SECRETARY and historian of an embassy to China, was son of a gentleman of small fortune in Galway, in Ireland, and was sent early to study physic at Montpelier, where be proceeded M. D. On his return to London, he trans{568}lated Dr. Störck’s treatise on Hemlock, and drew up for the “Journal Etranger,” in France, a comparison between the literature of England and France. About 1762, Dr. Staunton embarked for the West Indies, and he had the honour of receiving from Dr. Johnson a farewell letter. l)r. Staunton resided, for several years, in the West Indies, where he acquired some addition to his fortune by the practice of physic; purchased an estate in Grenada which he cultivated; and had the good fortune to obtain the friendship of the late Lord Macartney, governor of that island, to whom he had acted as secretary, and continued in that capacity until the capture of it by the French, when they both embarked for Europe. Having studied the law in Grenada, Dr. Staunton filled the office of attorney-general of the island. Soon after Lord Macartney’s arrival in England, he was appointed governor of Madras, and took Mr. Staunton with him (for he seems now to have lost the appellation of doctor) as his secretary. In this capacity, Mr. Staunton had several opportunities of displaying his abilities and intrepidity, particularly as one of the commissioners sent to treat of peace with Tippoo Sultaun, and in the seizure of General Stuart, who seemed to have been preparing to act by Lord Macartney as had been before done by the unfortunate Lord Pigot. The secretary was sent with a small party of seapoys to arrest the general, which he effected with great spirit and prudence, and without bloodshed. On his return to England, the India Company, as a reward for his services, settled on him a pension of 5001. per annum; the king soon after created him a baronet of Ireland, and the university of Oxford conferred on him the degree of LL. D. It having been resolved to send an embassy to China, Lord Macartney was selected for that purpose, and he took his old friend and countryman along with him, who was not only appointed secretary of legation, but had also the title of envoy-extraordinary and minister-plenipotentiary bestowed on him, in order to be able to supply the place of the ambassador in case of any unfortunate {567} accident. The events of this embassy, which, on the whole, proved rather unpropitious, are well known, and were given to the public in two large quarto volumes, written by Sir George.

Sir George died at his house in Devonshire-street, Portland-place, January 12, 1801.

THIS various and amusing writer, with whose name are associated some of our most pleasing recollections, was a native of Dublin, and born in 1671- His father was a member of the Irish bar, and private secretary to the Duke of Ormond, by whose means young Steele, at an early age, obtained admission into the Charter-house, where he contracted that close friendship with Addison, which terminated only with the death of the latter. From the Charter-house he removed to Merton college, Oxford, and afterwards rode private in the guards, but soon obtained a pair of colours. Here he gave a striking proof of the eccentricity of his genius, by composing a small moral and religious treatise, for his own private use, in order to fortify his resolution against the temptations to which his situation constantly exposed him; but, finding this expedient produce little effect, he printed it, with his name, in 1701, under the title of u The Christian Hero,” in the extravagant expectation, that so public a testimony against himself, would have the effect of deterring him by shame from the pursuit of those irregularities into which be had been seduced. Without, however, producing the intended effect on himself, he soon found that he was shunned as a disagreeable fellow, and exposed to the ridicule of his acquaintance, some of whom even went so far as to insult him publicly, in order to prove, as they said, whether he was a “Christian hero.” One of them actually challenged him, and although Steele, in his endeavours to act up to his new character, used every exertion to evade it, he was at length compelled to meet his adversary, whom he ran through the body. This cir{571}cumstance coming to the ears of the brave Lord Cutts, who commanded the regiment, and to whom Steele had dedicated his performance, he made him his secretary, and shortly after obtained for him a captaincy in Lord Lucas’s regiment of fusileers. [sic]

In order to efface the disagreeable impression which his publication had created, he produced, in the succeeding year, his first comedy, “The Funeral; or, Grief-à-la-mode,” with which King William is said to have been so highly pleased as to have entered Steele’s name in his table-book to be provided for, an intention which was frustrated by that monarch’s death. Soon after the accession of Queen Anne, he obtained, through the interest of his friend Addison, the office of gazetteer, with a salary of £300 a year; in which post, he informs us, he worked faithfully, according to order, without ever erring against the rule observed by all ministers, to keep that paper very innocent and very insipid. The success of “The Funeral,” induced him to persevere in the same line; accordingly, in 1703, he brought forward the “Tender Husband” which was followed, in 1704, by “The Lying Lover,” altered from the French of Corneille, who imitated it from the Spanish. On the 12th of April, 1709, he published the first number of the “Tatler,” the first of a series of essays, which, by bringing him into contact with all the celebrated geniuses of the age, form the most brilliant epoch in his literary career, and increased his reputation and interest so much as to obtain for him the office of commissioner of stamps. On the 2nd of January, 1711, he discontinued the Tatler, without communicating his intention even to Addison; and on the 1st of March in the same year, appeared the first number of the Spectator, which was followed by the Guardian and Englishman. In the course of these papers his habitual improvidence frequently kept the press standing for want of copy; and old Nutt, the original printer of the Tatler, declared that he actually saw one paper written by Steele in his bed at midnight while lie was waiting to carry it to the office.

In the meanwhile he also published several politica {571} pamphlets in the Whig interest, to which he had attached himself; and, having an ambition to sit in parliament, he resigned his office of commissioner of stamps, in order to qualify himself for that honour. He was accordingly returned for Stockbridge at the general election, and is said to have owed his return, in common with too many others, to the old trick of kissing the voters’ wives with guineas in his mouth. Be this as it may, the parliament having met on the 2nd of March, 1714, a petition was presented against his return; but his pamphlets having rendered him’ peculiarly obnoxious to the men then in power, and the petition being the seventeenth on the list, and therefore not likely to come on until the next session, the ministers resolved upon taking a shorter way with him. Accordingly, on the 11th of March, Mr. John Hungerford, a lawyer, who had been expelled for bribery in the reign of King William, having moved that the House should take into consideration, that part of her majesty’s speeches relating to seditious libels, made a formal complaint against divers scandalous papers published under the name of Mr. Steele. On the next day Mr. Auditor Harley specified some printed pamphlets published by Mr. Steele, “containing several paragraphs tending to sedition, highly reflecting upon her majesty and arraigning her administration and government.” Mr. James Craggs, standing up to speak in his behalf, and being prevented from proceeding by cries of order,” Mr. Steele rose and desired a week’s time to prepare for his defence, which was excepted against by Mr. Harley, who moved for adjourning it only to the following Monday. On this Steele, assuming the sanctified deportment and manner of that gentleman, “owned, in the meekness of his heart, that he was a very great sinner; and hoped the member who spoke last, and who was so justly renowned for his exemplary piety and devotion, would not be accessary to the accumulating the number of his transgressions, by obliging him to break the Sabbath of the Lord, by perusing such profane writings as might serve for his justifica{572}tion.” Having thus put the House in good humour, he obtained the delay for which he asked, which circumstance raised his spirits so high, that on the very Monday which Mr. Harley had wished to appoint for his hearing, he moved an address to the Queen concerning the demolition of Dunkirk, the favourite topic of the then Opposition, which, however, was rejected by a majority of two hundred and fourteen to one hundred and nine. On the 18th, the day appointed for his hearing, strangers being ordered, on the motion of one of the court party, to withdraw, Mr. Steele was asked by Mr. Auditor Foley, whether he acknowledged the writings that bore his name? to which he answered, that he “did frankly and ingenuously own those papers to be part of his writings; that he wrote them in behalf of the house of Hanover, and owned them with the same unreservedness with which he abjured the Pretender.” On this Mr. Foley proposed that Mr. Steele should withdraw; but it was carried, without a division, that he should stay and make his defence. He then requested that he might be allowed to answer what was urged against him, paragraph by paragraph; but this being refused, he proceeded, with the assistance of his friend Addison, who sat near him to prompt on occasion, to speak for three hours, with such temper, eloquence, and unconceit, as gave entire satisfaction to all who were not prejudiced against him. At the conclusion of this address, Steele withdrew, when Mr. Auditor Foley, confident in his numbers, contented himself with merely moving the question. This occasioned a very warm debate, which lasted till eleven at night, when, in spite of the opposition of Mr. Robert Walpole, his brother Horatio, Lord Finch, and other distinguished members of the House, it was resolved by a majority of two bandied and forty-five to one hundred and fifty-two, that a printed pamphlet, entitled, ‘The Englishman,’ and one other pamphlet, entitled, ‘The Crisis,’ written by Richard Steele, Esq. a member of this House, are scandalous and seditious libels,” &c. and that Mr. Steele, “for his offence {573}in writing and publishing the said seditious libels, be expelled this House?” He afterwards published an “Apology for himself and his writings” which he dedicated to Mr. Robert Walpole. In the course of the same year he published “The Romish Ecclesiastical History of late years,” a work designed to injure the cause of the Pretender through the sides of his religion, of the rites and doctrines of which it contains many exaggerated descriptions. On the accession of George I his pen was remarkably active in supporting the principles which had raised that monarch to the throne. He was returned to parliament for Boroughbridge, and rewarded for his services by the appointment of surveyor of the royal stables at Hampton Court; he was also knighted, and put into the commission of the peace. Through the interest of the Duke of Marlborough, he obtained a share in the patent of Drury- Jane theatre, which proved a source of considerable emolument to him, but which was revoked through the interference of a noble lord, in the year 1720; on which he drew up and published “A State of the Case between the Lord Chamberlain of his Majesty’s Household and the Governor of the Royal Company of Comedians,” in which he computes the loss which he sustained by that circumstance, at almost £10,000. So devoted was Steele to dramatic amusements, that he at one time formed a project of converting part of his house in York-buildings into a sort of theatre, for reciting passages from the best authors, ancient and modern. Accordingly a splendid room was constructed, and elegantly fitted up, though the owner of the house, a9 usual, had never once considered how the whole was to be paid for. Coming one day to see how the work went on, he ordered the carpenter to get into the rostrum and make a speech, that he might observe how it would be heard. The fellow mounted, and, scratching his head, told him he did not know what to say, for he was no speechifier. “Oh!” said the knight, “No matter for that, speak any thing that comes uppermost.” - “Why here, Sir Richard,” says the man, “we have been working {574} for you these six months, and cannot get one penny of money. Pray, Sir, when do you mean to pay us?” - “Very well, very well,” said Sir Richard; “pray come down; I’ve heard quite enough; I can’t but own yon speak very distinctly, though I don’t much admire your subject.”

In 1722, was acted his comedy of “The Conscious Lovers,” the success of which was so great as to induce the king, to whom he dedicated it, to make him a present of £500 In the same year he was returned to parliament for the borough of Wendover, by a triumphant majority, which he secured by the skilful application of his wit and talents, in opposition to the powerful purse of his adversaries.

Steele was twice married. His first wife, who died young, brought him a good fortune, and a plantation in the island of Barbadoes. On her death he paid his addresses, successfully, to the daughter and sole heiress of Jonathan Scurlock, Esq. of Llangunnor-park, in Caermarthenshire. After running a round of extravagance, inculcating prudence by his writings, and setting the example of folly in his life, this singular genius experienced a shock of his mental faculties, occasioned by a paralytic affection. He then retired to his wife’s estate in Wales, where he spent the short remainder of his variegated life, ending as he had begun, in warm professions of virtue and religion, not suffering any works to be read to him but the Bible and Common Prayer Book. He died on the 1st of September, 1729; but it is remarkable that neither to Steele nor Addison has private friendship or public gratitude given a monumental tribute. Of the friendship which subsisted between them, Steele himself speaks in the following terms; - “There never was a more strict friendship than between these two gentlemen; nor had they ever any difference, but what proceeded from their different way of pursuing the same thing. The one with patience, foresight, and temperate address, always waited and stemmed the torrent; while the other often

plunged himself into it, and was as often taken out by the temper of him who stood weeping on the bank for his safety, whom he could not dissuade from leaping into it. Thus these two men lived for some years last past, shunning each other, but still preserving the most passionate concern for their mutual welfare. But when they met, they were as unreserved as boys, and talked of the greatest affairs, upon which they saw where they differed, without pressing (what they knew impossible) to convert each other.”

A LEARNED Irish physician, was born at Abdraccan, io the county of Meath, in the house of his uncle, the celebrated Archbishop Usher, but then Bishop of Meath. He was educated in Dublin college, of which he became a fellow, but was ejected by the usurping powers for his loyalty, and was reinstated at the Restoration. He was M.D. and LL.D. and public professor of the university. He was a very learned man, but more food of the study of divinity than that of his own profession, in which he possessed considerable knowledge. He died in 1669, aged forty-six, and was buried in the college chapel, where a monument was erected to his memory. He published a few Latin tracts, a list of which is to be found in Ware. Dr. Sterne’s son, John, was educated by him in Trinity college, Dublin, and became successively vicar of Trim, chancellor and dean of St. Patrick’s, bishop of Dromore in 1713, and of Clogher in 1717, and vice-chancellor of the university of Dublin. Being a single man, he laid out immense sums on his episcopal palaces, and on the college of Dublin, where he built the printing-house, and founded exhibitions. Most of these were gifts in his life-time, and at his death (June 1745) be bequeathed the bulk of his fortune, about £30,000 to public institutions, principally of the charitable kind. His only publications were, a “Concio ad Cleram,” and “Tractates de Visitatione {576} Infirmorum,” for the use of the junior clergy, printed at Dublin in 1697, 12mo. Dean Swift appears to have corresponded with bishop Sterne for many years on the most intimate and friendly terms; but at length, in 1733, the dean sent him a letter full of bitter sarcasm and reproach, to which the bishop returned an answer that marks a superior command of temper; but it appears from the life of the Rev. Philip Skelton, that his lordship deserved much of what Swift had imputed to him.

ONE of the most popular writers of modern times, and the founder of a numerous class, to whom the term sentimental has been given, was born at Clonmell, in the south of Ireland, November 24th, 1713. He was the son of Roger Sterne, a lieutenant in the army; and it has been conjectured, that his affecting story of Le Fevre, was founded on the circumstances of his father’s family, which had long to struggle with poverty and hardships on the slender pay of a lieutenant. As soon as Laurence was able to travel, his father and family quitted Ireland, and went to Elvington, near York, where his father’s mother resided; but in less than a year, they returned to Ireland, and afterwards moved from place to place with the regiment, until Laurence was placed at a school near Halifax, in Yorkshire. In 1731, his father died.

The subject of our memoir remained at Halifax till towards the conclusion of the above year, and in the following, was admitted of Jesus college, Cambridge, where he took his bachelor’s degree in January 1736, and that of master in 1740. During this time he was ordained, and his uncle, Jaques Sterne, then LL.D. procured him the living of Sutton, and afterwards a prebend of York, and by his wife’s means (whom he married in 1741) he got the living of Stillington. He resided, however, principally, and about twenty years, at Sutton, where, as he informs us, his chief amusements were painting, fiddling {577} and shooting. Before he quitted Sutton, he published, in 1747, a charity sermon for the support of the charity school at York; and in 1756, an assize sermon, preached at the cathedral in York.

In 1759, he published at York the first two volumes of his “Tristram Shandy;” and in 1760, he went to London to republish the above volumes, and to print two volumes of his “Sermons and this year also, Lord Falconbridge presented him to the curacy of Coxwold. In 1762, he visited France, and two years afterwards went to Italy. In 1767, be came up to London again to publish the “Sentimental Journey;” but his health was now fast declining, and after a short but severe struggle, he died at his lodgings in Bond-street, March 18th, 1768, and was buried in the new burying ground belonging to the parish of St. George, Hanover-square.

Sterne’s talents as an author were unquestionably great; and yet there are few possessed of any reflection, that would willingly exchange their names for his on the title pages of his most popular works. He had the power of pourtraying pictures equally masterly and affecting. He could raise his readers to the very tip-toe of expectation, and then defeat their ardent curiosity by dashes and asterisks. He prophanely [sic] and daringly trod the borders of impiety and lewdness, and that too in the most dangerous mode, without giving the alarm of disgusting language. By powers wonderfully and sublimely pathetic, he could reach at times, the inmost recesses of the heart, and by the exuberance and originality of his wit, he could dazzle and delight his readers for pages together.

