N the year 1821 an ardent American admirer of William Hazlitt, writing from New York, sent over a curious present. "I feel assured,"

he wrote, in an important P.S., "that any part of so great a being as George Cooke will be esteemed a curiosity, and richly valued. The bearer of this will offer a morsel of the liver of this wondrous man."

The reply of William Hazlitt to Mr. R. C. Maywood, whose name deserves to be printed as that of the most eccentric of curiosity collectors, does not exist; but we quote the passage for the purpose of introducing our present to the British and American public. In this volume they have a portion of the mind, and in some respects the best part, of one of the most original and genuine of the English essayists. These essays were the first that their author presented to the public after, indeed, a sufficient practice of his pen in other fields. They were commenced in the "Examiner" in January, 1815, and concluded there

in January, 1817. "It was proposed," said the author, "by my friend, Mr. Leigh Hunt, to publish a series of papers in the "Examiner," after the manner of the early periodical essayists, the "Spectator" and "Tatler." These papers were to be contributed by various persons on a variety of subjects, and Mr. Hunt, as the editor, was to take the characteristic or dramatic part of the work upon himself. I undertook to furnish occasional essays and criticisms; one or two other friends promised their assistance; but the essence of the work was to be miscellaneous. The next thing was to fix upon a title for it. After much doubtful consultation, that of 'The Round Table' was agreed upon, as most descriptive of its nature and design. But our plan had been no sooner arranged and entered upon, than Buonaparte landed at Frejus, et voilà la Table Ronde dissoute.

Our little

congress was broken up as well as the great one; politics called off the attention of the editor from the belles lettres; and the task of continuing the work fell chiefly upon the person who was least able to give life and finish to the original design."

The defeat of Buonaparte at Waterloo had an extraordinary effect on William Hazlitt, his great admirer; this it may be well here to chronicle, as it will help some to a knowledge of the author, and is some key to the animosity of "Blackwood," the "Quarterly," and other reviews, and to the abuse so unsparingly lavished on the essayist. One critic went so far as to call him