S97 



MURPHY, ttOBERT. 



MURPHY, ROBERT. 



gathered from hia works, which had the merit of giving information of 

 the state of Portugal, and minute particulars of some of the chief 

 antiquities of the Peninsula, when comparatively little attention had 

 been paid to the subject. Murphy, who appears to have been born in 

 Ireland, was residing in Dublin in 1788. Here he was acquainted 

 with the Kight Honourable \V. Conyngham, who had been iu Portugal 

 in 1783, and brought home some sketches of the church of Batalna, 

 a building which though greatly inferior in points of detail to works 

 of the same class in other parts of Europe, is interesting from its con- 

 struction, its style (a version of the Gothic which is exceptional in 

 the Peninsula), and from its authorship, ascribed to an Irish architect. 

 Murphy arrived at Oporto in January 1789, and ho then started for 

 the monastery of Batalha, which he reached in seven days. Being 

 kindly received by the prior, he spent some time in getting together 

 materials for his future work. He subsequently visited Lisbon, and 

 he collected many particulars of the country by observation or from 

 Portuguese writers. 



Shortly after his return he published in 1795, 'Travels in Portugal 

 through the provinces ofEntreDouro e Minho, Beira, Estremadura, 

 and Alem-tejo iu the years 1789 and 1790, consisting of Observations 

 on the Manners, Customs, Trade, Public Buildings, Arts, Antiquities, 

 &c., of that kingdom' (London, 4 to, 24 plates). A French translation 

 of the work by Lallemaut appeared in 1797; and the researches, 

 though impugned somewhat too severely by the Doctor Ranque in 

 hia ' Lettres sur le Portugal,' were regarded with general interest, 

 and also were presented in the German language by M. C. Sprengel. 

 His chief work of that time appeared in 1792-95, under the title, 

 ' Plan*, Elevations, Sections and Views of the Church of Batlha in 

 the province of Estramadura in Portugal, with the History and 

 Description by Fr. Luis de Sousa, with remarks : to which is prefixed 

 an Introductory Discourse on the Principles of Gothic Architecture ' 

 (folio, 27 pla'es). The description is translated from the Portuguese of 

 De Sousa. The expense of the work, amounting to 1000J., was borne 

 by Mr. Conyughatn. In 1797 or 1798, Murphy published 'A General 

 View of the State of Portugal, containing a Topographical Description 

 thereof, in which are included an Account of the Physical and Moral 

 state of the Kingdom ; together with Observations on the Animal, 

 Vegetable, and Mineral productions of its Colonies, the whole 

 compiled from the best Portuguese writers, and from notices 

 obtained in the country' (4 to, 15 plates, and map). The plates here 

 are poorly executed. All these works have the author's name as 

 James Murphy. 



Regarding a later work as due to the same hand, though far more 

 elaborate in appearance, we find that the author of it, "James CavauaLi 

 Murphy," arrived at Cadiz in May 1802, whence he proceeded to 

 Granada, to make drawings of the Alhambra. Afterwards he went 

 to Cordova, and altogether spent seven years in Spain. After 1809, 

 when he says he returned to England, he was occupied nearly an equal 

 length of time in preparing his work, of which some portion appeared 

 in 1812 or 1813, but the larger portion in 1815. The work is entitled 

 ' The Arabian Antiquities of Spain,' and contains ninety-seven plates 

 in large folio, by Le Keux an 1 others, with descriptive letterpress, and 

 is of great value as a record ; though, in regard to the Alhambra, 

 omitting all illustration of coloured enrichment, since supplied iu his 

 work by Mr. Owen Jones. In 1816 the same author published iu 4 to 

 ' The History of the Mahometan Empire in Spain, containing a General 

 History of the Arabs, their Institutions, Conquests, Literature, Arts, 

 Sciences, and -Manners, to the Expulsion of the Moors ; designed as an 

 Introduction to the Arabian Antiquities of Spain,' with a map of the 

 countries conquered by the Arabs. He died iu the eame year, 1816, 

 during the publication of this work. 



MURPHY, ROUEKT, was the third of the seven children of a 

 ."hoemaker, parish clerk of Mallow in Ireland : he was born iu 1806. 

 His father intended to have brought him up to his own trade ; but 

 the son's destination was changed by an accident which nearly coat 

 him Ins life. When eleven years of age, while playing in the streets 

 of his native town, he was run over by a cart, and lay on bis bed for 

 twelve months with a fractured thigh-bone. During this confinement, 

 his family supplied him with such Looks and newspapers as they could 

 procure ; and among them there happened to be a Cork almanac, con- 

 taining some mathematical problems. These attracted tho child's 

 attention, and made him desirous of possessing Euclid and a work on 

 algebra. The books were procured with some difficulty, and before he 

 was again able to walk, and before he was thirteen years of age, young 

 Murphy was an extraordinary instance of a self-taught mathematician. 

 A gentleman of the natne of Mulcahy, of Cork, who was tlie tutor of 

 most of those from the south of Ireland who got fellowships at Dublin 

 College, was in tbe habit of proposing problems (or ' cuts,' as they are 

 called in Cork) in the newspapers. At a certain time, lie began to 

 receive answers by return of post, from Mallow, without any signature. 

 'iiirpiised at tbe extraordinary talent displayed in these answers, Mr. 

 Mulcahy went to Mallow to find out his unknown correspondent. 

 After some difficulty, he found that the asserted author of the answers 

 was a boy on crutches, so young that he could not believe the story. 

