Roman Republic; and Principles of Moral and Political Science. Of his History of Civil Society,' Gray the poet remarks- There are uncommon strains of eloquence in it; and I was surprised to find not one single idiom of his country in the whole work. His application to the heart is frequent, and often successful. His love of Montesquieu and Tacitus has led him into a manner of writing too short-winded and sententious, which those great men, had they lived in better times, and under a better government, would have avoided.' This remark is applicable to all Ferguson's writings; his style is too succinct and compressed. His Roman History, however, is a valuable compendium, illustrated by many important philosophical views and reflections.

ROBERT ORME was the son of an East Indian surgeon, and was born at Bombay, in 1728. He was early sent to England, and was educated at Harrow school, after which he returned to India, where he passed most of his life. In 1755, Orme was made fourth member of the Madras council, and commissary-general; but returned to Europe in 1759, and was some time after appointed to the honorable post of historiographer to the East India company, with an annual salary of three hundred pounds. He died, in comparatively poor circumstances, in 1801, in the seventy-fourth year of

his age.

Orme's principal literary performance is, a History of the British Transactions in Hindostan- --a clear and truthful exposition of the events of which it treats. He also left some valuable Historical Fragments of the Mogul Power, during the reign of Aurengzebe.

ROBERT WATSON was a native of St. Andrews, and was born about 1726. He pursued his early studies in his native town, and afterwards passed to the university of Glasgow, and thence to that of Edinburgh, where the degree of doctor of laws was conferred upon him. He was soon after appointed professor of Logic, Rhetoric, and Belles Lettres at St. Andrews, and then principal of the college, in which office he remained until his death, which occurred in 1780, in his fifty-seventh year.

Dr. Watson's only important publication is, a History of Philip II. of Spain, which was intended as a continuation to Robertson's 'Charles V.'; and he also left, unfinished, a History of Philip III., which was afterwards completed by Dr. William Thompson, and published three years after Watson's death.

DAVID DALRYMPLE, afterwards Lord Hailes, another eminent scholar and writer of this period, was the son of Sir James Dalrymple, and was born in Edinburgh, in 1726. He was educated at Eton, and Utrecht; and in 1748, was admitted to the Scottish bar, where he so remarkably distinguished himself, that, in 1766, he was appointed one of the judges of the Court of Sessions. After a life of great usefulness, passed in intimate friendship with

many of the most eminent men of the age, this learned jurist died in 1792, aged sixty-six years.

Lord Hailes published, in 1776, The Annals of Scotland, from the reign of Malcolm the Third, to that of Robert the First; and three years after he produced a continuation, to the accession of the House of Stuart. These works were invaluable at the time of their publication, and still form an excellent quarry for the historian. He was, also, the author of many other productions besides his 'Annals'; among which are the Remains of Christian Antiquity, chiefly translated from the fathers, and An Inquiry into the Secondary Causes, assigned by Gibbon for the rapid growth of Christianity.

JOHN WHITTAKER, the author of a Review of Celtic and Roman Antiquities, was born at Manchester, in 1735. He was educated at the freeschool of his native place, and afterwards studied at Corpus Christi College, Oxford. He passed many years as rector of Langhorn, in Cornwall, where he died, in 1808.

In addition to his 'Antiquities,' Whittaker wrote a History of Manchester, and Vindication of Mary Queen of Scots. The former is a valuable work, but the latter is so violent and prejudiced, that little dependence can be placed upon it.

WILLIAM RUSSELL, the author of a History of Modern Europe, was a native of Selkirkshire, in Scotland, and was born, in 1741. His early advantages of education were very limited; but amid many difficulties, he fought his own way to learning and distinction. Apprenticed to a bookseller and printer, he embraced the peculiar opportunities that his situation afforded, to cultivate his mind by application to study; and on the termination of his apprenticeship he removed to London, and became a writer for the press. The popularity of historical writing, at this period, soon attracted Russell's attention, and the result was the publication, in 1779, of the first two volumes of the work to which we have already alluded. This was followed, in 1784, by three other volumes, bringing the history down to the year 1763. The publication was attended with eminent success, and the work has since been continued by Dr. Carte and others. It is now the standard authority on the subject embraced within its range. The reputation which this great work brought upon the author, induced the university of Edinburgh to confer upon him the degree of doctor of laws. Russell died in 1793, before he had reached his fifty-fourth year.

Dr. Russell wrote, besides his 'History of Modern Europe,' a History of America from its Discovery by Columbus to the Conclusion of the War of the Revolution, and also a Series of Letters on the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. These were both, in their day, popular works, but they are now of comparatively little value.

