standard, and that ministers should sink under the accumulated weight of parliamentary and popular odium. After a few faint efforts, therefore, to which he seemed rather impelled than inclined, lord North gave in his resignation in March 1782. That he had lately acted under the influence to which we formerly alluded, seemed to be about this time more generally believed, for some of the last endeavours of the opposition to procure his dismissal, had the "influence of the crown" for their avowed object; and as they approached nearer the accomplishment of their wishes, their threats to bring this guilty minister to his trial became louder. When, however, he made way for his successors, they not only granted him full indemnity for the past, but at no great distance of time, associated with him in a new administration, a measure to which the public could never be reconciled. The coalition which placed lord North and Mr. Fox in the same cabinet was more repugnant to general feeling than any one, or perhaps the aggregate, of lord North's measures, when in the plenitude of his power. When the voice of the nation, and the spirit of its sovereign, had dismissed this administration, lord North returned no more to power, and took no very active part in politics, except on two occasions, when he maintained the consistency of his former political life, by opposing the repeal of the test act, and a scheme for the reform of parliament. In 1790 he succeeded his father in the earldom, but survived him only two years, during which he had the misfortune to lose his sight. He passed his last days in the calmness and endearments of domestic privacy, to which his cheerful and benign temper was peculiarly adapted. His lordship died August 5, 1792. He was at this time, ranger and warden of Bushy Park; chancellor of the university of Oxford; a knight of the garter; lord lieutenant and custos rotulorum of the county of Somerset ; recorder of Gloucester and Taunton, one of the elder brethren of the Trinity-house; president of the Foundling-hospital and the Asylum, and governor of the Turkey company and Charter-house.

In March 1756, he married Anne, daughter and co-heir of George Speke, of White Lackington, in the county of Somerset, esq. by whom he had a numerous issue. He was succeeded in titles and estate by his eldest son, George Augustus, who dying without male issue in 1794, was succeeded by his brother Francis, present and fourth earl of Guilford.

1

Of the talents of lord North, much was said during his administration, and it is perhaps his highest praise, that against such a force of opposition, he could act so well upon the defensive. With many personal defects, he contrived to exhibit a species of eloquence which seemed easy and habitual, and always commanded attention. On subjects of finance, his abilities were generally acknowledged; he reasoned closely; and he replied with candour and temper, not unfrequently, however, availing himself of his wit. But as an orator, there were men of far more brilliant talents opposed to him; and as a statesman in general, he cannot be compared to his successor Pitt. He perhaps approaches the nearest to sir Robert Walpole, and like him seldom displayed the commanding energies of mind, but was content to follow the track of official duties, and to defend individual measures, arising out of temporary necessities, without professing any general system applicable to all occasions. But whatever were the errors or defects in lord North's public conduct, there lies no impeachment on his integrity. He neither enriched himself nor his family, nor was he ever accused of turning ministerial information or influence to the purposes of pecuniary emolument. To the last moment of his life, he reviewed his conduct and his principles with satisfaction, and professed his readiness to defend them against any inquiry that could be instituted. What such inquiry can produce, must be the subject of future discovery. All we know at present is, that the moment he resigned, his public accusers became silent.

The private character of lord North has ever been the subject of praise and admiration. Among all his political opponents, he never had a personal enemy. Although during his whole administration the subject of the bitterest calumny and malignity, he never retorted but in conversation. His uncommon sweetness of temper, the vivacity of his replies, his ready and playful wit, created a diversion in his favour, if we may use the phrase, amidst the fiercest of his political contests. His character in general, indeed, cannot be concluded in more comprehensive terms than those of Burke :-" He was a man of admirable parts; of general knowledge; of a versatile understanding, fitted for every sort of business; of infinite wit and pleasantry; of a delightful temper, and with a mind most disinterested."

1 Annual Register, passim.-Brydges's edition of Collins's Peerage, &c. &c.

NORTH (GEORGE), an English antiquary, was the son of George North, citizen of London, and was born in 1710. He received his education at St. Paul's school, whence, in 1725, he went to Bene't college in Cambridge, where he took his degrees of B. A. in 1728, and M. A. in 1744. In 1729 he was admitted into deacon's orders, and went to officiate as curate at Codicote, a small village near Welwyn, in Herts. In 1741 he published, without his name, "An Answer to a scandalous libel, entitled The Impertinence and Imposture of Modern Antiquaries displayed." This "scandalous libel," a quarto pamphlet, professed to be a "refutation of the rev. Mr. Wise's Letter to Dr. Mead, concerning the white horse, and other antiquities in Berkshire," and was written by the rev. Will. Asplin, vicar of Banbury, and had a preface added to it by William Bumstead of Upton, co. Warwick, esq. formerly the supercargo of the prince Frederic, East Indiaman. Mr. North's refutation and censure of the pert arrogance of Messrs. Asplin and Bumstead recommended him not only to the notice and esteem of the gentleman whose cause he had so generously espoused (to whom he was at that time a perfect stranger), but also of several dignified members of the Society of Antiquaries, into which he was elected early in 1742, and soon distinguished himself as a very useful mem ber, and drew up in that year, a catalogue of the earl of Oxford's coins, for the public sale of them.

