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Alfred; The Fall of Cambria; Reminiscences of Coleridge and Southey. Cottle is chiefly known by his generosity to the young poets, Coleridge and Southey, to both of whom he lent a helping hand at the outset of their career; and by the ungenerous fling which on that account he and his brother received from Byron in the English Bards and Scotch Reviewers:

"Beotian Cottle, rich Bristowa's boast,

Imports old stories from the Cambrian coast,
And sends his goods to market-all alive!
Lines forty thousand, cantos twenty-five."

"Oh! Amos Cottle! Phoebus! - what a name

To fill the speaking trump of future fame!

Oh! Amos Cottle! for a moment think

What meagre profits spread from pen and ink!"

Roscoe.

WILLIAM ROSCOE, 1753-1831, is well known as a writer on Italian history and literature.

Roscoe was a native of Liverpool and son of a gardener. When sixteen years old, he was articled to an attorney. Although not neglecting his profession, he devoted much of his time to reading, and learned the principal modern languages. In 1774 he was admitted to practise as an attorney, and remained in the profession for twenty-two years, when he retired, having accumulated means enough to live in elegant leisure. But he was soon drawn back into active life, became partner in a large banking-house in Liverpool, and was returned to Parliament. He exerted himself actively in behalf of Catholic Emancipation and the abolition of the slave-trade, and in many philanthropic measures. In 1816 the house of which he was a partner failed, and he was obliged to sell his valuable library and collections.

Mr. Roscoe was the author of a considerable number of pamphlets, addresses, etc., and also of some poems and songs which have gained popularity, such as Unfold, Father Time, Thy Long Records Unfold, O'er the Vine-Covered Hills and Gay Regions of France, etc. But the works upon which his reputation rests are his Life of Lorenzo de Medici, and his Life of Leo X. They were for a long time the standard works on the subject of which they treat. The style is in the main pleasing, and the author's knowledge is extensive. Unfortunately, however, Roscoe is not critical and accurate enough in his use of authorities, and has even consciously veiled some of the worst features of that age in Italy. For much of the ground which Roscoe covers he has been superseded by later writers, especially by Trollope in his History of the Florentine Republic.

THOMAS ROSCOE, 1791

son of William Roscoe the historian,

is favorably known as a translator, author, and editor.

As a translator, Mr. Roscoe has given to the English public renderings of Sismondi's Literature of Southern Europe, Benvenuto Cellini's Autobiography, and a library of eleven volumes of Italian, German, and French novelists. He has edited the Novelists' Library, containing sixteen volumes from Fielding, Smollett, Sterne, etc., with biographical notes. His original works are also numerous, and cover a great variety of subjects, from the Life and Writings of Cervantes, or a Picturesque Tour in Belgium, to the History of the London and North-Western Railway.

GEORGE CHALMERS, 1742-1825, was a voluminous, but somewhat heavy writer of this period.

Chalmers was a native of Scotland. He emigrated to Maryland, but on the breaking out of the war of Independence, he took the side of the mother country and returned thither. His principal works are the following: Political Annals of the present United Colonies; A Collection of Treaties between Great Britain and other Powers; Opinions on Interesting Subjects arising from American Independence; Comparative Strength of Great Britain; Apology for the Believers of the Shakespeare Papers; Life of Thomas Ruddiman; Life of Sir David Lindsay; Life of Mary Queen of Scots.

Chalmers's greatest work was one which he barely lived to finish. It is called Caledonia, and is a topographical and historical account of Great Britain from the carliest times. Three vols. 4to were printed. The remainder of the work, intended for a fourth volume, is still in manuscript. Mr. Chalmers's Caledonia is considered the best work on British antiquities ever produced. "It is impossible to speak too highly of the excellencies of this elaborate work more elaborate, indeed, and copious, more abounding with original information, than any work in British History or Antiquities which ever came from one author. It will rank with the immortal Britannia of Camden, which it far surpasses in industry of research and accumulation of matter."-Lond Quar. Rev.

Mitford.

WILLIAM MITFORD, 1744-1827, is honorably connected with literature by his elaborate work on the History of Greece.

Mitford was a native of London. He studied at Oxford, and entered the legal profession, but abandoned it for classical studies, and especially for the study of Grecian History. Mitford is the author of an Inquiry into the Principles of Harmony in Language, which has some merit. His great work, however, is his History of Greece. This extends from the beginning of Greek history down to the death of Philip. It was the standard history, until superseded by the works of Thirlwall and Grote, and even now possesses great value. Its chief defect is that it is conceived in a partisan, not a judicial spirit. Mitford writes, throughout, with the animus of a Tory, and carries back to the days of Greece his antipathies to democracy and republics. He sees the events of Athenian political life through Tory spectacles, as it were, and hence can see but little good in Demosthenes, and no evil in Philip. His style is theoretical and involved.

