he said, would have known how to make a republic without church or king, if such was the idea of a perfect commonwealth formed by their wisest man; but the people could never know how to realize even that which they intended to obtain. Fransham was willingly busied in numerical and mathematical computation. He had calculated that the average pay of his pupils was three-pence an hour; and the average income of his life eight shillings a week; yet with these narrow means, so severe was his frugality, that he progressively bettered his condition. He practised and exacted a punctilious pecuniary probity, and could not bear that the loan of a penny should go unpaid, "As a mathematician he was emiment rather for the solidity than the exsent of his knowledge. His love of accuracy rendered him an enthusiastic admirer of the ancient mathematicians, or, perhaps more properly, his early atten tion to these writers rendered him accurate. He had a higher veneration for Euclid than for Newton, and preferred the Elements of Geometry of the former, to the Principia of the latter. Indeed be never could understand the celebrated doctine of Fluxions, and has been heard to pronounce the Analist of bishop Berkeley, a work written in confutation of that doctrine, to be one of the finest specimens of reasoning among the productions of the moderns. "The authors whom he most esteemed on inathematics were, Euclid, Apollonius, and Archimedes; of the former of these he preferred the editions of Clavius, and Dr. Simson; and of the latter, that of Dr. Barrow, probably be cause he had never seen the Oxford edi tion. "Among the modern writers on these subjects, one only escaped his censure, this was Dr. Hamilton, dean of Armagh, whose treatise on Conic Sections he considered as a truly classical and elegant pe:formance. To this work he has been heard to say, that he devoted two whole * Had the excellent letter, addressed on Fransham's death to Mr. Rigby, of Norwich, by Mr. William Saint, (late oue of the mathematical masters at Woolwich Academy) been made public, the foregoing memoir would in a great degree have been needless. For the permission thence to copy his learned and satisfactory appretiation of Fransham's mathematical acquirements, my grati sude will be partaken by your readers. years, and that he derived the most exquisite pleasure from its distinguished accuracy and simplicity. It is, however, to be regretted that he had never seen the quarto work of Dr. Robertson, of Oxford, on the same subject, as he would there have met with a history of the Conic Sections written in elegant latin, which to a man of his peculiar attain ments would have afforded exquisite delight. "There is one amid his manuscript volumes, which he seems to have consi→ dered as a complete Manual for the young mathematician. It contains the first principles of algebra, some of the leading properties of numbers, some curious questions relative to the application of algebra to geometry, a small table of square and cube roots, with a great variety of miscellaneous problems. "Of algebra, however, or the analytic art, he entertained a very low opinion. He was well satisfied with the grounds and methods of operation employed by algebraists for the solution of simple an quadratic equations, but the resolution of cubics by Cardan's rule, by Sir Isaac Newton's method of divisors, or by the different methods of approximation, le considered only as so many mechanical tricks, or arts of legerdemain, employed by their authors for the purpose of displaying skill in quirks and quibbles to the great detriment of the mathematical sciences." "It must however be confessed that he carried his veneration for the ancients to an unreasonable pitch; since he could seldom be induced to look at any modern book on mathematics. This prejudice of his is much to be regretted, as he would have found that some of the later writers on these subjects, particularly Huygens, Halley, Keill, and Bonnycastle, not only possess all the elegance of the ancients, but have improved upon their accuracy; the last more especially, who, in the notes affixed to his geometry, has pointed out several inaccuracies in the reasoning of Euclid in his Elements. "To this admiration, however, of the ancient geometry must be attributed that closeness of reasoning and logical precision, for which Fransham was so emineatly distinguished; yet it must be al lowed that he was thoroughly sceptical, for scarcely a sentence could be uttered in his hearing, or any information communicated in his presence, without his rejoming, Are you sure that is true? Whereva do you ground your belif? A ather, tician 1 mathematician receives nothing without proof." A friend of Fransham's who died in 1796, Mr. Thomas Goff, left orders by will, to have his head separated from his body before interment; some persons whom he knew, having recovered in the coffin. The uncertainty of the signs of death, probably through Mr. Goff's conversation, had also left a strong impression on the mind of Fransham. Afraid of being buried alive, he repeatedly desired, that his body should be laid before a fire, that wine should be offered to his lip, and the arm