nature; it might be humour; but it was of a kind which could not interest him." He professed humility, and deference to the public taste, but no man was more solicitous of obtaining its applause, or more impatient of its disapprobation. In his habits he was somewhat effeminate and luxurious; when his friends used to smile at the care he took of his person, he would say, "My back is the same with my face, and my neck is like my nose." He was, however, totally free from intemperance; and coffee and ice-water are said to have been his favourite, and almost his only, beverage. An edition

of his works was published in 1798, containing, besides those already mentioned, his letters to a variety of correspondents, written with much wit. Sir Walter Scott speaks very highly of this part of Walpole's performances, and there are some critics who prefer his epistolary productions even to those of Warburton. His Anecdotes of Painting, and Catalogue of Royal and Noble Authors, are the works on which his reputation chiefly rests; they are useful and curious of their class, but do not entitle the author to a place in the foremost ranks of literature.

HUGH BLAIR, descended from Robert Blair, chaplain to Charles the First, and son of a merchant, who lost the greater part of his fortune in the South Sea scheme, was born at Edinburgh on the 7th of April, 1718. After having, gone through a course of education at the high school, he, in 1730, entered the University of Edinburgh, where he spent eleven years in the study of literature, philosophy and divinity. In the logic class he particularly excelled; and his Essay on the Beautiful, a subject proposed by the professor, was highly applauded, and appointed to be publicly read. Having graduated A.M. in 1739, he was, on the 23rd of October, 1741, licensed to preach by the presbytery; and, in the September of the following year, he was presented to the living of Colessie, in Fifeshire. In July, 1743, he was elected minister of the Canongate Church at Edinburgh, from which he was translated, in 1754, in consequence of a call from the town council, to Lady Yester's Church, in the same city; and, in 1758, to the first charge in the high church, being the most honourable clerical situation in Scotland. In 1757, the University of St. Andrew created him D.D.; at which time he had obtained great reputation as a preacher, but, as an author, had written nothing besides two sermons, and a few articles in the Edinburgh Review. In 1759, he prepared a course

of lectures on composition, and delivered them with such success, that the university instituted a rhetorical class under his direction; and the king founded a professorship of rhetoric and belles letters, in 1762, when Dr. Blair was appointed to the chair, with a salary of £70. About the same time he gave to the public his Dissertation on the Poems of Ossian; in which, in one of the finest specimens of criticisms ever produced, he zealously advocated their authenticity. In 1773, the first uniform edition of the works of the British poets was published under his superintendence, and he also engaged in a new edition of the works of Shakspeare. In 1777, appeared the first volume of his Sermons, which Strahan purchased for £100, on the recommendation of Dr. Johnson. They were succeeded by three additional volumes, for which he received £1,500, and he was further rewarded, at the request of Queen Charlotte, with a pension of £200 per annum. In 1783, he resigned his professorship, and published his Lectures on Composition, which contain an accurate analysis of the principles of literary composition, in every species of writing, and an able digest of the rules of eloquence, as applicable to the oratory of the pulpit, the bar, and of popular assemblies. On the death of Dr. Robertson, in 1793, it was expected that Dr. Blair would have succeeded him, as

principal of the university, according to the with of the former; and B.air is said to have feit the overight keenly at seeing the appointment given to another. In his seventy-ninth year he preached the annual sermon for the benefit of the sons of the clergy; his last, but by no means least forcible effort, in the pulpit.

In the summer of 1890, he began to prepare an additional volume of his Sermons for the press, but did not live to publish them, his death taking place in the December of the same year. He had married, in 1748, his cousin, Miss Bannatine, by whom he had a son and a daughter, both of whom he survived, together with his wife.

The Lectures and Sermons of Dr. Blair still continue to hold a high rank in public estimation, though the latter, from their general want of profundity, have been considered rather as treatises

than sermons. They were, howeETET, the first regular didactic orations that had been heard in Scotland, and have been justly described as occupying a middle place between the dry metaphysical discussions of one class of preachers, and the loose, incoherent declamation of another; and as blending together, in the happiest manner, the light of argument with the warmth of exhortation. The private character of Dr. Blair was, in every respect, that of the divine and the philanthropist: with eminent talents and inflexible integrity, he possessed a mind of the most unsuspecting simplicity: "which," says his biographer, Dr. Finlayson, "while it secured to the last his own relish of life, was wonderfully calculated to endear him to his friends, and to render him an inv.luable member of every society to which he belonged."

