564: 
be deemed worthy of a place in 
every elegant library. Her domestic 
misfortunes involved her and: her 
concerns in a sort of perpetual Jaw- 
suit; and’she experienced so much 
of legal vexation, rapacity, and chi- 
canery, that there are few of her 
novels in which she has not intro- 
duced her own case, either princi- 
pally or collaterally, with the cha- 
racters of almost every description 
of lawyer that can possibly excite 
disgust and detestation against the 
profession and its professors. Well 
could she exclaim, with Jephson’s 
countess of Narbonne, 
“Twas a woman full of tenderness; 
I am a woman stung by injuries !”, 
From her novels might be extract- 
ed a tolerable history of her own 
feelings, and of all she sufiered from — 
the harpies of the Jaw. It were to 
be wished that there were published 
a key to all these numerous charac- 
ters which she has drawn from the 
life, and.which could easily be sup- 
plied by any of her intimate ac- 
quaintance, In drawing portraits 
she has great excellence; for the 
most part they are true to nature ; 
tontrary to the usual practice of 
novelists, she neither heightens nor 
debases: and she never descends to ca- 
ricature, notevena lawyer. Ensnar. 
ed and entangled as she was in the 
toils of law, and suffering as she did 
under Jegal ‘oppression, it is no 
wonder she should embrace those 
extravagant but fascinating senti- 
ments of Jiberty which were pro- 
mulgated in France, under pretence 
of founding a republic, and that she 
should regard with disgust that 
union of law and liberty which 
forms the beauty of the British 
Gonstitution. Hence, in many of 
her novels, she is chia ies sarcas- 
ANNUAL REGISTER, 
1806. 
tic on all the forms, modes, and 
shapes,” in which the constitution 
is, or is liable to be abused by such 
as choose to render the law an in- 
strument of power rather than of 
protection. 
writers seem to have adopted the 
same wild notions. Not so Mrs. 
Hannah More.—Mrs. Smith was well 
versed in the captivating science of 
Botany ; and had she been at ease 
in her circumstances, and in a situ. 
ation favourable to such pursuits, 
she would doubtless have produced 
many useful works, as well as beau- 
tiful effusions, on those pleasing ob- 
jects in the vegetable world which 
afford pure delight to the eye and 
elegant contemplation to the mind. 
But there seems to bea fatality at- 
tendant on real genius, that it shall 
always be surrounded by difficulties, 
and compelled, comparatively,to as- 
sociate with owls and vultures, in- 
stead of eagles and nightingales. A 
fine imagination, an accomplished 
mind, and an early taste of infelicity, 
made her a poet ; and her charming 
sonnets will live for ever. 
Oct. 8th. At his house in Dorsley, 
aged 73, Isaac Williams, esq. of 
Llanthomas, co. Monmouth, and 
in the commission of the peace. 
At York, in consequence of a 
most extraordinary and hazardous 
amusement (if it can be so called) 
which has lately prevailed- amongst 
boys,—that of making experiments 
how long they cau remain suspend- 
ed by the neck without suffocation, 
T. Wales, a fine lad, aged 16, ap- 
prentice to Mr. Cobb, bricklayer, 
inthat city. He went home in good 
‘health and spirits, to his dinner, at 
tlie usual hour; and not finding it 
quite ready, went up into a cham- 
ber, desiring to be ealled when din- 
ner was ready. Shortly after, his 
fellow- 
— egy 4 es “i 
Many of our female ° 
