some good, against the clear evidence of all experience to the contrary.' Out of these remarks sprang the following pamphlets: 'Reply to Clerical Objections,' 1828; 'Letters to the College of Physicians,' 1829 (advising them to give up antiquated privileges and assume new duties); 'Letter to the Lord Chancellor,' 1834 (protesting against Brougham's defence of the established church and advocating 'a reform in the ministrations of a religion of which your lordship's life is a conspicuous ornament'); and a 'Letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury,' 1840 (on such grievances as non-residence of the clergy and the flight of the Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol to Malvern when the cholera was in Bristol in 1832). Describing his own subscription at Oxford, he says: 'Down went my name, and down went my fees; and the degree was forthcoming, signed, sealed, and delivered, with a bouquet ot flowers to boot.' His political creed was that 'as sure as a lobster turns red by boiling, a whig grows tory when long in power. . . .' In 1829 he reflects on 'the sub-acid dissenter of the old school railing at our church,' but in his letter to Brougham (1834) he argues for disestablishment. His most entertaining work, the 'Visit to Germany' (1833), is dedicated to the Duke of Sussex, whom he claims as in sympathy with his general views and as an enemy of 'obscurantism.'
[Gent. Mag. i. 1845; Munk's Coll. of Phys. iii.; Faulkner's writings quoted above.]
FAULKNER, BENJAMIN RAWLINSON (1787–1849), portrait-painter, born at Manchester, was at first engaged in the mercantile profession, and for several years represented a large firm in their establishment at Gibraltar. When that place and its garrison were visited by the plague, his health suffered so much that he was with difficulty brought home to England. This was about 1813, and during his convalescence he accidentally discovered a talent for drawing, which was encouraged by his brother, J. W. Faulkner, an artist of some merit. Under his direction Faulkner devoted himself to assiduous study of the first principles of the art, and spent upwards of two years in the study of the antique alone. He then came to London, and practised as a portrait-painter; but he was of so diffident a character and so retiring a disposition that his merits were not held in the same estimation in London as they were in his native town. He first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1821, sending two portraits, and he continued to exhibit regularly up to the year before his death. His contributions were usually portraits, but he occasionally painted studies of natural objects. He resided for many years at 23 Newman Street, and died at North End, Fulham, in his sixty-third year, on 29 Oct. 1849. His best portraits are in Manchester or the neighbourhood. Portraits by him of John Dalton, F.R.S., and John McCulloch, the geologist, are in the Royal Society, London. He also contributed to the British Institution, Suffolk Street Gallery, Royal Manchester Institution, Liverpool Academy, and other exhibitions. A portrait of Sir John Ross, the Arctic explorer, was lithographed by R. J. Lane, A. R. A., and his pictures have been engraved by C. Heath, H. Robinson, and others. Besides painting, Faulkner was an accomplished musician, and was for some time organist at Irving's church in Hatton Garden.
Joshua Wilson Faulkner (fl. 1809-1820), elder brother of the above, also practised as a portrait-painter at Manchester. He exhibited at the Royal Academy, and about 1817 settled in London. He exhibited for the last time in 1820. He painted in miniature.
[Redgrave's Dictionary of Artists; Ottley's Dictionary of Recent and Living Painters; Bryan's Dictionary of Painters and Engravers, ed. R. E. Graves; Graves's Dictionary of Artists, 1760-1880; Catalogues of the Royal Academy and other exhibitions.]
FAULKNER, GEORGE (1699?–1775), bookseller, the son of a respectable Dublin victualler, is said to have been born in 1699, though, according to his own statement in Nichols's 'Literary Anecdotes,' iii. 208-9, he was seventy-two years old in 1774, but the last date is possibly a misprint for 1771. The rudiments of education were imparted to him by Dr. Lloyd, then the most eminent schoolmaster in Ireland, and at an early age he was apprenticed to a printer named Thomas Hume of Essex Street, Dublin. In 1726, if not before, he was journeyman to William Bowyer [q. v.], the 'learned' printer, and he ever acknowledged the kindness with which he had been treated, in proof of which he left by his will ten guineas to Bowyer for a mourning wig. In conjunction with James Hoey he opened a bookselling and printing establishment at the corner of Christ Church Lane, in Skinner's Row, Dublin, where he commenced in 1728 to print the 'Dublin Journal.' At the dissolution of their partnership in 1730 he removed to another shop, taking the entire interest in the paper, and had the good fortune to be admitted to business relations with Dean Swift. In October 1733 he was reprimanded on his knees at the bar of the Irish House of Lords for having inserted in his paper about two years previously