WILLIAM ROBERTSON, the son of a clergyman, was born at Borthwick, in Mid Lothian, Scotland, in the year 1721, and received the rudiments of education at the school of Dalkeith. In 1733, he joined his family, which had removed to, Edinburgh, where he studied for the church, of which he was admitted a member in 1741; and, in 1743, he was presented, by the Earl of Hopetown, with the living of Gladsmuir, in East Lothian. Not long afterwards he lost both his parents, when, although his income did not exceed £100 per annum, he undertook the care and education of his six sisters and a younger brother. In 1751, he married his cousin, Miss Mary Nisbet; at this time he had obtained great popularity as a preacher, and was also one of the most eloquent speakers in the general assembly of the church of Scotland. In 1754, he became a member of the Select Society in Edinburgh, and was one of those who, in 1757, most eloquently defended Mr. Home, for writing the tragedy of Douglas, the merits of which were not considered sufficient to atone for the author's departure from the austerity expected in a presbyterian divine. In 1758, our

author went to London to arrange for the publication of his History of Scotland, which appeared in the February of the following year, and was received with the highest approbation. It quickly reached a second edition, and produced complimentary letters from Horace Walpole, Garrick, Sir Gilbert Elliott, and David Hume, who, in one of his epistles to Robertson, says that every ear is fatigued "by noisy and endless, and repeated praises of the History of Scotland," and concludes, "I believe there is scarce another instance of a first performance being so near perfection." Robertson reaped no less profit than fame by the publication of this work, and had the satisfaction of seeing it reach a fourteenth edition previous to his death.

Preferments now crowded upon him: in the year last-mentioned, he was appointed chaplain of Stirling Castle; in 1761, one of his majesty's chaplains in ordinary for Scotland; in 1762, principal of the University of Edinburgh; and two years afterwards he was chosen king's histriographer, for Scotland, an office which was revived in his favour with a salary of £200 per annum. He had long meditated a History of Eng

land, and was encouraged by the British government to proceed in the work, which, it seems, he had only hitherto deferred in consequence of his determination to throw no impediment in the success of Mr. Hume's publication on the same subject. Having, however, made some progress in his History of Charles the Fifth, his health, on the completion of that work, in 1769, says his biographer, Dugald Stewart, "was too much impaired, and his life too far advanced, to allow him to think of an undertaking so vast in itself, and which Mr. Hume had already executed with so splendid and merited a reputation." His History of Charles the Fifth was published in three octavo volumes, and the very high expectations that had been formed respecting it, were not disappointed. Hume, who had discouraged him at the outset of the work, by telling him it required a knowledge which it would be the work of half a life to acquire, was the first, and most zealous in its praise; he said that it had few equals in nobleness, dignity, and elegance of composition, and owned that it excelled in a sensible degree," his History of Scotland. The eulogium of Voltaire should not be omitted: "Il y a quatre jours," he writes in a letter, from the Chateau de Ferney, "que j'ai reçu le beau présent dont vous m'avez honoré. Je le lis malgré les fluxions horrible qui me font craindre de perdre entièrement les yeux. Il me fait oublier tous mes maux. C'est à vous et à M. Hume qu'il appartient d'écrire l'Histoire. Vous êtes éloquent, savant, et impartial. Je me joins à l'Europe pour vous estimer." The introductory volume, in which is traced the progress of society in Europe, from the subversion of the Roman empire to the beginning of the sixteenth century, exhibited marks of Robertson's extensive and various reading, digested with the soundest judgment, and met with particular approbation. The whole work was translated into French, and besides gaining the author a high degree of popularity among foreign men of letters, so gratified the Empress of Russia, that she sent him a valuable diamond snuff-box.

