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Langbaine
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Langbaine

Establishments, or the granting Money for the Support of Religion from the Public Treasury in the Australian Colonies,' 1856.

  1. 'Queensland, Australia, a highly eligible Field for Emigration, and the future Cotton Field of Great Britain,' 1861, 1865.
  2. 'The Coming Event! or Freedom and Independence for the Seven United Provinces of Australia,' 1870.
  3. 'Historical Account of the Separation of Victoria from New South Wales,' 1870.
  4. 'Origin and Migration of the Polynesian Nation,' 2nd edit. 1877.

[A Brief Sketch of my Parliamentary Life, by J. D. Lang, 1870; Barton's Poets of New South Wales, 1866, pp. 33-7; Trübner's American Record, 1879, pp. 14, 15; Lang's New South Wales, 1875, 2 vols.; Times, 2 Nov. 1878, p. 11; Beaton's Australian Dictionary of Dates. 1879, pp. 111-13.]

G. C. B.

LANGBAINE, GERARD, the elder (1609–1658), provost of Queen's College, Oxford, son of William Langbaine, was born at Barton, Westmoreland, and was educated at the free school at Blencow, Cumberland. He entered Queen's College, Oxford, as 'bateller' 17 April 1625, and was elected 'in munus servientis ad mensam' 17 June 1626. He did not matriculate in the university till 21 Nov. 1628, when he was nineteen years old. He was chosen 'taberdar' of his college 10 June 1630; graduated B.A. 24 July 1630, M.A. 1633, D.D. 1646, and was elected fellow of his college in 1633. He was vicar of Crosthwaite in the diocese of Carlisle, 15 Jan. 1643 (Wood, Colleges and Halls, ed. Gutch, p. 149 n.), but seems to have resided in Oxford. In 1644 he was elected keeper of the archives of the university, and on 11 March 1645-6 was chosen provost of Queen's College. Owing to the city of Oxford being invested at the time by the parliamentary forces, the ordinary form of confirmation to the provostship by the archbishop of York was abandoned, and Langbaine's election was confirmed with special permission of the king by the bishop of Oxford, and Drs. Steward, Fell, and Duche (6 April 1646).

From his youth Langbaine showed scholarly tastes. In 1635 he contributed to the volume of Latin verses commemorating the death of Sir Rowland Cotton of Bellaport, Shropshire. In 1636 he edited, with a Latin translation and Latin notes, Longinus's Greek 'Treatise on the Sublime.' The work, which is admirable in all respects, and has a title page engraved by William Marshall, is called Διονυσίου Λογγίνου Ῥήτορος περὶ ὕψους λόγου βιβλίον: Dionysii Longini Rhetoris Praestantissimi Liber de Grandi Loquentia sive Sublimi dicendi genere, Latine redditus ὑποθίσεσι συνοπτικαίς et ad oram Notationibus aliquot illustratus edendum curavit et notarum insuper auctarium adjunxit G. L. cum indice. Oxonii excud. G. T. Academise Typographus impensis Guil. Webb. Biblio.,' 1636 (cf. Hearne, Coll., ed. Doble, Oxford Hist. Soc., ii. 207). Another edition, described in the title-page as 'postrema,' appeared in 1638. In 1638 Langbaine published 'A Review of the Councell of Trent … first writ in French by a learned Roman Catholique [W. Ranchin]. Now translated by G. L.,' Oxford, fol. this was dedicated to Dr. Christopher Potter, at the time provost of Queen's. Langbaine's love of learning gained him the acquaintance of the chief scholars of his time. Ben Jonson gave him a copy of Vossius's 'Greek Historians,' which he annotated and ultimately presented to Ralph Bathurst, president of Trinity College. With Selden he corresponded on learned topics in terms of close intimacy, and several of his letters dated towards the close of his life have been printed by Hearne (cf. Lelend, Collectanea, ed. Hearne, v. 282-93). When Ussher died in 1656 he left his collections for his 'Chronologia Sacra' to Langbaine, as 'the only man on whose learning, as well as friendship, he could rely to cast them into such a form as might render them fit for the press' (Pake, Ussher, p. 13). Langbaine left the work to be completed by his friend Thomas Barlow [q. v.], bishop of Lincoln, who succeeded him as provost.

On the approach of the civil wars Langbaine avowed himself a zealous royalist and supporter of episcopacy. He is credited with the authorship of 'Episcopal Inheritance … or a Reply to the Examination of the Answers to nine reasons of the House of Commons against the Votes of Bishops in Parliament,' Oxford, 1641, 4to, and of 'A Review of the Covenant, wherein the originall grounds, means, matters, and ends of it are examined … and disproved' [Bristol], 1644, 4to. The latter is a searching examination of the covenanters' arguments. With a view to strengthening the position of his friends, he also reprinted in 1641 Sir John Cheke's 'True Subject to the Rebell, or the Hurt of Sedition, how grievous it is to a Commonwealth … whereunto is newly added a Briefe Discourse of those times (i.e. of Edward VI) as they relate to the present, with the Author's Life,' Oxford, 1641, 4to. Moreover, he helped Sanderson and Zouch to draw up 'Reasons of the Present Judgment of the University concerning the Solemn League and Covenant' (1647), and translated the work into Latin (1648).

But Langbaine also took practical steps to enforce his views. In 1642 he acted as a