like Minervas or Junos, though they had naturally the dispositions of Venus or of Danäe; and Reynolds, who had equal loveliness and infinitely more purity to portray, indulged his beauties with the same kind of deification. In truth, it is only worthy of a smile.

"The portraits of Reynolds are equally numerous and excellent, and all who have written of their merits have swelled their eulogiums by comparing them with the simplicity of Titian, the vigour of Rembrandt, and the elegance and delicacy of Vandyke. Certainly, in character and expression, and in manly ease, he has never been surpassed. He is always equal-always natural-graceful-unaffected. His boldness of posture and his singular freedom of colouring are so supported by all the grace of art-by all the sorcery of skill-that they appear natural and noble. Over the meanest head he sheds the halo of dignity; his men are all nobleness, his women all loveliness, and his children all simplicity yet they are all like the living originals. He had the singular art of summoning the mind into the face, and making sentiment mingle in the portrait. He could completely dismiss all his preconceived notions of academic beauty from his mind, be dead to the past and living only to the present, and enter into the character of the reigning beauty of the hour with a truth and a happiness next to magical."

William Robertson, D. D.

BORN A. D. 1721.-DIED A. D. 1793.

THIS eminent historian was the son of a Scottish clergyman. He was born at Borthwick in Mid Lothian, in the year 1721, and received the rudiments of education at Dalkeith grammar-school. In 1733 he removed with his family to Edinburgh, on his father being appointed one of the ministers of that city. Having passed his preliminary studies at the university of Edinburgh, he entered the divinity-hall, and, in 1741, received license to preach. In 1743 he was presented to the living of Gladsmuir, in East Lothian. The emoluments of this countrycharge did not exceed £100 per annum; yet he contrived not only to support himself respectably upon it, but also to afford board and education to his six sisters and a younger brother, all of whom, by the death of their parents, were thrown nearly destitute upon his hands at this juncture.

In 1751 Mr Robertson entered into the married state. He had now acquired considerable reputation as a preacher, and was considered one of the ablest speakers in the General Assembly. His defence of his friend Home, who held a parochial charge in the same county, but had incurred the censure of not a few of his brethren for having written the tragedy of Douglas, was a remarkably able and eloquent pleading. On the 1st of February, 1759, the public was surprised and delighted by the appearance of his History of Scotland' during the reigns of Queen Mary and James VI. He had not formed the plan of this work until after his settlement at Gladsmuir; but he had devoted himself to it with unremitting industry, and its success far exceeded his most sanguine expectations. Before the end of the first month, he was desired

by his publisher to prepare a second edition; and he lived to witness the fourteenth edition called for. Horace Walpole, Warburton, Hume, and almost all the leading literary characters of the day, hastened to compliment and congratulate the author. "Every ear is fatigued," said the historian of England, in a letter to Mr Robertson, "by noisy, and endless, and repeated praises of the History of Scotland." "I believe," he adds, "there is scarce another instance of a first performance being so near perfection."

:

Previous to the publication of the History of Scotland,' Mr Robertson had been presented, by the magistrates of Edinburgh, to one of the city churches with the success of that work, preferments crowded upon him. In the same year he was appointed chaplain of Stirling castle; in 1761, he was named one of his majesty's chaplains in ordinary for Scotland; in 1762, he was chosen principal of the university of Edinburgh; and, in 1764, the office of historiographer royal for Scotland was revived in his favour, with a salary of £200 per annum attached to it. The next historical work published by Mr Robertson, was his History of Charles V.;' but before engaging in the preparation of this work, he is known to have seriously meditated a History of England. His friend Hume had already executed such a task in a masterly manner; but he was of opinion that the two works would not prejudice each other; that both "might maintain their own rank; have their own partizans; and possess their own merit, without hurting each other." It is known too, that government encouraged the design; but ultimately, and perhaps fortunately for the fame of the clerical historian, the projected history of England was abandoned for another, but a splendid subject, and one too in which he had no rival already in the field. The History of the Reign of the Emperor, Charles V.,' was first published in three volumes quarto, in 1769. His friend Hume was again the first to congratulate him on the new laurels he had acquired by this noble specimen of historical composition; he said that it nearly stood alone in its own department of literature for elegance, dignity, and philosophical acumen; and that it excelled, in a sensible degree, his former performance. Voltaire also hastened to express his unbounded admiration of the new work; and the empress of Russia sent the author a snuff-box set with brilliants, as a mark of her esteem and approbation. Mr Dugald Stewart is of opinion, that of all Dr Robertson's works, his Charles V. is" that which unites the various requisites of good writing in the greatest degree."

