tone of imperious dogmatism, and that his political principles were of the very worst and most servile school.

Archbishop Markham.

BORN A. D. 1719.-DIED A. D. 1806.

DR MARKHAM, who was descended from an English family, is said to have been a native of Ireland. The precise epoch of his birth is not exactly ascertained; but he is supposed to have been born in 1719 or 1720; and it is certain that he came over to this country at a very early period of life, as he was entered at Westminster school whilst a little boy. After distinguishing himself at this seminary by his Latin verses, young Markham repaired to Oxford, and became a member of Christ church, over which he himself was fated afterwards to preside. Here again his taste for Latin poetry obtained for him countenance and protection, and we find him, at twenty-five years of age, obtaining the degree of M. A.

About five years after this period, he became head-master of Westminster school; and although he did not enjoy that office like his celebrated precursor, Dr Busby, for half-a-century, yet, during a long and busy period,' he discharged the important functions assigned to him, with an uncommon degree of reputation.

On November 20th, 1752, he proceeded B. C. L. and on the 24th of the same month, was created D. C. L. We are unacquainted with the motives that induced Dr Markham to take his degrees in civil law, instead of divinity; but the fact is as above stated, and this circumstance seems to favour the conjecture, that he had not at that period resolved to dedicate himself to the church. In the course of time, however, higher prospects opened to his view, and he was enabled, whilst wielding the ferula of the pedagogue, to discern the mitre that seemed to hover over Dean's yard. In 1759, at a time when he still pursued his scholastic occupations, Dr Markham was enabled to taste the sweets of preferment; and the very first mark of favour conferred on him, rendered him at once a dignitary of the Anglican church, in consequence of his nomination to a stall in Durham cathedral. In 1765, after he had ceased to be head-master of Westminster school, he obtained the deanery of Rochester, which he vacated two years after for the still more enviable situation of dean of Christ church.

The uninterrupted leisure of a university afforded ample opportu nity for the subject of this memoir to indulge a taste for literature, and to attempt wholesome reforms in the college now committed to his care. He is said, however, to have been of an indolent disposition, and to have felt but little passion for fame, yet, at this very period, several of his contemporaries 2 were beginning to render their names celebrated by

Fourteen years.

Of these, Dr Horne, then fellow of Magdalen college, distinguished himself by his controversial and miscellaneous writings, and died bishop of Norwich in 1792. Sir William Blackstone, created D. C. L. of All Souls, in 1750, soon acquired fame in a different line, and, after obtaining great applause as Vinerian professor, a circumstance which led to the compos tion of the Commentaries on the Laws of England,' he be

their labours, and at length attained a degree of reputation, which it was not his lot-even after he had acquired his archiepiscopal honoursto emulate. But although he did not acquire fame, yet he assuredly gratified every other reasonable wish that ambition could suggest.

In 1769 he was selected by the archbishop of Canterbury to preach before the synod of his province; soon after, it was determined to advance Dr Markham to a seat on the episcopal bench; and accordingly, in 1771, he was consecrated bishop of Chester. This was but a prelude to an appointment of a very different, but very important nature; for in February of the same year, his lordship was selected to the high and confidential situation of preceptor to the heir-apparent. That he possessed learning and talents sufficient for that purpose, and in addition to this, had also acquired the habits of a teacher at an early period of life, was allowed by all; but there were not wanting some on the other hand, who censured the choice, and maintained that the political principles of his lordship were not exactly calculated for a prince of Wales, who could succeed to the crown of England on revolution principles' alone. Be this as it may, we have every reason to suppose that the bishop of Chester, assisted by Dr Cyril Jackson, afterwards dean of Christ church, conducted himself in his arduous task with becoming propriety until the summer of 1776, when he was succeeded by Dr Hurd, since bishop of Worcester. This change was rather sudden, and, as has been said, unexpected; but certain it is, that his majesty always entertained a high sense of the services of Dr Markham, and seized every opportunity to express his gratitude. The political principles of the then bishop of Chester were publicly avowed in a speech, delivered in parliament, and appear to have savoured of the obsolete creed of passive-obedience and non-resistance. But they proved no bar either to his own advancement, or that of his family. In 1777 Dr Markham was translated to the archbishopric of York, and was thus rewarded with the second dignity in the Anglican church, which he held during the almost unexampled period of thirty years, without censure, and even without animadversion.

