peculiar genius which he was afterwards to display on a wider theatre; his memory was highly tenacious, his wit ready, but his temper sour, ungrateful, and malicious to an extraordinary degree. In his fifteenth year he was apprenticed to a surgeon, and, after finishing his professional education, he appears to have practised for some little time, probably without success, in his native town. In 1736 he entered into partnership with a chemist in Bristol; but this scheme also seems to have failed. In the year 1752 he was in Paris, where he represents himself to have obtained his medical diploma.

Until this time he appears to have lived in obscurity; but at an age when vigorous exertion usually subsides, he seems to have resolved to place himself in a conspicuous situation whatever hazard might attend it, and commenced a public writer with a degree of celerity, coarseness, and virulence, which it would be difficult to find a parallel for even in our own intemperate times. In the year 1754 he began his career with 'The Marriage Act,' a political novel, in which he treated the legislature with such freedom that it occasioned his being taken into custody, whence, however, he was soon released. The productions of his pen most celebrated were a series of Letters to the People of England,' which were written in a style vigorous and energetic, though slovenly and careless, well-calculated to make an impression on common readers; and were accordingly read with avidity and circulated with diligence. They had a considerable effect on the minds of the people, and galled the ministry, who seem to have been at first too eager to punish the author. On the publication of the third letter, warrants, dated 4th and 8th of March, 1756, were issued by Lord Holdernesse to take up both Scott, the publisher, and the author. This prosecution however seems to have been dropped, and the culprit proceeded for some time unmolested, "having declared," says one of his answerers, "that he would write himself into a post or into the pillory, in the last of which he at length succeeded." On the 12th of January, 1758, a general warrant was signed by Lord Holdernesse, to apprehend the author, printer, and publishers of a wicked, audacious, and treasonable libel, entitled A Sixth Letter to the People of England, on the progress of national ruin; in which is shown that the present grandeur of France and calamities of this nation are owing to the influence of Hanover on the councils of England." At this juncture government seems to have been effectually roused; for having received information that a seventh letter was printing, by virtue of another warrant, dated January 23d, all the copies were seized and entirely suppressed. In Easter term an

"I may aver with the strictest veracity, that the Letters which were written to the People of England, contributed not a little towards creating the popularity, and thereby to the elevation of Lord Chatham to the seat of prime minister." Again, "It is Lord Chatham only of whom I have reason to complain; who having profited by my writings, and having publicly declared, that he avowed the truth of all that they contained; in return for my endeavours to serve him, after he was mounted above the throne, and possessed of absolute power, not only permitted me to be punished for writing words less offensive than he had repeatedly spoken in the house of commons, but even ill-treated Sir John Philips who applied to him in my favour."-Answer to Queries, pp. 36, 37.

The motto to this pamphlet was from Revelation, chap. vi. 8. "And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him." A white horse is part of the Hanover arms.

information was filed against him by Mr Pratt, then attorney-general, in which it is worthy of remark that the crown-officer, in his application to the court, in express terms admitted the jury's right to determine both the law and the fact in matters of libel. "What I urge," says the advocate, "to the court, is only to show there is reasonable ground for considering this publication as a libel, and for putting it in a way of trial, and therefore it is I pray to have the rule made absolute; for I admit, and your lordship well knows, that the jury in matter of libel are judges of the law as well as the fact, and have an undoubted right to consider whether, upon the whole, the pamphlet in question be, or be not, a false, malicious, and scandalous libel." On the 17th of June, the information was tried, when our author was found guilty; and on the 28th November, he received sentence, by which he was fined five pounds, and ordered to stand in the pillory, at Charing cross, to be confined three years, and give security for his good behaviour for seven years, himself in £500 and two others in £250 each. On the day appointed, that part of the sentence which doomed him to the pillory was put in execution, amidst a prodigious concourse of people assembled on the occasion. The under-sheriff, at that time, happened to be a person who had sometimes been assisted by the doctor in writing the Monitor,' a paper of the same tendency with the writings of the culprit. The conduct of this officer became the subject of animadversion in the court of king's bench. It was proved, "that the defendant only stood upon the platform of the pillory, unconfined and at his ease, attended by a servant in livery (which servant and livery were hired for the occasion only) holding an umbrella over his head all the time; but his head, hands, neck, and arms, were not at all confined, or put into the holes of the pillory; only that he sometimes put his hands upon the holes of the pillory in order to rest himself."3 For this neglect of duty the undersheriff was fined £50, and suffered two months' imprisonment.

