circumstances which caused that unfortunate catastrophe. It is not by my pen that miserable story shall be told. It was a transaction wherein her royal friend had directly or indirectly no concern, nor did it in any way spring out of that connexion. She had, in fact, only to accuse herself of benevolence, confidence, and honour to those demerits, and to the worse than ingratitude of others, she fell a lingering, broken-hearted victim."

It is impossible to make either a truer or more objectionable statement than the preceding. And it resulted from a wish to relieve a most generous and noble mind from the aspersions cast upon it. But Sir Jonah goes further, and in very delicate language, acquits her sons, by the connexion referred to, of any share in the event which he so properly deplores. There is a mode, of which Sir Jonah has availed himself with professional skill, of declining to tell a story, at the very time when you are hinting the whole of it; and revealing the person whom you accuse, without naming him, by describing sufficiently those whom you intend to acquit. He has withdrawn his noble friend and his children-he has told us of" the punctilious honour

and integrity of General Hawker," who had married one of Mrs. Jordan's daughters, by Sir Richard Ford. In 1827, Sir Jonah, and every body else who was at all interested, knew that Mr. Alsop, who married the eldest, or Miss Jordan, had died in India, and that the unfortunate and misled woman herself had perished miserably in America. He, therefore, in fact, most distinctly pointed out the offender, whom he accuses of betraying confidence, forfeiting his honour, and repaying benevolence with ruin.

The gentleman thus shadowed out, rather than drawn, is unknown personally to me, and will probably remain so he must bear as much of this accusation as he cannot throw off. He once made a statement of that miserable story, which Sir Jonah's pen would not tell, and submitted it to a liberal and enlightened friend, in whose opinion he wished to stand clear, at least of every thing but his misfortunes. The reader shall, in a few minutes, have it in substance as I perused it.

Before his explanation is read, I must take the liberty to remark upon the luxury and splendor of

which a picture has been drawn by Sir Jonah Barrington; and which, as far as the royal bounty was or could be made applicable to the dear lady's use, there is not the slightest reason to question. Sir Jonah has told us of 7,000l. made in her last professional tours, a noble addition to the splendid fortune, which almost unexampled success had, we might fancy, been accumulating through her life. But all seems to have been checked and withered away (but the bounty of her illustrious friend) by the conduct of the gentleman once so dear in her esteem. May we venture to inquire what had become of that vast fortune, which we have vainly fancied to be a growing bank and fund of provision for herself and her children? Suppose it could have been established that he had engaged Mrs. Jordan's name and credit to the amount of 5,000l.

-what was to hinder her from paying the bonds thrice," if once would not have sufficed, rather than becoming a fugitive in a foreign land, and dying of dejection and alarm as much as of disease? But we have, from her own pen, a detail of her circumstances, before she knew any thing of the embarrassments of the person in question, and

a most astonishing exhibition it is.

I use her own

words, that no colouring of mine may seem to deepen the disastrous picture.

"When every thing is adjusted, it will be impossible for me to remain in England-I shall "therefore go abroad, appropriating as much as I can spare of the remainder of my income to pay my debts.

"Be silent on the subject of my going abroad, "or it may embarrass me."

At this time she was so little aware of the difficulties shortly to excite her attention, that she absolutely apologises to the PERSON, for withdrawing a slight addition she had been happy to make to his income, in order to carry into effect the arrangements proposed, for the salvation, indeed, of her daughter Alsop. How, it will be asked, did she come into such unlooked-for straitness, as to what should have rendered her independent even of royal bounty?-Who had swallowed up the recompense of her glorious talent,

* As to Mrs. Alsop-see her letter, p. 300.

the growth from the stock of her own industry? Her sons in law had not been half paid the intended portions of their wives. But all her connexions, of every degree, were her annuitants.

Without meaning offence, her sons in the army, young men of high spirit, and involved in some unpleasant circumstances occasionally, might appeal to a mother's indulgence; and, I am sure, always found the appeal answered. There is something in the military profession peculiarly dear to the fancy of a parent: the warmth of her expressions, when she names them, shows the ascendancy they possessed, in a mind uniformly affectionate and liberal. I am persuaded that she would consider fortune, at all times, as a trivial oblation to either their gallantry or their love.

man,

However, at length we find a hint that something has created annoyance in the quarter alluded to" I am truly sorry," says this excellent wo"that you have not been comfortable—what has been the matter?" When the explanation had been given, she seems to have granted the securities required, and thus replies to a letter from the gentleman interested.