117 



MARSDEN, WILLIAM. 



MARSHALL, JOHN. 



113 



death having been accelerated, if not caused, by the habit of having 

 her hair dyed every ten days. She left behind her a fortune of 

 800,000 francs. 



MARSDEN, WILLIAM, a distinguished Oriental scholar, was born 

 in Dublin, on the 16th of November 1754. He was of a Derbyshire 

 family which had settled in Ireland at the end of the reign of Queen 

 Anne. John Marsden, his father, was the son of one of the original 

 settlers, and was established in Dublin as a merchant on a large scale. 

 The subject of this article was his tenth child. After going through 

 the usual course of classical education in the schools of Dublin, he 

 was about to be entered at Trinity College with a view to the church, 

 when his destinies led him to take a very different course. His eldest 

 brother had before proceeded to Bencoolen as a civil servant of the 

 East India Company ; and Bending home a very favourable account of 

 his prospects, the father was induced to apply for another appoint- 

 ment in the same quarter for William, which proved successful. He 

 was accordingly removed from school, and in the beginning of the 

 year 1771, when he was but sixteen years of age, he embarked for 

 India, and an ' -ed at Bencoolen in May of the same year. Here his 

 assiduity, intelligence, and integrity quickly secured to him such dis- 

 tinction as a small establishment and community afforded. He 

 became first sub-secretary, and soon after principal secretary to the 

 government. The duties of these stations were not very laborious, 

 and afforded ample leisure for study and inquiry. Mr. Marsden 

 mastered the vernacular language of the country, the Malay, and at 

 the same time laid in that stock of local knowledge which, being 

 embodied afterwards in his publications, was the foundation of his 

 fame as a writer. 



Mr. Marsden's whole stay in Sumatra did not exceed eight years, 

 but how well and diligently he employed this brief period can only 

 be sufficiently appreciated by those who, like the writer of this article, 

 have been engaged in the same pursuits. But he felt that his powers 

 were wasted in the narrow field in which they were exercised, and 

 he determined upon an experiment, usual in such a case as his, that 

 of returning to England to push his fortune. Ho felt that, at all 

 events, literary leisure, independence, and a congenial climate would 

 be assured to him by this step. 



Having this object in view, he quitted Sumatra in the summer of 

 1779, and in the last days of the same year arrived in England, with 

 good health, but with n.n income of a few hundred pounds a year. 

 His first attempt was to procure a small post under the government ; 

 but, failing in this, he resolved on a literary retirement, and on sup- 

 plying the want of wealth by a prudent economy ; and if he after- 

 wards abandoned this course, his departure from it cannot be said to 

 have been of his own seeking. Shortly after his return to England he 

 made the acquaintance of the late Sir Joseph Banks, and at his philo- 

 sophical breakfasts met and acquired the friendship of some of the most 

 eminent men of the day, Solander, Maskelyne, Dairy mple, Rennell, and 

 Henchel. He soon became a Fellow of the Royal Society, and eventually 

 of almost every learned or scientific society of eminence in the kingdom. 

 His literary reputation was insured by the publication in 1782 of the 

 well-known ' History of Sumatra.' This work, which has been trans- 

 lated into French and German, has maintained its reputation to the 

 present time. It has the peculiar impress of Mr. Marsden's mind, 

 strong sense, truthfulness, and caution. In so far as our language at 

 least IB concerned, it may be considered as the first book of Oriental 

 travels which, with a thorough and intimate personal knowledge of 

 local details, combines philosophy, science, and a liberal acquaintance 

 with letters. 



For fourteen years after bis return to England Mr. Marsden's time 

 was devoted wholly to literature and science ; and in this manner it 

 was his fixed intention to have passed the rest of his life. In 1782 

 he had resisted the temptation of going to India with Admiral Sir 

 Hyde Parker, with the lucrative office of secretary ; and in 1787 the 

 certainty, under the auspices of the leading parties at the India House, 

 of becoming an East India Director. In 1795 however, invited by 

 Earl Spencer, on the recommendation of his friend, the celebrated 

 geographer, Major Rennell, he accepted the situation of second secre- 

 tary ; and in due course of time he became chief secretary to the 

 British Board of Admiralty, with the war salary of 40001. per annum. 

 No man at the same time could be better fitted, by diligence, official 

 training, integrity, and general intelligence, to discharge the various 

 functions which ho was called upon to perform, and he did so dis- 

 charge them for a period of- twelve years, greatly to his own honour 

 and the public advantage. This period too comprehended the most 

 eveutful and glorious in the history of the British navy, for it 

 embraced the victories of Cape St. Vincent, Camperdown, the Nile, 

 and Trafalgar. In 1807 Mr. Maraden, whose health began to suffer 

 severely by the laborious discharge of the very onerous duties of his 

 office, tendered his resignation of the secretaryship to the Admiralty, 

 and retired on a pension of 1500t per annum. 



