unhesitating steps to the attainment of the object they have in view, seeming rather to descend upon than to rise to it; and there are others who crawl along the ground towards their mark, advancing here a little, and there a little, and working their way through any dirty track that opens before them. To this latter class Harley belonged. The only talent which he possessed in any perfection was dissimulation, and in that he was unrivalled. Great at a promise, incomparable in an intrigue, he esteemed no device too base, no stratagem too contemptible, which advanced him one step nearer to his object. Pampering the mischievous prejudices of a weak-minded sovereign,—relieving the wants, and flattering the vanity of a waiting woman, that he might secure her influence with her mistress,―cajoling every party by professions of attachment to their interests, falsifying any promise, and violating any engagement, which it was inconvenient to keep,-betraying all enemies, and all friends equally, and veiling his trimming policy under the specious name of moderation, he crept by a tortuous and shameful path to the summit of power. To overthrow his patrons, he made a promise of his support to the court at St Germains, and to injure his rival, he bound himself with equal readiness to uphold the Hanoverian succession. His devices succeeded in blinding men's eyes, when he was out of power, and it was impossible that the value of his professions should be put to the test; but when the time came for action, and it was found that nothing was to be performed, all saw through and despised him. Had he, even after his accession to supreme power, adopted any one determined and straightforward course of policy, however flagitious, he might, in spite of the contempt excited by the dirty machinations which he had followed to secure his elevation, have rescued himself from the scorn of posterity, by rising to the bad eminence of its hatred; but the duplicity of the factious intriguer for place characterized the prime minister, and made it impossible not to despise him. So undecided and inconsistent was he in all his actions, as almost to dispose us to join in the bitter sarcasm of Bolingbroke, that he was "a man of whom nature had intended to make a spy, or at most a captain of miners, and whom fortune in one of her whimsical moods had made a general." Of him might be truly predicted, what was said of a great man in ancient times, "In rebus politicis, nihil simplex, nihil apertum, nihil sincerum.' Without decision enough to adopt one single bold measure, without the talent requisite to make him formidable, where his character was known, without honesty sufficient to derive dignity from any other source than the splendours of office, he met the usual fate of time-servers; and after finding himself detested by his colleagues, distrusted by his friends, despised by his enemies, and shunned by all, closed an inglorious career by a contumelious dismissal from the council of his sovereign.

It is pleasing to have to add that Harley's private character was one of spotless integrity. And let it ever be remembered to his honour, that, amidst all the storms of faction, he was the unvarying friend of learning and learned men. The praises of Pope and Defoe were showered upon him with no sparing hands; and although they cannot be permitted to affect our opinion of his public conduct, they present some relief to the darker parts of his character. He was himself a man of great literary attainments, and so devoted to study, that it is

said, he could in an instant lay his hand on any book, even the most insignificant in his magnificent library, though it contained not fewer than 100,000 volumes. The services which he rendered to literature by the collection of this splendid repository of learning, and of his invaluable manuscripts, which now form the prime ornam nt of our great national museum, ought to be held in long and grateful remembrance. During the time that he was in the house of commons, he gained considerable celebrity as a skilful debater. His speaking is described by his friends, as exhibiting more of art, than the native grace of an original orator; and by his enemies as pedantic, and inelegant, trifling on matters of importance, and important on trifles, and constantly employing words to mystify rather than to explain. The pamphlets which he published certainly do not indicate any thing like high talent, though written with considerable dexterity. The published productions ascribed to him by Horace Walpole in his catalogue of royal and noble authors, are the following: An Essay upon Public Credit,' published in 1710, and reprinted in the Somers' collection of tracts,' vol. 2d. 'An Essay upon Loans,' Somers' collection, vol. 2d. 'A Vindication of the Rights of the Commons of England,' to be found in Somers' second collection, vol. 4th. And some familiar Verses, published in Swift's Letters, vol. 1. 1766.

Thomas Guy.

BORN A. D. 1645.-DIED A. D. 1724.

