COWPER.

The life of WILLIAM COWPER, one of our greatest modern poets, presents a most afflicting picture of the human mind. He was born, November 26, 1731, at Berkhamstead, in Hertfordshire; where his father, Dr. John Cowper, a nephew of lord chancellor Cowper, and chaplain to George II. was rector. Having lost his mother in 1737, he was sent to school at Market Street; till a malady in his eyes occasioned him to be two years with a female occulist. At the age of fourteen, the small-pox removed the complaint, but left him always subject to occasional inflammation. He now went to Westminster school; and from thence, in 1749, to Mr. Chapman, a solicitor, in Southamptonrow. After three years" giggling, and making giggle," as he expresses it, "with the future lord-chancellor Thurlow, instead of studying the law," he entered of the Inner Temple; and now cultivating the acquaintance of Churchill, Lloyd, Thornton, and Colman, who had all been his school-fellows at Westminster, made little professional progress. Though he wrote three papers for the Connoisseur, it is not known that he had ever produced any poetry: except his first effort, at fourteen, an elegy translated from Tibullus; and, at eighteen, his beautiful verses" on finding the heel of a shoe."

In 1762, he was nominated reading clerk in the house of lords; but his dread of reading in public was so great, that he declined the situation. He was then appointed clerk of the journals; but, a parliamentary dispute rendering his presence necessary at the bar of the house, his terrors rose to such a height as utterly overwhelmed his reason: and, in the care of Dr. Cotton, at St. Alban's, he remained from December 1763 to July 1764. His insanity was a religious despondence, under constant dread of immediate death; and his mind first obtained serenity by perusing the third chapter of St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans.

He now resolved on a life of retirement; and, accordingly, settled at Huntingdon. Here, in 1766, he went to reside with the reverend Mr. Unwin; who, in July 1767, was killed by a fall from his horse. Soon after, the family removing to Olney, in Buckinghamshire, he became so intimate with Mr. Newton, the curate, that they were, for many years, "seldom separate seven hours at a time, when awake and at home." Sixtyeight beautiful hymns, in the Olney collection, published by Mr. Newton, were written by Cowper, before he was known as a poet. From 1773, to 1778, he was again in a state of insanity; but, on recovering, seemed miraculously gifted with a new and rich und of diversified genius and ability!

In 1782, his first volume of poems was published; with a preface by Mr. Newton, then rector of St. Mary Woolnoth, Lombard-street. It was not, however, till the appearance of the second volume, in 1785, that his fame, as a poet of the first class, became universally established. His principal poem, the Task, and even his incomparable humorous story of John Gilpin, had both originated in conversations with lady Austen.

His translation of Homer, in blank verse, which occupied about five years, was published in 1791. He afterwards commenced what may be considered as a new translation: but, in April 1794, relapsed into his worst state of mental derangement, was insensible to the king's having just granted him a pension of 300l. a year. During the few subsequent intervals of health, from 1797 to 1799, he completed his revisal of the Odyssey. In a letter to lady Hesketh, October 13, 1798, he describes himself as one to whom nature "in one day, in one minute, became a universal blank." At Dereham, in Norfolk, he exhibited all the symptoms of dropsy; and, April 25, 1800, expired so quietly, that none of his friends present perceived the exact moment of his departure.

He was buried in St. Edmund's chapel, Dereham church; where lady Hesketh caused a marble tablet to be erected, on which is an elegant inscription written by Mr. Hayley.

THIS eminent prelate, the son of Thomas Cranmer, esq. was born at Aslaeton, in Nottinghamshire, in 1489. In 1503, he was admitted of Jesus College, Cambridge, where he highly distinguished himself by his unwearied application to his studies. After having been some time a fellow of that society, he married; but, his wife dying within the year, he was re-admitted to his fellowship; and, in 1523, he commenced D.D. and became reader of the divinity-lecture in his own college. Being appointed one of the examiners of those who commenced bachelors and doctors in divinity, he questioned them out of the Scriptures, and would by no means suffer them to pass, if he found them unacquainted with them. During his residence at Cambridge, the question arose concerning Henry VIII.'s divorce; and, the plague breaking out at Cambridge that year, Dr. Cranmer retired to the house of Mr. Cressy, a friend of his at Waltham, where, casually meeting with Gardiner, and Fox, the King's secretary, the opinion he expressed, on the subject the monarch was so much interested in at that time, was so well taken, that he was immediately received into favour, and in 1529 was appointed chaplain to his Majesty. Having persuaded the divines at Cambridge to adopt his sentiments with respect to the King's marriage, he was despatched to France, Italy, and Germany, upon the same errand.