of a woman clasped about his neck, before he was given up as irrecoverable. The sister of Fransham, Mrs. Bennett, who is still living, having become a widow, he went in 1806 to reside with her; but after a stay of nearly three years, removed to the house of a younger female relation, who was able to render him the active services which his infirmities now required. Conscious of the approach of death, he declined medical aid; and on the 1st February, 1810, expired calmly and gently; leaving, beside his books and several articles of furniture, a hoard of ninety-six guineas to his sister, who caused his body to be interred in the church-yard of the parish where he was born. The grave-stone, which her affection has erected to his memory, is thus inscribed. M. S. Joannis Fransham, qui plurimis annis in hac urbe Græcas Latinasque literas, necnon mathematicam studio exploravit, præceptis illustravit. Fransham had merits which are now become rare. Temperate, continent, frugal, just; he wanted, for the display. of virtue, chiefly the power of unificence. Leaving his soul to grow according to its nature; his only moral art consisted in so chiselling away the faults, as to strengthen its inherent likeness to the models of antiquity. He thought as he pleased, spoke as he thought, did as he liked, and countenanced in others a similar idiosyncrasy. His manners bad the urbanity of various intercourse, and the suavity of a kind heart; unassuming and undaunted, they appealed merely to Educated the man, never to his station. during the sunshine of British freedom, he prolonged traces of its honest independent character, beyond the period of its offuscation; and held the reciprocal coercion of modern behaviour to be only worthy of a nation of slaves. In an age of compliers he chose to be himself. He is remembered like a Greek bust in a collection of painted wax-work. SCARCE TRACTS, WITH EXTRACTS AND ANALYSES OF SCARCE BOOKS. It is proposed in future to devote a few Pages of the Monthly Magazine to the Insertion of such Scarce Tracts as are of an interesting Nature, with the Use of which we may be favoured by our Correspondents; and under the same Head to introduce also the Analyses of Scarce and Curious Books. Extracts from a Sermon called Ahab's TH Curse. [Continued from page 249.] HE next that succeeded was King James II. who began his reign in the year 1684; and this king, though not altogether so lascivious as the former, yet was he a very bigot to the church of Rome; for no sooner (as a late author saith) did he come to the throne, but mass-houses were set up, and in all haste Protestants must be converted to his faith; and therefore, weekly sermons were appointed for that purpose; in which discourses, with a bare face they assert, that our English Bibles were stuffed with lies; their Popish catechisms were put into our hands to make proso lytes; Father Peters, made privy-coun sellor, to confront the bishops of Canterbury and London; Magdalen college was filled with Romish priests, and the sycophant bishop Parker, forced upon it, crowds of Irish papists called in upon us, with a standing army, headed with Popish officers, to the great terror of the city: the priests and Jesuits appear publicly in their religious habits, under promise of protection; the test, in all haste, must be taken off: Oats, Dangerfield, and Johnson, most barbarously used, and hundreds sacrificed in the west: Protestants were put from all employment,' both civil and military: illegal prosecutions, exorbitant bails, and many more oppressions, to the great damage of the subjects: yea, the bishops were sent to the Tower, and the birth of the Pre tender was most neatly contrived. These things, things, (saith my author) manifest a celestial blindness and madness, even to the loss of his three kingdoms, maugre all his lives and fortune men. The which agrees well with that observation of the Heathens, quem perdere vult Jupiter, priùs dementat, whom God in tends to destroy, he first infatuates. Thus was the church and state overrun by popery and arbitrary power, and brought to the very point of destruction; the sacred fences of our laws, the very constitution of our legislature, were quite broken through; the which considered, every true Protestant must say, that he did evil in the sight of the Lord. "And now comes in the brave king William, a prince of blessed memory indeed, who began his reign in the year 1688, who delivered us from popery, French slavery, and arbitrary govern ment. Our rights and liberties were by him declared and vindicated; our parliaments were free, and he ruled according to the laws and constitution of the kingdom. He was hearty in his wars against France and Spain, though betrayed in most of his measures; he was faithful in the observation of that sacred league and covenant between him and his ally. And the Toleration Act he inviolably maintained, according to his royal pro mise. He was a common father to all his people, without making distinction, parties, or schismatics of any, and all were equally alike protected under his royal wing, by which he maintained the love of his subjects. He was religious, without being superstitious; his