back to him, and after presenting my service to him, tell him, that I can take any thing from him but physic.'' Sir Godfrey perhaps had the advantage here: the Doctor's wit is, however, perhaps better displayed in his remarks on a rival physician. "In the same year, Dr. Edward Hannes (afterwards Sir Edward) having acquired a sufficient stock of reputation at Oxford, left that university in hopes to rival our grand preserver of health and life in London. But though he was a most excellent scholar, and well versed in the knowledge of chemistry and anatomy, though he outdid all the competitors he had left behind him; though he set up a very spruce equipage, and endeavoured to attract the eyes and hearts of the beholders by the means of it; he found himself fall short of his accompts, and not able to cope with many of the old practitioners, particularly Dr. Radcliffe, who was as superior to him as the young fry of the university were inferior. He therefore bethought himself of a stratagem; and to get into repute, ordered his footman to stop most of the gentlemen's chariots, and inquire whether they belonged to Dr. Hannes, as if he was called to a patient. Accordingly, the fellow, in pursuance of his instructions put the question in at every coach-door, from White-hall to the Royal Exchange; and as he had his lesson for that end, not hearing of him in any coach, ran up into Exchange-alley, and entering Garraway's Coffee House, made the same interrogatories both above and below. At last, Dr. Radcliffe who was usually there about Exchange time, and planted at a table with several apothecaries and chirurgeons that flocked about him, cried out, Dr. Hannes was not there, and desired to know who wanted him. The fellow's reply was, 'Such a lord and such a lord ;'. but he was taken up with dry rebuke, No, no, friend, you are mistaken, the doctor wants those lords."" Dr. Radcliffe was never married, and dying without children, he made the university of Oxford his principal heir. His friends observing the accumulation of his vast wealth, recommended marriage to him, and pointed out the daughter of a wealthy citizen. The Doctor had a most ungallant hatred of the whole sex, which, on this occasion, he however consented to overcome. Accordingly, his advances were made in due form, pecuniary arrangements nearly finished, and the marriage almost fixed, when the experienced eye of the doctor made a discovery in his intended bride, which produced the following letter. "Sir, "The honour of being allied to so good and wealthy a person as Mr. S- -d, has pushed me upon a discovery that may be fatal to your quiet, and your daughter's reputation, if not timely prevented. Mrs. Mary is a very deserving gentlewoman; but you must pardon me, if I by no means think she is fit to be my wife, since she is another man's already, or ought to be. In a word, she is no better and no worse than actually pregnant, which makes it necessary that she be disposed of to him that has the best claim to her affections. No doubt you have power enough over her to bring her to confession, which is by no means the part of a physician. As for my part, I shall wish you much joy of a new son-in-law, when known, for I am by no means qualified to be of so near a kin. Hanging and marrying I find go by destiny, and I might have been guilty of the first had I not so narrowly escaped the last. My best services to your daughter, whom I can be of little use to as a physician, and of much less in the quality of a suitor. The daughter of so wealthy a gentleman as Mr. S. can never want a husband, therefore the sooner you bestow her the better, that the young Hans en Kelder may be born in wedlock, and have the right of inheritance to so large a patrimony. You'll excuse me for being so very free with you; for, though I cannot have the honour of being your son-in-law, I shall ever take pride in being among the number of your friends; who am, Sir, Your most obedient Servant, The Doctor was, however, a favourite of the female sex, and not always the injured person. Among others, he attracted the notice of a lady of quality, whose individuality is now lost under the name of Lady Betty. She contrived to be out of order week after week, and, at last, fairly exhausted the patience of the Doctor at being sent for on so many trifling occasions. Whereupon he told her father, that it was his opinion that her ladyship stood more in need of a confessor than a physician, for he was convinced her mind was more distempered than her body. But it was in vain, that the Doctor was dull and avoided his patient-he was, at last, informed, by means of the lady's maid, that he alone must be that confessor. "Hereupon he gave his attendance, to hear what she had to say, which made a discovery that struck him with amazement. How to answer her directly he knew not, for she had made a sort of ambiguous confession, which had only pointed out her great respects for a certain person without any name, he thereupon told her, That her case was somewhat difficult, but he did not doubt to ease her of all her anxieties, on that account, in a month's time.' Accordingly, the young lady formed an inconceivable joy to herself; but the Doctor immediately laid the whole affair before the Lord of her father, with a caution to him not to let the daughter know he was any wise apprised of it, since it was in his power to prevent her flinging herself away with a man much beneath her, by a speedy contract of marriage with some person of equal extraction: this advice was readily embraced and gratefully acknowledged, and the lady, who is now living, and one of the best of wives, was married to a nobleman, who had made pretensions to her for several months before this discovery, within the time limited, which, at once, absolved the Doctor of his promise, and showed his inviolable attachment to the reputation and interest of his friend and benefactor." The inexorable doctor was made to suffer in his turn. In a visit which he paid to a young female patient, of great beauty, wealth, and rank, he was so smitten with her charms, as to make him stand in need of a physician himself. He altered his liveries, ordered a new coach, and disclosed his love. The ungrateful woman ridiculed his attachment, and made a good story of it to Sir Richard Steel. The consequence was, that our Esculapius cuts a laughable figure in the forty-fourth number of the Tatler. Dr. Radcliffe consoled himself with his old friends and his old wine. No man was ever more attached to either; and if we may judge from this work, he appears to have lived in very jovial society, and been a very jolly companion. Judging from the high rank of his intimates, he must have had some social qualities to recommend him to their companionship. We have very good