was advanced to the station of a Reader, and soon acquired a degree of accuracy and precision that 'rendered him a valuable acquisition.

His emoluments increased with his proficiency, and he at 'length determined to marry. The partner chosen by him on this occasion happened to be a widow, (Mrs. Chapman,) whose maiden name was Sarah Couchman, a native of Kent. As she did not possess much wealth, he was perhaps captivated, among other accomplishments, by a good voice, which enabled her to sing songs in praise of masonry, of his own composition, with considerable spirit and effect; and he himself constantly listened to them with an uncommon degree of eagerness and animation. In the course of a few years, however, death deprived him of

a his wife.

The subject of this narrative continued with his usual assiduity to superintend the press, while two other objects occasionally occupied bis mind and diverted his leisure hours. The first of these was poetry; for at an early age he had courted the Muses, and wrote many a sonnet on the charms both of real and ideal beauties. There is reason, however, to suppose, that as he advanced in years, the ardour of his imagination gradually cooled; or rather, that the pursuit in question was forced to yield to another, which became his master-passion. This was a love for Free-masonry; and never, since the commencement of Cupid's reign, did a youthful lover court his mistress with more fervent deyotion than he did this occult and mysterious science. To attain an excellence and preeminence in it, he sacrificed his time, his money, and his health ; and he was not a little flattered by one of his works on this favourite subject, “ Illustrations of Masonry,” passing through more editions than any of the most popular novels of the present age.

Whether he had been originally initiated at Edinburgh is now difficult to pronounce; but certain it is, that soon after his arrival in England he was admitted a member of this society, which, so far as it is grounded on universal charity and benevolence, will always be entitled to admiration and respect. .

a

After the usual gradations of service and of honours, Mr. Preston arrived at the dignity of Master of the Lodge of Antiquity, and was invested in due form with all the paraphernalia appertaining to that exalted station. But unhappily this branch of the fraternity, for a variety of reasons, was deemed heretical by the body at large. It had been guilty, it seems, of certain informalities, and was accordingly declared to be disfranchised, and out of the pale of genuine free-masonry. At length, however, a reconciliation took place, and Mr. Preston lived long enough to behold the Lodge of Antiquity considered not only as the first in rank, but the first in excellence, and distinguished above all others by a Prince of the blood presiding over its mysteries. At his death he testified his respect for this institution by founding a lectureship, in conformity to the system practised during his “mastership."

His ardour for the masonic art did not however interfere with duties of another kind. The subject of this memoir had now attained considerable eminence as a corrector of the press, and his talents and industry in this branch had merited and obtained the confidence of Mr. Strahan. Having arrived at such a degree of skill as to be entrusted with the manuscripts of the most distinguished men of the age, he was employed to usher in their works to the public. Accordingly the labours of a Hume, a Gibbon, a Johnson, and a Blair, were successively submitted to his inspection and remarks. This necessarily begot an intercourse, and, in due time, an intimacy, with these celebrated men. The presentation copies transmitted by them, and which always occupied a distinguished place in his library, at once infer their esteem, and his merits.

Mr. Preston was now advanced to be superintendent of the great establishment in Printers-street; and whoever has beheld the numerous assemblage of readers, compositors, and pressmen, and contemplated the immense quantity of literature printed there, must acknowlege that this was

a situation which required considerable ability, while it was accompanied with no small degree of trust, confidence, and responsibility. How far he proved worthy, may be readily inferred from the conduct of Mr. Strahan, who, with his accustomed liberality, left him an annuity for life.

After this event, Mr. Preston continued to superintend the printing-office during many years, until the present Mr. Strahan, if we are not greatly mistaken, kindly admitted him as a partner in a branch of his extensive business. Such a circumstance as this was of course highly flattering; and it tended not a little to cheer the declining years of the subject of the present biographical notice. Theremainder of his days, so long as health remained, was spent partly in an assiduous attention to the duties of the printing-house, where he had been engaged for about fiftyfive years, and partly in the study and diffusion of the blessings of free-masonry, of which science he had been the zealous panegyrist for more than half a century. It was he who instituted the “ Freemason's Calendar;" and it is not a little remarkable, that in the midst of avocations which would have involved men less accustomed to order in embarrassment and confusion, he found time to act as editor of “ the London Chronicle,” to which he contributed largely by his criticisms on the works that came under his review.

