AN industrious and celebrated chemist and mineralogist, was a native of Galway, and descended from a respectable family. At an early age, being intended for the profession of medicine, he was sent to the college of the Jesuits, at St. Omer’s, for education; and, in illustration, of the ingenuity they exercised in directing the studies of their pupils, he was afterwards in the habit of relating the following anecdote. Having acquired, from some ridiculous cause, a dislike to the French language, he declared he would never learn it; he would read books in other languages, and apply to other objects of study, but he was determined never to learn French. His masters indulged him; they gave him books in English, Latin, German, &c., until {558} they had discovered the strong bent of his mind towards chemistry, when they took away from him all books connected with that science, except those written in French, and he was then under the necessity of learning that language to enable him to prosecute his favourite pursuit.

Succeeding, on the death of his brother, to the family estate, he returned to Ireland, and abandoned all thought of a profession; he devoted himself entirely to the study of mineralogy and of chemistry, in which latter science his exertions were very great, and soon established for him a reputation in almost every country in Europe though, through some fatality, attempting almost subject, he did not thoroughly succeed in any. Scarcely ever did he advocate a theory, which was not almost mediately discovered to be unfounded: he took great pains to refute authors who have never been read arid evinced his learning more than his judgment, in quoting others that will never be believed. He nevertheless deserves the praise, almost singular in these days, of being a man of science, when there was scarcely another man bf science within his reach; and even at a late period of his life, few friends could be found among his countrymen assist, and few rivals to stimulate him. He enjoyed the presidency of the Royal Irish Academy, and of the Dublin Library Society; he was a fellow of the Royal Society, and of almost every literary body throughout Europe.

His leisure hours were amused by the national music his country, in which Kirwan was an enthusiast. On one occasion, he made a tour with Mr. Bunting into the most unfrequented parts of Ireland, for the purpose of collecting old Irish airs, particularly those of Caladon and Conader {559} he procured very few of them in Donegal, but was most successful in Galway; where a lady, who had invited the travellers to her house, on discovering the motive of that journey, sent a messenger thirty miles across the County in search of a harper, whose extensive acquaintance with the national music amply compensated them for the trouble they had undergone. {359} The latter years of his life were devoted almost exclusively to theology; and his opinions on many subjects Irene as varied and fanciful as can be imagined. His conversation, however, was still much diversified and highly amusing, from the variety and extent of his knowledge, Miss Owenson visited him very frequently; and even in the midst of his theological pursuits, he was always ready tn canvass the merits of a romance, or to discuss the chemical composition of a new cosmetic, which latter is said very frequently to have formed, the subject of their conversations.

He died in Dublin, June 22, 1812, much lamented by his scientific countrymen. A Mineralogical Society, instituted some years since in Dublin, has been called The Kirwinian Society.

THE celebrated preacher, was descended from an ancient and respectable Catholic family in the county of Galway. He was bora in 1754, in the shire town of that county, educated in the religion of his ancestors, and early destined by his parents to the church. For this purpose, he was sent to the college of English Jesuits at St. Omer’s, for there was not at that time, nor for above forty years afterwards,any Catholic college in Ireland; aBd a professional education at Trinity College, Dublin, even had it not been repugnant to his religious principles, was impracticable; as Catholics were not allowed to graduate without taking certain oaths inconsistent with the tenets of their church. It appears, that at a very early age Mr. Kirwan changed his views towards the church, or was persuaded by his friends to adopt more worldly and lucrative pursuits: for he embarked at the age of seventeen for the Danish island of St. Croix, in the West Indies under the auspices of a near relative of his father, who owned extensive possessions in that island; but after six years spent in a climate highly pernicious to his consti{360}tution, naturally delicate, and with a mind utterly irreconcilable to the spectacles of oppression, which the state of the West Indian negro slaves then presented, he quitted St. Croix in disgust, returned to Europe, resumed his religious purpose, and entered as a student at the university of Louvain, where, in due time, he was ordained of the priesthood; and very shortly afterwards promoted, for his learning and talents, to the professor’s chair, in natural and moral philosophy. In the year 1778, he accepted the appointment of chaplain to the Neapolitan embassy at the court of London; and during his continuance in that office, attained much celebrity as a preacher with the members of his congregation; but as the Catholic population of the British metropolis, with the exception of foreigners and Irish, was then, as now, not numerous, Mr. Kirwan, as a pulpit orator, had by no means reached that general celebrity in this country by which he was distinguished in his own, after his conformity to the established church. He is said to have published some sermons, which, for the same reasons that appear to have circumscribed his own celebrity at the time, have escaped the eye of literary criticism.

At the time of his conformity to the established church, many conjectures were afloat as to the motives which induced him openly to renounce the faith in which he had been educated, and in which he was considered an accomplished ornament of his profession. The conversion of a mere layman, would have excited little notice beyond the ordinary jealousies of the religious commuuity he deserted; but that of a clergyman, and so distinguished by collegiate honours in a Catholic university and a Catholic country, excited a very different feeling, as well amongst the members of that church which he had relinquished, as amongst the more distinguished classes of that to which he had revolted. But notwithstanding the eager expectation of the higher orders of the established church in Ha native country, the scene of his conformity and theological fame, that he would have taken some signal occasion to {361} profess from the pulpit his reasons for renouncing the doctrines of the Romish church, those expectations were never realised; and the reverend orator never was known, publicly at least, to vindicate the motives of his conversion to the Protestant faith, by condemning the principles of that he had relinquished; for he carefully avoided polemical discusbion, and confined himself to the pure principles of Christian charity. Whatever were the ultimate views of the reverend orator, a circumstance, but little known to the public during his subsequent career of celebrity in the established church, seems to have mainly led to his conversion, and to have accelerated a purpose which perhaps he might not otherwise have had the courage to realise, under the moral certainty of a permanent hostility with his family and connexions.

To the suite of the Neapolitan ambassador, to whom Mr. Kirwan was chaplain, the celebrated Signor Lunardi, of aeronautical fame, was attached as a page; and this gentleman, who was the first in this country that ventured to ascend in a balloon, and, like another Columbus, traverse those regions before unexplored by human ken, attracted at that moment much popular notice in London. For, notwithstanding the frequent experiments of this kind which had been recently made in France by Montgolfier, and other aeronauts, the English public, yet incredulous on the subject, regarded it as an event at open war with the laws of gravitation; and therefore considered it a mere French hoax, and totally impossible. But Lunardi, who was a man of no philosophical knowledge, had the courage to make the attempt in a balloon prepared for the purpose by a Monsieur Noble, a foreigner resident in London. He took his aerial flight with great firmness from the Artillery Ground, near Moor Fields, not without some risk, if he failed, of being sacrificed by the mob, whose curiosity had been twice before disappointed by other adventurers. He rapidly ascended to the higher regions of the atmosphere - entered a cloud, and vanished from all earthly view; and, after an aerial voyage of six {362} or eight hours, landed about thirty miles from London, and returned next morning to the metropolis in triumph, with his empty balloon attached to his carriage. He was now hailed by the multitude as a supernatural being. He engaged the Lyceum in the Strand, as a place to exhibit his aerial vehicle, which for several days attracted an innumerable crowd of spectators at half a crown per head, and soon convinced the aeronaut that the curiosity of John Bull was a much more productive source of emolument than his official sit nation in the suite of the Neapolitan ambassador. A speculating bookseller, well shitted in the attraction of popular curiosity, and who had largely profited by that ruling passion, soon cultivated the acquaintance of the aeronaut, and induced him not only to publish an account of his voyage in the clouds, out all terrestrial view, but procured him a literary gentleman, a person no less celebrated than the late speculative philosopher David Williams, to prepare for publication an account of the wonders of his hegira. This account, clothed in the solemnity of philosophic language, and well stored with descriptions of thunder clouds, hail storms, and other meteoric wonders which he experienced in the course -of his aquiline tour, was introduced to John Bullby Mr. John Bell, of the Strand, adorned with a well graven portrait of Signor Lunardi, mottoed with the Sic itur ad astra, and accompanied by a picturesque view of the balloon, and the cat and little dog who accompanied his flight. This morçeau was admirably calculated to lure the insatiable curiosity of the Bull family. It was sold aft the moderate price of five shilling, and passed rapidly through many succesive editions, to the number of fifty thousand copies, in a few weeks.

A region never till then explored, save by eaglet, cranes, or halcyons, became quitea new object for British curiosity and it was scarcely possible, with all the industry of the press, to meet the eagerness of demand, for some months. The Pantheon in Oxford-street was, for some reason, deemed a more eligible and lucrative theatre for exhibi{363}ing the balloon and its master. And thither it was conveyed. The place was crowded from morning till night; Lunardi walked round at intervals amongst the throng of his visitants - who stared with wonderment whenever he approached. But the circumstance which more immediately concerns the subject of this article is, that the Rev. Walter Blake Kirwan, whether from his friendship to Mr. Lunardi as a member of the same diplomatic suite, or whether, in consideration of a share in the profits, or from what other cause, it is difficult to conjecture, was induced daily to attend and give his personal aid in exhibiting the balloon, and describing its apparatus and use to the inquisitive spectators; and, between the acts, he appeared elevated in the orchestra, from which he read to the crowd, passages from the pamphlet which detailed the aerial voyage of his friend; and for the sale of which pamphlet, an agent from the bookseller attended withih the building.

The afternoons were generally devoted by Mr. Linardi to conviviai parties with Mr. Bell, and certain others of his admirers. The presence of the aeronaut was considered a high treat with the curious. At those parties, the celebrated George Anne Bellamy, then in high vogue, from the apology for her life just then published, Mrs. Sage, a noted courtesan, then under the protection of Lunardi, and afterwards herself an aeronaut, and some other ladies, not of the purest fame, were frequently among the guests; and the Rev. Mr. Kirwan was a regular attendant. How far such office and associations were thought decorous for an ecclesiastic of his eminence and situation, will appear by the remit. Mr. Lunardi was too much engaged with his balloon to attend to his duties as a page of the ambassador, and was therefore dismissed for degrading the dignity of his official rank and Mr. Kirwan was also obliged to relinquish his chaplaincy for similar reasons. But this was not all: he decidrdly lost the countenance and friendship of some highly respectable relatives of his own name, then moving in the mercantile {364} circles of London. His ecclesiastical friends too treated him with marked coolness; and he speedily took the resolution of visiting his family in Ireland. But there he found his fame had out-travelled him, and he was received with the most cutting coolness and discountenance. What was to be done in such a dilemma? livelihood was indispensable; - his own church offered him no flattering prospect. This was too much for the pride of talent to brook. Perhaps he was never a very staunch member of the church to which he belonged; and he was ultimately induced to attempt the recovery of his fame by deserting the Catholic church, and to try his fortunes in another, which opened a new field for exertion, emolument, and promotion. In pursuance of these views, he obtained an introduction to Dr. Hastings, the Protestant archdeacon of Dublin; publicly recanted the errors of popery; embraced the priesthood of the established church, and preached his first sermon to a Protestant congregation in St. Peter’s church, in Aungier-street, on the 24th June, 1787. From these circumstances, it appears doubtful if a conscientious conviction of religious error was the sole motive for Mr. Kirwan’s conversion. But he rapidly attained in his new situation a pitch of celebrity for pulpit eloquence, theretofore unknown in the high church of Ireland. His manner, as well as his matter, was entirely new in the established pulpit. To the force of a polished and persuasive eloquence, he added the powerful alliance of energetic action, which Demosthenes has considered as the first, the second, and the third essential necessary to an accomplished orator. The measured cadence, and solemn monotony, and studied inaction of the privileged pulpit, in the reading of written discourses, however calculated to compose the feelings, lull the passions, and attach the sober reflection of a grave and pious auditory, are, perhaps, not well fitted to rouse the apprehensions, to impress the hearts, to excite the pious ardour, and to unfix the wandering attentions and volatile levities of a mixed congregation, composed of all ages, sexes, and dispositions. The {365} passions of a mixed audience, are most powerful instruments in the hands of the orator; and the popular success of the evangelical preachers in our dissenting chapels - and even of ignorant enthusiasts in the sectarious conventicles, where clamour, wild action, and fanatical zeal so frequently supply the place of argument and true eloquence, proves, by the rapid increase of proselytes from the established church to the profession of methodism, how ineffective are the short and solemn discourses of our orthodox divines to arrest the attention and awaken the consciences of that class of their audience who stand most in need of instruction. Hence their complaints of the increase of methodism, and hence the desertion of our parish churches by the lower and middling classes, to follow the declamatory lectures, and catch the fanatical fire of the dissenting orators.

But the glowing language, the simple, though elegant compositions, the powerful intonations, and the eloquent action of Mr. Kirwan - whose eye, - whose hand, - whose every inflexion of attitude as well as voice, more than doubled the powers of his language, were felt by every class of hearers, and identified the whole preacher with the very souls of his congregation. These qualifications so new in the usage of the established church, threw a charm round his discourse, attractive to all ranks; and the united talents of Bossuet, Massillon, Bourdaloue, and Fléchier, seemed now to concentre in a man, who had made their eloquence and their celebrity the models for his own.

Eloquence is, indeed, an indigenous plant in the luxuriant soil of Ireland; and when we recollect, within our own day, the splendours of a Flood, of a Burke, of a Sheridan, of a Grattan, of a Curran, of a Ponsonby, and many others we could enumerate, which challenged the admiration of senates, we recognise them as the contemporaries and countrymen of Kirwan, whose talents have so universally marked him as a gm of the same mfoe, to which the British empire is indebted for so many splendid ornaments in every walk of genius. {366}

The following passage, extracted from the Chironomia of the Rev. Gilbert Austin, the contemporary of Mr. Kirwan, himself an accomplished scholar and critic, an eminent teacher of oratory, and a liberal and eloquent preacher of the established church, is a just and honourable tribute to the subject of this memoir.

“The learned Bossuet, bishop of Meaux, Bourdaloue, Massillon, and we may add, Fléchier, in France, excelled in pulpit eloquence; and in Holland, amongst the reformed, Saurin.”

“To this, Great Britain has to compare the manly vigour, the correct reasoning, and the pure gospel excellence of many of her preachers; but little of eloquence. Her time is not yet arrived, his great pulpit orator, among her many learned and pious divines, has been celebrated in Great Britain. ONE has appeared in Ireland. That he js a great orator, the manner in which he is attended will alone evince. He, to use the expression of our great parliamentary orator, (Mr. Grattan) ‘has broken in upon the slumbers of the pulpit.’ He is truly an extraordinary preacher: but yet cannot he esteemed a model fpr general imitation. His genius is too much sui generis, ardent, and uncontrolled; his manner zealous and decided; his doctrine rigid: but his composition is excellent; his arrantement luminous; his invention, happy; his style, pure, and admirably varied, often most simple, often magnificent. His figures are always just and frequently sublime;his memory is perfect; his fluency, uninterrupted; his voice well managed; his action, though not altogether graceful, various and energetic. The eloquence of the pulpit has never among us been carried to such perfection; nor have we heard of any preacher in Great Britain to be compared with him in this respect.

And in a note, after quoting the description of a consummate orator from Cicero, de Char. Grift. cap. 84, Austin adds, -

“All these circumstances, and others stronger than these, (perhaps owing to the greater rarity pf orators amongst us,) attend the great preacher alluded to. {367} They love to hear him, who on no other occasions appear within the walla of a church; men of the world who have other pursuits, and men of profession who have not time; physicians, lawyers, actors. The pressure of the crowd is immense. Guard are obliged to be stationed without, to keep off from our largest churches, the overflowing curiosity, which cannot contribute adequately to the great charities for which he generally preaches. The parishioners resign their pews to the officers appointed, to accommodate often the lord-lieutenant and the court, at all times the high nobility of both sexes, archbishops and bishops, the judges, the great law officers, the great parliamentary orators, the clergy, and all who wish to be instructed, or to be moved and delighted by his eloquence. The sums collected always exceed any thing known on similar occasions.

If this man be not a great orator, Cicero was mistaken*. The Orphan School, and several other of the public charities, found in the eloquence of such an advocate most productive source of support; and, on the 5th of November, 1788, the governors of the General Daily Schools of several parishes, passed a resolution, “that from the effects which the discourses of the Rev. Walter Blake Kirwan from the pulpit have had, his officiating in the metropolis was considered of peculiar national advantage: and that vestries should be called, to consider the most effectual method to secure to that city, an instrument, under Providence, of so much public benefit.”

