on, plunging in entangled boughs and thickets,1 which cruelly retard his progress, till glancing backwards, he sees his open-mouthed enemies gaining on his heels, then downwards again he bounds and gains the shore; bnt here he is assailed by the loud shouts and horns, of the enjoying spectators in their crowded boats. He hesitates-once more looks upward; but the hills are insurmountable, and his favourite shades now oppose his flight and refuse him shelter. A moment longer he stops looks back :-the roaring of the dogs are in his ears their eager mouths send forth the cry of death as they gain upon his lagging steps-the big tears start from his distracted eyes, which are fixed in ardent gaze upon the lake, his last and sad retreat. Suddenly, in desperation, he plunges from the bank, and gives his ample breast unto the wave. But, alas his fate is fixed-he gains but a few minutes respite-the shouting boatmen surround the victim-he is dragged with ropes into their boat-and, with peals of exultation that thunder through the woods, he is brought to land.

Thus snatching his life from the cruel pack, he, fainting, yields it to relentless man.

THE LATE REV. GILBERT WAKEFIELD.

WHATEVER have been the political senti

ments of Mr. Wakefield, there can be few who are truly zealous for the promotion of useful knowledge, and interested in the cultivation of the human mind; that must not sincerely regret his cheath. He particularly excelled in classical acquirewhints, and there was not an author of any emice or merit in the Greek and Latin schools, whose letter and spirit he was not intimately

the

other

seeming

acquainted. Mr. Wakefield was born on February the 22nd, 1756, in the parsonage-house of St. Nicholas, in Nottingham, of which church his father was then rector. When he had attained his seventh year, he was initiated in the Latin language, at the free-school of Nottingham, under the Rev. Dr. Samuel Beardmore, afterwards master of the Charterhouse. At the age of nine he was removed to Wilford, near Nottingham. At the age of thirteen, Mr. Wakefield found in the person of the Rev. Richard Wooddeson, father of the present vinerian professor, a preceptor suited to his desire; and, after tasting the streams of Greek and Roman literature at their fountain head, his parents began to think of sending him to the University, on which a studency in Christ-church, Oxford, was offered him; this he luckily escaped, in consequence of his father's predilection for his own college; and it still seemed to afford a subject of exultation to the son, even in his riper years, as "orthodox theology, high church politics, aud passive obedience to the powers that be, sit enthroned," according to him, in a seminary, once "nutrix beroum," the venerable nurse of Somers, Hales, Selden, Chillingworth, and Locke.

At length he obtained a scholarship in Jesus Colledge, Cambridge; and it so happened, that he exactly suited the intention of the founder, who preferred "the son of a living clergyman, born at Nottingham," both of which conditions, as may have been observed, happened to be united in him. On January 16, 1776, he took his degree of B. A. with seventy-four other candidates for academical honours; and, on this occasion, he was nominated to the second post. Soon after this (April 16), he was elected fellow; and, in the course of the same year, he printed at the university-press a small col

lection of Latin poems, with a few notes on Horace, by way of an appendix. On the 22nd of March, 1778, he was ordained a deacon, by Dr. Hinchliffe, bishop of Peterborough, in the chapel of Trinity College, at the age of twenty-two years and one month. On April 14, Mr. Wakefield left the university for the curacy of Stockport, in Cheshire. He did not, however, remain long here, for we find him, soon after, with his brother at Richmond, decidedly averse to the renewal of subscription, and embarrassed at the idea of ecclesias tical functions.

On March 23rd, 1779, he vacated his fellowship by marriage. About the same time, he exchanged the curacy of St. Peter's for that of St. Paul's, where he had more leisure for his studies. From an humble attempt to establish a day school, he was diverted by an offer of the tutorship of the classical department at Warrington academy, in Lan cashile, wither he removed in August, 1779. On the dissolution of the Warrington academy, a re moval took place in the autumn of 1783, to Bram cote, within four miles of Nottingham, where Mr. Wakefield endeavoured, but in vain, to procure a few respectable pupils. In this rural retreat, he published the first volume of "An Enquiry into the Opinions of the Christian Writers of the three first Centuries, concerning the Person of Jesus Christ;" but notwithstanding the commendation of many excellent judges, he was not encouraged by the sale to proceed with the continuation. We find him a second time, in May, 1784, fixed at Richmond, advertising for pupils, and renewing his ap plications to his friends. At Michaelmas, we again hear of him in his native town of Nottingham, where he had three or four pupils under his care for several years, on very handsome terms; and about

this time he was elected an Honorary Member of the Philosophical Society of Manchester, in consequence of his "Essay on the Origin of Alphabetical Characters."

On the establishment of the new college at Hackney, Mr. Wakefield was deemed a proper, person to fill the office of Classical Inftructor; and he was at length appointed to this station, in July, 1790. His connections, however, with the inftitution, was dissolved at the end of eleven months, having retired in June, 1791: the seminary did not long survive this loss.

The most distinguished of Mr. Wakefield's publications are his Remarks on the Internal Evidence of the Christian Religion; Silva Critica; New Translation of the Teftament, with Notes; his pamphlet on Religious Worship; Remarks and Illustrations on the Works of Alexander Pope; An Examination of the Age of Reason; Reply to the Letter of Edmund Burke, Esq. to a Noble Lord; his Letter to Mr. Wilberforce; and a Reply to some parts of the Bishop of Llandaff's Address to the People of Great Britain, which caused his confinement in Dorchester jail.

Mr. Wakefield's death was occasioned by a fever which he caught in consequence of an unusual exertion in walking, an exercise of which he was particularly fond.

pass

MEMOIRS

OF

THE LATE MRS. ROBINSON,

Written by Herself.

over a few

pages

at the commencement

WE this work, and proceed to lay before our

readers, this unfortunare, woman's account of herself after her first arrival in London.

"Within a few days after our arrival in London we were placed for education in a school at Chelsea. The mistress of this seminary was perhaps one of the most extraordinary women that ever graced or disgraced, society: her name was Meribah Lorrington. She was the most extensively accom. plished female that I ever remember to have met with; her mental powers were no less capable of cultivation than superiorly cultivated. Her father, whose name was Hull, had from her infancy been the master of an academy at Earl's Court, near Fulham; and early after his marriage losing his wife, he resolved on giving this daughter a masculine education. Meribah was early instructed in all the modern accomplishments, as well as in classical knowledge. She was mistress of the Latin, French, and Italian languages; she was said to be a perfect arithmetician and astronomer, and possessed the art of painting on silk to a degree of exquisite perfection. But, alas! with all these advantages she was addicted to one vice, which at times so completely absorbed her faculties, as to deprive her of every power, either mental or corporeal. Thus, daily and hourly, her superior acquirements, her enlightened understanding, yielded to the intemperance of her ruling infatuation, and every power of reflection seemed lost in the unfeminate propensity.