In 1777, appeared his History of America, in which, to use the words of Burke to the author, "Every thing has been done which was so naturally

to be expected from the author of the History of Scotland, and of the Age of Charles the Fifth." It is, upon the whole, perhaps, the most praiseworthy and objectionable of his works: out of materials shapeless and disjointed, he has produced a symmetrical whole, admirably arranged, and his delineation of savage manners, and comparison of a barbarian with a civilized state of society, is skilful and masterly. An ineffaceable blemish, however, upon his reputation as a historian, will be perpetuated by this work, in his disposition to veil or to palliate the enormities of the Spaniards in their American conquests. On this point, none of his biographers have attempted to defend him; and Mr. Bryan Edwards justly characterizes it "as one of those melancholy passages in the history of human nature, where a benevolent mind, shrinking from the contemplation of facts, wishes to resist conviction, and to relieve itself by incredulity." It is supposed that the assistance he received in the way of communication from the Spanish court, seduced him to "the temperate spirit," as Mr. Gibbon expresses it, with which he had related this portion of their story;" and this suspicion was confirmed, by his election into the Royal Academy of History at Madrid, in testimony of their approbation of the industry and care with which he had applied to the study of Spanish history.

Dr. Robertson's last performance appeared in 1791, under the title of An Historical Disquisition concerning the knowledge which the Ancients had of India, and the Progress of Trade with that country prior to the discovery of the Cape of Good Hope. It was begun in the sixty-eighth year of his age, and in twelve months brought to a conclusion; exhibiting, nevertheless, says Dugald Stewart, "in every part, a diligence in research, a soundness of judgment, and a perspicuity of method, not inferior to those which distinguish his other performances." After the publication of this work, his health began apparently to decline, and upon an attack of the jaundice, he retired to a country-house in the neighbourhood of Edinburgh, where he died, on the 11th of June, 1793.

In person, Dr. Robertson was rather above the middle size; and his form,

though it did not convey the idea of much activity, announced vigour of body, and a healthful constitution. He appeared, says Mr. Stewart," to greater advantage in his clerical dress; and was more remarkable for gravity and dignity in discharging the functions of his public stations, than for ease or grace in private society. His moral character was unimpeachable, and both in public and private life, his conduct was amiable and exemplary. "He enjoyed," says Dr. Erskine, the bounties of Providence without running into riot; was temperate without austerity; condescending and affable without meanness; and in expense neither sordid nor prodigal. He could feel an injury, and yet bridle his passion; was grave, not sulien; steady, not obstinate; friendly, not officious; prudent and cautious, not timid." As a member of the general assembly of the church of Scotland, he distinguished himself by his eloquence in support of the laws of patronage; and of an impartial exercise of the judicial power of the church. In the former of these respects, his exertions are supposed not only to have produced in the ecclesiastical establishment a tranquillity unknown in former times, but to have contributed, in no small degree, to the peace and good order of the country. Such, indeed, was his influence in this assembly, that the period from his appointment as principal of the university, till his retirement from public life, was distinguished by the name of Dr. Robertson's Admi

nistration. The academical reputation of Edinburgh was materially extended by the improvements and reforms which he introduced into the university; “and it," says Dugald Stewart, as a seat of learning, Edinburgh has of late more than formerly attracted the notice of the world, much must be ascribed to the influence of his example, and to the lustre of his name." His merits as a preacher were of no mean order, as may be seen from his Sermon on the situation of the world at the time of Christ's appearance, the only one he ever published. It reached five editions, and obtained great celebrity on the continent, through a German translation, by Ebeling. His merits as a historian have been ably delineated by his talented biographers, and the testimonies to them. of Hume, Gibbon, Burke, Horace Walpole, and, in fact, of all the eninent men of letters of his time, are too well known to need recapitulation. In accuracy of facts, and the art of narration, he has no equal; his style is not always so simple as could be wished, but it is totally free from Scotticisms; and his diction, at once flowing and majestic, harmonious beyond that of most English writers. His chief fault, perhaps, is a caution, bordering on coldness, in his expression of moral and political feelings, but this is compensated for by an absence of prejudice and passion, and a pervading tone of calm sagacity, not always preserved in the compositions of a less phlegmatic or more enthusiastic writer.