* Chironomia, page 228 - Cadell, London. {368}

In the same year he was presented by the Archbishop of Dublin, to the prebend of Howth, and in the year following to the parish of St. Nicholas without, in the metropolis, worth about three or four hundred a year, Though the celebrity of Mr. Kirwan’s eloquence rendered him an admired favourite with the laity of the high church, it by no means recommended him fo the favour {368} nor his eloquence to the imitation of his fellow-labourers in the ecclesiastical vineyard. Preaching extempore was considered an innovation on the solemn gravity of the pri-vileged pulpit. It was encroaching on the old established usages of that church which had so long offered sources of provision and advancement to those younger sons of the protestant gentry, whose later birth precluded them from the advantages of patrimonial inheritance, and whose taste or capacity might disincline them from the laborious studies necessary for successful eminence at the bar, who felt neither ardour nor ambition for the army, and who were taught by the pride of rank to consider the pursuits of physic, commerce, or agriculture, in the same degrading light. A snug living, with little or no trouble, in a sporting and hospitable country, and the hopes of advancement through family interest or party connexion, offered a comfortable asylum to juniors of this order. A commission of the peace was frequently thrown in to increase the dignity and influence of the pastor, preserve the game, be serviceable at elections, and maintain the interests of church and state. The fathers of many sons, in the ranks of aristocracy, consoled themselves in the reflection that, if my son failed in his talents or his literary acquirements, he would, at all events, do well enough for a parson. Ex quovis ligno clericus fit. was an adage amongst the schoolmasters, and a friend in parliament or at court secured the rest. Sermons enough might be had ready made, and in print, to save the trouble of composition, or consulting novelty, for the Sunday edification of a rustic audience. And thus the most moderate genius of the family enjoyed the otium cum dignitate in rural retirement, while his more talented brothers were sent to seek their fortunes by the drudgeries of the bar, or the glories of the sword. But the cultivation of theological eloquence, if not impossible with the destined young divine, was at least deemed as unnecessary to his future vocation, as it would be troublesome in the acquirement. It would be hazarddous to preach at the vices of the higher orders, and perhaps it {369} is better policy to puzzle the lower with mystical dissertation upon abstruse biblical texts, than open their minds to the equalizing doctrines of Christian charity, and teach them to grumble at the oppressive conduct of those towards whom the catechism teaches them to order themselves lowly and reverendly. But although this was a way of thinking by no means generally applicable to the established clergy in Ireland, still to encourage extempore preaching, accompanied with all the graces of action, force of eloquence, and labour of mind it would introduce, was an innovation by no means palatable to the cloth. The manner of the eloquent proselyte Kirwan, was therefore highly obnoxious to jealous criticism. With one, it savoured of popery - with another, it was downright methodism - with a third, it was theatrical and indecorous - with a fourth, he preached himself and not the Gospel - with a fifth, by abandoning the established usage of reading his sermons, he affected evangelism and inspiration, so long discountenanced by the reformed church, and, in short, with all, it was by no means to be countenanced or encouraged in the rising theologians, although it was politic to exempt Mr. Kirwan as a singular instance. Amongst the students in divinity then at Trinity College, there were some who saw nothing in the cultivation of energetic eloquence incompatible with the sanctities of the cassock; and who possessed taste enough to admire and to emulate a divine, whose pulpit orations had obtained for him so much celebrity. Amongst these was a young gentleman named Dixon, whose scholastic acquirements had honourably distinguished him at college, and who had cultivated oratory with assiduity and success. This young gentleman, about the year 1789, obtained deacon’s orders, and was to preach his first sermon in the parish church of St. Catherine, Dublin. But unfortunately, at least for ecclesiastical views, he thought fit to adopt Mr. Kirwan as his model, and to deliver an extempore discourse to his congregation in a stile of eloquence and action, so touch in the manner of his prototype, as to obtain the high{370} admiration of his auditors, but to bring down on himself the marked disapprobation of his ecclesiastical superior for he was immediately visited with a decided veto from the Metropolitan, against the course he had commenced, and warned of stronger censures if he persisted. This was putting an extinguisher, in his very outset, upon all the hopes of pulpit eminence he had so long cherished. However, he had only passed the first degree of ordination, and was not yet “a priest for ever.” Disgusted with this sudden check upon his talents and hopes of rising by his eloquence in the church, he relinquished his gown, and transferred his abilities to the study of the law, as a more promising source of elevation and emolument.

After this “awful warning,” Mr. Kirwan was left without a rival to his eloquence in the high church pulpit, while the sectarians of every other persuasion were allowed all the freedom and force of their best energies upon the pregnant topics of Christianity, and to attract to their conventicles proselytes by thousands, who could never have been roused to a saving sense of religious piety by the tame and monotonous lectures read to them from their parochial pulpits.

At the same time that Mr. Kirwan’s talents obtained touch celebrity in the church, the eloquence of Mr. Grattan flourished with contemporary splendour in the senate. No man more highly admired the talents of the preacher than Mr. Grattan, or felt more indignation that merit so superior seemed to be treated with apparent neglect by the patrons of church preferment. For several years the laborious exertions of his talents in the duties of his vocation, evidently injurious to a tender frame and delicate state of health, recommended him to no provision beyond the poor living of St. Nicholas without, while fat benefices and church dignities were liberally distributed among candidates with whom, in point of abilities, his ambition would not have been much gratified by comparison. Mr. Grattan, in one of his eloquent speeches in the House cf Commons, alluded in pointed terms to this marked neglect {371} of a man so supereminently distinguished by his merits, while church patronage was lavished upon contemporaries so much his inferiors, and Irish mitres were bestowed upon English clergymen, the favourites of British ministers, or the former tutors or chaplains of English peers, whose names and abilities were utterly unknown in the land of their preferment. If, said Mr. Grattan, “Mr. Kirwan had been an English blockhead, he might have been long ere now an Irish bishop; but, unfortunately for him, he is an Irishman, and the original sin of his birth will never be forgiven him.”

In some short time after this, during the viceroyaity of Marquis Cornwallis, Mr. Kirwan was promoted to the vacant deanery of Killala, worth about £400 a year; for which, as pluralities became objectionable, he relinquished his living of St. Nicholas without. Here terminated his hopes of further preferment, with the fatigues of his mission. His health had beea long declining, and exhausted by arduous labours, he died on the 27th October, 1805, leaving a widow with two sons and two daughters. His late Majesty was pleased to confer a pension of £3001. a year for life on the widow, with reversion to her daughters.

In 1814, appeared in print a volume of his sermons, published for ithe benefit of his sops. They are elegant apACMseos of his compositions, and abound with splendid and pathetic passages; but still they are only Parian studies of his living eloquence, and want the Promethean fire of the orator himself, to give us a true representation of his powers. He was a man pf acute sensibility, amiable, humane, and beneficent, an ornament to his profession, and an honour to his country.

WAS born about 1712, at Omagh, the county of Tyrone, of which parish his father was curate. He early discovered a taste for classical literature and belle lettres, {372} and entered the university about 1728, as a sizer. In 1735, he obtained a fellowship, and, by dint of application, he speedily became acquainted with moat of the European languages. In pulpit eloquence he also excelled, but acquired more celebrity by his Lectures on Oratory.

Dr. Lawson died in January 1759, and his friend Dr. Donkin wrote some lines on his decease.

A LEARNED divine and translator, was the son of a citizen of Dublin, in which city he was born in 1788. The first rudiments of classical education he received at the school kept by the celebrated Dr. Sheridan. In 1737, he entered a pensioner in Trinity College; and in {373} 1741, was elected a scholar; commenced bachelor of arts in 1742, and was a candidate for a fellowship in 1745, in which he failed at this time, but succeeded the following year by the unanimous voice of the electors. On being thus placed in a state of independence, he did not resign himself to ease and indolence, but was conspicuous for the same ardent love of knowledge which appeared in the commencement of his studies, and was predominant throughout his whole life. In 1748, he entered into holy orders, and, from a deep sense of the importance of his profession, drew up a discourse “On the helps and impediments to the acquisition of knowledge in religious and moral subjects,” which was much admired at that time, but no copy is now to be found. In 1754, in conjunction with Dr. John Stokes, he published, at the desire of the university, an edition of the “Orations of Demosthenes,” with a Latin version and notes, which we do not find mentioned by any of our classical bibliographers, except Harwood, who says it is in two vols. 12mo. In 1756, Dr. Leland published the first volume of his English “Translation of Demosthenes”, 4to, with notes, critical and historical; the second volume of which appeared in 1761, and the third in 1770. This raised his reputation very high as a classical scholar and critic, and public expectation was farther gratified, in 1758, by his “History of the Life and Reign of Philip, King of Macedon, the father of Alexander”, 2 vols. 4to. After this he proceeded with translations of Æschines, and of the other orations of Demosthenes. In 1762, he is supposed to have written, although he never formally ayowed it, the ingenious historical romance of “Longsword, Earl of Salisbury.”

In 1763, he was appointed by the board of senior fellows of Trinity College, professor of oratory. His course of study, and the labour he had bestowed on his translations, had furnished him with a perspicuous and energetic style, which he displayed both in the professor’s chair and in the pulpit, being the most admired preacher of his time in Dublin; nor was he less esteemed for his talents as a controversial writer, of which he now afforded {374} a specimen, by attacking Bishop Warburton’s “Doctrine of Grace,” with great elegance and eloquence; and replied to by Dr. Hurd, in a manner grossly illiberal and unmanly. Dr. Leland, however, published a reply to Dr. Hurd, which terminated the contest.

In 1765, through the suggestion of Dr. Leland, the university of Dublin bestowed on Dr. Johnson their highest honour, by creating him doctor of laws, a favour which he acknowledged in a letter to Dr. Leland, which may be seen in the last edition of Boswell’s Life; tn 1768, Dr. Leland was appointed chaplain to Lord Townsend, lord-lieutenant of Ireland; and his friends entertained hopes that his merits would have raised him to the episcopal bench; but he only obtained in that year the prebend of Rathmichael, in the cathedral church of St. Patrick, Dublin, united with the vicarage of Bray, both of small value, but tenable with his fellowship. In 1774, appeared his “History of Ireland, from the invasion of Henry II, with a preliminary discourse on the ancient state of that kingdom”, 3 vols. 4to, the merit of which has been much disputed by critics.

Dr. Leland’s other publications in his lifetime, wore only a few occasional sermons, of greater merit than those contained in the three volumes published after his decease.

He died in 1785. His fame rests on his “Life of Philip”, his “Demosthenes”, and his “Dissertation upon Eloquence”. Of the two former, suffice it to say, they are classed among the best translations in the English language, and of the latter, an eminent living scholar has observed, that it contains “great accuracy of erudition, great perspicuity and strength of style, and, above all, a stoutness of judgment, which, in traversing the open and spacious walks of literature, disdained to be led captive.

A VERY distinguished theological author, WM lhe teeoad son of Dr. John Leslie, Bishop of Clogber, and was born in {395} England but we know not in what year. He was educated at a grammar school in Inniskillen, in Fermanagh, from whaean he map admitted a fejfow comtpoper of Trinity (Mlego in I06fe where he remained till he took bi degree of M.A. On the decease of his father, in lgf l, he visited England, and epjered himself of the Temple, where he studied the law for some years; but afterwards relinquished it and applied himself to divinity. In 1680, he was admitted into holy orders; and in 1687, he became chancellor of the cathedral church or diocese of Connor. About this time, he rendered himself particularly obnoxious to the Catholics of Ireland, by his zealous opposition to them, which was thus called forth. Roger Boyle, Bishop of Clogher, dying in 1687, Patrick Tyrrel was made titular bishop, and had the revenues of the see assigned him by King James. He forced a convent of friars in Monaghan, and fixing his habitation there, held a public visitation of his clergy with great solemnity. Some subtle logicians attended him in this visitation, and he challenged the established clergy to a disputation Leslie accepted the challenge, and disputed to the satisfaction of the Protestants, although it happened, as it generally does at such contests, that both sides claimed the victory. He afterwards held another public disputation with two celebrated Catholic divines in the church of Tynan in Armagh, before very numerous assembly of persons of both religions; the issue of which was that Mr. John Stewart, a Catholic gentleman, solemnly renounced the errors of the church of Rome.

As the Catholics had got possession of an epicopal see, they engrossed other offices too; and a Catholic.high- aheriff was appointed for the county of Monaghan. This proceeding alarmed the gentlemen in that county; who, depending much on Leslie’s knowledge as a justice of peace, repaired to him, then confined by the gout of his house. He told them, that it would be a illegal in them to permit the sheriff to act, as it would he in him to attempt it. But they insisted that he (Leslie) should appear in person {376} on the bench, at the approaching quarter sessions, and all promised to act as he did; so he was carried there with much difficulty, and in great pain. Upon the question, whether the sheriff was legally qualified, the latter replied, “That he was of the king’s own religion, and it was his majesty’s will that he should be sheriff.” Leslie then observed, “That they were not inquiring into his majesty’s religion, but whether he (the pretended sheriff) had qualified himself according to law, for acting as a proper officer; that the law was the king’s will, and nothing else to be deemed such; that his subjects had no other way of knowing his will but as it is revealed to them in his laws; and it must always be thought to continue so, till the contrary is notified to them in the same authentic manner." This argument was so convincing, that the bench unanimously agreed to commit the sheriff for his intrusion and arrogant contempt of the court. Leslie also committed, for robbing the country, some officers of that tumultuous army which the Lord Tyrconnel had raised.

In this spirited conduct, Leslie acted like a sound divine and an upright magistrate; for, while he thought himself authorised to resist the illegal mandates of his sovereign, he never approved of carrying those principles of resistance so far as to deprive the king of the supreme power; and persevering steadily in that opinion, he continued, after the Revolution, in allegiance to King James. In consequence, refusing to take the new oaths appointed upon that change, he lost all his preferments; and, in 1689, when the troubles began to arise in Ireland, withdrew with his family into England. Here he employed his time in writing a great many political pieces in support of the cause he had embraced; and being confessedly a person of extraordinary wit and learning, he became a very formidable champion of the nonjurors. His first piece in this cause was an answer to Archbishop King’s “State of the Protestants in Ireland, under the late King James’s Government.” He likewise employed his pen in the general cause of the Christian religion, against Jews, {377} Deists, and Socinians; and wrote likewise against the Quakers. In the mean time, however, these writings, and his frequent visits to the courts of St. Germains and Bar le Due, rendered him obnoxious to the government: but he became more so upon the publication of the “Hereditary Right of the Crown of England asserted;” of which he was the reputed author. Finding himself, on this account, under a necessity of leaving the kingdom, he repaired to the Pretender at Bar le Duc; where he was allowed to officiate, in a private chapel, after the rites of the Church of England; and it is said he took much pains to convert the Pretender to the Protestant religion, but in vain. However, to promote the said Pretender’s interest, when some hopes of his restoration were entertained by his party in England, he wrote a letter from Bar le Due, dated April 23, 1714, which was printed and dispersed among his adherents, in which, after giving a flattering description of the Pretender’s person and character, his graceful mien, magnanimity of spirit, devotion free from bigotry, application to business, ready apprehension, sound judgment and affability, so that none conversed with him without being charmed with his good sense and temper; he concludes with a proposal, on condition of his being restored to his crown, that, for the security of the church of England, as by law established, he would so far wave his prerogative, in the nomination of bishops, deans, and all other ecclesiastical preferments in the gift of the crown, that five bishops should be appointed, of which the Archbishop of Canterbury, for the time being, always to be one, who, upon any vacancy, might name three persons to him, from whom he would chuse. Many other proposals of the like nature were made soon after, and several projects were concerted not only in England, but an actual insurrection begun in Scotland by his party, in 1715, all which ended in the crushing and dispersing of the rebels, and in the Pretender’s being obliged to leave the French dominions.

