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fied from all prejudices, either with refpect to religion or any thing elfe. His manners are polifhed; only the vivacity of his perception gives a harfhnefs to his manner of uttering his fentiments, and a want of pliability proportionate to his conviction of the truth of what he fays. He is as little capable of receding ftom opinions refting on grounds which he has put to the proof, as of fleeing from the enemy in battle. Often have I beheld with pleafure, the lofty expreffion in his ardent eye, who in delivering his arguments he furveyed the affembly, or with confcious fuperiority looked down upon them, when he had with feverity commented on their

errors.

Acquainted with the faults of the new conftitution, with the errors and failings of his fellow-citizens, and with the important relation in which the republic ftands with regard to the reft of Euro e, he is well qualified to become a member of the future directory, and to raife his country to that degree of power and glory of which it is capable. But, much doubt, whether they will fo rationally confult the interefts of the republic,as to place fuch men as Von Hooff at the helm of the executive power. Rich aristocrats already stretch forth their hands to fcize it; and ambitious demagogues are paving their way to it, by managing and flattering the people; and this with the view, if, to the exclufion of the true patriots, they fhould attain the moft important places, of throwing every thing into confufion.

LEIDEN VON WEST BARENDRECHT

Is minifter, or fecretary, for foreign affairs. He is an obliging, ingenuous, and agreeable man; and, with great natural talents and acquired abilities, is free from all the failings which are usually attributed to men in his ftation. Unwearied, and wholly devoted to the bufinefs of his office, the republic could not poffibly have chofen a man better qualified to fill it. His principles are in concord with the wants of his country. He has juft ideas of the weight of the Batavian Republic in the political balance of Europe. I liftened to him with pleasure, at his fire-fide, where I ventured to give vent to fome re. proaches against the Diplomatic Committee, which does fo little that is worthy of the dignity of the Batavian Republic; and the minifter explained to me its politi. cal relations, with refpect to the other itates of Europe. His letters are written in a good ftyle, with a condensed brevity, and a delicacy of expreffion, that are well worthy of imitation. His judgment is found, and

feldom errs. But, unluckily, in republics the ministers of every department have in general their hands tied down from acting, as every thing must be done according to the decrees of the national affembly, or of the different committees. This, however, does not prevent their having a great indirect influence, as they are the central point for all affairs and negociations.

BIOGRAPHICAL ACCOUNT OF SAMUEL L. MITCHILL, ESQ. AUTHOR OF THE NEW DOCTRINE OF PESTILENTIAL FLUIDS, NOW PREVALENT IN NORTH AMERICA.

Samuel Latham Mitchill was born in the township of Hempstead, in Queen's County, in the Province of New York, in America, near the beginning of the year 1765. His father was defcended from a family in Cornwall, in the Welt of England; and was the cultivator of his own eftate. His mother was likewife of Englth extraction, from a family of the name of Latham in the County of Middlefex. It is remarkable of him, that, during feveral of the first years of his life, he was of a very fingular white or pale complexion of the whole body, as if there were no blood within him, which condition of his fkn was afcribed to an extraordinary effect wrought upon his mother's mind by the fight of a molt beautiful waxen figure of Jefus Chrift, brought from the Havannah, which had not long before been captured by the British, and exhibited for a fhow in the place where the dwelt. At & years of age he was fent to a common fchool; at eleven, he commenced claffical ftudies, under the inftruction of the Rev. Leonard Cutting, then the parfon of the parifh. At the fame place, Mr. Hentz gave him his firit leffons of the French

tongue.

In the year 1781, he was removed from the County to the City of New York, with a view of applying to the profeffion of phyfic: and as the City was then a garri fon for British troops, there were many opportunities of feeing medical and chirurgical practice in the military hofpitals there. After the clofe of the war, he determined to vifit Europe; and failed, in 1784, to France. He landed at the old town of Crofic, in the Bay of Biscay, and travelled up to Paris. Having paffed tome time there, he paffed over to London; and, atter tarrying a little while, he took his departure by land for Einburgh. Here he attended the claffes as a regular ftudent of medicine, and frequented the feveral focieties eftablished there for the improvement of young men at the univerfity.

