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copying of it committed to his charge; so that the task of reviling Opposition has necessarily fallen, Sir, to your lot. You began with poor Junius, -you next attacked old Homer; both of whom you have cruelly mangled; and you have literally speaking, disfigured Opposition. The opinion I entertain of the work and the author, however, may be better collected from the following observations, than from anything, which could properly come in the shape of an introductory epistle. I therefore beg leave to refer Mr. M'Pherson to the Observations for further particulars." Both these assertions are false. Mr. Lind was never employed on any such work. "Lord Mansfield," said Mr. Bentham to my friend, Mr. Bowring, (June 2, 1827.) "6 never did anything for Lind. The King of Poland introduced Lind to Lord M., who said that he wanted no introduction to his good services; for that Mr. Lind would have them without. But Lord M. was of no service to him. Lord Stourmont was Ambassador both at Paris and Vienna."

The reply to Junius, under the signature of Modestus, was not written by Mr. M'Pherson. "The gentleman, who wrote several Letters under this signature in the Gazetteer, and subsequently in the Public Advertiser, was a Mr. Dalrymple, a Scotch Advocate. For a specimen of his stile, see Misc. Lett. 67. V. 3. p. 242." Dr. Mason Good, in Mr. Woodfall's edition of Junius's Letters 2, 28.

A general, however erroneous, idea seems at the time to have prevailed that Lord Mansfield was the patron of Mr. Lind :-" If Lord Mansfield was ambitious of being thought a Macenas, which was supposed, that may be pretended to be some excuse for his judgment on this question, (Campbell v. Hall, Nov. 25, 1774.) in the Court of King's Bench, but cannot apologize for abandoning his own character in the House of Lords. By his patronage of Sir John Dalrymple, who compiled The Memoirs of Great Britain, already mentioned in the preceding chapter; and of Mr. Lind, who wrote some Tracts entitled Letters on Poland, in which the late King of Prussia

is treated with great asperity, and some Tracts against America, during the American War, in support of the Ministry; and of some other writers of the same principles, perhaps he flattered himself with the hopes of being esteemed an encourager of literary men. But avarice was his ruling passion. He used to say, those who purchased estates, preserved their principal, but received no intesest; those, who bought in the funds, had interest, but no principal. He laid out his money in mortgages, and good securities, by which he had both principal and interest." Almon's Biographical, Literary, and Political Anecdotes of several of the most Eminent Persons of the Present Age, Lond. 1797. V. 1. p. 355.

This extract was shewn to Mr. Bentham by Mr. Bowring (June 17, 1827.) The former said " that the character of Lord Mansfield, as therein described, is perfectly true, aud that the facts therein stated are facts." He" recollects the speech about investments, and said all that is true."

The following anecdote of John Lind was told to Dr. Parr by a nian of veracity. Lind, as we have already seen, wrote on the subject of the American War, very ably defending the conduct of Lord North. In an exquisitely happy and very enviable tone of self-gratulation, Dr. Balguy exclaimed-'I think he writes English almost as well as myself.' When the Doctor was relating this story, a gentleman present remarked that Lord Grenville is reported to have said, on the receipt of some despatches from America, that there was only one person in England capable of writing such. The person designated is understood to have been Lind. On another occasion I remember that Dr. Parr informed me that Bishop Lowth said of Lind, 'that no man could write better English, excepting himself.'

In the Bibliotheca Parriana p. 373, Dr. Parr justly applies the epithet 'celebrated' to Mr. Lind's Letters on the Present State of Poland, and subjoins the following note: "This book was written by the sagacious and benevolent Mr. Lind, the friend of the profoundly philosophical Dr. Nathaniel Forster

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of Colchester, and the celebrated Jeremy Bentham, and tutor to the worthy and enlightened King of Poland. S. P." And in p. 409, the Doctor thus speaks of Mr. Lind's work on the Principal Acts of the Thirteenth Parliament of Great Britain :— "This is the ablest book I ever read in the defence of the American War. I knew and respected the writer. S. P." The Letters on the Present State of Poland were, I believe, reviewed in the Monthly Review, and reached a fourth edition; but whether the third and fourth, (if they ever existed,) differed in any respects from the second, which I have already noticed, I am unable to say.

Mr. Lind died on March 12, 1781.

In respect to great talents, political information, and knowledge of the world, he might have been selected, (though much against probability, and perhaps against certain facts in the history of his life,) as the writer of the far-famed Letters of Junius.

The grammatical peculiarity of Lind in considering self as a substantive signifying' soul,' when it is never used but as an adjective, was once noticed to me by Dr. Parr, who remarked that self is the Saxon word selfne, which is preserved in the Northern pronunciation senne. E. H. B.]

II.

Notices of the Rev. Dr. Nathaniel Forster of Colchester; his intimacy with Dr. Parr.

[The Rev. Dr. Nathaniel Forster of Colchester has been already named as a particular friend of Dr. Parr. In my excellent friend, Dr. John Johnstone's Memoirs of Dr. Parr, and in the volume of Correspondence, there is much mention of him. As no biographical notice of him seems to have been published, I have taken some pains to collect particulars respecting him and his connection with Dr. Parr, and shall now communicate them to the public.*

* [He must be distinguished from another Rev. Dr. Nathaniel Forster, also a celebrated scholar, and Fellow of C. C. C., Oxford. The two persons are identified in Dr. Watt's Bibliotheca Britannica, and therefore it may be useful to state that the following works proceeded from the pen of the latter, who was born at Stadscomb, in Devonshire, Febr. 3. 1717, and died Oct. 20, 1757.

1. Reflections on the Natural Foundation of the high Antiquity of Government, Arts, and Sciences in Egypt, Oxf. 1743. 8.

The publications of Dr. Nath. Forster of Colchester are these:

1. The Evidence of Miracles stated, and vindicated from some late Objections: A Sermon, preached at the Visitation of the Rev. Dr. Moss, Archdeacon of Colchester, (now Lord Bishop of St. David's,) at St. Peter's Colchester, May 20, 1765. and before the University of Oxford, May 24, 1767. By Nath. Forster, M. A., Rector of All-Saints, Colchester, and

2. Platonis Dialogi V. Recensuit, Notisque illustravit. Oxf. 1745. 1752. 1765.

3. Appendix Liviana, continens I. Selectas Codicum MSS. et Editionum antiquarum Lectiones præcipuas, variorum Emendationes et Supplementa Lacunarum in iis T. Livii qui supersunt, Libris ; II. J. Freinshemii Supplementorum Libros X. in Locum Decadis secundæ Livianæ deperditæ. Oxf. 1746. "This was, as we are told in Chalmers's Biographical Dictionary, "a joint publication of Dr. Forster and another Fellow of Corpus-College, and was published without a name." 4. Popery destructive of the Evidence of Christianity; a Sermon on Mark 7, 13. preached before the University of Oxford, Nov. 5, 1746. 8.

5. A Dissertation upon the Account supposed to have been given of Jesus Christ by Josephus; being an Attempt to shew that this celebrated passage, some slight Corruptions only excepted, may reasonably be esteemed genuine. Oxf. 1749. "By Dr. Nath. Forster," says Dr. Parr (Bibl. Parr. 562,)" the editor of Plato, and cousin of Dr. Parr's very philosophical, very learned, and very benevolent friend, the late Dr. Forster of Colchester." Again, (p. 619,) "A Dissertation on the Testimony of Josephus about Christ, to prove it genuine; probably by Forster, editor of Xenophon."

"The criticism contained in this Dissertation," as we are

told in Chalmers's Biogr. Dict., "is allowed to be ingenious,

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