M U It 
even roafterly manner, lie has added “ An Eftay on the 
Life and Genius of Tacitusalio, hiftorical fupplements 
and frequent annotations and comments. Mr. Murphy 
continued to write to an advanced age; and in 1.798 he 
publilhed his “ Arminius,” intended to excite the nation 
to meafures of war, which he thought, to ufe the cant 
of politicians, “ to be juft and necefiary.” Through his 
intereft with lord Loughborough, he obtained the office 
of one of the commiliioners of bankrupts, to which, 
during the laft three years of his life, was added a penfion 
of 200I. a-year. 
Mr. Jefl'e Foot has given an interefting account of the 
clofe of Mr. Murphy’s life, from which it appears he had 
perfectly reconciled his mind to the ftroke of death. 
When he had made his will, and given plain and accurate 
directions refpefting his funeral, he faid,.“ I have been 
preparing for my journey to another region, and now do 
not care how loon I take my departure.” On the day of 
his death, which was on the 18th of June, 1805, he fre¬ 
quently repeated the lines of Pope : 
“ Taught, half by reafon, half by mere decay. 
To welcome death and calmly pafs away.” 
Befides the works already mentioned and alluded to, 
Mr. Murphy was author of the Life of Fielding, Life of 
Garrick; and a tranflation of Sallult, from his pen, has 
appeared as a pofthumous work. He was a man of great 
urbanity of manners, and much regarded by his friends, 
whom, to the laft, he ufed to entertain with anecdotes of 
th'e literary acquaintance of his younger years, related 
with humour and vivacity. Jefl'e Foot's Life of Mur phi. 
Mont Jill/ Mag. 
MURR, f. A catarrh. Ohfolete. — I never fpit nor 
cough more than this ; and that but fince I caught this 
tnurre. Gafcoigne's Tr. of Ariofto's Suppofes, 1566. 
MURR, in geography. See Muhr, p. 169. 
MURR I'SLANDS, a clufter of fmall illands, near the 
fouth coaft of Labrador. Lat. 50. 32. N. Ion. 59. 8. W. 
MUR'RA, a town of Arabia, in the province of Yemen : 
ten miles north-weft of Zebid. 
MUR'R A, f. Among the ancients, a foffil fubftance, 
found in Partbia and Carmania, of a fine fmell, and beau¬ 
tiful variety of colours. It was thought to be fome hu¬ 
mour condenfed in the earth by the heat of the fun. See 
Murrhine. 
Murra was likewife a dry perfume, made of the murra 
reduced to powder. 
MUR'RAIN, f. [The etymology of this word is not 
clear ; mur is an old word for a catarrh, which might well 
anfwer to the glanders ; muriana, low Latin. Skinner 
derives it from mori, to die. Dr. Johnfon. —Minlheu de¬ 
rives it, with greater probability, from the Greek 1xa.pa.U1to, 
to wafte, to confume ; whence the old French marrdne, 
“ forte de maladie epidemique.” Roq. Glofs. Our word 
was formerly written morren. Todd. ] The plague in 
cattle.—Some trials would be made of mixtures of water 
in ponds for cattle, to make them more milch, to fatten, 
or to keep them from murrain, Bacon. 
A hallowed band. 
Cou’d tell what murrains in what months begun. Garth. 
Murrains are occafioned various ways, but princi¬ 
pally by a hot, dry feafon ; or rather by a general putre- 
faiStion of the air, which begets an inflammation in the 
blood, and a fweiling in the throat, with other lymptoms : 
the difeafe foon proves mortal, and is communicated from 
one to another. The fymptoms are, generally, a hang¬ 
ing down, or fivelling, of the head, rattling in the throat, 
fhort breath, palpitation of the heart, daggering, abun¬ 
dance of gum in the eyes, &c. breath hot, and tongue 
fhining. 
The moft remarkable murrain we hear of, is that men¬ 
tioned in' the Philofophical Tranlabtions ; which fpread 
itfelf through Swifredand and Germany, into Poland, &c. 
and of which we have given an account of the fymptoms 
and method of cure, (rather prematurely perhaps.) from 
Von. XVI. No. 1107. 
