or revenge; and had he never found an enemy till he had done an injury, he would, we may venture to pronounce, have left the world without having known one.' HAWKINS (SIR JOHN), an able naval commander, was born at Plymouth about 1520. Being the son of a seaman, captain William Hawkins, he imbibed a love for the profession, and when a youth made several voyages to Spain, Portugal, and the Canaries. In the spring of 1562 he formed the design of his first famous voyage, the consequence of which was very important to his country, as he then began that traffic in slaves, which after two centuries and a half we have seen abolished. At that time; however, this trade was accounted honourable and useful, and sir John bore the badge of his exploits in a crest of arms granted him by patent, consisting of a "demi-moor in his proper colour, bound with a cord," not unlike a device which we have seen employed to excite an abhorrence of the slave-trade when its abolition was first agitated. In returning from a third expedition of this kind he was attacked and defeated by a Spanish fleet. After undergoing many hardships, he reached home in Jan. 1568; and it is said that his ill-success in this instance damped his ardour for maritime enterprise. In 1573 he was appointed treasurer of the navy, and in a few months he had nearly lost his life by a wound from an enthusiastic assassin, who mistook him for another person. He was now consulted on every important occasion, and in 1588, was appointed rear-admiral on-board the Victory, to confront the famous armada. His conduct on this occasion obtained for him the high commendations of his illustrious queen, the honour of knighthood, and other important commands in the navy. He died in 1595, it is said of vexation, on account of an unsuccessful attempt on the enemies possessions in the West Indies, and in the Canaries. He was a good mathematician, and understood every thing that related to his profession as a seaman. He possessed much personal courage, and had a presence of mind that set him above fear, and which enabled him frequently to deliver himself and others out of the reach of the most imminent dangers; he had great sagacity, and formed his plans so judiciously, and executed the orders committed

1 British Essayists.-Preface to the Adventurer.-Gent. Mag. see Index.-D'Israeli's Calamities.Hawkins's Life of Dr. Johnson.—Boswell's ditto, &c.

to him with so much punctuality and accuracy, that he ever obtained the applause of his superiors. He was submissive to those above him, and courteous to his inferiors, extremely affable to his seamen, and much beloved by them. He sat twice in parliament as burgess for Plymouth, and once for some other borough. He erected an hospital at Chatham for the relief of disabled and diseased seamen, and is highly applauded by his contemporaries and by historians, who lived after him. His son, sir RICHARD Hawkins, was brought up to a maritime life, and in 1582, when very young, he had the command of a vessel in an expedition under his uncle to the West Indies; he also commanded a ship in the action against the Spanish armada, in which he was greatly distinguished. About 1593, he sailed with three ships, his own property, to the coast of Brazil, at the commencement of a much longer voyage; but he was obliged to burn one of his little squadron, another deserted their commander, so that he was under the necessity of sailing alone through the straits of Magellan. To satisfy the desires of his men, he made prizes of some vessels, which drew upon him the whole force of a Spanish squadron, to which he was compelled to yield. After a confinement of two years in Peru and the adjacent provinces, he was sent back to Europe. He died in 1622, as he was attending, on business, the privycouncil. He left behind him a work of considerable value, which was printed and ready for publication; it is entitled "The Observations of sir Richard Hawkins, knight, into the South-sea, A. D. 1593." From this piece, which the author dedicated to prince Charles, afterwards king Charles I., it appears that the issue of his voyage to the South-seas, his long confinement, and the disasters which naturally attended it, brought him into great distress. His nautical observations, his description of the passage through the straits of Magellan, and his remarks on the sea-scurvy, and on the best methods of preserving his men in health, were considered at that period of very great importance. He intended to have published a second part of his observations, in which he meant to have given an account of what happened to him and his companions during their stay in Peru, and in Terra Firma, but which death prevented him from accomplishing.'

Biog. Brit. Prince's Worthies of Devon.

HAWKINS (sir JOHN), a recent English writer, was the son of a man, who, though descended from the preceding sir John Hawkins, followed at first the occupa tion of a house-carpenter, which he afterwards exchanged for the profession of a surveyor and builder. He had married Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Gwatkin of Townhope, co. Hereford, gentleman; and the issue of this marriage were several children. Of these the present object of this article was the youngest, and was born in the city of London, on the 30th day of March, 1719. After having been sent first to one school, and afterwards to a second, where he acquired a tolerable knowledge of Latin, he was placed under the tuition of Mr. Hoppus, the author of a well-known and useful architectural compendium, published in 1733, 8vo, and entitled "Proportional Architecture, or the Five Orders regulated by equal Parts." Under this person he went through a regular course of architecture and perspective, in order to fit him for his father's profession of a surveyor, for which he was at first intended; but his first cousin, Mr. Thomas Gwatkin, being clerk to Mr. John Scott of Devonshire-street, Bishopsgate, an attorney and solicitor in full practice, persuaded him to alter his resolution, and embrace that of the law, which he did, and was accordingly articled as a clerk to Mr. Scott. In this situation his time was too fully employed in the actual dispatch of business, to permit him without some extraordinary means to acquire the neces sary knowledge of his profession by reading and study; besides that, his master is said to have been more anxious to render him a good copying-clerk, by scrupulous attention to his hand-writing, than to qualify him by instruction to conduct business. To remedy this inconvenience, therefore, he abridged himself of his rest, and rising at four in the morning, found opportunity of reading all the necessary and most eminent law-writers, and the works of our most celebrated authors. By these means, before the expiration of his clerkship, he had already rendered himself a very able lawyer, and had possessed himself of a taste for literature in general, but particularly for poetry and the polite arts; and the better to facilitate his improvement, he from time to time furnished to "The Universal Spectator," "The Westminster Journal," "The Gentleman's Magazine," and other periodical publications of the time, essays and

