Dr Price

with a complaint which quickly brought him to his grave. was a man of considerable powers and great worth of moral character The general tendency of his political writings is salutary, though his enthusiasm often prompted him to theorize too finely in the science of government. He exercised very considerable influence over public opinion during one of the most eventful periods of modern history, and numbered amongst his correspondents some of the principal leaders in the American and French revolutions.

John Smeaton.

BORN A. D. 1724.-died a. D. 1792.

THIS distinguished mechanic and civil engineer was born at Ansthorpe, near Leeds, on the 28th of May, 1724. His father was an attorney, and wished to educate his son for his own profession, but was ultimately compelled to allow the youth to follow the bent of his own genius for mechanics. From a very early age he had discovered a strong propensity towards the arts in which he afterwards so distinguished himself: "his playthings"-to use the words of one of his acquaintances—“ were not the playthings of children, but the tools men work with; and he appeared to have greater entertainment in seeing the men in the neighbourhood work, and asking them questions, than in any thing else. At the age of eighteen he used to forge iron and steel with considerable dexterity, and had tools of every sort for working in ivory, wood, and metals.'

In the year 1750 he took lodgings in Turnstile, Holborn, where he commenced the business of a mathematical-instrument maker. His ingenious inventions soon introduced him to the notice of men of science in the capital, and in 1753 he was elected fellow of the Royal society, to whose Transactions' he subsequently contributed various papers, one of which, entitled An Experimental enquiry concerning the natural powers of wind and water to turn mills and other machines depend ing on a circular motion,' received the society's gold medal in 1759 This paper was the result of experiments made in his 27th and 28th years. In 1754 he visited Holland, and minutely inspected the principal works of the Dutch engineers.

In 1755 the Eddystone light-house was destroyed by fire. Mi Smeaton had not yet practised as an engineer, yet such was the high opinion entertained of his abilities that he was recommended to the proprietors by the president of the Royal society, as upon the whole the person best qualified to superintend the reconstruction of such an edifice, and to overcome, if the thing were at all possible, the numerous obstacles and disadvantages attending the construction of a secure lighthouse on this spot, which had hitherto been deemed insurmountable. He undertook the work immediately, and completed it in the summer of 1759. His reputation was now established as a civil engineer. In 1764 he was appointed one of the receivers of the Greenwich hospital estates, but resigned that office in 1777, in consequence of the increase of other business. During this last year he completed the erection of new light-houses at the Spurn-head at the mouth of the Humber.

Among other undertakings, he rendered the river Calder navigable; he built the fine bridge over the Tay at Perth; he laid out the line of the great canal connecting the Forth and Clyde; and he secured the piers of the centre arch of London bridge, which had been undermined by the action of the stream, by a very simple expedient. In 1771 he became joint-proprietor with his friend Mr Holmes of the works for supplying Greenwich and Deptford with water. His reputation was now so completely established that no great works were undertaken throughout the kingdom without his opinion being first obtained regarding them; he was constantly consulted in parliament, and was regarded as an ultimate reference on all difficult questions connected with his profession. He made an attempt to retire from public life in 1785, but was prevailed upon to continue his services as engineer to the trustees for Ramsgate harbour. The works at Ramsgate were begun in 1749, but had been conducted with very indifferent success, until Smeaton was called in to superintend them in 1774. He completed the magnificent pier and harbour of this place in 1791, and then established a secure and much-needed place of shelter in the Downs. His health had begun to decline about 1785. Over-exertion at last brought on an attack of paralysis on the 16th of September, 1792, which carried him off on the 28th of the next month, in the 69th year of his age.

Smeaton was a man of indefatigable industry and great moral probity. With ample opportunity of amassing wealth, he rendered its acquisition but a secondary object on all occasions; his first aim always being to execute the task intrusted to him in the most skilful and perfect man