In this exigence he withdrew to Italy, whither Leslie {378} attended him, notwithstanding the ill-usage he met with at his court. The Pretender had given him a promise that he should celebrate the church of England service in his family; and that he would hear what he should represent to him on the subject of religion. But the chevalier was far from keeping the word he had given, and on the faith of which our divine had come over; for, though he allowed him, for form’s sake, to celebrate the church of England service in his family, yet he never was present there; and not only refused to hear Leslie himself, but sheltered the ignorance of his priests, or the badness of his cause, or both, behind his authority, and absolutely forbad all discourse concerning religion*. He returned to England in 1721, resolving, whatever the consequences might be, to die in his own country. Some of his friends, acquainting Lord Sutherland with his purpose, implored his protection for the good old man, which his lordship readily and generously promised; and when a member of the House of Commons officiously waited on Lord Sunderland with the news that Mr. Leslie had arrived, he met with such a reception from his lordship as his illiberal errand deserved. Our author then went over to Ireland, where he died April 13th, 1722, at his own house at Glenlough, in the county of Monaghan.

Leslie, notwithstanding his opinions on government were widely different from those adopted by men eminent both for learning and talent, was unquestionably a man possessed of ability and acquirement, and deserves the highest encomiums for his defence of the Christian religion against the attacks of Deists and Jews.

Besides the political tracts which he scattered, our author left two volumes folio, of theological works, (which are now become very scarce,) in which he has discussed nearly all the controversies which disturb the peace on the Christian church.

* This specimen of princely word-breaking, may, in some measure, tend to convince those, who in any way disbelieve the legitimacy of his descent.

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A NAME that would reflect honour on any age or nation, was a very learned oriental scholar. He was the second son of Sir Adam Loftus, and great grandson of Dr. Adam Loftus, who was archbishop of Armagh, then of Dublin, and one of the lords justices and lord chancellor of lie* land. He was born in the year 1618, at Rathfarnam, near Dublin, and was educated in Trinity College, where he was admitted a fellow commoner in 1635. About the time he took his first degree in arts, the extraordinary proficiency he had made in languages attracted the notice of Archbishop Usher, who earnestly advised his father to send him to Oxford, where he might improve his oriental learning, a matter which that worthy prelate considered as highly important in the investigation of the history and principles of the Christian religion. Mr. Loftus was accordingly sent by his father to Oxford, and entered of University college, where he was incorporated B.A. in November 1630. About this time he commenced the study of the law, with a view to take his bachelor’s degree in that faculty; but, at the persuasion of his friends in University college, took his degree of master of arts in 1641, and then returned to Ireland at the moment the rebellion broke out. His father who was at that time vice-treasurer, and one of the privy council, procured a garrison to be placed in his castle of Rathfarnam, and gave the command of it to his son Dudley, who displayed his skill and courage, by defending the city from the incursions of the inhabitants of the neighbouring mountains. He was afterwards made one of the masters in chancery, vicar- general of Ireland, and judge of the prerogative court and faculties, all which offices he held to the time of his death. He was also a doctor of the civil law, and esteemed the most learned of any of his countrymen in that faculty. Towards the latter part of his life, his talents and memory were very much impaired, and when about seventy-six years of age, he married a second wife, but died {380} the year following, in June 1695, and was buried in St. Patrick’s church, Dublin.

Mr. Loftus’s greatest excellence lay in the knowledge of various languages, especially the oriental; and it is said, that when only twenty years of age, he was able to translate as many languages into English. Among Archbishop Usher’s letters is one from him to that prelate, which, although short, shews his avidity to search out oriental books and MS.; as well as his high respect and gratitude to Usher, who first directed his attention to the treasures of the Bodleian library. Yet his character, in other respects, does not correspond with his parts or learn* ing. He was accounted, says Harris, an improvident and unwise man, and his many levities and want of conduct gave the world too much reason to think so. The same biographer mentions “a great, but free-spoken prelate," who said of Mr. Loftus, “that he never knew so much learning in the keeping of a fool.”

His learning, indeed, and his industry appear very evident by his many writings. Besides the Æthiopic New testament which he translated into Latin, at the request of Usher and Selden, for the Polyglot, and which procured him from Walton the character of vir doctissimus, tam generis prosapia, quam linguarum orientalium scientia, nobilis,” he published a multitude of learned tracts, a correct list of which may be found in Harris’s edition of Ware.

THIS learned Catholic was the son of a respectable merchant at Waterford, where he was born about 1566. He received the rudiments of his education in Ireland, from whence he was sent to Westminster school, over which the celebrated Camden presided, and from thence to Oxford. He took no degrees in the university, but proceeded to Louvain, where, after passing through hit courses of philosophy and divinity, he received the degree {381} of doctor, and wa made provost of the cathedral church of Cambray. In 1614, he was personally noticed by King James, in his speech from the throne, as one of those who disturbed his government. He was at that period Archbishop of Armagh, having been appointed thereto by Pope Paul V. by whom he was first made assessor, and after, president of the congregation de JuxiHii at Rome, where he died A. D. 1625. A list of his tracts is to be found in Ware.

This firm and incorruptible patriot was born, according to the most probable account, in the city of Dublin, on 26th of September, 1713. Other accounts state him to have been a native of Ballymageddy, in the county of Clare, where his ancestors were substantial farmery. His father, having lost the family property by mismanagement, settled in Dublin, and the first certain notice we can obtain of the son is, that he kept an apothecary’s shop {382 }vat the comer of Charies-street. He afterwards took out a degree in medicine, and (what is not a little singular, considering the virulence with which his character, both public and private, was afterwards attacked) his professional skill was never called in question. Dr. Lucas became early distinguished as a political writer, and, ra consequence of the bold freedom of his opinions, he found it advisable to withdraw to the continent.

On his return to Dublin, he became a member of the common council, in which station he determined to exert himself in behalf of the privileges of that body. The new rules, framed in the reign of Charles the Second, by authority from a clause in the act of explanation, had, as in other corporate towns, changed the powers of the city corporation. To increase the influence of the crown, among other innovations, they deprived the Commons of the power of choosing the city magistrates, and placed it in the board of aldermen,subject in its exercise, on each election, to the approbation of the chief governor and privy council. Of this injury Lucas loudly complained; but the law being absolute, could not be combated. Suspecting, however, that in other respects encroachments had been made on the rights of the citizens not justified by law, he examined the city charters, and searched diligently into the ancient records, by which he became convinced that his apprehensions were well founded. He published his discoveries, explained the evidence making from them, and encouraged the people to take the proper steps for obtaining redress. In consequence, a warm contest commenced between the Commons and aidermen in 1741, which continued the two succeeding years. Though the former struggled in vain to recover their lost privileges, the exertions of Lucas in every stage of the dispute, were strenuous and persevering. These services raised him so high in the esteem and confidence of his fellow-citizens, that, on the death of Sir James Somerville, they encouraged him to declare himself a candidate to represent them in parliament. Ambitious of an office so {383} flattering, which would give him the opportunity of exerting his abilities to the greatest advantage, in the service, not only of the city of Dublin, but of his country, he complied with their desire. The election was now no longer a contest between two rival candidates. It became a trial of strength, upon popular principles of civil liberty, between the patriots and government, and kept the Protestants of Ireland in a flame of civil discord for several years. The press teemed with letters, answers, replies, addresses, appeals, counter appeals, and every engine, that could be employed, to add rancour, sting and fuel to the beats of the contending parties. The speeches of Dr. Lucas to the several corporations, which were bold, nervous, end animated, increased their attachment to him. But a number of addresses to his fellow-citizens, which he wrote and published, tended more effectually to increase his popularity. In these, among other subjects, he considered distinctly the several branches of the constitution; pointed out to the electors of Dublin, and to the nation, the privileges of Irishmen, and the various injuries they had sustained by the interference of the British legislature. The firmness and perspicuity of his manner, the popularity of his subject, and the justice of his arguments, alarmed the Irish government, which had been little used to such opposition. They determined to crush him by the hand of power. For this purpose, certain passages, the most obnoxious to the state, were collected from his publications, and made the foundation of a charge, which was brought against him before parliament. The Rights of the Commons, which with particular attention be had laboured to vindicate and ascertain, had been one of the Subjects of his free discussion. Instead of protecting him in reward of his service, and of his exertions on behalf of Ireland, the majority of that House listened to the charge, voted him an enemy to his country, and addressed the lord-lientenant to order him to be prosecuted by his majesty’s attorney-general. The hand of power was too prevailing; the favour of the public was yet not sufficient to {364} defend him from the danger by which he was threatened; therefore, to avoid the impending storm, he fled from Ireland. After he had spent some time in banishment, the exertions of his friends rose superior to the influence by which he had been oppressed. Upon a new vacancy he returned to Dublin, and was elected one of the representatives of that city in parliament. The same patriotic principles, and the same exertions in behalf of the constitution, for which he had been hitherto so remarkable, invariably distinguished his conduct in and out of parliament. On the very first day of the session of 1761, the Commons ordered that leave be given to bring in the heads of a bill to limit the duration of parliaments; and Dr. Lucas, Mr. Perry, and Mr. Gorges Lowther, were ordered to bring in the same. This favourite and constitutional measure had been most strongly recommended by Dr. Lucas, in imitation of the English septennial bill: he accordingly presented, on the 28th of October, the heads of the bill, which were received, read, and committed. Several amendments were proposed and adopted in the committee; and, on the 9th of December, Mr. Lowther having brought up the report, moved, that the Speaker should attend his excellency the lord-lieutenant, with the heads of the bill, and desire the same might be transmitted to Great Britain in due form; and that his excellency would be pleased to recommend the same in the most effectual manner to his majesty. On this the House divided, forty-three for the motion, and one hundred and eight against it. Thus was Mr. Lucas’s first patriotic bill lost, to the no small disappointment and mortification of the people out of doors. It is highly material to observe, that in proportion as patriots fell off in parliament, they sprang up out of it. The ministerial triumph was followed by no popular disturbance, but great discontent: it produced a more alarming effect upon the castle: riot and insurrection they could easily have subdued, and the quelling thereof would have justified the very measures that had excited them. But the people’s cool, considerate, and firm conduct in investigating and peaceably following up their rights and interests, wasvtruly to be dreaded by those, who were attempting to invade and thwart them.

The failure of this attempt did not abate the patriotic efforts of Dr. Lucas. He presented heads of a bill for securing the freedom of parliament, by ascertaining the qualifications for knights, citizens, and burgesses of parliament; and also of another bill, for better securing the freedom of parliament, by vacating the seats of such members of the House of Commons, as should accept of any lucrative office or employment from the crown, or any person on the establishment of Great Britain or Ireland; neither of which succeeded. In the year 1765, the heads of a bill having been transmitted to England, were returned from thence with the interpolation of a clause, granting a dispensing power to the king in the British council, which was violently, though unsuccessfully, opposed by the few remaining patriots in the Irish House of Commons. On this occasion, Dr. Lucas published an address to his constituents, in which he gave a succinct history of the progress of the bill. From the frequent defections of the patriots and the consequent reduction of their numbers, it became the policy of the castle, at this time, to throw all possible disrepute on the few who still earnestly espoused that cause. Upon this subject, Dr. Lucas explained himself very pointedly in another address to his constituents: but it would be uncandid to leave the reader in the vulgar prepossession, that, because this eminent and true patriot stood firm to the last hour of his life in the honourable cause of his suffering country, therefore he was unacceptable either to his sovereign or his vice-regents. The Earl of Hertford had particularly noticed Dr. Lucas, when he was in England, and was esteemed by him in return: he boasted also of his kind treatment from the Lords Chesterfield and Harrington, Halifax and Northumberland. He bore affection as well as loyalty to his majesty. “You know,” said he, “I am no flatterer: you know {366} how often, and in what terms, I have testified my disinterested love and loyalty to his majesty, and my zealous and inviolable attachment to his royal house; that I have always looked upon him as not only politically but actually free from blemish or imperfection; that I know his heart overflows with pure love and benevolence for all his subjects, and that I have myself sensibly shared his royal clemency, in rescuing me from the oppressive hand of that detestable hoary tyrant, a long parliament, with a wicked ministry, and certain iniquitous rulers of this city. His royal touch healed the wounds and bruises given my country through my sides. You know my words, my writings, the tenor of my whole life and conduct, proclaim my invariable gratitude, affection, and duty. And when I forget the deliverer of my country, let my right hand forget its function, and my tongue cleave to the roof -of my mouth. In his royal goodness I repose the most boundless confidence?9 His unreinitied and faithful attention to his parliamentary duties, with the discouraging prospect of failing in every exertion, at length forced from him a confession that he was weary of his task, because he laboured incessantly in vain. “I have,” said he, in an address to his constituents, “quitted a comfortable settlement in a free country, to embark in your service. I have attended constantly, closely, strictly to my duty. I have broke my health, impaired my fortune, hurt my family, and lost an object dearer to me than life, by engaging with unwearied care and painful assiduity, in this painful, perilous, thankless service. All this might be tolerable, if I could find myself useful to you or my country. But the only benefit that I can see, results to those, whom I cannot look upon as friends to my country, bands of placemen and pensioners, whose merit is enhanced, and whose number has been generally increased in proportion to the opposition given to the measures of ministers. I dare not neglect, much less desert my elation, but I wish by any lawful or honourable means for my dismissal.

It would be tedious (if it were possible) to give a list of those publications which raised him to the highest pinnacle of popularity. They consisted chiefly of periodical papers, addressee to the citizens of Dublin, and pamphlets on passing events, evincing the strong powers of his mind, and the independent firmness of his public spirit. He was thrice married, and had children by all his wives; and it is related of bital, that on the wedding night of his last wife, who was a remarkably fine woman, he was so crippled with the gout, that he was obliged to be lifted into bed. He died on the 4th of November, 1771, having behind him the character of a man, whom, from his first entrance into political life, no promises or offers could seduce from untainted patriotism, in which particular, unfortunately for Ireland, he has been more admired then imitated by his countrymen. His funeral was attended by the lord mayor and corporation in full costume, together with all the most distinguished characters then in the metropolis; and a statue of white marble was erected to his memory in a niche in the grand staircase of the Royal Exchange.

WAS a native of the county of Galway, and admitted into the order of Dominicans in Spain, where he hispanized his name from Lynch to Linze. He lived many years in great reputation, and officiated as synodal judge under the archbishop of Seville. He was gradually pro-moted to all the honours of Seville university, being first lecturer in arts and philosophy; then master of the students, secondary, and at length principal regent; and last of all, was made professor of divinity, in 1674, which office he held with universal approbation until the year 1607, when he died at Seville, and was much lamented. He was held in such high esteem in Spain, that Nicholas Antonio, in his Biblioteca Espanola, hath with much honour, ranked him among the authors of that country.

He wrote, according to the Dominican Bibliothhque, four volumes in quarto, on Speculation and Natural Philosophy, all of which were published in Paris, at different periods.

THIS eminent mezzotinto engraver was bom in Dublin about 1710, which he left at an early period of fife, and went to London. He was justly considered as one of the blest artists in his branch of engraving, that ever practised the art. The number of his plates is very considerable, the major part of which are portraits of persons of distinction, by the principal painters of his time. He also scraped a few plates from historical subjects, by Vandyck, Murillo, and Rembrandt, some of which are extremely fine.

He died in London, 2nd June, 1765.

A PHYSICIAN of some eminence, was born at Ballymony, in the county of Antrim, on the 26th of April, 1726. He received the first elements of his education at the place of his nativity, and served his apprenticeship to a surgeon. He entered the navy, first in the capacity of master to an hospital ship, and subsequently in the rank of surgeon, tn which station he remained for some years preceding the peace of Aix la Chapelle. At this period he was led, from the frequent opportunities of witnessing the attacks of scurvy which a seafaring life afforded him, to investigate the best method of core for that disease, upon which he afterwards published a treatise. After the peace of Aix, Mr. Macbride visited Edinburgh and London, where he studied anatomy under Doctors Hunter and Monro, and midwifery under Stnellie.

Towards the close of 1749, he settled in Dublin as a surgeon and accoucheur; but, owing to. his youth and remarkable bashfulness, he remained for several years in obscurity. In 1764, he published* his “Experimental {394} Essays,” which were received with greet applause, and were speedily translated into different languages; and the conspicuous merit of this performance induced the university of Glasgow to confer the degree of M.D. on its author. The improvement introduced by Dr. Macbride in the art of tanning, by substituting lime water for common water in preparing ooze, procured him the honour of a silver medal from the Dublin Society in 1768, and of a gold medal of considerable value from the Society of Arts and Commerce in London.