proof, that in his old a retrospect of his past life was not particularly consoling. The following letter, written a short time before he died, is a proof of bitter repentance. It is addressed to the Earl of Denbigh. age "This being the last time that in all probability I shall ever put pen to paper, I thought it my duty to employ it in writing to you, since I am now going to a place from whence I can administer no advice to you, and whither you, and all the rest who survive me, are obliged to come, sooner or later. "Your lordship is too well acquainted with my temper, to imagine that I could bear the reproaches of my friends, and threats of my enemies, without laying them deeply at heart, especially since there are no grounds for the one, nor foundation for the other; and you will give me credit, when I say, these considerations alone have shortened my days. "I dare persuade myself, that the reports which have been raised of me relating to my non-attendance on the queen in her last moments, are received by you as by others of my constant and assured friends, with an air of contempt and disbelief, and could wish they made as little impression on me; but I find them to be insupportable, and have experienced, that though there are repellant medicines for diseases of the body, those of the mind are too strong and impetuous for the feeble resistance of the most powerful artist. "In a word, the decays of nature tell me, that I cannot live fourteen days; and the menacing letter inclosed, will tell you from what quarter my death comes. Give me leave, therefore, to be in earnest once for all with my very good lord, and to use my endeavours to prolong your life, that cannot add a span's length to my own. "Your lordship knows how far an air of jollity has obtained amongst you and your acquaintance, and how many of them in a few years have died martyrs to excess: let me conjure you, therefore, for the good of your own soul, the preservation of your health, and the benefit of the public, to deny yourself the destructive liberties you have hitherto taken, and which, I must confess, with a heart full of sorrow, I have been too great a partaker of in your company. "You are to consider, (Oh! that I had done so,) that men, especially those of your exalted rank, are born to nobler exercises than those of eating and drinking; and that by how much the more eminent your station is, by so much the more accountable will you be for the discharge of it. Nor will your duty to God, your country, or your self, permit you to anger the first, in robbing the second of a patriot and defender, by not taking a due care of the third; which will be accounted downright murder in the eyes of that incensed Deity, that will most assuredly avenge it. "The pain that affects my nerves, interrupts me from making any other request to you, than that your lordship would give credit to the words of a dying man, who is fearful that he has been, in a great measure, an abettor and encourager of your intemperance, and would, therefore, in these his last moments, when he is most to be credited, dehort you from the pursuit of it; and that in these the days of your youth, (for you have yet many years to live if you do not hasten your own death,) you would give ear to the voice of the preacher, whom you and I, with the rest of our company, have, in the midst of our debauches, made light of for saying, Rejoice, oh, young man in thy youth, and let thy heart chear thee in the days of thy youth, and walk in the ways of thy heart, and in the sight of thine eyes; but know thou that for all these things, God will bring thee to judgement!' On which day, when the hearts of all men shall be layed open, may you and I, and all that sincerely repent of acting contrary to the revealed will in this life, reap the fruits of our sorrows for our mis-deeds, in a blessed resurrection, which is the hearty prayer of My very good lord, Your lordship's most obedient, And most obliged servant, JOHN RADCLIFFE." His death was hastened by the strong prejudices excited against him by false rumours, respecting his conduct on occasion of the last illness of the queen. It was well known, that he was not in the favour of her majesty; and when she died, it was commonly reported, and even taken notice of in parliament, that when sent for he refused to attend. He never was sent for in an open manner by the council and her majesty's attendants, but Lady Masham despatched a message for him two hours before her death. Dr. Radcliffe had received constant reports of the state of her majesty from his friend, Dr. Mead, and knew that she was irrecoverable. But had it not been so, the Doctor could not have attended through such an intimation. However, after the queen's decease, a great clamour arose against Dr. Radcliffe, threatening letters were sent to him, and he durst not stir out of his house. This situation, at any time sufficiently disagreeable, preyed upon his declining spirits, and hastened his death. "To conclude, this great and excellent man, who had made all manner of diseases fly before him, could not withstand the assaults of the grand destroyer of mankind in his own person, but in the sixty-fifth year of his age fell a victim to the ingratitude of a thankless world and the fury of the gout, on the first of November, 1714, the Feast of All Saints; on that day being divested of the tabernacle of flesh, that he might be numbered with the blessed spirits, among whom sits enthroned our late sovereign lady, whose decease has been so injuriously and falsely laid to his charge." ART. VI.-Regionum Indiarum per Hispanos olim devastatarum accuratissima Descriptio. Auctore, Barth. de Las Casas. 4to. Heidelberg, 1664. The present age justly boasts its pre-eminence in the noblest labours of the heart, as well as of the head. The benefactors of the human race never were so unwearied in their exertions, never so encouraged by the voice of popular esteem, and never so successful in the attainment of their benevolent ends. We trust, however, that we may be permitted to draw the attention of our readers for a few moments from the dazzling glories that surround contemporary worth, for the purpose of paying the debt of grateful remembrance to those who devoted themselves to the cause of humanity, in days when there was perhaps more urgent necessity for relief, and certainly more difficulty in the attempt to administer it. While the savage and mercenary race that followed in the train of the first discoverers of America, carried desolation, plunder, and slavery, among the native tribes, whom it would have been an easy task to lead on to civilization, religion, and virtue, a few individuals raised their voices and used their exertions in favour of the oppressed. At their head was Bartholomew Las |