MEMOIR OF JOHN HARLAND, F. S. A. THE daily life of an antiquary is usually quiet and unobtrusive. His thoughts and actions relate more to the past than to the present; the common occurrences of the day are deemed of minor importance; he is most interested in things that were; and his special function is to rescue from oblivion that which the busy men of the world have had little inclination, or leisure, to preserve. He makes no conquests which absorb the attention, or elicit the applause of the public, for he is seldom either a general or a statesman; and yet his victories are frequently of greater importance than those which occur on the battle-field or in the senate. actions of the former may affect the destinies of a nationthe measures of the latter may change the course of his country's policy; but the researches of the man of letters not unfrequently reverse the whole current of public opinion, and thus produce more permanent, and more widely extended effects than the arms of the one or the legislation of the other. Events occur at distant intervals which it would perhaps be impolitic, at the time, to illustrate in all their bearings. The secret causes which The produced these events are therefore studiously concealed by the personages concerned; but after ages have passed away, some zealous antiquary carefully examines all the documents relating to such transactions; and then proceeds to assign to each his due meed of praise or blame, as in his opinion they deserve. It is by such examinations into the public archives, or into the collections of private individuals, that modern generations have been led to reject many of the stereotyped assertions of our popular histories. Not a few of our kings, queens, and great personages, have suffered materially by the process; whilst others have regained their proper positions and legitimate characters, of which they ought never to have been deprived. National changes, both in religion and politics, have thus been assigned to their true causes; and even now we are beginning to learn that the political liberties which we are so rapidly acquiring involve nothing more than a return to those privileges which our ancestors enjoyed nine centuries ago under ancient Saxon rule. When such results have followed from an examination of our national records; it is not too much to expect that ⚫ similar modifications of opinion, in a less degree, must have been produced by an inspection of our local collections. Such is manifestly the case; and the many excellent local histories issued during the present century bear ample testimony to the fact. Local antiquaries have been silently, but effectually, at work, and the result is a mass of evidence with regard to local events and social polity which cannot be overlooked by any future historian. In the County of Lancaster the Chetham and Historic societies have issued numerous volumes, which lay open to our gaze both the public and the private lives of the principal personages who figure in our county history; and not a few of these volumes contain a fund of information relating to the domestic habits and family connections of our medieval, and more recent ancestors. It is here that the labours of the plodding, careful antiquary make themselves felt; and it is thus that the value of his collections becomes known. He may have to wait long before his objects are accomplished; he may even be removed from earth before his works are duly appreciated ; but sooner or later he will obtain his reward. This thought was ever present to the mind of the subject of this brief memoir; he knew the value of the volumes which he so liberally contributed to the Chetham Society, and although he has so recently "gone to his rest," it is already acknowledged that no one can hereafter write the history of this great county without being deeply indebted to the "Mamecestre," "The Shuttleworth Accounts," and his other works, for most valuable materials respecting families, places, men, manners, occupations, and prices; which are so plentifully scattered throughout those valuable volumes. JOHN HARLAND, says the Rev. Brooke Herford, "whose great-grandfather was an enterprising farmer and grazier, living near Dunkeld in the middle of the last century, was born at Hull, May 27, 1806." He was the eldest child of John Harland and his wife Mary, daughter of John Breasley of Selby. His father followed the combined businesses of clock and watchmaker, and jeweller, in Scale Lane, Hull; and issued a medal in commemoration of the peace and end of the war in December 1813. "It was mainly to his mother" that their son "owed the elementary instruction which was the only foundation on which he built up his various and extensive knowledge. At the age of fourteen he went, on trial, into the office of Messrs Allanson and Sydney, the proprietors of the Hull Packet newspaper, and was apprenticed to them for seven years from January 1, 1821, to learn letterpress printing." The celebrated painter Etty was Mr Harland's predecessor as an apprentice; and when he removed from Hull to London he left a scrap-book, containing a series of early sketches, as a memento, in the hands of Mr George Walker, a journeyman printer in the same office. "From the beginning of his apprenticeship he gave all his energies to self-improvement ; soon rose from compositor to reader; then was put into the office; and, teaching himself short-hand, was advanced to reporting. With indomitable industry, he made for himself during 1825-6, a system of short-hand in which he embodied all the best points of several stenographic systems, and soon became the most expert short-hand writer in the kingdom." During his residence at Hull he was first the playmate and then the companion of Benjamin Boulter, Esq., surgeon; to whom he wrote a series of characteristic letters during his five years' stay at Glasgow as a medical student. Only two of these letters are now in existence; but the following extracts from them will show that he was making rapid progress in self-instruction. HULL, March 9th, 1827. MY DEAR FRIEND-I received and read your letter with pleasure.. You mistook my meaning respecting Hogmanay night. I did not mean to censure the jovialities of a single night, but to express a wish that these festivities should not be too often indulged in, as they are peculiarly unfitting for study. I am happy to find that I have no need to give you any such hints, since I hear you apply with a zeal which is worthy of its reward. I need not here say that it will afford me the most sincere gratification to hear of your complete success, and well merited diploma. Our theatrical |