Mr. Darby married Martha, the only daughter of the Venerable John Jortin, D. D. Vicar of Kensington and Archdeacon of London, a learned divine and a celebrated writer. It is a sufficient eulogium. on her character to say, that she inherited her father's candid and benevolent mind; that she was highly esteemed by a most respectable acquaintance; and that in her the poor lost a valuable friend and benefactor. She died at her house in Uxbridge on the 20th of March 1817, in the 86th year of her age, after having survived her husband for the space of twenty-three years.

Mr. Darby is known to the literary world as the author of the following works: viz. "A Sermon, preached at the Primary Visitation of the Right Reverend Lewis, Lord Bishop of Norwich, holden at Bury St. Edmund's, on Monday, May 17, for the Deanery of Sudbury. London, 1784," 4to; "A Letter to the Rev. T. Warton, on his late Edition of Milton's Juvenile Poems. London, 1785," Svo, a just and very elegant piece of criticism*; and "A Sermon preached at the Visitation of the Reverend Thomas Knowles, D. D. Official of the Archdeaconry of Sudbury, holden at Lavenham, on Thursday, Sept. 28, 1786. Ipswich, 1786," 4tot.

ren.

On the publication of Bishop Watson's "Letter

thus feelingly describes Mr. Darby's situation: "I am sorry to tell you that Mr. Darby is gone to London to consult Dr. WarHe sometimes loses his recollection suddenly, and sometimes his sight is imperfect; he is very low, and fears he shall be bereft of his faculties. From what Clubbe says, I have a hope that this will not be the case; if it should, I shall feelingly exclaim: 'O what a noble mind is here o'erthrown!''

Letters from the late Lord Chedworth,

* Green's Diary of a Lover of Literature, p. 235. † Lord Chedworth thus notices this Discourse in a letter to Mr. Compton: "You will see that the emendation in Mr. Darby's Sermon, Mark, ix. 49, 50, is Jortin's. This Mr. Darby told me soon after the Sermon was published; however, the defence and illustration of the proposed correction are Mr. Darby's own." Letters from the late Lord Chedworth, p. 196.

to the Archbishop of Canterbury," Mr. Darby sent his Lordship the following letter, which does such infinite honour to his memory, that the reader cannot but be gratified by its perusal :

"MY LORD,

Ipswich, April 9, 1793.

"I have been content hitherto to observe your progress in reputation and honours with a silent satisfaction. I was pleased with your answer to Mr. Gibbon, and entertained by your Chemical Essays, which brought an abstract subject nearer to the level of such understandings as mine; and I sincerely rejoiced to hear of your advancement to the purple. Yet, on these occasions, I did not think myself warranted to break in upon you, either with my acknowledgments or solicitations. You owe the present trouble I give you to the recent publication of your Letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury. I cannot resist the impulse which I feel to return you my thanks for this Letter, especially for your defence of the second consequence (the independence of the Bishops in the House of Lords) of your plan, which, in my opinion, entitles you to the thanks of every honest man in England. It is the privilege of your situation, my Lord, to speak words that will be heard in high places; and it cannot be indifferent to the community whether they be words of truth and soberness, or of self-interest and adulation. I have my fears, indeed, my fears not for you, my Lord, but for my country, that you will reap no other fruit from your proposal than the applause of the public and the approbation of your own heart. A contrary doctrine prevails, and is disseminated, with some caution indeed, but much industry, even among the lower ranks of courtly politicans, so far as to reaching my ears, -the doctrine of the necessity of corruption to our welfare. I remember two or three years ago to have seen a well-written letter to Dr. Watson, under the character of a Country Curate, (it proceeded from the pensioned pen of Cumberland,) in which the writer pleasantly enough contends for some influence of the Crown to counteract the effects of republican principles, pride, envy, disappointment, and revenge. Unluckily, in a postscript to this letter, the cloven-foot peeps out from under the cassock, and the writer has added to his opponents two others, wisdom and virtue. 'Suppose,' says he, 'for a moment, (some, perhaps, may think it a violent supposition,) the Members of the House of Commons to be all honest, intelligent, and uncorrupt; that no minister could prevail upon them by place, pension, or artifice. What is the consequence? Why the constitution is overturned; that constitution which the wisdom and blood of our ancestors was exhausted in establishing; that is, which wisely established a balance to counterpoise the effects of wisdom and honesty, and provided an antidote against the poison of virtue.

The writer may quibble, but I defy him to get fairly off from this consequence of his own words.

