be02 THOMAS MARTYN, B.D. FR. & LSAS entert tot bus mit 5.1 toodi Regius WT 12. W cl...1% ofessor of Botany in the University of Cambridge Deblinks by Jewell, Cornhill 1795. THE EUROPEAN MAGAZINE, AND LONDON REVIEW; For DECEMBER 1796. REV. T. MARTYN, B. D. REGIUS PROFESSOR OF BOTANY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE, (WITH A PORTRAIT.) THE armorial honours and heraldic diftinctions of our Gothic ancestors convey a vague and imperfect idea of their atchievements to poterity, and when compared with the illuftrious perpetuations of eminence by the genius of Greece and Rome, appear, if poffible, still more rude and infignificant. A fhield or an enfign is barely noticed by the fide of a ftatus, or a buft; three ftags heads, or, on an azure field, are just intelligible, and no more; but who can view unanimated and uninitructed the portraiture of the heroic Defender of Gibraltar? For thefe reafons among others we prefent to our readers every month the refemblance of fome eminent perfon; and as the tastes are various which it is our duty to confult, fo every art, occupation, and profeflion, fupplies us with fuitable materials. Sometimes we exhibit departed, and fometimes exifting excellence, ftimulating both those who alpire to eminence, and thofe who have attained it, to equal their predeceffors, and to furpals themfelves. Many of the gallant commanders, and ingenious fcholars and artists, whom we have prefented in our monthly labours to the public, ftill con tinue to augment their country's glory and their own; the repetition of meritorious actions will excite a renovation of curiofity; and portraits which now perhaps are unheeded, and forgotten, may be hereafter contemplated with unexpected delight. The REV. THOMAS MARTYN is the eldeft fon of Dr. J. Martyn, a late eminent Phylician at Cheifea, and Profellor of Betiny in the University of Cam bridge. He was born between the years 1730 and 1740, and educated under the Rev. Mr. Rothery, at Chelfea; after which he was admitted pentioner, or in the fecond rank of under-graduates of Emanuel College in the University of Cambridge, under the tuition of the celebrated Mr. Henry Hubbard, and was nearly contemporary with Dr. Farmer, its prefent very worthy and learned malter. Mr. Martyn removed from Emanuel to Sidney College foon after his Bachelor of Arts degree The public buildings at Sidney had been fo confiderably dilapidated, and the finances were in fuch a state of impoverishment, that Dr. Parris, the mafter, was compelled to recur to the fequeftration of feveral fellowships, for the purpose of completing the neceffary repairs. When the evil was removed, a new Society was to be established; and as young men properly qualified for fellowships were not to be found in fufficient numbers denizens of the foil, aliens of the molt diftinguithed merit were diligently fought for in other Colleges. Mr. Martyn was accordingly invited from Emanuel, to be elected fellow of the Society at Sidney. About the fame time, and for the fame purpofe, Dr. Ellifton, the prefent master, migrated from St. John's, and Dr. Hey from Catherine Hall. On the death of his father, Mr. M. was chofen by the University Profeffor of Botany, and, on the election of Dr. Ellifton to the Mastership, one of the tutors of Sidney College. In both employments be exerted his talents with diligence diligence and fuccefs. It had been cuf tomary before his time to read the public lectures in Latin, not much to the edification of the pupils. Young men can hardly be supposed to be to familiar with a dead language, as to underland it thoroughly when crally delivered; and adequate terms are not to be found in the literature of ancient Rome, for the refine ments and diícoveries of modern fcience. An incomprehensible jargon, of no time or country, mua neceffarily fupply their place. Mr. Martyn was among the first to fix public lectures on the basis of utility and good fenfe, delivering them in his native tongue. In the fubject of Botany he had one great local advantage over his father, which the cheerfulness and affability of his temper prompted him to employ, that he could go out into the fields and woods at the proper feafons, with his botanical pupils, to fearch for the fubjects of their ftudies in their native habitations. Indeed, without the affiduous ufe of this practice, Botany neceflarily dwindles into a nugatory and unprofitable phrafeology. As tutor of a College, though he came from a Society at that time under the difcipline of Harry Hubbard, reputed to be very rigorous and exact, his difpofition rather induced him to adopt, in his academical government, the more liberal methods of gentleness and perfuation. From one fault, not uncommon in Univerfities, he was whelly exempt; that he never exaced extravagant returns of gratitude for the emoluments he was inftrumental in conferring on the young men under his tuition. Such exactions are in truth inconfiftent with the fpirit of freedom and incependence, that should prevail every where, and especially in the favourite refidence of the Mufes. Either the young afpirants to academical eminence are, or are not, deferving of the rank they receive, To appoint the unworthy would be a grofs abuse of truft; an injury to fociety, rarely, we believe, committed in an English University. To favour the meritorious, on the other hand, is a fimple exercife of duty; for which a faithful difcharge of the