The charge of borrowing from his predecessors has been alleged against the subject of this article by a judicious and candid writer, who produces evidence sufficient to startle, if not subdue the doubts of criticism: those who have been delighted with Sterne, will perhaps read the following observations, and the passages which follow them, with regret and surprise.

Sterne. - “’Tis an inevitable chance - the first statute {578} in Magna Charta; - it is an everlasting act of parliament, my dear brother - all must die.”
Burton. - a ’Tis an inevitable chance - the first statute in Magna Charta - an everlasting act of parliament - all must die.”
Sterne. - “Returning out of Asia, when I sailed from Aegina towards Megara, I began to view the country round about. Tegina was behind me, Megara was before, Pyraeus on the right hand, Corinth on the left. What flourishing towns, now prostrate on the earth.”
Burton. - (WORD FOR WORD TOO.) - Towns heretofore, now prostrate and overwhelmed before mine eyes.”

A CELEBRATED wit, and distinguished political writer, was born in Dublin on the 30th November, 1667, seven months after the death of his father; by which unfortunate event his mother had been so reduced in circumstances, that she was compelled to take refuge in the house of Mr. Godwin Swift, her husband’s eldest brother, in Dublin, where Jonathan first saw the light.

The care of young Swift being entrusted by his mother to a nurse, this woman became so much attached to him, that, having occasion to visit a sick relative at Whitehaven, when he was about a year old, she took him with her unknown to his mother and uncle, who, when they afterwards discovered the place of his retreat, suffered him to {579} remain there till he was better able to bear the fatigues of the voyage in his return; in consequence of which, he was not restored to them till he was four years old. This circumstance has given rise to an opinion, that he was a native of England; indeed, when displeased with the people of Ireland, he has been heard to say, “I am not of this vile country; I am an Englishman but the facts above related, are taken from an account left by him in his own hand-writing.

When six years old, he was sent to the school of Kilkenny, and at a proper age was admitted a student of Trinity college, Dublin. During the four years he passed in this seat of literature, he made so little progress in the usual and necessary studies, having given himself up without reserve to history and poetry, that, on an application for the degree of bachelor of arts, he was rejected. A similar fate would have attended his second attempt, had he not been relieved from it by the good offices of some of his friends, who obtained his admission to the degree, but not without the insertion of the words speciali gratiâ, as a mark of degradation. This latter circumstance is said to have given rise to a curious misunderstanding some years afterwards, when he applied for the degree of master of arts in the university of Oxford. This is said to have been immediately granted with peculiar tokens of respect, that learned body construing those words as a mark of especial honour.

His uncle Godwin, having been attacked by a lethargy, which terminated in a total loss of speech and memory, Swift was deprived of the assistance he had expected from that relative in the guidance of his future pursuits. He, therefore, in 1688, went over to Leicester to consult with his mother, who recommended him to apply to Sir William Temple; to whose wife Mrs. Swift was distantly related. He was received by Sir William, who was at that time high in the confidence of the king, with great kindness; and his patron being lame of the gout, Swift used to attend his majesty in his walks in the garden, who {580} treated him with great familiarity, and is said on one occasion to have offered him a troop of horse; this offer Swift thought proper to decline, having previously determined to take orders.

The return of a disorder which he had contracted in Ireland, by eating immoderately of fruit, and which, with some intermissions, continued to increase until it terminated in a total debility both of body and mind, compelled him in 1693, to visit his native country for the benefit of the air. From this visit he, however, derived but little advantage; and on his return to England, he again took up his residence in the house of Sir William Temple, who was then settled at Moor Park, near Farnham. He had previously taken orders at Oxford, and expected much advancement in the church from the kindness of his friend. In this he was disappointed; Sir William was too much attached to his company to provide for him elsewhere; and Swift rendered, perhaps, more irritable by the continuance of his complaint, quarrelled with him, and quitted his house un beau matin, making his way on foot to his mother, at Leicester, with whom he remained until, the interest of the viceroy, Lord Capel, he obtained the prebend of Kilroot, in the diocese of Connor, with about £100 a year.

His secession from the house of his benefactor continued not long. He was prevailed on by the entreaties of Sir William, debilitated by infirmities, and in want of a confidential friend, to resign the prebend and return to Moor Park. Here he remained till the death of Sir Wil-liam, who left him a legacy, together with his posthumous works. These he collected and dedicated to King William, in the expectation of obtaining thereby a stall in the cathedral of St. Paul’s, or in that of Westminster. He was disappointed; he retired from the court in dudgeon, and could never afterwards endure the name of William.

The Earl of Berkeley being appointed one of the lords justices of Ireland, Swift accompanied him in the capacity of chaplain and private secretary; but he was soon {381} removed, under the pretence that the situation was not fit for a clergyman. To this disappointment succeeded another; the deanery of Derry became vacant, and it was the turn of the Earl of Berkeley to dispose of it; but instead of presenting it to Swift as a recompence for his late usage, it was disposed of to another, and Swift was inducted to the livings of Laracor and Rathbeggin, in the diocese of Meath, which did not together amount to half its value.

On receiving these preferments he went to reside at Laracor, whither he journied on foot, in a decent suit of black, with coarse worsted stockings, of which he had a second pair with a shirt in his pocket, a round slouched hat on his head, and a long pole, higher than himself, in his hand. In this equipage he arrived on the fourth day at Laracor, where he found the curate, a very worthy man, sitting at the door of his house, smoking his pipe. “What is your name?” said Swift, very abruptly; and the old gentleman had scarcely answered, when he exclaimed, “Well, then, I am your master.” It would be tedious to repeat the remainder of a dialogue commenced in so unfeeling a manner: it will be sufficient to observe, that he retired in a much better humour, being highly pleased at some refreshment which he obtained, and at the manner in which it was served up by the wife of the curate.

The church at Laracor having been left by his predecessor in a very miserable condition, Swift laudably repaired it. Indeed, he performed the duties of his situation with the utmost punctuality and devotion; but though really pious in his heart, he could not forbear indulging the peculiarity of his humour, without reference to time or place. He gave notice of his intention to read prayers on Wednesdays and Fridays; but on entering the church on the first of those days, he found no one there but Roger Cox, the parish clerk. The rector, however, ascended the desk, and rising up very gravely, began, “Dearly beloved Roger, the Scripture moveth you and me in sundry places,” &c. and so proceeded to the end of the service. In 1701, Swift took his doctor’s degree, and shortly {582} after the death of King William, went over to England, for the first time since his settling at Laracor. This journey he frequently repeated during the reign of Queen Anne, and soon became eminent as a writer. He had been educated among the Whigs, but at length attached himself to the Tories; because the Whigs, he said, had renounced their old principles, and received others, which their forefathers abhorred. It may, however, be necessary to observe, for the information of those who regard only the modern acceptation of those terms, that the Tories of the reign of Queen Anne, differed much from those now so designated; Tories of that day being the out-party, and consequently opposed to the abuses of the existing government.

We find scarcely any material circumstance recorded of Swift during several succeeding years of his life. He was principally engaged in endeavouring to overthrow the power of the Whigs, and on the change of administration, in 1710, he became a man of considerable consequence, although not filling any public situation. The following extract from the diary of Bishop Kennet, (who was no admirer of Swift) is sufficient evidence of the great extent of his power at this period of his life.

“Dr. Swift came into the coffee-house, and had a bow from every body but me, who, I confess, could not but despise him. When I came to the anti-chamber to wait before prayers, Dr. Swift was the principal man of talk and business, and acted as a master of requests. He was soliciting the Earl of Arran to speak to his brother the Duke of Ormond, to get a chaplain’s place established in the garrison of Hull for Mr. Fiddes, a clergyman in that neighbourhood, who had lately been in gaol, and published sermons to pay fees. He was promising Mr. Thorold to undertake with my lord treasurer, that according to his petition, he should obtain a salary of £200 per annum, as minister of the English church at Rotterdam. Then he stopped F. Gwynne, Esq. going in with his red bag to the queen, and told him aloud he had somewhat to say to him from my lord treasurer. He talked with the son of Dr. {585} Davenant to be sent abroad, and took out his pocket-book and wrote down several things, as memoranda, to do for him. He turned to the fire, and took out his gold watch, and, telling the time of the day, complained it was very late. A gentleman said, ‘he was too fast.’ ‘How can I help it,’ says the doctor, ‘if the courtiers give me a watch that won’t go right?’ Then he instructed a young nobleman, that the best poet in England was Mr. Pope (a Papist), who had begun a translation of Homer into English verse; for which ‘he must have ’em all subscribe;’ for, says he, the author shall not begin to print till I have a thousand guineas for him. Lord treasurer, after leaving the queen, came through the room beckoning Dr. Swift to follow him: both went off just before prayers.” Notwithstanding this great influence, he remained without preferment till 1713, when he was appointed Dean of St. Patrick’s, Dublin, which, ’though in point of power and revenue, no inconsiderable promotion, appeared to the ambitious mind of Swift, merely an honourable and profitable banishment. In this temper he arrived in Ireland to take possession of his new honours; and his acrimony was not a little increased by his reception there. The people of Ireland, regarding him as a Jacobite, booted and pelted him as he passed along the streets; and the chapter of St. Patrick’s received him with the greatest reluctance, thwarting him in every particular he proposed. He was avoided as a pestilence, opposed as an invader, and marked out as an enemy to his country. Such was on this occasion the reception of a man whose popularity afterwards rose to so commanding a height, that he may be said to have governed the people of Ireland with absolute and unlimited power. He now made no longer a stay in Ireland than was requisite to establish himself in his deanery, and to pass through the necessary formalities and customs; or, in his own words -

——— through all vexations,
Patents, instalments, abjurations,
Pint-fruits, and tenths, and chapter-treats,
Dues, payments, fees, demands, and — cheats.”

{584}

A fortnight after his entrance on the deanery, Swift hastened back to London, where he continued busied in politics, and confederated with the greatest wits of the age till the death of Queen Anne. During this period he was constantly endeavouring to exchange his Irish promotion, so little was he pleased with his treatment there, for some correspondent dignity in England: but in this he was disappointed; and on the final stop which was put to his expectations by the death of the queen, he returned to his native country, where he continued many years devoured by spleen, or, according to his own expression, “like a poisoned rat in his hole.” During his previous residence at Laracor, be had invited to Ireland a Miss Johnson, daughter of Sir William Temple’s steward, but who is better known by the name of Stella. She was accompanied by an elderly lady; and whatever attachment Swift might then have felt for her, the greatest care was taken to prevent scandal. They never lived in the same house, nor were they ever known to meet, except in the presence of a third person. When in England, in 1709, he was introduced to the family of Mrs. Vanhomrigh, the widow of a merchant of considerable opulence. Attaching himself much to them, he was soon regarded as one of the family, and during their familiarity, insensibly became a kind of preceptor to the daughters. The eldest, Miss Esther Vanhomrigh, better known by the name of Vanessa, of a character naturally vain and romantic, became attached to the man who was favoured, flattered, feared, and admired by the greatest men in the nation. Smitten at first with the character of Swift, her affections by degrees extended themselves to his person, lie had taught her

“That virtue, pleased by being shewn,
Knows nothing which it dare not own;
That common forms were not designed
Directors to a noble mind:”

and she had heard the lessons with attention, and imbibed the philosophy with eagerness. The maxims suited her exalted mind; but the close connexion between soul and {585} body, appeared to a female philosopher indissoluble, and she had conceived, that they should, in their enjoyments, remain united. She communicated these sentiments to her preceptor, but he seemed not to comprehend her meaning. He talked of friendship, of the delights of reason, of gratitude, respect, and esteem. He almost preached upon virtue, and muttered some indistinct phrases concerning chastity. In short, he put aside her proposal of marriage without absolute refusal. Such was their situation on Swift’s return to Ireland; whither he was soon followed by the young ladies, who, on their mother’s death, found themselves considerably embarrassed by the prodigality in which she had indulged. Their affairs, however, were soon arranged; and, on the death of the younger sister, shortly after, the remains of their fortune centered in Vanessa.

In his poem of “Cadenas and Vanessa,” Swift had published to the world what may be termed the story of their loves; but with base and unmanly cruelty, had affected to veil its termination in a mystery, which was fatal to the reputation of his enamorata [sic]. Deserted by the world, and piqued at the coolness of Swift, who, however, visited her frequently, but answered her proposals of marriage merely by turns of wit, she at length became unable to sustain any longer her load of misery. She wrote to him a very tender letter, insisting upon a serious answer; an acceptance, or a refusal. His reply was delivered by his own hand. Throwing down the letter on her table with great passion, he hastened back to his house. From his appearance she guessed at the contents of his letter; she found herself entirely discarded from his friendship and conversation; her offers were treated with insolence and disdain; she met with reproaches instead of love, with tyranny instead of affection. She did not many days survive it; she testified her disgust and disappointment by cancelling the will she had made in his favour, and expired in all the agonies of despair.

It has been conjectured, that in this letter, Swift revealed {586} to her the secret of his marriage with Stella, which was privately solemnized in 1716. With qualities almost entirely the reverse of those of Vanessa; mild, humane, polite, and pious, amiable both in mind and in person, and possessed of almost every accomplishment, her fate was little different. Whatever were his motives to this marriage, Swift continued to live with her on precisely the same terms as he had previously. Mrs. Dingly [sic for Dingley] was still her inseparable companion, and it would be difficult to prove that Swift and Stella ever conversed alone. She never resided at the deanery, except during his fits of giddiness and deafness, and on his recovery she always returned to her lodgings, which were on the opposite side of the Liffey. A woman of her delicacy must repine at so extraordinary a situation. Absolutely virtuous, she was compelled by her husband, who scorned even to be married like any other man, to submit to all the outward appearances of vice. Inward anxiety affected by degrees the calmness of her mind and the strength of her body. She began to decline in her health in 1724, and from the first symptoms of decay, she rather hastened than shrunk back in the descent; tacitly pleased to find her footsteps tending to that place where they neither marry nor are given in marriage. It is said, that Swift did at length consent that she should be publicly acknowledged as his wife; but the core had rankled too deeply, her health had departed, and she exclaimed, “it is too late.” She died in January 1727, absolutely a victim to the peculiarity of her fate; a fate which she merited not, and which she probably could not have incurred in an union with any other person. “Why the dean did not sooner marry this most excellent person,” says the writer of his life; why he married her at all; why his marriage was so cautiously concealed; and why he was never known to meet her but in the presence of a third person; are inquiries which no man can answer without absurdity.”

The character which Swift had acquired as a man of humour and wit, had in a great measure removed that odium {587} which his politics had attached to him, when the appearance of his “Proposal for the Use of Irish Manufactures,” elevated him immediately into a patriot. Some little pieces of poetry to the same purpose, were no less acceptable and engaging, and he soon became a favourite of the people. His patriotism was as manifest as his wit, so peculiarly captivating to the natives of Ireland; he was pointed out with pleasure and respect as he passed along the streets: but the popular affection did not rise to its height till the publication in 1724, of the “Drapier’s Letters,” those “brazen monuments” of his fame. A patent had been obtained by a person of the name of Wood, for the copper coinage, which was executed so badly and so low in value, as to become the general subject of complaint. In these letters, in a series of inimitable wit, and irresistible argument, the whole nation was advised to reject the base coin. The advice was followed; Wood decamped with his patent; the government was irritated to the extreme; and a large reward was offered by proclamation for the author of the letters.

