the Holy Spirit, "he breathed his own spirit out of his body;" and thus, as the narrator concludes, he was finging" glory be to the Father," with fome other fpiritual fentences, as long as his foul was in his body." P. 118.

After examining the claims of St. Neot's, in Huntingdonfhire, to the remains of this Saint, and given some ac count of their fuppofed removal to that place, the author triumphs in the refutation of that hypothefis; and then tells us, what remains actually existed there.

"What then were the remains of St. Neot that Huntingdonfhire really had? At this very epocha it pretended to exhibit only two articles, but two that were totally extrinfic to him, and had merely been once poffeffed by him. Leland himself was curious enough to note what they were. They were "the interior tunic of St. Neot, made of cloth of hair in the Irish fashion;" and "the comb of St. Neot made of a small bone two fingers in breadth, but having the teeth of fish inferted into it, fo as to appear like the jaw of that river-fish the pike *."

"Huntingdonshire thus fhewed to Leland all that it had of St. Neot. This all was merely the comb and the interior tunic of the Saint. Nor did the monks there pretend to have any thing elfe of his. All proves them to have poffeffed none of his bones, yet to have owned fome remains of his, which in the undiftinguifhing talk of the times among others, in the studied obfcurity of language among themfelves, and in the bold eruptions of partial fondness into pofitive falfehood at times, were vainly efti mated to be bodily relics."

It was worth while to infert the above, for the reflections that follow.

"Nor let my reader fmile at this long and fuccefsful labour to appropriate the bones or the duft of an ancient faint to Cornwall. The fondnefs for fainted relics is now pafied its meridian inded, and the human mind exercifes itfelf at prefent upon what it fuppofes to be the grandeft objecs of attention. Yet, even with thefe objects before it, the genius of learning is not more ufefully or more vigorously employed than it was before. Antiquarianifin particularly, one of the favourite ftudies of the day, has equally its relics, and its fondnefs for them, The impaffioned part of all fudios muil have them: only as religion has lefs hold upon the mind or the affections, that fober rational enthusiasm,

Leland's Coll. iv. 13. Vidi tunicam inferiorem S. Neoti, ex panno villofo-pecten S. Neoti ex officulo duos digitos lato, infertis pifciuin denticulis inftar maxille lupi fluviatilis."

which is properly fond of relics, is transferred from theology to literature; and a coin, an altar, or a teffelated pavement, take place of the comb, the tunic, or the bones of a faint. The fame tafte prevails, but the objects are changed. Yet the antiquary fmiles at the objects of the devotee, while the devotee has greater reason to smile at the antiquaries. The fepulchre of fuch a faint as Neotus, is furely more worthy of our affectionate attention, than the grave-ftone of a Roman foldier, or the tomb of a Roman officer, of either of whom we know no more than that he lived, and that he died, or elfe we know that he was brave, fuccessful, and deftructive. And as the truth of hiftory required me to af. certain the permanent place of St. Neot's interment, I felt enough of the fondnefs of antiquarianifm for fuch a king, and of the reverence of religion for fuch a faint, to draw afide the curtain that has hung fo long before his tomb, and to fhew it in all its dimenfions to the eye of my readers. His duft has been always preferved at our St. Neot's, and the cafket of stone continued to our own days the faithful repofitory of it, while thofe remains of his, which were conveyed away into Huntingdonshire, have long fince been destroyed by neglect or by wilfulness, the fhrine containing them is equally gone, and nothing remains but a few letters upon a broken pedestal." P. 289.

Among the incidental notices, which will stamp a value on this book, in the opinion of many who have no regard for the hiftory of St. Neot, or any other faint, the author's account of fome wild animals, no longer exifting in these iflands, is not the leaft interefting.

"Little has been done," fays Mr. W., "to afcertain the continuance of our wild beafts among us. Thus at what time even that well-known native of our woods once, the wild-boar, became extirpated from them, no one has endeavoured to afcer. tain.

"It roamed in our woods very late, even fo late, could one think it as the fixteenth century. In the fame woods roamed that much more aftonishing animal, the moofe-deer, or elk. Of this fact I can produce an evidence that is very obvious, but has never been noticed; that is, incontestable in its nature, and that actually demonftrates the animal to have been an inhabitant of our own ifle, to have been currently denominated an elk among us, to have even continued under that denomination fo late as the middle of the fixteenth century. To our aftonishment we find the breed mentioned by one of our firft game-laws, as the 33 Henry 8. c. 6. fection 33. kindly extends its protecting arm to the laft remains of the wild-boars and the wild-elks of our country. It allows the inhabitants of certain places to use their guns, "fo that it be at no manner of deer, heron, fhovelard, pheafant, partridge, WILD-SWINE, or WILD-ELK, or any of

B 4

them."

them." This extraordinary intimation from fe refpectable an authority, I am happy to call out into public notice. It forms a very important addition to the history of our original beasts. It completes particularly the accounts which have been formerly given by myfelf of our boars and moofe-deers, the latter of which äre either contending ftill with incredulity for their very existence, or have this existence thrown back (as here it is by Lady Moira) into the morning twilight of antiquity, into a "remote period," beyond the reach of all "written tradition." They are now fhewn to have existed among us, and to have been univerfally known to exift, even within a couple of centuries from our own times." P. 294.

On reconfidering this extract, we are rather difposed to think, that the recital of the names of the Wild Swine and the Wild Elk, among other animals, in an A&t of Parliament of Henry VIII. (merely in a claufe of exception) does not furnish quite inconteftible proof of their exiftence in the reign of Henry. Had we leifure, we could quote fimilar recitals, to which little or no meaning can be affixed. We fhould be cautious in turning the ordinary phrafeology or forms of law, into hiftorical recognitions. The author thus concludes the volume.

