Tolumes, Evo.; the first of which was published in 1708; the fecond in 1718; and both were foon after republished. A third edition was printed in the fame fize at Cambridge in 1757, to which is prefixed, "An Account of the Arabians or Saracens, of the Life of Mahomet, and

the Mahometan Religion, by a Learned Hand ;" that is by the learned Dr. Long,

Matter of Pembroke Hall,

In the mean time, Ockley was one of thofe unfortunate perfons whom Pierius

Valerianus would have recorded in his book De Infelicitate Literatorum. In his Inaugural Oration, printed in 1711, he calls fortune venefica et noverca, and fpeaks of mordaces cure as things long

familiar to him: and in December 1717 we find him actually under confinement; for, in the introduction to the fecond volume of his Saracenical History, he not only tells us fo, but ftoically dates from Cambridge Cattle.

What are we to think of our learned Profeffor? Shall we fay of him as Seneca faid of Socrates, that " by entering a priton he took ignominy from the place; and that no place could feem a prison, when fuch a man was in it †? We will not foar fo high. We will only obferve, that, being married very young, he was encumbered with a fantily early in life; that his preferment in the church was not anfwerable to his reputation as a fcholar; that his patron, the Earl of Oxford, fell into disgrace when he wanted him moit; and laitly (for we must not omit to note it) that he had fome fhare of that common infirmity among the learned, viz, a neglect of economy, and want of prudential regard to outward things; without which, however, all the wit and all the learning in the world will but ferve to render a man the more miferable.

As to his literary character, which is the chief point we have to do with, it is certain that he was extremely well killed in all the ancient languages, and particularly the Oriental; fo that the very learned Reland † thought it not too much to declare, that he was vir, fi quis alius barum literarum peritus. He was likewife very knowing in modern languages, as the French, Spanish, Italian, &c. and upon the whole, confidered as a

Linguift, we may prefume that few have exceeded him. R. H.

APPENDIX.

The day after Mr. Ockley's Election to the Arabic Profefforfhip, he wrote the following letter to the Lord Treaturer Harley, Earl of Oxford, to whom he was Chaplain :

"My Lord, Next the honour which

I derive from your Lordship, I have just reafon to prize that which the Heads of our University conferred upon me yesterday, in chuling me Arabic Profeffor in the room of Dr. Wright, my late deneither was there the least divifion among cealed predeceffor. I had no competitor, the Electors. I thought it my duty to acquaint your Lordship with it, which will I hope excufe the impertinence of weighty affairs. The falary is but 401. interrupting your Lordthip's more per annum, which will, however, be a comfortable addition to my prefent circumftances, and enable me to go on with my ftudies the more chearfully. The greatest affliction is, that I am Doctor fine Libris, and cannot propofe to da any great matter to adorn my profeffion without the Bodleian Library. Our books we have feem rather like curiofities ftock is fo fmall here, that thofe Arabic than an Oriental Library; and if we could do any thing that way, our Univerfity press does not afford us one Oriental type that is fit for any use. However, I hope under your Lordship's favour and encouragement, that fomething may be done in order to qualify myself for a thorough infpection into that learning, when Providence fhall favour me with an

opportunity of ufing the books. I fear I have been too tedious. I am, with all

fubmiffion, your Lordship's most obedient

and devoted fervant,

"SIMON OCKLEY." Cambridge, Dec. 5, 1711.

The three following letters were fent him under confinement at the Castle in Cambridge: one from Wake, Archbishop of Canterbury; two from private friends: May 7, 1717.

"Reverend Sir,

"I am very forry to hear of your

in the Caftle.-Manufcript Letter.

+ De Confol. ad Helv. C. 13.

De Relig, Mohamm. P. 259

anhapp?

QUEEN ANNE.

THOUGH this Prince's could be very familiar at times, and was feldom without a party of private friends, where Majefty was entirely laid afide, fhe was a great obferver of Court etiquette, and took care it fhould be preferved moft fcrupulously by all thofe who approached her prefence in public. We have an inftance of this in the difficulty Lord Bolingbroke had, when Secretary of State, in introducing Prince Eugene (who arrived late in the evening) to her Majefty without a Court-wig, which, at laft, was difpenfed with only on account of the particular celebrity of his character, and which," the Queen faid, should not be drawn into precedent."

At another time, a Captain, and the fon of a Nobleman, who arrived with difpatches from abroad, unfortunately happened to make his firft appearance at Court, after his arrival, in a Major wig. The Queen, who was quick to fpy out thofe irregularities, immediately afked who he was? and how he prefumed to appear before her in undrefs? Being told, and an apology made for his not knowing the etiquette of the Court, fhe faid, it did not fignify, he must be told it; for, if the fuffered this indignity, the fuppofed the might foon expect to fee all her officers come to court in boots and fpurs. The Captain got the hint, went home, redreffed himself, and was most graciously received.

GEORGE THE FIRST.

There was a gentleman who lived in the city in the beginning of the reign of this monarch, who was fo fhrewdly fuipected of Jacobitifm, that he was taken up two or three times before the Council, but who defended himself fo dextrously that they could faften nothing on him. On the breaking out of the rebellion in 1715, this man, who mixed fome humour with his politics, wrote to the Secretary of State, that, as he took it for granted that at a time like the prefent he fhould be.

taken up, as usual, for a Jacobite, he had only one favour to beg, that if the Adminittration meant any fuch thing, they would do it in the course of the next week; for the week after he was going down to Devonshire upon his own buti nefs, which, without this explanation, no doubt, would be conftrued as tranfacting the bufinefs of the Pretender.

