1742. Nicholas Amhurst, an English political, poetical, and
miscellaneous writer, died in poverty and of a broken heart at
Twickenham, at the age of thirty-six. He was author of “Terræ Filius,” a
severe satire on the university of Oxford, from whence he had been
expelled, and he edited the once celebrated “Craftsman,” one of the most
popular journals ever printed, and the most effective of all the
publications against the Walpole administration. Bolingbroke and
Pulteney with whom he had been associated in the conduct of this paper,
and whose interests he had promoted by his wit, learning, and knowledge,
deserted him when they had attained their purposes by Walpole’s
downfall. Mr. A. Chalmers concludes a memoir of him by an observation
that ought to be rivetted on the mind of every man who thinks himself a
public character. “The ingratitude of statesmen to the persons whom they
make use of as the instruments of their ambition, should furnish an
instruction to men of abilities in future times; and engage them to
build their happiness on the foundation of their own personal integrity,
discretion, and virtue.” Ralph the historian, in one of his pamphlets,
says “Poor Amhurst, after having been the drudge of his party for the
best part of twenty years together, was as much forgotten in the famous
compromise of 1742, as if he had never been born! and when he died of
what is called a broken heart, which happened a few months afterwards,
became indebted to the charity of (Richard Francklin) a bookseller for a
grave; not to be traced now, because then no otherwise to be
distinguished, than by the freshness of the turf, borrowed from the next
common to cover it.”
There is an order
Of mortals on the earth, who do become
Old in their youth, and die ere middle age,
Without the violence of warlike death;
Some perishing of pleasure--some of study--
Some worn with toil--some of mere weariness--
Some of disease--and some insanity--
And some of withered, or of broken hearts;
For this last is a malady which slays
More than are numbered in the lists of Fate,
Taking all shapes, and bearing many names.
_Byron_
1785. Prince Leopold of Brunswick, was drowned by the waters of
Frankfort upon the Oder, in endeavouring to succour the inhabitants of a
village which was overflowed.
1794. Sir William Jones died, aged forty-eight.
1794. James Bruce, the traveller into Abyssinia, died by falling down
the stairs of his own house. He was born at Kinnaird, in Stirlingshire,
North Britain, 1730. His veracity, defamed in his lifetime, has been
supported by every subsequent information concerning the regions he
visited.
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