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himself so well in his military capacity as to be made an ensign, and afterwards a major. On the disbanding of the army, he returned to his studies, entered into orders, and at the Restoration was preferred to a canonry of Christ Church. He was afterwards made Archdeacon of London, Clerk of the Closet to the King, and Dean of Westminster. In 1666 he was advanced to the bishopric of Rochester, with which he held his deanry in commendam. He was finally translated to York; and died in 1686. The following character of this great prelate was written by Sir William Trumbull.

"He was an extraordinary comely person, though grown too fat; of an open countenance, a lively piercing eye, and a majestic presence. He hated flattery; and guarded himself with all possible care against the least insinuation of any thing of that nature, how well soever he deserved it. He had admirable natural parts, and great acquired ones; for whatever he read he made his own and improved it. He had such a happy genius, and such an admirable elocution, that his extempore preaching was beyond, not only most of other men's elaborate performances, but (I was going to say) even his own. I have been credibly informed, that in Westminster Abbey, a preacher falling ill after he had named his text, and proposed the heads of his intended discourse, the bishop went up into the pulpit, took the same text, followed the same method, and, I believe, discoursed much better on each head than the other would have done. In

the judgment he made of other men, he always preferred the good temper of their minds above all other qualities they were masters of. I have had the honour to converse with many of the most eminent men both at home and abroad, but I never yet met with any one that in all respects equalled him. He had a large and generous soul; and a courage that nothing was too hard for; when he was basely caluminated, he supported himself by the only true heroism, if I may so phrase it, I mean by exalted christianity, and by turning all the slander of his enemies into the best use of studying and knowing himself, and keeping a constant guard and watch upon his words and actions; practising ever after (though hardly to be discovered, unless by nice and long observers) a strict course of life, and a constant mortification. Not any of the bishops' bench, I may say not all of them, had that interest and authority in the House of

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Lords which he had. He had easily mastered all the forms of proceeding. He had studied much of our laws, especially those of the parliament; and was not to be brow-beat or daunted by the arrogance or titles of any courtier or favourite. His presence of mind, and readiness of elocution, accompanied with good breeding and an inimitable wit, gave him a greater superiority than any other lord could pretend to from his dignity of office. In him we lost the greatest abilities, the usefullest conversation, the faithfullest friendship, and one who had a mind that practised the best virtues itself, and a wit that was best able to recommend them to others; as Dr. Sprat well expresses it in the Life of Mr. Cowley."

WILLIAM BURKITT.

This pious expositor was educated at Cambridge; where he took the degree of M. A. and afterwards became minister of Dedham, in Essex. Going one Sunday to church, from the parsonage-house, he met an old college friend, who was purposely coming to give him a call before sermon. After the accustomed salutations, Burkitt told his friend, that as he had intended him the favour of a visit, his parishioners would expect the favour of a sermon. The other excused himself by saying, that he had no sermon with him; but on looking at Burkitt's pocket, and perceiving his sermon-case, he drew it gently out, and put it into his own pocket. He then said, smilingly," Mr. Burkitt I agree to preach for you." He did so; and preached Burkitt's sermon; but he appeared to great disadvantage after Burkitt, for he had a voice rough and untuneful, whereas Burkitt's was remarkably melodious. "Ah! (said Burkitt to him after sermon in the vestry) you was but half a rogue; you stole my fiddle, but you could not steal my fiddle-stick."

A PUN ILL-TIMED.

Dr. Thomas Wykes, Dean of St. Burien, in Cornwall, in the reign of Charles the First, was a man of more wit than wisdom. When the king was in those parts, during the civil wars, he was attended by the Doctor, who being mounted on a handsome horse, his Majesty said, "Doctor, you have a pretty nag under you; I pray how old is kei* To which he, out of the abundance of the quib

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bles of his heart, answered, "If it please your Majesty, he is now in the second year of his rein;" pleasing himself with the ambiguity of the sound of that word, signifying either kingship or bridle. The good king did not relish this unmannerly jest, and gave him such an answer as he deserved, which was this" Go, you are a fool."

ARCH DEACON OF CAMBRIDGE.

The abbey of Ely was converted into the bishopric of that name in the year 1109. Cambridgeshire was, on this occasion, separated from the diocese of Lincoln, of which, before, it constituted a part, and allotted to the new see of Ely. A distinct archdeacon was also erected, with the title of Archdeacon of Cambridge; the Sacrist of the Church of Ely still being in possession of Archidiaconal jurisdiction throughout the Isle of Ely. This distinction was observed during the time of Nicholas the first, Archdeacon of Cambridge, but was broken through by his successor, William de Lavinton; who, soon after his admission to the title of Archdeacon of Cambridge, with the consent, or at least by the connivance of his uncle, Dr. Hervey, assumed both the title and power of Archdeacon of Ely. This produced a long and spirited controversy between several Bishops of Ely and the Archdeacons.

JONATHAN TOUP.

