RICHARD CUMBERLAND.

THIS celebrated moralist was the son of Dr. Cumberland, Bishop of Clonfert and Kilmore, in Ireland. His mother was a daughter of the celebrated Dr. Bentley. Mr. Cumberland was born in February 1732, and at an early age was sent to school at Bury St. Edmunds; but, when twelve years old, was removed to Westminster, where he remained only two years, and was then entered at Trinity College, Cambridge. Without any tutor to direct him, he passed his examination greatly to the satisfaction of his friends, standing high on the list of wranglers for his year. Having taken his bachelor's degree, he found that mental fatigue had weakened his health; but, whilst preparing for his approaching election at Trinity, he was offered a situation, by Lord Halifax, as his lordship's private secretary, which he accepted, and accordingly removed to London.

In 1759, Cumberland was appointed crown agent for Nova Scotia; and married Elizabeth, the daughter of George Ridge, Esq. of Kelmiston, in Hampshire: but in the following year he went to Ireland with his patron, and obtained the clerkship of reports in the office of trade. Previous to the death of his revered father, Cumberland had become an author of considerable reputation. He had written four good comedies, and was in habits of intimacy with Johnson, Garrick, Goldsmith, Sir Joshua Reynolds, and others; and, on the accession of Lord George Germain to office, was appointed secretary to the Board of Trade; and in the year 1780, he was sent on a confidential mission to the courts of Lisbon and Madrid, a situation which is supposed to have laid the foundation of all his future distresses, and in a great measure embittered the remaining period of his existence; as on this occasion he contracted a debt of five thousand pounds, not one shilling of which was ever paid him by Lord North's administration. Under Mr. Burke's bill of economy, he was even dismissed from his office connected with the Board of Trade; when, having made considerable reductions in his establishment, he fixed his abode at Tunbridge Wells, devoting his time to literary occupations; but here he lost his wife, the partner of all his joys and the consoler of all his sorrows.

During the alarm of invasion, Mr. Cumberland headed two companies of volunteer infantry, and received the commission of major commandant. So beloved was he by his corps, that they honoured him with a sword, and at the conclusion of the peace agreed to serve under him without their customary pay. In the latter part of his life, Mr. Cumberland resided chiefly in London; and he was the last survivor of the celebrated club, of which Edmund Burke, David Garrick, Sir Joshua Reynolds, and Dr. Goldsmith, were members. After a few days' illness, Mr. Cumberland breathed his last, on the 7th of May 1811, leaving several children, most respectably situated in life.

Without including his dramatic pieces, many of which had an amazing run, the rest of his literary productions could not here be enumerated His remains, deposited in Westminster-abbey, near those of David Garrick, drew an excellent oration from the dean of Westminster, which, being very unusual in the established church, had a visible effect on the relatives of the deceased and a numerous assemblage of spectators. "The writings of Mr. Cumberland," the dean observed, "were of strict moral tendency. He wrote as much as any; few wrote better. He considered the theatre a school for moral improvement, and his remains are truly worthy of mingling with the illustrious dead which surround us." Mr. Cumberland published, in 1806, Memoirs of his own Life, in quarto.

THE late right honourable JOHN PHILPOT CURRAN, a distinguished ornament of the Irish bar, was born about 1750, in the village of Newmarket, in the county of Cork, eight miles from that romantic castle, where Spenser is said to have written his Faery Queen. His father, James Curran, seneschal of the manor, besides the small revenue of the office, possessed a very moderate income. His education had been far from liberal; but very different in point of intellectual endowments was his wife. The sprightliness of young Curran having attracted the notice of the rev. Mr. Boyse, the rector of Newmarket, allured to his home, from him he learned his alphabet, his grammar, and the rudiments of the classics: he taught young Curran all he could, then he sent him to the school at Middleton. From Mr. Carey, here, young Curran received more than the common classical education of the country, and went from this as a sizar to Trinity college, Dublin, in June 1767. Through this university it has been aptly said Mr. Curran passed as Swift, Burke, and Goldsmith, did before him.

From the college he proceeded to London, and contrived to enter his name on the books of the Middle Temple; having only a small stipend from the school at Middleton, it is understood that to the newspapers and magazines of the day, he was no inconsiderable contributor. Returning to Ireland, after having passed through his terms at the Temple, he married a lady of small fortune: this connection his friends would wish to pass over in silence; but, in the year 1775, he was called to the bar of Ireland, after having been compelled to place his wife and young children in a miserable lodging upon Hog-hill, and to pace the hall of the four courts, term after term, without profit or professional reputation. Mr. Arthur Wolfe, afterwards the unfortunate but respected lord Kilwarden, was one of the first to feel for Curran; and the first fee of consequence he received, was through his recommendation. After this, the rapidity of his rise was only distinguished by its brilliancy. He sailed through the professional heaven, uneclipsed by any rival planet. The honesty and native warmth of Mr. Curran, with respect to persons acting upon principles he did not approve, involved him in no less than four duels: happily for him, these were bloodless.

Mr. Curran's career, it is confessed, was not so distinguished in the senate as in the courts of justice, though he was connected with Mr. Grattan, Mr. George Ponsonby, and the principal popular leaders in the opposition, during which time he was appointed master of the rolls: he was in principle a whig; made so by his education, his passions, and his habits. He was an unsuccessful candidate at the last election for Newry, in Ireland, in 1812, and never was returned to the British house of commons. Next to his eloquence, his acuteness and ability in examining a witness challenged public admiration; he was considered shrewder than lord Erskine, and more polished than Garrow, and almost the last of that brilliant phalanx, the cotemporaries and fellow labourers of Mr. Fox, in the cause of general liberty.

In the decline of the year 1817 he visited London for the last time; he attended several public dinners, and spoke at some of them; but oh! how changed: his mind was rapidly going. He died at his lodgings, in Amelia-place, Brompton, on the 8th of October, when, being struck with apoplexy about seven in the evening, he expired at nine. His funeral was attended only by a few friends to Paddington church, and his body deposited in the vault beneath it, on the 4th of November. On his coffin, he is described to have died aged sixty-seven.