fits in his carriage; but he fre 'nion of his life, without knowing "From the month of November he had loft his fleep, his appetite, his ftrength, and became fenfibly thinner; and this ftate of decline continued to increase. In January he was still able to make a few vi he at length gave over all business. This was at firft taken for an effect of hypochondria, but it was foon per ceived, that his deep melancholy had deftroyed the chain of his ideas. What has happened to fo many men of genius, befell him. One ftrong idea mafters every other, and fubdues the mind that is no longer able either to drive it away, or to lofe fight of it. Preferving all his prefence of mind, all his perfpicuity, and juftrefs of thought on other fubjects, but no longer defirous of occupying himself with them, no longer capable of any bufinefs, nor of giving advice, but with pain, he had unceasingly before his eyes the enemy plundering his house, as Pafcal always faw a globe of fire near him, Bonnet his friend robbing him, and Spinello the devil oppofite to him. In February he commenced taking medicines, which were ei ther prefcribed by himself or by the phyficians whom he confulted: at the beginning of March he defired my advice; but he was no longer able himfelf to describe his dif order, and his wife wrote me the account of it. I answered her immediately; but of what avail can be the directions of an abfent phyfician in a diforder whofe progrefs is rapid, when there muft neceffarily be an interim of near a month between the advice asked, and the directions received? His health decayed fo faft, that M. Wichman, who at tended him, thought a journey and change of air would now be the beft remedy. Eutin, a place in the dutchy of Holftein, was fixed upon for his refidence. In going through Luneburgh on his way thither, M. Lentin, one of the phyficians it whom whom he placed moft confidence, and weakness, increased rapidly; was confulted; but Zimmerman, he took scarcely any nourishment, who, though fo often uneafy on ac- either on account of infurmountable count of health, had, notwithstand- averfion, or because it was painful ing, had the wifdom to take few to him; or perhaps, as M. Wichmedicines, and who did not like man believed, because he imagined them, always had a crowd of objec- he had not a farthing left. Intense tions to make against the beft ad- application, the troubles of his vice, and did nothing. Arrived at mind, his pains, want of fleep, and Eutin, an old acquaintance and his laftly, (as I have juft faid), want of family lavished on him all the ca- fufficient nourishment, had on him reffes of friendship. This recep- all the effects of time, and haftened tion highly pleafed him, and he old age at fixty-fix he was in a grew rather better. M. Henfler ftate of complete decrepitude, and came from Kiel to fee him, and his body was become a perfect skegave him his advice, which was leton. He clearly forefaw the iffue probably very good, but became of his diforder: and above fix ufelefs, as it was very irregularly weeks before his death he faid to followed. At laft, after a refidence this fame phyfician, I fhall die of three months, he defired to re-flowly, but very painfully;' and turn to Hanover, where he entered fourteen hours before he expired, his houfe with the fame idea with he faid, Leave me alone, I am which he had left it; he thought it plundered, and imagined himself totally ruined. I wrote to intreat him to go to Carlsbad; but he was no longer capable of bearing the journey. Difguft, want of fleep, dying. This must have been a fweet fenfation for a man in the midft of fo many incurable evils, and who had lived as he had done. This excellent man died on the 7th of October 1795." SKETCH of the LIFE and CHARACTER of WILLIAM, EARL of MANSFIELD. [Extracted from the LIFE of that NOBLEMAN, by JOHN HOLLIDAY, of LINCOLN'S INN, Efq. &c.] HE honourable William "On the 2d of March, 1705, "T Murray, afterwards earl of according to the computation of Mansfield, was a younger fon and the eleventh child of David vifcount Stormont, who was the fifth viscount of the noble and illuftrious family of Murray. Sir William Murray of Tallibard, in the fhire of Perth, by Catharine his wife, daughter of Andrew lord Gray, had four fons; and fir Andrew Murray, the third fon, was the progenitor of viscount Stormont, the father of lord Mansfield. time in Scotland, but in 1704 according to the legal computation of time in England, William, the fourth fon of lord Stormont, was born at Perth in North Britain. "About the tender age of three years, he was removed to, and educated in, London; and confequently he