692 



Biographical Memoirs of EmineJil Persons. 



[Dec. 



that he was every where, at home and 

 abroad, loved and admired ; and he died, 

 as he lived, without an enemy." 



Few men have been less indebted to 

 the advantages of early education, tha'i 

 Mr. Koscoe— few, by the native ener- 

 gies of their own mind, surmounting ob- 

 stacles, and annihilating difficulties, have 

 attained so proud an eminence in the 

 noblest range of literature. Of humble 

 parentage, he was shut out from the 

 common opportunities of acquiring 

 knowledge ; besides which, it is said 

 that, witn a strange perverseness of tem- 

 per, he obstinately refused to attend at 

 the daj'-school, where his father wished 

 him to be taught writing and arithme- 

 tic. Yet the boy was not idle ; he read 

 much, and he thought more ; and, at 

 the early age of sixteen, he wrote a des- 

 criptive poem — "Mount Pleasant" — 

 which might have done credit to one 

 whose talents had been fostered under 

 the most favourable circumstances. 

 About the same period, he was fou"id 

 sufficiently qualified to be admitted as 

 an articled clerk in the office of Mr. 

 J]yres, a solicitor of Liverpool, his na- 

 tive town. Soon afterwards, he was 

 stimulated to undertake the study of 

 the Latin language, by one of his com- 

 panions, who boasted that he had read 

 Cicero de Amicitia, and spoke in high 

 terms of the eloquence of the style, and 

 nobleness of the sentiments of that cele- 

 brated composition. Young Roscoe im- 

 mediately commenced the work ; and, 

 smothering his difficulties by perpetual 

 reference to his grammar as well as to 

 his dictionary, he laboured through the 

 task which the spirit of emulation had 

 excited him to undertake. 



The success experienced in his first 

 attempt, prompted him to proceed ; he 

 stopped not in his career till he had 

 read the most distinguished of the 

 Roman classics ; — a pursuit in which he 

 was encouraged by the friendly inter- 

 course of Mr. Francis Holden, an ec- 

 centric but excellent scholar. Having 

 thus made considerable progress in the 

 Latin language, he — still without the 

 assistance of a master — proceeds to the 

 study of the French and Italian ; the 

 best authors in each of those tongues 

 soon became familiar to him ; and it 

 is believed that few of his countrymen 

 even acquired so general, so extensive, 

 and so recondite a knowledge of Italian 

 literatui-e, as did Mr. lloscoe. 



All this, it should be observed, was 

 accomplished without the slightest neg- 

 lect of 'his professional avocations, to 

 which he invariably paid the closest at- 

 tention, to the entire satisfaction of his 

 principal. 



After the expiration of his clerkship, 

 he was taken into partnership with Mr. 

 Aspinwall, an attorney of Liverpool; 

 and the management of an affair, exten- 

 sive in practice, and high in reputation, 

 devolved solely upon him. About the 

 same time, he commenced an acquaint- 

 ance with Dr. Enfield and Dr. Aikin ; 

 both of whom were then resident at 

 Warrington ; the former as tutor in the 

 belles lettres, in the academy there ; the 

 latter, as a surgeon. When Dr. En- 

 field published the second volume of 

 " The Speaker," Mr. Roscoe furnished 

 him with an Elegy to Pity, and an Ode 

 to Education. 



His abilities now began to attract the 

 notice, and to receive the deserved ap- 

 plause of the public. On the 17th of 

 December, 1773, he recited before the 

 society formed in Liverpool, for the 

 encouragement of designing, drawing, 

 poetry, &c., an ode, which was after- 

 wards pubhshed with his poem of 

 " Mount Pleasant." Of the society 

 here referred to, Mr. Roscoe was a very 

 active member ; and having acquired 

 a correct taste in the art of painting and 

 sculpture, he occasionally delivered pub- 

 lic lectures on subjects connected with 

 the fine ai'ts. 



When the projected abolition of the 

 slave trade became an object of interest, 

 Mr. Roscoe warmlj' united his efforts 

 with those of Mr. Clarkson in its fa- 

 vour. A Spanish Jesuit, of the name of 

 Harris, having published a tract en- 

 titled " Scriptural Researches into tlie 

 Licilness of the Slave Trade" he answered 

 it with gi-eat spirit and acuteness, by 

 A Scriptural Refutation of a Pamphlet 

 lately published by the Rev. Raymond 

 Harris:'' Afterwards, in 1787 and 1788, 

 he published the first and second parts 

 of his principal poem, " The Wrongs of 

 Africa." 



With an ardent imagination, and an 

 innate love of liberty, Mr. Roscoe na- 

 turally sympathised with the first out- 

 burst of the French revolution ; and, 

 invoking his muse upon the occasion, 

 he sang the praises of freedom in a trans- 

 lation of one of Petrarch's odes, which 

 was inserted in the Mercurio Italico. 

 His two songs, " O'er the vine-covered 

 hills and gay regions of France," and 

 " Millions be free !" are amongst the 

 memorable effusions of the period. 



Soon, however, his attention was de- 

 voted to wiser things. About the year 

 1790, he commenced his celebrated 

 work, " The History of Lorenzo de 

 Medicis, called the Magnificent." For 

 this, which was published in 1795, he is 

 said to have received from his booksel- 

 lers, Cadell and Davies, the sum of 



