"He cannot deny himself the vanity of finishing with the encomium of Dr. Johnson, whose friendly partiality to the companion of this tour reprefents him as one ' whofe acuteness would help any inquiry, and whose gaity of converfation, and civility of manners, are sufficient to counteract the inconveniences of travel, in countries less hofpitable than we have pasled.' Few of Mr. Boswell's friends can, I believe, add much to this honest and candid confeffion. His enemies are welcome, if they please, to dwell upon his failings. Of these he had not many, and they were injurious to no perfon. Good-nature was highly predominant in his character. He appeared to entertain sentiments of benevolence to all mankind; and it does not seem that he ever did, or could, injure any human being intentionally. His conversation-talents were always pleasing, and often fafcinating. But can we wonder at this in him who, with a capacity to learn, had been the companion of Johnson for more than twenty years? He was a Johnfonian in every thing but the manner; and there were few of Dr. Johnson's friends that were not very ready to dispense with that. His attachment to the doctor for so long a period was a meritorious perseverance in the defire of knowledge. To it the world is indebted for the most finished picture of an eminent man that ever was executed. Vanity has been imputed to our author. But let it be remembered that he enjoyed advantages which rendered that confpicuous in him from which no man can claim an exemption. There is never a man who would not have been vain to poffess so much of Dr. Johnson's conversation, and proud to give it to the world, in hopes that he who venerated Johnfon would not be unthankful to his biographer. From the doctor, however, he ap pears to have imbibed a portion of conftitutional melancholy. Of late years, he has often complained of this; and he flew for relief where, perhaps, it is best to be found, to the fociety of the learned and the gay. Here, as he conteftes, "he had rather too little than too much prudence;" and, with more attachment to the activity of rural life, he might, probably, have lengthened his days. But, as his " belief in Revelation was unshaken," and his religious impreffions deep and re curring frequently, let us hope that he has now attained that ftate from which imperfection and calamity are alike excluded. The Life of Patrick Browne, M. D. Author of the History of Jamcica; from the European Magazine. D R. BROWNE was the fourth fon of Edward Browne, efq. a gentleman of respectable family and handsome estate. He was bom at Woodstock, the paternal inheri tance, in the parish of Crossboype, and county of Mayo, about the year 1720. After receiving the best education that country could afford, he was fent to a near relation in the ifland of Antigus, in 1737; but the climate at that time dif agreeing very much with his confti tution, he returned in about a year to Europe, and landing in France, went directly to Paris, where he speedily recovered his health; and, with the approbation of his parents, applied D. ant lied himself closely to the study o phyfic, and particularly.to to the fcience of botany, for which he always had a particular predilec, tion. After five years spent at Paris he 'removed to Leyden, where he studied near two years more, and from that university obtained his degree of M. D.-Here he formed an intimacy with Gronovius and Muschenbroeck, and commenced a correspondence with Linnæus and other eminent botanists and learned men. From Holland he proceeded to London, where he practifed near two years, most of which time he attended St. Thomas's hofpital, with the celebrated doctor Letherland, phylician formerly to queen Caroline, his warm and affectionate friend. From thence he went out again to the West Indies, and after spending fome months in Antigua and fome others of the fugar-iflands, he proceeded to Jamaica, where he, spent his time in collecting and preserving specimens of the plants, birds, shells, &c. of those luxuriant foils, with a view to the improvement of natural hiftory. Whilft in Jamaica, his refidence was chiefly in Kingston, and it was he who first pointed out the abfurdity of continuing Spanish town the port and capital, whilst reason plainly pointed out Kingston, or in his own words the defects of a port of clearance to leeward;" and by his writings the governor and council represented the matter so strikingly to earl Granville, prefident of the council, 1756, that the measure was immediately adopted, and Kingston made the port of clearance, to the very great benefit of com, merce in general, as before that when ships were clearing out of were Kingston, and ready to weigh At this time also he collected materials and made the neceffary observations (being a very good mathematician and aftronomer) for a