`fessional duties and studies; and all the time that could be saved from these important avocations, was dedicated to the cultivation of science and literature. Some periods were chequered by illness, the consequence of intense application; and others were imbittered by the frequent and severe indispositions of the partner of his cares and the object of his affections. The climate of India, (as he had already found occasion to remark, in a letter to a friend), had been unpropitious to the delicate constitution of his beloved wife; and so apprehensive was he of the consequences, that he intended, unless some favourable alteration should take place, to urge her return to her native country, preferring the pang of separation for five or six years, to the anguish, which he should hardly survive, of losing her. While business required the 'daily attendance of sir William Jones in Calcutta, his usual residence was on the banks of the Ganges, at the distance of five miles from the court; to this spot he returned every evening after sun-set, and in the morning rose so early, as to reach his apartments in town by walking, at the first appearance of the dawn. Having severely suffered from the heat of the sun, he ever afterwards dreaded and avoided an exposure to it; and in his hymn to Surya, he alludes to its effect upon him, and to his moon-light rambles, in the following lines: Then roves thy poet free, But felt the thrilling dart " The intervening period of each morning until the opening of the court, was regularly allotted and applied to distinct studies. He passed the months of vacation at his retirement at Crishna-nagur in his usual pursuits. Among other literary occupations in which he empoyed himself during the two last years, (1788 and 89) it is to be noticed that he undertook the office of editor of the elegant poem of Hatefi, or the unfor tunate loves of Laili and Mujnoon, an Arabian youth and princess. The benevolent object of his labours renders them interesting, as the book was published at his own expence, with a declared appropriation of the produce of the sale to the relief of insolvent debtors in the gaol at Calcutta. The manner in which he mentions the travels of Mr. Bruce, shews, that he was not one of those sceptics who doubted of his veracity. In a paper which he presented to the society in Calcutta, he recites a conversation with a native of Abyssinia, who had seen and known Mr. Bruce at Gondar, and who spoke of him in very honourable terms. The constitution of lady Jones, which was naturally delicate, had suffered so much from repeated attacks of indisposition, that a change of climate had long been prescribed by the physicians, as the only means of preserving her life; but her affectionate attachment to her - husband had hitherto induced her to remain in India, in opposition to this advice, though with the full conviction that the recovery of her health, in any considerable degree, was impossible. At an earlier pe From him who gave the wound the bal- riod, when the extent of the field sam prays. VOL. XLVI. sir William Jones had declared his determination to remain in India until the close of the century, if it should please God to prolong his life. But affection set limits to his zeal for knowledge, and when it was finally settled that lady Jones should return to England, he determined himself to follow the ensuing spring, hoping by this period to have discharged his engagements with the government of India. She embarked in December 1793. I now turn to the last scene of the life of sir William Jones. The few months allotted to his existence af. ter the departure of lady Jones, were devoted to his usual occupa tions, and more particularly to the discharge of that duty which alone detained him in India,-the completion of the digest of the Hindoo and Mahomedan law. But neither the consciousness of acquitting himself of an obligation which he had voluntarily contracted, nor his incessant assiduity, could fill the vacuity Occasioned by the absence of her, whose society had sweetened the toil of application, and cheered his hours of relaxation. After her departure he mixed more in promiscuous society; but his affections were transported with her to his native country. On the evening of the 20th of April, or nearly about that date, after prolonging his walk to a late hour, during which he had imprudently remained in conversation in an unwholesome situation, he called upon lord Teignmouth, and complained of agueish symptoms, mentioning his intention to take some medicine, and repeating jocularly an old proverb, that an ague in the spring is medicine for a king.' He had no suspicion at the time of the real nature of his indisposition, which proved, in fact, to be a complaint common in Bengal, an inflammation in the liver. The disorder was, however, soon discovered by the penetration of the physician, who after two or three days was called in to his assistance; but it had then advanced too far to yield to the efficacy of the medicines usually prescribed, and they were administered in vain. The progress of the complaint was uncommonly rapid, and terminated fatally on the 27th of April, 1794. "On the morning of that day, his attendants, alarmed at the evident symptoms of approaching dissolution, came pre.. cipitately to call the friend who has now the melancholy task of recording the mournful event: not a moment was lost in repairing to his house.