JOHN GILLIES, LL. D., 1747–1836, is likewise extensively known as an historian of Greece.

Gillies was a native of Scotland, and a graduate of the University of Glasgow. He was appointed, after the death of Robertson, historiographer to the King. His writings are almost entirely historical.

Works. History of Ancient Greece, 2 vols., 4to; History of the World from the Reign of Alexander to Augustus, 2 vols., 4to; A View of the Reign of Frederick II. of Prussia, 8vo; Translation of the Orations of Isocrates and Lycias, 8vo; of Aristotle's Ethics and Politics, 2 vols., 8vo; of Aristotle's Rhetoric, 8vo.

Gillies's Greece and Mitford's were at one time the rival candidates for public favor, though both have now been superseded.

"This work [History of Greece] enters less into critical and recondite details than that of Mr. Mitford, though sufficiently accurate and comprehensive for all historical purposes; and is, in style of composition, decidedly superior to it."- Samuel Warren.

"The History of the World does not present such a luminous and masterly view of the very interesting period which it embraces, as would have been given by Mr. Gibbon or Dr. Robertson; but it exhibits proofs of learned research, and may, upon the whole, be read with pleasure and advantage. It deserves no praise on the score of style, which is commonly diffuse and overcharged, and often vulgar and slovenly." – Edinburgh Review.

RT. HON. EDWARD KING, Viscount Kingsborough, 1795–1837, a nobleman of large means and liberal culture, devoted both his time and his fortune to the preparation of a work on the Antiquities of Mexico, in 9 vols., folio.

"By this munificent undertaking, which no government probably would have, and few individuals could have, executed, he has entitled himself to the lasting gratitude of every friend of science." - Prescott.

"The drift of Lord Kingsborough's speculations is to establish the colonization of Mexico by the Israelites. To this the whole battery of his logic and learning is directed. For this hieroglyphics are unriddled, manuscripts compared, monuments delineated."

JOHN NICHOLS, 1744-1826, was an eminent English publisher, and was associated in partnership with William Bowyer, an equally wellknown English printer.

Nichols was for a number of years the editor of The Gentleman's Magazine. The Bowyer press, founded in 1699, is among the most famous in England. It has been managed by successive generations of the Bowyer and the Nichols families, and from it have issued many of the most valuable contributions to English literature.

Besides his labors as editor and publisher, Mr. Nichols was the compiler or originator of several valuable works, prominent among which are The History and Antiquities of Leicestershire; Literary Anecdotes of the Eighteenth Century; Progresses, etc., of Queen Elizabeth and of King James, a carious collection of documents, incidents, costumes, and everything that can throw light on the reigns of these two sovereigns.

THE BALLANTYNES (James, 1772-1833; John, 1774-1821,) are noticeable in literary history on account of their relations with Sir Walter Scott, being his friends and co-partners in the publishing business. James wrote for the Edinburgh Weekly Courant and for the Edinburgh Weekly Journal, the latter of which he edited. John was the author of a novel, The Widow's Lodgings, and was the confidante of Scott during the time that the latter was "The Great Unknown" Both these brothers were held in high esteem by Scott, Lockhart, Wilson, and others, for their abilities as critics, their fine literary taste, and for their wit and humor,

ANDREW BELL, D. D., 1753-1832, is noticeable on account of his connection with an important educational experiment.

Dr. Bell, who was a native of Scotland, instituted in Madras, India, a system of cooperative teaching, known as The Monitorial System. It was so successful there that Bell undertook to introduce it into England, and to recommend it as a scheme for universal adoption. He and Joseph Lancaster were for a time very conspicuous for their efforts in this line. His principal publication on the subject was National Education, 8vo, 1812. "The boys at Madras taught so well, and the school under their teaching prospered so much, that the Doctor became intoxicated with the mode, and even allowed himself to suppose that in all cases and circumstances teaching by the pupils themselves is better than teaching by masters."- Monthly Review.

THOMAS CLARKSON, 1760-1846, is known the world over by his advocacy for the abolition of the slave-trade.

Clarkson's attention was first called to this subject, while in the University, by a prize being offered by the Vice-Chancellor for the best essay in Latin on the question, Is Involuntary Servitude Justifiable? Clarkson competed for the prize, and won it. While writing his essay, his mind became so filled with the subject that he gave up all other pursuits and devoted the remainder of his life to this one subject. He published Essays against the Slave-Trade; History of the Abolition of the SlaveTrade; Portraiture of Quakerism, etc.