For several years after Dr. Macbride obtained his degree, he employed part of his time in the duties of a medical teacher, and delivered, at his own home, a course of lectures on the theory and practice of physic. These lectures were published in one vol. 4to in 1779, and were translated into Latin, and published at Utrecht in two vols. 8vo, in 1774.

Dr. Macbride died of an accidental cold, which brought on a fever and delirium, oa the 13th of December, 1778, in the fifty-third year of his age, and was generally apd deeply lamented.

A GENTLEMAN of a very respectable family in Ireland, was appointed a lieutenant in the navy, on tbeSTlIaef October, 1758. We have no further particulars concarwv ing him till August 1761, when he commanded the Graef, armed cutter, in which he eminently distinguished bran self. Being off Dunkirk, and observing a dogger privateer in the road, he procured from the Maidstone, captain Digges, four boats manned and armed, with which he proceeded at ten o clock at night, in order to complete a design which he had formed. On approaching the privateer, the seamen laid their oars across, except two in each boat, which they muffled with baize, to prevent their being heard at a distance. They rowed in that manner till they came within musket-shot of the privateer; when being {395} hailed, they made no answer, but in a few minutes boarded her on both sides, and took possession of the vessel without the loss of single man, two only being wounded. Mr. Macbride shot the lieutenant of the privateer through the head with a musket, as he was pointing a gun into the boat: exclusiveof this officer, only one man was killed, and five wounded, belonging to the enemy. This bold enterprise was achieved within half a gun-shot of a fort on the east of the harbour; but it did not fire at them. When the prisoners were secured, the captors cut the cables and sailed out of the road. In April 1760, he was promoted to be commander of the Grampus fire-ship; and afterwards removed into the Crusier sloop. In June 1706, he was appointed captain of the Renown, of thirty guns. In the foliowing year he commanded the Jason, of thirty-two guns, in which he was ordered to the Falkland islands. Returning in 1768, he was appointed to the Seaford. He was afterwards removed to the Southampton, of thirty-two guns.

In 1775, we find him captain of the Orpheus, a frigate of the same force. At the commencement of the dispute with the North American colonies, in 1777, he wed appointed to the Bienfaisant, of sixty-four guns. In 177, he served under the orders of admiral Keppel, in the encounter with the French fleet off Ushant, hot does not appear to have been materially engaged. At the close of the year 1779, he was ordered to Gibraltar, with admiral Rodney, for the relief of that fortress. The fleet, while on its passage, fortunately fell in with a Spanish squadron and convoy near Cape Finisterre, and on the 8th of January, 1780, captain Macbride captured the Guipus[oona], of sixty-four guns, the commanding ship of their convoy; all th other vessels of war and merchantmen at the same time becoming prizes to the different ships. Soon after this success an action took place beteen Don Juan de Langara and the British fleet, when captain Macbride eminently distinguished himself by his skill and valour, as well in the action or in the contrivance to secure {396} the possession of the Phoenix, of eighty guns, the flag-ship of the Spanish admiral, in the midst of a tremendous storms Captain Macbride was sent home express with the intelligence, but, owing to unfavourable winds, he did not reach England till after the duplicate of the account had arrived there. On the return of the fleet to England, captain Macbride, in the month of March, again commanded the Bienfaisant, and, after a few weeks, was ordered into St. George’s Channel, in quest of a large French privateer, mounting fifty-four guns. Early on the 13th of August he fell in with the object of his pursuit, off the Old Head of Kinsale, and brought the enemy to action about half after seven in the morning. The Chevalier de Clonard, who commanded the French ship, (viz, the Count d Artois) previous to the engagement, hoisted English colours; while those of the same denomination still continued flying on board the Bienfaisant. But captain Macbride no longer doubting that the Count d Artois was an enemy, ordered the marines on his poop to fire; and the enemy having hoisted their proper colours, immediately returned the compliment. Some time elapsed before captain Macbride could regulate his sails, and place his ship in an advantageous position. During this interval the enemy had the effrontery to make an attempt to board him; but their efforts being unsuccessful, an action commenced, and was closed by the surrender of the Count d Artois, after a contest of an hour and ten minutes. The rigging, masts, and yards of the enemy suffered much injury, twenty-one of their men were killed, and thirty-five wounded. On board the Bienfaisant only three men were killed, and twenty-two wounded. During the year 1781, captain Macbride served in the North Seas, attached to a squadron employed there to watch the motions of the Dutch squadron then ready for service in the Texel. In consequence of which he was present at the engagement off the Dogger Bank, in the month of August, between vice-admiral Parker and admiral Zoutman. Captain Macbride had been removed from the Bienfaisant to the Artois, {397} of fifty-four guns, the ship he had lately taken from the enemy, and esteemed the finest vessel existing of her class; but, as a temporary arrangement, he was again removed into the Princess Amelia, of eighty guns, as successor to captain Macartney, who had fallen in the action. On the return of the squadron into port, he was employed as a cruiser on the same station, and in the month of December, captured two very large Dutch privateers. (Captain Macbride, in his official account of this action, informs us, that “The Hercules had one hundred and sixty-four men on board; thirteen were killed, and twenty wounded. The Mars, one hundred and forty-six men; nine were killed, and fifteen wounded. We had one man killed, and six wounded.”) Early in the ensuing year he. was ordered into the Channel, and, in April, attended the squadron, under admiral Barrington, to intercept a small French squadron intended to proceed from Brest to the East Indies. Captain Macbride, who was at the head of the fleet, first discovered the enemy, and in the course of that or the following day, nearly half the vessels, consisting of ships of war and transports, were captured by the different ships of the British squadron. After the cessation of hostilities, he quitted the Artois, and in July, 1783, was appointed to the Druid frigate of thirty-two guns, employed as a cruiser in the Irish Channel. Having quitted her about the year 1784, he held no naval commission for some years. In the same year he was chosen member of parliament for Plymouth. In 1788, he was appointed to the Cumberland of seventy-four guns, a guard-ship stationed at Plymouth; and, in February 1793, soon after the commencement of the rupture with France, he was made rear-admiral of the blue. He was afterwards more than once occupied in cruising in the Channel, but found no opportunity of adding to that reputation he had before so deservedly acquired. He was indeed, for a considerable space of time, unable to act in the line of his profession, having unfortunately broken his leg in attempting to mount a horse. In April he was raised to the rank {398} of rear-admiral of the red, and in July to that of vice-admiral of the blue. After some time he commanded the squadron in the North Seas, but soon quitted that station, on which no circumstance occurred to enable him to signalise himself. On the 1st of June, 1795, he obtained the rank of vice-admiral of the red, but does not appear to have ever held any naval employment after quitting the command in the North Sea.

In his conversation with the manager about the great {405} run of a “Romeo and Juliet,” he told him, that as the town had not properly settled which was the better Romeo, Barry or him, he meant ultimately to decide that question in his next lecture on that tragedy. Garrick, who was all alive to fame, instantly cocked up his ear, and exclaimed, “Ah! my dear Mac, how will you bring this about?” “I’ll tell you, Sir; I mean to shew your different merits in the garden scene. Barry comes into it, Sir, as great as a lord, swaggering about his love, and talking so loud, that by G—, Sir, if we don’t suppose the servants of the Capulet family almost dead with sleep; they most have come out and tossed the fellow in a blanket. Well, Sir, after having fixed my auditors attention to this part, then I shall ask, but how does Garrick act this? Why, Sir, sensible that the family are at enmity with him and his house, he comes creeping in upon his toes, whispering his love, and looking about him just like a thief in the night. At this Garrick could hold out no longer - he thanked him for his good intentions, but begged he would decline his purpose, as, after all, he thought it a question better left to the opinion of the audience than the subject of a lecture. With these qualifications as a critic much success could not be augured from the lectures. The event turned out so; as, in a little time, the few who resorted to his rooms gave up all ideas of improvement, and the whole assumed an air of burlesque, which was still heightened by the gravity of Macklin, who, trusting to the efficiency of his own powers, appeared every night full dressed, dictating to the town in all the airs of superior intelligence. Foote stood at the head of the wits and laughers on this occasion. To a man of his humour, Macklin was as the dace to the pike, a sure prey. He accordingly made him his daily food for laughter and ridicule, by constantly attending his lectures, and, by his questions, remarks, and repartees, kept the audience in a continual roar. Macklin sometimes made battle - but it was Priam to Pyrrhus: he now and then came out with a strong remark, or bitter {405} sarcasm; but in wit and humour, Foote was greatly his superior. Foote likewise had the talent of keeping his temper, which still added to his superiority. One night as Macklin was preparing to begin his lecture, and hearing a buzz in the room, he spied Foote in a corner, talking and laughing most immoderately. This he thought a safe time to rebuke him, as he had not begun his lecture, and consequently could not be subject to any criticism: he therefore cried out with some authority, “Well, Sir, you seem to be very merry there: but do you know what I am going to say now?” “No, Sir," says Foote, “Pray do you?” The ready and unembarrassed manner of this reply drew on such a burst of laughter, as silenced the lecturer for some minutes; nor could he then get on, till called upon by the general voice of the company. Another time Macklin undertook to shew the causes of duelling in Ireland; and why it was much more the practice of that nation than any other. In order to do this in his own way, he began with the earliest part of the Irish history, as it respected the customs, the education, and the animal spirits of the inhabitants; and after getting as far as the reign of Queen Elizabeth, he was again proceeding, when Foote spoke to order. “Well, Sir; what have you to say on this subject?” - “Only to crave a little attention, Sir," says Foote, with much seeming modesty, “when I think I can settle this point in a few words." “Well, Sir; go on." “Why then, Sir," says Foote, to begin, what o clock is it?" “O clock!" says Macklin, “what has the clock to do with a dissertation on duelling?" “Pray, Sir," says Foote, “be pleased to answer my question.” Macklin, on this, pulled out his watch, and reported the hour to be half-past ten. “Very well," says Foote; “about this time of the night, every gentleman in Ireland, that can possibly afford it, it in his third bottle of claret, consequently is in a fair way off getting drunk; from drunkenness proceeds quarrelling, and from quarrelling duelling; and so there’s an end of the chapter." - The company seemed fully satiated with this {407} abridgment; and Macklin shut up his lecture for that evening in great dudgeon. Another night, being at supper with Foote and some others, at the Bedford, one of the company was praising Macklin on the great regularity of his ordinary, and in particular his manner of directing his waiters by signals. - “Aye, Sir,” says Macklin, “I knew it would do. And where do you think I picked up hint? Well, Sir, I’ll tell you. I picked it up from no less a man than James Duke of York, who, you know, Sir, first invented signals for the fleet.” “Very a-propos, indeed,” says Foote, “and good poetical justice, as from the Fleet they were taken - so to the Fleet both master and signals are likely to return.” - All this, though galling to Macklin, was fun for the public; and had it ended here, would perhaps, have served Macklin in a pecuniary way, as much as it hurt his feelings in another: - but Foote did not know when he had enough of a good thing: he introduced him into his theatre at the Haymarket, where neither cut so good a figure as they did in the British Inquisition; and Macklin, in return, retorted in all kinds of abuse and calumny. The public at last grew tired of the controversy, from being taken out of its proper place; and the British Inquisition soon after this began to feel a gradual decay in all its departments. Most people, except the projector, saw the seeds of a speedy dissolution tn the first principles of this scheme. In the first place, it was upon a large and expensive scale, and quite novel in this country; it, therefore, not only required a greater capital than Macklin was master of, but much greater talents, as he had neither learning, reading, figure, or elocution, for the oratorical part; nor assiduijty, knowledge or temper, for keeping a coffee-house and tavern. Whilst he amused himsejf with drilling his waiters, or fitting himself for the rostrum, by poring over the Athenian Oracle or Parliamentary Debates, his waiters, in return, were robbing him in all directions; his cook generally went to market for him, and his principal waiter was his principal butler: in short, Macklin had left himself {408} little more to do in the essential parts of his business, than paying the bills; and these soon poured in upon bin so fast, that he could not even acquit himself of tbit employment. Accordingly, the next winter did ultimately decide the question, as we find him a bankrupt on the 5th of January, 1755, under the title of vintner, coffee-man, and chapman. On his examination before the commissioners of bankruptcy, every thing turned out to his character but his prudence; as it appeared he lost his money partly by the sums incurred in building and fitting up the rooms, and partly by the trade not being adequate to such a scale of expenditure.

One circumstance, however should not be omitted here, which redounds to his character as a father, which was, that it was proved, by sufficient documents, that he laid out no less than twelve hundred pounds on the education of his daughter - -an education not ill bestowed, as it respected exterior accomplishments, &c. but which made so little impression on her gratitude, that at her death (which happened when her father was above eighty years of age, and when, it was well known, he was ffrom beingar independent) she bequeathed the best part of her fortune to strangers, giving him, at the same time, such an eventual title to the other part, as was worse than absolute neglect - it was a legacy in mockery, as if she only thought of her father to tantalise him with fruitless expectations. Though Miss Macklin was not handsome she was genteel in her person, and being highly educated was fashionable in her manners and deportment. She was, beside, a very rising actress, and gave specimens of her singing and dancing in occasional entertainments, which made her a great favourite with the town. Some days previous to her benefit, whilst Macklin was sitting at breakfast, a loud knocking at his door announced the name of a baronet, at that time as well known on the turf, as he has since been in the character of a noble lord, and great legal practitioner. After the ceremonies of introduction were over, Macklin hoped he would do him {409} the honour of breakfasting with him which the ther very frankly accepted of, and the conversation becoming general - the stage, of course, formed one of the topics; when the baronet took this opportunity to praise Miss Macklin in the highest strains of panegyric. This Macklin .thought a good omen for his daughter’s benefit-night, and bowed most graciously to all his encomiums. At last, after a short pause, (arising, as Macklin thought, from his embarrassment about the manner of asking for tickets,) the baronet began the following curious conversation: “After what I have said of your daughter, Mr. Macklin, yon may suppose I am not insensible of her merits. - I mean to be her friend, not in the article of taking tickets for her benefit, and such trifling acts of friendship, which mean nothing more than the vanity of patronage - I mean to be her friend for life.” “What do you allude to, Sir?" says Macklin, roused at this last expression. “Why, (said the other) I mean as I say, to make her my friend for life; and as you are a man of the world, and ’tis fit you should be considered in this business - I now make you an offer of four hundred pounds per year for your daughter, and two hundred pounds per year for yourself, to be secured on any of my estates during both your natural lives." “I was at that time," says Macklin, “spreading some butter on my roll, and happened to have in my hand a large case knife, which grasping, and looking steadily at the baronet, I desired him instantly to quit my apartments, telling him, at the same time, that I was as much surprised at his folly as his profligacy, in thus attempting the honour of a child through the medium of her parent. He affected not to mind me, and was proceeding with some coarseness, when instantly I sprung from my seat, and holding the knife near his throat, in a menacing manner, bade him make the best of his way down stairs, or I would instantly drive that instrument into his heart, as the due reward of such base and infamous proposals. Sir, (continued the veteran) I had no occasion to repeat my menaces a second time. By G—, the fellow {410} made but one jump from his chair to the door, and scampered down the stairs as if the d—— was in him. He ran across the garden in the same manner, thinking I was still at his heels: and so, Sir, I never spoke to the rascal since."