On the day after the proclamation appeared against the Drapier, there was a full levee at the castle. The lord-lieutenant was going round the circle, when Swift entered the room with marks of the highest indignation in his countenance, and having pushed through the crowd, he addressed Lord Carteret, the viceroy, in a voice which echoed through the room, inveighing in the bitterest terms against Wood and his patent, and on the fatal consequences which must result from the introduction of base coin. The circle of obeisant courtiers was filled with astonishment at his audacity, and a dead silence prevailed for some minutes, which was broken by Lord Carteret, who appropriately addressed the dean in this passage from Virgil: -

“Res duræ [recte dura], et regni novites, me talia cogent
Moliri.”

Nothing was talked of for some days but the intrepidity of the dean, and the ingenuity of Lord Carteret. {588}

From this moment his popularity was unbounded. All ranks and professions listed themselves under the banner of the Drapier. The Drapier became the idol of Ireland, even to a degree of devotion, and bumpers were poured forth to the Drapier, as large and as frequent as to the glorious and immortal memory. Acclamations and vows for his prosperity attended him wherever he went, and his effigies were painted in every street in Dublin. He was consulted in all points relating to domestic policy in general, and to the trade of Ireland in particular; but he was more immediately regarded as the legislator of the weavers, who frequently came to him in a body to receive his advice for the regulation of their trade. And when elections were depending for the city of Dublin, many corporations refused to declare themselves till they had consulted his sentiments and inclinations. Over the populace he was the most absolute monarch that ever governed; and he was regarded by persons of every rank with veneration and esteem.

Melancholy is the lot of frail humanity. This idol of his country was becoming daily more subject to those attacks of giddiness and deafness which finally terminated in a total abolition of his mental functions. In 1736, while writing “The Legion Club” a satire on the Irish parliament, he was seized with one of these fits, the effect of which was so dreadful, that he left the poem unfinished, and never afterwards attempted any composition which required a course of thinking, or perhaps more than one sitting to finish.

From this time his memory was perceived gradually to decline, and his passions to pervert his understanding. The attacks of his complaint became violent and frequent, and terminated in 1742, in a complete privation of reason. It would be distressing to humanity to detail the melancholy series of his few succeeding years; suffice it to say, that he expired without pang or convulsion, in October 1745, in the seventy-eighth year of his age. Swift had always entertained a strong presentiment {589} that he should fall into the melancholy condition we have described. “Walking,” says Dr. Young, “with him and others, about a mile from Dublin, he suddenly stopped short; we passed on; but perceiving that he did not follow us, I went back and found him fixed as a statue, and earnestly gazing towards a noble elm, which in its uppermost branches was much decayed and withered. Pointing at it, he said, ‘I shall be like that tree; I shall die at top.’”

It was probably also under the influence of this feeling, that he bequeathed the whole of his property, with the exception of a few trifling legacies, for the purpose of building an hospital for lunatics and idiots in Dublin; the regulations for which, as directed in his will, are peculiarly correct and appropriate. Even in so serious a composition he indulged himself occasionally in an ironical solemnity, carrying with it marks of his peculiar humour. Among others we find the following “Item; I bequeath to Mr. Robert Grattan, prebendary of St. Audeon’s, my strong box, on condition of his giving the sole use of the said box to his brother, Dr. James Grattan, during the life of the said doctor, who has more occasion for it.”

To attempt a delineation of the character of Swift, is needless. It would be superfluous to apply the epithet of wit to the author of “Gulliver’s Travels,” and the “Tale of a Tub;” or to distinguish as a patriot the writer of the “Drapier’s Letters.” His political works, though referring to so distant a period, are still occasionally quoted with respect; and few humorous tales are more frequently repeated than those of “Dean Swift.”

THIS pious and exemplary prelate of the established church, was born on April 6th, 1659, at Innishowane, of which place his father, who was afterwards promoted to the see of Cork, was then vicar. He received the first rudiments of his education at the grammar-school in Cork, {590} which, at a proper age, he quitted for Oxford, where he took the degree of A.B.; but, on the death of his father, which took place soon after, he returned to his native country, and continued hi9 studies in Trinity college. He soon obtained a small preferment in the diocese of Meath, of the value of 100Z. a year, which he exchanged for the vicarage of Christchurch in Cork, of nearly the same value. This he held for upwards of twenty years, performing the laborious duties of his cure with the most active zeal, for the most part without assistance. During this period he obtained several small additional preferments, increasing his annual income to near £400.

In the year 1699, an offer was made him on the part of the government, of the deanery of Derry, a dignity of double the value of his own preferments, which, however, he declined from motives of filial piety, his aged mother being unwilling to remove from a spot where she had passed so great a portion of her life. In 1703, he was elected proctor for the chapter of Cork, in the convocation then summoned; and soon after nominated by the crown to the deanery of St. Patrick’s, Dublin. The chapter, however, refused to submit to this nomination, and maintained their own right of election, by choosing Dr. John Sterne, then chancellor of the cathedral; and the question being, after a full discussion, decided in their favour, a compromise took place, and Mr. Synge was appointed to the vacant chancellorship. In this new preferment, which included the cure of the populous parish of St. Werburgh, the worthy divine by no means relaxed from that diligent attention to his duties, which had previously characterised him, and speedily became a popular preacher. During this time he took his doctor’s degree, and in 1713, was appointed proctor for the chapter.

Dr. Sterne being promoted to the see of Dromore, Dr. Synge succeeded him as vicar-general to the see of Dublin; and in 1714, shortly after the accession of George I, was made bishop of Raphoe. His zealous attachment to the principles of the Revolution, and his exertions in favour {591} of the Hanover succession, were further rewarded in the year 1716, with the archbishopric of Tuam, which he held till his death, which happened on July 24th, 1741, in the eighty-third year of his age. The writings of this excellent prelate, consisting of small tracts, which have, separately, passed through many editions, form 4 vols. 12mo.

A ROMAN Catholic prelate of great talents, but of an ambitious and intriguing disposition, was the son of Sir William Talbot, of an ancient family in the county of Dublin, and brother to the celebrated Earl of Tyrconnel. He was born in 1620, and received into the society of the Jesuits in Portugal, in 1635. After passing through the usual course of study, he took holy orders at Rome, whence he returned to Portugal. He afterwards read lectures on moral theology at Antwerp, and is supposed to have been the person who, io 1656, found means to reconcile Charles II. to the Romish religion, and to have been secretly sent by him to announce that event to the court of Madrid. Being sent by his superiors into England to promote the interest of the church, he was extremely assiduous in paying his court to Cromwell, and even attended his funeral as a mourner. Having joined with Colonel Lambert to oppose the Restoration, he was compelled to fly from England, to which, however, he found means to return on the marriage of the king with the infanta of Portugal, in whose family he became one of the officiating priests; but having by his intrigues occasioned some confusion at court, he was ordered to quit the kingdom. Having been absolved from his vows by Pope Clement IX, he was, in 1669, made titular archbishop of Dublin. On his arrival in Ireland in this capacity, he involved himself in a dispute with the titular primate, Plunket, pretending that the king had appointed him overseer of all the clergy of Ireland. On the discovery of the pretended popish plot in 1678, his intriguing disposition led to a suspicion that he was concerned in it; he was imprisoned in consequence in {592} the castle of Dublin, where he died in 1680. His publications, for a list of which we must refer the reader to Harris’s edition of Ware, are principally on controversial subjects, and in defence of the Jesuits.

A VERY superior woman both in mind and acquirements, was born in Dublin, in 1774. Her father was the Rev. William Blashford, librarian of St. Patrick’s Library, Dublin; and her mother, Theodosia Tighe, of Rosanna, in the county of Wicklow. She had the misfortune to lose her father while an infant; but by the care of her excellent mother, her fine intellectual powers were developed and cultivated. In early life she appears to have mixed with the gay world; but an extreme sensibility, joined to great delicacy of sentiment, soon decided her preference for retirement, where, happy in her choice of a partner, and devoted to her relatives and friends, hope pointed exultingly to happiness, but sickness and death made their inroad in the choice circle; the loss of relatives joined with other causes, undermined her own health, and after a painful struggle of six years, she departed this life with Christian resignation and confiding hope, at Woodstock, in the county of Kilkenny, on the 24th of March, 1810, in the thirty-seventh year of her age.

Her beautiful poem of Psyche will be remembered as long as elegance and classical taste can excite admiration; nor will her minor poems be forgotten, whilst piety, delicacy, and the most touching pathos have power to charm* With the profits arising from the above poems, an hospital ward has been endowed and attached to the House of Refuge (a charitable institution founded by her mother in the county of Wicklow), which is called the Psyche ward* She married her cousin, Henry Tighe, a man of considerable talent, who has been deceased about three years. Mr. T. represented the county of Wicklow in Parliament, at the time of his decease. He was the author of “The Statistical History of the County of Kilkenny,” a thick 8vo. published in 1799, by far the best of those county histories published under the auspices of the Dublin. {594}

ONE of the earliest and most learned of the modern Deists, was born at Inis Eogan, in the most northern peninsula of Ireland, on November SO, 1669. His parents were Catholics, and are stated to have been of a good family. He was baptized by the singular names of Janus Junius; which becoming an object of ridicule to the boys at the school of Redcastle, near Londonderry, where he received his early education, were changed by direction of the master into John, a name which he retained through the remainder of his life.

In 1687, he removed to the university of Glasgow, and thence, after three years study, to that of Edinburgh, where he was admitted, in June 1690, to the degree of M.A. He had already renounced the religion of his fathers, and taken up the tenets of the Dissenters; and on his journey shortly after into England, his excellent abilities and great acquirements recommended him to the notice of several of the most eminent of that sect, as a proper person to undertake the important functions of the ministry. For this purpose, by their advice and at their expense, he undertook a journey to Leyden, where he devoted himself for two years, with great assiduity to theological studies. On his return to England, he resided at Oxford; where, having the advantage of the public library, he undertook several learned works, and commenced his celebrated treatise, &147;Christianity not mysterious,&148; but leaving Oxford before it was finished, it did not appear till 1696, the year after his arrival in London. Its publication was immediately followed by several attacks and refutations, and it was even presented as a libel by the grand jury of Middlesex; although the peculiar opinions of the author were by no means so broadly stated therein, as in many of his later publications. Indeed, the offence which it gave was almost entirely confined to men of narrow and prejudiced minds; while those of stronger and bolder genius regarded it as the commencement of a free {595} and candid discussion of the grounds of our faith, which must eventually lead to its surer establishment, on the solid basis of sound reason and argument. Among these was the celebrated Locke, than whom a more pious and sincere Christian never existed; who regarded Toland as a young man of considerable genius and splendid acquirements, and who admitted him on that account to some share of his notice, though by no means to his intimacy; considering that his subsequent value was to be estimated by the uses to which those gifts might be applied. Vanity formed a predominant feature in the character of Toland; and this principally induced Mr. Locke to be so guarded in his reception of him. In one of his letters to the patriotic Molyneux, he observes, &147;If his exceeding great value of himself do not deprive the world of that usefulness that his parts, if rightly conducted, might be of, I shall be very glad. I always value men of parts and learning, and I think I cannot do too much in procuring them friends and assistance: but there may happen occasions that may make one stop one’s hand; and it is the hopes young men give, of what use they will make of their parts, which is to me the encouragement of being concerned for them; but if vanity increases with age, I always fear whither it will lead a man.&148;

This estimate of Toland’s character was but too well founded. The book had already produced much clamour in Ireland, and this was greatly increased on the personal appearance of the author in Dublin, in April 1697. &147;There is a violent sort of spirit that reigns here,&148; writes Molyneux, &147;which begins already to shew itself against him; and I believe will increase daily; for I find the clergy alarmed to a mighty degree against him; and last Sunday he had his welcome to this city by hearing himself harangued against out of the pulpit by a prelate of this country.&148; The behaviour of Toland was not of a nature to conciliate the animosity which his writings had originated. Within a few weeks after his arrival, Mr. Molyneux observes, &147;Truly, to be free, I do not think his management since he came into this city {596} has been so prudent. He has raised against him the clamours of all parties; and this not so much by his difference of opinion, as by his unseasonable way of discoursing, propagating, and maintaining it. Coffee-houses and public tables are not proper places for serious discourses relating to the most important truths: but when also a tincture of vanity appears in the whole course of a man’s conversation, it disgusts many that may otherwise have a due value for his parts and learning.&148;

The consequence of such conduct was natural and unavoidable; and we can only be surprised that it wras not till the 11th of September, that Mr. Molyneux forwarded to Mr. Locke the following account of his retreat: &147;Mr. Toland is at last driven out of our kingdom: the poor gentleman, by his imprudent management, had raised such an universal outcry, that it was even dangerous for a man to have been known once to converse with him. This made all wary men of reputation decline seeing him, insomuch that at last he wanted a meal’s meat, as I am told, and none would admit him to their tables. The little stock of money which he brought into this country being exhausted, he fell to borrowing from any one that would lend him half-a-crown; and run in debt for his wigs, clothes, and lodging, as I am informed. And last of all, to complete his hardships, the parliament fell on his book; voted it to be burnt by the common hangman, and ordered the author to be taken into the custody of the serjeant at arms, and to be prosecuted by the attorney-general at law. Hereupon he is fled out of this kingdom, and none here knows where he has directed his course.&148;

He retired to London to escape the storm which his indiscretion had produced, and immediately on his arrival, published an apologetical account of the treatment he had received; which appeals only to have irritated him to still more violent attacks on revealed religion. In his life of Milton, published in 1698, he asserted the spuriousness of the Icon Basil ike; which, with some others of his opinions, occasionally interspersed, was represented by Dr. Blackall, afterwards Bishop of Exeter, as affecting the {597} writings of the New Testament. This induced an attempt to vindicate himself in &147;Amyntor; or, a Defence of Milton’s Life;&148; which he afterwards asserted was intended not to invalidate, but to illustrate and confirm, the canon of the Scriptures; but on which it was regarded as so direct an attack, as to call for severe animadversion from Dr. Samuel Clarke, and many other learned divines.

In 1701, the lower House of Convocation having appointed a committee to examine impious, heretical, and immoral books, they extracted five propositions from his &147;Christianity not mysterious,&148; on which they resolved, that, &147;in their judgment, the said book contained pernicious principles, of dangerous consequence to the Christian religion; that it tended, and (as they conceived) was written on a design, to subvert the fundamental articles of the Christian faith; and that the propositions extracted from it, together with divers others of the same nature,, were pernicious, dangerous, scandalous, and destructive of Christianity.&148; On reporting this resolution to the upper House, it was unanimously determined to proceed against the author; which was however dropped on the opinions of several lawyers, that the House had not sufficient authority, without a license from the king, to censure judicially any such publication. This was a source of much triumph to Toland, who, in his Vindicius Liberus, gave full scope to his vanity, and removed much of the disguise under which he had previously concealed many of his principles both religious and political.

Since his arrival in England he had taken a considerable share in the war of pamphlets, which had at ttfat time risen to so great a height; and on the passing of the act of settlement in June 1701, he published his “Anglia Libera.” The Earl of Macclesfield, being sent over to Hanover with the act, Toland attended him there; and having presented his Anglia Libera, to her electoral highness, was the first who had the honour of kissing her hand upon the act of succession. He remained at her court five or six weeks, and on his departure was presented with gold medals, and {598} portraits of the electress dowager, the elector, the young prince, and the Queen of Prussia. He then made an excursion to Berlin, where he had frequent opportunities of conversing with the queen, who took much pleasure in hearing his paradoxical opinions. A dissolution of parliament having taken place in November of the same year, he published the following advertisement in the Postman: - There having been a public report, as if Mr. Toland stood for Blechingly in Surrey, it is thought fit to advertise, that Sir Robert Clayton has given his interest in that borough to an eminent citizen, and that Mr. Toland hath no thoughts of standing there or any where else. This advertisement afforded matter of pleasantry to an anonymous writer, who published a pamphlet entitled “Modesty mistaken.”