new map of Jamaica, which he published in London, in August, 1755, engraved by Bailey, on two sheets, by which the doctor cleared four hundred guineas. Soon after this (March, 1756) he published his Civil and Natural History of Jamaica, in folio, ornamented with forty-nine engravings of natural history, a whole sheet map of the island, and another of the harbour of PortRoyal, Kingston-town, &c. Of this work there were but two hundred and fifty copies printed by subscription, at the very low price of one guinea, but a few were fold at two pounds two thillings in theets by the printer. Most unfortunately all the copper plates, as well as the original drawings, were confumed by the great fire in Cornhill, November 7, 1765. This alone prevented in his lifetime a second edition of that work, for which he made confiderable preparations, by many additional plants, and a few corrections in his several voyages to these islands, for he was fix different times in the Weft Indies; in one of those trips he lived above twelve months in the ifland of Antigua: however these obfervations will we trust not be loft to the public, as he lately sent to fir Joseph Banks, P. R. S. "A catalogue of the plants growing in the fugar-islands, &c. clafled and described according to the Linnæan [*C2] system, system, in quarto, containing about was interred in the famly burial eighty pages. place at Crossboyne. In his will Dr. Browne long and regularly he defired the following inscription kept up a correspondence with the tion to be placed on his monucelebrated Lin tinued to his death. Linnæus, which con-ment, viz. In Exfhaw's Gentleman's, and London Magazine for June, 1774, he published A Catalogue of the Birds of Ireland," and in Exfhaw's August Magazinė following, Catalogue of its Fish." A In 1788, he got ready for the press a very curious and useful Catalogue of the Plants of the northweft counties of Ireland, claffed with great care and accuracy according to the Linnæan system, containing above seven hundred plants, moftly observed by himself, having trufted very few to the descriptions of others. This little tract, written in Latin with the English and Irish names, might be of confiderable use in affifting to compile a Flora Hibernica, a work every botanist will allow to be much wanting, The doctor was a tall, comely man, of good address and gentle, manners, naturally chearful, very temperate and in general healthy; but of late years had violent periodical fits of the gout, by which he fuffered greatly in the intervals of these unwelcome fits, he formed the Catalogue of Plants, and was al ways, when in health, doing fomething in natural history or mathematics. At a very early period he married in Antigua a native of that ifland, but had no issue. His circumstances were moderate but easy, and the poor found ample benefit from his liberality as well as profethonal skill. This worthy member of fociety paid the debt of nature at Rushbrook, county of Mayo, on Sunday, August 29, 1790, and "Hane opponi juffit Patri Matri Fratribusque Piiffimis & fibi; Patricius Browne olim Medicus Jamaicenfis, qui nunc infita humiliter pro tum inter mortuos enumerandum deprecetur præcis fidelium pro se illisque offerri; ut cum Domino Deo Requiefcant in pace. Amen." His publications are, "The Civil and Natural History of Jamaica, containing, 1. An accurate Description of that Island, its Situation and Soil; with a brief Account of its former and present State, Government, Revenues, Produce, and Trade. 2. A History of the Natural Productions, including the various Sorts of native Foffils; Perfect and Imperfect Vegetables; Quadrupeds, Birds, Fishes, Rep-' tiles, and Infects; with their Properticsand Uses in Mechanics, Diet, and Physic. "By Patrick Browne, M. D. "Illuftrated with forty-nine copperplates, in which the most curious productions are represented of their natural fizes, and delineated im mediately from the objects, by George Dionyfius Ehret." In this work, Dr. Browne observes "Sir Hans Sloane hath not collected above 800 species of plants in all his travels: in Jamaica alone I have examined and described about 1200, befides foffils, infects, and other productions, many of which he makes no mention of. It must be owned, nevers theless, to his praise, that his works, inaccurate as they are, upon the whole, whole, have done both the author and his country credit. The doctor hints at three Differtations, and one on Worm Fevers, intended to be published (but they never were.) His next work was a short Eflay, intitled " A Catalogue of the Birds of Ireland, whether Natives, Casual Vifitors, or Birds of Passage, taken from Observation; classed and disposed according to Linnæus." This was published in Exthaw's Magazine, June, 1774, A Catalogue of Fishes, obferved on our Coasts, and in our Lakes and Rivers, classed