The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1807-06-25 00:00:00

BISHOP OF s atiSBURY.

The late Dr. ,lohn Dougl is, Bishop of Salisbury,
was b irn in 1721. He was inn of 4r. Arch Doug-
las, a respedable merchant Rt the pc,rt of Pittenweem,
in Fifeshire. His grand-feller. (being a yaunger
brother of the family of [1 ;,Ig. 0, T.:114,141y,
in the shire of Kinross, se- .e.- is ”ne of the oldest
branches of the Hotta of D •his, now in exist-
ence) was an eminent de gyrias of the Episcopal
Church of Scotland, and the iinmediate successor
of Bishop Burnet. in the living of Salle°, in East
I....thian, from which preferment he was ejected, st
the Revolution, when Presbyterianism was 'stab.
lishtd iu Scotland.

The Bishop was. for some years, at school, at
Dunbar; in 173.1, he was entered a commoner at '
St. Mary Hall, and remained there till 1738, when
be removed to Ballot College. on being eleited an
exhibitioner. on Bishop Warner's foundation. In
1741. he took his Bachelor's degree ; and in 174,
in order to acquit?* a facility of speaking French,
which he had previously learned grammatically, he
wee. abroad, and remained for some time 4 MOM.
real. in Picardy. and afterwards at Ghent, in
Flanders. On his return to College, in 1743, he
took his Master's degree, and having been ordained
Deacon in 1744, he was appointed to officiate as
Chaplain to the Third Regiment of Foot Guards,
which he joined, when serving with the combined
army in Flanders. During the time he remained
with the army. he ernaloyed himself in the study
of modern languages. He was not an inaftive
speelator of the Battle of Fnioermy. which happened
April 49th, 1745 ; as, on that occasion, he was em-
ployed in carrying orders from General Campbell
to the English, who guarded the village in which
he and the other Generals were stationed. In Sep.
temper 1745. he retained to England, with that
detachment of the army which was ordered home,
on the breaking out of the rebellion ; and, having
no longer any connexion with the Guards, he went
back to BAIA College, where he was ele&ed flue
of the eah.bitioners, on Mr. Snell's foundation.
In 1747, he was brdained priest, and became curate
of l'ilehurst, neat Redding, and afterwards of Dun.
steve. in Oxfordshire. where he was residing, when,
at the recommendation of Dr. Charles Stuart, and
Lady Allen, a particular friend of the Bishop's ano-
ther, he was seleded by Lord Bath, at a tutor to
accompany Lord Pulteney on his travels. Of the
tour which he then made, there exists a manuscript
account, in his own handwriting: it relates princi-
pally, if not exclusively, to the governments and po.
hti -al relations of the several countries through
which he passed. In Oelober, 1749, he returned to
England, and took possession of the livino of Eaton
Constantine, and the donative of Uppington, in
Shropshire, on the presentation of Lord Bath. In
November. 1750, he published his ffist literary
work, 'fhe rtodiratiora of Milton, from the charge of
plagiaristn bronght against him by Lauder. In
the same year, he was presented by Lord Bath to
the living of lite E-cal, and vacated that of Eaton
Constant' e. tee only resided occuionally on his
livings ; and, at the desire of Lord Bath, took a
house iii a strict contiguous to Bath-houses where
he passed sae winter cn.atiths. In the summer, he
generally ..ccnmpanied Lord 134th in his excatsions
to Shr ws'iury, Tunbridge, Cheltenhems and
Bath, and in his visits to the Duke of Cleveland's,
Lord Lyttleton's. Sir H. BedingBeld's, he.—
In Sep.ember, 1752. he married Miss Dorothy Pere.
house. sister to Richard Persiiouse, Esq. of Rey-
nold's Hall, near Walsall, in Staffordshire, and,
within three months, became a widower. In the
spring of 1754, he published /he
- of Mina-
, in the torm of a letter to an anonymous cor-
iespondent, siace known to have been Dr. Adam
Smith. in 1755, be wrote a pamphlet, entitled,
Apologo for the Cierp, against the Hutchins°.
nian:., and shortly afterwards, another pamph.
let, entitled, Thr Ilestrafflion of the French foretold
by Aseeiel, against thesame setts, being an ironical
defence of them against the attack made on them
l in the former pamphlets and a burlesque of their
st7le of expounding the Scriptures. In 1756. he
pohli,hed his first pamphlet against Archibald
Bower ; and, in the autumn of that year, a p.m-
-• phlet, entitled, A Smear lbfeare of the 4thwinirtration.
; being an ironical justification of their introducing
forekitn troops to defend this country. In 1757, he
pal,lished, newer and Tillewolot ',wavered ; widths a
very short time afterwards A fill Confagtioe of
Miner', three Al; as :e ; and in the springy of 1758,
Ibe C.olor 4e4 Find Wert:ion of newer. In the
En,ter Term, of this year, he took hi, Dofbat's de-
gre •, and was presented by Lord Bach to the living
or ktnley. in Shropshire In 1759, he published,
Caedert of a late Noble CoameaNder e”ntirdhr eon-
,dered, in defence of Lor4 George Seckville. He
was induced to talk, this side of the question by no
other m rive than the palpable injustice of the attack
male on Lord G. 3. by Poilfaeaof, hefore it could be
k p whither he re illy deserved censure.; nor did
say one ever know that he wrote this pamphlet,
rx.:ept Miller, the bookseller. to whom he made a
present of the copy. In the same month, he wrote
and puhlishol .5 Leil,r to hoe rya Mrs NI AC
.i/TrOtit'h of P...re, a pamphlet which excited great
attention, and AIWAyS passed 055 having been wait-

