the greatest spirit, and firmly maintained the privilege and honour of the British flag. The perils with which he had been so often threatened, pursued him to the last; for on his arrival in England, he found that he had sailed through the midst of a French fleet then cruizing in the channel, from which he had the whole time been concealed by a fog.

Mr. Anson, a few days after his return into his own country, was made a rear-admiral of the blue, and in a very short time, he was chosen member of parliament for Heydon in Yorkshire. On the 27th December 1744, when the duke of Bedford was appointed first lord of the admiralty, he was appointed one of the commissioners of the admiralty; and on the 23d of April, in the following year, was made a rear-admiral of the white. On the 14th of July 1746, he was raised to the rank of vice-admiral; and in the latter end of that year, and beginning of 1747, he commanded the squadron in the channel service, and bore the inconveniencies of a long and tempestuous winter navigation, with his usual patience and perseverance. Nothing would have frustrated the success of this expedition, but the accidental intelligence which was given, by the master of a Dutch vessel, to the duke of D'Arville's fleet, of admiral Anson's station and intention. However, being employed again early in the ensuing spring, he had an opportunity of rendering a very signal service of his country. Being then on board the Prince George, of 90 guns, with rear-admiral Warren, in the Devonshire, and twelve ships more under his command, he intercepted, on the 3d of May 1747, off Cape Fi nisterre, a considerable fleet, bound from France to the 'East and West Indies, and laden with merchandise, treasure, and warlike stores; and took six men of war, and four East Indiamen, not one of the enemy's vessels of war escaping. By this successful exploit, he defeated the pernicious designs of two hostile expeditions, and made a considerable addition to the force and riches of our own kingdom. M. St. George, captain of the Invincible, in allusion to the names of two of the ships which had been taken, and pointing to them at the same time, said, when he presented his sword to the conqueror, "Monsieur, vous avez vaincu l'Invincible, et la Gloire vous suit." On the 13th of June following, the king raised him to the honour of an English peerage, by the style and title of lord Anson, baron of Soberton, in the county of Southampton; and

his lordship made choice of a motto, very happily suited to his perils and his successes, NII. DESPERANDUM. On the 25th of April 1748, he married Elizabeth, eldest daughter of Philip lord Hardwicke, at that time lord high chancellor of Great Britain; but his lady died without issue on the 1st of June 1760.

On the 12th of July 1749, his lordship was made viceadmiral of Great Britain, an appointment that is more of a civil than a military nature; but which, nevertheless, is always given to a military man. On the 12th of June 1751, he was preferred to be first commissioner of the admiralty, in the room of the earl of Sandwich; and in the years 1752 and 1755, he was one of the lords justices of the kingdom, during his majesty's absence. The affair of Minorca occasioned him to be much blamed by the party writers of the time, in his character of first lord of the admiralty; but when this was inquired into, the resolutions of the House of Commons acquitted him and his colleagues of any neglect of duty. On the 16th of November 1756, upon a change of administration, he resigned his office in the admiralty; but, having been in the interval made an admiral, he was again placed at the head of the board, where he continued during the remainder of his life. He came in with his old friends, the duke of Newcastle and the earl of Hardwicke, and in the most honourable manner; for he resumed his seat with the concurrence of every individual in the ministry, Mr. Pitt resuming the seals as secretary of state, and with the particular approbation of king George II. All the rest of his conduct, as first commissioner of the admiralty, was crowned with success, under the most glorious administration which this country ever saw. The last time that he commanded at sea, was in 1758, to cover the expedition against the coast of France. Being then admiral of the white, and having hoisted his flag on board the Royal George, of 100 guns, he sailed from Spithead, on the first of June, with a formidable fleet, sir Edward Hawke serving under him; and by cruizing continually before Brest, he protected the descents which were made that summer at St. Malo's, Cherbourg, &c. The French fleet not venturing to come out, he kept his own squadron and seamen in constant exercise; a thing which he thought had been too much disregarded. On the 30th of July 1761, his lordship was raised to the dignity of admiral and commander in chief of the fleet;

and in a few days he sailed from Harwich, in the Charlotte yacht, to convoy her present majesty to England. In 1762, he went to Portsmouth, to accompany the queen's brother, prince Charles of Mecklenburgh, and to show him the arsenal, and the fleet which was then upon the point of sailing, under the command of sir George Pocock, for the Havannah. In attending the prince, however, he caught a violent cold, that was accompanied with a gouty disorder, under which he languished two or three months. This cold, at length, settled upon his lungs, and was the immediate occasion of his death. He died, at his seat at Moor Park, in Hertfordshire, on the 6th of June 1762, and was buried in the family vault at Colwich. His character may be justly estimated from the particulars we have given, In his official department, he acted with great judgment, and was a steady friend to merit. Of his private virtues, it is a sufficient test that he was never the object of slander or blame. It has, indeed, been asserted that he was addicted to gaming; but the author of the life we have followed in this account denies the charge, admitting only that he played for amusement. He left his fortune to his brother Thomas Anson, esq. who was member of parliament for Lichfield, a gentleman well known for his liberal patronage of, and his exquisite skill in, the fine On his decease, the united fortunes of the family devolved to his nephew, by his eldest sister, George Adams, esq. who assumed the name of Anson.

arts.

