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various answers to it goon appeared, the most noted of 

 which were Dr. Waterland's ' Scripture Vindicated,' 1730 ; 

 'The Usefulness, Truth, and Excellency of the Christian 

 Revelation defended,' by Mr. (afterwards Dr.) James 

 Foster (the eminent dissenting clergyman), 1731 ; 'A De- 

 fence of Revealed Religion,' by Dr. Conybeare (afterwards 

 bishop of Bristol), 1732 ; and ' An Answer to Christianity 

 as Old as the Creation,' by the Rev. John (afterwards Dr.) 

 Leland fanother learned and distinguished dissenting 

 divine), 1733. The book is also discussed in the last-men- 

 tioned writer's more celebrated work, his 'View of the 

 Principal Deistical Writers,' published in 1754. Tindal 

 defended himself in ' Remarks on Scripture Vindicated, 

 and some other late Writings,' published along with a 

 new edition of his ' Second Address to the Inhabitants of 

 London and Westminster,' in 1730. But this was his last 

 publication; his health now began to give way, and he 

 expired on the 16th of August, 1733, at a lodging in Cold 

 Bath Fields, to which he had been prevailed upon to re- 

 move a few days before from his chambers in Gray's Inn. 

 Tindal never held any preferment except his fellowship ; 

 but it ii stated, in the 'Biographia Britannica,' that in the 

 : of King William he frequently sat as judge in the 

 Court of Delegates, and had a pension of 200/. a year 

 gi anted to him by the crown for his services in that capa- 

 city. It is added that he 'rarely, if ever, practised as an 

 advocate in the courts of civil or ecclesiastical law ;' which 

 would seem to imply that he had been called to the bar, or 

 been admitted an advocate at Doctors' Commons, although 

 that fact is not mentioned. A new edition of his ' Essay 

 on the Law of Nations' was published the year after his 

 death ; but the publication of a second part of his ' Christ- 

 ianity as Old as the Creation,' which he left ready for the 

 press, is said to have been prevented by the interference' of 

 Bishop Gibson. A will, in which he left nearly all he had 

 1o Eustace Budgell, in whose hands he was for some time 

 before his decease, was contested by his nephew, the Rev. 

 Nicholas Tindal, and was at last set aside : the will was 

 printed in a pamphlet, with a detail of circumstances con- 

 nected with it, in 1733. 



Of the amount of talent and learning shown in Tindal's 

 writings very different estimates have been formed by his 

 admirers and his opponents. Waterland, in the Introduc- 

 tion to his 'Scripture Vindicated,' characterises his anta- 

 gonist in the following terms : ' His attacks are feeble, his 

 artillery contemptible. ; he has no genius or taste for lite- 

 rature, no acquaintance with the original languages, nor 

 so much as with common critics or commentators ; several 

 of his objections are pure English objections, such as affect 

 only our translation : the rest are of the lowest and most 

 trifling sort.' Dr. Conyers Middleton, on the other hand, 

 in a letter which he addressed to Waterland immediately 

 after the latter had published his book, says, ' For my own 

 part, to observe our English proverb, and give the devil 

 his due, I cannot discover any such want of literature as 

 you object to him ; but, on the contrary, see plainly that 

 his work has been the result of much study and reading ; 

 his materials collected from a great variety of the best 

 writers ; his pages decently crowded with citations ; and 

 his index of authors as numerous as that of most books 

 which have lately appeared.' Tindal's English style is 

 unaffected and perspicuous. 



TINDAL, REV. NICHOLAS, was the son of a brother 

 of Dr. Matthew Tindal, and was born in 1687. Having 

 studied at Exeter College, Oxford, and taken his degree of 

 M.A. in 1713, he was afterwards elected a Fellow of Tri- 

 nity College in that university. In 1722 he was presented 

 by his college to the vicarage of Great Waltham in Essex ; 

 in 1738 Sir Charles Wager, then first lord of the admiralty, 

 with whom he appears to have some years before sailed for 

 a short time as cnaplain, appointed him chaplain to Green- 

 wich Hospital ; in 1740 he is said to have been presented to 

 the rectory of Colbourne in the Isle of Wight, upon which he 

 resigned Great Waltham ; and very soon after he appears to 

 have obtained his last preferment, the rectory of Alverstoke 

 in Hampshire, from the bishop of Winchester (Hoadley). 

 lie died at Greenwich Hospital on the 27th of June, 1774. 



