bank of the Thames, and in the neighbourhood of the capital, was fuch as muft render it doubly ufeful; firft, by producing the moft rare medicinal plants; fecondly, by ferving as an excellent school for young botanists, an advantage which he himfelf had drawn from it in the early parts of his life. In 1733, the Apothecaries exprefled their gratitude to Sir Hans, by erecting, in the center of the garden, a marble ftatue of their benefactor, done by Ryfbrack. It is fupported by a pedestal, on which is a Latin infcription, expreffing his donation, with its defign and advantages. He is reprefented in full proportion, and the likeness is well preferved.

The death of Sir Ifaac Newton, in 1727, made way for the advancement of Sir Hans Sloane to the Prefidency of the Royal Society. He had been Vice-Prefident, and frequently fat in the chair for that great man; and by his long connection with that learned body, he had contracted fo great an affection for it, that he made them a prefent of an hundred guineas, cauled a curious bust of King Charles II. who founded the Society, to be fet up in the great hall where it met, and he is faid to have been very inftrumental in procuring Sir Godfrey Copley's benefaction of a medal, value five guineas, (which is continued to this day) to be annually given, as an honorary mark of distinction to him who fhall communicate the best experiments to the Society,

Being thus placed at the head of the Royal Society, Sir Hans now laid afide all thoughts of farther promotion, (fo' our Authors exprefs it) and applied himfelf wholly to the faithful discharge of the refpective duties of the places he enjoyed; to anfwer, like an able phyfician, the high opinion which the public had conceived of him; to improve his mind with ufeful knowledge, and enrich his cabinet with new curiofities, which he now found much easier to do than formerly, fince he had taught feafaring people to regard, as an object of commerce, thofe marine productions which before they defpifed as useless, and not worth notice.

In the year 1740, being arrived at the age of fourscore, he refolved to quit the fervice of the public, and to live for himself. Accordingly, he refigned the prefidency of the Royal Society, who chofe Martin Folkes, Efq; to fucceed him; and, in a public affembly, they thanked him for the great and eminent fervices he had done them, and begged his permiffion, that his name might remain enrolled among the members of their council as long as he fhould live. He now removed entirely from kis houfe in Bloomsbury to that at Chelfea, in order to enjoy in tranquillity the remains of a well-fpent life. He did not, however, país into that kind of folitude which excludes men

from

from fociety. He received at Chelsea, as he had done in London, the vifits of people of diftinction, of all learned foreigners, of the Royal Family, who fometimes did him that honour; and, what is still more to his praife, he never refused admittance or advice to rich or poor, who came to confult him concerning their health. Moreover, not content with doing good in thefe refpects, he now, during his recefs, prefented to the public fuch ufeful remedies as had been warranted by fuccefs, during a long courfe of practice. Among thefe were his receipt for curing diftempers in the eyes †, and that for the bite of a mad dog.

Hitherto the great temperance of Sir Hans had preferved him from feeling the infirmities of old age; but, in his ninetieth year, he began to complain of pains, and to be fenüble of an univerfal decay. He was often heard to fay, that the approach of death brought no terrors with it, that he had long expected the ftroke, and was prepared to receive it, whenever the great Author of his being thould think fit.-The long expected moment at length arrived. After a fhort illness of the days, he gave up his laft breath, Jan. 11, 1752, and was cared on the 18th at Chelfea, in the fame vault with his lar, the solemnity being attended with the greatest concourfe of peat of all ranks and conditions, that had ever been feen belay our Authors) on the like occafion. His funeral fermon preached by Dr. Pearce, bishop of Bangor, who forbore to enlarge on the virtues or accomplishments of the deceafed, agrecable to an exprefs prohibition received from his own mouth. Here our Biographers obferve, that fuch was his piety, he thought it a degree of profanation to debafe, with the prailes of human excellence, that pulpit which fhould be devoted to the worship of the Supreme Being.

