verisimilitude is one of the greatest charms of his

inimitable "Crusoe," which is the delight of the young from age to age.

Amongst the prose writers of this period a lady stands prominent,

Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (_b._ 1690; _d._ 1762), the daughter of the

Duke of Kingston, and mother of Lady Bute, the wife of the Earl of

Bute, the celebrated Minister of George III. Lady Mary derives her

chief fame from her Letters, which were not published till after her

death. They are as remarkable for their wit, brilliancy, and clear,

thorough sense, as any of the writings of the age. In these we have a

most graphic picture of life in the East, as she had lived some years

at Constantinople with her husband. She thence conferred one of the

greatest boons on her country, by the introduction of inoculation for

the smallpox. Lady Mary translated the "Enchiridion of Epictetus," and

wrote many verses, including satirical ones, called "Town Eclogues;"

but her fame must always rest upon her clear and sparkling letters. She

was celebrated for her wit and beauty, and was a leading figure in the

fashionable as well as the literary world. Pope and she were long great

friends, but quarrelled irreconcilably.

At the head of the poets of this period stands Alexander Pope, who

became the founder of a school which has had followers down to our

own time. Pope was the poet of society, of art, and polish. His life

was spent in London and in the country, chiefly between Binfield, in

Windsor Forest, and Twickenham; and his poetry partakes very much of

the qualities of that scenery--rich, cultivated, and beautiful, but

having no claims to the wild or the sublime. He is opposed to poets

like Milton and Shakespeare as pastures and town gardens are opposed to

seas, forests, and mountains. In style he is polished to the highest

degree, piquant, and musical; but, instead of being profound and

creative, he is sensible, satiric, and didactic. He failed in "the

vision and the faculty divine," but he possessed fancy, a moderate

amount of passion, and a clear and penetrating intellect. He loved

nature, but it was such only as he knew--the home-scenes of Berkshire

and the southern counties, the trained and polished beauties in his

gardens, the winding walks and grottoes at Twickenham. Mountains he had

never seen, and there are none in his poetry. He was born in the year

of the Revolution, and died in 1744, aged fifty-six; and, considering

that he suffered from a feeble constitution and defective health, he

was a remarkably industrious man. His pastorals appeared in Tonson's

"Miscellany" when he was only twenty-one years old. Before this he

had translated the first book of the "Thebais," and Ovid's "Epistle

from Sappho to Phaon;" paraphrased Chaucer's "January and May," and

the prologue to "The Wife of Bath's Tale." In two years after his

"Pastorals" appeared his "Essay on Criticism" (1711). "The Messiah" and

"The Rape of the Lock" were published in 1712--the year in which the

"Spectator" died. "The Rape of the Lock" celebrated the mighty event

of the clipping of a lock of hair from the head of Miss Belle Fermor

by Lord Petre. This act, adorned with a great machinery of sylphs

and gnomes, a specimen of elegant trifling, enchanted the age, which

would have less appreciated grander things, and placed Pope on the

pinnacle of fame. In 1713 he published "Windsor Forest," a subject for

a pleasant but not a great poem, yet characteristic of Pope's genius,

which delighted in the level and ornate rather than the splendid and

the wild. In 1715 appeared the first four books of his translation

of Homer's "Iliad," which was not completed till 1720. This still

continues the most popular translation of the great heroic poet of

Greece; for although it is rather a paraphrase of this colossal yet

simple poem, and therefore not estimated highly by Greek scholars who

can go to the original, it has that beauty and harmony of style which

render it to the English reader an ever-fascinating work. In 1717

appeared his "Epistle from Eloisa to Abelard," a poem displaying more

passion than any other of Pope's writings, but too sensuous, and the

subject itself far from well chosen. Next succeeded his "Odyssey" of

Homer, in conjunction with Fenton and Broome, and in 1728 the first

three books of "The Dunciad," in which he took a sweeping vengeance on

the critics and poetasters of the time, who had assailed him fiercely

on all sides, with John Dennis at their head. The vigour with which

Pope wielded the satiric lash excited the wonder of the public, which

had seen no such trenchant production hitherto in the language, and

filled the whole host of flayed and scalded dunces with howls of wrath

and agony. Pope was not sparing of foul language in his branding of

others, and they were still more obscene and scurrilous in their

retorts. It is questionable whether they or Pope felt the most torture;

for, so far from silencing them, they continued to kick, sting, and

pelt him with dirt so long as he lived. So late as 1742 he published

a fourth book of the satire, to give yet one more murderous blow to

the blackguard crew. Besides this satire, he modernised an edition

of Donne's Satires, and produced his "Essay on Man," his "Epistle

on Taste," his "Moral Essays," and other poems, down to 1740. His

"Essay on Man," "Moral Essays," etc., display shrewd sense, and a keen

perception of the characteristics of human nature and of the world; yet

they do not let us into any before unknown depths of life or morals,

but, on the contrary, are, in many particulars, unsound. In fact, these

productions belong by no means to poetry, of which they exhibit no

quality, and might just as well have been given in prose. On the whole,

Pope is a poet whose character is that of cleverness, strong intellect,

carefully-elaborative art, much malice, and little warmth or breadth

of genuine imagination. He reflects the times in which he lived, which

were corrupt, critical, but not original, and he had no conception of

the heavens of poetry and soul into which Milton and Shakespeare soared

before him, and Keats, Shelley, Coleridge, Wordsworth and Tennyson in

our time have wandered at large.

The strong sense, lively fancy, and smart style of his satires,

distinguished also Pope's prose, as in his "Treatise of the Bathos; or,

the Art of Sinking in Poetry;" his "Memoirs of P. P., Clerk of this

Parish"--in ridicule of Burnet's "Own Times"--his Letters, etc. In some

of the last he describes the country and country seats, and the life

there of his friends; which shows that, in an age more percipient of

the charm of such things, he would have probably approached nearer to

the heart of Nature, and given us something more genial and delightful

than anything that he has left us.

Dr. Arbuthnot, a great friend of Pope and Swift, was also one of the

ablest prose writers, "The Memoirs of Martinus Scriblerus," published

in Pope's and Swift's works, and the political satire of "John Bull," a

masterly performance, being attributed to him.

John Gay, a contemporary of Pope, Swift, and Arbuthnot, is now best

known by his "Fables" and his "Beggar's Opera." His "Fables" have been

extremely popular, and still make him a general name; but, in his own

time, his "Beggar's Opera" was his great success. Its wit, its charming

music, its popular characters, gave it a universal favour; and it is

the only English opera that even to this time has become permanent.

Gay's "Trivia; or, the Art of Walking the Streets of London," is still

amusing, and some of his ballads have a lightness and buoyancy about

them which justify the esteem in which he was held.

Matthew Prior had a high reputation in his day as a poet, but his

poetry has little to recommend it now. He was the more popular as a

poet, no doubt, because he was much employed as a diplomatist in Queen

Anne's reign by the Tory party. His "City and Country Mouse," written

in conjunction with Lord Halifax, in ridicule of Dryden's "Hind and

Panther," may be considered as one of his happiest efforts.

Sir Samuel Garth, author of "The Dispensary," a mock-heroic poem in six

cantos, and Sir Richard Blackmore, another physician, and author of

a whole heap of epics in ten or twelve books each--as "King Arthur,"

"King Alfred," "Eliza," "The Redeemer," etc.--may still be found in

our collections of verse, but are rarely read. Dr. Young's "Night

Thoughts" yet maintain their place, and are greatly admired by many,

notwithstanding his stilted style and violent antithesis, for amid

these there are many fine and striking ideas.