M U R 229 
the Phil. Tranf. vol. xiii. anno 1682-3. under our article 
Mist, vol. xv. p. 386. 
MUR'RAIN, adj. Infedted with the murrain: 
The fold Hands empty in the drowned field, 
And crows are fatted with the murrain flock. 
ShaheJpea re's MidJ'. N. Dream. 
MUR'R AY, a townlhip of Upper Canada, in the county 
of Cumberland, lying northward of the i ft limps which 
joins the county and peninfnla of Prince Edward to the 
Main. It is wafhed by the waters of lake Ontario and the 
river Trent, as well as thofe of the bay of Quinte. 
MUR'RAY (William, Earl of Mansfield), a diftin- 
guifhed lawyer and judge, was a younger fon of David 
vifcount Stormont, a peer of Scotland. He was born at 
Perth, in March 1704-5 ; and at the age of three was re¬ 
moved to London, where he received his early education. 
He was admitted a king’s fcholar at Weftminfter when he 
had completed his fourteenth year; and at that claffical 
feminary he diftinguiflied himfelf particularly by the ex¬ 
cellence of his declamations, which were confidered as 
prognoftics of that eloquence for which he was after¬ 
wards lb confpicuous. At the election of fcholars for the 
univerfities in May 1723, he was firfl upon thelift of thofe 
who were deftined for Chrift-church college in Oxford, 
where he was accordingly entered in the following June. 
He received the degree of B. A. four years afterwards; 
and of M. A. in 1730, at which period he left the uni- 
verfity. He had fupported his claffical reputation there 
by a copy of Latin verles on the death of George I. which 
was honoured with the firft prize; and by an elegant and 
judicious Latin oration in praife of Demofthenes. After 
lpending fome time in a tour through France and Italy, 
he fat down to the ftudy of the law at Lincoln’s Inn. Al¬ 
though at this time he appears to have been chiefly con¬ 
fpicuous as a polite fcholar, it is certain that he Was by no 
means inattentive to profeffional improvement; for he 
and fome other ftudents were accuftomed to hold regular 
meetings for the difcuffion of legal queftions, previoufly 
to which they prepared their arguments with great care. 
He was called to the bar in Michaelmas term, 1730 ; and 
from his firft commencement he feems to have fcorned the 
idea of rifing by the flow drudgery of common pradtice. 
He cultivated with affiduity the talent of eloquence and 
the graces of elocution ; and, being favoured by nature 
with a fine impreflive countenance and a melodious voice., 
he was foon able to diftinguiih himfelf above his compe¬ 
titors. In confequence of a difplay of his abilities in an 
appeal-caufe before the lioufe of lords, he rofe rapidly into 
fame and employment; and fo fudden was the change, 
that he has been heard to fay, he knew fcarcely an inter¬ 
val between a total want of bufmefs and the receipt of 
3000). per annum. 
Mr. Murray had the honour and advantage of early en¬ 
gaging the friendffiip of Pope, then in the zenith of his 
fame ; and that poet has left feveral teftimonies of his An¬ 
gular affeftion for the riling lawyer. He addrefied to him 
an imitation of the firft ode of the fourth book of Horace, 
in which he paints his friend as 
Noble and young, who ftrikes the heart 
With every fpriglitly, every decent, part. 
The natural and acquired advantages which charac¬ 
terized the eloquence of Mr. Murray were fo confpicuous, 
even on the fpur of an occaflon, and his perception fo 
quick, as to enable him to fliine upon any emergency. A 
circumftance of this kind occurred in 1737, when he was 
junior counfel in a conliderable caufe : his leader was fud- 
denly feized in court with a fit; the duty of courfe fell to 
the lot of the junior, who wdlhed to decline it for want 
of time to make himfelf mafter of the cafe. The court ad¬ 
journed for an hour ; and with this ftiort preparation Mr. 
Murray made fo able and eloquent a defence, as not only 
to reduce the damages to a mere trifle, but to gain the re¬ 
putation of a moft prompt, perfpicuous, and eloquent, 
pleader. In 1738, there were fifteen or lixteen appeals 
3 N heard 
