ceived. If they succeeded, he desired to render unto God the glory, who had given strength in weakness. If they failed, he yet hoped that no great harm was done, and that he might be forgiven and forgotten. SOME ACCOUNT OF THE LIFE OF DR. THOMAS NEWTON, LATE LORD BISHOP OF BRISTOL; WITH ANECDOTES OF SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. -Hoc est Vivere bis, vitâ posse priore frui. MARTIAL. THOMAS NEWTON was born at Lichfield on the 21st of December 1703 O. S., or on the 1st of January 1704 N. S. He was named Thomas, being born on St. Thomas's day, before the stile was altered. His father John Newton was a considerable brandy and cider-merchant; and dealt largely in the counties of Stafford, Warwick, Leicester, Derby, Nottingham, and the western parts of Yorkshire. He was remarkable for punctuality and exactness in all his dealings; and having by his industry and integrity acquired what he thought a competent fortune, left off all trade and business business several years before he died. He had a good sound understanding, with some tincture of reading, was a conversable agreeable old man, lived and acted under a just sense of religion as well as of virtue, constantly attended the daily service of the Church, and died at the age of eighty-three, much regretted and lamented by all his friends and acquaintance. Such was his father; his mother, the daughter of Mr. Rhodes, a clergyman, died young of a consumption, when this her only child was about a year old, who from her inherited a tender constitution. He received the first part of his education in the Free School of Lichfield, which at that time florished greatly under the direction of Mr. Hunter, and at all times has sent forth several persons of note and eminence from Bishop Smalrige and Mr. Wollaston, author of the Religion of Nature delineated, down to Dr. Johnson and the English Roscius Mr. Garrick. It was observed one day in company, What an honor it was to Westminster School, that the three heads of the law, the Lord Chancellor Northington, the Lord Chief Justice Mansfield, and Sir Thomas Clarke Master of the Rolls, should all have been educated there! To which a reply was made, that it was still more extraordinary, that out of the twelve Judges at that time five of them should have come from Lichfield School, the Lord Chief Justice Willes, the Lord 2 Chief Chief Baron Parker, Mr. Justice Noel, Mr. Justice afterwards Lord Chief Justice Wilmot, and Sir Richard Lloyd, Baron of the Exchequer. When he was of an age to be sent out into the world, and not before, his father married a second wife, a daughter of the Rev. Mr. Trebeck of Worcester, and sister to Dr. Trebeck the first rector of St. George Hanover-square: and it was by the advice of Dr. Trebeck, and by the encouragement of Bishop Smalrige, that the son was removed from Lichfield to Westminster School; as Bishop Smalrige himself had been, and also Mr. Justice Wilmot. He was sent to Westminster after the Whitsun Holidays in 1717, when he was between thirteen and fourteen years old. He was placed at the lower end of the fourth form, and the year following became a King's Scholar, being admitted into the College by the nomination of Bishop Smalrige. Westminster School never was in higher estimation than at that time under the auspices of Dr. Freind and Dr. Nicoll, nor ever contained a greater number of scholars, there being really not fewer than five hundred, and several of quality. There was something august and awful too in the Westminster elections, to see three such great men presiding, Bishop Atterbury as Dean of Westminster, Bishop Smalrige as Dean of Christ Church, and Dr. Bentley as Master of Trinity College: and "as iron sharpeneth iron," so these three by their |