REV. CALEB C. COLTON, - 1832, wrote several works: Narrative of the Sampford Ghost; Hypocrisy, a Satire; Napoleon, a Poem; The Conflagration of Moscow. More noticeable than all these was a little work called Lacon, or Many Things in Few Words. It is the best collection of apothegms in the language. Mr. Colton's history is a shocking one. Forgetful of his sacred calling, and of the excellent teachings of his own Lacon, he addicted himself to gambling, and became so embarrassed in his affairs that he was obliged to abscond. After remaining for some time in the United States, he went to Paris, and resumed gaming, and with such success that he cleared a large amount of money by it (£25,000 in two years). He finally committed suicide. One of his own apothegms in Lacon is: "The gamester, if he die a martyr to his profession, is doubly ruined. He adds his soul to every other loss, and by the act of suicide renounces earth to forfeit heaven."

ROBERT CHARLES DALLAS, 1754-1824, a brother of Alexander J. Dallas, and uncle to the American statesman, George M. Dallas, was related by marriage to Lord Byron, and had much influence with the poet.

Dallas's writings are numerous. The following are the chief: Recollections of Lord Byron; Aubrey, a Novel; The Knights, Tales illustrative of the Marvellous; The Siege of Rochelle, an historical Novel; Not at Home, a Comedy; Percival, or Nature Vindicated, a Novel; Elements of Self-Knowledge; Memoirs of the Last Years of Louis XVI.; The History of the Maroons. Translations of a large number of historical works from the French, chiefly connected with the history of the French Revolution; Miscellaneous Writings, consisting of Poems, Lucretia, a Tragedy, and Moral Essays.

JOHN LEYDEN, M. D., 1775-1811, was a man of great and varied attainments, and was the subject of a warm friendship on the part of Sir Walter Scott, who has written his biography.

Leyden was a native of Scotland; studied at the University of Edinburgh, and entered the ministry of the Church of Scotland; but subsequently studied medicine and entered the service of the East India Company. His principal works are: Historical Sketches of the Discoveries of Europeans in Northern Africa; Scottish Descriptive Poems; Scenes of Infancy; Poetical Remains. Leyden also contributed The Elf King to Lewis's Tales of Wonder, and The Mermaid and The Court of Keeldar to Scott's Minstrelsy, besides being the author of many philological papers on oriental languages, some published in Asiatic Researches and others left in MS.

"Indeed, as Leyden's reading was at all times too ostentatiously displayed, so in his poetry he was sometimes a little too ambitious in introducing scientific allusions or terms of art, which embarrassed instead of exalting the simplicity of his descriptions. But when he is contented with a pure and natural tone of feeling and expression, his poetical powers claim the admiration and sympathy of every reader."- Sir Walter Scott.

ELIZABETH OGILVY BENGER, 1778-1827, had very limited advantages of education, but a strong desire for knowledge, and an early impulse towards authorship. Her first poem, The Female Geniad, was published when she was only thirteen. She wrote poems, dramas, and novels, but had her chief success in history and biography. Works: Klopstock and his Friends, Memoirs of Mrs. Elizabeth Hamilton, Memoirs of Mary Queen of Scots, Memoirs of Elizabeth Stuart, Queen of Bohemia, Memoirs of John Tobin, Life of Anne Boleyn. She was the intimate friend of Mrs. Barbauld and Joanna Baillie.

THOMAS HOPE, 1770-1831, is favorably known as a writer on Household Furniture.

Mr. Hope was a wealthy merchant of Amsterdam, who, after many travels, settled finally in London. He was a great lover of the fine arts, and had magnificent collections both in town and in the country. In 1807, he published a work on Household Furniture and Internal Decorations, which was unmercifully ridiculed by Jeffrey in the Edinburgh Review, but which, it is now conceded, was the agent of introducing much better taste into the upholstery and decoration of houses. Hope produced several other art-treatises. He is chiefly known, however, by his Anastasius, or Memoirs of a Modern Greck. It embodies the experiences of the author's travels in the East, in the shape of a novel. This work, now little read, attracted much attention at the time of its appearance, and was ascribed to Lord Byron, who himself was not offended at such an imputation.

JAMES CAVANAH MURPHY, 1760-1816, a native of Ireland, is noted as a writer on architectural subjects. He travelled extensively in Spain and Portugal, publishing in 1789 an account of his travels, and, in 1813, a magnificent collection of engravings under the title of Arabian Antiquities of Spain. This work has always been considered the standard work on the subject, and is one of the most brilliant specimens of art and research.

JAMES NORTHCOTE, 1746-1831, is distinguished both as an artist and the author of several works on art-matters. Mr. Northcote studied for a number of years under the personal supervision of Sir Joshua Reynolds. In 1813 he published the Memoirs of Sir Joshua Reynolds, and subsequently the Life of Titian. He also prepared the designs for the two hundred and eighty engravings contained in the One Hundred Tables, etc., an illustrated work. Northcote was a brilliant conversationist, and Haz

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