After an interval of eight years, Dr Robertson produced his 'History of America,' in two volumes quarto. Of this work, Mr Stewart says: "Although it contains many passages, equal, if not superior, to any thing else in his writings, the composition does not seem to me to be so uniformly polished as that of his former works; nor does it always possess, in the same degree, the recommendations of conciseness and simplicity." The greatest blot in this work, and one which unfortunately affects, in a serious degree, the historian's character itself, is the disposition which perpetually reveals itself throughout his pages, to palliate or apologise for the atrocities committed by the Spaniards in their American conquests. The Spanish court expressed their gratitude to their apologist, by causing him to be elected a member of the Royal academy of history at Madrid. It has been alleged that the kindness

of the Spanish court, in supplying him with materials for this performance, seduced him into this unworthy compromise.

Dr Robertson's historical labours closed with the publication, in 1791, of An Historical Disquisition concerning the Knowledge which the Ancients had of India.' He was now in his sixty-eighth year; and although this performance exhibits no marks of age and declining faculties, yet his health had now begun to give way, and he soon after retired to his country-seat in the neighbourhood of Edinburgh, where he died on the 11th of June, 1793.

"The general strain of Dr Robertson's compositions," says Mr Dugald Stewart, "is flowing, equal, and majestic; harmonious beyond that of most English writers, yet seldom deviating in quest of harmony into inversion, redundancy, or affectation." "The histories of Robertson," says another critic, "abound in the finest descriptions, the most pleasing delineations of character, the most dignified and judicious mixture of reflections; and, more especially, they are distinguished by a style of narration, at once manly, copious, and easy. But all these descriptions, delineations, reflections, and even this narrative itself, are too general for practical use and application. The politician and political economist will search those writings in vain for the accurate details of fact which they have a right to expect from one who investigates the subjects of particular men and nations. We will not, by any means, go so far as to say, with Johnson, that the substance of Robertson's works is like a guinea wrapt up in a wool pack; but we think that the mass of the historian's gold has come from a mint, where the beauty of the die is rather more attended to than the accuracy of the marks which prevent falsification, and give the coin its uses and currency. In this instance, indeed, there is no light weight; but he who possesses the powers of ornament may give base metals a similar appearance. In plain terms, Dr Robertson appears to have studied grace and dignity more than usefulness. He has chosen those features of every figure which he could best paint, rather than those which were most worthy of the pencil. His buildings are more remarkable for that symmetry and those ornaments which would please a common observer, than for the Doric strength which adapts them for lasting use; that internal arrangement which is necessary to the purposes of inhabitancy, or even that accuracy of proportion in the external parts, which is as much required by the eye of a learned architect, as chasteness of ornamental design. The charms of Robertson's style, and the full flow of his narration, which is always sufficiently minute for ordinary readers, will render his works immortal in the hands of the bulk of mankind. the scientific reader requires something more than periods which fill his ear, and general statements which gratify by amusing: he even requires more than a general text-book,-a happy arrangement of intricate subjects, which may enable him to pursue them in their details. It is not always enough that proportions should be stated by general terms of comparison. A period may look finer for the want of figures; and common readers will certainly be satisfied with the words more and less. Those who alone, as Lord Bolingbroke says, deserve the name of historical readers, require to be told how much more and how much less. When we repair to the works of Robertson for the purpose of finding facts, we are instantly carried away by the stream of his narrative, and

But

forget the purpose of our errand to the fountain. As soon as we can stop ourselves, we discover that our search has been vain, and that we must apply to those sources from which he drew and culled his sup plies." 1

George Colman.

BORN A. D. 1733.-died A. D. 1794.

GEORGE COLMAN, the Elder, was born at Florence, in the year 1733. His father was British resident at the court of the grand duke. He graduated at Oxford in 1758, and studied for the law, but afterwards forsook the dry profession of jurisprudence for literature, and especially the department of the drama. In 1760, his first dramatic piece, 'Polly Honeycomb,' was acted at Drury-lane. In the succeeding year he produced The Jealous Wife; and, in 1756, in conjunction with Garrick, The Clandestine Marriage.' When Foote retired from the Haymarket theatre, Colman purchased his share, and for several years managed the affairs of that dramatic community with considerable success. He died in August, 1794. He was an accomplished classical scholar, and holds a respectable place among the writers of comedy.

