DOVE'S - 1, TYE OF ANDREW MA.RVELL.

AT a time when Englishmen are chiefly concerned in settling in their own minds the model-character of a member of Parliament, this publication may be considered especially seasonable. It narrates the life of one of the most virtuous and able men that ever sat in the House of Commons.

ANDREW MARVELL was a scholar, a poet, a man of wit, even of genius : he was poor; worked hard, early and late, at his business of borough member ; undertook the cause of the people whenever an advocate was wanted ; and was always found on the side of the oppressed, standing up manfully against the powerful. In spite of his poverty, he was independent: he was not too proud to receive the wages of his labour as a member, but he was far too virtuous to accept the bribes of the Court. His means were small, but then he brought down his tastes to a level with them ; and as he lived within such income as came to him, he was so far, if not rich, always master of himself. He is a fine example of the true dignity of virtue and talent, though altogether destitute of the adventitious aids of wealth. No man was more courted, respected, honoured, than ANDREW MARVELL; no man ever made a more efficient member of the English Parliament: and yet if he were to .e-exist at this moment, he would be ineligible—he would not be qualified. ANDREW MARVELL was not only a model of integrity in the House of Commons, in times of unblushing corruption, but his industry was as remarkable as his honesty. Representation was ivith him no source of empty pride or titular honour; he worked at the business, with the application of a weaver or a shoemaker. Every night he wrote to his constituents to inform them what had passed in their House; and was never absent, unless called away by other duty, from his place, when the business of the nation was going forward. Many of his letters to his constituents still exist; from which we see, that the task of keeping up a perfect sympathy and intelligence between himself and his electors, was always preferred to relamatien ; and sometimes, after long and painful sittings, he has sat down to write before he had broken his fast after an interval of thirty hours.

The following anecdote, which has been handed down as traditional truth, may serve as a commentary on these remarks. Let it be remembered, that MARVELL was sitting in a Parliament which was openly dealt with by the most corrupt means; that the price of most members was known, and the sums that had been given for them were actually registered.

"The borough of Hull, in the reign of Charles the Second, chose Andrew Marvell, a young gentleman of little or no fortune, and maintained him in London for the service of the public. His understanding, integrity, nd spirit, were dreadful to the then infamous Administration. Persuaded that he would be their's for properly asking, they sent his old schoolfellow, the Lord Treasurer Denby, to renew acquaintance with him in his garret. At parting, the Lord Treasurer, eat of pure affection, slipped into his -hand an order upon the Treasury for 1,0001., and then went to his chariot. Marvell looking at the paper calls after the Treasurer, 'My Lord, I request another moment,' They went up again to the garret, and Jack, the servant boy, was Jack, child, what had I for dinner yesterday?' Don't you remember, Sir ? you . had the little shoulder of mutton that you ordered me to bring from a woman in the market.' 'Very right, child." What have I for dinner to-day?' Don't you know, Sir, that you bid me lay by the blade-bone to broil?' ''Tin so ; very right, child, go away.' Lord, do you hear that? Andrew Marvel's dinner Is provided ; there's your piece of paper. I want it not. I knew the sort of kindness you intended. I live here to serve my Constituents ; the Ministry may seek men for their purpose; loins not one.'" MARVELL was the most effective prose writer of his day. The force and point of his satire still remain the admiration of all students of our literature. His poetry likewise has lost none of its power or sweetness ; and where his business is ridicule, his verse Las a terseness and humour as yet even perhaps unrivalled. Take as a specimensome lines of the well-known "Character of Holland:

Holland, that scarce deserves the name of land, As but th' off-scouring of the British sand ; And so much earth as was contributed By English pilots when they heav'd the lead; Or what by th' ocean's slow alluvion fell, Of shipwreck'd cockle and the muscle-shell; • This indigested vomit of the sea Fell to the Dutch by jest propriety.

Glad, then, as miners who have found the ore, They, with mad lahour, fish'd the land to shore; And div'd as desperately for each piece Of earth, as iftlead been of ambergris; Collecting anxiously small loads of clay, Less than what building swallows bear away; Or than those pills which sordid beetles roll, Transfusing into them their dunghill soul.

How did they rivet with gigantic piles, Through the centre their new-catched miles ! And to the stake a struggling country bound, Where barking waves still bait the forced ground; Building their watery Babel far more high To reach the sea, than those to scale the sky.

Yet still his claim the injur'd ocean lay'd,

And oft at leap-frog o'er their steeples play'd;

As if on purpose it on land had come To show them what's their mare liberum.

A daily deluge over them does boil; The earth and water play at level coil. The fish oftthnes the burgher dispossess'd, And sat, not as a meat, but as a guest; And oft the Tritons and the sea-nymphs saw Whole shoals of Dutch serv'd up for Cabillau; Or, as they over the new level raug'd For pickled herring, pickled herringclieng'd.

Nature, it seem'd, ashamed of her mistake,

Would throw their laud away at duck anedrake;

Therefore necessity, that first made kings'

Something like government among them brings. For, as with pigmies who best kills the crane, Among the hungry he that treasures grain, Among the .blind the one-ey'd bliukard reigen, So rules among the drowned he that drains. Not who first see the rising sun commands ; But who could first discern the rising lands. Who bese could know to pump an earth so leak, Him they their Lord, and Country's father, speak. To make a bank, was a great plot of state; Invent a shoe'', and be a magistrate. Hence some small dike grave, unperceiv'd, invades The pow'r, and grows, as 'twere, a king of spades; But, for less envy some joined states endures, . Who look like a commission of the sewers : For these Half-antlers, half wet, aud half dry, Nor bear strict service, nor pure liberty.

This biography, by Mr. DOVE, was intended to appear in some publication of "Yorkshire Worthies." It would then have been in a fitter place. Though containing numerous little interesting points of information, neither in style nor in constitutional knowledge is the work worthy of its subject. The aptness of its season may, however, compensate for some deficiency of the skill of the writer.