lowed by a long and tedious distemper. Such were the inauspicious circumstances under which the literary course of this extra ordinary man commenced, and which were surmounted by his genius and exertion, with little other patronage than that which his merit procured. Such a man may well be regarded as an ornament of his country, and Mr. Irving, already known as the biographer of the Scottish poets, has with much propriety selected this new subject of his literary inquiries. It would be very unnecessary on the present occasion to attempt any sketch of the leading events of Buchanan's life, as they may be found in every biographical collection. The best authority is Buchanan's own narrative, prefixed to the editions of his works, and composed about two years before his death. It descends to the period of his final return to his native country, and is written with the usual elegance of the author, and exhibits an instance, not inferior to that of Cæsar, of a great man describing, without vanity and egotism, the circumstances of his own life. This tract is adopted as the foundation of Mr. Irving's nar rative, illustrated and amplified by such circumstances as the careful examination of the works of Buchanan and his learned contemporaries could supply. Besides his Latin works, Buchanan was the author of two tracts in his native language. As only one of these has appeared in the collected editions of his works, we shall extract the account which Mr. Irving gives of them. "The regent, to whom Buchanan was so cordially attached, did not long survive those transactions. On the twenthe street of Linlithgow by Hamilton of ty-third of January, 1570, he was shot in Bothwellhaugh, whom his clemency had formerly rescued from an ignominious death. The assassin had been confirmed in his inhuman enterprize by the approba tion of his powerful kinsmen. The indignation of Buchanan was naturally roused against the house of Hamilton; and he had sufficient cause to suspect that their purposes were not yet completely effected. Under these impressions, he addressed an admonition to the faithful peers ;t in which he earnestly adjured them to protect the young king, and the children of the late regent, from the perils which seemed to await them. It was apparently in the course of the same year, 1570, that he composed another Scotish tract, entitled Chameleon. In this savery affectionate terms. * Buchanan has written the earl's eulogium and epitaph in Rerum Scot. Hist. p. 385. Epigram. lib. ii, 29.) † Ane Admonitioun direct to the trew Lordis, Mantenaris of the Kingis Graces Authoritie. M. G. B. Imprentit at Striviling be Robert Lekprevick, 1571, 8vo.—Mr. Laing remarks that another edition was printed by Lekprevick in the course of the same year; and a third was "imprinted at London by John Daye, accordyng to the Scotish copic," 1571, 8vo. This tract is inserted in The Harleian Miscellany, vol. iii, p. 395. "The MS. copy of it in the Cottonian library," says Mr. Goodall," is dated 1570: and it is probable that it was first printed that year. There is another edition of it by Lekprevick in 1571, which has a new paragraph concerning a pretended third conspiracy of Sir James Hamilton, which is neither in the MS.nor in the first edition, nor in the later editions by Mr. Ruddiman or Mr. Burman." (Examination, voli. p. 342) This writer first supposes, and without any necessity, that the admonition was printed in 1570: in the course of the next sentence, he assumes that it actually was printed during that year, and even speaks as if he had inspected the imaginary edition; and lastly he quotes other two editions which never existed; for the work in question was neither republished by Ruddiman nor by Burman. This is a very adequate specimen of Mr. Goodall's mode of writing; nor shall I again advert to his misconceptions and misrepresentations. Of Buchanan's Chameleon, the copy preserved among the Cotton MSS. bears the date of 1570. This tract was first printed in the Miscellanea Scotica. Lond. 1710, 8yo. It occurs in both editions of the author's works. tirical production, he very successfully exposes the wavering politics of the famous secretary Maitland. The secretary, who was justly alarmed at the prospect of being publicly exhibited in such glaring colours, entertained a suspicion that the work was to issue from the press of Robert Lekprevick; and on the fourteenth of April, 1571, his emissary Captain Melvin searched for the third time, that printer's house in Edinburgh. This search took place about eleven o'clock on a Saturday night; but Lekprevick being warned of his danger, had previously disappeared with such papers as seemed to threaten disagreeable consequences. The Chamaleon, if it was actually delivered to the printer, seems to have been suppressed by Maitland's vigilance; for it remained in manuscript till the beginning of the last century. The