originality of his fancy in ballad-composition, every one will admit the charming pastoral melody of 'Ye Shepherds and Nymphs of the grove,'-the mellifluous and affecting air of When Damon languished at my feet,' sung by Mrs Baddely, in the tragedy of The Gamester,'-the expressive passages in When beauty on the Lover's cheek,' and above all, his popular and universally admired Kate of Aberdeen,' the beauty and sweetness of which will be felt and acknowledged in this country as long as taste for vocal music exists."

Battishill died on the 10th of December, 1801. For the last thirty years of his life his name seldom appeared in the list of publishing composers. In the opinion of Dr Busby, nothing but greater application was wanting to this composer to have made him "the greatest musician this country ever produced, Purcel excepted."

John Millar.

BORN A. D. 1735.-DIED A. D. 1801.

JOHN MILLAR, professor of law in the university of Glasgow, and one of the ablest political and historical writers of the last century, was the son of a clergyman in the neighbourhood of Edinburgh. He was sent to college at Glasgow in his eleventh year, where, notwithstanding his extreme youth, he made a highly respectable appearance in the literary classes. He was originally intended for the ministerial profession, but was permitted to gratify his own preference for the bar.

After having completed his full literary curriculum, he attended the lectures of Dr Adam Smith; after which he entered as tutor into the family of Lord Kames. "It seldom happens," says one who had been a pupil of Mr Millar, "that we can trace the genealogy of a literary progeny so correctly as the two circumstances, which have now been mentioned, enable us to do that of Mr Millar's future studies. It is perfectly evident to all who are acquainted with their writings, that his speculations are all formed upon the model of those of Lord Kames and Dr Smith, and that his merit consists almost entirely in the accuracy with which he surveyed, and the sagacity with which he pursued the path which they had the merit of discovering. It was one great object of both those original authors, to trace back the history of society to its most simple and universal elements,-to resolve almost all that has been ascribed to positive institution into the spontaneous and irresistible development of certain obvious principles, and to show with how little contrivance or political wisdom the most complicated and apparently artificial schemes of policy might have been erected. This is very nearly the precise definition of what Mr Millar aimed at accomplishing in his lectures and publications; and when we find that he attended the lectures of Dr Smith, and lived in the family of Lord Kames, we cannot hesitate to ascribe the bent of his genius, and the peculiar tenor of his speculations, to the impressions he must have received from those early concurrences."

In 1760 Mr Millar was called to the bar; but having married early in life, he was soon after induced to relinquish the very flattering prospects which it presented for the more certain emoluments of professor

of law in the university of Glasgow, to which chair, by the interest of Lord Kames and Dr Smith, he was immediately appointed. He filled this situation for nearly forty years in a manner highly beneficial to the university and most honourable to himself.

He taught two classes of civil law; in the first, prelecting on the Institutions, in the second, on the Pandects of Justinian. Besides teaching the civil law-which was more peculiarly the duty of his office he gave each session a course of lectures on government; he also taught, every second year, a class of Scotch law; and for a few years before his death he delivered a course of lectures on the law of England. His nephew and biographer, Mr Craig, says he "never wrote his lectures; but was accustomed to speak from notes, containing his arrangement, his chief topics, and some of his principal facts and illustrations. For the transitions from one part of his subject to another, the occasional allusions, the smaller embellishments, and the whole of the expression, he trusted to that extemporaneous eloquence which seldom fails a speaker deeply interested in his subject. In some branches of science, where the utmost precision of language is requisite to avoid obscurity or error, such a mode of lecturing may be attended with much difficulty, and several disadvantages; but in morals, in jurisprudence, in law, and in politics, if the professor make himself completely master of the different topics he is to illustrate, if he possess ideas clear and defined, with tolerable facility in expressing them, the little inelegancies into which he may occasionally be betrayed, the slight hesitation which he may not always escape, will be much more than compensated by the fulness of his illustrations, the energy of his manner, and that interest which is excited, both in the hearer and speaker, by extemporaneous eloquence." "Not satisfied," continues Mr Craig, "with explaining his opinions in the most perspicuous manner in his lecture, Mr Millar encouraged such of the students as had not fully comprehended his doctrines, or conceived that there was some error in his reasonings, to state to him their difficulties and objections. With this view, at the conclusion of the lecture, a little circle of his most attentive pupils was formed around him, when the doctrines which had been delivered were canvassed with the most perfect freedom. Before a professor can admit of such a practice, he must be completely master of his subject, and have acquired some confidence in his own quickness at refuting objections, and detecting sophistry. A few instances of defeat might be injurious to his reputation, and to the discipline of the class. But should he possess a clear comprehension of all the bearings of his system, joined to quickness of understanding, and tolerable ease of expression, he will derive the most important advantages from the unrestrained communications of his pupils. He will learn where he has failed to convey his ideas with accuracy, where he has been too concise, or where imperfect analogies have led him into slight mistakes; and he will easily find a future opportunity to introduce new illustrations, to explain what has been misapprehended, or correct what was really an error. To the student such a practice insures accurate knowledge; it teaches the important lesson of considering opinions before adopting them; and gives an additional incitement to strict and vigilant attention. Accordingly, to be able to state difficulties with propriety, was justly looked upon, by the more ingenious

