blow to the power of that minister and his cabinet, by moving his celebrated address to the king on the state of the country; and a change in the government following, he warmly supported the brief rule of Lord North and Mr. Fox. When these were supplanted by Mr. Pitt, he made and carried a motion, declaring "the continuance of the present ministers in office to be an obstacle to the formation of a vigorous administration." Mr. Pitt, however, kept his ground; and, dissolving parliament, "in the spring-tide of his popularity," observes Wilson, in his Biographical Index to the House of Commons, "Mr. Coke, notwithstanding his great stake in the county, lost his election for Norfolk." He was again returned, however, in 1790; and, soon after, took occasion to oppose the additional duty on malt, proposing, by way of substitute, a tax on dogs. In 1791, he proposed an amendment to the address to the king, tending to avert a war with Russia, which was lost; and, in 1796, he supported the views of Mr. Fox, in the celebrated motion for censuring the then ministers, for having, unconstitutionally, advanced money to the Emperor of Germany and the Prince of Condé, without the consent of parliament. During the same year, he brought in, and carried into a law, a bill for protracting the legal time for the commencement of shooting; and, in the following year, gave his strenuous support to the celebrated motion of the present Earl (then Mr.) Grey, for a reform in parliament. At the general election, in 1802, himself and his colleague, the late Sir Jacob Astley, were returned to their places, after severe opposition on the part of the late Mr. Windham and the Honourable Colonel Wodehouse, son of Lord Wodehouse. At the election, which followed the appointment of the Fox and Grenville ministry, in 1806, Mr. Coke successfully united his interest with Mr. Windham; but their election being declared void, on a petition against it, Mr. Coke was subsequently returned to parliament for Derby. After its dissolution he again sat for Norfolk, and continued to be one of the most popular members of the house of commons, until 1815, when his sentiments and vote in support of the corn laws gave great offence. The

people of Norwich were, in particular, exasperated; and, in passing through that city, his carriage was broken to pieces, and he narrowly escaped with his life. He subsequently advocated the cause of Queen Caroline, catholic emancipation, the repeal of the test and corporation acts, parliamentary reform, and the abolition of slavery. Some of his enemies asserted, that he had declared he would oppose all ministerial measures, whilst the Tories held power, "right or wrong;" and that he could return whomsoever he pleased for the county of Norfolk. This last report obtained him the soubriquet of "King Coke;" and, upon a contest ensuing for the representation of the county, many that had supported his interest took the opposite side, and the Wodehouse party succeeded in returning a member, in the person of Mr. Edmund Wodehouse. It is less, however, as a politician, and one of the most distinguished and independent commoners of this country, that Mr. Coke is known, than as an agriculturist. His liberal encouragement of the breed of sheep, and the growth of wool, has been felt and acknowledged in England, Scotland, and Ireland; and the magnificent display of cattle, at the Holkham sheep-shearing, may be said to constitute an era in the annals of agriculture. When he came to his estates, it is said, he found them composed of stubborn and unproductive soils; but by the adoption of drillhusbandry, of irrigation, of the methods of transplanting grasses, &c., he has rendered them a perfect garden. Young, in his Survey of Norfolk, speaking of Mr. Coke, says, "He has expended above £100,000 in farm-houses and offices, and all of them erected in a very superior style."

He has been twice married: first, in 1775, to Jane, sister of the late Lord Sherborne, by whom he had three daughters; and, secondly, about 1824, when upwards of seventy years of age, to Lady Anne, daughter of the present Earl of Albemarle, by whom he has several sons. By the latter match he incurred much ridicule, though, it is said, on both sides, to have been one of affection. George the Fourth, when Prince of Wales, says a writer in The Monthly Magazine, "was exceedingly

BENJAMIN THOMPSON, the son of parents in the middle station of life, was born in Rumford, New England, in the year 1752. The abilities which he displayed at a very early age, his parents seem to have been unable to cultivate at their own expense; and his education was, therefore, superintended by a professor of natural philosophy in the American University of Cambridge, who had noticed the talents of the boy. Under this gentleman, young Thompson made such rapid progress, that he was enabled to become an instructor himself at an unusually early period. The profits he thus gained were soon exchanged for a comfortable independence, which he acquired by marriage; and, shortly afterwards, he obtained the rank of major in the militia of his provincial district. He took part with England, in her struggles to check the efforts of the colonies for independence; and, by his local knowledge, rendered such service to government, that, on his coming to this country, soon after the commencement of the war, he was appointed to an office under Lord George Germaine, the chief minister in the American department. The same nobleman sent him, towards the close of the contest, to New York, where he raised a regiment of dragoons, and was made a provincial lieutenant-colonel. In 1784, he returned to England; received the honour of knighthood in the same year; and, for some time, acted as one of the under secretaries of state.

During a tour on the continent, he became acquainted with the Prince of Deux-Ponts, afterwards King of Bavaria, and, by him, was recommended to the reigning elector palatine, who took him into his service at Munich, and treated him with great consideration. Here he introduced various useful

reforms; among others, the employment of the numerous beggars in the metropolis, and other parts of Bavaria, upon a plan in carrying which into execution, he displayed great firmness and perseverance. As a reward for his services, the elector decorated him with several orders, raised him to the rank of lieutenant-general, and ennobled him by the title of Count Rumford. After two visits to England, in 1795 and 1796, he finally quitted Munich, in 1799, and passed several of the succeeding years in this country, employed, principally, in making experiments relative to the domestic use of fire, and the construction of chimneys, &c. The result was, a very great improvement in the construction of grates and fireplaces, according to a contrivance which may be said to have immortalized him in the annals of domestic economy, under the name of the Rumford stove.

