or ever hope to hear in all my life." As a statesman there is much in his character to admire, and much to blame. He cannot be acquitted of subserviency to the court, which, Bishop Burnet says, "he thought he was bound to justify on all debates in the house of lords, which he did with the vehemence of a pleader rather than with the solemnity of a senator." In his disposition of church patronage he was most just and careful, seeking advice from Dr. Sharp, the archbishop of York, whom he charged upon his conscience as he would answer it to Almighty God, that upon every such occasion he should make the best inquiry, and give the best advice he could. As a lawyer, we have Professor Story's authority for saying, that from a thorough comprehension of the true principles of equity, he was enabled to extend the remedial justice of the court far beyond the aims of his predecessors, and built up a system which served as a model for succeeding judges; and hence he has been emphatically called the father of equity. In private life he was strictly moral, although living in an atmosphere of profligacy. He was interred at Ravenstone in Buckinghamshire, where a monument was erected to his memory, containing an account of his origin, offices, &c.—R. B—ke.
FINCH, Henry, a distinguished lawyer in the reign of James I., was connected with the family of the lord-keeper. He was educated at Oriel college, Oxford, and afterwards studied at Gray's Inn. After being called to the bar he held for some time the office of autumn and summer reader to that learned society; was made sergeant in 1614, and was knighted in 1616. He was the author of a legal treatise entitled "Nomotechnia, ou description del commun Leys d'Angleterre," &c., London, 1613, which he afterwards translated into English under the title "Of Law, or a Discourse thereof." He died in 1625.—J. T.
FINCH, William, a merchant of London, accompanied Hawkins in the embassy sent by the English East India Company to establish commercial relations with the Great Mogul in 1607. Finch was zealous in a most difficult mission, adventurous in exploring the country, and intelligent in noting, and faithful in recording what was noteworthy in it. The curious journals of his travels and voyages are preserved in Purchas' collection.—See Hawkins, William.—S. H. G.
FINDEN, William, line engraver, was born in 1787; died September 20, 1852. Whilst apprenticed to an engraver of card-plates and shop-hills, Mr. Finden acquired so much knowledge of the higher technics of engraving by the diligent study during his leisure hours of the works of James Heath, that, on the completion of his term of service, he found ready employment in engraving book-plates, a branch of engraving then liberally encouraged, and in which he soon became celebrated. These early book-plates, executed entirely with his own burin, and not like some later works, merely bearing his name, are engraved with remarkable grace and delicacy. His eminence in book-plates led to his receiving commissions for larger works, and his standing is shown by the fact that for engraving Lawrence's portrait of George IV. (known as the sofa portrait), he received the sum of two thousand guineas, the largest sum ever paid for a portrait-plate. His other principal single plates were—"The Village Festival," and the "Highlander's Return," both after Wilkie; and Landseer's "Naughty Boy." Unfortunately for his permanent fame, and as it eventually proved for his pecuniary success, his popularity with the publishers led him to employ numerous assistants on his plates; and the facility he thus acquired for producing engravings, induced him to undertake in conjunction with his younger brother, Edward Finden, also an engraver of great ability, the preparation and publication of several extensive series of engravings, some of a superior class, but others—like the "Gallery of the Graces" and various "Beauties"—of a very meretricious description. The first of these, "The Byron Gallery," 1835, &c., met with extraordinary success; but others which followed—and some of them, like the "Gallery of British Art," were of a very costly character—proved as remarkable failures. The large plate of Hilton's Crucifixion, which he engraved subsequently for the Art Union of London, shows but too evident traces of the circumstances under which it was executed. He died of disease of the heart, shortly after its completion.—J. T—e.
FINDLAY, Robert, a Scotch minister of some note, was born in 1721, and died in 1814. He studied medicine at Leyden and Edinburgh, but subsequently devoted himself to theology, and became a licientiate of the Church of Scotland. He was ordained minister of the parish of Stevenson in 1744, and after several changes, was at length inducted into the charge of the north-west parish of Glasgow in 1756. In 1782 he was appointed professor of theology in the university of the same city. He was the author of "Vindication of the Sacred Books and of Josephus against Voltaire;" and "The Divine Inspiration of the Jewish Scriptures asserted."—R. M., A.
