of Interpreter for Eastern languages: but, although the acceptance of it might not have interfered with his other pursuits, or engagements, he declined it politely, but without hesitation, earnestly requesting that it might be conferred upon Mirza, whofe character he wrote. This difinterested folicitation was unnoticed; and his disappointment made him regret his ignorance of the world, in not accepting the proffered office, under a resolution to confign the entire emoluments of it to his Syrian friend.

During his fummer refidence at Wimbledon, he formed an acquaintance to which he owed the future happiness of his life. He there faw, for the first time, Anna Maria, the eldeft daughter of Dr. Shipley, then Dean of Winchester but whatever impreffions her perfon and conversation made upon the heart of Mr. Jones, his fixed ideas of an honourable independence, and a determined resolution never to owe his fortune to a wife, or her kindred, excluded all ideas of a matrimonial connection. In different circumstances, he might

perhaps have then folicited an alliance, which he afterwards courted and obtained.

The family of Lord Spencer removed late in Autumn to London; and Mr. Jones, with his usual avidity to acquire the accomplishments of a gentleman, as well as those of a fcholar, privately arranged a plan with Gallini, who attended the younger part of the family, for receiving inftructions from him in dancing; at the fame time he continued his morning attendance, without intermiffion, at the two schools of Angelo, with whose manners he was extremely pleafed. Before he left London, he had an opportunity, which he did not neglect, of learning the use of the broad-sword, from an old penfioner at Chelsea, who had been active, as his fcars proved, in many engagements, and whose narrative propenfity frequently amused him.

The acquifition of his new accomplishment, by Gallini's affiftance, had been made with fecrecy; and the difplay of it enabled him to participate with much satisfaction, in the evening amusements at Althorp, where he Life-V. I.

F

paffed the winter with his pupil. But his greatest delight was furnished by an excellent library, in which he found intellectual treafures of the highest value in his eftimation; fcarcely a single book escaped his inspection; and fome of the most rare. he perufed with indefatigable application. It was at this period, in the twenty-first year of his age, that he began his Commentaries on Afiatic Poetry, in imitation of Dr. Louth's Prelections at Oxford, on the facred poetry of the Hebrews.

The fummer of 1767, opened a new scene to him; the indifpofition of Lord Spencer rendered a journey to Spa advisable for the restoration of his health, and Mr. Jones attended the family: but his refidence on the Continent was too fhort to gratify his curiofity. At Spa he remained only three weeks, part of which he dedicated to the leffons of Janson, of Aixla-Chapelle, a moft incomparable dancingmafter, and part to the acquifition of the German language, in which he fo far fucceeded, as to be able to read Gesner with. delight, affifted only by an excellent German

Grammar and Dictionary; the pronunciation he had formerly learnt from a fellow collegian, who had paffed fome years at Brunswick. He would gladly have availed himself of the inftruction of a German mafter; but none was to be found at Spa, and his finances were unequal to the expense of procuring that af fiftance from Aix-la-Chapelle. Notwithstanding thefe occupations, he found leisure to participate in all the amufements of the place.

In the winter of 1767, Mr. Jones refided with his pupil at Althorp: the attention of Lord Spencer's family was then much occupied in the contested election at Northampton; but as he had neither inclination nor inducement to take any part in it, he confined himself chiefly to the library, which never failed to supply him with increasing fources of entertainment and improvement. His excurfions into the regions of literature were unlimited, and as his application was directed with his ufual perfeverance, he nearly completed his Commentaries, transcribed

an Arabic manuscript on Egypt and the Nile, borrowed from Dr. Ruffel, and copied the keys of the Chinese language, which he wished to learn.

The close of this year is marked with an occurrence, which probably had a material influence on the determination of his future pursuits. From a motive of mere curiosity, he was prompted to peruse the little treatife of Fortescue, in praise of the Laws of England; and, although he was more diverted with the fimplicity of the Latin style, than attracted by the subject, he felt so much intereft in the work, as to ftudy it with confiderable attention. In the course of the reflections which it excited, he was naturally led to a comparison of the laws of England with those of other countries, and he marked with delight their uncontroverted claim to fuperiority over the laws of every other state, ancient or modern. Of this fact he acknowledged that he had never before entertained an idea. He was now qualified to appreciate with more accuracy, the merits and de