-He was lying on his bed in a posture of meditation, and the only symptom of remaining life was a small degree of motion in the heart, which after a few seconds ceased, and he expired without a pang or groan. His bodily sufferings, from the complacency of his features, and the ease of his attitude, could not have been severe ; and his mind must have derived consolation from those sources where he had been in the habit of seeking it, and where alone, in our last moments, it can ever be found." An anecdote of sir William Jones, upon what authority we know not, has been recorded that immediately before his dissolution he retired to his closet, and expired in the act of adoration to his Creator. Such a circumstance would have been conformable to his prevailing habits of thinking and reflection, but it is not founded on fact. The funeral ceremony was performed formed on the following day with the honours due to his public station; and the numerous attendance of the most respectable British inhabitants of Calcutta evinced their sorrow for his loss, and their respect for his memory. In the short space of forty-seven years, by the exertion of rare intellectual talents, he acquired a knowledge of arts, science, and languages, which has seldom been equalled, and perhaps never surpassed. A mere catalogue of the writings of sir William Jones would shew the extent and variety of his erudition a perusal of them would prove that it was no less deep than miscellaneous. Whatever topic he discusses, his ideas flow with ease and perspicuity; his style is always clear and polished; animated and forcible when his subject requires it. His philological, botanical, philosophical, and chronological disquisitions; his historical researches, and even his Persian grammar, whilst they fix the curiosity and attention of the reader by the novelty, depth, or importance of the knowledge displayed in them, always delight by elegance of diction. His compositions are never dry, tedious, nor disgusting; and literature and science come from his hands adorned with all their grace and beauty. Particulars of the Life of William Edwards, the self-taught Welsh Bridge-builder.-From Malkin's Account of South Wales. William Edwards was the son of a farmer, who had two other sons and a daughter. The family lived in the parish of Eglwysilan, in the county of Glamorgan, very near the spot which was hercafter to be the foundation of its celebrity.William Edwards was born in the year 1719. His father died when he was only two years old. He was the youngest son. He, with his other two brothers and sister, lived with their mother on the farm till he was about sixteen or eighteen years of age. When he had reached his fifteenth year he frequently repaired the walls, or stone fences, of the farm. Every traveller who is acquainted with Wales must have remarked, that such fences are common in the mountain district. He was observed to perform his work in a style uncommonly neat and firm, and with an expedition surpassing that of most others. Some friends observing this, advised the elder brother to encourage him in this employment, not only on their own farm, but in the service of any neighbours who might wish to engage him. William readily assented to this proposal, and worked almost continually at wall-building, for which occupation his talents were in eager request. He added his earnings regularly to the common stock of his mother and his brothers, who carried on the business of the farm. The fences in this part are called, in technical phraseology, dry walls, from the circumstance of their being constructed without any mortar. Some time after he had exercised his ingenuity in this way, some masons, regularly brought up to the trade, came to the neighbourhood for the purpose of erecting a shed for shoeing horses at a smith's and farrier's shop. William Edwards admired the neatness with which they constructed the pillars and other parts of the shed, and felt an anxious wish for the ability to do 3 B 2 the the same. He often left his work of time and experience to detec and came to a field opposite the faults, not then to be remedied, apsmith's shop, where the masons were plication was generally made to W. employed. He observed that with Edwards, by those who wished to the common mason's hammer of the avoid both disappointment and alcountry, one end of which is also tercation. In 1746 he undertook an axe, they were able to dress their to build a new bridge over the river stones very neatly; and this led him Taff, at the spot, the singularities to the discovery, that the principal of which have introduced him to reason why he could not do the our attention. This he executed in same, arose from his hammer not a style superior to any thing of the being steeled. He made all possi- kind in this, or indeed in any other ble haste therefore to procure from part of Wales, for neatness of worka smith some hammers better suited manship and elegance of design.— to his purpose, such as he observed It consisted of three arches, elegantthose masons to use; and found that ly light in their construction. The with them he could execute his dry hewn stones were excellently well walling much better, and with a dressed and closely jointed. It was neatness far beyond what he had admired by all who saw it. But before been able to accomplish.