He now joined Barry in founding a new theatre in Dublin, and, in the spring of 1757, Macklin went to Ireland along with Barry and Woodward, who was admitted as partner, and was present at laying the foundation of Crow-street theatre. About September of . the same year, Barry having obtained a sufficient number of subscribers to his new theatre, and arranged every other matter relative to his great design, returned to London, leaving Macklin as his locum taunt, who, to do him justice, was so very vigilant and industrious in all the departments of his trust, that, upon Barry’s return to Dublin, towards the close of the summer of 1758, the theatre was nearly ready for their performance.: Mrs. Macklin died about this time, before her husband could receive any benefits from her engagement, and he seemed much afflicted at her loss, as her judgment and good sense often kept him within the pale of propriety. This was his first wife; she was the widow of a respectable hosier in Dublin, of the name of race, where the marriage took place about 1731-2. She made her debut at Chester in the Nurse, in “Romeo and Juliet”. She was esteeamed an excellent actress in the walk of her profession; - very considerable reader, and possessed the accomplishment of singing and dancing to that degree, as would have enabled her to have got her bread in these lines, had pot her anting been considered as the most profitable employment. She had been some months before her death in declinging state, but her dissolution is said to have beep hastened by her husband’s losses and bankruptcy. Crow-street theatre opened on the 23rd of October, 1758, with an occasional prologue spoken by Barry, after which was performed the comedy of “She Would, and She Would Not; or, the Kind Impostor.” Macklin joined this corps as soon as {411} decency for the loss of his wife would admit; but such was the versatility of his temper, that he not only quitted his engagements with Barry and Woodward, and returned to London the middle of December, 1759, but made an engagement to perform at Smock Alley (the opposition house) towards the close of that season; which, however, he did not fulfil. Macklin, now, had greater projects than joining the Irish theatres: at this time he got an engagement at Drury-lane at a very considerable salary; and besides had it in meditation to bring out his force of “Love-à-la-Mode," which, though it met with some opposition in the beginning, afterwards received such applause, both in London and Dublin, as made amends for all his former dramatic miscarriages, and crowned him with no inconsiderable share of reputation. This farce was first acted at Drury-lane, 1760, and afterwards he brought out at Covent-Garden “The Married Libertine," comedy, 1761; “The Irish fine Lady," farce, 1767; and “The True-born Scotchman," comedy, which was afterwards acted under the title of “The Man of the World", 1781. In 1774, he attempted the character of Macbeth, which met with a most violent opposition. The ground of complaint against this actor was changed after his second appearance in the character, and from a critique upon his acting, his antagonists attacked him with regard to his conduct; this arose from a speech which he then made, wherein he asserted that Mr. Sparks and Mr. Reddish had hissed him in the gallery on the first night of his appearance. These gentlemen made affidavits to the contrary, and, during the whole week, the papers were filled with squibs on both sides. On his third appearance in Macbeth, previous to the play, he came on in his own character, with a manuscript in his hand, and after much contest, was allowed to read a part of it, which contained the proofs of his former assertion. He then went through the character with some applause. This second address to the public produced a letter from Mn Reddish to Mr Macklin, to which the latter published ap answer. An {412} account having appeared in one of the papers of a tumult that occurred upon his fourth appearance in the character, in which it was said, Mr. Smith’s friends openly avowed the cause this gentleman applied to the printer, and finding Mr. Macklin to be the author of that declaration, addressed a letter to him the next day in the same paper, positively denying the charge. These altercations created a very strong party against Mr. Macklin, November 18, when he was to have played Shylock. They had stationed themselves in proper places of the pit and balcony boxes^ for the better application to the managers. When the curtain drew up, the cry was general for Mr. Colman to make his appearance. Bensley having been sent to learn the sense of the house, was not suffered to speak. Macklin then advanced in the dress of Shylock from behind the scenes, and humbly supplicated to be heard - but a general uproar took place, and he was forced to retire. He next appeared in his own clothes, but the attempt was fruitless. Messrs. Miles and Sparks seemed to be the leaders of the opposition, and the latter stood up upon his seat with a written paper, anxious to communicate its contents to the house, but he was not suffered to read it. Daring this time successive embassies were dispatched from the manager, in the persons of Bensley, Woodward, Reinhold, and Clark - but all to no purpose: nothing would satisfy them but the appearance of Mr. Colman. Macklin was on and off the stage every two minutes, but could not get leave to speak. He soon learnt, by the delivery of a written paper, that it was the sense of the company he should never play there again. This he received with an affectation of contempt, at which the house was exceedingly incensed, and declared, unless Mr. Colman would come forth, they would tear up the benches. Soon afterwards Mr. Bensley brought in a board, on which, was written in chalk in large characters, “At the command of the public, Mr. Macklin is discharged:" a roar of applause ensued. An attempt was then made to perform “She Stoops to Conquer;" but the cry was still for Mr. Colman {413} to confirm the written declaration in person. To pacify them, Mr. Fisher made his appearance, but was hooted off. Matters now became very serious. The ladies were desired to withdraw, and the gentlemen in the pit and boxes united. On their beginning to tear up the seats, Mr. Colman advanced. The house became quiet: and the manager began with observing, that, as this was his first appearance on any stage, he hoped for their indulgence. - This seasonable piece of wit conciliating the general favour, he told them with an audible voice, that it was the intent of the proprietors of that theatre to comply with the commands of the public even to the minutest particulars, and asked them if it was their pleasure that Mr. Macklin should be discharged? The whole, as with one voice, cried Yes. Mr. Colman replied, he is discharged, and begged to know," whether it was their pleasure that the play of “She Stoops to Conquer,” should be performed? No, No, No, was the universal cry. “Since this is the case,” replied Mr. Colman, “the rnoney must be returned, for it is not in our power to perform any other;” he then retired. However, the house still seeming dissatisfied, a fresh attempt was made to perform it, but in vain; the clamour continued, and nothing remained but Mr. Lewis to give out the play for the next day, which he did with, Gentlemen, (for the ladies were gone) to-morrow will be performed “Love in a Village:” This ended the altercation of the evening about eight o clock. Macklin now went to law with his adversaries, Lee, James, Aldus, Miles, and Clarke, and substantiated his losses. May 11, 1775, the court proceeded to state the judges report, in order to pronounce judgment against the offenders; and after it was determined that they should make Macklin a reasonable compensation in damages for two years salary at £100 each, two benefits at £200 each, and the whole of his expenses out of pocket, - Macklin generously relinquished the whole of his damages, upon the following terms: “To have his law expenses reimbursed him; the gentlemen to {414} take £100 worth of tickets for his daughter’s benefit; £100 worth of tickets for his own benefit; and £100 worth of tickets for the benefit of the theatre on the first night of his being reinstated in his employment.” After this, he occasionally performed, and paid a visit to Dublin during Mr. Daly’s management. November 87, 1788, while representing the character of Sir Peter Pertinax Mac Sycophant, in his own comedy (The Man of the World), he suddenly lost his recollection, and addressed the audience, informing them, that unless he found himself more capable, he should not again venture to solicit their attention. After this, however, he appeared again, and in the middle of the character of Shylock, for his own benefit, May 7, 1789, his memory failed him in the same manner, and the part was finished by Mr. Ryder. Finding himself now wholly incapable of performing, he retired with regret from the stage, and about four years after, by the advice of his friends, his two pieces, “The Man of the World”, and “Love-à-la-Mode, were, under the superintendance of Mr. Murphy, first printed, and offered to the public, by subscription; when the large contributions of several distinguished characters amounted to upwards of £1500 which, under the direction of Dr. Brocklesby, John Palmer, Esq. and Mr. Longman, trustees, was kid out (agreeable to the proposals) in purchasing an annuity of £500, for Mr. Macklin, and of £75 for Mrs. Macklin, (his second wife) in case she survived him. This great Nestor of the stage (who latterly became very languid and defective in memory) died July 11, 1797,and his remains were interred in a vault at the north side of Covent-garden church. The following gentlemen attended the fa neral 8 - Mr. Hull, Mr. Griffith, Mr. Barlow, Mr. Kirkman, Mr. Hughes, Mr. Macdonald, Dr. Atkinson, Dr. Kennedy, Mr. Brandon, Mr. Davies, Mr. Ledger, and-Mr. Munden. The corpse was taken into the vestry, and prayers rend over it by the Rev. Mr. Ambrose, who came from Cambridge on purpose to perform this last act of kindness to his tutor, and a great number of spectators assembled, {415} among whom were maay of the deceased’s theatrical friends. As an actor, the censure bestowed on him by Churchill is just; but his very defects were in his favour in the representation of Shylock, and in his own plays of “The Man of the World" and “Love-à-la-Mode." He had an extremely harsh set of features, and an unprepossessing countenance, which occasioned Quin to say of him, “If God writes a legible hand, that fellow is a villain."

A PIOUS and learned clergyman, was descended from an ancient and respectable Scotch family, bat was born at Monacham, in Ireland, in 1788, where his father was a minister. He lost his parents at an early age. After having completed his education at Glasgow, he accepted an invitation to Holland from his maternal hnele, and went to that country at the age of twenty. His uncle was the venerable Dr. Milling, and him he succeeded as pastor of the English Church at the Hague, and remained in that situation until the invasion of the country by the French, in 1794, compelled him to take refuge in England. He had not been there long when an only sister whom he had seen for many years, joined him in a consequence of the Irish rebellion. During his residence at the Hague, he was known and highly respected by every one, and not unfreqnently consulted by official men of the highest rank. Some time previous to his decease he was seized with a paralytic affection, induced probably by agitation and distress of mind: as the nature of his disorder rendered the use of the baths and the water of Bath necessary, the doctor visited that city, and at length made it the place of his settled abode. Here he lived, exemplifying the best traits of the christian and the scholar, until the 25 November, 1804, when he was removed to that happy state for which his whole life had been a preparration. Dr . Maclaine lies buried in the Abbey church in Bath, where a monument {416} is erected to his memory, with a Latin inscription, by the Rev. John Simpson.

Dr. Maclaine was the author of two volumes of sermons, and a series of “Letters to Soame Jenyns,” a small 12mo. volume. But the work on which he builds his grand claim to fame, is his translation of Mosheim’s “Ecclesiastical History,” enriched with notes and appendices, full of learning and ingenuity. For this work, by which thousands have been realised, Dr. Maclaine received only the pitiful sum of £130.

COMMONLY known by the name of Ruadh, or Redhaired, we are told was looked up to by his contemporaries in Irish literature (for seventy years at least) as possessing that poetical eminence which ranked him among the most celebrated of modern bards.

He died October 6, 1810, in the ninety-fifth year of his age, at New Town, near Kilmacthomas.

A CRITIC of considerable literary research, and one of the ablest commentators on Sbakspeare, was descended from an Irish family of great antiquity, and was born in Dublin on the 4th of October, 1741. In 1756, he entered the university of that city, where he took his degree of {417} bachelor of arts. In 1768, he became a student in the Inner Temple, and in 1767, was called to the Irish bar, where he gave every promise of future excellence; but, an independent fortune being bequeathed to him, he retired from the bar, and shortly after settled in London, where he devoted the whole of his attention to literary pursuits. He took great pains to strip the poetical works of Rowley of their antique garb, contending strongly, that the poems attributed to him were the productions of Chatterton; and those learned critics Warton and Tyrwhitt, being of the same opinion, the controversy was soon at an end.

While Mr. Malone was engaged in his Shakspeare, he received frpm Mr. Steevens a request of a most extraordinary nature. To a third edition of Johnson and Steevens’s Shakspeare, which had been published under the superintendance of Mr. Reed, in 1785, Mr. Malone had contributed some notes in which Mr. Steevens’s opinions were occasionally controverted. These he was now desired to retain in his new edition, exactly as they stood before, in order that Mr. Steevens might answer them. Mr. Malone replied, that he could make no such promise; that he most feel himself at liberty to correct his observations, where they were erroneous; to enlarge them, where they were defective; and even to expunge them altogether, where, upon further consideration, he was convinced they were wrong; in short, he was bound to present his work to the public as perfect as he could make it. But he added, that he was willing to transmit every note of that description in its last state to Mr. Steevens, before it went to press; that he might answer it if he pleased; and that Mr. Malone would even preclude himself from the privilege of replying. Mr. Steevens persisted in requiring that they should appear with all their imperfections on their head; and on this being refused, declared that all communication on the subject of Shakspeare was at an end between them*. In 1790, Mr. Malone’s edition at

These particulars are collected from the correspondence which passed between them, which Mr. Malone preserved. {418}

last appeared; and was sought after and read with the greatest avidity.

In 1791 appeared Mr. Boswell’s Life of Dr. Johnson, a work in which Mr. Malone felt at all times a very lively interest, and gave every assistance to its author during its progress which it was in his power to bestow. His ac-quaintance with this gentleman commenced in 1785, when, happening accidentally, at Mr. Baldwin’s printing- house, to be shewn a sheet of the Tour to the Hebrides, which contained Johnson’s character, he was so much struck with the spirit and fidelity of the portrait, that he requested to be introduced to its writer. From this period a friendship took place between them, which ripened into the strictest and most cordial intimacy, and lasted without interruption as long as Mr. Boswell lived. After his death, in 1795, Mr. Malone continued to shew every merit of affectionate attention towards his family; and m every successive edition of Johnson’s Life, took the most wearied pains to render it as correct and perfect us possible.

In 1795, he was again called forth to display his seal in defence of Shakspeare, against the contemptible fabrications with which the Irelands endeavoured to delude the public. Mr. Malone saw through the falsehood of the whole from its commencement; and laid bare the fraud, in a pamphlet, which was written in the form of a letter to his friend Lord Charlemont. In 1792, he had the misfortune to lose his admirable friend Sir Joshua Reynolds; and his executors, of whom Mr. Malone had the honour to be one, having determined, in 1797, to give the world a complete collection of his works, he superintended the publication, and prefixed to it a very pleasing biographical sketch of their author. He collected together, and published in 1800, the prose works of Dryden; which, as they had lain scattered about, and were some of them appended to works which were little known, had never impressed the general reader with that opinion of their excellence which they deserved. The narrative {419} which he prefixed is a most important accession to biography. ln 1800, he prepared for the press a few productions of the celebrated William Gerard Hamilton, to which he prefixed a sketch of his life. He also wrote a biographical memoir of that celebrated statesman Mr. Windham, which was not printed for sale. A gradual decay appears to base undermined his constitution, and when he was just on the point of going to press with his new edition of Shakspeare, he was interrupted by an illness of which he died on the 45th of May, 1814, in the seventieth year of his age, and his remains were interred in the family seat of Baronston, in the county of West-meath.

THIS gentleman, of whom the following account is taken from Sheridan’s Life of Swift, was generally supposed to be the last who kept op the old Irish hospitality in its ancient splendour. Being possessed of a considerable estate in Tipperary, which produced a clear rent of 8000 a-year, he resolved to build a large commodious house for the reception of guests, surrounded by fifteen hundred acres of his choicest land, all laid out upon a regular plan of improvement. In order to carry this design into effect, he retired to the Continent for seven years, and lived upon 600 a-year.

When all was completed, he returned to his native country; and after some time passed in the metropolis; to revive the old, and cultivate new acquaintance, he retired to his seat in Thomastown, to pass the remainder of his days there. As he was one of the finest gentlemen of the age, and possessed of so large a property, he found no difficulty, during his residence in Dublin, to get access to all whose character for talents or probity, made him desirous to cultivate their acquaintance. Out of these he selected such as were most conformable to his taste, inviting them to pass such leisure time as they might have upon their hands, at Thomastown.

