In read the best part of the Old Teftament in the original, while refident at Wimbledon. He vifited the continent in 1769, with his pupil, and in 1770 entered at the Temple to ftudy the law. Defervedly diftinguiflied as an able fcholar, he now proved to the world, how usefully he had devoted himself to literature, and he published in 1774, his Commentaries on Afiatic Poetry, dedicated to the University of Oxford. His tranflation of Ifæus, with learned notes, appeared in 1779, and the next year he felt for the fafety of the empire, and in confequence of the London riots, published an inquiry into the legal mode of fuppreffing riots. 1793 his legal knowledge, and his acquaintance with the literature of the Eaft, recommended him to the ministry, as a fit perfon to prefide in the fupreme court of Calcutta, and on that occafion he received the honour of knighthood, and foon after married Anna Maria Shipley, the bishop of St. Afaph's daughter. He left England in April 1793, and on his arrival in India, he was enabled to establish an Afiatic fociety, for the purpose of illuftrating the hiftory, learning, and antiquities of the East. To the memoirs of this learned body, the formation of which his active mind had planned in his voyage from Europe, he made most valuable contributions. When difengaged from the occupations of his judicial office, he unbent all the powers of his comprehenfive mind to the literature of the Eaft, and he acquired fuch an acquaintance with the Sanfcrit language, and the code of the Bramins, that he was courted and admired by the most learned and intelligent of the native Indians. To enlarge our knowledge of Afiatic hiftory, and Eastern literature, was not however the fole object of his active mind; he was a pious and a fincere christian, and his researches were equally directed to investigate and to prove from oriental books, and from the various traditions of the heathen natives, the great hiftorical facts, and important details contained in the holy fcriptures. In one of his difcourfes to the Afiatic fociety, he has evinced his attachment to the religion of his country, and his belief in her facred tenets, by fupporting the validity of the Mofaic hiftory of the creation, in a manner more fatisfactory and more convincing than any other writer. This great and good man, from whom fo much was expected still, in the paths of oriental science and literature, who deserved fo weil of his country, and of her Afiatic colonies, by his firmness, his legal knowledge, and his unfhaken integ.ity, was fnatched away after a fhort illness at Calcutta, 27th April, 1794, aged 48. His remains were interred in the burial ground at Calcutta, where an English inscription by himself, and a Latin one by his brother judge, fir William Dunkin, mark the spot. An elegant monument has lately been erected in St. Paul's cathedral, which does no lefs honour to his merits than to the munificence An error; read 1783, as alfo five lines lower. Rev. and and liberal fentiments of the East India directors, by whom it was raifed. The works of fir William have been published in 6 vals. 4to. 1799, and prove him not only an elegant fcholar, but a good poet, an able critic, and an indefatigable hiftorian, whofe name must be revered wherever virtue and literature are cultivated. His life has been written by his friend lord Teignmouth, 4to. 1804." "PRICE, Richard, an eminent diffenting minifter and able political writer, born about 1723, in Glamorganfhire. He was educated for the miniftry among the diffenters, and began early to preach at Newington, Middlefex, and afterward removed to Hackney. In 1764 he was elected fellow of the royal fociety, and fome years after obtained the degree of D. D. from a Scotch University. In 1772, he commenced author by his appeal to the public on the national debt, and in 1776, during the party difputes which attended the beginning of the American war, he published his famous obfervations on the nature of civil government. This work, which did not pafs without cenfure from va rious writers, acquired great popularity, and procured for its author the thanks of the common council of London that year. As preacher at the meeting houfe in the Old Jewry, he delivered a difcourfe in 1789, which was afterwards made public. In this fermon on the love of our country," he enlarged on the French revolution with party prejudices, and with democratic zeal, and afferted the right of the people to cashier their governors for mifconduct; but whatever may be the opinions of