Mr. Budworth, that savoured of the common hireling, the recluse, or the pedant, would have been received by them with any high degree of satisfaction; they naturally expected much better things; and of this he must have been superlatively conscious. Seldom, indeed, shall we find a better judge of com position and style, cr one who could, with less diffi his Lordship's delicacy, if he should condescend to read it, as I speak from undoubted authority. Mr. Budworth would sometimes observe, that young Mr. Hurd did not apply himself much to his book when he first came to his school, and that he continued in an unpromising state till the last year before he went to the University, when he began to study in earnest; and soon made such an astonishing progress, that, with raptures would Mr. Budworth say, he never knew so surprising an alteration, and so great an improvement, in such a short time. It is indeed well known, that some of our most eminent writers, Dryden, Swift, Warburton, &c. gave no very early indications of great genius. [The Rev. Stebbing Shaw, who has copied this passage in the first volume of his " History of Staffordshire," p. 280, was assured by a school-fellow of Mr. Hurd, "that his Lordship had no indifference to learning till the last year of his being at school; on the contrary, he was always assiduous at his books from his earliest childhood,"]-The following anecdote of Bishop Warburton I received from a Clergyman of good character, who assured me it was an undoubted fact. I think the scene lay at Newark. Mr. Warburton, when a young man, was sometimes exceedingly absent in company; he would often sit silent, or doze in the chimney-corner. This frequently exposed him to a laugh: in short, he was on that account rather the butt of the company; all which he pleasantly enough received without ever shewing any resentment; and he seemed to his acquaintance to be an easy, good, natured man, who was not overloaded with either learning or sense. One evening, while the company was very lively, he seemed more than usually thoughtful; not a word dropped from his lips; when one of his acquaintance, with a view to raise another laugh, said, "Well, Mr. Warburton, where have you been; and what will you take for your thoughts?" He replied, with a firmness to which they thought him an entire stranger, "I know very well what you and others think of me; but I believe I shall, one day or other, convince the world that I am not so ignorant, nor so great a fool, as I am taken to be." Bishop Burnet, when his son Thomas said he was planning a greater work than his Lordship's celebrated History of the Reformation, could not be more surprized than were Mr. Warburton's companions. But, when his Divine Legation appeared, they recollected this circumstance, and concluded that he was then considering of the plan for that very elaborate work." VOL. III. A A culty, culty, unite elegance with ease, and plainness with dignity; but, after a dislike was signified, I dare venture to believe that he would not have altered a single word, no, not to have gained the approbation of the whole parish. Be this as it may, mere dry morality, and abstract reasoning on the social virtues, metaphysical and learned disquisitions on the nature of virtue and vice, reason and conscience, how noble, sublime, or excellent they might appear in Epictetus, Seneca, Socrates, or other Heathen philosophers, rarely make any favourable impression on an unlettered audience; nor have I known, or even so much as heard, that such discourses, however elevated the language, or however well delivered, have ever mended the morals of any one person: though I have been acquainted with a great many whose lives and conversation have been greatly reformed by those serious and important truths which come home to the bosom and business, on which our everlasting all depends, and which was brought to light by the Gospel. sure. It has been already hinted to what an excessive pitch Mr. Budworth carried his shyness and reserve. I am now to add, with what an unremitting scrupulous attention he exacted the most profound respect from his parishioners; while he, in return, commonly walked along with an unparalleled indifference. If he spoke, it was to find fault, or to cenTo some of his tradesmen, and, indeed, wherever he knew he could shew his authority, and there was no resisting it-and never, perhaps, did it sit with more ease upon any man in the worldto these people, I would say, that no person ever discovered a more disdainful and imperious disposition; insomuch that few of his parishioners could meet him without blushing. Dreaded like old Frederick the First of Prussia, every one endeavoured to avoid him; till at last it might almost be said, "his citizens hated him;" and no sooner was his death announced, than messenger was dispatched after mes senger senger to solicit Mr. Bromley's return to the school; who was unanimously chosen by the feoffees. I will not attempt to vindicate this conduct in a minister of the Gospel, who certainly ought to practise as well as recommend the pattern of the humble Jesus to our imitation, but leave it to those who may be inclined to think him less reprehensible. What tended to give it a still more haughty appearance was the social and agreeable temper of Mr. Bromley and Mr. Adams, whom I have already mentioned. I shall not, however, be thought to do this part of Mr. Budworth's character full justice, without giving his own account of it to those few friends with whom he was intimate. "Because," says he, "I do not associate with every common person, people. think that I am very proud." To which must be: added, that, among his acquaintance, there could not be a more cheerful or a more pleasing companion, nor, to his servants a better master. One of his reproofs deserves to be remembered, on account of the good effect it produced, and perhaps might still produce, if it was more generally known. I must just premise the not very decent custom of country people standing with their faces to the wall before they go into church, and for which the angular parts and buttresses are but too well adapted. As Mr. Budworth was going to prayers, he observed a tradesman in that attitude, whom he stopped with "Pray, Sir, if that was a Nobleman's seat, would you have taken such liberties?" Poor Mr. was too much engaged to walk off; the question admitted of no reply; he used afterwards to say, that he never, in all his life, was so greatly ashamed. However familiar or pleasant he sometimes was, he would never permit a boy to use any kind of quickness to him in replies. "I would not suffer it," says he to a young gentleman, "even if I was in the wrong, no, not to the first Nobleman's son in the kingdom."-This was expressed so feelingly, that the young gentleman could not help shedding tears. AA 2 M. N. No. IV. HENRY FIELDING, AN Author of great eminence in writings of wit and humour, was born at Sharpham, near Glastonbury in Somersetshire, April 22, 1707. His father, Edmund, was the third son of John Fielding, Doctor in Divinity, and Canon of Salisbury, who was the fifth son of George Earl of Desmond, and brother to William third earl of Denbigh, nephew to Basil, the second Earl, and grandson to William, who was first raised to that peerage. Edmund Fielding served in the wars under the Duke of Marlborough, and died Lieutenant-general of his Majesty's forces, at London, in the year 1740, having had four wives. His first wife was Sarah, daughter of Sir Henry Gould, Knight, one of the Judges of the Court of King's Bench, and aunt to the late Sir Henry Gould, successively a Baron of the Exchequer, and a Justice in the Court of Common Pleas. By this lady, Lieutenant-general Fielding had two sors, Henry and Edmund, the last of whom, who was an officer in the marine service, departed this life without issue; and four daughters, Catharine, Ursula, Sarah, and Beatrix, who all died unmarried. The General, by his second wife, had six sons, George, James, Charles, John, Basil, and William. Of these, John, who in due course of time was raised to the honour of knighthood, was well known to the world as an active magistrate, and head of the Public Office in Bow-street, Covent-garden. It is greatly to the honour of Sir John Fielding's memory that he was a distinguished promoter of the Magdalen-house for penitent prostitutes, the Asylum for deserted |