Among

Among other things, it appears, that he was a warm friend and admirer of the celebrated, though unfortunate, Dr. Brown. It appears alfo, that he was curator of the experimental committee, and member of the library committee of the Royal Medical Society; and one of a committee with Beddoes, now of Clifton, and Mackintosh, of Lincoln's Inn, of the rights and privi. leges of ftudents refiding in the city.

Albany about this time, he was permitted by Mr. Clinton, then governor of the state, to gain infight into public affairs by keeping the minutes of the council for revifing the bills about to be paffed into laws.

About this time, his Experiments on the Saratoga Mineral Waters were made, the more striking and popular of which have been printed over and over in the periodical publications.

In 1789, the death of his father determined him to refide at Plandome, the place of his birth; and in 1790, at the general election, he was returned one of the mem

He took the degree of Dc&tor of Phyfic in 1786, on which occafion he defended a differtation on " Generation;" a piece in which he adopted Haller's doctrine of the evolution of germs. This being done, hebers of affembly for Queen's County. In made a tour to the eastern parts of ScotJand, and to the Highlands, and returned, after vifiting Glafgow, and many other places, to London, travelling deliberately through the country all the while. During thefe excurfions, the lakes in Dunbartonfhire and in Weftmorland did not efcape his notice. From London he made a number of excufions; and, among others, walked, in company with his friend Mr. Dunlap, now manager of the theatre at New York, to Oxford, Woodstock, &c. and back again. He afterwards went to Bath; and proceeded, in 1787, by the way of Falmouth, to New York.

The fame year, he published some experiments on evaporation, intended as a continuation of thofe made by the Bishop of Landaff; and his difcovery of mufcular fibres in the abforbent veffels of certain teftaceous animals and other vermes.

Soon after this, he determined to apply himself to the ftudy of the law, and removed for that purpose to Albany. In this he was greatly affifted by the friendship of Mr. Chief Juftice Yates. In 1788, we find him bufied among the commiffioners holding a treaty with the Indians of the Six Nations at Fort Stanwix; at which the unconftitutional fales of land made by the natives to an affeciation, calling themfelves the Geneffee Company, were invalidated; and the right of foil, except certain specified refervations, purchased for the government of the fate of New York.

During his refidence at Albany, he made various excurfions; and, among others, one to Lake Ontario, and another to Quebec, in both which his companion was Mr. Stephen Van Renpallaer, now Lieute nant Governor of the State. Thele tours are eminently interefting to every perfon who wishes to view the fcenes of the great actions and events on the frontiers during the wars, when the ftates of America were British colonies, and Canada belonged to the monarchy of France. The leg flature of the fate being in feffion at

1791, he attended the feffions as a member at the City of New York; and, as appears by the Journal of the Affembly, was, among other employments, one of the committee for reporting on expiring ftatutes, and of the committee for making the new apportionment of additional reprefentatives, according to the cenfus as directed in the State-conftitution. Mr. Watts was then fpeaker of the house.

Having, during his refidence on Long Ifland (for Queen's County is on that ifland) applied himfelf to practical agriculture, we find him engaged next with Mr. R. R. Livington, the Chancellor, and Mr. S. de Witt, the 'Surveyor-General of the State, and a number of members of the legislature, in establishing a fociety for the promotion of agriculture, ufeful arts, and manufactures. Before this fociety he delivered the first public addrefs, which has been fince published in the first volume of their Tranfactions. The fociety was afterwards incorporated, and its meetings connected with the meetings of the legislature. The fenators and affembly-men for the time being are declared to be honorary members of this fociety. Two other volumes of Transactions have fince appeared.

During this year, Mr. Mitchill was elected a Member of the American Philofophical Society, held at Philadelphia; and likewife appointed a captain of light infantry in the militia then organizing in the part of the county where he refided. About this time alfo, he received a certificate of enrollment among the Members of the Royal Society of Arts and Sciences at Cape François, an inftitution at that time enterprifing and refpectable, but now partaking of the ruins of all regular establishments in that diffracted colony.

In 1792, the truftees of Columbia College, defirous of enlarging the plan of inftruction in that feminary, eftablished an additional profefforthip of natural hiftory, chemistry, and agriculture, and appointed' Mr. Milchill to the chair. This appoint

men

ment he accepted. And, as at that time there were no public lectures on botany, he volunteered in that fcience, and performed, for feveral years, the duty of botanical profeffor, in addition to the labours of his own department. Of the plan of his courfe, the chemical part of which was modelled upon the new nomenclature, he that year published a concife fyllabus.

