bench, when he added intimate knowledge of the intricacies of law to an unusual personal preference for judges, and the prestige which almost unvarying success gave him.' He received a silk gown in 1816. He had before that date made unsuccessful attempts to get into parliament, where he first sat in 1818 for Peterborough, a nomination seat. He was one of the many eminent lawyers whose peculiar forensic powers have failed to please the House of Commons, and he was not much heard there except on professional matters. He had been an advocate of Romilly's law reforms, and was generally counted in the Whig ranks, but he took a distinct step in a gradual change, by becoming attorney-general under Canning in 1827. When Sir Charles Wetherall was dismissed in 1829, for opposition to Catholic emancipation, Scarlett took a farther step by becoming again attorney-general under the Wellington administration, and he followed up his accession by severe prosecutions of the opposition papers. In 1834 he was made chief baron of the Exchequer, and raised to the peerage by the title of Baron Abinger. He died on 7th April, 1844, of paralysis, which attacked him when on circuit at Bury St. Edmonds. His first wife, married in 1792, died in 1829, and he was married a second time, a few months before his death. [J.H.B.] ABINGTON,THOS., an English hist., 1560-1647. ABINGTON, FR., a comic actress, 1731-1815. ABLESON, JOHN, a naval commander, 17th ct. ABNEY, SIR TH., distinguished for his friendship to Dr. Watts, and his public spirit while lord mayor of London in 1700; died 1722.

ACCUM, FR., an eminent chemist, 1769-1838. ACKERMANN, J. F., a physiologist, 1765-1813. ACKERMANN, RUDOLPH, a German tradesman settled in London, noted for his improvements in Lithography, 1764-1834.

ACKMAN, WM., a Scotch artist, cotemporary with the poet Thomson, whose merits he was the first to appreciate.

ACKWORTH, G. DR., one of the reformation authors, a favourite of Archbishop Parker.

ACOSTA, J., edt. of the Calcutta Times, d. 1820. ACTON, JOHN or JOSEPH, the son of an Irish physician, settled at Besançon, became prime minister at the court of Naples towards the close of the last century, and is noted as a bitter opponent of the French, 1737-1808.

ADAIR, JAMES, an Indian trader, author of a work in which he deduces the descent of the North American Indians from the Hebrews, pub. 1775. ADAIR, JAMES, serjeant at law, distinguished as a counsellor and recorder of London, died 1798. ADAIR, JAMES MAKITTRICK, a Scotch physician, auth. of several professional works, d. 1802. ADAIR, JOHN, F.R.S., a Scotchman, distinguished as an hydrographer, end of 17th century. ADAM, ALEX., LL.D., a learned schoolmaster of Edinb., au. of Roman Antiquities,' &c., 1741-1809. ADAM, ROBERT, a celebrated architect, much employed in London in conjunction with his brother James, most distinguished for the Adelphi Buildings, 1728-1792.

ADAM, ROBERT, author of the 'Religious World Displayed,' 1770-1826.

ADAM, TH., a clergyman who continued rector of Wintringham for 58 years, though preferment was continually offered him, 1701-1784.

ADAM, Rt. Hon. WM., a distinguished lawyer and politician, finally chief commissioner of the Scottish Jury Court, 1751-1839.

ADAMS, ABIG., cel. by her 'Letters,' 1744-1818. ADAMS, GEO., cel. as a mathematical inst. maker, and scientific writer, died 1786. ADAMS,GEO., son of the preceding, author of an 'Essay on Vision,' &c. 1750-1795.

ADAMS, JOHN, the assumed name of Alex. Smith, one of the principal mutineers of the Bounty, and since known as the patriarch of Pitcairn's Island, where the mutineers settled; d. 1829. ADAMS, JOHN, an astrol., reign of Charles II. ADAMS, JOHN, a minister of the Scotch church in Hatton Garden, and author of many works of elementary instruction, died 1814.

ADAMS, Jos., an em. medical au., 1758-1818. ADAMS, SIR TH., lord mayor of London, 1645, distinguished as a royalist, 1586-1667.

