the strength and zeal of the popular party, taking care to magnify their numbers, praise their unanimity, and commend their resolution. By degrees he descended to particulars, and at length communicated confidentially, and under the most solemn promises of secrecy, the alarming intelligence that some of the guards were gained; that an armed force was organized; and that the nation was actually on the eve of a revolution. After a number of interviews, he at length affected to own, that he himself was at the head of the conspiracy, and boasted like Pompey of old, that he could raise legions merely by stamping on the ground with his foot.""

The Wimbledon joke was a serious matter at Whitehall. Horne was arrested and committed to the Tower, whence he was transferred to the Old Bailey. He greatly rejoiced in the opportunity thus afforded him of making a public display of his political principles, and prepared himself to encounter the lord-chief-justice, in a speech, the tone and temper of which may be gathered from the opening sentences. "My lord The intentions of your lordship, and of those by whom you are employed, are sufficiently barefaced and apparent to me; and no man who has read my petition to the house of commons can doubt of the motives and causes of this prosecution against me. The minister pledged himself solemnly to the house that I should be punished. And thus he keeps his word. My lord-I have the same taste of sweet and bitter in common with other men. I love life. I dislike death. But I believe there never was, and I trust that I shall find there never will be, in my mind, a single moment's hesitation or reluctance to lay down my life deliberately and cheerfully in defence of the rights of my country; and I never was more ready to do it than now." It concludes thus: "My lord-I will die as I have lived, in the commission of the only crime with which I can be charged during my whole life-the crime of speaking plainly the plain truth. And I doubt not that I shall plainly prove that I never spoke more truly than I do now, by pleading to this indictment-Not guilty. I shall surely one day be tried by God; and, in spite of all appearances to the contrary, I will hope now to be tried fairly by my country." This speech, however, was not spoken as it originally stood, his hostility having been mitigated by the complaisant attention shown him by the court. The trial ended in his almost instant acquittal.

In 1796 he again stood for Westminster, in opposition to Fox and Sir Allan Gardener, but was unsuccessful. In 1801, however, he entered the house of commons as member for Old Sarum, on the nomination of Lord Camelford. The ministry prevented his resumption of his seat, after the dissolution in 1802, by an act declaring the future ineligibility of persons who had been in holy orders. During the short period of his privilege he conducted himself with great moderation and good sense.

He spent the remaining years of his life at his seat at Wimbledon, in the cultivation of letters and rural pursuits. He died on the 18th of March, 1812. In point of stature, he did not exceed the middle size; but nature had formed him strong and athletic. His limbs were well-knit, compact, and duly proportioned; and he might be said to have been comely, rather than handsome, in his youth. His features were regular, and his hair, towards the latter end of life, was generally

His eye was

combed loosely over the temples, and cut close behind. eminently expressive; it had something peculiarly keen, as well as arch in it; his look seemed to denote a union of wit and satire.

In many parts of his character he seemed to reconcile contradictions. In general he spoke as if destitute of feeling; and, for the most part, acted as if made up of sensibility; he united in himself what King William declared to appertain only to the duke of Marlborough, "the coolest head with the warmest heart." Gay, lively, and full of pleasantry in general conversation; on politics alone he was bitter, vituperative, and inflexible. On those occasions, however, he seemed to be actuated solely by conviction; and it is no small praise that, without regarding popularity, he was constantly on the side of liberty. Originally open, communicative, and confiding, he had, in the course of time, become close, reserved, and suspicious.

No man was ever more careless of praise towards the latter end of his life. A person who had written for years in a certain newspaper, at last felt, or affected to feel, a full conviction of the injustice he had committed, and actually repaired to Wimbledon for the express purpose of making the amende honorable: but he was coolly received by the philologist, who observed, "that he possessed no spleen whatever against him, and he was welcome to proceed exactly as before, if it could be of any service to his interests."

As a writer, he was learned, able, and perspicuous; but, on the other hand, it must be allowed that he was severe in no common degree he himself appears to have been sensible of this; for he allows, "that he speaks too sharply for philosophy;" but it is added, that he disdained "to handle any useful truth daintily, as if he feared it should sting him." On one occasion he represents Lord Monboddo as "incapable of writing a sentence of common English." Not content with doubting the justice of the earl of Mansfield's decisions, he was accustomed to question his knowledge of the laws. He also underrates the talents of Mr Harris; and even, when he allows that the Hermes had been received with universal approbation, both abroad and at home, he adds, with even more than customary asperity, "because, as judges shelter their knavery by precedent, so do scholars their ignorance by authority." He was a great enemy to every thing that bore the appearance of being slovenly or indolent in composition. Even in respect to familiar correspondence, he was of opinion, that all the minuteness of a special pleader ought to be adopted. As letters, even on the most trivial subjects, are intended to express the precise meaning and design of the writer, he thought they could never be rendered too plain or intelligible; and he constantly maintained that too much care could not be employed to suppress every loose, equivocal, or doubtful expression.