life was abstemious, doing that which was right in the sight of the Lord; reformation of manners prospered well in his days, though the Lord knows since, we are overrun with a flood of immorality and impiety; places, civil, military, and ecclesiastical, were then supplied with men of sober lives; but now, how is the gold become dim; how is the most fine gold changed? He was a good soldier, and fought our battles; he was a politician, and the wisest of all that had sat upon the British throne; he was a Christian, and a true Protestant, but the crown and glory of all his actions was, that he set tled the succession of his crown in the illustrious house of Hanover, (the in estimable blessing which we now enjoy) for which, generations to come shall call him blessed, and his memory will be so to the end of time. "But Ahab did evil in the sight of the Lord. And now perhaps some may wonMONTHLY MAG, No. 212. der that I take no notice of queen Mary and queen Anne. "Thus much I shall say, if it may please you, that queen Mary was a good woman, a good wife, a good queen, wears an immortal crown, and is really of blessed memory. But as for queen Anne, I only say, that she died the 1st of August, that very day that the Schism-bill took place; and was buried on that day, commonly called, Black Bartholomew; the very day on which her uncle turned two thousand godly ministers out of their livings. And there is an end of the race of the Stuarts, I say an end of the Stuarts. "And now, though we have heard of the end of this family, yet perhaps many of us are strangers to the beginning thereof, of which, therefore, for your information, take this short account out of history, the which is as followeth : "Banchos, a nobleman of Scotland, had a fair lady to his daughter, whom Mackbeth, the king, desires to have the use of: Banchos refuses, and Mackbeth murders him, and takes the lady by force; Fleance, the son of Banchos, fearing the tyrant's cruelty, flies into Wales, to Griffin ap Lhewellin, the Prince of Wales; Lhewellin entertains him with all hospitable civility: Fleance, to requite his courtesy, gets Llewellin's daughter with child: Lhewellin murders Fleance, and Lhewellin's daughter is delivered of a son, named Walter; this son proves a gallant man, and falling out with a noble person in Wales, that called him bastard, Walter slew him, and for his safeguard fled into Scotland, where, in continuation of time, he gained so much reputation and favour, that he be came steward of the whole revenue of that kingdom, of which office, he and his posterity retained the sirname; and from thence all the kings and nobles in that nation, of that name, had their original. "Of this family, both the Scotch and English Histories give us a very for midable account, that most of the last of this name and family of the Stewarts came to their ends by violent death: King James I. for his tyranny, was cut off by the nobility: the second was slain at Roxborough, the third at Bonoxborn, the fourth at Flouden-field, the next three in needless quarrels with their subjects; only James V. had the good bap to die of a natural death; but as to his only daughter, Queen Mary, mother to King James VI. of Scotland, and First of England, it is manifestly known, that 2Y she she caused Henry, Lord Darnly, her second husband, to be cruelly murdered, quly to make way for her third marriage, with Earl Bothwell, her paramour; for she was afterwards called to an account, and by the vote of the Lords and Commons, in Parliament, she was adjudged to die: whereupon she fled into England, where, contriving sundry plots with the Papists, and Duke of Norfolk, against Queen Elizabeth, she was at last brought to the block and lost her head. For her son, King James I. of England, the Duke of Buckingham, was charged with his death, by the Commons of England; and King Charles I. lost his head at his own gates; and the death of King Charles II. hath been by some disputed, and I am ready to think that he had no fair play; and as for King James II. he abdicated the kingdom, and so died not among us; but gracious Queen Mary, and Queen Anne, both of them came to their ends by natural deaths, which concludes the unhappy race and family of the Stewarts. "But perhaps some say, Is there nothing worth notice in the late reign, since you seem to pass it by with silence? to which I answer, We have had a glorious peace to make France great, and Great Britain little; and what then? Knaves are advanced, delinquents preferred, leagues are broke, the allies tricked, the kingdom beggared, both church and state divided, debauchery. encouraged, and pure religion made a schismatic, the laws per verted, the toleration violated, the suc'cession disputed, and indefeasible here ditary right asserted, in favour of the Pretender; trades lost, Hanoverians discouraged, the bravest general in the world is degraded, the poor Catalonians deserted, and all out of order; the whole head was sick, and the whole heart faint, and so faint that we had the sen tence of death in ourselves, but, in God which raiseth the dead, who delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver, in whom we trust that he will