We have perused the debates during the regency, without being able to find the name of the learned prelate prefixed to any speech. It was otherwise, however, during the trial of Mr Hastings,-to whom he had doubtless great obligations, for the governor-general had appointed one of his sons to the respectable and profitable situation of president at Benares, in 1781, when he was only twenty-one years of age. On the one hundred and third day of the trial, when Mr Burke, who had formerly lived in habits of intimacy with the archbishop, was conducting the cross-examination of Mr Wombwell, "relative to the salaries and pensions that had been paid to English gentlemen at Oude, from the Nabob's treasury," the archbishop of York, after evincing no small degree

came one of the twelve judges. Dr Robert Lowth, nearly at the same time, acquired a large portion of well merited reputation, by his Prælections on Hebrew Poetry,' his 'First Institutes of Grammar,' and his Translation of Isaiah.' After enjoying in succession the bishoprics of Limerick, St David's, and Oxford, he obtained that of London, and, perceiving the approaches of old age, had magnanimity enough to refuse the primacy. Such were the means by which these three great men aspired to, and obtained celebrity, whilst the dean of Christ church overwhelmed, perhaps, with his former fatigues at Westminster, followed a less extended and less laborious career.

of impatience, exclaimed with a very strong and pointed emphasis, that the conduct of the manager was illiberal!' This sally escaped without reply, although not without observation; and at a subsequent period, when the interrogations of Mr Auriol took place, the archbishop started up with much feeling, and said, "It was impossible for him silently to listen to the illiberal conduct of the managers; that he examined the witness as if he were examining, not a gentlemen, but a pickpocket ; that the illiberality and inhumanity of the managers, in the course of this long trial, could not be exceeded by Marat and Robespierre, had the conduct of the trial been committed to them." The situation of Mr Burke, on this occasion, may be far more easily conceived than described. Whoever recollects the irritability of his temper, and the violent gusts of passion to which this celebrated man was occasionally subject, must wonder at his self-command at a moment like the present, when the honour of the committee of impeachment, and the dignity of the commons of England, were thus outraged. His only reply was: "that he had not heard one word of what had been spoken, and that he should act as if he had not."

On Tuesday, May 28th, 1793, Mr Baker, knight of the shire for Hertford, rose in his place, and complained of a gross libel, in the 'World' of the preceding day. "It attributed words," he added, "to a certain person, which he thought impossible for the person named to have used. The libel would therefore rest upon the asserters; but wherever it should ultimately rest, it would be for that house, by a future proceeding, to show that they would not suffer their character to be traduced by any man, however high, or however low." He concluded by giving notice, that he would on a future day read the paper, and make a motion thereon; but Mr C. Townshend having observed, “that the reverend prelate alluded to, had just met a severe misfortune in the death of his daughter," the notice was first waved and at length wholly omitted. Notwithstanding this, on Friday, March 20th, 1794, when the article of the accusation respecting the acceptance of presents, came under the consideration of the house of peers in Westminster-hall, the archbishop took an opportunity to remark on the conduct that had been observed respecting the prisoner at the bar. He stated, "that in his time he had been a great reader of ancient history, and the present conversation reminded him of the case of Cato the Censor, one of the honestest and best men that the Roman republic had ever produced. Yet that great man, after having filled the first offices of the state with the highest reputation, was impeached; he was impeached forty times, and was attacked by a factious demagogue of his day, relative to an item of an account. When last impeached, he was eighty years of age, and he reminded his prosecutors, that a generation of men, who had not witnessed his services, were prosecuting him for trifles. What was the case of one Mr Hastings? No consideration for his high character, no consideration for his splendid and important services, for the esteem, love, and veneration, which he was held in by the millions that he governed for so many years. No, my lords," the prelate added with warmth, "he is treated, not as if he were a gentleman, whose cause is before you, but as if you were trying a horse-stealer!" The lord-chancellor on this said, "That there was no noble lord present who felt greater respect for the talents and virtues of the learned prelate than he

did, or who was more disposed to consider with attention any thing that fell from so respectable a quarter; but in the present stage of the proceeding, their lordships were precluded from saying one word of the services of Mr Hastings, and still more were they precluded from taking them into consideration. They were trying the case alleged, not the person of Mr Hastings."

