majesty's chaplains. In 1761 he published Seasonable Hints from an honest Man,' as an exposition of Lord Bath's sentiments. In November, 1762, he was, through the interest of Lord Bath, made canon of Windsor. In December of that year, on the day on which the preliminaries of peace were to be taken into consideration in parliament, he wrote the paper called 'The Sentiments of a Frenchman,' which was printed on a sheet of paper, pasted upon the walls in every part of London, and distributed among the members as they entered the house. In 1763, he superintended the publication of Henry, Earl of Clarendon's Diary and Letters, and wrote the preface which is prefixed to those papers. In 1764 Lord Bath died, and left him his library; but General Pulteney wishing that it should not be removed from Bath House, he relinquished his claim, and accepted £1000 in lieu of it. General Pulteney left it to him again at his death, and he again gave it up to the late Sir William Pulteney for the same sum.

In 1764, he exchanged his livings in Shropshire for that of St Austin's and St Faith's in Wothing-street, London. In April, 1765, he married Elizabeth, daughter of H. Rooke, Esq. During this and the preceding year, as also in 1768, he wrote several political papers, which were printed in the 'Public Advertiser,' and all the letters which appeared in that paper in 1770 and 1771, under the signatures of Tacitus and Manlius, were written by him. In 1773 he assisted Sir John Dalrymple in arranging his MSS. In 1776 he was removed from the chapter of Windsor to that of St Paul's. During this and the subsequent year, he was employed in preparing Captain Cook's journal for publication, which he undertook at the urgent request of Lord Sandwich, then first lord of the admiralty. In 1777 he assisted Lord Hardwicke in arranging his miscellaneous papers, which came out in the following year. In 1778 he was elected a member of the Royal and Antiquarian societies. In 1781 he was again applied to by Lord Sandwich, to reduce into a shape fit for publication, the journal of Captain Cook's third and last voyage. The introduction and notes were supplied by him. In this year he was elected president of Sion college for the year, and preached the Latin sermon before that body. In 1786 he was elected one of the vice-presidents of the Antiquarian society; and in 1787 one of the trustees of the British Museum.

In September of this year, he was appointed bishop of Carlisle; and in 1788, succeeded to the deanery of Windsor, for which he vacated his residentiaryship of St Paul's. In 1789 he preached before the house of lords, and of course published the sermon, on the anniversary of King Charles's martyrdom. In June, 1791, he was translated to the see of Salisbury. In 1793 he preached the anniversary sermon before the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, which is prefixed to the annual printed account of their proceedings. Such were his habits of incessant application to the last hour of his long protracted life, that few men could have read more, for he never deemed any space of time too short to be employed in reading, nor was he ever seen by any of his family-except when strangers were present-without having a book or a pen in his hand.

He retained his faculties to the last, and till within two death amused himself some hours each day by reading. thus devoted to the cause of literature and religion, and

days of his

After a life not spent in

solitary seclusion from the world, but in the midst of its most active and busy scenes, he drew his last breath on the 18th of May, 1807, without a struggle and without a pang, in the arms of his son.

Bishop Hurd.

BORN A. D. 1720.-DIED A. D. 1808.

RICHARD HURD was born at Congreve, in Staffordshire, on the 13th of January, 1720. His parents were, according to his own statement, "plain, honest, and good people,-farmers, but of a turn of mind that might have honoured any rank and any education." After passing some time at two provincial schools, he was admitted, in 1733, of Emanuel college, Cambridge, where he took the degree of B. A. in 1738, and proceeded M. A. in 1742, during which year he was elected to a fellowship; shortly after, he took deacon's orders, and became B. D. in 1774.

The society of Emanuel college presented him to the living of Thurcaston in Leicestershire. In the retirement of his country-parish he prepared his edition of the Ars Poetica,' which he dedicated to Warburton. That prelate soon recognised his fine scholarship, and made him archdeacon of his diocese; he also procured his appointment to the preachership of Lincoln's inn, on the vacancy occasioned by his own resignation.

The twelve discourses which he delivered at the lecture which had been founded by his patron for the illustration of the prophecies, added to the high reputation which he already enjoyed. They attracted the attention of William, earl of Mansfield; and, at the request of that nobleman, Dr Hurd was appointed to succeed the archbishop of York as preceptor to their royal highnesses the prince of Wales and the duke of York.

