ACKNOWLEDGMENTS TO CORRESPONDENTS. The inquiries of E. G. respecting the classical promise of Mr. WROUGHTON at the close of the last season, it is totally out of our power to answer. Whether the effusions of antiquity are to furnish subjects for the DRURY-LANE DRAMA, or the managers are to draw BILLS, payable at sight, upon the great PATHERS of the ENGLISH STAGE, it is impossible for us to prognosticate. All that we know of the matter is, that the said managers seem to have made a good beginning, and that, the trite proverb declares, is always indicative of a good ending. The CONJECTURES (No. I.) of our "Constant Reader" shall be inserted in our next. The life of PENROSE, if possible. ZEMIRA; or, THE FISHERMAN OF DELHI, an ORIENTAL TALE, by J. Moser, Esq. in our next. An additional scene to the farce of THE UPHOLSTERER, by J. Moser, Esq. in our next. Essays, historical, literary, and moral, No. XVII. in our next. Mr. Bowles's pamphlet shall be reviewed in our next. The length of the AMERICAN WERTER will, we fear, be a most formidable obstacle to its insertion: it is, however, under consideration. The Jeu d'Esprit, in our next. POSTHUMUS, in our next. Amoroso is something too wARM; and The Misconception rather too unsavoury for our purpose: the latter smells→ but not of the Lamp. The favours of T. ENORT, and others, are received, and shall be attended to. AVERAGE PRICES of CORN from September 12 to September 19. MARITIME COUNTIES. Wheat Rye Barl., Oats Beans O Middlesex S|Surrey 035 INLAND COUNTIES. Wheat Rye | Barl. | Oats Beans I 72 143 1039 1034 655 9 932 6:50 73 046 040 433 452 6 034 1050 o Hertford 68 414 540 327 213 6 4 27 643 10 Bedford 69 249 024 900 ountingdon 65 600 330 000 Northampt. 64 639 S28 618 T 010 626 415 6 845 035 628 646 044 126 1051 9 Rutland 74 0f00 035 10 27 057 2 Leicester 68 043 042 831 400 0 Derby 79 0100 72 100 011 829 056 5 69 548 1000 Essex 426 052 6 Wilts ES. Wales WALES. 75 800 01:38 021 8100 76 600 10/18 300 EUROPEAN MAGAZINE, AND LONDON REVIEW, FOR SEPTEMBER, 1807. ACCOUNT OF THE LIFE AND WRITINGS OF THE LATE REV. JOHN JORTIN, ARCHDEACON OF LONDON, RECTOR OF ST. DUNSTAN IN THE EAST, AND VICAR OF KENSINGTON. [WITH A PORTRAIT.] IT has been observed, that it is but seldom that the life of a literary man is sufficiently diversified to afford to the biographer many materials. Ardently devoted to his pursuits, secluded in some degree from the world, his existence is, generally speaking, subject to fewer vicissitudes than those which mark the mortal progress of persons belonging to the more active professions, and give an interest to the historic page. "Allow him but his plaything of a pen, He ne'er cabals, or plots like other men." This observation, though more particularly adapted to those who diverge into the flowery paths of poetry, may, with little exaggeration, be extended to scholars in general, and is peculiarly applicable to the subject of this short account: not that his pen could ever with propriety be termed a play-thing, but because he seems, both mentally and professionally, to have abstracted himself from the domestic squabbles and political contentions of his times, and, assuming a much more dignified character, to have employed his whole life in researches, in every instance beneficial to mankind, and therefore worthy of his piety and his genius. In contemplating the portrait of Dr. Jortin, which embellishes this magazine, a pleasing sensation arises, which carries reflection back to the era of his father, and introduces into our minds a kind of patriotic pride and national exultation, that the exalted benevolence of our ancestors should now stand on record, rewarded, in the genius and the gratitude of those whom it once so piously and so nobly protected. The narrow, the bigotted, we might almost say the insane policy of Louis XIV. which in the revocation of the. edict of Nantz disseminated the arts and literature of France over many parts of Europe, and drove from their native land the most ingenious and industrious part of his subjects, was, as the event has proved, beneficial to this kingdom. Many of them sought an asylum in England, which they properly considered as the last retreat both of religious and political liberty. Among these RENA TUS JORTIN, the father of the subject of this biographical sketch, came, when a very young man, with his father, about the year 1685. Soon after he had found a settlement in this country, he married Martha, the daughter of the Rev. Daniel Rogers, of Haversham, Buckinghamshire. Mr. Renatus Jortin, whose ancestors must have been in situations of considerable importance in Erance, was appointed one of the gentlemen of the privy chamber to King William. He was afterward secretary to three admirals, viz. to Admiral Russel, Sir George Rooke, and Sir Cloudesley Shovel, with whom he