Lives of the English Poets: From Johnson to Kirke White, Designed as a Continuation of Johnson's LivesCary, Henry Francis
General
Lives of the English Poets: From Johnson to Kirke White, Designed as a Continuation of Johnson's Lives
Cary, Henry Francis
Poets, English -- Biography
An Essay on the Law of Bailments, and the translation of an Arabian
Poem, on the Mohammedan Law of Succession to the Property of Intestates,
to the latter of which undertakings he was incited by his views of
preferment in the East, testified his industry in the pursuit of his
legal studies; while, on the other hand, several short poems evinced,
from time to time, his intended relinquishment of the tuneful art to be
either impracticable or unnecessary.
In the summer of 1782 the interests of one of his clients led him again
to Paris, from whence he returned by the circuitous route of Normandy,
and the United Provinces. In the spring of this year he had become a
member of the Society for Constitutional Information. A more equal
representation of the people in parliament was at this time the subject
of general discussion, and he did not fail to stand forward as the
strenuous champion of a measure which seemed likely to infuse new spirit
and vigour into our constitutional liberties. His sentiments were
publicly professed in a speech before the meeting assembled at the
London Tavern, on the 28th of May; and he afterwards gave a wider
currency to them from the press. He maintained that the representation
ought to be nearly equal and universal; an opinion in which few would
now be found to coincide; and which, if he had lived a little longer, he
would probably himself have acknowledged to be erroneous. At Paris, he
had written a Dialogue between a Farmer and a Country Gentleman on the
Principles of Government, and it was published by the Society. A bill of
indictment was found against the Dean of St. Asaph, whose sister he
afterwards married, for an edition printed in Wales; and Jones avowed
himself the author.
In the beginning of 1783 appeared his translation of the seven Arabian
poems, suspended in the temple at Mecca about the commencement of the
sixth century.
In the March of this year, he was gratified by the long desired
appointment to the office of judge in the supreme court of judicature,
at Fort William, in Bengal, which was obtained for him through the
interest of Lord Ashburton; and he received the honour of knighthood
usually conferred on that occasion. The divisions among his political
friends, after the decease of that excellent nobleman, the Marquis of
Buckingham, afforded him an additional motive for wishing to be employed
at a distance from his country, which he no longer hoped to see
benefited by their exertions. He was immediately afterwards united to
Anna Maria Shipley, the daughter of the Bishop of St. Asaph, a learned
and liberal prelate. His attachment to this lady had been of long
continuance, and he had been waiting only for an honourable independence
before he could resolve to join the fortunes of one so tenderly beloved
to his own.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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