It would he tedious and uninteresting to record the titles of the various works, the publication of which engaged him during several succeeding years of his life. These were chiefly political, and recommended him to the notice of Mr. Harley, secretary of state, by whom his pen was frequently employed, and under whose directions he is also stated to have acted as a spy. In the spring of 1707, he set out for Berlin; which city he was compelled to quit sooner than he had intended, by an incident, says M. des Maizeaux, too ludicrous to be mentioned. What this was, cannot now he discovered. He then went to Hanover, and was very graciously received at Dusseldoff, by the elector palatine, who presented him with a gold chain and medal, together with a purse of one hundred ducats. A French banker, then in Holland, being desirous of procuring a powerful protection, Toland proceeded to Vienna, in hopes of obtaining for him the title of count of the empire, for which he was willing to pay a large sum; but the imperial ministers could not be prevailed on, and Toland, after many unsuccessful attempts, quitted that city for Prague; from whence, having exhausted all his money, he was forced to make use of many shifts to enable him to retrace his way into Holland. Here {599} he continued till 1710, and had the good fortune to become acquainted with Prince Eugene, who bestowed on him several marks of his generosity. On his return to England, he was enabled, by the liberality of Mr. Harley, to keep a country house at Epsom; but losing the favour of that minister, he afterwards wrote pamphlets against him. His skill in publications of this nature, and his attention to times and seasons, were such, that a pamphlet which he published in 1714, ran through ten editions in a quarter of a year. In 1718, he appears to have quitted politics altogether, and to have given himself up to the promulgation of his religious theories. In this year he published &147;Nazarenus,&148; and &147;The Destiny of Rome;&148; and in 1720, his “Pantheisticon” appeared, in which his doctrines and his creed are thus explicitly set forth: “In mundo omnia sunt unum, unumque est omne in omnibus. Quod omne in omnibus, Deus est; seternus ac immensus, neqne genitus, neque interiturus. In eo vivimus, movemus, et existimus. Ab eo natum est unumquidque, in eumque denuo reverturum; omnium ipse principium et finis.” This is declared by a modern author to be Pantheism, that is atheism, or there is no such thing. It may be so; for we confess ourselves perfectly incompetent to decide upon the merits, as we understand not the meaning, of this sublime effusion; but we should rather incline to class it with the ridiculous jargon of alchemy, which was under-stood neither by the professor nor the leanter, and calculated solely to create an impression of the vastness of intellect of the one, on the disordered faculties of the other. But few copies of this work were printed, and those were privately distributed by the author, in the expectation of receiving presents for them. In the preface he subscribes himself Janus Junius Eoganesius; which, though really his Christian name and the place of his birth, served for a good cover to the author, as no person in England was acquainted with these particulars. In the same year also appeared &147;Tetradymus.&148; In 1721, Dr. Hare, Dean of Worcester, published, {600}

&147;Scripture vindicated from the Misrepresentations of the Lord Bishop of Bangor;&148; in which he incidentally inserted a profane prayer of &147;the impious author of the Pantheisticon.&148; - Omnipotens et sempiterne Bacche, qui humanam societatem maxime in bibendo constitutisti; concede propitius, ut istorum capita, qui hesternâ compotatione gravantur, hodiernâ leventur; idque fiat per pocula poculorum. Amen. Des Maizeaux, however, affirms that it was not composed by Toland, who knew nothing of it; but by a person whose name he forbears on account of his profession; though he believes he only intended it as a ridicule of Toland’s club of pantheistic philosophers, whom he injuriously imagined to be all drunkards, whereas they are grave, sober, and temperate men.

He had for several years lived at Putney, spending his winters in London. While there, about the middle of December, finding his strength and appetite failing, he applied to a physician, who made him worse by producing a continual vomiting and diarrhoea, in this state he returned to Putney, and growing somewhat better, he wrote &147;A Dissertation to prove the uncertainty of Physic, and the danger of trusting our lives to those who practise it.&148; He was preparing some other things, but death put an end to all his projects, on the 11th of March, 1722. Throughout the whole course of this tedious sickness, we are informed that he behaved with a truly philosophical patience, and looked upon death without the least perturbation of mind, composing his own epitaph, and bidding fare well to those about him, telling them he was going to sleep.

AN admirable artist, was a native of Ireland, and received his first instruction in the rudiments of the art in the academy of Mr. West in Dublin. He afterwards visited England, where he was for some time employed in drawing small portraits, when he was favoured with the {601} patronage of Lord Cawdor, and was invited to accompany that nobleman in his travels to Italy. During a residence of fourteen years on the continent, chiefly at Rome, lie prosecuted his studies with great success, and returned a correct and elegant designer. He had distinguished himself by several designs for the principal publications of the time, when Mr. Boydell formed his project of illustrating Shakspeare with prints engraved from pictures painted by the most eminent artists of the British school. Mr. Tresham was engaged to contribute the exertions of his talents to that great undertaking. The subjects allotted to him were three scenes from the play of Antony and Cleopatra; and he acquitted himself in a manner which merited and received the public approbation.

Soon after Mr. Tresham’s return from Italy, his health became considerably impaired, and for several years previous to his decease, he was reduced to a state of feebleness and infirmity, which incapacitated him from attempting any arduous undertaking; but his mind was not less alive to the interest of the art, which, to the last, was the chief object of his solicitude. Mr. Tresham was not less distinguished by the amiable qualities of his heart, than for the elegance of his taste as an artist; and he was equally beloved by a large circle of friends, as he was respected by his brother academicians.

He died June 17 1814.

He was also the author of three trivial poetical publications, all of which he made, in some measure, the vehicle of his sentiments on subjects of art.

THIS meritorious but unsuccessful navigator was the youngest son of Thomas Tuckey, Esq. of Greenhill, near Mallow, in the county of Cork, at which place the subject of our memoir was born, in August 1776. Both his parents dying during his infancy, he was left under the care of his maternal grandmother, who at an early age {602} sent him to a classical school in Cork. The course of his reading, it is said, gave him a predilection for the sea service; and as this passion appeared to his friends wholly uncontrollable, he was permitted by them to undertake a voyage on trial to the West Indies, and accordingly, in the year 1791, he made his first voyage in a merchant vessel which traded between Cork and Barbadoes, and a subsequent one the year following, to the same island and the Bay of Honduras: on his voyage home he experienced all the miseries arising from want of water and provisions, and after being at sea a considerable time, was obliged to put into Charleston, South Carolina. All these hardships, however, did not damp his ardour for the naval profession; and war being soon after declared against France, an application was immediately made to his relative, Captain, now Sir Francis, Hartwell, then commanding the Thetis frigate, to receive the young sailor into his ship. This request being complied with, he was fitted out as speedily as possible, and sailed from Cork for Portsmouth, where the Thetis then lay: unluckily the vessel he was in sprung a leak, and was obliged to return to the Cove of Cork for repairs, which caused considerable delay, and on his arrival at Portsmouth, Mr. Tuckey had the mortification to learn, that the Thetis had sailed three days before on a cruise. He was, however, by means of Captain Hartwell, received on board the Suffolk. On the 1st of June, 1793, he was rated midshipman; made the captain’s aid- de-camp, and some months afterwards was made master’s mate. In the Suffolk he proceeded to India, and arrived at Madras in September 1794. He was present at the capture of Trincomalee from the Dutch, in 1795, served in the batteries with the seamen during the whole siege, and escaped with a slight wound in his left arm from the splinter of a shell. He was present also at the surrender of Amboyna, and Banda: at the former island the Mahometan natives would have exterminated the Dutch, had not the English undertaken their defence and protection; to assist in this humane purpose, Mr.Tuckey {603} was stationed in a brig to cruise off the island, and on firing a gun at a party in arms assembled on the beach, it burst, and a piece striking him on the wrist, broke his right arm. Having no surgeon on board, he was obliged to officiate for himself, and set it in so sailor-like a fashion, that in about a week after it was again obliged to be broken by the advice of the surgeons. This arm he never completely recovered the use of. From the intense heat and the suffocating smell of an active volcano, to which they were exposed in Amboyua roads, for fourteen months, where they experienced the evils of famine and sickness, in addition to that of rebellion, they were glad to escape to Magao, where, in January 1797, they found the weather so intolerably cold, as several times to have snow. From thence they proceeded to Ceylon, and when at Columbo, on the 15th of January, 1798, a serious mutiny broke out on board the Suffolk, in the quelling of which Mr. Tuckey exerted himself with so much success, that, although wanting eighteen months for the completion of his servitude to qualify him for a lieutenant’s commission, the rear-admiral, Rainer, appointed him the following day acting lieutenant of the ship. From her he was removed to the Fox frigate; and when belonging to that frigate, being at Madras, intelligence was there received, that La Forte, a French frigate, was cruising in the Bay of Bengal. His majesty’s ship La Sybilie immediately prepared for sea, and Mr. Tuckey, with a small party of seamen belonging to the Fox, volunteered their services in her. They fell in with her, and after a desperate action she struck to the Sybilie. In this affray Lieutenant Tuckey commanded on the forecastle. After this action, Lieutenant Tuckey returned to the Suffolk, and received from the admiral a new active commission for his meritorious conduct. In August 1799, he was sent by the admiral in the Brave with dispatches for Admiral Blankett, then commanding a squadron in the Red Sea. At the Leychelles islands, they captured a ship proceeding to Europe with an embassy from Tippoo Suitaun to the French directory {604} the ambassadors concealed themselves several days in the woods, where they were discovered by Mr. Tuckey, for which he received a French general’s sword, as the only share for this capture, he being only a passenger in the Brave. On his arrival in the Red Sea, Admiral Blanket! had quitted it for India, and he rejoined his old ship the Fox, which was left to guard the straits of Babelmandel. On the return of the admiral in 1800, he intended to visit Sir Sidney Smith at Cairo, on the supposition of the French having evacuated Egypt, under the sanction of a convention with that officer; and in that idea sent Mr. Tuckey in the Fox to Suez, to proceed over-land from thence with letters for Sir Sidney: but on his arrival at Suez he found it in possession of the French, in consequence of Lord Keith’s refusal to permit their embarkation. He therefore returned to Bombay.

The excessive heat of the Red Sea seems to have laid the foundation of a complaint which never left him. He writes from Bombay, “It may surprise you to hear me complain of heat, after six years broiling between the tropics; but the hottest day 1 ever felt, either in the East or the W est Indies, was winter to the coolest one we had in the Red Sea. The whole coast of ‘Araby the blest,’ from Babelmandel to Suez, for forty miles inland, is an arid sand, producing not a single blade of grass, nor affording one drop of fresh water; that which we drank for nine months, on being analysed, was found to contain a very large portion of sea salt. In the Red sea the thermometer at midnight was never lower than 94°, at sunrise 104°, and at noon 112°. In India the medium is 82°, the highest 4°.”

Towards the close of the same year he again proceeded with the expedition to the Red Sea, (contrary to the advice of the faculty,) and arrived at Juddah in January 1801; but in the course of a month his liver complaint returned, and his health suffered so many shocks, that he was reduced to a skeleton, and obliged to make his way back to India, where the physician of the fleet advised {605} him to return home as the only means of accomplishing his recovery; and the admiral entrusted him with his dispatches. His native climate had the desired effect; and immediately on the re-establishment of his health, he applied to the Admiralty for active employment; accordingly, in 1802, he was appointed first lieutenant of his majesty’s ship Calcutta, in which situation he served during the whole of her long and arduous voyage, the object of which was to form a new establishment in New South Wales. Here Lieutenant Tuckey rendered very essential services, which were strongly acknowledged by the lieutenant-governor, who transmitted to the First Lord of the Admiralty a flattering testimony of his merits, particularly for a complete survey he had made of the harbour of Port Philip, &c. He reached England in 1804, and published an account of the voyage. But the favourable testimonies he had received were rendered abortive by the capture of the Calcutta in 1805, and by an imprisonment of nearly nine years in France. In 1806, he married Miss Margaret Stuart, a fellow-prisoner, who was also taken by the Rochefort squadron. Various applications were made at different times for the exchange of Lieutenant Tuckey; but they all proved fruitless.

In 1810, Mr.Tuckey obtained permission for his wife to visit England for the purpose of looking after his private affairs. Her object being accomplished, she obtained passports from the French government to return to her husband, and was landed at Morlaix; but counter-orders had been received at this port, and she was detained, and after many unsuccessful memorials, praying to rejoin her husband at Verdun, and after a detention of six weeks, she was sent back to England.

On the advance of the allied armies into France, in 1814, the British prisoners were ordered, at a moment’s warning, into the interior; and Mr. Tuckey, with his two little boys, was obliged to travel (in perhaps the most inclement winter the Almighty ever smote the earth with) to Blois. His youngest son was taken ill on the journey, and fell a {606} victim to fatigue and sickness. “I had indeed (says the father) a hard trial with my little boy; for, after attending him day and night for three weeks, (he had no mother, no servant, no friend but me to watch over him,) I received his last breath, and then had not only to direct his interment, but also to follow him to the grave, and recommend his innocent soul to God. This was indeed a severe trial, but it was a duty, and I did not shrink from it.” Another severe trial was reserved for him on his return to his family in England, on the final discomfiture of Buonaparte: he had the misfortune to lose a fine girl of seven years of age, in consequence of her clothes taking fire, after lingering several days in excruciating agony.

The painful moments of his long imprisonment, found some relief in the composition of a professional work, which was published in England shortly after his return, in four 8vo. volumes, under the title of “Maritime Geography and Statistics.”

In August 1814, Mr. Tuckey was promoted by Lord Melville to the rank of commander; and in the following year, on hearing of the intention of government to send an expedition to explore the river Zaire, he made an application with several other officers, to be appointed to* that service: his claims and his abilities were unquestionable, but his health appeared delicate; he was however so confident that his constitution would improve by the voyage, and in a warm climate, and urged his wishes so strongly, that the lords of the Admiralty conferred on him the appointment. On the 17th September, 1816, he reached the Congo sloop, and the following day, for the sake of better accommodation, was sent down to the Dorothy transport, at the Tall Trees; he arrived in a state of extreme exhaustion, brought on by fatigue, exposure to the weather, and privations. On the 28th, he thought himself belter, and wholly free from pain, but shewed great irritability, which was kept up by his anxiety concerning the affairs of the expedition. On the dOd^tbc debility, irritability, and depression of spirits, became {607} extreme, and he now expressed his conviction, that all attempts to restore the energy of his system would prove ineffectual. From this time to the 4th October, when he expired, his strength gradually failed him; but during the whole of his illness he had neither pain nor fever, and he may be said to have died of complete exhaustion rather than of disease. Captain Tuckey, at the time of his decease, had just attained his fortieth year.

The few survivors of this ill-fated expedition, will long cherish the memory of Captain Tuckey. His benevolence was boundless. A poor black of South Africa, who in his youth had been kidnapped by a slave dealer, was put on board the Congo while in the Thames, with the view of restoring him to his friends and country, neither of which turned out to be in the neighbourhood of the Zaire, and he was brought back to England. This black was publicly baptized at Deptford church by the name of Benjamin Peters; having learned to read on the passage out by Captain Tuckey’s instructions, of whom he speaks in the strongest terms of gratitude and affection. Captain Tuckey was generous to a fault, and knew nothing of the value of money, except as it enabled him to gratify the feelings of a benevolent heart.

His present majesty was graciously pleased to settle a pension of £120 per annum, on his widow, and £25 per annum on each of his four children, of whom the youngest was born since his father’s departure for Africa.