His house had been chiefly contrived to answer the noble purpose of that endless hospitality which he intended to maintain there. It contained forty commodious apartments for guests, with suitable accommodations to their servants. Each apartment was completely furnished with every convenience that could be wanted, even to the minutest article. When a guest arrived, he shewed him his apartment, saying, This is your castle, here you are to command as absolutely as in yonr own house; you may breakfast, dine, and sup here whenever you please, and invite such of the guests to accompany you as may be most agreeable to you. He then shewed him the common parlour, where, he said, a daily ordinary was kept, at which he might dine when it was more agreeable to him to mix in society; but from this moment, you are never to know me as master of the house, and only to consider me as one of the guests. In order to put an end to all ceremony at meal-time, he took his place at random at the table; and thus, all ideas of precedence being laid aside, the guests seated themselves promiscuously, without any regard to difference of rank or quality. There was a large room fitted up exactly like a coffeehouse, where a bar-maid and waiters attended to furnish refreshments at all times of the day. Here such as chose it breakfasted at their own hour. It was furnished with chess-boards, backgammon tables, newspapers, pamphlets, 8cc. in all the forms of a city coffee-house. Bat the moat extraordinary circumstance in his whole domestic arrangement, was that of a detached room in one of the extremities of the bouse, called the tavern. As he was himself a very temperate man, and many of his guests were of the same disposition, the quantity of wine for the use of the common room was but moderate; but as drinking was much in fashion in those days, in order to gratify such of his guests as had indulged themselves in that custom, he had recourse to the above-mentioned contrivance; and it was the custom of all who loved a cheerful glass, to adjourn to the tavern soon after dinner, and leave the more sober folks to themselves. Here a waiter, in a blue {421} apron, attended (as was the fashion then,) and all things in the room were contrived so as to humour the illusion. Every one called for what, liquor they liked, with as little restraint, as if they were really in a public-house, and to pay their share of the reckoning. Games of all sorts were allowed, but under such restrictions as to prevent gambling: and so as to answer their true end, that of amusement, without injury to the purse of the players. There were two billiard tables, and a large bowling-green; ample provision was made for all such as delighted in country sports; fishing-tackle of all sorts; variety of guns, with proper ammunition; a pack of buckhounds, another of fox-hounds; and another of harriers. He constantly kept twenty choice hunters in his stables, for the use of those who were not properly mounted for the chase. His plan was so well formed, and he had such checks upon all his domestics, that it was impossible there could beany waste; or that any article from the larder, or a single bottle of wine from the cellar, could have been purloined, without immediate detection. This was done partly by the choice of faithful stewards, and clerks of approved integrity; but chiefly by his own superintendence of the whole, as not a day passed without having all the accounts of the preceding one laid before him. This he was enabled to do by his early rising; and the business being finished before others were out of their beds, he always appeared the most disengaged man in the house and seemed to have as little conduct of it as any of the guests. And, indeed, to a stranger he might pass for such; as he made it a point, that no one should consider him in the light of master of the house, or pay him the least civilities on that score: which he carried so far, that he sometimes went abroad without giving any notice, staid away several days, while things went on as usual at home; and, on his return, he would not allow any gratulations to be made him, nor any other notice to be taken of him, than if he had not been absent during that time. The arrangements of every sort were so prudently made; that no mul{422}tiplicity of guests, or their domestics, ever occasioned any disorder; and all things were conducted with the same ease and regularity as in a private family. He was the first who put an end to that inhospitable custom of giving vails to servants, by making a suitable addition to their wages, at the same time assuring them, that if they ever took any afterwards, they should be discharged with disgrace: and, to prevent temptation, the guests were informed, that Mr. Mathew would consider it as the highest affront, if any offer of that sort were made.

As Swift had heard much of the place from Dr. Sheridan, who had been often a welcome guest there, both on account of his companionable qualities, and as being preceptor to the nephew of Mr. Mathew, he was desirous of seeing, with his own eyes, whether the report of it were true; which he could not help thinking to have been much exaggerated. Upon receiving an intimation of this from Dr. Sheridan, Mr. Mathew wrote a polite letter to the dean, requesting the honour of a visit, in company with the doctor, on his next school vacation. They set out accordingly on horseback, attended by a gentleman who was a near relation of Mr. Mathew.

They had scarce reached the ion where they were to pass the first night, and which, like most of the Irish inns at that time, afforded but miserable entertainment, when a coach and six arrived, sent to convey them the remainder of their journey to Thomastown; and, at the same time, bringing store of the choicest viands, wine, and other liquors, for their refreshment. Swift was highly pleased with this uncommon mark of attention paid him; and the circumstance of the coach proved particularly agreeable, as he had been a good deal fatigued with his day’s journey. When they came within sight of the house, the dean, astonished at its magnitude, cried out, “What, in the name of God, can be the use of such a vast building?” “Why, Mr. Dean,” replied their fellow-traveller before mentioned, “there are no less than forty apartments for guests in that house, and all of them probably occupied at {423} this time, except what are reserved for us.” Swift, in his usual manner, called out to the coachman to stop, and had him turn about, and drive him back to Dublin, for he could not think of mixing with such a crowd. - “Well,” said he afterwards, suddenly, “there is no remedy, I must submit; but I have lost a fortnight of my life.” - Mr. Mathew received him at the door, with uncommon marks of respect; and then conducting him to his apartment, after some compliments, made him his usual speech, acquainting him with the customs of the house, and retired leaving him in possession of his castle. Soon after the cook appeared with his bill of fare, to receive his directions about supper; and the butler, at the same time, with a list of wines and other liquors. And is all this really so, said Swift; and may I command here as in my own house? The gentleman before mentioned assured him he might; and that nothing could be more agreeable to the owner of that mansion, than that all under his roof should live conformably to their own inclinations, without the least restraint. “Well, then,” said Swift, “I invite you and Dr. Sheridan to be my guests while I stay, for, I think, I shall hardly be tempted to mix with the mob below.” Three days were passed in riding over the demesne, apd viewing the several improvements, without ever seeing Mr. Mathew or any of his guests. On the fourth day, Swift entered the room where the company were assembled before dinner, and addressed Mr. Mathew in one of his finest complimental speeches, which he concluded by saying, “And now, ladies and gentlemen, I am come to live among you, and it shall be no fault of mine if we do not pass our time agreeably.” After dinner, being in high spirits, he entertained the company with several pleasantries. Dr. Sheridan and he played into one another’s hands; they joked, they punned, they laughed, and a general gaiety was diffused through the whole company. When the time came which obliged Dr. Sheridan to return to his school, the company were so delighted with the dean, that they earnestly entreated him {424} to stay there some time longer; and Mr. Mathew himself for once broke through his rule of never soliciting the stay of any guest, (it being the established custom of the house, that all might depart when they thought proper, without any ceremony of leave-taking,) by joining in the request. Swift found himself so happy in his situation there, that he readily yielded to their solicitations; and, instead of the fortnight which he had originally intended, passed four months there, much to his own satisfaction, and that of all those who visited the place during that time.

The following singular adventure, in which the subject of our memoir was engaged, is deserving of being recorded. It was towards the latter end of Queen Anne’s reign when Mr. Mathew returned to Dublin, after his long residence abroad. At that time party ran very high, but raged no where with such violence as in that city; insomuch, that duels were every day fought there on that account. There happened to be, at that time, two gentlemen in London who valued themselves highly on their skill in fencing; the name of one of them was Pack, of the other Creed; the former a major, the latter a captain, in the army. Hearing of these daily exploits in Dublin, they resolved, like two knights-errant, to go over in quest of adventures. Upon inquiry, they learned, that Mr. Mathew, lately arrived from France, had the character of being one of the first swordsmen in Europe. Pack, rejoiced to find an antagonist worthy of him, resolved, the first opportunity, to pick a quarrel with him; and meeting him as he was carried along the streets in his chair, jostled the fore-chairman. Of this Mathew took no notice, as supposing it to be accidental. But Pack afterwards boasted of it in the public coffee-house, saying, that he had purposely offered this insult to the gentleman, who had not the spirit to resent it. There happened to be present a particular friend of Mr. Mathew’s, of the name of Macnamara, a man of tried courage, and reputed the best fencer in Ireland. He immediately took up the quarrel, and said, he was sure Mr. Mathew did not suppose the affront intended, otherwise he would have chastised him on the spot; but if the major would let him know where he was to be found, he should be waited on immediately on his friend’s return, who was to dine that day a little way out of town. The major said, he should be at the tavern over the way, where he and his companion would wait their commands. Immediately on his arrival, Mathew, being made acquainted with what had passed, went from the coffee-house to the tavern, accompanied by Macnamara. Being shewn into the room where the two gentlemen were, after having secured the door, without any expostulation, Mathew and Pack drew their swords; but Macnamara stopped them, saying, he had something to propose before they proceeded to action. He said, in cases of this nature, he could never bear to be a cool spectator; so, “Sir,” addressing himself to Creed, “if you please, I shall have the honour of entertaining you in the same manner.” Creed, who desired no better sport, made no other reply than that of instantly drawing his sword; and to work the four champions fell. The conflict was of some duration, and maintained with great obstinacy by the two officers, notwithstanding the great effusion of blood from the many wounds they had received. At length, quite exhausted, they both fell, and yielded the victory to the superior skill of their antagonists. Upon this occasion, Mathew gave a remarkable proof of the perfect composure of his mind during the action. Creed had fallen the first; upon which Pack exclaimed, “Ah, poor Creed ! are you gone?” “Yes,” said Mathew, very composedly, “and you shall instantly pack after him:” at the same time making a home thrust quite through his body, which threw him to the ground. This was the more remarkable, as he was never in his life, either before or after, known to have aimed at a pun. The number of wounds received by the vanquished parties was very great; and what seems almost miraculous, their opponents were untouched. The surgeons, seeing the desperate state of their patients, would not suffer them to be removed out of the room where they fought, but had beds immediately conveyed into it, on which they lay many hours in a state of insensibility. When they came to themselves and saw where they were, Pack, in a feeble voice, said to his companion, “Creed, I think we are conquerors, for we have kept the field of battle.” For a long time their lives were despaired of, but, to the astonishment of every one, they both recovered. When they were able to see company, Mathew and his friend attended them daily, and a close intimacy afterwards ensued, as they found them men of probity, and of the best dispositions, except in the Quixotish idea of duelling, whereof they were now perfectly cured.

A GENTLEMAN distinguished for his talents and benevolence, was born in 1767, at Castle Martyr, in the county of Cork. He was designed by his father for the mercantile profession, at that time one by which considerable fortunes had been amassed in Cork, the principal export town of the kingdom; but owing to some circumstances, young Millikin acquired an early aversion to commerce, and was placed in the office of an eminent attorney, where he continued until sworn in.

The flowery paths of literature and the fine arts possessed more attractions for the mind and fancy of Mr. Millikin, than the dry details of law, and it appears he devoted a greater portion of his time to the acquirement of the dead languages, and the study of the classic, than to unravelling the intricacies existing between plaintiff {427} and defendant. He was soon distinguished for his intimate knowledge of the Greek; and, amongst his earliest poetical productions, are several translations from that tongue. The odes of Pindar and Collins seem to have been the idols after which his juvenile efforts were modelled, and in this wild walk of poesy, his verses displayed a vivid imagination and much melody of language. We can trace some contributions from Mr. Millikin in a magazine published at Cork, in the year 1795, called the Monthly Miscellany, which, like most Irish periodical publications, appeared but to disappear. The first acknowledged production, we believe, of Mr. Millikin’s pen, is a little work, entitled, “The Casket; or, Hesperian Magazine, which he edited jointly with his sister, a lady whose novels are well known in the literary world. The Casket commenced about the year 1797, and was discontinued, probably on account of the rebellion, after the appearance of twelve or fourteen numbers. At this period, when the exertions of every loyal citizen were called for by intestine commotion, the subject of this memoir became conspicuous for his seal and activity in the formation of the Cork volunteer corps, which efforts were unceasing until the services of the yeomanry were no longer required. Much distress and misery was the natural result of a state of civil warfare, and Mr. Millikin, ever feelingly alive to the voice of wretchedness, was in a great measure the founder of a theatrical association, called the Apollo Society, by means of which large sums of money were distributed to the exhausted funds of various charitable institutions. The powers both of his pencil and his pen, mainly contributed to the eminence which those amateur performances attained; and his personification of several favourite characters will long be remembered with pleasure. During the distinguished career of this society, which still lan-guidly survives, several little dramatic pieces, written by him, were represented, particularly one called “Darby in Arms,” which we understand has been recently printed {428} in America, and another founded on Lewis’s Tale of the Anaconda. Probably about this time Mr. Millikin paid some attention to dramatic composition, as we find that a tragedy of his, called “Macha” was offered by some friend at Drury-lane; but it was either rejected, or received no notice.

In 1807, appeared his poem of “The Riverside,” in three books, which is but little known, owing to the limited number of quarto copies which were printed, and which cannot be found in either the Cork Library, or that of the Institution, though dedicated to the president and members of the former. A classic feeling of rural elegance breathes throughout this composition, though many of the passages are or unequal merit.

A little exhibition of puppets, named the Patagonian Theatre, now received a good deal of Mr. Millikin’s attention. This puppet-shew was in the present lecture room of the Cork Institution. Never, perhaps, was more wil or ingenuity displayed than in the various bills of performance, and mechanical contrivances; and several of the most popular operas and farces were performed by these wooden actors in a very pleasing manner; the prologue usually spoken was written by Mr. Millikin, and is peculiarly playful: - as a specimen, -

“Look at the stage of life, and yon shall ice
How many blockheads act as well as we;
Through all this world, such actors still abound,
With heads as hard, but not with hearts as sound.
Of real life, to make the likeness good,
We have our actors from congenial wood;
For instance, Doctor Bolus here you’ll see
Shake his grave noddle in sage ebony;
Soldiers in laurel, lawyers and the church
In sable yew, and pedagogues in birch;
Ladies in satin-wood, and dying swains,
In weeping willow melodize their pains;
Poets in bay, in crab-tree, politicians,
And any bit of stick will make musicians;
Quakers in good sound deal we make - plain folk,
And British tars in heart of native oak!”

{429}

A little tale, called the “Slave of Surinam” by Mr. Millikin, after the manner of St. Pierre, was published about 1810; but it is evidently written in haste, and without proper attention. A short time before his death, he projected a poetical work, to be called “Feudal Legends," in which, assisted by some friends, considerable progress was made; the greater part of the tale of “Dermuid,” and a ballad of considerable length, named “The Geraldine,” being completed by him. In 1815, Mr. Millikin laid the foundation of the Society for the Encouragement of the Fine Arts in Cork, by an exhibition of his drawings, together with those of a few amateurs and artists.

His death was caused by water on the chest, and took place, after a short illness, on the morning of the 16th December, 1815. He was buried with a public funeral at Douglas, near Cork, where a plain tomb has been erected over his remains.

Many of his unpublished effusions have made their way to fame by their own merit, amongst which may be mentioned the humorous song of “The Groves of Blarney,” echoed in every convivial assembly throughout the kingdom, and known and admired by thousands who are ignorant of the name of its highly-gifted and lamented author.

VISCOUNT MOLESWORTH, of Swordes, in Ireland, an eminent statesman and political writer, was descended from a family anciently seated in the counties of Northampton and Bedford, in England; but his father having served in the civil wars in Ireland, settled afterwards in Dublin, where he became an eminent merchant, and died in 1656, leaving his wife pregnant with this only child, who raised his family to the honours they now enjoy. He was born in December, at Dublin, and bred in the college there, and engaged early in a marriage with the sister of Richard, Earl of Bellamont, who brought him a daughter in 1677. When the Prince of Orange entered England {430} in 1688, he distinguished himself by an early and zealous appearance for the Revolution, which rendered him so obnoxious to King James, that he was attainted and his estate sequestered by that King’s Parliament, May 2nd, 1689. But when King William was settled on the throne, he called this sufferer, for whom he had a particular esteem, into his privy council, and in 1692, sent him envoy extraordinary to the court of Denmark. There he resided above three years, till some particulars in his conduct disobliging his Danish majesty, he was forbidden the court: pretending business in Flanders, he retired thither without any audience of leave, and came from thence home, where he was no sooner arrived, than he drew up “An Account of Denmark," in which he represented the government of that country as arbitrary and tyrannical. This piece was greatly resented by Prince George of Denmark, consort to the Princess, afterwards Queen Anne; and Scheel the Danish envoy, first presented a memorial to King William, complaining of it, and then furnished materials for an answer, which was executed by Dr. William King. From King’s account, it appears that Molesworth’s offence in Denmark was his boldly pretending to some privileges which, by the custom of the country, are denied to every body but the king, - as travelling the king’s road, and hunting the king’s game; the doing which, as is represented, in defiance of opposition, occasioned the rupture between the envoy and that court. If this allegation have any truth, the fault lay certainly altogether on the side of Molesworth, whose disregard of the customs of the country to which he was sent, it is impossible to defend.

In the mean time, this book was well received by the public, reprinted thrice (once as lately as 1758), and translated into several languages. The spirit of it was particularly approved by the Earl of Shaftesbury, author of the “Characteristics,” who from thence conceived a great esteem for him, which afterwards ripened into a close friendship. {431}

Molesworth served his country in the House of Commons in both kingdoms, being chosen for the borough of Swordes; in Ireland, and for those of Bodmyn, St. Michael, and East Retford, in England; his conduct in the senate being always firm and steady to the principles he embraced. He was a member of the privy council to Queen Anne, till the latter end of her reign; when party running high, he was removed from the board in January 1713. This was fot a complaint against him from the lower House of Convocation, presented December 2nd, by the prolocutor to the Hoose of Peers, charging him with speaking these words in the hearing of many persons - “They that have turned the world upside down, are come hither also;” and for affronting the clergy in convocation when they presented their address to Lord Chancellor Phipps. Steele’s “Crisis” was written partly in vindication of Molesworth, and severely animadverted upon by Swift, in his “Public Spirit of the Whigs.” But as Molesworth constantly asserted and strenuously maintained the right of succession in the house of Hanover, George I on the forming of his privy council in Ireland, made him a member of it, October 9, 1714, and the next month a commissioner of trade and plantations. His Majesty also advanced him to the peerage of Ireland, in 1714, by the title of Baron Pbilipstown and Viscount Molesworth of Swordes. He was a fellow of the Royal Society, and continued to serve his country with indefatigable industry, till perceiving himself worn out with constant application to public affairs, he passed the two last years of his life, in a studious and learned retirement. He died, May 22,1725, at his seat at Brecdenstown, in the county of Dublin.

