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cefs, and was much refpected and admired, both as a Phyfician and a Man. But his immediate elder brother Sir William Dick, dying without iffue, he fucceeded to the familyeftate and title, affuming, from that time, in terms of the patent and entail of that eftate, the name and arms of Dick. Very foon after the death of his brother, he left Rembroke fhire, and fixed his refidence at the family-feat of Preftonfield in Mid Lothian, little more than a mile from the city of Edinburgh.

Although he now refolved to reJinquith medicine as a lucrative profeflion, yet, from inclination, he ftill continued to cultivate it as an ufeful fcience. With this view, he fupported a friendly and intimate correfpondence with the Phyficians of Edinburgh; and he foon diftinguifhed himfelf, by paying particular attention to the bufiuefs of the Royal College, among the lift of whofe members his name had been enrolled at a very early period of his life. In the year 1756, he was unanimously chofen Prefident of the College; and as his fellow members were fully convinced of his zeal, as well as of his abilities, they afterwards elected him to that office for feven years fucceffively. It was their earnest wish that he fhould have continued ftill longer as their head; but this he pofitively declined, as he thought that he fhou'd thus deprive other gentlemen of a dignity, to which, from their merit, they were well 'entitled. But after his refignation of the office of Prefident, his attachment to the College, and his earnest endeavours to promote its intereft, continued unabated. He not only contributed liberally towards the building of a hall for their accommodation, but ftrenuoufly exerted himself in promoting every undertaking in which he thought that the honour or intereft of the College was concerned. As a teftimony of the fenfe which his fellow

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But the College of Physicians were not the only fet of men who were benefited by his exertions. He was long diftinguished as a zealous and active member of the Philofophical Society of Edinburgh. And when they refolved to join their influence as a body, in feconding an application to the Crown from the University, for the eftablishment of a new Society under Royal patronage, and on a more extended plan, having for its object the cultivation of every branch of fcience, erudition and taste, he had an active hand in procuring the eftablishment of this inftitution. Ard

accordingly, when his Majefty was graciously pleased to grant a charter, for incorporating the Royal Society of Edinburgh, the name of Sir Alexander Dick ftands enrolled as one of the first of the lift. For many years, he difcharged the duties of a faithful and vigilant Manager of the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh. It was his conftant endeavour to render that establishment at once fubfervient to the relief of the diftreffed, and to the advancement of medical education. And while he fhewed himself a fincere friend to the poor, he was alfo remarkable for the countenance and encouragement which he gaveto modeft merit, particularly among the ftudents of medicine. Indeed, poffeffing a high degree of public fpirit, he took an active fhare in promoting every undertaking which he thought would be beneficial, either to his country in general, or to the city of Edinburgh in particular. To him, its inhabitants are much indebted for many excellent high roads in the neighbourhood; and hardly one internal improvement was fuggeled or

executed

executed, during his refidence at Pref. tonfield which he was not inftrumenal in promoting, with an activity which did him the highest honour. When the feeds of the true rhubarb were first introduced into Britain by the late Dr Mounfey of Peterburg, he not only beftowed great attention on the culture of the plant, but alfo on the drying of the root, and preparing it for the market. The fuccels in thefe particulars was fo great, that the Society in London for the encouragement of arts and commerce, prefented him, in the year 1774, with a gold medal, which is inferibed to Sir Alexander Dick, Bart. for the best specimen of British rhubarb.

Sir Alexander was twice married, and has left children by both marriages. In April 1736, he married his coufin Mifs Janet Dick, the daughter of Alexander Dick, Efq; merchant in Edinburgh, and reprefentative of the family of Sir William Dick of Braid. By her he had five children, but of these two daughters only furvived him. In March 1762, he married Mifs Mary Butler, the daughter of David Butler, Efq; of Pembrokeshire. By this lady who fervived him, he had feven children, of whom three fons and three daughters are ftill alive.

It would be a difficult matter to fum up his character in a few words.

But it may with juftice be faid, that while he was fteady in the purfuit of every object which engaged his attention, his conduct in every trans action through life, was marked with the ftri&teft honour and integrity.

This difpofition, and this conduct, not only led him to be conftant and warm in his friendship to those with whom he lived in habits of intimacy, but alfo procured him the love and etteem of all who really knew him. Notwithstanding the keennefs and activity of his temper, yet its triking features were mildnefs and fweetnefs. He was naturally difpofed to put the most favourable construction on the conduct and actions of others. This was both productive of much happinefs to himself, and of general benevolence to mankind. And that ferenity and cheerfulness which accompanied his conduct through life, were the attendants even of his last moments: for, on the 10th of vember 178, he died with a mile upon his countenance. Although he had already paffed the 82d year of his age, a period at which the faculties both of mind and body have in general fo far failed, that death is rather to be wished for than otherwife, yet not only his judgment, but his fpirit for exertion, ftill remained unimpaired. His death, therefore, even at that advanced age, was a great lafs to fociety.