and attentive students, as no slight proof of proficiency; and to be an active and intelligent member of the fireside committee, never failed to give a young man some consideration among his companions."

In 1771 he published a work entitled, The Origin of the Distinc tion of Ranks: or an Inquiry into the circumstances which give rise to Influence and Authority in the different Members of Society.' In this work he has embodied the principal portion of his lectures in civil law under the headRights of Persons,' and also a brief view of the first part of his lectures on government. It was received in a very flattering manner by the public, and has gone through several editions.'

In 1787 he published the first volume of his Historical View of the English Government.' It was Mr Millar's design in this publication to exhibit an historical view of the English government from the earliest periods of its independent existence down to the present times, under the three great general heads of its existence as a feudal aristocracy, then as a feudal monarchy, and lastly as, what he has called, a commercial government. The first form of government prevailed from the establishment of the Saxon down to the Norman conquest. The second, according to Mr Millar's views, extends from the Conquest to the accession of the House of Stuart. The third form was established by the Revolution in 1688. The manuscript of this portion of the work, however, was left in an unfinished state on the death of the author. That portion which had the benefit of his revision and preparation for the press, forms, in the London edition of 1803, four vols. 8vo. The first part of this performance contains some admirable dissertations on the origin of the feudal system, and the philosophy of government in general. In the second part his chief object seems to be to correct the erroneous representations of Hume, and to prove that the government of England was never, at any period, an absolute government. He does not scruple to say that Charles I. was justly beheaded, although he is inclined to think that it was an inexpedient measure to put him to death. He argues that a republic is the most suitable form of government either for a very small or a very extensive country; but he is very unmerciful towards the protector of England's commonwealth. He eulogizes the prince of Orange, and seems to regret that James II. was not made to share the fate of Charles. The fourth volume contains some very interesting essays on the history of law, the progress of the fine arts, and the philosophy or economy of commerce and manufactures.

Mr Millar died in 1801. His private character was highly amiable. "His uncommon vivacity, good humour, and ingenuity, made his conversation delightful to persons but little addicted to literary pursuits; while the extent and variety of his information, the closeness and accuracy of his reasoning, and the readiness and originality of his illustrations, enabled him to make a distinguished figure in more select and cultivated societies. On the subject of politics,' Mr Craig states with great candour, he argued always with zeal; and, towards the end of his life, with a considerable degree of keenness. He, who had refused the offer of a lucrative place, which might have introduced him to

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It is to the 4th edition of this work (Edinburgh, 1806, 8vo.) that Mr Craig's biographical notice of the author is prefixed.

higher honours, because he feared that his acceptance might be construed into an engagement to support an administration whose measures he condemned, had little allowance to make for those who sacrificed their principles to their interest. Ever steady and consistent himself, he was apt to suspect the purity of the motives from which all violent and sudden changes in political opinion arose; without perhaps making a due degree of allowance for that alarm, which, however hurtful in its consequences, was the natural result of the blind fanaticism of several popular societies. On a subject too, which he had studied with the utmost care, he naturally might be rather impatient of ignorant and presumptuous contradiction; nor could his mind brook the imputations which, at a season of political intolerance, were so liberally passed on all the opposers of ministerial power. Arguing frequently under considerable irritation of mind, perhaps unavoidable in his particular circumstances, it is not impossible that expressions may have escaped him which might afford room for mistake or misrepresentation.'"