The Royal Society of Edinburgh, in 1793, elected him one of their foreign affociates.

He made to the Senatus Academicus of Columbia College, in 1794, a report on the ftate of learning there, which was dif tributed about for public informatien, and is preferved in the fecond volume of the Acts of the Agricultural Society.

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He publifhed, in 1795, his firft ideas on the fubject of Peftilential Fluids, in a pamphlet on the Gazeous Oxyd of Azote, and on the Alteration in the Nomenclature; wherein he propofed to obliterate" azote,' and to fubftitute " fepton." He has fince given to the public in America many pieces on what he terms feptic acid and its gas. To thofe inquiries ne was prompted by the fevere vifitations of the yellow fever, or plague, in the Atlantic cities of North America. Thefe refearches have fince been very much enlarged on by him, in a feries of letters addreffed to his correfpondents.

During the year of 1796, he took an extenfive tour through the State of New York, in the vicinity of Hudfons River, purfuant to an appointment of the Agrialtural Society, to examine the mineral productions of the adjacent country, particularly in refpect to coal; as wood, the common fuel of New York, was become extravagantly dear. His report on the mineralogy of fuch places as he vifited, was publifhed after his return. And during this year, his doctrine of fepton or azote, which he had detailed more at large in is public academical courfe, was made the fubject of an able and excellent Differtation by Mr. Saltonftall; a performance, at this day, much prized and fought after. About this time, Mr. Mitchill was appointed a physician of the large State-hofpital of New York.

He attended, in 1797, as one of the delegates to the convention held at Philadelphia, for devifing means to leffen the evils of African Slavery. He was this year too chofen a Fellow of the Academy of Arts and Sciences at Botton. And about the fame time we obferve him engaged in editing, together with Dr. Edward Miller, and the late much lamented Elihu H. MONTHLY MAG. NO. LII.

Smith, a quarterly periodical work, called the MEDICAL REPOSITORY, a kind of philofophical journal, a publication_now grown into high reputation. His doctrine of fepton was by this time further enlarged and commented upon by Dr. Bay, in his Inaugural Differtation on Dysentery.

This year likewife Mr. Mitchill was elected a Member of the Legiflative Affembly of the City of New York, and attended the feffions at Albany, now the feat of government, during the winter 1798. And it was during this feffions he received information of his having been chofen a Correfponding Member of the Hiftorical Society of Maffachusetts. In the courfe of 1798, his doctrine of peftilence was farther adopted by Dr. Lent, in a Differtation upon the Mode of extinguishing it by Alkalies. And this year it was that Mr. Mitchill appears to have devoted as much time as he could fpare from other employments, to investigate this almoft unexplored part of science, to collect and arrange the facts, and to render them capable of juft interpretation, by generalizing them into a system.

Το go into the particulars of this extenfive inquiry, would be too prolix for this place. Many of his letters and essays on thefe fubjects may be feen in the two volumes of the Medical Repofitory," before mentioned.

During the two laft years, Dr. Priestley has from time to time addreffed to him a feries of letters in defence of the doctrine of Phlogifton, in which all his new experiments made at Northumberland are detailed. Mr. Mitchill has propofed to accommodate the contending chemills, by an alteration in the nomenclature, exchanging

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hydrogene," and fubftituting " phlogitton" in its place, as published in Feb. 1798, in Nichollon's Journal. But the French philofophers, for whofe confideration they are more particularly intended, have as yet made no reply. This is pro bably in part owing to the prefent interrupted intercourfe between the United States and France. Dr. Prieftley's experiments are contained in the before mentioned work.

In the autumn of 1798, he had a touch of the peftilence himself, but it was not very violent. And during the winter of 1799, we obferved him bufied with the magiftrates, merchants, and health-officers in devifing ways and means to guard againft fo terrible an affliction. It is faid, he is engaged till in profecuting his inquiries into the origin, nature, and extinguifhment of peftilence.

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Extracts from the Port-folio of a Man of Letters.

THOMSON.

