55 



that of Smiths and Thompson. He sat in three 

 successive Parliaments, as member for Midhurst, 

 but retired from public life about the year 1820 ; 

 after which, as a source of amusement, he devoted 

 a considerable portion of his time to inquiries of 

 a topographical and antiquarian nature, particu- 

 larly in connection with the History of Holder- 

 ness. In the year 1828, he visited Normandy, 

 to inspect the antiquities of that country, but 

 indisposition obliged him to remove hastily, for 

 advice, to Paris, where he died at Meurice's 

 Hotel, on the 14th day of September, in the 

 seventy-fifth year of his age. His remains 

 are interred in the cemetery of Pere la Chaise. 

 Mr. Thompson published, in 1795, a pamphlet, 

 entitled " Tithes indefensible ;" in 1798, 

 " Short Observations on a Commutation of 

 "Tithes for Government Annuities;'* in 1800 

 and 1801, while he was Governor of the Work- 

 house, " Observations on the improvement 

 " in the maintenance of the Poor of Hull ;" 

 and, in 1803, " Reasons for giving land to 

 " Cottagers, to enable them to keep Cows," 

 which latter pamphlet he had previously com- 

 municated to the Board of Agriculture, of 

 which he was an honorary member.* In the 

 latter year he also brought out a little work, enti- 



Communications to the Board of Agriculture, vol. 4, p. 422. 



