CLERC, SEBASTIEN LE. 



CLINTON, HENRY FYNES. 







some years in a state bordering upon idiocy, lie died at Amsterdam, 

 on the Sth of January, 1736. 



CLERC, SEBASTIEN LE, a celebrated French designer and etcher, 

 was born at Metz in 1637. His father, who was a clever goldsmith, 

 instructed him in the rudiments of drawing and engraving. Sebastieu 

 Le Clerc commenced his career as a civil and military engineer; but, 

 having met with some unjust treatment, he resigned a place which he 

 held under the Marshal de la Ferte, and in 1665 settled in Paris, 

 where, by the advice of Le Brun, he devoted himself exclusively to 

 engraving or etching, an art for which he showed the highest ability. 

 He had also a fertile invention, and great ability as a designer. 



In 1668 Le Clero published a ' Ge'ome'trie Pratique ' in eighty platen, 

 which procured him the notice of Colbert, who gave him an appoint- 

 ment in the Gobelins tapestry manufactory, with apartments in the 

 factory, and a salary of 3000 francs. Whilst in this situation he 

 married the daughter of Vander Kerkhove, the dyer of the establish- 

 ment, by whom he had sixteen children ; and his family increased so 

 rapidly that he was forced to give up his situation, and to try his 

 fortune by working for the public at large. About 1684 he was 

 elected a member of the Royal Academy of Painting, and appointed 

 Professor ef Perspective, an office which he held for thirty years. In 

 1693 he was nominated Engraver in Ordinary to the King (Louis XIV.) ; 

 and he was created about the same time a Knight, by Pope Clement 

 XI. He used to sign himself Chevalier Remain. He died at Paris 

 in 1714. 



Le Clerc's etchings and engravings are very numerous. They are 

 said to exceed 3000; and his designs are twice as numerous: they 

 include nearly all subjects except shipping. His master-pieces are, 

 the 'Academy of the Arts and Sciences,' the 'Entrance of Alexander 

 the Great into Babylon,' and the ' Feeding of the Five Thousand.' 

 from his own compositions. A complete list of his works, preceded 

 by a memoir, was published at Paris in 1774, by C. A. de Jombert, 

 entitled ' Catalogue Raisonnd de 1'G^uvre de Seb. le Clerc.' Heineken 

 also hag given a long list of his principal works in his 'Dictionnaire 

 des Artistes,' &c. Le Clerc was the author of several scientific works. 

 He published a ' Traite de Ge'ome'trie,' a ' Nouveau Systeine du 

 Monde,' a ' Syetemc de la Vision," and a ' Traite" d'Architecture.' 



SEBASTIEN LE CLERC, his sou, was a good historical painter. He 

 was elected a member of the Royal Academy in 1 704, and died in 

 1767, aged eighty-three. Several of his works also have been 

 engraved. 



CLERK, JOHN (of Eldin, N.B.), was the inventor of one of the 

 moet important parts of -the modern British system of naval tactics. 

 In 1779 he communicated to some friends his notions concerning what 

 is technically called ' breaking the line.' In 1780 he communicated 

 his plan to Mr. Richard Atkinson, the particular friend of Sir George 

 (afterwards Lord) Rodney, and that distinguished officer, before leaving 

 London, said he would strictly adhere to it iu fighting the enemy. On 

 the 12th of April 1782, when the experiment was tried for the first 

 time, it led to Rodney's decisive victory over the French, under De 

 Qrasse, in the West Indies. From that time the principle has been fre- 

 quently adopted; and during the war with France, under Napoleon I., 

 when Howe, Nelson, and others executed the manoeuvre in perfection, 

 it was uniformly attended with success. His views were embodied in 

 ' An Essay on Naval Tactics, systematical and historical, with explana- 

 tory plates, in 4 parts, by John Clerk, Esq., of Eldin, &c.' (see also an 

 excellent article in the 'Edinburgh Review," voL vi. p. 301). A few 

 copies of the first part of this valuable essay were distributed among 

 friends in the beginning of 1782. This part was reprinted and pub- 

 lished in 1790, and the second, third, and fourth parts were added in 

 1797. Mr. Clerk was no sailor, and had never even made a single sea- 

 voyage. 



Such is the account given by Mr. Clerk's relatives and friends, but it 

 has been indignantly contradicted in various publications by General 

 Sir Howard Douglas. In a circumstantial narrative of Admiral 

 Rodney's battle, he proves that the passage of the British through the 

 enemy's line, and thereby cutting off the rear ships, arose from the 

 chance position of the two fleets, and was one of those happy and 

 unpremeditated decisions of the moment which always characterise a 

 great and successful commander. By a close examination of dates, he 

 al*o shows that Mr. Clerk's ingenious essay could not have been com- 

 municated to Lord Rodney before the engagement took plaoe ; and he 

 supports these statements by letters and other documents which have 

 fallen into his bauds since the death of his father, the late Admi.ul 

 Sir Charles Douglas, who was at that time Rodney's ' captain of the 

 fleet,' and therefore minutely acquainted with all the transactions. 

 (See the several publications on this subject by Liou in ..';t-General Sir 

 Howard Douglas, Bart.) Other writers have taken part in the contro- 

 versy, but, as far as we are aware, nothing material has been added 

 beyond what is stated above. Mr. Clerk died in July 1812. 



CLEVELAND, CLEIVELAND, or CLEAVELAND, JOHN, was 

 born at Loughborough, Leicestershire, iu 1613, and studied at Cam- 

 bridge, where he became a college tutor and reader iu rhetoric. On 

 the breaking out of the civil war he joined the royal army, and dis- 

 tinguished himself both as an active soldier and as one of the most 

 severe and biting writers of lampoons on the Roundheads. He died 

 in London in 1658. Those few verses of his, chiefly love-poems, which 

 rise above personalities and temporary interests, possess occasional 



richness of fancy ; but they are deformed by the most perverse conceits 

 anywhere to be found in the circle of that which has been called the 

 metaphysical poetry of the 17th century. The most complete edition 

 of Cleveland's works appeared in Svo in 1657. 



