EARL OF CHESTERFIELD.

PHILIP DORMER STANHOPE, Earl of Chesterfield, born in 1694, and who received his education at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, was no less celebrated for his talents as a statesman and distinguished orator, than for his taste for the Belles Lettres, and his amiable personal qualities. He manifested from his youth a desire of pleasing and of rendering himself conspicuous; and this disposition, carried to excess, was the spring of all his actions, and frequently productive of the happiest effects. Naturally hasty, and of a temper extremely irascible, he was so highly affected at some words which escaped him at an early age, in a moment of passion, that he resolved to restrain his impetuosity; and from that instant had such an ascendency over himself, that in whatever circumstance he was placed, he never betrayed the smallest emotion. He took his seat in the House of Peers in 1726, was chosen a member of the administration in the following year, upon the accession of George II. (with whom he was a particular favourite) in conjunction with Sir Robert Walpole, and sent ambassador to Holland in 1728. He then acquired so much influence by his wit and address, that the king conceived it to his interest to suffer him to remain there for several years. Compelled at length to return to his native country, by reason of indisposition, the earl signalized himself in the House of Peers by his oratory, and in the council by his talents and sagacity. He enjoyed for a time

considerable popularity, and the remembrance of his administration as lord lieutenant of Ireland is still alive in that kingdom. He died in 1773, having preserved even to old age his usual gaiety and equanimity of mind.

The Earl of Chesterfield was accused of having changed his political opinion according to circumstances, and of having more than once attempted to subvert the constitution of his country. History, nevertheless, is not unmindful of his efforts in 1737, to maintain the freedom of the stage. He also contributed, it has been said, to render the parliament septennial; although the act which extended the duration of parliament for seven years passed in 1716, at an epoch when the earl had scarcely attained his majority, and he did not take his seat in the house until ten years afterwards.

The Earl of Chesterfield, whose accomplishments were of the most brilliant kind, left behind him several essays on politics and philosophy, which are esteemed, although the principles he has advanced are not generally approved. He is more particularly known as a writer by his" Letters to his Son," the style of which is admirable. In these letters, which were really addressed to a natural son, he has been reproached, and with some reason, for insisting infinitely more on the advantages of amiability, and the talent of pleasing, than on the necessity of virtue and morality. They, however, contain much that is to be applauded as well as condemned.

MADEMOISELLE CLAIRON.

C. H. LEYRIS DELATUDE, known by the name of Clairon, born in the year 1722, of indigent parents, came prematurely into the world in a state of such weakness that her life was despaired of. Ill suited to follow her mother's profession, she complains in her memoirs of the ill treatment she received, which induced her to turn her attention to the stage. She commenced her dramatic career with a strolling company, from which she passed to the theatre at Rouen, performed successively at those of Ghent and Dunkirk, from whence she was advanced to the Royal Academy of Music. In this line she continued some months; but feeling that her talents were more suited to declamation than to song, she made her debut on the Theatre-Français, in the part of of Phodra, with prodigious success, and was soon placed on the first rank, as an actress in regal characters.

A particular intrigue, and the refusal to perform with her colleague Dubois, notwithstanding the repeated clamour of the pit, caused her to be sent to Fort L'Eveque. To be released from thence it was required that she should make a public submission: at this humiliation her pride revolted. She then solicited her apostolical dismissal, which, as it could not be refused, was immediately assented to. She was at that time forty-two years of age. The excommunication levelled against players in general, not a little contributed to prevent her resuming her theatrical