have acted as you did, had I been an Irishman, but I speak as an Englishman."

Nor should Campbell's labours in preparing an edition of Goldsmith be forgotten. Though this ultimately appeared in four vols. 8vo, 1801, a few years after Campbell's death, he had been of great service to Bishop Percy in collecting and furnishing materials for the Memoir by Percy which accompanied that edition; see Forster's "Life of Goldsmith," vol. i., p. 13 (note), and the "Percy Correspondence."

"2

But busy man as he was in his generation, well known to many literary men, both in England and Ireland; though he possessed considerable abilities as a writer, as is evinced in his published works above noted; though he was honoured with the friendship of Johnson, and yet more signally with Burke's confidential intimacy, it is but too probable that his memory would have been confined to the North of Ireland where he lived, and that even there his name and fame would soon have been obliterated, but for a singular accident that attended a diary, which he himself had perhaps forgotten, but which will perpetuate his memory among the notable figures which gathered round the person of Johnson. It has been before remarked (see vol. i., p. 347, note) that the recovery of Boswell's letters to Temple, and the finding of Dr. Campbell's "Diary of a Visit to England in 1775," must be regarded as things passing strange in a generation, in which anything like romance in the discovery of manuscripts seems almost impossible. In the October number of the year 1859 of the "Edinburgh Review," there appeared an article which revealed to an English public the "Diary of a Visit to England in 1775," by an Irishman, edited, with notes, by Samuel Raymond, M.A., Prothonotary of the Supreme Court of New South Wales, which had been published by Waugh and Cox, 111, George Street, Sydney, 1854. That article, we have authority to state, was written by Mr. Henry Reeve at the instance of and from materials supplied by Lord Macaulay. The mystery of the appearance of this small volume was enhanced by the strange manner in which the MS. of it had been discovered. It had been found in one of the offices of the Supreme Court of Sydney "behind an old press which had not been

1 Campbell's Historical Sketch of the Constitution and Government of Ireland, &c., pp. 336-338.

2 Vol. vii. of Nichols' Illustrations.

moved for years." Internal evidence might indeed have revealed the author of it, though his name is not mentioned in the diary; but no internal evidence could have solved the mystery of its discovery behind that old press in one of the offices of the Supreme Court, Sydney, New South Wales. A clue, however, was found amid the complications of the labyrinth. The writer of the article above alluded to directed attention to a letter in

...

the "Percy Correspondence," to Bishop Percy, from the Rev. Charles Campbell, a nephew of Dr. Thomas Campbell. This letter is dated Newry, Feb. 19, 1810, and is an answer to some inquiries made by the Bishop: "Your lordship is perfectly correct in thinking my uncle's death took place previous to the measure of the Union;-he died June 20, 1795. My eldest brother, of whom you are so good as to inquire, was, when I last heard from him, about a month ago, just embarking from the Cape of Good Hope-where he had been for nearly two years— for New South Wales in New Holland, with strong recommendation from Lord Caledon to Colonel Macquarrie, who is the governor of that settlement. . . . His health had been much impaired during his stay at the Cape, but it was perfectly reestablished at the time he wrote." The clue thus furnished was taken up and successfully followed out by a contributor to the "Sydney Morning Herald," who discovered, in searching the files of the (Government) Gazette, that John Thomas Campbell -the elder brother of the writer of the letter just cited-filled the two offices of Provost Marshal and Colonial Secretary until the year 1821, when he was appointed Sheriff and Provost Marshal. In this capacity he would have had an office in the Supreme Court, and in this office, and behind an old press in it, he left-as it would seem-the manuscript of his uncle, the Rev. Thomas Campbell. So it appears to us, the mystery of the finding of the MS. diary of Dr. Thomas Campbell behind the old press in one of the offices of the Supreme Court of Sydney is satisfactorily cleared up.3

Would that we could add that the four folios of manuscript which Burke gave to Campbell had been also discovered amid the recesses of that office. Let a hue and cry be raised, be

'Nichols' Illustrations, vii., p. 795-6.

2 Literature in New South Wales, by G. B. Barton, Sydney, 1866. 3 This Diary, some trivial passages being omitted, which offend good taste, will be found in the volume entitled Johnsoniana.

ginning in the North of Ireland, and taken up at Sydney, and running round the globe, with the hope of discovering the priceless treasure of these manuscripts of Burke !

VI.

PRINCE TITI.

66

THE entry in Johnson's Paris Journal is as follows:- At D'Argenson's, I looked into the books in the lady's closet, and in contempt showed them to Mr. Thrale-' Prince Titi;' 'Bibl. des Fées,' and other books; she was offended, and shut up, as we heard afterwards, her apartment" (see ante, p. 354). Mr. Croker's explanatory remarks, the Reviewer's attack on them, and Mr. Croker's rejoinder should be given in the first place, before any further remarks be offered.

"The history of Prince Titi was said to be the autobiography of Frederick Prince of Wales, but was probably written by Ralph his secretary. See Park's 'Royal and Noble Authors,' vol. i. p. 171."—Croker, in the edition of 1831, and subsequent editions.