Horace Walpole, Earl of Orford.

BORN A. D. 1718.-DIED A. D. 1797.

HORACE WALPOLE, the third son of Sir Robert Walpole, occupied from his birth a station in the eyes of the world which commanded immediate attention to every display of the faculties of his mind, and he may be said to have entered the world with that claim on its attention which 'less fortunate men have not acquired without delay, disappointment, and labour. He was born in the year 1718, and educated at Eton school, where he became acquainted with Gray. Both entered the university of Cambridge about the year 1734, and Walpole, who was a member of King's college, wrote on the 2d of February, 1738, the earliest of his avowed productions, verses in memory of King Henry VI. the founder of that institution,—a piece which may be ranked at the aggregate merit of university prize poems. At college he is said to have indulged in religious enthusiasm so far as to join his friend Ashton in praying with the prisoners in the castle. He soon, however, changed his opinions, and, with the natural reverse to overturned enthusiasm, did not limit himself to the scepticism which an argumentative or reflecting mind might have chosen. He is reported to have said: "Fontenelle's dialogues on the plurality of worlds, first rendered me an infidel. Christianity and a plurality of worlds are, in my opinion, irreconcilable. . . . Atheism I dislike. It is gloomy, uncomfortable; and, in my eye, unnatural and irrational. It certainly requires more credulity to beieve that there is no God, than to believe that there is. This fair crea

1 Edinburgh Review, vol. ii. pp. 240, 241.

8

O, im

tion, those magnificent heavens, the fruit of matter and chance! possible! I go to church sometimes in order to induce my servants to go to church. I am no hypocrite. I do not go in order to persuade them to believe what I do not believe myself. A good moral sermon may instruct and benefit them. I only set them an example of listening, not of believing."

In the summer of the year 1738, having arrived at majority, he was appointed inspector-general of the exports and imports, which office he afterwards exchanged for that of usher of the exchequer, a less troublesome duty, which required the appending of very few signatures excepting those required to draw the salary. His father being then at the height of power, and like a patriot resolved to throw his children on their country, was busy in procuring sinecures for his family. That portion of them which fell to the lot of Horace, consisting of five several offices, produced, according to calculations from his own admissions, £3,900, while the commissioners of inquiry reckoned them at £6,300, and his biographers, probably with a nearer approach to truth, generally name his income as amounting to about £5,000 a-year. It is at all events known that all that was left him as a hereditary fortune by his father was £5,000, of which only £1,000 was ever paid; and that the elegant luxuries of Strawberry-hill were maintained from situations for which he has been lavish before the public in praise of the generosity and disinterestedness of his father. Walpole appears to have had no early desire to shine as a politician, and being called upon neither by ambition nor necessity to shape to himself a steady course through life, his pursuits were desultory, and the powers of his mind untried. He left his father during the most active period of his administration, proceeding to France in March 1739, when he was accompanied by Gray in a ramble over various parts of the continent. In May 1741, these uncongenial spirits had a dispute at Reggio, which terminated in a dissolution of their friendship,-a circumstance of which Walpole candidly accepts the blame, on the very complacent ground that he should have spared a weaker brother and allowed latitude to the peculiar temper of Gray. It is to his honour to add, that although no longer the friend, he did not condescend to become the enemy of the illustrious poet. On his return from the continent, Walpole entered the brief and unimportant theatre of his political existence, by being chosen in June, 1741, as representative of the borough of Callington in Cornwall: commencing his career in that parliament which overthrew the greatness of his father. The only active part which he undertook in the debates was a single act of filial propriety and affection,—an answer to the motion on the 23d March, 1742, for an inquiry into the conduct of Sir Robert Walpole.*

His subsequent political acts may here be briefly traced. If a mind so versatile and fickle can be said to have adopted any political principles, it is apparent that he was long opposed to the enemies of his father, although he finally became reconciled to and even on friendly

Walpoliana, vol. i. pp. 75, 76.

* Vide a clever party-examination of the subject, Quarterly Review, vol. xix. p. 8. Account of my conduct relative to the places I hold under Government.' Works, vol. ii. p. 364.

Vide copy of his speech in the introduction to his Memoirs of the last ten years of the Reign of George II.' p. 17.