cumnx 



CHURCHILL, CHARLES. 



villace Mr Salistmry. Hi. father died when Thomas, the youngest 

 of few children. as mm boy. After wearing little in.truction 

 i. reeding MX! writing, Tbonw. was apprenticed to a leather glove and 

 breech*, maksr in 8aQ.bt.ry. H* was afterwards, M journeyman, 

 orv*d i k * of a tallow-chandler in the MOM city. In 

 both the** rmploymnrta he continued to b* mor* or I*M concerned 



BBfl U eod^ hb tnX I l>otlUBs*aiidlng which he contrived to acquire 

 al knowledge of literature and seboee, and to become a distiu- 

 I writer OB subjects of religions and moral controversy. The 

 MB which arose on the publication, in 1710, of the Arian work 

 Of WhbtoB OB ' Primitive Christianity.' induced Chubb to write his 

 r of God the Father asserted ;' consisting of eight arguments 

 , intended to prove the Son to be a subordinate and 

 betast. U WM published in 1715, under the immediate superin- 

 e of Whbton, and by opposite parties was equally extolled and 

 L Chubb replied to bis Trinitarian opponents in 'The 

 r of the Father vindicated.' In 1730 he published a collec- 

 tion of his nonsriooal tracts in a handsome 4to volume; containing, 

 the two works just mentioned, thirty-three others on faith 



yeterlea, reason, origin" of evil, persecution, liberty, virtue, govern- 



Among the eminent individuals who 



I authority in religion, Ac. 



id the writing! of Chubb, and sought to be of service to him, 



WM 8ir Joseph Jekyl, master of the rolls (the early patron of Bishop 

 Butitr), who appointed him steward, or supervisor, of his house in 

 London ; an office of which the duties would appear to have been as 

 little suited to the character of Chubb as those of a tallow-chandler, 

 i of the witty adversaries of Chubb made themselves extremely 

 r with the grotesque appearance of his short and fat figure as he 

 ted at his patron a sideboard, adorned with a powdered tie-wig 

 and a drees .word. After a year or two he relinquished bis steward- 

 ship, returned to Salisbury, and to the last " delighted in weighing and 

 selliisi candles." (Kippis, ' Biog. Brit') His next publications were 

 A Dboourt* on Reason, M a sufficient guide in matters of Religion ;' 

 'On Moral and Positive Duties, showing the higher claim of the 

 former;' 'On Sincerity ;' 'On Future Judgment and Eternal Punish- 

 ment;' 'Inquiry about Inspiration of the New Testament;' 'The 

 Case of Abraham ;' ' Doctrine of vicarious Suffering and Intercession 

 refuted ;' ' Time for keeping a Sabbath ;' and several other tracts upon 

 points of religious dispute. In 1738 appeared his "True Gospel of 

 Jesus assrrted.' Chubb endeavours to show that as Jesus Christ 

 taught Christianity previously to many of the remarkable incidents of 

 his life, and therefore previous to his death, the gospel was properly 

 the doctrine of moral reformation which he announced as a rule of 

 conduct. In the following year, 1739, Chubb put forth a vindication 

 of this work, and of the discourse annexed to it, against the doctrine 

 of a particular Providence. Several answers to this work were pub- 

 lished, by the Rev. Caleb Fleming and others, and replies and rejoinders 

 followed between Chubb and his opponents up to the time of Chubb's 

 dsesMS In February 1746 Chubb, according to his desire, died 

 suddenly at the age of sixty-eight, as be sat in his chair. Though he 

 left several hundred pounds, his income was to the last so scanty, that 

 H b said be often thankfully accepted from Cheselden, the eminent 

 smaeou, the present of a suit of left-off clothes. His posthumous 

 works, consist ing of numerous tracts similar to those already men- 

 tioned, were published hi 8 vola..8vo, 1748; and were answered by 

 Fleming, his indefatigable opponent, in ' True Deism the Basis of 

 Christianity ; or, Observation, on Chubb', posthumous Works.' Dr. 

