Mr. WILLIAM HINCHLIFFE, W AS the fon of a reputable tradesman of St. Olave's in Southwark, and was born there May 12, 1692; was educated at a private grammar fchool with his intimate and ingenious friend Mr. Henry Needler. He made a confiderable progrefs in claffical learning, and had a poetical genius. He ferved an apprenticeship to Mr. Arthur Bettefworth, Bookfeller in London, and afterwards followed that bufinefs himself near thirty years, under the Royal Exchange, with reputation and credit, having the efteem and friendfhip of many eminent merchants and gentlemen. In 1718 he married Jane, one of the daughters of Mr. William Leigh, an eminent citizen. Mrs. Hinchliffe was fifter of William Leigh, efq; one of his Majefty's juftices of the peace for the county of Surry, and of the revd. Thomas Leigh, late rector of Heyford in Oxfordshire, by whom he had two fons and three daughters, of which only one fon and one daughter are now living. He died September 29, 1742, and was buried in the parish church of St. Margaret's Lothbury, London. In 1714 he had the honour to present an Ode to King George I. on his Arrival at Greenwich, which is printed in a Collection of Poems, Amorous, Moral, and Divine, which he published in octavo, 1718, and dedicated them to his friend Mr. Needler. He He published a Hiftory of the Rebellion of 1715, and dedicated it to the late Duke of Argyle. He made himself mafter of the French tongue by his own application and ftudy; and in 1734 published a Translation of Boulainvillers's Life of Mahomet, which is well efteemed, and dedicated it to his intimate and worthy friend Mr. William Duncombe, Efq; He was concerned, with others, in the publishing feveral other ingenious performances, and has left behind him in manufcript, a Tranflation of the nine first Books of Telemachus in blank Verse, which coft him great labour, but he did not live to finish the remainder. He is the author of a volume of poems in 8vo. many of which are written with a true poetical spi. rit. The INVITATION I. O come Lavinia, lovely maid, 2. O leave the court's deceitful glare, This piece is not in Mr. Hinchliffe's works, but is affuredly his. Vol. V. No. 21. C 3. What 3. What raptures were it in thefe bow'rs, 4. For thee my gaudy garden blooms, 5. Hafte, nymph, nor let me figh in vain, Mr. Mr. MATTHEW CONCANEN. HIS gentleman was a native of Ireland, Tand was bred to the Law. In this profeffion he feems not to have made any great figure. By fome means or other he conceived an averfion to Dr. Swift, for his abuse of whom, the world taxed him with ingratitude. Concanen had once enjoyed fome degree of Swift's favour, who was not always very happy in the choice of his companions. He had an opportunity of reading fome of the Dr's poems in MS. which it is faid he thought fit to appropriate and publish as his own. As affairs did not much prosper with him in Ireland, he came over to London, in company with another gentleman, and both commenced writers. These two friends entered into an extraordinary agreement. As the fubjects which then attracted the attention of mankind were of a political caft, they were of opinion that no fpecies of writing could fo foon recommend them to public notice; and in order to make their trade more profitable, they refolved to espouse different interefts; one fhould oppose, and the other defend the miniftry. They determined the fide of the queftion each was to efpoufe, by toffing up a half-penny, and it fell to the fhare of Mr. Concanen to defend the ministry, which C 2 talk task he performed with as much ability, as political writers generally discover. He was for fome time, concerned in the British, and London Journals, and a paper called The Speculatift. Thefe periodical pieces are long fince buried in neglect, and perhaps would have even funk into oblivion, had not Mr. Pope, by his fatyrical writings, given them a kind of difgraceful immortality. In thefe Journals he published many fcurrilities against Mr. Pope; and in a pamphlet called, The Supplement to the Profound, he used him with great virulence, and little candour. He not only imputed to him Mr. Brome's verfes (for which he might indeed feem in fome degree accounta ble, having corrected what that gentleman did) but those of the duke of Buckingham and others. To this rare piece fome body humorously perfwaded him to take for his motto, De profundis clamavi. He afterwards wrote a paper called The Daily Courant, wherein he fhewed much spleen against lord Bolingbroke, and fome of his friends. All thefe provocations excited Mr. Pope to give him a place in his Dunciad. In his fecond book, 1. 287, when he reprefents the dunces diving in the mud of the Thames for the prize, he speaks thus of Concanen; True to the bottom fee Concanen creep, In the year 1725 Mr. Concanen published a volume of poems in 8vo. confifting chiefly of compofitions of his own, and fome few of other gentlemen; they are addreffed to the lord Gage, whom he endeavours artfully to flatter, without offending |