spected, without fearing it. He possessed a lightness and playfulness of disposition, much humour, and a turn for raillery, which he had the singular tact to pursue just so far as it was perfectly inoffensive, but never to inflict a moment's confusion or pain. There are periods in each man's life which can never return again; and the friends of this illustrious person will long look back, with vain regret, on the delightful hours spent in his society.

"In his intercourse with his neighbours, the Duke was frank, hospitable, and social, and ready upon all occasions to accommodate them, by forming plantations, by exchanging ground, or any similar point of accommodation and courtesy. To the public his purse was ever open, as appears from his Grace's liberal subscriptions to all works of splendour or utility.

"We have one trait to add to this portrait it is the last and the most important. As the Duke of Buccleugh held his high situation for the happiness of those around him, he did not forget by whom it was committed to him. Public worship was at all proper seasons performed in his family; and his own sense of devotion was humble, ardent, and sincere. A devout believer in the truths of religion, he never, even in the gayest moment, permitted them to be treated with levity in his presence; and to attempt a jest on those subjects, was to incur his serious reproof and displeasure. He has gone to receive the reward of these virtues, too early for a country which will severely feel his loss, for his afflicted family and his sorrowing friends, but not too soon for himself, since it was the unceasing labour of his life to improve to the utmost the large opportunities of benefiting mankind, with which his situation invested him. Others of his rank might be more missed in the resorts of splendour and of gaiety frequented by persons of distinction; but the peasant, while he leans on his spade, age sinking to the grave in hopeless indigence, and youth struggling for the means of existence, will long miss the generous and powerful patron, whose aid was never asked in vain, when the merit of the petitioner was unquestioned."

No. XII.

THE VERY REV. ISAAC MILNER, D. D. F.R.S.

DEAN OF CARLISLE, PRESIDENT OF QUEEN'S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE, AND LUCASIAN PROFESSOR OF MATHEMATICS THAT UNIVERSITY.

IN

THIS is no ordinary character. In Dr. Milner, we contemplate an obscure man, equally destitute of birth and fortune, overcoming every difficulty incident to such privations, and rising solely by the original vigour and energy of his own mind, to the first honours of an university.

Isaac Milner was a native of Yorkshire, having been born near Leeds, January 11th, 1751. His parents could neither boast of rank nor property; for his father was a poor weaver, who died in great distress at an early period of life, leaving behind him Isaac, the subject of this memoir, an elder brother, Joseph, and their aged and infirm mother, whom, greatly to their credit, they maintained for many years by means of their spinning-wheels. To unceasing labour they superadded, what is very uncommon for persons in their situation, an ardent love of study. Having no books of their own, they were supplied with a few by their neighbours, who, perceiving all these good qualities united with sobriety and discretion, prognosticated the future advancement of the family. Such, at length, was their reputation, that their fame extended to Leeds, where, greatly to their credit, some of the most opulent and public-spirited of the inhabitants undertook to educate and send to college one of these young men. The elder brother, Joseph, was accordingly pitched upon, and under their patronage he became a day-scholar, at the grammarschool at Leeds, for the period of three years. On his return

lessons he had learned during the day. Thus, the subject of this memoir, who appears to have had a great aptitude for learning, soon obtained a tolerable acquaintance with the Greek and Latin languages. Notwithstanding this, he was now apprentice to a weaver; but he softened the rigour of his fate by means of the Muses, whom he courted with renewed assiduity.

Meanwhile, his elder brother had finished his studies at Cambridge with great reputation. After this, he entered into holy orders, obtained the curacy of Trinity-church, Hull, and was nominated master of the free grammar-school of that place. Isaac, disgusted at the inglorious toils of a mechanic, was now sent for, and obtained the office of assistant, for the purpose of teaching the lower classes. He was then nineteen years of age, and had been accustomed to work at the loom with a Tacitus by his side. The prospects of this young man were soon turned towards the church; and, after assisting his brother for some time as an usher, he removed to Queen's College, Cambridge, where he was entered a sizar. For his new station Mr. Isaac Milner was admirably fitted; and before he went to the university, he was allowed to have attained a senior optime's knowledge in algebra and mathematics. Possessed of useful ambition, he now aimed at the first honours of his college, and had talents and perseverance sufficient to obtain them. Accordingly, in the year 1774, he became senior wrangler, with the honourable distinction of incomparabilis. He also gained the first mathematical prize. In 1782 he served the office of proctor, and in 1792 was honoured with the vice-chancellorship.