 A few minutes' conversation however put it beyond a doubt. On 

 coming away, in amazement, he happened to meet a gentleman to 

 whom we are indebted for this account, J. Dillon Croker, Esq., of 

 Mallow, one of lii.H first patrons, to whom he said, with natural exag- 



geration, " Mr. Croker, you have a second Sir Isaac Newton iu Mallow: 

 pray look after him." It was then agreed that the boy should give up 

 learning his father's trade, and pursue his studies. Mr. Hopley, who 

 kept a classical school in Mallow, had the generosity to take him as a 

 pupil without any charge : and he, in after life, had the satisfaction of 

 transmitting to the widow of his teacher, then reduced to poverty, the 

 sum which an ordinary pupil would have paid. 



When he attained the age of seventeen, great exertions were made 

 to get him entered as a student of Trinity College, Dublin, but without 

 success. The examinations for sizarships being classical, he had no 

 chance : and some mathematical papers which were sent to the 

 authorities as the productions of a boy who had never had a teacher, 

 and which, to judge by what we shall presently see, must have been 

 of no common merit received no attention. At this time Mr. 

 Mackey, a Roman Catholic priest, published a duplication of the cube, 

 the plausibility of which attracted attention, and, it is said, even 

 obtained the assent of the teachers at Maynooth. Young Murphy, 

 then eighteen years of age, answered this duplication iu a pamphlet, 

 entitled ' Refutation of a pamphlet written by the Rev. John Mackey, 

 R. C. P. entitled " A method of making a cube double of a cube, 

 founded on the principle of elementary geometry," wherein his prin- 

 ciples are proved erroneous, and the required solution not yet obtained; 

 by Robert Murphy, Mallow, 1824' (20 pp.). The matter and style of 

 this production are really extraordinary under the circumstances : 

 with the exception of a little too much acerbity of expression, and a 

 mere slip in a point of history, a critic would not find anything to 

 attack in it, even as the work of an educated person of mature ago. The 

 young author had a confusion iu his head between Lord Brouuker and 

 Dr. Brinkley, when he says that ' Dr. Brour.kley,' had expressed the 

 circumference of a circle by a continued fraction. 



The gentleman to whom we have several times referred now deter- 

 mined to try to get young Murphy seut to Cambridge. He applied to 

 the clergyman who presented the boy with his Euclid and algebra, 

 Mr. Brown, who was then employed in a parish of which Mr. McCarthy, 

 a Cambridge Master of Arts, was the proprietor. This last-named 

 gentleman, being then about to visit England, promised to take some 

 of Murphy's papers with him, and to do what he could to induce his 

 old tutor, Professor Woodhouse [WooDHOUSEJ, to interest himself iu 

 tue matter. The first answer was not very encouraging. Mr. Wood- 

 hou?e would say no more than that if they would send the boy he 

 would look after him. On being requested to look over the papers, he 

 declined, saying, that he had no time, and made it a rule not to do so. 

 He desired that the papers might be taken away, and on being 

 requested to allow them to remain, to meet the case of his possibly 

 being able to look at them, he predicted for them the fate of waste 

 paper, and the interview ended. Jn six weeks from that time, how- 

 ever, Mr. Woodhouse wrote a hurried letter to Mr. McCarthy, stating 

 that at the moment when he was about to tear the papers, in fulfil- 

 ment of his prophecy, his attention was struck by something that was 

 almott new to him that on turning page after page, he saw with 

 ddi_;lit so much talent that he was really unable to say how long he 

 remained fixed to the subject that he intended should occupy him but 

 a moment that suddenly, recollecting it was the last day for entrance, 

 he hastily went an 1 placed the name of the writer on the boards of 

 Cains College. He concluded by promising that if his friends would 

 ssnd him with fifty or sixty pounds in his pocket, he would take care 

 that they should not be called on again : and this promise was 

 faithfully kept. Mr. Croker immediately obtained about seventy 

 pounds by sub<criptioo, and Mr. Murphy began his residence at Ciius 

 College, in October 1825. During his residence, the college supplied 

 him with money, in addition to tho proceeds of his scholarship. In 

 1829 he took the degree of Bachelor of Arts, and came out third 

 wrangler. The highest place is sometimes not to be gained by any 

 amount of genius and industry, unaccompanied by strict attention to 

 the University course of reading ; and Mr. Murphy's time was much 

 occupied by speculations of his own, which would not turn to much 

 account in an examination. In My 1829, he was elected Fellow of 

 Caius; he shortly afterwards took deacon's orders (he did not proceed 

 farther), aud was made dean of his college (the deau is, at Caius, an 

 officer who, under the master, regulates the chapel discipline) in 

 October 1831. 



Of what he did in mathematics we shall presently speak : we could 

 wish there were nothing more to say of his private life. He gradually 

 fell into dissipated habits, and in December 1832, left Cambridge, 

 with his fellowship under sequestration for the benefit of his creditors. 

 There isi much excuse for a very young man, brought up in penury, 

 and pushed by the force of early talent into a situation in which 

 ample command of money is accompanied by even more than pro. 

 portionate exposure to temptation. His college admitted the excuse 

 to its fullest extent : and though it could not tolerate the continued 

 residence of an officer who had shown such an example, yet it was 

 understood that his ultimate promotion to one of the more valuable 

 fellowships would take place, on the amendment of his excesses. 

 After living some time among his friends in Ireland, he came to 

 London in 1836, to begin life again as a teacher and writer. Among 

 other things, he obtained from tbe Useful Knowledge Society an 

 engagement to write the work on the Theory of Equations presently 

 mentioned. In October 183S, he obtained a small permanent income 