politicians on popular fubjects, it must reflect difgrace on the man who, affuming the character of chriftian minifter, rejoices at the misfortunes of fallen greatnefs, and triumphs on the ruins of a throne. Thefe allufions to the fate of the French monarch were read and commented upon by Mr. Burke with the noble indignation of offended virtue; but the pamphlets which have appeared in confequence of this controverfy, though numerous, deferve now little the notice of the world, only fo far as they recommend the cultivation of benevolence and charity among men, and loyal attachment to that government which protects equally the perfon and the property of all its fubjects. Dr. Price died 19th March, 1791. As a political writer, he carried his ideas of equality and liberty much farther than the vices and paffions of men will with fafety allow. As a calculator on political queftions he was eminently diftinguished. His works are four differtations on providence and prayer, on the evidences of a future ftate, on the importance of chriftianity-a review of the principal queftions and difficulties in morals, 8vo.-obfervations onreverfional payments, annuities, &c. 2 vols. 8vo.-difcuffion of the doctrines of materialifm and neceffity, in a correfpondence with Dr. Prieftley, 8vo. eflay on the population of England and Wales, 8vo.- -a volume of fermons on various occafional fubiecto fabjects. Mrs. Chapone has defcribed him in her mifcellanies, as a very amiable man in private life." "PRIESTLEY, Jofeph, an English philofopher and diffenting divine, born at Fieldhead, Yorkshire, 1733. He was educated at Daventry under Dr. Afhworth, for the miniftry among the diffenters, and at the proper age he took care of a congregation at Needham market, Suffolk, and afterwards at Nantwich, Chefhire, He became in 1761, profeffor of belles lettres in the Warrington academy, and after feven year's refidence there he removed to Leeds, and two years after accepted the office of li brarian and philofophical companion to the earl of Shelburne. In this retreat the philofopher devoted himfelf laboriously to me. taphysical and theological studies, and published various works, and when at last he feparated from his noble patron he retired with an annual penfion of 150l. to fettle at Birmingham as paftor to an unitarian congregation in 1780. While here ufefully employed in advancing the caufe of philofophy, and too often engaged in theological difputes, he became the victim of popular fury; and the conduct of fome of his neighbours in celebrating the anniversary of the French revolution in 1791, with more intemperance than became Englishmen and loyal fubjects, excited a dreadful riot. Not only the meeting houfes were deftroyed on this melancholy occafion; but among others, Dr. Priestley's houfe, library, manufcripts, and philofophical apparatus were totally confumed, and though he recovered a compenfation by fuing the county, he quitted this fcene of prejudice and unpopularity. After refiding fome time at London and Hackney, where he preached to the congregation over which his friend Price once prefided, he determined to quit his native country, and feek a more peaceful retreat in America, where fome of his family were already fettled. He left England in 1794, and fixed his refidence at Northumberland in Pennsylvania, where he died in 1804. His writings were very numerous, and he long attracted the public notice, not only by difcoveries in philofophy, but by the boldness of his theolo gical opinions. Had he confined his ftudies merely to philofo. phical purfuits, his name would have defcended to pofterity with greater luftre; but he who attempts innovations in government and religion, for fingularity, and to excite popular prejudices, muft be little entitled to the applaufes of the world. His chief publications are, an examination of Dr. Reid's work on the human mind, Dr. Beattie's on truth, and Dr. Ofborne's on common fenfe, 1775-difquifition on matter and fpirit, in which he denied the foul's immateriality, 1777-experiments and obfervations on various kinds of air, 2 vols. 8vo. and other learned and valuable communications to the philofophical tranfactions→→→ letters to bishop Newcome on the duration of Christ's ministry hiftory of the corruptions of chriftianity, 2 vols. 8vo. a work of fingular character, which brought on a controverfy with Dr. Horfley, and alfo excited the animadverfion of the monthly monthly reviewers and other writers-history of early opinions concerning the perfon of Chrift, &c. He