EDWARD GIBBON.-1737-1794.

EDWARD GIBBON was born at Putney, in the county of Surrey, on the 27th April 1737. He was the only surviving child out of a family of seven, and in infancy his own health was so delicate that his life was often despaired of. He owed much to the careful nursing of a maiden aunt, to whom also his early education was entrusted. At the age of nine he was sent to a school at Kingston-upon-Thames, but he made little progress, as his studies were often interrupted by illness.

On the death of his mother, in 1747, he returned home, where he remained for two years, and was then sent to Westminster school. Here, however, owing to his delicate health, he made but slow progress. At the age of fifteen he was placed at Magdalen College, Oxford. Though he had not made much progress in classical studies, he had always been a great reader, especially of historical and geogra phical works; and the consequence was, that he arrived at Oxford "with a stock of erudition that might have puzzled a doctor, and a degree of ignorance of which a schoolboy would have been ashamed."

He spent fourteen months at college idly and unprofitably, according to his own account. His desultory reading, however, took a religious turn, and in consequence of the study of the works of Bossuet, he became a convert to the Roman Catholic religion; he was obliged, therefore, to quit the university. His father was indignant at his son's change of faith, and, in the hope of reclaiming him, placed him under the care of M. Pavillard, a Calvinist minister at Lausanne, in Switzerland. The arguments of Pavillard and his own studies had the desired effect, and in the following year he received the sacrament in the Protestant church of Lausanne. "It was here," he says in his autobiography, "that I suspended my religious inquiries, acquiescing with implicit belief in the tenets and mysteries which are adopted by the general consent of Catholics and Protestants." It would appear, however,

from his subsequent writings that, probably owing to the influence of Voltaire, whose acquaintance he made in Switzerland, his belief gradually faded away. For although he never avowed his infidelity, it is quite apparent from the manner in which he speaks of the origin of Christianity in the first volume of his celebrated history.

He spent five years at Lausanne, during which he paid great attention to study, and thus made up in some measure for the defects of his earlier education. He perfected his acquaintance with Latin and Greek, and became a complete master of the French language. In 1758, he returned to England, and three years later he published a short treatise in French on the Study of Literature. It was but little noticed in England, but was favourably received on the Continent. His studies were now much interrupted by attention to his duties in the Hampshire Militia, in which he had accepted the post of captain. The military knowledge, however, which he thus acquired became of use to the future historian. At the peace of 1763, the regiment was disbanded, and Gibbon now undertook a journey through France and Italy. At Paris he found that the fame of his essay had preceded him, and he was cordially received in literary society. After a stay of some months he proceeded to Lausanne, and thence to Rome. It was here that he determined on undertaking the great work on which his fame rests:— "On the 15th of October 1764, as I sat musing amidst the ruins of the capitol, while the barefooted friars were singing vespers in the temple of Jupiter, the idea of writing the decline and fall of the city first started to my mind." Some years, however, elapsed before his intention was realised.

In the following year he returned to England, and the next five years he describes as the least satisfactory of his life, affording few incidents worthy of record. He was,

however, one of the earliest members of Johnson's Literary Club. In 1770, his father died, and as the estate left him in Hampshire was involved in debt, he determined to quit the country and reside in London. In 1774, he entered

Parliament, having been returned for Liskeard through the influence of his kinsman, Lord Eliot. He sat in the House of Commons for eight sessions, during the memorable contest between Great Britain and her American colonies. During the whole time he steadily supported Lord North by his vote, but he never spoke the great speakers filled him with despair, the bad ones with terror. In 1779, he published, at the request of the ministry, a pamphlet, entitled Memoire Justificatif, in reply to the manifesto issued by France previous to a declaration of war; and, in acknowledgment of his services on this occasion, he was appointed one of the commissioners of trade and plantations, with a salary of £800 a-year. the next Parliament he sat for the borough of Lymington, but resigned his seat on the fall of Lord North's ministry, "when he lost his convenient salary, after having enjoyed it about three years."

