luftrated, and many mistakes rectified. The capital object of the excellent Author was to eftablifh the authority of the facred records, by a comparifon of the teftimonies refpectively borne to them by the heretics.-The fecondary end of this hiftory is to refcue the names of these heretics from that infamy which the zeal of orthodoxy had unjustly thrown on them, and to place their tenets and characters in fuch a light as candour and truth would equally justify. B...k.

ART. X. Memoirs of Thomas Hollis, Ef. F. R. and A. S. S. 4to. 2 Vols. 41. 4 s. Boards. Cadell. 1780.

THE fingularity of Mr. Hollis's character might alone

mark him out as an object of great public curiofity; but it was not merely a peculiarity in that refpect that discriminated him from the rest of mankind: his virtues were as fingular as his perfonal character was uncommon. Few men, poffeffed of fuch an affluent fortune as he had, would have devoted not only that, but their whole time, thoughts, and attention, to the fervice of their country. But this, great as it is, forms but part of Mr. Hollis's praife: actuated by a fpirit of univerfal philanthropy, his liberality was extended beyond the narrow bounds. of his native foil. Foreign nations, as well as his own, will have reafon to venerate the memory of this excellent perfon. We are not to wonder that a man, whofe principles and practice were so much at variance with the manners of the world, fhould, either through malignity or ignorance, have the motives of his conduct fo frequently misreprefented or miftaken. • Among other caufes,' as the compilers of thefe Memoirs inform us, ⚫ which prevented the juftice due to the character of Mr. Hollis from having its free courfe, is the political fashion of the times. A fubfcriber to Lord Molefworth's political creed is not to expect applause in an age when the prefent doctrines of the majority are fo loudly echoed through the land, and when the loyalty of the day is chiefly diftinguished by execrations on the principles of Milton, Sidney, Locke, and other patriot writers. of past times. In vain did Mr. Hollis profefs the warmest affection for the princes of the house of Hanover; in vain was he ftudious and active in promoting their true honour and dignity.'

But whatever offence Mr. Hollis might give by the free declaration of his political creed, with refpect to his religious opinions, his offence is of a very different kind; having on no occafion declared what thofe opinions were, he has been very uncharitably branded with the want of religion itself. How groundless and unjuft was the imputation will appear, if fuch evidence were wanting, from the Memoirs now before us.

From

From thefe Memoirs we learn, that Mr. Hollis was born in London, April 14, 1720. Thomas, his great-grandfather, was of Rotheram, in the county of York, a whitefmith by trade, and the founder of the hofpital at Sheffield, for the maintenance of fixteen poor cutlers widows; an excellent charity, confiderably improved by his defcendants. During the civil wars, he left Yorkshire, and fettled with his family in London; and in the year 1679 took a leafe for 99 years of Pinner's-hall, formely the place of meeting of the principal Independents, Oliver Cromwell and others. He was of the Baptift perfuafion, and died in London, in the year 1718, at the advanced age of 84, leaving three fons, Thomas, Nathaniel, and John, and one daughter, Mary.

Thomas, his eldeft fon (a confiderable merchant in London), added to the Sheffield charity, and the truft for Pinner's-hall; but is chiefly memorable for his benefactions to New England, particularly to Havard College in Cambridge, in which he founded a profefforfhip for the mathematics and natural philofophy, and ten scholarships for ftudents in thofe and other fciences, with other benefactions, to the amount of little less than 5,000l. His brothers (John and Nathaniel) were joint contributors in many of his gifts, particularly the former, to the Sheffield Truft, and the Baptift and Independent Societies. It fhould be remembered, to the honour of these worthy men, that their donations to Havard College, were conferred without any exclufive conditions relative to religious fects or denominations, though their own opinions were different from those of the curators of that refpectable feminary; in which they have been most nobly followed by their defcendant, the late Mr. Hollis.