truft committed to them is the fitteft, indeed the only proper acknowledgement. Subjection cught not to be expected, when the reafons for it no longer exift; for it will at Erft be borne with impatience, and fpeedily will be rejected with disdain. The confufion and calamity that have overwile med a mighty nation may be pre apprehended with fome reafon in our learned eftablishments, and from the fame origin; for when the date is out of fervility and defpotifm, anarchy and impotence will be their ready fucceflors. In the year 1764 Mr. Martyn held the important office of Proctor of the Univerity, in which he was guided by the fame wife and enlarged principles which influenced him in his other academical employments. He was engaged foon after in a very voluminous and elaborate werk, a tranflation of the Account of the Antiquities of Herculaneum, which had been published in a very elegant form under the auspices of the King of the Two Sicilies. This labour was undertaken in conjunction with the Rev. Mr. Lettice, fellow of the fame College: and we have already related the circumstances that at firft delayed, and finally obstructed the completion of the defign, in what we have faid of that Gen leman in a former Magazine. We shall not repeat what we have there narrated. One particular only we fhall mention with respect to the plan of this work, that it was wonderfully adapted to the liberality of character of both the tranflators, as it enabled them to take under their patronage, and employ, many ingenious artifts, for the purpole of copying the very beautiful engravings, with which the original was copioully fored Where fuch a variety of talents was engaged, fome inequality must of courie appear in the performance; but the execution of this part of the undertaking reflected upon the whole confiderable credit on the skill and genius of our countrymen. About 1772 Mr. Martyn was prefented to the rectory of Luggerthall in Buckinghamshire, which he held for fome years, together with the living of Little Marlow in the fame county. He refided during a part of this period at Triplow, a tmail village in the neighbourhood of Cambridge; where he was at hand for the cccational duties of his Profefforship, and to obtain for four or five young men of fortune under his care thote ornamental accomplishments, which can be no where fatisfactorily procured excepting in an Univerfity or a Metropolis. Among his pupils at this time was Sir John Borlafe Warren, who is now dif tinguishing himself in the fea-fervice so ufefully and fo honourably to his country. This gentleman, who foon afterwards reprefented the borough of Great Marlow in Parliament, was alfo Mr. Marryn's patron patron in the preferment which he held in that neighbourhood. With another of his pupils, Mr. Hartopp, of Leicestershire, Mr. Martyn travelled foon afterwards through France, Switzerland, and Italy.. An account of his journey is in the poffeffion of the public, and, for the accuracy of its information concerning inns and roads, the different fpecies of coin in the different territories, and the objects moit worthy in each of a tranger's curicity and examination, is in great and merited requeft. After his return from abroad Mr. Martyn refides for two or three years at his living of Little Marlow, but has lived of late in the Metropolis. He was induced, from motives of public utility, to offer his fervices as Secretary to the Society for the Improvement of Naval Architecture, while that establishment was yet in its infancy. When it was fo far ftrengthened and confolidated by time, and the patronage which in a nation like Great Britain it to powerfully claims, as to be enabled to recompenfe its officers with falaries, Mr. Martyn, whole intentions were purely patriotic, relinquished the employment. As it is impoflible for an active mind to remain long unoccupied, and as the principal bufinefs of a Profeflor of Botany in Cambridge is confined to the vernal feafon of the year, Mr. Martyn was easily prevailed upon by the Bookfellers to undertake an enlarged Edition of Miller's Gardener's Dictionary; a laborious work which it required great courage to engage in, and indefatigable industry and perfeverance to complete. Previously to this event, Mr. M. had extended his dominions at Cambridge to the two cther fifter kingdoms of Animals and Minerals; which being likely to produce in the ftudents of the University a more general inclination for phyfiological knowledge, excited the Profeffor more powerfully by its utility, than it deterred him by its difficulty. A very confiderable acceffion of pupils in the very firft year of the extention of his fyftem juftified and rewarded his diligence. Lately he has been appointed Regius Profeffor of Botany, with a liberal endowment; till then he bad been contented to enjoy, without a portion, his academical dignity. By this example of munificence, the cen fure catt on Mr. Pitt by a modern fatiriit, that he is no patron of literary attainments, is at leait in one infance contradicted. Bendes the works already mentioned, Mr. Martyn is the author of fome others, to which he has not annexed his name. Among thefe is The English Connoiffeur, in two imall duodecimo volumes; containing an accurate and defcriptive catalogue of every thing curious, either in painting cr fculpture, to be found in England; the names of their respective owners being arranged alphabetically. As this work was