 Leland, m hi. 'View of Deistical Writers,' vol. I, has devoted above 

 80 pages to remarks upon them. For notices of Chubb, see also Bishop 

 Law's ' Theory of Religion.' With an occasional blunder, arising from 

 Ignorance of the Greek and Hebrew languages, the writings of Chubb, 

 following the metaphysical school of Dr. Clarke, exhibit considerable 

 argumentative skill, and a style remarkable for a temperate and critical 

 propriety, and a pleasing fluency. 



i IIUSD.orCHAND.orCHANDRA-BARDAI, the Homer of the 

 RsJDOots, flourished in the 12th century of the Christian era, as the 



bard at the court of Prithwlraja, or Prat'hiraj, 

 the last Hindu sovereign of Delhi ; but his poems, which are in the 

 spoken dialect of Canoui, are still thoroughly and universally popular 

 among hi. nation after the lapse of more than six centuries. ' The 

 most familiar of bis images and sentiment.." says Colonel Tod, who 

 held the post of English resident in Rajsst'han, - 1 heard daily from 

 the months of the** around me, the descendants of the men whose 

 deeds be robear***." His poem, which b called ' Prafhiraj-Chtfhan 

 Basm/faa kind of universal history of the period at which he wrote, 

 iaelatdiag snmsOiiiig on almost every subject from geography to 

 grammar, interspersed with poetical fiction. It extends to 6 books, 

 comprising about 100,000 sUnus, of which Colonel Tod tells us that 

 be translated into English M many as 30,000. Every noble family in 

 Raja* oaa b commemorated in it in some shape, and the bard does 

 not forget to interweave his own exploits into the narrative. The 

 lesdingation of the poeu. is the daring exploit of Prithwiraja, who 

 on lensjuiBg some sUotas from the Princess of Canouj, inviting him, if 

 be b brave enough, to come and bear her away from her father's court 

 from the midst of the prince, assembled ss suitors for her hand, 

 Sf^* eh ji Uo '? > ********* to oarrying off the princess for bis 

 bride; bat, M Chund remarks, to bis own destruction, " though it gained 

 kirn immortality in the song of the bard." A war ensues, and the 



Affghan Shahabuddin, the Mohammedan invader of Prithwlraja'i 

 dominions, is six times defeated and twice taken prisoner ; but twice 

 released by the blind and chivalrous generality of the Hindu rove- 

 reign. At last, in a final battle on the banks of the Caggar, Prilhwi- 

 raja's army after three days' fighting is cut to pieces, and he himself 

 is taken prisoner and carried to UhuznL Chuud describes himself as 

 following the train of the conqueror to the Affghan capital, deter- 

 mined to trace his royal master, and he tells us that though the 

 Afghans tried to baffle him in his object, " the mimic of his tongue 

 overcame the resolves of the guardian of the prison." The battle on 

 the CagKar a memorable date in the history of Hindustan, since it 

 established Mohammedan rule in Delhi for more than 600 years is 

 stated by chronologiste to have taken place in the year of the Christian 

 era 1193. This, by a remarkable coincidence was the identical year in 

 which our Occur de Lion was imprisoned by the Duke of Austria, and in 

 which lUondel, according to the legend, discovered him in bis dungeon. 

 Chund was not destined like Blondel to effect his mactrr's release. 

 The Affghan conqueror had deprived his captive of night, and one of 

 the finest passage, in the poem, to which it is said not even the 

 sternest Rajpoot can listen without emotion, is a soliloquy of the 

 blinded monarch, deploring the fickleness of fortune and his own 

 unfortunate generosity to the enemy of whom he was now the victim. 

 How the poem concludes Colonel Tod does not mention, but he 

 informs us that "Prithwiraja and the bard perished by their own 

 hands, after causing the death of Shahabuddin." It is possible that 

 the narrative may have been brought to a close by the sou or grand- 

 son of Chund, both of whom were eminent poets, though they could 

 not rival the glory of the Uajpootiau Homer. 



