Mr Cavendish contrived essential improvements in the method of performing experiments with an eudiometer; by means of which he was the first person who showed that the proportion of pure air in the atmosphere is nearly the same in all open places. The other and much larger portion of our atmosphere, he sagaciously conjectured to be the basis of the acid of nitre; an opinion that he soon brought to the test, by an ingenious and laborious experiment which completely proved its truth; whence this gas has now generally obtained the name of nitrogen.

So many and such great discoveries spread his fame throughout Europe, and he was universally considered as one of the first inductive philosophers of the age. Among the labours of his latter days, is the nice and difficult experiment by which he determined the mean density of the earth; an element of consequence in delicate calculations of astronomy, as well as in geological inquiries. Even in the last years of his life, at the advanced age of 77, he proposed and described improvements in the manner of dividing large astronomical instruments. These pursuits, together with reading of various kinds, by which he acquired a deep insight into almost every topic of general knowledge, formed the whole occupation of his life, and were in fact his sole amusement. From his attachment to such occupations, and the constant resource he found in them, together with a shyness and diffidence natural to his disposition, his habits had from early life been secluded. He possessed great affluence, which was to him rather matter of embarrassment than of gratification; but however careless about its improvement, he was regular in its management and direction.

"The fundamentality, if we may use such a word, of his chemical results," says a writer in the Penny Cyclopedia,' "has not been surpassed by those of any other discoverer in chemistry. But he deserves fame for the great accuracy of his experiments, and the (then) unequalled soundness of his views. One writer asserts that every sentence he has written will bear microscopic examination. A French writer admits (we should say affirms) that he furnished Lavoisier with the materials of his system; and Sir Humphry Davy, in a lecture delivered shortly after the death of Cavendish, speaks as follows: 'His processes were all of a finished nature, perfected by the hand of a master; they required no correction; and though many of them were performed in the very infancy of chemical science, yet their accuracy and their beauty have remained unimpaired amidst the progress of discovery.' The discoveries of Cavendish were finished; he formed his substances both by analysis and synthesis; ascertained that the weight of his product was the sum of that of its components, and determined its specific gravity. He was the first who carried the mind and methods of a mathematician into the field from which the alchemist had not long retired, and in which the speculator still remained. And when we say the mind and methods of a mathematician, we do not deny that the inductive philosopher had already been there; but it was to remark phenomena, and not to measure quantities."

Nevil Maskelyne.

BORN A.D. 1732.-DIED a. D. 1811.

DR MASKELYNE was the son of Edmund Maskelyne, Esq., of Burton, in Wiltshire. He was born in London, we believe, about the year 1732, and finished his education at Trinity college, Cambridge; of which, being bred to the church, he afterwards became a fellow Having obtained a curacy, he removed to London in 1755.

In the autumn of 1760, being distinguished for his mathematical attainments, he was appointed by the Royal society to go to the island of St Helena, in order to observe the transit of Venus over the sun, on the 6th of June, 1761. His observations (which were not, indeed, so complete as he wished, on account of the weather being very cloudy) were published in the 'Fhilosophical transactions' for the year 1761.

In the spring of 1763, Mr Maskelyne published his British Mariner's Guide,' 4to, a very useful practical work. On the 9th of June following, Mr Maskelyne, at a meeting of the Royal society, moved, and it was unanimously agreed to, that their council, as visitors of the Royal observatory at Greenwich, should take proper measures for obtaining and securing the astronomical observations that had been made there in time past, for the benefit of the public. In September of the same year the lords of the admiralty appointed Mr Maskelyne chaplain of his majesty's ship Louisa, Admiral Tyrrel. In this capacity he went out, accompanied by Mr Charles Green, to Barbadoes; and by appointment of the Board of Longitude, fixed the longitude of that island by astronomical observations, for the trial of Mr Harrison's marine time-keeper. In the course of the voyage he was to observe the distances of the moon from the sun and fixed stars, with Hadley's sextant; and to make observations of eclipses of Jupiter's satellites, and occultations of stars by the moon, in Mr Irwin's marine chair, for the trial of those two other methods of finding the longitude at sea.

On the 26th of February 1765, his appointment as Astronomer Royal was announced in the London Gazette. This appointment included a seat at the Board of Longitude. Soon after his accession to this office, he laid before the Board of Longitude a plan for an annual 'Nautical Almanack and Astronomical Ephemeris.' The first of these valuable pamphlets was published in 1767.

