life was terminated by the sufferings attendant upon the latter. Notwithstanding his blindness, however, the Board of Agriculture continued to profit by his assistance. He delivered a variety of lectures upon different subjects of practical importance, several of which were afterwards publish ed by order of the Board; nor did he abandon those habits of laborious industry, for which he had ever been distinguished. He rose every morning at five o'clock, and regularly heard the different new works read; and he busied himself in preparing for the press a work on the Elements and Practice of Agriculture, in which the experiments and observations made during a period of fifty years are recorded. The manuscript is bequeathed to his son and daughter; and it is to be hoped, that, when the former returns from Russia, measures will be taken to ensure its speedy publication.

But this great and good man was now approaching the limit of his long and honourable career. It is remarkable, that the nature of the disease which put a period to his life was not so much as suspected till within about a week of his death; and that he died without being aware of the malady under which he suffered. He expired on the 12th of April, 1820, at his house in Sackville Street, after taking a glass of lemonade, and stating that he felt himself calm and easy; and his remains were conveyed to Bradfield, and deposited in a vault in the churchyard.

A useful and active is almost, by necessity, a virtuous life. Mr Young possessed a warm and generous heart. His acts of kindness and benevolence were numerous, and will long be remembered; his house and his purse were always open to the distressed. He was endowed with all that unsophisticated honesty, and sincerity of character and feeling, natural to the

pursuits in which he so greatly delighted; and he descended to the grave, like a shock of corn in its season, without leaving a blot on his name, or a personal enemy behind him. His talents as a writer can only be appreciated by those who are acquainted with his numerous and valuable works. To the immense importance of his labours as a scientific agriculturist, not only Britain, but Europe, has borne testimony. He collected from every quarter the elements of knowledge, systematized it, and rendered it eminently and extensively useful; he successfully combated the prejudices which obstructed the progress of the most useful of all arts; he taught how the earth may be made to yield a more abundant increase. His fame is unquestionably identified with the agricultural prosperity of the country of which he was so distinguished an ornament; to the service of the commonwealth he devoted nearly the whole of a long, active, and laborious life; and we trust some public monument will soon be erected to his memory, as a permanent record at once of national justice and national gratitude.

Among the eminent literary characters deceased during this period we shall include HAYLEY, less, we must own, on account of any extraordinary opinion of his merits, than of the high re putation which they at one time procured for him. Mr Hayley was born of parents in easy circumstances, his father possessing some landed property, and his maternal grandfather representing the city of Chichester, his native place. He was thus supplied from his earliest age with all the accommodations and means of study, of which he diligently availed himself. Being detained at home on account of severe and frequent attacks of indisposition, he spent much time in reading. At the age of sixteen, being

sent to Trinity Hall, Cambridge, he attempted an Óde on the Birth of his present Majesty. Being apparently still tamer than his subsequent productions, it was not considered as containing any indications of genius. Mr Hayley spent the next seven years in very intense and unremitting study, particularly of Italian literature and of the fine arts. In 1769, he married Miss Ball of Chichester, and spent five years in London, after which he retired to his seat of Eartham in Sussex, and devoted himself to the Muses. He might now be considered as a very accomplished man, though rather belonging to the class which D'Israeli distinguishes as men of letters than men of genius. He produced successively an Epistle to aneminent Painter, (Rom ney, 1778,) Essay on History (1780,) Triumphs of Temper (1781,) and Essay on Epic Poetry (1782.) These works attained an extraordinary popularity; and we find him characterized at this period as the first poet of the age. It is true, poetry at that era might be considered in Britain as almost extinct; and dim indeed must have been that galaxy in which Hayley shone brightest. The only characteristic of his poems was plain good sense, but entirely prosaic, and expressed in verse, whose mechanical structure, and continued monotonous ring, of itself excluded every idea of genius. The only real merit was in the notes, which showed a good deal of research upon subjects not then familiar to the British public.

How long Mr Hayley might have continued to shine, a giant among the pigmies, it is impossible to determine. At this moment a new poetical day was rising in Britain. Scott, Campbell, Southey, were the lights of the next age; and the moment their bright stars dawned in the horizon, that of Hayley became dim as a watery cloud. Long before his death, himself and his

poetry were sunk into total oblivion. The Triumph of Music, published in 1805, fell quite dead-born from the press. He is now recollected only in consequence of qualities distinct from poetry.

Mr Hayley, as is not unfrequently the case in middling poets, was an excellent and amiable man. He was particularly free from envy, and full of friendship towards his poetical brethren. Forgotten for himself, he is now remembered as the friend of Cowper; and, indeed, his edition of the posthu mous works of that interesting poet displays taste and selection. In his lines on Chatterton and on Collins, he displays a feeling, which raises him much above his usual tame monotony. The correspondence of Gibbon and of Seward show the extent of his literary connexions; so that the memoirs of his own life, which we observe to be preparing, are likely to display, if not much discrimination of character, at least a good deal of curious anecdote.