The fullest account of Chund that hits appeared in English is in 

 Colonel Tod's ' Translation of a Sanscrit Inscription relative to the 

 last Hindu King of Delhi,' in the first volume of the ' Transactions of 

 the Royal Asiatic Society,' London, 1827. A few additional par- 

 ticulars may be gleaned in the colonel's 'Annals and Antiquities of 

 Rajast'han ' (London, 1829-32). Several translated extracts from the 

 poem are given in the article in the ' Transactions,' which are all of 

 an animated and chivalrous cast, and the spirit of which is compared 

 by the colonel to that of the ancient Scandinavian poetry. 



CHDRCHILL, CHARLES, was born in 1731 in Westminster, where 

 in St. John's parish his father was curate. After passing through tin- 

 usual course of studies in Westminster School ho was taken by bis 

 father to Oxford to be matriculated in that university, but the levity 

 of bis behaviour at the entrance examination occasioned his rejection. 

 He was shortly after admitted a member of the University of Cam- 

 bridge, where however he did not stay long enough to take a degree, 

 but returned to Westminster ; and although he was but in his seven- 

 teenth year, and without any means of subsistence, precipitately 

 married a young lady of the name of Scott. After a year's residence 

 in his father's bouse he retired with his wife to Suuderlond, and 

 prepared for taking orders. At the age of twenty-fivo he was ordained 

 by BUhop Sherlock. His course of life for the next two or three yean 

 is involved in obscurity ; the most probable statement is that he acted 

 aa curate of liainhnm in Essex, a curacy previously held by bis father, 

 and that he there opened a school. In 1 758, on the death of his father, 

 he succeeded to the curacy of St. John's in Westminster, aud from 

 this period a total alteration took place in his character and habits, 

 which, from having been hitherto those of a moral, domestic, nnd 

 studious man, became gradually ruined, and terminated in avowed and 

 abandoned licentiousness. This change has been attributed to his 

 intimacy with the clever but profligate poet, Robert Lloyd, whose 

 father, Dr. Lloyd, a master of Westminster School, about this tiim- 

 interposed as the friend of Churchill, and rescued him from jail by 

 advancing to bis creditors a composition of five shillings in the pound : 

 to the credit of Churchill it must be added that he himself subsequently 

 paid the whole amount 



Churchill's first poems were the 'Bard' and the 'Conclave,' for 

 which he was unable to obtain a publisher. The 'Rosciad,' a very 

 clever and severe satire upon the principal theatrical managers and 

 performers at that time, was published in 1761, at his own risk; the 

 London publishers having refused to give five guineas for the manu- 

 script. It obtained an amazing popularity, and was answered by the 

 numerous parties attacked in Churcbilliads, Murphyads, Examiners, 

 &c. The subject U one on which the author, as a poet and constant 

 playgoer, was well qualified to express a critical judgment. Like 

 most of his productions, it is more remarkable for energy and eloquent 

 roughness of sarcasm, than for polished phraseology or refined 

 sentiment His next poem, the 'Apology,' written in reply to his 

 critical adversaries, is perhaps the most finished and correct of hi* 

 works. The poem called 'Night' was intended as an apology for 

 his own nocturnal habits. These orgies, in which Churchill was asso- 

 ciated with the convivial wits of his time, Colman, Thornton, &c.,are 

 well described in Charles Johnson's ' Curysal ; or, the Adventures of 

 a Guinea.' The argument of the ' Apology ' is bad enough; showing 

 only that the open avowal of vice and licentiousness is less culpable 

 than the practice of it under the hypocritical assumption of sancti- 

 fied temperance. The 'Ghost,' a poetical satire on the ridiculous 

 imposture of Cook-lane, consists chiefly of a scries of rugged llu.li- 

 brastic incongruities. 'Pomposo,' in this poem, is intended for Dr. 

 Johnson, who bad designated Churchill 'a shallow fellow.' In 17<;j 