(Communicated by the Earl of Buchan.) Memorandum of Thomfon, the Pect, colleled from Mr. William Taylor, formerly a Barber and Peruke-maker, at Rubmond, Surry-now blind. Sept. 1791.

R. Taylor, do you remember

in his face. Gilbert, his brother, lived at Eaft Sheen with one Squire Taylor, tilf he fell out of a mulberry tree and was killed..

Q. Did Thomfon keep much com. pany-Yes; a good deal of the writingfort. I remember Pope, and Paterfon, and Malloch, and Lyttelton, and Dr.

Many thing of Thomfon, who Armitrong, and Andrew Millar the book

lived in Kew lané fome years ago?Thomfon.

Q. Thomson, the poet?-Aye, very well. I have taken him by the nose many hundred times. I fhaved him, I believe, feven or eight years, or more; he had a face as long as a horfe; and he fweat fo much, that I remember, after walking one day in fummer, I fhaved his head without lather by his own defire. His hair was as foft as a camel's-I hardly ever felt fuch; and yet it grew fo remarkably, that if it was but an inch long, it ftcod upright an end from his head like a brush.-[Mr. Robertion confirmed this remark.]

Q. His perfon, I am told, was large and clumfy?—Yes; he was pretty corpulent, and ftooped forward rather when he walked, as though he was full of thought; he was very carelefs and negligent about his drefs, and wore his clothes remarkably plain. [Mr. Robertfon, when I read this to him, faid, He was clean and yet flovenly, he flooped a good deal.']

Q. Did he always wear a wig ?-Always in my memory, and very extravagant he was with them. I have feen a dozen at a time hanging up in my mafter's fhop, and all of them fo big that nobody ele could wear them.' I fuppofe his fweating to fuch a degree made him have fo many, for I have known him fpoil a new one only in walking from London.

Q. He was a great walker, I believe? Yes; he used to walk from Malloch's at Strand on the Green near Kew Bridge, and from London, at all hours in the night; he feldom liked to go in a carriage, and I never faw him on horseback. I believe he was too fearful to ride.-[Mr. Robertfon faid, he could not bear to get upon a horfe.] Q. Had he a Scotch accent?-Very broad-he always called me Wull.

Q. Did you know any of his relations? -Yes; he had two nephews [coufins?] Andrew and Gilbert Thomfon, both gardiners, who were much with him. An drew ufd to work in his garden and keep it in order at over hours; he died at Richmond, about eleven years ago, of a cancer

feller, who had a houfe near Thomion's in Kew lane. Mr. Robertfon could tell you more about them.

Q. Did Pope often vifit him?- -Very often; he used to wear a light-coloured great coat, and commonly kept it on in the house; he was 'a ftrange ill formed little figure of a man; but I have heard him and Quin, and Paterfon, talk together fo at Thomson's, that I could have liftened to them for ever.

Q. Quin was frequently there, I fuppofe?—Yes; Mrs. Hobart, his houfekeeper, often wifhed Quin dead, he made her mafter drink fo. I have feen him and Quin coming from the Caftle together at four o'clock in a morning, and not over fober you may be fure. When he was writing in his own house, he frequently fat with a bowl of punch before him, and that a good large one too.

Q. Did he fit much in his garden?-Yes; he had an arbour at the end of it, where he used to write in fummer time.

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have known him lie along by himflf upon the grafs near it, and talk away as though three or four people were along with him [This might probably be when he was reciting his own compofitions.]

Q. Did you ever fee any of his writing?-I was once tempted, I remember, to take a peep; his papers uied to lie in a loofe pile upon the table in his ftudy, and I had longed for a lock at them a good while fo one morning while I was waning in the room to fhave him, and he was longer than ufual before he came down, I flipped off the top fheet of paper and expected to find fomething very curious, but I could make nothing of it. I could not even read it, for the letters looked like all in one.

Q. He was very affable in his manner yes! he had no pride; he was very free in his converfation and very cheerful, and one of the belt natured mea that ever lived.

Q He feldom was much burthened with cash-No; to be fure he was deucel long-winded; but when he had money, he

WOUN

would fend for his creditors and pay them all round; he has paid my mafter between 20 and 30l. at a time.