also published charts of hiftory and biography-hiftory of electricity-history and prefent state of difcoveries relating to vifion, light, and colours -lectures on the theory and hiftory of language, and on the principles of oratory and criticifm, &c. He at one time adopted the doctrine of philofophical neceffity, in which Dr. Price ably oppofed him; and in America he defended his Socinian principles with great warmth. in a controverfy with Dr. Linn of Philadelphia. His difcoveries and improvements in the knowledge of chemistry were very great and important; but he lived to fee the general explosion of the doctrine of phlogifton, which he had fo zealously established and fo pertinaciously defended. From his extenfive information as a philofopher, he had corref pondents in every part of the world, and was member not only of the London fociety, but of other learned bodies in the two continents." In every work of this description, accuracy must be the firft object of the purchafer, and of the critic, and as the prefent volume will probably become a favourite with the public, from its general utility, the author will doubtless excufe our pointing out fome errors, as well as fuggesting fome improvements, by an attention to which he may render. his future editions more worthy of public patronage. Badcock is faid to have quitted the diffenters in 1786, and entered the church, but how is this confiftent with his preaching before the judges at Exeter in 1783 ? Bayly, Nathan, lexicographer, has neither date nor time. Beattie, Dr. the dates here are all wrong. Brown, James, author of the Characteristics, should be John. ten. Byfield, Nicholas, "died in 1662," for 1622. Drayton's works were published in four volumes, not in Dr. Dodd has more than a column, and Dr. Doddridge not half a column. Eon, Madame d'," died in 1790." She was alive some years after this. The author was probably misled by the laft edition of the Dictionnaire Hiftorique, a very incorrect book. Fabroni's Lives extend to 21 volumes. Ferguson, Robert. "His poems have been edited in Anderfon's collection." We have looked in vain for them.. Geddes, Dr. No christian name, which is fomewhat unreasonable, as the Dr. was not ambitious of much more than the name. Gentleman, Gentleman, Francis: a very defective article. educated at New College, Aberdeen.' There is no fuch place. Hardwicke, Lord, is faid to have been born in 1690, and died 1790, aged 70! Helfham, Richard, neither birth nor death. Henry, David, was a proprietor, but we believe never a conductor of the Gentleman's Magazine, and certainly not for 50 years. Hooke, Robert, born 1735: fhould be 1635. Howard, Earl of Surrey, never was at Flodden Field. Dr. Hudson, the critic's chriftian name was John, not Johnfen. James, Dr. his powders "procured to his family an inexhauftible fource of opulence." The profits of this medicine went into another family. "Jones, Sir William, a judge of the King's Bench, in the reigns of James I. and Charles I. was author of Reports in his court, and in that of common pleas." But why no more? Wood has a good account of him. We may ask the fame refpecting Sir Thomas Jones, who follows, and of whom we have a bon mot instead of a life. Law, Rev. Wm. took his degrees at Oxford. doubtful. He does not occur among the graduates. This is Sir William Trumbull, here called Dr. Trumbull. "The time of his death is not fully afcertained." We know no date better afcertained, if any one will take the trouble to confult Pope's Epitaph on him. Some of thefe errata are probably typographical, but others evidently proceed from copying preceding works of this kind without fufficient attention. Mere copying will never produce a correct work, for our biographical- collections are in general extremely faulty in dates, as well as in leading circumftances. We have not difcovered any important omiflions in this volume, but as the author's materiais will infenfibly accumulate, room might be made for future additions, by the omiffion of fome articles which feem to belong to chronology rather than biography; and furely fuch names as Barebones, Brafs Crofby, Col. Defpard, &c. might be reserved for fome inferior and lefs honourable collection. We are in clined, although upon very different grounds, to object to the admiffion of the perfonages recorded in the Bible. They cannot be the fubjects of perfonal hiftory, nor of literary criticism, and when we fee, as in this work, the character and hiftory of Jefus Chrift difmiffed in fix lines, we are. |