ADAMS, Wм., an English divine, a friend of Dr. Johnson, and author of an answer to Hume on Miracles, 1707-1789.

ADAMSON, PAT., abp. of St. Andrews, equally noted for his talents and misfortunes, 1536-1599. ADAMSON, HY., nephew of the preceding, and author of a curious poem, died 1639.

ADAMUS SCOTUS, a cel. author of the 12th century, best known for his curious Dialogue between the Reason and the Soul.'

ADDINGTON, ANTH., a physician and politician, father of Lord Sidmouth, 1713-1790. ADDINGTON, S., D.D., a dis. minis. 1729-1796. ADDISON, G. HY., author of 'Indian Reminiscences,' born 1793.

ADDISON, LAUNCELOT, father of the celebrated writer, and dean of Lichfield, was early distinguished by his attachment to the Stuarts. He is the author of several works; 1632-1703.

ADDISON, JOSEPH, was the eldest son of a clergyman, able and learned, but not wealthy. He was born in 1672, at the rectory of Milston in Wiltshire. He was educated chiefly at the Charter House and at Oxford, and distinguished himself as a writer of Latin verses, a good many of which were afterwards published. He first appeared in print by contributing English verses, some of which were original, and others translations from the classics, to Dryden's collections of miscellaneous poems. Another of his poetical efforts was a poem complimenting king William on the campaign in which he took Namur. It was written after he had been introduced to the notice of leading statesmen of the Whig party; whose patronage of him, prompted by their expectation of his usefulness in political life, appears to have been the cause of his abandoning the intention he once had of entering the church. A pension, procured for him by the interest of Lord Somers, enabled him, in 1699, to visit the continent, where he resided for three years. The best of his poems, a' Letter from Italy,'

addressed to Lord Halifax, his earliest patron, was written in 1701, while he was still abroad; and his 'Travels in Italy,' the first large work which he attempted in prose, exhibited very promisingly both his classical and miscellaneous knowledge, and his skill and liveliness in composition. Not very long after his return to England, he wrote, on the suggestion of the prime minister Godolphin, 'The Campaign,' a poem celebrating Marlborough's victory at Blenheim. He immediately received an appointment as one of the commissioners of excise, the place having become vacant by the death of the celebrated Locke; he was speedily promoted to be an under-secretary of state; and he was secretary to the lord lieutenant of Ireland in 1710, when the ministry which he served was dismissed from office. -The time of his steadiest and most successful activity in literature embraced the four years extending from this loss of place to the end of Queen Anne's reign. The Tories being in power, he was excluded from public employment. But, a short while before this, he had begun to produce those periodical essays by which his fame has been longest and most securely preserved. In 1709, he began to furnish papers to the Tatler, which was conducted by his schoolfellow and friend, Richard Steele. Early in 1711, these two writers com

Birth place of Addison.

menced the Spectator, which was continued every week-day till the close of the following year. It was then dropped, after having made up the 555 numbers commonly printed in its first seven volumes; Addison and Steele contributing almost equally, and together writing all the essays except sixty or seventy. In the course of 1713, the Guardian received a large number of essays from Addison: and then also appeared his celebrated tragedy of Cato.' The immense popularity which, partly through political considerations, this stately drama gained, both among readers and among playgoers, raised the reputation of the author to its highest point. During the latter half of the year 1714, he contributed a good many papers to the new series of the Spectator, making up its eighth volume.-The accession of George I., occurring a little before the publication of the Spectator was closed,