In 1767 Mr Maskelyne published, by order of the Commissioners of Longitude, An Account of the Going of Mr John Harrison's Watch at the Royal Observatory, from May 6th, 1766, to March 4th, 1767,' &c.; which gave rise to a controversy between him and the inventor. The general opinion delivered by Mr Maskelyne, concerning Mr Harrison's watch, was in the following words: "That Mr Harrison's watch cannot be depended upon to keep the longitude within a degree in a West India voyage of six weeks; nor to keep the longitude within half a degree for more than a fortnight; and then it must be kept in a place where the thermometer is always some degrees above freezing: that in case the cold amounts to freezing, the watch cannot be depended upon to keep the longitude within half a degree for more than a few

days; and perhaps not so long, if the cold be intense: nevertheless, that it is a useful and valuable invention; and, in conjunction with the observations of the distance of the moon from the sun and fixed stars, may be of considerable advantage to navigation." Mr Harrison, however, declared that he was not satisfied with the facts reported by Mr Maskelyne concerning his watch, for several reasons, and principally, because he knew him to be deeply interested in the Lunar Tables,'a scheme which had been set up some years ago in competition with the time-piece.

In 1774 were published his Tables for computing the apparent Places of the fixed Stars, and reducing Observations of the Planets,' folio. About two years after this, by his majesty's command, Mr Maskelyne produced the first volume of Astronomical Observations made at the Royal Observatory at Greenwich for the year 1765.' These have been annually continued to the year 1803. During the years 1774, 1775, and 1776, Mr Maskelyne was engaged in endeavouring to determine the mean density of the earth. An unsatisfactory experiment had been previously made by Bouguier, who, in attempting to determine the attraction of mountains from the manner in which the plumb-line of the astronomical sector was affected, found only half the quantity it should have been from the size of the mountain, which he, therefore, concluded to be hollow. Dr Maskelyne chose, for the place of his observation, the mountain of Schehallien; and employed in his observations the sector he had used at St Helena, after having corrected the suspension and changed the divisions.

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We do not know the date of Mr Maskelyne's doctor's degree; but find him presented, as D.D., to the living of North Runcton, in the county of Norfolk, about February, 1782. In 1792 Dr Maskelyne published Michael Taylor's Tables of Logarithms,'-a most astonishing evidence of painful industry. Mr Taylor had been greatly encouraged by the doctor in executing this work; and having died when not half-a-dozen pages of it remained unfinished, Dr Maskelyne brought it to a conclusion, and prefixed to it a very masterly introduction.

The contributions of this gentleman to the transactions of the Royal society are not more remarkable for number than for importance. His merits, as an astronomer, have been summed up by Delambre, who observes, that Maskelyne left the most complete set of observations ever given to the world; "and if, by any great revolution," he adds, "the works of all other astronomers should be lost, and this collection preserved, it would contain sufficient materials to raise again, nearly entire, the edifice of modern astronomy."

Richard Cumberland.

BORN A. D. 1731.-DIED A. D. 1811.

"On the 19th day of February, 1732," says Mr Cumberland in his autobiography, "I was born in the Master's Lodge of Trinity college, inter silvas Academi, under the roof of my grandfather Bentley, in what is called the Judge's Chamber." When turned of six years of age, we find that he was sent to the school at Bury St Edmund's, then under

the mastership of the Rev. Arthur Kinsman, a gentleman who formed his scholars upon the system of Westminster.

We find that Mr Cumberland, at a very early period of his life, began to try his mental strength in several attempts at dramatic writing: "and," as he says, "Shakspeare was most upon my tongue, and nearest to my heart. I fitted and compiled a kind of Cento, which I entitled 'Shakspeare in the Shades,' and formed into one act, selecting the characters of Hamlet and Ophelia, Romeo and Juliet, Lear and Cordelia, as the persons of my drama, and giving to Shakspeare, who is present throughout the piece, Ariel as an attendant spirit, and taking for the motto to my title page, Ast alii sex,

Et plures, uno conclamant ore.'

We soon after find Mr Cumberland transplanted to Westminster. "Cracherode, the learned collector, and munificent benefactor to the Royal museum, was in the head-election, and at that time as grave, studious, and reserved as he was through life, but correct in his morals, elegant in his manners; not courting a promiscuous acquaintance, but pleasant to those who knew him; beloved by many, and esteemed by all. At the head of the town boys was the Earl of Huntingdon, whom I should not name as a boy, for he was, even then, the courtly and accomplished gentleman, such as the world saw and acknowledged him to be. The late Earl of Bristol, the late Earl of Buckinghamshire, and the late Right Hon. Thomas Harley, were my form-fellows; the present Duke of Richmond, then Lord March, Warren Hastings, Colman, and Lloyd, were in the under-school; and what is a very extraordinary coincidence, there were then in the school together three boys, Hinchliffe, Smith, and Vincent, who afterwards succeeded to be severally Headmasters of Westminster school, and not by the decease of any one of them."