In 1802, the count visited Paris; and, in the summer of the following year, made a tour in Switzerland and Bavaria, in company with the widow of the celebrated Lavoisier. This lady, herself a votary of science, he married, on his return to the French metropolis; but the union was speedily followed by a separation. Count Rumford, however, though he disliked the French people, found his health so much benefited by the climate, that he only removed from Paris to Auteuil, a distance of four miles, and the site of a very delightful habitation; where he lived, in a state of comparative seclusion, for the rest of his life., The King of Bavaria still continued to him his pension of £1,200 a year; and, in consequence, when that sovereign joined the coalition against Napoleon, the count would have been ordered to quit France, but for his retired habits. He still, however, gave his attention to science;

and, in the few visits he made to Paris, displayed his faith in the accuracy of some of his experiments, in a very peculiar manner. Having discovered that more heated rays are thrown out from a dark body than a light one, he walked about the metropolis in winter, clad completely in white; and immediately followed up the publication of a paper in the Moniteur, on the advantages of broad wheels, by driving about Paris in a carriage upon that construction. These eccentricities, and an obstinate, unyielding disposition, which involved him in frequent disputes with the French men of science, were probably the causes that separated him from social intercourse during the latter years of his life. He died of a fever, in August, 1814, from the effect of which he might have recovered, but for the extreme abstemiousness of his habits of living.

In person, Count Rumford was above the middle size, with a dignified and pleasing expression of countenance, and a mildness in his manner and tone of voice. Though by no means a man of learning, his acquirements were con

siderable; and he had greatly improved, in general knowledge, by the literary circles to which his reputation introduced him in London and Paris. As a man of science, few have displayed more ingenuity and facility in their contrivances and experiments, or have projected them for such useful ends. His own experiments, however, were not the only ones by which he sought to benefit the cause of science. He transferred to the Royal Society, of which he was a member, as well as of the National Institute, £1,000; the interest of which was to be applied, every second year, as a premium to the author of the most important discovery on the subject of heat and light, made public in any part of Europe, during the preceding two years. He also suggested the plan, and greatly assisted in the formation, of the Royal Institution. His writings consist of four volumes of Essays, Experimental, Political, Economical, and Philosophical, which have been translated into various languages; and a variety of papers, in the respective Transactions of the Royal Society and the French Institute.

SIR JOHN SINCLAIR, the son of a gentleman of fortune, in the county of Caithness, Scotland, was born in 1754, and received his education at the highschool and university of Edinburgh. Having obtained some knowledge of civil law, under Professor Millar at Glasgow, he enrolled his name as a member of the College of Advocates; but coming into the possession of a large paternal inheritance, he turned his attention to politics, and, in 1780, was elected member of parliament for his native county. He was strongly opposed to the American war, and to Mr. Fox's India bill; and, before the end of the session, published several works that displayed many just and original notions on the politics of the day. His treatise on the subject of a reform in parliament produced a particular sensation, and gave rise to several answers, the best of which is said to

have been written by Lord Camelford. In 1783. appeared his Hints on the State of Our Finances; which had the merit, or, as some may think, the demerit, of being the first publication asserting the ample resources of the nation. In the following year, he produced his History of the Public Revenue of the British Empire, in two volumes quarto, to which he afterwards added a third volume, and of which several editions were published. On the dissolution of parliament, he stood a contested, but unsuccessful, election for the Scotch burghs of Kirkwall, and was, in consequence, furnished with a seat by Mr. Pitt, who, in August, 1786, also procured him a baronetcy. In the following year, he printed his work on the Laws of Elections for Scotland; and during the great contest on the subject of the regency, in 1789, he joined the opposition in supporting that measure.

His

conscientious hostility to this, and some subsequent views of government, in reference to a war with France, offended the minister to whom he owed his place, and who shewed his displeasure, by procuring Sinclair's removal from the chair of the Board of Agriculture, of which he had been appointed the first president. He had been for some time trying to establish, under his own superintendence, a society for the improvement of agriculture; but, having applied for an allowance from government to support it, the sum of £3,000 a-year was granted, and the whole became a government job. In 1790, appeared his Report on the Subject of Shetland Wool; and, at the general election of that year, he was a second time returned member of parliament for Caithness; which, with the exception of one session, when he sat for Petersfield, in Hampshire, he continued to represent until 1812. He then retired from parliament, in favour of his son; and, about the same time, was appointed receiver-general of the customs for Scotland, a situation he continued to hold for several years. Besides the works before-mentioned, he

Sir

is the author of Observations on the Scotch Dialects; a Statistical Account of Scotland; An Account of the Origin of the Board of Agriculture; Essays on Various Subjects; also Hints on Longevity; Code of Health; on the Cause of Blight; on The Husbandry of Scotland; The Code of Agriculture; and several political and agricultural treatises of minor importance. John Sinclair has the merit of having, in the above very useful and ingenious publications, opened the way to many important and beneficial results in financial and agricultural science. Whilst in parliament, he seldom spoke; but some of his speeches, which have been published on particular occasions, shew that when he rose to address the house, no one could express himself more to the purpose.

Sir John Sinclair married, first, in 1776, Sarah, daughter of Alexander Maitland, Esq., of Stoke-Newington, by whom he has issue one surviving daughter; and, secondly, in 1788, Diana, youngest daughter of Alexander (late Lord) Macdonald, and sister of the present lord, by whom he has six sons and six daughters.