On the death of Archbishop Warham, the King resolved to place Cranmer in the see of Canterbury; and, upon his consecration in 1553, he made a notarial protest, that "he did not admit the Pope's authority any farther than it agreed with the express word of God, &c." The next service he performed for his royal patron, was pronouncing the sentence of his divorce from Queen Catherine, and he soon after confirmed his Majesty's marriage with Anne Boleyn. He next succeeded in persuading the King to allow of a new translation of the Bible, and farther urged him to the dissolution of the monasteries, advising that Henry should only receive the revenues of such as were of royal foundation, and that the estates of the rest should be employed in founding hospitals, grammar schools, and other useful institutions; but, when it was determined, by a parliamentary vote, that the revenues of all the monasteries should be appropriated to the sovereign's use, Cranmer, with some other prelates, fell under the King's displeasure, who, however, adopted part of the proposed plan, by founding six new bishoprics.

As Henry, after indulging his lust and his avarice, seemed jealous of any farther innovation, this spirit was carefully cherished by the popish clergy, particularly by Gardiner and his faction. All the persecution and ingratitude which the archbishop sustained till he was brought to the stake, was caused by his adherence to the principles of the Reformation. Upon the death of Henry VIII. Cranmer placed the crown upon the head of his successor: still, the spirit of persecution, that began under Henry VIII. pursued him through the reign of his son, and his successor, Queen Mary. Cranmer was also extremely unfortunate in sanctioning the burning of two persons as heretics; but still more so in a seeming recantation, which, during Mary's reign, he was weak enough to make of his former principles; notwithstanding which, the Queen and her ministers declared, "that recanting must not serve his turn." Another deviation of his was not forgotten: he had been one of the council of Lady Jane Grey; however, being pardoned for his treason, but left to suffer for his heresy, a warrant was issued for his execution; and, being sent down to Oxford, he was burnt on the 26th of March 1556, declaring, that "the hand which had signed the recantation should be burnt before the rest of his body."

OLIVER CROMWELL.

THIS elevated character, so highly distinguished in English history, was the son of Robert Cromwell, a gentleman of moderate property, near Huntingdon, where Oliver was born on the 25th of April, 1599. The first part of his education, he received at the free-school there, and was removed to Sydney-college, Cambridge. Having little disposition for learning, a moderate acquaintance with Latin was all he carried with him to the university, where his stay was short. The death of his father called him home, and his turbulence and irregularities compelled his mother to send him for improvement to Lincoln's Inn. He married, before he had completed his 21st year, Elizabeth Bourchier, daughter of sir James Bourchier, of Essex; and, soon after settling at Huntingdon, began to lead a grave and sober life. His uncle, sir Thomas Cromwell, dying, left him an estate of 400l. or 500l. per annum. Before this time he had been chosen member for the borough of Huntingdon. In 1628, he distinguished himself in parliament by his zeal against popery. About the year 1637, he was upon the point of going to New England to retrieve his affairs. At the meeting of the long parliament in 1640, he was returned for Cambridge, and was very active in promoting the famous remonstrance of 1641, which was almost the direct cause of the civil war. In 1642, when the parliament determined to levy forces, he went to Cambridge, soon raised a troop of horse, and commanded them under a commission from the earl of Essex. After this, he almost daily distinguished himself by some daring acts of courage and enterprize against the royal party, and soon made his regiment the best in the parliament service.

Having, by various important achievements, acquired the confidence of parliament, he was made lieutenant general of the cavalry, commanded by the duke of Manchester; and, at the battle of Marston Moor, he turned the fortune of the day. After the battle of Newbury, he was stiled by his party, "The saviour of the nation." He continued to perform the most brilliant exploits; and it was through his counsel that the decisive victory of Naseby was obtained in June 1645. After the war was ended by the delivering up of the king by the Scotch army, Cromwell, whose overgrown authority this measure was meant to check, had the art to turn it to his own advantage. He managed Fairfax and the rest of his competitors, and all his intrigues were successfully crowned when he got the king's person and the army into his power.

But it was not without opposition that he pursued the line of his ambition: having quelled the mutiny among his own troops, he was compelled to renew the war with equal success against the king's friends in Scotland and Ireland. The only enemy he had now left was the long parliament; and the courageous manner in which he dissolved them is well known. By their successors, an assembly of his own choosing, he was declared lord protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland, and Ireland. From this time he may be viewed as the sovereign of a great nation, and he immediately made peace with the Dutch, and treaties with Denmark, and Portugal. Even France and Spain made advances to him, but his death occurred on the 3d of September 1658. His general character is that of a fortunate, rather than a great man: it is however indisputable, that our navigation act, which has contributed to raise the maritime power of this country to a degree unprecedented in the history of nations, originated with the government of Oliver Cromwell. A violent tempest, immediately succeeding his death, served as some confirmation of the vulgar belief in prodigies and portents, and excited a variety of conjectures, mostly in favour of the deceased.