married Eliza,* daughter of sir Nathan Wright,

bart. an heiress.

At the commencement of the American revolution, General Oglethorpe, being the senior officer of sir William Howe, and now grown old in military fame without sullying his laurels, had the prior offer of the command of the forces appointed to subdue the colonies. He agreed to accept the appointment on condition the ministry would authorise him to assure the colonies, that justice should be done them. His proposal at once appeared the result of humanity and equity; he declared that-"He knew the people of America well; that they never would

* Verses enclosed to a lady in Charleston, soon after Ogleshorpe's marriage; who inquired when he would return to America.

"The fairest of Diana's train,

For whom so many sigh'd in vain,
Has bound him in her silken chain,
From whence he'll ne'er get loose again.

The son of Jove and Venus knew,
Who bravely fought, could nobly woo,
And howsoe'er he dared in fight,
Was forc'd to yield to lovely Wright.

Both charming, graceful, equal, fair,
Love glorying in so bright a pair;
Fortune and nature both together,
Have left no vacant wish for either.
He, noble, generous and brave;
She, all the virtues wise men crave,
With manly judgment too beside,
As e'er made hero happy bride.

Help, youths and virgins, help to sing,
The prize which Пymen now does bring:

I too my feeble voice will raise;

To name but Oglethorpe, is praise."

"*

"be subdued by arms, but that their obedience "would ever be secured by doing them justice.": A man with these ideas was not a fit instrument for the designs of the British government : he was therefore, agreeably to his own request, permitted to remain at home, where he was a quiet spectator of the folly of his country through a seven years war with the colonies,

General Oglethorpe passed the eve of his life in easy retirement, at the seat of his wife at Grantham hall, in Essex, where he died the 30th of June, 1785, in the 87th year of his age. He had been seventy-four years in the British army, and at his death, he was said to have been the oldest officer in the king's service. His moderation and the simplicity of his whole deportment, his prudence, virtue, delight in doing good, real regard to merit, unaffected simplicity in all his actions, great knowledge and experience, generous care and concern for his fellow creatures, his mercy and benevolence, will admit of but few parallels in the history of human life.

More can be said of general Oglethorpe, than of the subject of any other prince in Europe: he founded the province of Georgia in America; he lived to see it flourish, and become of consequence to the commerce of Great Britain; he saw it in a state of resistance, and at length beheld it independent of its mother country; and of great political importance in one quarter of the globe.

← British Annual Register.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

OF THE LIFE OF

LADY HUNTINGDON.

SELINA SHIRLEY, countess-dowager of Huntingdon, merits particular notice in the history of Georgia. This eminently pious lady, the second daughter of Washington Shirley, the second earl of Ferrars, was born in 1707, and married Theophilus earl of Huntingdon in 1728, by whom she had four sons and three daughters. After a dangerous illness she was impressed with a serious turn of mind, and on her recovery she devoted her whole time, fortune and attention, to religion and charity; to the utter astonishment of all the fine ladies of the gay fashionable world. She became the generous patroness of the celebrated preacher Mr. Whitefield, and the calvinistic methodists in general: she opened her house in Park-street, London, for the preaching of the gospel, and erected chapels in various parts of the kingdom: she also built and endowed a college in Wales, for the purpose of educating serious young men for the ministry. She left a large donation to the Orphan-house in Georgia, and aided Mr. Whitefield considerably in founding that

laudable institution. It is said that at different periods of her life, she appropriated at least one hundred thousand pounds sterling for the propagation of the gospel, and to institutions for the relief of the poor. A portrait of that amiable woman as large as life, is still preserved by the commissioners of the Orphan-house. Her labors through life were unwearied, her charities and liberality extensive, and her whole deportment humble, meek and pious: she died in 1791, in the eighty-fourth year of her age.

APPENDIX.

No. 1-Refer to page 8.

GEORGE the second, by the grace of God, of Great Britain, France and Ireland, king, deender of the faith, and so forth. To all to whom these presents shall come, greeting.

Whereas we are credibly informed, that many of our poor subjects are, through misfortunes and want of employment, reduced to great necessity, insomuch as by their labor they are not able to provide a maintenance for themselves and families; and if they had means to defray their charges of passage, and other expences, incident to new settlements, they would be glad to settle in any of our provinces in America; whereas by cultivating the lands, at present waste and desolate, they might not only gain a comfortable subsistence for themselves and families, but also strengthen our colonies and increase the trade, navigation and wealth of these our realms. And whereas our provinces in North America, have been frequently ravaged by Indian enemies; more especially that of South-Carolina, which in the late war, by the neighboring savages, was laid waste by fire and sword, and great numbers of English inhabitants, miserably massacred, and our living subjects who now inhabit them, by