M.A. at Oxford in 1713. He was for many years a parish

clergyman in his native county, where he died in 1774. He opposed Warburton in a dissertation on Job, 1751; and a volume of his sermons was published after his death.—B. H. C. PETERS, Hugh, was born at Fowey in Cornwall in 1599. He was educated at Cambridge, where he seems to have led a loose and disorderly life, so as at last to incur the penalty of public whipping and expulsion from the university. After this, it is said, he betook himself for some time to the stage, but through the preaching of Sibbs and other puritan divines, he was brought under serious convictions, and became decidedly religious. He was ordained by Montaigne, bishop of London, and became lecturer at St. Sepulchre's in-the-City, where he preached with great acceptance and success for a considerable period; until having given offence by praying for the queen in words which seemed to intimate that he thought her in need of repentance, he was apprehended by Laud and imprisoned. Through the intercession of some influential noblemen he, after some time, obtained his release, when he made his way to Holland. Here he became pastor, along with Dr. Ames, of a church formed on the congregational model, to which he ministered for nearly six years; after which he left Holland and went to New England, wherein 1635 he became pastor of a church at Salem. Both in Holland and in America, his reputation was high and his influence great. After seven years' residence in the colony, he was sent over to England to "mediate for ease in customs and excise." He found the nation involved in the initiatory struggles of the great civil war, and though he always intended returning to New England, his intention was continually frustrated by one cause after another in those unsettled times. Detained in England he became attached as a preacher to the parliamentary army, and was with them in many of the great events of the memorable contest in which they were engaged. He repeatedly was sent to report proceedings to the parliament, and oftener than once received commendations and rewards from that assembly. He was with the army in Ireland, whence he was sent with a colonel's commission to raise troops in Wales—a duty which he seems not to have discharged to the satisfaction of his employers. During the wars Peters had several interviews with the king, and according to his own declaration made use of these to advise the king to measures which would have brought hostilities to an end and secured his crown, and Charles seems to have regarded Peters as his friend. He was somewhat forward in the trial of Laud, and it is said received Laud's library as a reward for this and other services. In 1651 he was one of a committee for amending the laws, an office for which he acknowledges his great unfitness. "I was there," he says, "to pray, not to mend laws." In 1654 he was appointed one of Cromwell's Triers. In 1658 he was with the army at Dunkirk, where his services as the religious instructor and counsellor of the soldiers are gratefully acknowledged in a letter from Colonel Lockhart to Secretary Thurloe. On his return he brought with him important intelligence for the government, and was appointed to preach before General Monk, then on his march from Scotland, at St. Albans. When the Restoration took place, Peters was marked as an object of peculiar vengeance by the dominant party. On the 13th October, 1660, he was indicted for high treason, and though nothing was proved against him but certain strong and indiscreet expressions in reference to the late king, and though he protested and proved his innocence of any overt act against the king's person or throne, he was sentenced to death, and three days after was executed. There can be no doubt now that this was a judicial murder; to cover the iniquity of which the most unfounded calumnies have been propagated against him. Peters was not a wise man in all things; he was forward and hasty of speech; but he was a true and sincere man, a man of unblemished reputation in circles where nothing foul or mean was tolerated, and a man who in every respect was immensely the superior of those who have busied themselves in seeking to attach infamy to his name. For the true story of Peters' life the reader is referred to Brook's Lives of the Puritans, vol. iii. p. 350.