unintelligible, and foreign to common and useful practice. But with all his pedantry and ideal admiration of the music of the ancients, he certainly had read more books on the theory of modern music, and examined more curious compositions, than any of the musicians of his time; and though totally devoid of fancy and invention, he was able to correct the productions of his contemporaries, and to assign reasons for whatever had been done by the greatest masters who preceded him. But when he is called the most learned musician of his time, it should be said, in the music of the sixteenth century. Indeed, he had at last such a partiality for musical mysteries, and a spirit so truly antiquarian, that he allowed no composition to be music but what was old and obscure. Yet, though he fettered the genius of his scholars by antiquated rules, he knew the mechanical laws of harmony so well, that in glancing his eye over a score, he could by a stroke of his pen smooth the wildest and most incoherent notes into melody, and make them submissive to harmony; instantly seeing the superfluous or deficient notes, and suggesting a bass from which there was no appeal. His "Treatise on Harmony" has lately been praised, as it deserves, in Mr. Shield's valuable "Introduction to Harmony."

His admirable library, the most curious and complete in scarce musical authors, theoretical and, practical, was dispersed after his death. He bequeathed a considerable part of his best books and manuscripts to Kelner, an old German friend, who played the double-bass in the theatres and concerts of the time; some to Travers, and these and the rest were at last sold, dispersed, and embezzled, in a. manner difficult to describe or understand.'

PEPYS (SAMUEL), secretary to the admiralty in the reigns of Charles II. and James II. and an eminent benefactor to the literature of his country, was a descendant of the ancient family of the Pepys's of Cottenham in Cambridgeshire, and probably the son of Richard Pepys, who was lord chief justice in Ireland in 1654. He was born,

according to Collier, in London; but Knight, in this particular a better authority, says he was born at Brampton in Huntingdonshire, and educated at St. Paul's school. Thence he was removed to Magdalen-college, Cambridge. How long he remained here, we are not told, but it ap

1 Hawkins and Burney's Hist. of Music. and Burney in Rees's Cyclopædia.

pears by the college-books, that on June 26, 1660, he was created M. A. by proxy, he being then on board of ship as secretary to the navy. He appears to have been related to general Montague, afterwards earl of Sandwich, who first introduced him into public business, and employed him first in various secret services for Charles II. and then as secretary in the expedition for bringing his majesty from Holland. His majesty being thus restored, Mr. Pepys was immediately appointed one of the principal officers of the navy, by the title of clerk of the acts. In this employment he continued until 1673; and during those great events, the plague, the fire of London, and the Dutch war, the care of the navy in a great measure rested on him alone.

In this last-mentioned year, when the king thought proper to take the direction of the admiralty into his own hands, he appointed Mr. Pepys secretary to that office, who introduced an order and method that has, it is said, formed a model to his successors. Important, however, as his services were, they could not screen him from the malevolence of party-spirit; and happening, in 1684, to be concerned in a contested election, this opportunity was taken by his opponent to accuse him of being a Papist, which the house of commons inquired into, but without finding any proof. This we learn from the journals of the house. But Collier informs us that he was confined in the Tower for some time, and then discharged, no accuser appearing against him *. After his release, the king made an alteration in the affairs of the admiralty, by putting the whole power and execution of that office into commission; and the public was thus, for some years, deprived of Mr. Pepys's services as secretary. He was not, however, unemployed; for he was commanded by his majesty to ac company lord Dartmouth in his expedition against Tangier; and at the same time he had an opportunity of making excursions into Spain, as, at other times, he had already done into France, Flanders, Holland, Sweden, and Denmark. He also sailed frequently with the duke of York into Scotland, and along the coast of England.

In April 1684, on his return from Tangier, and on the

By Grey's debates it would appear, that Mr. Pepys was accused of having sent information to the French court of the state of the navy: a thing incredible at any time; but perhaps might find believers, when all manner

of plots and accusations were fabricated to amuse the public. The only attack on Mr. Pepys's character, in modern times, is in Harris's "Life of CharlesIl." and, in such a collection of calumny, seems not at all out of place,

re-assumption of the office of lord-high-admiral of England by Charles II. Mr. Pepys was again appointed secretary, and held that office during the whole of Charles's and James's reigns. During the last critical period, he restricted himself to the duties of his office, and never asked or accepted any grant of honour or profit, nor meddled with any aflair that was not within his province as secretary of the admiralty. In Charles's time he procured that useful benefaction from his majesty, for placing ten of the mathematical scholars of Christ's hospital, as apprentices to mas ters of ships.

On the accession of William and Mary, he resigned his office; and, in 1690, published his "Memoirs" relating to the state of the royal navy of England for the ten years preceding the revolution; a well-written and valuable work. He appears to have led a retired life after this, suffering very much from a constitution impaired by the stone, for which he had been cut in his twenty-eighth year. About two years before his death he went to the seat of an old naval friend, William Hewer, esq. at Clapham, in Surrey, where he died May 26, 1703, and was interred in the same vault with his lady, who died in 1669, in the church of St. Olave, Hart-street, this being the parish in which he lived during the whole of his employment in the Admiralty.

