ward. In this he was so far successful as to ascertain the vicinity of the continents of Asia and America, which had never been done, or but very imperfectly, before. From these desolate regions he returned to the island of Oonalashka; whence having refitted and taken in provisions, he again sailed southward, and on the 26th of November reached the Sandwich islands. Seven weeks were spent in exploring the coasts of the Owhyhee island; and during all this time they continued to maintain the most friendly intercourse with the people, who, however, appeared to be much more numerous and powerful than those of any island our navigators had yet touched at. Several of the chiefs and principal people attached themselves to Cook, and in general the people appeared to be much more honest and peaceable in their dispositions than any whom they had ever visited. But by the time they had finished their circumnavigation of the island, and cast anchor in a bay called Karakakooa, matters were greatly altered. An universal disposition to theft and plunder was now manifested, and it was evident that the common people were encouraged in this by their chiefs, who shared the booty with them. Still, however, no hostilities were commenced, and the greatest honours were paid to the commander on his going ashore. On the 4th of February, 1779, they left the island. Unluckily they encountered a storm on the 6th and 7th of the same month, during which the Resolution sprung the head of her foremast in such a manner, that they were obliged to return to Karakakooa bay to have it repaired. The former friendly intercourse was now renewed with the natives, and Captain Cook was treated with the usual honours ; but on the 13th circumstances occurred which gave a new aspect to affairs. After various scuffles with the natives in the recovery of stolen property, it was found that the large cutter of the Discovery had been carried off in the night time. On this being reported, Captain Cook ordered the launch and small cutter, under the command of the second lieutenant, to lie off the east point of the bay in order to intercept all the canoes that might attempt to get out, and, if necessary, to fire upon them. The third lieutenant of the Resolution was despatched at the same time to the western part of the bay; while the master was sent in pursuit of a large double canoe already under sail, and making the best of her way out of the harbour. He soon came up with her, and by firing a few shots, obliged her to run on shore. This canoe belonged to a chief named Omai, whose person was reckoned equally sacred with that of the king, and to his not having been secured may be attributed the succeeding disaster. Captain Cook now formed the daring resolution of going in person to seize the king himself in his capital. With this view he left the ship about seven o'clock in the morning of Sunday the 14th of February, being attended by the lieutenant of marines, a sergeant, a corporal, and seven private men. The crew of the pinnace, under the command of Mr Roberts, were also armed. As they rowed towards the shore, the captain ordered the launch to leave her station at the opposite point of the bay, in order to assist his own boat. Having landed with the marines at the upper end of the town, the natives flocked round him, and prostrated themselves, as usual, before him. No sign of hostility, nor even of much alarm, yet appeared; the king's sons waited on the commander as soon as he sent for them, and by them he was introduced to the king, who readily con

sented to go on board. But in a little time the natives began to arm themselves with long spears, clubs, and daggers, and to put on the thick mats which they used as defensive armour. These hostile demonstrations were hastened by an unlucky rumour, that one of the chiefs had been killed by the people of the Discovery's boats. On this the women, who had hitherto sat on the beach conversing familiarly and taking their breakfast, rose up and retired, and a confused murmur ran through the crowd. The captain now beginning to think his situation dangerous, ordered the marines to march towards the shore; he accompanied them holding the king's hand, attended by his wife, two sons, and several chiefs. The natives made a lane for them to pass; and as the distance they had to go was only about fifty or sixty yards, and the boats lay at no more than five or six yards distance from land, there was not the least apprehension of the catastrophe that ensued. The king's younger son, Keowa, went on board the pinnace without the least hesitation, and the king was about to follow, when his wife threw her arms about his neck, and, with the assistance of two chiefs, forced him to sit down. The captain might now have safely got aboard, but did not immediately relinquish the design of taking the king along with him. Finding at last, however, that this could not be accomplished without a great deal of bloodshed, he was on the point of giving orders for the people to re-embark, when one of the natives threw a stone at him. This insult was returned by the captain, who had a double barrelled piece in his hand, by a discharge of small-shot from one of the barrels. The king's son, Keowa, was still in the pinnace, but unluckily Mr Roberts set him ashore at his own request soon after the first fire. In the mean time another Indian was observed in the act of brandishing his spear at the commander; who fired in his own defence. Missing his aim, however, he killed one close by his side; upon which the sergeant received orders to fire also, which he did, and killed the offender on the spot. This disconcerted the foremost of the natives, and made them fall back in a body; but they were urged on again by those behind, and discharged a volley of stones among the marines, who immediately returned it by a general discharge of their muskets, which was instantly followed by a fire from the boats. Captain Cook expressed his astonishment at their firing, waved his hand to them to cease, and called to the people in the boats to come nearer to receive the marines. This order was obeyed by Mr Roberts; but the lieutenant who commanded the launch, instead of coming nearer, put off to a greater distance. Meanwhile, the natives, exasperated by the fire of the marines, rushed in upon them, and drove them into the water, leaving Captain Cook alone upon the rock. A fire indeed was kept up by both boats; but the one was so far off, and the other so crowded with the marines, that they could not direct their fire with proper effect. Captain Cook was then observed making for the pinnace, carrying his musket under his arm, and holding his other hand on the back part of his head to guard it from the stones. A native was seen following him, but with marks of fear, as he stopped once or twice, seemingly undetermined to proceed. At last he struck the captain on the back of the head with a club, and then precipitately retreated. Captain Cook staggered forward a few paces, and then fell on his hand and one knee, and dropped his musket. Before he could recover himself, another

