held the latter engagement, he very imprudently criticised, with great severity, the performance of a play which was not acted. The performers justly felt themselves aggrieved, and three or four actions were commenced, but were afterwards compromised. In 1806, having resigned both the French paper and the British Neptune, Mr. Heron embarked in a literary speculation of his own, the Fame newspaper, which failed, and involved him in some serious pecuniary difficulties—difficulties which, no doubt, hastened his early dissolution. In 1806, he addressed a letter to Mr. Wilberforce, on the Justice and Expediency of the Slave Trade.
Robert Heron, whose attainments were of no ordinary description, was born at New Galloway, in the south-west of Scotland, Nov. 6, 1764. His father, John Heron, was a weaver, generally respected for his persevering industry and exemplary piety. At a very early age he became remarkable for the love he showed to learning, which induced his parents to give him the benefit of a liberal education as far as their means would allow. From his own savings out of a very limited income, and a small assistance from his parents, he was enabled to enter the university of Edinburgh at the end of the year 1780. His hopes of preferment at that time being centered in the church, he first applied himself to the course of study which that profession requires. Being well grounded in a Knowledge of the French language, he found constant employment from booksellers in translating foreign works, and the money which he contined to receive was sufficient to maintain him in a respectable manner, if managed with prudence and discretion; but his unfortunate peculiarity of temper, and extravagant desire of supporting a style of living which nothing but a liberal and certain income would admit of, frequently reduced him to distress, and finally to the jail. While in confinement he engaged with Messrs. Morrison's of Perth, to write A History of Scotland, for which they were to pay him at the rate of three guineas a sheet, his creditors, at the same time, agreeing to release him for fifteen shillings in the pound, to be secured on two-thirds of the copyright. Before this arrangement was finally concluded, melancholy to relate, nearly the whole of the first volume of the History of Scotland was written in jail. It appeared in 1793, and one volume of the work was published every year successively, until the whole six were completed. In 1799, finding his views not likely to succeed any longer in Scotland, he was induced to go to London, and where, for the first few years of his residence, it appears he found good employment, and his application to study being very great, his profits and prospects were alike cheering, his income from his literary vocations being above £300 a-year. There was scarcely a publication then in London of any note but contained some of his fugitive writings. Unfortunately, his former bad habits returned, and while money continued to flow in, he indulged in the wildest extravagance—his pen was laid aside—and until warned of his fate by the appearance of his last shilling, he seemed altogether devoid of reflection. Then he would betake himself to his work, as an enthusiast in every thing, confining himself for weeks to his chamber, dressed only in his shirt and morning gown, and commonly with a green veil over his eyes, which were weak, and inflamed by such fits of ill-regulated study. His friends and associates deserted him—some were offended at his total want of steadiness, others worn out by constant importunities, and not a few disgusted at the vanity and envy he displayed on too many occasions; added to all this, his employers found they could place no dependence on his promises, as he would only resume his pen when urged to it by stern necessity. Deep in debt, and harrassed by his creditors, who were all exasperated at his want of faith, he was at last consigned to the jail of Newgate, where he dragged on a very miserable existence for many months, and from whence he wrote a pathetic appeal to the literary fund, which is preserved in D'Israeli's Calamities of Authors. His last publication was a small work called the Comforts of Life, of which the first edition was sold in one week, and the second had a rapid sale.
The life of this accomplished writer was now fast drawing to a close. With a mind bowed down by want and despair, and a body emaciated from increasing disease, he was incapable of further exertion; and being removed to the fever institution, Gray's Inn-lane, as his last and only hope, in one week after his entrance there he breathed his last, without a friend to console or comfort him. Thus perished Robert Heron in the prime of life, whose memoir affords a striking instance of the impossibility of shielding genius from poverty and disgrace when blinded by passion or perverted by eccentricity. His appearance was at most times impressive and dignified; his figure above the middle size, stately and erect, and his countenance had a benevolent expression, though pale and care-worn from study and confinement. It is difficult to estimate the true depth of his genius by his miscellaneous publications in prose; his style was of a mixed description,—sometimes pompous and declamatory, at other times chaste and elegant. But it must be considered he was seldom allowed the choice of a subject, being all his life under the dictates of a publisher. With all his faults Robert Heron had still many redeeming virtues, and, above all, a strong sense of the respect which is due to religion and morality; but he committed the fatal error of being more a lover than a practiser of virtue.
1807, May. A printing-office established at Montevideo,[1] in the province of Buenos Ayres, South America, with the following ceremonies, as related by Isaiah Thomas. "In May, 1807,
- ↑ Montevideo was taken by the English, Feb. 3, 1807. Buenos Ayres was taken by sir Home Popham, but was obliged to evacuate it; and a second attempt under general Whitelock, July 5, 1807, was most disgracefully conducted, and defeated. Sir Home Popham, the admiral, was reprimanded by a court-martial, and general Whitelock, the commander in chief, was cashiered.
