Contents of the four former Volumes of this Work, The Bishop of Durham Dr. Herfchel Mr. Shield The Marquis of Lanfdown/Sir George Younge Lord Kenyon Mr. Haftings The Duke of Bedford Critical Opinions upon the preceding Volumes. "This work excites much curiofity because it profeffedly treats of living characters, and we infer that its information is impartial and correct. It is but justice to own that we have been altogether amused by the publication.-British Critic. "A fpirit of candour and moderation evidently pervades the prefent publication. Some of the characters arc drawn with great difcrimination, and display an acuteness of powers, and a felicity of expreffion, not to be found in the fleeting productions of the day. In short, the work abounds in moral and critical obfervations that evince correctness of judgment, and delicacy of taste." London Review. "This work difcovers refpectable traits of difcrimination, and has the merit of being uncontaminated by the virulence of party fpirit." Critical Review. "The memoirs contained in these volumes are full and accurate in point of information; judicious in their literary and critical strictures; and exhibit well drawn and appropriate characters of their respective fubjects. They are not written under the uniform influence of any particular theological or political bias.---New Annual Regifter. "This work proceeds according to its first defign, and it feems to improve as it advances with time. The Volumes contain a confiderable number of memoirs of perfons, our contemporaries, who figure in the moral, the political, and the scientific walks of fociety. The difcuffion of living characters is a difficult and delicate task, but in the execution of it, the authors of this work have acquitted themselves with as much fuccefs as can reasonably be expected." Monthly Review. PUBLIC CHARACTERS, OF 1802-3. Τ LORD AUCKLAND. HE times in which we live have been peculiarly marked by party divisions, feuds, and animosities; attended by more virulence and rancour, more personality and abuse, than good men would have wished to have witnessed, especially when great characters were engaged in a struggle for popularity and power and the public pulse has been so much irritated and inflamed by these contests, that the fever of party cannot be presumed to have sufficiently subsided, to make it fit for a casual biographer to discuss them; let him be ever so impartial he would necessarily be liable to be charged as a writer influenced by some prejudice personal or political. If, therefore, in the following memoir of a nobleman, who certainly has not been an inactive spectator of the great events of his own times, we have refrained from entering at large into his political conduct and character, it is because we deem it, at once, more prudent and more becoming to leave such topics to the candid pen of the future historian, and to the cooler judgment of posterity. William Lord Auckland, LL.D. and F. R. S. is 1802-3: B the |