which he derived from his short residence at St. John's. At the time of his admission it enjoyed a degree of reputation which no other college in Cambridge ever attained. The greater part of the university honours were engrossed by its members, and it did not suffer from the competition of its great rival Trinity, which has in later times been at least equal to it in reputation, and superior to it in numbers. The exertions of Dr. Powel, who was in 1765 elected master of the college, principally contributed to place it in these flourishing circumstances. Dr. Powel was one of those whom nature seems to have intended for stations of eminence and authority. With the love of power he joined all the qualities which render a man able and worthy to exercise it. His active and ambitious mind was always pushing forward to some object, and opposition to his schemes was invariably defeated by the skill with which they were planned, and the vigour with which they were executed. If to the strength and artfulness of his character he had added more pliability, if he had been able to repress that haughty consciousness of superiority which appeared in all his conduct, he might have maintained his objects without the difficulties and opposition with which he was perpetually embarassed. He was elected to the mastership by a very small majority; many who revered his abilities dreading the consequences of entrusting power to such a proud and arbitrary disposition. When he began to

• Trinity has now 548 members, St. John's 465.

govern the college, he found it torn by divisions, and suffering under all the evils which must inevitably rise from them, in a body whose views should be directed with unanimity to the single point of encouraging learning and merit. His honourable ambition was not contented with remedying the abuses which prevailed, he formed and executed the design of building the reputation of the society to a height it had never before reached, and of attracting to it, from every part of the kingdom, those students which should be most distinguished by their talents and attainments. He instituted half-yearly examinations, he established prizes, and he supported, with an uniform ardour of favour, those who co-operated with his endeavours, by doing honour to themselves and to the college. His station, though its duties were numerous and important, afforded a field too narrow both for his abilities and desires. At one period of his life he enjoyed a flattering prospect of being promoted to the first dignities of the church: he had been private tutor to Charles Townshend, when he studied at Cambridge, and, when that political meteor was made Primeminister, Mr. Jones was taught to expect the first great preferments which should be at the disposal of the Crown. His hopes were blasted in their full blossom by the sudden death of his pupil, who died master of St. John's College, in 1774. To the public he is principally known by his sermons, which display extraordinary vigour of thought and elegance of composition, and entitle him to a distinguished place among the greatest English preachers.

The distinction with which Mr. Jones had appeared

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peared in the senate-house examination, rendered his progress to a fellowship easy and certain. Soon after his election, Mr. Crank, the tutor of the college, appointed him his mathematical lecturer. In this public and important situation, he enjoyed all the opportunities that he desired of extending his reputation. The lecturer of a great college, such as Trinity, is surrounded by a numerous attendance of pupils, some of whom, in general, are of distinguished abilities, and feels his exertions called forth by the powerful motives which such circumstances afford. The lectures of Mr. Jones are not dry and literal repetitions of what mere reading will supply: he has considered the subjects on which he discourses in their first principles and their detail, and presents them in the view which he has thus obtained of them: he does not therefore convey the imperfect information which is derived from those who have attempted nothing more than to enter into the sense of an author, but instructs with all the advantages of one who delivers his own conceptions. The most interesting problems in philosophy and analytics have been reviewed by him, and those which appear to have been defectively treated, are demonstrated to his pupils on new grounds. The Principia of Newton, astronomy, optics and fluxions, are the principal subjects of his mathematical lcctures. His system of fluxions has always been considered as particularly valuable. The extent and importance of that branch of science, and the repeated attacks with which it has been assailed, strongly recommend it to the attention both of a mathematician and a lecturer. Mr. Jones professed

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to have been guided by the light which the celebrated treatise on fluxions by Maclaurin affords; but the manner in which he has established the evidence, and applied the principles of the calculus, is equally distinguished by its novelty and its elegance, and displays the happiest mathematical genius.

Mr. Jones was, in the years 1786 and 1787, senior moderator of the university. This office is of very great importance, as the senate-house examination and the exercises in the schools are totally under the direction of the two moderators of the current and preceding years. It is generally filled by junior masters of arts, who are willing to incur the fatigue by which it is accompanied, for the reputation which rewards the able discharge of its duties. In the capacity of examiner, Mr. Jones had the happiness of being principally instrumental in introducing Dr. Paley's "Principles of Moral and Political Philosophy" into the examination. This was a regulation of very great consequence. It was not indeed the first introduction of moral philosophy into the examination, but by restricting the questions to Dr. Paley's 'Principles," it directed the attention of the students to that admirable work, which, always employed on points of real importance, and by a wonderful perspicuity of reasoning familiarizing the most subtile inquiries to the most unexercised minds, is more calculated to furnish information on the momentous subject of morals, to academic readers, than any treatise which has been produced either by ancient or modern philosophers.

On the resignation of Mr. Crank, Mr. Jones was appointed

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appointed one of the two tutors of Trinity. This office, equally honourable and lucrative, he has adorn. ed fifteen years. Within this period Trinity has overflowed with an extraordinary number of students; and in the year 1793 scarcely more than one half of the under-graduates could be received within the walls of the college. The full effect has been given to the liberality of this noble foundation, which in the candidates for its benefits acknowledges no other claim than merit, and no other incapacity than the want of it. With this attraction the reputation of the tutors has co-operated; and as great emoluments flow from their pupils, and the superior reputation of Mr. Jones has been always attended by superiority in the number of his pupils, he must necessarily, under such circumstances, have accumulated a very considerable fortune.

The opinions of Mr. Jones on the constitution of our Church and State have been the subject of much conversation both in and out of the university, and have been by some greatly misconceived and misrepresented. It has been asserted that he is one of the supports of the remains of that school, which the example, the character and the exertions of Dr. John Jebb established thirty years ago in the university, but without foundation. Dr. Jebb was a professed Socinian, and as a proof and consequence of his faith resigned his preferments: Mr. Jones has never declared himself the advocate of that, or any other heresy, and it is expected by his friends that he will retire from the tutorship to a college living. In their political speculations, it is probable that they approach

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