ties in the presence of others. His mind and temper were kept in continual irritation; and he was driven to the resources of visiting, and to the excite12 ment of that table talk which unfortunately superseded efforts of more lasting character. Porson used to say-" Parr would have been a great man but for three things, his trade, his wife, and his politics!" By this his first wife, who died at Teignmouth, April 16, 1810, (and was buried at Hatton,) Dr Parr had several children, who died in their infancy; and two daughters who grew up. Of these, the younger, Catharine, died unmarried; the elder, Sarah, was united, in 1797, to John, the eldest son of Colonel Wynne, of Plasnwydd, near Denbigh, and died at Hatton, in 1810, having given birth to three daughters, two of whom, Caroline and Augusta, are now living, the former being the wife of the Rev. John Lynes, rector of Elmley Lovett, Worcestershire; one of the Doctor's exe

cutors.

The period of Dr Parr's continuance at-Stanmore, was five years. "The boys who accompanied him," to use the words of one of his pupils, were in general the flower of Harrow school, in the zenith of its glory, when a Sumner presided in its academic bowers. Many were young men of considerable talents and matured intellect, and detested alike a Persian, a Grecian, or an English tyrant."

The advantages of the Stanmore establishment were not, however, equal to the Doctor's expectations. His expenses were excessive, his labours most oppressive, and he found the impossibility of supporting his situation against the influence and credit of a great public school, and the well-founded reputation of his competitor, Dr Heath. He therefore, in 1776, was induced to accept the mastership of Colchester school, and thither a considerable part of his Stanmore scholars followed him.

He was ordained priest in 1777, and held the cures of the parishes of Trinity and the Highe, Colchester. In 1778, he obtained the mastership of Norwich school, where Mr Beloe was for three years his under-master, and the Rev. T. Munro his scholar; and in 1779, he undertook the care of two curacies at Norwich; these he resigned in 1780, in which year he received his first ecclesiastical preferment, the rectory of Asterby, in Lincolnshire. In the summer of this year he commenced his career as an author, by the publication of "Two Sermons on Education."

In 1781, he was admitted to the degree of LL.D. at Cambridge, but without any particular marks of distinction.

In the summer of 1781, appeared "A Discourse on the late Fast, by Phileleutherus Norfolciencis," 4to. This sermon has been considered the best of Dr Parr's productions, and had a corresponding success. In the spring of 1783, Lady Trafford, whose son he had educated, presented him with the perpetual curacy of Hatton, then worth about L.80 per annum; and in April 1783, he removed to that seat of hospitality, where he spent the remainder of his days. After this preferment, he resigned Asterby. In the same year, he obtained from Bishop Lowth, the prebend of Wenlock Barns, in the Cathedral of St Paul. In 1785, he resumed his former subject, in " A Discourse on Education, and on the Plans pursued in Charity Schools," and about a thousand copies were sold in a very short time.

In 1787, Dr Parr assisted the Rev. Henry Homer in a new edition of the three books of Bellendenus, a learned Scotsman, Humanity Professor at Paris, in 1602, and Master of Requests to James I. These he respectively dedicated to Mr Burke, Lord North, and Mr Fox. He prefixed a Latin preface, with characters of those distinguished statesmen, the style of which is, per

haps, the most successful of all modern imitations of Cicero. How far the preface was appropriate may be doubted. Bellendenus had intended a large work, "De Tribus Luminibus Romanorum," the "Three Lights of Rome," Cicero, Seneca, and the elder Pliny; whence Dr Parr conceived the idea of delineating the characters of the then three most eminent senators of Great Britain. The taste and character of the composition, and the singular discrimination in the portraits, created an extraordinary sensa. tion in the literary and political world. A translation (by Mr Beloe) was published in octavo in 1788, but without the author's approbation. Dr Parr had thenceforth fully committed himself on the side of the popular party. This naturally terminated all hope of church preferment from the Court; and such was the low state of Dr Parr's pecuniary resources, that a subscription was made by the leading Whigs of the day, about the same period as that for Mr Fox, and an annuity of L.300 was purchased for Dr Parr's life.

In 1789, appeared "Tracts by Warburton and a Warburtonian, not admitted into the Collection of their respective Works." Although it was thought that personal feelings towards Bishop Hurd gave origin to this volume, yet it was allowed on all hands, to contain some admirable critical remarks. It produced a reply, entitled, " A Letter to Dr Parr, occasioned by his Republication," &c.

In 1790, Dr Parr exchanged the curacy of Hatton (though he still continued to reside there as deputy-curate) for the rectory of Waddenhoe, in Northamptonshire. In the same year he became acquainted with Dr Priestley.

In 1790, also, Dr Parr was involved in the controversy on the real authorship of the Bampton Lectures preached by Dr White. This controversy produced a pamphlet by Dr White, entit

led "A Statement of Dr White's Literary Obligations to the late Rev. Mr Samuel Badcock, and the Rev. Samue Parr, LL.D.," Oxford, 1790.

