" SIR,

"I fhould think myself bound to. grant any requeft introduced with Mr. Watfon's name; but that which you make in the letter I received yesterday needed no fuch introduction. A tribute paid to the memory of Mr. Hewfon is highly gratifying to me, and I can have no employ ment that will give me more fatisfac tion than that of affifting in any degree to the fpreading of his fame.

"You fay, you are not unacquainted with the general history of Mr. Hewfon's life, and you speak of him in terms which fhew you are not unacquainted with his character. Had you been among the number of his friends, you would bear teftimony of his private virtues, which rendered him no lefs dear to his family and affociates, than his talents made him refpectable in the world.

"Mr. Hewfon was born at Hex ham in Northumberland, on the 14th of November, O. S. 1739 He received the rudiments of his education at a grammar-school in that town, under the Rev. Mr. Brown. His father was a furgeon and apothecary in the place, and much refpected in that neighbourhood. With him Mr. Hewfon acquired his first medical knowlege. Being ambitious to increafe that knowlege, he placed him felf first under an eminent furgeon in Newcastle (Mr. Lambert), and afterwards refided for fome time at London, Edinburgh, and Paris. His fubfequent acquirements are fufficient to prove, that he vifited thofe places with a true love of fcience and defire of attaining eminence in his profeffion.

"I became acquainted with him in the year 1768. He was at that time in partnership with Dr. Hunter. Some fimilarity in our difpo fitions created a mutual efteem, and the equality of our fituations made

our union defirable in point of prudence. I had five months the ftart of him in age, no pretenfions to beauty, nor any fplendid fortune; yet I believe he was fatisfied with the choice he made. We were married July roth 1770. I brought him two lons. The elder was just three years old when Mr. Hewfon died, which was on the firft of May 1774, and I was delivered of a daughter on the 9th of August following. His laft moments of recollection were embittered by the idea of leaving me with three children but fcantily provided for. The trial of my for titude was different: the lofs of affluence I did not feel for myself, and I thought I could bring up my children not to want it. However, by the death of an aunt, who left me her fortune, I became reinftated in eafy circumstances, and am enabled to give a liberal education to my children, who I hope will prove worthy of the stock from which they grew, and do honour to the name of Hewfon.

"Mr. Hewfon's mother is ftill living at Hexham, and has one daughter, the youngest and only remaining child of eleven.

"His father died in 1767; and having had fo large a family, it will be readily fuppofed he could not give much to his fon, fo that Mr. Hewlon's advancement in life was owing to his own induftry.

"A better fon and hufband, or a fonder father than Mr. Hewfon, never exifted, He was honoured with the friendship of many refpectable perfons now living, and the late fir John Pringle fhewed him fingular marks of regard.

"Mr. Hewfon's manners were gentle and engaging: his ambition was free from oftentation, his prudence was without meannefspand he was more covetous of fame than of fortune.

"You

66 UT, notwithstanding the plendor of fuch rapid advancement, and of the high military and political talents which procured it, if by any accident the career of the Romans had been ftopt at the prefent æra, their name, it is proba ble, would never have appeared on the record of polifhed nations, nor they themselves been otherwife known than as a barbarous dynafty, that fell a prey to fome more fortunate pretenders to dominion and conquest.

"The Romans, being altogether men of the fword, or of the ftate, made no application to letters, or fedentary occupations. Cato is introduced by Cicero as faying, that it had been anciently the fashion at Roman feafts to fing heroic ballads in honour of their ancestors; but that this custom had been difcontinued in his own time: and it is probable, from the great change which their language underwent in a few years, that they had no popular or eftablished compofitions in writing, or even in vulgar tradition, by which the uniformity of language has, in other inftances, been longer preferved. They had hitherto no hiftorian, poet, or philofopher; and it was only now, that any tafte began to appear for the compofitions of tuch authors. Fabius, Ennius, and Cato, became the first histori

ans of their country, and raised the firft literary monuments of genius that were to remain with pofterity.

"The inclination which now appeared for the learning of the Greeks was by many confidered as a mark of degeneracy, and gave rife to the never-ending difpute, which, in this as in other nations, took place between the patrons of ancient and modern manners. The admirers of ancient times, being attached to what they received from their ancestors, were difpofed to reject every new improvement, and feemed willing to stop the progress of ingenuity itself. The gay, and the fashionable, on the other hand, liked what was new; were fond of every change, and would ever adopt the latest invention as the model of propriety, elegance, and beauty.

"To the fimplicity of the Roman manners in other refpects, and to the ability of the most accomplished councils of state, was joined a very grofs fuperftition, which led to many acts of abfurdity and cruelty. In this particular it appears, that the conceptions of men are altogether unconnected with their civil and political, as well as military character; and that the rites they adopt, even when innocent, and the most admiffible expreffions of worship, do not deserve

to be recorded for any other purpose than to fhew how far they are arbitrary; and how little, in many inftances, they are directed, even among nations otherwife the most accomplished, by any rule of utility, humanity, or reafon.