Lord Townfhend, who was Secretary of State at that time, in one of his convivial moments with the King fhewed him this letter, and asked him what his Majefty would direct to be done with fuch a fellow? Poh ! poh!" fays the King, there can be little harm in a man who writes fo pleatantly; I'll tell you what you fhall do: let him know I am willing to make a drawn battle of it-fo that, if he lets me alone, he may depend upon it I fhall do the fame by him."

On

It was very fortunate for George the First, and, indeed, for the happiness of his fubjects, that, at fo critical a pericd of his coming to the throne of thefe realms, the politics of France ftood in the relative fituation that they did. the death of Louis the XIVth, Spain equally threatened to deprive the Duke of Orleans of the Regency, as the King of England of his dominions; this begot a perfonal connection between the two lait-mentioned perfonages, which, confirmed by treaties, continued till the majority and marriage of the young King of France; then, indeed, the peaceful correfpondence between the two nations was not fo strong; but, by that time, the King of England had fuppreffed a rebellion, and was, in other refpects, fully eftablished on his throne.

FREDERIC PRINCE OF WALES.

A claufe in the Tithing Bill, relative to the Quakers, being in agitation in the House of Commons, in the year 1735, a deputation from the Quakers waited on his Royal Highnefs to folicit his intereft in favour of that claufe. His an

fwer was every way worthy of his high haracter: "that, as a friend to liberty in general, and toleration in particular, he wided that they might meet with all proper favour; but, for himself, he never gave his vote in Parliament, and it did not become his fation to influence his friends, or direct his fervants; to leave them entirely to their own confcience and understanding, was a rule he had hitherto prefcribed to himself, and purpofed through his whole life to obferve."

The reply from Andrew Pitt, the perfon who ipke in the name of the body, was not lefs remarkable: "May it pleafe the Prince of Wales, I am greatly affected with thy excellent notions of liberty; and am more pleated with thy antwer, than if thou hadst granted to us our requeft."

as

Opinions were held in his time, that the Anniversary of the 30th of January fhould be abolished a day of Talking public fat and obfervance. privately on this fubject, one day, to a Member of Oppofition, he faid, “I am not fo anxious to fee this faft inferted in

the Calendar as a feafon of religious penitence, but, I think, you must allow that it should stand as a day of great political example.",

When Sir Robert had any material point to carry in the Houfe, he used to afk fome of the neutral Members, along with a party of his ftaunch friends, to fup with him the preceding evening, when he always tock care the bottle fhould circulate pretty brifkly. Being once asked, by an intimate friend, why he drenched his guests fo deeply, the fhrewd ftatesman replied, "I do it with the fame views offers in water the day before they ufe that your bafket-makers fteep their them, that they may bend the eafier."

When he entertained large companios of men, and had no particular point to pufh, he carefully avoided politics, and

Sir Robert, though allowed a good minifter in the knowledge of interior bu. finels, was not esteemed fo accurate a judge of Continental matters, and, for this reafon, he committed the care of the Foreign Department entirely to his brother Horace, who, if he had not a quick and decided comprehenfion in thofe matters, was allowed to understand them very much in detail; indeed fo much, that, whenever a difference arofe in the Houfe' relative to the dates or fubítances of treaties, manifeftoes, &c. he could, from memory, turn to thein with great promptnefs and accuracy.

Both brothers being at a route one night, the lady of the houfe preffed Sir Robert very much to take a hand at whift, which he declined: at the end of the firit rubber she again preffed him, when he excufed himself by faying, "I am forry, Madam, to be under the neceffity of refufing you in any request you make; but play, and the affairs of the Continent, I leave entirely to my brother.'

One of the great objects of Sir Robert Walpole's Adminiftration was to keep the kingdom in peace, if poffible; which he contrived to do for near twenty years, a longer interval fcarcely occurring ince our wars with France first begun. In this great object, no doubt, he was much affifted by the pacific and political temper of Cardinali Fleury, Prime Minister of France, and both kingdoms benefited much by fuch a measure. Walpole was at laft forced into the Spanish War of 1739, partly by the intrigues of Oppofition, and partly by the reftlefs character of the public, who wished for a change at any price, and by which he foon after loft his place. He ufed jocularly to call this war "The War of Ears, in which the bead had no manner of concern."

be in receiving the characters of public men from history, without previously weighing the general character, or party connections, of the hiftorian, we present our readers with two characters of a great Statefman, drawn by two men of unquestionable abilities, who had ample opportunities of information, both from perfonal knowledge and private conference; and yet no two characters can differ more in individual likeness.

ROBERT LORD OXFORD.

(As drawn by Swift.)

"The Treasurer is by much the greateft man I ever knew. Regular in life, with a true fenfe of religion, an excellent fcholar, a good divine, of a very mild and affable difpofition, intrepid in his notions, and indefatigable in bulinefs; an utter defpifer of money for himfelf, yet frugal, perhaps to an extremity, for the public. In private company, he is wholly difengaged, and very facetious, like one who had no bufinefs at all. He never wants a referve upon any emergency, which would appear defperate in others, and maketh little use of those thousand projectors and fchemifts who are daily plying him with their vifions, but to be thoroughly convinced, by the comparison, that his own notions are the best.”

ROBERT LORD OXFORD.

(As drawn by Lord Bolingbroke.)

"A man whom Nature meant to make apy, or, at molt, a Captain of Miners; but whom Fortune, in one of her whimfical moods, made a General."

DRYDEN.

Though it is well known, that no au. ther has contributed more to the licentious tafte of the Drama than Dryden, it mult likewife be confeffed, that there are often found paffages in many of thofe plays every way worthy the genius of this great man, paffages which did him great honour during his life-time, and even now prompt the hope that it was the example of the age he lived in, and the narrowness of his circumftances, that could, at any time, force him to fully his

VOL. XXXI, JAN. 1797•

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