THOMAS GUY, the amiable friend of the poor and unfortunate, and founder of the noble hospital which bears his name, was the son of a lighterman and coal-dealer, and was born in Horsleydown, Southwark, in 1645. He was apprenticed to a bookseller in Cheapside, and having been admitted a freeman of the Stationers' company in 1668, was received into their livery in 1673. He began business with a stock of about £200, in the house which, till lately, formed the angle between Cornhill and Lombard-street, but which has been pulled down for the improvements now making in that neighbourhood. His first success was owing to the great demand for English bibles printed in Holland, in which he dealt largely; but on the importation of these being stopped by law, he contracted with the university of Oxford for the privilege of printing bibles; and having furnished himself with types from Holland, carried on this branch of business for many years with great profit.

But whatever foundation he might have laid for his future wealth in the usual course of trade, no small portion of his property arose from his purchase of seamen's tickets. These he bought at a large discount, and afterwards subscribed in the South-sea company, which was established in 1710, for the purpose of discharging those tickets and giving a large interest. Here Mr Guy was so extensively, as well as cautiously concerned, that in 1720 he was possessed of £45,500 stock, by disposing of which when it bore an extremely advanced price, he realized a considerable sum. While we are compelled, in this sketch of Mr Guy's life, to associate his name with one of the most infamous transactions in

the commercial history of our country, it is due to his memory, as well as to the cause of christian charity, to add, that no dishonourable imputation ever attached to him on this score. To his relations he was attentive while he lived; and his actions prove that he did not hoard up his means until they could no longer be of use to himself. The munificent founder of Guy's hospital was a man of very humble appearance, and of a melancholy cast of countenance. One day, while pensively leaning over one of the bridges, he attracted the attention and commiseration of a bystander, who, apprehensive that he meditated self-destruction, could not refrain from addressing him with an earnest entreaty not to let his misfortunes tempt him to commit any rash act; then placing in his hand a guinea, with the delicacy of genuine benevolence, he hastily withdrew. Guy, roused from his reverie, followed the stranger, and warmly expressed his gratitude, but assured him he was mistaken in supposing him to be either in distress of mind or of circumstances, making an earnest request to be favoured with the name of the good man, his intended benefactor. The address was given, and they parted. Some years after, Guy observing the name of his friend in the bankrupt list, hastened to his house; brought to his recollection their former interview; found, upon investigation, that no blame could be attached to him under his misfortunes; intimated his ability, and also his full intention to serve him; entered into immediate arrangements with his creditors, and finally re-established him in a business, which ever after prospered in his hands, and in the hands of his children's children, for many years, in Newgate-street.

His humane plan of founding an hospital having been matured, Guy, at the age of seventy-six, procured from the governors of St Thomas's hospital, Southwark, the lease of a large piece of ground for a term of 999 years, at a rent of £30 a year. Having cleared the space, which was then occupied by a number of good dwelling-houses, he laid the first stone of his new building in 1722. He lived to see it covered in; but before the excellent machine had begun to work he was laid in the grave; for the hospital received within its walls the first patient on the 6th of January, 1725, and its founder died on the 27th of December, 1724. His trustees faithfully effected the completion of his great and good design, and procured an act of parliament for establishing the foundation, according to the directions of his will. Some of the wards are for surgical cases, one for accidents; the remainder are filled according to circumstances. It is estimated, that of about three thousand patients who enter in the course of the year-the present average of admissions-nine-tenths go out cured. Besides this, the hospital relieves upwards of fifty thousand out-patients. The means of usefulness, indeed, enjoyed by this admirable establishment, have lately admitted of an abundant increase by the munificent bequest of £196,000 made a few years since by Mr Hunt, a hundred inmates more being accommodated in consequence.

Iv.

Viscount Molesworth.

BORN A. D. 1656.-died A. D. 1725.

THIS upright and accomplished statesman was descended from an old English family, but his father having served in the civil wars in Ireland, afterwards settled in Dublin as a merchant. His son, and only child, the subject of the present article, was born and educated in Dublin. Possessed of an ample patrimony, and connected by marriage with the earl of Bellamont, he soon entered into political life, and distinguished himself by his ardent zeal for the house of Orange. William rewarded his services by giving him the appointment of envoy-extraordinary to the court of Denmark, where he resided three years.

