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No. XI.

CAPEL LOFFT, Esq.

MR. CAPEL LOFFT was born on the 14th of November, 1751, in Boswell Court, Carey Street. His father was Christopher Lofft, Esq., who had, in his early years, been in the confidence of Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough. His mother was Anne, the daughter of the Rev. Gamaliel Capel, of Stanton, and Hester Maddocks, his wife; and sister to Edward Capel, Esq., the well-known commentator on Shakspeare. His paternal grandmother was Anne, daughter of Lewis Montgomery.

Mr. Capel Lofft was a second son; but his elder brother died in infancy. His own health during childhood and early youth was such, as to afford little expectation of his overcoming the dangers which successively attacked his constitution, from fever, from the small-pox, and from the measles. Thus circumstanced in his health, and tenderly beloved by his parents, the first years of his life were spent at home, or at Hoddesdon, in Middlesex, with his aunt Stainsly, his father's sister, a very sensible and amiable woman. From her he probably acquired his love of flowers and of gardening; and from her husband, and his two sons, (one afterwards a barrister, and the other a clergyman of celebrity in London,) his taste for poetry and natural history. His knowledge of the English language, however, and his initiation in books, he owed wholly to his parents, and chiefly to his mother. He began very late to learn his letters; but when he was near six years old, and before it was known that he could make out a sentence, he was caught by his mo

Queen." This book, in the best taste of composition, and L'Estrange's Esop, nearly in the worst, happened to be his earliest studies. His father's reading of Spenser in his hearing (and both his parents were admirable readers) had led to his early partiality for "The Fairy Queen." His love for music, which was always enthusiastic, although he was never a performer, was excited when he was about seven years of age, from listening to Handel's exquisite song, from Il Penseroso, "Sweet Bird," which was sung at Vauxhall by Miss Birchall, afterwards Mrs. Vincent, and since Mrs. Mills.

In September, 1759, he was placed at Eton; his father being then a barrister, and having recently accepted the appointment of recorder of Windsor. He was not entered on the foundation till he was high in the school, and never stood for King's, as there were family and other prospects which made it considered as unnecessary. Eton was a new world

to him. He made great efforts to distinguish himself, and became a favourite with the masters, of whom he ever afterwards spoke with gratitude and respect. He was not a boarder at Night's, his parents living at Windsor; and he entered but little into the amusements of Eton, except swimming, which contributed greatly to his health and pleasure while at school, and which was afterwards in two instances the means of saving his life,

Being possessed of application, and fond of composition, especially in Latin verse, and greatly attached to the study of Greek, particularly of those parts of Theocritus, Apollonius Rhodius, and Callimachus, which are read at Eton, and of Homer, Demosthenes, Herodotus, and Xenophon, young Lofft passed through this part of his education with much credit. Before he left Eton he had read the Cassandra of Lycophron. One very happy circumstance of his father's residence at Windsor was that it introduced him to the acquaintance of Mr. John Jebb, afterwards Dr. Jebb, who was then frequently at Egham, near Windsor, at the house of his father, an Irish dean.

In the midsummer of 1769, he left Eton; and in the beginning of Michaelmas term of the same year went to Peterhouse, Cambridge; principally on two inducements, the one, the smallness of the college, the other, that his friend Mr. Jebb, then in orders, which he afterwards relinquished, had been of that college, and at that time had a house in Cambridge, where he resided, respected and beloved, with a wife worthy of himself. Mr. Lofft did not, however, continue long at Peterhouse. He had not sufficiently prepared himself for mathematical studies, and he found classical proficiency less regarded, than the habits of thinking and of acting, at Eton, had accustomed him to expect. His health, too, was unconfirmed; and he had an attachment which scarcely permitted him to think of any thing but itself. He stood, however, and with reputation, though not successfully, for the Craven scholarship; and he composed a poem in praise of Shakespeare, in Hexameter verse, which was published as a Tripos, March 1. 1770, with this title: "Shakspearo Palmam Poetices facile deberi." This circumstance renewed an interest which Garrick had expressed for Mr. Lofft; and with the zeal which he was accustomed to exert on such occasions, he mentioned it to Mr. Edward Capel in such a manner as contributed to remove a family coldness that had subsisted; and eventually to establish Mr. Lofft in the esteem and affection of his uncle, and in the succession to his estates in Suffolk, the Stanton part of which had been for many generations in the family of the Capels.

