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were not so instructed, a charitable indulgence to human infirmity, wandering in uncertainty and error."

Whilst in the militia, Mr Mitford published a Treatise on the Military Force, and particularly the Militia of this Kingdom; and, in 1791, when the public mind was agitated on the grand national question relative to the means of supplying the country with bread, he published another pamphlet, entitled 'Considerations on the Opinion stated by the Lords of the Committee on Corn, in a representation to the King upon the Corn Laws, that Great Britain is unable to produce Corn sufficient for its own consumption,' &c. It was Mr Mitford's opinion, that it was not only possible, but easy, for our island to supply a quantity of wheat sufficient for the use of its inhabitants.

Mr Mitford first sat in the house of commons as member for Newport in Cornwall. He was returned in 1785 to fill the vacancy occasioned by the death of Sir John Coghill, Bart., and represented that borough till the close of the parliament in 1790. From 1790 to 1796 he was not a member of the house. In 1796, through the interest of the duke of Northumberland, he was returned to the house of commons as member for Beeralston, of which borough his brother John, (afterwards Lord Redesdale,) had been one of the representatives during the two preceding parliaments. He did not deliver his sentiments in the house on many subjects; but he gained great credit by his exertions in upholding the militia system. On the proposition brought forward in 1798, by Mr Secretary Dundas, for increasing the number of field officers in the militia, Mr Mitford opposed the measure in its various stages, contending that the militia should be governed by the militia laws, and not by those of the regular army; and entered into a brief history of the militia of this country, commenting on the salutary jealousy of a military despotism with which it was established. On subsequent occasions, Mr Mitford always arrayed himself against any innovation of those principles on which the militia was originally founded. He sat in three parliaments for Beeralston, from 1796 to 1806; and afterwards represented New Romney from 1812 till 1818.

In 1802 Mr Mitford acquired a large addition to his property in the Revely estates in Yorkshire, belonging to his mother's family. He continued, however, to his death, which took place on the 8th of February, 1827, to make Exbury in Hampshire, a most sequestered spot, his country residence.

Lord Redesdale, in the brief and unostentatious biographical sketch which he has furnished for the recent corrected edition of his brother's 'History of Greece,' thus replies to the severe observations which some critics have passed upon it:-"In writing the history of Greece, the author had to encounter many preconceived opinions: and when a writer ventures to encounter opinions, and especially political opinions, he ought not to be surprised at finding his opinions assailed by those whose minds have been long in subjection to opposite opinions; for opinions long cherished may exercise a degree of tyranny over the strongest minds; a tyranny of which the person subjected to it may not be fully aware. So it may have been with the author of this history, and so it may have been with those who have most severely censured his work. The chief object of this address is to vindicate the political opinions of the author as generally manifested in his work. On some less important

subjects on which he has been assailed, he was disposed to yield to what may be called fashion: but to his political opinions he steadily adhered. It is not proposed to deny that his opinions of orthography were in some degree peculiar; but they were founded on considerations not, perhaps, unworthy of some attention. One of his amusements, in his early solitude, was an attempt to gain some knowledge of that language, usually called Saxon, which the northern invaders of Britain, to whom we have been accustomed to give the name of Saxons, had rendered the language of those parts of the island in which they had obtained permanent settlement. That language, though varying in dialects in different parts of the country, remained the language of the people of England, notwithstanding the Norman conquest, and at length became the sole language of their country. That language, therefore, he conceived, must be deemed the source from which the language now called English had flowed. It was originally the language of a rude people; and, to supply its defects, many words have been adopted from other languages. He deemed it probable that when the Saxons first attempted to express their original language in writing, they used for that purpose letters according with their pronunciation of the words which they intended thus to describe; but that when they expressed in writing words which they had adopted from other languages, they had often, entirely or in a degree, adopted with the words the letters by which those words had been expressed in writing by the people from whose language such words had been taken, though not always agreeing with their own pronunciation of such adopted words; and he thought it evident that many words, originally derived from the Latin language, had been adopted through the medium of another tongue, and not directly from the Latin. He found also that the spelling of words used in the English language, whether derived from the Saxon, or from the languages of other countries, had, in many instances, been varied considerably from time to time, and often capriciously; and even that modern usage had varied, in many instances, from the common practice in his boyhood. Under these impressions, he attempted to form for himself a system of orthography different from the practice of the day: but he found the tide of fashion too strong for him; and from his last corrections of parts of the printed copies of his works, it may be collected that he was disposed to submit generally to the fashion. In some words of Greek origin he approached more nearly to the original language than had been common; but in this also, in revising his works, he made alterations."