"I have thus laid open the whole history of St. Neot, have fhown who he was, have explained why and whence he came into Cornwall, and afcertained what befel him or his afterward, By all this I have endeavoured to do juftice to a Saxon Saint, whofe fettlement in our country feems fo strange at the first view, whofe reputation is fo confiderable among us even at prefent, but whofe real hiftory was little understood, even by ourselves or our Saxon neighbours. And I have equally endeavoured as I proceeded, to catch every call that judgment would allow, for occa fional migrations from a local fubject, to turn afide into the open ground of general hiftory, and to fettle doubts of moment, or to correct errors of importance, in the annals of the nation at large." P. 314.

Such is the laft production of our much regretted friend, which we fhall not further appreciate here; as we haften to our promifed retrofpect of this diftinguished character. To the work indeed immediately before us, (after having traced the impreffions of his youth, of his maturer age, and of "the years that tend towards the grave") we must return, as with its hiftory is involved that of the clofing days of its author. Yet fhall we return with "no unpleafing melancholy;" fince, we fhall be able to contemplate (what could not be feen even in a Johnfon) the energies of genrus, learning,

and

and religion, lively, warm, and vigorous, almoft in the last moments of life.

John Whitaker was born at Manchester, probably in the year 1735. For, in the regifter of baptifms at the collegiate parish church of Chrift, in that place, we find he was baptized on the 11th of May in that year. Before he was ten years of age he was entered a fcholar of the Free-Gram mar-School in Manchester.

In 1752, he was "made exhibitioner to Oxford, at ten pounds per annum." He was elected fcholar of Corpus Chrifti College 2d of March, 1758; and fellow, 21ft of January, 1763.

In 1759, February 27, he was admitted M. A.; and in 1767, July 1, he proceeded B. D.

It appears that he was a young man "of great peculiari❤ ties." He associated with very few; it was fuppofed from the narrowness of his circumftances. He regularly kept the faft of Lent, and that of every Friday throughout the year, till fupper time; when he used to draw attention from all who were at table with him, by eating double or treble commons. He was, from the beginning to the end of his time in College, a very hard ftudent. But thefe peculiarities were manifeft proofs of an independent mind, of a confcious fuperiority over others. The character, however, of his mind was foon decided in literary compofition.

In 1771, Mr. Whitaker published the first volume of his "Hiftory of Manchefter," in quarto; a work which, for acutenefs of research, bold imagination, original fentiment, and correct information, has fcarcely its parallel in the literature of any country. Nor does its compofition less merit our applaufe; whether we have refpect to the arrangement of the materials, the ftyle, or the language. In fome paffages there is much elegance; in others a magnificence of thought, a force of expreffion, a glow of diction, truly aftonishing. The introduction of Chriftianity into this ifland, in particular, is defcribed (we had almost faid) as with the pen of infpiration. With regard to the general subject of the Manchefter, Mr. W. was the firft writer who could fo light up the region of antiquarian research as to diffipate its obfcurity, even to the eyes of ordinary fpectators; and his Manchester, is perhaps the only book in which the truth of our island history has been elucidated by

Entrance at the Free-Grammar-School, 1745, Jan. 7, John, fon of James Whitaker, inn-keeper,

the

the hand of a mafter. It is rather fingular that this work was in the order of merit, as well as time, the firft of Mr. Whitaker's publications. In proportion as he advanced in life, his imagination feems, by a ftrange inverfion of what is characteristic of our nature, to have gained an afcendancy over his judgment; and we fhall perceive more of fancy and paffion, of conjecture and hypothefis, in fome of his fubfequent productions, than of just opinion, or deliberate inveftigation. Mr. Whitaker's "Genuine Hiftory of the Britons afferted," an octavo volume, publifhed in 1772, may be accepted as a fequel to the Manchester." It contains a complete refutation of "the unhappy Macpherfon," whofe "Introduction to the Hiflory of Great Britain and Ireland," is full of palpable miftakes and mifrepresentations.

In 1773 we find Mr. W. the morning preacher of Berke Tey chapel, London; to which office he had been appointed in November, by a Mr. Hughes; but in lefs than two months he was removed from that fituation. This gave occafion to "The Cafe between Mr. W. and Mr. Hughes, relative to the Morning Preacherfhip of Berkeley Chapel;" in which Mr. W. declares himself " unalterably determined to carry the matter into Weftminfter-Hall." But the fervour of his refentment threw him off his guard; and he expreffed himself fo indifcretely, that his Cafe was confidered as a libel by the Court of King's Bench. During his refidence in London, he had an opportunity of converfing with feve ral of our most celebrated writers; among whom were the author of The Rambler, and the hiftorian of the Roman Empire.

It does not appear, indeed, that Johnfon was much attached to Whitakers Both ftrong in underitanding, equally tenacious of opinion, and equally impaffioned in converfation, it is not probable that they fhould amicably coalefce on all occafions. In the Offianic controverfy they were decidedly holile. With Gibbon Mr. W. was well acquainted; and the MS. of the first volume of "The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire," was fubmitted to Mr. Whitaker's infpection. But what was his furprife, when, as he read the fame volume in print, that chapter which has been fo obnoxious to the Chriftian world, was then firft introduced to his notice! That chapter Gibbon had fupprefied in the MS. over-awed by Mr. Whitaker's high character, and afraid of his cenfure. And, in fact, that the Deift fhould have fhrunk from his indignant eye, may well be conceived, when we fee his Christian principle and his

manly