the New Testament, and of a series of classics in usum Frederici Principis, to his edition of Terence. This seems to have been a favorite work, and early and long contemplated. In 1724 Dr Hare, a former intimate friend of Bentley, though of late there had been much coldness between them, published an edition of Terence, in which he took great pains to explain and illustrate the metres. Indeed the metres throughout were marked, and by an unfortunate mistake of Bentley's instructions from which he had plainly derived all his knowledge of the subject, one species was uniformly marked wrong. Bentley considered this an intrusion on his premises and an unfair abuse of his former kindness, and was particularly incensed as Hare had made some insinuations against him. He immediately resolved to crush his rival by an edition of his own. It appeared in 1725. The notes were written at the rate of a comedy a week, and contain the illustration and vindication of a thousand changes in the text. They are compact, pertinent, and full of bitter rebuke of Hare. This work though disfigured by Bentley's besetting sin of conjectural emendation, gives probably the best text of Terence that has ever been given to the world. Prefixed to the edition is his essay on the metres of Terence, the clearest and most satisfactory account that has ever yet been written of that difficult subject.

Just before this period, the Bishoprick of Bristol was offered to Bentley, through the Duke of Newcastle. When it was declined, his grace asked "what sort of preferment he expected or desired;" "such preferment," replied Bentley, as would not induce me to desire an exchange."

We have space only to mention his disastrous undertaking to edit Milton, a work for which his critical sagacity did not qualify him, and for which his want of imagination utterly unfitted him. The notion in which this work originated, if it were not rather a fiction devised to justify it, was that numerous errors had been foisted into the text by the copyist, which Milton, being blind, could not detect. We give a single specimen of his notes. It is upon B. IV, 323.

"Adam, the goodliest man of men since born

His sons, the fairest of her daughters Eve."

"I'll not believe this distich to be Milton's. The sense is entirely expressed in the lines preceding; and the diction

is very vicious. Adam' the goodliest of his sons,' Eve' the fairest of her daughter,' which in strict construction implies him to have been one of his sons, and her one of her daughters. Besides, his sons, her daughters; as if his sons were not hers, and her daughters his. He might have avoided the fault of expression thus:

Adam, a goodlier man than men since born

His sons, and fairer than her daughters Eve.

But the whole is silly, superfluous, and spurious."

On the fourteenth of July, 1742, Bentley died, having just completed his eightieth year. His literary character we need not commend, his ambition, selfishness, and arrogance we would gladly forget.*

ART. VI.—THE HISTORY OF MERCHANT TAYLORS' SCHOOL.

THE great establishments which have been founded in this country for the advancement of learning, generally look to kings as their nursing fathers and queens as their nursing mothers; to churchmen, when the church possessed so large a portion of the kingdom's wealth and the power of the state; and to a scarce inferior source, the piety of individuals distinguished for their wealth and their virtues. At length commerce also, when commerce began to rear its head and become a column of support to the growing prosperity of the nation, had its share in promoting science and encouraging learning; and it is sufficient, without enlarging on a subject where the allotted space can allow of little more than a few historical notices, to come at once to the example which has been afforded by the Merchant Taylor's Company of London.

The origin of this company, with the progressive details

The above imperfect sketch has been taken, often verbatim, from Monk's Life of Bentley. This work is exceedingly interesting and valuable, for the literary history of those times.

We have a series of articles containing the history of the principal schools or colleges in England, such as Eton, Westminster, &c. We have selected the account of the Merchant Taylors' School as best suiting the crowded state of our pages.

of its history; the kings and princes, the nobles and prelates, the naval and military heroes, and municipal magistrates, who have been admitted into its fraternity, with the current of charity which, from century to century, has flowed through it, will naturally excite an honorable pride in the bosoms of those who have received their education in that school which was founded by it.

This brief narrative, or historical sketch, of the Company of Merchant Taylors and its School which follows, is taken, and in some measure literally copied, from a work which confers no common honor on the industry, ingenuity, and antiquarian research of its author :* and so far from apologizing for what these pages have borrowed from it, their compiler has rather to lament, that it is not in his power to heighten their interest and extend their information by additional extracts.

The worshipful Company of Merchant Taylors, the founders of this distinguished seminary of learning which bears their name, have, in the language of Stow, been a guild or fraternity time out of mind, by the name of Taylors and Linen-Armorers; as it appears that Edward I. in the twentyeighth year of his reign, confirmed this guild under the aforesaid names, and gave to the brethren thereof leave and licence every Midsummer to hold a feast, and then chuse them a governor or master, with wardens.† This society was afterwards incorporated by letters patent of the fifth of Edward IV. in the year 1466, and they soon after received a grant of arms, nearly the same as those borne by the present company. But many of the members being great and opulent merchants, and Henry VII. enrolled among them, as several of his royal progenitors had been, that monarch, by his letters patent under the great seal, in the year 1530, was pleased to reincorporate the society by the name of the Masters and Wardens of the Merchant Taylors of the Fraternity of St John the Baptist in the city of London; and, as appears by the oath prescribed to be taken by every person admitted on the livery, provision was made that the company

The History of Merchant Taylors' School, by the Rev. H. B. Wilson, B. D. Second Undermaster.