was

The Writer of his Eloge, already referred to, having obferved that, in his perfon, Sir Hans was tall and well-proportioned, thus proceeds to reprefent his character. "His manners were caly, free, and engaging; his converfation fprightly, familiar, and obliging; nothing could equal his courtely to ftrangers; he was always ready, on the leaft notice, to fhew and explain to them his whole cabinet; and once a week, he

+ Though this Recipe for the eyes has been frequently printed in a variety of publications, yet as our Authors have also taken a copy of it in their notes, it might have been thought a blameable omiffion in ns, had we omitted to tranfcribe fo useful a prefcription. R Tuttii p. p. Lapid. Hemattit. p. p. 9ij. Aloes p. p. 12. gr. Margarit. p. p. Rub them in a mortar, c. q. f. of viper's greafe. To be used ight and morning. N B. All cathartics, especially Mercury, hurtful

+ gr.

this cafe.

kept

kept open house for gentlemen of all ranks, particularly for his brethren of the Royal Society.

"The confequences of his death," continues the Eulogift, "were feverely felt by the poor, to whom he was every way a liberal benefactor. He was a governor of almost every hospital in and about London. To each he gave an hundred pounds in his life-time, and a more confiderable fum at his death. Whatever proposal had for its object the public good, might command his most zealous endeavours to promote it. He was the first in England who introduced the Bark into general practice, not only in fevers, but in a variety of other diftempers, particularly in nervous disorders, mortifications, and violent hæmorrhages. He frequently took it himself for the fpitting of blood, to which he was always more or lefs fubject. He likewife gave his fanction to the practice of inoculation, by inoculating two daughters of the Royal Family; which did more to establish that falutary difcovery than all the treatifes that ever were written on the fubject."

It was no wonder that Sir Hans was extremely folicitous left his cabinet of rarities, which he had taken fo much pains to collect, fhould be again diffipated at his death. He was unwilling that fo large a portion of his fortune fhould be loft to his children, and he was concerned left his country should be deprived of the use of so valuable a treasure. He therefore bequeathed it to the public, on condition that 20,000l. fhould be made good by parliament to his family; a fum which, though large in appearance, was fcarce more than the intrinfic value of the gold and filver medals, the ores, and precious stones that were found in it; befide his library, confifting of more than fifty thousand volumes, three hundred and forty-seven of which were illustrated with coloured prints, three thoufand five hundred and fixty-fix manufcripts, and a vast number of scarce and curious books.-The parliament accepted the legacy, and fulfilled the conditions *.

It

The act which paffed for this purpofe, in 1753, is entitled, " An A&t for the purchase of the Mufæum, or collection of Sir Hans Sloane, Bart, and of the Harleian collection of MSS. and for procuring one general repofitory for the better reception and more convenient use of the faid collection, and of the Cottonian library, and additions thereto." -In pursuance of this act, the fum of 300,000l. was raised by a lottery, which abundantly enabled the parliament to compleat their whole defign. According to which, befide the 20,000l. paid for Sir Hans Sloane's collection, the Harleian manufcripts were purchased at the rate of 10,000l. and that magnificent edifice called Montague-House, in Ruffel-ftreet, Bloomsbury, was also purchased at the rate of 10,000).

E 4

To

It is eafy to perceive the advantage that may refult to the public from this immenfe collection. To have accefs to fuch a cabinet as this, is in effect, like making the tour of the world, and having for a tutor a catalogue of thirty-eight volumes in folio and eight in quarto, containing a fhort defcription of each curiofity, with a reference to the authors that treat of it more at large.

Sir Hans married, in 1695, Elizabeth, daughter of Alderman Langley, of London, who died in 1724, after fhe had brought him one for, who died young, and three daughters, the youngest of which died alto in her infancy. Sarah, the eldeft, married George Stanley, Efq; of Poultons in the county of Hants; and Elizabeth, the fecond, married the Lord Cadogan, colonel of the fecond troop of horfe guards, and governor of TilburyFort, &c.

