thrice prevented the burning of the town of Bandon, after three several orders given by that prince to destroy it. The same year, having been deputed by the people of Bandon, he went over to England, to petition the parliament for a redress of some grievances they had suffered while king James was in Ireland; and afterwards quitting his preferments in Ireland, he settled in London; where, being celebrated for his abilities in the pulpit, he was elected minister of St. Catherine Cree church, and lecturer of St. Michael's Wood-street. He afterwards became minister of Richmond in Surrey, and Stratford upon Avon in Warwickshire, and at length rector of Clapham in Surrey; which last, together with Richmond, he held till his death. His preferments amounted to 600l. a year, but he was so little of an œconomist as to be obliged to keep a school at Richmond. He was also chaplain to the duke of Ormond's troop of horse-guards, as he was to their majesties king William and queen Mary. He died May 20, 1726, aged sixty-six, leaving behind him the character of being a person of an agreeable temper, a polite gentleman, an excellent preacher, and a good poet. He has no high rank, however, among poets, and would have long ere now been forgotten in that character, if his name was not so familiar as a translator of the new version of the "Psalms," in conjunction with Mr. Tate, which version was licensed in 1696. He translated also the "Eneids of Virgil," published by subscription in 1726, 4 vols. 8vo; and a tragedy, called "The Rape, or the Innocent Impostors," neither performances of much character. His prose works consist of "Sermons," three volumes of which were published by himself in 1704, 1706, and 1713, and three others by his eldest son, who was a clergyman at Tooting, in Surrey, London, 1730, 8vo.

LIEUT.-GEN. R. BRERETON

WAS an intrepid officer in his majesty's service for upwards of fifty years. He served in the last two campaigns of the American war of 1775; in the West Indies, and in the Mediterranean for five years. He was constantly employed in active service, during which periods he conducted himself with courage cool and determined.

He was present at most of the battles since the year 1793, and particularly distinguished himself at Toulon, in Corsica, and in Holland. He returned to the West Indies in 1803, and was at the last reduction of St. Lucia, where he continued commandant till 1807, when he obtained permission to revisit his native country for the recovery of his health, he being seriously affected by a liver complaint, which was contracted by a residence of thirteen years in tropical climates, and which terminated his existence on the 1st of July, 1816, at New Abbey, Kildare.

ST. BRIGIT,

ST. BRIGIT, or Bridget, and by contraction Bride, Abbess, and a Saint of the Romish church, and the patroness of Ireland, flourished in the beginning of the sixth century, and is named in the martyrology of Bede, and in all others since that age. She was born at Fochard in Ulster, soon after Ireland was converted to the christian faith. She recived the religious veil, at an early age, from the hands of St. Niel, nephew of St. Patrick. She built herself a cell under a large oak, thence called Kill-dara, or the cell of the oak; living, it may be presumed, from the veneration with which her name has been handed down to posterity, in the exercise of every virtue. Her fame soon spread, and several of her own sex, having resorted to her, they formed themselves into a religious community, which in time branched out into several other nunneries

throughout Ireland, all of which acknowledged her for their mother and foundress. Her biographers give no particulars of her life, but what relates to miracles. Several churches in England and Scotland are dedicated to her, some also in Germany and France, by which we may judge of her past reputation.

She died at the age of seventy, A. D. 521, and Giraldus Cambrensis informs us, that her body was found with those of St. Patrick and St. Columba, in a triple vault at Down Patrick in 1185, and were all three translated to the cathedral of the same city; but their monument was de stroyed in the reign of Henry VIII. She was commemorated in many churches in Germany and France, until the year 1607, and likewise in the Roman martyrology on the 1st of February.

ALLAN BRODRICK,

FIRST VISCOUNT MIDLETON, was the second son of Sir St. John Brodrick, and was educated to the profession of the law in which he speedily attained to eminence, being appointed, in 1690, his majesty's serjeant. In 1695 he was advanced to the office of solicitorgeneral of Ireland; and in 1703, being returned to the parliament as member for the city of Cork, he was unanimously chosen speaker of the house of commons; and their choice was confirmed by the lord chancellor, in the name of the Duke of Ormond, then lord-lieutenant, in a highly flattering speech. This good understanding, however, was soon broken; Brodrick appears to have been a firm and warm friend to his country, and the powerful opposition which he made to some bills, proposed by the lord-lieutenant, and which were thereby frustrated, so much incensed his grace, that in 1704, he was removed from his situation as solicitor-general. A change, however, having taken place in 1707, her majesty appointed him attorney-general, and in 1710, on the death of Sir Richard

Pyne, chief justice of the king's bench in Ireland, he was appointed his successor. On this occasion the author of the Life of Thomas, Earl of Wharton, who was then lordlieutenant, observes, "that he procured that high post for one of the most worthy patriots of that kingdom, as an instance of the care he took of the security of religion and liberty."

By this promotion, being raised to the house of peers, he took his seat on the woolsack on the 19th of May, 1710; and received the thanks of the commons for his faithful and eminent services to that house, during the time of his being speaker. In 1711, the queen, on changing her ministry, removed Brodrick from this high situation, in which he was succeeded by Sir Richard Cox. In 1713, he was returned to parliament for the county of Cork, and was again invested with the dignity of speaker, a more ample proof of his abilities, and judgment in the exercise of that arduous office, than the common-place routine of votes of thanks. Indeed, his constant and faithful attachment to the laws and establishments of his country were eminently conspicuous; and he exerted himself with so much diligence in securing the succession of the crown to the House of Hanover, that George I. immediately on his succession, preferred him to the dignity of lord high chancellor of Ireland; and soon after advanced him to the peerage, by the name of Baron Brodrick, of Midleton. From this time he continued in great favour with the government, and was frequently appointed one of the lords justices during the absence of the lord-lieutenant, and in 1717, he was created Viscount Midleton. He was afterwards chosen a member of the British parliament for Midhurst, in Sussex; and died in February 1727.

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HENRY BROOKE,

THE author of "Gustavus Vasa," and "The Fool of Qua lity," was born in Ireland in 1706. His father, a man of considerable talent and great worth, was rector of the parishes of Kollinhare, Mullough, Mybullough, and Licowie: his mother's name was Digby. He was for some time the pupil of Dr. Sheridan, and from thence removed to Trinity College, Dublin, and when only seventeen, he commenced the study of the law in the Temple, In this situation, his genius, vivacity, and amiable temper, endeared him to the first characters there, and he was generally admired and beloved; and the friendship of Swift and Pope conferred a lustre on his name. He was recalled to Ireland by the illness of his aunt, who, on her dying bed, committed to his care and guardianship her daughter, a beautiful girl not twelve years old. Pleased with the trust, he was assiduous in his care, he placed her at a boarding school in Dublin, visited her often, with tender anxiety, thought only of her happiness, until he found his own was connected with it, and the guardian lost in the lover.

He found the enchanting girl sensible of his worth and ready to return his affection, and at length prevailed on her to consent to a private marriage, before she had reached her fourteenth year. It is not easy, or pleasant to believe, what some have affirmed, that she was a mother before that period. When the marriage was discovered, the ceremony was again performed in the presence of the family. Happy, and with no cares but to please each other, it was not until after the birth of their third child, that they began to think seriously how a family was to be provided for. Brooke had long given up the law, and he felt no inclination to resume a profession, which excluded the pleasures of imagination, and was so opposite to the feelings of a mind, tender, benevolent, and romantic. A