250 A Review of some leading Points in the Official Character 



of the whole county which included Sir Joseph's estates. How 

 much better than to employ a surveyor at his own expense 1 A 

 fine project, truly- But, alas ! death has defeated it ; and ere 

 now both the great man, and the placable individual whom he 

 endeavoured to cajole, have learnt the vanity of every pursuit 

 except those which were consistent with man's ultimate end, and 

 conducted upon principles which will be recognised at the final 

 day of account. 



Much should I rejoice if I could, consistently with justice, 

 omit to record any other instance of this lamentable implacabi- 

 Jitv. The task, however, is so repugnant to all the better feel- 

 ings of one's nature, that a single addiVonal instance is all I shall 

 adduce. 



Six or seven vears ago, a gentleman named Marrat, who had 

 attained a verv respectable reputation as a man of literature and 

 science, and who was then, I believe, a bookseller at Lincoln, 

 undertook a History of the County of Lincoln, under the auspices 

 of Sir Joseph Banks. The work was to be published in periodical 

 numbers, or parts ; Sir Joseph engaging to give it his warmest 

 recommendation, as well as to furnish documents, from his pri- 

 vate, library, in illustration of the history, &;c. of those portions 

 of the county in which his own estates lay. Relying upon these 

 engagements, Mr. .Marrat pursued his labours. The VA'ork did 

 not obtain a sufficient sale, as it proceeded, to defray its own ex- 

 penses; but its author, urged by Sir Joseph to persevere, relaxed 

 not. Pleased with the attentions of Sir Joseph, he presented to 

 him a copy of a " Treatise on Mechanics," which he had pub- 

 lished in 1 810; who, nuich to the astonishment of Mr. Marrat, 

 immediutely ii'tlhdieiv his patronage. Again and again the 

 historian of Lincoln wrote to Sir Joseph, humbly reminding him 

 of his promises, hinting at the expenses in which he had been 

 involved in consequence of those promises, entreating Sir Joseph 

 to furnish the documents which he had engaged to supply, and 

 without which the wotk could not proceed, and urgently ex- 

 plaining how ruinous to himself the whole transaction must be, 

 unless, by being enabled to compleLc the publication, he might 

 have some proi)ability of remuneration. But his letters, his ex- 

 postulations, and his arguments were all in vain. No answer 

 could he obtain ; :aid though he, at length, emploj'ed a com- 

 mon friend, who had been present in Sir Joseph's library when 

 the promises were made to Mr. Marrat, still nothing could over- 

 come the great man's inflexible silence. What will the reader 

 conjecture was the occasion of this extraordinary behaviour? I 

 blush for human nature, while I tell him, that this unfortunate 

 book of mechanics, in so luckless an hour presented to Sir Joseph 

 Banks, was dedicated to Dr. Hutlon I, to the man who, betweeii 



SO 



