1806 } 
and commerce, between Great Britain and 
other powers, from the Revolution, which 
has been feveral times reprinted with addi- 
tions. He made a colleétion of the protefts 
of the houfe of lords in 17723 and foon 
after wrote a Letter to the [Earl of Bute, 
proving the continuance of his lordfhip’s in- 
fluence at court. He next publithed his tract 
entitled ¢* Free Parliaments 5 or a Vindica- 
tion of the Parliamentary Conftitution of 
England, in Anfwer to certain VWifionary 
Plans of Modern Reformers.” At the meet 
ing of the new parliament in 1774 he com- 
menced his Parliamentary Regifter; being an 
account of the debates and proceedings of 
both houfes, publithed periodically. This 
was the firft production of the kind ever at- 
tempted; the debates, very tmperfeStly 
given, and under the names of Greek and 
Roman fpeakers, having hitherto been only 
occafionally printed in the magazines. The 
work, therefore, was very generally ap- 
proved; and feveral diftinguifhed members 
of both houfes gave. him confiderable afiift- 
ance in it. He afterwards extended it, from 
the beft materials which could be procured, 
fo as to include the period from the year 
17423 by which means, with the works of 
Drake and Chandler, it completes a regular 
feries of parliamentary hiftory from the Con- 
queft to the year 1780, fince which time the 
Parliamentary Regifter has been carried on 
by others. The commencement of the A- 
merican war in 1775 furnifhed him with the 
idea of another periodical publication, called 
the Remembrancer ; which was intended to - 
preferve the beit accounts cf every important 
public tranfaction ‘relating to that unfortu- 
nate conteft. This hada great circulation, 
and was continued to the end of the war. 
When the great earl of Chatham cied, in 
May 1773, as no writer of the time knew 
more of that nobleman than Mr. Almoan did, 
mone was more proper to become his bio- 
grapher. He accordingly wrote ** Anecdotes 
of the Life of the Right Honourabie William 
Pitt, Earl of Chatham, and of the principal 
Events of his Time; with his Speeches in 
Parliament from the year 1736 to 1773.” 
This work obtained Mr. Almon confiderable 
reputation, and has paffed through fix edi- 
tions. Lord Temple was killed in Septem- 
ber 1779, by a fall from his phezton; and 
this fudden and melancholy lois of his pa- 
tron extinguifhed Mr. Almon’s hopes and his 
ambition. On the change of nsiniftry ‘in 
1782, however, he wrote a traét of fome 
celebrity, entitled a Letter to the right ho- 
nourable Charles fenkinfon, and foon after- 
wards a Letter to the Interior Gabinet: both 
on the fubjeét of what Mr. Burke called a 
double cabinet, of the moft fele&t department 
ot which Mr. fenkinfon (the prefent earl of 
Liverpool) was fuppofed to be the principal 
member, He alfo wrote feme other pam- 
phlets about this time, the titles of which 
ae not knewn. After fome int-rval he pre- 
Account of the lute Mr. Almon. 
\ 
87 
duced, in three volumes oftavo, £¢ Biogra- 
phical, Literary, and Political Anecdotes of 
feveral of the moft Eminent Perfons of the 
Prefent Age, never before printed.” This 
is acurious.and amufing work ; and is parti- 
cularly remarkable for giving birth to the 
pai refpecting the perfon of Junius, 
. Almon having in the courfe of it firft. 
eal ftarted the opinion that this cele- 
brated political fatyrift was Mr. Hugh Boyd. 
Daring the early ftages of this controverfy 
it was clearly difcovered that Mr, Woodfall 
himfelf, the original publifhsr of the Let- 
ters of Junius, never knew any thing about 
the matter. Mr. Almon now retired to his 
houfe at Boxmoor in Hertfordfhire, in which 
county he poffefled fome property ; ftill cal- 
culated by the excellence of, his memory, 
aid the variety of his knowledge, to afford 
ample information, either in canverfation or 
by his.pen, relative to the Singular events of 
the early part of the prefent reign, He ac- 
cordingly continued occafionally to amufe 
himfelf with writing: and in 1804 gave to 
the public, in five volumes, the Genuine Cor- 
refpondence of the late Mr. Wilkes; inter- 
{perfed with a confiderable portion of con- 
neéting and explanatory narrative, fo as ta 
form altogether a complete biographical mo- 
nument of that extraordinary charaéter, who 
can never be viewed in all his lights and 
fhades without a perufal of this work. This 
was fucceeded by ** a Collection of the Po- 
etical Works of the Au hor of the Heroic 
Epiftle to Sir William Chambers,’* in afmall 
volume. Jt is believed that no other perfon 
exifting was qualified to make fuch a col- 
le€&t'on, as no one elfe was entrufted by the 
author with his fecret. Mr. Almon’s laf 
work was an edition of Junius, not yet pub- 
lithed, fupplying (for the firft time) all the 
newf aper and ether articles which that 
wonuerful writer anfwered, many paflages of 
whofe letters are now confiderably obfcure 
wichout them. To the letters themfelves 
Mr. Almon has alfo added numerous notes, 
commemorating the perfons and illuftrating 
the incidents referred to; and has prefixed to 
the whole an impartial differtation refpeCting 
the real writer of thefe juitly famous com- 
pofitions, including a review of the whole 
controverfy on this fubject, with fome addi- 
tional facts and written documents ; and has 
given an original portrait of Mr. Boyd, and 
a fac-fimiie of his ufual hand-writing, for 
the gratification of thofe who, like himfelf, 
may adopt the hypothefis relative to that 
gentleman. Here too he has taken occafion 
to give fome information refpeéting the au- 
thor of the Heroic Epiftle to Sir William 
Chambers, whofe manufeript preface he. has 
left in the hands ef the publifher. Mr. Al- 
mon died, as we have before ftated, on the 
12th of December laft, at the age of 67, 
He has left a fon, now a refpe€table grocer 
in Coventry-ftreet, and a daughter, married 
to Mr. Bourdillen, : 
PROVINCIAL 