The history of lord Anson's voyage, although published: under the name of Mr. Walter, we have attributed to Mr. Robins. A general and uncontradicted report had for many years prevailed, that the work was drawn up by Mr. Robins, nor was this a vague report, but grounded on positive testimony. Dr. James Wilson had publicly asserted the faet, in the short account of Mr. Robins, which he prefixed to his edition of the mathematical tracts of that ingenious writer; and Mr. Martin in the life of Robins in his "Biographia Philosophica," speaks positively to the same purpose, although probably on Dr. Wilson's authority. Soon after the publication, however, of the first volume of the Biographia Britannica, in which the same assertion was repeated, the widow of Mr. Walter addressed a letter to the editor of that work, maintaining Mr. Walter's claim as author of the work; but in our opinion her proofs are far from affording more than a probability,

In our article of Robins this dispute will be adverted to more particularly. 1

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ANSON (PETER HUBERT), a miscellaneous French writer, was born at Paris, July 18, 1744, and at first was in practice as a lawyer, but afterwards was taken into the office of the comptroller general of finances, and became successively receiver-general for Dauphiny, a member of the central committee of receivers-general, a deputy of the constituent assembly, and farmer of the post, which last place he filled until his death, Nov. 20, 1810. During the reign of terror, he was long concealed in the house of one of the members of the Jacobin club, to whom he promised a pension for this service, which he afterwards paid most punctually. He was considered as an able financier, and a man of much taste in literature. He wrote, 1. " Anecdotes sur le famille de Le Fevre, de la branche d'Ormesson," printed in the Journal Encyclopedique for 1770. 2. "Deux memoires historiques sur les villes de Milly et de Nemours, printed in the "Nouvelles recherches sur la France," 1766, 2 vols. 12mo. 3. "Les deux seigneurs, ou l'Alchymiste,' a comedy, 1783, partly written by M. L. Th. Herissant. 4. A translation of Anacreon, 1795, 3 vols. 12mo, of which the notes are thought preferable to the text. 5. A translation of Lady Montague's letters. 6. Several Reports to the Constituent Assembly, short pieces in various collections, and songs, &c. *

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ANSTEY (CHRISTOPHER), an ingenious poet of the eighteenth century, was born Oct. 31, 1724. He was the son of the Rev. Christopher Anstey, D. D. by Mary, daughter of Anthony Thompson, esq. of Trumpington, in Čambridgeshire. He was first educated at Bury St. Edmunds, under the Rev. Arthur Kinsman, and thence removed to Eton, where he was distinguished for industry and talents. In 1742 he succeeded to a scholarship of King's College, Cambridge, and soon added to his fame as a classical scholar by the Tripos verses which he wrote for the Cambridge commencement, while an undergraduate in the year 1745. In the same year he was admitted fellow of King's College, and in 1746 took his bachelor's degree. He was, however, interrupted in his progress towards his master's degree by having engaged in an opposition to what he

Biographia Britannica,-Wilson's Life of Robins,-Nichols's Life of Bowyer, vol. II. p. 205. 2 Biog. Universelle.

casional conformity: for which his name appeared amongst the "Tackers" in the prints of that time. He was appointed in 1703 deputy-general to the auditors of imprest, but he never executed this office; and in the second year of queen Anne's reign, one of the principal commissioners of prizes. His love of, and great knowledge in the science of arms so strongly recommended him, that April 2, 1714, the queen gave him a reversionary patent for the place of Garter. Probably this passage in a MS letter to the lord treasurer, dated March 14, 1711-12, relates to his having the grant. He says, "I have a certain information it would be ended forthwith, if the lord treasurer would honour me by speaking to her majesty at this time, which, in behalf of the duke of Norfolk, I most earnestly desire, and humbly beg your lordship's assistance therein. If it be delayed for some days, I shall then be back as far as the delivery of my petition. I am obliged to attend this morning at the exchequer, about the tin affair, and thereby prevented from waiting upon your lordship." If it does relate to the reversionary patent, it is evident that he long wished, and with difficulty obtained it. In the last parliament of Anne he was returned a member for Dunheved, or Launceston, and he sat in the first parliament of George I. He fell under the suspicion of government, as favouring a design to restore the Stuarts, was imprisoned, and at this critical time Garter's place became vacant, by the death of the venerable sir Henry St. George. He immediately claimed the office, but his grant was disregarded; and, October 26, 1715, sir John Vanbrugh, Clarenceux, had the appointment. Unawed by power, fearless of danger, and confident in innocence, he first freed himself from all criminality in having conspired against the succession of the illustrious house of Brunswick, and then prosecuted his claim to the office of garter, pleading the right of the late queen to give him the place. It was argued, that in a contest about the right of nomination in the reign of Charles II. the sovereign gave it up, only retaining the confirmation of the earl marshal's choice: Mr. Anstis úrged, that Charles only waved his claim. The matter came to a hearing April 4, 1717, and the competitors claimed under their different grants; but the controversy did not end until April 20, 1718, when the right being acknowledged to be in Mr. Anstis, he was created Garter. He had, for some time previous to this decision in his

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