sanctity of place, has been amongst the influences that have preserved the Club to so reverend an age. Upon this principle, its founders seem to have calculated, when they resolved that it should be held for ever in a theatre, the invariable tenure on which, unless in cases of inevitable necessity, it has ever subsisted.

In that fire, alas! perished the original archives of the Society. The lovers of wit and pleasantry have much to deplore in that loss, inasmuch as not only the names of many of the early members are irretrievably gone, but what is more to be regretted, some of their happiest effusions; for it was then customary to register in the weekly records, any thing of striking excellence that had been hit off in the course of the evening.

This, however, is certain, that the Beef-Steaks, from its foundation to the present hour, has been native to famous wits

Or hospitable

that as guests or members, persons distinguished for rank, and social and convivial powers, have, through successive generations, been seated at its festive board. Bubb Doddington, Aaron Hill,

Hoadley, the author of the Suspicious Husband, Leonidas Glover, are only a few names snatched from the slender traditions that remain of its

Of these, no one was more distinguished for the brilliancy of his parts, and for the variety and sweetness of his conversation, than Sir Peere Williams, a young gentleman of birth and fashion. He had made already several eloquent speeches in Parliament, and giving the most promising omens of future distinction. This ill-fated youth fell at the siege of Belleisle. He went thither, it seems, not more from the spirit of military enterprize, than to fly from a hopeless attachment. His disappointment (the

causes of it cannot now be traced) o'er-mastered his fine spirits, and rendered him careless of existence. In the recklessness of a desponding state of mind, he approached too near one of the enemy's sentinels, and was shot through the body.

Slight fragments only remain of the early history of the Society. Of its first members, each in his turn has been knocked about the mazzard by the sexton's spade. Then came the days of

Lord Sandwich, Wilkes, Bonnell Thornton, Arthur Murphy, Churchill, and Tickell, the author of the liveliest of hits, Anticipation. Descending nearer our own times, we find there the present King, when Prince of Wales,* the late Duke of Norfolk, Charles Morris, and others, the delecta Danaum, the pride and flower of modern London.

Nor is the Society's brightness yet obscured. I shall presently attempt a faint commemoration of a few of the luminaries that still shine at its board. But is it not a proud victory over time, that amid the dissolutions of the greatest confederations, and the crumbling ruin of states

* On Saturday, the 14th of May, the Prince of Wales was admitted a member of the Beef-Steak Club. His Royal Highness having signified his wish of belonging to that Society, and there not being a vacancy, it was proposed to make him an honorary member; but that being declined by His Royal Highness, it was agreed to increase the number from twenty-four to twenty-five, in consequence of which His Royal Highness was unanimously elected. The Beef-Steak Club has been instituted just fifty years, and consists of some of the most classical and sprightly wits in the kingdom.—See Annual Register, Vol. XXVII. for 1785.

and kingdoms, this cheerful fraternity has so long defied the common destroyer of man and his institutions? But look at their charter, and cease to admire.-It is BEEF AND LIBERTY. The spirit of the Club is its own most emphatically. Nothing foreign, borrowed, or adventitious. It is obvious, that no antecedent rule or regulation could have formed such a Club. Goodhumour, mirth, mutual forbearance, open-hearted communication, the postponement of every selfish feeling to the general hilarity and happiness; these can be produced by no rule or regulation. It should seem that the spirit of the Beef-Steaks, like that of the English constitution, resides in no especial maxim, but informs and animates the whole system-at once its parent and result― producing, and reproduced.

Yet, whether this happy effect has flowed from accident or design, or the felicitous combination of both, it is a soil and climate in which illhumour cannot vegetate. Place a man there accursed with a peevish temper, some spoiled son of fortune, or of his mother; in that Society, take my word for it, he will be soon an altered

being, or he will assume the virtue he has not ; a discipline which, not unfrequently, makes a man what he affects to be. In this respect, it has worked miracles far beyond Prince Hohenloe's ; converting morose cynics into easy and placid companions; froward disputants into tranquil listeners. Not that it is often necessary to put this salutary process to the test; for every candidate must undergo a previous inquisition as to his temper and good sense, which, in fact, are synonimous; and, for this purpose, he must attend twice, or thrice, or oftener, if need be, when his patience in sustaining, and his smartness in repelling, the good-natured satire of the place, are minutely noted. In spite, however, of this ordeal, a waspish blockhead will now and then creep in. But woe to him when he is there! The fabled torments of poetry are a joke to what he has to go through. Ixion's wheel is only a cockney's velocipede; the stone of Sisyphus a mere game of bowls in the comparison. He must either withdraw altogether, or, involving himself within the integument of his natural dulness, sit and listen in silence.