published in 1766, and as the Houghton Collection of Pictures, which makes a large and important part of the firft volume, is now removed to a diftant country, the utility of this catague is confiderably leffened; but to whatever proprietors any of these productions of the fifter Arts may in fo long an interval of time have been transferred, the account here given of it will for the most part still appear correct and charac terittic. Mr. M. published with his name a tranflation of Roufleau's Letters on Botany, adding to them feveral letters of his own. This work has been very fa vourably received by the public; and claims, together with Dr. Wation's Chemical Effays, the rare commendation of rendering a difficult and icientific pursuit popular and entertaining. With the fame object in view Mr. M. prepared for the preis in 1793 his Language of Botany, or Dictionary of the Terms made ufe of in that Science; a work indiipenfably neceffary for the unlearned student of nature; finçe far the greater part of the compound words uted in the Linnean fyllem are derived from Greek or Latin fources. Mr. M. was admitted to the degree of B. A. in 1756, while he remained at Emanuel College; he became M. A. at Sidney in 1759, and Bachelor in Divinity in the fame Society in 1766. PLAUTUS A ULU L. -fur trifurcifer. THE commentators, by giving the cuftomary fenfe to trifurcifer plus quam, vel maximus fur], have loft fight of the poet's pleasantry. To fecure that, they ought to have recollected the origin of the term [turcam ferre], and the chaJager of the fpeakers. Thefe hired rooks came with their implements of trade to dre's the wedding-dinner. Their knives and forks they brought with them. Cultrum habes-cocum decet, Do&t thou, fays Congrio, reproach me, thou man of three letters, fur? may fur trifurcifer? Thou thief, that bear fi a fork, with three fangs? E. HAVING read in your left month's elegant repository of inftructive information, a detailed account of my decealed friend Lieutenant Craigie's heroic conduct on beard his Majesty's thip Artois, when he fell in action; I cannot help remarking, that I was in hopes it would have brought forward obfervations to promote the plan I had lain before his brother officers (in the "Portical Tribute to bis Memory" inferted in your Maga. zine of Auguft laft), respecting the erection of a decent and plain monument to record his gallantry: the fubtcription to which can be no object, and I trust it may yet be countenanced by the Maring Divition he belonged to; for I am perfuaded no one was more beloved by his brethren in arms while living, or regretted when dead! I fhould not have troubled you again on this fubject, had not the recent and much-lamented death of CAPTAIN STRANGEWAYS, of the Marines, that brave and gallant officer SIR, (of whofe magnanimity Captain Trollope, in his letter to the Admiralty, has borne fuch honourable teftimony), demanded it from me; and I hope it may have the defired effect. Should this noble example be once begun, we may fee it univerially followed by the Navy and Army; and, instead of the emblazoned hatchments of pompous pa geantry to numerously exhibited in churches, we may behold the amor patrie of British fortitude displaying the bright examples of heroic deeds, to animate and invigorate youths to glory, to live in their minds, and dwell upon their hearts: this will be a lafting monument well deferving the laureis that adorn it;-the “ monumentum ære perennius” of Bri To the EDITOR of the EUROPEAN MAGAZINE. AM induced to lay before you a genuine Copy of the following Letter, written by the unfortunate Arnold to his Mother, the night before his execution, Ifhall not prefine to offer any comment on it, but leave the Public at liberty to draw their own conclusions upon a fubje&t which has already fo greatly excited their attention.-The following circumstances I fall, however, take the liberty of noticing, as I believe they are not to generally known as they deterve to be. On the Sunday previous to his execution, the deceafed was at the Chapel, and at the conclufion of the fervice made a noit flemin ipeech, in which he firmly afferted his innocence; and indeed there was fomething to fervid and impreffive in his man ner, that feveral perfons prefent then felt fully convinced of his innocence; his continuing to the lant moment of his exiflence to make this allertion, and the tellimony of Dunn, who at the time of receiving sentence confeiled that he was about to fuller a just punishment himself, but that his companion dinola tras innocent, are in my mind, when taken into ferious confideration, fulcient prefumptions to plead the truth of a declaration, written at a moment when the mind must have been influenced by the most folemn impreffions, and when the practices of artifice, or the commiffion of fuch awful perjury, could avail him nothing. ARNOLD'S LETTER, A LITERAL COPY. Dec. 4th, $795, Cells of Newgate, Night before my Execution. * Honcured Mother, HIS comes with my kind, but inelimable love towards you, my filter, and brother; and am lorry to think you fhould bear a fon to fuffer fuch an ignominious death. But, alas! I eid not take your advice to keep away from that had company which you fo often toid me would do me no good; I now fee my felly and impropriety of bea haviour.. "I now declare hefore the face of Almighty God, that I fuffer for that I never did nor aced in any part; in regard to what |