The next member of the club who offers himself to our notice is the Hon. GERARD MONTGOMERY, the son of a rich Warwickshire Peer, whose bodily habits have been rendered weak and effeminate, owing to the over-abundant attentions bestowed on him in the nursery, by his maiden aunt, Lady Deborah Mildmay. This character, with reference to the former two, forms the same connecting link which twilight does between the opposite extremes of day and night. His genius is a brilliant of the first water, but his talents have been suffered to run wild, owing to their very luxuriance. Gifted with wonderful quickness and retentiveness of memory, and an ardent imagination, always on the wing in search of variety, his progress in classical attainments was the theme of universal admiration, and his instructors augured highly of the future reputation of their pupil. But the success which he met with in his studies was the means of preventing him from ever becoming a solid scholar. The facility with which he was able to master all his tasks engendered presumption, and an unbounded confidence in his own powers, than which nothing can be more detrimental to the cause of learning. Hence Gerard indulged in habits of procrastination, because he could write his verses off-hand, and therefore the performance of his duty might be safely delayed till the last moment, and then slurred over as a disagreeable task. Hence also, not being accustomed to find any difficulties in the mere school business which was required of him, he determined not to seek for them of his own accord, in the more arduous pursuits of knowledge, which demand effort and application. In his course of reading, he skimmed with volatile eagerness along the gayer and more pleasing paths of literature: he flew from author to author, as the bee sips the sweets from every flower, without troubling herself with inquiries into the nature and properties of each one that she visits. By these means Montgomery amassed an extensive stock of information on almost every branch of the belles lettres; but in spite of the ability with which he would discuss a question, and support his share of conversation among the members of the Club, he has often been found to be but superficially acquainted with the subject which he has been adorning with all the beauties of a fluent and persuasive eloquence. Eton, however, cannot boast of possessing another youth of whom it may be as truly averred, that he has quaffed copious draughts of the genuine Hippocrene. His natural talent for poetical composition has been greatly improved and strengthened by his acquaintance with the mighty master-spirits of the old time of Greece and Rome. His sense of pleasing emotions was so refined, and his perception of the beautiful and pathetic so acute, that a tear has been observed glistening in his eyes, while contemplating the parting of the Trojan hero with his Andromache, or while tracing the agonizing feelings of the impassioned Dido on the departure of Æneas. But the eagerness with which he delivered himself up to the sway of the potent wands of our own native magicians, Shakspeare and the elder tragedians, with Scott, Byron, and Coleridge of the present day, was carried to an excess. I believe he had reached the perfection of human happiness, when, having locked himself in his room, this poetical enthusiast indulged in sentimental tears over some favourite poem which he was reading aloud with energy and feeling. This

sensibility often led Gerard into many other extravagancies; and he was looked upon as a romantic visionary by those of the common mould. He would frequently steal away from a comfortable fire-side to wander on a chilly autumn evening in the gloom of Poet's Walk, with his arms folded, to commune with solitude, to watch the fleecy clouds as they past over the glimmering moon, and, I was going to add, to meditate on some ideal beauty. But no! Gerard was not a shadow hunter: unexistent creatures of the imagination were by no means to his taste, for he knew well how to attach sufficient value to the liquid blue eyes of a substantial Charlotte, or the graceful figure and auburn ringlets of a real Sophia. Hence his pockets were crammed with billet-doux and sonnets on the charms of the adorable Miss R. T-, or the last dying speech and confession of the love-lorn Gerard, previous to his quenching the flames of passion in a cold bath. This amorous disposition led our Romeo into many ludicrous scrapes. He has been shot at for a black cat; has narrowly escaped a man trap; has been well soused by his Juliet, and soundly horsewhipped by the stout old Capulet of the premises.

