The termination of the American war at length permitted Mr. and Mrs. Tobin to return to England, and to reunite the divided branches of their now numerous family, of which the elder and younger must have been strangers to each other. Mr. Tobin having engaged in mercantile concerns, finally settled at Bristol, where John and James had once more the happiness of being restored to the paternal roof; nor was their grandfather deserted by his pupils, since he quitted Stratford, and established himself at Redland, near Bristol, where he enjoyed an uninterrupted intercourse with his daugh ter's family, and to the last moments of his life, distinguished with peculiar affection the boys who had been so often the companions of his rural walks, and the partners of his Christmas festivities. This happy reunion was, however, but the prelude to future separation: the three eldest sons were rapidly advancing to

maturity, and it became necessary to allot to each his respective part in life. James had long been destined for the church; for John it was not easy to discover a suitable vocation. Yet, misled by his sedentary habits and apparently unambitious temper, his friends conceived him to be exactly fitted for a solicitor's office. Not immediately however to divorce him from the superior objects of a liberal education, he was placed under the care of Dr. Lee, master of the grammar-school of Bristol, and encouraged to extend his acquaintance with modern literature.Associated in their daily studies and recreations, assimilating in tastes, sentiments, and opinions, James and John Tobin insensibly contracted a friendship, such as is rarely found to exist in the most intimate relations of domestic life. A community of interests seemed established between them; and in a family distinguished by harmony and affection, they

stood pledged to each other for a still more exclusive fraternal attachment.

It was not merely in the society of his fellow student and his tutor, that the younger Tobin had opportunities of enjoying cultivated society. His father,

who had received an education such as is rarely bestowed on a West Indian merchant, still devoted his leisure hours to the British Classics; and without suspecting he had a son who aspired to dramatic fame, unconsciously cherished the passion he had even in childhood conceived for dramatic poetry. From his father also the young Tobin imbibed an enthusiastic admiration for Pope and Dryden; but at the same time unluckily acquired a relish for satire, which often blights the youthful mind, to which it lends the semblance of maturity, and throws an ungenial chill over the poetical imagination.

At the expiration of that year, which various circumstances conspired to render the happiest of his life, young Tobin quitted Bristol, to be articled to an eminent solicitor in Lincoln's Inn; he had just attained his seventeenth year, and it required all his constitutional philosophy to support without murmurs, the transition from his father's house and his master's study-the attractions of elegant society- and the charms of beautiful scenery-for the drudg ery of an office-the noise-the bustlethe heartless insulation of a vast and to him unknown capital; there was however some alleviation to this trial, since he was domesticated in a highly respectable family, whose kindness appears to have soon reconciled him to the change of situation; and in his native sweetness of temper, he possessed an universal passport to goodwill and affection. With this extreme facility of character, he was fortunate in being placed with friends, who insensibly

acquired an undisputed right to regulate his habits and guard his inexperience. Dur ing the first six months, all intellectual pursuits were precluded by the daily du ties of the office, and when released from his desk, he was happy to embrace whatever relaxation his kind hosts proposed; and with the society of a few friends, or the perusal of some ephemeral publication, he commonly closed the day, of which two thirds had been given to an irksome occupation. During some months he appears to have resolved to attach himself to his profession, for which, according to the following letter, addressed to an old schoolfellow, he at that time rather felt indifference than aversion.

My present situation upon the whole is pleasing, notwithstanding the perseverance that is necessary to support ten hours of constant daily attention to a business which I do not yet thoroughly understand; a bu