COLLINS, ANTHONY. 



cnl. I. INS, JOHN. 



what it required. In 1776 he took UM command of the Hornet' 

 loop, and won afar mat, at Jamaica, with his favourite companion 

 Horatio NeUon, who wat then lieutenant of the 'Lowestoffe.' Colling- 

 wood ay, in OM of hi* interattinf letter*, " We had bacn long before 

 in h.biu of great friendship ; and it happMied here, that as Admiral 

 Sir P. Parker, the roinmander-in-chief, wai the friend of both, when- 

 TOT NeUon got a atop in rank I succeeded him : 6rt in the ' Lowes- 

 toff.,' then in the Badger.' into which abip I waa made commander 

 in 1779, and afterwardi in the ' Hincliiii broke,' a 28-gun frigate, which 

 made u both poet-captains." 



Although Nelson, who waa a younger man, always kept a remove 

 a-head of him. and came in for a much larger share of fame or popu- 

 larity, Collingwood never had a feeling of jealouay towarda hu friend, 

 whoae merit* he wat always the first to extol, and whom ho loved to 

 the lait hoar of bii life. Nelson, on hit part, teemt to have had a 

 greater affection for Collingwood than for any other officer in the 



In 1780 Nelaon wai tent, in the ' Hinchinhroke ' to the Spanish 

 Main, with ordert to pan into the South Sea by a navigation of boats 

 along the river San Juan and the lake* Nicaragua and Leon a physi- 

 oal unpotaibility, which no skill or perseverance could surmount. 

 Nelaon caught the diteaae of the climate, and hit life wat with dim- 

 culty saved by tending him home to England. Collingwood, who 

 succeeded him at the San Juan River, had many attacks ; hit hardy 

 constitution reflated them all, and he survived the matt of hit ship's 

 company, having buried in four months 180 of the 200 men who 

 composed it Other ships suffered in the tame proportion. In August 

 1781, Collingwood waa wrecked in the middle of a dreadful night in 

 the ' Pelican,' a small frigate which he then commanded, on the rocks 

 of the Morant keys in the West Indies, and saved hit own and hit 

 crew's lives with great difficulty. Hit next appointment wag to the 

 'Sampson,' 64. In 1783 he went to the Weft Indiea in the 'Mediator,' 

 and remained with hit friend Nelaon on that station till the end of 

 1788. He then returned, after twenty-five years' uninterrupted service, 

 to Northumberland, " making," as he says, "my acquaintance with my 

 own family, to whom I had hitherto been, as it were, a stranger." In 

 1 790 he again went to the West Indiet, but a quarrel with Spain being 

 amicably arranged he toon returned, and teeing, at he says, no further 

 hope of employment at sea, he "went into the north and waa married." 

 In 1793 the war with the French republic called him away from his 

 wife and two infant daughters, whom he most tenderly loved, though 

 be wat never after permitted to have much of their society. As 

 captain of the ' Barfleur,' he bore a conspicuous part in Lord Howe's 

 victory of the 1st of June 1794. In 1797 he commanded, with his 

 usual bravery and almost unrivalled nautical skill, the ' Excellent/ 74, 

 in Jarvis't victory of the 14th of February, off Cape St. Vincent In 

 1799 he wat raited to the rank of rear-ad uiiraL The peace of Amiens, 

 for which ho bad long prayed, restored him to his wife and children 

 for a few months in 1802; but the renewed war called him to sea in 

 the spring of 1803, and he never more returned to his happy home. 

 This constant service made him frequently lament that he was hardly 

 known to hit own children, and the anxieties and wear and tear of it 

 thoriened his valuable life. Passing over many less brilliant but still 

 very important services, Collingwood was second in command in the 

 battle of Trafalgar, fought on the 21st of October 1805. His ship, the 

 Royal Sovereign,' wat the first to attack and break the enemy's line; 

 and, upon Nelson's death, Collingwood finished the victory and con- 

 tinued in command of the fleet. He wat now raited to the peerage. 