Still more have "The Seasons" and "The Castle of Indolence" of James

Thomson retained, and are likely to retain, the public favour. "The

Seasons" is a treasury of the life and imagery of the country, animated

by a true love of Nature and of God, and abounding in passages of

fire, healthy feeling, and strong sense, often of sublime conceptions,

in a somewhat stiff and vicious style. "The Castle of Indolence" is

a model of metrical harmony and luxurious fancy, in the Spenserian

stanza. Another poet of the same time and country--Scotland--is Allan

Ramsay, who, in his native dialect, has painted the manners and sung

the rural loves of Scotland in his "Gentle Shepherd" and his rustic

lyrics. Till Burns, no Scottish poet so completely embodied the

spirit, feelings, and popular life of his country. Amongst a host of

verse-makers, then deemed poets, but who were merely imitators of

imitators, we must except Gray, with his nervous lyrics, and, above

all, his ever-popular "Elegy in a Country Churchyard." Gray also has a

genuine vein of wit and merriment in his verse. Collins was a poet who

under happier conditions might have done the greatest things. Parnell's

"Hermit," Blair's "Grave," Shenstone's "School Mistress," Akenside's

"Imagination," can yet charm some readers, and there are others in

great numbers whose works yet figure in collections of the poets, or

whose individual poems are selected in anthologies, as Smith, King,

Sprat Bishop of Rochester, Duke, Montague Earl of Halifax, Nicholas

Rowe, Dyer--author of the "Fleece," "Grongar Hill," and "Ruins of

Rome,"--Sheffield, Duke of Buckinghamshire, Fenton, Somerville--author

of "The Chase," "Field Sports," etc.,--Hammond--author of "Love

Elegies,"--Lord Lyttelton, Mallet, Mickle--author of the ballads of

"Cumnor Hall," "There's Nae Luck about the House," and translator

of the "Lusiad" of Camoens,--Shaw, Harte, West, Cawthorne, Lloyd,

Gilbert Cooper, Grainger--author of "The Sugar Cane," and the once

popular ballad of "Bryan and Pereene,"--Dodsley, poet and bookseller,

Boyse--author of "The Deity," a poem, etc.,--Smollett--more remarkable

as a novelist and historian,--Michael Bruce, Walsh, Falconer--author

of "The Shipwreck,"--Yalden, Pattison, Aaron Hill, Broome, Pitt--the

translator of Virgil,--John Philips--author of "Cider," a poem, "The

Splendid Shilling," etc.,--West, and others. In fact, this age produced

poets enough to have constituted the rhythmical literature of a nation,

had they had as much genius as they had learning.

Besides the miscellaneous poets, the dramatic ones numbered

Congreve, Vanbrugh, Farquhar, Colley Cibber, Nicholas Rowe--already

mentioned--Savage, Lansdowne, Ambrose Philips, and others. In many of

the plays of these authors there is great talent, wit, and humour,

but mingled with equal grossness. Congreve's dramas are principally

"The Old Bachelor," "The Incognita," "The Double Dealer," "The Way of

the World," comedies, and "The Mourning Bride," a tragedy. Vanbrugh,

the celebrated architect, produced "The Relapse," "The Provoked

Wife," "The Confederacy," "The Journey to London," and several other

comedies. Farquhar's principal plays are "The Beaux's Stratagem,"

"Love and a Bottle," and "The Constant Couple." Savage was the author

of the tragedy of "Sir Thomas Overbury;" Nicholas Rowe, of five or

six tragedies and one comedy, the most popular of which are "The Fair

Penitent" and "Jane Shore." Rowe also translated Lucan's "Pharsalia."

As for Colley Cibber, he was a mere playwright, and turned out above

two dozen comedies, tragedies, and other dramatic pieces. Lord

Lansdowne was the author of "The She-gallants," a comedy, and "Heroic

Love," a tragedy of some merit; and John Hughes wrote "The Siege of

Damascus," a tragedy, which long remained on the stage.

James Bradley (_b._ 1692), who succeeded Halley as the third Astronomer

Royal, held that post till 1762, when he died. He had in 1728

distinguished himself by his discovery of an unanswerable proof of the

motion of the earth by his observations on the apparent alteration

in the place of a fixed star. His second great discovery was that

of the mutation of the earth's axis, showing that the pole of the

equator moves round the pole of the elliptic, not in a straight but

in a waving line. Bradley gave important assistance to the Ministry

in their alteration of the calendar in 1751, and the vast mass of

his observations was published after his death, by the University of

Oxford, in two volumes, in 1798.

[Illustration: COSTUMES OF THE PERIOD OF GEORGE II.]

Halley's quadrant was constructed and made known by him to the

Philosophical Society, in 1731, though Thomas Godfrey, a glazier, of

Philadelphia, is said to have made a similar instrument a year before.

As early, however, as 1727 Newton had described such an instrument to

Halley, that is, a very little time before his death. This invaluable

instrument has since been improved, first into a sextant, and

ultimately into a complete circle. In 1758 appeared John Dollond's

corrections of Newton's views of the dispersion of refracted light, and

in the following year his achromatic telescope, based on his accurate

discoveries.

In 1720 Colin Maclaurin, the successor of James Gregory in the

mathematical chair at Edinburgh, published his "Geometrical Organica,"

a treatise on curves; in 1742 his admirable treatise on Fluxions;

and in 1748 his treatise on Algebra. Dr. Robert Simson, professor

of mathematics at Glasgow, published a restoration of the "Loci" of

Apollonius, and an English translation of Euclid, which continued

down to a late period in use, both in Scotland and England. In 1717

James Stirling published a Latin treatise on lines of the third order,

and another on Fluxions, called "Methodus Differentialis," in 1730.

William Emerson, a mathematician and mechanist, wrote on fluxions,

trigonometry, mechanics, navigation, algebra, optics, astronomy,

geography, dialling, etc., but a considerable portion was only in part

published during this period. Thomas Simpson, a weaver, of Market

Bosworth, at the age of seven-and-twenty suddenly discovered himself as

an extraordinary mathematician, and went on till his death, in 1761,

publishing works on fluxions, the nature and laws of chance, on mixed

mathematics, on the doctrine of annuities and reversions, on algebra,

elementary geometry, trigonometry, etc. James Ferguson, also, the son

of a day-labourer, in Banffshire, studied mathematics whilst tending

sheep, and published a number of works on the phenomena of the harvest

moon, astronomy, mechanics, hydrostatics, pneumatics, and optics.

Ferguson had a remarkably lucid and demonstrative style, both in

writing and lecturing, and his example excited a keen spirit of inquiry

amongst the working classes, so that he is said to have diffused the

knowledge of physical science amongst the class from which he sprang

more than any other man.

In electricity great strides were made. Between the years 1705 and 1711

Francis Hawksbee published in the Transactions of the Royal Society

several experiments, in which he had, for the first time, discovered

the production of the electric spark by friction, and electrical

attraction and repulsion. In 1720 Stephen Gray, a pensioner of the

Charterhouse, published the result of his experiments on this subject,

with a list of the substances which showed electricity under friction;

and in 1732 he discovered the conducting property of non-electrical

bodies. Before 1739, Dufray, keeper of the King's Garden at Paris,

discovered the repellent power of two similarly-electrified bodies,

and the attraction of these positively and negatively electrified--or,

as he termed it, possessing the vitreous and the resinous electricity.

Cuneus and Lallemand discovered the mode of accumulating the electric

fluid in what was called the Leyden jar in 1745. This discovery gave a

new impetus to inquiry, and Nollet, in France, and Watson, in England,

conceived the hypothesis of the jar being overcharged on one side and

undercharged on the other. This growing perception of the positive

and negative conditions of the electric fluid received confirmation

from the experiments of Benjamin Franklin, in America. Franklin soon

improved the Leyden jar into an electrical battery; and, in 1752,

he proved the identity of electricity and lightning by his grand

experiment of the kite. On this he recommended lightning conductors,

which, however, were not used in England till ten years afterwards.

On the laws of heat and cold, and atmospheric changes under their

influence, many interesting facts were ascertained by the aid of the

thermometers of Fahrenheit and Réaumur. Dr. Martin, of St. Andrews,

distinguished himself in these inquiries, and published his discoveries

and deductions in 1739 and 1740. In 1750 Dr. Cullen drew attention

to some curious facts connected with the production of cold by

evaporation. Dr. Joseph Black discovered what he called latent heat,

and continued his researches on this subject beyond the present period.

