HISTORY OF STAFFORDSHIRE. [229 



and Swift, whose poetical poems were little superior to his own, 

 will not be denied, but Pope and Young were far above his imita- 

 tion. This innocent and comic effusion was however amusing, 

 and consequently popular. 



In the twenty-ninth year of his age, and on the 10th of February, 

 1734, Mr. Browne married Jane, daughter of the Rev. Dr. Trim- 

 nell, Archdeacon of Leicester. His union with this lady, who is 

 described as of a most amiable disposition, was highly conducive to 

 his domestic felicity. 



Mr. Browne continued in the uninterrupted enjoyment of his 

 favourite study of the classic authors for several years after his 

 marriage ; and as he lived with unostentatious economy, his in- 

 come was fully adequate to supply all the genteel accommodations 

 of life. The birth of his son Hawkins also contributed to his hap- 

 piness, while an intercourse with several learned and ingenious 

 friends gave an additional zest to his elegant pursuits. Thus he 

 lived till the year 1744, when he was introduced to public life, and 

 elected a representative in parliament for the borough of Wenlock, 

 in Shropshire, by the interest of Mr. Forester, a gentleman of for- 

 tune and influence in that county. 



On the dissolution of parliament in 1748, Mr. Browne was re- 

 elected to represent Wenlock by a great majority of the electors, 

 who expressed their entire approbation of his senatorial integrity. 



As Mr. Browne had been admired for his colloquial powers in 

 the social circle, his friends expected that he would have been 

 distinguished for his eloquence in the House of Commons. But 

 in that celebrated assemblage of the greatest orators and statesmen 

 of the age, Mr. Browne felt his comparative inferiority. It is one 

 thing to flourish the pen in the privacy of retirement, when thoughts 

 flow freely without interruption or embarrassment; and another 

 to expatiate on an important subject in the presence of the repre- 

 sentatives of a great nation. Mr. Browne consequently, like many 

 other men of great intellectual powers, contented himself with ex- 

 pressing the monosyllables aye or no, according to the dictates of 

 judgment and patriotism. 



In the year 1754, our author published his great work entitled 

 " De Animi Immortalitate." This Latin poem certainly excited 

 a strong emotion among the classical scholars of the day, for in a 

 few months after it was published, two English translations of it 

 in rhyme and one in blank verse, gratified the public. Mr. Browne's 

 poem on " The Immortality of the Soul/' is divided into two 



G G 



