CUMBERLAND, IIICHAKD. 



CUMMtNQ, JOHN, D.D. 



only, memoir of Cumberland, " that Dr. Cumberland was the fittest 

 man lie could nominate to the buhoprio of Peterborough. . . . The 

 doctor walked after hi* usual manner on a port-day to the coffee-bout", 

 and read in the newapaper that one Dr. Cumberland, of Stamford, wan 

 named to the bishopric of Peterborough ; a greater surprise to himself 

 than to anybody else." (Preface to Sanchoniathou's History,' p. xii.) 

 This was in the sixtieth year of his age ; but his health was still good, 

 and he entered with great zeal on the performance of his new duties. 

 He had commenced, aome yean before, a critical examination of San- 

 choniathon's ' Phoenician History : ' and this work still occupied him 

 for aome years after he was made a bishop. It led him to several 

 cognate inquiries, the results of which were published some time after 

 his death under the title of 'Origines Antiquisrimo, or Attempt* for 

 Discovering the Time* of the first Planting of Nations.' Neither was 

 the series of dissertations on Sanchouiathon's History published during 

 hii lifetime. They were both edited by Mr. Payne, and published, 

 the latter in 1720, the former in 1724. At the age of eighty-three 

 Dr. Cumberland, having been presented by Dr. Wilkins, with a cjpy 

 of his Coptic Testament, then juat published, commenced, like another 

 Cato, the atudy of Coptic. " At this age," says Mr. Payne, " he 

 mastered the language, and went through great part of this version, 

 and would often give me excellent hints and remarks ai he proceeded 

 in reading of it" He died on the Oth of October 171 3, in the eighty- 

 seyenth year of his age. 



Dr. Cumberland's private character appears to have been a perfect 

 model of virtue. He was a man abo of most extensive learning. 

 " He was thoroughly acquainted with all the branches of philosophy : 

 he had good judgment in physic, knew everything that was curious in 

 anatomy, had an intimacy with the daisies. Indeed he was a stranger 

 to no part of learning, but every subject he had occasion to talk of, 

 he waa as much a master of it as if the direction of his studies had 

 chiefly lain that way. He was thoroughly conversant in Scripture, 

 and had laid up that treasure in his mind. No hard passage ever 

 occurred, either occasionally or in reading, but he could readily give 

 the meaning of it, and the (several interpretations, without needing 

 to consult his books." 



The Inquiry into the Laws of Nation* ' (' De Legibus Natunc 

 Disquisitio Philosophies, in qua earnm forma, summa capita, ordo, 

 promnlgatio, et obligatio, e reruni natura investigantur ; quiuetiam 

 Element* Philosophic Hobbiann, cum moralis tuin civilis, conside- 

 rantur et refutantur') was called forth by the political and moral works 

 of Hobbes. Hobbes is charged th' rein with atheism ; he is repre- 

 sented, as he is also represented in Cudworth's ' Eternal and Immutable 

 Morality,' as denying any standard of moral good and evil other than 

 one fashioned by human law; he is upbraided for the forms of 

 expression that in a state of nature all men have a right to all things, 

 and that the state of nature is a state of war. These differences 

 between Hobbes and Cumberland may be all traced to a misappre- 

 hension of the former's meaning. As regards Cumberland's own views 

 of moral fcience, they are substantially correct. Objections may be 

 made to the phrases, ' law of nature ' and ' right reason,' by which last 

 he denotes the set of faculties employed in the determination of moral 

 good and evil. But though in a scienco where the chief disputes that 

 have arisen are verbal disputes, phraseology cannot be accounted 

 unimportant; and though tint phraseology, combined with clumsiness 

 of style and arrangement, has prevented a general perception of the 

 mibstautial merits of the work, we must, while we regret the defect and 

 its consequences, do justice to a really correct system. Tendency to 

 rffxrt the general good is made the standard of morality. To endeavour 

 to effect the greatest amount of general good is the one great duty, or 

 the one great ' law of nature ;' and we know, according to Cumberland, 

 that it is a duty or law of nature, or law of God, because we know 

 that an individual derives the greatest happiness from the exercise of 

 benevolence, and that Qod desires the greatest possible happiness of 

 all his creatures. Carrying out the fundamental principle, tht the 

 greatest general good is to bo sought, he deduces the several particular 

 duties or particular ' laws of nature.' He founds government upon, 

 and tests it by, the same principle. 



The ' Inquiry,' as may be inferred from the Latin title which has 

 been given, was written in Latin. It was printed in a most inaccurate 

 way, and the innumerable errors of the original edition have been 

 perpetuated in the several German and London reprint*. Dr. Cum- 

 berland left an interleaved copy witU a few corrections and addition* : 

 in this same copy the whole text was revised by Dr. Bontley ; and 

 thus enriched, the copy wss presented to the library of Trinity College, 

 Cambridge, by Kichard Cumberland, the great-grandson of the bishop, 

 and grandson of Dr. Hentley. An abridged translation was publiihod 

 by Mr. James Tyrol in 1701, during Dr. Cumbfriand's lifetime. Mr. 

 Maxwell, an Iri.h clergyman, published a translation in 1727, prefixing 

 and appending some original dissertation*. M. Barbeyrao published a 

 translation into French in 1744, having been allowed the use of the 

 intorlnved oopy containing the author's and Dr. Uentley'a corrections. 

 A third English translation by the Kev. John Towers, D.D., appeared 

 in 1750. 

