ESQ.

Ir cannot be necessary to inform the admirers of Gibbon from what source the principal FACTS in the following sketch have been derived. Conscious of the strong claims he had to the respect of his countrymen, our historian thought, without impropriety, that they would be gratified with a more detailed account of his life than could have been given by his friends; and sat down to write his personal history at a time when his opinions were matured, and when he was disposed to look back with impartiality on his various studies. In the very interesting volumes published by the Right Hon. Lord Sheffield, Mr. Gibbon has delineated his character, analyzed his mind, and recorded his errors and his prejudices with so much apparent candour, that he seems fully entitled to all the confidence which is usually bestowed on the biography that is written by a friend or a stranger. There may be, indeed, some danger lest vanity should multiply works of this description; but as long as human nature continues to be a favourite object of study, the memoirs of SUCH MEN as Gibbon, written by themselves, must be considered as superior in interest and importance, to all the information which can be collected from friends or companions.

Edward Gibbon was descended from an ancient family of that name in Kent.* His grandfather, Edward Gibbon, a citizen of London, was appointed one of the commissioners of customs, under the Tory administration of the last four years of Queen Anne, and was praised by Lord Bolingbroke for his knowledge of commerce and finance. He was elected one of the directors of the unfortunate South Sea Company, in the year 1716, at which time he had acquired an independent fortune of 60,000l. the whole of which he lost when the company failed in 1720. The sum of 10,000l. however, was allowed for his maintenance, and on this foundation he reared another fortune, not much inferior to the first, and secured a part of it in the purchase of landed property. He died in December 1736, at his house at Putney, and by his last will enriched two daughters, at the ex

An account of the family of Gibbon appeared in the Gentlernan's Magazine for 1788, so interesting that our author requested Mr. Nidals to procure the address of the writer, and acknowledged in a very

pense of his son Edward, who had married against his consent.

This son was sent to Cambridge, where, at Emanuel College, he "passed through a regular course of academical discipline," but left it without a degree, and afterwards travelled. On his return to England, he was chosen, in 1734, member of parliament for the borough of Petersfield, and in 1741 for Southampton. In parliament he joined the party which, after a long contest, finally drove Sir Robert Walpole and his friends from their places. Our author has not concealed, that "in the pursuit of an unpopular minister, he gratified a private revenge against the oppressor of his family in the South Sea persecution." Walpole, however, was not that oppressor, for Mr. Coxe has clearly proved, that he frequently endeavoured to stem the torrent of parliamentary vengeance, and to incline the sentiments of the house to terms of moderation.

Edward Gibbon, our illustrious historian, was born at Putney, April 27. O.S. 1737. His mother was Judith Porten, the daughter of a merchant of London. He was the eldest of five brothers and a sister, all of whom died in their infancy. He has a reflection on the circumstances of his birth, in which those who are capable of reflection should oftener indulge; it relates to blessings which a thinking man will contemplate with no common gratitude. "My lot," he says, "might have been that of a slave, a savage, or a peasant: nor can I reflect without pleasure on the bounty of nature, which cast my birth in a free and civilised country, in an age of science and philosophy, in a family of honourable rank, and decently endowed with the gifts of fortune."

In infancy, his constitution was uncommonly feeble, but he was nursed with much tenderness by his maiden aunt Mrs. Catherine Porten; and received such instruction, during intervals of health, as his years admitted. At the age of seven, he was placed under the care of Mr. John Kirby, the author of AUTOMATHES, a philosophical fiction. In his ninth year, January 1716, handsome manner his obligations to both. See Gent. Mag. vol. xliv. p. 3.