Intense study, however, had secretly laid the foundation of a nervous disorder, which undermined the sources of existence, and occasionally embittered the remainder of his life.

While at Cambridge, Mr. Isaac Milner became acquainted with Mr. Wilberforce, and is said to have tinctured his mind with the peculiar opinions since evinced by that gentleman on religious subjects. After a short acquaintance, the two friends proceeded on a tour to the Continent, accom

panied by Mr. Pitt, but had not travelled far before the last of these gentlemen was recalled, in consequence of some political changes which afterwards elevated him to the premiership. The others accompanied him on his return, and an intimacy ensued, which continued for life. This occurred in 1788, in which year Mr. Milner was elected president of Queen's College. He now commenced some salutary reforms, and, recollecting that, when he was an under-graduate, it was the custom of the sizars to wait behind the chairs of the fellows at dinner, he had spirit and good sense enough to abolish those servile distinctions, which were coeval with the days of monkish ignorance and superstition. In 1792 he took out his doctor's degree, and was presented with the deanery of Carlisle. At Hull he retained lodgings during the life of his brother. This became a favourite residence; and here he had a complete workshop, where he was accustomed to relax his mind daily from the fatigues of study. He found manual labour a great source of happiness, and spared no expense in obtaining the most perfect and expensive machinery. As a proof of this, his lathe and appendages for turning cost him no less than one hundred and forty guineas.

On the death of Dr. Waring, in 1798, Dr. Milner was nominated Lucasian professor of mathematics, an office worth about 350l. a-year.

Here follows an account of the subject of this memoir, drawn up by the hand of a friend :

"The literary productions of Doctor Milner are but few; but, as they bear the stamp of genius, they have procured him much reputation, and a fellowship in the Royal Society. They consist of communications to that respectable body; the first of which, dated February 16. 1778, respects the communications of motions by impact and gravity. Another paper treats of the limits of algebraical equations, and contains a general demonstration of Des Cartes' rule for finding the number of affirmative and negative roots; this is dated February 26th. In the following June, we find another com

"Dr. Milner ranked also very high as a chemist; and the French are said to have availed themselves of his discovery concerning the composition of nitre, which has enabled them to supply, without foreign assistance, the vast consumption of that article, used in the manufacture of gunpowder.

"On the death of Dr. Waring, Dr. Milner, in 1798, was made Lucasian professor of mathematics, worth about 350l. a-year. Thus we see, with no other advantages but those of ability and merit, a person rising from the obscurest rank of life, and, together with all his other literary distinctions, filling the chair of the immortal Newton, with credit to himself, and honour to the university. Desert, crowned with success, must, to every generous mind, afford a high degree of satifaction; while, at the same time, it holds out a fostering encouragement to those seeds of genius which otherwise might lie dormant in the bosom of indigence and obscurity. Although a considerable portion of the early life of Dr. Milner was employed in the laborious occupation of a mechanic, yet, untinctured by any former habits, his manners and sentiments eminently displayed the refined taste of the scholar and the gentleman: so that the very disadvantages under which he laboured in the former part of his life, only so much the more enhance our admiration of his subsequent attainments.

"The Dean also published a new edition of his brother's History of the Christian Church, with a vindication of it from some remarks of Doctor Haweis; and his brother's Sermons, with an account of his life prefixed.

"The continued residence in Cambridge of the late Principal of Queen's College, was a great public benefit to that University; and it will be generally allowed, that he and his friend, the Rev. Charles Simeon, of King's College, in the same University, have been the honoured instruments of introducing into the ministry of the church of England, a greater number of pious, learned, industrious, and useful clergymen, than any other two individuals in Great Britain. And no two men of equally good and upright intentions ever