THIS humorous writer, the youngest son of a gentleman of good family, was born at Dalquhurn, in Dumbartonshire, in the year 1721. Even in his childhood, he discovered indications of a lively wit and vigorous understanding, and on being sent to school at Dumbarton, he not only excelled in his studies, but gave proofs of a poetical genius, in some verses to the memory of Wallace, and some satires upon his schoolfellows. On leaving school, he removed to Glasgow, where he was

apprenticed to a surgeon, and attended the university lectures on medicine and anatomy. Literary pursuits, however, were not unattended to; a perusal of Buchanan's History of Scotland so captivated him with the Latin language, that he devoted himself to the cultivation of it with great ardour; and in his eighteenth year, he had completed a tragedy, which he afterwards published under the title of the Regicide, an extraordinary production at so early a period of his life.

Smollett, having lost his father in his infancy, had been hitherto supported by his grandfather, Sir James Smollett; but his death taking place about this period, our author was left wholly dependent upon his own exertions for his subsistence. Accordingly, on the termination of his apprenticeship, in his nineteenth year, he proceeded to London, and after having in vain attempted to bring out his tragedy, he accepted the situation of a surgeon's mate in the navy, and in this capacity acted at the unfortunate expedition to Carthagena in 1741, of which he drew up an account, displaying great powers of observation and depth of reflection. On his arrival in the West Indies, he quitted the navy in disgust, and after residing some time in Jamaica, returned to England in 1746, with that knowledge of the language and manners of sailors, which he has so amusingly displayed in his novels. About this time, the accounts circulated of the severities which had followed the battle of Culloden, roused the indignation of our author, and led to the composition of his poem, entitled The Tears of Scotland. Its publication placed him high in the rank of minor poets, but gave uneasiness to his friends, whose advice for its suppression he was so far from following, that he republished it with an additional stanza, expressing his feelings in still stronger terms. His poem was followed by two satires, entitled Advice, and Reproof, in which he lashes, with unmerciful acrimony, the vices of the powerful; and in the latter he attacks managers and players, in consequence of a quarrel with Rich, for whom he had written an opera, entitled Alceste, but which, in consequence of a dispute between the manager and the author, was never produced.

About 1747, he married a Miss Lascelles, with whom he had become acquainted in Jamaica; a lady of beauty and accomplishments, and from whom he expected a fortune, of which, however, he received so little, that his style of living soon brought him into pecuniary difficulties. To relieve them, he again had recourse to his pen, and in 1748, he produced his celebrated novel of Roderick Random, a work founded upon the plan of Le Sage's

Gil Blas, and to the humour and entertainment of which he was indebted for an immediate accession of fame and

fortune. Lady Wortly Montagu made certain that the work was by Fielding, and in a letter to her daughter, thus unconsciously compliments the real author; "Fielding has a fund of true humour. I guessed R. Random to be his, though without his name.' This novel, which had some allusion to his own history, and contained several scenes actually drawn from life, was succeeded, in 1749, by his Regicide, which he published by subscription. In the summer of 1750 he visited Paris, for the purpose of enlarging his knowledge of the world, and the characters he became acquainted with during his residence abroad, were portrayed to the public in his Adventures of Peregrine Pickle, which appeared in 1751. It was read with avidity, and soon reached a second edition; in the preface to which he says he has "endeavoured to render it less unworthy of the public acceptance, by retrenching the superfluities of the first, reforming its manners, and correcting its expression; and flatters himself that he has expunged every adventure, phrase, and insinuation, that could be construed by the most delicate reader into a trespass upon the rules of decorum." In this novel he seems to have exerted all his powers of humorous invention, and his success was proportionate, though it must be confessed that he often amuses his reader at the expense of delicacy and morality. He adopted the same plan that he observed in Roderick Random, of inserting many real characters and incidents; and the anecdotes respecting Lady Vane, the materials of which she herself furnished, contributed not a little to the popularity of the work.

About this period, Smollett having obtained, probably from a foreign university, his degree of M. D. endeavoured to attract notice in his medical character, by the publication of an Essay on the Use of the Bath Waters. His unaccommodating temper, however, want of experience, and disdain of the petty arts of fawning and finesse, joined to the reputation, which his publications had acquired for him, of a general satirist and censor of manners,