The pursuits of Sir FRANCIS WENTWORTH are perfectly distinct from any that have been hitherto described. This youth was born and bred a staunch Whig. Even in the nursery the true principles were instilled into his expanding ideas with the greatest assiduity. Instead of the common food with which the love of the marvellous, so early evinced by children, is usually served-such as the astonishing exploits of Jack the Giant Killer, or the adventures of Tom Thumb; little Frank was supplied with political caricatures and electioneering ballads. His laced baby-cap was made in the shape of that of liberty; and whenever he was admitted to the family dessert, to have hälf a glass of wine on Papa's knee, he was first required to lisp out the pa triotic toast of "The cause for which Hampden bled in the field and Sydney perished on the scaffold," long before he could possibly understand the import of the sentence; and to repeat after his uncle, in a shrill voice,—“ The liberty of the Press-it is like the air we breathe;"-while his eyes were evidently turned towards the glass at the latter part of the sentence, if we have it not, we die." The labours of the parents met with the success their most ardent wishes anticipated. When he had now reached the period at which boys who are intended for public schools prepare for their debut on a miniature world, his father (the late Sir Marmaduke) was a long time debating with himself at which seminary the future hopes of the family should be placed. At first he was afraid that Eton was situated too near the atmosphere of a Court; and the main consideration was, the danger there might be of Frank's principles being corrupted. This school had also been disgraced, in his eyes, as the nursery of Canning; but when he reflected, on the other hand, that it had the honour of educating two such "burning and shining lights" in the par liamentary hemisphere as the great Fox, and the kindred spirit who caught the mantle of the departing orator, and with it an inspiration which has raised him to the pre-eminent station which he at present holds among his party,-the Earl Grey; all scruples vanished, and Frank was sent to Eton.

Here, however, he did not find that coincidence of opinion which he had been in the habit of meeting with at his father's table: nothing is more foreign to the dispositions of the would-be politicians at school, and at Eton in particular, than sycophancy or complaisant concessions in party sentiments. It is an independence of soul worthy the true offspring of Englishmen; and although it is the cause of a good deal of squabbling between the champions of opposite parties, which are as regularly organized here as on the more extensive stage of the real world; yet, when we consider that these are the minds which will be hereafter summoned to the management of the helm of the Legislature, can it be otherwise than beneficial for themselves and their destinies, that they should be exercising those talents here, which will be of so much importance in their maturity elsewhere? Thus young Frank met with those who were both willing and able to grapple with and discuss every notion which he advanced, and had hitherto been taught to consider as incontrovertible as Gospel. Opposition, as one might readily expect, made him more violent, because the foundation had been deeply laid in his infancy; and during the whole course of his boyhood, the most indefatigable exertions had been used to build a firm superstructure upon it. Having therefore been beforehand furnished with arms, and well instructed in the art of wielding them, he had now a field opened for him on which to signalize himself; and so successful did he prove, that he was at length tacitly acknowledged as the Whig leader of the School. But such a distinction could not be obtained or permanently secured without a close application to the study of political economy. It is true that some, who pretend to take the lead in this line, content themselves with ringing the changes on a certain string of set sentences, while their mouths are continually full of aggravated philippics against tyranny, taxation and oppression, and theoretical panegyrics upon universal liberty and the unshackled freedom of the press, without being able to bring them to bear really and substantially on the question in debate. This is not the case with the young Baronet. From a close investigation of his darling study, and a sincere desire of information, he has lately learnt a degree of moderation in his assertions which was heretofore a desideratum. He still, however, pushes the same outcries against existing corruptions, boroughmongers, and placemen;-the extravagance of the expenditure, and the incapacity of Ministers. Step into his room, and you will discover the man from the company he keeps. The first object which strikes the eye is an immense bust of Charles James Fox, with the " Vincit amor patria" on the pedestal. Look round you at the caricatures, and you will see the Ministers and their satellites falling headlong from their political spheres, like Lucifer and his angels, while the glorious sun of "Opposition" has gained the complete ascendancy in the firmament. His book-shelves are well provided with various works on statistics, from the tomes of Hume and Adam Smith, to the compositions of Malthus, Brougham, and Jeremy Bentham. Though there are some authors of questionable principles, the great majority consist of writers after Sir Frank's own heart; and never perhaps was my Lord Clarendon in such mixed company. The tables are strewed with the Edinburgh Reviews, Parliamen

tary proceedings, files of old Chronicles and Examiners, and pamphlets of all sizes. Here is the room of audience, in which this blooming sprig of Whiggism assembles his friends and followers to breakfast, and communicates to them in confidence the latest despatches which he has received from town of the state of affairs; the new speculations which are afloat; and the general understanding there is that the Ministry are to be turned out-immediately another cabinet can be formed without them: he then reads out, for their edification, Lord Erskine's last publication, or some other textbook; and, having thus strengthened their minds, he sends them forth to fight in the "good cause," as he tells them, like sheep among wolves.