Mr Hayley passed the latter part of his life in retirement, and died on the 11th November, 1820, at the age of seventy-five.

One of the most eminent French writers of the age, was CONSTANTINE FRANCIS CHASSEBEUF DE VOLNEY. He was born at Craon in 1757, of parents in the middling rank of life. Åfter passing through a diligent course of study, he submitted, at twenty, to an illustrious society, the solution of one of the most difficult problems in the history of antiquity. His biographer, Count Daru, does not expound either the society or the problem, but only mentions that the former gave no encouragement to the young inquirer, who, however, was buoyed up by youthful ardour and conscious worth against this mortifying neglect.

Volney's first undertaking was his voyage to Syria and Egypt, the origin

of which he himself explains. Having a small sum of money left him, which would not have made any serious addition to his income, he determined to employ it in exploring countries, then rarely visited, and deemed almost inaccessible. On his arrival he placed himself in a convent of Copts, till he had become master of the language. Having spent several years in these countries, he produced his well-known Travels. He piques himself on rejecting the mode of writing adopted by the vanity of his predecessors, in which half the work is filled with their personal adventures. We are not fully prepared to admit this as the mode calculated to give the liveliest idea of a country. Still it has no doubt important advantages, and is so managed by him as to produce a valuable work. He combines accurate observation with animated description, and gives certainly a much juster idea of the general character of the country than his predecessor, Savary, though he criticises, perhaps too severely, the gay images called up by the lively imagination of that engaging writer. The Empress of Russia, in testimony of her esteem for this work, sent the author a medal, which, however, he returned after her declaration of war against France, saying, "If I obtained it from her esteem, I can only preserve her esteem by returning it."

On the breaking out of the revolution, Volney embraced with ardour the popular cause, and was elected a deputy in the Assembly of the States General. In 1790, he published a pamphlet, strongly recommending the division of landed property into small partitions, as the most favourable to its productiveness and the general prosperity of the state. He afterwards spent two or three years in Corsica, endeavouring, without success, to improve the political and economical state of that island, which, from its unset

VOL. XIV. PART I.

tled and independent state, has afforded so wide a field to political project

ors.

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About this time (1791,) Volney produced his celebrated work, called The Ruins, or a Survey of the Revolutions of Empires." It is certainly distinguished by several splendid passages, though it is to be regretted, that he gives full scope to sceptical opinions on some of the most important subjects. In this view, we cannot consider him as very formidable, as, notwithstanding his powers of diligent research and lively observation, his speculations appear to us usually fanciful and superficial. Dr Priestley wrote an answer, which is charged by Count Daru, as marked by a degree of violence and acrimony unbecoming a philosopher. This, though prompted by good motives, is doubtless blameable, especially in one, who, like Priestley, assumed so wide a latitude in his own opinions.

On returning to Paris, Volney found the reign of terror in full sway; and, like every one whose opinions were at all moderate, became the object of its proscription. He was imprisoned for ten months, but released on the downfall of Robespierre. The Directory were then seeking to repair the wrecks made by jacobinical madness. One of their plans was to form a normal school, destined to become the centre of French instruction; and here Volney was appointed to lecture on history. His lectures were greatly admired, and attended by immense crowds; but, the institution not succeeding as had been expected, was soon closed, and he was forced to interrupt the course of a labour so gratifying to his taste.

Thus left at leisure, Volney again left his country in pursuit of knowledge. Having seen man in the East in a state of decay, and in Europe of maturity, he now sought to view him in infancy, and therefore went to observe the savages of America. His impres

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sion, as communicated in a volume published after his return, is very unfavourable, and, in our opinion, somewhat tinctured by disappointment and prejudice.

While Volney was absent in America, he was named an original member of the French National Institute, then founded. After his return, he enrich ed its Transactions with a justification of the chronology of Herodotus. In 1818, he produced his most elaborate work, entitled, "Researches into the History of the most Ancient Nations," which Daru pronounces his masterpiece. We have not yet perused it. He then engaged in three works, illustrative of the oriental languages, but was interrupted by death on the 20th

April, 1820. He left, however, a premium for the prosecution of these inquiries.

Having, in the biography of this volume, had occasion to embrace both the present and the former years, we have included only political and literary names of the first rank. Even in this view, some omissions may be observed, more particularly in regard to Scotland (Reunie, Gregory, Brown, &c.) The delay is founded on the hope of obtaining more ample information than has yet been communicated to the public, but which we found it impossible to include in the present volume, without retarding its publication be yond the desired period.