faying of an Athenian lawgiver, in oppofition to the opinion of a British judge.

Undaunted by the threats, of profecution* uttered in open court, and before his own face, by Sir John Scott, Mr. Wakefield, fince this epoch, has been employed in a controverfy with a Dr, Glaffe, refpecting the prifon in Cold Bath fields. Certainly the spirit of our laws difclaims every idea of torture, in refpec to all perfous, and clofe imprisonment in regard to political offenders in particular. Indeed, the latter, during the reign of Charles I. became the subject of enquiry and complaint, and was at length redressed. In other days, the rumours that have gone forth, concerning this new-fangled mode of duress, would, long ere this, have become a subject of parliamentary inveftigation; and it is to be hoped, that even the present age is not fo degenerate, if a real grievance fhould be found to exift, as to permit our mild, humane, and excellent cade to be perverted with impunity,

Mr. Wakefield's amiable family, confifts of a wife formerly Mifs Watfon (niece to his quondam rector), four fons and two daughters. In perfon, he is about the middle fize; and there is an air of primitive fimplicity in his countenance, and fomewhat of an apoftolic caft about his face, arifing, perhaps, in fome degree, from his high and polifhed forehead, and the baldness of his front and temples.

In converfation he is remarkably mild and gentle, and his manners are pleafing. His memory is fo un

He has fince been ferved with an information ex officio, tried, convicted, and imprifoned.

commonly

commonly tenacious, that it can retain minute facts, and even dates, after a confiderable lapfe of time. No man is more beloved and refpected by a very extenfive circle of acquaintance. His perfonal activity is equal to that of his mind, and pen. His habits are strictly domestic and literary. He is a pattern of abftemiousnefs, and shares in its happy results; never partaking of ftrong liquors; and, from a laudable principle of humanity, totally abftaining from the use of animal food. Mr. W. muft, even by his enemies, if they know him perfonally, be pronounced to be a man whofe conduct is folely actuated by principle, and an inflexible love of virtue. He may err, but his faults arise not from the depravity of his heart-they can only refult from too ardent an imagination or from the mistakes of his judgment. *

MR. OPIE.

NEITHER the parents, nor the education, nor the fortune of this eminent artift, would have conferred on him any diftinction in fociety, and like the English painters of the laft century, he might have worked at fo much by the fquare yard, had not nature

Since the publication of the former edition of this work, Mr. Wakefield has been tried and convicted for a "libel," in confequence of which he was fentenced to a long and rigorous imprifonment in Gloucefter jail. This event has afforded to his family and his friends, a new opportunity of exhibiting their regard and attachment.

conferred on him a portion of genius that foon diftinguished him from the vulgar herd.

Seemingly doomed, by inevitable circumftances, to work at the bottom of a faw-pit, or on the roof of a house, juft as the avocations of a country carpenter required, he yet found means to emerge from that fituation, and to move in a respectable sphere in life,

The late George Anderfon, A. M. and Accountantgeneral to the Board of Control, contrived by chalking a few mathematical figures on the door of his brother's barn, in which he threshed, to engage the attention of a benevolent patron, and to extricate himself from his mental bondage.

A fimilar accident difcovered the bent of John Opie's mind, and a painted board effected for him what a chalked-gate had done for his acquaintance, as Dr. Wolcott, who had himself a tafte for drawing, and lived in the neighbourhood, happened to fee, and was pleased with the labours of the self-taught boy, of whom he, perhaps, exclaimed:

"NON SINE DIIS ANIMOSUS PUER!"

He accordingly took him under his protection, cultivated his talents, pointed his efforts, and taught him to afpire to fame and fortune. The mafter, with an aptitude bordering on the romantic, had transformed himself from a phyfician to a clergyman, and he now, with almost unexampled goodness, metamorphofed the apprentice of a carpenter into an hiftorical painter.*

* Dr. Wolcott brought him to Truro, allowed him free accefs to his houfe and table, and recommended him to all his friends.

Mr.

After fome previous inftruction, the pupil repaired to Exeter, where he began to earn a livelihood by his pencil. He then changed his place of abode, from a provincial city to the capital, and fucceffivcly removed from a little court in the neighbourhood of Leicesterfields, firft to Great Queen-ftreet, and then to the politer air, and more fashionable fituation, of Berner's firect. He had been four or five years in the metropolis, however, before he began to exhibit, as it was not until 1786, that any of his pictures appeared at Somerfet-houfe. From that moment wealth and reputation feemed to attend his efforts; he was first nominated an academician elect, then a member of the Royal Academy, and what was infinitely more profitable, became a "fashionable painter." For the Shakespeare gallery he executed feveral pictures, and is generally allowed to excel in historical compofi

tions.

His beggars, old men, old women, and affaffins, are admirable. The portrait of Meffrs. Wolftoncraft, painted by him, excels in verifimilitude; but his characteristical excellence confifts in ftrength; and Reynolds himself, although he is praifed for having transferred the foul into the countenance, could never Mr. Opie's price was at firft only five fhillings, then feven fhillings and fixpence; and when his benefactor told him, that he might raife it to half-a-guinea, the modeft youth replied, "That it was far fuperior to his merits, and that he really believed the county could not afford it !"'

An aged beggar-man, painted by him while in Cornwall, and now in the poffeffion of Dr. Wolcott, his patron, exhibits a fine fpecimen of early talents.

give, perhaps, fo bold and spirited a likeness of the male head, as Opie.

This artift has been twice married. His firft match was unpropitious, and did not add much to his felicity; his second wife (late Miss Alderson, of Norwich) is a moft accomplished, and no lefs beautiful, woman; and we truft that the union of painting and literature will contribute to the mutual happinefs of the partics.

LORD ROKEBY.

(With a Prefatory Differtation on Beards.)

The human beard, at prefent deemed an unfeemly excrefcence, was confidered by all the nations of antiquity as one of the greatest ornaments of the person; and gods, as well as mortals, were supposed to be decorated with this emblem of wisdom and virility. That of Aaron is defcribed as flowing to his girdle, and the ambaffadors of David, after having received the nearly indelible affront of being shaved, were advifed to remain at a diftance from the capital, until their beards had grown to the proper length. In inany of the caftern countries this is ftill confidered as a neceflary, and even a beautiful appendage; and while the Turks carefully cover with their turbans the hair that grows on their heads, they preferve, comb, perfume, and oftentatiously display, that which fprings from the chin.

The northern nations feem alfo to have evinced a great