1826.] 
well of humanity, and entered into a so- 
lemn contract with the grave. That very 
day his disorder increased, he went. to his 
bed of death, and in a week afterwards he 
was borne to his last home! He died in 
his palace at Cloyne,-on the 9th of August. 
CHARLES MILLS, EsQ. 
It is our melancholy duty to record the 
death of this esteemed historian, who, 
whether considered as a chivalrous chro- 
nicler of past times, a man of general in- 
formation, or an elegant and discriminating 
eritic in Italian literature, stands con- 
fessedly in the first rank of authors. To 
treat of the death of such a man is at all 
times painful; but when to that is added 
the recollection of his friendship, the 
subject becomes doubly embittered. Dis- 
missing, however, all thoughts but those 
of biographical impartiality from his mind, 
the writer of the present brief memoir, 
who was honoured for years with the 
friendship of Mr. Mills, and knew him in 
his prouder days of health and happiness, 
will proceed without further comment to 
his task. 
Mr. C. Mills, the youngest son of the 
late Samuel Gillam Mills, a surgeon of 
eminence at Greenwich, was born in the 
year 1788. He was originally intended 
for the law, and was even articled, with 
that view, to an attorney in Berners Street ; 
but his mind, vowed even from childhood to 
literary fame, like Hannibal to eternal en- 
mity with the Romans, soon shook off the 
trammels of Coke, Littleton, and Black- 
stone, and gave: itself up unreservedly to 
the belles-lettres. It was about the year 
1819 that Mr. Mills first appeared before 
the public as an historian: his imagination, 
previously inflamed by a long and close 
acquaintance with the magnificence of 
Oriental annals, longed with the usual 
restlessness of genius to find its level, and 
a “ History of Muhammedanism”’ was the 
result. This work, though characterized 
by deep thought and learning, was yet 
imperfect in its construction: it was loose, 
sketchy, and indefinite; and accordingly, 
in his more matured composition, its 
author indirectly disclaimed it. His His- 
tory of the Crusades, which was his 
second publication, amply fulfilled all 
the promise shadowed forth in the first, 
vand placed him high among modern his- 
torians.. This work, taken up con amore, 
and executed with the spirit which an 
sardent love of the subject would naturally 
-elicit, was no sooner published than _ its 
-merits were appreciated. The condensed 
vigour of the style (in some favourite pas- 
sages exuberant and stately as the language 
of Gibbon) was its chief recommendation 
-with some; its strict fidelity with others ; 
while all agreed in admiring the clear sim- 
plicity with which it was executed: this 
jast was the result of Mr. Mills’s long 
Biographical. Memoirs of Eminent Persons. 
557 
cherished habits of continuous and un- 
broken meditation. He first conceived a 
subject well in his mind, serutinizing it 
in all its bearings with mathematical. se- 
verity, and then, after having formed some 
particular opinion, brought. all his im- 
mense mass of information to bear» upon 
and justify that opinion, till. the fabric 
grew under his hand a stately monument 
of intellect. Such a remark. refers -es- 
pecially to his ‘‘ Travels of Theodore 
Ducas, at the Revival of Letters and Art 
in Italy’’—a work of fiction, full fraught 
with learning, exhaustless in its yariety 
and extent, yet applied with surprising 
Ingenuity to its subject. The public, how- 
eyer, seemed to underrate Mr. Mills as 
a commentator on Italian literature, and 
accordingly, notwithstanding the splendour 
of particular passages, such as the criti- 
cism on Danté, and the account of an 
interview with Ariosto, the work was 
comparatively unsuccessful, For a full 
year subsequent to its publication our his- 
torian lay quietly on his oars, till induced 
by his respectable publishers (Longman 
and Co.) to undertake a work of gigantic 
magnitude, viz. no less than a history of 
Rome, from the earliest ages down to the 
reign of Augustus, an epoch at. which 
Gibbon commences. From some cause 
or other this work was dropped—notwith- 
standing that it was a desideratum. in 
literature, inasmuch as the annals of early 
Rome are scattered in detached fragments 
over a library, and need condensation in 
one professed publication—and Mr. Mills 
then directed his attention to his greatest 
work, “ The History of Chivalry, or 
Knighthood and its Times.” This last 
had no sooner appeared than it was in- 
stantly successful ; the first edition sold 
with almost the rapidity of a Scotch noyel, 
and it was but a few months previous to 
his death that its author had completed 
his revision of a second. Whether the 
mental labour necessary to execute such a 
task, spread over so vast an extent of 
time, referring to so many kingdoms, and 
drawn from sources so difficult and ob- 
scure—whether this broke down a frame 
naturally delicate, we cannot take upon 
ourselves to say; but certain it is that, 
shortly after its completion Mr. Mills’s 
health began visibly to decline. For a 
long time he struggled with his malady, 
still hoping that his constitution might: be 
finally re-established; but all his expecta- 
tions were vain ; he grew daily worse, and 
was compelled as a last resource to leave 
London for Southampton, where, after 
getting a little better, like the last flicker- 
ing glimmer of the lamp, his health soon 
afterwards decayed, and brought him to 
the grave on Monday, October 9th, at 
the early age of 38. 
So died Charles Mills, a name which, in 
one respect, as an historian—a deep, pro- 
found, eloquent historian—will perish only 