style of these two productions is at least equal in vigour and elegance to that of any other composition in the ancient Scotish language; though it is sufficiently obvious that the happy genius of the author cannot there appear in its genuine splendour. "When we read," says an accomplished and able writer, "the compositions of Buchanan in his native tongue, how completely are his genius and taste obscured by those homely manners which the coarseness of his dialect recals; and how difficult is it to be lieve that they express the ideas and sentiments of the same writer, whose Latin productions vie with the best models of antiquity!" A great part of Mr. Irving's narrative is occupied by notices of the many eminent scholars with whom Buchanan was at different periods of his life connected. Of these we shall extract the account of the celebrated Muretus. "Marcus Antonius Muretus was considerably younger than Buchanan and Turnebus. He was born at the village of Muret near Limoges, on the twelfth of April 1526. Like several other scholars of the greatest name, he was his own preceptor. He was successively a public teacher of humanity, philosophy, or jurisprudence, at Auch, Villeneuve d'Agen, Paris, Bourdeaux, Poitiers, and Toulouse. At Toulouse he fell under suspicion of an abominable crime, and even incurred some hazard of being committed to the flames, but a counseller of the parliament having communicated to him a dark intimation of his danger in a solitary line of Virgil, he fled towards Italy with the utmost terror and precipitation. His consternation, among other effects, produced, a mobility in his ears. Having thus abandoned his native country in the year 1554, he fixed his residence at Venice, where he opened a public lecture in the Franciscan monastery. He afterwards removed to Padua, and received pupils into his house; and here he was again suspected of the same foul crime. Six years after his settlement in Italy, he was invited to Rome by Cardinal Ippolito d'Este; and in the house of that illustrious churchman, and of his brother Lodovico, who had arrived at the same high preferment, he continued till the time of his death. By his various writings, and by his prelections in the Roman university, he now acquired a reputation almost unrivalled. He successively filled with the same applause, the departments of philosophy, civil law, and humanity. At the sedate age of fifty, he entered into holy orders. The younger Scaliger, if his sentiments be faithfully represented, was disposed to regard him as a mere atheist; nor is it difficult to conceive that the rank soil of Rome produced atheistical priests in great abun dance. Erythræus, who extols his piety with much grimace, has recorded it as a memorable circumstance that when his health permitted, he daily celebrated mass with many tears. He died at Rome on the fourth of June, 1585, and left a moral character which it is not too harsh to consider as extremely dubious. Of the abominable crime repeatedly laid to his charge he was perhaps innocent: he must either have been very guilty, or very unfortunate. A rumor likewise prevailed of his having polluted his hands with blood. He was besides accused of an intemperate use of wine; and when a benefice suddenly converted him into a saint, he himself acknowledged that the former part of his life had been sensual and gross. The evidence § Dalyell's Illustrations of Scotish History, p. 130. Edinb, 1806. 8vo. Stewart's Life of Robertson, p. 43. Edinb. 1801, 8vo. of his speculative atheism is certainly incompetent; but the injurious imputations attached to his personal character, derive the strongest confirmation from the profligate strain of his writings. The obsequi ousness with which he adapted himself to the pestiferous meridian of Rome, cannot but be regarded as an indication of practical atheism: in two of his elegant orations he has exerted all his skill to embalm the loathsome putrescence of Charles the ninth; and his elaborate enco. mium on the massacre of St. Bartholomew must be remembered to his eternal infamy. The guilt of those execrable politicians who produced this unparalleled scene of butchery, is hardly to be compared to that of the enlightened scholar who could calmly extol so damnable a deed. To suppose Muretus an atheist, is more cha ritable than to suppose the contrary. "These disgraceful characteristics of the man render the most elegant of his works less palatable. He was however a scholar of the first magnitude. He has written in prose and in verse with the same purity and elegance: but his chief distinction is that of an excellent philologer; for although his diction is very seldom unclassical, yet he rarely evinces the native elevation of a poet or orator. Before he had been accused at Toulouse, and consequently before he had assumed the consummate hypocrisy of a Roman courtier, Buchanan addressed to