He subsequently became a member of the university, where he was invariably respected for his talents, his diligence, and his learning, and as constantly laughed at for his eccentricities and whimsicalities of manners. He took orders with very little prospect of any preferment, but by a rigid economy, added to some trifling literary employment, he managed to make a respectable appearance. At a very early period, he distinguished himself for his profound and accurate knowledge as a Cambist, in matters of commerce, exchanges, and specie, and became an avowed opponent of Dr. Price, and others of that class. A nephew of the celebrated Dr. Price, who was a dissenting minister, and of considerable abilities, resided in the neighbourhood of our Abbé, and similar pursuits and propensities had introduced a familiar acquaintance between them. At this period, Dr. Price’s nephew was well known to be a writer in the Monthly Review, and in a country town, this was a circumstance which conferred a sort of local dignity and importance. The subject of this article had printed some Tract or other on his favourite topic, in which Price and his friends were not mentioned in the terms of respect, to which this relative of one of them thought they were entitled; and the consequence was, that in a subsequent Review, the publication above alluded to was handled with no common severity. There was no difficulty in imagining the author, or if there had, this was removed by the person attacked, who found an opportunity of seeing the manuscript of the offensive article. This he thought was a grievous and unpardonable violation of the laws of confidence and honour, and the consequences which ensued, though somewhat serious, border on the ludicrous. The aggrieved person called as usual upon his quondam friend, and requested his company to take a walk. This was complied with without hesitation. When they had proceeded to some distance, and came to a retired spot, the critic was not a little astonished, at seeing his companion strip to his shirt, and with many and bitter reproaches, insist upon satisfaction for the baseness and treachery with which he had been treated. Remonstrance and expostulation was in vain, and there was no alternative between submitting to a hearty drubbing, or standing upon the defensive. The result was, what not unfrequently happens in similar cases, the offending person, who was the more athletic of the two, proved the conqueror, and the mortified and discomfited author retired from the content with one of his ribs broken. Another adventure in which he was engaged, and from which he did not escape with much brighter laurels, seems worthy of being recorded.