FINE, Oronce. See Finæus.
FINGAL or, correctly, FIN MAC CUMHAL, a celebrated Irish chieftain. The only genuine accounts of Fin Mac Cumhal are to be found in the Irish chronicles. His father, Cumhal, was chief of the Fianna Eirinn or Irish militia, a very clumsy imitation of the Roman legion. Cumhal eloped with the daughter of an Irish druid, and fled to Scotland. He was afterwards killed in a battle at Cuncha in Kildare, by Gol Mac Morna. Fin was afterwards appointed chief of the Fianna Eirinn by Cormac, king of Ireland. Fin was dead in 184, according to O'Flaherty. In course of time Fin became a sort of mythical personage, like Arthur of the Britons. It is, however, certain that the historic Fin was a native of Leinster, and that his exploits were performed in Ireland. Indeed the name Fin-gal or Fin, the Stranger, by which he was known in Scotland, proves he was not a native of that country. Many poems respecting him, and some of them several centuries old, still remain in Ireland, and are the only authentic tales of any interest. The forgeries of MacPherson are of no value on any historical subject.—J. S.
FINIGUERRA, Tommaso, a Florentine gold and silver smith, distinguished as the inventor of printing from engraved plates, was, according to Baldinucci, a scholar of Masaccio, and was born at Florence about 1418. He is recorded also to have been one of the assistants of Lorenzo Ghiberti in preparing the beautiful gates of the baptistery of Florence, completed in 1452. Maso Finiguerra was distinguished as a silver niello engraver; that is, he engraved silver plates, with religious and other designs, and filled them in with a black composition—niello (nigellum)—in order to give them their due effect. He was in the habit of trying these engravings by taking sulphur casts from them, and proving them with a little niello upon damp paper. On one occasion, by an accident, he let the silver plate itself, with the niello in it, fall upon the damp paper, and thus discovered that impressions could be taken equally well from an engraved plate as from one in relief, and he became accordingly the inventor of a new art—metal plate-engraving. The original plate to which this eventful accident occurred, is still preserved in the grand-ducal collection at Florence; and one of the original impressions of the year 1452 is in the imperial library of Paris, where it was first discovered by Zani in 1797. This silver plate or niello is known as the "Pax" of Maso Finiguerra, and was originally engraved for the baptistery or church of San Giovanni in Florence. The subject is the "Coronation of the Virgin," and the niello measures 5 inches high, by 3 4/10 inches wide, with a semicircular top. It was originally published by Zani in his Materiali alla Storia dell Incisione, &c., Parma, 1802, and has been often copied since. It is of a high character of design for the period.—R. N. W.
FINK, Friedrich August, a Prussian officer, born in Mecklenburg-Strelitz in 1718, learned the art of war in the Muscovite service, and rose rapidly to the rank of lieutenant-general in that of Frederick the Great. After 1759 he was attached to the staff of Prince Henry in the defence of Saxony, and contributed to the success of the operations against the Austrians under Daun, till the defeat at Mafen threw him into the hands of the enemy. Having been subsequently sentenced to two years' imprisonment for his conduct on that occasion, he was permitted to take service under the Danish flag, and died at Copenhagen in 1766.—W. B.
FINK, G. W., a German teacher and divine, was born at Sulza in 1783, and died in 1846. He studied theology at Leipzig, and soon became known as a preacher, but subsequently devoted himself principally to teaching. He published a volume of sermons, and a course of lectures on the history of religion, and was also a contributor to the Encyclopædia of Ersch and Gruber, and to the Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung.—R. M., A.
* FINLAY, George, LL.D., whose works on the history of Greece have won for him a high position among the authors of the present day, is the son of a Glasgow merchant, the late Kirkman Finlay of Castle Toward in Argyleshire. Having settled at Athens, his mercantile pursuits there did not prevent his devoting himself to the task of elucidating the eventful
