HUGH, OR HUGH MACAULEY BOYD, An ingenious author, but who, according to his infatuated biographer, the late Laurence Dundas Campbell, possessed talents of sufficient magnitude to have illuminated any age or nation. He was the second son of Alexander Macauley, Esq. of the county of Antrim, and was born in October 1746, at Ballycastle, in the same county. Several anecdotes to prove the miraculous precocity of his talent are related by Campbell, and we are gravely told "He began to pun while he was yet in his childhood; and he often punned so aptly, that he both surprised and amused his friends." At the age of fourteen, he was placed in Trinity College, Dublin, during which period, a Mr. Marten, a gentleman of similar perceptions with Mr. Campbell, used to characterise him by saying, "that he united the meekness of the lamb with the spirit of the lion." In 1765, he took his degree of master of arts, and his grandfather wished him to enter the church; this however, he declined, as the natural gallantry of his nature induced him to prefer the army; but his father being desirous that he should go into the infantry, and he giving an undutiful preference to the more elevated service of the cavalry, some delay in consequence took place, and Mr. Macauley's death terminated the dispute. He left no will, and Mr. Boyd was consequently unprovided for. Disappointed in the dream of becoming a general, he consoled himself with the expectation of being a judge,in other words, he quitted the army for the law, and shortly after visited London, where he was patronised by Mr. Richard Burke; and, amongst the countless individuals who were delighted with his wit and the excessive splendour of his talents, might be enumerated the celebrated Mrs. Macauley, to whose husband he was related. But we are told "the inborn generosity of his mind, together with his exquisite sensibility, prompted him to acts of bene

volence which his scanty and precarious income was ill suited to supply; and before he had been a year in London, he was involved in pecuniary entanglements, from which, alas! he was not at any period of his life to be entirely released." But the same magnanimity which induced him to expend what he did not possess, led him to despise the inconveniencies resulting from such conduct. His creditors, it seems, became impatient; but he retained his tranquillity, determined to keep his temper, although he should lose his liberty.

This habitual thoughtlessness, his biographer gallantly insinuates, rendered him a distinguished favourite among the ladies; nor was he insensible of their admiration, as he returned the compliment by marrying a Miss Morphy, a young lady worthy of his super-human qualifications; and, as the merest trifle about truly great characters is interesting, his biographer informs us, the courtship lasted a year and some weeks. By this marriage his circumstances were rendered somewhat easier, as Miss Morphy's amiable qualities and good sense, restrained that "inborn generosity and exquisite sensibility" which he was possessed of in so eminent a degree. He, however, suffered many relapses, and "frequently plunged himself into difficulties to save the credit or relieve the distresses of the man he loved." His friends, however, began to think it was high time this period of capacious philanthropy should come to a full stop; he was therefore recommended to his countryman, Lord Macartney, and on his lordship's nomination to the government of Madras, he appointed Boyd his second secretary. He sailed accordingly with the embassy, and arrived at Madras in the autumn of 1781. After undergoing several vicissitudes, he went for a few months to Calcutta, where "his talents, wit, and humour, together with the superlative sprightliness of his convivial qualities will be long remembered with pleasure." In February 1794, he advertised proposals for publishing, by subscrip

tion, his "Embassy to Candy;" but owing to a want of taste wholly unaccountable, the subscription did not increase quite so rapidly as might have been expected. He, however, unappalled by this adverse circumstance, undertook the work with zeal, and confidently hoped to finish it within six months, but this hope (unfortunately for posterity) was never realised, on account of his decease, which occurred on the 19th of October, 1794, and he was interred in the new burying ground at Madras.

"Of his person," we are told," he was tall and graceful, formed with the most exact symmetry, his mien noble and elevated, his countenance animated and commanding, and his deportment exceedingly elegant."

Such is the life of Boyd, as written by Laurence Campbell, and we would have made a few more extracts from it, had we not arrived at a chapter on his "Intellectual Elements" (as his biographer is pleased to term them), we therefore thought it high time to close the volume, with the belief, that if any element resided in his intellect, it was-air.