"A little time before the break ing out of the late war, the Roman fenate, upon the report of a prophecy, that the Gauls and the Greeks were to poffefs the city, ordered a man and a woman of each of thofe nations to be buried alive in the market-place; fuppofing, we may imagine, that, by this act of monftrous injuftice and cruelty, they were to fulfil or elude the prediction. The attended to the numberlefs prodigies that were annually collected, and to the charms that were fuggefted to avert the evils which thofe prodigies were fuppofed to prefage, no lefs than they did to the moft ferious affairs of the Com

monwealth. They frequently feem'ed to impute their diftrelles, more to the neglect of fuperftitious rites, than to the mifconduct of their of ficers, or to the fuperiority of their enemies. Fabius, who, by perfe verance and fteadinefs, had the merit of restoring their affairs, was no less celebrated for his diligence in averting the effect of prodigies and unhappy prefages, than he was for the conduct and ability of a cautious and fuccefstul commander. Even Scipio is faid to have been influenced by his dreams, and to have pretended to fpecial revelations.

From fuch examples as thefe, we may learn the fallacy of partial reprefentations of national character, and carefully to guard against drawing any inference from the defects or accomplishments which a people may exhibit of one kind, to establish those of another."

SUCH

UCH was the rank which the Romans affumed among nations; while their statesmen ftill retained much of their primeval rufticity, and did not confider the diftinctions of fortune and equipage as the appurtenances of power or of high command. Cato, though a citizen of the highest rank, and vefted fucceffively with the dignities of Conful and of Cenfor, ufed to partake in the Jabour of his own flaves, and to feed with them from the fame difh at their meals. When he commanded the armies of the republic, the daily allowance of his houfchold was no more than three medimni, or

about as many bushels of wheat for his family, and half a medimnus, or half a bufhel of barley for his horfes. In furveying his province he ufually travelled on foot, attended by a fingle flave who carried his baggage.

"Thefe particulars are mentioned perhaps as peculiar to Cato; but fuch fingularities in the manners of a perfon placed fo high among the people, carry fome general intimation of the fafhion of the times.

"A fpirit of equality yet reigned among the members of the commonwealth, which rejected the dif tinctions of fortune, and checked

the

the admiration of private wealth. In all military donations the centurion had no more than double the allow ance of a private foldier, and no military rank was indelible. The conful and commander in chief of one year 'erved not only in the ranks, but even as a tribune or inferior of ficer in the next: and the fame perfon who had difplayed the genius and ability of the general, ftill valued himself on the courage and addrefs of a legionary foldier.

"No one was raifed above the - glory to be reaped from the exertion of mere perfonal courage and bodily ftrength. Perfons of the highest condition fent or accepted a defiance to fight in ingle combat, in prefence of the armies to which they belonged. Marcus Servilius, a perfon of confular rank, in order to enhance the authority with which he spoke when he pleaded for the triumph of Paulus Emilius, informed the people that he himself, full three and twenty times, had fought fingly with fo many champions of the enemy, and that in each of thefe encounters he had flain and ftripped his antagonist. A combat of the fame kind was afterwards fought by the younger Scipio, when ferving in Spain.

"The fumptuary laws of this age were fuited to the idea of citizens who were determined to contribute their utmost to the grandeur of the ftate; but to forego the means of luxury or perfonal diftinction. Roman ladies were reftrained, except in religious proceffions, from the ufe of carriages any where within the city, or at the diftance of less than a mile from its walls; and yet the space over which they were to preferve their communications extended to a circuit of fourteen miles, and began to be fo much crowded with buildings or cottages, that, even before the re

duction of Macedonia, it was become neceffary to reftrain private perfons from encroaching on the ftreets, fquares, and other spaces referved for public conveniency. In a place of this magnitu le, and fo ftocked with inhabitants, the female fex was alfo forbidden the use of variegated or party-coloured clothes, or of more than half an ounce of gold in the ornament of their perfons. This law being repealed, contrary to the fentiments of Cato, this citizen, when he came, in the capacity of Cenfor, to take account of the equipages, clothes, and jewels of the women, taxed each of them tenfold for whatever was found in her wardrobe exceeding the value of one thousand five hundred denarii, or about fifty pounds fterling.

The attention of the legislature was carried into the detail of entertainments or feafts. In one act the number of the guests, and in a fubfequent one the expence of their meals, were limited. By the Lex Tribonia, enacted about twenty years after the reduction of Mace donia, a citizen was allowed, on certain high feftivals, to expend three hundred affes, or about twenty fhillings fterling; on other festivals of lefs note, one hundred affes, or about fix fhillings and eight-pence; but during the remainder of the year, no more than ten affes, or about eight pence; and was not allowed to ferve up more than one fowl, and this with a provifo that it fhould not be crammed or fatted.

"Superftition made a principal article in the character of the people. It fubjected them continually to be occupied or alarmed with prodigies and ominous appearances, of which they endeavoured to avert the effects by rites and expiations, as ftrange and irrational as the prefages on which they had grounded.