Chemistry also received valuable extensions of its field. Dr. John

Mayow published new facts respecting nitre, and on the phenomena of

respiration and combustion, as revealed by experiments on this and

other substances. At the commencement of the eighteenth century Stahl,

a German chemist, propounded his theory of phlogiston as the principle

of combustion, which was only exploded by the further discoveries

of Dr. Black, Cavendish, and Priestley. Soon after, Dr. Hales threw

new light on aëriform bodies, or, as they are now termed, gases; and

finally, Dr. Black demonstrated the presence of a gas in magnesia,

lime, and the alkalies, which had long before been noticed by Van

Helmont, but had been forgotten. This was then termed fixed air, but

has now acquired the name of carbonic acid gas, or carbon dioxide.

At the end of this period chemistry was extensively studied, and was

rapidly revealing its secrets.

The kindred science of medicine was also in marked advance. Dr. Thomas

Sydenham, who died in 1689, at the very commencement of this period,

had prepared the way for a more profound knowledge of the science by

his careful and persevering observation of facts and symptoms; and

the improvements he introduced guided medical men in the treatment of

disease till the end of this period. Anatomical science was greatly

advanced at this era by Malpighi, Steno, Ruysch, Duverney, Morgagni,

Albinus, Haller, and other Continental physicians. In England Humphrey

Ridley published a work on the brain in 1695, and William Cowper,

in 1698, his anatomical tables, said to be borrowed from the Dutch

anatomist, Bidloo. In 1726 Alexander Munro published his "Osteology;"

he was also founder of the Medical School of Edinburgh. In 1733

William Cheselden, the most expert operator of his day, published his

"Osteography." In 1727 Stephen Hales published his "Vegetable Statics,"

and in 1733 his "Hæmastatics," which carried both vegetable and animal

physiology beyond all preceding knowledge either here or abroad.

Zoology and comparative anatomy also received some progress from the

labours of Nehemiah Grew, Tyson, Collins, and other members of the

Royal Society.

Music advanced at an equal rate with its sister arts, and during this

period added to its conquests the compositions of Purcell and Handel.

William was too much engaged in war to become a patron of music, or

of any of the fine arts, and his queen, Mary, does not appear to have

possessed much taste for it. She is related by Sir John Hawkins to

have sent for Purcell and Mrs. Arabella Hunt, a famous singer, to

entertain her. Mrs. Hunt sang some of Purcell's splendid compositions,

and Purcell accompanied them on the harpsichord; but Mary soon grew

weary of these, and called on Mrs. Hunt to sing the Scottish ballad,

"Cold and Raw!"

Henry Purcell (_b._ 1658; _d._ 1695) produced the bulk of his works in

William's reign. He composed the music to "The Tempest," "Dioclesian,"

"King Arthur," "Don Quixote," "Bonduca," and "Orpheus Britannicus."

Many parts of these, and his sonatas, anthems, catches, rounds,

glees, etc., are as much enjoyed now as in his own day. The music to

Davenant's "Circe," by Banister, of Shadwell's "Psyche," by Lock,

and of Dryden's "Albion and Albanius," by Grabut, had increased in

England the liking for the lyrical drama; but Purcell's compositions

wonderfully strengthened it, and from "King Arthur" may properly be

dated the introduction of the English opera. Gay's "Beggar's Opera,"

six-and-thirty years after, however, was the first complete and avowed

opera, and this did not establish that kind of entertainment in

England. The wonderful success of this production, which was performed

for sixty-two nights (not consecutive), was chiefly derived from the

wit and satire of the composition itself, the abundance of popular airs

introduced, and the party feeling which it gratified. The airs were

selected and adapted by Dr. Pepusch, a German, who settled in London,

and became celebrated there. He also furnished the overture, and wrote

accompaniments to the airs. Eleven years after, Milton's "Comus" was

adapted to the stage by the Rev. Dr. Dalton, with music by Dr. Arne,

who afterwards composed the music for "Artaxerxes," and thence derived

a high reputation.

The taste for Italian music was now every day increasing; singers of

that nation appeared with great applause at most concerts. In 1703

Italian music was introduced into the theatres as _intermezzi_, or

interludes, consisting of singing and dancing; then whole operas

appeared, the music Italian, the words English; and, in 1707, Urbani, a

male soprano, and two Italian women, sang their parts all in Italian,

the other performers using English. Finally, in 1710, a complete

Italian opera was performed at the Queen's Theatre, Haymarket, and

from that time the Italian opera was regularly established in London.

This led to the arrival of the greatest composer whom the world had

yet seen. George Frederick Handel was born at Halle, in Germany, in

1685. He had displayed wonderful genius for music as a mere child,

and having, at the age of seven years, astonished the Duke of Saxe

Weissenfels--at whose court his brother-in-law was a valet--who

found him playing the organ in the chapel, he was, by the Duke's

recommendation, regularly educated for the profession of music. At

the age of ten, Handel composed the church service for voices and

instruments; and after acquiring a great reputation in Hamburg--where,

in 1705, he brought out his "Almira"--he proceeded to Florence, where

he produced the opera of "Rodrigo," and thence to Venice, Rome, and

Naples. After remaining in Italy four years, he was induced to come

to England in 1710, at the pressing entreaties of many of the English

nobility, to superintend the opera. But, though he was enthusiastically

received, the party spirit which raged at that period soon made it

impossible to conduct the opera with any degree of self-respect and

independence. He therefore abandoned the attempt, having sunk nearly

all his fortune in it, and commenced the composition of his noble

oratorios. Racine's "Esther," abridged and altered by Humphreys, was

set by him, in 1720, for the chapel of the Duke of Chandos at Cannons.

It was, however, only by slow degrees that the wonderful genius of

Handel was appreciated, yet it won its way against all prejudices

and difficulties. In 1731 his "Esther" was performed by the children

of the chapel-royal at the house of Bernard Gates, their master,

and the following year, at the king's command, at the royal theatre

in the Haymarket. It was fortunate for Handel that the monarch was

German too, or he might have quitted the country in disgust before

his fame had triumphed over faction and ignorance. So far did these

operate, that in 1742, when he produced his glorious "Messiah," it

was so coldly received that it was treated as a failure. Handel, in

deep discouragement, however, gave it another trial in Dublin, where

the warm imaginations of the Irish caught all its sublimity, and gave

it an enthusiastic reception. On its next presentation in London his

audience reversed the former judgment, and the delighted composer

then presented the manuscript to the Foundling Hospital, where it was

performed annually for the benefit of that excellent institution, and

added to its funds ten thousand three hundred pounds. It became the

custom, from 1737, to perform oratorios on the Wednesdays and Fridays

in Lent. Handel, whose genius has never been surpassed for vigour,

spirit, invention, and sublimity, became blind in his latter years. He

continued to perform in public, and to compose, till within a week of

his death, which took place on April 13, 1759.

[Illustration: MRS. ARABELLA HUNT SINGING TO QUEEN MARY. (_See p._

155.)]

Whilst this progress in operatic and sacred music was being made, the

Church Service had received some admirable additions. Jeremiah Clarke,

the Rev. Henry Aldrich, D.D., dean of Christ Church, John Weldon,

organist to Queen Anne, and Georges I. and II., and the Rev. Dr. Robert

Creighton, canon of Salisbury, composed many admirable pieces. William

Croft, Mus. Doc., is the author of thirty-one splendid anthems, and

Maurice Greene, Mus. Doc., of forty, which are still heard with solemn

delight in old choirs. William Boyce, Mus. Doc., organist to Georges

II. and III., added to these numerous anthems and services the oratorio

of "Solomon," and many other compositions of a superb character--one

of them the grand anthem performed annually at the Feast of the Sons

of the Clergy. Boyce also composed a variety of secular pieces of rare

merit.

