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                         RES JUDICATAE





                     _IN UNIFORM BINDING_


                        =ANDREW LANG=

        Letters to Dead Authors                 $1 00


                     =AUGUSTINE BIRRELL=

        Obiter Dicta--First Series               1 00
        Obiter Dicta--Second Series              1 00
        Res Judicatae                             1 00


                        =W. E. HENLEY=

        Views and Reviews--Literature            1 00



                         RES JUDICATAE

                     _PAPERS AND ESSAYS_

                              BY

       AUGUSTINE BIRRELL AUTHOR OF 'OBITER DICTA,' ETC.



   'It need hardly be added that such sentences do not any more
   than the records of the superior courts conclude as to matters
   which may or may not have been controverted.'--_See_ BLACKHAM'S
   _Case I. Salkeld 290_


            NEW YORK CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 1892

                     COPYRIGHT, 1892, BY

                   CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS.




                           PREFACE


The first two essays in this volume were composed as lectures, and are
now printed for the first time; the others have endured that indignity
before. The papers on 'The Letters of Charles Lamb' and 'Authors in
Court' originally appeared in _Macmillan's Magazine_; and the short
essays entitled 'William Cowper' and 'George Borrow' in the _Reflector_,
a lively sheet which owed its existence to and derived its inspiration
from the energy and genius of the late Mr. J. K. Stephen, whose too
early death has not only eclipsed the gaiety of many gatherings, but has
robbed the country of the service of a noble and truth-loving man.

The other papers appeared either in _Scribner's Magazine_ or in the
columns of the _Speaker_ newspaper.

Although, by the kindness of my present publishers, I have always been
practically a 'protected article' in the States, I cannot help
expressing my pleasure in finding myself in the enjoyment of the same
modest rights as an author in the new home of my people as in the old.

                                   A. B.

    LINCOLN'S INN, LONDON.




                           CONTENTS
                                                                  PAGE

 I. SAMUEL RICHARDSON                                                1

 II. EDWARD GIBBON                                                  39

 III. WILLIAM COWPER                                                84

 IV. GEORGE BORROW                                                 115

 V. CARDINAL NEWMAN                                                140

 VI. MATTHEW ARNOLD                                                181

 VII. WILLIAM HAZLITT                                              224

 VIII. THE LETTERS OF CHARLES LAMB                                 232

 IX. AUTHORS IN COURT                                              253

 X. NATIONALITY                                                    274

 XI. THE REFORMATION                                               284

 XII. SAINTE-BEUVE                                                 298





                      SAMUEL RICHARDSON

                          A LECTURE


It is difficult to describe mankind either in a book or in a breath, and
none but the most determined of philosophers or the most desperate of
cynics have attempted to do so, either in one way or the other. Neither
the philosophers nor the cynics can be said to have succeeded. The
descriptions of the former are not recognisable and therefore as
descriptions at all events, whatever may be their other merits, must be
pronounced failures; whilst those of the cynics describe something which
bears to ordinary human nature only the same sort of resemblance that
chemically polluted waters bear to the stream as it flows higher up than
the source of contamination, which in this case is the cynic himself.

But though it is hard to describe mankind, it is easy to distinguish
between people. You may do this in a great many different ways: for
example, and to approach my subject, there are those who can read
Richardson's novels, and those who cannot. The inevitable third-class
passenger, no doubt, presents himself and clamours for a ticket: I mean
the man or woman who has never tried. But even a lecturer should have
courage, and I say boldly that I provide no accommodation for that
person tonight. If he feels aggrieved, let him seek his
remedy--elsewhere.

       *       *       *       *       *

Mr. Samuel Richardson, of Salisbury Court, Fleet Street, printer, was,
if you have only an eye for the outside, a humdrum person enough.
Witlings, writing about him in the magazines, have often, out of
consideration for their pretty little styles, and in order to avoid the
too frequent repetition of his