In 1774 his majesty, with circumstances of grace and regard which peculiarly marked his perfect approbation, conferred on him the bishopric of Lichfield and Coventry. In 1781 the king appointed him clerk of the closet. In the same year he was translated to the see of Worcester; and in 1783, on the death of Archbishop Cornwallis, he had the offer of the primacy, which, however, he declined, "as a charge not suited to his temper and talents, and much too heavy for him to sustain, especially in such troubled times. Several much greater men than myself," added he, “have been contented to die bishops of Worcester; and I wish for no higher preferment."

The remainder of his life was passed, with very few intervals of absence, in his diocese, where he enjoyed an almost filial affection and respect from all around him. His serious employment consisted in the strictest discharge of the spiritual and temporal duties of his station; and his amusements, in literary composition, and the revisal of his former works. He died unmarried at Hartlebury, on Saturday, the 6th of June, 1808, in the eighty-ninth year of his age.

His first publication was Horace's epistle to the Pisos, was reprinted, together with the epistle to Augustus, in octavo volumes, with an English commentary and notes.

1749, which 1753, in two

This work,

various editions of which have since appeared, is esteemed one of the most acute and classical pieces of criticism in the language. His 'Letters on Chivalry and Romance' were republished in 1765, together with his 'Moral and Political Dialogues,' in three small volumes.1 About the same time, Mr Hume put forth his essay on the Nature and History of Religion,' which Dr Hurd answered with a boldness and perspicuity which suited his calling and his talents. Hume, in his rejoinder, charges him with "all the illiberal petulance, arrogance, and scurrility of the Warburtonian school."

The twelve discourses at Bishop Warburton's lectures for the Lincoln's-inn chapel, were published in 1772. Some passages in them were attacked by Mr Evanson. In the same year he published 'Select Works of Abraham Cowley,' with a preface and notes, in two small octavo volumes. In 1776, he published a volume of sermons preached at Lincoln's-inn chapel, between the years 1765 and 1776; to which, in 1781, he added two more.

His largest work appeared in 1788: this was an edition of the works of Bishop Warburton, in seven volumes, quarto, with a supplemental volume in octavo. For the deficiencies of this collection, he was attacked by Dr Parr; who, to supply the prelate's omissions, printed a volume entitled, Tracts by Warburton and a Warburtonian.' The last literary labour undertaken by Hurd was the arrangement for publication of Warburton's correspondence.

John Whitaker.

BORN A. D. 1735.-died a. D. 1808.

JOHN WHITAKER was born at Manchester about the year 1735. He went early to Oxford, where he was elected fellow of Christ church, and where he discovered those originalities and peculiarities of mind which afterwards so strongly marked him as an author and as a man. His vigour of intellect at once displayed itself among his acquaintance; but, whilst his animated conversation drew many around him, a few were repelled from the circle by his impatience of contradiction. The character of his genius, however, was soon decidedly manifested in literary composition. In 1771 Mr Whitaker published his History of Manchester,' in quarto, a work-distinguished above all other works of the class for acuteness of research, bold imagination, independent sentiment, and correct information. Nor does its composition less merit applause, whether with respect to the arrangement of the materials, the style, or the language. With regard to the general subject, it may be observed, that Mr Whitaker was the first writer who could so light up the region of antiquarianism as to dissipate its obscurity, even to the eyes of ordinary spectators. The discoveries of our anti

"Some of these pieces had appeared before, without a name, and their success probably led the ingenious author to publish a complete and enlarged edition. These dialogues evince a profound knowledge of the English history and constitution, and breathe a warm attachment to the cause of liberty. It is said that the king, one day pointing to these dialogues, observed, These made Hurd a bishop. I never saw him till he came to kiss hands.'"-Monthly Magazine.

quaries, indeed, have been attended with no brilliant success; but Whitaker's Manchester' is one of the few books in which the truth of our island-history has been elucidated by the hand of a master.

It is rather singular that this work was in the order of merit as well as time-the first of Mr Whitaker's publications. In proportion as he advanced in life his imagination seems, by a strange inversion of what is characteristic of our nature, to have gained an ascendancy over his judgment; and we perceive more of fancy and of passion,-of conjecture and hypothesis,-in some of his subsequent productions. His Genuine History of the Britons asserted,'-an octavo volume, published in 1782,-may be regarded as a sequel to his previous work. It contains a complete refutation of Macpherson, whose 'Introduction to the History of Great Britain and Ireland' is full of palpable mistakes and misrepresentations.