That Boyd was an author possessed of some ingenuity, we are not disposed to deny, but that he was any thing more would be somewhat difficult to prove; and we beg the reader (if he imagines we have treated Boyd with undue levity) to remember, that this sketch is taken from a life written by one of his most intimate friends, every line of which renders both conspicuously ridiculous.

Boyd's Political Tracts were reprinted in one octavo volume, with a view to establish an assertion, that Almon is supposed to have been the first to have made, purporting Mr. Boyd to be the author of Junius.—We certainly have heard the letters of Junius attributed to several individuals, whose incomparable vacuity of head seemed their only claim to the distinction; but never before Boyd was mentioned did we see a feeble imitator mistaken for an original writer.

Should, however, any of our readers not be convinced that Mr. Boyd was not the author of Junius, we take the liberty of subjoining the following letter, which appeared in the Gentleman's Magazine of March 1814.

"Sir John Macpherson, Bart. of Brompton Grove, is both a sound scholar and a gentleman of sterling abilities; and Sir John once was a governor-general of India. His exemplary courtesy, liberal hospitality, and communicative disposition, are well known. From his own lips I have myself been positively and distinctly informed, that (not Mr. Walter Boyd, of dubious fame, but) Hugh Boyd, Esq. declared, entre deux vins, at Sir John's table, when the worthy host had temporarily retired, that "Sir John Macpherson little knew he was entertaining in his mansion a political writer, whose sentiments were once the occasion of a chivalrous appeal from Sir J. to arms," immediately adding, "I AM THE AUTHOR OF JUNIUS."

Amidst all the circles of our jocular acquaintance, we have heard but one witticism attributed to Mr. Boyd, which (as it is our wish to be as amusing as possible) we take the liberty of inserting :-Mr. Boyd was once dining with a large party of natives of "The Land of Saints," all admirers of good dinners, good jokes, and good wines, when, after having partaken in some slight degree of the former, they proceeded to take in a more wholesale proportion of the latter, which having done, one of the company, by way of being more amusing than the rest, took up a decanter, and (sans ceremonie) flung it at the head of the person that sat facing him; Boyd, however, seeing the missile thrown, dexterously stretched forth his hand, and caught it, exclaiming at the same time, "Really, gentlemen, if you send the bottle about in this way, there will not be one of us able to stand presently."

RICHARD BOYLE,

CELEBRATED for his attachment to the unfortunate family of the Stuarts in all their distresses, was born at the college of Youghall, on the 20th of October, 1612. He was the second son of Richard Boyle, the great Earl of Corke, and Catherine, the only daughter of Sir Jeffery Fenton, master of the rolls for Ireland; of whose courtship the following account is so curious, that we cannot avoid inserting it :-One morning, paying a visit to Sir Jeffery Fenton on some business of consequence, that gentleman, being very busy in looking over some papers, did not come down so soon as usual. Finding, however, when he came down, that Mr. Boyle had waited for him, he apologizes for his neglect very handsomely, saying, that had he known he was waiting, he would have come down immediately. Mr. Boyle smiled, and told Sir Jeffery, that he did not by any means think the time long, having been diverting himself with his pretty little daughter, (who was then in arms, and about two years old) and added, that he had been courting her to become his wife. On this, Sir Jeffery told him pleasantly, that so young a widower would be loth to stay so long for a wife; but Mr. Boyle seriously affirmed he would, if Sir Jeffery would give his consent; which he accordingly did; and they both fulfilled their promises. This curious and apparently trifling incident gave rise to a connection which afterwards formed the principal happiness of the life of that great man; and from her are descended the whole of the numerous family of the Boyles, which has since shone with so much lustre both in the field and in the senate.

His earlier years were passed in the acquirement of useful knowledge under the care of Mr. Marcombes, in which he made considerable progress, as is evident from the qualities he afterwards displayed; as well as from his receiving the honour of knighthood from the hands of Lord