LORD ANSON.

THIS illustrious seaman, the youngest son of William Anson, esq. was born at Shuckborough, in Staffordshire, in 1700. Having very early discovered a partiality for the sea service, he received the education necessary for that profession; and, after passing through the subordinate stations of midshipman and lieutenant with credit and reputation, he was promoted to the rank of commander of the Weazle sloop in 1722; and on the 1st of February 1723-4, he was advanced to the rank of captain, and appointed to the Scarborough frigate. In 1731 he was captain of the Diamond of 40 guns, and in 1737 appointed to the Centurion of 60, and sent as commanding officer with a distinguishing pendant to the coast of Africa.

On the eve of a rupture with Spain, he was appointed to command a squadron with a body of land forces under colonel Bland, upon an expedition against the Manillas, which was however suddenly and unaccountably abandoned. In the following year, with a very small squadron, he took the town of Paita, in Spanish America, where the treasure was considerable. After this, notwithstanding the excessive weakness of his crews, he proceeded in quest of the Manilla ship, and learnt by some prisoners that this rich prize, then taking in her lading at Acapulco, would certainly depart on the 3rd of March; the alarm of the Spaniards, however, had caused them to delay the sailing of this vessel till next year. On the 19th of April, 1743, the commodore sailed from Macao, and on the 20th of June was so fortunate as to fall in with the galleon expected, when an action commenced between that and the Centurion within pistol shot, and continued an hour and a half, when, the galleon striking her colours, 1,313,843 pieces of eight were found on board, and 35,682 ounces of virgin silver and plate. On the 15th of May following, the Centurion arrived in safety at Spithead. Eight days after this the commodore was promoted to the rank of rear-admiral of the blue. In December 1744 he was appointed one of the lords of the admiralty, and chosen member of parliament for the borough of Heydon, in Yorkshire.

Promotion now flowed rapidly upon him; in 1745 he was advanced to be rear-admiral of the white, and in July 1746, vice-admiral of the blue. In 1747, off Cape Finisterre, he defeated a French squadron, capturing their admiral, six ships of war, and four East Indiamen, &c.: on this account he was raised to the peerage. On the death of sir John Norris in 1749, he was appointed vice-admiral of Great Britain. In 1758 being then admiral of the white, lord Anson hoisted his flag on board the Royal George 100 guns, and, with sir Edward Hawke, covered the unsuccessful descents made by the duke of Marlborough and commodore Howe at St. Maloes, Cherburgh, &c. The last service performed by lord Anson was his sailing from Harwich in 1761, to convoy the present queen from Germany; when he landed his royal passenger at the same port in the following September.

His lordship died at his seat, Moor Park, Hertfordshire, on June 6, 1762. In his natural disposition lord Anson was calm, cool, and unassuming; but, being frequently a dupe at play, it was wittily observed of him, "that he had been round the world, but never in it." Of lord Anson's voyage round the world, four large impressions were sold off in a twelvemonth, and it was translated into almost all the languages of Europe. It was composed under his lordship's own inspection, from the materials which he furnished, by Mr. Benjamin Robins, a man of great eminence as a mathematician, although it bears the name of Mr. Walters, chaplain of the Centurion.

FRANCIS, lord Verulam, and Viscount St. Alban's, commonly called LORD BACON, one of our earliest and greatest philosophers, was son of sir Nicholas Bacon, lord-keeper of the great seal; and born at York house, in the Strand, on the 22d of January 1561. His mother, second daughter of sir Anthony Cooke, was eminently distinguished for piety and learning. While an infant, he was noticed by Queen Elizabeth, for the readiness of his wit; and she frequently called him her young lord-keeper. At twelve years of age, he went to Trinity college, Cambridge; and such was his incredible progress in science, that he had, at sixteen, not only become a complete master of the whole circle of liberal arts, as then taught, but began to perceive those imperfections in the reigning philosophy, which he afterwards so effectually exposed.

On quitting the university, his father sent him to France; where, before he was nineteen, he wrote a general view of the state of Europe: but, sir Nicholas dying, he returned to England, and studied the common-law in Gray's Inn. Here he was patronized by the earl of Essex; whose death it was afterwards his official duty to palliate, which has drawn on him the reproach of ingratitude. In 1605, he published the first specimen of his great work, the Advancement of Learning; and, about this period, married Alice, daughter of Benedict Barham, esq. alderman of London, with an ample fortune, but never had any offspring. At the accession of James I. he wrote in favour of the union of England and Scotland; and, in 1616, was sworn of the privy council. The next year, he was appointed keeper of the great seal; and, the year following, chancellor of England, with the title of lord Verulam. In the midst of these honours, and notwithstanding his multiplicity of business, he neither forgot nor neglected his philosophical studies; but published, in 1620, his Novum Organum Scientiarum.