native stabbed him with a dagger in the neck. He then fell into a pool of water knee-deep, where others crowded upon him ; but still he struggled violently with them, got up his head, and looked towards the pinnace as if soliciting assistance. The boat was not above five or six yards' distance; but such was the confused and crowded state of the crew, that no assistance could be given him. At last a savage struck him with a club, which probably put an end to his life, as he was never seen to struggle more. The natives hauled the lifeless body up on the rocks, and used it in the most barbarous manner, snatching the daggers out of one another's hands, in order to enjoy the pleasure of mangling it. After all, we are informed, that, in the opinion of Captain Philips who commanded the marines, it is very doubtful whether any effectual aid could have been given Captain Cook, even if no mistake had been committed on the part of the lieutenant of the launch. The author of all the mischief was Pareah, the chief already mentioned, who had employed people to steal the boat in the night-time. The king was entirely innocent both of the theft and of the murder of Captain Cook. It was found impossible to recover all the mangled remains of Captain Cook's body. By dint of threats and negotiations, however, some of the parts were procured. These being put in a coffin, and the service read over them, were committed to the deep, with the usual military honours, on the 21st of February, 1779.

His

Captain Cook was a man of plain address and appearance. His head was small, and he wore his hair, which was brown, tied behind. face was full of expression;—his nose exceedingly well-shaped;—his eyes, which were small and of a brown cast, were quick and piercing, and his eye-brows prominent. His countenance altogether had an air of austerity.

Sir William Blackstone.

BORN A. D. 1723.—died A. D. 1780.

THIS illustrious English lawyer was the fourth son of Charles Blackstone, a silkman in London. He was born on the 10th of July, 1723, after the death of his father. His uncle, Mr Thomas Bigg, an eminent surgeon, took charge of his education, and at the age of seven he was admitted on the foundation of the Charter house. At the age of fifteen he was admitted a commoner of Pembroke college, Oxford. His progress at school had been very satisfactory; at college he continued to distinguish himself by the assiduity and regularity with which he pursued his studies. Having selected the law as his profession, he entered the Middle temple on the 20th of November, 1741. It cost the young collegian no small effort to tear himself from the society of his beloved muses for such a sacrifice he deemed necessary to final success in the path of life which he had chosen for himself. The feelings with which he made the exchange are admirably expressed in some verses from his pen entitled The Lawyer's Farewell to his Muse,' published in the fourth volume of Dodsley's collection. In November, 1743, he was elected into the society of All Souls' college. On the 12th of June,

1745, he commenced bachelor of civil law, and on the 28th of November, 1746, he was called to the bar.

Mr Blackstone remained unnoticed for several years, and of course acquired little practice. But having been elected bursar at Oxford, soon after he had taken his degree, and finding the muniments of the college in a very confused state, he employed a portion of his leisure in reducing them into order. He also superintended the arrangement of the Codrington library about this time. On the 26th of April, 1750,

