406 Biographical Sketch of the [Dec. 



at Hawkstone. This contest was the means of exhibiting Mr. 

 Clarke's talents in controversy, — a field in which they had never 

 been exercised before, and in which, happily for himself, they 

 scarcely ever appeared afterwards. The occasion of it was this : 

 a long and laboured pamphlet, called " Hard Measure,'" had 

 just issued from the opposite party, written as was supposed by 

 Sir Richard Hill himself, and containing many sharp and cutting 

 reflections upon the Attingham family and cause, with some 

 strong documents in support of them. To this it was necessary 

 to reply without delay; and for the sake of greater dispatch, 

 several literary friends of Lord Berwick, who were in the house, 

 undertook to divide the task amongst them, each taking the part 

 which he thought himself most competent to answer; but as it 

 was afterwards evident that this scattered fire would be much 

 more effectual, if skilfully brought together, and directed by a 

 single hand, Mr. Clarke was fixed upon for this purpose, and to 

 him was confided the delicate and difficult operation of select- 

 ing, shaping, and combining, from the materials so prepared ; 

 with permission, of course, of which he availed himself largely, 

 to add whatever arguments of his own he might think likely to 

 increase the general effect. Accordingly, he set himself to work 

 with his usual spirit, and having scarcely slept while it was in 

 hand, he produced, in a very short time, matter enough for a 

 quarto pamphlet, of a hundred closely printed pages, which, 

 having been carefully revised by the lawyers, was rapidly hur- 

 ried through the press, and immediately published, under the 

 happy title of " Measure for Measure." This work answered 

 completely the object it had in view : it produced a great sen- 

 sation at the time, was a source of no inconsiderable triumph to 

 the party whose cause it advocated, and, as it is believed, 

 received no reply. 



Mr. Clarke accompanied Lord Berwick to Brighton, in the 

 autumn of the same year, and there commenced a periodical 

 work, entitled, " Le Kiveur, or the IVaking Visions of an Absent 

 Man." It proceeded no further than the twenty-ninth number, 

 the first of which was dated Brighton, Sept. 6, 1796, and the 

 last, London, March 6, 1797. With the exception of a single 

 number, or at most two numbers, furnished by his valued friend 

 the Rev. 'George Stracey, and two short poems, one by Miss 

 Seward, the other by Dr. Busby, afterwards Dean of Rochester, 

 it was entirely the production of his own pen. The principal 

 materials upon which he depended, were the substance of the 

 information he had gathered, and of the observations he had 

 made in the different situations in which he had lived, whether 

 at home or abroad, since the publication of his tour; but as 

 these were of a nature soon to be exhausted, and as the contri- 

 butions of his friends came in but slowly, we cannot wonder that 

 it was brought to a conclusion within the compass of a few 