Q. You did not keep a fhop yourself then at that time?—No, Sir; I lived with one Lander here for 20 years, and it was while I was prentice and journeyman with him that I uled to wait on Mr. Thomfon. Lander made his majors and bobs, and a perfon of the name of Taylor in Craven treet in the Strand made his tie wigs, An excellent cuftomer he was to both. Q. Did you drefs any of his vifitors? -Yes; Quin and Lyttelton, Sir George I think he was called. He was fo tenderfaced I remember, and fo devilish difficult to fhave, that none of the men in the hop dared to venture on him except myself. I have often taken Quin by the nofe too, which required fome courage let me tell you. One day he afked particularly if the razor was in good order, protefted he had as many barbers' ears in his parlour at home, as any boy had of bird's eggs on a ftring, and fwore, if I did not fhave him fmoothly, he would add mine to the number. "Ah," said Thomfon, "Wull fhaves very well, I affure you."

Q. You have feen the Seafons, I fuppofe? Yes, Sir; and once had a great deal of them by heart (he here quoted a paffage from spring). Shepherd, who formerly kept the Cattle Inn, fhewed me a bock of Thomfon's writing, which was about the rebellion in 1745, and set to mufic, but I think he told me not pubblished. [I mentioned this to Mr. Robertfon, but he thought Taylor had made a fmall mittake; perhaps it might be fome of the patriotic fongs in the mafque of Alfred.] Q The caute o: his death is laid to have been taking a boat from Kew to Richmond, when he was much heated by walking?-No; I believe he got the better of that; but having had a batch of drinking with Quin, he took a quantity of cremor tartar, as he frequently did on fuch occafions, which with a fever before carried him off. [Mr. Robertfon did not affent to this.]

Q. He lived I think in Kew FootLane?-Yes; and died there; at the furtheft houfe next Richmond Gardens, now Mr. Bofcawen's. He lived fometime before at a smaller one higher up, inhabited by Mrs. Davis.

Q. Did you attend on him to the laft? -Sir, I fhaved him the very day before his death; he was very weak, but made a fhift to fit up in bed. I asked him how he found himfelf that morning,-"Ah, Wull," he replied, "I am very bad indeed.”

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[Mr. Robertfon told me, he ordered this operation hummfelf as a refreshment to his friend.] Taylor concluded by giving a hearty encomium on his character.

This converfation took place at one of the alcoves on Richmond Green, 'where I accidentally dropped in. I afterwards found it was a rural rendezvous for a fet of old invalids on nature's infirm lift; who met there every afternoon in fine weather, to recount and comment on the

"tale of other times."

I inquired after Lander, and Mrs. Hobart, and Taylor of Craven freet, but found that none of them were furviving. Mrs. Hobart was thought to have a daughter married in the town called Egerton; but it was not likely from the diftance of time, that the could impart any thing new.

Taylor told me the late Dr. Dodd had applied to him feveral years ago for anecdotes and information relative to Thomion.

Park Egerton, the book feller, near Whitehall, tells me, that when Thomjon first came to London, he took up his abcde with his predecellor Millan, and finished his poem of Winter in the apartment over the fhop; that Millan printed it for him, and it remained on his felves a long time unnoticed; but after Thomfen began to gain fome reputation as a poet, he either weat himfelf, or was taken by Mallet, to Millar in the Strand, with whom he entered into new engagements for printing his works, which fo much incenfed Millan his first patron, and his countryman alfo, that they never afterwards were cordially reconciled, although Lord Lyttelton took uncommon pains to mediate between them.

The two following Epitaphs are faid to
have been written by Mr. JAMES
THOMSON, Author of the Seafons, but
I know not on what Authority.

ON SOLOMON MENDES, ESQ.
Here lies a man who never liv'd,
Yet ftill from death was flying;
Who, if not fick, was never well,
And dy'd-for fear of dying!

ON MR. JACOB MENDES.
Here Jacob lies, grave, juft and fage,
The chaiteft perfon of the age-
Who, had he been in Jofeph's place,
Had dy'd, not run away-alas!

The following Epitaph on THOMSON him-
felf was published in a paltry Edition
of his Works, about the Year 1788.
Others to marble may their glory owe,
And boat thofe honours fculpture can bestow;
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