A NATIVE of Ireland, was introduced into the navy, under the patronage of that gallant and much revered admiral, Sir Peter Warren, who was his uncle. Though he is said to have been appointed to the rank of post-captain in the Super be, we find his first commission, which is dated the 26th of December, 1743, was to the Launceston. In 1755, we find him captain of the Ipswich, of sixty-four guns, one of the ships put into commission {608} at Plymouth, a rupture with France being then apprehended. He was afterwards appointed to the Buckingham, and ordered to the West Indies, where we find him, in 1758, in company with the Cambridge, attacking a fort, in Grand A nee Bay, in the island of Martinico. Here they levelled the fort with the ground, destroyed three privateers, and took a fourth, which they converted into a tender. When the fort was demolished, a village near it presented a strong temptation to the men flushed with victory, to attack, and they solicited warmly for leave to plunder it; but their generous commander replied, - “Gentlemen, it is beneath us to render a number of poor people miserable, by destroying their habitations and little conveniences of life. Brave Englishmen scorn to distress even their enemies, when not in arms against them.” This seasonable harangue diverted the seamen from their purpose, and preserved the lives and properties of the innocent villagers. In the month of November, the gallant Tyrrel was ordered by Commodore Moore, to cruise in the Buckingham to windward of Martinico. Between the islands of Montserrat and Guadaloupe, he fell in with the IVeasel sloop, commanded by Captain Bowles, and immediately after descried a fleet of nineteen sail, under convoy of a seventy-four gun ship, which proved to be the Florissant, and two laige frigates. Captain Tyrrel immediately gave chase with all the sail he could carry; and the Weasel, running close to the enemy, received a whole broadside from the large ship, but without sustaining any consider-able damage. In consequence of this Captain Tyrrel gave orders to Mr. Bowles, her commander, to keep aloof, as his small ship was incapable of withstanding such heavy metal. The Florissant, unwilling to rely on her superiority over the Buckingham, bore away, firing all the time her stern-chase guns, while the two frigates raked the enemy fore and aft. Tyrrel, however, steadily kept on his course^ and at length came alongside the Frenchman, within pistol-shot, in which situation he poured in his broadside, which did terrible execution. The captain of the Florissant {609} was not backward in returning the salute, 90 that a furious conflict ensued. Captain Tyrrel being wounded in the face, and having three fingers of his right band shot away, was obliged to entrust the defence of his ship to Mr. Marshal, his first lieutenant, who continued the battle with great gallantry, but was killed in the act of encouraging the men; thus he died an honour to hi9 country, and to the service. The second lieutenant then came on deck, and fought the ship bravely, yard-arm and yard-arm, sustaining a desperate fight against the three ships of the enemy. The officers and crew of the Buckingham exerted themselves with a calm determined valour; and Captain Troy, who commanded a detachment of marines on the poop, plied his small arms so effectually, as to drive the enemy from their quarters. At length, when the French were no longer able to withstand the skill and bravery of their assailants, terror, uproar, and confusion prevailed among them. The firing from the Florissant ceased, and about twilight her colours were hauled down. The Buckingham was too much damaged in her rigging to take immediate possession of her well-earned prize; which the French captain perceiving, set ail his sails, and, under favour of the night, escaped with the two frigates. This circumstance alone prevented a British ship of sixty-five guns, five of them having been disabled some months before,) with only four hundred and seventy- two men, from taking a French ship of the line, mounted with seventy-four pieces of cannon, provided with seven hundred men, and assisted by two large frigates; one of thirty-eight guns, and three hundred and fifty men; the other of twenty-eight guns, and two hundred and fifty men. The loss of the Buckingham in this signal action, was only nine men killed, and thirty-one wounded. On board the Florissant, one hundred and eighty men were said to have been killed, and three hundred wounded. She was so disabled in her hull that she could be hardly kept afloat till she reached Martinico: and the largest frigate, besides the loss of forty men, received such damage, {610} as to become quite unserviceable. Captain Tyrrel, in his letter to Commodore Moore, accused the enemy of having fired square bits of iron, rusty nails, and such destructive materials as a generous enemy would have disdained to use. The brave Captain Tyrrel, coming to England soon after, was introduced to the king by Lord Anson, who received him with particular marks of favour: and in a few months he was appointed captain of the Foudroyant, of eighty guns, then esteemed the finest of her rate in the British service. In October 1762, he was promoted to the rank of rear-admiral of the white, but was not actually employed till the conclusion of the war, when be commanded in chief on the Antigua station. He died on board the Princess Louisa, his flag-ship, on his passage to England, on the 27th of June, 1766, and, at his own request, his remains were thrown into the sea.

A LEARNED antiquary and illustrious prelate, distinguished by Dr. Johnson as the great luminary of the Irish church, was born in Dublin on January 4th, 1580. He was descended from an ancient and respectable family, which had settled in Ireland in the reign of Henry II. On which occasion it followed a common custom of the times in exchanging its English name of Nevil, for that of the office with which it was invested. His infancy is rendered somewhat singular by the circumstance of his having beets instructed in reading by two aunts who had been blind from their cradle, but who, from the retentiveness of their memory, were able to repeat with accuracy nearly the whole of the Bible.

James I then only king of Scotland, had deputed two young Scotsmen, of respectable families, to Ireland, for the purpose of keeping up a correspondence there to secure his peaceable succession on the death of Elizabeth. To hide their real business, they opened a school in Dublin, to which young Usher was sent at the age of {611} eight years; and after profiting much under so excellent a tuition, he was admitted into the college of Dublin in 1393, the very year in which it was finished. He was one of the three first students who were admitted, and his name still stands in the first line of the roll. Here he contracted-a great fondness for history, and at the early age of fourteen, commenced a series of extracts from all the historical writers he could procure; by persevering in which, we are informed, that he was little more than fifteen when he had drawn up an exact chronology of the Bible, as far as the Book of Kings, little differing from his “;Annales,” which have since been published. He shortly after applied himself with much diligence to the study of controversy, and engaged, when in his nineteenth year, in a public disputation with the learned Jesuit Fitzsimons, the result of which is variously reported, but appears from a letter of Usher’s, inserted in his “Life by Dr. Parr,” to have been in his favour, Fitzsimons having declined to continue it.

In 1600, he was admitted master of arts, and appointed proctor and catechetical lecturer of the university; and in the succeeding year, in consideration of his extraordinary acquirements; he was ordained deacon and priest; though under canonical age, by his uncle, Henry Usher; then archbishop of Armagh. He was shortly after appointed afternoon preacher at Christchurch, Dublin; where he canvassed the different controversial points at issue between the Catholics and Protestants, constantly opposing a toleration which was then solicited by the former. On one occasion, referring to a prophecy of Ezekiel, be observed, “from this year, I reckon forty years; and then those whom you now embrace shall be your ruin, and you shall bear their iniquity.” This was afterwards, at the Rebellion in 1641, converted int a prophecy, and there was even a treatise published, “Dd Predictionibus Usserii.”

In 1606, be went over to London for the purpose 0/ purchasing books relative to English history and antiqui{612}ties, in the study of which he was then actively engaged. In this excursion he became intimately acquainted with many distinguished literary characters, among others, with Camden, who gratefully acknowledges his obligations for many particulars concerning Dublin, to Usher, a who, in various learning and judgment,” he observes, “far exceeds his years.” The following year he was promoted to the chancellorship of the cathedral of St. Patrick, and having proceeded bachelor of divinity, was chosen professor of that faculty in the university; in which office he continued thirteen years, reading weekly lectures during the whole of that time, except when absent in England, to which country he went regularly every three years, spending one month at Oxford, another at Cambridge, and the remainder in London, chiefly at the Cottonian library.

During one of these visits, in 1612, his first publication appeared, “De Ecclesiarum Christianaruni Successione et Statu;” in which he endeavoured to shew, that there has always existed a visible church of true Christians, untainted with the errors and corruptions of the Romish church, and that these islands owe not their Christianity to Rome. On his return to Ireland in the same year, he married Phoebe, daughter of Dr. Luke Chaloner, who, in his last will recommended Usher to his daughter for a husband, if she was inclined to marry.

A parliament being held in Dublin in 1615, the convocation of the clergy assented to one hundred and four articles which were drawn up by Usher, asserting in the strongest terms the doctrine of predestination and reprobation. On this and other accounts Dr. Heylin called the passing these articles an absolute plot of the Sabbatarians and Calvinists in England, to make themselves so strong a party in Ireland, as to obtain what they pleased in this convocation.

His enemies having attempted to injure him with the king, by representing his tenets as not sufficiently orthodox, lie procured a letter from the lord deputy and council {613} to the privy council of England, which he brought over to England in 1619, and satisfied his majesty so perfectly, that in the following year he promoted him to the bishopric of Meath; and several years after, to the archbishopric of Armagh. In the administration of this high office, Usher exerted himself in a most exemplary manner. Observing the increase of Arminianismin Ireland, which he considered as a very dangerous doctrine, he employed much time in searching into the origin of the predestinarian controversy; and meeting with a curious work on that subject, “Goteschalci et predestinarianæ controversæ ab eo motæ historia;” he published it in 1631, at Dublin, in quarto, which is stated to have been the first Latin book ever printed in Ireland. In the succeeding year he also published “Veterum Epistola rum Hibernicarum Sylloge,” a collection of letters to and from Irish bishops and monks, from 592 to 1180, concerning the affairs of the Irish church; which clearly demonstrate the high esteem, as well for learning as piety, in which the clergy of Ireland were held in Rome, France, and England.

The correspondence which he maintained in almost every country in Europe, was of considerable importance to the advancement of learning, and procured him in 1634, a very good copy of the Samaritan Pentateuch from the east; which was one of the first ever brought into western Europe; together with a copy of the Old Testament in Syriac, and several other valuable MSS. Usher collated the Samaritan with the Hebrew, marking the differences, after which he intended it for the library of Sir Robert Cotton; but having lent it to Dr. Walton, together with several other manuscripts, to use in his Polyglot Bible, they were not recovered till 1686, and are now in the Bodleian library. In 1639, he published “Britannicarum Ecclesiarum Antiquitates;” a work which has been of considerable service to Dr. Lloyd and Bishop Stillingfleet, in their productions on the same subject.

In the rebellion of 1641, Usher was plundered of all his property, with the exception of his library and some fur{614}niture in his house at Drogheda, whence the library was conveyed to England. On ibis misfortune, the king conferred on him the bishopric of Carlisle, in commendam; the revenues of which, however, were reduced almost to nothing by the Scotch and English armies quartering upon it; and when all the lands belonging to the English bishoprics were seized by the parliament, they voted him a pension of 400£ which was only paid to him once or twice. It is said, that he refused at this time an invitation into France by Cardinal Richelieu, with a promise of the free exercise of his religion, and a considerable pension; and likewise by the States of Holland) who offered him the honorary professorship at Jueyden.

On the invitation of the Countess of Peterborough he fixed his residence at her house in London, in 1646, and in 1647, was chosen preacher of Lincoln’s Inn; the Society providing him with handsome lodgings, and several rooms for his library, which was about this time brought up from Chester. Here he constantly preached in termtime for almost eight years, till at last, his eye-sight and teeth beginning to fail him, he could not well be heard in so large a congregation, and was forced to quit this place about a year and a half before his death, to the great regret of the Society. On March 20, 1655-6, he was taken ill, and died on the following day, at the Countess of Peterborough’s house, at Ryegate, in Surrey. Preparations were made for g private funeral; but Cromwell ordered him to be interred with great magnificence in Erasmus’s chapel, in Westminster Abbey; the funeral service, which must be considered as a very particular indulgence, being performed according to the liturgy of the church of England. His funeral sermon, which contains many particulars of his life, was preached by Dr. Nicholas Bernard, who had formerly been his chaplain, and was then preacher of Gray’s Inn.

His library, being the only part of his property which remained to him, he bequeathed to his daughter; from whom it was purchased by the officers and soldiers of the Irish {615} army, for the purpose of forming the basis of a public collection. Its value and importance may be estimated from its containing ten thousand volumes, printed add manuscript; and liberal offers were made for it by the King of Denmark, and by Cardinal Mazarine. It now forms an important portion of the valuable and extensive library of Trinity college, Dublin.

A WRITER of some ingenuity, was the son of a gentleman farmer in the county of Dublin, where he was born about 1720. He received a good classical education, though with no view to any of the learned professions. When grown up, he became a farmer, in imitation of his father; but after some years’ experience, had little success, and having sold bit farm, stock, See. settled for some time as. a linen-draper in Dublin: for this business, however, hd seems to have been as little qualified as for the other, and was a great loser. In truth, be had that secret love of literature about him, which generally inspires a train of thought not very compatible with the attention which trade requires: and finding himself, after some years, a widower with a family of four children, and but little prospect of providing for them in any business, he took orders in the church of Rome, sent his three sons for education to the college of Lombard in Park, and his daughter to a monastery, where she soon after died. He then came to London, and while revolving plans for his support, and the education of his children, Mr. Molloy, an Irish gentleman, who had formerly been a political writer against Sir Robert Walpole, died, and left him a legacy of three hundred pounds. With this money Mr. Usher thought of setting up a school, as the most likely Way of providing for his sons; and with this view he communicated his intentions to the late Mr. John Walker, author of the Pronouncing Dictionary, and many other approved works on the construction and elegance of the English language.

Mr. Walker not only approved the plan, but joined him as a partner in the business, and they opened a school under this firm at Kensington Gravel-pits. Mr. Usher’s acquaintance with Mr. Walker commenced during the former’s excursions from Dublin to Bristol, which latter place Mr. Walker’s business led him to visit occasionally. Their acquaintance soon grew into a friendship, which continued unbroken and undiminished to the close of Mr. Usher’s life. But the school these gentlemen were embarked in, did not altogether answer Mr. Walker’s purposes. Whether the profits were too little to divide, or whether he thought he could do better as a private teacher, it is difficult to say; but Mr. Walker, after trying it for some time, quitted the connection, and commenced a private teacher, which he very successfully continued to the last. They parted, however, with the same cordiality they commenced, and the civilities and friendships of life were mutually continued.

Mr. Usher being now sole master of the school, he cultivated it with diligence and ability, and with tolerable success, for about four years; when he died of a consumption, at the age of fifty-two, in 1772.

He wrote a pamphlet, entitled, “A New System of Philosophy;” “Clio; or, a Discourse on Taste;” “An Introduction to the Theory of the Human Mind;” and some letters in the Public Ledger, signed “A Freethinker.”

An eminent Roman Catholic, and a man of great learning, was born October 10th, 1588, at Waterford. His first studies were commenced at home, under the tuition of his brother Matthew, who took him to Portugal in the fifteenth year of his age, and placed him in a seminary established for the Irish at Lisbon, where he studied philosophy for six months under the Jesuits. In 1605, after having passed his noviciate, he was admitted among the Franciscans, and afterwards continued his studies at their {617} convents at Liria, Lisbon, and Coimbra, in all which places he was remarkable for the diligence and success of his application. After being admitted into priest’s orders, he removed to Salamanca, where he remained some time, and was made super-intendant of the students, and lecturer in divinity.

In 1618, he proceeded to Italy, where be employed himself in literary labours. In 1625, he founded St. Isidore’s college at Rome. He also persuaded Cardinal Ludovisius, to found a secular college there for six Irish students. His influence, from whatever cause, appears to have been very great; but the worst, and, as his biographers say, the only stain on his character, is the encouragement he gave to the Irish rebellion and massacre in 1641. He died November 18th, 1657, and was buried in the chapel of St. Isidore. Not long prior to his decease, be had refused the promotion to the rank of cardinal. A complete list of his works is to be found in Ware; but the most important is the history of his order, and the eminent ’men it has produced. This he completed in eight vols. folio; but a new and enlarged edition has since been published in Rome, in nineteen vols. folio.

A DIVINE, but more celebrated for his military courage and undaunted heroism, was descended from English parents, and born in the county of Tyrone. He received his education in the Glasgow university, and became afterwards rector of Donougbmore, a short distance from the city of Londonderry.

