provements were carried on, he presided 9 years and in 1791, he was further advanced to the Bishoprick of Durham.

His Lordship has been twice married. Istly, on the 2d of Feb. 1761, to Lady Diana Beauclerk, only daughter of Charles, 2d Duke of St. Alban's, who died in 1766; and 2ndly, June 20, 1770, to Jane, only daughter of Sir Berkeley X William Guise, Bart. of Rendcombe, co. Gloucester, who died Aug. 1807, but he has had no issue by either alliance.

It would be an easy and a pleasing task, to record the various instances of this Prelate's munificence, and especially towards Salisbury.

But

of the living I have resolved to say as little as possible; suffice it to observe, that his Lordship's turn of mind is such, that he is content to see the effects of the good he does, without wishing any mention to be made of himself.

His Lordship is author of some Sermons, Charges, and Tracts-the most prominent of which is: The grounds on which the Church of England separated from that of Rome, considered.' This tract contains unanswerable arguments against the doctrine of transubstantiation. Every member of the Church of Rome should attentively peruse it, and if he rise from it, unconvinced, he will prove himself possessed of an unusual obtuseness of intellect.

0

vid. Lives of Eminent & Ilustrious Englishm

Vol. vii. p. 450.

rid. Church of England Magazine, Vol. 1. p. 375.

328

16. JOHN DOUGLAS.

SUCCESSIT, A. D. 1791.-OBIIT A. D. 1807.

Bishop Douglas was born in Scotland, July 14, 1721. He was 2d son of Mr. Arch. Douglas, a merchant at the port of Pittenween, in Fifeshire; his mother's name was Melvill, daughter of Mr. Melvill, of Carsender, in the same county: and his grandfather, who was a younger brother of the Douglases of Tilwilly, was an eminent clergyman of the Episcopal Church of Scotland, and the immediate successor of Bishop Burnet, in the living of Salton, in E. Lothian, of which preferment he was deprived at the Revolution, when the errors of Presbyterianism obtained establishment in Scotland. To the "form of sound words," for which the father suffered, the son firmly adhered; and Archibald Douglas, never having departed from apostolic usages, had all his children baptized by a clergyman episcopally ordained. Douglas was sent at an early age to a school at Dunbar, where he continued making great progress in classical learning till 1735, when his Father, who had removed to London, placed him at Clare's Academy, Soho Square, and afterwards at Stotherd's, in Charles-street. At the first of these, he ac

quired an accurate knowledge of French, but finding that he already knew much more Greek and Latin than any of his school-fellows at the other, his stock of learning was there but little increased. He had previously, however, made such proficiency in the learned languages, that in Feb. 1736, being then in his 16th year, he was entered a Commoner of St. Mary's Hall, Oxford. Here he remained 2 years, under the tuition of Walter Harte, and in 1738, was elected an exhibitioner of Baliol, on Bishop Warner's foundation. Having taken his degree of A. B., in 1740, his father sent him to France to acquire a facility in speaking the language of that country: accordingly in 1742, he took up his residence at Montreuil, in Picardy, and afterwards removed to Ghent. In October, the same year, he returned to England, and resumed his studies at Oxford, where the Greek historians, the early fathers, and English divines, were his constant companions. In October 1743, he proceeded A. M., and having obtained Deacon's Orders, was the next year appointed Chaplain to the 3d regiment of foot guards, which he joined at Berleghem camp, in July 1744. Of the battle of Fontenoy, fought April 29, 1745, he was by no means an inactive spectator, performing the part of Aid-de-camp to General Campbell, who employed him to carry orders to the English regiments, which protected the vil

lage, where he and some other Generals were stationed. An officer of his acquaintance advancing at the head of a squadron of dragoons, invited him to join the charge, telling him to remember he was "a Douglas," an invitation which the Chaplain could not accept, incumbered as he was with the wills and other property of many officers and soldiers engaged in the battle: indeed, the Chaplain was so laden with watches, crown pieces, and other weighty property, that it was with great inconvenience, augmented by fear, lest his pockets should give way under the weight of their contents, that he reached a place of 'safety. When a detachment of the army was ordered home to suppress the rebellion in Scotland, he returned to England, and resigning his Chaplaincy, retired to Oxford, where the Master and fellows of Baliol, soon testified their regard, by electing him an exhibitioner on Snell's foundation. He remained in College during the greater part of 1746. In the following year he was ordained Priest, and became Curate of Tilehurst, near Reading, and afterwards of Duns-Tew, Oxfordshire, where he was residing, when invited by the Earl of Bath (Pulteney) to accompany his son, Lord Pulteney, on his travels. For this introduction to Lord Bath, he was indebted to the kindness of Dr. Chas. Stuart, and Lady Allen, particular 'friends of his mother. Mr. Douglas kept a journal of the tour which he

made with Lord P., the greater part of which is printed in Mr. Canon Macdonald's edition of the Bp's select works.* It relates chiefly to the state of the learning, government, and political relations of the several countries through which they passed. He returned to England in 1749, and the living of Eaton Constantine, and the dona tive of Uppington, Salop, becoming vacant, he was presented to them by his noble patron. It was here he commenced his career as an author, with a success, which at once opened his way to literary eminence, by the detection of the most flagitious fraud that ever was invented. Some time after the publication of Dr. Newton's edition of Milton, a book appeared under the title of " an Essay on Milton's use and imitation of the mo derns in his Paradise Lost," a book written by William Lauder, a Scotch schoolmaster, with the express intention of subverting Milton's reputation, by proving him to be a mere copier of others, and that he was indebted to Jacob Masenius, formerly a professor of rhetoric in the Jesuits' college at Cologne, who wrote a poem called Sarcotis; to Grotius; Staphorstius, a Dutch divine; Taubmanus, a German professor; Fox, Ramsay, and others, whose names, (excepting that of Grotius) were scarcely known, even to men of letters, not only for the plan, arrange

* 4to. Salisbury, 1820.