The judicious Author of this article will pardon us, if, for the fake of brevity, we have fometimes deviated from his mode of expreffion, and here and there omitted a fhort paffage, of inferior import, for the fame reafon.

To this house the two last mentioned collections were removed, as alfo the Cottonian Library, with all the additions to it, and likewife that of Sir Arthur Edwards of Hanover fquare, bequeathed by his will in 1738.

The Prophecy of Famine. A Scots Paftoral. By C. Churchill. 4to. 2s. 6d. Kearfly.

WHA

At the rate

HAT a fcurri'ous age do we live in! we have proceeded in for fome time paft, we shall foon degenerate into a nation of favages. Railing, abufe, and detraction, are become fashionable amufements; nay almoft the fole employment of our Literati: what a debasement of Genius! what a degeneracy of Tafte!In Politics, the revived Whig and Tory factions are as bitter in their enmity, as were the most implacable of their Predeceffors. In Divinity, the Freethinkers, the Methodists, and the orthodox Clergy are all together by the ears, dealing about their Anathemas like wild-fire. Even the Mufes too, thofe accomplish'd well-bred Ladies, are now become little better than fo many fcolding Billing gates. As to the Lawyers, having always but too much ufinefs on their hands, in the way of their vocation, they

no leisure for any Squabbles but what they are paid for; at they, and the Phyficians, are, at prefent, the moft placid eaceable of all his Majefty's fubje&s.

But

But what, in the name of common Senfe, of common Decency, hath occafioned the Literary civil war, lately proclaimed by the Britons on this, against the Britons on that fide of the Tweed?-We are confeffedly the aggreffors; the enmity is all our own but wherefore is it excited?-where is the generofity, where the juftice, of attacking, unprovoked, a whole nation, peaceably united with us under one common Government? Is one part of the Island to be infulted for being the weaker or the poorer divifion? as reasonably might the right hand revile the left, for being its inferior in ftrength and dexterity!-Is it that One man of that nation hath found favour in the eyes of his Prince, and thereby excited the envy and malice of those who, like the Turk, can bear no brother near the throne? This were indeed a prepofterous, an abfurd foundation for a national jealousy and quarrel! Yet this, however, feems to be the fecret caufe of all the public outrage, daily, weekly, and occafionally, offered to our neighbours of North-Britain; this the fum-total of the crimes charged on poor Scotland :-—except, indeed, one other offence, of which too fhe is equally guilty,the natural inclemency of her climate, and the comparative infertility of her foil!

Effugimus Scopulos Ithaca, Laërtia reṛna

Et terram altricem Sa vi execramur ULYSSEI.

But what, in particular, could move the manly Genius of CHURCHILL to draw his mighty pen in this low and vulgar quarrel? taat pen which might be fo much more nobly employed! Why fhould He deign to mingle with the dirty crowd? why fully the luftre of his reputation by thus affociating with the mob? Hath Calumny alone fuch powerful charms for this potent Bard? Can he delight only in Detraction? Can he take pleasure in nothing but in giving pain to others? Is it only in finding or in making his neighbour miferable, that he can derive happinefs to himfelf?

Not to protract, however, the gratification of our Reader's curiofity, which muft, by this time, be fufficiently excited, we fhall now proceed to give fome fpecimens of the manner in which Mr. Churchill has again manifefted his contempt and hatred of the Scottish nation.

It is commonly thus, when a Stage-coach paffes through a village; one boy, more active than the reft, mounts in the rear, and rides off in triumph: while his clamorous companions, following baud paffibus quis, unite in the envious ont-crv “ Whip behind! Lick behind, Coachman ! whip behind!

See his GHOST, a poem; in which he wantonly ftepped out of his way, on purpose to have a stroke at the Scots: like Daniel Burgess, who used to declare he could not preach a fermon without having a whack at the Pope.

Stopping