with himself in the fituation of preacher at the chapel in Lincoln's Inn.

The object of the Bishop was foon obtained. Hurd's difcourfes procured general admiration; and the preacher attracted the notice and friendship of the great Earl of Mansfield, through whose interest he obtained the diftinguifhed office of Preceptor to the Prince of Wales, a fituation for which no man in the kingdom was better calculated, and the duties of which he performed with great honour to himself, and, it is to be hoped, benefit to his royal pupil.

Preferment was now certain; nor was it long withheld. In 1775 he was made Bishop of Litchfield and Coventry; in 1781 he was appointed clerk of the closet to the king; and on the 30th of June, of the fame year, he was confirmed in the fee of Worcester.

On the death of Dr. Cornwallis, Archbishop of Canterbury, in 1783, that dignity was offered to Bishop Hurd; but he had obtained a fituation more congenial to his wifhes, and therefore he declined it.

Since his tranflation to Worcester, his Lordfhip has almost wholly fecluded himself from the busy world, refiding chiefly at Hartlebury Castle, the epifcopal palace of his diocefe. This ancient and noble pile he has enriched by a large and ineftimable library, containing the greater part of the books that had belonged to Mr. Pope and Bishop Warburton, which he has bequeathed for the ufe of his fucceffors.

Here he exhibits a faithful and beautiful picture of primitive epifcopacy; beloved and venerated by all ranks, as well of the laity as the clergy.

It remains to fay fomething of his Lordship's lite rary character; and it would not be exaggerated praife, to affert, that he ftands at the head of the present generation of English scholars, eminently fuperior to those of his own age and flanding, and unrivalled by fuch as are younger than himself.

He has fhewn his critical powers and tafte to the greatest advantage in his edition of Horace's "Epiftolæ ad Pifones," &c. with an English commentary and notes; and alfo in his edition of Cowley's works. The first appeared in 1759, and the latter in 1772,

But the work which procured him the greatest rcputation, was his "Moral and Political Dialogues, with Letters on Chivalry and Romance," 3 vols. 8vo. 1765. Some of the pieces had appeared before, without a name, and their fuccefs probably led the ingenious author to publish a complete and enlarged edition. Thefe dialogues evince a profound knowledge of the English hiftory and conftitution, and breathe a warm attachment to the cause of liberty.

As a theological writer, his principal productions are two volumes of excellent fermons, preached before the Society of Lincoln's-Inn; and another of Difcourfes on the Prophecies, at the lecture founded by Bishop Warburton at the fame place. In thefe compofitions we obferve deep thinking, clofe logical reafoning,

reafoning, fervent piety, and chaste and elegant language.

As a difputant, Dr. Hurd appeared to great advantage in a pamphlet entitled "Remarks on Mr. Hume's Effay on the Natural Hiftory of Religion." This anonymous performance irritated the philofopher confiderably, and he expreffed his refentment in terms that fhewed how much he had been hurt by the caftigation.

The attachment manifefted by Dr. Hurd to Bishop Warburton has often brought upon him very illiberal

cenfures. About the time of his firft connexion with that prelate, he printed an Effay on the Delicacy of Friendship," in which Dr. Jortin and Dr. Leland, of Dublin, were treated rather roughly for their want of due refpect to the author's patron. When we recollect the motives which produced this effay, we fee no reafon to blame Dr. Hurd; his zeal for his friend was commendable, though it perhaps carried him rather beyond the line of prudence. When reflection operated on his mind, he accordingly faw reason to disapprove of his haftiness; and, much to his honour, took great pains to fupprefs the obnoxious pamplet. It would have been, perhaps, better if the book had been fuffered to fink into that oblivion which the author wifhed; as unfortunately, on his Lordship's publishing a large and magnificent. edition of his friend's works, in 1788, one of the greateft fcholars of this age, too officioufly, perhaps, and too much in that very spirit which he wanted

to expofe, reprinted the Effay, with fome other "Tracts by Warburton and a Warburtonian."

When Bishop Hurd's edition of Warburton's works appeared, the world was greatly disappointed at not finding the long expected life of that celebrated character. This afforded fresh ground for cenfure, which was by no means fpared. In confequence of this complaint, he printed a prefatory difcourfe, by way of introduction to the work, containing a brief but elegant memoir of the author. Poffibly, on his Lordship's decease, a more copious biography of his ancient friend, and patron, will be left for publication: this, of course, will exhibit a hiftory of English literature for half a century.

We had nearly forgotten to mention, that the earliest production of his Lordship's pen, which has appeared in print, was an Ode on the Peace of Aixla-Chapelle.

DAVID STEWART ERSKINE.

EARL OF BUCHAN.

IF the love of freedom, and the love of literature; if eminent proficiency in the fine arts, and an eager fondness to patronife the fame proficiency in others; if claffical and patriotic enthusiasm, affociated with not a few of the moft amiable and respectable moral virtues ;-are calculated to recommend

any

any man to the esteem and praife of his contemporaries, David, Earl of Buchan, cannot fail of obtaining the highest approbation.

This nobleman is the reprefentative of a younger branch of the illuftrious family of the Erfkines, Earls of Marr, whofe virtues and wifdom recommended them for a feries of generations to the very honourable and confidential office of tutors to the ancient Kings of Scotland. At the university of Glasgow, in carly youth, David, then known by the title of Lord Curdross, applied with ardent and fuccefsful diligence to every ingenious and liberal fiudy. His hours of relaxation from science and literature were frequently paffed in endeavours to acquire the arts of defign, etching, engraving, and drawing, in the academy which the excellent, but ill requited, ROBERT FOULIS, for fome time laboured to fupport in that western metropolis of Scotland.

Succeeding to the hereditary eftates and honours of his family, he, from that moment, evinced a generous ambition to maintain and exalt, by his perfonal exertions, the true dignity of the Scottish peerage, and the name of ERSKINE.

The king's minifters had been long accustomed, at each new election, to tranfmit to every peer of Scotland, a lift of the names of fixteen of his fellow peers, for whom he was required to give his vote, in the choice of the members who fhould reprefent the nobles of Scotland in the British parlia ment, and to this humiliating ufurpation, the defcendants of the moft illuftrious names had accuftomed

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