In 1773 we find Mr Whitaker filling the office of the morning preacher at Berkeley chapel, London, to which office he had been appointed by Mr Hughes; but about the end of the following year he was removed from that situation. This gave occasion to the publication of The Case between Mr Whitaker and Mr Hughes, relative to the Morning-preachership of Berkeley chapel;' in which Mr Whitaker relates some remarkable particulars, and declares himself "unalterably determined to carry the matter into Westminster hall!" He actually used his utmost efforts to bring his determination into action; but the fervour of his resentment threw him off his guard, and he expressed himself so indiscreetly that his Case' was considered as a libel by the court of king's bench. During his residence in London he had an opportunity of conversing with several of our most celebrated writers, among whom were Dr Johnson and the historian of the Roman empire. It does not appear that the former of these parties was much attached to Whitaker. With Gibbon Mr Whitaker was well-acquainted. The manuscript of the first volume of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire' was submitted to his inspection; but, to his surprise, when he read the same volume in print, he found that chapter, which has been so obnoxious to the Christian world, then for the first time introduced to his notice !

About the year 1778 he succeeded, as fellow of Corpus Christi college, to the rectory of Ruan-Lany horne, Cornwall, one of the most valuable livings in the gift of that college, where he had proceeded to his degree of B. D. It might have been expected that retirement and leisure would greatly favour the pursuits of literature, and that, though 'the converser'-to use an expression of Mr Whitaker-had disappeared, the author would break forth with new energies. But RuanLanyhorne was, for several years, no tranquil seat of the Muses. Mr Whitaker had proposed a tithe-composition to his parishioners by no means unreasonable. This they refused to pay; but he was steady to his purpose. A rupture ensued between the parties; the tithes were demanded in kind; disputes arose upon disputes, animosities were kindled, and litigations took place. It was long before harmony was restored to Ruan-Lanyhorne. In 1783 Mr Whitaker published a volume of Sermons.' That he should have published so little in the line of his profession is perhaps to be regretted: his Origin of Arianism' is a controversial tract full of erudition and ingenious argumenta

6

tion. Another tractate of Mr Whitaker's was an essay on The Real Origin of Government,' expanded into a considerable treatise, from a sermon which he had preached before Bishop Butler, at his lordship's primary visitation. In the meantime the antiquary was not at rest. His Mary Queen of Scots,' published in 1787, in three octavo volumes; his Course of Hannibal over the Alps,'-his Ancient Cathedral of Cornwall,'-his Supplement to Mr Polwhele's Antiquities of Cornwall, all furnish good evidence of an imagination continually occupied in favourite pursuits. In criticism we find him, for the most part, candid and good-natured,-not sparing of censure, nor yet lavish of applause, and affording us, in numerous instances, the most agreeable proofs of genuine benevolence. It was his critique on Gibbon that contributed greatly to the reputation of The English Review,' in which Mr Whitaker was the author of many valuable articles. To his pen, also, The British Critic,' and 'The Antijacobin Review,' were indebted for various pieces of criticism. The last work upon which Mr Whitaker employed his pen was the life of St Neot, the eldest brother of King Alfred.

Amidst his ardent and indefatigable researches into the antiquities of London, his friends detected the first symptoms of bodily decay. A journey which he made to London in connection with this enterprise, -his vast exertions there in procuring information,-and his exciting intercourse with literary characters,-brought on a debility which he little at first regarded, till it alarmed him in a stroke of paralysis. From this he never recovered to such a degree as to be able to resume, with any good effect, his studies or occupations. He died in 1808

Bishop Porteous, D.D.

BORN A. D. 1731.-DIED A. D. 1809.

BEILBY PORTEOUS, one of the youngest of a family of nineteen children, was born at York in 1731. His parents, of English extraction, were natives of North America. He had no other advantage of education in early life than that which was afforded by a common northcountry grammar-school. At the usual age he removed to Cambridge, where he recommended himself by his studiousness and regularity, and gave no unpromising proof of talents and industry. The year after he took his bachelor's degree he was elected fellow of the college to which he belonged. He supplied the deficiency of his income at this time by undertaking the care of some private pupils; and, as he became more known, he acquired an increasing character for respectability of conduct and literary talents. His only publications during the academical part of his life seem to have been his poem on Death, which obtained the Seatonian prize, and a sermon preached before the university on the character of King David. The pocin is one amongst the very few written for the Seatonian prize which have not sunk into oblivion soon after their appearance. It is written in all parts with feeling and in many with taste: the plan of it is well conceived; the descriptions are strong, glowing, and spirited; the language now and then borders on the harsh and uncouth, and the rhythm is at times not quite harmo