succeeded a knowledge of the art of making paper, which he acquired under the tuition of his father. At the age of twenty-three, Robert Bage married a young woman, who possessed beauty, good sense, good temper, and money. It may be presumed that the first of these was the first forgotten; the two following secured his happiness in domestic life; the last aided him in the manufacture of paper, which he commenced at Elford, four miles from Tamworth, and conducted to the end of his days.

Though no man was more attentive to business, and no one in the country made paper so good of its kind, yet the direction of a manufactory, combined with his present literary attainments, did not satisfy the comprehensive mind of Robert Bage. His manufactory, under his eye, went on with the regularity of a machine, and left him leisure to indulge his desire of knowledge. He acquired the French language from books alone, without any instructor; and his familiarity with it is evinced by his frequent, perhaps too frequent, use of it in the Fair Syrian. Nine years after his marriage, he studied mathematics; and, as he makes one of his characters say, and as he probably thought respecting himself, "He was obliged to this science for a correct imagination, and a taste for uniformity in the common actions of life."

In the year 1765, Bage entered into partnership with three persons, (one of them the celebrated Dr Darwin,) in an extensive manufactory of iron; and, at the end of fourteen years, when the partnership terminated, he found himself a loser, it is

believed, of fifteen hundred pounds. The reason and philosophy of the paper-maker might have struggled long against so considerable a loss; the man of letters committed his cause to a better champion-literary occupation, the tried solace of misfortune, want, and imprisonment. He wrote the novel of Mount Henneth, in two volumes, which was sold to Lowndes for thirty pounds, and published in 1781. The strong mind, playful fancy, liberal sentiments, and extensive knowledge of the author, are everywhere apparent; but, as he says himself, "too great praise is a bad letter of recommendation ;" and truth, which he worshipped, demands the acknowledgment, that its sins against decorum are manifest.

The succeeding works of Bage were, Barham Downs, two volumes, published 1784; The Fair Syrian, two volumes, published (about) 1787; James Wallace, three volumes, published 1788; Man as he is, four volumes, published 1792; Hermsprong, or Man as he is not, three volumes, published 1796. It is, perhaps, without a parallel in the annals of literature, that, of six different works, comprising a period of fifteen years, the last should be, as it unquestionably is, the best. Several of Bage's novels were translated into German, and published at Frankfort.

Whoever has read Hayley's Life of Cowper will not be sorry that an author should speak for himself, instead of his biographer speaking for him; on this principle are given some extracts from the letters of Robert Bage to his friend, William Hut

ton.

Hutton purchased nearly all the paper which

Bage made during forty-five years; and, though Bage's letters were letters of business, they were written in a manner peculiarly his own, and friendship was, more or less, interwoven in them; for trade did not, in him, extinguish, or contract, one finer feeling of the soul. Bage, in his ostensible character of a paper-maker, says,—

"March 28, 1785.

"I swear to thee I am one of the most cautious men in the world with regard to the excise; I constantly interpret against myself in doubtful points; and, if I knew a place where I was vulnerable, I would arm it with the armour of Achilles. I have already armed myself all over with the armour of righteousness, but that signifies nothing with our people of excise.”

"August 15, 1787.

"Oh how I wish thou wouldst bend all thy powers to write a history of excise-with cases-showing the injustice, the inequality of clauses in acts, and the eternal direction every new one takes towards the oppression of the subject: It might be the most useful book extant. Of whites and blues, blue demy only can come into thy magazine, and that at a great risk of contention with the Lords of the Exchequer; for I know not whether I have understood the sense of people who have seldom the good luck to understand themselves. The paper sent is charged at the lowest price at which a sober paper-maker can live, and drink smallbeer."

"December 10, 1788.

"Authors, especially when they have acquired a certain degree of reputation, should be candid, and addicted to speak good as well as evil, of poor dumb things. The rope paper is too thin, I own; but why abuse it from the crown of the head to the sole of the foot? If I have eyes, it has many good qualities, and I hope the good people of Birmingham may find them out. But it is too thin-I am heartily and sincerely concerned for it: But, as I cannot make it thicker, all I can do is to reduce the price. Thou proposest threepence a-ream-I agree to it. If thou really believest sixpence ought to be abated, do it. Combine together the

qualities of justice and mercy, and to their united influence I leave thee."

"February 23, 1789.

"The certainty that it cannot be afforded at the stipulated price, makes me run my rope paper too thin. Of this fault, however, I must mend, and will mend, whether thou can'st, or can'st not mend my price. I had rather lose some profit than

sink a tolerable name into a bad one."

"March 11, 1793.

"I make no bill-of-parcels. I do not see why I should give myself the trouble to make thee bills-of-parcels, as thou can'st make them thyself; and, more especially, when it is probable thou wilt make them more to my liking than the issues of my own pen. If the paper is below the standard so far as to oblige thee to lower the price, I am willing to assist in bearing the loss. the quantity over-burthens thee, take off a shilling a-bundle-or take off two; for thy disposition towards me-I see it with pleasure-is kindly."

"June 30, 1795.

If

Men

"Every thing looks black and malignant upon me. clamouring for wages which I cannot give-women threatening to pull down my mill-rags raised by freight and insuranceexcise-officers depriving me of paper! Say, if thou can'st, whether these gentlemen of the excise-office can seize paper after it has left the maker's possession?-after it has been marked?-stamped ?-signed with the officer's name?—excise duty paid?-Do they these things?—Am I to hang myself?"

"June 6, 1799.

"Thou can'st not think how teazing the excise-officers are about colour. They had nearly seized a quantity of common cap paper, because it was whitened by the frost. They have an antipathy to any thing whiter than sackcloth."

Bage actually had paper seized by the exciseofficers, and the same paper liberated, seized again, and again liberated. If his wisdom and integrity have been manifested in the foregoing extracts, the

ignorance and folly of these men, or of their masters, must be obvious.

A few extracts, not so immediately connected with conduct in trade, may not be superfluous.

"I swear by Juno, dear William, that one man cannot be more desirous of dealing with another than I am with thee. The chain that connects us cannot be snapped asunder without giving me pain almost to torture. Thou art not so sure of having found the place where Henry the Seventh was lost, as thou mightst have been of finding Elford and a friend.

"I received thy pamphlet,' and am not sure whether I have not read it with more pleasure than any of thy former works. It is lively, and the reasoning just. Only remember, it

some

times against the institutions of juries and county courts that thou hast directed thy satire, which, I think, ought to be confined to the abuses of them. But why abusest thou me ? Did'st thou not know of Mount Henneth, and Barham Downs, before publication? Yea, thou did'st. I think thou did'st also of the Fair Syrian. Of what, then, dost thou accuse me? Be just. And why dost thou call me an infidel? Do I not believe in every thing thou sayest? And am I not impatient for thy Derby? I am such a scoundrel as to grumble at paying 30 per cent ad valorem, which I really do, and more, on my boards, as if one could do too much for one's king and country. But I shall be rewarded when thy History of Derby comes forth."

"Miss Hutton was the harbinger of peace and good-will from the Reviewers. I knew she had taste and judgment; I knew also that her encomium would go beyond the just and proper bounds; but I also believed she would not condescend to flatter without some foundation."

So I do when my

"Eat my breakfast quietly, thou varlet! house does not smoke, or my wife scold, or the newspapers do not tickle me into an irritation, or my men clamour for another increase of wages. But I must get my bread by eating as little of it as possible; for my Lord Pitt will want all I can screw of overplus. No matter. Ten years hence, perhaps, I shall not care a farthing."

Dissertation on Juries.

2 Bage lived eight months after the date of this letter, which was written January 24, 1801.