Street (although the appointed committee of his persa was Mr. Fallofield, of Chancery Lane); and with th gentleman he resided until the period of his death, January 25, 1824. During this time he does not appear to have been under actual personal restraint; he visited friends, and was observed in the street, as stated by the writer already referred to. We have seen a letter written by Mr. Brothers in September, 1823, shortly before his death, which betrays no symptom of unsoundness of mind. He died intestate, leaving a widow and a married daughter Administration was granted to the widow, Mrs. Elizabeth Brothers, by the Prerogative Court of Canterbury, in February, 1824. The actual property left by him was £450 3 per cent. consols, which, we understand, has not been paid by the Bank, owing to a claim on the part of Mr. Finlayson, who, by a Chancery order, has attached it, to answer the expenses incurred by him for the maintenance of Mr. Brothers, for which Lord Erskine promised (we are told) he should have an annual allowance of £300, but of which he has received not a farthing.

"As Mr. Brothers was a man of considerable notoriety at one period, and as the remoteness of that period may cause his eccentricities to be unknown or obscurely remembered at the present day, a brief sketch of his history may be acceptable.

"Richard Brothers was a native of Newfoundland, where several of his brothers and a sister still reside. He entered early in life into the British navy, where he attained the rank of lieutenant, and was said to be much respected. The first remarkable proof he gave of that religious frenzy which afterwards became so extravagant, was his refusing to make the requisite affidavit, on receiving his half-pay, which the Lords of the Admiralty consequently refused him. This instance of persecution, as he considered it, acted violently upon a mind apparently diseased by constant application to theological studies, and his conduct became so outrageous that he was removed, at the instance of his landlady, from his lodgings to the workhouse of the united parishes of St. Margaret and St. John the Evangelist, Westminster. By the interposition of the governors, he received from the Admiralty the arrears of his half-pay. Mr. Moser, the late magistrate, observed that his behaviour while in the workhouse was unexceptionable, and his con

versation strongly marked with shrewdness and propriety on general subjects, but with enthusiastic flightiness when religion was touched upon. This was in the year 1792. He soon after quitted the workhouse, and in the year 1793 or 1794, he commenced business as an inspired prophet, and actually presented himself at the door of the House of Commons to advertise the members that the fulfilment of the 7th chapter of Daniel was at hand. He published several pamphlets, of which the most remarkable is entitled, 4 Revealed Knowledge of the Prophecies and Times; Book the First; wrote under the Direction of the Lord God, and published by his Sacred Command. In this extraordinary work, he announced himself to be the nephew of God Almighty, and commissioned by him to predict the approaching destruction of London by earthquake and fire; likewise the destruction of the Parliament. Some persons were to be saved by his intercession, among whom was the Countess of Buckinghamshire, because she, (the writer observed,) as well as himself, was descended from Joseph, the president of Egypt. At this period, Brothers became an object of astonishing curiosity: not only were all his books, and every book in which he was named, purchased and read with avidity; but it was stated in Parliament that his lodgings were, in the forenoon, constantly filled by persons of quality and fortune of both sexes, including members of the legislature, and that the street was crowded with their carriages. In one of his works, he presumed to address the King in the following words:The Lord God commands me to say to you, George III., King of England, that immediately on my being revealed in London to the Hebrews, as their prince, and to all nations as their governor, your crown must be delivered up to me, that all your power and authority may cease.' Government, during these feverish times, being apprehensive that Brothers, though a mere enthusiast himself, might become a dangerous tool in the hands of others, through the amazing influence he had gained over the public mind, (his house being daily beset by crowds of people,) determined upon taking him into custody. A warrant was accordingly issued by the Duke of Portland, one of the Secretaries of State, founded on the statute 15th Elizabeth, charging him with unlawfully, maliciously and wickedly writing, publishing and printing various fantastical prophecies, with

"A circumstance of a most singular kind giving additional interest to the affair of Mr. Brothers, we refer to the conduct of Mr. Nathaniel Brassey Halhed, member of Parliament for Lymington, a distinguished Orientalist, and reported to be a man of great general learning. This gentleman not only suffered himself to be inoculated with the disease of Mr. Brothers, but on the 31st of March, 1795, introduced the subject of his prohecies to the House of Commons, after formal notice, in a long and elaborate speech, which he concluded by moving, That the books of Richard Brothers, entitled A Revealed Knowledge, &c., be laid upon the table of the house.' This motion, not being seconded, fell to the ground. Not discouraged, on 21st April, he renewed the subject by a motion for the warrant of commitment by which Mr. Brothers was placed in custody, and for a committee to inquire into the causes of his confinement. In the course of this speech, he declared that he would not flinch from the task imposed on him by the hand of Providence; and added, Many gentlemen (members), I am convinced, did read Mr. Brothers' books during the interval of the recess, and some I know to have applied for and received them from the author himself, previously to that period.' This motion, like the preceding, was not seconded.

press, and published several pamphlets on this subject, such as, A Word of Admonition to the Right Hon. William Pitt, occasioned by the Prophecies of Brothers, &c. ; and Two Letters to the Right Hon. Lord Loughborough, on the present Confinement of Richard Brothers, &c. In the latter he observes, If violence is done to Mr. Bro>thers, and an earthquake should happen, how will you persuade mankind that it is a mere natural phenomenon?"

"But a most ingenious argument is employed by Mr. Halhed to obviate the objection made to Brothers' claiming the title of nephew to God Almighty. He says, 'I hope no man in this country will deny that Jesus Christ is God Almighty. Jesus Christ had brothers and sisters, and the son of one of them must necessarily have been his nephew. Extend the line of filiation as far as we please, through fifty, a hundred, or a thousand descents, the last is still a nephew (nepos) lineally descended from the first.'

"With respect to the real character of Mr. Brothers, the late Mr. Moser, from personal observation, describes him as 6 not a dangerous, artful man, but if left to the dictates of his own heart, a man of honour, integrity and principle; possessed of a naturally strong, but unfortunately perverted, understanding; some knowledge of books, but a total ignorance of the world; gentle, mild and unassuming, though seemingly possessed of great sensibility; and although his mind was strongly bent towards a particular object, he could scarcely be said to be dogmatical even in the length of his enthusiasm.'

"Unfortunately for the reputation of Mr. Brothers, he fixed, like Joanna Southcote, near whom he rests, upon an event too near as a criterion of his veracity. He declared that the Millenium was to commence on the 19th of November, 1795, at or about sun-rise, in the latitude of Jerusalem.'

"He was not indifferent to worldly profit; he assigned, in one of his pamphlets, as a motive for writing, a desire to provide for his wife and children. His publications were probably very lucrative to him. He was between 70 and 80, at the time of his death.

"Mr. Sharpe, the celebrated engraver, was a disciple of Brothers, as he was afterwards of Joanna Southcote. His engraving of Brothers is in his most forcible manner."

The Mystery of Godliness. A Sermon preached at Halifax, on Wednesday, May 11, 1825, before the Members of the West-Riding Tract Society; and again at Evesham, on Wednesday, July 12, 1826, before the Members of the Unitarian Tract Society for Warwickshire. By Charles Wellbeloved. York: printed by Wilson and Sons; sold by Longman and Co., aud by Hunter, London. 8vo. pp. 36.

+ Lardner's Sermons, Vol. H. S. xv., or Works, Vol. X. pp. 482 -491.