Some time before he was tried for the obnoxious publication already mentioned, the duchess of Queensbury, as heir of Lord Clarendon, obtained an injunction in the court of chancery to stop the publication of the continuation of that nobleman's history, a copy of which had got into the hands of Francis Gwyn, Esq. between whom and the doctor there had been an agreement to publish it and divide the profits. The care and expenses attending the ushering this work into the world were to be wholly Dr Shebbeare's, who performed his part of the agreement, and caused it to be handsomely printed in quarto, with a tory preface containing frequent allusions to recent events and living characters. While he was confined in the king's bench, he solicited subscriptions for the first volume of a History of England,' from the Revolution to the then present time. But, at the persuasion of his friends, he was induced to alter his design, and receipts were issued for a first volume of the History of England, and of the Constitution thereof from its

See Burrow's Reports, p. 792. Dr Shebbeare, a very short time before his death, mentioned that the servant in livery was an Irish chairman employed for the occasion. Teague received a guinea for his hire. The next day, however, he called upon the doctor, and appearing dissatisfied with his reward, said he hoped his honour would give him something more; "for only consider, Sir," added he, in order to put his requisition in the strongest light possible, "only consider the disgrace of the thing." The doctor sent the man away contented.

origin. That volume he wrote, and had transcribed. "But as it was impracticable," to use his own words, "whilst I was in confinement, to procure that variety of books, or to apply to manuscript authorities for all that was requisite to the completing this first volume, I found on being released from my imprisonment, and on application to the former only, that the volume which I had written, was incorrect, insufficient, and erroneous, in too many particulars to admit of its being published without injustice to my subscribers and reprehensions on myself. Into this displeasing situation I had been misled by relying on the authorities of modern historians, who pretend to cite the authors from whence their materials are taken, many of whom appear never to have seen them, but implicitly to have copied one another, and all of them manifestly defective; not only in the authorities they should have sought, but in their omissions and misrepresentations of those whom they had consulted: more especially respecting those parts of the old German codes on which our constitution is erected, and without which it cannot be properly explained or understood. Such being the real situation of things, I perceived that more time than I could expect to live would be necessarily required for so extensive a work as the whole history I had proposed; and that a single volume, or even a few volumes of an history incomplete, would by no means answer either the intention of my subscribers, or my own: I determined, therefore, to change my plan, and to include in one volume that which might require no others to complete this new design." This plan he at times employed himself in filling up. On being rudely attacked for not performing his promise with his subscribers, he, in 1774, thus writes: "From the inevitable obligations, not only of supporting my own family, but those also whom as son and brother it was my duty to sustain for forty years, and which, respecting the claims of the latter, still continues, it will be easily discerned that many an avocation must have proceeded from these circumstances, as well as from a sense of gratitude to his majesty, in defence of whose government I have thought it my duty occasionally to exert my best abilities." He adds, however, that he did not intend to die until what he had proposed was finished,-a promise which the event showed he was unable to perform.

He was detained in prison during the whole time of the sentence, and with some degree of rigour; for when his life was in danger, from an ill state of health, and he applied to the court of king's bench for permission to be carried into the rules a few hours in a day, though Lord Mansfield acceded to the petition, yet the prayer of it was denied and defeated by Judge Foster. At the expiration of the time of his sentence, a new reign had commenced, and shortly afterwards, during the administration of Grenville, a pension was granted him by the crown. From this period we find Dr Shebbeare a uniform defender of the measures of government. Dr Smollett introduced him, under the name of Ferret, in the novel of Sir Launcelot Greaves, and Hogarth made him one of the group in his third election print. The author of the 'Heroic Epistle' published a poem addressed to him under the title of an Epistle, of which the following lines may be taken as a specimen :

Wretch that from Slander's filth art ever gleaning

Spite without spirit, malice without meaning;

The same abusive, base, abandon'd thing,
When pilloried, or pension'd by a king;

Old as thou art, methinks 'twere sage advice

That North should call thee off from hunting Price.
Some younger blood-hound of his bawling pack

Might sorer gall his presbyterian back.

Thy toothless jaws should free thee from the fight;
Thou canst but mumble when thou mean'st to bite.
Say, then, to give a requiem to thy toils,

What if my muse array'd her in thy spoils?

And took the field for thee, through pure good-nature;
Courts praised by thee, are cursed beyond her satire.

Scarcely a periodical now appeared in which there was not some abuse of him, which he seems to have had the good sense generally to neglect. In the year 1774, however, he departed from his general practice, and defended himself from some attacks at that time made upon him.