ten by Lead Bath. In 1760, he wrote the Preface
to the Translation of Nooke's Negro-Solids:. He
was this year appointed one of His Majesty's Chap
tains. In 1761. he published Seasonable Hints
frow ea bones: Max. as an erpositinn of Lord Ratli's
sentiments. In November, 1762. he was. througl
the interest of Lord Bath, made Canon of Winds it
In December of that year, on the day whirls the
Preliminaries of Peace were to be tilt !n Min con..
'iteration rn Parliament, he wrote the paper cane::
775 e Sentiweat o teem-Oman, which Vlllit
MI ash et of paper, pasted on the walls in evi.r•
part of London, and distributed among the Mem
Leis as they entered the House In 1763. he an-
perietended the publication of Ilevry If Cie-
rewien's Mary cad Lettere, and wrote the Preface
which i• pre6 te,! to those papers. In Ju:te of this
year, he accompanied Lord Bath to Spa, where lee
became aerie 'anted with the Hereditary Prince of
Brunswick. (the late Duke), from whom he received
marked and particular attention, and Aid, whom he
was afterwards hi c irresnondenee. it is known that
within a few yeei% err es' • a series of lettets,
which were wri•ten by him doe his st iv at Ss t.
and a book cotitainiiig coni-s of all t' Bette.. w ice
he had suhs.miently written to,
the Prince of Brunswick, on toe state a pa.: i-s,
and the charaa:rs of their leaders, in this comm.?,
and on the policy and tofu& of its continental con-
nedions. But as these have not been f iund, thieve
is reason to apprehend that they may have been de-
stroyed, I i consid-rai inn of some or the pets ,ns being
still alive, whose charalters, cvncina, and princ;ples,
were the topics of that cone poudenee. lii 1764,
Lord Bath died, and left him fits library; but Ge-
neral Pulteney wishing that it should not be removed
horn Bath-house. he "diminished his claim, and
acceptad 10001. in lies of it. General Pulteney
left it to him again at his death and he again gave
it up to the late Sir W. Pulteney, for the same sum
It has been erroneously stated, in some of the :limn-
papers, that his own valuable library had been de-
rived from this source; whereas it was entirely
colletted by himself. In 1764, he exchanged fis
living,. in Shropshire, for that of St. Austin's an.f
St. Faith's, in Watling-street, London. In April,
1765, he married Elisabeth, daughter of Hr..ry
Reinke, Esq. During this and the .receding yea: s.
te also in 176 b, he wrote o Mika' pope-s.
which were p 'need in no P..blic Atioersiscr ; and
all the letters .‘,4e.h appeared in that Paper, in 1770,
and 1771, under the signatures of Teeitis and Mao.
has. were written by hula. In 1773, he assisted Sir
John Dalrymple in arranging his MSS In 1776,
he was removed from the Chapter of Windsor to
that of St. Paul's. During this and the subsetpicit
year, he was employed in preparing Captain Cook'
Journal for publication, which he undertook at t e
urgent request of L.rd Sandwich, then First Lord
of the Admiralty. In 1:77, he assisted Lord Hard-
wicke in arranging hi, ntiscellaneoils papers, whir,•
came out in the following year. In 1778, he was
elefted a Member of the Royal and Antiquarian So-
cieties. In 1751, he was again applied to by Lord
Sandwich, to reduce into a shape tit for pnblicttion,
the Journal ot Captain Cook's third and last Voyare ;
the laterdertisn and the Notes were supplied .ins.
In this year, he was elated President of SiotiColle
• e.
for the year, and preached the Latin 'elm Sr elute