In 1791 happened the riots in Birmingham, when the library and philo sophical apparatus of Dr Priestley were burnt; and the mob hearing that Dr Par had been visiting Dr Priestley, made known their determination to proceed to Hatton, and burn Dr Parr's house and library. For three days and nights Dr Parr and his family were agitated with consternation and dismay, but happily, before the mob could accom plish their purpose, the military put an end to their horrible proceedings. In that unexampled period of national ex citement, when political and religions prejudices raged together, Dr Parr acted a manly, a decided, and a most honourable part. It is well known, thai the pretext for these outrages was a meeting held by the dissenters on the 14th of July 1791, in celebration of the French Revolution. In consequence of a report that a party remained stubborn enough to meditate another commemoration upon the ensuing anniver sary of that event, the Doctor, in one day, began and finished his "Letter from Irenopolis to the Inhabitants of Eleutheropolis; or a serious Address to the Dissenters of Birmingham, by a Member of the Established Church." This extraordinary pamphlet produced an advertisement from the Dissenters, in which they disclaimed all intention of meeting again upon that occa sion. Though consisting of only forty pages, it is among the most eloquent of Dr Parr's publications. Like most of his productions, it was written on the spur of the occasion.

In 1791, Dr Parr having received two anonymous letters, probably undeserving of notice, publicly attributed them to the Rev. Charles Curtis, rector of Solihull, in Warwickshire. Mr Cur

tis, in justification of his own character, contradicted the charge in the St James's Chronicle, which produced from the Doctor an octavo pamphlet of two hundred and seventeen pages thickly strewed with notes, and a proportionate appendix, entitled, " A Sequel to the Printed Paper lately circulated in Warwickshire by the Rev. Charles Curtis, a Birmingham Rector," &c., 1792. So open to ridicule, however, was this huge Sequel, that it tempted Cumberland to enter the field with a humorous pamphlet, called "Curtius rescued from the Gulph, or the Retort Courteous to the Rev. Dr Parr, in answer to his learned Pamphlet, entitled ' A Sequel,' &c.".

In this composition, the author raked into the indexes of the Delphin and Mattaire's editions as cleverly as the Doctor had cited Stobæus. From the tle-page

"Ille mi PAR esse deus videtur, Ille, si fas est, superare divos"-Catullus, to the word FINIS, inclusive,

"Jam sumus ergo PARES!",

it was one string of puns.

In 1793, he was plunged into the depths of another and yet more important controversy. Dr Parr had been induced to afford valuable advice and assistance to Mr Homer and Dr Charles Combe, in editing a most splendid and comprehensive edition of Horace. Mr Homer's exertions are supposed to have hastened his end. On the demise of Mr Homer, the bulk of the undertaking devolved on Dr Combe, who was found incompetent to the discharge of so arduous a task; and Dr Parr's assistance towards the second volume, from circumstances which may on some future occasion be developed, was withdrawn, and he was induced to publish severe animadversions in the "British Critic," a periodical work then

some

lately established by Mr Beloe and others. In reply to this, Dr Combe published a pamphlet, entitled, "A Statement of Facts, relative to the behaviour of the Rev. Dr Parr to the late Mr Homer and Dr Combe, in order to point out the source, falsehood, and malignity of Dr Parr's attack, in the British Critic,' on the character of Dr Combe, 1794." In this statement, Dr Parr was accused of breach of promise, violation of friendship, and even want of veracity; he was styled by his antagonist the "literary Ajax" and to make that epithet good, he replied, in a closely-printed octavo pamphlet of ninety-four pages, called "Remarks on the Statement of Dr Charles Combe, by an occasional Writer in the British Critic,' 1795."

Mr Boswell, in his Life of Dr Johnson, having expressed his doubts respecting the correctness of Dr Parr's assertion, that the great lexicographer "not only endured, but almost solicited an interview with Dr Priestley," Dr Parr sent to "The Gentleman's Magazine," in March 1795, his reasons for that assertion, which were accompanied by some curious correspondence. To this "a general answer" was prepared by Mr Boswell, a short time before his death, but not published. In the same year, Mr Beloe published a translation of " Aulus Gellius," the very learned and judicious preface to which was written by Dr Parr.

On Easter Tuesday, in the year 1800, Dr Parr preached his justly-celebrated Spital Sermon, at Christchurch, Newgate-street, before Harvey Christian Combe, Esq. the Lord Mayor. This sermon was soon afterwards printed, with a number of curious notes; which induced the author of "Political Justice" to publish, in the same year, an octavo pamphlet, entitled "Thoughts occasioned by the perusal of Dr Parr's Spital Sermon, being a Reply to the

Attacks of Dr P., Mr Mackintosh, and others." A suspension of intercourse between Dr Parr and Mr Godwin was the consequence; but a few months previous to his death, Dr Parr sent Mr Godwin a message of peace, and invi

tation to Hatton.

In 1801, Dr Parr was offered, (by Alexander Baring, Esq.) but declined it, the vicarage of Winterbourne Stoke, in Wiltshire. In 1802 he was presented by Sir Francis Burdett to the rectory of Graffham, in Huntingdonshire. The following is the interesting correspondence which passed on the occasion:

"SIR,

"I am sorry that it is not in my power to place you in a situation which would become you-I mean in the Episcopal Palace at Buckden: but I can bring you very near to it; for I have the presentation to a rectory now vacant, within a mile and a half of it, which is very much at Dr Parr's service. It is the rectory of Graffham, at present worth L.200 a-year, and, as I am informed, may soon be worth L.270; and I this moment learn that the incumbent died last Tuesday.