 After a long and moat wearying blockade of Cadiz, the Straits of 

 Gibraltar, and adjacent coasts, during which, for nearly three yean, 

 be l.ardly ever act foot on shore, and showed a degree of patience aud 

 conduct never surpassed, he tailed up the Mediterranean, where his 

 position involved him in difficult political transactions, which he 

 generally managed with ability. The letters to foreign princes and 

 ministers, the despatches of this tailor who had been at tea from his 

 childhood, are admirable even in point of style. Completely worn 

 out in body, but with a spirit intent on his duties to the la*t, Colling- 

 wood died at tea on board the ' Ville de Paris,' near Port Mahon, on 

 the evening of the 7th of March 1810. In command he was firm but 

 mild most considerate of the comfort and health of hit men averse 

 to Bogging and all violent and brutal exercises of authority ; the 

 tailors called him their father. At a scientific teaman and naval 

 tactician he bad few if any equals, and in action hit judgment wat at 

 cool at bit courage wat ardent. HU mind wat enlightened to an 

 utonisbing degree, considering the circumstances of hit life ; he wat 

 liberal and kitxl hearted, and all hit private virtues were of the most 

 amiable sort His letters to his wife on the education of his daughters 

 are full of good tense and feeling. 



(A StUttim from tKe Public and Private Corrapmdcnce <!' 

 Admiral Lord CUtawvood; Mtrtftned will Memoir, of hit Lift. 

 By O. U Newnham Collingwood, Esq., F.R.S., 2 volt. 8vo, second edit, 

 Lon.1. 1-. 



: IN.S, ANTHONY, wa< born in 1676 at Hetton, near Hount- 

 low, in Middlesex. His father, Henry Collins, Esq., wat an independent 

 gentleman, with an income of 1800/. a year. After the usual prepara- 

 tory studies at Eton, ho went to King's College, Cambridge, and bad 

 for hit tutor Fraocit Han, afterwards bishop of Chichester. He then 

 became a student of the Temple, and married a daughter of Sir 



Francis Child, Lord Mayor of London. During 1703 and 1704 he 



carried on a correspondence with Lookr, who appears to have cherished 



a moat enthusiastic friendship for him, and regarded him at having 

 1 "at much of the love of truth for truth'* aake at ever he met with in 



anybody." The letters of Locke to Collins are indeed filled with the 

 1 strongest expressions of esteem and admiration. Twenty-five letter* 

 I of Locke to Collins are preserved in the ' Collection of Pieces by Locke, 



not contained in hit works,' published by Dei Maizeaux, 8vo, J . 



In 1707 Collins published an essay concerning human reason at 

 supporting human testimony. It was replied to by Bishop Oaatrall. 



The tame year he entered into a controversy with Dr. Samuel Clarke, 

 in support of Dr. Dodwell's book sgainst the natural immortality of 

 the human soul. Five successive rejoinders were elicited. In 1709 be 



published 'Priestcraft in perfection, or a detection of the fraud of 

 inserting and continuing this clause (the church hath power to decree 

 rites and ceremonies, and authority in controversies of faith) in the 

 20th article.' It pasted through three editions in the same year, and 

 occasioned a very general and anxious inquiry. Numerous pauiphUta, 

 sermons, and books discussed the question. Two works especially 

 were written against it with great labour, and were supplied with 

 hints and materials from all quarters of the church : one, entitled ' A 

 Vindication of the Church of England from Fraud and Forgery, by a 

 Priest,' Svo, 1710; the other, a long-delayed and elaborate essay on tha 

 Thirty-nine Articles, by Dr. Bonnet, Svo. To these Collim replied iu 

 his historical and critical essay on the Thirty-nine Articles, iu 1724, 

 proving (p. 277-78) that the clause lias neither the authority of the 

 convocation nor of the parliament Collins' s next work was entitled 

 ' A Vindication of the Divine Attributes,' being remarks on a .-nuoii 

 of the archbishop of Dublin, which asserted the consistency of diviuo 

 foreknowledge and predestination with human free-will. He went in 

 1711 to Holland, where he formed a friendly intercourse with Le 

 Clerc, and other leading characters among the learned of that country. 

