Where patient Wallis rais'd his glass on high,
T'explore the wonders of the starry sky:

Where Locke escap'd the schoolmen's strict controul,
Illum'd the dark recesses of the soul:

Where Warton, hid in Pope's yew-mantled grove,
His flowery garlands of gay Fancy wove,
Sacred to Isis and to Chatham's praise;
Or, emulous of Pindar's glowing lays,

Struck with a rapid touch the Æolian string,

And hail'd with annual strains Britannia's DARLING KING.
Oxford with joy enrolls a Seymour's name,

There gallant Moira learn'd the road to Fame:

Moira! fair Albion's and fair Erin's pride,

Whose sword protects us, and whose counsels guide;

Deep felt within whose hospitable breast
That best delight-to succour the distress'd.
Witness, O Donington, thy splendid seat!
Of Gallic exiles the belov'd retreat,
Where social glee their sense of pain beguiles,
And tears of sorrow lose themselves in smiles.

But not to mansions where the Noble dwell,
The haunts of Commerce, or the Scholar's cell,
Is Charity confin'd; her ample sway
Shines universal as the orb of day.
Ev'n on the distant India's burning coast
No tear of British sympathy is lost;
To letter'd merit pining in the shade
The generous patrons waft their ready aid,
With us with great Augusta's sons they join
To lay their offerings at fair Learning's shrine;
Tho' various streams swell Bounty's rising tides,
One zeal inflames us, and one motive guides.

Thus when proud Gallia's Despot threats to pour
His plundering legions on Britannia's shore;

* Sir Thomas Pope was the founder of Trinity College, Ox

ford.

Assembled

Assembled Patriots rally round the throne,
Assert their Monarch's rights, and guard their own:
At Glory's call they leave their native home,
And only fear their foes will never come:

From Orkney's isles to Cornwall's rocky coast,

ONE HEART, ONE SOUL, INSPIRES THE MARTIAL HOST.

M. R.

EARL CAMDEN.

THE family of Pratt was seated originally in Devonshire, and one of its branches appears to have been in possession of Cares well-priory, near Columpton, in that county, about the middle of Elizabeth's reign.* The first purchase in Kent consisted of the manor and seat of Wilderness, formerly called Stidulfe's-place. It was bought by Serjeant, afterwards Sir John Pratt, in the reign of Anne, an act of parliament having been procured expressly for that purpose. This gentleman, who attained considerable eminence in the law, was accustomed to reside there during the long vacation. In 1714 he was appointed a puisne judge of the king'sbench, and after that a commissioner of the great seal. Nor did his preferment end here, for he was nominated chief justice 5th of George I. and died at an advanced age, leaving a numerous issue behind him.

A younger son Charles, by his second wife, followed the profession of his father, and rose, with the general approbation of all men, to its highest honours. He distinguished himself, while presiding in the court

*Hasted's Kent.

of

of common pleas, by the integrity of his character, while his upright conduct in the case of Mr. Wilkes obtained for him not only an extraordinary degree of popularity, but rivetted the friendship of the greatest statesman of the age, and instead of impeding, led to his own immediate advancement. Accordingly, when Mr. Pitt, afterwards Earl of Chatham, was restored to power, this great lawyer was nominated lord chancellor, and in the court of chancery, as well as in the house of peers, continued to reflect new lustre on his abilities, by the justice of his decisions and the integrity of his conduct.

As a reward for his eminent services, he first received the patent of Lord Camden, Baron of Camdenplace, in Kent, and on May 13, 1786, was created an earl of Great Britain, by the style and title of Earl Camden, Viscount Bayham, in Sussex. When he had resigned the seals, in 1770, he retired to the seat formerly purchased by him, and this nobleman, who had spent the carly portion of his life in the practice of the law, and the middle portion of it in the affairs of state, for the space of twenty-four years chiefly occupied his leisure hours in improving his grounds, and gratifying his taste for ornamental scenery.*

* The house inhabited by his lordship stands on the west side of Chisselhurst-common, and is called Camden-place. It was here that the learned Camden, one of our ablest antiquaries and most diligent historians, resided. After having acted in the two very different capacities of Clarencieux king at arms and chief master of Westminster school, he retired to this seat in 1609, and died here November 9, 1623, in the seventy-third year of his age.

The body having been removed thence to his house in London,

was

The elder of his two sons, John Jeffreys Pratt, who received the second of these names from the maiden one of his mother Elizabeth, daughter of Nicholas Jeffreys, Esq. and the first from his paternal uncle, John Pratt, Esq. of Seven-oaks, was born February 11, 1759. In his native county, Kent, be was taught the rudiments of his education, and afterwards qualified himself at one of the universities, as

was afterwards deposited among the remains of our poets, historians, generals, and kings, on which occasion the procession was attended not only by the college of heralds, in their costume of ceremony, but also by the nobility and other persons of distinction, who witnessed the interment of this great man, near the remains of the learned Casaubon, and opposite to those of the great Chaucer.

Camden-place came into possession of the late Lord Camden while Mr. Pratt, having been purchased by the money so honourably earned by his labours at the bar; and he was so much attached to this spot, that his barony as well as his earldom were both desig nated after it. The elder branch resided for many years in the parish of Seale, and the late John Pratt, Esq. having left this estate to his nephew, the present earl, he soon after removed thither.

The eminent services of Lord Chancellor Camden, while they secured to him the esteem of his country, at the same time tended to promote the interests of his family. Accordingly, the honourable John Jeffrey Pratt, (the present peer) during the lifetime of his father, (May 21, 1780) succeeded on the death of the late Mr. C. Townshend, brother to the marquis of the same name, to a fourth tellership in the exchequer. This is an ancient and honourable office, chiefly performed by deputy, the emoluments of which were estimated at the net sum of 6,749!. 35. 64d.; but it appears that but half of this was received at least for the first year. Since that period he has become the second teller, and should he survive the present Marquis of Buckingham, will become the first; an event that appears to be attended but by few advantages in a pecuniary point of view.

well

well as by foreign travel, for that public career to which he was destined from his cradle.

Of the fifteenth parliament of Great Britain, which met at Westminster Tuesday 31st day of October, 1780, Mr. Pratt was returned a member. We find his name upon this occasion enrolled with those who at once deprecated and condemned the unhappy contest with our colonies. Nor did he content himself with a silent vote alone, for his maiden speech-the very first sentence uttered by him in the house of commons-had this topic, and this alone for its object.

Towards the close of the first session, (June 12, 1781) Mr. Fox having made a motion, "that the house should resolve itself into a committee to consider of the American war," he urged as some reason for the enquiry, that it appeared even from the circumstances which attended our victories that the final subjugation of the Trans-atlantic continent was impracticable. It was evident, he said, from the late dispatches, that although Lord Cornwallis had achieved every thing he proposed, by penetrating into North Carolina; although he had been fortunate enough to engage and defeat General Green, yet he had not found one good consequence to result from his success, as he was not joined by any body of Americans as he expected, or even retained possession of the very ground upon which he had conquered. It was therefore manifest, that the war in which we were then engaged was at once impracticable in its object, and ruinous in its progress. If his motion for resolving the house into a committee should be adopted, he

meant