Mr. Lofft left Cambridge in 1770, without taking a degree. In the same year, he was admitted, by surrender from his father, to chambers in Lincoln's Inn. He had then for about three years commenced the study of the laws of his country under the direction of his father, by reading Wood's. Institutes and Blackstone's Commentaries, and by accompanying his father to the Windsor sessions. He had also begun the study of French, in which language he afterwards became a considerable proficient.

tune to lose his father, who had been for many years occasionally afflicted by severe fits of the gout.

Having acquired a tolerable knowledge of short hand, Mr. Lofft now attended assiduously as a student in the court of king's bench. At that time Lord Mansfield, Sir W. De Grey, afterwards Lord Walsingham, and Sir William Blackstone, were on the bench; men whom it must be ever arduous to equal, and whom it is almost impossible that posterity should see excelled..

In 1774, being then at his uncle's, the Rev. Robert Capel, of Stanton, Mr. Lofft began and nearly finished an irregular ode, entitled, "The Praises of Poetry." This was published in the end of the same year; though, according to the bookseller's year, (which, from October, anticipates the date of the year that is to follow,) it has 1775 in the title page. In 1774, he also attempted a tragedy, the title of which was "Timoleon." In 1775, in a summer recess with his mother, at the house of her benevolent brother Robert Capel, of Stanton, he began to learn Hebrew of his uncle by marriage, the Rev. George Sheldon, who was deeply learned in Hebrew and most of the oriental dialects. At the same time he made some progress towards learning the Saxon language.

Mr. Lofft was called to the bar in the Michaelmas term of 1775. In 1776, he published "Cases, chiefly in the King's Bench;" from Easter term 1772 (when he commenced his attendance in Westminster Hall) to Michaelmas term 1774. This collection begins with the arguments and decision in the celebrated case of Somerset, the negro, in which it was determined that negro slavery cannot subsist in England; and ends with a case in chancery on specific performance of an agreement. Law maxims in Latin, with a Latin preface on the excellence of the laws and constitution of England, are included in the volume. The attempt was, perhaps, beyond Mr. Lofft's knowledge and experience at that period; but in the negro cause, and in the great Granada cause of Campbell and Hall, he had very material assistance; from Mr. Har

grave and Mr. Alleyne in the former, and from Mr. Alleyne

in the latter.

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At this time Mr. Lofft entered warmly into the American controversy. He published three tracts on the subject; namely, "View of the several Schemes respecting America;" Dialogue on the Principles of the Constitution ;" and "Observations on Mr. Wesley's Calm Address." He also published a short letter addressed to the King, with the hope of contributing to prevent hostilities.

About 1776, Mr. Lofft wrote several books of an heroic poem in blank verse, which, in conformity to Cowley, he entitled "Davideis." In 1777, and the beginning of 1778, he was at Bath, with his mother and his uncle Robert, on account of the dangerous illness of his amiable and excellent mother, who died on the 9th of February, of the latter year. While at Bath, Mr. Lofft taught himself Italian. He also published in the papers a letter, opposing subscriptions for raising troops without consent of Parliament; and he wrote, and afterwards published, "Remarks on the Historical Letters of Mrs. Macaulay." He also translated the "Athalie" of Racine.

In 1779, Mr. Lofft published his " Collection of Maxims,” much enlarged; and reduced in part to a system of principles of general and municipal law, in two volumes, under the title of "Principia cum Juris Universalis tum præcipue Anglicani," and at the same time a translation in part, with an improved arrangement, under the title of "Elements of Universal Law."

Mr. Lofft was about this period, and for some time before and after, a frequent attendant and speaker in the debating societies at Coachmakers' Hall, the Westminster Forum, &c., at which places questions of the greatest political importance were often ably discussed. He also wrote much in the General Advertiser, on the question of parliamentary reform, and in opposition to the American war; and was one of the earliest members of the society for constitutional information,