Mr. Tindal's first literary attempt was a work published 



in monthly numbers in 1724, under the title of ' Antiquities, 



1 and Profane, being a Dissertation on the excellency 



History of the Hebrews,' &c., which is described as 



a translation from the French of Calmet. This was fol- 



lowed by two numbers of a History of Essex, which \VBS 

 then dropped. He then engaged in his most memorable 

 undertaking, the translation, from the French, of Rapin's 

 'History of England,' which appeared in a successson of 

 octavo volumes in 1726 and following years, and was re- 

 printed in two volumes folio in 1732. This second edition 

 was dedicated to Frederick, prince of Wales, who in return 

 presented the translator with a gold medal of the value of 

 forty guineas. In 1744 a Continuation of Rapin, by Tindal, 

 began to be published in weekly folio numbers, which was 

 completed in two volumes (commonly bound in three), in 

 1747, the history being brought down to the end of the 

 reign of George I. A second folio edition of this Con- 

 tinuation appeared in 1751, and a third, in 21 vols. 8vo., in 

 1757, with the addition of the reign of George II. down to 

 that date. The translation and continuation of Rapin were 

 very successful speculations ; and the publishers, the 

 Messrs. Knapton, of Ludgate Street, evinced their gra- 

 titude by making Tindal a present of 200/. It is generally 

 stated that, he was assisted in both undertakings by Mr. 

 Philip Morant, to whom solely is attributed the Abridg- 

 ment or Summary of the History and Continuation given 

 at the end of the latter, and also printed in 3 vols. 8vo. in 

 1747 ; but it does not appear upon what authority it is 

 asserted by Coxe, in the Preface to his ' Memoirs of Sir 

 Robert Walpole,' that the Continuation, though published 

 under the name of Tindal, ' was principally written by Dr. 

 Birch.' There is no hint of this in the very full and ela- 

 borate Life of Birch, in the second edition of the ' Bio- 

 graphia Britannica,' which is stated to be compiled from 

 his own papers and the communications of surviving rela- 

 tions and friends. ' His papers,' Coxe proceeds, 'in the 

 Museum and in the Hardwicke Collection, which I have 

 examined with scrupulous attention, and various other 

 documents which were submitted to his inspection, and to 

 which I have had access, prove great accuracy of research, 

 judgment in selection, and fidelity in narration. He de- 

 rived considerable assistance from persons of political 

 eminence, particularly the late Lord Walpole, the late earl 

 of Hardwicke, and the Honourable Charles Yorke. The 

 account of the Partition Treaty was written by the late 

 earl of Hardwicke. The account of Lord Somers's argument 

 in Barker's case was written by his great-nephew the late 

 Mr. C. Yorke. I can also trace numerous communica- 

 tions by Horace Walpole, though they cannot be so easily 

 specified. Birch was a stanch Whig, but his political 

 opinions have never led him to forget his duty as an his- 

 torian. He has not garbled or falsified debates, or mis- 

 stated facts ; he has not wantonly traduced characters, or 

 acrimoniously reviled individuals because they espoused 

 the cause which he disapproved ; but in his whole work, 

 whether he praises or blames, there is a manly integrity 

 and candid temperance, which must recommend him to 

 the discerning reader.' This is a sufficiently just character 

 of the Continuation of Rapin : but, although in some parts 

 the work has a claim to be considered as an original au- 

 thority, it is in the greater part, not only a compilation, but 

 a mere transcription from preceding writers. The authors 

 indeed frankly state in their prefatory notice that they 

 have not scrupled to copy or imitate any part of the se- 

 veral authors they have made use of, when conducive to 

 the usefulness of the work, or where there was no occasion 

 to alter or abridge. The numerous documents inserted at 

 full length make the Continuation a convenient repertory 

 of authentic information; and the notes which accompany 

 the translation of the preceding part of the work add 

 greatly to the value of the original text. Tindal's other 



translation, from the Latin, of Prince Cant emir's 'History 

 of the Growth and Decay of the Othman Empire,' which 

 appeared in a folio volume in 1734. 



TINIAN is one of the Ladrone or Mariane Islands [vol. 

 xiii., p. 269] : it lies near 15 N. lat. and 146 E. long. It 

 is uninhabited and of small extent. It owes its name in 

 the world not to its real importance, but to the circum- 

 stance that Lord Anson, just one hundred years ago, 

 remained there nearly two months, from 26th of August, to 

 the 21st of October, 1742, and that in the account of his 

 voyage a description of the island is given in glowing 

 colours. It extends about 12 miles from south-south-west 



