THE - VERNEY PAPERS.—VoL. IlL* THE first instalment of the Verney

Papers was of great his- tAric,a1 interest, and full of curious and entertaining matter.

It cannot, however, compare for a moment in readability with ttle third volume now before us. It is not too much to say of these delightful memoirs that they come next to Pepys' Diary and The Lives of the Norths, in showing us what manner of men were they who lived in the middle period of the seven- teenth century, and were the contemporaries of Cromwell and Charles II., Milton and Dryden. To those who have not yet read the book before us, but who have felt the fascination of Pepys and North, this may sound like exaggerated praise, but we have no hesitation in saying that any one with the true sentiment for the past, and with knowledge enough and sympathy enough for the Puritan epoch, will, after perusal, endorse our verdict. Here are four or five men and women painted in their habit as they lived, by their own hands—the book is a series of extracts from letters artistically and deftly strung—and with such force and minuteness of charac- terisation, that when we close the book we feel that we know Sir Ralph Verney, Dr. Denton, Tom Verney, Mun Verney, and the rest, as we know the characters in Sir Walter Scott's novels. The power of self-revelation and the literary sensibility possessed by the Verney family was clearly very remarkable, for again and again we meet with little touches, indications and hints as to the essentials of character of exactly the kind which a skilful novelist employs to heighten his pictures. Sir Walter, one feels at once, would have revelled in the book. He could not have failed to base a new Commonwealth story upon it, and we should have seen Tom, the soldier Micawber, with his colossal capacity for debt and his unfailing fountain of eloquence and opportunistic optimism, made the central character of a great romance. But though we may wish that Sir Walter had been turned loose in the muniment room at Claydon, our regret need not be very poignant, so excellent is the result achieved by Lady Verney. We cannot hope to give even a taste of all the chief characters in the present volume. They are too many and too full and elaborate in drawing. We must con- fine ourselves to Tom Verney, the soldier Micawber, ex- tracts from whose letters are most skilfully arranged, so as to present an exact picture of the warrior always in pawn to some small tradesman, and yet always designing mining speculations, and waiting for something to turn up in the Barbados or elsewhere. Poor Tom, who, though so absolute Micawber, was a brave soldier, suffered from a perpetual and apparently entirely incurable lack of shirts, clothes, and other conveniences and necessaries. He was for ever bombarding his highly respectable and much-tried brother

with letters, begging for clothes. These letters are every bit as monumental as those of Mr. Micawber, and read with the same mouthy amplitude of phrase. Note how in the following is reproduced the immortal Micawber's magnificent parade of financial exactitude, as well as the splendour of language,—

weekly instalments of 3s. each, and then the exquisite touch as to his "cloudy condition"

"To imitate historians in putting prefaces to their books, I conceive I need not, for I am confident you are so very sencible of my want of clothing. Sir my last request to you is for a slight stuff sute & coat against Whitsontide, which may stand you in 50s., the which I will repay you by 3s. weekly till you be re- haunt. In former times my own word would have passed for such a summ, but now they require securitie of mee, becaus I live in soe cloudy a condition. God rut it into your hart once to releive my nakedness & you shall find a most oblidgeing brother of Sir, your humble servant, THOMAS VERNET."

When Tom is thinking of going to the West Indies he does not, like the Micawbers, discourse on the habits of the kangaroo, because he did not live in a scientific age. His environment was theological, hence when he drew up the list of things which his family were to provide for his journey it is in the following style :—

"'First for a provision for my soul—Doctor Taylour his holy liveing & holy dyeing both in one volume. 21Y the Practise of Piety to refresh my memery. The Turkish Historye, the reading whereof, I take some delight in. Now for my body.' A list follows of provisions of all kinds, Westphalian hams, Cheshire cheeses, Zante oil, beef suet, everything to be 'of the very best quality.' He will not ask for 'burnt clarett or brandy,' though he requires it, 'for I must not, Sir, overcharge you, for you have been highly civil to me ' ! "

• Memoirs of the Verney Family during the Commonwealth, 1660 to 1660. Cora- pi'ed from tte Let`erg and IlIns.ra,ed by the Portraits at Olaydon Home. By 4.11. Verney. Vol. III. Lon 'on : Longmans and Co. Unfortunately, however, Tom in one thing was not a true Micawber. He was a rogue, and a heartless one, and also a habitual liar, and not a mere pompous waiter on the some- thing which never turned up. But though this must be said, we will not dwell on the darker side of Tom's character. Let us return to the true Micawber vein and learn how he apprises his elder brother that his greatest stock has come to one poor groat, "and how I am able to subsist five months with one groat I appeal to you and all rationenll and judicious persons."

