The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1853-03-01 00:00:00

" Sincerest critic of my prose and rhyme",—

a series of papers called "The Recluse," which appeared
in the Liverpool Herald. In 1805 was published his
" Life of Leo X.," a work which was hailed even in Italy
with astonishment and delight, and the half-copyright of
which sold for £2,000.
At the general election in 1806 he was enthusiastically
returned as a representative in parliament of his native
town ; and a great meeting was held to celebrate the
event. Roscoe spoke several times in the house; his
most important speech being one on the slave trade.
While in London he assisted in founding " The African
Institution." The sudden dissolution of parliament
ended his parliamentary career. On re-enterinz Live;.
pool he was received by a mob, who endeavoured to
obstruct his progress home, and whose wish it was to
create a riot. One of his friends' horses was stabbed
under its rider in the crowd. Roscoe had become un-
popular, because he was opposed to slavery arid to " the
No Popery cry." To prevent disturbances and blood-
shed, he announced his determination not to come
forward at the next election as a can-didate. Ile
was put in nomination, without his consent, by
some enthusiastic friends, but was not returned. Soon
oferwards the Earl of Derby recommended him as a
deputy-lieutenant ; but Mr. Roscoe refused to accept the
honour, on the ground that he was one of those whom the
tests excluded from the office, and he did not wish to
stultify those who thought, with him, that the law was
unjust, by removing one of the reasons which might be
urged for its reform.

In 1808, Mr. Roscoe published several tracts on the war,
and the poem of " Copenhagen." Among the tracts was
one containing a sketch of Pitt. Though some of his
political friends differed from him on the subject of peace,
yet his opinions were shared by many ; and, at a public
meeting in Liverpool, he proposed and carried a pacific
address.

In 1809-10 he resumed his literary studies ; he me-
ditated a life of his valued friend Dr. Currie, assisted
Mr. Cromek in preparing his Relics of Robert Burns,
wrote the preface to the Gallery of British Portraits, and
projected a history of the Progress and Vicissitudes of
Literature and Art. During thin period, too, he was an
active member of the African Institution, to which he
made several valuable communications ; one of which
gave rise to a controversy with Mr. George Harrison.
His essay on the Right of Great Britain to compel Foreign
Nations to abolish the Slave Trade, was published at this
time ; and, in November, 1809, he was the happy instru-
ment of rescuing from slavery nine negroes, who had
been confined in the borough gaol by process for debt sued
out by a Portuguese shipmaster, with the purpose of se-
curing them till he should be ready to sail. In 1810 he
published a volume of tracts on the war, issued for the
most part at different periods since 1793.
His opinions on reform in parliament, publicly
expressed during 1811-12 in a letter to the Duke of
Gloucester and in a reply to a private letter from Lord
Brougham, were opposed to the plans of many of the
reformers of the clay ; but they were ultimately realised
in many particulars. In 1812 he was visited at Allerton
by Mr. (now Lord) Brougham, who spent several days at
that rustic retreat. The opening of the trade with India
was a subject in which he felt much interested ; and, as
in 1807, he came forward again at a public meeting in
1812 to advocate the establishment of a free trade with
India, the company's charter being about to expire. In
the general election of 1812 the liberal electors of `West-
minster volunteered to return him, free of expense, but
lie declined to stand ; but, at Leicester, without being
asked, lie was proposed as a candidate, and 412 votes
were recorded in his favour before he knew that he had
been put in nomination. His friends pressed him to allow
his name to be put in nomination at Liverpool, a nquest
with which he did not comply ; and, upon Mr. Canning's
return, he issued a pamphlet, reviewing the speeches of
that gentleman at the election, so far as they related to
peace and reform.
Between 1812.15 the attention of Mr. Roscoe was oc-
cupied with alterations at Allerton•hall, and the cultiva-
tion of Chat Moss ; with communications to the Agricul-
tural Society of West Derby, and to Sir John Sinclair ;
in projecting a translation of Lanzi, and a Life of Eras-
Falls ; and in writing various minor poems and contribut-
ing papers to the transactions of the Linnann Society.
He was elected an honorary member of the New York
Historical Society, his name having long been familiar
in America, with some of whose distinguished men he
corresponded regularly. In 1814 he visited Holkham,
the magnificent seat of the Cokes, and was entrusted with
the pleasant duty of arranging the vast literary treasures
which had previously been allowed to lie in disorder and
deal. fiet war repaid by Mr. Coke is the Ililtanlia