4

restored the Whigs to power, and thus again diverted Addison from literature to politics. After having acted as secretary to the regency, he was appointed one of the lords of trade. Down to this point in his history, there seems to have been really no good ground for the allegations commonly made of his inefficiency as a man of business. He had, indeed, failed in parliament, having either not spoken at all, or broken down in the only attempt he made. His literary celebrity, however, and his modesty and urbanity of manners, though they might have procured him a reception into the society of persons of rank, could not have obtained and preserved the confidence of successive statesmen if he had not been quite competent to the practical details of office. But it cannot well be doubted that he was unfit, though it had been only through his inefficiency as a debater, for the last step which he ventured to take on the ladder of ambition. In 1717, a dissension having occurred in the ministry, Townsend and Walpole, the ablest members of the cabinet, passed over to the opposition: and in the administration which was formed by the other Whigs, Addison became a principal secretary of state, having Lord Sunderland, Marlborough's son-in-law, as his colleague. His acceptance of this office is commonly attributed to the influence of his wife, the Countess-Dowager of Warwick; whom he had married a few months before, and who is said to have, by her haughtiness and violence, made her husband unhappy, and to have driven him to dissipation as a means of escape from domestic discomfort. That Addison did become sottish in the last years of his life has not been clearly proved; and one is glad to catch at any reasons for disbelieving it. At all events, his health was now giving way; and the state of it was made the excuse for his resignation of office, which he tendered in April, 1718, after having held it for less than a year. His only subsequent efforts in literature that are worth noticing were, an angry controversy with his old friend Steele, who had joined the opposition section of the Whigs, and his uncompleted treatise on the Evidences of Christianity. He died at Holland House, in Kensington, in June, 1719, a few weeks after having completed his forty-seventh year.-Addison's poetry is of very small account. His minor compositions in verse hold but a low rank cven in that didactic and half-prosaic school to which they belong. 'Cato' itself owed its fame, in a great measure, to extrinsic circumstances: and it could not have been successful at all had not dramatic art been then in a state of decay. It is a series of dialogues rather than a drama: its speeches, often eloquent, and almost always morally noble, are seldom truly poetical, and never passionate or pathetic: and there is an equal feebleness in the incidents and in the characters. It must be allowed, likewise, that no very great value belongs to any of his prose writings, except his contributions to the Spectator and other periodical papers. These, however, make up a large mass of literary compositions, and possess distinguished merit and importance. In the history of English style, a

unavoidable faults of all didactic poetry, but hovers in a middle sphere between fancy and philosophy, in a manner which makes it obscure and unsatisfactory, even to readers who are both poetical and metaphysical. But it contains some noble pictures, many trains of finely reflective sentiment, and not a few nice felicities of diction. His subsequent effusions in verse comprehended only a few very poor odes, some classically-conceived inscriptions, and a 'Hymn to the Naiads.' After having unsuccessfully attempted medical practice in the country, he removed to London, being aided by a pension from a wealthy and generous friend. He now busied himself chiefly in professional pursuits, attaining some scientific eminence, but no large share of employment. He was a man of high respectability and integrity, but dogmatic and irascible; and his brotherphysician, Smollett, ridiculed his pedantry in his description of the feast in the manner of the ancients.' He died in 1770. [W.S.] ALABASTER, WM., a learned divine, d. 1640. ALAN, ALLEN, ALLYN, or ALLEYN, WM., an English cardinal, who, in the interest of the Romish church, prompted the intended invasion of England by Philip II., 1532-1594.

ALAN, of Tewkesbury, the friend and historian of Thomas á Beckett, died 1201.

ALAND, SIR J. FORTESCUE, otherwise Lord Fortescue, an able judge and man of letters, born 1670, died btw. 1733 and 1748.

ALANSON, EDW., a cel. surgeon, 1747-1823. ALBAN, ST., first Christian martyr of Great Britain, killed at Rome, 303.

ALBANI, or ALBANY, LOUISA MARIA CAROLINE, countess of, the unfortunate wife of the last pretender, Charles Stuart, married 1772, d. 1824.

ALBANY, a ducal name, assumed by many princes of the royal house of Scotland. The first line began with the son of Robert II., and was extinguished in H. Stuart, 1460. The second line commenced with Alexander Stuart, second son of James II., and failed in his son John, who d. 1536. ALBEMARLE, duke of. See MONK. ALBEMARLE, A. J., KEPPEL, count of, a Dutch gen., favourite of William III. 1669-1718. ALBERIC, a monastic historian, 13th century. ALCOCK, JOHN, a comp. of music, d. 1806. ALCOCK, NATHAN, a physician, celebrated as a lecturer on anatomy, last century.