When king James II after the Revolution, landed in Ireland, Mr. Walker, alarmed at the danger of the Protestant religion, raised a regiment at his own expense to defend the cause he was bound to espouse. Apprehensive that James would visit Londonderry, (for he had taken Coleraine and Kilmore,) he rode full speed to Lundee, the governor, to apprise him of the danger. That officer at {618} first slighted the information, but was soon convinced how much he was indebted to him. Walker, returning to Lifford, joined Colonel Crafton, and, by Londee’s direction, took post at the long causeway, which he defended a whole night; but at length, obliged to give way to a superior force, he retreated to Londonderry, where he endeavoured to inspire the panic-struck governor with courage to brave the storm, but in vain; he left the place either through fear or treachery. Walker, however, bravely united with Major Baker to defend the place, which would have appeared bordering upon rashness, if they had been able generals. James commanded a nume-rous army in person, which was well supplied with every requisite for a siege. The besieged had no means for a long defence; they were men who, flying from their houses, had taken shelter in this place; they had not more than twenty cannon, nor more than ten days’ provision, and had no engineers, nor horses for foraging parties or sallies. Still resolved to suffer the greatest extremities rather than yield, they did all that desperate men could effect. They sent to King William to inform him of their determination, imploring speedy relief. Major Baker dying, the command devolved chiefly on Walker, who exercised it with a stoic philosophy that has few parallels. Horses, dogs, cats, rats, and mice, were devoured by the garrison, and even salted hides were used as food. Mr. Walker suffered in common with his men, and even prompted them to make several sallies; and as the men constantly fled, the officers suffered dreadfully. Londonderry having a good harbour, he hoped that the king might be enabled to raise the siege that way, for by land there were no hopes of succour. But the fatality which frustrated every attempt of James, prevented him from storming the place, which might at any time have been done; on the contrary, he determined on a blockade, and to starve the garrison into a surrender. With this view he had a bar made across the arm of the sea, which, as he supposed, would prevent vessels from entering the town. {619}

This succeeded, and all hope to the besieged seemed to be destroyed. Walker, perceiving the danger of a general defection, assembled his wretched garrison in the cathedral, and endeavoured to inspire them with a reliance on Providence. In this he was so successful, that they returned to their labours invigorated, and immediately had the happiness to discover three ships, under the command of Major-General Kirk, who had sent a message to Walker before, intimating that when he could hold out no longer, he would raise the siege at the hazard of himself, his men, and his vessels. Whilst both parties were preparing for the dreadful trial, Kirk sailed round the bar, under a heavy discharge from the enemy, and succeeded in crossing it, by which the siege was raised in the night of July 1, 1689.

Resigning now the command of the garrison, he came to England, where he was most graciously received by their majesties, and, in Nov. 1689, received the thanks of the House of Commons, having just before published an account of the siege. He was also created D. D. by the university of Oxford, and nominated to the bishopric pf Derry. But he was induced to return to Ireland with King William, and was killed July 1, 1690, at the battle of the Boyne, having resolved to serve that campaign before he took possession of his bishopric. “The king,” says Tillotson, in a letter dated April 1689, “besides his first bounty to Mr. Walker, whose modesty is equal to his merit, hath made him bishop of Londonderry, one of the best bishoprics in Ireland; that so he may receive the reward of that great service in the place where he did it. It is incredible how much every body is pleased with what the king hath done in this matter; and it is no small joy to me to see, that God directs him to do wisely.” Mr. Walker published his account of the siege of Londonderry, which was succeeded by other pamphlets by him, and from the pens of others. {620}

AN author who has thrown much light on the bardic antiquities of his country, was born in Dublin, and educated by the Rev. Dr. Ball; but being possessed of a frame of peculiar delicacy, was obliged to visit Italy. Here he devoted his time principally to the study of Italian literature. He soon returned from the continent, little improved in health; but his mind was stored with the treasures of observation. He wrote two works, which are now very scarce, viz. “Historical Memoirs of the Bards and Music of Ireland” 4to. plates; and “Historical Essay on the Dress, Armour, and Weapons of the Irish/’ 4to. plates.

The above are held in great and deserved estimation, although filled with long Italian quotations, in many instances quite irrelevant, which Walker, in a conversation he had a short time before his decease with the celebrated Mr. Bunting, sincerely regretted, as then he was convinced it arose from a badness of taste. Mr. Walker died April 12, 1810, in the forty-ninth year of his age, at St. Valeri, near Bray.

He was also the author of a quarto volume, entitled, “Memoirs on Italian Tragedy;” aud in the Transactions of the Irish Academy for 1788, there is a short Essay on the Irish stage, written by him.

A CATHOLIC of great learning and liberality of sentiment, was born at Moortown, in the county of Kildare, in the early part of the seventeenth century. He was a friar of the Franciscan order, and was professor of divinity at Louvaine, where he probably was educated. Returning to Ireland, he went to Kilkenny at the time the pope’s nuncio was there, but was not of his party. On the contrary, he made many endeavours to persuade the Irish Roman Catholics to the same loyal sentiments as he himself held; {621} and after the restoration of Charles II when he was procurator of the Romish clergy of Ireland, he persuaded many of them to subscribe a recognition or remonstrance, not only of their loyalty to the king, but of their disclaiming the pope’s supremacy in temporals. This drew upon him the resentment of many of his brethren, and particularly of the court of Rome. Such hopes, however, were entertained of this important change in the sentiments of the Irish Catholics, that, in 1666, the court thought proper to permit their clergy to meet openly in synod at Dublin, in order, as was expected, to authorise the above remonstrance by a general act of the whole body. But this assembly broke up without coming to any decision, and the Duke of Ormonde, then lord-lieutenant, considered it necessary to proceed against those who refused to give any security for their allegiance. But when, in 1670, Lord Berkeley succeeded him, by some secret orders or intrigues of the popishly-affected party in England, Walsh, and those who had signed the remonstrance, were so persecuted as to be obliged to leave the country. Walsh came to London, and by the interest of the Duke of Ormonde, got an annuity of £100. for life. He had lived on terms of intimacy with the duke for nearly forty years, and had never touched much on the subject of religion until the reign of James II when he made some overtures to gain the duke as a proselyte; but desisted when he found his arguments had no effect. Dodwell took some pains, although in vain, to convert Walsh, hoping, that as they had cast him out of the communion of the church of Rome, he might be persuaded to embrace that of the church of England. Walsh died in September 1687, and was buried in St. Dunstan’s in the West. Burnet says of him, “He was the honestest and learnedest man I ever knew among them, and was indeed, in all points of controversy, almost wholly a Protestant. But he had senses of his own, by which he excused his adhering to the. church of Rome, and maintained, that with these he could continue in the communion of that church {622} without sin, &c. He was an honest and able man, much practised in intrigues, and knew well the methods of the Jesuits and other missionaries.”

Walsh wrote various controversial pamphlets, a complete list of which is to be found in Ware.

A MOST learned and laborious investigator of Irish antiquities and history, was born in Castle-street, Dublin, November 26, 1594. His father, who held the office of auditor-general, with the reversion to his son, discovering in him an ardent and early love of literature, gave him a good classical education; and, at the age of sixteen, he was entered a fellow-commoner of Trinity college, where he studied with such success, that he was admitted M. At at a much earlier period than usual.

The taste which he discovered for antiquities, introduced him, while at college, to the notice of the celebrated Usher, who soon became much attached to him; and ilf his work “De Primordiis,” took occasion to announce M the public what might be expected from Ware’s exertions. He had commenced collecting MSS. and making transcripts from such as he could procure access to in the? libraries of antiquaries and genealogists, and from the registers and chartularies of cathedrals and monasteries, in which he spared no expense. The collections of Usher; and of Daniel Molyneux, Ulster king at arms, were constantly open to him, and from their rich stores he derived considerable advantage. After exhausting whatever resources Ireland afforded, he went to England in 1626, where lie was introduced by Usher to Sir Robert Cotton; who admitted him to his valuable library, and formed so intimate a connexion with him, as to keep up a constant correspondence during the remainder of his life. The materials with which he furnished himself from the Cotton collection, the Tower of London, and other repositories; (many of which, in his hand-writing, are preserved in the {622} library of Trinity college,) enabled him on his return to Ireland, to publish a history of the Archbishops of Cashel and Tuam; and two years after, of the Archbishops of Dublin; both which be afterwards incorporated in his larger account of the Irish bishops. In 1628, he went again to England, carrying with him several MSS. which he knew would be acceptable to Sir Robert Cotton; and in this second journey, added considerably to his own collections, through his acquaintance with Selden and other men of research and liberality. On his return home in the following year, he was knighted by the lords justices; and in 1632, he succeeded his father in his estate, and in the office of auditor-general. The duties of his new office, and his attendance at the privy council, to which he was called by Lord Wentworth, afterward Earl of Strafford, did not, however, prevent him from continuing his antiquarian labours. In the following year he published “Spenser’s View of the State of Ireland,” dedicating it to the lord deputy; as he did afterwards “Hanmer’s Chronicle,” and Campion’s “;History of Ireland.” His Account of the Writers of Ireland, which has since been so ably enlarged and improved by Mr. Harris, who married his grand-daughter, appeared first is 1639. {623}

During the progress of the unhappy rebellion which commenced in 1641, Sir James Ware attended closely to the business of the council; and engaged, with other privy counsellors, in securities for the repayment of considerable sums advanced by the citizens of Dublin, to pay the English troops sent over to quell the rebellion. The storm, however, which had arisen in England, rendering the presence of those troops necessary in that kingdom, a cessation of arms was agreed on for one year; a measure in which Sir James concurred rather from necessity than choice. Of his behaviour during this trying period, the Marquis of Ormonde writes, “Even when his majesty’s affairs were most neglected, and when it was not safe for any man to shew himself for them, he then appeared most {624} zealously and stoutly for them:” in consequence of which undaunted loyalty, he obtained, in 1643, a reversion of his office to his son. In the succeeding year, while the treaty of peace with the Irish was pending, he was dispatched to the king at Oxford, to inform him of the posture of his affairs in Ireland, and to know his pleasure relative to those articles which yet remained to be adjusted. During this mission, he employed such time as he could spare, in the libraries and in the company of literary men; and was complimented by the university with the honorary degree of doctor of laws.

Having completed his business in England, and being on his return with dispatches to Dublin, he was captured by one of the parliament vessels, sent to London, and confined in the Tower; from which he was liberated in exchange, after a tedious imprisonment of ten months. On his return to Ireland, he found the king’s affairs in a most desperate situation, of which Charles was so well aware, that he had given directions to make peace, whatever it might cost, so that his protestant subjects there may be secured, and his regal authority preserved.” But when, under this ample commission, the Earl of Glamorgan had concluded the treaty, he was accused at the council table by Secretary Digby, of high treason, for having exceeded his authority. On this he was arrested, and Sir James, Lord Roscommon, and Lord Lambert, were appointed a committee, to inquire into his conduct, and take his examination, which was transmitted to the king in January 1646.

During the remainder of the troubles, Sir James remained firmly attached to the king’s interests, and was high in the confidence and friendship of the Marquis of Ormonde; and when Dublin was surrendered by the king’s orders, in June 1647, he was considered a man of such consequence, as to be insisted on as one of the hostages for the due performance of the treaty. In consequence of this, he repaired to London; where he remained till the hostages were suffered to depart, after which be returned {625} to Dublin, living in a private situation, as he was deprived of his office, till Michael Jones, the governor of Dublin, jealous of his character and consequence, sent him a peremptory order to transport himself beyond seas into any country he pleased, except England. He retired to France in April 1649, where he spent some time at Caen, and afterwards at Paris, contracting an acquaintance with the most learned men in both places. His exile, however, was not of long continuance; in 1651 he came to London, by licence of the parliament, on private business, and two years afterwards went to Ireland to look after his estates. The leisure which he now enjoyed was devoted to his favourite studies, the return to which was consoling as well as gratifying; and he remained in Ireland till the Restoration, with the exception of occasional journies to London, to superintend the publication of his works; the art of printing being then in a very low condition in Ireland. In 1654, be published the first edition of his Antiquities, of which an enlarged and improved edition appeared in 1658, together with a collection of the works ascribed to St. Patrick.

During the exile of Charles II Ware had assisted him with a considerable sum of money; and Charles, not so forgetful of him as of many others, immediately on the Restoration, replaced him in his office of auditor-general. In the parliament which was immediately summoned, he was unanimously elected for the university of Dublin; and was shortly afterwards made one of the four commis-sioners of appeal in excise causes, and one of the commissioners under the king’s declaration fur the settlement of Ireland. So great indeed was his favour at court, principally, we imagine, through the interest of the Duke of Ormond, that his majesty offered to create him a viscount of the kingdom of Ireland, which he refused. At his request, however, the king granted him two blank patents of baronetcy, winch he filled up for two friends, whose posterity, Harris says, “to this day enjoy the honours;” but he does not mention their names. {626}

Returning again to his studies, he published some remains of the venerable Bede, and the Annals of Ireland during the time of Henry VII and the three succeeding reigns. In 1665, his History of the Irish Bishops appeared, and he was preparing other publications respecting Ireland, when death put an end to his projects on December 3, 1666. He was buried in St. Werburgh’s church, Dublin, in a vault belonging to his family.

As an antiquary, Sir James Ware must ever be high m the veneration of his countrymen. He was the Camden of Ireland, deficient only in not understanding the language of the country be investigated; yet it is observed by Vallancey, that “his works are the outlines and materials of a great plan, which he enjoyed neither life nor abilities to finish; and it is much to be lamented that he had not the good fortune to meet with so experienced and intelligent an amanuensis as Mac Terbiss sooner." He was a man of charitable disposition; his table was open to the distressed; and we are informed by Harris, that he always forgave the fees of his office to widows, clergymen, and clergymen’s sons. On one occasion, a house in Dublin forfeited by the rebellion, being granted to him, he sent for the widow and children of the forfeiting person, and conveyed it back to them.

THIS distinguished naval commander, who rose by his merit to a very high rank in his profession, was descended from an ancient family, and born in the county of Meath, about the year 1703. Having entered into the navy at an early age, he passed through the regular gradations of rank to that of post-captain, which he obtained on the 19th of June, 1727, when he was appointed to the command of the Grafton, and sent out to join Sir Charles Wager in the Mediterranean. The next year we find him in the West Indies; but the long peace which ensued, kept him unemployed till 1741, when he commanded the Squirrel of only twenty guns, on the American station, {627} and with it destroyed the largest and only remaining privateer belonging to St. Jago de Cuba. In 1742, being appointed to the Launceston of forty guns, be took, among the Canary isles, a very rich French ship from Vera Cruz, with a large quantity of money on board. He afterwards commanded a squadron in the West Indies; and having taken a station off Martinique, he captured, between the 12th of February and the 24th of June, 1744, twenty-four prizes of great value, among which was a register ship, estimated at 250,000£

His great abilities were placed in a more conspicuous light by the taking of Louisburgh, in 1745, after a siege of forty-seven days, in which service he co-operated with General Pepperel. The news of this success was received in England with every testimony of rejoicing, and the gallant commodore was immediately appointed rear-admiral of the blue, and in the following year, rear-admiral of the white. In the beginning of 1747, he was sent out second in command of the Channel fleet, under Admiral Anson, when they fell in with and captured six French men of war, and four Gast Indiamen. His gallantry on this occasion was rewarded with the order of the Bath. He was next ordered to cruise off Cape Finisterre, where he made several valuable prizes; and on his return to England, was created vice-admiral of the white. In September 1747, he again sailed from Spithead on a cruise, but was compelled, by a severe illness, to resign his command, and retire to his country seat in Hampshire. In April 1748, he was sent with a strong English and Dutch squadron to cruise to the westward; bnt the peace put an end to his professional exertions, which were rewarded on. the 12th of May, with his last naval promotion - that of rear-admiral of the red. At the general election in 1747, he had been returned to Parliament for the city of Westminster; but his popularity placed him in an embarrassing situation, on the death, of the Lord Mayor, in 1752. He had previously received the freedom of the city in a gold box; but the citizens of {628} Billingsgate ward, desirous of a still closer connexion with him, seized this opportunity of nominating him as a candidate for the vacant gown. This honour was politely declined by Sir Peter, who at the same time made a present of 200£ to the ward. The zealots, however, would take no denial, and Sir Peter being declared duly elected, was obliged to pay a fine of 500£ to the Court of Aldermen, in order to be excused from serving.