6

Early in life he appears to have written a comedy, which in 1766 he made an effort to get represented at Covent-Garden. In 1768 he wrote the review of books in the Political Register' for three months: he was also often engaged to write for particular persons, with whom he usually quarrelled when he came to be paid. His pen seems to have been constantly employed, and he wrote with great rapidity. Though pensioned by government, he can scarce be said to have renounced his opinions; for in the pamphlet last mentioned, his abuse of the Revolution is as gross as that for which he suffered the pillory. His violence often defeated his own purpose; those who agreed in party with him revolted from the virulence with which he treated his adversaries. It is said that his disposition was better than his writings indicate; and indeed the manner in which he speaks of his connections exhibits traits of a liberal and benevolent mind. His death, which happened in August, 1788, seems to have been sudden.

The following is a list of Shebbeare's principal works, in addition to those already mentioned: A new Analysis of the Bristol Water, together with the Cause of the Diabetes and Hectic; and their Cure, as it results from those Waters, experimentally considered. By John Shebbeare, Chymist.' 8vo. 1740. 'The Practice of Physic. Founded on Principles in Physiology and Pathology, hitherto unapplied in physical Enquiries.' 2 vols. 8vo. 1755. Letters on the English Nation, by Battista Angeloni, a Jesuit, who resided many years in London. Translated from the original Italian.' 2 vols. 8vo. 1755. Lydia, or Filial Piety. A Novel.' 4 vols. 12mo. 1755. Since reprinted in 2 vols. 12mo. 1769. Reasons humbly offered to prove, that the Letters at the end of the French Memorial of Justification is a French forgery, and falsely ascribed to his R-1 H-ss.' 8vo. 1756. 'An Answer to a pamphlet, called "The Conduct of the Ministry impartially examined." In which it is proved that neither imbecility nor ignorance in the Mr have been the causes of the present unhappy situation of this nation.' 8vo. 1756. An Answer to a Letter to a late Noble Commander of the British Forces. In which the Candour is proved to be affected, the Facts untrue, the Arguments delusive, and the Design iniquitous.' 8vo. 1759. Colonel Fitzroy's Letter considered. In a letter to the Right Honourable the Earl of - 8vo.

1759. These two pamphlets are ascribed to Dr Shebbeare, on the authority of the writer whom they answer, supposed to be Owen Ruffhead, Esq., who says in the Postscript to Further Animadversions on the Conduct of a late Noble Commander, &c.' 8vo. 1759. "I have had the mortification to be informed, that I have stooped to reply to that very ready and abusive writer, who now lies under confinement for the most daring and scandalous of all libels; and who was an apologist for the late unhappy admiral (Byng), to whose ruin perhaps be contributed not a little, by irritating the public against the unfortunate delinquent by his lame vindications and scurrilous invectives." ‘A Seventh Letter to the People of England. A Defence of the Prerogative Royal, as it was exerted in his Majesty's Proclamation for the prohibiting the Exportation of Corn; in which it is proved that this Authority ever has been, is, and must be, essential to the Constitution, and inseparable from the Rights and Liberties of the Subject.' 8vo. 1767. 'An Answer to the printed Speech of Edmund Burke, Esq. spoken in the House of Commons, April 19, 1774. In which his knowledge in polity, legislature, human-kind, history, commerce, and finance, is candidly examined; his arguments are fairly refuted; the conduct of Administration is fully defended; and his oratoric talents are clearly exposed to view.' 8vo. 1775. 'An Essay on the Origin, Progress, and Establishment of National Society; in which the principles of Government, the definitions of physical, moral, civil, and religious Liberty contained in Dr Price's Observations, &c. are fairly examined, and fully refuted; together with a justification of the Legislature in reducing America to obedience by force. To which is added, an Appendix on the Excellent and Admirable, in Mr Burke's second printed Speech of the 22d of March, 1775.' 8vo. 1776.-He wrote frequently in the Public Advertiser,' and was the author of several numbers of the Monitor,' one or two papers of the Contest,' several essays in a daily paper called The Citizen,' besides many other fugitive pieces.

Fletcher Norton, Lord Grantley.

BORN A. D. 1716.-died A. D. 1789.

FLETCHER, the son of Thomas Norton of Grantley, in Yorkshirewas born on the 23d of January, 1716. He studied law, and acquirec. considerable reputation at the bar. In 1761 he was appointed solicitor-general, and also received the honour of knighthood. In 1763 he became attorney-general, but was removed from office in 1765. In 1769 he was constituted chief-justice in Eyre, south of the Trent.

On the death of Sir John Cust, speaker of the house of commons, in January, 1770, soon after the appointment of Lord North, the premier proposed Sir Fletcher Norton as the new speaker. Lord Cavendish proposed the honourable Thomas Townshend. Burke and other members of the opposition supported Townshend; but, on a division, Sir Fletcher carried his election by a majority of 237 to 121. He retained possession of the chair ten years.

On the 7th of May, 1777, when the sum of £618,000 was voted for the discharge of his majesty's debts a second time, Sir Fletcher Nor