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On his return home he published An account of Denmark,' in which he laboured to teach his countrymen the value of civil and religious freedom, by exhibiting the effects of despotic government in Denmark. The book was most favourably received by the English public, and was speedily translated into foreign languages. It received the high approbation of the author of the Characteristics,' who thus writes to Molesworth, many years after its publication: "You have long had my heart, even before I knew you personally. For the holy and truly pious man who revealed the greatest of mysteries,-he who, with a truly generous love to mankind and his country, pointed out the state of Denmark to other states, and prophesied of things highly important to the growing age, he, I say, had already gained me as his sworn friend before he was so kind as to make friendship reciprocal by his acquaintance and expressed esteem."

Molesworth served his country in both kingdoms, being chosen member of the Irish house of commons for the borough of Swordes; and of the English house for those of Bodmyn, St Michael, and East Retford. He was also a member of Anne's privy-council, until near the close of her majesty's reign, when he was found too liberal for the dominant party, and had excited the wrath of the lower house of convocation by his contemptuous treatment of that nest of bigots. Steele defended Molesworth in the Crisis,' and Swift assailed him in his pamphlet entitled Public Spirit of the Whigs. Dr William King had already la

boured in his vocation to traduce the Account of Denmark.

George I. made Molesworth a member of his Irish privy-council in 1714, and two years afterwards advanced him to the Irish peerage by the title of Baron Philipstown and Viscount Molesworth of Swordes. He died in 1725. Besides the work already mentioned, Molesworth was the author of several political tracts, all breathing a large and liberal spirit, and written with force and elegance. In the printed correspondence of Locke and Molyneux, there are several letters which show the high respect these eminent men had for the viscount.

Sir Francis Hosier.

DIED A. D. 1727.

FRANCIS HOSIER became a lieutenant in the navy in the year 1692, and after serving in that station on board different ships for the space of four years, he was raised to the rank of captain, and appointed to the Winchelsea frigate of thirty-two guns. Though the service never boasted a more gallant or abler officer than this gentleman, yet misfortune appears to have attended him, on most occasions, through life. After a variety of uninteresting commands, he was, about the year 1710, appointed captain of the Salisbury, and being sent on a cruise off Cape Clear, in company with the St Albans, there experienced for the first time a gleam of success, by falling in with a French ship of war mounting sixty guns, which struck to the Salisbury after a smart action. Although Captain Hosier continued several years in commission subsequent to this time, yet no particular mention is made of him till 1719, when he was appointed second captain of the Dorsetshire, on board which the earl of Berkley had hoisted his flag in virtue of a special commission, Vice-admiral Littleton commanded as first captain, and Hosier as second, with the honorary rank of rear-admiral of the blue. On the 8th of May, 1720, he was advanced to be rear-admiral of the white, and served during the current year, as well as the succeeding, as second in command of the fleet sent under the orders of Sir John Norris into the Baltic. In 1722 he was appointed to act in the same capacity under Sir Charles Wager.

Public tranquillity remained in a great measure undisturbed for the space of four years after this cloud had passed over. The confederacy, which in 1726 was supposed, and indeed avowed to have been entered into between the Spanish and Russian courts, rendering it prudent in the eyes of the British ministry to despatch squadrons into different parts of the world, that destined for the West Indies, with the intention of overawing the Spaniards in that quarter, was put under the orders of Admiral Hosier, who hoisted his flag on board the Breda of seventy guns, and sailed from Plymouth on the 9th of April. After a very tedious passage he arrived off the Bastimentos, near Porto-Bello, where he cruised for six months, until the naturally unwholesome climate, and the dreadful effects of that destructive malady the scurvy, at length compelled him to return to Jamaica, with scarcely men enough left to navigate the squadron back into port. Fortunately there chanced to be a considerable number of seamen at Jamaica who were out of employ, and the vice-admiral was enabled to put to sea at the expiration of little more than two months, during which the ships of the squadron were as well refitted as circumstances would permit. From the time of his having quitted port, till the month of August ensuing, the British squadron, with the most undaunted perseverance, kept the sea, The conduct, however, which Hosier was compelled to observe towards the enemy, began to have a visible effect on his mind and health; he was restrained, by his orders, from acting offensively towards those who daily insulted him by the outrages they committed against his country