CUMBERLAND. 



Cumber* 



land, 

 Richard. 



504 



plications that he made for remuneration and redress, 

 were received with coldness, and treated with neglect — 

 and there is reason to believe, that a long and interest- 

 ing memorial which he addressed to Lord North, set- 

 ting forth his grievances, and claiming relief, 'was ne- 

 ver even honoured with a perusal ; — that it produced 

 no effect, is a melancholy and indisputable fact. On 

 the overthrow of Lord North's administration, and the 

 dismissal of the Board of Trade, under the regulations 

 of Mr Burke's bill, Mr Cumberland was set adrift, hav- 

 ing a compensation allotted to him, better indeed than 

 what he received for his Spanish claims, but not amount- 

 ing to more than a half of what was taken from him. 

 Reduced by these unfortunate events to narrow circum- 

 stances, he put his family on a corresponding establish- 

 ment, and took up his residence at Tunbridge Wells. 

 Here he seems to have spent his time very agreeably, 

 devoting himself as formerly to his books and his pen, 

 and enjoying the society which the place and neigh- 

 bourhood afforded. 



Soon after his return to England, he published a 

 work in two volumes, entitled, Anecdotes of eminent 

 Painters in Spain, in which he communicated some 

 curious and interesting information on a subject that 

 was little known, and gave a catalogue of the paint- 

 ings in the royal palace at Madrid, which the Spa- 

 nish monarch permitted to be drawn out at his re- 

 quest, and transmitted to him after his return. Some 

 time after, he produced the Observer, a collection of ori- 

 ginal essays on various topics, favourable to religion, 

 morals, and literature. That part of it which gives a re- 

 view of the literary age of Greece, and a history of the 

 Athenian stage, is particularly valuable; it has received 

 high encomiums from the most competent judges, and 

 deserves the attention of every classical scholar. From 

 the translations which it contained of the fragments of 

 the Greek comic writers, the learned author of the Pur- 

 suits of Literature concluded, that Mr Cumberland was 

 the only man in the kingdom equal to the translation 

 of Aristophanes. The Observer, of which two edi- 

 tions were published in the two first years, extends now 

 to six volumes, and is considered as a standard book. 

 The next work of any consequence that Mr Cumberland 

 attempted, was an epic poem in eight books on the death 

 of Christ, and entitled Calvary. He began the compo- 

 sition of it in winter, and rising every morning some 

 hours before day-light, soon completed it at the rate 

 of more than fifty lines a day. It did not meet with 

 a very favourable reception in the stately and expen- 

 sive form of a quarto. The author complained of the 

 ungrateful and unbrotherly neglect of his cotempo- 

 raries. He gave the king's librarian a copy to be 

 laid at his majesty's feet; but it does not seem to 

 have elicited one spark of royal favour. He was con- 

 soled, however, by anticipating the praises of poste- 

 rity to a work of which his own opinion was sufficient- 

 ly exalted. And, indeed, before he. died, his publish- 

 ers boldly ventured on a new edition, in a more por- 

 table size, and he had the happiness to knoAV that Cal- 

 vary was both purchased and admired beyond what he 

 had allowed himself to expect. Amidst the various 

 subjects which occupied Mr Cumberland's pen, that of 

 religion was not neglected. He studied and he wrote 

 upon it with good effect. His chief production in this 

 way was entitled, a Few Plain Reasons for Believing 

 in the Evidences of the Christian Revelation, a treatise 

 which is tolerably well reasoned, and may be read with 

 considerable profit. 



When the volunteer system prevailed in the coun- 

 try, he stepped forward and gave his services for the 

 public Cause ; first as major commandant, and then 

 as lieutenant colonel, to which rank he was promo- 

 ted, though he had not a single acre of ground in 

 the county. He took great pleasure in drilling his 

 men, who were much attached to him, and whose 

 soldierlike conduct he has commended in his Me- 

 moirs. These Memoirs of himself were undertaken at 

 the suggestion and request of some friends, who pro- 

 bably conceived that such a work might be a means of 

 bettering his fortune. He began them at the close of 

 the year 1804', finished them in September 1805, and 

 published them immediately. A second edition was 

 soon called for, and to this he added a supplement, for 

 the purpose of stating facts which he had omitted to 

 mention, and making some remarks on Mr Hayley, 

 the Edinburgh reviewers, and others who had offend- 

 ed him by their animadversions. Mr Cumberland's 

 Memoirs have been much read. They are highly 

 entertaining and not uninstructive, contain a good 

 deal of egotism, but more of benevolence, and abound 

 in lively and most characteristic representations of the 

 literary and political characters of his time. The copy 

 right was sold by him for L. 500. He attempted ano- 

 ther epic poem on another sacred subject. It was call- 

 ed the Exodiad, having for its subject the history of 

 Moses from the period of his leading the Israelites out 

 of Egypt, to his death upon Mount Horeb. He was 

 assisted in it by Sir James Bland B urges, who drew 

 out the plan, and took his share in the execution. The 

 merits of this work are far from being eminent. The 

 most unsuccessful, perhaps, of all Mr Cumberland's li- 

 terary undertakings was the London Review, which 

 was published quarterly, had superior pretensions to 

 honesty and candour, and endeavoured to support these 

 by annexing to every article the name of the critic who 

 had written it. It very soon died, if indeed it could 

 ever have been said to live. Without the awful and 

 mysterious hypothesis of a tribunal of learned men, who 

 solemnly deliberated upon the books reviewed, and la- 

 bouring under the depressing influence of open and in- 

 dividual responsibility, it was destitute of spirit and of 

 interest : tame and cautious in itself, and deriving no 

 importance from the oracular wisdom of its authors, the 

 public would have nothing to do with it ; and accord- 

 ingly it was soon given up as an unprofitable concern. 

 In the latter period of his life, Mr Cumberland en- 

 dured a variety of afflictions. The loss of his wife, the 

 bad health of his favourite daughter and of her hus- 

 band, the disgrace unjustly inflicted on one of his 

 grandsons on board a ship, the gradual disappearance 

 of those who had been the companions of his youth 

 and the friends of his maturer age, the failure of his li- 

 terary pursuits, and the consequent pecuniary difficul- 

 ties with which he had to struggle, — all these things 

 bore heavy on his mind, and occasioned many a pang. 

 Yet he bore his misfortunes with much patience, and 

 was often chearful amidst them all. Even when he 

 was thus situated, and had seen no fewer than four- 

 score y ^ai-s, the fire of poetical genius still burned with 

 some degree of vigour. And however much it is to be 

 regretted, that a more appropriate task did not occupy 

 the last days of Mr Cumberland, than the composition 

 of an indifferent play, yet such is the fact that he was 

 actually engaged in completing the now unfinished dra- 

 ma of Demetrius, when death carried him off the 

 stao-e of this world. He breathed his last, after a sud- 



4 



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