is marked by a fingular confequence in the chain of human events. In a dangerous illnefs Mr. Gibbon was attended, at his own requeft, by one of his kinsmen of the name of Acton, the younger brother of a younger brother, who had applied himself to the ftudy of phyfic. During the flow recovery of his patient, the phyfician himself was attacked by the malady of love: he married his mistress, renounced his country and religion, fettled at Befançon, and became the father of three fons; the eldest of whom, General Acton, is confpicuous in Europe as the principal Minister of the King of the Two Sicilies. By an uncle whom another ftroke of fortune had transplanted to Leghorn, he was educated in the naval service of the Emperor; and his valor and conduct in the command of the Tuscan frigates protected the retreat of the Spaniards from Algiers. On my father's return to England he was chofen, in the general election of 1734, to serve in parliament for the borough of Petersfield; a burgage tenure, of which my grandfather poffeffed a weighty share, till he alienated (I know not why) fuch important property. In the oppofition to Sir Robert Walpole and the Pelhams, prejudice and fociety connected his fon with the Tories, fhall I fay Jacobites? or, as they were pleased to style themselves, the country gentlemen? with them he gave many a vote; with them he drank many a bottle. Without acquiring the fame of an orator or a statesman, he eagerly joined in the great oppofition, which, after a seven years chafe, hunted down Sir Robert Walpole: and in the pursuit of an unpopular minifter, he gratified a.

private revenge against the oppreffor of his family in the South Sea perfecution.

I was born at Putney, in the county of Surry, the 27th of April, O. S. in the year one thousand seven hundred and thirty-feven; the first child of the marriage of Edward Gibbon efq. and of Judith Porten *. My lot might have been that of a flave, a favage, or a peasant; nor can I reflect without pleasure on the bounty of Nature, which caft my birth in a free and civilized country, in an age of fcience and philofophy, in a family of honorable rank, and decently endowed with the gifts of fortune. From my birth I have enjoyed the right of primogeniture; but I was fucceeded by five brothers and one fifter, all of whom were fnatched away in their infancy. My five brothers, whose names may be found in the parish regifter of Putney, I fhall not pretend to lament: but from my childhood to the present hour I have deeply and fincerely regretted my fifter, whofe life was fomewhat prolonged, and whom I remember to have seen an amiable infant. The relation of a brother and a fifter, especially if they do not marry, appears to me of a very fingular nature. It is a familiar and tender friendship with a female, much about our own age; an affection perhaps foftened by the fecret influence of fex, but pure from any mixture of fenfual defire, the fole species of Platonic love that can be indulged with truth, and without danger.

At the general election of 1741, Mr. Gibbon and Mr. Delmé stood an expensive and successful contest at Southampton, against Mr. Dummer and Mr. Henly, afterwards Lord Chancellor and Earl of North

ington. The Whig candidates had a majority of the refident voters; but the corporation was firm in the Tory intereft: a fudden creation of one hundred and feventy new freemen turned the fcale; and a fupply was readily obtained of refpectable volunteers, who flocked from all parts of England to fupport the cause of their political friends. The new parliament opened with the victory of an oppofition, which was fortified by strong clamor and strange coalitions. From the event of the first divifions, Sir Robert Walpole perceived that he could no longer lead at majority in the Houfe of Commons, and prudently refigned (after a dominion of one-and-twenty years) the guidance of the ftate (1742). But the fall of an unpopular minister was not fucceeded, according to general expectation, by a millennium of happiness and virtue: fome courtiers loft their places, fome patriots loft their characters, Lord Orford's offences vanished with his power, and after a fhort vibration, the Pelham government was fixed on the old basis of the Whig aristocracy. In the year 1745, the throne and the conftitution were attacked by a rebellion, which does not reflect much honor on the national fpirit: fince the English friends of the Pretender wanted courage to join his standard, and his enemies (the bulk of the people) allowed him to advance into the heart of the kingdom. Without daring, perhaps without defiring, to aid the rebels, my father invariably adhered to the Tory oppofition. In the most critical feafon he accepted, for the fervice of the party, the office of alderman in the city of London: but the duties were fo repugnant to his inclination and habits,

that he refigned his gown at the end of a few months. The second parliament in which he fat was prematu. rely diffolved (1747): and as he was unable or unwilling to maintain a fecond conteft for Southampton, the life of the fenator expired in that diffolution. The death of a new born child before that of its parents may seem an unnatural, but it is ftrictly a probable, event: fince of any given number the greater part are extinguished before their ninth year, before they poffefs the faculties of the mind or body. Without accufing the profufe waste or imperfect workmanship of Nature, 1 fhall only observe, that this unfavorable chance was multiplied against my infant existence. So feeble was my conftitution, fo precarious my life, that, in the baptifm of each of my brothers, my father's prudence fucceffively repeated my chriftian name of Edward, that, in cafe of the departure of the eldest son, this patronymick appellation might be ftill perpetuated in the family. Uno avulfo non deficit alter.

To preferve and to rear fo frail a being, the most tender affiduity was fcarcely fufficient; and my mother's attention was fomewhat diverted by her frequent pregnancies, by an exclufive paffion for her husband, and by the diffipation of the world, in which his tafte and authority obliged her to mingle. But the maternal office was fupplied by my aunt, Mrs. Catherine Forten; at whofe name I feel a tear of gratitude trickling down my cheek. A life of celibacy transferred her vacant affection to her fifter's first child: my weakness excited her pity; her attach

ment was fortified by labor and fuccefs: and if there be any, as I truft there are fome, who rejoice that I live, to that dear and excellent woman they must hold themselves indebted. Many anxious and folitary days did the confume in the patient trial of every mode of relief and amufement. Many wakeful nights did fhe fit by my bed-fide in trembling expectation that each hour would be my laft. Of the various and frequent diforders of my childhood my own recollection is dark; nor do I wish to expatiate on fo difgufting a topic. Suffice it to fay, that while every practitioner, from Sloane and Ward to the Chevalier Taylor, was fucceffively fummoned to torture or relieve me, the care of my mind was too frequently neglected for that of my health: compaffion always fuggefted an excufe for the indulgence of the mafter, or the idleness of the pupil; and the chain of my education was broken, as often as I was recalled from the school of learning to the bed of fickness.

As foon as the ufe of fpeech had prepared my infant reafon for the admiffion of knowledge, I was taught the arts of reading, writing, and arithmetic. So remote is the date, fo vague is the memory of their origin in myself, that, were not the error corrected. by analogy, I fhould be tempted to conceive them as innate. In my childhood I was praised for the readiness, with which I could multiply and divide, by memory alone, two fums of feveral figures: fuch praise encouraged my growing talent; and had I perfevered in this line of application, I might have acquired fome fame in mathematical studies.

After this previous inftitution at home, or at a day