 (Payne's Preface to Cumberland's Sanchoniathou's 11 Mary ; Kippi* 



1 ' i > ; ''I j ' 1 / > ''t . , i > 



CUMBERLAND, KICHAUU, a dramatic writer and miscellaneous 

 author of the Is** century, grsaVgrandsou of Kichard Cumberland; 



>Uhop of Peterborough, and grandson by the mother's side of Dr. 

 Richard Bentley, was bora February 19, 1732, in the lodge of Trinity 

 'allege, Cambridge. He was placed successively at the public schools 

 of Bury St. Edmunds and Westminster, and at the early age of fourteen 

 commenced his residence at Trinity College, Cambridge. Though 

 1 vi ring his two first years he had entirely neglected his mathematical 

 ttudies, he distinguished himself highly by readiness and skill as a 

 dirputer in the schools, and obtained the degree of tenth wrangler. 

 Two years after he was elected Fellow of Trinity. It was his intention 

 to enter the church, and devote himself to literature and the duties 

 of his profession. From these views he was withdrawn by being 

 appointed in the same year private secretary to the Earl of Halifax, 

 hen first lord of trade, whom he accompanied, on his appoints 

 M lord-lieutenant, to Ireland in 1760. Through this connection his 

 ather became bishop first of Clonfert, afterwards of Kihnore. After 

 passing through one or two subordinate offices, Cumberland was 

 tppointed secretary to the Board of Trade, soon after Lord Qeorgo 

 Geruiaiue became first lord in 1775, and held that office until the 

 suppression of the board in 1782. In 1780 he was sent on a 

 dential and secret mission to the court of Madrid. This appointim ut 

 proved the source of no small loss and vexation, in consequence of his 

 expenditure to the extent of 45002. beyond the money which he 

 received at starting, of which no portion ever was repaid. On this 

 subject we have only his own ex pai-te, but uncoutradicted, statement : 

 there is every appearance that he was exceedingly ill-used. 



After the reduction of the Board of Trade, Cumberland received a 

 compensation-allowance, and retired to husband his diminished means 

 at Tunbridge Wells. He now devoted himself altogether to literature, 

 which had hitherto been only hia amusement ; and tried his powers 

 in the multifarious departments of opera, farce, comedy, tragedy; 

 occasional, lyric, and sacred poetry; pamphlets, novels, essays, and 

 even divinity; but he will hardly be remembered except as on essayist, 

 and as the author of several successful comedies, of which only the 

 ' West Indian,' the ' Wheel of Fortune,' and the ' Jew,' need be 

 mentioned. The ' West Indian ' obtained great popularity on its first 

 appearance, and is still a stock piece. The 'Jew' was an honourable 

 attempt to combat popular prejudice against the Jewish nation. The 

 'Wheel of Fortune' is identified with John Ketublo, who made 

 Pouruddock one of his very effective characters. Many other of hU 

 dramatic pieces, of which there are at least thirty-two, wero popular 

 at the time of their production; and even those which had littKi 

 sterling merit added for a time to lib reputation, by keeping his name 

 continually before the public. 



As an essayist, Cumberland rode to fame on the shoulders of 

 Bentley, from whose manuscripts he derived the learning of those 

 series of papers in the 'Observer 'on Greek poetry, which contain a 

 rich collection of translated fragments of the comic poets. The merits 

 of the translations however belong to Cumberland. There are also a 

 number of valuable critical essays, chiefly on the drama. The entire 

 work proceeded from Cumberland's pen, and affords honourable 

 evidence of the author's fertility of imagination, knowledge, humour, 

 and varied power of composition. His translation of the ' Clouds of 

 Aristophanes ' is elegant, but he has altogether missed the spirit of 

 the original. 



One of Cumberland's pamphlets that appeared without his name, 

 entitled ' Curtius rescued from the Qulph, or the Ueply Courteous to 

 the Itev. Dr. Parr, in answer to his learned pamphlet, entitled ' A 

 Sequel," ' &c., is no unfavourable specimen of the author's powers of 

 humour and sarcasm, and his r< adiness at paying off a mass of learned 

 quotation* in coin of the same but a more current kind. 



His memoirs, published in 1806, is a very amusing book, full of 

 interesting anecdotes of the men of his time, which will give the reader 

 a thorough insight into the vain and irritable character of the author. 

 His reputation was unblemished in the discharge both of hia public 

 and private duties, and his society wai much courted for hia brilliant 

 conversation. Mr. Cumberland died, after a few days' illness, Slay 7, 

 1811. 



CUM M INQ, JOHN, D.D., a native of Aberdeenshire, Scotland, was 

 born in 1810, and after completing his literary and theological studies 

 with a view to the Christian ministry iu connection with the established 

 Church of Scotland, ho accepted an engagement as a tutor in a school 

 near London. Having been licensed as a probationer by the presbytery 

 of London, ho became in 1832 minister of the Scotch church iu Crown- 

 court, Covont-Garden, the duties of which offico he still discharges 

 with well-sustained efficiency end acceptance. Dr. Cumuiing has 

 distinguished himself as a popular preacher, an acute and skilful 

 controversialist, and a diligent and successful author. At secretary of 

 the Protestant Reformation Society he ha* been frequently called to 

 take part in the public agitation of the questions in dispute between 

 Roman Catholics and Protestants, and has on several occasions held 

 public discussions with adherents of the Roman Catholic Church. 

 As a friend of establishments, be has defended the propriety of the 

 connection between church and state against the arguments of the 

 friends of the voluntary principle; as attached to the Churcli of 

 Scotland, ho has been the principal representative in London of those 

 who resisted the anti-patronage, non-intrusion, and Free-church move- 

 ments; and iu questions of church polity he has generally been 

 associated with the adherent* of the moderate party in the Scottish 