he commenced doctor of civil law. In this year appeared his Essay on Collateral consanguinity,' which had been suggested by the regulation. of his college, according to which all who could prove themselves of kin to the founder had a preferable right of election into the society. In the summer of 1753 he resolved to retire from the practice of a profession the profits of which failed to cover his expenses, and to support himself by his fellowship and private lecturing. He had already been recommended to the chair of civil law at Oxford by Mr Murray, afterwards Lord Mansfield, but on being introduced to the duke of Newcastle, and questioned by his grace whether, in case of any political agitation in the university, his majesty's government might rely upon his exertions, "Your grace may be assured that I will discharge my duty in giving law-lectures to the best of my poor ability," was the reply. "And your duty in the other branch too?" added his grace. Mr Blackstone merely bowed in answer, and a few days after Dr Jenner was appointed to the vacant chair.1 In the ensuing Michaelmas term he commenced reading his 'Lectures on the Laws of England' to a very crowded class. Of these lectures he published an Analysis' in 1756. In that year Mr Viner, the laborious compiler of an extensive abridgment of the English law, died, and bequeathed the whole profits of his compilation to the university, for the purpose of promoting the study of the common law. Mr Viner's benefaction led to the foundation of a professorship of English law, to which Mr Blackstone was immediately appointed with a salary of £200. His introductory lecture, afterwards prefixed to the first volume of the 'Commentaries,' has been greatly and most deservedly admired. In 1759 he resumed practice in London, visiting Oxford at stated times only for the delivery of his lectures. In the same year he edited a magnificent edition of Magna Charta and the Forest charter. Both these works issued from the Clarendon press, of which he had been the principal reformer. In 1761 he was elected representative for Hindon in Wiltshire; and on the 6th of May following had a patent of precedence granted to him to rank as king's counsel, having a few months before declined the office of chiefjustice of the court of common pleas in Ireland. Mr Blackstone now vacated his fellowship by marriage, and was soon after appointed principal of New Inn hall. In 1763 he received the appointment of solicitor-general to the queen. Many imperfect and incorrect copies of his lectures had by this time been circulated in manuscript amongst the profession, and a pirated edition of them was understood to be passing through the press. Mr Blackstone therefore found himself under the necessity of taking the work of publication into his own hands, and, in November, 1765, the first volume of his Commentaries on the Laws.

'Holliday's Life of Mansfield, p. 89.

of England' was published. The other three volumes of this great work appeared in the course of the four succeeding years. Mr Blackstone's performance almost instantly superseded the initiatory professional works, such as Finch's Law' and Wood's Institutes; but detractors and censors were not wanting to assail it, and thoroughly sift its claims to public approbation. Amongst the latter class was one whose opinions on such a point were not to be treated with disrespect. In 1776 Mr Jeremy Bentham published a 'Comment on the Commentaries,' in which he especially, and certainly not without reason, censures the antipathy to reformation' which he everywhere discovered in Mr Blackstone's work. But Mr Roscoe has justly remarked "that Mr Blackstone did not profess, in the language of Mr Bentham, to be a censor, but merely an expositor of the law." His object was, in fact, to show what the law of England is, not what it ought to be. And Mr Bentham has himself pronounced the following high eulogium upon the excellent method and exquisite style of Mr Blackstone's work :—“ Correct, elegant, unembarrassed, ornamented, the style is such as could scarce fail to recommend a work still more vicious in point of matter to the multitude of readers. He it is, in short, who, first of all institutional writers, has taught jurisprudence to speak the language of the scholar and the gentleman; put a polish upon that rugged science; cleansed her from the dust and cobwebs of the office; and if he has not enriched her with that precision which is drawn only from the sterling treasury of the sciences, has decked her out, however, to advantage, from the toilet of classic erudition; enlivened her with metaphors and allusions; and sent her abroad in some measure to instruct, and in still greater measure to entertain, the most miscellaneous and even the most fasti.dious societies. The merit to which, as much perhaps as to any, the work stands indebted for its reputation, is the enchanting harmony of its numbers; a kind of merit that of itself is sufficient to give a certain degree of celebrity to a work devoid of every other: so much is man governed by the ear.' On the style of the Commentaries a high panegyric has been pronounced by Mr Fox. In a letter addressed to Mr Trotter, he says, "You, of course, read Blackstone over and over again ; and if so, pray tell me whether you agree with me in thinking his style of English the very best among our modern writers; always easy and intelligible, far more correct than Hume, and less studied and made up than Robertson." Of the political tendencies of the Commentaries, however, Mr Fox expressed a very different opinion. In the debate on the admission of Lord Ellenborough into the cabinet, the authority of Mr Justice Blackstone having been relied on, Mr Fox said, "His purity of style I particularly admire. He was distinguished as much for simplicity and strength as any writer in the English language. He was perfectly free from all Gallicisms and ridiculous affectations, for which so many of our modern authors and orators are so remarkable. Upon this ground, therefore, I esteem Judge Blackstone; but as a constitutional writer he is by no means an object of my esteem; and for this amongst other reasons, that he asserts the latter years of the reign of Charles the Second, (I mean those which followed the enactment of the habeas corpus act,) to have been the most constitutional period to

* Roscoe's Lives of Eminent Lawyers, in Lardner's Cyclopædia, p. 249.