*

sure he never felt the bitterest invectives against him for half an hour.' Affable and gay Affable and gay in his deportment, and in his conversation animated and facetious (occasionally, to an unpardonable degree of ribaldry) he was liberal, even to prodigality, in his expenditure: and his passion for the diversions of the field was only allayed by the infirmities of age. †

It must be recorded, to his discredit, that he was very sparing in his patronage of science and literature. An almost solitary exception to this remark is furnished in the instance of Young, for whom he procured a pension from George I., increased on his suggestion by George II. to 2001. per ann. He was often, indeed, heard to say, that Poets were fitter for speculation than for action; and he could appeal to the negotiations of Prior, and the secretaryship of Addison, in justification of his opinion..

On the whole, though he cannot rank among the great and exalted characters of his nation, he will always be conspicuous as an able minister, in which quality his reputation seems rather to have gained

* Sir Charles Hanbury Williams says of him, that 'he laughed the heart's laugh;' and N. Hardinge notices it's peculiarity in his, proprioque vincit seria risu. His levity, however, in his conversation with the sex, with whom (like Richelieu) he affected to be extremely popular, was too often boisterous or licentious. His reputed axiom, All men have their price,' changes it's character, if it is to be corrected (as Mr. Coxe contends) All those men, the pretended patriots, have their price: and that it should be so corrected, may perhaps be inferred by the terms of affection and respect in which he always named the Duke of Devonshire, his unqualified assertion of the incorruptness of Shippen, and his own consistent and uniform conduct.

+ Of his daily packet of letters, he usually opened his game. keeper's the first.

than lost by being committed to the estimate of impartial history.

Mr. Horace Walpole, his son, has given him a place in his Catalogue of Noble Authors; but it is proper to observe, that his Lordship's literary abilities seem to have been confined to the sphere of life in which he moved: for all, that he is known to have written or published, are political tracts on temporary and local subjects.

The list of them, confessedly defective and inaccurate, which Mr. Walpole introduces with saying, "Sixteen unfortunate and inglorious years since his removal have already written his elogium!" contains the following articles:

1. The Sovereign's (Duke of Somerset, so called by the Whigs) Answer to a Gloucestershire Address.'

2. Answer to the Representation of the House of Lords on the State of the Navy,' 1709.

3. The Debts of the Nation stated and considered, in four Letters,' 1710; printed in the Somers* Tracts.

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4. The Thirty Five Millions accounted for,' 1710. Four Letters to a Friend in Scotland, upon Sacheverell's Trial.'

5.

6. A pamphlet upon the Vote of the House of Commons, with relation to the Allies not furnishing their Quotas.

7. A short History of the Parliament; republished by Almon from party-motives, 1763.

8. The South Sea Scheme considered."

9. The Report of the Secret Committee, June 9, 1715.'

10. A private Letter to General Churchill, after Lord Orford's Retirement.'

To these Mr. Coxe adds, Thoughts of a Member of the Lower House, &c. on Limiting the Creation of Peers,' 1719; and some Considerations on the Public Revenues,' 1735: but he doubts Nos. 2, 4, 9, and 10.

30

JAMES THOMSON.

[1700-1748.]

JAMES THOMSON, one of the nine children of

a divine of the church of Scotland, was born at Ednam near Kelso in Roxburghshire, September 11, 1700. The rudiments of scholastic education he received at Jedburgh, where he was not distinguished among his schoolfellows for any superiority of parts; though a neighbouring minister of taste and learning discovered, and encouraged, his early propensity to poetry.

According to Lord Buchan, he was occasionally invited to spend his vacations at the seat of Sir William Bennet, an accomplished country-gentleman; was favourably noticed by Sir Gilbert Elliot of Minto (subsequently, Lord Justice Clerk), and frequently visited at Lord Cranston's. Thus patronised, he amused himself and his friends with many copies of verses; which he regularly, however, committed every ensuing New Year's Day to the flames.

From school, he was sent to the University of Edinburgh. In the second year of his admission, his proficiency was greatly interrupted by the death of

* AUTHORITIES. Murdoch's Memoirs of Thomson, prefixed to his Works, ed, 1762.

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his father; but his mother (whose maiden name was Beatrix Trotter) with her numerous family removing to the Scottish capital, he was enabled to complete his academical labours, and began to acquire distinction as a youth possessed of an extraordinary poetic vein. The study of poetry, about this time, was much extended in Scotland: the Edinburgh Miscellany ' had been published, consisting chiefly of contributions from Callander, Symmers, and Mitchell, young men of his acquaintance; and Mallett, his steadfast friend, and himself had probably here first tried their youthful wing. But a just taste, and true criticism, were yet wanting: rigid rules and forms received more respect than a lively imagination and genuine fire. Thomson saw this, and therefore determined to settle in London, in which resolution he was confirmed soon afterward by the following incident: The divinitychair at Edinburgh was filled at this period by Professor Hamilton, who prescribed to the young bard, for the subject of an exercise, the illustration of a psalm celebrating the power and the majesty of God. Of this he gave a paraphrase, in a stile so highly poetical, that his auditors were struck with astonishment. The Professor however, after complimenting him upon the performance, added with a smile, that

if he thought of being useful in the ministry, he must keep a stricter rein upon his fancy, and express himself in language more intelligible to an ordinary congregation.' Hence Thomson, who foresaw the impossibility of complying with the injunction, rightly

* He arrived, to his unutterable grief, too late to receive the paternal benediction; and his sorrow upon the occasion was exhibited by instances of conduct, which his surviving relations afterward delighted to recollect.