1827.] 



Biographical Memoirs of Eminent Persons, 



327 



merous. Though her connexions were not 

 literary, the love of literature was her early 

 passion. Miss Benger has herself related, 

 " That, in the want of books which she at 

 one time suffered, it was her common prac- 

 tice to plant herself at the window of the 

 only bookseller's shop in the little town 

 which she then inhabited, to read the open 

 pages of the new publications there dis- 

 played, and to return again day after day, to 

 examine whether by good fortune, a leaf of 

 any of them might have been turned over.'' 

 About the age of twelve, by the advice, we 

 are told, of a judicious, though unlearned 

 friend, she was sent to a boy's school, to be 

 instructed in Latin. In the country, as well 

 as in London, strange things are sometimes 

 done ! At fifteen she is said to have written 

 and published a poem, which, though im- 

 perfect, evinced considerable genius. 



About the year 1802, Miss Benger with 

 her mother removed to London, where, 

 principally through the friendship of Miss 

 Sarah Wesley, she immediately found herself 

 in superior society. By the late Dr. G. 

 Gregory, and his wife, she was introduced to 

 Mrs. Elizabeth Hamilton, of whom she 

 wrote and published many years afterwards, 

 a highly interesting memoir. By the same 

 friends, she was introduced to Mrs. Barbauld, 

 and to the late Dr. Aikin, with the various 

 members of whose family, she ever preserved 

 an affectionate intimacy. To the family of 

 R. Smirke, Esq. R. A., especially to that 

 gentleman's accomplished daughter, she was 

 also warmly attached. Amongst her nu- 

 merous literary connexions should be parti- 

 cularly mentioned Mrs. Joanna Baillie, the 

 Misses Porter, &c. ; and Miss Aikin has 

 most truly observed, that " she was often 

 able to assemble round her humble tea-table 

 names, whose celebrity would have at- 

 tracted attention in th* proudest saloons of 

 the metropolis." 



Miss Benger's first wishes were to write for 

 the stage ; but it was not for a mind like 

 hers to submit to the injustice and caprice of 

 managers, or the insolence of upstart players. 

 Her poem on the Abolition of the Slave 

 Trade, possessed considerable merit. 



She afterwards published two novels anony- 

 mously. Biography, however, appears to 

 have been her forte. Her Memoirs of Mrs. 

 Elizabeth Hamilton, Memoirs of John Tobin, 

 Notices of Klopstock and his Friends, pre- 

 fixed to a translation of their letters from the 

 German, her Life of Anne Boley n, Memoirs 

 of Mary, Queen of Scots, and Memoirs of 

 the Queen of Bohemia, each in succession 

 experienced a highly favourable reception, 

 and are all standard works. At the period 

 of her decease, she had been some time em- 

 ployed on Memoirs of Henry IV. of France, 

 which, as they are announced for early pub- 

 lication, were, we presume, nearly if not 

 quite finished, 



Miss Benger's health was generally deli- 

 cate. She had been confined some weeks by 

 a rheumatic fever ; but her death, we believe, 



was not anticipated. She died at her apart- 

 ments in Warren-street, Fitzroy-square, on 

 the 9th of January. Her mother, with whom 

 she resided, is yet living and in active health. 

 Miss Benger's mind was richly stored with 

 historical and general information ; her con- 

 versation was cheerful, lively, and even elo- 

 quent. She was a most amiable, kind, and 

 benevolent minded woman. 



MALTE BRUN. 



Conrad Malte Brun, distinguished as a 

 geographical, historical, and political writer, 

 was born in 1775, in the Danish province of 

 Jutland. His father's family was one of the 

 first in Jutland ; and possessing the nomina- 

 tion to several benefices in the Lutheran 

 church, he sent his son to the University of 

 Copenhagen, to study theology and take his 

 degrees. While there, however, he suffered 

 his taste in the Belles Lettres to supersede 

 theological pursuits ; he published a volume 

 of poems, and undertook the management 

 of a Theatrical Review. At the University, 

 however, he acquired that lofty power of 

 reasoning which he was enabled afterwards 

 to apply with so much success on various 

 subjects. His father was of the aristocratic 

 party which called for a war with France ; 

 but he espoused the cause of freedom, and 

 wrote in favour of the emancipation of the 

 peasants and the liberty of the press ; and, 

 a party having arisen which demanded the 

 establishment of a free constitution, he be- 

 came one of its most active members. In 

 1796, he published The Cathechism of the 

 Aristocrats; a biting satire against feu- 

 dality and the coalition of sovereigns. Me- 

 naced with a prosecution, he took refuge in 

 Sweden; and while there, he published a 

 volume of poems which required for him the 

 encouragement and approbation of the Aca- 

 demy of Stockholm. When Count Bern- 

 stoff was on his death bed, he recommended 

 to the Prince Royal to recal Malte Brun, and 

 employ him in some diplomatic capacity. 

 Accordingly, in 1797, he returned to Den- 

 mark, and was favourably received ; but, 

 having publicly attacked certain ministerial 

 measures, he was again under the necessity 

 of seeking an asylum in Sweden. Soon 

 afterwards he removed to Hamburgh ; and 

 it is said to have been about this period that 

 he became either the founder, or one of the 

 most active members of a secret society, 

 called the United Scandinavians; the object 

 of which was to unite the three kingdoms of 

 the north into one federative republic. This 

 project excited so much alarm, that Paul of 

 Russia, and Gustavus of Sweden, demanded 

 from the Danish government, the punishment 

 of its authors. In consequence, a prosecu- 

 tion was commenced against Malte Brun, 

 who was then in Paris, and he was sentenced 

 to banishment. He settled in Paris in 1799, 

 devoting himself to literary employment. In 

 conjunction with Mentelle, he published, be- 

 tween 1804 and 1807, "Political, Physical, 

 and Mathematical Geography," in sixteen 