The first solid fruits of Mr. Marsden's leisure were the publication, 

 i 2, of his Grammar and Dictionary of the Malay language, the 

 most difficult, elaborate, and perhaps the most likely to endure of his 

 literary labours. A portion of the materials he had of course brought 

 with him from Sumatra, and we find him engaged iu the compilation 

 oftlio Dictionary us far back as 1780. The eventual publication of these 

 works however did not take place until thirty-three years after he had 



quitted Sumatra, and, consequently, after ho bad ceased to receive any 

 assistance from native instructors. When we consider therefore the 

 accuracy and erudition by which they are so eminently characterised, 

 we must look upon them as affording the highest proofs of happy 

 industry and acuteness. Translations of them have been made, under 

 the auspices of the Netherland government, both into the French and 

 Dutch languages. In 1817 he published his ' Translation of the cele- 

 brated Travels of Marco Polo.' The translation has been made with 

 Mr. Marsdeu's accustomed accuracy, and is accompanied by a com- 

 mentary far more valuable than the translation itself. In 1S23 he 

 published the first part, and in 1825 the second, of his ' Numismata 

 Orientalia, or Description of Eastern Coins,' a valuable collection of 

 which had fallen into his hands by purchase. This is a work of great 

 care and learning, in which, as well as in some respects iu the compila- 

 tion of the Malayan Dictionary, he had the invaluable assistance of his 

 learned relative Sir Charles Wilkins. In 1832, in his seventy-eighth 

 year, Mr. Marsden published his last work, comprising three Essays, 

 the longest, most elaborate, and important of which is on the Poly- 

 nesian or East Insular Languages, a subject which had long engaged 

 his attention and was a great favourite with him. He was indeed the 

 first that pointed out the existence of a considerablo body of Sanscrit 

 words in all the cultivated Polynesian languages, and also the singular 

 connection which exists among these languages themselves, extending 

 from Madagascar to Easter Island. 



In 1831 Mr. Marsden voluntarily relinquished his pension to the 

 public, an act of liberality which, at the time, had no example, and 

 has had very few since. It met, as it well deserved, the warmest 

 applause of the House of Commons. In 1834, feeling, as he himself 

 says, the increasing infirmities of age, ho determined in his life-time to 

 bestow his rich collection of coins and medals and his extensive library 

 of books and Oriental manuscripts in such a manner as would make 

 them most serviceable to the public. The coins and medals he gave 

 to the British Museum, and his library to the newly-founded King's 

 College. In 1833 he had a slight apoplectic attack, and in 1834 and 

 1835 a second and third. These greatly enfeebled his body, leaving 

 him however in the entire possession of his memory. The final and 

 fatal attack did not take place until the 6th of October 1836, when, at 

 seven o'clock iu the morning, after passing a tranquil night, he gently 

 expired, hardly uttering a groan, iu the eighty-second year of a happy, 

 prosperous, and well-spent life. Agreeably to his own directions, he 

 was interred in the cemetery at Kensal Green. In 1807, shortly after 

 quitting the Admiralty, Mr. Marsden married the eldest daughter of 

 his old and intimate friend the late Sir Charles Wilkins : she survived 

 him, and was the judicious and accomplished editor of the 'Autobio- 

 graphical Memoir ' from which we have extracted this brief account. 



MARSHALL, JOHN, Chief Justice of the United States of North 

 America, was born in Fauquier County, Virginia, September 24, 1755. 

 He was the son of Colonel Thomas Marshall, and the eldest of fifteen 

 children. He received a little instruction in Latin aud Greek, but 

 went through no regular course of education, and was never at any 

 college. Ou the breaking out of the American war, he engaged with 

 enthusiasm in the cause of his country. In 1776 he was appointed a 

 first lieutenant, and in 1777 was promoted to the rank of captain. He 

 was present at the battles of Brandy wine, Germantown, and Monmouth. 

 There was however a redundancy of officers in the Virginian army, 

 and Marshall having applied himself to the study of the law, was 

 admitted to the bar iu 1780, and in 1781 resigned his commission iu 

 the army. Thenceforward he devoted himself to the law, and rose 

 rapidly to great distinction in the profession. 



Marshall was a member of the Virginia Convention for tho ratifica- 

 tion of the constitution of the United States, and both then as well as 

 subsequently in the Virginia legislature distinguished himself by his 

 judgment and eloquence. He was twice offered the situation of 

 attorney-general, and on both occasions declined on private grounds 

 to accept the offer. In June 1797 John Marshall, Charles Cotesworth 

 Pinckney, and Elbridge Gerry, jointly aud severally, were sent to 

 France as envoys extraordinary and ministers plenipotentiary. Mar- 

 shall returned to America in 1798. In 1799 he became a member of 

 Congress, and on the 13th of May 1800 ho was appointed secretary of 

 state. On the 31st of January 1801 he succeeded John Jay as chief 

 justice of the United States, and from that time till his death continued 

 to fill the office with increasing reputation for ability and integrity. 

 He died July 6, 1835, at Philadelphia, to which city he had gone from 

 bis residence at Richmond in Virginia, iu hope that by medical advice 

 and change of scene his declining health might be improved. Three 

 of his children were with him, but his eldest son died suddenly at 

 Baltimore, on his journey to attend his father's death-bed. 



Judge Marshall was the author of the ' Life of Washington,' originally 

 published in London, in 5 vols. 4to, the first volume in 1804, the fifth 

 in 1807. The work was criticised by the ' Edinburgh Review' (October 

 1808) severely, but perhaps not unfairly, as having been swelled out 

 to an unreasonable bulic by historical matter unconnected with the 

 life of Washington ; as containing no details of his private character 

 and habits, which Judge Marshall had ample opportunities of knowing; 

 as diffuse aud undiserirninating in narrative, and heavy and unanimated 

 in style. This criticism seems not to have been thrown away. Marshall 

 published a second edition of the work iu 1832, compressed into 

 two volumes, and greatly improved. Tho ' History of the American 