disquisitions on several subjects*. The first of these is believed to have been an "Essay on Swearing;" but the exact time of its appearance, and the paper in which it was inserted, are both equally unknown. It was, however, re-published some years since (without his knowledge till he saw it in print) in one of the newspapers. His next production was an "Essay on Honesty," inserted in the Gentleman's Magazine for March, 1739; and which occasioned a controversy, continued through the magazines for several succeeding months, between him and a Mr. Calamy, a descendant of the celebrated Dr. Edmund Calamy, then a fellow-clerk with him.

Without friends or family connections, or at least without such as could advance him in the profession to which he had betaken himself, he was now (his clerkship being expired, and he himself admitted an attorney and solicitor) to seek for the means of procuring business by making for himself reputable and proper connections.

About 1741, a club having been instituted by Mr. Immyns, an attorney, a musical man, (but better known as the amanuensis of Dr. Pepusch), and some other musical persons, under the name of "The Madrigal Society," to meet every Wednesday evening, he became a member of it, and continued so many years. Pursuing his inclination for music still farther, he became also a member of "The Academy of Ancient Music," which used to meet every Thursday evening at the Crown and Anchor in the Strand, but afterwards removed to Freemasons'-hall; and of this he continued a member till a few years before its removal. Impelled by his own taste for poetry, and excited to it by his friend Foster Webb's example, who had contributed

to

"The Gentleman's Magazine" many very elegant poetical compositions, he had, before this time, himself become an occasional contributor in the same kind, as well to that as to some other publications. The earliest of his productions of this species, now known, is supposed to be a copy of verses "To Mr. John Stanley, occasioned by looking over some compositions of his, lately published,' which bears date 19th February, 1740, and was inserted in "The Daily Advertiser" for February 21, 1741; but, about 1742, he proposed to Mr. Stanley the project of

* In some of his visits on these and similar occasions to Cave, the editor of "The Gentleman's Magazine," he

first became acquainted with Dr. Joh nson, soon after the connection betwe en Cave and Johnson commenced.

publishing, in conjunction with him, six cantatas for a voice and instruments, the words to be furnished by himself, and the music by Mr. Stanley. The proposal was accepted, the publication was to be at their joint expence, and for their mutual benefit; and accordingly, in 1742, six cantatas were thus published, the five first written by Mr. Hawkins, the sixth and last by Foster Webb; and, these having succeeded beyond the most sanguine expectations, a second set of six more, written wholly by himself, were in like manner published a few months after, and succeeded equally well.

As these compositions, by being frequently performed at Vauxhall, Ranelagh, and other public places, and at many private concerts, had become favourite entertainments, and established the author's reputation as a poet, many persons, finding him also a modest well-informed young man of unexceptionable morals, were become desirous of his acquaintance. Among these was Mr. Hare of Limehouse, a brewer, who being himself a musical man, and having met him at Mr. Stanley's at musical parties, gave him an invitation to his house; and, to forward him in his profession, introduced him to a friend of his, Peter Storer of Highgate, esq. This introduction became, from his own good conduct, the means of making Mr. Hawkins's fortune, though in a way which neither he nor Mr. Hare at that time could foresee, and different from that in which it was first intended.

In the winter of this year 1749, Dr. (then Mr.) Johnson was induced to institute a club to meet every Tuesday evening at the King's Head, in Ivy-lane, near St. Paul's. It consisted only of nine persons, and Mr. Hawkins was invited to become one of the first members; and about this time, as it is supposed, finding his father's house, where he had hitherto resided, too small for the dispatch of his business, now very much increasing, he, in conjunction with Dr. Munckley, a physician, with whom he had contracted an intimacy, took a house in Clement's-lane, Lombard-street. The ground-floor was occupied by him as an office, and the first floor by the doctor as his apartment. Here he continued till the beginning of 1753, when, on occasion of his marriage with Sidney, the youngest of Mr. Storer's daughters, who brought him a considerable fortune, which was afterwards greatly increased, he took a house in Austin Friars, near Broad