had not, when an infant, imbibed any peculiarity of dialect, which could tend to decide that Perth had a fairer claim than Bath to the honour of his birth. The year of his admiffion, as a king's fcholar at Westminster, appears to be 1719. "When he was a Westminster fcholar, lady Kinnoul, in one of the vacations, invited him to her home, where, obferving him with a pen in his hand, and feemingly thoughtful, she asked him if he was writing his theme, and what in plain English the theme was. The fchool-boy's fmart aufwer rather furprised her ladyship, What is that to you! She replied, How can you be fo rude? I asked you very civilly a plain queftion: and did not expect from a fchool-boy fuch a pert anfwer.' The reply was, Indeed, my lady, I can only anfwer once more, What is that to you! In reality the theme was -Quid ad te-pertinet? "Whether the affinity in Scotch énunciation between Perth and Bath, or whether the inftructions fent with the honourable Mr. Murray for matriculation at Oxford were not written in a fair hand, the mistake of Bath for Perth was actually made; and, however fingular it may appear, candour muft allow, that fuch a miftake might eafily happen. "Be that as it may, the entry of his admittion as a ftudent of Chriftchurch, Oxford, of which a correct copy is fubjoined, is contrary to the real fact, respecting the place of his birth. Trin. Term. 1723, June 18. C. Som. V. Com. fil. T. WENMAN, C. A. "Sir William Blackstone is faid to have mentioned this curious circumftance to the lord chief juftice of the king's bench, while he had the honour to fit with him in that court; when lord Mansfield an Bishop Newton, who was one of his cotemporaries at Weftminfter, bears this honourable tefumony to his fchool-fellow's early fame. During the time of his being at fchool, he gave early proofs of his uncommon abilities, not fo much in his poetry, as in his other exercifes, and particularly in his declamations, which were fure tokens and prognoftics of that eloquence which grew up to fuch maturity and perfection at the bar, and in both houses of parliament. "At the election in May, 1723, when he was in the 19th year of his age, he had the honour of ftanding firft on the lift of those gentlemen who were fent to Oxford, and was accordingly entered of Chrift's Church on the 18th of June following. "About four years afterwards, he was admitted to the degree of B. A.; and, on the death of George the firft, an elegant copy of Latin verfes, written by Mr. Murray, as one of the members of the Univerfity, was honoured with the first prize; and will probably be convincing to every claffical reader, that the great declaimer, or the younger Tully at Weftminster, had either courted the mufes with uncommon fuccefs at Oxford, or that the learned prelate has depreciated the worth of Mr. Murray's Latin poetry." "His oration in praife of Demofthenes prefented another early prefage of his rifing fame; a va luable fragment of which has been preferved." "Lord Monboddo, in his excellent treatife of the Origin and Pregrefs of Language, has paid fo juít a tribute of respect to this fragment of of his friend and patron's juvenile declamation, as to make it the fubject of an entire chapter, wherewith the fixth volume concludes, with a beautiful apoftrophe or addreis from the author in his 77th year to lord Mansfield, then on the verge of 89." "In April, 1724, Mr. Murray was admitted a ftudent of Lincoln's Inn. "On the 24th of June, 1730, he took the degree of M. A. and left the University foon afterwards, full of vigor, and determined to travel into foreign parts, before he fat down to the ferious profecution of his legal ftudies, to which his genius and his flender fortune, as a younger fon, forcibly and happily prompted him. He travelled through France, and in Italy, at an age fitted for improvement and ufeful obfervation; not between 19 and 21, a period which his great patron lord Hardwicke, in one of the numbers in the Spectator, under the modeft fignature of Philip Homebred, evinces to be too early an age for our British youths to travel to any real advantage. At Rome Mr. Murray was probably infpired, and animated with the Love of Ciceronian eloquence; at Rome he was prompted to make Cicero his great example, and his theme! At Tufculum, and in his perambulations over claffical ground, why might he not be emulous to lay the foundation of that noble fuperftructure of bright fame, which he foon raifed after he became a member of Lincoln's Inn "The letters, intended for the ufe of a young nobleman, muft have been written about the year 1730, when Mr. Murray was a very young man, inafmuch as