Dr Markham died in 1806. He was tall in point of size; in his manners lofty and commanding. The archiepiscopal office lost none of its dignity in such a representative. He is said to have possessed a certain "constitutional indolence," which prevented the display of his talents, in a manner calculated to render his name celebrated, and his acquirements useful; to his credit, however, be it recollected, that at the age of eighty, he attended the exercises at Westminister school on all public occasions, and seemed to take delight in the progress of the scholars. The following anecdote is told of his mastership. The son of a nobleman, on his first entrance into the school, approached the doctor, and, perhaps, with a little conscious dignity, inquired if there was not a proper place for the students of noble families; and if there was, in what part of it he was to be seated. Dr Markham, who, although he possessed that professional dignity arising from rectitude of principle, had not a single spark of pride, turned his eyes upon his youthful tyro, and in a moment took the measure of his mind, in which he discerned something that he determined to eradicate: "You, Sir," said he, "with more confidence, and consequently less respect for me, than you ought, on this important occasion, to feel, inquire for your proper place in this school: it is, therefore, my duty to inform you, that here the only distinctions that are made are those which arise from superior talents and superior application; the youth that wishes to obtain eminence, must endeavour by assiduity to deserve it; therefore, your place, at present, is on the lowest seat of the lowest form; you will rise in academical rank, according to your scholastic merit; and I shall be extremely glad to see your genius and application carry you, in a very short time, to the head of your form, and indeed, to the head of the school. May each of your transitions be, therefore, distinguished by literary exertions, the only means by which you can here arrive at literary honours."

The archbishop's works consist of 1. a Concio ad Cleros.' 2. A Latin speech, on presenting Dr Thomas as Prolocutor to the Convocation. 3. Several single sermons, among which, one preached before the society for propagating the gospel in foreign parts, excited much attention, and, in the language of a writer of that day, was thought of an “intolerant complexion."

Bishop Douglas.

BORN A. D. 1721. -DIED A. D. 1807.

He

DR JOHN DOUGLAS, bishop of Salisbury, was born in 1721. was the son of Archibald Douglas, a respectable merchant at the port of

'Abridged from memoir in the Monthly Magazine' for January, 1808.

Pittenweem, in Fifeshire. His grandfather-a younger brother of the family of Douglas of Talliquilly, in the shire of Kinross, one of the oldest branches of the house of Douglas-was a clergyman of the episcopal church of Scotland, and the immediate successor of Bishop Burnet, in the living of Salton, in East Lothian; from which preferment he was ejected, at the Revolution, when presbyterianism was established in Scotland.

The bishop was for some years at school at Dunbar. In 1736, he was entered a commoner of St Mary's hall, Oxford. He remained there till 1738, when he removed to Baliol college, on being elected an exhibitioner on Bishop Warner's foundation. In 1741 he took his bachelor's degree; and in 1742, in order to acquire a facility of speaking French, which he had previously learnt grammatically, he went abroad, and remained for some time at Montreal, in Picardy, and afterwards at Ghent. On his return to college, in 1743, he took his master's degree; and having been ordained deacon in 1744, was appointed to officiate as chaplain to the 3d regiment of foot guards, which he joined when serving with the combined army in Flanders. During the time he remained with the army, he employed himself in the study of modern languages. He was not an inactive spectator of the battle of Fontenoy, which happened April 29th, 1745, as, on that occasion, he was employed in carrying orders from General Campbell to the English, who guarded the village in which he and the other generals were stationed. In September, 1745, he returned to England, with that detachment of the army which was ordered home on the breaking out of the rebellion; and having no longer any connection with the guards, he went back to Baliol college, where he was elected one of the exhibitioners on Mr Snell's foundation.

In 1747 he was ordained priest, and became curate of Tilchurst, near Reading, and afterwards of Dunstew, in Oxfordshire, where he was residing, when, at the recommendation of Dr Charles Stuart, and Lady Allen, a particular friend of the bishop's mother, he was selected by Lord Bath as a tutor, to accompany his son, Lord Pulteney, on his travels.

After accompanying his pupil through various parts of the continent, Dr Douglas quitted his charge, and returned to England. The death of this young nobleman, which happened on the 12th of February, 1763, severely afflicted his father. The melancholy intelligence was convey. ed to him by Dr Douglas, and the communication of it was attended with very affecting circumstances. Having served some campaigns in Portugal, Lord Pulteney was proceeding on his return through Spain, when he was seized with a fever and died at Madrid, there being no assistance to be procured but that of an ignorant Irish physician. On the day when the intelligence of this unhappy event reached Lord Bath's house, the bishop of Rochester, the bishop of Bristol, and Dr Douglas, had met there to dine with his lordship, and congratulate him on the prospect of his son's return. Lord Bath being accidentally detained at the house of lords, did not arrive until they had all assembled; and whilst they waited for him, the despatch was received. They agreed not to disclose the news until the evening. Lord Bath talked of nothing during dinner but of his son, of his long absence, and of the pleasure he should have in seeing him settled at home, and married,—an