that body. In 1786, tie was elected oiie of the Vice-
Presidents of the Antiquarian Society ; and in 1787.
one of the Trustees of the Rs itish afiti..um. In Sep-
tember of this year he was appointed Bichap of
Carlisle; and in 1788, succeeded to the Dean; y of
Windsor, for which he vacated his Residentiaryship
of St. Paul's. In 1789, he preached before the
House of Lauds, and of course published the sermon,
on the anniversary of King Charles's Martyrdom.
In June 1791, he was translated to the See of Saiis-
bury. In 1793, he preached the anniversary sermon
before the Society foe the Propagation of the Gospel,
which is prefixed to the annual printed account of
their proceedings. Having been often and very
urgently requested by many of his literary friends,
to publish a new edition of The Criterion, which
bad been many years out of print, he undertook,
so lately as last autumn (1806) to revise that book.
He had may years ago collected materials for a
new and enlarged edition of that work, but unfor-
tunately they had either been mislaid or lost, • r
more probably destroyed through mittake,with some
other manuscripts This circumstance, and his very
advanced age, sufficiently account for his not bay-
ing attempted to alter materially, of to add to his
onginat work.
in this statement, all the avowed publications of
the Bishop are enumerated; but he has been con-
cerned in many *dyers, in which he was never sup-
posed to have had any part; and in some of se
CONVIVO4 celebrity, whose nominal and reputed au-
thors he permitted to retain, and enjoy exclusively,
all that credit of which he could have justly laid
claim to a considerable share. During a great part
of Isis life, he was in correspondence with some of
the most erninint literary and political charac-
ters of the age. Such were the habits et incessant
application in which he persevered, almost to the
last hour of his long protrafted lite, that few
men could have read more, if indeed any one so
mach ; fur he never deemed any space of time too
short to be employed in reading, nor was he ever
seen by any of his family, except when strangers were
present, without having a book or a pen in his hand.
The accounts which were inserted in .many of the
Newspapers, of the illness which terminated in his
death, were as incorrea as most of those winch have
been given of his life and writings. Instead of fall-
ing a vidlim to the gout, lie can scarcely be said to
have had latterly any specific complaint. He re-
tained his faculties to the last, and till within two
days of his death, amused himself, for some hours
each day, by reading. After a life thus devoted to
the cause of literature and religion, and not spent
in solitary seclusion from the world, but in the midst
of its must alive and busy scenes, he drew his last
breath, on Monday, the 18th day of May, without a
struggle and without a p ing. in the aims of Ws son,
who, in order to comes': the min-statereer• , and
supply the deficiencies of those arc ants of him.
which have appeared in many Public Prints, has
hastily extiaded the above particulars from authen-
tic documents now in his possession. He w.s bu
tied in a vault in St. Geinge's Chapel, %Corked
Castle. His Royal Highness the Duke of Sussex,
with a condescension not le s honourable to his t wn
feelings than to the memory of the Bishop, attended
at his funeral.

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