Mr Cumberland passed through school and college with great credit both to his preceptors and to himself. When only in his fourteenth year he was admitted of Trinity college, Cambridge; whence after a long, assiduous, and elegant course of study, of which he gives us an accurate and entertaining account, be launched into the great world. Of his political debût he speaks in the following terms:-"Whilst I was preparing to resume my studies with increased attention, and repair the time not profitably past of late, I received a summons which opened to me a new scene of life; I was called for by Lord Halifax to assume the office of his private confidential secretary. It was considered by my family, and the friends and advisers of my family, as an offer upon which there could be no hesitation."

Having been invited by his friends at Trinity college to offer himself as a candidate for the lay fellowship vacant by the death of Mr Titley, the Danish envoy, he obtained it; but observes, "I did not hold it long, for Providence had a blessing in store for me which was an effectual disqualification from holding any honours on terms of celibacy." About this time he wrote his first legitimate drama, in five acts, and entitled it 'The Banishment of Cicero.' In favour of this drama, he was honoured with a letter from Bishop Warburton, who says, "Yesterday I received a letter from the Primate-it gives me great satisfaction that my opin ion agrees with yours." The opinion of Dr Warburton was, that

Cumberland's fine dramatic poem "was, like Mr Mason's, too good for a prostitute stage." This play, though patronized by Lord Halifax, was refused by Garrick.

In 1761, having obtained, through the patronage of Lord Halifax, a small establishment, as Crown-agent for the province of Nova Scotia, he married. When Lord Halifax returned to administration, and was appointed lord-lieutenant of Ireland, Mr Cumberland went with him to that country as Ulster secretary; his father as one of his chaplains; and his brother-in-law, Captain William Ridge, as one of his aides-decamp. His father was afterwards appointed Bishop of Clonfert, and our author assistant-secretary at the Board of Trade.

His first acted piece, The Summer's Tale,' of which he speaks with great modesty, was performed at Covent Garden in 1765. He soon after visited his father at his episcopal residence, by courtesy called a palace. Of the manners of the Irish, with whose wild eccentric humours he was uncommonly delighted, he has given us a picturesque and animated description. "If," says he, "I have been successful in my dramatic sketches of the Irish character, it was here I studied it in its most pure and primitive state; from high to low it was now under my view."

In the winter of 1769 he produced his very excellent comedy, The Brothers.' Woodward in the part of Ironsides, and Yates in that of Sir Benjamin Dove, were actors that could keep the scene alive, if any life was in it. Quick, then a young performer, took the part of Skiff; and Smith was the young man of the piece. Mrs Green, in Lady Dove, was exquisitely comic; and Mrs Yates was the heroine Sophia. "Garrick," says the author, was in the house the first night of 'The Brothers; and as I was planted in the back seat of an upper box, I could not but remark his action of surprise when Mrs Yates opened the epilogue with the following lines:

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"Who but hath seen the celebrated strife,
Where Reynolds calls the canvass into life,
And 'twixt the tragic and the comic muse,

Courted of both, and dubious where to choose,
The immortal actor stands ?'"

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This was a sure way of attaining the favour of "the immortal actor:" an intimacy followed of course. His next comedy, 'The West Indian,' although it does not appear that the author himself had previously a very high opinion of its success, ran eight and twenty successive nights, without the buttress of an after-piece, which it was not then the practice of attaching to a new play. Such was the good fortune of an author who happened to strike upon a popular and taking plan."

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His fourth comedy, The Choleric Man,' "was a successful play in its time, though it has not been so often before the public as the three that preceded it, and since Weston's decease has been laid entirely on the shelf." The next piece that our author brought upon the stage, under the management of Mr Garrick, was 'Timon of Athens.' These were followed by 'The Note of Hand,' and 'The Battle of Hastings.' The accession of Lord George Germaine to the seals for the Colonial Department produced a considerable alteration in the situation of Mr Cumberland, who, from a subaltern in the office, was promoted to the post of secretary. This change of circumstances, as he had then four