the fact can eafily be afcertained, that the young duke of Portland fpent three years in his travels in France and "He was called to the bar in Michaelmas term, 1730. In his career in the purfuit of legal knowledge his affiduity foon co-operated with his fhining abilities. Two fupporters like thefe, in perfect unifon, not only exempted him from all pecuniary embarrassments, which flender fortune in fome, and juvenile indifcretion in others, too frequently occafion, but also conciliated the esteem, the friendship, and patronage, of the great oracles of the law, who adorned that period, amongft whom lord Talbot and lord chancellor Hardwicke were looked up to as the fofter-fathers of the science. "Inftead of fubmitting to the ufual drudgery, as fome are pleafed to deem it, of labouring in the chambers of a special pleader, Mr. Murray's motto feems to have been Aut Cicero aut nullus.' "Early in his legal career he ftudied the graces of elocution under one of the greatest mafters of the age wherein he lived. "Doctor Johnfon, in his life of Pope, fays, his voice when he was young was fo pleafing, that Pope was called in fondness the little nightingale. Under this melodious and great mafter Mr. Murray practifed elocution, and may truly be faid to have brought the modulation of an harmonious voice to the highest degree of perfection. C 3 "One 1 "One day he was furprized by a gentleman of Lincoln's Inn, who could take the liberty of entering his rooms without the ceremonious introduction of a fervant, in the fingular act of practifing the graces of a fpeaker at a glafs, while Pope fat by in the character of a friendly preceptor. Mr. Murray on this occafion paid him the handfome compliment of, Tu es mihi Mæcenas.' "The great benefit refulting from an early friendship between Murray and Pope, was, that the young and graceful jurifprudent could not be more fedulous to acquire éclat in his profeffion than the poet was to proclaim in bewitching verfe the reputation of his friend. "Bishop Warburton, in his annotations on Pope's imitation of the Sixth Epiftle of the Firft Book of Horace, addreffed to Mr. Murray, elegantly defines the friendship fubfifting between them in a fingle fentence: Mr. Pope had all the warmth of affection for this great lawyer, and indeed no man ever more deferved to have a poet for his friend; in the obtaining of which, as neither vanity, party, nor fear, had a fhare, fo he fupported his title to it by all the offices of a generous and true friendfhip." Young and gay, and feduced as he was, by feeing how defpoti cally Pope reigned in the regions of literature, is it matter of wonder, that feveral of the friends of Mr. Murray, on his entrance into life, fhould be not a little apprehenfive of his having manifefted too great an attention to the belles lettres and to the regions of pleafure?" in his legal character, were foon laid afide, by his having been early employed in bufinefs of ferious im portance, which fully engaged not only his attention, but also his af fections, fince human nature would have revolted at the trials in which he perfevered early in life, if he had not really loved his profeffion. "In 1732, we find our tyro in the law affociated with the two fhining lights in the court of chancery, as they were emphatically ftyled, lord Talbot and lord Hardwicke, then his majefty's attorney and folicitor general, in a caufe of appeal heard at the bar of the houfe of lords on the 12th of March, 1732-3, relating to the purchase of fome fouth-fea ftock in the memorable year 1720. The counfel for the appellant were "For the refpondent. P. Yorke. Will. Hamilton, C. Talbot. (W. Murray. "A fine and fertile field this for our tyro to travel over, to explore, and, by exploring, to exercite his dawning genius and opening talents. A year pregnant with credulity, circumvention, and fraud, could not fail, under the aufpices of a Talbot, to be fingularly fortunate and favourable to his young friend and colleague. "A refpite of four days only intervened before Mr. Murray ap peared again at the fame bar, and was claffed with the fame great colleagues as counsel for the young marquis of Annandale. From fo fplendid and fo early an introduction into bufinefs; from his being affociated in his maiden caufes with the two greateft luminaries of the "The fears, however, of Mr. law, we may conclude, with HoMurray's friends, that the gaiety of race, Nofcitur ex fociis.' May his heart would militate against that we not expect to find him frequentpatient affiduity, fo abfolutely ne-ly in the fame good company? ceffary to improvement and fuccefs "Accordingly, in the following year, |