and difpofed according to Linnæus." In Exthaw's Magazine for August, A DAM Smith, author of the Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, was the fon of Adam Smith, comptroller of the customs at Kirkaldy, and of Margaret Douglas, daugh ter of Mr. Douglas, of Strathenry. He was the only child of the marriage, and was born at Kirkaldy on the 5th of June, 1723, a few months after the death of his father. His conftitution during infancy was infirm and fickly, and required all the tender folicitude of his fur viving parent. She was blamed for treating him with an unlimited indulgence: but it produced no unfavourable effects on his temper or his difpofitions:-and he enjoyed the rare fatisfaction of being able to repay her affection, by every attention that filial gratitude could dietate, during the long period of fixty years. An accident, which happened to him when he was about three years old, is of too interesting a nature to be omitted in the account of so valuable a life. He had been carried by his mother to Strathenry on a vifit to his uncle, Mr. Douglas, and was one day amusing himself alone at the door of the house, when he was stolen by a party of that let of vagrants who are known in Scotland by the name of tinkers. Luckily he was soon mified by his uncle, who hearing that fome vagrants had pasled, purfued them, with what assistance he could find, till he over, took them in Leflie wood; and was the happy inftrument of preserving to the world a genius, which was destined, not only to extend the boundaries of feience, but to eni lighten and reforin the commercial policy of Europe. The fchool of Kirkaldy, where Mr. Smith received the first rudi[*C3] ments ments of his education, was then was a fellow-student of Mr. Smith's, taught by Mr. David Miller, a teacher, in his day, of confiderable reputation, and whose name deserves to be recorded, on account of the eminent men whom that very obfcure feminary produced, while under his direction. Mr. Ofwald, of Dunikeir, whose profound knowledge of finances raised him afterwards to important employments in the state, and to a diftinguished rank as a parliamentary fpeaker; his brother, Dr. John Ofwald, afterwards bishop of Raphoe; and Dr. John Dryfdale, whose talents and worth are well known to this fociety, were among the number of Mr. Smith's contemporaries. One of his schoolfellows is fill alive; and to his kindness I am principally indebted for the fcanty materials, which form the first part of this narr tive. Among these companions of his earliest years, Mr. Smith foon attracted notice, by his paffion for books, and by the extraordinary powers of his memory. The weaknels of his bodily conftitution prevented him from partaking in their more active amufements; but he was much beloved by them on account of his temper, which, though warm, was to an uncommon degree friendly and generous. Even then he was remarkable for those habits which remained with him through life, of speaking to himself when alone, and of abfence in company. From the grammar-school of Kirkaldy, he was fent, in 1737, to the university of Glasgow, where he remained till 1740, when he went to Baliol College, Oxford, as an exhibitioner on Snell's foundation. - Dr. Maclaine, of the Hague, who at Glasgow, told me, fome years ago, that his favourite pursuits, while at that university, were mathematics and natural philofophy; and I remember to have heard my father remind him of a geometrical problem of confiderable difficulty, about which he was occupied at the time when their acquaintance commenced, and which had been proposed to him as an exercife by the celebrated Dr. Simpfon. Thele, however, were certainly not the sciences in which he was formed to excel; nor did they long divert inim from parfaits more congenial to his mind. What lord Bacon fays of Plato may be justly applied to him: Illum, licet ad rempublicam non acceffiffet, tamen natura et inclinatione omnino ad res civiles propenfum, vires eo præcipue intendifle; neque de philofophia naturali admodum follicitumelle; nifi quatenus ad philofophia nomen et celibritatem tuendam, et ad majeftatem quandam moralibus et civilibus doctrinis addendam et afpergendam fufficeret." The study of human nature in all its branches, more particularly of the political history of mankind, opened a boundlefs field to his cu riofity and ambition; and, while it afforded fcope to all the various powers of his versatile and comprehentive genius, gratified his ruling paffion, of contributing to the happinets and the improvement of fociety. To this study, diverfified at his leisure hours by the less severe occupations of polite literature, he seems to have devoted himfelf almost entirely from the time of his removal to Oxford; but he still retained, and retained even in ad. vanced years, a recollection of his early |