Charles Burney.

BORN A. D. 1726.—died A. D. 1814.

CHARLES BURNEY was born at Shrewsbury, in April, 1726, and received his education partly at the free-school founded by Queen Eliz

abeth in that town, and partly at the public-school at Chester, in which he first began his musical studies under Baker, a scholar of Dr Blow. About the year 1741 he returned to Shrewsbury, and pursued the study of music under his half-brother, James Burney, organist of St Margaret's in that town.

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In 1744, being on a visit at his father's in Chester, he met with Dr Arne, on his return from Ireland, who persuaded his friends to send him to London; he was placed under that master three years, after which he had frequently the advantage of showing his exercises in composition to Pepusch, Rosengrave, and Geminiani. In 1749 he was elected organist of St Dionis Back-church, Fenchurch-street, on the death of Philip Hart; and the same year was appointed to play the organ at the new concert established at the King's Arms, Cornhill, instead of that formerly held at the Swan tavern, which had been burnt down by the great fire the preceding year. In the winter of this and the following year he composed for Drury-lane theatre, three musical dramas of different kinds: Alfred,' a masque, by Mallet; Robin Hood,' an English burletto, or comic opera, written by Mendez; and the music of 'Queen Mab,' a pantomine, which ran sixty nights the first season, and was revived almost every winter for near thirty years after. cess and popularity which attended these early productions," says a writer in the Harmonicon, "might have attracted him permanently to theatrical composition, and thus deprived the world of his literary labours; but, fortunately, as it turned out, for the cause of musical literature, and his own reputation, the confinement and air of the metropolis threatened even his life: his physicians apprehended approaching consumption; and, yielding to their advice, he consented to retire to the country for a time." He therefore accepted the situation of organist at King's Lynn, in Norfolk, with a salary of £100 a-year; and continued to reside in that town for the succeeding nine years,-during which time, he first conceived the idea of writing a 'General History of Music,' and began reading and collecting materials for that purpose.

"The suc

In 1760, finding his health considerably amended, he returned to London; where, from the zeal of his former friends, and the performance of his eldest daughter, a child of eight years, he was offered more scholars than he could undertake. Dr Johnson, in one of his letters to Mrs Thrale, states that his friend Burney had given fifty-seven lessons in one week. The duke of York, to whom he had the honour to be introduced by the earl of Eglinton, was so captivated by some of the most wild and difficult lessons of Scarlatti, which he had heard his little daughter play, that he desired him to put parts to them in the way of concertos. These were frequently performed to his royal highness and his friends by Pinto, at the head of a select band. The year after his return to London, besides his printed book of Harpsichord Lessons,' he composed several concertos, to display the abilities of his nephew and scholar, Charles Burney. Having amused himself with translating Rousseau's Devin du Village,' and adapting it to the original music, in 1766, at the instigation of his friends, Mr Garrick and Mrs Cibber, he brought it out at Drury-lane, with a few additional songs written and set by himself in order to suit it to the English stage. It was Mrs Cibber's wish to have performed in it herself; and she studied with that intent the part of Phoebe for a considerable time; but the uncertain state

of her health obliging her to relinquish the idea, it was admirably performed by the late Mrs Arne. The piece, however, only met with equivocal success.

In 1769 Burney was honoured with the degree of doctor in music from Oxford, for which he performed an exercise in the music school of that university, consisting of an anthem of considerable length, with an overture, airs, recitatives, and choruses, which was afterwards frequently performed at the Oxford choral meetings, and at the desire, and under the direction, of the celebrated Emanuel Back, in St Catherine's church, Hamburgh. He was disappointed this year in not obtaining the mastership of the king's band.

In the summer of 1770 he travelled through France and Italy in search of materials for his 'General History of Music,' and in 1771 he published his Musical Tour, or Present State of Music' in those counties. In 1772 he made a journey though the Netherlands, Germany, and Holland, with the same view as in the preceding; and the following year, published an account of this new tour, in 2 volumes, 8vo. In 1773 he was admitted F. R. S.; and in 1779, at the request of the president of the Royal society, Sir John Pringle and Dr William Hunter drew up an Account of Little Crotch, the Infant Musician,' which was printed in the Philosophical transactions.'