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Had he been more set upon amassing a fortune than he was, he might have received many lucrative appointments besides those which he held. The empress Catherine of Russia attempted to secure his services for her own country by most magnificent offers; but Smeaton preferred to dedicate his time and talents to the service of his country. The disinterested moderation of his pecuniary ambition," says his daughter, "every transaction in private life evinced; his public ones bore the same stamp; and after his health had withdrawn him from the labours of his profession, many instances may be instanced by those whose concerns induced them to press importunately for a resumption of it and when some of them seemed disposed to enforce their entreaties by further prospects of lucrative recompense, his reply was strongly characteristic of his simple manners and moderation. He introduced the old woman, who took care of his chambers in Gray's-inn, and, showing her, asserted that her attendance sufficed for all his wants.' The inference was indisputable, for money could not tempt that man to forego his ease, leisure, or independence, whose requisites of accommodation were compressed within such limits!" Before this, the Princess de Askoff made an apt comment upon this trait of his character; when, after vainly using every persuasion to induce him to accept a carte blanche from the empress of Russia-as a recompense for directing the vast projects in that kingdom-she observed, "Sir, you are a great man, and I honour you! You may have an equal in abilities, perhaps, but in character you stand single. The English minister, Sir Robert Walpole, was mistaken, and my sovereign has the misfortune to find one man who has not his price." In all the social duties of life he was most exemplary; and he was a lover and encourager of real

merit in whatever station of life he found it. His papers, consisting of plans, reports, and treatises on almost every branch of engineering, were published after his death by the society of Civil engineers.

During his own lifetime Smeaton published A Narrative of the building, and a Description of the construction of Eddystone Lighthouse,' from which we learn the following facts connected with the progress and completion of that extraordinary work. The Eddystone light-house is situated on a reef of rocks directly between the Lizard and Start points at the entrance of Plymouth Sound. The first lighthouse constructed on this spot was entirely carried away in the memor. able storm of 26th November, 1703. Its successor was burnt down in 1755. To guard against a repetition of the latter accident Smeaton resolved that his should be entirely of stone. After much time spent in deliberating upon the best form and method of construction, he adopted the model furnished by the trunk of an oak for his building. That tree swells out towards its roots so as to obtain a broad and firm base, while, diminishing as it rises, it again swells out as it approaches towards the insertion of the branches, so as to afford them a secure hold on the trunk. This outline is evidently well-adapted for a light-house exposed to violent storms. The storm spends itself on the broad and circular base without being able to effect a breach, while the curved cornice, or bulging head of the pillar, throws off the heavy seas from the lantern. For the height of twelve feet from the rock the building is solid, of Portland stone faced with Cornish granite. The interior, which consists of four rooms, one above the other, is accessible by a moveable ladder, and surmounted with a glass-lantern 21 feet in height. The height from the lowest point of the foundation to the floor of the lantern is 70 feet. It has withstood, uninjured, every storm since its erection, and bids fair to last for centuries to come.

James Bruce.

BORN A. D. 1733.-DIED A. D. 1794.

JAMES BRUCE was born about the year 1733. His family was descended from one of the brothers, or other collateral relations, of the heroic Robert Bruce, king of Scotland. Robert Bruce of Kinnaird, an eminent presbyterian minister in the reign of James VI., was one of his immediate ancestors. His parents held a respectable rank among the gentry of Stirlingshire in Scotland.

He received a very excellent education at some of the most distinguished seminaries in England. The languages of Greece and Rome, -mathematics, and the sciences dependent upon it,—the arts of design, -the more polished of the European tongues,-and gymnastic exercises, were comprehended in the curriculum of the youth. His studies were finished at the university of Edinburgh; and the usual course of travel on the continent followed soon after. About the year 1760 young Bruce, then in possession of his paternal estate, was looked upon as one of the most promising young Scotsmen of his age. The late earl of Chatham, whose patronage he courted, was about to have brought him into some employment in the public service at the very time he

himself was suddenly driven from power. The new administration, however, appointed him to the office of British consul at Algiers; and it was recommended to him by the ministers to whom he owed his appointment, to investigate those remains of ancient Roman magnificence of which Africa was believed to contain many specimens, either unknown or but imperfectly known to the curious in Europe. Sweden nad just sent, from among the pupils of the great Linnæus, a Hasselquist, a Kalm, and other scientific missionaries, to explore the most distant regions of the earth. The king of Denmark, also, had lately employed a company, consisting of an engineer, a draughtsman, a linguist, a botanist, and a physician, to investigate the history of the aucient and present state of Arabia, and the other most famous countries of the East. The islands scattered throughout the wide expanse of the southern seas were beginning to be numbered by adventurous navigators. France and Spain were sending philosophers to Siberia and to Peru, for the purpose of ascertaining the precise figure of the earth. The love of science, and the beneficent desire to promote the civilization of mankind, seem at this time to have every where inspired a desire to prosecute discoveries. It was not merely a pedantic fancy or a Quixotic dream, therefore, that impelled Bruce to enter on those bold enterprises which he was destined to accomplish. Some time was necessarily spent in the study of the language of the Moorish Arabians, and in fulfilling the functions of his official character, before he could proceed upon his researches. But within no long period after his arrival he boldly committed himself to the dangerous faith of some tribes of wandering Arabs, and advanced, in search of ancient ruins, into regions which no visitant from modern Europe had as yet successfully explored. Associating with his Arabian hosts and guides, and displaying a knowledge of their language and manners which left him scarcely under the disadvantages of a stranger, he was enabled to discriminate the peculiarities of their respective characters with an accuracy of observation perhaps unequalled by any former traveller.

