SIR JOHN HAWKINS, the friend and executor of Dr. Johnson, and a descendant of the Sir John Hawkins who commanded the Victory, and one of the four divisions of the fleet, as vice-admiral, at the destruction of the Spanish armada, was born in 1719. His father, an architect and surveyor, at first brought his son up to his own profession, but eventually bound him to an attorney, a hard taskmaster and a penurious housekeeper.' At the expiration of the usual term, the clerk became a solicitor, and by unremitting assiduity, united to the most inflexible probity, he, unfriended, established himself in a respectable business, while by his character and acquirements he gained admission into the company of men eminent for their accomplishments and intellectual attainments. He was an original member of the Madrigal Society, and at the age of thirty was selected by Mr. (afterwards Dr.) Johnson as one of the nine who formed his Thursday-evening Club in Ivy-lane; a most flattering distinction, which confirmed his literary habits, and powerfully influenced his future pursuits when, not many years after, he relinquished his profession.

In 1753, Mr. Hawkins married Sidney, the second daughter of Peter Storer, Esq., with whom he received an independent fortune, which was greatly augmented in 1759 by the death of his wife's brother. He then retired from all professional avocations, giving up his business to his clerk, Mr. Clark, who subsequently became chamberlain of the city of London. With this increase of wealth is connected an anecdote of far too honorable a nature to be omitted here. The brother of Mrs. Hawkins made a will, giving her the whole of his fortune, except a legacy of £500 to a sister from whom he had become alienated, and communicated the fact to Mr. and Mrs. Hawkins, who, by representing the injustice of this act, and by adding entreaty to argument, prevailed on him to make a more equitable distribution of his property, and an equal division was the consequence. We lost by this (says Miss Hawkins, her father's biographer) more than £1,000 a-year; but our gain is inestimable, and we can ride through a manor gone from us with exultation.'

Upon retiring from the law, Mr. Hawkins purchased a house at Twickenham, intending to dedicate his future

life to literary labour and the enjoyment of select society. But in 1771 he was inserted in the commission of the peace for the county of Middlesex, and immediately became a most active magistrate. Here his independent spirit and charitable disposition were manifested. Acting as a magistrate, he at first refused the customary fees; but finding that this generous mode of proceeding rather increased the litigious disposition of the people in his neighbourhood, he altered his plan, took what was his due, but kept the amount in a separate purse, and at fixed periods consigned it to the clergyman of his parish, to be distributed at his discretion.

Being about this time led, by the defective state of the Highways, to consider the laws respecting them, and their deficiencies, he determined to revise them, and accordingly drew up a scheme for an Act of Parliament, to consolidate the several former statutes, and to add such other regulations as appeared to him necessary. His ideas on this subject he published in 1763, in an 8vo. volume entituled Observations on the state of Highways, and on the Laws for amending and keeping them in repair;' subjoining a draught of the Act before-mentioned. This very bill was afterwards introduced into the House of Commons, and passing through the usual forms, became the Act under which all the Highways in the kingdom were for many years regulated, and which forms the nucleus of the statutes now in force.

Some time after this, a cause as important in its nature, if not so extensive in its influence, induced him again to exert himself in the service of the public. The Corporation of London, finding it necessary to rebuild the gaol of Newgate, at an expense, according to their own estimates, of £40,000, had applied to Parliament, by a bill brought in by their own members, to throw the onus of two-thirds of the outlay on the County of Middlesex. This the Magistrates of the County thought fit to resist, and accordingly a vigorous opposition was commenced under the conduct of Mr. Hawkins, who drew a petition accompanied by a case, which was printed and distributed among the members of both Houses of Parliament. This memorial became the subject of a day's discussion in the House of Lords, and in the Commons produced such an effect, that