Nathaniel, the fecond brother, had one fon, Thomas, who died in the year 1735 (three years before his father), leaving an only fon, Thomas, to whofe memory these papers are dedicated; and who, of course, inherited the fortune of his father, and of his great-uncle Thomas, the latter dying in the year 1730, without iffue.

Of Mr. Hollis's defcent on the female fide, we only know that his mother was the daughter of Mr. Scott of Wolverhampton, in whose family Mr. Hollis was nurtured in his infancy, till he was four or five years of age.

• To give a more circumftantial account of this respectable family in this place would, as the authors of this work properly obferve, be deviating too far from the purpose of thefe Memoirs; but these particulars it was thought proper, and, in some meafure, neceffary to mention; partly for the fake of obferving what was the truth, that Mr. Hollis, far from valuing himself upon what he used to call the parchment honours of ancestry, chose rather to adopt and pursue the truly noble plan of his predeceffors,

predeceffors, by laying out his fortune in promoting the public honour and reputation of his country, and in conftant exertions of his benevolence to the neceffitous and the worthy at home and abroad, with the most impartial and difinterested liberality.' From Wolverhampton Mr. Hollis was brought to London, where he caught the fmall-pox, and foon after his recovery he was fent to the great free-fchool at Newport in Shropshire, under the care of Dr. - , where he ftaid till he was about eight or nine years old. From hence he was removed to St. Albans, and put under the care of Mr. Wood. In his 13th or 14th year he was fent to Amfterdam to learn the Dutch and French languages, writing, arithmetic, and accounts, and after a ftay of about 15 months returned to London to his Father, with whom he continued till his death, in the year 1735, his fon being then in the 16th year of his age. After this, he was fome years in the houfe of his coufin Timothy Hollis, Efq; a moft worthy perfon, ftill living. Mr. Hollis being left by his father to the guardianfhip of Mr. John Hollifter, then Treafurer of Guy's Hofpital, there feems to have been fome doubt among his friends, whether the young gentleman fhould not be bred in the mercantile way; but it was foon determined that he should have another fort of education, fuitable to the ample fortune he was to inherit. For this purpose, he was put under the care of the learned Dr. John Ward, Profeffor of Rhetoric in Gresham College, where he ftudied the languages, chiefly Latin, and went through a courfe of logic, rhetoric, hiftory, and other branches of learning, in agreement with the liberal plan laid down for him as above.

In February 1739-40, he went to chambers in Lincoln's Inn, being admitted as a law ftudent, and probably with fome view of following the profeffion; but though he lived there till the year 1748, when he went abroad the first time, it does not appear that he applied himfelf profeffedly to the ftudy of the law; nor, on the other hand, did he wafte this interval in idle amufements or diffipation. He appears to have formed his conduct very early on the benevolent and public-fpirited model of his worthy predeceffors, improved by his own good fenfe and accurate obfervation of the principles, manners, and purfuits of his cotemporaries, and the tendencies and effects of them, with refpect to the public welfare.'

On July 19, 1748, he fet out on his travels for the first time. Of this tour he has left a curious and copious journal, to which he prefixed this motto, "La curiofité, aimable paffion, la premiere apres l'amour, qui ait poli, civilizé les hommes;" taken from Les Mœurs of Touffaints, a book burnt at Paris by the hangman, and the author ftruck off the lift of Advocates. It appears from this Journal, that very little efcaped Mr. Hollis,

where

where he could have proper information, relating to arts and fciences, public roads, manufactures, trade, antiquities, and what is called virtù, of which he became an able connoiffeur and a generous encourager, fo far' (as he says in a letter to a friend) as it might be ufeful to learning, and no farther.'

From this and the Journal of his fecond travels are given, in the work before us, fuch extracts as may ferve to illuftrate fome ftriking features in his character. We are promised at fome future time Mr. Hollis's Journals entire. And we agree with his hiftorians, that they will be an acceptable prefent to the Public

In his firft tour he paffed through Holland, Auftrian and French Flanders, part of France, to Switzerland, Savoy, part of Italy, and returned through Provence, Brittany, &c. to Paris. In his fecond tour, he vifited the principal cities of the North and Eaft fide of Germany, fome parts of Italy (which he had neglected to fee in his former tour), Sicily and Malta.

