temporaries. He was a favourite of Coleridge's, and in the company of his father had visited Abbotsford, a visit of which a memorial remains in his fine verses on "Melrose seen in company with Scott," and in the biography of Sir Walter by Mr. Lockhart, who speaks of him as "a young gentleman of extraordinary abilities, and as modest as able." By his college friends he was regarded, despite his want of the ordinary academic distinctions, as a youth of the greatest gifts and promise. The range of his intellect was extraordinary, and he seemed to his young compeers a marvel of knowledge and thought, when he talked with the same affluence of language on poetry, or philosophy, or politics. But already, at the university, appeared symptoms of physical weakness. We hear of "a too rapid determination of blood to the brain," of "derangement of the vital functions," and of "irregularity of circulation," causing "a morbid depression of spirits." On taking his degree and leaving Cambridge, he went to London to reside with his father. Becoming a student of the Inner temple, he had the benefit of his father's willing aid in his legal studies, and, in the October of 1832, entered the office of an eminent conveyancer. Literature and philosophy were not neglected, however, in the study and practice of law. During intervals of leisure he translated the sonnets of Dante's Vita Nuova, composed a dramatic sketch with Raphael for its hero, and contributed memoirs of Petrarch, Voltaire, and Burke to the "gallery of portraits," issued by the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge. His spirits were animated, and his mood was gay; his family and friends fondly hoped that his health was restored, when in the spring of 1833 an attack of intermittent fever preluded his early and mournful fate. In the autumn his father took the much-loved and invalid son to Germany for change of air and scene, and in trustful commune and enjoyment of a country with the literature and history of which both were familiar, they made their last tour together. "The travellers," says the Atlantic Monthly for December, 1860, "were returning to Vienna from Pesth; a damp day set in, while they were on the journey; again intermittent fever attacked the sensitive invalid, and suddenly, mysteriously, his life was ended. It was the 15th of September, 1833, and Arthur Hallani lay dead in his father's arms." His corpse was conveyed to his native land, and he was buried in the old church at Clevedon, on a height overhanging the Bristol channel. In 1834 his father printed for private circulation among friends only the "Remains" of his gifted son, accompanying them with a memoir of their author. The work (reprinted but not published in 1853), as may be supposed, is rare; but an instructive paper entitled Arthur Hallam, founded on it. with a few additional facts and traits, was published in the Boston (U.S.) Magazine, the Atlantic Monthly for December, 1860, and to this sketch we have been on the present occasion much indebted. The true biography of Arthur Hallam, however, apart from minute facts and dates, lies in the poem which Mr. Tennyson has consecrated to his memory. In Memoriam, published in 1850, is a performance unique in the literature of the world, interweaving as it does, in "linked sweetness long drawn out," the epitaph of a departed friend with solemn and beautiful musings on the deepest mysteries of life and death.—F. E.
HALLAM, Henry, an eminent historian and critic, was born in 1777 at Windsor, of which his father was a canon, combining for some time with this preferment the deanery of Bristol. He was educated at Eton, the great public school in the vicinity of his native town, and distinguished himself by his proficiency in the classical studies of the place. His verses printed in the Musæ Etonenses have been praised by a competent critic for the purity and vigour of their Latinity, as well as for the fancy and thought displayed in them. From Eton he went to Christ Church, Oxford; and if his academic career was undistinguished, the cause is to be found, we are told, in the few opportunities of distinction then afforded by the university. Soon after he left Oxford he commenced the study of the law, joining the Inner temple, of which he became in time a bencher. He prosecuted his legal studies zealously, and they notably influenced and aided his subsequent literary activity. But the possession of an independent fortune, united to the emoluments of an office under government (in the stamp department), raised him above any necessity for the active pursuit of his profession, and he devoted himself to literature. His political creed was that of liberalism; his convictions were strong enough to form a bond of union between himself and the leading members of the whig party; but he never actively engaged in general politics, co-operating, however, and that heartily, in the movement for the abolition of the slave-trade. On the establishment of the Edinburgh Review he became a valued contributor to its pages, and in the English Bards and Scotch Reviewers Lord Byron introduces him in the company of Sydney Smith, when "Caledonia's Goddess" apostrophizes its editor, Jeffrey:—
" Smug Sydney, too, thy bitter page shall seek,
And classic Hallam much renowned for Greek."
It was, however, in a different department of literature from that thus satirically alluded to by Byron, that Mr. Hallam first came prominently before the reading world. He was in his forty-first year, and known only as an occasional contributor to the Edinburgh Review and as an accomplished scholar, when in 1818 was published his first elaborate work, the "View of Europe during the Middle Ages." The period reviewed extended from the middle of the fifth to the end of the fifteenth century, from the establishment of Clovis in Gaul to the invasion of Italy by Charles VIII. Mr. Hallam's treatment of his subject was less frigid than that of Robertson; and in point of style his work may be considered as marking a transition from the historical school of the eighteenth century to the more glowing and picturesque one of our own time. In other respects it displayed great research, as well as soundness of judgment; and though its principal theme was the rise and progress of governments, it contained many striking passages of literary criticism. Considering its subject, the "View" soon attained what may be called popularity, and its authority has not been effaced by later continental research. One of its most important results was, the impulse which it gave to a careful and philosophical study of the history of the middle ages. Nearly ten years elapsed before the publication of Mr. Hallam's second great work, the "Constitutional History of England," which was published in the July of 1827. This work of "a calm conscientious whig of the old school" has become a standard authority, is appealed to in parliament, and is a text-book at the universities. Mr. Hallam's best biographer even ascribes to it an important political influence, and considers that if, amid the strife of parties, "there has grown up a more general accordance of sentiment and opinion on English constitutional history," it is to this work that the welcome change is due. The period included in the "Constitutional History," extended from the accession of Henry VII. to the death of George II. After another interval of about the same length, in September, 1838, and July, 1839, appeared the third and last of Mr. Hallam's great works, the "Introduction to the Literature of the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries." The title of the book sufficiently indicates the immense labour required for the proper performance of the task, and Mr. Hallam brought to bear upon it, not only an almost frightful industry, but a power of criticism remarkable in its range as well as its soundness, and which was exerted with equal success on Shakspeare, Ariosto, and Cervantes, as on theologians, metaphysicians, and scientific writers. All these three works have passed through editions numerous, when the nature of their subjects and the sobriety of their style are considered. From the "Introduction to the literature of Europe," a volume of selections entitled "Literary Essays and Characters" was published in 1852. The volume of Remains of his son Arthur, with a memoir by himself, which Mr. Hallam printed for private circulation in 1834, has been already referred to.—(See Hallam, Arthur Henry.)
Mr. Hallam was a prominent member of the best literary society of the metropolis, and he delighted in receiving at his house men eminent in literature, science, and art. He enjoyed the acquaintance of most of the intellectual notabilities, not only of England, but of Europe. Among the distinctions bestowed on him was what has been called "the blue riband of literature," an elective trusteeship of the British Museum. He undertook, at the height of his fame, the office of Examiner of Modern History for his alma mater, Oxford; and his own college, Christ Church, did homage to his reputation by enrolling his name in the list of its honorary students. He was a useful member of the Society of Antiquaries, and became early a fellow of the Royal Society, among his other pursuits watching with interest the progress of the physical sciences. To this connection with the Royal Society we owe the excellent sketch of his career and character, published after his death among the notices of deceased fellows in Vol. X.. No. 40, of the Proceedings of the society. It is, we
