Ncontemplating characters that have rifen from a degree of obfcurity to high distinction, incidental and fortu. nate occurrences often contribute more effectually to raife into eminence, than any radical or fuperior powers of mind; when the former elevate to distinction, without the fupport and balance of the latter; refpect of character rarely follows this elevation to rank; whilft contempt, which is excited by littlenefs under difguife, is the more general refult. The Honourable THOMAS BARON DIMSDALE, the prefent fubject of difquifition, was, however, of very refpectable origin, being defcended from John Dimfdale, of Theydon Gornan, near Epping, in Effex; and Sufan, daughter of Thomas Bowyer, of Albury Hall, in the parish of Albury, near Hertford. His grandfather, Robert, accompanied William Penn to America in 1684, and took with him his two fons, John and William. In a few years they returned, and the parent fettled in his native village, and was there fucceeded by his eldelt fon John in the practice of medicine, which his other fon William purfued at Bishop's Stortford. John had eight children, four of whom, Mary, Jane, William, and Calvert, died young; Sufan and Robert lived to a more advanced age; Thomas the fixth, and Jofeph the feventh, to a late period; the last dying, after a fhort illnefs, April 26th, 1779. Thomas, the present fubject of a biographical sketch, was educated under his father, and after attending St. Thomas's Hofpital, fettled, in 1714, at Hertford, as a furgeon. Soon after this period, he married the only daughter of Nathaniel Braffey, Efq. of Roxford, near that town, an eminent banker in London, and representative of Hertford in four fucceffive Parliaments; the died in 1744, and left no children. He feverely felt the lofs of this amiable woman, the painful recollection of which he endeavoured to leffen, by change of fcene and habits, which induced him voluntarily to offer his fervices to the phyficians and furgeons of the army under the Duke of Cumberland, and continued with it till the furrender of Carlisle to the King's forces, when he received the Duke's thanks, and returned to his profeffional duties in Hertford. In 1746 he married Ann Ives, a relative of his first wife, and by her fortune, and that which he acquired by the death of the widow of Sir John Dimfdale, of Hertford, he was enabled to retire from practice; but from the expences of an increafing family of feven of his ten children being then living, and poffeffing at the fame time vigour of conftitution and activity of mind, he determined to refume the M.2 practice practice of medicine, in the character of a phyfician, and in 1761 took his degree of Doctor of Medicine. About this period, the Suttons, fo celebrated in the feience of inoculating the small-pox, aftonished the public by their boldness, mystery, and fuccefs. Dr. Dimidale turned his attention to the subject, and after a clear difcrimination of its principles, published, in 1776, a pamphlet, entitled "The prefent Method of inoculating for the Small Pox." The Public received and read this performance with fuch general avidity, that a fixth edition was de. manded in 1772. It was tranflated into the Ruffian, as well as other European languages, and made the author, as well as the practice, universally known. He was confulted by, and inoculated, the first families in this country; and his experience was amply enlarged and confirmed by admitting into a houfe he had opened near Hertford fuch fubjects of inoculation as it was requifite to feclude from the community, in or der to prevent the extenfion of variolous contagion. At this time a Princefs governed Ruffia, who certainly polleffed magnanimity of mind, and who, not having had the fmall-pox, turned her attention towards the practitioners in England, with a view of fubmitting to the procefs of inoculation. She accordingly gave directions to her Ambaffador (we believe Moufchin Poufchin), in 1768, to engage one of the Suttons, or fome able Inoculator, to vifit Ruffia, in order to inoculate her and her fon with the fmall-pox. This order he communicated to the Ruffian Agent or Conful, who was then under the care of the celebrated Dr. Fothergill, to whom he related the particulars of the Imperial meffage, and requested his advice. The Doctor immediately mentioned his friend Dr. Dimidale, whofe celebrity as a writer, and fuccefs as an Inoculator, were amply established. That Dr. Dimfdale did not feek this preferment, but that the preferment fought him, was confirmed to me by Dr. Fothergill; who at length, with difficulty, influenced him to accept the offer, which the Ambaffador himfelf even urged upon him with earneftnefs. That he fupported the high character thus intruded upon him with honour to himself, and dignity to the English nation, is authenticated by his reception at the Court of Peterburgh (of which he gives a particular account in his "Tracts on Inoculation," in 1781), and by the fubfequent marks of favour from his Imperial patients. He was appointed actual Counsellor of State, and Phyfician to her Imperial Majefty, with an annuity of gool. the rank of a Baron of the Ruffian empire, to be born by his eldest lawful defcendant in fucceffion, and a black wing of the Ruffian Eagle, in a gold fhield, in the middle of his arms, with the customary helmet, adorned with the Baron's coronet over the fhield; to receive immediately 10,000l. and 2000l. for travelling charges; miniature pictures of the Empress and her fon; and the fame title of Baron to his fon Nathaniel, who accompanied him ; to whom alfo the Grand Duke gave a snuff-box richly set with diamonds. Independent of thefe princely favours, the most flattering profpects of pecuniary emolument might be fuperadded, as perfons of the first rank were eager to adopt a practice which the fupreme