By his will, he devised £50 towards building a church at Philipstown. He had by his wife seven sons and four daughters.

Besides his “History of Denmark,” he wrote an address to the House of Commons for the “Encouragement of Agriculture”, Dublin, 1723; and a “Letter relating to the Bill of Peerage,” 1719. He translated “Franco-Gallia,” a Latin treatise of the civilian Hottoman, giving an account of the free state of France and other parts of Europe before the loss of their liberties. The second edition of this work, with additions and a new preface by the translator, came out in 1721, 8vo. He is likewise reputed the author of several tracts, written with great force of reason and masculine eloquence, in defence of his ideas of the constitution of his country and the common rights of mankind; and it is certain that few men of his fortune and quality were more learned or more highly esteemed by men of learning.

AN eminent patriot, mathematician and astronomer, was born April 17th, 1656, at Dublin, where his father, a gentleman of good family and fortune, lived.

Being of a tender constitution, he was educated under a private tutor at home, till he was near fifteen, and then placed in the university of Dublin, under the care of Dr. Palliser, afterwards Archbishop of Cashel.

He distinguished himself here by the probity of his manners, as well as by the acuteness of his genius, and having made a remarkable progress in academical learning, and particularly in the new philosophy, as it was then called, he proceeded at the regular time to his degree of bachelor of arts. After four years spent in this university, he came to London, and was admitted into the Middle Temple in June 1675. He staid there three years, and applied himself to the study of the laws of his country; but the bent of his genius, as well as inclination, {434}

His family were all lovers of learning. His father, Samael, had an office in the Court of Exchequer, was master gunner of Ireland, and published “Practical Problems, concerning the Doctrine of Projects designed for Great Artillery and Mortar Pieces.” He died about two years before his son, in 1696. His grandfather, David, was Ulster king at arms, whom Sir James Ware calls, “ venerandæ antiquitatas cultor.” He finished “Meredith Hanmer’s Chronicle of Ireland;” but, for particular reasons, the second part only was published.

lying strongly to philosophy and mathematics, he spent the greatest part of his time in these inquiries, which, from the extraordinary advances newly made by the Royal Society, were then chiefly in vogue.

Thus accomplished, he returned to Ireland in June 1678, and shortly after married Lucy, daughter of Sir William Domville, the king’s attorney-general. Being master of an easy fortune, he continued to indulge himself in prosecuting such branches of moral and experimental philosophy, as were most congenial to his disposition; and astronomy having the greatest share, he began, aboot 1681, a literary correspondence with Flamstead, the king’s astronomer, which he kept up for several years. In 1683, he formed a design for erecting a Philosophical Society at Dublin, in imitation of the Royal Society at London; and by the countenance and encouragement of Sir William Petty, who accepted the office of president, they began a weekly meeting that year, when our author was appointed their first secretary. The reputation of his learning, which by means of this society became more known, recommended him, in 1684, to the notice and favour of the Duke of Ormonde, then lord-lieutenant of Ireland, by whose influence he was appointed that year, jointly with Sir William Robinson, surveyor-general of his Majesty’s buildings and works, and chief engineer. In 1685, he was chosen fellow of the Royal Society at London; and that year, for the sake of improving himself in the art of engineering, he procured an appointment from the Irish government to view the most considerable fortresses in Flanders. Accordingly, he travelled through that country and Holland, and some part of Germany and France; and carrying with him letters of recommendation from Flamstead to Cassini, he was introduced to him and other eminent astronomers, in the several places through which he passed.

Soon after his return from abroad he printed at Dublin in 1686, his “Sciothericum Telescopium,” containing the description of the structure and use of a telescopic {435} dial invented by him; another edition of which was published at London in 1700, 4to. On the publication of Sir Isaac Newton’s “Principia,” the following year, 1687, our author was struck with the same astonishment as the rest of the world; but declared also, that he was not qualified to examine the particulars. The celebrated Halley, with whom he constantly corresponded, had sent him the several parts of this inestimable treasure as they came from the press, before the whole was finished, assuring him that he looked upon it as the utmost effort of human genius. In 1688, the Philosophical Society at Dublin was broken up and dispersed by the confusion of the times. Mr. Molyneux had distinguished himself as a member of it from the beginning, by several discourses upon various subjects; some of which were transmitted to the Royal Society at London, and afterwards printed in the “Philosophical Transactions.” In 1689, among great numbers of other protestants, he withdrew from the disturbances in Ireland, occasioned by the severities of Tyrconnel’s government; and, after a short stay in London, fixed himself with his family at Chester. In his retirement he employed himself in putting together the materials he had some time before prepared, for his “Dioptrics,” [sic] in which he was much assisted by Flamstead; and, in August 1690, went to London to put it to press, the sheets being revised by Halley, who, at our author’s request, gave leave for printing in the appendix, his celebrated theorem for finding the face of optic glasses; accordingly the book made its appearance in 1692, in 4to, under the title of “Dioptrica Nova.”

Before he left Chester, he lost his lady, who died soon after she had brought him a son. Illness had deprived, her of her eye-sight twelve years before, and she had always been very sickly, and afflicted with extreme pains of the head. As soon as the public tranquillity was settled in his native country, he returned home; and upon the convening of a new parliament in 1692, was chosen one of the representatives for the city of Dublin. In the next parliament, in 1695, he was chosen to represent the Uni{436}versity there, and continued to do so to the end of his life; that learned body having, soon after his election, conferred on him the degree of Doctor of Laws. He was likewise nominated by the lord-lieutenant one of the commissioners for the forfeited estates, to which employment was annexed a salary of £500 a year; but looking upon it as an invidious office, and not being a lover of money, he declined it. In 1698, he published, “The Case of Ireland stated, in Relation to its being bound by Acts of Parliament made in England," in which he is supposed to have delivered all or most that can be said upon the subject with great clearness and strength of reasoning. This piece (a second edition of which, with additions and emendations, was printed in 1780, 8vo.) was answered by John Cary, merchant of Bristol, in a book, called, “A Vindication of the Parliament of England, &c." dedicated to the Lord Chancellor Somers; and by Atwood, a lawyer. Of these, Nicolson remarks, that the merchant argues like a counsellor at law, and the barrister strings his small ware together like a shop-keeper. What occasioned Molyneux to write the above tract, was his conceiving the Irish woollen manufactory to be oppressed by the English government; on which account be could not forbear asserting his country’s independency. He had given Mr. Locke a hint of his thoughts on this subject before it was quite ready for the press, and desired his sentiments upon the fundamental principle on which his argument was grounded; in answer to which that gentleman, intimating that the business was of too large an extent to be the subject of a letter, proposed to talk the matter over with him in England. This, together with a purpose which Molyneux had long formed of paying that great man,* whom he had never yet seen, a {437} visit prevailed with him to cross the water once more, although he was in a very infirm state of health, in July 1698, and he remained in England till the middle of September. But the pleasure of this long wished-for interview, which he intended to have repeated the following spring, seems to have been purchased at the expense of his life; for, shortly after, he was seized with a severe fit of his constitutional distemper, the stone, which occasioned such retchings as broke a blood-vessel, and two days after put a period to his life. He died October 11th, 1698, and was buried at St. Audoen’s church, Dublin, where there is a monument and Latin inscription to his memory. Besides the “Sciothericum Telescopium” and the “Dioptrica Nova” already mentioned, he published many pieces in the Philosophical Transactions.

*We have an instance of a singular coincidence of opinion between Locke and Molyneux. Molyneux had a high opinion of Sir Richard Blackmore’s poetic genius: “All our English poets, except Blackmore, (says he, in a letter to Locke,) have been mere ballad-makers in comparison of him.” And Locke, in his answer, says, “I find, with pleasure, a strange hamony throughout, between your thoughts and mine.”

{437}

DAUGHTER of Lord Molesworth, and wife to George Monk, Esq. was celebrated for her poetical talents. She acquired, by dint of application, a perfect knowledge of the Latin, Italian, and Spanish languages, and from a study of the best authors, a decided taste for poetical composition. Her poems were not printed till after her decease, when they were published under the title of “Marinda; Poems and Translations upon several Occasions,”London, 1716, 8vo. A dedication to Caroline Princess of Wales, was prefixed to them by Lord Molesworth, the father of Mrs. Monk, who speaks of the poems as the productions “of the leisure hours of a young woman, who, in a remote country retirement, without other assistance than that of a good library, and without omitting the daily care due to a large family, not only acquired the several languages here made use of, but the good morals and principles contained in those books, so as to put them in practice, as well during her life and languishing sickness, as at the hour of her death; dying not only like a Christian, but a Roman lady, and becoming at once the {438} grief and the comfort of her relations.” She died at Bath, in 1715.

On her death-bed she wrote some very affecting verses to her husband, which are not printed in her works, but may be found in vol. ii. of the “Poems of Eminent Ladies” and in “Cibber’s Lives.”

THIS excellent officer, who was one of the earliest martyrs to the cause of American independence, was a native of Ireland, and of a good family. He served in the British army with great reputation and success during the whole of the seven years war, at the close of which, having purchased an estate in New York, and married a native of that province, he fixed his abode there. When the arbi-trary enactments of the British parliament drove the Americans to resistance, Montgomery was not the last to catch the generous spirit. Happy in the enjoyment of a philosophical retirement, and tasting the sweets of domestic felicity, every selfish consideration gave way to the love of freedom, and the call of his adopted country. Possessing a great share of professional abilities, and commanding, in a high degree, the important power of conciliating the affections of men, he found little difficulty among men, already strongly imbued with the same spirit, in raising troops, and rendering them ardent in the execution of his designs.

The Canadians being at this time greatly discontented with the proceedings of the British parliament, and with the extraordinary powers vested in their governor. General Carleton, and that province being almost totally unpin- vided with means of defence, the American congress took the resolution of invading it, in the hope of detaching it also from the English empire, and thus consolidating the whole of the British continental colonies in one general union. For this purpose, Generals Schuyler and Montgomery crossed Lake Champlain in August 1775, and {439} marched immediately upon St. John s; but Schuyler being taken ill, the sole command devolved upon Montgomery, who, haying contrived to detach the Indians from the British service, and also received some reinforcements of artillery, prepared to besiege that important fortress. The popularity of the cause, and the fame of the general, procured from the Canadians supplies of every thing which they possessed which could conduce to the advancement of the siege; but as they were unable to supply him with ammunition, of which he began to feel the want, he turned his attention to Fort Champlain, where he expected to find considerable stores. In this he was not mistaken; and, by the capitulation of that fort, he was enabled to carry on his advances against Fort St. John’s with so much vigour, that, in spite of Carleton’s attempts to relieve it, it soon fell into his hands. Taking advantage of these successes, he marched upon Montreal, which was evacuated immediately on his approach, by General Carleton, who was obliged to fall back upon Quebec. The mild and conciliatory measures pursued by Montgomery on taking possession of Montreal, contributed greatly to increase his popularity, which, added to the defenceless state of Quebec, and the disaffection of its inhabitants, who looked upon their new constitution with disgust, induced him to undertake the siege of that capital. Accordingly, on the 5th December, he took post at St. Croix, within less than two miles of Quebec, and made several ineffectual attempts to induce General Carleton, who refused even to receive a communication from him, to surrender. In this situation Montgomery, being totally unprepared for a regular siege at that season of the year in those cold and tempestuous regions, and fearing to damp the ardour of his troops by whom he was constantly urged to make the attempt, by a retreat, resolved upon storming the town. The plan of his attack has been allowed by the best military judges to have been the most skilful that could be concerted; it took place on the 31st of Decemher, between four and five in the morning, dur{440}ing a snow storm from, the N. E. and consisted of two false and two real attacks, one of which was led on by General Arnold, (who afterwards betrayed his country,) and the other by Montgomery in person. He led his men through a narrow defile, between two fires, with the greatest coolness and intrepidity; he passed the first barrier, attended by a few of his bravest officers and men, and marched boldly at the head of the detachment to attack the second, which was much stronger than the first, and where several cannon were planted, loaded with grape shot, and accompanied with a well directed discharge of musketry. From one of these, a fatal blow was given to the hopes of America in the conquest of Canada, by the death of the brave Montgomery: his men, dispirited by the death of their commander, were driven back with great loss, and Arnold’s division having met with the same fate as that officer, on whom the command now devolved, converted the siege into a blockade, which he was compelled to raise, in the beginning of May, by the arrival of reinforcements to the British army. Montgomery was buried almost on the spot where he fell; but his remains have lately been reclaimed by the Americans, and transferred to Washington, where an elegant monument has been erected to him, at the national expense.

A VERY learned divine of the Roman Catholic persuasion, was born in Dublin in 1640. After remaining at a grammar-school for some time, he was sent to France, and received his first academical learning at the college of Nantx, whence he removed to Paris, and completed his studies in philosophy and divinity, in both which he attained great reputation, as he did likewise for his critical skill in the Greek language. He taught philosophy and rhetoric in the Grassin college for some years: but at length returning to Ireland, was, with considerable reluctance, prevailed upon to take priest’s orders; and obtained some {441} preferment while the Catholic bishops possessed influence. When James II came to Ireland, Dr. Moor was recommended, to him, often preached before him, and had influence enough to prevent his majesty from conferring Trinity College, Dublin, on the Jesuits, to which he had been advised by his confessor, Father Peters. Dr. Moor being made provost of this college, by the recommendation of the Roman Catholic bishops, was the means of preserving the valuable library, at a time when the, college was a popish garrison, the chapel a magazine, and many of the chambers were employed as prisons for the Protestants. But the Jesuits could not forgive him for preventing their gaining the entire property of the college, and took advantage to ruin him with the king, from a sermon he preached before his majesty at Christchurch. His text was Matt. xv. 14, “If the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch.” In this discourse, Dr. Moor had the boldness to impute the failure of the king’s affairs, to his following too closely the councils of the Jesuits, and insinuated that they would be his utter ruin. Father Peters, who had a defect in his eyes, persuaded the king that the text was levelled at his majesty through his confessor, and urged that Moor was a dangerous subject, who endeavoured to stir up sedition among the people. James was so weak as to believe all this, and ordered Dr, Moor immediately to quit his dominions. Moor complied, but hinted at his departure, that he only went as the king’s precursor, who would soon be obliged to follow him. Moor accordingly went to Paris, where the reputation of his learning procured him a favourable reception; and King James, after the battle of the Boyne, followed him as he had predicted. But here it appears, that the king had influence enough to oblige Moor to leave France as he had done Ireland, probably by misrepresenting his conduct toward the Jesuits.

Moor now bent his steps towards Rome, where his learning procured him very high distinction. He was first made censor of books, and then invited to Montefiascone, {442} and appointed rector of a seminary newly founded by Cardinal Barbarigo, and was made also professor of philosophy and Greek. Pope Innocent XII was so much satisfied with his conduct in the government of this seminary, that he contributed the sum of two thousand Roman crowns yearly towards its maintenance; and Clement XI had such a high opinion of Moor, that he would have placed his nephew under his tuition, had he not been prevented, as was supposed, by the persuasion of the Jesuits. On the death of James II, Dr. Moor was invited to France, and such was his reputation there, that he was made twice rector of the university of Paris, and principal of the college of Navarre, and was appointed regius professor of philosophy, Greek, and Hebrew.

He joined with Dr. John Farrely in the purchase of a house contiguous to the Irish college, for the reception of such poor students as might come from Ireland to study there. He was blind for several years prior to his decease; and was obliged to keep a person to read to him, who embezzled many hundred volumes of his library; the remainder of which Dr. Moor bequeathed to the Irish college.

