misconduct of the wife, which that place afforded, did procure him this place (the prison) this prosecution, this infamy, this sentence.' He next having perceived his deficiency in the learned languages, applied himself to grammar, in both the Greek and Latin languages, and with great avidity and diligence every one of the Latin classics, historians and poets; then went thro' the Greek testament; and, lastly, ventured upon Hesiod, Homer, Theocritas, Herodotus, Thucydides, together with all the Greek tragedians. In the year 1734, a man and horse came for him from his good friend William Norton, Esq; inviting him to Knaresborough, the scene of his misfortune; here he attained some knowledge in the Hebrew; he studied this language intensely, and went thro' the Pentateuch. In 1744 he returned to London, and served the Rev. Mr. Painblanc as usher in Latin and writing in Piccadilly, and from this gentleman he learned the French language, with which, by severe application, he became tolerably well acquainted. He succeeded to several tuitions and usherships in different places in the south of England, and in the sundry intervals got acquainted with heraldry and botany; and there was scarce an individual plant, domestic or exotic, which he did not know he also ventured upon Chaldee and Arabic, the former of which he found easy from its near connection with the Hebrew. Not satisfied with this unwearied application, he resolved to study his own language, and in order thereto began with the : Celtic, which, as far as it was possible, he investigated through all its dialects; and having discovered, through all these languages, and the Latin, Greek, Hebrew, French, Chaldee, Arabic and Celtic, such a surprizing affinity, he resolved to make a comparative lexicon, having already collected for that purpose above 1000 notes. And now he comes to the fact for which he was committed, and says, All the plate at Knaresborough, except the watches and rings, were in Houseman's possession; as for me, I had nothing at all t. My wife knows that Terry had the large plate, and that Houseman himself took both that and the watches, at my house, from Clark's own hand; and if she will not give in this evidence for the town, she wrongs both that and her own conscience; and if it is not done soon, Houseman will prevent her. She likewise knows Terry's wife had some velvet; and, if she will, can testify it. she deserves not the regard of the town if she will not. That part of Houseman's evidence, wherein he said I threatened him, was absolutely false; for what hindered him, when I was so long absent and far distant; I must needs observe another thing to be perjury in Houseman's evidence, wherein he said he went home from Clark; whereas he went straight to my house, as my wife can also testify, if I be not believed. EUGENE ARAM.” The Editor's Remarks on the Proceedings against Eugene Aram. Aram's sentence was a just one, and he submitted to it with that stoi It is generally believed, and upon good grounds, that Aram got all the money Clark had received for his wife's fortune, viz. about 1601, and there were strong circumstances to prove it, but it was thought unnecessary, as there was sufficient proof against him without it. cism he so much affected; and the morning after he was condemned, he confessed the justice of it to two clergymen, (who had a licence from the judge to attend him) by declaring that he murdered Clark. Being asked by one of them, What his motive was for doing that abominable action? he told them, "He suspected Clark of having an unlawful commerce with his wife; that he was persuaded, at the time he committed the murder, he did right; but since he has thought it wrong." After this, Pray, says Aram, what became of Clark's body, if Houseman went home (as he said upon my trial) immediately on seeing him fall? One of the clergymen replied, I'll tell you what became of it; you and Houseman dragged it into the cave, and stripped and buried it there, brought away his cloaths, and burnt them at your own house; to which he assented. He was asked, Whether Houseman did not earnestly press him to murder his wife, for fear she should discover the business they had been about: he hastily said, He did, and pressed me several times to do it. This was the substance of what passed with Aram the morning after he was condemned; and as he had promised to make a more ample confession on the day he was executed, it was generally believed every thing previous to the murder would have been disclosed; but he prévented any further discovery, by a horrid attempt upon his own life. When he was called from bed to have his irons taken off, he would not rise,alledging he was very weak. On examination his arms appeared. bloody; proper assistance being called, it was found he had attempted to take away his own life, by cutting his arms in two places with a razor, which he had concealed in the condemned hole some time before. By proper applications he was brought to himself, and though weak, was conducted, to Tyburn; where being asked if he had any thing to say, he answered, No. Immediately