the acquisition of polite literature, and with a taste delighting in frequent excursions to the regions of fancy, will be ready to conclude that Mr. Jones would soon discover an invincible repugnance to his new pursuit. But the reverse was in a great measure the fact. He found nothing in the study of the law so dry or laborious as not to be overcome by the same industry which had enabled him to overcome, almost in childhood, the difficulties which frequently deter men of mature years: and he was stimu lated by what appears to have predominated through life, an honest ambition to rise to eminence in a profession which, although sometimes successfully followed by men of dull capacity, does not exclude the most brilliant acquirements. Still, however, while labouring to qualify himself for the bar, he regarded his progress in literature as too important or too delightful to be altogether interrupted, and from the correspondence published by lord Teignmouth, it appears that he snatched many an hour from his legal inquiries, to meditate plans connected with his oriental studies. What he exe cuted, indeed, did not always correspond with what he projected, but we find that within the first two years of his residence in the Temple, he sketched the plan of an epic poem, and of a Turkish history, and published a French letter to Anquetil da Perron, who, in his Travels in India had treated the university of Oxford, and some of its learned members and friends of Mr. Jones, with disrespect. In this letter he corrected the petulance of the French writer with more asperity than perhaps his maturer judgment would have approved, but yet without injustice, for Perron stood convicted not only of loose invective, but of absolute falsehood.-Besides these Mr. Jones published, in 1772, a small volume of poems, consisting chiefly of translations from the Asiatic languages, with two prose dissertations on Eastern poetry and on the arts commonly called imitative. As those elegant and original Essays are intimately connected with his Translations, no apology will be necessary for adding them to the present edition. Most of these poems had been written long before this period, but were kept back until they had received all the improvements of frequent revisal, and the criticisms of his friends.

From his first entrance into the university, until Michaelmas 1768, when he took his bachelor's degree, he had kept terms regularly, but from this period to 1773 only occasionally. During the Encænia, in Easter-term 1773, he took his master's degree, and composed an oration which he intended to have spoken in the theatre; but which was not published till about ten years after. In the beginning of the year 1774, he published his Commentaries on Asiatic Poetry, which have been already noticed, as having been begun in 1766, and finished in 1769, when he was only in his twentythird year. The same motives which induced him to keep back his poems prevailed in the present instance, a diffidence in his own abilities, and a wish to profit by more mature examination, as well as by the opinions of his friends. By the preface to this work it would appear that he was not perfectly satisfied with the profession in which he had engaged, and that had circumstances permitted he would have been better pleased to have devoted his days to an uninterrupted course of study. But such was his fate that he must now renounce polite literature; and having been admitted to the bar in 1774, he adhered to this determination inflexibly for some years 3, during

3 About this time, he issued proposals for publishing his father's mathematical works, in which, however, either for want of time or encouragement, he proceeded no farther. C.

which his books and manuscripts, except such as related to law and oratory, remained locked up at Oxford. He seems to have been seriously convinced that the new science he was about to enter upon was too comprehensive to admit of union with other studies, and he accordingly pursued it with his usual avidity, endeavouring to embrace the whole of jurisprudence in its fullest extent, and to make himself not only the technical but the philosophical lawyer. For some time he had but little practice, but it gradually came in, and with it a very considerable share of reputation. Towards the end of the year 1776, he was appointed a commissioner of bankrupts, a favour which he seems inclined to estimate beyond the value usually put upon it by professional men.

Notwithstanding his determination to suspend the study of ancient literature, there was a gratification in it which he found impossible to resign, while his practice continued so scanty as to afford him any disposable time. In the year last mentioned, we find him reading the Grecian orators again and again, and translating the most useful orations of Isæus. Some part of his time likewise he devoted to philosophical experiments and discoveries, attended the meetings of the Royal Society, of which he had been elected a fellow in 1772, and kept up an extensive epistolary intercourse with many of the literati of Europe. In these letters, subjects of law seldom occur unless as an apology for his barrenness on topics more congenial. From the commencement of the unhappy contest between Great Britain and America, he was decidedly against the measures adopted by the mother country.