His great archetype could not have bettered this appeal to the opinion of the rational and the judicious. When he was con- fined in the Fleet Prison, Tom wrote the following admirably expressed letter to his brother. Mark how he stands outside himself, and is favourably impressed by the chance of his own conversion

You are that founetaine,' he wrote again two days later. from whence all my joy, delight, and comfort comes, and long may you live to see, what you principally aime att, my amend- ment. He goeth farr that never turnes. Wors livers than my self have seen their errors and have returned home like the prodigall : why may not I? God hath endued mee with a reasoneable under- standing ; and I question not a reall conversion, since I have soe- courteous, soe kind, and so tender a hafted brother to help mee

up before I am quite downs In relation to my inlarge- ment, I begg the continueance of a weekly supply dureing my restraint. Eighteene pence a day, which amounts in the week to 10s. 6d., is as low as any one that is borne a gentleman can possibly live att, let my wants be supplied by noon, that I may have a dinner as well as others.'"

He is bailed out before noon, but alas ! he is re-arrested and is back again by dinner-time. This fact, however, only stimu- lates his literary faculty, and he pens a second letter to his brother, which ends, "I must submit if so you have decreed, and if I perish I perish." He does not perish, however, and three days after is indicting to his brother-in-law, Dr. Denton, an admirable plea for clean sheets to be obtained from a cruel jailer at two shillings per " payre." Tom is ultimately re- leased, and then comes the eternal question of where he shall go. At first Malaga was proposed, because, as the ingenuous warrior confessed, "he had a wife at Malaga ":—

" He promised if he reached Malaga to send Sir Ralph the knowledge of my wive's and my greeting, together with the scitueation of the place, there manner of government, and with

what else that I shall esteeme worthy your reading.' But he has no special preference for Malaga. He next desires 'to be transported in a shipp that is bound for the Barbados Courteous Brother, That Island, and all the Indies over, cloth wholly subsist by merchandizeing : and that person that aimes to live in creditt and repute in those parts must be under the notion of a merchant or factor, planter, or overseer of a plan- tation, and he that lives otherwise, is of little or noe esteeme.

I could (soe it might not occasion an offence) prescribe you a safe way how to send mee thither, like a gentleman, like your brother, and allso to equall my former height of liveing there : but you may perhapps find out a way (unknowne to mee) how I may subsist and have a being like a gentleman till you can heare I am safely arrived there or floe.'"

Tom's real preference, however, was for spending the summer on a Dutch man-of-war, because, as he fervently remarked, "Noe damned bayliff nor hellish sergent can or dares disturb my abode there." (How Shakespeare would have loved the fellow ! Here is the very air of Ancient Pistol and his mates !) The eternal clothes question and the instant need of shirts sends Tom into heroics :- "' I doe know of a garment that would last mee to eternity, and it is to be purchased for less then forty shillings; which is a grave ; and that I cannot have neither as yet ; in time I shall, then I shall have a requiem sung unto my soul, and purchase a releas from this my miserable life to enjoy one more glorious ; soe I thought to have made an end of this my sad complaint, but before I soe doe I make it my request to you, if I have either by writeing, or by word of mouth abused you, or spoken evilly of you (which to my knowledge I never yet did) as to bury it in the

grave of oblivion, and to weigh those words of mine as proceeding wholly from a person drunk with passion, and overwhelmed with miseries.' Sir Ralph sends him shirts, but refuses to advance, any money, or to discuss his claims to enter upon a 'glorious' life, in a more appreciative world than here below."

Alas we have reached the end of our space. Fain would we tell of how Tom took to speculating in mines in Wales and elsewhere, and how these, though magnificently successful as commercial ventures, were always in need of a little money to go on with. Alas, the mines went smash, and Tom, like a modern director, had to come into Court :— "It is truth the jury brought mee in guilty ; but of what P not of the fact, but of too much indiscretion and rashness ; which caused the judge and the major part of the justices to declare in open court, that they did really beleeve mee to be a person meerely drawne in, and they hoped it would be a warneing to mee for the future. Sir, when Sir Thomas Thinn understood the Bence of the Bench, and that I was acquitted, paying my fees, he cunningly arrested mee in the face of the court, charging mee with an action of £500 the which I have [word torn out bayle too. It will not be long till he hath hex talionis, and see we shall make it a cross action.'

With one more quotation we must leave Tom. We all know how people without money take vast journeys solely for the sake of economy. Tom did the like. "My intentions are both for cheapness and privacy to journey into North Wales into a place called Anglesey, some two hundred and fifty miles." Of a truth, Tom was a perfect character, and gladly indeed would we believe, as he assured his incredulous relatives, that he was not "naturally inclined to evil." So much for Tom. Let those who want to read more of him and of Sir Ralph and Dr. Denton, go straight to the Verney Papers. We promise them a rich store of laughter and good company.