after he was executed, and his body conveyed to Knaresborough-Forest, and hung in chains, pursuant to his sentence. On his table, in the cell, was found the following paper, containing his reasons for the abovesaid wicked attempt. "What am I better than my fathers? To die is natural and necessary. Perfectly sensible of this, I fear no more to die than I did to be born. But the manner of it is something which should, in my opinion, be decent and manly. I think I have regarded both these points. Certainly nobody has a better right to dispose of man's life than himself; and he, not others, should determine how. As for any indignities offered to my body, or silly reflections on my faith and morals, they are (as they always were) things indifferent to me. I think, tho' contrary to the common way of thinking, I wrong no man by this, and hope it is not offensive to that eternal Being that formed me and the world and as by this I injure no man, no man can be reasonably of fended. I solicitously recommend myself to the eternal and almighty Being, the God of nature, if I have done amiss. But perhaps I have not; and I hope this thing will never be imputed to me. Tho' I am now stained by malevolence, and suffer by prejudice, I hope to rise fair and unblemished. My life was not polluted, my morals irreproachable, and my opinions orthodox. I slept her arise; Adieu! fair friends, and all that's good and wise." These lines, found along with the foregoing, were supposed to be written by Aram just before he cut himself with the razor. Notwithstanding he pleads a sovereign right over himself, in vindication of this last horrid crime, and appears at first view, actuated by honour and courage; yet a little reflection will convince any one, his motive for such an inhuman deed was nothing more than the fear of shame. His pride would not permit him to confess a crime he had once so strenuously denied; and guilty as he knew himself to have been, his obstinacy held out to his last moments. That he murdered Clark is beyond all doubt, as he himself voluntarily confessed it; but the excuse he afterwards made for it is greatly to be suspected, it being at the expence of an innocent industrious poor woman, whom he has ever treated in an infamous inhuman manner. To his life are subjoined several pieces and fragments, which he possibly might have finished, had he lived. The first is a lexicon, or rather an essay towards it, upon an entire new plan; in this essay are many very curious, and pertinent remarks, particularly his animadversions on lexicogra phers: All our lexicographers, says he, a very few excepted, for aught I have adverted to, have been long employed, and have generally con. tented themselves too, within the limits of a narrow field. They seen to have looked no farther than the facilitating for youth the attainment of the Latin and Greek lan guages, and almost universally consider the former, as only derived from the latter. These two single points seem to have confined their whole view, possessed their whde attention, and engrossed all their industry. Here and there indeed, and in a few pieces of this kind, one sees interspersed, derivations of the English from the Latin, Greek, &c. inferred from a conformity of orthography, sound, and signification, and these are very true. But whence this relation, this consonancy arose, why it has continued from age to age to us, has floated on the stream of time so long, and passed to such a distance of place, how ancient words have survived conquests, the migrations of people, and the several coalitions of nations, and colonies, notwithstanding the fluctuating condition of languages in its own nature, they have neither observed with diligence, nor explained with accuracy. Almost every etymologist that has fallen into my hands, and detained my eye, have not been mistaken then in the comparison they have made, or the uniformity they have observed, between the Latin and the Greek, and between both those languages and our own; but then their instances have been but short and few, and they have failed in accounting for this uniformity; they have indeed sufficiently evinced a simi a similarity, but produced no reasons for it. It is not to be thought of, much less concluded, that the multitude of words among us, which are certainly Latin, Greek, and Phoenician, are all the relics of the Roman settlements in Britain, or the effects of Greek or Phoenician commerce here: no, this resemblance was coaval with the primary inhabitants of this island, and the accession of other colonies did not obliterate, but confirm this resemblance, and also brought in an increase, and accession of other words, from the same original, and consequently bearing the same conformity. How nearly related is the Cambrian, how nearly the Irish, in numberless instances, to the Latin, the Greek, and even Hebrew, and beth possessed this consimilarity long ago, before Julius Cæsar, and the Roman invasion? I know not, but the Latin differed more from itself in the succession of six continued centuries, than the Welsh and Irish at this time from the Latin. Concerning