In 1710 was established the Academy of Ancient Music, the object of

which was to promote the study of vocal and instrumental harmony.

Drs. Pepusch, Greene, and other celebrated musicians were amongst its

founders. They collected a very valuable musical library, and gave

annual concerts till 1793, when more fashionable ones attracted the

public, and the society was dissolved. In 1741 was established the

Madrigal Society, the founder of which was John Immyns, an attorney.

It embraced men of the working classes, and held meetings on Wednesday

evenings for the singing of madrigals, glees, catches, etc. Immyns

sometimes read them a lecture on a musical subject, and the society

gradually grew rich. The composers of such pieces at this period were

such men as Purcell, Eccles, Playford, Leveridge, Carey, Haydn, Arne,

etc. Public gardens became very much the fashion, and in these, at

first, oratorios, choruses, and grand musical pieces were performed,

but, by degrees, gave way to songs and catches. Vauxhall, originally

called Spring Garden, established before the Revolution, became all

through this period the fashionable resort of the aristocracy, and to

this was added Ranelagh, near Chelsea College, a vast rotunda, to which

crowds used to flock from the upper classes on Monday, Wednesday, and

Friday evenings, to hear the music and singing. These performances

spread greatly the taste for music, and probably excited the alarm of

the puritanically religious, for there arose a loud outcry against

using music in churches, as something vain and unhallowed. Amongst

the best publications on the science of music during this period

were Dr. Holder's "Treatise on the Natural Grounds and Principles of

Harmony," 1694; Malcolm's "Treatise on Music, Speculative, Practical,

and Historical," 1721; Dr. Pepusch's "Treatise on Harmony," 1731; Dr.

Smith's "Harmonics; or, the Philosophy of Musical Sounds;" Avison's

"Essay on Musical Expression," 1752. Avison also published twenty-six

concertos for a band, which were much admired.

[Illustration: HANDEL.]

At this period, both the grand old styles of architecture, the Gothic

for ecclesiastical buildings, and the Tudor and Elizabethan for

palaces and mansions, had, for a time, run their course. A classical

or Italian fashion had come in, and the picturesque churches and halls

of our ancestors were deemed barbarous. Inigo Jones had introduced

the semi-classical style, and now Sir Christopher Wren and Vanbrugh

arose to render it predominant. Wren had the most extraordinary

opportunity for distinguishing himself. The fire of London had swept

away a capital, and to him was assigned the task of restoring it.

Wren (_b._ 1632; _d._ 1723) was descended from a clerical family. In

1651 he was appointed to the chair of astronomy at Gresham College;

three years afterwards to that of the Savilian professor at Oxford.

In 1661 he was appointed by Charles II. to assist Sir John Denham,

the surveyor-general, and in 1663 he was commissioned to examine the

old cathedral of St. Paul, with a view to its restoration in keeping

with the Corinthian colonnade which Inigo Jones had, with a strange

blindness to unity, tagged on to a Gothic church. The old church was

found to be so thoroughly dilapidated, that Wren recommended its entire

removal and the erection of another. This created a terrible outcry

amongst the clergy and citizens, who regarded the old fabric as a model

of beauty.

Whilst these contentions were going on, Wren had entered fairly on

his profession of architect. He built the Sheldonian Theatre at

Oxford, begun in 1663, and completed in 1669; and the fine library

of Trinity College, Cambridge, and the beautiful square, Neville's

Court, to the same college. He also built the chapels of Pembroke and

Emmanuel Colleges, in the same university. In the erection of these,

he suffered, from the conceit and conflicting opinions of parties

concerned, a foretaste of the squabbles and contradictions which

rendered the whole period of the building of St. Paul's miserable. In

1665 he found leisure to visit Paris, and study the magnificent palaces

and churches with which Louis XIV. was embellishing his capital.

There he got a glimpse of the design for the Louvre, which Bernini,

the architect, showed him, but only for a moment; and he was in

communication with Mansard, Le Vau, and Le Pautre.

On his return, the contentions regarding pulling down old St. Paul's

were rife as ever; but the following year the fire occurred, and

Wren was commissioned to make a plan for the rebuilding of the City.

He proposed to restore it on a regular plan, with wide streets and

piazzas, and for the banks of the river to be kept open on both sides

with spacious quays. But these designs were defeated by the ignorance

and selfishness of the inhabitants and traders, and the banks of the

Thames became once more blocked up with wharves and warehouses, narrow

and winding lanes; and Wren could only devote his architectural talent

to the churches, the Royal Exchange, and Custom House. These latter

buildings were completed in the three following years; they have since

both been burnt down and rebuilt. Temple Bar, a hideous erection, was

finished in the fourth year, 1670. All this time the commencement of

the new St. Paul's was impeded by the attempts of the commissioners

to restore the old tumbling fabric, and it was only by successive

fallings-in of the ruins that they were compelled to allow Wren to

remove the whole decayed mass, and clear the ground for the foundations

of his cathedral. These were laid in 1675, nine years after the fire,

and the building was only terminated in thirty-five years, the stone on

the summit of the lantern being laid by Wren's son, Christopher, 1710.

The choir, however, had been opened for divine service in 1697, in the

twenty-second year of the erection.

During this long period Sir Christopher had been busily employed in

raising many other buildings; amongst these, the Royal Observatory,

Greenwich; St. Bride's; St. Swithin's; the Gateway Tower, Christ

Church, Oxford; St. Antholin's, Watling Street; the palace at

Winchester, never completed; Ashmolean Museum, and Queen's College

Chapel, Oxford; St. James's, Westminster; St. Clement's, Eastcheap; St.

Martin's, Ludgate Hill; St. Andrew's, Holborn; Christ Church, Newgate

Street; Hampton Court Palace, an addition; Morden College, Blackheath;

Greenwich Hospital; St. Dunstan's-in-the-East, tower and spire;

Buckingham House, since pulled down; and Marlborough House.

His plan for his _chef-d'œuvre_, St. Paul's, like his grand plan for

the City, with its principal streets ninety feet wide, its second-rate

streets sixty, and its third-rate thirty, was rejected. This cathedral

was a composition compact and simple, consisting of a single general

octagonal mass, surmounted by a dome, and extended on its west side

by a portico, and a short nave or vestibule within. The great idea of

Wren was to adapt it to Protestant worship, and therefore he produced

a design for the interior, the parts of which were beautifully grouped

together so as to produce at once regularity and intricacy, yet

without those long side aisles and recesses, which the processions and

confessionals of Roman Catholic worship require. The whole long period

of Wren's erection of this noble pile was one continued battle with

the conceit, ignorance, and dogmatism of the commissioners, who made

his life a bitter martyrdom; and when we read the admired inscription

in St. Paul's, "_Si monumentum requiris, circumspice_," we behold, on

obeying its injunction, only what Wren did, not what he suffered in

doing it.

The style of St. Paul's, and, indeed, of all Wren's churches, is

neither Grecian nor Gothic, but Italian, influenced by the fashion

which Bernini, the Italian architect of Louis XIV., had introduced

into France. It is a class of architecture of which the Grecian is the

basis, but which is so freely innovated upon as to leave little general

resemblance. In its different parts we have columns and pilasters

of every Grecian and, indeed, Roman order, pediments, peristyles,

architraves, and friezes, mingled up with windows of all sorts, and all

kinds of recesses and projections, the façades and intercolumniations

ornamented with festoons, and wreaths, and human masks, and the whole

surmounted by a great Eastern dome, and by campaniles partaking of all

the compilations of the main buildings. St. Paul's itself is a noble

building, notwithstanding the manifest gleanings from the antique and

the mediæval, and their combination into a whole which has nothing

original but their combination into one superb design. Besides St.

