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

...........
It is hoped that amongst the illustrious persons present Toxteth-park ; but, having purchased some land at
Birchficld, he erected a house upon it for himself, to
will be the Right Hon. B. Disraeli. The name of Mr. which he removed in 1793.
Charles Dickens is also mentioned. The members for the In 1792, he obtained a lease of a portion of the unculti-
i
borough will be in attendance. Amongst those who ate moss land lying between Liverpool and Manchester,
forr the purpose of improving it, and making it a source of
have been invited, and who, it is hoped, will be likewise profit.
present, are the Earl of Harrow-by, who was formerly our The idea of writing the " Life of Lorenzo de Medici,"
representative; Lords Rosse and Malion,the presidents re- whichltalian
occurredar
et o
withß pre wilaw nhe e first began to study
which Holden,
appearedresul resulted ii na
thetl
spectively of the Royal and Antiquarian Societies ; Lords accomplishment of a erect work,
Granville, Combermere, and John Manners ; and Baron month of February, 1796, from the press of the estimable
John MlCreery. Its success was so great and instanta-
Parke, and Justice Crompton, who are Liverpool men.
The invitations to members of the episcopal bench include nxelo t2ios ,0 thatfor
the soo n after
copyright, it s ;irpeptoe a rjandc:ll the author
avi e received
o ie
the Archbishop of Dublin and the Bishop of St. David's, Strand. Lord ristol urged Roscoe to visit Italy,- and
both widely and favourably known in the literary world ; take for his next theme Leo X. Lord Lansdowne pub-
and the Bishops of Chester and Manchester, from their
1 fitly d rielocrrjel,
Orford
rtAi his
nwtoerrke in
7nttoi eatio
correspondence
ofo lll,doerodese;
witha 1(1 theone
local influence. His Excellency the lion. J. R. Ingersoll I whom all concurred in considering the very first of living
end Chevalier Bunsen have been invited, to represent our English historians, and whose work was not less favour.
brethren across the Atlantic and men of learning on the ably received in Italy and on the continent than in his
continent of Europe. The invitations include, also, the - own country.
Dissatisfied with his profession, Roscoe relinquished it
President of the Royal Academy, the Poet Laureate, in 179 G, and in the February of the following vear became
the President of the Botrnical Society, and several pro- a member of Gray's Inn, London, with a view, it was
ion fa bfeewin gweceailclaeliotwoe the bard. He returned to
fessors and official persons of high standing. Mr. Gibson, sit,ilp.,eprosoeodi,
the sculptor, in a letter from Rome regrets his inability to ration Pof the " Balia" Of LuigeirSnnsiiilo. Aboautratnll
be present at the centenary, to pay his affectionate homage time he assisted in the establishing of the Athenaeum,
to the memory of Roscoe, being at present occupied in which was first suggested by Edward Rogers. In 1799,
modelling a large statue for the new Houses of Parliament. this year
^
Cien ew
purchased edition
11 let rhteo n" 'ildofep adopted Lorenzo." raean zi.;:i.a"
resi-
dence, e
alin
dence, and devoted himself to the life of Leo X. In a
short time, however, he was called upon to arrange some
difficulties which had arisen between the Liverpool Bank
and their London correspondents; and, at the anxious re-
quest of the proprietors, he became a partner in the con-
, cern. He aided in the establishment of the Botanic
Garden, and delivered an eloquent oration at its inaugu-
ration. In 1804, he was chosen a Fellow of the Linnrean
Society, to whose transactions he afterwards contributed
several papers. Then, also, did he begin in conjunction
with Currie—

MEMOIR OF WILLIAM ROSCOE.

