what he undertook, was a little piqued, and turning round to the Duke, whom lie had never before seen, he said, "Yes, Sir; if I do not make a better seal ihan this, I will charge no payment for it." The Duke, highly pleased, left tho pattern with Mr Berry, and went away. The original contained, indeed, the various devices of the thirty-two compartments distinctly enough to be seen; but none of the colours were expressed. Mr Berry, in proper time, finished the seal; on which the figures were not only done with superior elegance, but the colours on every part so distinctly marked that a painter could delineate the whole, or a herald blazon it, with perfect accuracy. For this extraordinary and most ingenious labour, he charged no more than thirty-two guineas, though the pattern seal had cost -seventy-five. Thus it was, that, though possessed of talents unequalled in their kind, at least in Britain, and assiduity not to be surpassed, observing at the same time the strictest economy in his domestic arrangements Mr Berry died at last, in circumstances far from affluent, June 3d, 1783, in the fifty-third year of his age, leaving a numerous family of children. It had been the lot of this ingenious man, to toil unceasingly for a whole life, without obtaining any other reward than the common boon of mere subsistence, while his abilities, in another sphere, or in an age more qualified to appreciate and employ them, might have enabled him to attain at once to fame and fortune in a very few years. His art, it may be remarked, has made no particular progress in Scotland, in consequence of his example. The genius of Berry was solitary, both in respect of place and time, and has never been rivalled by any other of his countrymen. It must be recorded, to the honour of this unrequited genius, that his character in private life was as amiable and unassuming as his talents were great; and that his conduct on all occasions was ruled by the strictest principles of honour and integrity.
BINNING, HUGH, an extraordinary instance of precocious learning and genius, was the son of John Binning of Dalvennan, a landed gentleman of Ayrshire. He appears to have been born about the year 1627. In his earliest years he .outstripped all his seniors in the acquisition of Latin. At Glasgow college, which he entered in his fourteenth year, he distinguished himself very highly in philosophy. What was to others only gained by hard study, seemed to be intuitively known by Binning. After taking the degree of Master of Arts, he began to study for the church. When Mr James Dalrymple, afterwards Lord Stair, vacated the chair of philosophy at Glasgow, Binning, though not yet nineteen, stood a competitor with some men of graver years and very respectable acquirements, and gained the object of his ambition by the pure force of merit. Though unprepared for entering upon his duties, no deficiency was remarked. He was one of the first in Scotland to reform philosophy from the barbarous jargon of the schools. While fulfilling the duties of his chair in the most satisfactory manner, he continued his study of theology, and a vacancy occurring in the church of Govan, near Glasgow, he received a call to be its minister. Here he married Barbara Simpson, the daughter of a presbyterian clergyman in Ireland. As a preacher, Mr Binning's fame was very great: his knowledge was extensive, and there was a fervour in his eloquence which bore away the hearts of his congregation, as it were, to heaven. At the division of the church into Resolutioners and Protesters, he took the latter and more zealous side, but yet was too full of virtuous and benevolent feeling to be a violent partizan. In order to heal the difference as much as possible, he wrote a treatise on Christian love. When Oliver Cromwell came to Glasgow, he caused a dispute to be held between his own independent clergymen, and the Scottish presbyterian ministers. Binning having nonplussed his opponents, Cromwell asked the name of "that bold young man." On being told that he was called Mr Hugh Binning, the sectariangene-