Paul's, the rest of Wren's churches are disappointing, and we cannot

avoid lamenting that he had lost the sense of the beauty of Gothic

architecture, especially when we call to mind the exquisite churches

of that style which adorn so many of the Continental cities. Whilst

the exteriors of Wren's churches show heavily in their huddled-up

situations in London streets, their interiors, in which much more of

the Grecian and Roman styles is introduced, are equally heavy, and

wanting in that pliant grace which distinguishes the interiors of

Gothic cathedrals. Perhaps the noblest work of Wren next to St. Paul's

is Greenwich Hospital, which is more purely Grecian, and therefore

displays a more graceful and majestic aspect. The Palace of Hampton

Court, attached to the fine old Tudor pile of Cardinal Wolsey, is a

great square mass, in which the Dutch taste of William is said to have

set aside Wren's original design. But surely William did not compel him

to erect that (in such circumstances) ponderous barbarism of a Grecian

colonnade in the second quadrangle of Hampton Court, attaching it to a

Gothic building. In fact, neither Wren nor Inigo Jones appears to have

had the slightest sense of the incongruity of such conjunctions. Jones

actually erected a Grecian screen to the beautiful Gothic choir of

Winchester Cathedral, and placed a Grecian bishop's throne in it, amid

the glorious canopy-work of that choir. The return to a better taste

swept these monstrosities away.

The fame of Wren must rest on St. Paul's, for in palaces he was less

happy than in churches. His additions to Windsor Castle and St.

James's Palace, and his erection of Marlborough House are by no means

calculated to do him high honour, whilst all lovers of architecture

must deplore the removal of a great part of Wolsey's palace at Hampton

Court to make way for Wren's structure. A glorious view, if old

drawings are to be believed, must all that vast and picturesque variety

of towers, battlements, tall mullioned windows, cupolas, and pinnacles,

have made, as they stood under the clear heaven glittering in the sun.

The writers who saw it in its glory describe it in its entireness

as the most splendid palace in Europe. Of the campaniles of Wren,

that of St. Bride's, Fleet Street; of Bow Church, Cheapside; of St.

Dunstan's-in-the-East; and the tower of St. Michael's, Cornhill, are

the finest. The last is almost his only Gothic one, and would have been

a fine tower had the ornament been equally diffused over it, and not

all been crowded too near the top. Wren was thwarted in his design for

the London Monument. He drew a plan for one with gilt flames issuing

from the loop-holes, and surmounted by a phœnix, but as no such design

could be found in the five Orders, it was rejected, and the existing

commonplace affair erected. One of his last undertakings was the repair

of Westminster Abbey, to which he added the towers at the west end,

and proposed to erect a spire in the centre. Sir Christopher left a

large quantity of drawings, which are preserved in All Souls' College

library, Oxford.

The next great architect of this period is Sir John Vanbrugh, who,

when in the zenith of his fame as a dramatic writer, suddenly started

forth as an architect, and had the honour of erecting Castle Howard,

the seat of the Earl of Carlisle; Blenheim House, built for the Duke

of Marlborough, in reward of his victories; Duncomb Hall, Yorkshire;

King's Weston, in Gloucestershire; Oulton Hall, Cheshire; Grimsthorpe,

in Lincolnshire; Eastbury, in Dorsetshire, now destroyed; and Seaton

Delaval, in Northumberland, since partly destroyed by fire. Besides

these, he built the opera house, also destroyed by fire. In all these

there is a strong similarity, and as a general effect, a certain

magnificence; but, when examined in detail, they too frequently resolve

themselves into a row of individual designs merely arranged side by

side. This is very much the case with the long façade of Blenheim.

There is a barbaric splendour, but it has no pervading unity, and only

differs from the Italian manner of Wren by a much bolder and profuser

use of the Grecian columns and pilasters. In fact, the architecture of

the whole of this period is of a hybrid character, the classical more

or less modified and innovated to adapt it to modern purposes and the

austerity of a northern climate.

Amongst the most distinguished of this series of architects is James

Gibbs, who, after studying in Italy, returned to England in time

to secure the erection of some of the fifty churches ordered to be

built in the metropolis and its vicinity in the tenth year of Queen

Anne. The first which he built is his finest--St. Martin's, at the

north-east corner of Trafalgar Square. Besides St. Martin's, Gibbs was

the architect of St. Mary's, in the Strand; of Marylebone Chapel; of

the body of All Saints', Derby--an incongruous addition to a fine old

Gothic tower; of the Radcliffe Library, at Oxford; of the west side of

the quadrangle of King's College, and of the Senate House, Cambridge,

left incomplete. In these latter works Sir James Burrows, the designer

of the beautiful chapel of Clare Hall, in the same university, was also

concerned. Gibbs was, moreover, the architect of St. Bartholomew's

Hospital.

Nicholas Hawksmoor, a pupil of Wren's, and an assistant of Vanbrugh's

in building Castle Howard and Blenheim House, was the architect of St.

George's-in-the-East, Ratcliff Highway, begun in 1715; of St. Mary

Woolnoth, Lombard Street; of St. George's, Bloomsbury; St. Anne's,

Limehouse; of Easton Norton House, in Northamptonshire; and of some

other works, including a mausoleum at Castle Howard, and repairs of the

west front of Westminster Abbey. St. George's, Bloomsbury, is perhaps

his finest structure. It has a Corinthian portico, like St. Martin's,

and the steeple is surmounted by a statue of George II.

During this period, St. John the Evangelist, Westminster, was built

by Thomas Archer. The churches of Greenwich, of St. George's, Hanover

Square, and St. Luke's, Middlesex, were designed by John James. To this

time likewise belong St. Giles's-in-the-Fields; St. Olave's, Southwark,

and Woburn Abbey, by Flitcroft; Chatsworth House and Thoresby, by

Salmon; Montagu House, by the French architect, Pouget; All Saints'

Church, and the Peckwater Quadrangle of Christ Church, Oxford, by Dean

Aldrich; and the library of Christ Church, designed by Dr. George

Clarke, M.P. for Oxford, in the reign of Anne. After these the Earl of

Burlington, a worshipper of Palladio and Inigo Jones, became a very

fashionable architect, and built the dormitory at Westminster School;

Petersham House, and other noblemen's mansions. The fine colonnade in

the courtyard of Burlington House is also his work. Burlington was

essentially a copyist, as was his protégé Kent, who built Holkham,

in Norfolk, and the Horse Guards, but acquired as much reputation

by his landscape gardening as he gained little by his architecture.

Towards the end of this period several foreign artists were employed in

England. We have already named Pouget; Giacomo Leoni was much employed;

and Labelye, a Swiss, built Westminster Bridge, which was completed in

1747. Thomas Ripley, originally a carpenter, built the Admiralty.

Painting, like architecture, was at a very low ebb during this period,

with one or two brilliant exceptions. Foreign artists were in demand,

and there was no native talent, except that of Thornhill and Hogarth,

which could claim to be unjustly overlooked in that preference.

Sir Peter Lely was still living, but Sir Godfrey Kneller, another

foreigner, was already taking his place. Kneller was a German, born

at Lübeck, and educated under the best Flemish masters of the day. As

he had chosen portrait-painting as his department, he hastened over

to England after a visit to Rome and Venice, as the most profitable

field for his practice, and being introduced to Charles II. by the

Duke of Monmouth, he became at once the fashion. Kneller had talents

of the highest order, and, had not his passion for money-making been

still greater, he would have taken rank with the great masters; but,

having painted a few truly fine pictures, he relied on them to secure

his fame, and commenced an actual manufacture of portraits for the

accumulation of money. Like Rubens, he sketched out the main figure,

and painted the head and face, leaving his pupils to fill in all the

rest. He worked with wonderful rapidity, and had figures often prepared

beforehand, on which he fitted heads as they were commissioned. Sir

John Medina, a Fleming, was the chief manufacturer of ready-made

figures and postures for him, the rest filled in the draperies and

backgrounds. Kneller had a bold, free, and vigorous hand, painting with

wonderful rapidity, and much of the grace of Vandyck, but only a few

of his works show what he was capable of. The beauties of the Court

of William and Mary, which may be seen side by side with those of the

Court of Charles II. by Lely at Hampton Court, are far inferior to

Lely's.