"His political opinions, applied to the constitutions of the Grecian republics, have, indeed, been the subject of the severest observation. They were the result of his early and continued thought, of anxious reflection, and of some practical experience in the various situations in which he had been placed; and from those opinions he never swerved. His study of the Grecian history he conceived warranted him in believing that the forms of government adopted in the best-constituted Grecian states, often the subject of youthful eulogy, were not suited to the extensive territory and the free condition of the inhabitants of the British islands; and he thought that he discharged a duty to his country in pointing out the evils arising from all the forms of government adopted in the different states of Greece, constituting a tyranny of citizens, in some degree, over those who, though free in their persons, had not the

rulers of a college and their pupils, which, free as he was from all vain glory and arrogance, it was not in his nature to keep out of view, and which indeed could not be concealed, might produce some degree of jealousy, and lessen in some persons that cordiality of regard which his virtues deserved, if it did not even tend to make them extenuate the praise due to his intellectual powers. It must be added, by way of excuse as well as explanation, that Mr Elmsley was rather unguarded in conversation, and possessed a strong propensity to seize the ludicrous point of view, which, though accompanied with perfect good-nature and benevolence, is not a talent in great favour with those who think, not unjustly, that the subordination and seriousness of a university cannot well be maintained without somewhat more of solemnity, even in trifles, than is consonant to the general habits of the world. However this may be, it is certain that he quitted Oxford with far less favourable impressions than those which came afterwards to occupy his mind, and to render that university for the latter years of his life, the object of his affectionate solicitude, as well as his most favoured residence.

Mr Elmsley took orders not long afterwards; proceeded M. A. in 1797, and was presented in 1798, by W. J. H. Blair, Esq. to little Horkesley, a small chapelry in Essex, which he retained to his death, but the whole emoluments of which, after ceasing to reside there, he bestowed on his curate. He never held any other preferment in the church. By the death of his uncle, Mr Peter Elmsley, the well-known bookseller, he shortly after inherited an independent fortune, which left him at liberty to devote his mind to those literary researches which were its resource and delight, especially to Greek philology, which he soon chose as his favourite province. The events in the life of a man of letters, thus independent in fortune, and tranquil in character, cannot be expected to furnish much information. Mr Elmsley resided for some time at Edinburgh, and became intimately acquainted with the distinguished young men who set on foot the Edinburgh Review' in 1802. To this publication he contributed several articles in Greek literature; the critique on Heyne's Homer in the 4th number, on Schweighauser's Athenæus in the 5th, on Bloomfield's Prometheus in the 33d, and on Porson's Hecuba, in the 37th; there may possibly be others of which we are not immediately aware. In the Quarterly Review,' he wrote an article on Markland's Supplices, and some others, which we cannot particularize. The only instance of his taking up the pen for the purpose of publication, on any but a philological subject, as far as we know, was in a critique of Lord Clarendon's Religion and Policy, in the 38th number of the Edinburgh Review.' His more ostensible contributions to classical literature are well-known; an edition of the Acharnanes in 1809; of the Edipus Tyrannus in 1811; of the Heraclidæ in 1815; of the Medea in 1818; of the Bacchæ in 1821; and lastly of the Edipus Coloneus in 1823. These publications established his fame throughout Europe as a judicious critic, and consummate master of the Greek language. Without entering into comparisons, which must always be invidious, and for which the present writer is by no means prepared, it may be said, without hesitation, that he was in the very first class of scholars whom this country has produced in this advanced age of philological researches. Aware of the uncertainty of conjecture, he was always diffident of correcting the text

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without authority; which is the more to be remarked, because of one at least of the dramatists who chiefly occupied his attention, Sophocles, he entertained a very low opinion of the existing manuscripts, which he believed to have been all transcribed from, or corrected by, a Codex archetypus, itself written about the 7th century, when the purity of the Athenian idiom had ceased to be understood. This judgment, however, was not hastily formed; no man submitted more patiently to the drudgery of collation, or was more anxious to avail himself of all the assistance which the great European repositories of manuscripts afford. It was in a considerable degree for this purpose that Mr Elmsley visited France and Italy several times, and spent the entire winter of 1818 in the Laurentian library at Florence.

