1723, his noble patron presented him to St. Martin's-in-the-Fields, and in 1726, he preached a sermon at the consecration of that church, when rebuilt in its present splendid form. In 1724, the degree of D. D. was conferred on him by Archbishop Wake. In 1739, he was appointed to the deanery of Winchester, and in 1748 to the bishoprick of Bangor; in 1756, he was removed to the see of Rochester, and the deanery of Westminster. In 1763, when the infirmities of age began to be felt, he wished to resign both, and retire into a quiet station, but his Majesty prevailed on him to continue. Dr. Pearce's reasons for an application so unusual, do him much honour; he said, that as he never made a sinecure of his preferments, he was tired with business, and being in the 74th year of his age, he wished to resign his preferments while his faculties were entire, lest he should outlive them, and the church suffer by his infirmities*. In 1763, however, he obtained leave to resign the deanery. In 1773, he lost his lady, with whom he had enjoyed an uninterrupted course of domestic comfort for fifty-two years, and after some months of lingering decay, he died at Little Ealing, June 29, 1774. Being asked one day how he could live with so little nutriment, "I live," said he, "upon the recollection of an innocent and well spent life, which is my only sustenance+." He supported through this long

* MS. Letter from Dr. Pettingal to Mr. Cole, in Brit. Mus. + Nichols's Anecdotes of Bowyer.

life the character of an able divine, and a sound critic and philologer*.

During his early years, he amused himself with light compositions, of which it is to be regretted he did not publish more than the Spectator, No. 572, on quacks, which was a little retouched by Addison, and No. 633, on eloquence +. He wrote also a paper in the Guardian, which will be noticed in its proper place, and an exquisite little fancy in a periodical paper entitled The Freethinker.

At the conclusion of No. 555, Steele says, "It had not come to my knowledge, when I left off the Spectator, that I owe several excellent sentiments and agreeable pieces in that work to Mr. Ince, of Gray's Inn." The annotators follow this intimation with some account of Mr. Ince, but no discovery has been made of his "sentiments," or "pieces." In a conversation with Dr. Johnson, in 1777, Mr. Murphy said, he remembered when there were several people alive in London, who enjoyed a considerable reputation merely from having written a paper in the Spectator. He mentioned particularly Mr. Ince, who used to frequent Tom's coffee-house. Dr. Johnson, who seemed to think this kind of

*His life was prefixed to his posthumous works by the Rev. Mr. Derby, his chaplain, 2 vols. 4to. 1777, but his papers in the Spectator and Guardian, were acknowledged by Dr. Pearce, in a letter to Dr. Birch, dated June 5, 1764.

†The annotators on the Spectator, by some mistake, say that No. 636 was printed by Tickell, in his edition of Addison's works. Tickell published no Spectators in that edition, after

No. 600.

mention depreciating, repeated how highly Steele speaks of Mr. Ince. He was secretary to the accounts of the army, and died October 11, 1758. That many persons wrote single papers or letters in the Spectator, whose names are now irrecoverable, may be easily supposed. Mr. Cole, in his MSS. in the British Museum, mentions a Mr. Western, father of Thomas Western of Rivenhall, in Essex (which last died in 1766), as the author of a few numbers; and I learn from a recent letter in the Gentleman's Magazine, that the Rev. John Lloyd, M. A. who published a poem entitled "God," about the year 1724, calls himself, in the title-page, "Author of several of the Spectators."

The paper in which the above compliment is paid to Mr. Ince, is the concluding one of the seventh volume of the original second edition, to which Steele signs his name, and in which he introduces the names of the principal writers. The Spectator was then laid down about a year and a half, in which interval the Guardian, and its sequel, the Englishman, were published. The time when the Spectator was revived, Dr. Johnson thought "unfavourable to literature," as "the succession of a new family to the throne filled the nation with anxiety, discord, and confusion." The attempt, however, was made, for which a whimsical reason is assigned in No. 632, and not unsuccessfully with respect to merit, but the sale was not so extensive as that of the preceding papers. They now came out only three times a week, and Steele, it is thought, had no concern in it. Addison wrote above a fourth

part, and conducted the whole with Eustace Budgell, whose share, if he had any, has not been ascertained. There are none of the papers lettered at the close, as in the preceding volumes, and Addison's contributions are marked in this edition upon the authority of Mr. Tickell, who collected them in his works.

In Dr. Johnson's opinion, this volume is more valuable than any of those which went before it. There is certainly more variety of style and manner in it, and perhaps of subject; but in general the papers are less lively, and have been less popular. Why the Spectator was revived after the Guardian had closed, and why it ends abruptly with a paper from a stranger, are questions which cannot now be resolved. There is some reason to think this eighth volume was a bookseller's project, who perhaps employed Budgell as editor, and engaged Addison as a writer.

Of the great success of the Spectator, both in papers and in volumes, we have unequivocal evidence from Steele's deelaration, in No. 555, that an edition of the reprinted volumes, of above" nine thousand each book," were then sold off, such was the laudable avidity in those days for moral instruction and elegant amusement. The tax on each half sheet brought into the stamp office, one week with another, above 201. per week, notwithstanding it at first reduced the sale to less than half the number that was usually printed before the tax was imposed. This stamp-duty took place, Aug. 1, 1712, and every single half sheet paid a halfpenny to the Queen."Have you seen," says Swift," the

stamp? Methinks the stamping is worth a halfpenny. The Observator is fallen; the Medleys are jumbled together with the Flying Post; the Examiner is deadly sick; the Spectator keeps up and doubles its price." This increased the price of each paper to two-pence, the price, as we shall see afterwards, of periodical papers *, consisting of three half sheets elegantly printed on fine paper, while the Tatlers, Spectators, and Guardians, consisted of a single half-sheet, printed on the vilest paper of which any specimens have descended to posterity.

But the exact amount of the daily sale has been, with some, the subject of much controversy. Dr. Johnson, estimating by the 201. paid to the revenue weekly, gives 1680 for the daily number +. One of the annotators thinks that this calculation is not made with the Doctor's usual accuracy; that it is probable we ought to read above "297. instead of above 201." in Steele's concluding number; or, that admitting the other sum, it ought to be considered that the greatest number of the Spectators were actually published before the duty, on which the calculation rests, took place. It is added, on the express testimony of Dr. Fleetwood, in a letter to the then Bishop of Salisbury, that the daily sale amounted to fourteen

thousand.

Whatever the precise number was, it is cer

* Rambler, Adventurer, &c.

† In opposition to this we have Addison's declaration, that three thousand were sold daily about the commencement of the work. See No. 10.