The following is a brief sketch of the life and writings
of William Roscoe, condensed from the once popular
memoir of that illustrious man written by his son,
Henry Roscoe, and published by Cadell, in two volumes,
in 1833. This memoir was chiefly derived from the ex-
tensive correspondence of the father, whose frequently
expressed opinion was in favour of deriving the history of
an author's life from his writings. And it is a graceful
and well-executed work, written by one who was prompted
to the execution of the task by a strong feeling of filial
duty—one who had long enjoyed the privileges of study-
ing his father's character, through not a few of the
changes of his eventful life, and to whom his mind and
heart were ever open in the confidence of domestic in-
tercourse—one who had been impressed by the beauty of
his character, and had deeply felt the importance of the
principles by the operation of which that character was
formed.
The Roscoe family, who had settled for a considerable
period in the central part of Lancashire, could neither
boast of wealth nor antiquity. Indeed, they were in very
humble circumstances, and had not even the consolation
sometimes afforded to poverty by a long pedigree. When
William Roscoe had become famous, Sir Isaac Heard,
Garter Principal King at Arms, expressed a wish to
trace the origin of the family. " I told him," said
Roscoe relating the circumstance to a friend, " that I was
a good patriarch, and the proper person to begin a family,
as I had six sons !"
William Roscoe was the only son of William Roscoe,
and Elizabeth, his wife, who had also an only daughter,
Margaret, afterwards the wife of William Daulby, Esq.
At the period of William's birth, which event took place
on the Bth of March, 1753, Mr. Roscoe, senior, kept the
Old Bowling Green public-house, on Mount Pleasant,
Liverpool, which is now taken down. He was a
native of Charnock, where he spent the latter part of his
life, supported for many years by his son. Two years
before his death he was removed by his son to Birchfield,
where he died at an advanced age in 1796. Like so many
men of genius, William Roscoe was blessed with a mother
of superior mind and warm affections, and the influence
which she exercised over hischaracter was never obliterated.
Before he had the honour of being breeched, he was sent
to a dame's school, and at six years of age he was taken
from under the care of his old schoolmistress and placed
under the tuition of Mr. Martin, in Paradise-street. Two
years afterwards he was removed to Mr. Sykes, who dis-
missed him at the age of twelve years, with the assurance
that be had learned all he was capable of teaching him.
At this time be had made the acquaintance of one Hugh
Mulligan, a kind of general genius, employed in a
manufactory of British chinaware adjoining Roscoe's
home. and who was not only a painter but like-
wise an engraver and a poet. The incipient bard,
according to his own account, was a lad of a wild,
rambling, and unsocial disposition, passing many of
his hours in strolling along the shores of the Mersey,
or in fishing, or in long solitary rambles. On one
occasion the tide closed in upon him unawares while
he was musing on a sand bank in the river, and he only
escaped at the peril of his life. His father, however, had
a large market-garden as well as a public-house, and so
William had to assist in the cultivation of potatoes, and
in carrying them to market for sale. He became a capital
salesman, and was soon entrusted with the entire control
of this department. And right happily went the time, for
he had sufficient leisure to study ; and while his out-door
mode of life gave health and vigour to his body, the
perusal of the best English classics afforded amusement
and instruction to his mind. And, as he had learned
little at school, and afterwards learned much, so, with
Pope, might he be appropriately ranked " amongst that
class of remarkable persons who have been their own
instructors." In his fifteenth year he was placed with
Mr. Gore, bookseller, Liverpool ; but not relishing
attendance in a shop, he returned in a month to
his rural labours. In the following year, 1769, he
was articled for six years to Mr. John Eyes, jun.,
v eer pfioroslt ;
committed what Burns and while pursuing the
partotofernsseiyonanodfs
lawyer,aolicitor, Li
he
called " the sin of rhyme." His especial favourite among
the poets was Shenstone, whose style he sought to imitate.
But, though pursuits,
devoted to literary he did not fall
neglecting the graver
into the too-frequent error of busi-
ness
• the peculiar character of his mind,
of his profession ;
and the circumstance that his father and sister depended
wholly upon his future exertions, afforded powerful
motives for assiduity. After the death of Mr. Eyes, he
Served the remainder of his clerkship with Mr. Peter
Ellames, an eminent attorney of this town. Having lost
his mother &Alm early age, he spent much of his time in
the society of friends of his own years, and of kindred
mind ; especially of one Francis Holden, whose genius
and' acquireraents stimulated his literary ambition,
and by whose advice he devoted much of his leisure
to the acquirement of languages, a pursuit which he
subsequently prosecuted with two other friends, William
Clarke and Richard Lowndes. Another of the friends to
whom Roscoe was attached was Robert Rigby, a young
man of fine talents, who devoted himself to poetry, and
who at apt early age was drowned while erossing the Irish

" 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-entering Liver-
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 and 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. He
was put in nomination, without his consent, by
some enthusiastic friends, but was not returned. Soon
alferwards 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 oue 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 this 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.

l 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 day ; 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
he declined to stand ; but, at Leicester, without being
asked, he 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 request
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-
pus ; and in writing various minor poems and contribut-
ing papers to the transactions of the Linntean 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 ia disorder and
decay, This Ticat wag repaid by ILL Cogs ia the suturing

