HELPS, Sir Annum, K.C.B., an English essayist and historian, was b. about 1817; and was entered at Trinity college, Cambridge, where lie took the degree of A.B. in 1835. On leaving the university he obtained a post in the civil service, and on his resignation, he retired to Bishop's Waltham, in Hampshire, where, in the possession of ample means, he enjoyed lettered case. His first work of consequence, entitled Essays Written in the Intervals of Business, appeared in 1841. It was followed by two dramas, Catherine Douglas, and King Henry the Second (published in 1843); by an essay on the Claims of Labor (1844); and by Friends in Council (1847-49). This last work has been, and still is, much admired by the selecter class of readers, and has gone through many editions. 'His Conquerors of the New World and their Bondsmen appeared in 1848, and Companions of my Solitude in 1851. Among his subsequent works are—Oa/11a. a play; The Spanish
Conquest in America (1855-57); Friends in Council, 2d series (1859); Essay on Organiza Von; Life of Pizarro (1869); Casimer Xaremua, and lirevia (1870); Life of Hernando Cortes; Thoughts upon Government (1871); Life and Labors of Thomas Brassey (1872); and Social Pressure (1874). He was clerk to the privy council, and became a K.C.B. in 1872. He died in 1875.
Helps is the most delightful essayist since Lamb and Hunt. He everywhere exhibits acuteness, humor, a satire which gives no pain, and a quiet depth of moral feeling man ifesting itself mainly in an earnest recognition of man's social responsibilities; while his style, in qualities of purity and clearness, can hardly be matched amongst his contemporaries.