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be entitled to a certain share of the new stock, upon advancing, as before, 21. upon each share, and that the residue of the stock should be divided amongst the new members and their friends. One gentleman in particular secured to himself, as I am informed, no less than 300,000l. to be disposed of by him amongst his friends.

"At this time shares were commonly sold at 201. a share; but before the end of the year, Harburgh stock sunk, as all other projects of that kind did; and no money having been paid on the new stock, and no charter for commerce being passed, the gentlemen who solicited the new charter refused to be any farther concerned in the affair, since the opportunity for exorbitant profits was lost; and a new set of gentlemen and merchants, with the members of the old company, undertook to carry it on, and were incorporated by charter under the great seal of the electorate, for opening the port and carrying on the trade and manufactures at Harburgh.

"It was, as I have been informed, part of the original scheme, that the expence of opening the port, which was computed at 100,000l. should be defrayed by the profits of a lottery, to be drawn at Harburgh. Accordingly, after the new charter was passed, his majesty, by warrant under his sign manual and the privy seal of the electorate, empowered and required the company to lay before him a scheme for the lottery, which they did; and some time afterwards his majesty, by a second warrant under his sign manual and privy seal of the electorate, signed his approbation of the scheme, and empowered the company to proceed upon it, and to deliver out tickets here for the lottery, and he named trustees to manage and direct the drawing at Harburgh. Before the lottery was opened, lord Barrington, who was sub-governor of the company, (his royal highness the present prince of Wales being named governor) thought it necessary to procure a British charter of incorporation, and measures were taken for that purpose with the British ministers; for hitherto every thing touching the company had been transacted with the German ministers.

"His lordship, as I have reason to believe, was persuaded that the ministers intended that the company should have a British charter; and things went so far in that way, that a draught of a British charter was prepared and laid before the attorney-general. While things were in this state, some of the gentlemen in London concerned in the

affair opened a subscription for the lottery, lord Barrington being then in the country. This step they took, contrary to his lordship's opinion and advice.

"Within a few days after the subscription for the lottery was opened, advertisements were published by some of the gentlemen who had formerly solicited the commerce charter, and afterwards when the price of stock fell, had refused to accept their shares, treating the affair as a public cheat; and the matter was soon brought before the house of commons.

"While it was there depending, I was, in lord Barrington's absence, consulted by the gentlemen concerned touching the best method for avoiding the storm which seemed to be gathering, and threatened the ruin of the company. My advice was, that the company should, without any hesitation, lay their charter, with the two warrants for the lottery, before the house; and submit their case upon the foot of those powers; since it would appear by those powers, that what they had done in the affair was done by virtue of powers received from his majesty. But this advice was soon laid aside, and the secretary (Mr. Ridpath) was instructed to acquaint the house, as he did, that the company having acted under powers received from his ma jesty as elector, in an affair concerning his electorate, they did not think themselves at liberty to lay such powers before the house without his majesty's permission. This answer exactly suited the views of those people who intended to ruin the company, without seeming to do a thing which reflected dishonour on his majesty. Accordingly the house was satisfied with the answer, so far as not to insist on a sight of the charter and warrants; and immediately came to a resolution, that the persons concerned in the affair, had acted therein without any authority from his majesty; and lord Barrington, who then served for Berwick upon Tweed, was expelled the house.

"This matter was made an occasion for bringing this severe censure on lord Barrington; who was suspected to have formerly taken some steps very disagreeable to the reigning minister, sir Robert Walpole. His lordship was firmly attached to the administration during the time of lord Sunderland's ministry, and employed all his credit and influence with the dissenters, which was then very great, to keep that body in the same interest: but upon the death of lord Sunderland, sir Robert Walpole, who, for many

years during lord Sunderland's administration, had opposed every public measure, succeeded him, as prime minister, and could not forget the part which lord Barrington had acted against him."

In 1725 he published in 2 vols. 8vo, his "Miscellanea Sacra: or, a new method of considering so much of the history of the Apostles as is contained in scripture; in an abstract of their history, an abstract of that abstract, and four critical essays." In this work the noble author has traced, with great care and judgment, the methods taken by the apostles, and first preachers of the gospel, for propagating Christianity; and explained with great distinctness the several gifts of the spirit, by which they were enabled to discharge that office. These he improved into an argument for the truth of the Christian religion; which is said to have staggered the infidelity of Mr. Anthony Collins. In 1725 he published, in 8vo, "An Essay on the several dispensations of God to mankind, in the order in which they lie in the Bible; or, a short system of the religion of nature and scripture," &c. He was also author of several other tracts, of which the principal were, 1. “A Dissuasive from Jacobitism; shewing in general what the nation is to expect from a popish king; and, in particular, from the Pretender." The fourth edition of this was printed in 8vo, in 1713. 2. "A Letter from a Layman, in communion with the church of England, though dissenting from her in some points, to the right rev. the bishop of with a postscript, shewing how far the bill to prevent the growth of schism is inconsistent with the act of toleration, and the other laws of this realm." The second edition of this was printed in 1714, 4to. 3. "The Layman's Letter to the bishop of Bangor." The second edition of this was published in 1716, 4to. "An account of the late proceedings of the Dissenting-ministers at Salters'-hall; occasioned by the differences amongst their brethren in the country with some thoughts concerning imposition of human forms for articles of faith :" in a letter to the rev. Dr. Gale, 1719, 8vo. 5. "A Discourse of natural and revealed Religion, and the relation they bear to each other," 1732,

8vo.