In 1743 he was presented to the vicarage of Codicote, and in 1744 was appointed chaplain to lord Cathcart. In the same year he took his degree of M. A. and drew up a catalogue of Mr. West's series of coins, intending a prefa. tory account of them, and a catalogue of Dr. Ducarel's English coins. With this last gentleman he continued his correspondence in 1748 and 1749, copious extracts from which are given in our authority. In the spring of 1750 he made a tour into the West; and on his return commu→ nicated very freely to Dr. Ducarel his ideas of the proceedings respecting a charter, then in agitation at the Society of Antiquaries, and of which he appears to have entertained very groundless fears. By one of his letters, in August 1750, it appears that he had not enjoyed three days of good health for more than a year; and was then labouring under several bodily complaints, and apprehensive of an epilepsy. He continued, however, as often as he was able, to indulge in literary pursuits, and extend his researches into every

matter of antiquity that engaged the attention of his contemporaries and correspondents. In 1751, the rev. Charles Clarke, of Baliol college, Oxford, published "Some Conjectures relative to a very antient Piece of Money lately found at Eltham in Kent, endeavouring to restore it to the place it merits in the Cimeliarch of English Coins, and to prove it a coin of Richard the first king of England of that name. To which are added, some Remarks on a dissertation (lately published *) on Oriuna the supposed wife of Carausius, and on the Roman coins there mentioned," 1751, 4to To this Mr. North published an answer, entitled "Remarks on some Conjectures, &c. shewing the improbability of the notion therein advanced, that the arguments produced in support of it are inconclusive or irrelative to the point in question," 1752, 4to. In this answer, which was the first piece published by any of the society after their incorporation, Mr. North considered at large the standard and purity of our most ancient English coins, the state of the mints, and the beginning of sterling, from the public records; and added to it, "An Epistolary Disser tation (addressed to Mr. Vertue) on some supposed Saxon gold coins; read before the Society of Antiquaries, Dec. 19, 1751." No man could be better qualified for this task than Mr. North, who, by his intimacy with Mr. Holmes and Mr. Folkes (the latter of whom he mentions in the highest terms), became perfectly acquainted with the records and whole state and history of the English coinage. Mr. Charles Clarke, however, a member of the Society, announced a design of proving Mr. North wrong in his "Epistolary Dissertation;" but luckily for himself, discovered that his own premises would not support any such conclusion, and therefore his publication never appeared.

In 1752 Mr. North had made a considerable progress in "Remarks on the Money of Henry III." which had then engaged his attention for more than three years, and for which he had actually engraved two plates, and hoped to have it ready for publication in the ensuing winter; but nothing on the subject was found among his MSS. after his death. The plates, however, which were purchased at Dr. Lort's sale by Mr. Gough, who worked off a few impressions for his friends, are now in the possession of the

* By Dr. Kennedy, who asserted that Oriuna was that emperor's guardian goddess. See his article, vol. XIX.

rev. Rogers Ruding, F. S. A. vicar of Maldon in Surrey, from whom the public may soon expect a very elaborate work on English coinage. In 1752 Mr. North was involved in law suits with his parishioners, some of whom had not paid him for tithes or offerings for many years, and obliged him to take the harshest steps to obtain justice, which was the more hard upon him, as his living was a very small one. On this painful subject he had frequent occasion to consult with Dr. Ducarel, to whom he also this year addressed several letters relative to the proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries; and others respecting the tour which Dr. Ducarel made to Normandy, for the purpose of inspecting its antiquities. In this correspondence, much of which is inserted in Mr. Nichols's valuable work, the reader will find many curious remarks on subjects of architecture, and on scarce books and coins. To such matters his whole attention was devoted, except in one instance, in which he appears to have been under the influence of a more tender passion, and addressed some lines entitled "Welwyn Spaw," lamenting the cold disdain of some apparently real Celia. These are inserted in the Literary Magazine for 1755, p. 209; in which year also he drew up the catalogue of Dr. Mead's coins for public sale; and in the following year meditated some account of the Cromwell family.

Soon after this period he was afflicted with disease and melancholy, which seem to have interrupted his accustomed studies, as we hear no more of him until 1766, when he addressed to the earl of Morton, then president of the Royal Society, some valuable observations on the introduction of Arabic numerals into this kingdom. These were afterwards communicated to the Society of Antiquaries by Mr. Gough, and are printed in the Archæologia, vol. X. In 1769, when this society determined to publish their transactions, application was made to Mr. North for his materials towards compiling a history of its foundation. With this he complied, but the greater part of his collections for the purpose had been burnt, with his other papers, by himself, during a dangerous illness about four years before, "from a conviction," he says, "how ungenerously such things are commonly used after a person's death."

Mr. North died June 17, 1772, having just completed his sixty-fifth year, at his parsonage-house at Codicote,