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illness, may in some measure be traced. In a letter dated from St. Giles, (the seat of the Shaftesbury family,) November 27, 1738, after speaking of a recent sickness, Mr. Martyn says, “In the intervals of my pain I have been much taken up in looking, with Lord Shaftesbury, over a great heap of his great-grandfather's papers, among which I have met with some anecdotes that I fancy will please you, and a great many rough undigested hints that only serve to give one an idea of the extent of his capacity, but are not a sufficient foundation for forming anything on them in his life. These are interspersed with several things in Mr. Locke's hand, and (which I believe you will wonder at,) some copies of verses of his writing; one I shall be able to show you when I come to town. It is addressed to Greenhill the painter, upon his drawing Lord Shaftesbury's picture in 1672, which is hung up here and very finely done." *

casions, opposed Charles's prodigal grants to the Duchess of Cleveland. He does not, however, appear to have been successful in his inquiries, and all trace of these documents is now lost.

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The allusions to the work then growing under his hands are generally in this strain, either canvassing the materials before him, inquiring for other channels of information, or thanking his correspondent for hints already received. When Dr. Birch's Memoir of Shaftesbury was completed, this work was also in a state of forwardness, since he had there mentioned it in very favourable terms, and spoke of it as immediately about to appear. This passage, however, at the instance of Lord Shaftesbury, was omitted. "I have shown the Life (says Martyn) to Lord Shaftesbury; he very much approves of it, but is of opinion that the following paragraph (as will be sufficiently shown in an history of his life the public may soon expect, from the most authentic memoirs,') should be omitted, and I agree with his lordship, because it may tend to raise the expectation of the people, and is in no respect necessary."

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Whether the work was completed by Martyn, or whether it was broken off by his illness or his

Aysc. Cat. fol. 4313. 132.

appointment to an office in the customs, I have no means of knowing. If it was completed, the original intention of publication was abandoned, since at his death, in 1763, it was still in manuscript.

The fourth Earl of Shaftesbury died in 1771, leaving the work still unprinted, as appears from the quotations it contains from Sir John Dalrymple's Memoirs, the publication of which was not completed until 1773. The work was then taken under the protection of his son, the late Earl, by whom it was consigned to Dr. Kippis, the wellknown editor of the Biographia Britannica.

This author has left some account of the work, and of the share which he had in its composition, in his notes to the memoir of Shaftesbury in the Biographia Britannica; which the peculiar facilities he enjoyed, enabled him to render one of the most valuable in his elaborate work.

After mentioning the materials from which this Life was compiled, and the labours of the original author, the Doctor continues, "Notwithstanding the pains that had been taken by Mr.

*

Martyn, the late Earl of Shaftesbury did not think the work sufficiently finished for publication; and therefore, somewhat more than twenty years ago, he put it into the hands of his friend, Dr. Gregory Sharpe, Master of the Temple. All however that Dr. Sharpe performed was to recommend it to the care of a gentleman, still living, who is distinguished for his accurate acquaintance with the history of England, and for the astonishing precision and extent of his memory with respect to facts, dates, and persons which occur in the whole course of that history. This gentleman examined Mr. Martyn's manuscript with attention, pointed out its errors, made references, and suggested a number of instances in which it might be improved, but did not proceed much further in the undertaking. At length the work was consigned to another person, who spent considerable labour upon it, enlarged it, and contemplated availing himself of every degree of information which might render it a correct history of the

* This volume of Dr. Kippis's edition of the Biog. Brit. was published in 1789.

time, as well as a narrative of the life of Lord Shaftesbury. The reasons (not unfriendly on either side) which prevented the person now mentioned from completing his design, and occasioned him to return the papers to the noble family, are not of sufficient consequence to be here related. Whether the work is likely soon to appear, it is not in our power to ascertain.”

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I have been informed that an edition was soon after printed off; but that, with the exception of two copies, the whole impression was immediately destroyed: one of these copies is in the library of the present Earl; from the other copy this edition is printed.

As the present copy has no title-page, it is impossible to determine its date; but, from various circumstances, we may conjecture that the work upon which so much care was originally bestowed, was at last neglected, and passed through the press without any further revision.

In preparing this biography for publication, I

* Malone says that Dr. Kippis received 500l. for his labours upon this work.-Life of Dryden.

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