(E) p. 236.

MEMOIR

OF

GILBERT WAKEFIELD, B.A.

LITERATURE has sustained a severe loss by the death of Gilbert Wakefield, B.A., carried off by a fever, in the 46th year of his age, to the unspeakable regret of his family and friends. A person in various respects so distinguished, is a proper subject for the contemplation of survivors; and he had deserved too well of the public not to be entitled to honorable and affectionate commemoration.

Mr. Wakefield, in "Memoirs of his own Life," published in 1792, has informed the world of all the circumstances attending his education and passage through life down to that period, with a minuteness and frankness which render his work a very curious and entertaining piece of biography. I shall not make any transcripts from it, but, confining myself to a slight sketch of the leading events, shall take that view of his charac

ter and conduct which suggests itself to the reflection of a friendly but not a prejudiced bystander.

GILBERT WAKEFIELD was born on February 22, 1756, at Nottingham, of which town his father was one of the parochial clergy. An uncommon solidity and seriousness of disposition marked him from infancy, together with a power of application, and thirst after knowledge, which accelerated his progress in juvenile studies. In his grammatical course he passed under the tuition of several masters, the last and most respectable of whom was the Rev. Mr. Wooddeson, of Kingston-upon-Thames, to which parish his father had then removed. He was used, however, to lament that he had not possessed the advantages of an uniform education at one of those public schools, which undoubtedly, whatever may be their dangers and deficiencies, effect the point at which they exclusively aim, that of laying a solid foundation for classical erudition in its most exact form. In 1772 he was entered as a scholar of Jesus-college, Cambridge; and it was ever a topic of thankfulness to him, that he became a member of that university in which the love of truth met with some encouragement from a spirit of liberal inquiry, rather than of that which was devoted either to supine indolence, or to the pas

sive inculcation of opinions sanctioned by authority. During the first years, his attention was chiefly fixed upon classical studies, always his favorites; and he was excited only by emulation and academical requisitions to aim at that proficiency in mathematical knowledge which bears so high a value at Cambridge. Yet while he confesses himself destitute of a genuine taste for speculations of this kind, he scruples not to declare the infinite superiority, in point of grandeur and sublimity, of mathematical philosophy to classical lucubrations. In 1776 he took his degree of B.A., on which occasion he was nominated to the second place among seventy-five candidates; and soon after, he was elected to a fellowship of his college. In the same year he published a small collection of Latin poems, with a few critical notes on Homer, at the University press. If not highly excellent, they were sufficient to establish the claim of a young man to more than ordinary acquaintance with the elegancies of literature. He had already obtained a knowledge of the Hebrew language, as preparatory to those theological studies which now became his most serious occupation; and it may safely be affirmed that no man ever commenced them with a mind more determined upon the unbiassed search after truth, and the open assertion of it when discover

ed. The foundation which he laid for his inquiries was an accurate knowledge of the phraseology of the Scriptures, acquired by means of attention to the idiom in which they were written. As at this time some of his most esteemed academical friends manifested their dissatisfaction with the articles of the church of England by a conscientious refusal of subscription, it cannot be doubted that scruples on this point had already taken possession of his mind; and so far had his convictions proceeded, that he has stigmatized his compliance with the forms requisite for obtaining deacon's orders, which he received in 1778, as "the most disingenuous action of his whole life." If, indeed, he could receive consolation from the practice of others, there were several of his intimate associates, who, by a superiority to such scruples, have since risen to opulence and distinction in the church, without betraying any uneasiness for a similar acquiescence.

Mr. Wakefield left college after ordination, and engaged in a curacy at Stockport, in Cheshire, whence he afterwards removed to a similar situation in Liverpool. He performed the duties of his office with seriousness and punctuality; but his dissatisfaction with the doctrine and worship of the church continuing to increase, he probably considered his connection with it as not

likely to be durable. The disgust he felt at what he saw of the practice of privateering, and the slave-trade, in the latter place of his residence, also awakened in his mind that humane interest in the rights and happiness of his fellow-creatures, which has made so conspicuous a part of his character. The American war did not tend to augment his attachment to the political administration of his country; in short, he became altogether unfit to make one of that body, the principal business of which, in the opinion of many, seems to be, acting as the satellites of existing authority, however exerted. His marriage, in 1779, to Miss Watson, niece of the rector of Stockport, was soon followed by an invitation to undertake the post of classical tutor at the dissenting academy at Warrington, with which he complied. That he was regarded as a very valuable acquisition to this institution, that he was exemplary in the discharge of his duty, and equally gained the attachment of his pupils, and the friendship and esteem of his colleagues,-the writer of this account can from his own knowledge attest. Being now freed from all clerical shackles, he began his career as a theological controversialist, and, it must be confessed, with an acrimony of style which was lamented by his friends, and which laid him open to the reproach