him some verses in commendation of his tragedy of Julius Casar." Among the friends of Buchanan are to be numbered the two Scaligers, those champions and tyrants of literature, who have both left testimonies of their admiration of the Scottish poet. Roger Ascham was likewise one of the numerous and accomplished scholars with whom Buchanan was connected in the intercourses of friendship. lished among the poems of Buchanan, addressed to Ascham, "qui librum cum honorifico elogio, et sui amoris significatione miserat." This book has been discovered by Mr. Irving in Williams's library. It is the work of Fulvius Ursinus, entitled "Virgilius collatione scriptorum Græcorum illustratus." The following is the "honorificum elogium" to which Buchanan refers. chanano, Anglus Scoto, amicus ami"Rogerus Aschamus Georgio Buco, hunc poetam, omnis veteris memoriæ optimum, poetæ hujus nostræ ætatis optimo, amoris ergo, dono dat-cum hoc monosticho, An epigram is pub ART. VI. Memoirs of Sir Thomas More, his History of King Richard III. and the Younger, Esq. 2 vols. 4to. IN whatever light we regard the character of Sir Thomas More, it cannot but be considered as one of the most shining which have adorned the annals of our country, and during the period of nearly three centuries, which have elapsed since his death, centuries of in Φιλον φίλου μνημοσυνον ευμενως δέχου. The epigram of Buchanan, written, it is supposed, with his own hand, occurs at the end of the volume, with some variations from the printed copy, which are noticed by Mr. Irving. laudable diligence in the collec Mr. Irving has exercised a very tion of materials for his work, and has probably suffered very little observation. He has raised an hoimportant information to escape his of his illustrious countryman, and nourable monument to the memory furnished a work interesting not only by the importance of its principal subject, but also by much valuable information which it affords the times. respecting the literary history of with a New Translation of his Utopia, his Latin Poems. By ARTHUR CAYLEY, creasing knowledge and liberality, it would still be difficult to point estimation, in the varied characters out the man, whose claims to our of a scholar and man of genius, a statesman, and a citizen adorned with every private and public virtue, can be preferred to his. If More's title to grateful recollection rested solely on his literary talents, he would maintain a station of considerable eminence among the restorers and promoters of useful learning among us. He was closely connected in friendship with some of the chief scholars of his time, His writings, it is true, are now little consulted, yet some of them retain a considerable degree of interest even to the present day, and others have lost their importance chiefly because they related to controversial topics, in which the side that he embraced was unworthy of his talents and character. The style of More, in his native language, considering his age, possesses no small degree of elegance as well as force, and long continued to be regarded as a model for English composition. His Latinity is not free from defects, yet he seems to have had a clear perception of the elegancies of that language, and to have composed in it with fluency, both in prose and verse. His celebrated political romance displays a fertile imagination, and has the merit, amidst much impracticable specu lation, of expressing with a philosophical boldness, for which in that age we should not have looked, some great moral and political truths. His literary reputation, even at a very early period of his age, was so high, that according to the report of his son-in-law, the public lecture which he read in the church of St. Lawrence on Austin "de civitate Dei," was frequented by all the chief learned of the city of London. To the qualifications of a scholar he added in an eminent degree those of a public character and statesman. In the profession of the law, to which he devoted himself, he soon rose to the greatest eminence, and it is said that no cause of import-ance occurred, in which he was not retained on one side or the other. He gradually attained the station which is the chief object of ambition to the members of the profession in which he was engaged, and in the court of chancery, proverbial for its dilatory proceedings, it is recorded, that such was his indefatigable application to business, that after the decision of a cause before him, calling for the next which was to be heard, he was informed that there was not another depending; a circumstance, we may presume, unprecedented in the annals of that court. Before he entered into the service of Henry VIII. he was twice, at the suit of the merchants of London, with the king's consent, made ambassador in some important causes which were disputed between them and the merchants of the Stilyard. He was engaged at