And, as Time the eternal morn resumes,
  Humanity's grateful joy o'erblooms
  The naked sight of the bleeding thorn,
  Which Love on his brows for man hath worn.

  O! let us still through love unite
  To celebrate the holy rite;
  That all the thorns of life may show
  Nought but sweet flowers above the snow!

A PREMIER'S CORRESPONDENTS.

AMONG the collections comprising the
additional MSS. preserved in the British
Museum, will be found four quarto volumes,
a portion of a bequest to the country by the
late Sir William Musgrave, Baronet. The
first two volumes contain a collection
autograph signatures of eminent men of
England, from an early period. The other
two are occupied by the fragments of the
letters from which many of these signatures
have been cut, and will be found, on
examination, to consist of a portion of the
official correspondence of John, third Earl
of Bute, Secretary of State under George the
Second, and Prime Minister during the earlier
years of the reign of George the Third.

Although many of these letters are
considerably mutilated, the number remaining
in good condition, is sufficient to afford us
some examples of the extent and variety of
the communications which a Cabinet Minister
is at all times obliged to receive. Here, a
noble and nowise particular Earl "entreats
to be mentioned to the King for some mark of
his Majesty's royal favour." There, a book-
seller, of some note in his day, writes to
excuse himself for some attacks upon the
Minister in a newspaper belonging to him;
the blame of which he throws, without
remorse, upon the shoulders of his editor.
A Head of a College, whose head aches for a
mitre, writes offers of courtesies to the Minister's
son, on his entry into Alma Mater. An
Architect sends plans for a palace; a Jeweller
proposes for a new crown. One applicant
wants a prebendal stall for his son's tutor;
another, a seat in Parliament for himself. A
Doctor of Divinity is " anxious to be appointed
teacher of English to the Princess whom his
Majesty 'has declared his intention of espousing,"
and who accordingly became Queen
Charlotte ; and a Doctor of Medicine entreats
Lord Bute's interest " for the honour of the
King standing godfather to his son." One
gentleman writes from Lisbon, with a Spanish
horse and the news of the earthquake ; and
another, from the Hague, with a catalogue of
a picture sale, and congratulations on the
taking of Quebec.

By one, the Minister is called upon to act
as the medium of an explanation to the King
of the writer's absence from a levee ; by
another, as the bearer of thanks for some
mark of royal favour : by a third, he is
appealed to for the solution of some
problem in court etiquette. Thus, because Sir
John Griffin (we mangle all the names we
meet with purposely) has received a summons
to attend an investiture " of the Order of the
Bath at St. James's ; " and, since Sir John is
suffering under an attack of gout, therefore
it is required that the Minister should
advise him whether he may appear, with
decorum, " upon crutches."

Perhaps the same pure source of pleasure
is open to all Prime Ministers alike; but of
Lord Bute only we speak by the card, as a
man apparently overwhelmed with one of the
world's best blessings — troops of friends. How
respectfully enthusiastic are their expressions
of esteem for their noble correspondent; how
reassuring the unanimity of their concurrence
in all the varied details of his public policy!
How touching, too, is the anxiety expressed by
each writer to prove, by deeds as well as by
words, the sincerity of his professions! Thus,
Mr. Bone takes the trouble of writing from
Paris to congratulate Lord Bute on his appointment
as Secretary of State. He felt himself
unable, he says, " to read the account of the
appointment in the Gazette, without expressing
the joy which, from his sincere attachment to
his lordship, the circumstance has occasioned
him, and the happiness he should feel in
demonstrating that attachment, had he power
equal to his zeal." Nothing could have been
more disinterested than this intense delight
and warm attachment, had not Mr. Bone
concluded his letter with a supplication for
the renewal to his wife of a pension of four
hundred pounds a year.

Mr. Horner (having up to that time
worshipped Lord Bute from the distant shores of
India) takes the liberty, on the 13th of June,
1762, of offering him a pair of pearl pagodas.
Desiring, as a warm heart must, that the
friendly feeling should be mutual; but, well
aware that Lord Bute would be wasting
valuable time if he should himself be seeking
for a token of reciprocal good-will, intimates,
on the 17th of the following month, that he
(Mr. Horner) would like to be appointed a
Surveyor of Customs.

Will the Minister, who is regarded by Mr.
Chetwynd as " the tenderest of parents," get
a commission in the army for that gentleman's
son ? Of course, from " the most devoted of
husbands," it is a pure offering before the
shrine of Hymen to consent to provide
pensions and housekeepers' places for the wives of
other people; Colonel Hamilton and Mr. Fowke
know this, and write home to the bosom of
Lord Bute, not as a Minister, but as a man.

Much of the correspondence from Lord
Bute's countrymen might serve as a register
of official deaths; and so often as the demise
of a Scottish peer takes place, are we certain
to find his lordship's vote and interest the
object of instant and eager competition.
Candidates for the honours of the Lower
House, too, are not less ready to confide in
the Minister than their brother competitors
of the peerage. Sir William Orby, for instance,