4.

6. "Reflections on the 12th query, contained in a paper, entitled Reasons offered against pushing for the repeal of the corporation and test-acts, and on the animadversions on the answer to it," 1733, 8vo. A new edition of his "Miscellanea Sacra" was published in 1770, 3 vols.

8vo, under the revision of his son, the present learned and munificent bishop of Durham. Lord Barrington sometimes spoke in parliament, but appears not to have been a frequent speaker. He died at his seat at Becket in Berkshire, after a short illness, Dec. 4, 1734, in the 66th year of his age. He generally attended divine worship among the dissenters, and for many years received the sacrament at Pinner's-hall, when Dr. Jeremiah Hunt, an eminent and - learned non-conformist divine, was pastor of the congregation. He had formerly been an attendant on Mr. Thomas Bradbury, but quitted that gentleman on account of his zeal for imposing unscriptural terms upon the article of the Trinity. His lordship was a disciple and friend of Mr. Locke, had a high value for the sacred writings, and was eminently skilled in them. As a writer in theology, he contributed much to the diffusing of that spirit of free scriptural criticism, which has since obtained among all denominations of Christians. As his attention was much turned to the study of divinity, he had a strong sense of the importance of what is called free inquiry in matters of religion. In his writings, whenever he thought what he advanced was doubtful, or that his arguments were not strictly conclusive, though they might have great weight, he expressed himself with a becoming diffidence. He was remarkable for the politeness of his manners, and the gracefulness of his address. The only virulent attack we have seen against his lordship, occurs in lord Orford's works, vol. I. p. 543, which from its contemptuous and sneering notice of the Barrington family, and especially the present worthy prelate, may be safely left to its influence on the mind of any unprejudiced reader.

Lord Barrington married Anne, eldest daughter of sir William Daines, by whom he left six sons and three daughters. William, his eldest son, succeeded to his father's honours; was elected, soon after he came of age, member for the town of Berwick, and afterwards for Plymouth; and, in the late and present reigns, passed through the successive offices of lord of the admiralty, master of the wardrobe, chancellor of the exchequer, treasurer of the navy, and secretary at war. He died in 1793. Francis, the second, died young. John, the third, was a majorgeneral in the army, commanded the land forces at the reduction of the island of Guadaloupe in 1758, and died in 1764. Of Daines and Samuel some notice will follow:

Shute, the sixth, is now bishop of Durham. Of the three daughters, who survived their father, Sarah married Robert Price, esq. of Foxley in Herefordshire; Anne, Thomas Clarges, esq. only son of sir Thomas Clarges, bart.; and Mary died unmarried.

BARRINGTON (THE HON. DAINES), fourth son of the preceding, was born in 1727, studied some time at Oxford, which he quitted for the Temple, and after the usual course was admitted to the bar. He was one of his majesty's counsel learned in the law, and a bencher of the hon. society of the Inner Temple, but, although esteemed a very sound lawyer, he never rose to any distinguished eminence as a pleader. He was for some time recorder of Bristol, in which situation he was preceded by sir Michael Foster, and succeeded by Mr. Dunning, afterwards lord Ashburton. In May 1751 he was appointed marshal of the high court of admiralty in England, which he resigned in 1753, on being appointed secretary for the affairs of Greenwich hospital; and was appointed justice of the counties of Merioneth, Carnarvon, and Anglesey, 1757, and afterwards second justice of Chester, which he resigned about 1785, retaining only the place of commissary-general of the stores at Gibraltar. Had it been his wish, he might probably have been promoted to the English bench, but possessed of an ample income, having a strong bias to the study of antiquities, natural history, &c. he retired from the practice of the law, and applied his legal knowledge chiefly to the purposes of investigating curious questions of legal antiquity. His first publication, which will always maintain its rank, and has gone through several editions, was his "Observations on the Statutes," 1766, 4to. In the following year he published "The Naturalist's Calendar," which was also favourably received. In 1773, desiring to second the wishes of the Rev. Mr. Elstob to give to the world the Saxon translation of Orosius, ascribed to king Alfred, in one vol. 8vo, he added to it an English translation and notes, which neither give the meaning, nor clear up the obscurities of the Latin or Saxon authors, and therefore induced some severe observations from the periodical critics. His next publication was, "Tracts on the probability of reaching the North Pole," 1775, 4to. He was the first proposer of the memorable voyage to the north pole, which was under

1 Biog. Britannica.—Nichols's Bowyer, vol. VI. where there is a longer list of lord Barrington's Tracts.

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