different periods in important diplomatic offices, and such was the reputation as a statesman, which he acquired abroad, that when the emperor Charles received intelligence of his death, he sent for the English ambassador, and informing him of the event, added, "And this will we say, that had we been master of such a servant, (of whose doings ourselves have had these many years no small experience) we would rather have lost the best city of our dominions, than have lost such a wor thy counsellor." The pleasing manners and lively conversation of More, fitted him to shine in courts, and become the favourite of princes. Yet he never forfeited the character of a patriot. His first public act was a successful opposition to the coursin the house of commons. He was guilty of no mean submissions to Wolsey in the plenitude of his power, and sacrificed his life rather than yield his conscience to the cas prices of his tyrannical master. His integrity in the exercise of his office as chancellor was unblemished, and presented an instance, in that age rare, of entire superiority to corruption. His private and domestic character was as exemplary as his public 66 conduct, and proves that the inflexibility of the latter arose, not from attachments of party, or any of those inferior motives which sometimes produce a certain regularity and consistency of external actions, but from the strictest and purest moral principle. A striking circumstance which illustrates this part of his character is mentioned by his son-in-law. On the morning of the day on which he was summoned to take the oath of succession, he went, as his custom was on important occasions, to hear mass. And whereas he evermore used before, at his departure from his wife and children, whom he tenderly loved, to have them bring him to his boat, and there to kiss them, and bid them all farewell, then would he suffer none of them forth the gate to follow him, but pulled the wicket after him, and shut them all from him." -"His countenance," adds Mr. Roper, who accompanied him in the boat to Lambeth, "bespoke a heavy heart, and sitting still sadly awhile, at last he suddenly whispered to him, son Roper, I thank our Lord, the field is won." The mind of More was deeply penetrated with sentiments of religion, and with such views of human life and its interests as those sentiments when sincere and strong will necessarily inspire. When the Duke of Norfolk observed to him, " By the mass, Mr. More, it is perilous striving with princes, therefore I would wish yon somewhat to incline to the king's pleasure, for by God's body, Mr. More, indignatio principis mors est. -Is that all, my lord? replied More, then in good faith the difference between your grace and me is but this, that I shall die to-day, and you to-morrow." The domestic character of More was not less amiable, than his public conduct was virtuous and admirable. His children appear to nave heen attached to him with the utmost warmth of affection. "Mr Roper informs us that in the sixteen years during which he was an inhabitant of his father-in-law's house, he did not once see More in a fume. Margaret Gigs, who was brought-up with committed a fault for the purpose of hearing Sir Thomas chide her, he did it in More's children, said that she sometimes moderate, so loving, and so compassionso grave, and at the same time in so ate a manner. Erasmus likewise informs us of his intimate friend, comitate totam familiam moderatur, in qua nulla tragædia, nulla rixa. And though More was obliged to maintain many servants, he is said never to have suffered any of them to be idle. He ever invented and assigned some avocation or other to each of them when they were not attendant upon him, that they might avoid sloth, gaming, and those profligate habits in general of which idleness is the source." The behaviour of Sir Thomas More at the place of his execution has been charged by some with an unseasonable levity. To us it appears only to illustrate the consummate dignity of his character, and to shew the perfect operation of those principles of philosophy and virtue, which entered into the whole structure of his mind. We can discern but one fault of any magnitude in the character of this great man. His religion in some instances degenerated into bi-, gotry, and he was not sufficiently purified from the principle of his age, that conscience, in religious concerns, may be contracted by hnman penalties. It is lamentable to see the difficulty to which a great mind was reduced, when on his examination his own former conduct in cases similar to his own, was retorted on him. Happy if he had always acted on the principle which in his last circumstances he felt to be just. "I am very sure that mine own conscience, so informed as it is by such diligence, as I have so long taken therein, may stand with mine own salvation. I meddle not with the conscience of them |