cô. aby, and relict married Mary, daughter of Turner family of Ileden, in Kent, who 'ton, bart. The line is now extinet; and the last (a daughter) married into the York, Bart. who was living in 1698, and BIOGRAPHICUS requests an account of the of George Bur Issue of Sir Watkinson Payler, of Thoroby, Sir Lanrance Staugh

his house is very much infested. quests information of any method to deCLERICUS (under Salisbury Plain) restroy Toads, with which the tower part of

not soon exclaim to him, Ohe jam satis! Mr. WRANGHAM may be assured, we shall

n

took the name of Payler.

Fine; haze, but fair.

Cloudy, wet, haze, small rain

29.84

54

Ditto; after 5 fair..

29.84

55

F. & C.

30

29.83

57

F. & C.; after 12 fine........

29.82

63

Fine.

29.84

51

Ditto.

Mr. URBAN, London, Oct. 9. Ti take the liberty of inclosing to HE very elegant Epitaph which

you, has recently been placed over
the remains of the late Dr. John Price
at Harlow in Essex. Dr. Price was
Physician to the Forces, and for seve-
ral years to the York Hospital, Chel-
sea. He was an excellent man, a good
scholar, and had distinguished himself
professionally by volunteering his ser-
vices in the Plague Hospital in Egypt,
where he remained many mouths.
This circumstance is well expressed
in the composition I now send you,
which is from the hand of a classical
friend.
Yours, &c.

An old Reader and occasional
Correspondent.

In memoriam
JOHANNIS PRICE,

Regiorum Exercituum Medici,

Wm. Cole, in his copy of Mr. Bentand he has particularly displayed this ham's "History of Ely Cathedral;"

article in the title-page and advertisements of his book, as if those notes were of greater consequence than any other parts of his publication.

The Compiler tells us, he has been induced to publish this "farrago" with the pure wish, " that the author of a book which has received praise from so many quarters, should not with impunity be robbed of the reputation his labours have so well deserved."

Mr. D. confesses that he has seen the edition of 1812, where my name and residence are conspicuously printed; and he says, "the refutation of the assertion that James Bentham was not the author of the book attributed to him, could not come with a better grace from any other man than the Author's only son; whose duty it should be to remove any unfavourable impressions these notes may have made on the minds of such persons as have seen, or are in possession of them."

Had W.D. communicated these sentiments by letter to me, I should have given him credit for the purity of his intentions; but, as things are, I think they are open to suspicion; and I shall dismiss him with the hope, that, if his motives for publishing the scandal and ill-nature of Mr. Cole were the reverse of what he has stated them to be, the contempt of all good men will be his reward.

Fortunately, Mr. Urban, I am in possession of such letters and other documents, as, if required, would do away most effectually the attempt to deprive my Reverend Father" of the reputation his labours have so well deserved." I cannot, however, think of encroaching upon the limits of your valuable Publication for the insertion of them. There are also many living evidences to prove that the Rev. James Bentham, and not

Biographical Olio," the unpublished notes," said to be written" by Mr.

"History and Antiquities of Ely Cathedral;" and what is said in the

Memoirs

hands of the Rev. Mr. Dallaway, is rapidly proceeding, is partly printed, and will furnish a rich treat to the lovers of Topography.

Perhaps the best antidote against the poisonous effects of Mr. Cole's spleen, will be the perusal of his character in the tenth volume of Chalmers's Biographical Dictionary, who, after a careful search into the hundred volumes of Mr. Cole's Collection, is "of opinion that the quantum of injury inflicted is not very great; most of Mr. Cole's unfavourable anecdotes being of that gossiping kind on which a judicious biographer will not rely, unless corroborated by other authority." Mr. D'Israeli tells us also, that "Mr. Cole had a gossip's ear, and a tatler's pen." Speaking of his notes, he stamps them with the appellation of "the scandalous chronicles, which only shew the violence of his prejudices, without the force of genius, or the acuteness of penetration." Lastly, those who are disposed to read at

large what justice and impartiality have recorded of this plodding Cynick, are earnestly referred to vol. I. p. 657, and vol. VIII. p. 382, of the " Lite rary Anecdotes of the Eighteenth Century."

Yours, &c. JAMES BENTHAM,

Mr. URBAN,

Oct. 11. O questions liberally proposed, literary courtesy requires an explicit answer. Your Correspondent E. J. C. may be assured, that the History of the three Western Rapes, including the City and See of Chichester, is in a certain, although not rapid, course toward completion. The first volume is printed to within one hundred pages; and nearly twenty of the maps, antiquities, and views, are already engraved. In what manner it will be offered to the Publick, or in what particular month of the ensuing year it will first see light, this deponent sayeth not because he cannot say. Those who compile County History well know, that circumstances, not to be commanded, will influence and impede their pursuit. Yours, &c.