In 1776 he published the first volume of his History of Music,' 4to. and in 1779 the second. The sequel of this work was interrupted by the time and attention he bestowed in drawing up and printing his account of The Commemoration of Handel, in Westminster Abbey.' It extended to four quarto volumes, the last of which was not completed till 1789. In this year he was appointed organist of Chelsea college, where he died, in the height of a well-merited reputation, on the 12th of April, 1814.

Dr Burney, who was twice married, was the father of the late Rearadmiral James Burney, Dr Charles Burney, and the celebrated Madame D'Arblay, authoress of 'Evelina,' &c. Dr Burney's musical works, which have been printed, besides those mentioned above for the theatre, consist of sonatas, cornet pieces, concertos, sonatas for the piano-forte, harpsichord lessons, and sonatas for two performers on one piano-forte or harpsichord, the first compositions of the kind that were published. His literary productions are: The Cunning Man;'An Essay towards a History of Comets,' 1769; Italian and German Tours,' 3 volumes; 'Plan of a public music school, adopted in 1774 by the guardians and governors of the Foundling hospital, but soon suppressed by a cabal, in the absence of the principal governors; History of Music,' 4 vols. 4to.; 'Life and Commemoration of Handel;' and 'Life of Metastasio.' It is as the historian of music that his name is chiefly celebrated. It has been a question with some, whether his history ought to take such high ground, when ranged by the side of that of Sir John Hawkins. "Between the two rival histories," says one of his biographers, "the public decision was loud and immediate in favour of Dr Burney. Time has modified this opinion, and brought the merits of each work to their fair and proper level,-adjudging to Burney the palm of style, arrangement; and amusing narrative, and to Hawkins the credit of minuter accuracy and deeper research; more particularly the parts interesting to the antiquary, and the literary world in general." An Italian author of

considerable eminence, speaking of the writers on the subject of ancient music in our own times, after enumerating and characterizing the most considerable that were favourable to his opinions, adds, "and Burney, the most accurate musical historian existing, confirms our assertions with such a series of facts and ancient testimonies as is wonderful." Professor Eschenburgh, of Brunswick, the translator of Shakspeare, has given an elegant version in German of Dr Burney's 'Dissertation on the Music of the Ancients,' and of his 'Account of the Commemoration of Handel.' M. de la Borde and other French writers on ancient and modern music have translated, quoted, and made a free use of his materials, frequently without acknowledgment.

William Henry.

BORN A. D. 1734.-DIED A. D. 1816.

MR HENRY was descended from a respectable Irish family, which for several generations had resided in the county of Antrim. He was born in October, 1734. For some years he remained under the tuition of his mother, who was admirably fitted for the task, and of whom he was always accustomed to speak with the warmest affection and gratitude. At a proper age he was sent to the grammar-school of Wrexham, where he was afterwards apprenticed to Mr Jones, an apothecary. With Mr Jones he continued till that gentleman died suddenly from an attack of the gout, when he was articled for the remainder of the term to a respectable apothecary at Nutsford in Cheshire. At the expiration of his apprenticeship, he engaged himself as principal assistant to Mr Malbon, who then took the lead as an apothecary at Oxford. In the year 1759 he settled at Nutsford, where he soon afterwards married. After remaining five years at this place, he embraced the opportunity of succeeding to the business of a respectable apothecary in Manchester, where he continued for nearly half a century.

In the year 1771 he communicated to the Royal college of Physicians of London An Improved Method of preparing Magnesia Alba,' which was published in the second volume of their Transactions. Two years afterwards it was reprinted along with essays on other subjects, in a separate volume, which was dedicated by Mr Henry to his friend Dr Percival. The calcination of magnesia had at that time been practised only in connexion with philosophical inquiries. Dr Black, in an essay which is still perhaps not surpassed in chemical philosophy as an example of inductive investigation, had fully established the differences between magnesia in its common and in its calcined state; but he does not appear to have made trial of the pure earth as a medicine, though several inconveniences, from its use in the common form, had long before been pointed out by Hoffman. It was probably in consequence of the publication of these inquiries, that Mr Henry was admitted into the Royal society of London, of which he became a fellow in May, 1775.

The writings of Lavoisier were introduced by Mr Henry to the notice of the English reader in 1776. The earliest work of that philosopher was a volume consisting partly of an historical view of the progress of pneumatic chemistry from the time of Van Helmont downwards, and