this agreement of theirs with the Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, not to mention others, a gentleman of great penetration, and extraordinary erudition, Dr. Davis, may be consulted; and the learned Sheringham, who has exhibited a long and curious specimen of Greek and Cambrian words, so exactly correspondent in sound and sense, or at least so visibly near, that, as far as I know, no gentleman has ever yet questioned, much less disputed their alliance. This similitude subsisting in common between the Irish, Cambrian, Greek, Latin, and even Hebrew, as it has not escaped the notice and animadversions of the learned, so their surprize has gene re rally increased with their searches, and considerations about it; new circumstances of agreement perpetually arising. A great many gentlemen, conversant in antiquities, and pleased with literary amusements of this kind, have ascribed these palpable connexions to conquest or to commerce: they have supposed that the intercourse, which on the latter account anciently subsisted between the Phœnicians, Greeks, and the Britons (see Boch. Huet. &c.) occasioned this very remarkable community between their languages. Indeed this accident of commerce must needs have had its influence; but then this influence must have been but weak and partial; not prevalent and extensive. Commerce has, and always will make continual additions to any language, by the introduction of exotic words: yet would words of this kind, and at that time, hardly extend a great way; they would only affect the maritime parts, and those places frequented by traders, and that but feebly, and would be very far from acting or making any considerable impression upon the whole body of our language. But even supposing that a number of Greek vocables may have found admittance and adoption in Britain, and after this manner, yet could they never penetrate into the more interior parts of it, into recesses remote from the sea; strangers to all correspondence, without the temptation, without the inclination to leave their natural soil, their own hereditary village, yet is Greek even here; we find pure Greek in the Peak itself, whither foreigners, especially at the distance of more than twice ten cen centuries, can scarcely be supposed to have come. There could have been but few invitations to it then; and perhaps there are not many now. As a specimen of his knowledge in most languages, we shall give his ensampler word Beagles. Beagles, a race of hounds, so named for being little; and perfectly agreeable to the primary signification of the Celtic Pig, i. e. little. The Greeks have anciently used this word too, and in the sense of little, of which they seem to have constituted their πυγμαῖος, i. c. a dwarf. It still subsists among the Irish, and still, in that language conveys the idea of little; as, sir pig, a little man; ban pig, a little woman; beg aglach, little fearing. It was common in Scotland, in the same acceptation also: for one of the Hebrides is named from this cubital people, Dunie Begs (see Mr. Irvin) and it yet exists in Scotland in the word philibeg, i. e. a little petticoat. And we ourselves retain it in the provincial word beagles, i. e. cowslips, a name imposed upon them of old, from the littleness of their flowers. And our northern word Peggy, is properly applicable to no female as a Christian name; but is merely an epithet of size, and a word of endearment only.' He left several other curious tracts relative to British antiquities. also housekeeper in the same fa mily; he was taught the first rudiments of learning at Tockenham, where he was born, and then sent to Harrow on the Hill. Some years afterwards he became teacher of a free school at Lineham in Wiltshire, worth about ten pounds a year, where, about 16 years ago, he married the daughter of a clergyman of Tockenham, with whom he had 500l. though the marriage was against the consent of her friends; this money he soon spent in idle extravagances, and about two years after his marriage, was taken into the family of Mrs. Horner, mother of Lady Ilchester, being recommended to her as a person in distress. The capacity in which he first. acted was that of house-steward, and he was afterwards advanced to some share in the management of her estates: how he became known to Mr, Fox we are not told; but he was, by his favour, appointed a commissary of the musters; and thus he became an esquire. What his income in this situation was, does not appear. The next thing that we are told of him, though the distance of time is not mentioned, is, that he built himself a house at Blandford Forum in Dorsetshire, and furnished it with pictures, and many other costly superfluities; he appears, however, at this time, to have been possessed of a considerable sum of money, which he risked in various projects, with a view to more than common gain, and at length lost it; as his expences in the mean time were rather in proportion to his hopes than to his possessions, when he found his hopes disappointed, he also found himself considerably in debt; and being pressed by his cre ditors, 1 |