individuals. What Shelley urged was that each Irishman should set about reforming himself. In the Address, the main object of touching upon emancipation and repeal appears to be that the author may thereby gain the ear of the reader for higher and broader themes.

The pamphlet was printed in the cheapest style; the price was five pence; it was also distributed gratis by the author. "For two days," he writes to Miss Hitchener, "I have omitted writing to you, but each day has been filled up with the employment of disseminating the doctrines of philanthropy and freedom. I have already sent four hundred of my little pamphlets into the world, and they have excited a sensation of wonder in Dublin; eleven hundred yet remain for distribution. Copies have been sent to sixty public houses. No prosecution is yet attempted. I do not see how it can be. Congratulate me, my friend, for everything proceeds well. I could not expect more rapid success." Again: "I send a man out every day to distribute copies, with instructions how and where to give them. ... I stand on the balcony of our window and watch till I see a man who looks likely; I throw a book to him." The tone of Shelley's letter may be compared with that of Harriet, who also writes to Miss Hitchener: "I am sure you would laugh were you to see us give the pamphlets. We throw them out of the window and give them to men we pass in the streets. For myself, I am ready to die of laughter when it is done, and Percy looks so grave. Yesterday he put one into a woman's hood of a cloak; she knew nothing of it, and we passed her. I could hardly get on, my muscles were so irritated."

A second pamphlet was printed, proposing the formation of an association whose immediate object should be Catholic emancipation, but whose ultimate aim was to be the destruction of all grievances, political and moral. Shelley also

spoke at a great public meeting in which O'Connell and other leaders took a prominent part. But his visionary expectations of reforming the Irish or of solving the Irish question were, of course, destined to disappointment. In not even the slightest degree did he produce the effects which he had anticipated; and he abandoned his attempt even more speedily than he had undertaken it. He writes: "The association, proceeds slowly, and I fear will not be established.

Prejudices are so violent in contradiction to my principles, that more hate me as a freethinker than love me as a votary of freedom." He was further discouraged by Godwin's disapproval of his premature interference in practical politics; and after a seven weeks' stay in Ireland set sail for England on April 4th.

The twelve months which followed formed a period of wanderings hither and thither. Political questions continued to occupy a large part of his attention, and the outspoken radicalism of some of his printed pamphlets, especially of A Declaration of Rights, which he purposed to distribute among the peasantry, led to his being put under surveillance by the authorities. In the village of Lynmouth, on the coast of Devon, he was accustomed, in company with Miss Hitchener (who had now joined the household) to launch upon the sea boxes fitted with masts and sails containing copies of his pamphlets. Bottles were used for the same purpose, and even fire-balloons were sent skyward to spread his ideas for the amelioration of the world. He employed a servant, Dan Healy, to post up copies of the Declaration of Rights in the neighboring town of Barnstaple. Healy was arrested, in consequence, and imprisoned for six months, Shelley doing all in his power to alleviate the hapless victim's fate. Later, Shelley took up his abode in the little Welsh town of Tremadoc, where he became deeply interested in a work which was being carried on by a gentle

man of the neighborhood, the reclaiming of a large tract. of land from the sea. This appealed to Shelley as a noble and beneficent undertaking; it was suffering from lack of funds; he subscribed £100, and threw himself with ardor into the work of interesting others. In pursuance of this object he went to London in October, 1812, accompanied by the other members of the family. This visit was notable because the poet, for the first time, met Godwin; henceforward there was frequent intercourse between them. Mary Godwin, now a girl of fifteen, was absent during the greater part of Shelley's stay in London, and he may not have seen her. Friendly relations were renewed with Hogg, who was now studying law in London. Here, too, Miss Hitchener received her congé. This lady, whom he had idealized as the pattern of all that is highest in woman, had been resident with the Shelleys since July. At first all had gone well; but it was inevitable that misunderstandings should grow up between a person so situated and one or all of the group, Shelley, Harriet, and Eliza. By and by, we find them speaking of her as an unendurable incubus. To be rid of her, Shelley, in consideration of the fact that she had been induced to give up her school in order to join their circle, promised her an annuity of £100; we do not know for how long. He writes to Hogg in December of this year: "I pay it with a heavy heart and an unwilling hand; but it must be so. She was deprived by our misjudging haste of a situation where she was going on smoothly; and now she says that her reputation is gone, her health ruined, her peace of mind destroyed by my barbarity; a complete victim to all the woes, mental and bodily, that heroine ever suffered! This is not all fact; but certainly she is embarrassed and poor, and we being in some degree the cause, we ought to obviate it." It is characteristic that, from idealizing the lady and ascribing to her all imaginable graces and

