was encouraged by him to write an elegy on the death of his father; but what particularly marked the earl's liter- • ary taste, and in an efpecial manner his love for poetry, was a very splendid manufcript, tranfcribed for his ufe, containing a large collection of English poems, finely engroffed in vellum, and fuperbly illuminated. That he cultivated the arts of external elegance, is manifeft from the stately fepulchral monuments which were erected by him, in the collegiate church of Beverley in Yorkshire, to the memory of his father and mother. These monuments are executed in the richeft ftyle of the florid Gothic architecture, and exhibit ftriking proofs of his lordship's tafte and magnificence. In the next reign he founded a ftipend for a grammatical and philofophical profeffor at Alnwick. From the earl's houfehold-book it appears, that both he and his lady had diftinct libraries; and in the fame book it is appointed, that one of his chaplains fhould be a maker of interludes. We shall conclude the prefent article with the mention of a nobleman, who was of the Scottish nation. This was Henry, earl of Sinclair, the friend and patron of Gawin Douglas. It was at the carl's request that Douglas undertook his tranflation of Virgil's Eneid; and certainly that mind must have been cultivated far above the common spirit of the age, which could form the conception, and urge the execution, of fo noble a defign. * Great General Dictionary, Biographia Britannica, British Biography, Mofheim, Millar, Hume, Warton, Pinkerton, Walpole, Bentham, Ballard, &c. &c. BRITISH BRITISH AND FOREIGN HISTORY For the Year 1786. CHAPTER I. Second Seffion of the Irish Parliament. Meeting of Congrefs. Eleven Commercial Propofitions. Their Reception, Parliamentary Reform. Twenty Propofitions. Their Difcuffion. Rejected with Indignation. Parliament prorogued. THE HE parliament of Ireland met for its fecond feffion on the twentieth of January 1785. Two fubjects at this time occupied the attention, and excited the animadvertion of the people of that kingdom. The first of thefe was the proceedings by attachment against the fheriffs and others, who were concerned in the meetings that were held for the purpose of introducing a parliamentary reform. This meafure feems to have been generally regarded by those who were unconnected with the court, as violent, arbitrary and oppref five. The other topic that was now agitated, was a plan for the eftablishment of a more extentive intercourse of trade between Great Britain and Ireland. The idea was afcribed to the fuggeftions of Mr. Beresford, first commiffioner of the revenues, and still more of Mr. Fofter, the chancellor of the exchequer, who was efteemed to be The the perfon of the greatest ability in the fervice of government. more equal reprefentation of the people in parliament had now been long a matter of general difcuffion, and the idea had been caught with peculiar energy and enthusiasm by the inhabitants of that kingdom. To many of the fervants of the crown thefe notions appeared Eutopian, impracticable and vifionary, at the fame time that they were conceived to be pregnant with tumult and anarchy: and, if there were any by whom they were regarded in a light lefs obnoxious, fill, as the execution of them was not likely to be permitted, it was deemed more eligible to stifle them in the conception. On this ground the Irifh part of the adminiftration imagined they could not adopt a more laudable conduct, than to check this thirst after ideal benefits by the introduction of advantages the most foli, durable and fubitantial. A 2 The |