deliver us. Secondly: Then why should princes be concerned about the character they are like to have,, when they shall lie down in the dust? We see the Holy Ghost hath athixed the characters of kings deceased, whether good or bad; the names of kings are never buried with them: for it is then, when covered with 'the dust, that they have their truest character, it is dangerous to give a true character of living princes, whether good for bad; if good (saith one) it carries with it the appearance of fulsome flat- 'Thirdly: Then blessed is that people that hath such a Prince, of whom it shall be said, he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord; and this, by God's wonderful providence, is and will be, no doubt, the happy case and condition of Great Britain, since our illustrious George, after our long struggle and incessant prayers, is become our most rightful and gracious sovereign. We have now a great, a wise, a religious, Prince; for the King trusteth in the Lord, and, through the inercy of the Most High, he shall not be moved. Well may the Hanoverians mourn at the loss of so great a Prince; but let Britous joy in their salvation: a legacy, indeed, by the brave King Wil liam, of immortal fame; however by Sachevrell accused. And I doubt not, but this wise administration, shall give full satisfaction to every true Protestant, that he doth that which is right in the sight of the Lord: the king shall joy in their strength, O Lord, and in their sal vation how greatly shall he rejoice! Thou hast given him his heart's desire, 3.. 'and and hast not withholden the request of las lips, Selah. For thou presentest him with the blessing of goodness, thou set test a crown of pure gold on his head; and, since God hath wrought out his salvation, let us always endeavour to maintain it, that it may be said of our King, that he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, and that, "By doing ourselves that which is right in the sight of the Lord; for the sins of a people do sometimes provoke God to leave their King, that he may do evil in Extracts from the Port-folio of a Man of Letters. IMPERIAL HERETICS. THE Greek emperor Manuel Com nenus affirmed, that Mahomet's god was the true god; for which the bishop of Thessalonica reproached him in bitter terms, and caused the opinion to be condemned by an especial synod. PUBLIC SCHOOLS. Lord Bacon in his advice about the Charterhouse, says, "The great number of schools which are in your highness's realin doth cause a want, and likewise an overflow. By means thereof they find want, in the country and towns, both of servants for husbandry, and apprentices for trade. On the other side, there being more scholars bred than the state can prefer and employ, and the active part of life not bearing a proportion to the preparative, it falls out that too many persons are bred unfit for other vocations, and unprofitable for that in which they are brought up. Thus the realm is filled with indigent, idle, and wanton, people, which are but the materials of revolution." This has always been, and still is, the grand tory argument against promoting popular instruction: but it deserves notice, that this alarm was sounded at the very commencement of the reign of James the First, which endured nearly a quarter of a century in perfect tranquillity. SABBATICAL PASTIME. The clergy have always doubted whether the precept" Keep holy the Sabbath Day" is a command to make holiday by playing, or by abstaining from play. Some think it ordains joy, and game, and sport, gaiety, spectacles, and festivity: some think it enjoins fasting, mourning, penance, silence, meditation, gloom, and austerity. Of the former description of prelates was Aylmer, bishop of London, under queen Elizabeth, who, upon the green at his country-house in Fulham, used to play bowls on the Sunday with his clerical and other guests. Sce Strype's Life of Aylmer, p. 215 and 291. James I. and Charles I. favoured by their pro clamations this Sunday hilarity; and Morer, in his book on the Naine and Notion of the Sabbath, defended learnedly the practice. Of late years a proclamation, ascribed to the celebrated John Bowles, has been regularly read in courts of justice, which invites the magistracy to repress the enjoyments of the people: surely our an cestors were more rational, who thought that God delights in the happiness of man. HALE, THE COMEDIST. One remarkable instance of a successful acquirement of the idiomatic peculiarities of a foreign language, is that of Hale, an Englishman, who composed for the French stage, Le jugement de Midas, l'Amunt jalour, and Les Evenemens Imprecus, which last especially is añ agreeable lyric comedy, and has been permanently successful. What circumstances led to Hale's expatriation, some of your readers can perhaps communicate; he died at Paris, it is said, in very necessitous circul stances. WHITEHEAD. Among the poems of the laureate Whitehead, one of the best is an e.egy written at the convent of Haut-Villers, Champagne, and dated in 1754. The 'descriptive portion has likeness, the antiquarian portion loftiness, and an age nious moral is well attached in the following stanza: Temperance, |