- this river runs through a very deep Being thus furnished with proper vale, that is more than usually tools, and having acquired a degree woody, and crowded about with of dexterity in the use of them, he mountains. It is also to be consiaspired to a higher rank in his pro- dered, that many other rivers of no fession; and from a dry-wall build-mean capacity, as the Crue, the er, hoped to become a builder of houses. Soon afterwards he undertook to build a little workshop for a neighbour; and gained great applause for the propriety with which he performed his contract. A very short period had elapsed before he was employed to erect a mill in his own parish, and it was in the prosecution of this building, that he first became acquainted with the principles of an arch. When this mill was finished, it did not merely meet with cold approbation, but was admired by all approved judges as an excellent piece of masonry. He was now considered as the best workman in that part of the country. Employment was thrust upon him on better grounds than Malvolio's greatness; and as skill and fidelity are indispensibly requisite in a busimess, which requires the evidence Bargoed Taff, and the Cunno, besides almost numberless brooks that run through long, deep, and wellwooded vales or glens, fall into the Taff in its progress. The descents into these vales from the mountains being in general very steep, the water in long and heavy rains collects into these rivers with great rapidity and force; raising floods that in their descriptions would appear absolutely incredible to the inhabitants of open and flat countries, where the rivers are neither so precipitate in their courses and projections, nor have such hills on each side to swell them with their torrents. Such a flood unfortunately occurred after the completion of this undertaking, which tore up the largest trees by the roots, and carried them down the river to, the bridge, where the arches were not suf. sufficiently wide to admit of their passage; Here therefore they were detained. Brushwood, weeds, hay, straw, and whatever lay in the way of the flood, came down and collected about the branches of the trees, that stuck fast in the arches, and choaked the free current of the water. In consequence of this obstruction to the flood, a thick and strong dam, as it were, was thus formed. The aggregate of so many collected streams, being unable to get any further, rose here to a prodigious height, and with the force of its pressure carried the bridge entirely away before it. William Edwards had given the most ample security, both in his own person and the sureties of respectable friends, for the stability of the bridge during the space of seven years. Of course he was obliged to erect another, and he proceeded on his duty with all possible speed. The bridge had only stood about two years and a half. The second bridge was of one arch, for the purpose of admitting freely under it whatever incumbrances the floods might bring down. The span or chord of this arch was one hundred and forty feet; its altitude thirty-five feet; the segment of a circle whose diameter was one hundred and seventy feet. The arch was finished, but the parapets not yet erected, when such was the pressure of the unavoidably ponderous work over the haunches, that it sprung up in the middle, and the key-stones were forced out. This was a severe blow to a man who had hitherto met with nothing but misfortune in an enterprize, which was to establish or ruin him in his profession. William Edwards, however, possessed a courage which did not easily forsake him, so that he was not greatly disconcerted. He engaged in it the third time; and by means of three cylindrical holes through the work over the haunches, so reduced the weight over them, that there was no longer any danger from it. These holes or cylinders rise above each other, ascending in the order of the arch, three at each end, or over each of the haunches. The diameter of the lowest is nine feet; of the second six feet; and of the uppermost, three feet. They give the bridge an air of uncommon elegance. The second bridge fell in 1751. The third which has stood ever since, was completed in 1755. It is generally supposed, that William Edwards experienced the liberality of some gentlemen in the county, which was increased by the gratuities of others, who came from many parts of the kingdom to see the bridge and its builder; but of this we have no clear or certain accounts, nor do his family know that he was ever indebted for any emolument but to his own industry and abilities. Hitherto the Rialto was esteemed the largest arch in Europe, if not in the world. Its span or chord was ninety-eight feet. But New-bridge is forty-two feet wider; and was, till lately, if it be not still so, and I am not aware that its claim to this distinction is invalidated, the largest arch in the world, of which we have any authentic account. The fame of this bridge introduced William Edwards to public notice; and he was employed to build many other bridges in South Wales. One of the next bridges that he constructed was Usk-bridge, over the river Usk, at the town of Usk, in Monmouthshire. It was a large and handsome work. He afterwards built the fol3 B 3 lowing |