"A more absurd note never was penned," said his Reviewer. "The History of Prince Titi,' to which Mr. Croker refers, whether written by Prince Frederick or by Ralph, was certainly never published. If Mr. Croker had taken the trouble to read with attention that very passage in Park's 'Royal and Noble. Authors,' which he cites as his authority, he would have seen that the manuscript was given up to the Government. Even if this memoir had been printed, it was not very likely to find its way into a French lady's bookcase. And would any man in his senses speak contemptuously of a French lady for having in her possession an English work so curious and interesting as a life of Prince Frederick, whether written by himself or a confidential secretary, must have been? The history at which Johnson laughed was a very proper companion to the 'Bibliothèque des Fées,' a fairy tale about Good Prince Titi and Naughty Prince Violent.' Mr. Croker may find it in the 'Magasin des Enfans,' the first French book which the little girls of England read to their governesses."

66

"Now every item, great and small, of this statement," Mr. Croker rejoins, is a blunder or worse; some of which, as relating to a curious point of literary history, it seems worth while to correct. A book of this title was published in 1735, and republished in 1752, under the title of 'Histoire du Prince Titi, A(legorie) R(oyale);' and there is a copy of it in the Museum; and two English translations were advertised in the 'Gentleman's' and the 'London Magazine' for February, 1736, one of them with this title: The history of Prince Titi, a Royal Allegory in three parts. With an essay on Allegorical Writing and a Key. By the Hon Mrs. Stanley, and sold by E. Curl,' price 38. And it is mentioned as published by Park in his note ('Royal and Noble Authors,' vol. v. p. 354) on the passage quoted, which, it seems, Mr. Macaulay never read at all. Neither of the translations have I been able to find; but in the French work, amidst the puerility and nonsense of a very stupid fairy tale, it is clear enough without any key, that by Prince Titi, King Ginguet, and Queen Tripasse, are meant Prince Frederick, George II., and Queen Caroline. It is stated in Barbier and in a MS. note in the Museum copy, that the work is by one Themiseul de Saint Hyacinthe, who seems to have been what is called a bookseller's hack. He translated Robinson Crusoe,' and may have been employed to translate or edit Prince Titi in Paris, but by whomsoever written the work is extant. The manuscript delivered up by Ralph's executor twenty years later, not to the Government (as Mr. Macaulay states), but to the Prince's widow, may have been the (perhaps garbled) original from which the French edition was made, or more probably, a continuation of the work to a later period of that Prince's life. I don't, however, believe that the work published in 1735 could have been written by Ralph. It is too puerile; and Ralph could hardly have been so early in the Prince's confidence; but it seems probable, that the work was exhibited purposely on the lady's table, in the expectation that her English visitors would think it a literary curiosity, which indeed it has proved to be; for Dr. Johnson seems not to have known what it was, and Mr. Macaulay boldly denies its very existence."-Croker.

It was as a curiosity of literary history that Mr. Croker justified the extension of his remarks on a book so silly and unworthy as the "Histoire du Prince Titi." The editor claims the same justification for a few additional remarks on a subject, which has

acquired a kind of importance and considerable notoriety from its connection with the celebrated article in the "Edinburgh Review," and the counter remarks of Mr. Croker.

Undoubtedly there was a book called "Histoire du Prince Titi," published at Paris in the year 1736, whose author was known to be Hyacinthe Cordonnier, or as he was afterwards called le Chevalier de Themiseul, or later still, Monsieur SaintHyacinthe de Themiseul. He was the son of one who also bore the name of Hyacinthe Cordonnier, and who, together with his wife, said to have been a woman of great personal attractions, belonged to the household of Monsieur the brother of Louis XIV. After the death of his father, who died penniless, his mother, supported by a slender pension of 600 livres derived from the household of Monsieur, settled at Troyes, and devoted herself to the education of her young son. He entered the seminary of the Oratorians of Troyes, and made favourable progress in his studies; grew up a handsome youth, and was called Bel-Air from his good looks and distinguished manners. His mother had sufficient interest to obtain for him a commission in a regiment of cavalry, and with this change in his condition he assumed the name of le Chevalier de Themiseul. His regiment served in the battle of Hochstedt (1704), where the young Chevalier de Themiseul was taken prisoner; which mishap led to a somewhat protracted residence in Holland. In due time, however, he returned to his old home at Troyes, where the romance of his captivity made him an object of interest. But higher ambitions soon possessed the soul of our Chevalier. He volunteered for the army of Charles XII. of Sweden; but on landing at Stockholm he heard of the signal defeat of Pultowa, and with his lofty imaginations abashed he made his way to Holland, and on his arrival found himself vis-à-vis de rien. To raise money for his immediate expenses he pawned his clothes; the pawnbroker in this case was a Jewess, who, struck with his handsome face, and touched with his miserable condition, recommended him to the notice of Madame la Duchesse d'Ossone, wife of the Spanish Ambassador at the Congress of Utrecht. The Chevalier was forthwith introduced into the household of the Duchess, and was so courteously and warmly entertained that the jealousy of the Duke was aroused. The issue was soon transparent: le Chevalier received notice to quit, not only the Duke's household, but Holland. But of part of his possessions he could not be deDD 2

II.