This little work was printed in 1701, with a dedication to lord CUTTS, who had not. only appointed him his private secretary, but procured for him a company in lord LUCAS'S regiment of fuzileers. It consists chiefly of a review of the characters of some celebrated Heathens, contrasted with the life and principles of our blessed Saviour, and of St. Paul, from which it is his object to prove, that none of the heroic virtues, or 'true greatness of mind,' can be maintained, unless upon Christian principles. The language is far from being regular, and, perhaps, he may seem deficient in powers of argument: but his address has much of that honest zeal and affection which comes from the heart. It has been often reprinted and circulated among the middling class of readers, but in his own time probably redounded more to his honour as an author, than to his advantage as a man; for he informs us that the rebuffs he met with, instead of encouragements for his declarations in regard to religion, laid him under a necessity of enlivening his character; and with this view, he wrote his first play, called The Funeral, or Grief Alamode,' which was very successfully performed the same year, and is yet a favourite with the public. This play is said to have procured him the regard of KING WILLIAM, who intended to have bestowed some mark of favour upon him, which the death of that monarch prevented. By the friendship, however, of

Lord HALIFAX, and of the Earl of SUNDERLAND, to whom he had been recommended by ADDI-" SON, he was, in the beginning of QUEEN ANNE's reign, appointed GAZETTEER. ADDISON is said also to have assisted him in the comedy of the Tender Husband, or the Accomplished Fools,' which was acted with great success in 1704. The friendship between these two illustrious characters commenced when they were school-fellows at the Charterhouse. I remember,' says STEELE, when I finished the "Tender Husband," I told him (ADDISON) there was nothing I so tenderly wished, as that we might, some time or other, publish a work written by us both, which should bear the name of the MONUMENT, in memory of our friendship. His next play was The Lying Lover,' which, he tells us, was damned for its piety;' a fate which it does not appear to deserve on that, or any other account more within the province of a dramatic tribunal. There is great regularity in the fable of all his plays, and the characters are well sketched and preserved; but in the dialogue he is sometimes tedious. He wants the quick repartee of CONGREVE; and though possessed of humour, falls into the style rather of an essay than a drama. Much of that point which appears in his TATLERS may be discovered in his Comedies.

After the condemnation of this play, he commenced the TATLER, on the 12th of April,

1709. During its publication, in 1710, he was appointed a commissioner of the Stamp Duties, which he retained after that ministry was dismissed by whose favour the place had been conferred. The TATLER was almost immediately followed by the SPECTATOR and GUARDIAN. In the course of the GUARDIAN, he began to take a greater share in the politics of the day, and engaged with considerable warmth against the ministry, though rather covertly but at length resigning his place in the Stamp Office, and a pension which he had enjoyed as belonging to the household of PRINCE GEORGE OF DENMARK, he declared open war against the ministers, by publishing a GUARDIAN on the demolition of Dunkirk, and other political tracts. On the dissolution of parliament he was returned member for Stockbridge, in Hampshire; but was expelled the house a few days after he took his seat, for some publications which were voted to be seditious and scandalous libels. The most celebrated of these, The Crisis,' requires some notice here, that its proper author may be assigned. That STEELE'S name appeared to it, and that he was punished for it, is certain; but a letter published lately by Dr. SOMERVILLE, in his 'History of the Reign of Queen Anne,' proves that it was written by Mr. WILLIAM MOORE, a lawyer, and a coadjutor of STEELE'S in the ENGLISHMAN,' and perhaps in other political effusions. This letter, dated June 6, 1716,

is addressed to the late Lord MACCLESFIELD, then lord chancellor. It is probable that STEELE had the courage to stand the prosecution, perhaps thinking it might end in a reprimand, and could not with honour retract, or give up the real author, when matters came to be more serious. MOORE, indeed, speaks lightly of STEELE'S punishment: 'Had matters been carried to extremities against that gentleman (STEELE) on account of that book, my fate would certainly have been more severe than his; for my profession as a lawyer would have been esteemed an aggravation of my crime by the then ministry, and consequently of my punishment.' The reader, however, must yet consult STEELE'S Apology,' before he can be entirely satisfied that he had not such a share in the production of this pamphlet as rendered it necessary for him to abide the consequences.

Immediately after his expulsion, STEELE issued proposals for writing the history of the DUKE OF MARLBOROUGH, whose character he always defended; but this work was never executed. At the same time he wrote THE SPINSTER;' and, in opposition to the ExAMINER, he began a paper entitled THE READER.'

This contest was beneficial in the end. On the death of the Queen, he was appointed Surveyor of the Royal Stables at Hampton

VOL. I.

* See Preface to GUARDIAN.

e

Court, and put into the commission of the peace for the county of Middlesex; and having procured a licence for chief manager of the royal company of comedians, he easily obtained it to be changed in the same year (1714) into a patent from his Majesty, appointing him governor of the said company during his life, and to his executors, administrators, or assigns, for the space of three years afterwards. He was also chosen one of the representatives of Boroughbrigg, in Yorkshire, in the first parliament of GEORGE I. who conferred the honour of knighthood upon him, April 8, 1715, on his presenting an address from the Lieutenancy of Middlesex and Westminster, which was his own composition. In August following, he received 5001. from Sir ROBERT WALPOLE, for special services*. Such honours and emoluments encouraged him to triumph over his opponents in several pamphlets written in this and the following year. In 1715, he was appointed one of the commissioners for inquiring into the estates forfeited by the late rebellion in Scotland. This occasioned his paying a visit to that kingdom, during which he conceived the hopeless project of uniting England and Scotland in church, as well as state. While a member of this parliament, he voted for the repeal of the Triennial Act,

* See this affair, which was strangely misrepresented at the time, satisfactorily explained in NICHOLS's Life of Welsted, prefixed to his Works, p. 22, 8vo. 1787.