e in it. From refined motives of tenderness for a
beloved wife's feelings, and that loftiness of spirit which clings to
the perfect gentleman, he concealed the state of his affairs in England,
which had for some time been in a rapid decline, and of the complete
ruin of which he had a short time before been fully informed. His
patrimonial estate had been foreclosed and sold under a mortgage, and he
remained debtor for a considerable sum after the sale. To this effect a
letter was found after his death. As soon as this was discovered, every
one who knew his exquisite sensibility, reflected with astonishment upon
the delicacy which dictated and the fortitude with which he managed his
concealment, and felt deep and sympathetic sorrow for the anguish he
must have been privately enduring while he endeavoured to dress his face
with tranquillity and to converse with his accustomed cheerfulness and
ease. Smothered grief is one of the most deadly inmates; and it is
reasonable to believe that a paroxysm of violent emotion in a moment
when solitude gave an opportunity for giving a loose to reflection,
operating upon a plethoric habit, occasioned his sudden dissolution.

That Mr. Merry was a gentleman of great private worth we believe the
evidence of all those to whom familiar intercourse had revealed his
disposition; that he was learned and accomplished in a very eminent
degree no one has ever denied; and that he was a man of genius, his
"Della Crusca," and the many witty and satirical epigrams he wrote for
the public prints under the signature of "Tom Thorne," abundantly prove.
But the pen of state vengeance was raised against him, and his poetical
fame was immolated as an expiation for his political offences. Attached
to French revolutionary, or, as they were then called, jacobin
principles, to a degree which even Foxites censured, he was viewed with
abhorrence by one party, and with no great regard by the other; so that
when the witty author of the Pursuits of Literature drew his sword, and
the sarcastic author of the Baviad and Maeviad lifted his axe against him
there was no one to ward off the blows. There is a fact respecting Mr.
M. which, though it does not properly belong to this biographical
sketch, yet as it is curious enough to apologize for its introduction,
we take the liberty to relate. The celebrated Mrs. Cowley, under the
name of "Anna Matilda," and Mr. M. under that of "Della Crusca,"
corresponded with and admired e