months afterwards, he gained a prize, offered by a national academy for the best paper written in French, on the construction of the pendulum.

The earl was the author of a great number of inventions and improvements in the arts and philosophy. Among those which attracted the most attention were his electrical experiments; his scheme for securing buildings from fire; a machine for solving problems in arithmetic; a mode of roofing houses; a kiln for burning lime, a steamboat, and a double inclined plane for remedying the inconvenience attending canal locks. This was suggested to the earl while he was forming a canal in Devonshire, the line of which he surveyed himself; and during this employment, he for days carried the theodolite on his own shoulders. Experiments on stereotype printing,—an esteemed printing press which bears his name,—a plan for preventing forgeries in coin and bank notes, &c. &c. In putting his ideas into practice he was assisted by Mr. Varley, one of the most expert practical mechanics of the day.

But numerous and important as his labors were to the arts, they were, even in a public view, exceeded in importance by the impulse which his patronage gave to mechanical artists. He appeared to be delighted in bringing them and their productions before the public, and in this way he spent a large portion of his ample fortune, and almost the whole of his thoughts and time.

Whatever view different men might take of the soundness or tendency of his political principles, all were convinced that they sprang from the honest conviction of his own mind, uninfluenced by the most remotely interested motive, for he uniformly declined all offices and public honors. If his projects, both political and mechanical, were occasionally considered impracticable, they were neither sordid nor selfish.

His speeches in the house of lords, and in public, on whatever topic, were ingenuous, perspicuous, and somewhat forcible. But it was often as difficult to answer as to concur with them;-for he seldom adapted his opinions to the state of public affairs, but reasoned from some abstract standard of moral or political right, that was seldom in accordance with principles of party or state expediency. He was sometimes eloquent, and at others, very eccentric in his illustrations. There was often a certain quaintness of man. ner about them that made them quite irresistible, even to producing laughter, from the guarded and studied gravity of the incumbent on the woolsack.

His activity and perseverance were amazing, for notwithstanding the multiplicity of his projects and experiments, he was assuredly

profoundly learned in every thing that regarded the constitution and ecclesiastical polity of his country, and when on these subjects, it is said he even taught "the Judges law, and the Bishops reli. gion!”—When questions arose which required a practical know. ledge of the exact sciences, or their application to the arts, if he were not the only man, he was, at least, the ablest in the house to expound, discuss, and decide them: and on such occasions he ever acted with great judgment.

Earl Stanhope married Hester Pitt, a daughter of the great Earl of Chatham, whose political principles he venerated with a feeling little removed from idolatry; and in the early part of his public career, acted cordially with his brother-in-law Mr. Pitt. But the circumstances which induced that consummate statesman to alter his opinions, had not the same effect on the earl, and their political connection was dissolved. On this separation taking place, a domestic difficulty sprung up between Stanhope, and his wife and wife's connections. This dissension arose from the fact, that Stanhope desired that his children should devote themselves to acquire some useful calling as he had done, by which, when the day of public calamity came, which he imagined he foresaw the rapid approach of,-they might secure independence by their own personal ingenuity and labor. But his family preferring the patronage of their uncle, the minister, to the protection of the paternal roof, Stanhope declared as they chose to be saddled on the public purse, they must "take the consequences." They were not there. fore mentioned in his will, although they were entitled to certain sums by a marriage settlement.

"Charles Stanhope," said the Earl of Chatham, "as a carpenter, a blacksmith, or millwright, could in any country, or any times, preserve his independence and bring up his family in honest and industrious courses, without soliciting the bounty of friends or the charity of strangers."

Stanhope was odd in his dress and person, and his plain, unaf fected, amiable manners, were considered to be singular for a man of his high rank and connections: but they conciliated affection in many cases approaching to devotion, and his general integrity commanded universal respect. He was a considerate and kind landlord, an ardent friend, and his purse and influence were ever open to befriend the helpless and the poor; but he always disliked any superfluous expressions of gratitude.

Among other anecdotes of his lordship's eccentricities, the following is related. He was very particular in the shape and texture of his wigs, which were peculiar, and was a long time in getting a barber to make them to his liking, but at last succeeded. It

happened, however, that at a period when his stock of these "elegant imitations of nature" was unusually low," the poor barber was taken so exceedingly ill that his life was despaired of. His lordship immediately on hearing of the illness of his favorite artist, sent a physician to attend him, and the first desire of the barber on his recovery was, very naturally, to assure the noble lord of his gratitude for this unexpected act of benevolence. After a few words of condolence, his lordship asked him if his funds were not exhausted by his long inability to attend to his business, and whether an order in the way of trade would not be serviceable to him. Receiving an answer in the affirmative, he ordered a score of wigs. Upon bringing them home, the wig maker began to pour forth the grateful feelings of his heart for this new kindness, in addition to having saved his life, when his lordship interrupted him by putting down the money, and jokingly remarked, “Oh !—you may now die and be for aught I care,

for I have got wigs enough to last all my life!"

Lord Stanhope died in December, 1815, deeply lamented by all, but more especially by the humbler class of citizens, whose esteem and friendship he had won by his interest and exertions in their welfare.

HOHLFELD.

HOHLFELD, the celebrated German mechanic, was born of poor parents at Hennerndorf, in the mountains of Saxony, in the year 1711. He learned the trade of lace-making at Dresden, and early disovered a turn for mechanics by constructing various kinds of clocks. From Dresden he removed to Berlin to follow his occupation. As he was an excellent workman, and had invented several machines for shortening his labor, he found sufficient time to indulge his inclination for mechanics; and he made there, at the same time he pursued his usual business, air-guns and clocks. In the year 1748, he became acquainted with the celebrated Sulzer, at whose desire he undertook the construction of a machine for noting down any piece of music when played upon a harpsichord. A machine of this kind had been before invented by Mr. Von Unger, but Hohlfeld, from a very imperfect description, completed one without any assistance. Of this machine, now in the possession of the Academy of Sciences at Berlin, Sulzer gave a figure, from which it was afterwards constructed in England. This ingenious