head of Government had encouraged in the most unequivocal manner, and numerous were the folicitations of the Nobility, as well as earnest were the entreaties of the Emprefs, to induce the Baron longer to continue his refidence in Ruffia, and even to accept the office of her phyfi, cian; he refifted, however, every importunity, and determined to return to England; and on his rout, he and his fons were admitted to a private audience of Frederick III. King of Pruffia, at Sans Souci. When the high fituation is confidered which a phyfician occupies, with a refponfibility the first that can attach to a human being, that of standing as the arbiter of life and death'; it is natural to fuppofe, that confidence as well as efteem, if not fincere friendship, muft poffefs the mind of the patient; and this produced an interesting frankness, if not familiarity, in the Emprefs, towards the diftinguished character to whom the had intrufted her life; and doubtless were the converfations communicated to the Public, they would afford more interesting traits of character than the history of bloody cam. paigns, and of cruel ufurpations of power over imbecility. One anecdote I have introduced, as it refpects, in fome measure, the religious fociety of which the Baron was a member. If he were not the first Quaker who ever ever vifited Ruffia, he was probably the first ever known to the Emprefs; and certainly the first ever honoured with a title by any Potentate; and no doubt but her curiofity and powers of mind, would lead her to make various enquiries relpecting a fociety, of which the muft have acquired fome knowledge from the writings of Voltaire, as well as from the French Encyclopedie, and to a member of which he was now about to commit, in fome measure, her life; for under fuch confidence, a confiderable degree of familiarity must have been admitted. Thofe who know little more of the Chriftian religion than the name, or only as it is rendered fubfervient to regal policy, if they fometimes reflect upon infpiration, generally admit fome hafty and confufed ideas refpecting it. In her converfation, the was once led to afk, in what manner Preachers in this fociety were qualified to act as fuch. The Baron might naturally answer, that as more perfect freedom exifted in this Society than in any other under Chriftendom, any accepted virtuous character, of either fex, were at liberty to preach. "I fuppofe, then," obferved the Emprefs, that you fometimes preach." The Baron replied, that he did not find that he had received that influence or infpiration of the Divine Spirit which called him to perform the minifterial duties. In further converfation on the moral and political conduct of the Quakers, the feemed very much interested in learning, that every quarter of a year all the members of this Society anfwer certain queries, the breach of any of which fubjects the individuals to difunion of membership; one of thefe is, "Whether any perfon deal in goods even fufpected to have been run; or in evading the payment of all legal duties." The Emprefs quickly remarked, "As to the infpiration of the Spirit, I do not underftand it; but from the principle of not dealing in goods fufpected to have been run, I with my fea-coafts were lined with Quakers." I well remember, that once in converfation with the late celebrated Mirabeau, he was very anxious to enter upon the fubject of infpiration; but as I knew that the authority of Scripture could have no influence with a Deift, I endeavoured to explain the rationality of an influence on the human intellectual principle, by the fu preme intellect, fome impreffion of which feemed to pervade all animated nature, from the instinct of inferior animals, to the rational mind of man. He stopped, however, further reafoning, by a rapid conclufion, “On nɛ fçait rien de Dieu." Soon after Baron Dimfdale's return to England, he became a Banker, under the firm of Dimfdale, Archer, and Byde fome time afterwards a change taking place among the parties, he became the head of a banking. house in Cornhill, where the fon, now Baron Dimfdale, continues. The practice of inoculation was profecuted by the Baron in England, and he continued his houfe of reception at Hertford for patients under inoculation. The practice, indeed, was very general throughout England; the Suttons and their colleagues were every where promoting it. An hospital was erected at Pancras, near London, for the reception of the poor, under the care of Dr. Archer, and at length a Society was established in London for inoculating the poor at their own habitations; which gave rife to a literary warfare between the Baron and Dr. Lettfom, an active member of this new plan of general inoculation. This difpute, however, would fcarcely have occupied a line here, had it not been alluded to in a refpectable periodical work with fome degree of cenfure on the Baron, who was himfelf a public Inoculator of the higher ranks of the community, whilst he avowedly dif couraged the practice of inoculation in others and hence it is deemed proper to explain the circumstances that engaged him in a difcuffion which neither dishonours his memory nor re. flects on the character of his living antagonist; who, with feveral other Gentlemen, formed the Institution doubtless with the laudable view of extirpating, or at leaft leffening the fatality of, the natural or cafual fimallpox, which, upon an average, kilis about 3000 children annually, in London alone. As the Baron could not have any motive to oppofe the inocula tion of the poor but the danger of fpreading the fmall-pox by indifcriminate inoculation, he might confitently difcourage this lets guarded practice, and at the fame time encourage his own upon a more private or fecluded fituation. That indifcriminate inocu lation has really increated the deaths by |