From Africa he passed, in prosecution of greater designs, to the Grecian isles and the coast of Syria. An unfortunate shipwreck damaged his valuable collection of instruments for astronomical observations, but could not deter his resolute mind from its adventurous pursuits. In Syria he surveyed the ruins of Tadmor and Balbec, and executed many valuable drawings of those noble, though mutilated, monuments of ancient art. From Syria he repaired to Egypt. Its great towns,its pyramids, the sites and remains of its ancient cities, the phenomena of the overflowings of its mighty river, the Nile, the formation of its lower territory,-the comparison of its present local circumstances with its ancient history, joined to the character of its government and inhabitants, all excited and engaged Mr Bruce's attention. science, the manly dignity and firmness of his personal character, the advantages arising from the recommendations with which he travelled, and some lucky concurring incidents, introduced him to the friendship and protection of the famous Ali Bey, who was then all-powerful in Egypt, and by this means procured him facilities for observation and Inquiry which have rarely been possessed by Europeans in that land.

His

From Egypt Mr Bruce sailed southward, on the Red sea, to Jidda in the Happy Arabia. From this place he sailed for Masuah, the maritime

key of the entrance into Abyssinia, on the western coast of the Red sea. On this occasion, and during the previous navigation from Suez to Jidda, he surveyed and sounded the Red sea with hydrographical care and skill, by which he was enabled to form a better naval chart of it than the world had hitherto been in possession of. After many perils from the deceit and thievish rapacity of the inhabitants on the eastern frontiers of the Abyssinian empire, our traveller happily made his way to a considerable mercantile town within its confines. The name of Ras Michael, to whom he had been recommended, and who was at this time master of both the king and his kingdom, here afforded him as much security as a stranger could expect to find among a barbarous people, and amid the horrors of civil war; his own intrepid boldness and vigilance, his noble liberality in the distribution of presents fitted to strike and please the fancy of a rude nation,—some lucky but unexpected incidents, and the admiration which his dexterity in shooting and horsemanship excited, did all the rest. Mr Bruce arrived at Gondar, the Abyssinian capital, in the midst of one of the fiercest and most afflicting civil wars by which the country had ever been wasted. But even

in these circumstances, and among a race so barbarous, the felicity of his genius preserved him safe. The smallpox was at this moment outrivalling the havoc of war by its terrible devastations throughout all Abyssinia. Our traveller was sufficiently acquainted with the Turkish and English methods of treating the smallpox; and his art rescued from the brink of the grave several lives of which the preservation had been deemed hopeless. The beautiful Ozors Esther, the beloved wife of Michael, her mother, the Iteghe, whose state as queen-dowager remained inviolate amidst the destructions of civil war,-some gallant youths, the sons and grandsons of these ladies,-grateful for Bruce's medical assistance, and charmed with the mingled boldness and gentleness of his character, quickly became his zealous friends and protectors. When Michael, and with him the young king whom he sustained on the throne, returned from a successful campaign to Gondar, the stranger was presented to them with recommendations which secured a very flattering reception. The king and the minister immediately conceived a warm partiality for him. High offices in the court were offered him; and to obtain the protection necessary to enable him to accomplish the purposes of his journey, he was obliged to accept the government of a small province, and even to enrol himself among the lords of the bed-chamber to the Abyssinian monarch.

To penetrate to the sources of the Nile, and to examine every thing relative to the natural history of the country, had been the first objects of his inquiry when he made his way into Abyssinia. Obtaining at length a feudal grant of the very territory in which the fountains of the Nile had been so long hidden from the European world, he set out to visit them; and after many perils he arrived at what he conceived to be the source of this mysterious river, and drank libations from its wellhead more grateful and intoxicating to a romantic traveller than the Falernian of old.

Mr Bruce having accomplished the object of his adventurous journey into Abyssinia, and happily surmounted the tremendous perils of a return through the desert of Sennaar, proceeded gaily down the Nile to Cairo. An act of kindness to one of the officers of Moham