CLINTON, DE WITT, has a claim to biographical notice chiefly 

 as the persevering promoter of the project for the formation of the 

 great canal from Lake Erie to the Atlantic. He was born in 1769, at 

 Little Britain, Orauge county, New York. His mother was one of the 

 distinguished Dutch family of De Witt ; and his father, who was of 

 English extraction, served with great distinction as brigadier-general 

 in the army of the United States during the revolutionary war. De 

 Witt received his education at Colombia College, New York, and was 

 admitted to the bar. In 1797 he was elected by the democratic party 

 to the state legislature of New York ; having previously officiated for 

 several years as secretary to his uncle George Clinton, as well as to the. 

 regents of the university and board of fortifications of New York. In 

 1801 he was elected a member of the senate of the United States. He 

 afterwards filled the office of mayor of New York until 1815, when 

 he resigned, mainly in consequence of having been unsuccessful in his 

 candidateship for the presidency of the United States. During the 

 period between 1817 and 1826, he was several times elected governor 

 of the state of New York by the zealous exertions of the democratic 

 party. He was one of the founders of the New York Historical 

 Society, the Academy of Arts, and the Orphan Asylum of New York, 

 a member of most of the literary and scientific societies of the United 

 States, and of several similar institutions iu Europe. His productions 

 consist of his speeches made on various occasions in the performance 

 of his official duties, papers read before literary and benevolent 

 societies, correspondence concerniug the canal ; judicial opinions, and 

 various fugitive compositions. His services to his native state were 

 very important, and his character, as a lover of science and polite 

 literature, was adorned by a generous benevolence. He died suddenly 

 in 1828, and was interred with great public demonstrations of respect. 



CLINTON, HENRY FYNES, was born January 14, 1781, at Gam- 

 ston in Nottinghamshire. He was the eldest son of the Rev. Charles 

 Fynes Clinton, D.D., prebendary of Westminster, and incumbent of 

 St. Margaret's, Westminster, and was descended in direct line from 

 Henry, second earl of Lincoln. The family name was Fynes till his 

 father obtained a royal licence, April 26, 1S21, to resume the ancient 

 family name of Clinton. 



Mr. Clinton was educated at Southwell School, Nottinghamshire, 

 where he remained from 17S9 till 1796, and was well grounded in the 

 classic languages. In September 1796 he was removed to Westminster 

 School, where he remained till Easter 1799, not on the foundation. 

 In April 1799 he went to Oxford, where he was entered a commoner 

 of Christ Church, and remained till 1806. He graduated B.A. in 1803, 

 and M.A. in 1805. 



At the general election of 1806 he was returned M.P. for Aldboroiigh, 

 through the interest of the Duke of Newcastle, and continued to be 

 one of the representatives of that borough till the dissolution of 1826, 

 after which he was succeeded in his seat by his next brother. He was 

 diligent in his parliamentary attendance, but was not a speaker. In 

 his politics he was a conservative. After the death of Mr. Plants, in 

 December 1827, he was a candidate for the office of principal librarian 

 of the British Museum ; but the claims of Sir Henry Ellis from long 

 service and experience determined the choice of the Marquis of Lans- 

 downe, then Home Secretary, in ^iis favour. Mr. Clinton inherited an 

 ample fortune from a distant relative. He died at hia residence, 

 Welwyn, Hertfordshire, October 24, 1852. 



Mr. Clinton married Juno 22, 1 809, but his wife died February 2, 

 1810. He married January 6, 1812, a daughter of Dr. Majendie, 

 bishop of Bangor, who survived him, together with eight daughters. 

 His only son, Charles Francis Clinton, graduated B. A. of Christ Church, 

 Oxford, in 1836, served in Spain in the Christino army, was decoratei 

 with the Cross of San Fernando by Espartero, was appointed in 1843 

 British arbitrator under the treaty with Portugal for the abolition of 

 slavery, and died at Loando, on the west coast of Africa, in 1844. 



Mr. Clinton was a classical scholar of the highest class. He read 

 carefully all the best works of the Greek and Roman writers with a 

 diligence perhaps unexampled, at least iu modern times. He himself 

 states, that while at Oxford, during less than seven years, he read 5223 

 pages of the Greek poets and prose-writers ; but that afterwards, 

 between 1810 ard 18?0. h read about 40,000 pages : the reading at 

 Oxford amounting to 740' pages annually, while the reading during 

 1810-20 amounts to 4000 pages aunu;illy, which is at any rate more 

 than five times greater. 



Mr. Clinton's two great works, the ' Fasti Hellenic! ' and ' Fasti 

 Roman!,' have a European reputation, and are literary works of which 

 every English scholar may well be proud. The 'Fasti Hellenici' (the 

 'Civil and Literary Chronology of Greece'), 3 vols. 4to, Oxford, was 

 commenced in 1810, and was published in four separate volumes in 

 1824, 1827, 1830, and 1834; but the work is now divided into 3 vols., 

 which are sold separately vol. i. extending from the earliest accounts 

 to the 55th Olympial, vol. ii. from the 55th to the 124th Olympiad, 

 and vol. iii. from the ]24th Olympiad to the death of Augustus. 

 Besides tho chronological tables, of which these volumes for the most 

 part consist, they -are interspersed with dissertations on the early 

 inhabitants of Greece, the Messeniau wars, scripture chronology, the 



