apology to him. I acknowledge the letter to be of my handwriting, and that it is entirely void of truth and destitute of foundation; and he repeatedly said, I confess with shame that the whole is a direct falsehood, and I take shame to myself upon it."

'Dr. White requested of Dr. Gabriel that this letter might not be published, but Dr. Gabriel would give no promise. Dr. White then desired that Mr. S. Smith's name might be omitted, if he should publish the letter. Dr. Gabriel replied that he would make no promise whatever; that Mr. S. Smith was a friend of his; and Dr. Gabriel addressed himself particularly to Mr. S. Smith, when he said that Mr. S. Smith need entertain no fears from his conduct; - that it was not his intention to publish it, unless he should be pressed, and find it necessary. Mr. S. Smith then took leave, but not without expressing great satisfaction that he had embraced, by Dr. Gabriel's advice, so favourable an opportunity of vindicating himself from the indirect charge which Dr. White had brought against him, and of detecting the falsity of it; and Mr. S. Smith expressed his thanks to Dr. Gabriel for the friendly part Dr. G. had acted with respect to him in this extraordinary transaction!"

"The inference which every body must draw from these passages is, that you never did receive the sermon in question, and that I wantonly and wickedly made use of your name in order to procure it from Mr. Badcock for some other purpose. As you well know that I really sent you the sermon, I trust that I shall find in your candour a refuge from a misrepresentation at once so unexpected and so fatal. I trust that you will readily and explicitly acknowledge that you really asked and received the sermon from me; and that the apology I made to you, and which I shall ever be willing to repeat, related solely to the unjustifiable discovery of your name to Mr. Badcock, to the account I gave him of your application to me for the sermon, and of the sum which I said you had offered me.

"The fairness and moderation with which you heard my apology at Dr. Gabriel's confirm me in the hope that you will instantly, and by return of post, afford me an opportunity of vindicating my conduct so far as it admits of vindication; and that I shall not be compelled to produce other evidence, which, though equally convincing, it would much distress me to use. This you vill readily believe, when you recollect how anxiously I contended at Dr. Ga

briel's, and contended I thought successfully, for the observance of the most inviolable secrecy with respect to your name. That Dr. Gabriel and Dr. Falconer should thus have made use of it distresses me not less on your account than on my own.

"The urgency of the case must plead my excuse for requesting once more an immediate and explicit answer.

"I am, dear Sir, yours faithfully,

J. WHITE." "To the Rev. Professor WHITE, Wadham College, Oxford. Prior Park, Feb. 15th, 1790.

"Dear Sir, "I was as much astonished and disgusted too as you could be on reading the rhapsody, abounding with spleen, and ridiculously circumstantial, which seems by your letter, received late last night, to have given you so much concern. The author of it has treated you ill, by relating disingenuously the transaction you refer to, and me by making so Aippant a use of my name, not only without my consent, but against my earnest desire, as well as his own positive promise. When the doughty Doctor asked me, somewhat abruptly, in the Concert Room, whether I had ever paid Professor White 107. for writing a sermon for me, I expressed my surprise at the question, and in part denied the fact, acquainting him at the same time with the true state of the case, as well as I could recollect it, which I will now repeat for your satisfaction. You was with me at this place when I received a note from a friend at Bath urging me to preach a sermon on a public occasion then so near at hand that I expressed some doubt whether I should have time to be properly prepared for it. You immediately made me an offer of assistance, which I readily accepted, and would accept such an offer again and again under similar circumstances. The assistance came to me by post, and though it consisted of only a few trite pages, and proved of little use to me, yet it was more in quantity than I happened to want, and the promise of it afforded you sufficient ground for saying that you stood engaged to furnish me with a serIn regard to the 10%. your candid and unequivocal acknowledgment of that mysterious and very culpable falsehood was considered by me as a reasonable atonement for it; and I know not what right any one else had to concern himself about the matter. The interposition of a third person was malicious and pragmatical. You thought yourself indebted to me for some little services I had rendered you, which you have always spoke of with a sensibility that

mon.

did you honour; and you probably meant in this instance, the only one that ever occurred, to make me some compensation for it.

"When I had related the particulars of the case to Dr. G. in the Concert Room, he, with more rancour than discretion or humanity, urged the necessity of my meeting you at his house the next day, and requiring an apology for what you had written to your supposed friend on this subject. I at first objected to this proposal, and endeavoured to convince Dr. G. that as the affair in question was so trifling in itself, and had nothing to do with the charges he had brought against you, it was most prudent and most generous to let it drop. This remonstrance, however, and some others, appearing to have no weight with him, I con'sidered that if I should persist in declining to confront you, the matter would not rest there, but might be represented to my disadvantage, and that I might by an interview prevent its being a town-talk, and likewise soften Dr. G's unprovoked and wanton acrimony: all which I attempted when I received your apology, with what you call fairness and moderation. I now declare that the apology, and the manner in which it was offered, was handsome and liberal on your part; that it referred solely to your having made an unwarrantable discovery of my name to Mr. Badcockto the account you gave him of my application to you for the sermon- and of the sum which you said I had offered you.'