During this time foreign painters of various degrees of merit

flourished in England. Amongst these were John Baptist Vanloo, brother

of the celebrated Carl Vanloo, a careful artist; Joseph Vanaken, a

native of Antwerp, who did for Hudson what his countrymen did for

Kneller--furnished draperies and attitudes. He worked for many others,

so that Hogarth painted his funeral as followed by all the painters

of the day in despair. The celebrated battle-painter, Peter Vander

Meulen, Hemskerk, Godfrey Schalcken, famous for his candle-light

effects, John Van Wyck, a famous painter of horses, James Bogdani, a

Hungarian flower, bird, and fruit painter, Balthazar Denner, famous for

his wonderfully finished heads, especially of old people, and Theodore

Netscher, the son of Gaspar Netscher, all painted in England in the

earlier part of the eighteenth century. Boit--a painter of French

parentage--Liotard, and Zincke, were noted enamel painters. Peter

Tillemans, who painted English landscapes, seats, busts, roses, etc.,

died in 1734; and the celebrated Canaletti came to England in 1746,

and stayed about two years, but was not very successful, the English

style of architecture, and, still more, the want of the transparent

atmosphere of Italy, being unfavourable to his peculiar talent.

[Illustration: ST. PAUL'S CATHEDRAL, LONDON, AND LUDGATE HILL, AS IT

WAS.]

There was also a vast deal of decorations of ceilings and staircases

still going on, and foreign artists flocked over to execute it.

Laguerre, a Frenchman, succeeded Verrio in this department, and his

works yet remain at Hampton Court, Burleigh, Blenheim, and other

places. Laguerre was appointed to paint the cupola of St. Paul's,

designs having been offered also by Antonio Pellegrini, who had thus

embellished Castle Howard; but their claims were overruled in favour

of Sir James Thornhill. Besides these, there were Lafosse, who had

decorated Montagu House, Amiconi, a Venetian, and others, who executed

many hundred square yards of such work in England. Such was the fashion

for these foreign decorators, that when a native artist appeared equal

to any one of them in skill and talent, and superior to most, he found

himself paid at a very inferior and invidious rate.

This was the case with Sir James Thornhill, of Thornhill, near

Weymouth. His father, however, had spent his fortune and sold the

estate, and Sir James, being fond of art, determined to make it his

profession to regain his property. His uncle, the celebrated Dr.

Sydenham, assisted him in the scheme. He studied in London, and then

travelled through Flanders, Holland, and France. On his return he was

appointed by Queen Anne to paint the history of St. Paul in the dome of

the new cathedral of St. Paul, in eight pictures in chiaroscuro, with

the lights hatched in gold. So much was the work approved, that he was

made historical painter to the queen. The chief works of the kind by

Sir James were the Princess's apartment at Hampton Court, the gallery

and several ceilings in Kensington Palace, a hall at Blenheim, a chapel

at Lord Oxford's, at Wimpole, a saloon of Mr. Styles's, at Moorpark,

and the ceilings of the great hall at Greenwich Hospital. On the

ceiling of the lower hall appear, amid much allegorical scenery, the

portraits of William and Mary, of Tycho Brahe, Copernicus, Newton, and

others; on that of the upper hall appear the portraits of Queen Anne

and her husband, the Prince of Denmark; and paintings of the landing of

William at Torbay, and the arrival of George I. There are, in addition,

portraits of George I., and two generations of his family. Sir James

also painted the altar-piece of All Souls', Oxford, and one presented

to his native town, Weymouth.

Other English artists of this period were John Riley, an excellent

and original painter, who died in 1691; Murray, a Scotsman; Charles

Jervas, the friend of Pope, a man much overrated by his acquaintance;

and Jonathan Richardson, a much superior artist to Jervas, and author

of the valuable "Essay on the Art of Criticism, as it relates to

Painting." Thomas Hudson, a pupil of Richardson, and his son-in-law,

was an admirable painter of heads, and had the honour of being the

instructor of Sir Joshua Reynolds. Henry Cook, like Thornhill, was a

decorator, and painted the choir of New College Chapel, at Oxford, and

the ceiling of a large room at the New River head. Among other artists

of repute there may be named Luke Cradock, a flower and fruit painter;

John Wootton, an animal painter; Francis Hayman, an historical painter

and designer for book-plates--those for "Don Quixote" being his best;

and George Lambert, one of the first English landscape painters of any

mark.

Far above all other English artists of this period, however, stood

William Hogarth (_b._ 1697). There is no artist of that or any former

age who is so thoroughly English. He is a John Bull from head to

foot--sturdy, somewhat headstrong, opinionated, and satirical. He is,

indeed, the great satirist of the brush; but his satire, keen as it

is, is employed as the instrument of the moralist; the things which he

denounces and derides are crimes, follies, and perverted tastes. In

his own conduct, as on his canvas, he displayed the same spirit, often

knocking down his own interests rather than not express his indignant

feeling of what was spurious in art, or unjust towards himself. Hogarth

was the first English painter who attracted much notice amongst

foreigners, and he still remains one of the most original in genius

of the British school. His subjects are not chosen from the loftier

regions of life and imagination, but from the very lowest or the most

corrupted ones of the life of his country and time. "The Harlot's

Progress," "The Rake's Progress," "Marriage _à la Mode_," "The March

to Finchley," "Gín Lane," "Beer Lane," etc., present a series of

subjects from which the delicate and sensitive will always revolt, and

which have necessarily an air of vulgarity about them, but the purpose

consecrates them; for they are not selected to pander to vice and

folly, but to expose, to brand, to extirpate them.

He first published an engraving of "The Small Masquerade Ticket, or

Burlington Gate," in ridicule of Lord Burlington's architecture, and

of Pope's eulogiums on Burlington and satire of the Duke of Chandos.

He illustrated "Hudibras," and produced a satirical plate, "The

Taste of the Times," in 1724; and, some years after, "The Midnight

Conversation" and "Southwark Fair." Not content with the fame which

this vein, so peculiarly his own, was bringing him, he had the ambition

to attempt the historical style, but this was a decided failure. In

1734, however, he came out in his full and peculiar strength in "The

Harlot's Progress." The melancholy truth of this startling drama,

mingled with touches of genuine humour, seized at once on the minds

of all classes. It became at once immensely popular; it was put

on the stage, and twelve hundred subscriptions for the engravings

produced a rich harvest of profit. In the following year he produced

"The Rake's Progress," which, though equally clever, had not the same

recommendation of novelty. In 1744 he offered for sale the original

paintings of these subjects, as well as "The Four Times of the Day,"

and "The Strolling Actresses Dressing in a Barn;" but here he felt the

effects of the sturdy English expression of his sentiments on art, and

his distributing of an engraving of "The Battle of the Pictures," as a

ticket of admission, gave great offence to painters and their patrons.

The whole sum received was only four hundred and twenty-seven pounds.

Undaunted by his self-injuring avowal of his opinions, he offered in

1750 the pictures of "Marriage _à la Mode_" for sale, but put forth

an advertisement in such caustic terms, as he reflected on the result

of his former auction, that he effectually kept away purchasers, and

obtained only a hundred and twenty pounds for what Mr. Angerstein

afterwards gave a thousand pounds for. His "March to Finchley" being

sent for the royal inspection, so impressed George II. with the idea

that it was a caricature of his Guards, that, though the engraving of

it was dedicated to him, he ordered the picture out of his sight, with

expressions of great indignation. Hogarth quietly substituted the name

of the King of Prussia in the dedication, as "an encourager of the

arts."