LORD GEORGE LYTTELTON, remarkable for his fostering patronage of lit

erature, rather than for any distinguished literary excellence, was born at Hagley, Worcestershire, in 1709. He was the son of Sir Thomas Lyttelton, and after distinguishing himself at Eton school and at Christ's Church College, Oxford, he went abroad, and passed some time in France and Italy. On his return home he obtained a seat in Parliament, and became a popular opponent of Sir Robert Walpole. In 1737, he was made secretary to the Prince of Wales, who now extended his patronage to the opposition, and acquired popularity, by protecting Thomson, Mallet, and other men of literary eminence.

In 1741 Lord Lyttelton married Lucy Fortescue, of Devonshire, who, dying five years afterwards, afforded a theme for his muse, of no unusual interest. The following lines, which he on this occasion produced, are considered by many the most successful of his poetical efforts :—

MONODY.

In vain I look around

O'er all the well-known ground,
My Lucy's wonted footsteps to descry;
Where oft we used to walk,

Where oft in tender talk

We saw the summer sun go down the sky;

Nor by yon fountain's side,

Nor where its waters glide

Along the valley, can she now be found:

In all the wide-stretched prospect's ample bound,

Nor more my mournful eye

Can aught of her espy,

But the sad sacred earth where her dear relics lie.

Sweet babes, who, like the little playful fawns,
Were wont to trip along these verdant lawns,
By your delighted mother's side;

Who now your infant steps shall guide?
Ah! where is now the hand whose tender care
To every virtue would have formed your youth,
And strewed with flowers the thorny ways of truth?
O loss beyond repair!

O wretched father, left alone

To weep their dire misfortune, and thy own!
How shall thy weakened mind, oppressed with woe,
And drooping o'er thy Lucy's grave,

Perform the duties that you doubly owe,

Now she, alas! is gone,

From folly and from vice their helpless age to save!

When Walpole and the Whigs were vanquished, Lyttelton was made one of the lords of the treasury. He was afterwards a privy counsellor and chancellor of the exchequer, and was eventually elevated to the peerage. He died on the twenty-second of August, 1773, in his sixty-fifth year.

Lord Lyttelton's poetical compositions were a mere pastime. He was a

warm friend of men of genius, and deeply sympathized in every thing that concerned them. Thomson, his particular friend, died before his tragedy of Coriolanus could be brought upon the stage. The tragedy was, however, acted immediately after the death of the author, for the benefit of his relations; and to increase its effectiveness, Lyttelton wrote the following prologue, which was delivered by Quin, one of the most celebrated tragic actors of the day.

PROLOGUE TO THOMSON'S TRAGEDY OF CORIOLANUS.

I come not here your candour to implore
For scenes whose author is, alas! no more;
He wants no advocate his cause to plead;
You will yourselves be patrons of the dead.
No party his benevolence confined,

No sect-alike it flowed to all mankind.

He loved his friends-forgive this gushing tear:
Alas! I feel I am no actor here-

He loved his friends with such a warmth of heart,
So clear of interest, so devoid of art,

Such generous friendship, such unshaken zeal,
No words can speak it, but our tears may tell.
O candid truth! O faith without a stain!
O manners gently firm, and nobly plain!
O sympathizing love of others' bliss-

Where will you find another breast like his!
Such was the man: the poet well you know;
Oft has he touched your hearts with tender woe;
Oft in this crowded house, with just applause,
You heard him teach from Virtue's purest laws;
For his chaste muse employed her heaven-taught lyre
None but the noblest passions to inspire;

Not one immoral, one corrupted thought,
One line which, dying, he could wish to blot.
O may to-night your favourable doom
Another laurel add to grace his tomb:
Whilst he, superior now to praise or blame,
Hears not the feeble voice of human fame.
Yet if to those whom most on earth he loved,
From whom his pious care is now removed,
With whom his liberal hand, and bounteous heart,
Shared all his little fortune could impart :

If to those friends your kind regard shall give
What they no longer can from his receive,
That, that, even now, above yon starry pole,
May touch with pleasure his immortal soul.

When Quin spoke the lines

He loved his friends-forgive the gushing tear:
Alas! I feel I am no actor here-

many of the audience wept audibly.

Lyttelton's most important works are The Conversion of St. Paul, and the History of the Reign of Henry II. The former is a short but excellent treatise, and is still regarded as one of the most subsidiary bulwarks of Christianity; and the latter abounds with information, and is written in a spirit of justice and impartiality. These valuable works, and his patronage of literary men, constitute the chief claim of Lord Lyttelton upon the regard of posterity.