King was by no means friendly to them, and the friends of Lord North were detested by the patriotic part of the nation, for the share they had taken in the American war. The cabinet which they formed was of so heterogeneous a nature, that politicians of no singular foresight were enabled to predict its speedy dissolution. On the one side were the Duke, Lord Keppel, Lord John Cavendish, and Mr. Fox, men who had hitherto invariably supported the liberties of the people; and, on the other, Lords Carlisle, Stormont and North, whose talents had been uniformly devoted to the views of Government. Yet it is but justice to the former to say, that they supported their principles, even when in place, with great resolution, and that the latter deserted theirs.

The injudicious attempt of the coalition ministry to pass the bill for regulating our East India pcssessions, is an event well known. The framers of that measure have been severely censured for that part of it which took the patronage out of the hands of the crown; but when it is remembered that a vote had passed the House of Commons, supported by all the country gentlemen, "that the influence of the "crown had increased, was increasing, and ought to be "diminished," their conduct will admit of a justification. However, the event was fatal to them; they were displaced, and the people soon after manifested their opinion of the coalition, by not clecting a great number of their friends at the general election.

We now, therefore, find the Duke once more in opposition, when his party adopted those half mea

sures,

sures, which always tend to ruin the persons who employ them. Mr. Pitt had worked himself into administration in a way not very constitutional. His opponents had a decided majority in the House of Commons; but instead of adopting energetic mea-, sures, they had contented themselves with unavailing votes, till it suited the Minister to dissolve the Parliament; and a very great portion of the Duke's friends in the House of Commons were unable to get themselves re elected.

The difficulties Mr. Pitt had to struggle with when he came into administration, with the House of Commons against him, are well known, but by the dissolution of Parliament those difficulties all vanished. During this contest an attempt was made by some, well meaning men to form another coalition between Mr. Pitt and the Duke of Portland. In this negociation his Grace acted a very conspicuous part; and from several letters written by him on that subject, we find him objecting to the terms on which Mr. Pitt came into power, and refusing all terms of conciliation, unless Mr. Pitt would resign his place, and come in again on equal terms with the Duke and his friends; but this proposal neither suited the views of the Monarch or the Minister; it was rejected. The declaration the Duke then made, and the assurances be gave, that he would never sit in a cabinet with Mr. Pitt, were as clear and as explicit as possible.

The Duke continued steady in his opposition for some years but in 1792 the world was much surprized to see him elected Chancellor of the University

of

of Oxford, and that without any opposition from the Minister.

The affairs of France had certainly made a very great impression on the minds of many in this country, particularly those of the highest rank. They saw, or at least they thought they saw, in the abolition of rank and titles in that country, the prospect of very unpleasant events in this, and while impressed with those ideas, no man could be surprised to see those who possessed such marks of distinction. and who naturally placed a high value upon them, rallying round the Government which alone could protect them, and which they were made to believe required all the support that every branch of the aristocracy could give.

The Duke of Portland's character in private life is of the most amiable kind, and he supported, for a fair course of years, the splendor of his dignity with a very moderate fortune; but his household expences, and those incurred by the election for Cumberland, involved him in difficulties, from which the jointure which fell to him at the death of his mother has, however, greatly disencumbered him. It is a remarkable fact, connected with the private life of his Grace, that he never eats any animal food,

His Grace has been appointed Secretary of State, Lord Lieutenant of the county of Nottingham, has procured the lieutenancy of the county of Middlesex for his son, Lord Tichfield, and has also been remunerated with the renewal of a very valuable lease from the crown, of lands situated in the parish of Mary bone.

1800-1801.

B b

SIR

SIR JOSEPH BANKS.

SIR JOSEPH BANKS is said to have his descent from a noble Swedish family. His paternal grandfather was the first of his ancestors in that line who settled in England. His grandfather acquired an ample fortune by the reputable practice of an honourable profession. His father, a very estimable country gentleman, resided chiefly on his estate in Lincolnshire.

Sir Joseph was born about the year 1740. After a suitable preparatory education, he was sent to study at the University of Oxford. In every branch of liberal knowledge he made distinguished proficiency. Natural history in particular engaged his fondest attachment: and he conceived, at a very early age, an ardent ambition to promote the advancement of this great science, by those eminent exertions of which united genius, fortune, and industry are alone capable.

Genius usually receives its early bias from some circumstances in the general character of the age, and some in the particular condition of the person to whom it belongs. Natural history was succeeding, about the time when Sir Joseph Banks began conspicuously to cultivate it, to much of that transcendent popularity among the learned which natural philosophy had, for the last hundred years, almost exclusively possessed. Linnæus had produced for it an arrangement and a nomenclature, forming perhaps one of the most ingenious and elaborate philosophi

cal

His pupils

tal systems which the world had seen. were travelling as naturalists into every region of the earth, with an ardour not less zealous and intrepid than if they had gone to propagate a new religion, or to rifle the treasures of Mexican monarchs. In France, De Buffon was already beginning to exhibit a combination of natural history, eloquence, and fashionable curiosity, which, though not yet produced into general fame, was, in a considerable degree, the admiration of a court and a great city, and was sufficiently known in England to have gained the attention of Sir Joseph Banks. Collections of the specimens of natural history had been formed in England, in different places, and at a great expence, which, while they were eagerly consulted by every man of science, were praised with a grateful warmth that might well encourage young men of fortune to seek the same approbation by the same means. The curiosity of naturalists was turned towards the New World, as containing ample treasures much less known and more peculiar than those which remained to be explored in the old. Barbadoes, Jamaica, Virginia, had been illustrated by the labours of English naturalists, with a success sufficient to excite others to rival, by similar undertakings, the praise which these had gained. A new reign had auspiciously commenced, in which it seemed probable that science, learning, and, in particular, natural history, and distant discovery, would long be in honour at court. To go the narrow round of the common fashionable tour-could appear but miserable trifling to a young Bb 2

man