this was in part owing to the affistance he had of his friend Mr. Gray, a gentleman well versed in the Newtonian Philofophy, who, on that occafion, gave him a very exact, though general, abftract of its principles.

That fame year, the resentment of our merchants, for the interruption of their trade by the Spaniards in America, running very high, Mr. Thomson zealously took part in it; and wrote his poem Britannia, to roufe the nation to revenge. And although this piece is the less read that its subject was but accidental and temporary, the spirited generous fentiments that enrich it, can never be out of feason: they will at least remain a monument of that love of his country, that devotion to the Public, which he is ever inculcating as the perfection of virtue, and which none ever felt more pure, or more intenfe, than himself.

Our author's poetical ftudies were now to be interrupted, or rather improved, by his attendance on the Honourable Mr. Charles Talbot in his travels. A delightful task indeed! endowed as that young nobleman was by nature, and accomplished by the care and example of the best of fathers, in whatever could adorn humanity: graceful of perfon, elegant in manners and addrefs, pious, humane, generous; with an exquifite tafte in all the finer arts.

With this amiable companion and friend, Mr. Thomfon visited most of the courts and capital cities of Europe; and returned with his views greatly enlarged; not of exterior nature only, and the works of art, but of human life and manners, of the conftitution and policy of the several states, their connexions, and their religious inftitutions. How particular and judicious his obfervations were, we fee in his poem of Liberty, begun foon after his return to England. We fee, at the same time, to what a high pitch his love of his country was raised, by the comparisons he had all along been making of our happy well-poifed government with those of other nations. To infpire his fellow-fubjects with the like fentiments, and to fhew them by what means the precious freedom we enjoy may be preserved, and how it may be abused or loft, he employed two years of his life in compofing that noble work: upon which, confcious of the importance and dignity of the fubject, he valued himself more than upon all his other writings.

While Mr. Thomson was writing the First Part of Liberty, he received a fevere fhock, by the death of his noble friend and fellow-traveller; which was foon followed by another that was severer ftill, and of more general concern; the death of Lord Talbot himfelf;

which Mr. Thomson fo pathetically and fo juftly laments in the poem dedicated to his memory. In him the nation faw itself deprived of an uncorrupted patriot, the faithful guardian of their rights, on whofe wisdom and integrity they had founded their hopes of relief from many tedious vexations: and Mr. Thomfon, befides his fhare in the general mourning, had to bear all the affliction which a heart like his could feel, for the person whom, of all mankind, he most revered and loved. At the fame time, he found himself, from an eafy competency, reduced to a itate of precarious dependence, in which he paffed the remainder of his life; excepting only the two last years of it, during which he enjoyed the place of Surveyor-General of the Leeward Islands, procured for him by the gene. rous friendship of my Lord Lyttelton.

Immediately upon his return to England with Mr. Talbot, the Chancellor had made him his Secretary of Briefs; a place of little attendance, fuiting his retired indolent way of life, and equal to all his wants. This place fell with his patron; and although the noble Lord, who fucceeded to Lord Talbot in office, kept it vacant for fome time, probably till Mr. Thomfon fhould apply for it, he was fo difpirited, and so listlefs to every concern of that kind, that he never took

one step in the affair: a neglect which his best friends greatly blamed in him.

Yet could not his genius be depreffed, or his temper hurt, by this reverse of fortune. He refumed, with time, his ufual cheerfulness, and never abated one article in his way of living; which, though fimple, was genial and elegant. The profits arifing from his works were not inconfiderable: his tragedy of Agamemnon, acted in 1738, yielded a good fum; Mr. Millar was always at hand, to answer, or even to prevent his demands; and he had a friend or two befides, whofe hearts, he knew, were not contracted by the ample fortunes they had acquired; who would, of themfelves, interpofe, if they faw any occafion for it.

But his chief dependence, during this long interval, was on the protection and bounty of his Royal Highnefs FREDERIC Prince of Wales; who, upon the recommendation of Lord Lyttelton, then his chief favourite, fettled on him a handfome allowance. And afterwards, when he was introduced to his Royal Highness, that excellent prince, who truly was what Mr. Thomson paints him, the friend of mankind and of merit, received him very graciously, and ever after honoured him with many marks of particular favour and confidence. A circumftance, which does equal honour

to the patron and the poet, ought not here to be omitted; that my Lord Lyttelton's recommendation came altogether unfolicited, and long before Mr. Thomfon was perfonally known to him.

It happened, however, that the favour of his Royal Highness was in one inftance of fome prejudice to our author; in the refufal of a licence for his tragedy of Edward and Eleonora, which he had prepared for the ftage in the year 1739. The reader may fee that this play contains not a line which could juftly give offence; but the ministry, ftill fore from certain pasquinades, which had lately produced the stage-act; and as little fatisfied with fome part of the prince's political conduct, as he was with their management of the public affairs; would not risque the representation of a piece written under his eye, and, they might probably think, by his command.

This refufal drew after it another; and in a way which, as it is related, was rather ludicrous. Mr. Paterfon, a companion of Mr. Thomson, afterwards his deputy and then his fucceffor in the general-furveyorship, ufed to write out fair copies for his friend, when fuch were wanted for the prefs or for the stage. This gentleman likewise courted the tragic mufe; and had taken for his fubject the story of Arminius the German