Immediately after paying this high price for his popularity, the gallant admiral revisited his native land, where an inflammatory fever put a period to his existence on the 29th of July, 1752, in the forty-ninth year of his age. An elegant monument of white marble, by Roubilliac [sic for Roubiliac], is erected to his memory in Westminster Abbey. Sir Peter was equally amiable as a man and gallant as a sailor. It has been remarked, that had he lived ten years longer, be would probably have taken the lead in those glorious achievements which distinguished the war from 1756 to 1762.

AN individual eminently distinguished for his philanthropy and perseverance, was born in the county of Leitrim. He held the living of St. James’s, but was soon after promoted to the vicarage of St. Catherine’s, in Dublin, which included a distressed population of twenty thousand individuals. The affairs of the parish, by neglect and litigation, were in the most ruinous condition; through Mr. Whitelaw’s zeal and assiduity, the parish rights were ascertained. Though truly a man of peace, yet his public spirit was such that he sustained five suits in Chancery, at his own expense, which being brought to a favourable issue, raised an imperfect rental of £50 into a regular income of £700. per annum. On every occurrence of epidemic distress, he was always the first to promote a subscription, and apply it judiciously towards the relief of the afflicted. On one occasion, a sudden stagnation of business reduced two thousand six hundred and forty-three families, including nine thousand one hundred and ninety-four individuals, literally to starvation; through Mr. Whitelaw’s perseverance and indefatigable humanity, they were effectually relieved, by establishing committees in the various districts.

His little work, entitled “Parental Solicitude,” is an affectionate appeal on that important topic, and is highly, prized by all those to whom the author distributed it: as likewise was his “System of Geography,” on an entirely new plan, which displayed uncommon ingenuity, perseverance, and application. Not satisfied with the accuracy of the maps which he had given to be engraved, notwithstanding the late period of his life, he acquired such, expertness with the graving tool, that the elegance and precision of the execution was quite astonishing, especially when taking into the account his other various and important pursuits; for he did not, like many of his profession, depute others to the performance of his sacred duties, but was to be found at all hours moving from one miserable {630} abode to another; at the side of the sick, however contagious the disease. It was by his ceaseless attendance at the hospital, during the prevalence of a most malignant fever, that the infection was communicated to him, which finally terminated a life, which displayed on every occasion the real traits of the religion he professed. Mr. Whitelaw was in his sixty-fifth year at the time of his decease.

THE author of that popular satirical work, entitled, “Advice to Officers of the British Army,” written in imitation of Dean Swift’s Advice to Servants; was born near Lisburn, and at the breaking out of the American war entered into the army, and served several campaigns in North America. He died on the 31st of July, 1801, at Farnham Royal, near Windsor, of a consumption, in the forty-third year of his age.

He was also the author of several military tracts, and wrote in many periodical publications.

A CELEBRATED comedian, was descended from an illustrious Irish family, and born at Rathfarnham, near Dublin, in 1670, where he received a genteel education. He wrote a masterly hand, and with such surprising celerity, that his genius recommended him to Secretary Southwell, who received him into his office as a clerk at eighteen yean of age: and in this capacity he remained till after the battle of the Boyne, which completed the Revolution. His first inclination for the stage is attributed to the following circumstance: He happened to lodge near Mr. Richard, then an actor on the Dublin stage: and, being intimate with him, used to hold the book while Richards was studying, to observe whether he was perfect in his part. Mr. Wilks used to read the introductory speeches with so {631} much propriety, emphasis, and cadence, that the encomiums bestowed on him by his friend began to fire his mind for the drama; and another accidental circumstance confirmed him in the intention of directing his abilities to the stage. Upon that happy and unexpected turn of affairs produced by the battle of the Boyne, the people of Dublin, among other expressions of joy, determined on a play; but the actors having been dispersed during the war, some private persons agreed to give one gratis, at the theatre, in the best manner they were able. With very little persuasion, Mr. Wilks ventured to represent the Colonel, (Spanish Friar,) at Mr. Ashbury’s theatre, where the approbation he received from that great master, operated so strongly on him, that he quitted his post, to a person who afterwards raised a fortune of £50,000 in it, and commenced player. The first character Wilks appeared in, on the public theatre, was that of Othello, which he performed to the approbation of every one but himself. He went on with great success at Dublin for two years, when his friend, Richards, advised him to try his fortune in England, and gave him letters of recommendation to Mr. Betterton; by whom, though he was kindly received, be was only engaged at the low rate of fifteen shillings a week. His first appearance on the English stage was in the part of the young Prince, (Maid’s tragedy,) a very insignificant character, that required little more than an agreeable person. Betterton performed Melantius; but, when that veteran actor came to address him on the battlements, the dignity of Mr. Betterton struck him with so much awe, that he had much ado to utter the little he had to say. Better ton, who had observed his confusion, encouraged him afterwards, by saying, “Young man, this fear does not ill become you; for a horse that sets out at the strength of his speed will soon be jaded.” But Mr. Wilks, growing impatient at his low condition, the company being so well supplied with good acton, that there was very little hope of his getting forward, engaged also in another profession, and became an assistant to Mr. Harris, {632} an eminent dancing-master at that time. In this capacity, so favourable to the exhibition of a good figure, he, by the gentility of his address, gained the affection of a young lady, the daughter of Ferdinand Knapton, Esq. steward of the New Forest in Hampshire; whom he married,with the consent of her father. He found his finances now very unsuitable to the establishment of a growing family, and therefore pressed hard for an addition to his salary, which every one beside the manager thought he well deserved: but this request not being complied with, he took a more expeditious step for advancement, by accepting the invitation of Mr. Ashbury to return to Ireland; that manager coming over on hearing of his discontent, purposely to engage him. He agreed with Mr. Wilks for £60 a year, and a clear benefit; which, in those times, was much more than any other performer ever had. When he went to take his leave of Mr. Betterton, the manager was with him. This great actor expressed some concern at his leaving the company. “I fancy,” said Mr. Betterton, “that gentleman,” pointing to the manager, “if he has not too much obstinacy to own it, will be the first that repents your parting; for, if I foresee aright, you will be greatly wanted here.” Having no competitor in Dublin, he was immediately preferred io whatever parts his inclination led him; and his early reputation on that stage as soon inspired him with the ambition of returning, and shewing himself on a better: nor was it long before his ambition was gratified, and the prophetic words of Air. Betterton fulfilled; for the unfortunate death of Mr. Mountford was a sickness to all the genteel comedies at London, until his loss could be supplied. Mr. Wilks therefore was immediately sent to with an offer of four pounds a week; which being a salary equal to that of Mr. Betterton himself, was too inviting a proposal to be neglected. His engagements at Dublin, were, however, too strong to be openly broke through, and he therefore prepared for his journey privately. Mr. Ashbury procured an older from the Duke of Ormond, then lord-lieutenant {633} of Ireland, to prevent his going; but, a particular friend giving him timely notice of it, be went secretly to Howth, where a boat waited to convey him on board, and thus he came safe to England. Upon his first arrival, Mr. Powell, who was now in possession of all the chief parts of Mr. Mountford, and the only actor who stood in Wilks’s way, offered him the choice of whatever he thought proper to make his first appearance in; a favour that was intended only to hurt him: but Wilks, who, from the first, had certainly formed his manner of acting on the model of Mountford, rightly judging it modest to chuse a part of Powell’s, in which Mountford had never appeared, accepted that of Palamedes, in Dryden’s “Marriage-à-Mode” and here too a fortunate circumstance attended him, by Mrs. Mountford being his Melantha in the same play. From this time he grew daily more in favour, not only with the town, but likewise with the patentee, .whom Powell, before Wilks’s arrival, had treated in what manner he pleased. His merit was at length rewarded by being joined, in the year 1709, by Queen Anne, in the patent granted to Dogget and Cibber: under whose direction the theatre recovered new life, and prosperity followed their judicious industry. He established his reputation by the part of Sir Harry Wildair, in which the vivacity of his performance was so proportionably extravagant to the character, as drawn by the author, that he was received in it with universal and deserved applause. As long as he trod the stage, he continued the unrivalled fine gentleman, and by the elegance of his address captivated the hearts of his audience to the very last. But, while his excellence in comedy was never once disputed, he was equally master of that dignity requisite in tragedy; and was as highly extolled, by the best judges, in the different parts of Hamlet; Castalio, (Orphan); Ziphares, (Mithridates); Edgar, (Lear); Piercy, (Anna Boleyn); Norfolk, (Albion Queens); the Earl of Essex; Shore; Macduff; Moneses, (Tamerlane); and Jaffier, (Venice Preserved, In 1714, he lost his wife, and con{634}tinued a widower seven years; but then married Mrs. Fell, the relict of Charles Fell, Esq. of an ancient family in Lancashire, who survived him. This celebrated actor died the 27th of September, 1732, and was interred in the church-yard of St. Paul’s, Covent Garden, where a monument was put over him by his widow. By his own request he was buried at midnight, to avoid ostentation; yet this peculiar honour was paid to his memory, that the gentlemen of the choir belonging to the royal chapel came voluntarily and performed an anthem, prepared for the solemn occasion. lie was always the first proposer of any joint charity from the theatrical stock; and tears were often seen in his eyes at the relation of any misfortune that befel others. When the unhappy Mr. Farquhar died, Wilks took care to bury him decently at St. Martin’s in the Fields, and also provided for his orphan daughters, whom he placed out as mantua-makers, and to the last gave them several benefit-plays; by which constant stream of bounty, he raised them above want; so that, in losing him, they lost another parent.

AN actress, no less celebrated for talents and fine accomplishments than for her generosity and appropriate feelings. Her origin was very humble; her mother, on the death of her father, kept a small grocer’s shop (commonly called in Ireland a huckster’s shop) upon Ormond Quay; and under this inauspicious circumstance did a woman, who afterwards delighted nations, and attracted the highest private regards, begin her career in life. What first gave rise to the accomplishment of so great a change, the following circumstance will explain There was a French woman, of the name of Madame Violante, who took up an occasional residence in Dublin about the year 1728. This woman was celebrated for exhibiting great feats of grace and agility on the tight rope, &c. and, as she supported a good private character, her exhibitions were much resorted {635} to at that time by people of the best fashion. Violante varied her amusements to the floating caprices of taste; and as “The Beggar’s Opera,” was then the rage over all the three kingdoms, she undertook to get up a representation of this celebrated piece with a company of children, or, as they were called in the bills of that day, “Lilliputian Actors.” - Woffington, who was then only in the tenth year of her age, she fixed upon as her Macheath; and such was the power of her infant talents, not a little, perhaps, aided by the partialities in favour of the opera, that the Lilliputian theatre was crowded every night, and the spirit and address of the little hero the theme of every theatrical conversation. A commencement so favourable got her an engagement a few years afterwards at Smock alley theatre, Dublin, where she soon fulfilled every expectation that was formed of her: and so little did her humble birth and early education bow down her mind to her situation, that her talents were found evidently to lie in the representation of females of high rank and dignified deportment; her person was suitable to such an exhibition, being of size above the middle stature, elegantly formed, and, though not an absolute beauty, her face was full of expression and vivacity; she was besides highly accomplished for the stage, being a perfect mistress of dancing, and of the French language, both of which she acquired under the tuition of Madame Violante. Her reputation on the Irish stage drew an offer from Mr. Rich, the manager of Covent Garden theatre, for an engagement, at a very handsome salary, which Miss Woffington accepted, and in the winter of 1740, (when our heroine was exactly twenty-two years of age,) she made her first appearance on the London boards, in the character of Sylvia, (Recruiting Officer,) and in the same month she performed Sir Harry Wildair. The publication of this part to be undertaken by a woman, excited the curiosity of the public, and more particularly as the character had for the most part lain dormant since the death of Wilks, (seven years before that time,) who was universally allowed the first Sir {636} Harry on the stage. However, this curiosity was fully satisfied in favour of Miss Woffington; it wiu nrlmiitt-d liy tlte best critics, that she represented this gay, good-humoured, dissipated rake of fashion with an case, elegance, and deportment, which seemed almost out of the reach of female accomplishments: and her fame flew about the town with such rapidity, that the comedy had a run, and proved a considerable addition to the treasury for many seasons afterwards. However great her reputation in this part, she did not rest it wholly in Sir Harry. In characters of easy, high-bred deportment, such as Millimont, Lady Townley, Lady Deity Modish, &c. she possessed a first-rate merit; she likewise excelled in many of the humorous parts of comedy, such as Lady Pliant, (Double Dealer,) Mrs. Day, (Committee,) and others, not in the least scrupling, on these occasions, to convert the natural beauty of her face to the wrinkles of old age, and put on the tawdry habiliments and vulgar manners of the old hypocritical city vixen. At what period Garrick became acquainted with Miss Woffington, is not ascertained; by computation, it must be some time before his appearance at Goodman’s-fields, or immediately afterwards, as we find them both engaged at the Dublin theatre in tbc summer of 1742, and both embarking on that expedition in the month of June the same year. Upon their return from Dublin, Miss Woffington lodged io the same house with Macklin; and as Garrick often visited there, there was a constant course of society between the parties; a fourth visitor too sometimes made his appearance there, but in private - who was a titled gentleman of distinction, and was much enamoured with Miss Woffington’s many agreeable qualifications. It, however, unfortunately happened one night, that Garrick had occupied Miss Woffington’s chamber when his lordship took it into his head to visit his favourite Dulcinea. A loud knocking at the door announced his arrival, when Garrick, who had always a proper presentiment of danger about him, jumped out of bed, and gathering up his clothes {637} as well as he could, hurried up to Macklin’s apartment for security. Macklin was just out of his first sleep when he was roused by his friend, who told him the particular cause of disturbing him, and requesting the use of a bed for the remainder of the night; but what was Garrick’s surprise when, on reviewing the articles of his dress which be brought up with him, “in the alarm of fear,” he found he had left his scratch wig below in Miss Woffington’s bed chamber. Macklin did all he could to comfort him - the other lay upon tenter-hooks of anxiety all night. - But to return to his lordship: he had scarcely entered the apartment, when, finding something entangle his feet in the dark, he called for a light, and the first object he saw was this unfortunate scratch, which, taking up in his hand, he exclaimed with an oath - “Oh! Madam, have I found you out at last? so here has been a lover in the case!” and then fell to upbraiding her in all the language of rage, jealousy, and disappointment. The lady heard him with great composure for some time; and then, without offering the least excuse, “begged him not to make himself so great a fool, but give her her wig back again.” “What! Madam, do you glory in your infidelity? Do you own the wig, then?” “Yes, to be sure I do,” said she. “I’m sure it was my money paid for it, and I hope it will repay me with money and reputation too.” This called for a farther explanation: at last she very coolly said, “Why, my lord, if you will thus desert your character as a man, and be prying into all the little peculiarities of my domestic and professional business, know that I am soon to play a breeches part, and that wig, which you so triumphantly hold in your hand, is the very individual wig I was practising in a little before I went to bed: and so, because my maid was careless enough to leave it in your lordship’s way - here I am to be plagued and scolded at such a rate, as if I was a common prostitute.” This speech had all the desired effect: his lordship fell upon his knees, begged a thousand pardons, and the night was passed in harmony and good humour. Garrick heard these particular with transport the next morning, praised her wit and ingenuity, and laughed heartily at at lordship’s gullibility. The connexion between Mrs. Woffington and Garrick soon after this became more united. They kept house together; and, by agreement, each bore the monthly expenses alternately. Macklin frequently made one at their social board, which was occasionally attended by some of the first wits of that time, particularly during Mrs. Woffington’s month, which was always distinguished by a better table, and a greater run of good company. During this lender connexion, they often performed together in the same scene, both in London and Dublin; but when Garrick became manager of Drury Lane, in the year 1747, he was not a little embarrassed in finding her one of the articled comedians of his partner, Mr. Lacy. She soon after quilted this theatre for Covent Garden, where for near four years, she shone unrivalled in the walks of elegance and humorous comedy. In 1751, she left the London theatres for a very profitable engagement under Mr. Thomas Sheridan, who was at that time manager of Smock-alley house, and who, being an excellent judge himself of theatrical merit, was always liberal in cultivating the growth of distinguished talents. It was at this era tluit Woffington might have been *aid to have reached the acme of her fame - she was then in the bloom of her person, accomplishments, and profession; highly distinguished for lier wit and vivacity, with a charm of conversation that at once attracted the admiration of the men, and the envy of the women. Although her articles with the manager was but for 400£ yet by four of her characters, performed ten nights each that season, viz. Lady Townley, Maria (Nonjuror), Sir Harry Wildair, and Hermione, she brought £4,000. The next year Sheridan enlarged her salary to £800 and though it was to be imagined that her force to draw audiences must be weakened, yet the profits at closing the theatre did not fall short of more than £300 of the first season. Her company off was equally sought for as on the stage, and she was the delight of some of the gravest and most {639} scientific characters in church and state: she was at the head of the Beef-steak Club, instituted every Saturday at the manager’s expense, and principally composed of peers and members of parliament for many years, where no woman was admitted but herself. Though Mrs. Woffington was now only in her thirty-eighth year, a time of life, generally speaking, which may be called meridional in point of constitution and professional talents, her health began visibly to decline: she, however, pursued her public business till the year before her death, when her disorder increasing, she retired from the stage in 1759, and died on the 28th of March, 1760. Many years before her death, perhaps in the gaiety of her heart, she made a kind of verbal engagement with Colonel C—, (a quondam inamorato of her’s) that the longest liver was to have all: she, however, thought better of this rash resolution, and bequeathed her fortune, which was about £5,000 to her sister; a legacy which, though it greatly disappointed the colonel, (who perhaps might have disappointed her had it been his turn to go first,) was more suitable to the duties she owed to so near and valuable a relation. Her death was considered as a general loss to the stage.