He appears to have had an extensive knowledge of naval affairs, and to have always conducted them with the greatest skill and success. Even after his retirement he was consulted as an oracle in all matters respecting this grand defence of the nation; and, while in office, was the patron and friend of every man of merit in the service. But he was far from being a mere man of business: his conversation and address had been greatly improved by travel, and he was qualified to shine in the literary as well as the political circles. He thoroughly understood and practised music; was a judge of painting, sculpture, and architecture; and had more than a superficial knowledge in history and philosophy. His fame, indeed, was such, that in 1684 he was elected president of the Royal Society, and held that honourable office for two years. To Magdalen College, Cambridge, he left that invaluable collection of MS naval memoirs, of prints, and ancient English poetry, which has so often been consulted by poetical critics and commentators, and is indeed unrivalled in its kind. One of its most singular curiosities is, a collection of English ballads, in

five large folio volumes, begun by Mr. Selden, and carried down to the year 1700. The "Reliques of ancient English Poetry," published by Dr. Percy, are for the most part taken from this collection. His nephew, John Jackson, esq. of the Temple, was Mr. Pepys's heir to his personal property. It ought not to be omitted, that among other instances of his regard for the advancement of knowledge, he gave sixty plates to Ray's edition of Willoughby's "Historia Piscium," published in 1686.'

PERAU (GABRIEL LOUIS CALABRE), a French author, whose character was not less esteemed for its candour and modesty, than his writings for their neatness of style and exactness of research, is most known for his continuation of the "Lives of illustrious men of France," begun by D'Auvigné, but carried on by him, from the thirteenth volume to the twenty-third. He also wrote notes and prefaces to several works. His edition of the works of Bossuet was the best, till they were published by the Benedictines of St. Maur; and he was author of an esteemed life of Jerome Bignon, in 12mo, 1757. He died in March 1767, at the age of sixty-seven.

PERCEVAL (JOHN), fifth baronet of the family, and first earl of Egmont, was born at Barton, in the county of York, July 12, 1683, and received his education at Magdalen college, Oxford. On quitting the university, in June 1701, he made the tour of England, and was admitted F. R. S. at the age of nineteen. Upon the death of king William, and the calling of a new parliament in Ireland, he went over with the duke of Ormond, and though not of age, was elected for the county of Cork, and soon after appointed a privy-counsellor. In July 1705, he began the tour of Europe, which he finished in October 1707; and returning to Ireland in May 1708, was again. representative for the county of Cork. In 1713, he erected a lasting monument of his charity, in a free-school at BurOn the accession of George I. he was advanced to the peerage of Ireland by the title of baron Perceval, in 1715, and viscount in 1722. In the parliament of 1722. and 1727, he was member for Harwich, in Essex, and in 1728 was chosen recorder of that borough. Observing,

ton.

1 Collier's Dictionary, Supplement to vol. III.-Cole's MS. Athenæ in Brit. Mus. Granger.-Knight's Life of Colet.—Noble's Memoirs of Cromwell, vol. I. p. 437.-Nichols's Bowyer.

? Dict. Hist.-Necrologie pour année 1769.

by the decay of a beneficial commerce, that multitudes incapable of finding employment at home, might be rendered serviceable to their country abroad, he and a few others applied to the crown for the grant of a district of land in America, since called Georgia, which they proposed to people with emigrants from England, or persecuted Protestants from other parts of Europe, by means of private contribution and parliamentary aid. The charter being granted, in June 1732, Lord Perceval was appointed first president; and the king having long experienced his fidelity to his person and government, created him earl of Egmont in Nov. 1733. Worn out by a paralytic decay, he died May 1, 1748. His lordship married Catherine, daughter of sir Philip Parker à Morley, by whom he had seven children, who all died before him, except his eldest son and successor, of whom we shall take some notice.

The first earl of Egmont, according to Mr. Lodge, appears to have been a man of an exemplary character, both in public and private life, and a writer of considerable elegance and acuteness. He published, 1. "A Dialogue between a member of the church of England and a Protestant Dissenter, concerning a repeal of the Test Act," 1732. 2." The Question of the Precedency of the Peers of Ireland in England," 1739. Part only of this book was written by the earl of Egmont; which was in consequence of a memorial presented by his lordship to his majesty Nov. 2, 1733, upon occasion of the solemnity of the marriage of the princess-royal with the prince of Orange. 3. "Remarks upon a scandalous piece, entitled A brief account of the causes that have retarded the progress of the colony of Georgia," 1743. His lordship published several other tracts about that time, relating to the colony; and many letters and essays upon moral subjects, in a paper called "The Weekly Miscellany." His Lordship also formed a collection of the "Lives and Characters of eminent men in England, from very ancient to very modern times." Dr. Kippis appears to have had the use of this collection, when employed on the Biographia. It is in the possession of lord Arden. The earl of Egmont wrote a considerable part of a genealogical history of his own family, which was afterwards enlarged and methodized by Anderson, author of the Royal Genealogies; and by Mr. Whiston, of the Tally Court. This book, which was printed by the second earl of Egmont, is entitled "A genealogical History of the