+ Stow's Survey, vol. ii. p. 227.

should, in all times to come, consist of men fearing God, honoring the king, and loving the brotherhood.*

Their spacious and stately hall in Threadneedle street was not only at the service of their fellow-citizens, whenever public processions required a place of rendezvous more commodious than what the taverns of the metropolis could then afford, but was often the scene of royal entertainments, more splendid and magnificent than the most gaudy fetes of the present day.t

The names of sovereign, royal, noble, and eminent persons of all the superior ranks in life, who have been enrolled in the fraternity of this company, are such as must give it an unrivalled distinction. They display ten kings of England; four foreign potentates; twentythree princes and dukes; fifty earls; twentyseven prelates; fortythree barons, &c.; five eminent naval and military characters below the peerage; and twentyeight lord mayors of London.‡

But it is not on these adventitious honors, adds the historian, that the glory of the Merchant Taylors' Company, however brightened by them, is permanently founded: it originates in the use which they have always made of the

* "From various documents it appears, that the proper chartered names of the company is not Merchant Tailors, as sometimes written, but Marchaunt Taylors; and, I trust, the Taylors with a y.will keep out the Tailors with an i, especially as (without meaning anything uncivil to a trade conducive to our personal comfort) the latter mode of spelling must unavoidably lead the public to suppose, that the company is composed of men whose business it is to make clothes: whereas there are none of that trade on the court of the company, and of the three hundred on the livery, which is open to men of all professions. not ten are to be found who are tailors by trade. As for the Merchant Taylors of old time, it is not to be denied that they were principally engaged in manufacturing pavilions for our kings, robes of state for our nobles, and tents, &c. for our soldiers: hence the arms they bear-a pavilion between two royal mantles. Nor is it undeserving of notice, that when latinized, they were never called by any term implying makers of ordinary garments, but Mercatores Scissores; and though Taylors with a y, or Tailors with an i, is equally derived from the French verb Tailler, to cut, it is not unusual, in our language, for a word, having two acceptations, to acquire in time a variety in its spelling, for the better marking of its several senses: and, therefore, since, on the authority of Dr Johnson, the makers of clothes should be spelled Tailors, I would suggest that they, whose business was not of that limited nature, ought to retain the old orthography, which even Mr Pennant, in his Account of London, does not disturb, though he seems anxious enough to identify the Merchant Taylors of London with the Tailors throughout the kingdom." Wilson's Hist. of Merchant Taylors' School. Note to preface, p. 18.

+ Ibid. pref. 22.

See the list at large, ibid. pp. 25, 27, ut supra.

great estates belonging to them; by being from age to age the almoners of the benevolent, and discharging their trust with integrity and honor. Nor is it the least of their good works, that they employed the superfluity of their wealth in the establishment and maintenance of their school for classical education; and, amidst all the revolutions of their affairs, preserved an unshaken attachment to the interests of learning and religion, thereby displaying a wisdom as well as munificence of character that no commercial fraternity has ever displayed but itself.

The Merchant Taylor's Company manifested their design of founding a Grammar School, according to Stow, some time between July 1560, and May 1561;* and part of the manner of the Rose, in the parish of St Lawrence Pountney (a mansion which had successively belonged to the Duke of Buckingham, the Marquis of Exeter, and the Earls of Sussex,) being considered as an eligible building for the purpose, Mr Richard Hills, a leading member of the court, generously contributed the sum of five hundred pounds, a very large sum in those days, towards the purchase of it: but the institution was not completely organized till the 24th of September, 1561, on which day the statutes were framed, and a schoolmaster elected.t

The statutes, of which this is a brief abstract, are introduced with the following preamble:

"Whereas the Maister, Wardens, and Assistants, in the names of the whole body of the Marchaunt Taylors in London, have, for the better education and bringing up of children in good manners and literature, erected a schoole within the parish of St Laurence Pountney in London, and also meete and convenient lodgings for a Schoolmaster and three Ushers to inhabite and dwell in; and for, because nothing can contynue long and endure in good order without lawes and statutes in that behalf provided, therefore they, the said Maister, Wardens, and Assistants, have fully concluded, agreed, and decreed, and by these presents do conclude, agree, and decree, that the said schoole shall be directed and contynued, and to have contynuance, by God's grace, forever, in such manner and forme, and according as hereafter is expressed, mencioned, and declared, viz.

* Stow's Survey, b. i. p. 169.

t Wilson's Hist. passim.