Such had been his extreme anxiety for the perfection of this great work, presenting an infallible method of exercising the faculty of reason, that he is said to have actually revised and altered twelve copies, before he brought it to the state in which it at length appeared. Having sent it to the king, he received a letter from his majesty which reflects much honour on both their memories.

Being accused of bribery and corruption, the king prevailed on him to make no defence; and he was, May 3, 1621, fined 40,000l. and sentenced to be imprisoned during his majesty's pleasure. The gifts were chiefly to his servants; and, during his trial, on their rising from their seats, as he passed them-" sit down, my masters," said his lordship, "your rise has been my fall."

He retired, after a short confinement in the Tower, to the shade of a contemplative life, which he had always loved. The king also remitted his fine; and, in the first year of Charles I. he was again summoned to parliament.

His last five years were wholly devoted to philosophical studies. On an excursion to try some experiments in natural philosophy, he was obliged to stop at the earl of Arundel's, Highgate; and there, in a few days, April 9, 1626, this great man expired. He was buried in the chapel of St. Michael's church, St. Alban's; where a monument was erected to his memory, by his indefatigable secretary, sir Thomas Meautys.

Addison says, that Bacon had the sound, distinct, comprehensive knowledge of Aristotle, with all the beautiful light graces of Cicero: and lord Orford, who calls him the prophet of arts which Newton was afterwards to reveal, pronounces that his genius and his works must be universally admired as long as science exists.

His numerous works were, in 1765, first collected in five vols. 4to. and since in ten, 8vo.

SIR WILLIAM BLACKSTONE.

THIS renowned English lawyer was born in Cheapside, July 10, 1723. His father, an eminent silkman, dying previously to the birth of this fourth son, Mr. Thomas Bigg, maternal uncle, a respectable surgeon, with an affectionate zeal for the welfare of all his sister's children, immediately took on himself the entire care of their education and fortune. About the age of twelve, his mother also died: in the mean time, her youngest son having been early sent to the Charter-house, so rapid was his improvement, that he became head scholar before he was fifteen; and from thence, November 30, 1738, was entered a commoner, at Pembroke college, Oxford. At this early period of life, he obtained Mr. Benson's gold prize-medal of Milton, for verses on that poet; and, before he was twenty, though entered a student of the Middle Temple, he compiled, for his own use only, an ingenious treatise on the Elements of Architecture. In November 1743, he was elected into the society of All Souls college; and, in 1744, admitted actual fellow; from which period, he divided his time between the university and the metropolis. On the 28th of November 1746, he was called to the bar; and few lovers of poetry are unacquainted with his celebrated Lawyer's Farewel to the Muses. Three years afterwards, he was elected recorder of the borough of Wallingford, in Berkshire; and, in April 1750, became doctor of laws. Though so able a lawyer, not possessing the popular powers of oratory, his profits at the bar were insufficient to defray the contingent expenses. In 1754, he began to read his lectures on the laws of England; and published, soon after, his analysis of these laws, as a guide to his auditors. In July 1755, he was appointed one of the delegates of the Clarendon press, and effected great improvements in that establishment. On the 20th of October 1758, he was unanimously elected first Vinerian professor of the common law; and, on the 25th, read his introductory lecture, since prefixed to his Commentaries. In March 1761, he was returned to the new parliament for Hindon, in Wiltshire; on the 5th of May, married Sarah, eldest surviving daughter of James Clitherow, Esq. of Boston House, Middlesex; and, on the 28th of July, his fellowship at All Souls being vacated by his marriage, he was appointed principal of New Inn Hall. In 1762, he republished several of his pieces, under the title of Law Tracts, in 2 vols. 8vo. and, the year following, became solicitor-general to the queen, and a bencher of the Middle Temple.

In November 1764, appeared the first volume of his Lectures, under the title of Commentaries on the Laws of England; and, in the succeeding years, the other three volumes. This celebrated work astonished the world, by giving to law literature a polish of which it was not thought susceptible. In no former instance, had sound legal knowledge, and elegant literature, been so happily united. In 1770, the abilities of this great and good man were rewarded by his being made one of the Judges of the court of Common Pleas; and the remainder of his life was continually employed either in his professional duties, or in some plan of public utility. He died, February 14, 1780; leaving four surviving sons, and three daughters, out of nine children, the eldest under seventeen. He was buried, by his own direction, in his parish church of St. Peter's, Wallingford; his neighbour and friend, Dr. Barrington, then bishop of Landaff, and since of Durham, agreeably to his particular request, performing the funeral service. Since his death, have been published, pursuant to his will, Reports of Cases determined in the several Courts of Westminster, from 1746 to 1779, in 2 vols. folio; with an excellent biographical preface, by his brother-in-law, James Clitherow, Esq. A fine statue of Judge Blackstone, executed by Bacon, has been erected to his memory, in the hall of All Souls, Oxford.