Britain." This pamphlet, which exhibits much perfonal respect to Dr. Watson, has become a Pandora's box, and produced an infinite variety of evils; it has been even thought to commit the fafety of the ftate. Two convictions have already taken place, on the part of two bookfellers, neither of whom were the original publishers; and it is not a little memorable, that it appeared, on the oath of an unobjectionable witness, that one of these (a man of unimpeachable morals, and most refpectable character) [ was ignorant of the introduction of the pamphlet in queftion, into his shop, which happened to be brought thither on the fuggestion of a fervant, and was actually removed by the master, on hearing that it had been deemed libellous*.

It is but justice, however, to obferve, that Mr. Wakefield came forward, on the profecution of the original publishers and manfully offered to immolate himself to the refentment of the law officers of the crown :

"O! Rutuli! mea fraus omnis :-nihil ifte nec aufus, "Nec potuit

This boon being denied, he foon after addreffed "A Letter to Sir John Scott, on the subject of a late trial in Guildhall." On that occafion, either not finding a bookfeller, who would endanger his liberty, or not wishing to bring any perfon but himself into jeopardy, the pamphlet was advertised to be fold at his own house. In this publication he complains, in language which has given great offence, that the attorney-general had wielded "the fword

of

* The writer of this memoir was prefent in court, and lamented greatly, that Mr. Erskine did not make his chief stand on the grand distinction between the agency of a fervant, civiliter and criminaliter, as the principal is implicated only in the firft, and not in the fecond instance, which includes libels.

§ Mr. Cuthell

of the law," with ftern feverity; and in reply to an extrajudicial opinion from the bench, he fets the faying of an Athenian lawgiver, in oppofition to the opinion of a Britifh judge.

Undaunted by the threats of profecution § uttered in open court, and before his own face, by Sir John Scott, Mr. Wakefield, fince this epoch, has been employed in a controversy with a Dr. Glaffe, refpecting the prifon in Cold Bath-fields. Certainly the fpirit of our laws difclaims every idea of torture, in refpect to all perfons, and clofe imprisonment in regard to political offenders in particular. Indeed, the latter, during the reign of Charles I. became the fubject of enquiry and complaint, and was at length redreffed. In other days, the rumours that have gone forth, concerning this newly-invented mode of durefs, would long, ere this, have become a fubject of parliamentary inveftigation; and it is to be hoped, that even the prefent age is not fo degenerate, if a real grievance should be found to exift, as to permit our mild, humane, and excellent code to be perverted with impunity.

Mr. Wakefield at prefent refides at Hackney, with his amiable family, confifting of a wife, formerly Mifs Watfon (niece to his quondam rector), four fons and two daughters. In perfon, he is about the middle fize; and there is an air of primitive fimplicity in his countenance and fomewhat of an apoftolic caft about his face, arifing, perhaps, in forme degree, from his high and polished forehead, and the baldness of his front and temples.

In conversation he is remarkably mild and gentle, and his manners are pleafing. His memory is fo uncommonly tenacious, that it can retain minute facts, and even dates,

§ He has Gnce been ferved with an information ex officio.

No man is more

dates, after a confiderable lapfe of time. beloved and refpected by a very extenfive circle of acquaintance. His perfonal activity is equal to that of his mind and pen. His habits are strictly domeftic and literary. He is a pattern of abftemioufnefs, and shares in its happy refults, never partaking of ftrong liquors; and from a laudable principle of humanity, totally abstaining from the use of animal food. Mr. W. must, even by his enemies if they know him perfonally, be pronounced to be a man whose conduct is folely actuated by principle, and an inflexible love of virtue. He may err, but his faults are not the depravity of his heart-they can only result from too ardent an imagination, or from the mistakes of his judgment. A. S.

MR. OPIE.

NEITHER the parents, nor the education, nor the fortune of this eminent artist, would have conferred on him any diftinction in fociety, and like the English painters of the last century, he might have worked at fo much by the Square yard, had not nature conferred on him a portion of genius that foon diftinguished him from the vulgar herd.

Seemingly dcomed, by inevitable circumstances, to work at the bottom of a faw-pit, or on the roof of a house, just as the avocations of a country carpenter required, he yet found means to emerge from that fituation, and to move in a refpectable sphere in life. The late George Anderson, A. M. and accountant-general to the Board of Control, contrived by chalking a few mathematical figures on the door of his brother's barn, in which he threshed, to engage the attention

A a

attention of a benevolent patron, and to extricate himfelf from his mental bondage.

A fimilar accident difcovered the bent of John Opie's mind, and a painted board effected for him what a chalked gate had done for his acquaintance, as Dr. Wolcott, who had himself a tafte for drawing, and lived in the neighbourhood, happened to fee, and was pleafed with the labours of the felf-taught boy, of whom he, perhaps, exclaimed :

"NON SINE DIIS ANIMOSUS PUER!"

He accordingly took him under his protection, cultivated his talents, pointed his efforts, and taught him to aspire to fame and fortune. The master, with an aptitude bordering on the romantic, had transformed himself from a furgeon to a clergyman, and he now, with almost unexampled goodness, metamorphofed the apprentice of a carpenter into an historical painter.*

After fome previous inftruction, the pupil repaired to Exeter, where he began to earn a livelihood by his pencil. He then changed his place of abode, from a provincial city to the capital, and fucceffively removed from a little court in the neighbourhood of Leicester-fields, first to Great Queen-street, and then to the politer air, and more fashionable fituation, of Berners-ftreet. He had been four or five years in the metropolis, however, before he began to exhibit, at it was not until 1786, that any of his pictures appeared at Somerset-house.

From that moment wealth and reputation feemed to at

tend

It has been improperly fuggefted by the writer of the account of Dr. Wolcott, while mentioning the unfortunate coolnefs that took place, fome cenfure was due to Mr. Opie; but we learn that no fuch thing was meant, either to be infinuated, or afferted, and if it had been, that it was quite undeserved.

tend his efforts; he first was nominated an academician elect, then a member of the Royal Academy, and what was infinitely more profitable, became a "fashionable painter." For the Shakspeare gallery he executed several pictures, and is generally allowed to excel in hiftorical compofitions.

His beggars, old men, and affaffins, are admirable. The portrait of Mrs. Wolftoncraft, painted by him, excelled in verifimilitude; but his characteristical excellence consists in ftrength; and Reynolds himself, although he is praised for having transferred the foul into the countenance, could never give, perhaps, fo bold and fpirited a likenefs of the male head, as Opie.

This artist has been twice married. His firft match was unpropitious, and did not add much to his felicity; his second wife (late Mifs Alderfon, of Norwich) is a moft accomplished, and no lefs beautiful woman; and we trust that the union of painting and literature will contribute to the mutual happiness of the parties.

LORD ROKEBY.

(With a Prefatory Differtation on Beards.)

THE human beard, at prefent deemed an unfeemly excrefcence, was confidered by all the nations of antiquity as one of the greatest ornaments of the perfon; and gods, as well as mortals, were fuppofed to be decorated with this emblem of wisdom and virility. That of Aaron is defcribed as flowing to his girdle, and the ambassadors of David, after having received the nearly indelible affront of