lection of Latin poems, with a few notes on Horace, by way of an appendix. On the 22nd of March, 1778, he was ordained a deacon, by Dr. Hinchliffe, bishop of Peterborough, in the chapel of Trinity College, at the age of twenty-two years and one month. On April 14, Mr. Wakefield left the university for the curacy of Stockport, in Cheshire. He did not, however, remain long here, for we find him, soon after, with his brother at Richmond, decidedly averse to the renewal of subscription, and embarrassed at the idea of ecclesiastical functions.

On March 23rd, 1779, he vacated his fellowship by marriage. About the same time, he exchanged the curacy of St. Peter's for that of St. Paul's, where he had more leisure for his studies. From an humble attempt to establish a day-school, he was diverted by an offer of the tutorship of the classical department at Warrington academy, in Lan cashite, wither he removed in August, 1779. On the dissolution of the Warrington academy, a re moval took place in the autumn of 1783, to Bram cote, within four miles of Nottingham, where Mr. Wakefield endeavoured, but in vain, to procure a few respectable pupils. In this rural retreat, he published the first volume of "An Enquiry into the Opinions of the Christian Writers of the three first Centuries, concerning the Person of Jesus Christ;" but notwithstanding the commendation of many excellent judges, he was not encouraged by the sale to proceed with the continuation. We find him a second time, in May, 1784, fixed at Rich mond, advertising for pupils, and renewing his ap plications to his friends. At Michaelmas, we again hear of him in his native town of Nottingham, where he had three or four pupils under his care for several years, on very handsome terms; and about this time he was elected an Honorary Member of the Philosophical Society of Manchester, in consequence of his "Essay on the Origin of Alphabetical Characters.""

On the establishment of the new college at Hackney, Mr. Wakefield was deemed a proper person to fill the office of Classical Instructor; and he was at length appointed to this station, in July, 1790. His connections, however, with the institution, was dissolved at the end of eleven months, having retired in June, 1791: the seminary did not long survive this loss.

The most distinguished of Mr. Wakefield's publications are his Remarks on the Internal Evidence of the Christian Religion; Silva Critica; New Translation of the Testament, with Notes; his pamphlet on Religious Worship; Remarks and Illustrations on the Works of Alexander Pope; An Examination of the Age of Reason; Reply to the Letter of Edmund Burke, Esq. to a Noble Lord; his Letter to Mr. Wilberforce; and a Reply to some parts of the Bishop of Llandaff's Address to the People of Great Britain, which caused his confinement in Dorchester jail.

Mr. Wakefield's death was occasioned by a fever which he caught in consequence of an unusual exertion in walking, an exercise of which he was particularly fond.

MEMOIRS

OF

THE LATE MRS. ROBINSON,
Written by Herself.

few pages at the commencement of this work, and proceed to lay before our readers, this unfortunare, woman's account of herself after her first arrival in London.

"Within a few days after our arrival in London we were placed for education in a school at Chelsea. The mistress of this seminary was perhaps one of the most extraordinary women that ever graced

:

rington. She was the most extensively accomplished female that I ever remember to have met with; her mental powers were no less capable of cultivation than superiorly cultivated. Her father, whose name was Hull, had from her infancy been the master of an academy at Earl's Court, near Fulham; and early after his marriage losing his wife, he resolved on giving this daughter a masculine education. Meribah was early instructed in all the modern accomplishments, as well as in classical knowledge. She was mistress of the Latin, French, and Italian languages; she was said to be a perfect arithmetician and astronomer, and possessed the art of painting on silk to a degree of exquisite perfection. But, alas! with all these advantages she was addicted to one vice, which at times so completely absorbed her faculties, as to deprive her of every power, either mental or corporeal. Thus, daily and hourly, her superior acquirements, her enlightened understanding, yielded to the intemperance of her ruling infatuation, and every power of reflection seemed lost in the unfeminate propensity.

All that I ever learned I acquired from this extraordinary woman. In those hours when her senses were not intoxicated, she would delight in the task of instructing me. She had only five or six pupils, and it was my lot to be her particular favourite. She always, out of school, called me her little friend, and made no scruple of conversing with me, (sometimes half the night, for I slept in her chamber,) on domestic and confidential affairs. I felt for her a very sincere affection, and I listened with peculiar attention to all the lessons she inculcated. Once I recollect her mentioning the particular failing which disgraced so intelligent a being: she pleaded, in excuse of it, the immitigable regret of a widowed heart, and with compunction declared that she flew to intoxication as the only refuge from the pang of prevailing sorrow. I continued more than twelve months under the care of Mrs. Lorrington, during which period my mother boarded in a clergyman's family at Chelsea. I applied rigidly to study, and acquired a taste for books, which has never, from that time, deserted me. Mrs. Lorrington frequently read to me afte school hours, and I to her: I sometimes indulged my fancy in writing verses, or composing rebuses; and my governess never failed to applaud the juvenile compositions I presented to her. Some of them, which I preserved and printed in a small volume shortly after my marriage, were written when I was between twelve and thirteen years of age; but as love was the theme of my poetical phantasies, I never showed them to my mother, till I was about to publish them.

It was my custom, every Sunday evening, to drink tea with my mother. During one of those visits, a captain in the British navy, a friend of my father's, became so partial to my person and

Vol. 14. No. 57.

D

manners that a proposal of marriage shortly after followed. My mother was astonished when she heard it, and as soon as she recovered from her surprise, inquired of my suitor how old he thought me: his reply was, " about sixteen." My mother smiled, and informed him that I was not then quite thirteen. He appeared to be sceptical on the subject, till he was again assured of the fact, when he took his leave with evident chagrin, but not without expressing his hopes that, on his return to England, for he was going on a two years expedition, I should be still disengaged. His ship foundered at sea a few months after, and this amiable, gallant officer perished.

I had remained a year and two months with Mrs. Lorrington, when pecuniary derangements obliged her to give up her school. Her father's manners were singularly disgusting, as was his appearance; for he wore a silvery beard which reached to his breast; and a kind of Persian robe which gave him the external appearance of a necromancer. He was of the anabaptist persuasion, and so stern in his conversation that the young pupils were exposed to perpetual terror: added to these circumstances, the failing of his daughter became so evident, that even during school hours she was frequently in a state of confirmed intoxication. These events 'conspired to break up the establishment, and I was shortly after removed to a boarding-school at Batfersea.

The mistress of this seminary, Mrs. Leigh, was a lively sensible and accomplished woman, her daughter was only a few years older than myself, and extremely amiable as well as lovely. Here I might have been happy, but my father's remissness in sending pecuniary supplies, and my mother's dread of pecuniary inconvenience induced her to