"A true description of the present system might, perhaps, be given in the words of an old Briton, which, though immediately applied to Roman tyranny, might, in a secondary sense, be considered as prophetic of a modern British House of Commons: 'Nata servituti mancipia semel veneunt, atque ultro a dominis aluntur; Britannia servitutem suam quotidie emit, quotidie pascit.' Galgacus in Tacit. But I have rambled too far, and must only add, that I am, with great truth and regard, your Lordship's much obliged and most obedient servant, S. DARBY." To this Letter the Bishop transmitted the following reply:

"DEAR SIR,

"I return you a thousand thanks for your kind letter. The approbation of one good and liberal-minded man is dearer to me than the highest honours of the church; the puff of lawn was never any object of my ambition; but I ever have been ambitious of being thought well of by men of virtue and understanding, and you must allow me to say, that in that light I am proud of your letter. I have great hopes that my plan will be effectuated, but I mean not to bring it forward till men's minds, the minds especially of the church dignitaries, are recovered from their idle apprehensions of danger from innovation. R. LANDAFFT."

"I am, &c.

"Mr. Darby," says the Bishop, << was a most respectable character, highly esteemed by all who knew him for his integrity and abilities; and had formerly been an eminent Tutor in Jesus-college,.. Cambridge +."

The REV. JOHN PRICE, B. D.

KEEPER OF THE BODLEIAN LIBRARY, OXFORD.

This gentleman, who for nearly half a tury eminently promoted the interests of literature, by the ready, liberal, and intelligent aid which he afforded to the researches of scholars and antiqua

* Anecdotes of the Life of Richard Watson, 4to, p. 108.
+ Ibid. p. 110.
‡ Ibid.

ries *, was a native of South Wales, and was born in March 1734-5, at Tuer, near Llangollen, in Brecknockshire. After receiving the rudiments of his education in his native country, he was entered at an early age of Jesus-college, Oxford, where he proceeded to the degree of M. A. on the 4th of June 1760, and to that of B. D. on the 15th of Jan. 1768, in which latter year he was elected, after a very strong contest, Keeper of the Bodleian Library. His opponent on this occasion was, I believe, Mr. William Cleaver, then Fellow of Brasennose-college, but afterwards its Principal, and successively Bishop of Bangor and St. Asaph.

In 1782 he was presented to the Rectory of Woolaston, with Alvington annexed, in Gloucestershire, and in 1798 to that of Llangattock in Brecon, both by the kindness of his noble and generous patron Henry, the fifth Duke of Beaufort, from whose family he ever received the most friendly and polite attentions; and in 1774 to the Rectory of Wilcote in Oxfordshire, by Mrs. Elizabeth Wellington.

Mr. Price was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries about 1797.

From his situation in the Bodleian Library, Mr. Price was a constant resident in the University, with the exception of his occasional visits to his native county, and to Badminton, the seat of his munificent patron. To his Rectory of Wilcote, the duties of which he regularly performed, he was much attached; and there, in the society of his friends and the company of an occasional visitor, he solaced himself whenever his Bodleian avocations would permit. In private life Mr. Price was hospitable, friendly, and liberal; of the strictest integrity and of the warmest attachments. In the faithful discharge of his public duties in the Uni

* Chalmers's History of the University of Oxford, p. 464.

versity, he acquitted himself with the highest credit, and deservedly conciliated the esteem of others by his readiness to communicate information from the rich literary stores over which he presided, and of which he was a most jealous and watchful guardian. He was from long habit so completely attached to the Library, that he considered every acquisition made to its contents as a personal favour conferred upon himself. The writer of a biographical notice* in the Gentleman's Magazine, from which this is partly extracted, states, that he is in possession of many of his friendly letters, acknowledging the receipt of publications occasionally sent as presents to the Bodleian; and adds that, when such communications were delayed longer than usual, Mr. Price would now and then send a reminder, or, to use the expression of an old Oxford friend, "John Price would growl."

His duties as a Librarian naturally introduced him to the acquaintance of many eminent literary characters; and his promptitude in assisting their inquiries and guiding their researches gained him from amongst them many friends. With Mr. William Huddesford t, of Trinity, he was well ac

* Gentleman's Magazine, vol. LXXXIII. part ii. P. 400. Monthly Magazine, vol. XXXVI. p. 179.

†This gentleman was the eldest son by the first wife of the Rev. George Huddesford, D.D. sometime Keeper of the Ashmolean Museum, President of Trinity-college, Oxford, and Rector of Glympton in that county, a divine of the highest respectability, and the writer of the following pamphlets, viz. "A proper Reply to a Pamphlet intituled, a Defence of the Rector and Fellows of Exeter-college, &c. 1755," 4to; and "Observations relating to the Delegates of the Press; with an Account of their Secession from their original Appointment, 1756," 4to. He deceased on the 21st of April 1776, and was interred in the Anti-chapel of the College, where, on a flat-stone, is this inscription to his memory:

Depositum

GEORGII HUDDESFORD,

S. T. P.

Hujus Collegii Præsidis,