At length age and infirmities began to undermine his constitution, and after a protracted illness of nearly five years, he

, expired at his house in Dean-street, Fetter-lane, in the immediate vicinity of the scene of his former labours, in the 76th year of his age. At his own particular request, his body was interred under St. Paul's Cathedral, near to that of his former friend and benefactor, the late William Strahan, Esq.

He left a good library behind him, and considerable property, which by his will he has judiciously bequeathed among his friends and dependants. His love for free-masonry, is testified by a bequest of 13001. consols, 5001, of which is to be bestowed on that excellent institution the Female Charity School.

380

No. XXII.

Right Hon. WILLIAM ELLIOTT.

This

his gentleman was of Scottish origin, being descended from the. Elliotts of Minto, who have been lately ennobled, and at whose seat he died in the autumn of 1818. Mr. Elliott, after a good education in England, was so fortunate as to acquire the notice of the late Mr. Burke, and having either been originally imbued with, or become a convert to his political principles, that gentleman patronised him with the same zeal and effect that he had cherished the late Dr. Lawrence.

When the Duke of Bedford was sent as Viceroy to Ireland, Mr. Elliott accompanied him thither as Secretary, and became a member of the Privy Council, as well as representative for Portarlington, in the first Imperial Parliament. On this occasion he displayed considerable talents, united with much suavity of manners; but being exceedingly thin and meagre in his person while officially employed in Dublin, he obtained the sobriquet of “ the Castle Spectre.”

By the friendship of Mr. Burke, Mr. Elliott was also introduced to Earl Fitzwilliam, and in the Parliaments of 1802, 1806, and 1807, &c. was nominated one of the representatives for the city of Peterborough. In 1818, he was again returned, and being a man of correct habits, seemed calculated, by nature, to have survived most of his contemporaries.

The following eulogium was written by one of his friends :

“ Mr. Elliott, though connected with Scotland by descen and property, was born and educated in England.

“ Intimate in early youth with the son of Mr. Burke, he was soon distinguished by the friendship of that great man and by that of his celebrated scholar Mr. Windham. With

him the bright society of their friends and followers is nearly extinct. By his death his country has lost one of her most accomplished gentlemen, and Parliament is bereaved of an ornament which can hardly be replaced.

“ Few men have united so much dignity in public with such amiable qualities in private life as Mr. Elliott, and there is no man whose loss will be felt with more sincere and unmingled regret. His eloquence was peculiarly his own.

He spoke seldom in Parliament; but with a mild gravity, with evident marks of conscious deliberation, and with an urbanity and equity towards his opponents, which gave an authority to his speeches unattained by the greatest orators of his time.

“ His utterance, his figure, and his countenance, were suited to his eloquence. He had a great power of condensation, a talent peculiar to those minds only who have gained a complete mastery over the subject of discourse. His most ingenious reasonings were conveyed in transparent language. His diction was pure English, correct beyond the level of public speaking, always elegant, and on fit occasions it naturally rose towards majesty. In a word, he wanted no quality necessary to instruct, to conciliate, and to persuade. Others have spoken with more force, but no man ever spoke with more permanent possession of the honest partiality of an audience. It is true that a part of this gentle ascendant over the House of Commons flowed from the character of the man as much as from the powers of the orator. His spotless life, his unbending integrity, and his lofty sense of honour, were too generally known, and too perceptible through his modest deportment, not to bespeak attention and favour for whatever fell from him.

“ These moral qualities were still more important in the relations of private life. His society, his good sense, and various knowledge, were adorned by a most pure taste, and by an unusual degree of unaffected elegance in familiar conversation. As he was modest and delicate, he had somewhat of the neighbouring quality of reserve; and though his polished manners pleased those who were strangers to him, the charms of his society were felt only by his intimate friends. In the midst of