Soon after appeared his twelve plates of "Industry and Idleness," and

in 1753 he published a work called "The Analysis of Beauty," in which

he attempted to prove that the foundation of beauty and grace consists

in a flowing serpentine line. He gave numerous examples of it, and

supported his theory with much ingenious argument. The book brought

down upon him a perfect tempest of critical abuse from his envious and

enraged contemporaries. In 1757 he visited France, and being engaged in

sketching in Calais, he was seized and underwent very rough treatment

from "the politest nation in the world," under an impression that

he was employed by the English government to make drawings of the

fortifications. This adventure he has commemorated in his picture of

"Calais Gate." In the following year he painted his "Sigismunda."

Besides those enumerated, "The Four Election Scenes," "The Enraged

Musician," "The Distressed Poet," and "England and France"--all made

familiar to the public by engravings--are amongst his best works. In

1760 occurred the first exhibition of pictures by British artists, the

works of Hogarth being an actuating cause. He had presented to the

Foundling Hospital, besides his "March to Finchley," his "Marriage _à

la Mode_," and his "Moses brought before Pharaoh's Daughter," his most

successful picture of that kind; and Hayman and other artists having

followed his example, a company of artists conceived the idea that an

exhibition of the works of living artists might be made profitable.

Hogarth fell readily into the plan, till it was proposed to add to this

a royal academy of arts, which he opposed with all his might. He died

in 1764, and was buried in the churchyard at Chiswick, where also lies

by his side his wife, who survived him twenty-five years.

In sculpture at this period we stood much lower than in painting. Here

we had no Hogarth, nor even a Thornhill. All that was of any value in

this art proceeded from the chisels of foreigners, and even in that

what an immense distance from the grand simplicity of the ancients! The

sculpture of Italy and France was in the ascendant, but Bernini and

Roubiliac had little in common with Phidias and Praxiteles, and our

own sculptors presented a melancholy contrast to the work of artists

of the worst age of Greece or Rome; there is scarcely a name that is

worth mentioning. The best of the native sculptors was John Bushnell,

who was employed by Wren to execute the statues of the kings at Temple

Bar; and Francis Bird, who was also employed later by Wren to execute

"The Conversion of St. Paul," in the pediment of the new cathedral, the

bas-reliefs under the portico, and the group in front, all of a very

ordinary character. His best work is the monument of Dr. Busby in the

transept of Westminster Abbey. Besides this he executed the monument of

Sir Cloudesley Shovel, also at Westminster, and the bronze statue of

Henry VI., in the quadrangle of Eton College, both very indifferent.

Gibbs and Bird executed the ponderous and tasteless monument of

Holles, Duke of Newcastle, at Westminster, and the fine old minster is

disgraced by a crowd of still more contemptible productions of this

period. These can only be equalled in wretchedness by the works of a

trading school, who supplied copies in lead of ancient gods, goddesses,

shepherds, shepherdesses, etc., for the gardens of the nobility, which

soon swarmed in legions in all the gardens and areas in and around the

metropolis. Amongst the chief dealers in this traffic were Cheere and

Charpentier, who employed foreign artists, even, for such images, and

it was the fortune of Roubiliac to commence his English career with the

former of these traders. The three chief foreigners of this period were

Rysbraeck, Scheemakers, and Roubiliac, who were copyists of the French

sculptors Coysevox, Bouchardon, and Le Moyne, as these had been of

Bernini.

Notwithstanding the constant wars of this time, British shipping,

commerce, colonies, and manufactures made considerable progress. At

the commencement of this period the amount of shipping employed in

our commerce was altogether 244,788 tons, being 144,264 tons English,

and 100,524 foreign; in 1701 the amount of shipping employed was

337,328 tons, of which alone 293,703 were English. In 1702, the end of

William's reign, the number of English mercantile vessels was about

3,281, employing 27,196 seamen. The royal navy, at the end of William's

reign, amounted to about 159,000 tons, employing some 50,000 sailors,

so that the seamen of England must have amounted at that period to

nearly 80,000.

At the end of the reign of Anne the shipping employed in commerce

amounted to 448,000 tons, of which only 26,573 tons were foreign; so

that the English mercantile shipping had increased, in little more than

twelve years, 127,800 tons. At the end of the reign of George I. our

mercantile shipping was only 456,000 tons, the foreign being 23,651

tons; so that the increase for the time was but slight. The royal

navy had greatly decreased under George I. At the end of the reign of

George II., the total amount of our commercial shipping was 573,978

tons, including 112,737 foreign. Thus, whilst the total shipping at the

commencement of this period (in 1688) was only 244,788 tons, at the

end of it (in 1760) the total was 573,978 tons, or a nett increase,

in seventy-two years, of 329,190 tons: the increase being much larger

than the total amount of tonnage possessed at the commencement of

the period, the amount of foreign shipping remaining very nearly the

same--in fact, only 12,000 tons more. The royal navy, which, at the

commencement of the period, was reckoned at 101,892 tons, at the end

of it was 321,104 tons, showing an increase of 219,212 tons; and, at

the rate of men employed at the commencement, the number now employed

in both our commercial and our national navy could not be fewer than

160,000 men.

The growth of our commerce during these seventy-two years is shown

by the amount of our exports. In 1697--that is, nine years after the

Revolution--the amount of exports was only £3,525,907; but in the

three next years of peace they rose to £6,709,881. War reduced these

again to little more than £5,000,000, and at the end of the reign

of Anne, during peace, they rose to £8,000,000. At the end of the

reign of George I. the war had so much checked our commerce, that

the exports scarcely amounted to that sum, the average of the three

years--1726, 1727, and 1728--being only £7,891,739. By the end of the

reign of George II., however (1760), they had risen to £14,693,270.

Having by this period driven the fleets of France and Spain from the

ocean, we rather extended our commerce than injured it. Thus, during

these seventy-two years, our exports had increased from about three

millions and a half annually to more than fourteen millions and a half

annually, or a yearly difference of upwards of eleven millions--a most

substantial growth.

One great cause of this progress was the growth of our colonies. They

began now to demand a considerable quantity of our manufactures and

other articles of domestic comfort and convenience, and to supply us

with a number of items of raw material. Towards the end of the reign of

George I. our American colonies, besides the number of convicts that

we sent thither, especially to Virginia and Maryland, attracted a

considerable emigration of free persons, particularly to Pennsylvania,

in consequence of the freedom of its constitution as founded by Penn,

and the freedom for the exercise of religion.

[Illustration: WILLIAM HOGARTH. (_After the Portrait begun by Weltdon

and finished by himself._)]

New York, Jersey, and the New England States traded in the same

commodities: they also built a considerable number of ships, and

manufactured, especially in Massachusetts, coarse linens and woollens,

iron, hats, rum, besides drying great quantities of fish for Spain,

Portugal, and the Mediterranean markets. Massachusetts already employed

40,000 tons of shipping. New England furnished the finest masts in the

world for the navy; Virginia and Maryland furnished 50,000 hogsheads

of tobacco, annually valued at £370,000; employing 24,000 tons of

shipping. From these colonies we received also large quantities of

skins, wool, furs, flax, etc. Carolina had become a great rice-growing

country. By the year 1733 it had nearly superseded the supply of that

article from Italy in Spain and Portugal; in 1740 it exported nearly

100,000 barrels of rice; and seven years afterwards, besides its rice,

it sent to England 200,000 pounds of indigo, rendering us independent

of France for that article; and at the end of the present period its

export of indigo had doubled that quantity, besides a very considerable

exportation of pitch, sassafras, Brazil wood, skins, Indian corn, and

other articles.

In 1732 the new colony of Georgia was founded by General Oglethorpe,

and became a silk-growing country, exporting, by the end of this

period, 10,000 pounds of raw silk annually.