He died in his eighty-fifth year, at his apartments in the college of Navarre, 22nd of August, 1796, and was buried in the vault under the chapel of the Irish college.

A CELEBRATED glee composer; for several of his compositions he gained the prizes given by the Glee Club. His most popular production is, “Here in cool Grot,” which obtained the prize medal.

He was bom July 19th, 1735. Died May 22nd, 1735. He was also an eminent performer on the violin; and it is said, the service in Dublin cathedral commences every morning with an anthem of his composition.

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THIS eminent actor was born in Ireland in 1729. His father was rector of Tuam, in the province of Connaught. Henry, as well as his father, was bred in Trinity College, Dublin, where he obtained his degree. His first appearance on the stage was at Smock Alley, November 28th, 1749, in the character of Zanga (Revenge), which he played three successive nights with uncommon applause. His next character was Richard; after which he quarrelled with the manager, went to London, and appeared at Drury Lane in the last character with considerable success. He continued acting in London, and occasionally in Dublin, till the year when he became manager of Smock Alley, in opposition to Barry and Woodward. This contention, which led to the ruin of his rivals, completed his own, and after various turns of fortune, excluded from Drury Lane and Covent Garden Theatres, he died at Chelsea, November 1773, aged forty-three, in extreme poverty, having only one halfpenny in his possession at his decease. Mr. Garrick proposed to bury him at his own expense; but he uncle prevented that offer from taking place. This actor excelled most in characters of ire, ambition, and regal tyranny. He had a strong and harmonious voice, which could rise from the lowest note to the highest pitch of sound, and was indeed one of the most comprehensive ever heard. Notwithstanding, in his accents there were frequent improprieties, as Churchill has remarked, and in tender passages, he was exceedingly aukward [sic]. He was censured by the critics for too much mechanism in his action and delivery: the frequent resting of his left hand on his hip, with his right hand extended, was ludicrously compared to the handle and spout of a teapot, whilst others called him, “The distiller of syllables.” He was exceedingly vain of his abilities, and that vanity (as is generally the case) was accompanied with jealousy. He was offended that Garrick should play Richard after his {444} performance of it at Drury Lane. In acting (we are informed) he frequently worked himself up to a belief that he was the very person he represented, and one night when he returned home to his lodgings after performing King Richard, he flew into a violent passion with his servant, who appeared before him with a small candle, and asked him if that was a taper fit to light his majesty to bed? Notwithstanding all his defects, he was in London, after Garrick and Barry, the most applauded and valuable actor.

A MAN celebrated as an anatomist, and particularly eminent for his curious dissection of the eye, was born in the north of Ireland, and educated in the university of Dublin, where he took his degree of doctor of physic, and practised in that city. He was a member of the Philosophical Society of Dublin, and of the Royal Society of London, to which place he removed in 1686, on account of “a love {445} intrigue.” In I690, the Earl of Inchiquin took him with him to Jamaica, he being desirous of visiting that island, to make some discoveries relative to the mines there. But this laudable spirit of inquiry was frustrated; for, putting in at Barbadoes, he fell in with some friends, who (us Ware emphatically expresses it) “made him drink hard,” which threw him into a calenture, of which he died, and, we suppose, was buried there.

He wrote the following curious professional tracts: “Ah Anatomical Account of the Elephant, accidentally burnt in Dublin, on June 17th, 1681, together with a Relation of New Anatomical Observations on the Eyes of Animals.”

Also, in the Philosophical Transactions, he published, 1. “A Discourse on the Dissection of a monstrous Double Cat.” “A Conjecture at the Quantity of Blood in Men, with an Estimate of the Celerity of its Circulation.” 3. “Anatomical Observations on the Heads of several Fowls.”

A DRAMATIC and miscellaneous writer of some celebrity, was born December 27th, 1727, at Clooniquin, in the county of Roscommon. His father, Richard Murphy, who was a merchant, perished in 1729, in one of his own trading vessels, bound for Philadelphia, probably in a violent storm; but no intelligence of the ship or any of its passengers dr crew ever transpired. From this time the care of the subject of this present article, devolved upon his mother, who, in 1735, removed with her children to London; but Arthur was sent, at the age of ten, to the English college at St. Omer’s, where he remained six years, and made very extraordinary proficiency in Greek and Latin, a love for Which he retained all his life, and particularly improved his acquaintance with the Latin classics. After his return to England, in 1744, he resided with his mother till August 1747, when he was sent to Cork to an uncle, {446}, Jeffery French, in whose counting-house he was employed till April 1749; after this his uncle destined him to go to Jamaica to overlook a large estate which he possessed in that island; but his inclination was averse to business of every kind, and he returned to his mother in London in 1751. Here he either first contracted, or began at least to indulge his predominant passion for the theatre, although placed in the counting-house of Ironside and Belchier, bankers. In October 1752, he published the first number of the Gray’s-Inn Journal, a weekly paper, which he continued for two years, and which served to connect him much with dramatic performers and writers, as well as to make him known to the public as a wit and a critic.

On the death of his uncle, he was much disappointed in not finding his name mentioned in his will, and the more so, as he had contracted debts, in hopes of a good legacy, to the amount of three hundred pounds. In this embarrassed state, by the advice of the celebrated Foote, he went on the stage, and appeared, for the first time, in the character of Othello. In one season, by the help of strict economy, he paid off his debts, and had, at the end of the year, £400 in his pocket. With this sum he determined to quit the stage, on which, as a performer, notwithstanding the advantages of a fine person and good judgment, he made no very distinguished figure, and never used to be more offended than when reminded of this part of his career. He now determined to study the law; but on his first application to the Society of the Middle Temple, he had the mortification to be refused admission, on the ground of his having acted on the stage; but was soon after, in 1757, received as a member of Lincoln’s Inn. In this year he was engaged in a weekly paper, called “The Test," undertaken chiefly in favour of Mr. Fox, afterwards Lord Holland, which ceased on the overthrow of the administration to which his lordship was attached. This paper was answered by Owen Ruffhead in the “Contest”. During his study of the law, the stage was either, from {447} inclination or necessity, his resource; and, in the beginning of 1758, he produced the farce of “The Upholsterer” which was very successful; and before the end of the same year, he finished “The Orphan of China” which is founded on a dramatic piece, translated from the Chinese language, in Du Heide’s “History of China.” The house, as he says, still keeping possession of him, he produced, in 1760, the “Desert Island, a dramatic poem,” and his “Way to Keep Him,” a comedy of three acts, afterwards enlarged to five acts, the most popular of all his dramatic compositions. This was followed by the comedy of “All in the Wrong,” “The Citizen,” and “The Old Way,” all of which were successful, and still retain their rank among acting-pieces. Having finished hia preparatory law-studies, he was called to the bar in Trinity term 1762. About this time, he engaged again in political controversy, by writing “The Auditor,” a periodical paper, intended to counteract the influence of Wilkes’s “North Brilon;” but in this he was peculiarly unfortunate, neither pleasing the public, nor deriving much support from those on whose behalf he wrote. Wilkes and Churchill, who were associated in politics, contrived to throw a degree of ridicule on Murphy’s labours, which was fatal. Murphy appearing to his antagonists to meddle with subjects which he did not understand, they laid a trap to make him discover his want of geographical knowledge, by sending him a letter signed “Viator,” boasting of the vast acquisition by Lord Bute’s treaty of peace of Florida to this country, and representing that country as peculiarly rich in fuel for domestic uses, &c. This our author accordingly inserted, with a remark, that “he gave it exactly as he received it, in order to throw all the lights in his power upon the solid value of the advantages procured by the late negociation.” Wilkes immediately reprinted this letter in his “North Briton” and “The Auditor” found it impossible to bear up against the satires levelled at him from all quarters. In the summer qf 1763, Mr. Murphy went his first, the {448} Norfolk circuit; but with little success; and, afterwards appeared occasionally as a pleader in London. The muse however, he confesses, still had hold of him and occasionally stole him away from “Coke upon Littleton”. In his law pursuits he continued till 1787, when, to his great astonishment, a junior to him on the Norfolk circuit, was appointed king’s counsel. Disappointed at this, he sold his chambers in Lincoln’s Inn in July 1788, and retired altogether from the bar. The intermediate time, however, had been filled up by the production of his “Three Weeks after Marriage,” “Zenobia,” “The Grecian Daughter," and other dramatic pieces, generally acted with great applause, and which are yet on the stock list. After he retired from the bar, he bought a house at Hammersmith, and there prepared various publications for the press; among which, in 1786, was an edition of his works collectively, in seven volumes, 8vo. In 1792, he appeared as one of the biographers of Dr. Johnson, in “An Essay on his Life and Genius;” but this was a very careless sketch, copied almost verbatim from the account of Sir John Hawkins’s Life of Johnson, in the Monthly Review. In the following year he published a translation of Tacitus, in four volumes, 4to, dedicated to the late Edmund Burke. To this work, which is executed in a masterly style, he added, “An Essay on the Life and Genius of Tacitus,” with historical supplements and frequent annotations and comments. Mr. Murphy continued to write to an advanced age; and, in 1798, he published his “Arminius,” intended to justify the war then carried on against the ambition of France, and which he defended as both just and necessary. Some time previously, through his interest with Lord Loughborough, he had obtained the office of one of the commissioners of bankrupts, to which, during the last three years of his life, was added a pension of £200 a year. In his latter days, after he had published a “Life of Garrick,” a very sensible decay of mental powers became visible. He continued, however, to be occasionally cheered and assisted by a few friends until his Death, at his lodgings at Knightsbridge, June 18, 1805. From his biographer’s account, it appears he had perfectly reconciled his mind to the stroke of death. When he h ad made his will, and given plain and accurate directions respecting his funeral, he said, I have been preparing for my journey to another region, and now do not care how soon I take my departure. On the day of his death, he frequently repeated the lines of Pope, -

Taught, half by reason, half by mere decay,
To welcome death, and calmly pass away.

Besides the works already mentioned and alluded to, Mr. Murphy was author of a translation of Sallust, which has appeared as a posthumous work.

A NOBLEMAN who acquired some poetical celebrity in his day, was a descendant from the Nugepts of Carlanstown, in the county of Westmeath, and was a younger son of Michael Nugent, by Mary, daughter of Robert, Lord Trimleston. He was chosen M.P. for St. Mawes, Cornwall, in 1741; appointed comptroller of the household pf Frederick, Prince of Wales, in 1747; a lord of the treasury in 1754; one of the vice-treasurers of Ireland in 1759; and a lord of trade in 1766. In 1767, he was created Baron Nugent and Viscount Clare, and in 1776, Earl Nugent, with remainder to his son-in-law, the late Marquis of Buckingham. His lordship was thrice married; his second wife was Anne, sister and heiress to secretary Craggs, the friend of Pope and Addison, by whom he acquired a large fortune. She was, at the time of her marriage to him, in 1736, in her second widowhood, having been first the wife of Newsham, Esq. of Chadshunt, in Warwickshire; and secondly, of John Knight, Esq. of Bellowes, or Belhouse, or Gosfield-hall, in Essex. Much of Pope’s correspondence with this lady is inserted in the supplementary volume of the last {452} edition of that poet’s works. Earl Nugent died October 13, 1788.

Lord Orford says that Earl Nugent was of those men of parts whose dawn was the brightest moment of a long life; and who, though possessed of different talents, employed them in depreciating his own fame, and destroying all opinion of his judgment, except in the point of raising himself to honours. He was first known by the noble ode on his own conversion from popery; yet, strong as was the energy and reasoning in it, his arguments operated but temporary conviction on himself, for he died a member of the church he had exposed so severely.

A volume of his poems was published anonymously by Dodsley, entitled, Odes and Epistles, 1739; and there are several of his pieces to be found in the New Foundling Hospital for Wit.

A VENTRILOQUIST of extraordinary powers, of whom many curious anecdotes are related, was a native of Ireland; but, having married at Shelford, in Nottinghamshire, he ever afterwards considered that as his home, and died there January 7, 1796.

Amongst the many ludicrous pranks played by him, the following is not the least worthy of recording: Meeting a farmer’s servant upon a public highway, driving a waggon, top-laden with trusses of hay, he so artfully imitated the crying of a child as proceeding from the middle of the hay, that the poor affrighted countryman stood aghast at the noise, which being several times repeated, he was prevailed on to let him assist in unloading the waggon to release the supposed sufferer, whose cries became louder and more frequent. O’Burn having thus succeeded in getting the hay off the waggon, after laughing heartily at the countryman’s simplicity, left him to replace the same himself in the best manner he could.

A VERY learned Irish historian and antiquarian, was born in 1630, at Moycullin, in Galway, the ancient estate of his family, which became forfeited by the rebellion in 1641, when he was only eleven years old. He published at London in 1685, his book, entitled, “Ogygia,” and promised a second part, which never appeared. This work is now uncommonly scarce, and is praised highly by Dr. Dudley, Loftus, Belling, and Stillingfleet; but Sir Richard Cox speaks slightingly of it.

The time of O Flaherty’s decease is unknown.

AN Irish historian of great celebrity, was born in the city of Limerick, December 31, 1728. He studied physic and surgery in Paris and London, and must have made a rapid progress in his studies, as he published his first performance before he had reached the age of twenty-one. This was a Treatise on the Glaucoma and Cataract, printed in Dublin, in 1750, and frequently quoted with great respect by professor Baron Haller.

He was elected a member of the Royal Irish Academy, in 1785, and soon after an honorary member of the Royal College of Surgeons of Dublin. He was eminently learned in the language, antiquities, and history of the ancient Irish, and wrote a “History of Ireland” in two vols. 4to, which is held in the highest estimation; also, an “Introduction to the Study of the History and Antiquities of Ireland,” with plates; “Ierne defended, a letter to the Antiquarian Society;” and “A Dissertation on the Ancient Arms of Ireland," sent to the Irish Academy. He died at Limerick, in June 1807, and was much regretted by all who knew him.

A ROMAN Catholic chergyman, who would have conferred honour on any profession by the benevolence of his character, was a native of Ireland, which country he quitted when young for France; studied at the college of St. Malo, in Britanny, and at length entered into the Franciscan order of Capncbins. He then officiated for some time as chaplain to the English prisoners during the {458} seven years war, for which he received a small pension from the French government, which he retained till the revolution in that country.

Having obtained permission to go to Ireland, he obtained, by his talents, the notice and recompence [sic] of the Irish government; and took an early opportunity of shewing the superiority of his courage and genius, by principally attacking the heterodox doctrines of Michael Servetus, revived at that time by a Dr. Blair, of the city of Cork. After this, in 1782, when there was a disposition to relax the rigour of the penal laws against the Roman Catholics, and establish a sort of test-oath, he published a tract, entitled “Loyalty asserted; or, the Test-Oath vindicated,” in which, in opposition to most of his brethren, he endeavoured to prove that the Roman Catholics of Ireland might, consistently with their religion, swear that the pope possessed there no temporal authority, which was the chief point on which the oath hinged; and in other respects he evinced his loyalty, and his desire to restrain the impetuousity of his brethren. His other productions were of a various and miscellaneous nature; and several effusions are supposed to have come from his pen which he did not think it necessary or perhaps prudent to acknowledge. He was a man gifted liberally with wit and humour, and possessed great acquirements. He wrote on polemical subjects without acrimony, and on politics with a spirit of conciliation. Peace indeed seems to have been much his object. Some years ago, when a considerable number of nocturnal insurgents of the Romish persuasion, committed great excesses in the county of Cork, particularly towards the tithe-proctors of the Protestant clergy, he rendered himself extremely useful, by his various literary addresses to the deluded people, in bringing them to a proper sense of their error and insubordination. This laudable conduct did not escape the attentions of the Irish government; and induced them, when he quitted Ireland, to recommend him to men of power in this country. For many years he resided in London, as {459} principal of the Roman Catholic chapel in Soho-square, where he was highly esteemed by people of his religion. In his private character he was always cheerful, gay, sparkling with wit, and full of anecdote. He died at an advanced age in January 1802, and was interred in St. Pancras church-yard.

A collection of his miscellaneous tracts has been published in one vol. 8vo. ; and Dr. Woodward, Bishop of Cloyne, to whom one of them was written, acknowledges him to write with both strength and eloquence. Mr. Wesley also styles him an “arch and lively writer.”