"And now, Sir, while you are battling it on one side, and your Adversary on the other, I am the only person perhaps who has been confessedly abused on both sides. On this footing (any other might be impertinent) I presume to advise that you will take no further notice of what has been said against you than to shew the world how little you deserve it, by publishing another volume of sermons with all convenient dispatch. Sed vereor ne improbè dicam — for Who shall decide when Doctors disagree?'

"I am, Sir, your friend and humble servant,
"M. S. SMITH.

"Though I cannot forbear to resent the having been dragged into public notice by means of a controversy which has so manifestly a mischievous tendency in every view of it, yet you are at liberty to make any use of this letter (written in haste to gratify your excessive impatience) which may serve to expose malevolence and justify your

conduct."

About the same year, 1790, in which these transactions occurred, the professor vacated his fellowship by marriage, and accepted of a college living, the rectory of Melton, in Suffolk, on which he resided during a considerable part of the year. In 1800, appeared his "Diatessaron, sive integra historia Domini nostri Jesu Christi, Græce," &c. 8vo. This was founded on the "Harmony" of archbishop Newcome, and is elegantly printed on a type cast originally under the direction of the professor. In 1801, he published his "Ægyptiaca; or Observations on certain Antiquities of Egypt. In two parts: 1. The History of Pompey's Pillar elucidated. 2. Abdollatif's Account of the Antiquities of Egypt, written in Arabic, A. D. 1206, Translated into English, and illustrated with Notes." 4to. This is perhaps, as to research and learning, the most profound of his works on the subject of antiquity.

Dr. White's next publication was an edition of the Greek. Testament, "Novum Testamentum, Græce. Lectiones variantes, Griesbachii judicio, iis quas Textus receptus exhibet, anteponendas vel æquiparandas, adjecit Josephus White," &c. 2 vols. cr. 8vo, 1808. This edition is particularly valuable for the ready and intelligible view it affords, first, of all the texts which in Griesbach's opinion ought either certainly or probably to be removed from the received text; secondly, of those various readings which the same editor judged either preferable or equal to those of the received text; thirdly, of those additions which, ou the authority of manuscripts Griesbach considers as fit to be admitted into the text. From this Dr. White observes that it may be seen at once by every one how very little, after all the labours of learned men, and the collation of so many manuscripts, is liable to just objection in the received text. As a kind of sequel, and printed in the same form, he published in 1811, "Crisews Griesbachianæ in Novum Testamentum Synopsis," partly with a view to familiarize the results of Griesbach's laborious work, by removing from them the obscurity of abbreviations, but principally, as he says himself, to demonstrate, by a short and easy proof, how safe and pure the text of the New Testament is, in the received editions, in all things that affect our faith or duty, and how few alterations it either requires or will admit, on any sound principles of criticism.

This was the last of Dr. White's publications. His constitution had now suffered much by a paralytic attack,

which interrupted his studies, although he continued at intervals his favourite researches. He died at his canonry residence at Christchurch, May 22, 1814. From the number of works Dr. White published, and the assiduity with which he cultivated most branches of learning, particularly Oriental languages and antiquities, it may be thought improbable that there was a considerable portion of indolence in his habit. Yet this certainly was the case, and, in the opinion of his friends, must account for his needing assistance in the composition of his Bampton Lectures. Even in the composition of a single sermon, he was glad to accept of aid, if it was wanted at a time when he felt a repugnance to study. In his private character, he united a degree of roughness with great simplicity of manners; few men were ever more deficient in what is called knowledge of the world. Yet he was friendly, liberal, and of great integrity. He owed all he had to his talents and fame, and however grateful he might be for favours, he never knew or practised the arts of solicitation. To his parents, after he attained promotion, he was a most dutiful son, and it is yet remembered at Gloucester, with what eagerness he left his dignified friends on the day he was installed prebendary, to embrace his aged father, who stood looking on among the crowd.'

WHITE, or VITUS (RICHARD), an English historian, was born at Basingstoke, in Hampshire, of the great part of which place his ancestors had been proprietors. He was educated at Winchester school, whence he was admitted fellow of New college, Oxford, in 1557. In the beginning of queen Elizabeth's reign he obtained leave of absence for a set time, but his attachment to the Roman catholic religion being discovered, his fellowship was declared void, in 1564. He had gone abroad, and after remaining some time at Louvain, settled at Padua, where he studied the canon and civil law, and received his doctor's degree in both those faculties. Afterwards, being invited to Douay, he was made regius professor, and taught civil and canon law nearly twenty years. The university appointed him their chancellor, or rector magnificus, not only on account of his own merit, but in consequence of the particular recommendation of the pope. At length he was created count palatine, a title conferred by the empe

Gent. Mag, vol. LXXXIV.-British Critic, &c.