 On returning to Kngland he published, in 1713, his 'Discourse on 

 Freethiuking,' which excited much animadversion among the clergy. 

 The most important of the replies which appeared was that by Dr. 

 Bentley, entitled ' Remarks on the Discourse of Freethinkiug by 

 Phileleutherus Lipsiensis,' which is remarkable as a display of learned 

 sagacity, coarse wit, and intemperate abuse. The object of Collins is 

 to show that, in all ages, the most intellectual and virtuous men have 

 been freethinkers; that is, followers of philosophical reasoning, in 

 disregard of established opinions. There ore several French editions 

 of this work. It was reprinted at the Hague, with some additions 

 ahd corrections derived from Bentley's ' Remarks.' On the continent 

 it was answered by Crousaz, and several others. The ' Clergyman's 

 Thanks to Phileleutherus,' 1713, is by Bishop Hare, Collins, on 

 returning from a second residence in Holland, was made justice of the 

 peace and deputy-lieutenant of the county of Essex, offices which he 

 had previously held iu Middlesex. In 1715 he published hit 

 ' Philosophical Inquiry concerning Liberty and Necessity,' which wot 

 reprinted in 1717 in Svo, with corrections. It was translated into 

 French, and is printed iu the ' Recueil de Pieces sur la Philosophic,' 

 Ac,, by Dea Maizeaux, 2 vols. 12mo, 1720. Dr. Samuel Clarke i 

 to the necessarian doctrine of Collins, chiefly by insisting on its 

 inexpediency, considered as destructive of moral responsibility. 



In 1718 Collins was appointed treasurer of the county of Essex, an 

 office which he performed with great fidelity. He married, in 17-14, 

 his second wife, the daughter of Sir Walter Wrottesley, Bart In the 

 same year he published his ' Grounds and Reasons of the Christian 

 Religion,' in which his object is to show that Christianity is founded 

 and dependent on Judaism ; that the New Testament is based upon 

 the Old, as the canon of Christians ; that the apostles and writer* 

 of the former establish and prove their propositions from the latter ; 

 and that none of the passages they adduce are literally, but men-ly 

 typically aud allegorically, applicable, by the assumption of a double 

 construction. This work created a great sensation iu the church, and 

 drew forth a great number of replies from some of the most eminent 

 divines. In the final answer of Collins, ' Scheme of Literal Prophecy,' 

 1726, he enumerates five-and-thirty replies which appeared during the 

 first two years after its publication. The artful way in which Collins 

 availed himself of the theory of Whiston respecting the corruption of 

 the present Hebrew text, BO provoked that divine, that he petitioned 

 Lord Chancellor King, though without success, to remove Mr. Collins 

 from the commission of the peace. In 1727 Collins, in a long letter, 

 replied to eight sermons of Dr. Rogers on the necessity of revelation 

 and the truth of Christianity. He died in December 1729, at his house 

 in llarley. -street All parties agree that the moral aud social cha- 

 racter of Collins wat remarkably amiable. His integrity, energy, and 

 impartiality in the exercise of his magisterial function! commanded 

 the highest respect, and by his conduct and writings he ardently 

 endeavoured to promote the cause of civil and religious liberty. 

 Collins, as a writer, i- remarkable for the great shrewdness of his 

 reasoning : aud for still greater tubtilty in masking the real drift of 

 his argument* with orthodox professions. His library, which was of 

 great extent and extremely curious, waa 01*11 to all men of letters, to 

 whom he readily communicated whatever he knew. A catalogue of 

 hit books was published by the Rev. Dr. Sykes in 1730. 



COLLINS, JOHN, the ton of a Nonconformist clergyman, was 

 born at Wood Eaton, in Oxfordshire, March 5, 1624. He wa; at first 