Upon his return home, which feems to have been fome time in the year 1754, finding he could not get into Parliament in the manner he wished [viz. without ufing the common means of influencing elections), he began his collections of books and medals, for the purpofe of upholding liberty, and preferving the memory of its champions; to render tyranny and its abettors odious; to extend fcience and art, to keep alive the honour and eftimation of their patrons and protectors; and to make the whole as useful as pofiible; abhorring all monopoly; and "if fuch should be the fitnefs of things, to propagate the fame benevolent fpirit to pofterity."

That part of Mr. Hollis's hiftory which more particularly diftinguishes him from the reft of the world, may be faid to commence from this period. Were it not that the good deeds of this fingular and excellent man are too many and various to admit either of abridgment or epitome within the compafs of the prefent Article, we could entertain our Readers with many anecdotes of this extraordinary Patriot, which could not fail to imprefs them with the deepeft veneration for his character. But for these we must refer to the Work itself.

In the year 1770, Mr. Hollis retired into the country, but did not many years enjoy that retirement, which the active exertions of his former life might entitle him to; for on January the firft, 1774, as he was walking in his fields at Coricombe, and giving directions to his workmen, he dropped down in a fit, and immediately expired.

Mr. Hollis feemed on every occafion to avoid, and even to be offended at, the leaft perfonal notice or diftinction with respect to himself: he carried this fingularity fo far as to order his body to be depofited in one of the fields near his houfe, in a grave

tex

ten feet deep, and that the ground fhould be immediately ploughed up, fo that no trace of his burial-place might remain. But Mr. Brand, to whom he bequeathed his fortune, and who has taken his name, has made every monumental remembrance of him unneceflary, by. patronizing and being at the expence of this magnificent memorial of him which is now before us.

This work was originally compiled for Mr. Brand's private ufe, and to diftribute amongft his particular friends. At the folicitation of many who withed to be poffeffed of it, Mr. Brand has at length permitted it to be fold, at a price which, great as it is, we are informed, is much inferior to the original coft of the impreffion. Thefe circumftances being confidered, candour will oblige us to pafs over its imperfections with a more indulgent eye than we pollibly might have done, had it been profeffedly written for the Public. We cannot but, however, obferve, that in the general execution of the work there is an inequality, which, indeed, is in fome measure accounted for in the Preface. In the arrangement and felection of the materials trifling and extraneous matter is too frequently admitted; and, much as we admire and applaud that honeft and ardent zeal for liberty and truth which flames out in almoft every page, we cannot but condemn the bitternefs and acrimony with which the compilers fo liberally treat thofe whom on any occafion they differ from, and this too in matters oftentimes of very fmall

moment.

The engravings and etchings with which this publication is embellifhed, and which are upwards of twenty, have very confiderable merit-they are principally executed by Cipriani and Bartolozzi. Most of them are well known, having been engraved for Mr. Hollis in his life-time, and by him bounteously diftributed among his friends. C-t-t,

ART. XI. Travels through Spain, with a View to illuftrate the Natural History and Phyfical Geography of that Kingdom, &c. &c. Interfperfed with Hifiorical Anecdotes, &c. &c. By John Talbot Dillon, Knight and Baron of the Sacred Roman Empire. 4to. 11. 1 s. Boards. Robinson. 1785.

I and we gave a particular

N two former numbers of our Review [Append. to Vols. 59

Bowles into Spain; as tranflated from the original Spanish into French, by the Viscount de Flavigny. The Author of the prefent treatise, who has made three voyages into that country, in the laft of which, in 1778, he traverfed the whole kingdom,' having met with Mr. Bowles's performance at Madrid, judged that a work of fo much merit could not fail to meet with the approbation of an English reader. With a view to give his countrymen the beft information refpecting a country fo little

2

known,