ALCOCK, J., founder of Jesus College, Cambridge, d. 1500.

ALCOCK, THOS., a medical writer, d 1833. ALCUIN, or as he Latinized his name, FLACCUS ALBINUS ALCUINUS, was in all likelihood born at York about the year 735. Educated in the monastic school at York, under Egbert and Aelbert, both of whom afterwards held the see of York, he was promoted subsequently to be master of the same school, and taught in it till 780. Archbishop Eanbald sent him, in 781, to Rome, to get for him the pallium, and Alcuin, on his return, visited Charlemagne, at Parma. The emperor at once became deeply attached to him, brought him to his court, and heaped upon him honours and

emoluments. At the court of Charlemagne, Alcuin was a general preceptor and counsellor. Ultimately he retired to Tours, where he died 19th May, 804. Alcuin was not only a distinguished scholar, polemic, and poet himself, but aided and directed his imperial master in patriotically diffusing through the empire the means of literary and theological education. He assisted at the councils of Frankfort and Aix-la-Chapelle, at which the errors of Felix and Elispandus on the person of Christ were condemned. Altogether he was the most distinguished man of his age. [J. E.] ALDHELM, ST., an English prelate, d. 709. ALDHUN, bp. of Durham 29 years, d. 1018. ALDRED, archbishop of York, by whom William the Conqueror was crowned, d. 1069. ALDRICH, HY., a theological scholar, famous also as an architect and com. of music, 1647-1710. ALDRICH, ROBT., bishop of Carlisle, d. 1555. ALES, ALEX., a Lutheran divine, d. 1565. ALEXANDER, J., a Scotch engraver, celebrated for his copies of Raphael, 18th century. ALEXANDER, THOS., earl of Selkirk, known as a political writer and colonist, died 1820. ALEXANDER, Wм., an artist, author of a work on the costume of China, 1786-1816.

ALEXANDER, SIR W., Earl of Stirling, a statesman and poet of Scotland, d. 1640.

ALEXANDER, WILLIAM, a major-general in the American army; usually called Lord Stirling, from his claim to the earldom, died 1783.

ALEXANDER, J., a writer on algebra, 1693. ALEXANDER, king of Scotland. The first, son of Malcolm, 1107-1124; the second, 1214-1249. ALEXANDER III., son of the preceding, born 1241; crowned, 1249; defeated the king of Norway, 1263; died, 1286.

ALEXIS, WILLIAM, a Norman monk and poet, supposed to have been martyred, 15th century. ALEYN, CHARLES, an English poet, d. 1640. ALFRED, an English bishop and historical writer of the 10th century.

ALFRED, the 'Philosopher,' a writer greatly esteemed at Rome in the 13th century.

ALFRED, a king of Northumberland, 7th cent. ALFRED, the bastard, brother and successor of the preceding, noted for his love of letters.

ALFRED, a Saxon prince, brother of Edward the Confessor, who met with a cruel death in an attempt to gain the crown, early in the 11th cent.

ALFRED, AELFRED, or ALURED, a celebrated Saxon monarch, is commonly called The Great, and has better merited that title, by eminent services to the world, than perhaps any other of the celebrated monarchs who have borne it. He is one of the men whose life forms an era, and thus, like Lycurgus and Charlemagne, his name is associated not only with the legislative improvements actually accomplished by him, but with many others which had an earlier origin, and came to maturity near the time of his reign. From the propensity to attribute to him every early and beneficent feature in the English constitution, it is sometimes difficult to discover his actual achievements; while annalists and historians, anxious to