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During all this time he was busy with his great work, the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, the first volume of which appeared in 1776. In commencing the work he took great pains in forming a suitable style of composition. The style of an author," says he, "should be the image of his mind, but the choice and command of language is the fruit of exercise. Many experiments were made before I could hit the middle tone between a dull tone and a rhetorical declamation, three times did I compose the first chapter, and twice the second and third, before I was tolerably satisfied with their effect. In the remainder of the way I advanced with a more equal and easy pace." The first volume was received with unbounded admiration—the first impression was exhausted in a few days, and a second and third edition could scarcely satisfy the demand. His brother historians, Hume and Robertson, greeted him with warm applause.

Amidst this general chorus of approval, however, there were some notes of discord. In the course of his history, Gibbon had to speak of the rise and progress of Christianity; and, in tracing the causes which occasioned its rapid extension, he seems to have sought to undermine

its divine origin. Various works were published in opposition to his view of the origin of our religion, to none of which he made any reply, until some one expressed a doubt, not merely of his opinions but of his facts. When, however, his fidelity as a historian was attacked, he published his "Vindication of the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Chapters" of his history. It is now generally admitted that he seldom, if ever, wilfully perverts facts, but that he writes like an advocate, and brings into prominence everything which would tend to damage or cast ridicule upon the faith which he disbelieved.

In 1781 appeared the second and third volumes, which caused less opposition than the first, and were received with equal favour. Shortly afterwards, having lost his commissionership through the change of ministry, he determined to leave England, for the sake of economy, and he settled once more in Lausanne. Here he had the satisfaction of completing the last volume of his history in June 1787. The following is his own account of the circumstance:- "It was on the day, or rather the night, of the 27th of June 1787, between the hours of eleven and twelve, that I wrote the last lines of the last page in a summer-house in my garden. After laying down my pen, I took several turns in a berceau, or covered walk of acacias, which commands a prospect of the country, the lake, and the mountains. The air was temperate, the sky was serene, the silver orb of the moon was reflected from the waters, and all nature was silent. I will not dissemble the first emotions of joy on the recovery of my freedom, and, perhaps, the establishment of my fame. But my pride was soon humbled, and a sober melancholy was spread over my mind by the idea that I had taken an everlasting leave of an old and agreeable companion, and that, whatsoever might be the future fate of my history, the life of the historian must be short and precarious."

Gibbon went to London to superintend the publication of the last three volumes of his work, and then again returned to Lausanne, where he remained until 1793.

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In the meantime the progress of the French Revolution rendered Switzerland no longer a secure retreat; and as some of his most intimate friends were dead, he determined to return to England. His health, however, had for some time been indifferent, and he did not long survive his return to his native land. He died 16th Jan. 1794.

The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire is perhaps the greatest historical work in our language. It comprises the history of the world for thirteen centuries, from the reigns of the Antonines to the fall of Constantinople; for the historian does not confine himself to a mere history of Rome, but gives an account also of all the various nations with whom Rome came into contact: thus the work connects ancient and modern history. It also gives information on many points which historians often omit. Thus, in the 44th chapter, there is a historical account of the Roman law, which is considered one of the best introductions to that subject which we possess. And not only law, but philosophy, geography, the art of war, the manners and customs of the peopleall are sketched with the hand of a master. Of course,

a large work, such as the Decline and Fall, cannot be faultless. We have already spoken of the author's scepticism, and in the later volumes there are passages disfigured with bad taste. His knowledge, also, of Oriental history is said to have been merely superficial. Still, after making every deduction, the work stands a monument of learning and industry, and Gibbon may take rank as the first of English historians.

EDMUND BURKE.-1729-1797.

EDMUND BURKE, the eminent statesman and writer, was born at Dublin on the 12th January 1729. His father, a Protestant, was an attorney of considerable practice; his mother was a Catholic lady, and was descended from the poet Spenser. As his health was rather delicate, he