Channel. But the young bard had the privilege of a
friendship with a young and accomplished lady, Miss
Maria Done, of Westmoreland, with whom he spent many
happy hours while she paid occasional visits to some of
his friends in Liverpool, and with whom be corresponded
while she was at home, the youthful couple frequently
exchanging the productions of their muse. This lady was
married to John Barton, and her poetical talents des-
cended to her son, Bernard Barton, the Quaker poet, as
well as to her daughter, Mrs. Hack, the author of many
books for children. Inspired by precious friendships and
ardent study, William Roscoe had produced some poems
of merit before he had attained the age of twenty. In
1773, he aided in the formation of a society for the encou-
ragement of the arts of painting and design in Liverpool,
and he commemorated the event by an Ode, which was
his first-published piece. It was reprinted, with the
poem of "Mount Pleasant," in 1777, and favourably
noticed in some of the reviews. In the poem of " Mount
Pleasant" he celebrates the growing importance of his
native town ; but attempts, as he often did in after life,
to divert the attention of his townsmen to the liberal
pursuits of literature and science, " and to abate that
spirit of enterprise and thirst of gain, which, when too
much indulged, is seldom productive either of virtue or
happiness." "Mount Pleasant" likewise contains his
first protest against the slave trade.
At an early age Roscoe wrote a small volume on
" Christian Morality," from which it was evident that he
had devoted much time to the study of the sacred writings;
and it was to the operation of divine principles incul-
cated in the Bible upon his conduct and temper through.
out life, to which must he attributed all that was most
attractive and most exalted in his mind and character.
In 1774, having completed his clerkship, Roscoe was
admitted an attorney of the Court of King's Bench. In
the same year he entered into partnership with Mr.
Bannister, but this connexion lasted only a short time.
A second engagement of the same kind (with Mr.
Aspinall) was more lasting. In 1777 he began a corre-
spondence with Miss Jane Griffies, the daughter of a
Liverpool tradesman, and a young lady tasteful and accom-
plished. Though both parties resided in the same town, a
correspondence by letter was maintained for many years,
and at length, on the 22nd of February, 1781, the lovers
were united at St. Ann's Church, and never, certainly,
in the course of a long life, had either party cause to
regret the connexion. In 1784, Mr. Roscoe, in con-
junction with Mr. Daulby and others, resuscitated the
" Society for Promoting Painting and Design," which
had become defunct shortly after its formation. During
the first year he was vice-president, and afterwards one
of the committee. He ventured even to introduce into
the exhibition one or two of his own drawings, and the
ticket of admission was etched by his hand. In
1785 he delivered several lectures on the fine arts,
and during the same year he was visited by Fuseli,
proportion of the sexes will give interest and variety to a friendship having sprung up between them in
the scene. The rooms will be laid out in such a manner
London.,, About "
and also contributed
this time, too, Roscoe produced a poem
as to afford a "feast of reason" to those who delight in on The Origin of Engraving,
valuable matter to Joseph Strutt's " Biographical Dic-
it. and a programme will be issued, showing each guest tionary of Engravers." In 1784 he was elected an hone-
the arrangements for the evening. Dr. Dickinson and raryor member of the Literary and Philosophical Society
chester. In 1787 he published the first part of the
Mr. T. C. Archer will prepare an elegant case of exotic " Wrongs of Africa," a poem, the preface to which was
botany, and be at hand to explain it; Dr. Hume and Mr. written by Dr. Currie. In the following year the second
Mayer will exhibit and explain antiquities, especially part appeared, and twenty years afterwards the entire
those connected with the neighbourhood ; Mr. New. Poem was pub-
" translated into German. In 1787 Roscoe A
General View of the African Slave Trade, de.
lands will provi.e a variety of interesting models ; monstrating its injustice and impolicv ; wills Hints to-
and Mr. Jos. B. Yates will exhibit some interesting MSS. wards a Bill for its Abolition." In 1788 he sent to the
In press " A Scriptural Refutation of a Pamphlet lately pub-
and illuminated works from his own library.
lished by the Rev. Raymond Harris. entitled ' Scriptural
the large ball-room there will be a select performance of Researches on the Licitness of the Slave Trade, in Four
music ; and the ladies are unanimously of opinion that Letters from the Author to a Friend." In 1792 he issued
there should also be quadrilles. It is understood, too, another pamphlet, entitled "An Inquiry into the Causes
of the Insurrection of the Negroes, in the Island of St.
that the entrance to the Town-hall will be decorated by Domingo," &c. In 1788 he took part in the Centenary
plants forwarded by the Gardens' Committe of the of the Revolution, for which he composed a " secular
Council, so that some of the attractions of summer will song ;" in the following year he published "An Ode to
be given even to this inclement season, the People of France," which was greatly admired by
Fox •, and at a meetin he on the 14th of July, 1793, to
The great feature of the day will be the public breakfast
celebrate the taking ofg theld Bastile, he produced his song
at the Philharmonic, at which the crack men may be ex- "Unfold, Father Time." Indeed, he took a great
pected to deliver themselves. It is just possible, as 1000 interest in the progress of the French Revolution, in which,
tickets have been issued by the Library and Museum Com- fora
otime, hlen imaginedl that
p u the
Strictures
uorfecontinentalmittee,—not a fifth part of which number can find accom- Burke's Two Letters, addressed to a Member of the Pre-
modation in the building itself,—that an adjournment i sent Parliament," having some years previously issued a
will be moved in the course of the afternoon to the Town- ballad, containing " The Life, Death, and Wonderful
hall, the ball-room of which would afford more space to I Achievements of Edmund Burke," w hich was accompaniedby a frontispiece executed by himself. In the midst of
hear the speakers. Messrs. Harris will place in the Royal the strong political excitement consequent on the state of
Institution, the identical press from which Mr.:M'Creery affairs on the Continent, Roscoe, in public and private,
printed Roscoe's lives of Leo and Lorenzo. At the meet- I advocated what was called the cause of Reform ; and,being opposed to the war, he, in 1793, published a pam-
ing of the Historic Society, on Thursday, Mr. Mayer will phlet entitled " Thoughts on the Causes of the Present
read a paper on " Roscoe and his connexion with art," a Failures," which was mentioned by the Marquis of Lans-
portion of his biography of which little or nothing is downe, with commendation, in the House of Peers.
known.
I In 1790, Roscoe removed from the town to reside at
- - - -