"Dr Parr's talents and character might well entitle him to a better patronage than this from those who know how to estimate his merits; but I acknowledge that a great additional motive with me to the offer I now make him, is, that I believe I cannot do any thing more pleasing to his friends, Mr Fox, Mr Sheridan, and Mr Knight; and I desire you, sir, to consider your self obliged to them only.

"I have the honour to be, Sir,
"With the greatest respect,
"Your obedient servant,

"FRANCIS BUrdett."

Norfolk, I went to Cambridge, and from Cambridge I yesterday came to the parsonage of my most respectable friend, Mr Maltby, at Buckden, where I this morning had the honour of receiving your letter. Mrs Parr opened it last Friday at Hatton, and I trust that you will pardon the liberty she took in desiring your servant to convey it to me in Huntingdonshire, where she knew that I should be, as upon this day.

"Permit me, dear sir, to request that you would accept the warmest and most sincere thanks of my heart for this unsolicited, but most honourable, expres sion of your good will towards me. Nothing can be more important to my worldly interest than the service you have done me, in presenting me to the living of Graffham. Nothing can be more exquisitely gratifying to my very best feeling, than the language in which you have conveyed to me this mark of your friendship. Indeed, dear sir, you have enabled me to pass the years of declining life in comfortable and honourable independence. You have given me additional and unalterable conviction, that the firmness with which I have adhered to my principles has obtained for me the approbation of wise and good men. And when that approbation assumes, as it now does, the form of protection, I fairly confess to you, that the patronage of Sir Francis Burdett has & right to be ranked among the proudest, as well as the happiest, events of my life. I trust that my future conduct will justify you in the disinterested and generous gift which you have bestowed upon me: and sure I am that my friends, Mr Fox, Mr Sheridan, and Mr Knight, will not only share with me in my joy, but sympathize with me in those sentiments of respect and gratitude which I

"DEAR SIR,

dett.

"After rambling in various parts of

"Most assuredly I shall myself set

higher value upon your kindness, when I consider it as intended to gratify the friendly feelings of those excellent men, as well as to promote my own personal happiness.

"I shall wait your pleasure about the presentation; and I beg leave to add, that I shall stay at Buckden for one week only, and shall have reached Hatton about this day fortnight, where I shall obey your commands. One circumstance, I am sure, will give you great satisfaction, and therefore I shall beg leave to state it. The living of Graffham will be of infinite value to me, because it is tenable with a Rectory I now have in Northamptonshire; and happy I am, that my future residence will be fixed, and my existence closed upon that spot where Sir Francis Burdett has given me the power of spending my old age with comforts and conveniences quite equal to the extent of my fondest wishes, and far surpassing any expectations I have hitherto ventured to indulge.

"I have the honour to be, with the greatest respect and most unfeigned thankfulness, dear Sir,

"Your very obedient, faithful servant, «S. PARR.”

For this preferment, which relieved him as to pecuniary matters, Dr Parr always expressed a due sense of the kindness of the worthy baronet. Still, however, he continued attached to his residence at Hatton, where he had secured, and ever continued to maintain, the esteem of all his parishioners, had greatly embellished the church by painted windows, &c. and had given it a peal of bells. Nor would he have quitted Hatton for any preferment short of a mitre, which, in 1807, had nearly adorned his manly brows. "Had my friends," he once said to a gentleman to whom

he was warmly attached, and for whose character he always expressed the greatest admiration and respect," had my friends continued in power one fortnight longer, it would have been all settled! Dr Huntingford was to have been translated to Hereford, and I should have had Gloucester. My family arrangements were made; and Ihad determined that no clergyman in ' my diocese, who had occasion to call upon me, should depart without partaking of my dinner." After a momentary pause he observed, "In the House of Peers I should seldom have opened my mouth, unless-unless," he added with some warmth, “ any one bad presumed to attack the character of my friend Charles Fox-and then I would have knocked him down with the full torrent of my impetuosity. Charles Fox was a great man; and so is your friend William Pitt; and I can tell you, that if I had them both in this room, and only we three had been together, I would have locked the door

but first would have had plenty of wine on the table-and depend upon it we should not have disagreed !"

66

In 1803, Dr Parr published another 4to sermon, preached on the last Fast, Oct. 19, at the Parish-church of Hatton." A letter of the doctor's to the late Lord Warwick, on some electioneering disputes, was also printed, but was suppressed; though, as a specimen of the vituperative style, it is worthy, or, as some may think, unworthy of preservation.

Twenty years since, Dr Parr reprinted some metaphysical tracts :-" Arthur Collier's Clavis Universalis ;" "Conjecturæ quædam de Sensu, Motu, et Idearum Generatione;"" An Inquiry into the Origin of the Human Appetites and Affections, showing how each arises from Association ;" and