This learned critic was born at St. Ives, in Cornwall, in 1713, and educated at Exeter College, Oxford, where he took his bachelor's degree in arts, but he took his master's at Cambridge. After entering into orders, he obtained a prebend in Exeter cathedral, and the vicarage. of St. Merryn, in his native county. He died in 1785.

About the year 1750 he offered Fletcher, the famous bookseller at Oxford, to publish Longinus, if Mr. Fletcher would undertake to print it on his own account, which that cautious old gentleman declined, as Mr.Toup's sagacity was not at that time known, even to the members of his own college. The refusal was fortunate; for the public gained considerably by a reading of five and thirty years. When Toup returned from Cambridge, after taking his master's degree, he paid a visit to his old. friend in the Turl; and bought an unpublished Greek dietionary in MS. for two guineas, which, by the use the great critic appears to have made of it, must have been a pennyworth,

a pennyworth. He then undertook to correct Suidas; and his emendations of that lexicographer are valuable, as also is his edition of Longinus. Mr. Toup censured freely and praised sparingly; and he seems to have thought, as the generality of great men in his line are apt to think, that, after themselves, since the world is for the most part dull and undeserving, the fewer they praise the better. There is not much entertainment in the courtships, if I may so call them, of great scholars; they are like all others, Bellum, Pax rursum, they fight and shake hands, scold, and are friends again; but whether they deal in abuse or panegyric, it is clarissimus, it is illustrissimus ο πανυ.

Mr. Reiske indeed complained bitterly to Dr. Askew of Mr. Toup's usage of him, which made the Doctor offer to get any thing printed in London against Toup. Reiske, however, died without retaliation or apology; before or since, though the case of Erasmus and Scaliger mighthave shewn that great men can relent, and still maintain their dignity. But another German scholar, determined to avenge his countryman upon the English nation, and this was Schneider. Judge, however, of the provocation! Mr. Thomas Warton, a man of equal mildness and ingenuity, committed a few mistakes in republishing an edition of the Anthologia, upon which Schneider says, sneeringly, "Qualia decent Anglum !" But to return to Mr. Toup; when he republished the substance of the cancelled sheet in his Appendiculum Notarum ad Theocritum, he spoke very indecently of the Oxford Hebræans, and treated them with the most consummate contempt. Upon this Dr. Lowth fired an epigram in Greek at the critic's head, and paid him in his own coin. The turn of the epigram was an allusion to Toup's dedication of the Stratonics to the Archbishop of Canterbury; and it was thus expressed, "that he had hung up the ensigns of Priapus in the chapel at Lambeth."

Mr. Toup was less happy in conjecturing than in defending his conjectures; and in this he resembled his great master, Bentley, whose very errors were instructive. He had a peculiar felicity in discovering the places aliuded to by his author; and he illustrated obscurities with greater plausibility and success than any of his predecessors. He is said to have died worth twelve thousand pounds: no part of which he can ever be suspected of having gained by his publications.

REVIEW OF NEW PUBLICATIONS.

Four Letters to the Editor of the Christian Observer: being a Reply to that Author's Occasional Strictures on The True Churchmen ascertained" in his candid Examination of Mr. Daubeny's Vindicia Ecclesia Anglicana:" with incidental Remarks on Dr. Kipling, Mr. Daubeny, the Reviewers, &c. By JOHN OVERTON, A. M. Rector of St. Margaret and St. Crux, York. òvo. pp. 106:

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T is pleasant to see the engineer hoist with his own petar." Mr. Overton is sorely displeased with his good friends the Editors of the Christian Observer, for some gentle strictures which they have made on his work, but he seems to be still more indignant against them for having bestowed a few commendations upon Mr. Daubeny's Vindiciae Ecclesiæ Anglicanæ. We should not have taken any notice of this correspondence, this apparent bickering between the author of the "True Churchmen ascertained," and his allies the reviewers in the Christian Observer, were it not, that Mr. Overton has done us the honour of abusing us in company with such men as Dean Kipling and Mr. Archdeacon Daubeny. By an unfairness which hardly any one but a Calvinistic polemic would have had recourse to, this man of quota-. tations, endeavours to prove the inconsistency of those learned and respectable writers on the subject of Archbishop Laud's Arminianism. And how does he go aboutit? Why, by giving an extract from the second volume of the Orthodox Churchman's Magazine, p. 205, where it is said, that "Archbishop Laud was no more an Arminian than he was a Calvinist." Now as Dr. Kipling and Mr. Daubeny have condescended to approve our publication, they must be considered as inconsistent in so doing, because they say Laud was an Arminian, which in the above passage of the Magazine is denied. This is,. certainly, very curious reasoning: but if the reader will have the goodness to refer to the volume and page of the Magazine, he will find that it contains a mere article of correspondence, a letter signed MISOPSEUDES, vindicating the character of the persecuted archbishop from Vol. X. Churchm. Mag for April, 1806. Pp the

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