ness, Common Sense, Misanthropy, the Study of Man, Controversy, the Misconduct of Parents, Modern Authorship, the Present State of Wit in Great Britain, the Index of the Mind, and the Fate of Periodical Publications." In some of these he displays a genuine humour, not inferior to that of the most celebrated of our essayists. Had his life been spared, it has been generally believed that he would have become one of the best scholars and most able writers among the dissenters. His compositions for the pulpit were close, heartfelt, and correct; his delivery clear, distinct, and unassuming; yet, with all these abilities, he would scarcely have become a popular preacher, though his manner and doctrine might deservedly obtain the approbation and esteem of the more judicious among his hearers.
The following is an extract from the letter of an intimate friend of John Alexander's: "Indeed, his life was only a sketch, but it was a master-piece of its kind. The virtue, learning, and knowledge, which he crowded into it, would have done honour to the longest period of human existence. I think I knew him well; yet I am persuaded half his merit was unknown even to his most intimate friends. It was his talent to conceal his worth."
ARTHUR ANNESLEY,
Earl of Anglesey, and lord privy seal in the reign of Charles II. was the son of Sir Francis Annesley, Bart. Lord Mountnorris, and Viscount Valentia in Ireland; and was born in Dublin on the 10th of July, 1614. At the age of ten years he was sent to England, and at sixteen was entered a fellow commoner of Magdalen College, Oxford; where he pursued his studies with great diligence for about three or four years, and was considered a young man of great promise by all who knew him. From thence, in 1634, he removed to Lincolns Inn,