There are two distinguishing features in the mental physiognomy of MARTIN STERLING:-a religious and political firmness of principle. Awakened to a due sense of the importance of the passage, "Remember thy Creator in the days of thy youth;" and disgusted with the thoughtlessness and levity with which every thing connected with religion was treated among a certain set of his schoolfellows, he was often caught in his study examining that old-fashioned book, which has been long exploded by the new school of philosophy, as utterly unworthy the attention of men of wit and genius-the Bible. Not that I would for a moment insinuate that the slightest tinge of scepticism, as to the truth of revealed doctrines, had infected the young eleves of Eton, many of whom are hereafter destined to mount the pulpit: but the assent given was too frequently a cold one, in which no interest was shown; a matter of course; an old deed, to which, for decency's sake, they felt themselves obliged to put their signatures, at the recommendation of parents, or from the force of general example; the validity of which they never, indeed, dreamt of questioning, though they did not once reflect that they were bound to fulfil its provisions, any further than preserving an appearance of decorum in attending Church-service. All other duties they imagined might be safely deferred to a more convenient season, when the amusements and gaieties of youth had lost their flavour. In addition to the offence which Martin gave by the bent which his closet studies had taken, his couduct at chapel was observed to be at variance with the usual nonchalance and listlessness of his neighbours. Instead of arranging matters for the next game at cricket or football, or composing a copy of verses, for which he could not find leisure at a more proper time, he was silly enough to be following the Chaplain in the lessons of the day, and has been even overheard to whisper an "Amen” at the conclusion of a prayer. This behaviour stamped him with the appellation of " Methodist ;" and an everlasting fire of small shot, witticisms, sneers, and mockery was kept up against the saint, by those whose resentment he provoked by his stern home-driven phillippics against swearing, drunkenness, and the like. By no means of an irritable temper, he preserved his equanimity admirably, and his patience under insults never failed him. His conduct indeed subjected him to ridicule, but Martin was one on whom the opinion of the multitude weighed but as dust in the balance, in his discernment between right and wrong; nay, it generally took a contrary effect. Having paid great attention to ecclesiastical

writings, he is become a stout polemic in divinity, and as high a churchman as ever took the Bampton Lectures for the standard of faith; a work, by the bye, which an elder brother at Oxford is commissioned to procure for him regularly on the first day of publication. The superiority of his abilities is incontestible. To a thoughtful and unprejudiced mind, his clear reasoning, and the acute remarks which he makes on the last sermon he has heard in chapel, are a source of pleasing instruction; the analysis which a retentive memory enables him to give of the subject embraced by the preacher is true and correct; and the manner in which he embodies in theme the beautiful language and clear argument of the much-esteemed author of "Records of the Creation," has gained him great applause. But I have alluded to his political principles. These, if we may believe his adversaries, are bigotted to the extréme. In fact, he professes himself a Tory; or, more properly speaking, a Ministerialist; for the old distinction between Whig and Tory, according to Madame de Stael's definition, "that the former approve of monarchy and love liberty-the latter approve of liberty but love monarchy," is grown obsolete. The two parties, which at present divide the State, may be classed under the two heads of those who systematically support, and those who as systematically oppose, the measures of the existing administration. As the head of the Eton True Blues, Martin is often opposed in fierce debates and furious bickerings with Sir Frank Wentworth, and the epithets of Toad-eater and Demagogue are often exchanged between them. The one accuses his opponent of supporting the doctrines of the infallibility of Ministers, and the divine right of Kings; and the other retorts, by ridiculing the sovereignty of the mob, and stigmatizing the Utopian theories of Universal Representation.

But, gentle Readers, I flatter myself you are all expecting with impatience a sketch of the worthy Chairman himself. Like a literary gourmand I have reserved his character for a bon-bouche, but cannot sufficiently lament my inability to do it justice. The difficulty of the undertaking consists in distinguishing the different shades, which are so confused and blended together, that a sort of indefinable mystery is thrown over the tout-ensemble; and it would be presumption, and (what has more weight) bad policy for me to withdraw the veil, which forbids the gaze of the profane and uninitiated. There is something which attracts our respect and attention in whatever is without the pale of our comprehension. Where would have been the reverence which the Heathen paid to the oracles, had he been acquainted with the detail of the natural or artificial causes from whence they proceeded? Yet far be it from any one to conclude from what I have said, that in this case familiarity would breed contempt; I confidently refer you to that surest of all tests, Time. "From his works thou shalt know him :" and Time is the crucible which will show whether they contain most dross or pure gold. I will, however, venture on a few outlines

PEREGRINE COURTENAY has long been considered a fac-totum in Etonian literature;-a centre of gravity, which attracts to itself every boy who is in any way distinguished for talent or merit;-a solar orb, around which they