E. M. S,

P. 211. In 1812 an Act of Parlia ment was passed, to give an easy and summary remedy for Recovery of Charitable Benefations, by presenting a Petition to the Chancellor, instead of having to file a Bill, an answer to which the defendants could evade for a long time, and other delays and expensive proceedings were still to follow. This Act is contained in 38 lines; and, strange to say, it has not yet been found necessary to pass another Act to explain and amend it.

The case which your Correspondent mentions is one which cannot be helped by this Act. By the Statutes of Mortmain, all bequests to charitable uses, charged on land by a will, are vord. To make such a gift good, it must be done by deed in the donor's life-time, twelve months before his death. Yours, &c.

Mr. URBAN,

Z.

Old Town, Stratfordupon-Avon, Oct. 17. is to mentioned by your CorreT to be regretted that the Gentlespondent Philo-Patria & Pauperum (p. 210 and 211), did not adopt the legal plan of Mr. Johnson, who, when he founded his Consanguinitarium at Leicester (p. 296), by a deed inrolled in Chancery charged an estate in his life-time with a certain sum for its future support.

By the Statute 9 G. II. c. 36. no Lands or Tenements, or Money to be laid out thereon, shall be given for, or charged with, any charitable uses whatsoever, unless by deed indented, executed in the presence of two witnesses, twelve calendar months before the death of the donor, and enrolled in the Court of Chancery within six months after its execution (except Stocks in the Public Funds, which may be transferred within six months previous to the donor's death); and unless such gift be made to take effect immediately, and be without power of revocation: and that all other gifts shall be void.

This method was thus plainly chalked out, because, as Blackstone says (Commentaries, b. 2. c. 18. p. 273,

11th Edit. 1791)" it was apprehended, from recent experience, that persons on their death-beds might make large and improvident dispositions even for those good purposes, and defeat the political end of the Statute of Mortmain" and this regulation not being attended to by the Gentleman wentioned by your Correspondent, his charitable Bequest is absolutely void, and the persons intended to be benefited are without redress. Although the Five Pounds might have been regularly paid by the Gentleman in his life-time, and since his decease, as your Correspondent says, by his Executor, yet, as it was charged by will so lately as thirty years since, the present Proprietor of the Land can justify his refusal of the payment.

Frequent instances are known, where persons, although their professional advisers acquaint them with its illegality, insist upon having such charges introduced into their Wills, either in the hope of its being constantly paid as they wish, or at least that the objects of their bounty may, perhaps, derive some temporary advantage. Those, however, into whose possession the Lands fall, soon discover that they are not compeliable by Law to continue the payment; and, like Shylock, will object to what is not obligatory, by exclaiming "it is not in the Bond." Yours, &c. R. B. WHELER.

TH

Mr. URBAN, M. Temple, Oct. 18. HE following fragment comes to you in the hand-writing of the Rev. Robert Smyth, whose " History of Sheriffs" remains a desideratum in our National History.

"Sheriffe.] This comes from the Saxon word sciregereta, and by contraction, as in the Laws of K. Edward, sciregreve. The office probably as antient as King Alfred, and might take its rise from his dividing England into Shires. That it was in use in the Saxon times, appears from the subscriptions to King Edred's Charter to Croyland Abbey, as in Selden, where one is Ego Afer ViceComes.'- By Ethelward the Sheriffe is called Ecartor Regius, the King's Receiver; by others, Quæstor Provincia; and often, the King's Farmer, because he received all rents, fines, forfeitures, &c. due to the Crown in his County.This Officer chosen of old in the County Courts by the people; but sometimes said to be appointed by the Earldorman, thence called Vice-Comes and Vice-Do

minus. Under the Earl, he sate as Judge in the County-court, or Sheriffe's Turn-The Cornhills in Kent had the office so constantly in their family, that they were usually styled Le Sheriff, or Le Viscount; and even the widow of

Reginald de Cornbill, in a charter of

donation of land to the Chapel of Lakedale in Littleburne, is called Vice-Comitissa Cantii; and a seat of theirs in Min

ster, within the Isle of Thanet, was on

this account called Sheriffes Court.

(Harris, History of Kent, 422.) - Sir Thomas Ellyot of Carlton, Cambr. and there Sheriffe 24 Hen. VIII. educated, as Wood, at Hart Hall, Oxon. but said also to be of Jesus College, Cambridge (and that most likely, as he of Hart Hall seems rather another of the names), was son to Sir Richard Ellyot, descended out of Suffolk. He was knighted by K. Henry VIII. and by him sent on several emHe was bassyes to the Imperial Court an excellent grammarian, poet, philosopher, historian, &c. admired by his contemporaryes, and lamented by them when dead, as by Leland, &c. He was interred at Carleton March 25, 1546,

where a monument is erected to his

memory. (Bayle's Diction. V. 5, 21.) — Sir Henry Spelman, Sheriffe of Norfolk 2 James I. was born at Congham near Lynne, son to Henry Spelman, esquire, and not John, as some have it, and then lived at Hunstanton, as guardian to Sir Hamon Le Strange.' Yours, &c.