—W. L. A. PETERSEN, Niels Matthias, an eminent Danish historian and archæologist, was born at Sanderum, in the island of Funen, on the 6th November, 1791. His uncle, a burgher of Odensee, adopted him when two years old, and sent him at the age of ten to the cathedral school of that town, where he had for a fellow-pupil the great philologist Rask, then a boy of fourteen, by whose example and influence young Petersen was first led to cultivate the study of the Icelandic language. Yet it proved rather the field of history than philology in which the latter was afterwards to win renown. In due time he took his degree at the university of Copenhagen, and then taught a school in his native island; but an incident that occurred subsequently to the cessation of this employment in 1826, was decisive of his entire future. A prize having been publicly offered for the best essay on the Scandinavian languages, Petersen was the successful competitor; and the work by which he obtained it—"Det Danske, Norske, og Svenske Sprogs Historie," a treatise of the most meritorious character—at once secured him both advancement and celebrity. In 1829 he was nominated sub-librarian of the university of Copenhagen: and, after receiving other successive appointments, he became professor of the northern languages, a position which his learning and acquirements so well entitled him to hold. Petersen's works, which are valuable and important, consist mainly of the following, in addition to the already-mentioned essay—"Danmarks Historie i Hedenold" (History of Denmark in the Heathen age), published in 1834-38; "Haandbog i den gammel-nordiske Geographie"(Manual of old Northern Geography), published in 1834; "Nordisk Mythologie" (Northern Mythology), published in 1849; and lastly, the admirable work entitled "Bidrag til den Danske Literaturs Historie"(Contributions to the History of Danish Literature), published in consecutive volumes, the first of which appeared in 1853. He also translated into Danish a number of the old Icelandic sagas. He died in 1862.—J. J. PETHER, Abraham, landscape painter, son of William Pether the engraver, was born at Chichester in 1756, and learned painting of George Smith of that city. Abraham Pether, or old Pether as he is often called to distinguish him from his son, is best known by his moonlight scenes, which are very clever, but they are often mannered and feeble. He was a man of considerable attainments and much ingenuity, and of the most unassuming habits. He was a good musician, having been brought up as a chorister in Chichester cathedral, and intended for an organist; a clever mechanic, he made microscopes, telescopes, and other philosophical instruments; and an amateur astronomer, and lecturer on astronomy and electricity. Perhaps partly from frittering away his time and energy in so many pursuits, he lived and died in poverty, leaving a wife and family dependent on charity for the barest maintenance. He died in 1812.—His son, Sebastian, born in 1790, learned painting from his father, imitated his manner, and like him became known as a painter of moonlight scenes. But he was of inferior skill, and having early fallen into the hands of the picture dealers he was never able to extricate himself, and closed a long struggle with poverty and ill health, March 18, 1844.—J. T—e. PETHER, William, a celebrated engraver, was born at Carlisle in 1731. He was a pupil of Thomas Frye, a mezzotint engraver of some celebrity in his day; but Pether soon outstripped his master, and ultimately took a foremost place among the practitioners in that branch of the art. He engraved some plates from his own designs; portraits and subject pieces after Wright, Penny, and other contemporary artists; but his best prints are those from Rembrandt. He was elected associate of the Royal Academy in 1778, and died in 1795.—J. T—e. PETHION DE VILLENEUVE, Jerome, was born at Chartres in 1753. He was originally intended for the law, but finding a political career more congenial to his tastes, he left his profession, and being elected to the states-general in 1789, he ultimately became mayor of Paris. His hatred of Louis XVI. contributed in no small degree to that monarch's downfall; after which event, however, his popularity gradually waned, and his influence decreased. Finally obliged to succumb to the power of Robespierre, he was outlawed in 1793, and fled in disguise from Paris. Shortly afterwards, his mangled body was discovered in a field near St. Emilion.—W. J. P. PETIS DE LA CROIX, François, a distinguished orientalist, was born at Paris in 1653. He resided many years at Aleppo, Teheran, and Constantinople, thus becoming a master of the Arabic, Persian, and Turkish tongues. In 1680 he returned to Paris, and soon afterwards was sent as secretary to the embassy to Morocco. He subsequently accompanied the expeditions to Algiers under Duquesne, Tourville, and D'Amfreville, and assisted in concluding the peace which followed. For these services he was made Arabic professor at the college of France in 1692, and three years later succeeded his father as oriental