The rapid growth of the commerce of the American colonies excited an

intense jealousy in our West Indian Islands, which claimed a monopoly

of supply of sugar, rum, molasses, and other articles to all the

British possessions. The Americans trading with the French, Dutch,

Spaniards, etc., took these articles in return; but the West Indian

proprietors prevailed upon the British Government, in 1733, to impose

a duty on the import of any produce of foreign plantations into the

American colonies, besides granting a drawback on the re-exportation

of West Indian sugar from Great Britain. This was one of the first

pieces of legislation of which the American colonies had a just right

to complain. At this period our West Indies produced about 85,000

hogsheads of sugar, or 1,200,000 cwts. About three hundred sail were

employed in the trade with these islands, and some 4,500 sailors; the

value of British manufactures exported thither being nearly £240,000

annually, but our imports from Jamaica alone averaged at that time

£539,492. Besides rum, sugar, and molasses, we received from the West

Indies cotton, indigo, ginger, pimento, cocoa, coffee, etc.

During this period a vast empire was beginning to unfold itself in the

East Indies, destined to produce a vast trade, and pour a perfect mine

of wealth into Great Britain. The victories of Clive, Eyre Coote, and

others, were telling on our commerce. During the early part of this

period this effect was slow, and our exports to India and China up to

1741 did not average more than £148,000 per annum in value. Bullion,

however, was exported to pay expenses and to purchase tea to an annual

amount of upwards of half a million. Towards the end of this period,

however, our exports to India and China amounted annually to more than

half a million; and the necessity for the export of bullion had sunk

to an annual demand for less than £100,000. The amount of tea imported

from China during this period rose from about 140,000 pounds annually

to nearly 3,000,000 pounds annually--an enormous increase.

The progress of our manufactures was equally satisfactory. At the

commencement of this period that great innovator and benefactor,

the steam-engine, was produced. The idea thrown out by the Marquis

of Worcester, in his "Century of Inventions," in 1663, had been

neglected as mere wild theory till Savery, in 1698, constructed a

steam-engine for draining mines. This received successive improvements

from Newcomen and Crawley, and further ones from Brindley in 1756,

and Watt extended these at the end of this period, though this

mighty agent has received many improvements since. Navigable canals,

also, date their introduction by the Duke of Bridgewater, under the

management of Brindley, from the latter end of this period, 1758.

Other great men, Arkwright, Compton, Hargreaves, etc., were now busily

at work in developing machinery, and applying steam to it, which has

revolutionised the system of manufacture throughout the world. In 1754

the Society of Arts and Manufactures was established.

One great article of manufacture and export, however, down to this

period, continued to be that of our woollens. To guard this manufacture

many Acts had been passed at different times, prohibiting the

exportation of the raw material. Immediately after the Revolution a

fresh Act of this kind was passed, and such was the jealousy even of

the Irish and of our American colonies weaving woollen cloths, that,

in 1689, an Act was passed prohibiting the exportation of wool or

woollen goods from Ireland or our plantations to any country except

England. Having taken measures thus to confine as much as possible the

profit of the woollen manufacture to England, the next year, which saw

all protecting duties taken off corn, saw also leave given for the

exportation of woollen cloths duty-free from England to any part of the

world. Sir William Davenant estimates the value of the yearly growth

of wool in England at this time at about £2,000,000, and the value of

its woollen manufactures at £8,000,000. He calculates that one-fourth

of this amount was exported. In 1738 Mr. John Kay invented the mode of

casting the shuttle by what is called a "picking-peg," by which means

the weaver was enabled to weave cloths of any width, and throw off

twice the quantity in the same time. In 1758 the Leeds Cloth Hall was

erected, and, about twenty years afterwards, a hall for white cloths.

The silk trade received a great impulse by the erection of a silk-mill

at Derby, in 1719, by John Lombe and his brothers. Lombe had smuggled

himself into a silk-mill in Italy, as a destitute workman, and had

then copied all the machinery. To prevent the operation of this new

silk factory in England--which was worked by a water-wheel on the

river Derwent, had 97,746 wheels, movements, and individual parts,

and employed three hundred persons--the King of Sardinia prohibited

the exportation of the raw material, and thus, for a time, checked

the progress of the manufacture. Parliament voted Sir Thomas Lombe

£14,000 as a compensation for loss of profits thus occasioned, on

condition that the patent, which he had obtained for fourteen years,

should expire, and the right to use the machinery should be thrown

open to the public. By the middle of this period our silk manufactures

were declared superior to those of Italy, and the tradesmen of

Naples recommended their silk stockings as English ones. In 1755

great improvements were introduced by Mr. Jedediah Strutt in the

stocking-loom of Lee.

As the woollen manufactures of Ireland had received a check from the

selfishness of the English manufacturers, it was sought to compensate

the Protestants of Ulster by encouraging the linen manufacture there,

which the English did not value so much as their woollen. A Board was

established in Dublin in 1711, and one also in Scotland in 1727, for

the purpose of superintending the trade, and bounties and premiums on

exportation were offered. In these favourable circumstances the trade

rapidly grew, both in Ireland and Scotland. In 1750 seven and a half

million yards of linen were annually woven in Scotland alone.

The lace manufacture was still prosecuted merely by hand, and chiefly

in Buckinghamshire, Bedfordshire, and in the West of England. No lace

was produced from machinery before 1768.

In the manufacture of iron a most material discovery of smelting the

ore by the use of pit-coal was made. The forests of England were so

much reduced by the consumption of wood in the iron furnaces, that it

was contemplated removing the business to our American colonies. This

necessity was obviated by the discovery by Dud Dudley of a mode of

manufacturing bar-iron with coal instead of wood. This discovery had

been patented in 1619, yet, singularly, had been neglected; but in 1740

the principle was applied at Coalbrookdale, and iron thus made tough

or brittle, as was wished. Iron works, now not confined to one spot

by the necessity of wood, sprang up at various places in England and

Wales, and the great works at Rotherham were established in 1750, and

the famous Carron works in Scotland in 1760. The quantity of pig-iron

made in 1740 was calculated at 17,000 tons, and the number of people

employed in the iron trade at the end of this period is supposed to be

little short of 300,000.

The production of copper during this period was so plentiful, that,

though the great mines in Anglesea were not yet discovered, full

liberty was given to export it, except to France. From 1736 to 1745

the mines of Cornwall alone produced about 700 tons annually, and the

yearly amount was constantly increasing. A manufactory of brass--the

secret of which mixture was introduced from Germany, in 1649--was

established in Birmingham, in 1748; and, at the end of this period,

the number of persons employed in making articles of copper and

brass was, probably, not less than 50,000. The manufacture of tinned

iron commenced in Wales about 1730, and in 1740 further improvements

were made in this process. Similar improvements were making in the

refinement of metals, and in the manufacture of silver plate, called

Sheffield plate. English watches acquired great reputation, but

afterwards fell into considerable disrepute from the employment of

inferior foreign works. Printing types, which we had before imported

from Holland, were first made in England in the reign of Queen Anne,

by Caslon, an engraver of gun-locks and barrels. In 1725 William Ged,

a Scotsman, discovered the art of stereotyping, but did not introduce

it without strong opposition from the working printers. Great strides

were made in the paper manufacture. In 1690 we first made white paper,

and in 1713 it is calculated that 300,000 reams of all kinds of paper

were made in England. An excise duty was first laid on paper in 1711.

Our best china and earthenware were still imported, and, both in style

and quality, our own pottery was very inferior, for Wedgwood had not

yet introduced his wonderful improvements. Defoe introduced pantiles

at his manufactory at Tilbury, before which time we imported them from

Holland. The war with France compelled us to encourage the manufacture

of glass; in 1697 the excise duty, imposed three years before, was

repealed, but in 1746 duties were imposed on the articles used in its

manufacture, and additional duties on its exportation. The manufacture

of crown glass was not introduced till after this period.

The effects of the growth in our commerce and manufactures, and the

consequent increase of the national wealth, were seen in the extension

of London and other of our large towns. Eight new parishes were added

to the metropolis during this period; the Chelsea Waterworks were

established in 1721; and Westminster Bridge was completed in 1750.

Bristol, Hull, Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham, Sheffield, Leeds,

Edinburgh, Glasgow, Frome, Dublin, and several other towns, grew

amazingly.