Sketches of the Life of Soame Jenyns. Efq; with a fhort Account of his Family.

OAME JENYNS, Efq; was born in Great Ormond Stret, in London, in the year 1703-4. His father, Sir Roger Jenyns, Knt.

was defcended from the antient and refpectable family of the Jenyns's, of

Churchill in Somerfetfhire; one of whom, about the middle of the fixteenth century, by an intermarriage with a cobeirefs of the Rowlet family, became poffeffed of Sandridge, in the county of Hertford; whole defcen

Cole's lately published Edition of his Works, in 4 Vols. Evo.

dant,

dant, Sir John Jenyns, was created by King James a Knight of the Bath at the creation of Charles Prince of Wales, and was returned to reprefent the borough of St Alban's in the fecond Parliament holden after the crown had defcended to that prince. Sir Roger's refidence in the country was at Ely, in the ifle of Ely. He was an upright, knowing, and diligent magiftrate. Amongst other objects of his attention to the interefts of the public, he exceedingly laboured in carrying into execution the draining of the great level of the fens; went through all the higher offices in that corporation, which was created by an act of parliament paffed in the time of Charles the Second, for that work; and this with great reputation to himself and advantage to the

country.

As a reward for a general conduct, manifesting itfelf by an exemplary life, in the performance of fuch civil duties as his ftation gave him an opportunity of performing, the honour of knighthood was conferred on Roger Jenyns, Efq; by King William, at Kensington, January 9, 1693-4.

The mother of Mr J. was one of the daughters of Sir Peter Soame, of Hayden, in the county of Effex, Baronet; a most beautiful woman, and endued with an excellent understanding, which he had improved by reading, much beyond what was the fathion of thofe times is the edu. cation of the daughters of gentlemen. She was well inftructed in the principles of Religion, which the manifeited both by her life and in her converfation; and thefe exellences were still heightened by the moft polished manners. He was brought up under the care of his excellent mother, till to the Rev. Mr Hill, introduced into the family for that purpofe, the furrendered up her charge, He continued fome time under the Care of Mr Hill, who, after he had

taught him the first rudiments of language, and of fuch branches of know ledge as were proper for his age, was called off to pursuits that promised him greater advantages than he could expect to derive from his fole attention to the education of the fon of a private gentleman. The anxiety of the family on the important point of his education, made them very induftrious in procuring a proper fucceffor; which was amply fatisfied by their having prevailed on the Rev. Mr Stephen White to undertake the charge. Mr White was the brother of him who afterwards diftinguished himself in feveral controverfial pieces with the Diffenters; and he was himself eminent for his learning, good tafte, and great ingenuity; and having no object but the improvement of his pupil, continued his care of him till it was necessary to finish his education by a removal of him to one of our univerfities. His father had purchased Bottisham-hall, in the viliage of Bottisham, where he refided with his family; and, as it was not far diftant from Cambridge, that univerfity was fixed on for the place in which his fon was to make a progrefs in his future ftudies. St John's College was at that time a fociety, as it hath conunued to be ever fince, eminent as a feat of religion, learning and difcipline. Into this fociety he was admitted, as a fellow-commoner, in the year 1722, under Dr Edmonfon, at that time one of the principal tutors of the college. In this col lege he lived, except at those times fet apart for vacations, near three years, purfuing, with great induftry, the course of ftudies in which young men of fortune at that time were inftituted. His behaviour whilft he refided there was moft orderly and regular, and the difcipline of the college was by no means difagrecable to his natural inclination; infomuch, that he was often heard to fay, after he had left the univerfa that he ac

counted

counted the days he had lived there amongst thofe which were the happieft in his life.

From the time he left Cambridge, his refidence in winter was in London, and in the fummer in the country, in his father's family, as long as he lived.

His purfuits were chief

ly literary; and though his name was not put to the publication, in the year 1727, of his "Art of Dancing," infcribed to Lady Fanny Fielding, yet the author was foon difcovered, and it was confidered as a prefage of what might afterwards be expected from him.

Soon after his father's death, at the general election in 1742 he was unanimously chofen one of the reprefentatives for the county of Cambridge; from which time he fat in parliament until the year 1780, reprefenting, during thofe thirty-eight years, either the county or the borough of Cambridge, except only for four years, when on the call of a new parliament, in the year 1754, he was returned for the borough of Dunwich, in the county of Suffolk; but on Lord Dupplin's going up to the Houfe of Lords, he vacated his feat by the acceptance of the office of steward of the Chiltern Hundreds, and fucceeded him as reprefentative of the borough of Cambridge. The confant and uniform opinion which thofe who chofe him entertained of his parliamentary conduct, cannot be more ftrongly evinced than by the unanimity of their choice; for he had only one oppofition, and that from election-adventurers, one of whom, not long after, as it often happens to the disturbers of established interefts, appeared in the Gazette, amongst the fad lift of bankrupts.

