FRERE, JOHN HOOKHAM, an accomplished man of letters, and for some years English ambassador in Spain, was author of a light, satirical, and witty poem, the precursor and prototype of Byron's Beppo and Don Juan. This work, published in 1817, bore the clumsy and unpromising title of "Prospectus and Specimen of an Intended National Work, by William and Robert Whistcraft," &c. The adventures of King Arthur and the knights of the Round Table were the nominal subject of the poem, but its style, formed on that of the Italian poets Pulci and Casti, was its chief attraction. The success of Whistcraft led to another work in the same vein, The Monks and the Giants. In his early days Mr Frere joined his Eton associate Mr Canning in writing for the Anti-Jacobin journals. For many years before his death he resided at Malta, in the enjoyment of a handsome diplomatic pension of L.1500 per annum. He died of apoplexy at Malta, January 7, 1846, aged seventy-seven.