There was great similitude in the fates of Mr. Yelverton and Mr. Curran. Both moved in the same hemisphere, though at a distance of some dozen years in their period. They were born in the same village, both inspired with similar genius and like ardour for education. Both entered Trinity college as sizars; both distinguished themselves by the rapidity of their acquirements; both obtained scholarships after very short ordeals. Both were called to the bar, at which each continued for years in obscurity) as both were poor and without connexion; both were ardent patriots, and married wives with little or no fortune. But the ultimate success of both in their professional pursuits affords a striking lesson of the nil desperandum.

As great events have often sprung from trivial causes; so the destination of Mr. Yelverton to the study of the law, is said to have owed its origin to a whimsical incident. It was probably after be had made some progress at college, that he became a tutor in the classical academy kept by a Doctor Buck, in North King-street, Dublin, where he was entertained at the table as one of the family. Mrs. Buck was a rigid economist, a scrupulous Saver of farthings, and claimed the privilege of ruling the roast in household arrangements. She took a fancy of extending her system of retrenchments to the breakfast table; where, although she considered toast, tea, fresh eggs, and cold ham, very necessary to the comforts of herself and the doctor, they were, she thought, too expensive for half a dozen hungry tutors, who might very well breakfast with the pupils on bread and milk. The arrangement was accordingly adopted; but Mr. Yelverton, who was head {642} tutor, felt his pride so much hurt at this piece of degradation, that he immediately quitted the school, and directed all his exertions thenceforth to find his way to the bar; to which, after the requisite studies, he was called in the year 1764: but Mr. Curran did not attain that honour till 1775, eleven years afterwards.

Mr. Yelverton had to perform a briefless quarantine of some years in the Four Courts. But talents like his were sure, sooner or later, to rise to the proper level; and accordingly, in the space of eleven years from his call, we find him, after struggling through the brambles of embarrassment, and beating the tide of adversity, introduced to a seat in the Irish parliament, which was always considered an important ticket in that fortunate lottery for lawyers. Mr. Curran was only called to the bar in the year preceding; and this advancement of his townsman to the political stage, probably afforded no weak stimulus to his ambition and his hopes, especially as the mountain of improbabilities o’erclimbed by the man whom be now regarded as a prototype, was quite as high as that which he had himself to clamber.

Although the senatorial rank and comparatively veteran standing of Mr. Yelverton, if he had been a man of less generous mind, might have taught him to look down with proud superiority on the newness and unfriended obscurity of his townsman, Curran; still there is a mutual attraction between planets of kindred genius, which ever inclines the minor to converge to the major body; and by an influence somewhat analogical, the wit and classic acquirements of Curran had attained a celebrity, in spite of that worst of all had diseases, poverty, that could not long escape the notice, or fail to attract the regard, of his townsman, Mr. Yelverton, who was through life, the warm admirer and patron of literature, wit, and talents, wherever he found them. But had Mr. Yelverton been able and inclined to confer pecuniary favours, the spirit of young Curran was too independent to seek or accept them. He had that which he esteemed much higher - the friendship, the counte{643}nance, and the social intercourse of Mr. Yelverton, on a footing of perfect equality. With him and many of his contemporaries in Trinity college, frequent nights were devoted to intellectual, as well as convivial intercourse, - “the feast of reason and the flow of soul.” The well-known struggles which about this period began to dawn in the parliament of Ireland, for the attainment of free trade and legislative independence, gave Mr. Yelverton a favourable opportunity of displaying at once his patriot ardour and political eloquence. He was amongst the most strenuous advocates for the cause of his country ou those occasions, and his eloquence in the senate, (a principal advantage in a lawyer,) mainly contributed to his eminence and emolument at the bar. It would be tedious here to detail the history of those contests; let it suffice to say, that the patriots having succeeded in the attainment of their two great objects, free trade, and an independence of legislation and jurisdiction, a change of ministers took place. The Duke of Portland was appointed viceroy of Ireland; and Mr. Yelverton, in consequence of the decided part he took in parliament against the proceedings of the delegate convention at Dublin, was appointed attorney-general in 1782.

This appointment placed him in the direct path to the highest honours of his profession; and in 1784, he was nominated a privy counsellor, and raised to the Irish bench as chief baron of the exchequer. This appointment took him, for a time at least, out of the political arena; judicial gravity abated his patriotic fire, and rendered his devotion at court less conspicuous. But, in the year 1789, he was roused from his apathy by an extraordinary event.

When his majesty, previous to the manifestation of his mental malady, repaired to Cheltenham for the benefit of its waters, Baron Yelverton repaired thither to pay his respects to his sovereign, accompanied by his friend, Mr. Egan, a barrister of huge dimensions and rough manners; by his favourite, Mr. Curran, of a person diametrically opposite, and not fashioned in the mould of beauty, - and by {644} Mr. Brownlow, a member of parliament, eminent for his musical taste, and skilful performance on the violin. The Term was just ended, and Baron Yelverton was missing from his seat on the Exchequer bench, having left a person to do his nisi prius duties until his return. His departure was not known amongst the barristers, and inquiries were anxious for him in the Four Courts’ hall, when some one said he was gone to Cheltenham. Mr. Fitzgibbon, in a satirical vein, and knowing who had travelled with the judge, archly observed – “Oh, yes; - I am told he is certainly gone to Cheltenham, and travels like a showman, with a fiddler, a bear, and a monkey, in his train.” This sarcasm excited much laughter at the time. But shortly after, his majesty’s mental derangement became lamentably evident; and the question for appointing a regent during its continuance, was agitated in the parliaments of both countries. On this occasion, Baron Yelverton once more thought and acted with his old political associates of the Opposition. This unexpected opposition from a dignified elève, taught ministers the necessity of neutralizing so formidable an opponent. His situation as chief judge was certain for life, and no power of dismissal existed, to keep his principles in check. The influence of his talents was formidable; besides, the measure of a Union was in contemplation, and the only hope which remained to conciliate his support, was an elevation to the peerage; and accordingly, on the 16th June, 1795, he was created Baron Yelverton, of Avonmore, in the county of Cork. The result of the regency question in the Irish parliament is too well known for repetition in this place. And, in the course of the discussions which followed some years after, immediately previous to the rebellion, Lord Avonmore, then in the House of Peers, and his eldest son, the present lord, then a member of the House of Commons, deprecated in the strongest terms, the severe measures adopted by parliament against the disaffected, instead of a more lenient and persuasive course, and openly condemned and reprobated in the strongest language of {645} reproach and detestation, the cruelties unlawfully exercised upon great numbers of the peasantry and lower orders, without any form of trial, but on mere suspicion; and they gave the most strenuous opposition to the indemnity of certain of the magistrates and others, who had been wantonly active in this odious system.

Notwithstanding the long and warm friendship which had subsisted between the chief baron and Mr. Curran, and the good natured simplicity io which he had frequently submitted to be the subject of his friend’s arch wit and playful pranks, always forgiven for the joke’s sake, a misunderstanding unfortunately occurred between them, which was for years the source of mutual regret and disquiet.*

We have hinted, that Baron Yelverton’s elevation to the peerage was intended as a bonus to secure his future support for the measure of Union then in contemplation. And when the proposition actually came forward for discussion in the years 1799 and 1800, Baron Yelverton, in direct opposition to the principles of his whole life, and the sentiments of all his friends and admirers at the bar, supported that measure, which to them can never cease to be a subject of regret.

In December 1800, he was honoured with a further degree of elevation, as Viscount Avonmore which he lived but a few years to enjoy. He died on the 19th of August, 1806, and was succeeded in his estate and title by his eldest son, William-Charles, the present and second Lord Avonmore.

* The reader will find an interestlng statement on that subject in the life of Mr. Curran, pages 313 and 314, in the first volome of this work; which we deemed superfluous here to repeat.

A VERY learned prelate, was descended from a respectable family in the county of Roscommon, and born in that county in 1750. {646}

In 1766 he was admitted of Trinity college, Dublin; and in 1775, was elected a fellow of the college, and took orders. He became early an enthusiastic admirer of the Newtonian philosophy, and even at his examination for his fellowship, displayed an unexampled knowledge and comprehension of it; but although it was his favourite subject, his active mind, in rapid succession, embraced the most dissimilar objects; and these he pursued with unceasing ardour, amidst his various duties as a fellow and tutor, and the freest intercourse with society, which he was formed at once to delight and instruct. His love of literary conversation, and the advantages he experienced from it in the pursuit of science, led him early to engage in forming a society whose chief object was the improvement of its members in theological learning. It consisted of a small number of his most intimate college friends, and continued to exist for a series of years, with equal reputation and advantage. Out of this association grew another, somewhat more extensive, whose labours were directed to philosophical researches, and in the formation of which, Dr. Young was also actively engaged: and this itself became the germ of the Royal Irish Academy, which owes its existence to the zeal and exertions of the members of that society, among whom Dr. Young was particularly distinguished. In the intervals of his severer studies, he applied himself to modern languages: and the result of his labours may be seen in the Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy, to which he also contributed largely on mathematical and philosophical subjects. Besides these, he published the following learned and ingenious works: 1. “The Phenomena of Sounds aud Musical Strings,” 1784, 8vo. 2. “The Force of Testimony,” &c. 4to. 3. “The Number of Primitive Colours in Solar Light: on the Precession of the Equinoxes; Principles of Natural Philosophy,” 1800, 8vo. being his last publication, and containing the substance of his lectures in the college.

In 1786, when the professorship of philosophy in {647} Trinity college became vacant, be had attained so high reputation in that branch of science, that he was elected to the office without opposition. His “Essay on Sounds” had been published two years, and it was known that he was engaged in the arduous task of illustrating the “Principia” of Newton. He now devoted himself to the duties of his professorship: and the college having been enriched with the excellent apparatus of Mr. Atwood, Dr. Young improved the occasion of carrying his lectures to a degree of perfection unknown in the university of Dublin, and never perhaps exceeded in any other. He proceeded, in the mean time, in his great work, “The Method of Prime and Ultimate Ratios, illustrated by a Commentary on the first two books of the Principia” and had nearly completed it in English, when he was advised by his friends to publish it in Latin. He readily acquiesced, and thus had an opportunity, while translating it, of revising the whole, and rendering it fuller and more perfect. It was finished a year or two before his promotion to the see of Clonfert, at which time he was engaged in preparing it for the press. The circumstances of this promotion reflect equal honour on himself and on the lord-lieutenant (Earl Cornwallis) who conferred it. It was a favour as unsolicited as unexpected, unless the report made to his excellency by his principal secretary, on being consulted as to the properest person to fill the vacant see, may be called solicitation. His report was, that “he believed Dr. Young to be the most distinguished literary character in the kingdom.”

His attention, however, was now diverted from his intended publication, by the occupations incident to his new charge: and before he could return to it, a cancer in his mouth had made an alarming progress, and, in about fifteen months, terminated fatally, November 28th, 1800, at Whitworth, in Lancashire. {648}

BARRISTER at law. Respecting the family and private life of this learned and laborious Irish antiquary, the compiler has been able to ascertain but very little. We are told he was son of Hopton Harris, was born in Mountmelick [sic], and entered college about the year 1704, where, in 1707, he was engaged in a riot, in which he was so disrespectful to his superiors, that he wrested an admonition which was against him out of the dean’s band, and tore it in his presence; while Rochfort M’Neill, another of the academicians, put on his hat, and swore there should be no more such admonitions. Harris was hereupon expelled: much, however, to his honour, after reason and judgment gained ascendancy over puerile passions, instead of retaining any sentiment of low resentment against that seminary, he on every occasion mentioned it with such respect, that about five years before his death, which happened July 4th, 1761, he was presented with the honorary degree of doctor of laws. He informs ns that accident made him an editor. He married Eliza, daughter of Henry, son to Robert Ware, who was second son to Sir James Ware. With some of Sir James’s books and MS. papers, Harris occasionally amused himself to do away the sameness of a country retirement. He afterwards set about making a new translation from the Latin, of Ware’s Bishops. The lives he amended, augmented and enlarged, so as to form a respectable folio volume, which he printed by subscription at £1. 18s. in Dublin, 1739. With similar improvements, amendments, additions, and illustrations, Harris published Ware’s Antiquities and Irish Writers, in two parts, embellished with eighteen copper-plates, for shewing the monastic habits, elegantly engraved in Paris: this was printed in one volume, of the folio size, at {649} Dublin, 1747. This work was followed by a collection of curious articles, from the manuscripts of Trinity college, which he entitled Hibernica, Dublin, printed in 1747. Harris, about the time of the Pretender’s invasion of Scotland, commenced his Life of King William; the part of this work which relates to the revolutionary war in Ireland, was compiled by him, from above twelve hundred government dispatches and letters, left by Charles Clarke, then secretary at war, to be forwarded afterwards to England. These papers remaining till the council and treasury offices were burned, in 1710, were removed in an undistinguished heap to the auditor-gene-ral’s office; where they were discovered by Mr. Boyd, the keeper of that office, who communicated the use of them to Harris. The folio volume of King William’s Life was printed in Dublin, in 1749.

To his edition of Ware’s works, Harris intended to add another folio volume, containing the civil History of Ireland, for completing the series. For this he left seventeen folio volumes of curious manuscripts, including collections made towards the ecclesiastical state of Ireland, by Archbishop King, and Bishop Sterne, which were purchased for £500 by the Irish parliament, from his widow, and deposited in the archives of the Dublin Society, for the convenience and use of the public.

In 1766, there appeared a. publication, said to be a posthumous work of our author, entitled Harris’s History of Dublin, compiled from his MSS by two learned assistants. That production, however, shews neither the perseverance, industry, nor abilities of Ware’s editor.

“The nation” says the Abbé M’Geoghegan, “are under great obligations to that learned writer (Harris) for the trouble he has taken, and the curious researches he has made, in order to complete Sir James Ware’s work; a work which he has so considerably enlarged, and enriched with such a number of articles that have escaped his prototype’s notice, that he should be rather esteemed its author than the editor, which is the title he has so modestly assumed.”

THE END.