Sir Jonah has told us of £7,000 made in her last professional tours, a noble addition to the splendid fortune which almost unexampled success had, we might fancy, been accumulating through her life. But all seems to have been checked and withered away (but the bounty of her illustrious friend) by the conduct of the gentleman once so dear in her esteem. May we venture to inquire what had become of that vast fortune which we have vainly fancied to be a growing bank and fund of provision for herself and her children? Suppose it could have been established that he had engaged Mrs. Jordan's name and credit to the amount of £5,000, what was to hinder her from "paying the bonds thrice," if once would not have sufficed, rather than becoming a fugitive in a foreign land, and dying of dejection and alarm as much as of disease? But we have, from her own pen, a detail of her circumstances before she knew anything of the embarrassments of the person in question, and a most astonishing exhibition it is. I use her own words, that no colouring of mine may seem to deepen the disastrous picture.

"When everything is adjusted,' it will be impossible for me to remain in England; I shall 'As to Mrs. Alsop—see her letter, p. 274.

therefore go abroad, appropriating as much as I can spare of the remainder of my income to pay my debts.

"Be silent on the subject of my going abroad, or it may embarrass me."

At this time she was so little aware of the difficulties shortly to excite her attention, that she absolutely apologises to the person for withdrawing a slight addition she had been happy to make to his income, in order to carry into effect the arrangements proposed, for the salvation, indeed, of her daughter Alsop. How, it will be asked, did she come into such unlooked-for straitness, as to what should have rendered her independent even of royal bounty? Who had swallowed up the recompense of her glorious talent, the growth from the stock of her own industry? Her sonsin-law had not been half paid the intended portions of their wives. But all her connections, of every degree, were her annuitants.

Without meaning offence, her sons in the army, young men of high spirit, and involved in some unpleasant circumstances occasionally, might appeal to a mother's indulgence, and, I am sure, always found the appeal answered. There is something in the military profession peculiarly

dear to the fancy of a parent; the warmth of her expressions, when she names them, shows the ascendency they possessed, in a mind uniformly affectionate and liberal. I am persuaded that she would consider fortune, at all times, as a trivial oblation to either their gallantry or their love.

However, at length we find a hint that something has created annoyance in the quarter alluded to. "I am truly sorry," says this excellent woman, "that you have not been comfortable; what has been the matter?" When the explanation had been given, she seems to have granted the securities required, and thus replies to a letter from the gentleman interested.

:

thank your kind

"MY EVER DEAR and considerate letter, and reap all the consolation from it that my present melancholy situation will allow of. I enclose the notes. I have just written to dear

"God bless you all!

(Without date.)

"D. J."

Having thus prepared the way for the disclosure of these unhappy matters of business, I state them upon the authority to which I have sufficiently referred in a former page.

AUTHENTIC STATEMENT.

"In the autumn of 1815, Mrs. Jordan was called upon, very unexpectedly, to redeem some securities given by her, for money raised to assist a near relative. The cause of this aid was the pressure of matters purely of a domestic nature. The call upon her was sudden, and certainly unexpected; and, not finding herself in a situation to advance the £2,000 claimed, she withdrew herself to France, deputing a friend in England to make every necessary arrangement for paying all the creditors as soon as possible. At the time of Mrs. Jordan's quitting England, she was in the receipt of an annual income of upwards of £2,000, paid with the greatest punctuality quarterly, without demur, drawback, or impediment, and so continued to the hour of her death. Up to April, 1816, Mrs. Jordan's drafts on Messrs. Coutts and Co. were duly paid; never for a moment could she have felt the griping hand of poverty.

"I can positively assert that never, during her lifetime, was one shilling paid toward liquidating the securities in question, nor was it urgent that it should be done, because the creditors, for the most part personal friends, well knew the upright

principles they had to depend upon; nor were they ignorant that the transcendent talents of this gifted being were always sure to receive a munificent reward from the hands of the public, whenever she should again seek their assistance. And in the fruits of this they were sure of participating. Her protracted stay abroad was occasioned by untoward circumstances, over which the principals had no control.

Up to the hour of Mrs. Jordan's leaving England she had been living under the same roof with the relative with whom she was concerned in the securities alluded to. Reciprocal acts of kindness, mutual confidence in all domestic matters, and many points of private affairs tended to create in Mrs. Jordan's mind a reliance upon this person. Never for a moment, during the six years that her daughter had been married, had Mrs. Jordan reason to doubt his sincere affection or his veracity, nor did she doubt them when she left England.

Immediately upon the derangement of Mrs. Jordan's affairs, and before she left England, a statement of all the claims to which she was liable was made out, together with a list of the persons holding her bonds and bills of acceptance.