In 1778, he published his translation of the Orations of Isæus, in causes concerning the succession to property at Athens; with a prefatory discourse, notes historical and critical, and a commentary. This work he dedicated to earl Bathurst, who among all his illustrious friends, was as yet his only benefactor, by conferring on him the place of commissioner of bankrupts. The elegant style, profound research, and acute criticism displayed in this translation attracted the applause of every judge of classical learning.

His next publication was a Latin Ode to Liberty, under the title of Julii Melesigoni ad Libertatem, a name formed by the transposition of the letters Gulielmus Jonesius. In this ode, the author of which was soon known, he made a more ample acknowledgment of his political principles, and this, it is feared, had an unfavourable influence on the hopes which he was encouraged to entertain of promotion by the then administration. In 1780, there was a vacant seat on the bench of Fort William in Bengal, to which the kindness of lord North led him to aspire, but for some time, he had very little prospect of success. During the time that this matter was in suspence, on the resignation of sir Roger Newdigate, he was advised to come forward as a candidate for the representation of the university of Oxford in parliament. But finding that there was no chance of success, he declined the contest before the day of election. His avowed principles on the great question of the American war were so decidedly hostile, not only to the measures pursued by administration, but to the senti ments entertained by the majority of the members of the university, that although he might be disappointed, he could not be surprised at his failure, and accordingly appears to have resigned himself to his former pursuits with tranquil satisfaction.

This vacancy, if I mistake not, occurred in 1778 by the death of M. Le Maitre. In the newspapers Mr. Jones was at this time called "the extraordinary linguist." C.

During this year (1780) he published An Enquiry into the legal Mode of suppressing Riots, with a Constitutional Plan of Future Defence, a pamphlet suggested by the dreadful riots in London, of which he had been a witness. His object is to prove that the common and statute laws of the realm then in force, give the civil state in every country a power, which, if it were perfectly understood, and continually prepared, would effectually quell any riot or insurrection, without assistance from the military, and even without the modern riot-act. In a speech which he intended to have delivered at a meeting of the freeholders of Middlesex in September following, he more explicitly avowed his sentiments on public affairs, and in language rather stronger than usual with him, although suited to the state of popular opinion in that county.

During a short visit to Paris, he appears to have formed a design of writing a history of the war. On his return, however, he recurred to his more favourite studies, and his biographer had printed a curious memorandum, dated 1780, in which Mr. Jones resolves to learn no more rudiments of any kind, but to perfect himself in the languages he had already acquired, viz. Greek, Latin, Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Hebrew, Arabic, Persian, Turkish, German, and English, as the means of acquiring a more accurate knowledge of history, arts and sciences. With such wonderful acquisitions, he was now only in his thirty-third year.

In the winter of 1780-1, he found leisure to complete his translation of seven ancient poems of the highest reputation in Arabia, which, however, were not published till 1783: and he celebrated, about the same time, the nuptials of lord Althorpe with Miss Bingham, in an elegant ode entitled The Muse Recalled. In his professional line he published an Essay on the Law of Bailments, a subject handled under the distinct heads of analysis, history and synthesis: in which mode he proposed at some future period to discuss every branch of English law, civil and criminal, private and public. His object in all his legal discussions was to advance law to the honours of a science. It may be doubted which at this time predominated in his mind, his professional plans, or his more favourite study of the Eastern poets. He now, however, undertook a work in which he might gratify both duty and inclination, by translating an Arabian poem on the Mahommedan law of succession to the property of intestates. The poem had indeed but few charms to reward his labour by delighting his fancy, but in the prospect of obtaining a judge's seat in India, he forsaw advantages from every opportunity of displaying his knowledge of the Mohammedan laws.

In 1782, he took a very active part among the societies formed to procure a more equal representation in the commons' house of parliament. The speech which he delivered at the London tavern on this subject was long admired for its elegance, perspicuity and independent spirit. He was also elected a member of the society for Constitutional Information, and bestowed considerable attention to the objects it professed. The Dialogue between a Farmer and a Country Gentleman on the Principles of Government, which he wrote some time before, was circulated by this society with much industry. When the dean of St. Asaph (afterwards his brother-in-law) was indicted for publishing an edition of it in Wales, Mr. Jones sent a letter to lord Kenyon, then chief justice of Chester, avowing himself to be the author, and maintaining that every position in it was strictly conformable to the laws and constitution of England.