With respect to your style, if elegance consist in the choice and collocation of words, you have a most indubitable title to it; for you have on all occasions selected the most appropriate expressions, and have given to them the most beautiful arrangement; and this is almost the greatest praise which a composition can claim. "The publication of the second part of your History, which has been so long and so earnestly looked for, will be highly acceptable to those, whose opinions you respect; and I need not say that it will add to your reputation. Indeed it is not just, that the Coromandel coast only should receive the ornament of your pen, to the neglect of Bengal, which an Indian monarch pronounced the delight of the world." In 1772 he published a small volume of poems, chiefly consisting of translations from the Asiatic languages. On the 30th of April the same year, he was clected a Fellow of the Royal Society, and in 1773 took the degree of A.M. In 1774 he published his commentaries on Asiatic poetry, which he had begun in 1766, and finished 1769, when he was in his twenty-third year. This work was received with admiration and applause by the Oriental scholars of Europe in general, as well as by the learned of his own country. In January 1774 he was called to the bar, at which time he had remarked, that the law was a science, which would admit of no participation with the eastern muses, whom therefore he abstained from for some years with the most determined inflexibility. In November 1774 he writes to G. S. Michaelis, "Quod quæris, seriòne Musas Asiaticas et politiores literas literas deseruerim, nihil scito esse verius, nec per viginti annos quidquam de his rebus aut scribam aut meditabor. Totus in foro sum, et in juris nostri studio Σπαρταν, έλεχον tua tamen opera teque ipsum, vir optime atque humanissime, plurimi semper faciam." In 1776 he was appointed a Commissioner of Bankrupts. In 1778 he published a translation of the speeches of Isæus in causes concerning the law of succession to property at Athens, with a prefatory discourse, notes critical and historical, and a commentary. In this year he was soliciting a judgeship in India, as appears by the following extract from a letter to Lord Althorpe, dated Oct. 13, 1778. "The disappointment to which you allude, and concerning which you say so many friendly things to me, is not yet certain. My competitor is not yet nominated: many doubt whether he will be; I think he will not, unless the Chancellor should press it strongly. It is still the opinion and wish of the bar, that I should be the man. I believe the Minister hardly knows his own mind. I cannot legally be appointed till January, or next month at soonest, because I am not a barrister of five years standing till that time: now many believe that they keep the place open for me, till I am qualified. I certainly wish to have it, because I wish to have 20,000l. in my pocket, before I am eight and thirty years old; and then I might contribute in some degree towards the service of my country in Parliament, as well as at the bar, without selling my liberty to a patron, as too many of my profession are not ashamed of doing; and I might be a Speaker in the House of Commons in the full vigour and maturity of my age: whereas whereas in the slow career of Westminster Hall, Í should not perhaps, even with the best success, acquire the same independent station, till the age at which Cicero was killed. But be assured, my dear Lord, that if the Minister be offended at the style in which I have spoken, do speak, and will speak, of public affairs, and on that account should refuse to give me the judgeship, I shall not be at all mortified, having already a very decent competence without a debt, or a care of any kind." Lord Teignmouth says, that the year 1780 formed an interesting era in his life, in which his occupations were diversified, his prospects extended, and his hopes expanded. His views were now more particularly directed to the vacant seat on the bench at Fort William in Bengal. "In this state of suspense, the political events of the times, received a more than ordinary share of his attention: he did not however enroll himself with any party; but looking up to the constitution and liberty of his country, as the objects of his political adoration, he cultivated an extensive acquaintance with men of all parties, and of the first rank and talents, without any sacrifice of principle or opinion. No man had ever more right to apply to himself the character of Nullius addictus jurare in verba magistri.' With respect to the American war, he early adopted sentiments upon it unfavourable to the justice of the British cause, and this opinion once formed, would naturally acquire strength from the protraction of the contest, which he lamented with the feelings of a true patriot and friend to humanity.” In this year he aspired to represent the University of Oxford, but was unsuccessful. He H published about this time a small pamphlet entitled "An Enquiry into the legal method of sup pressing Kiots, and a Constitutional Plan of future Defence." In the autumn of this year he was at Paris, to which he had also made a short excursion in the preceding summer. On his return he says, in a letter to Lord Althorpe, "after a very tedious and uncomfortable passage, I arrived at Margate on Wednesday night, having been out of England a month exactly, half of which time I spent at Paris. In this interval I have seen not indeed so many men and so many cities, as the hero of the Odyssey, but a sufficient number of both to have enlarged very considerably the sphere of my knowledge. I have heard much and thought more, but the result of all I have heard and thought is, that the war, which I have invariably and deliberately condemned as no less unjust than impolitic, will continue very long to desolate the country of our brethren and exhaust our own." Soon after he lost his mother, an event which involved him in the deepest affliction. He devoted the winter of this year to complete his translation of seven ancient poems of the highest repute in Arabia; while the result of his professional studies was "An Essay on the Law of Bailments." In the summer of 1782 he again visited France with an intention of proceeding thence to America on a professional business: but this plan being soon given ap he returned to England through Normandy and Holland. "In his journey through life," says Lord Teignmouth, "Mr. Jones seldom overlooked the oppor tunities tunities of gathering the flowers which chance presented, or of displaying, for the entertainment of his friends, the store which he had collected. A variety of poetical compositions was produced by him during his circuits, to enliven the intervals of legal labour. Of these a few have been preserved, and amongst them the following elegant song, the offspring of genius and innocent gaiety. It was written by Mr. Jones, some years before the period of his life at which I am now arrived, when he was a very young man, during one of his first circuits, for the express purpose of being sung at a kind of fête champêtre, which the barristers held on the banks of the Wye. "Fair Tivy, how sweet are thy waves gently flowing, Love can alone make it blissful to live. How sweet is the odor of jasmine and roses, Love can alone make it blissful to live. The seat of W. Brigstocke, Esq. † The seat of Thas, Lloyd, Esq. How |