provide an ample account of one so famous, have endeavoured to give particulars of so many events in his life which could not be ascertained, that it is difficult to separate the truth from the falsehood, and tell what is really known of him. It seems well ascertained that he was born in the middle of the 9th century; the year is stated as 849. He was the youngest son of Ethelwolf, king of the West Saxons. Giving promise of great capacity, his father gave him in his early youth opportunities of instruction by travelling twice to Rome, and living for some time in France; and there is no doubt that the knowledge thus acquired by him of a higher civilization, prepared him for the exercise of that beneficent influence over his people which enabled him to accomplish so many social improvements among them. While his elder brother, Ethelred, was king, they were both called on by the king of Mercia to assist him and his people against the Danish hordes overrunning the

country, and oppressing the Saxon people They conducted a long contest with varied success; but though conduct and leadership seem to have been on the side of the Saxon princes, the Danes had numbers and ferocity. At a battle near Reading, Ethelred received a mortal wound, in the year 871, and when he died Alfred succeeded him. He derived but gloomy prospects from the state of the country, deeming the triumph of the Danes inevitable, but with an energy and courage, which in spite of painful disorders never left him, he resolved to defend, step by step, the territories committed to his charge. A confused history follows, in the course of which it is said that nine great battles were fought in one year. The Danes, receiving ever fresh recruits from the continent, pressed him by degrees, until he ceased to command an army, or even a guard, and, wandering alone, found safety in a peasant's hut at Athelney, in Somersetshire. The old chroniclers tell a story so characteristic, that it has secured general belief, about

his being set by the peasant's wife to watch the baking of some cakes, and when his mind far away devising projects for relieving his country from the invaders he allowed the cakes to burn, the honest woman scolding him sarcastically as one ready enough to attend to the function of eating them, though he could not be at pains enough to watch them.-After he had been a few months in this retreat, he found means to gather some of his most trusty followers, and to make at last a small army, which harassed the conquerors, and gradually increased. There is a well-known legend of his preparing at last for a pitched battle with the leader of the Northmen, Guthrun or Gorm, and ascertaining beforehand the state and number of the forces, by penetrating the camp in the disguise of a harper. The battle which followed crowned a series of successes, and in the year 897 restored him to his throne. It was his policy not to attempt the extirpation of the marauders, but to christianize and civilize them, mixing them up with the other inhabitants of the country. The Danish chiefs, from fellow-kings, sunk to tributaries, and, in the year 894, Alfred might be said to be king of England. He had not been long at rest, however, ere the Danes, reinforced from the continent, and headed by a powerful leader, Hastings, drove him into a new and arduous conflict, which terminated in his favour in the year 897. In the meantime he built vessels, and trained men so effectively in maritime warfare, that he has been deemed the founder of the British navy. He confirmed and consolidated the Saxon institutions, which divided the country into grades of municipalities, making the several communities of citizens checks on each other's conduct, by being responsible for the offences committed within their respective communities. Thence he has been called the inventor of the arrangement of the country into shires, hundreds, and tithings, though he probably only regulated and confirmed what had been previously in existence. He has been called the author of trial by jury, but in our present understanding of the system, it was not in practice until long after his day. He was a great scholar and author, and translated Boethius on the Consolations of Philosophy, with other works, into Saxon. died either in 899 or 900. The memoir of him, which bears the name of his contemporary Asser, was long deemed a genuine life, but its authenticity has of late been doubted. [J.H.B.]

He

ALISON, R., an Eng. composer, 16th century. ALISON, REV. ARCHIBALD, a minister of the Scottish Episcopal Church, celebrated for his philosophical essay on Taste, 1757-1828.

b.

ALLAN, D., a Scotch painter, 1744-1796. ALLAN, GEO., son of the preceding, d. 1828. ALLAN, GEO., an English antiquary, d. 1800. ALLAN, SIR WILLIAM, a disting. hist. painter, in Edinburgh, 1782; suc. Sir David Wilkie as President of the Royal Scot. Acad. 1841; d. 1850. ALLEIN, JOSEPH, author of the Alarm to Unconverted Sinners,' 1623-1688. ALLEN, JOHN, chancellor of Ireland, murdered by the Earl of Kildare, 1534.