HAMMER HAMPSHIRE. 



625 



BVOW certain expressions derogatory to the latter. 

 The tone of the note was such as to cause him to re- 

 fuse to do either, and a challenge was the conse- 

 quence. July 11, the parties met at Hoboken, and 

 on the first fire Hamilton fell, mortally wounded, on 

 the same spot where, a short time previously, his 

 eldest son had been killed in a duel. He lingered 

 until the afternoon of the following day, when he 

 expired. The sensation which this occurrence 

 produced throughout the United States, was great. 

 Of all the coadjutors and advisers of Washington, 

 Hamilton was, doubtless, the one in whose judgment 

 and sagacity he reposed the greatest confidence, 

 whether in the military or civil career ; and, of all 

 the American statesmen, he displayed the most com-: 

 prehensive understanding and the most varied ability, 

 whether applied to subjects practical or speculative. 

 A collection of his works was issued in New York, 

 in three octavo volumes, some years after his death. 

 His style is nervous, lucid, and elevated ; he excels 

 in reasoning, founded on general principles and his- 

 torical experience. General Hamilton was regarded 

 as the head of the federalists in the party divisions of 

 the American republic. 



H AMMER ; a well-known tool used by mechanics, 

 of which there are various sorts ; but they all consist 

 of an iron head fixed crosswise to a handle of wood. 

 Among blacksmiths, there are the hand-hammer, the 

 uphand sledge, the about sledge (which is swung over 

 head with both arms^, SEC. 



HAMMER, in German geographical names, means 

 forge. 



HAMMERSMITH. See Middlesex. 



HAMMOCK, in naval afl'airs ; a piece of hempen 

 cloth, six feet long and three feet wide, gathered to- 

 gether at the two ends by means of a clew, and slung 

 horizontally under the deck, forming a receptacle for 

 a bed. There are about from fourteen to twenty 

 inches in breadth allowed between the decks for 

 every hammock in a ship of war. In preparing for 

 battle, the hammocks, with their contents, are all 

 firmly corded, taken upon deck, and fixed in various 

 nettings, so as to form a barricade against small shot. 



HAMMOND, JAMES, an English elegiac poet, 

 was born in 1710, and received his education at 

 Westminster school, where he formed an intimacy 

 with lords Cobham, Chesterfield, and Lyttelton, and 

 others afterwards distinguished in literature. He was 

 appointed equerry to Frederic, prince of Wales; and, 

 in 1741, was chosen member of parliament for Truro. 

 He died the following year, his health, if not his in- 

 tellect, having been disordered by an unfortunate 

 attachment to a young lady who rejected his addresses. 

 After his death, a small volume of his Love Elegies 

 was published, with a preface by lord Chesterfield. 

 They are chiefly imitations of Tibullus, and display 

 a cultivated taste and warm imagination. 



HAMPDEN, JOHN, celebrated for his patriotic 

 opposition to taxation by prerogative, was born in 

 London, in 1594, and, at an early age, was entered a 

 gentleman commoner at Magdalen college, Oxford. 

 On leaving the university, he took chambers in one 

 of the inns of court, in order to study law ; but the 

 death of his father putting him in possession of an 

 ample estate, he indulged in the usual career of 

 country gentlemen, until the aspect of the times, and 

 the natural weight of his connexions and character, 

 produced greater strictness of conduct, without any 

 abatement of his cheerfulness and affability. He was 

 cousin-german, by the mother's side, to Oliver Crom- 

 well. He entered parliament in 1626 ; and, although 

 for some years a uniform opposer of the arbitrary 

 practices in church and state, and one of those who, 

 in 1637, had engaged a ship to carry them to New 

 England, he acted no very distinguished part. Hume 

 in. 



sneers at the motives of this intended emigration, as 

 merely Puritanical ; but the conduct of Hampden in 

 regard to the demand for ship-money, which imme- 

 diately followed the prohibition to depart the king- 

 dom, forms a conclusive answer to this insinuation. 

 His resistance to that illegal impost (to use the 

 language of lord Clarendon) made him the argument 

 of all tongues, especially as it was after the decision 

 of the judges in favour of the king's right to levy 

 ship-money, that Hampden refused to pay it. Being 

 prosecuted in the court of exchequer, he himself, 

 aided by counsel, argued the case against the crown 

 lawyers for twelve days, before the twelve judges ; 

 and, although it was decided against him by eight of 

 them to four, the victory, as far as regarded public 

 opinion, was his. From this time, he received the 

 title of the patriot Hampden ; and his temper and his 

 modesty on this great occasion acquired him as much 

 credit as his courage and perseverance. Henceforward 

 he took a prominent part in the great contest between 

 the crown and the parliament, and was one of the 

 five members whom the king so imprudently at- 

 tempted, in person, to seize in the house of commons. 

 When the appeal was made to the sword, Hampden 

 acted with his usual decision, by accepting the com- 

 mand of a regiment in the parliamentary army, under 

 the earl of Essex. Prince Rupert having beaten up 

 the quarters of the parliamentary troops, near Thame, 

 in Oxfordshire, Hampden eagerly joined a few caval- 

 ry that were rallied in haste, and, in the skirmish that 

 ensued, received a wound which proved fatal six days 

 after its infliction, on the 24th June, 1643. It is said 

 that the king testified his respect for him by sending 

 his own physician to attend him. His death was 

 a great subject of rejoicing to the royal party, and 

 of grief to his own. That the joy of the former was 

 misplaced, there is now much reason to believe, as 

 he would probably have proved a powerful check 

 upon the unprincipled ambition of his relative, Oliver. 

 Clarendon sums up an elaborate character of this 

 eminent leader, by declaring that, like Catiline, " He 

 had a head to contrive, a tongue to persuade, and a 

 hand to execute, any mischief." But his character 

 and conduct, from first to last, evince his conscien- 

 tiousness, and he has taken his rank by acclamation 

 on the one side, and tacitly on the other, high in the 

 list of English patriots. 



HAMPDEN SIDNEY COLLEGE ; a college in 

 Prince Edward county, Virginia, eighty miles S. W . 

 of Richmond, and central to the southern section of 

 the state. It was founded in 1775. The corporation 

 consists of twenty-seven men, most of whom are 

 graduates from other colleges. The president of the 

 college is the professor of mental philosophy, rhetoric, 

 moral philosophy, and natural law. There is a pro- 

 fessor of chemistry and natural philosophy, one of 

 mathematics, and one of the learned languages. 

 There are two college buildings, which are very com- 

 modious. The number of undergraduates is about 

 one hundred. There are four libraries belonging to 

 the institution and the students, comprising more than 

 2000 volumes. The college year has two sessions. 

 There is no town or village in the vicinity of the 

 college. The Union Theological seminary, a Pres- 

 byterian institution, established in 1824, is situated 

 near the college, and contained, in 1830, thirty-five 

 students. 



HAMPSHIRE, HANTS, or SOUTHAMPTON. 

 SHIRE ; one of the southern counties of England, 

 on the English channel, including, also, the Isle of 

 Wight, and, in some points of jurisdiction, the more 

 distant islands of Jersey and Guernsey. This coun- 

 ty is considered as one of the most agreeable and 

 fertile in the kingdom ; and it has, from the earliest 

 time, supported a numerous population. The surface 

 2 it 