powers, he passes to the other extreme, and writes: "She is a woman of desperate views and dreadful passions, but of cool and undeviating revenge."

About the middle of November Shelley returned to Tremadoc, and there exhausted himself in efforts on behalf of the embankment. He was saddened by the condition of the neighboring poor. It was a winter of much distress among the working people, and Shelley was indefatigable in his efforts on their behalf, visiting them and spending his income relieving their wants. He was busy, as always, with writing and reading. He studied with avidity French philosophy, especially Holbach's Système de la Nature; he read history, to which he had an innate aversion, because Godwin urged it. Among his own writings the most important was a long narrative and philosophical poem, Queen Mab, which was not, however, printed until the spring of 1813, and then privately.

The residence of the Shelleys at Tremadoc was brought to an end by an extraordinary occurrence, which is described in the following extract from one of Mrs. Shelley's letters.

On Friday night, the 26th of February, we retired to bed between ten and eleven o'clock. We had been in bed about half an hour when Mr. S. heard a noise proceeding from one of the parlours. He immediately went downstairs with two pistols, which he had loaded that night, expecting to have occasion for them. He went into the billiard room, when he heard footsteps retreating; he followed into another little room, which was called an office. He there saw a man in the act of quitting the room through a glass window which opens into the shrubbery. The man fired at Mr. S., which he avoided. Bysshe then fired, but it flashed in the pan. The man then knocked Bysshe down, and they struggled on the ground. Bysshe then fired his second pistol, which he thought wounded him in the shoulder, as he uttered a shriek and got up, when he said these words: "By God, I will be revenged! I will murder your wife; I will ravish your sister! By God, I will be revenged!" He then fled as we hoped for

the night. Our servants were not gone to bed, but were just going, when the horrible affair happened. This was about eleven o'clock. We all assembled in the parlour, where we remained for two hours. Mr. S. then advised us to retire, thinking it impossible that he should make a second attack. We left Bysshe and our manservant, who had only arrived that day, and who knew nothing of the house, to sit up. I had been in bed three hours when I heard a pistol go off. I immediately ran downstairs, when I perceived that Bysshe's flannel gown had been shot through, and the window-curtain. Bysshe had sent Daniel to see what hour it was, when he heard a noise at the window. He went there, and a man thrust his arm through the glass and fired at him. Thank Heaven! the ball went through his gown and he remained unhurt. Mr. S. happened to stand sideways; had he stood fronting, the ball must have killed him. Bysshe fired his pistol, but it would not go off; he then aimed a blow at him with an old sword which we found in the house. The assassin attempted to get the sword from him, and just as he was pulling it away, Dan rushed into the room, when he made his escape.

This was at four in the morning. It had been a most dreadful night; the wind was as loud as thunder, and the rain descended in torrents. Nothing has been heard of him; and we have every reason to believe it was no stranger, as there is a man of the name of Leeson, who the next morning that it happened went and told the shopkeepers of Tremadoc that it was a tale of Mr. Shelley's to impose upon them, that he might leave the country without paying his bills. This they believed, and none of them attempted to do anything towards his discovery.

On the day after this Shelley addressed the following letter to his friend Hookham, the publisher:

MY DEAR SIR,

I have just escaped an atrocious assassination. Oh! send me the £20 if you have it. You will perhaps hear of me no more.

1 Referring to £20 which he had sent, a little before, as a subscription for the benefit of Leigh Hunt.