conducted war; which I am ready to prove whenever this question is brought forward. "What have we gained by our boasted conquests? If a proper regulation for commerce was made, I wish they were all sold, and the money arising laid out to pay the national debt, and to relieve the nation of those oppressive taxes which bear hard on rich and poor, on their income, their industry, and, what is worse, their liberty; and till some of those are repealed, this nation cannot be called free." On the 10th of the same month, when a motion was made for an inquiry into the conduct of the ministry, Lord Fife expressed himself in a manner still stronger than before: "My Lords, having declared my intention of supporting the present motion of inquiry, I hope that will plead my excuse for troubling your Lordships with a very few words. The noble mover of it has supported it with so much abilities, that he has left me room to say very little. I have seen too much of inquiries, in this and the other house of Parliament, to augur a great deal from this; but much will be gained, if we can prevent in future the waste of the public treasure on fruitless expeditions, extravagant embassies, and subsidies to foreign princes. Was there ever a time in which economy, at home and abroad, was more required? Can any one say this has been the case? "If peace can be obtained on honourable terms, it must be the object of every man's wish; but if that cannot be, I pray God, that every honest and honourable man may come forward and gain the confidence of their country, by laying aside all party differences, and endeavouring to extricate us from the state we are now in. "My Lords, I have no information but what I hear from the newspapers, and if the changes talked of are real, I am confident it will add no credit to the ministers that retire. No man ever loved his Majesty more, or had a greater respect for his ministers than I had; but evil advice has got round the Throne, and changes of the most alarming nature have of consequence taken place: place: if it is a trick, nothing could have been so wickedly advised; and if it is real, nothing more ludicrous; and if it was not at the present momentous period, should deservedly be laughed at. It really looks to me like a farce I have often seen on the stage where so many judges are placed on chairs, and immediately they are twisted round, and replaced by old women, who sing a song Why may not old women do as well as old men?' "I did, my Lords, on Monday last, intend to say a few words, expressing my congratulations on the addition of the House by the Lords from Ireland; but I was so overcome with the heat, I was obliged to retire. I do not, my Lords, presume to offer any advice to my noble brethren the Peers of Ireland; but, from a very long experience, 1 may be forgiven for just offering them a hint, that their Lordships would be on their guard, lest some enterprising lawyer should come from Ireland, and, without having an acre of land in any part of the three United Kingdoms, might get into Parliament, cut those cords that bind the noble Lords and great landed men together, and when he has thus weakened them by disunion, raised animosities and divisions amongst them, then come to Downing Street, and bargain for all their consequence and patronage, and leave them so stript as not to have it in their power to recommend the respectable character of a judge upon the bench, nor even a low officer of excise. "My Lords, I beg I may not be supposed to mean any thing national or particular to Ireland, for nothing of that kind has yet taken place; but examples may be found from the northern part of this country, without searching ancient history." We have hitherto only considered the Earl of Fife in a public point of view. In private life he is hospitable, keeps a good table, and possesses a house, where he usually resides during the sitting of parliament, most admirably situated on the banks of the Thames, of which it has been said that not only the stones, but even the very materials of the terrace, were imported from Scotland, although doubtless not from a partiality on the part of the noble owner, as many of the English wish jocularly to insinuate, to tread even while in South Britain upon Scotch ground. His lordship's principal residence. in North Britain is Bamff House, as has been stated before, but he has many hunting seats in the Highlands, at which he is accustomed to spend some time during the summer. The numerous advantages resulting from rising early in a morning have often been enumerated, and this nobleman exhibits a living example both in respect to health and fortune, for he is up before daybreak in winter, and both at that season and in summer transacts all his business before breakfast, thus leaving a whole unincumbered day to whatever pursuits or avocations he may be pleased to dedicate it. Although of a social disposition, he is moderate in his pleasures, and very temperate in the article of wine. To this however he seems to attribute no great merit, and even no great advantage, as he has been often heard jocularly to remark, "that he has some doubts whether excess or abstinence contribute most to old age, having two distant relations of his own, one of whom has never gone to bed sober, nor the other drunk, for the last half century." Lord Fife was some time since created an English peer, by the title of Baron Fife, in the county of Fife, with remainder to his brothers *, two of whom have children. * With two of these brothers the author of this sketch has not the honour to be acquainted; but of the other two he knows, that the Hon. George Duff, who resides at Elgin, solaçes his lei sure children. Some years since his lordship married Lady Dorothea Sinclair, daughter of the Earl of Caithness, by whom he had no issue. DR. JOHN MOORE. THE situation of a Man of Letters is in general far from being enviable; at least the multitude, who judge of happiness by fine clothes, elegant houses, and gaudy equipages, are not accustomed to look up to him with the respect he merits. Indeed, so far as wealth is concerned, and the immediate advantages resulting from it, they are perfectly right; for the pursuit of literature generally renders a man unfit for all profitable pursuits, and a taste for study entirely destroys a taste for business. This mode of reasoning applies only in part to the subject of these memoirs, for he has not been reduced by his merits to either want or penury; on the contrary, he maintains, and always has maintained, a respectable rank in life, and mixed with the best company of this and the other capitals of Europe. On the other hand, he has not attained wealth by means of an honourable and profitable profession, which has enriched its votaries, but, on the contrary, been outstript in the sure hours with the innocent and rational pleasures of horticulture, while he dedicates a large portion of his time to the administration of justice as a magistrate; and he learns from a friend, that the Hon. Lewis Duff is an amiable man, and an accomplished scholar. career career of riches (if ever he could be said to have engaged in it!) by men of far inferior talents and abilities. It may not be presumptuous, however, to surmise, that he has enjoyed more rational pleasure, more heart-felt delight, more mental solace, than the sons of toil, of care, and of labour, and that the production of a single literary bantling has conferred more real pleasure, although less profit, on him, than a hard spring or a sickly autumn on any of his brother practitioners in the metropolis. Dr. Moore is a native of Scotland, a country which attained eminence in literature long before it acquired any dexterity in the manual arts, and aspired to the adornments previously to its attainment of the conveniencies of life. The place of his nativity was Stirling, the ancient residence of the Scottish Kings, and admirably situated in a rich and fertile country (if an Englishman will allow any part of Scotland to be rich and fertile!) abounding with romantic scenery, and a charming view of the adjacent frith of Forth. His father, the Rev. Charles Moore, was a clergyman of the established church, and greatly esteemed for the purity of his manners and the amiableness of his disposition. He was one of the ministers of Stirling, where his only surviving son was born in 1730, and he contrived in that country, and at that time of day, to live in a respectable manner on the usual stipend of about 1001. or 1201.: for the Scotch, aware of the expence attendant upon prelacy, were pleased, a little more than a century ago, not only to |