HELEN MARIA WILLIAMS.—[“Among the literary celebrities of the French Revolution was Helen Maria Williams, at whose house were wont to assemble the most distinguished of the liberal writers of France, her own reputation giving considerable _éclat_ to these meetings. She wrote some of the most beautiful hymns in our language, was a prisoner under the _reign of terror_, and published a work on the French Revolution which is full of the most touching incidents, and adorned with specimens of the ardent and pathetic poetry, the product of French genius under the excitement of those most mysterious days. A. Humboldt was much attached to her, and committed to her care the translation and publication of some of his most elaborate works. “She had two nephews, ATHANAS and CHARLES COQUEREL, whom she educated, and who both attained considerable fame, one in the theological and the other in the political field. Athanas was for some time the preacher in the Protestant Church at Amsterdam, and married the daughter of a Swiss gentleman, the only person I have ever known on the Continent to adopt the dress and profess the opinions of an English Quaker. Miss Williams maintained intimate relations with her English friends, was familiar with the great lights of the Revolution, and her conversation was most instructive, entertaining, and varied. All her sympathies were on the side of freedom, and though she was not so prominent as to be persecuted by the Emperor, like Madame de Staël, she was the object of a good deal of suspicion and narrowly watched by the police.”—_Autobr. Recollections by Sir John Bowring_, pp. 353–4.—ED.] [MISS WILLIAMS, for some years, wrote that portion of the _New Annual Register_ which relates to France. Among many other productions she was the author of the song _Evan Banks_ (to the tune of _Savourna Delish_), which has often been attributed to Burns; a novel called _Julia_, and a _Tour in Switzerland_. Horace Walpole called her in his CORRESPONDENCE a “scribbling trollop”. She lived for many years, and until the death of that gentleman—in Paris, 1818—under the _protection_ of JOHN HURFORD STONE, a man of letters, who in the early part of the French Revolution had removed with his wife to Paris, where he formed an intimacy with Miss Williams. She was born about 1762, and died in Paris in 1827 as a friend to the Bourbons, and the enemy of the Revolution! This MR. STONE was born at Tiverton in 1763. While in Paris he was in the confidence of the Directory, and became one of the chief printers there. In 1805, he brought out an edition of the _Geneva Bible_, and published several English reprints; also Miss Williams’s translation of HUMBOLDT’S _Travels_. His brother, WM. STONE, was tried in 1796 for High Treason, for holding treasonable correspondence with him.—ED.]