Mr Elmsley lived a few years, after his return from Edinburgh, in Gower-street; but in 1807 took a house at St Mary Cray; sacrificing the allurements of London society for the sake of his mother and some other relatives, to whom a country residence was more eligible. He continued in the midst of a polished and hospitable neighbourhood, to whom his excellence of disposition and lively wit rendered him the object of high esteem and attachment, and in the enjoyment of a learned leisure, till 1816, when he set out on a tour to Italy. Familiar in an extraordinary degree with modern history, and all the information subsidiary to it, and endowed with a minute curiosity as to all the details of such subjects, he felt a strong relish for foreign travel. Seldom with a companion, still more seldom with a servant, he wandered through celebrated scenes, adding continually to his immense stores of accumulated knowledge, rather indeed, through the eye than the ear; for he associated little with foreigners, notwithstanding his accurate acquaintance with the French and Italian languages. He returned to England in 1817, and then took up his abode at Oxford, which he now determined to make his permanent residence. In 1818 he went again to Italy; and after returning in the spring of 1819, was easily persuaded to accept a sort of commission from our government, jointly with Sir Humphrey Davy, to superintend the development of the papyri found at Herculaneum. It will be remembered, that more sanguine hopes were entertained than the experiment realized, that the genius of this illustrious chemist might overcome the obstacles which had hitherto prevented those interesting volumes from being unrolled. But as it was of high importance that no time should be unnecessarily wasted in an operation which must, on any supposition, be tedious, Mr Elmsley was relied upon to direct the choice of manuscripts, as soon as by partially laying them open, the contents and character of each should be determined. The experiment, as is well-known, proved wholly abortive; and Mr Elmsley returned to England in 1820; but having imprudently exposed himself too much to the heat, he was seized with a severe fever at Turin, from which, it is probable, the subsequent failure of his constitution may be dated. Though for some time nothing occurred materially to alarm his friends, he was more frequently indisposed than before, and from the date of a tour he took in Germany, during the summer of 1823, the apparent commencement of an organic disease of the heart may be traced, which ultimately deprived the world of this eminent scholar. After his return from Italy, he lived almost wholly at Oxford; he took the degree of doctor in divinity, became

principal of Alban hall, and Camden professor of history in 1823, and was justly expected to succeed to the next vacancy of a canonry of Christ-church.

Though Dr Elmsley must be chiefly known to the public as a Greek critic, it was by no means in this department of learning that his abilities and acquirements were most extraordinary in the eyes of his friends, and some of them have frequently regretted that he should have confined himself, in what he meant for the world, to so narrow a walk as that of collating manuscripts, and attempting to restore the text of a few tragedies. He certainly did not overvalue the importance of this very limited province of philology, which the conspicuous success of one great scholar has rendered, perhaps too exclusively, fashionable among those who aim at a reputation for classical learning; yet, from whatever cause, he was content to pass several years in a species of labour which, to say the least, did not call into action the full powers of his mind, or impart to others his immense stores of general knowledge. He was probably the best ecclesiastical scholar in England, more conversant than any one with all the history of religious opinionexcept, perhaps, for the present times-and with all the details, however trifling, connected with the several churches of Christendom. Few priests of that of Rome could better know their own discipline and ceremonies, which he could explain with a distinctness and accuracy altogether surprising, and characteristic of his retentive memory, and the clear arrangement of his knowledge. He was almost equally at home in the civil institutions and usages of different countries, and in every species of historical information, never pretending to knowledge that he did not possess, but rarely found deficient in the power of answering any question. This astonishing comprehensiveness and exactitude of learning was united to a sound and clear judgment, and an habitual impartiality. Averse to all that wore the appearance of passion, or even of as much zeal as men of less phlegmatic temperaments cannot but mingle with their opinions, he was generally inclined to a middle course in speculation as well as practice, and looked with philosophical tranquillity on the contending factions, religious or political, whom history displayed to him, or whom he witnessed in his own age. If he spoke with asperity or marked contempt of any, it was of hotheaded and bigoted partizans, whose presumptuous ignorance is so often united with disingenuous sophistry. These were frequently the objects of a vein of pleasantry, wherein he particularly excelled. For it would hardly be suspected, by those who have only heard of Elmsley as an eminently laborious philologist, that his liveliness of imagination, and readiness of wit, were as remarkable as his learning. Those who had the good fortune to enjoy his intimacy, and preserved it by correspondence, can best bear witness to these distinguishing qualities. His letters, especially those written during his travels, were rich in a diffused vis comica, a perpetual liveliness, more delightful than the occasional sallies of professed wits; his prompt memory suggesting quotations and illustrative allusions from all ancient and modern literature. In this quick perception of the ludicrous, and in his fondness for comedies and other light reading, as well as in his erudition and sagacity, he bore a resemblance to Porson. But none of the blemishes which alloyed that great man's character could be imputed to Mr Elmsley. His life had

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