BIOGRAPHICAL, LITERARY, AND SCIENTIFIC

MAGAZINE,

FOR

NOVEMBER 1799.

CONDUCTED BY

ROBERT BISSET, LL. D.

WITH THE ASSISTANCE OF OTHER LITERARY GENTLEMEN.

THIS NUMBER IS EMBELLISHED WITH AN ENGRAVING OF

THE SMITHS' ARMS.

ICH

LONDON:

PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY

G. CAWTHORN, BRITISH LIBRARY, NO. 132, STRAND, BOOKSELLER TO HER ROYAL HIGHNESS THE PRINCESS OF WALES: GOLD ALSO BY MESSRS. RICHARDSON, ROYAL-EXCHANGE; H. D. SYMONDS, J. WALLIS WEST AND HUGHES, PATERNOSTER-ROW; J. WRIGHT, PICCADILLY; P. HILL, EDINBURGH; AND ALL THE BOOKSELLERS IN TOWN AND COUNTRY.

TO READERS AND CORRESPONDENTS.

IN our Number for December will be attempted a Sketch of the LIFE of Mr. SHERIDAN, including his Dramatic as well as bis, Political and Intellectual Character.

THE Editor presents his grateful compliments to his readers, and having, during the month of November, be encompelled to be in Scotland on business indispensably necessary, he has not been enabled to give the BIOGRAPHICAL 9K2TCH which has regularly appeared in every Number. For the same reason the PORTRAIT is delayed. To supply, however, in future Numbers, any defect that may appear in the present, he has received from his Literary Friends in the part of the kingdom which he visited, promises of valuable information and assistance. In the next Number he will present to his readers the history, principles, and effects of the Missionary doctrines and proceeding, at war with the existing establishments of the country..

To the Author of the PORTRAITURES OF THE FRENCH NATION we return thanks for his valuable contributions; and we doubt not, our readers will derive equal pleasure with ourselves from their perusal, especially when they have before them the whole contrasted view of the character of a people, whose manners formerly were a subject of imitation in all the circles of fashion, but whose political conduct and principles have, of late particularly, excited not only the reprobation of Britons, but of all civilized society.

We are greatly obliged to THESPIS for the renewal of his communications. We hope that he will extend his liberal Dramatic Strictures to modern productions more than he yet has done, so as to characterize the Drama of the present contrasted with past times.. This suggestion has been. made to us by some of our readers.

IN some of our preceding biographical articles we took the liberty

of requesting those of our readers who might be possessed of information respecting any of the subjects of our sketches to favour us with such communications as they should deem proper, in order to enlarge them into regular and complete lives. We have long had it in contemplation to offer to the world successive volumes of biography, comprehending characters either living or recently dead, which have attained eminence in the political, literary, and fashionable world. Under the head of Political we comprehend naval and military personages.

The present work, from being devoted to a variety of objects, admits only of outlines. To those who may honour us with their approbation of our sketches, as far as they profess to extend, we shall be extremely indebted for such information as may tend more fully to illustrate characters. The perfection of biographical knowledge is when we can see character in its original qualities, its process, and result. In many cases, however, our views must be confined to result only, as the progressive steps are lost. These, indeed, can be retained by none but those who have accurately marked the progression and its efforts, and derived to others through their communications and transmissions. We shall, therefore, be peculiarly obliged to our Correspondents for such facts and observations as may exhibit the glowing characters of illustrious men, and such anecdotes as may mark any particular operation of their natural or acquired qualities.

Our present subject is Lord Viscount Duncan, a cl.aracter which we hope to be hereafter enabled to pourtray with a minuteness and particularity more proportionate to its excellence and importance. At this time we must limit ourselves to its most prominent features.