In the year 1755, his late Majesty was pleafed to appoint him one of the lords commiffioners of the Board for Trade and Plantations, at which he continued to fit until an alteration was made in its conftitution by Par

liament, and the business of it tranf ferred to the great officers of state, and those who were in the lift of his Majefty's honourable privy council.

He was twice married, firft, to Mary the fole daughter of Colone! Soame, of Dereham in Norfolk; who dying without iffue, he afterwards married Elizabeth, the daughter of HenryGrey, Efq; of Hackney, in the county of Middlefex, who furvived him.

He died of a fever, after a few days illness, on the 18th of December, 1787, at his houfe in Tilneyftreet, Audley Square, leaving no iffue.

He was a man of great mildness, gentleness, and fweetness of temper, which he manifefted to all with whom he had concerns, either in the bafinefs of life or its focial intercouife. His earneft defire was, as far as it was poffible, never to offend any perfon; and he made fuch allowances, even for thofe who in their difpofitions differed from him, that he was rarely offended with others; of which, in a long life, he gave many notable instances. He was ftrict in the performance of religious duties in public, and a constant practifer of them in private; ever profeffing the greateft veneration for the Church of England and its government, as by law established; holding her Liturgy as the purcft and most perfect form of public worship in any established church in Christendom; but, though he gave it the preference in comparifon with other churches, which, with Grotius, he thought had departed from the inftitutions of the more primitive Chriftian church, yet he thought that alterations and amendments might be made in it, which would render it more perfect than it is in its prefent state, and which he earnestly defired to have feen accomplished by thofe who were properly authorised. But though fuch was his difpofition, fuch his defire, he had at the fame time ex

preffed

preffed his moft ardent with that it might remain in its prefent form until the alterations propofed to be made therein were all agreed upon and finally fettled; for he wifely forefaw the dangerous confequences that may arife to a long-eft blifhed religious or civil government, from altering or doing away any part of it, however warranted by reafon or found policy, before it is abfolutely determined what fhall in future be adopted. In private life he was moft amiable and engaging, for he was poffefied of a well informed mind, accompanied by an uncommon vein of the most lively, fpirited, and genuine wit, which always flowed very copiously amongft thofe with whom he converfed, but which was temperedwith fuch a kindness of nature, that it never was the caufe of uneafinefs to any of those with whom he lived. This made his acquaintance much fought after and courted by all thofe who had a tafte for brilliant converfation, being well affured that they would be delighted with it where he was: and that, though they did not poffefs the fame talent, they never would be cenfured by him becaufe they wanted it.

No perfon ever felt more for the miferies of others than he did, no perfon faw, or more ftrictly practifed, the neceflity impofed on thofe who form the fuperior ranks of life, whofe dury it is to reconcile the lower claffes to their prefent condition, by contributing the utmoft to make them happy, and thereby to caufe them to feel as little of that difference as is poffible; for he was moft kind and courteous to all his inferiors, not only in his expreffions and in his behaviour, but in aflifting them in all their wants and diftreffes as far as he could, ever confidering his poor neighbours in the country as parts of his family, and, as fuch, entitled to his care and protection.

He spent his fummers at his houfe

in the country, réfiding there with hofpitality to his tenants and neighbours, and never fuffered any places, at that feafon calculated for public diverfions, to allure him; for he faid he could at that time do more good in his own parifh than in any other situation.

He frequently lamented the prevail ing fashion of the later times of his lite, which carried gentlemen with their families from London, when it is defeited by all whofe absence can be difpenfed with, to places far diftant from their houfes and antient feats in the country.

When he was in the country, he constantly acted as a magiftrate in his own diftrict, and attended all those meetings which were holden for the purposes of public juftice.

From the general opinion that was entertained of his inflexible integrity and fuperior understanding, he was much reforted to in that character at

home

From his natural fagacity, quick difcernment, and long experience, on hearing and examining the parties, he feldom failed of obtaining a complete knowledge of the cafes that came before him; and was thereby enabled to determine according to the rules of complete juftice; al ways giving his reafons for what he did with a clear nefs and perspicuity peculiar to himfelf, and those reafons expreffed in words to accommodated to the understanding of all who heard him, that few or none departed dif. fatisfied with his decifions.

His first entrance into parliament was in the laft year of the adminiftra tion of that able and honeft minifter, Sir Robert Walpole, whofe memory hath a title to be enrolled amongf the faithfulleft fervants of the Crown, and trueft friends to the liberties and real interefts of the people, that thể British empire hath been blefied with during the prefent or any former cen

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