Mr. URBAN,

CARADOC.

Sept. 19.

T is not easy to say what a man can

IT

or cannot believe. In matters of pure science I suppose it is impossible for a person, who understands the terms, not to give his assent to self-evident axioms and clear demonstration; but in moral and theological inquiries, where the nature of the subject does not admit of strict demonstration, and passion and prejudice widely predo minate, the antient remark is too often verified: ὁ βυλεται, τον' έκαςος και

Tar, and there is scarcely any proposition so absurd, which has not by one or other been espoused.

When Augustus Toplady, of Calvinistic fame, insisting that our Reformers were Calvinists, was pressed with a passage of honest Bishop Latimer, where he says, "Christ shed as much blood for Judas, as he did for Peter," he had a ready solution: "That is, it would have been sufficient for him, if it had been shed for him!”

Men

Men of correct judgment and ex tensive observation have remarked, that the natural progress in Disbelief is from Arianism to Socinianism, Deism, Atheism. At what precise point, in this descending path from bad to worse, Dr. Priestley fixed his foot, I presume not to determine. He asserted, as is well known, that the early Christians were generally Unitarians; that is (in his sense of the word) that they did not hold the proper Divinity of Christ and of the Holy Ghost. But then how ignorant this hardy Controversialist was in the language in which most of the Primi tive Fathers wrote, your Correspond. ent from Essex-street has shewn (p. 126,) by a notable example; to which, were the learned Doctor's lucubra tions at band, many others might be added. I subjoin a single instance from memory. "You are no longer a child, but a man grown;" ang nồn Τελειος *. Now this easy Greek, τελειός ang, known to a boy of fifteen, the learned Doctor meeting with in one of his quotations, confounds with Vides pros, and translates " a mere

man!"

When such a Writer as this undertakes to expound or translate a Greek Author, who can tell whether what he reuders Moon is not, in the original, the Sun; the North, South, and black, white?

Yet there are passages in the Greek Fathers which he probably could construe, and which deserved his attention. I produce one of them. Ignatius, contemporary with the Apostles, and by them made Bishop of Antioch, begins one of his Epistles with these words: δοξάζω τον Θεον, Ιησεν Χριστόν, "I glorifie God, even Jesus Christ t." How Dr. Priestley might, or how one of his admirers may, conquer this pass sage, I do not know. Had Mr. Toplady been an Unitarian, as I hope he was not, before his matchless "That is" the difficulty had vanished in a moment:"That is, I would glorify him, if he were God"- a solution worthy the consideration of the Champion of Essex-street.

But it seems, a venerable Bishop, confessedly one of the first scholars of the age, has said, that, when Mr. Belsham calls Bishop Horsley "a bafs

ور

to

fled and defeated antagonist,” and pronounces “the victory of Dr. Priestkey to be decisive and complete," "Mr. Belsham may say this, but he cannot believe it ;" and since Mr. Belsham complains of this, we are to admit, I suppose, that the worthy Prelate has under-rated Mr. Belsham's power of swallowing paradoxes. But however this may be, if " measure for measure" is a justifiable mode of proceeding, it does not appear that Mr. Belsham has much reason complain. For in speaking of a Bishop, of a Peer, and of the whole body of the Clergy, he has “released” himself" from those forms of civility, which, he says, the custom of polished life has rendered indispensable.' "He [Bishop Horsley] would have been the first to laugh to scorn the solemn ignoramus who should seriously profess to believe, that the advantage of the argument remained with him." "Nor would he[Lord Thurlow]esteem him the less for that useful talent, which the Bishop possessed in an emipent degree, of throwing dust into the eyes of the simple and the ignorant."" He has also "good reason to believe, that the Noble Lord saw the fallacy of them as distinctly as the Bishop himself," [this is saying nothing, till it is proved that the Bishop did see the fallacy of his own arguments,]" and that he made no hesitation in expressing his sentiments accordingly." Till Mr. Belsham produces his vouchers, that Lord Thurlow did so express himself, this is mere calumny, quite as opprobrious as to say of Mr. Belsham that be "cannot believe" some of his own incredible assertions. The only difference is, that he traduces the deceased, and "nulli gravis est percussus Achilles," the dead cannot vindicate themselves.

1

Of the Clergy, it seems, he had said, “Truth must necessarily be the object of" their "aversion and ab horrence ;" but feeling, I suppose, some little sense of shame for this "undue asperity of language," he is ready to retract it for this general maxim, "that persons, all whose expectations in life depend upon their profession of a particular system of

P. i. p. 542. n.

opinions,