On the confines of the counties of Perth and Angus is situated the barony of Lundie; the mansion-house is in the latter shire, within a few miles of Dundee. The family of Duncan for many generations has possessed the estate, and its members have been uniformly distinguished for vigorous understanding, integrity of prin

ciple, and firmness of mind. Their corporeal endowments have also been remarkable through a series of ages; height, proportion, strength, and majesty of figure, have descended like an heir-loom in the family of Lundie; so low a stature as six feet is not remembered in any of its sons; and its present representative, though con siderably above that size, is said frequently to declare, that in point of tallness he is a degenerate son. There being a Lundie in the adjoining county of Fyfe, some laughable mistakes have happened from the confusion of the two names, as at that time, in Scotland, gentlemen were denominated from their lands instead of their surnames.' Lundie Duncan, either father or grandfather to our Admiral, happening one winter to reside in Edinburgh, one of his tenants went over to pay his respects. The honest farmer inquiring for Lundie, was directed to Mr. Drummond, the Fyfe gentleman of that denomination. Asking for the Laird, he was introduced into a room, where the servant, addressing a little slim gentleman, said,

This person wants to speak to you, Sir.' The peasant having sur veyed his host with very great attention, and no less amazement, at last asked, ‘are you really Lundie, Sir?' I am, my friend.' ' Gude Lord, how your honour is melted away!'

The political principles of the Lundie family have always been such as most exactly suited the British Constitution, in a part of the coun try in which the greater number of the gentlemen, and not a few of the noblemen, admitted not a few of the exploded doctrines of pas sive obedience in their fullest latitude. The Duncans firmly adhered to the cause of constitutional liberty, and ranged themselves on the side of the House of Brunswick, whose accession has been the mos effectual guardian of our blessings.

The right of promigeniture, we have had repeated occasion to remaik, is a potent cause of great and useful exertions. Knowing that they must chiefly depend on their own exertions for fortune and distinction, younger sons have the most powerful motives to stimu fate their abilities. Besides the desire of personal advancement, the cadets of respectable families are further prompted by wishes to emulate their elder brothers, and to approve themselves worthy of their parentage and ancestry. Such sentiments, operating on the strong minds of the Duncans, have in the collateral honour recurring to the house of Lundie, added very grealy to its direct hereditary distinction. The grandfather of the present proprietor was father to William Duncan, who attained so great eminence by his medical abilities, learning, and successful practice.

Adam Duncan is the second son of Mr. Duncan of Lundie, by a daughter of Mr. Haldane, of Gleneagles, in the county of Perth. He was born in the year 1731. He was sent to Dundee school, where, we are informed by a contemporary, he remained till near fourteen years of age, and gave early specimens of a clear and strong understanding, and firmness of mind. He was then sent to sea. We should have been extremely happy could we indulge our readers in what seaaction a youth was first engaged, destined to bring such naval glory and so momentous benefit to his country; but we really are not informed on that subject. By recurring to the naval history of the times, we might hazard a conjecture; but we will not substitute a conjecture, to supply a want of fact. Having served during the remainder of the war that was concluded by the peace of Aix la Chapelle, he was, previously to the commencement of the following war, appointed a Lieutenant. He was at this time turned of twenty, and most strikingly eminent for personal beauty and strength; in so much so, that, as we have heard from good authority, in walking the streets of London in his Lieutenant's uniform, the passengers stood to gaze with admiration. We have heard also, that, not long after, being in the dock-yard at Chatham, when they were threatened with a mutiny, young Duncan, perceiving a large strong fellow very forward in the disturbance, took hold of him by the breast with one arm, and holding him over the side of the dock for some minutes, asked him if he was now disposed to be quiet? The fellow gladly answering in the affirmative, and offering any submissions to be released, Mr. Duncan let him go, and he became equally active in pacifying as he had been in inflaming his comrades.

In the seven years war, though the public is not acquainted with the particular services of Mr. Duncan, yet we may judge them to have been highly meritorious, from their effect; as, without any influence beyond that of his personal character, he was, so early in the war as 1761, appointed Post-Captain. For so important a trust, not his abilities only, but his professional intrepidity, conduct, and character qualified him.

The family of Lundie was ever distinguished for its attention to the duties of religion, Mr. Duncan and the other children of the house had been brought up in the fear of the Lord; and, as he advanced in life, his excellent understanding demonstrated to him the justness and usefulness of the impressions which he had received in his early years. In a thinking mind, a maritime life, the dangers of which so often present to the thoughts and senses the uncertainty of