Bedel make sacred the unblest soil, in which they moulder; but whilst I believe and am persuaded, that his incorruptible is received into bliss eternal, what concerns it me where his corruptible is laid? The corpse of my lamented mother, the instructress of my youth, the friend and charm of my maturer years, is deposited by his side.

My father's patronage at Kilmore was very considerable, and this he strictly bestowed upon the clergy of his diocese, promoting the curates to the smaller livings, as vacancies occurred, and exacting from every man, whom he put into a living, where there was no parsonage-house, a solemn promise to build; but I am sorry to say that in no single instance was that promise fulfilled; which breach of faith gave him great concern, and in the cases of some particular friends, whom he had promoted in full persuasion of their keeping faith with him, afflicted him very sensibly, as I had occasion to know and lament. The opportunities he had of benefiting his fortune and family by fines, and the lapse of leases, which might have been considerable, he honourably declined to avail himself of, for when he had

tendered his renewals upon the most moderate terms, and these had been delayed or rejected in his days of health, he peremptorily withstood their offers, when he found his life was hastening to its period, esteeming it according to his high sense of honour not perfectly fair to his .successor to take what he called the packingpenny, and sweep clean before his departure. He left his see therefore much more valuable than he found it by this liberal and disinterested conduct, by which it was natural to hope he had secured to his executors the good offices and assistance of his successor in recovering the outstanding arrears due to his survivors-but in that hope we were shamefully disappointed; neither these arrears, nor even his legal demands for monies expended on improvements, beneficial to the demesne, and regularly certified by his diocesan, could be recovered by me for my sister's use, till the Lord Primate took the cause in hand, and enforced the sluggish and unwilling satisfaction from the bishop, who succeeded him.

Previous to these unhappy events I had written my fourth comedy of The Choleric Man, and left it with Mr. Garrick for repre

sentation. Whilst I was at Bath the rehearsals were going on, and the play was brought upon the stage during my absence. It succeeded to the utmost of my wishes, but when I perceived that the malevolence of the public prints suffered no abatement, and saw myself charged with having vented contemptuous and illiberal speeches in the theatre, where I could not have been, against productions of my contemporaries, which I had neither heard nor seen, galled with such false and cruel aspersions, which, under the pressure of my recent losses and misfortunes, fell on me with accumulated asperity, I was induced to retort upon my defamers, and accordingly prefixed to the printed copy of my comedy a Dedication to Detraction, in which I observe that "Ill"health and other melancholy attentions, which "I need not explain, kept me at a distance "from the scene of its decision-" The chief object of this dedication was directed to a certain tract then in some degree of circulation, entitled An Essay on the Theatre, in which the writer professes to draw a comparison between laughing and sentimental Comedy, and under the latter description particularly points

his observations at The Fashionable Lover. There is no occasion for me to speak further of this dedication, as it is attached to the comedy, which is yet in print, except to observe that I can still repeat with truth what I there assert to my imaginary patron, that "I can "take my conscience to witness I have paid "him no sacrifice, devoted no time or study to his service, nor am a man in any respect "qualified to repay his favours—.”

Garrick wrote the epilogue to this comedy, as he also did that to the West-Indian, and

Mrs. Abington spoke it. That charming actress was now at the height of her faine, and performed the part of Lætitia in a style, that gave great support to the representation. The two brothers, formed upon the plan of Terence's Adelphi, were well cast between Mr. King and Mr. Aickin, and Weston personated Jack Nightshade with inimitable humour.The chief effect in this play is produced by the strong contrast of character between Manlove and the Choleric Man, and again with more comic force between Charles the courtly gentleman and Jack the rustic booby, who at the first meeting with his brother exclaims-"Who

"wou'd think you and I were whelps of the

same breed? You are as sleek as my lady's "lap dog, I am rough as a water-spaniel, bedaggled and be-mired, as if I had come out "of the fens with wild fowl; why, I have brought off as much soil upon my boots "only as wou'd set up a Norfolk farmer-"

It was observed of this comedy that the spirit of the two first acts was not kept up through the concluding three, and the general sense of the public was said to confirm this remark, therefore I presume it is true. It was a successful play in its time, though it has not been so often before the public as any of the three, which preceded it, and since Weston's decease it has been consigned to the shelf. If ever there shall be found an editor of my dramatic works as an entire collection, this comedy will stand forward as one of the most prominent amongst them. The plot indeed is not original, but the characters are humorously contrasted, and there is point and spirit in the dialogue. Such as it is, it was the fourth produced in four succeeding seasons, and if I acquired any small share of credit by those, which preceded it, I did not forfeit it by the publica