In his politics, it is scarcely necessary to say he was a decided whig, and would not perhaps have refused the appellation of republican. In domestic politics, he usually adhered to the measures of the marquess of Rockingham and Fox; he was a warm friend to the extension of the elective franchise, and sympathized deeply with the French people in their great movement on behalf of the natural rights and liberties of mankind.

William Heberden.

BORN A. D. 1710.-DIED A. D. 1801.

THIS eminent physician and accomplished scholar was born in London, and educated at schools there and at Cambridge. In 1730 he obtained a fellowship of St John's college, and began to direct his attention to medicine. He took the degree of M.D. in 1739, and practised physic in the university for above ten years. During this period he read a yearly course of lectures in Materia Medica.

In 1746 he became a fellow of the Royal college of physicians, and two years afterwards, settled in London, where he quickly rose into very extensive practice. In 1778 the Royal society of medicine in Paris enrolled him amongst its associates. He lived to the advanced age of ninety-one years, and died in peace on the 17th of May, 1801.

Dr Heberden was a deeply pious man, of great gentleness of disposition, and amiable manners. His professional eminence was undisputed while he lived, and his writings hold a very high place in the medical literature of Europe. His son published an edition of his Commentaries on the History and Cure of Diseases in the original Latin, with anEnglish translation, and memoir of the author, in 1802. His communications to the Medical Transactions' are numerous and important; he has also some papers in the Transactions of the Royal society. In 1763 an edition of the Supplices Mulieres' of Euripides, with Markland's notes, was printed at the sole expense of Dr Heberden, to whom that eminent scholar was greatly indebted and strongly attached. Dr Heberden was one of the writers of the Athenian Letters.'

VI.

2 r

Robert Orme.

BORN A. D. 1728.-DIED A. D. 1801.

THE father of this historian of our East Indian transactions was a physician in the service of the honourable Company. Robert was born in the Travancore country, in 1728, but was sent to England for his education, and entered at Harrow school when only six years of age. On leaving school he was placed for twelve months in the office of the accomptant-general of the African company, to obtain a general notion of foreign commercial transactions. He then embarked for Calcutta, where he arrived in 1742, and was immediately engaged in the civil service of the Company.

He returned to England in 1752, and was in frequent communication with government on the best plans for supporting British interests in Hindostan, and consolidating our East Indian territories. In 1754 he again embarked for India on being appointed by the court of directors a member of the council of Fort St George. During the years 1757-8 he filled the office of commissary and accomptant-general in India; but his health obliged him to return to Britain in 1760.

Settling in London, he employed himself in drawing up a History of the Military Transactions of the British nation in Hindostan from the year 1745. The first volume of this work, bringing down the history to 1756, was published in 1763, and extremely well-received by the public. The Company marked their sense of its merits by giving him free access to all their records, and appointing him their historiographer with a salary of £400 per annum.

To obtain the most accurate information respecting the struggle with the French power in India, which was to form the leading subject of the second volume of his history, Mr Orme visited France in 1773, where he was well-received, and liberally furnished with authentic documents. In 1778 he published his second volume, containing a narrative of our East Indian transactions from 1756 to 1763, with an examination of the Rise and Progress of English commerce in Bengal, and an account of the Mahommedan power in Hindostan from its esta blishment in 1800.

In 1782 Mr Orme published Historical Fragments of the Mogul Empire of the Morattoes, and of the English concerns in Indostan, from the year 1659.' This was his last publication. His health had been giving way for many years. He retired from the metropolis in 1792, and spent the remaining years of his life at Ealing, where he died in 1801. He bequeathed his books and papers to the East India company, in whose library they now remain.

Mr Orme appears to have discharged his public duties with great zeal and high ability; his private life is represented to have been respectable and amiable. He lived in habits of intercourse and correspondence with most of the eminent literary characters of his day, and appears to have enjoyed their confidence and esteem.

His first and principal historical work is formed on the historic models of antiquity. It is minute in its details, and laboured in its