perished in the unfortunate shipwreck of the AssOCIATION man of war, which, with several others of his fleet, struck upon the rocks of Scilly in the night of the 22d of October, 1707. A JOHN JORTIN was born in the parish of St. Giles in the Fields, in the county of Middlesex, October 23, 1698; there fore at the death of his father be must first preferment, or, rather, his first occupation in town, was that of reader and preacher at a chapel in New-street, near Great Russel-street, Bloomsbury, belonging to the parish of St. Giles in the Fields. have been nine years of age. After this melancholy event, Mrs. Jortin removed into the neighbourhood of the Charterhouse, in order to be near her son during his education in that excellent seminary. This, with respect to the classics, he had completed at the Soon after his removal to London, age of fifteen years; after which he Mr. Jortia published four sermons erfected himself at home in the French" on the Truth of the Christian Relilanguage, which he spoke very correctly, writing, and arithmetic. Langua On the 16th of May, 1715, he was admitted pensioner of Jesus College, Cambridge. Here that taste for classical literature, for which he became afterwards so celebrated, began to unfold, Through the medium of Jeffries, a bookseller, Dr. Thirlby, who was tutor to young Jortin, recommended him, while yet an undergraduate, to translate some of Eustathius's notes on Homer for Mr. Pope. It appears from Mr. Jortin's own manuscript, that he dared to insert some remarks on a passage where he thought Mr. P. had made a mistake in his conception of the meaning of his original. This was scarcely to be endured by the poet; for though the passage was altered, the critic was neglected. In January, 1719, Mr. Jortin was admitted bachelor of arts; and in October, 1721, elected fellow of Jesus College. Soon after he took the degree of master of arts; and in the two following years, acted as moderator at the disputations, and as taxor. He published in the year 1722, in a thin quarto, with a Latin preface, a few Latin poems, which had merit enough to occasion their favourable reception, and success sufficient to carry them through several editions. Mr. Jortin was ordained deacon by the learned Dr. Kennet, Bishop of Peterborough, September 22, 1723; he received priest's orders from Dr. Green, Bishop of Ely, June 24, 1724; and on the 20th of January, 1727, was presented, by the master and fellows of Jesus College, to the vicarage of Swavesey, near Cambridge. In the year 1728, he married Anne, the daughter of Mr. Chibnall, of Newport Pagnell, in Buckinghamshire; and about three years after resigned his vicarage of Swavescy. The motive that induced this resignation does not appear, but it most probably proceeded from his desire to settle in the metropolis, to which we shall see hereafter he was always extremely attached. His gion;" the substance of which he afterward incorporated with his "Remarks upon Ecclesiastical History," and his other works. In the years 1731 and 1732, he, in conjunction with some literary friends,* published miscella neous observations upon authors ancient and modern, in a series of sixpenny numbers, making together two volumes, Svo.t In 17.4, pursuing his critical disquisitions, he published remarks on Spenser's poems; at the end of which are also some remarks on Milton. The same year, his remarks on L'Annæus eneca appeared in a work called The present State of the Republic of Letters." His criticisms on the two English poets have received the praise of Bishop Newton and Mr. Warton: which is saying all that can be said in their commendation. 66 In the year 1746 he published six discourses concerning the truth of the Christian religion, of which a second edition appeared in 1747, and a third in 1752. These included the substance of the sermons before mentioned. As his fame expanded in the literary world, his eminence increased in the ecclesiastical. In 1737 he was, by the Earl of Winchelsea, presented to the vicarage of Eastwell, in Kent, of the value of about 1201. a-year; but finding that the air of the place did not agree with his health, he soon after resigned his living, and returned to London. Indeed, London, or its immediate *In the list of whose names, we think, from the intimacy that subsisted between them, that of the Rev. Cesar de Missy ought to have appeared. ↑ Thus critical work was translated into Latin, and printed at Amsterdam. It was continued by the learned Euman and others, under the title, Miscellance Observationes Critica in Auctoris veteris et recentiores, ab eruditis Britannis inchoata, et nunc a dectis viris in Belgis et aliis regionibus continuata.” This was a kind of review; it was begun about the year 1728. In the fourth volume, p. 142, is a poem, "De Motu Terræ chce Solem," by Mr. Jortin. |