portrait-painter's reputation and income, though not often to his

lasting fame; but he was never overtasked with commissions. At this period of his career, and for many subsequent years, he occupied his leisure with literature. In 1805 he published a poem entitled "Rhymes on Art, or the remonstrance of a painter," which passed into a third edition, and to which he published a sort of second part in 1809, under the title of "Elements of Art, a poem in six cantos." In 1814 he published another volume of poetry, called "The Commemoration of Sir Joshua Reynolds, and other poems," in which were included various occasional verses previously published. In 1824 appeared a tragedy called "Alesco," but in print, not on the stage; its performance having been forbidden by the licenser of plays on the ground of its containing improper political allusions. Shee prefixed to his play an angry preface, but the tragedy was too dull, and the conduct of the licenser too absurd, to permit of the affair being considered seriously by the public. Shee enjoyed the notoriety for a time, but was glad to have the matter forgotten when he began to look forward to the higher honours of his profession. His last literary work, "Old Court," a novel in three volumes, was published anonymously in 1829. On the death of Sir Thomas Lawrence in 1830, Shee became a candidate to succeed him as president of the Royal Academy. Wilkie was the rival candidate. There could, of course, be no comparison instituted between the merits of the men as painters; but Shee was of polished address and fluent in speech, and these were qualities requisite for the post. He was accordingly elected by a great majority, and he performed his official duties to the entire satisfaction of the members, filling the chair on all public occasions with ease and dignity, and stoutly defending at all times the claims and privileges of the institution. He was knighted soon after his election. He continued to paint till 1845, when he laid down his pencil, and resigned his presidency; but this last he was by a unanimous vote of the Academy induced to resume, the academicians at the same time voting him an annuity of £300, to which the government shortly after added a pension of £200. He died August 19, 1850. Shee is not to be ranked as a portrait-painter with Reynolds, or even with Lawrence; but his likenesses are considered good, and he has painted many of the most eminent men of his time. There is always about his portraits an air of refinement and intelligence, and his colour, if too florid, is not unpleasing. His subject pieces are of small value. A life of him was published by his son in 2 vols. 8vo, 1860.—J. T—e. SHEEPSHANKS, John, brother of Richard, was already celebrated as a judicious collector of books, prints, and pictures, when in 1857 he acquired a wider and more enduring fame by the munificent gift of his noble gallery of pictures by British artists to the nation. In the deed of gift he laid down certain conditions concerning the custody and exhibition of the pictures, indicative of large and generous views on the subject of art-education. In accordance with his wish this splendid collection of pictures by Mulready, Leslie, and Landseer, was placed in the Kensington museum, and is accessible to the public on certain days when students are not working from them. By this unselfish gift before his death, Mr. Sheepshanks earned not only the gratitude of his countrymen, but the satisfaction of seeing his favourite companions committed to the guardianship of the government and of the public. He died in October, 1863.—R. H. SHEEPSHANKS, Richard, an earnest worker in astronomical science, was born in 1794 at Leeds, where his father was a wealthy cloth-merchant. He was educated at Richmond in Yorkshire, and Trinity college, Cambridge, took his degree with honours in 1816, and became a fellow the year following. He then began to study law, and was called to the bar in 1825 by the Society of Lincoln's inn. Suffering from weak sight, however, and possessing an ample fortune, he withdrew from the bar in 1828, and entered holy orders. He retained his fellowship to the end of his life, but undertook no cure, devoting himself entirely to scientific pursuits. In an observatory which he had first in London, afterwards at Reading, he made diligent use of a fine transit instrument which he possessed, and a room was set apart for his use in the basement floor of Somerset house. In 1824 he was. elected a fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society, and in 1830 a fellow of the Royal Society. In 1831 he was appointed one of the commissioners to fix the boundaries of boroughs under the reform bill. He was associated with Professor Airy in some important operations with the pendulum in Cornwall, and often made journeys at his own cost, with as many as seven or eight chronometers, to determine the longitude of places in England, Ireland, and elsewhere, not perfectly known. When the standard weights and measures of England were destroyed in the fire which consumed the houses of parliament, Mr. Sheepshanks took an active part in their restoration. He was a member of both the commissions appointed for that purpose in 1838 and 1843, and for the last eleven years of his life gave such unremitting attention to the mathematical operations necessary for establishing an accurate standard of the yard measure, that his death is said to have been hastened thereby. The observatory at Cambridge, and that at Liverpool, and the instruments they contain, derived benefit from his advice and assistance. He was an active member of the board of visitors of the Greenwich observatory. In conjunction with Professor De Morgan, he edited the monthly notices of the Astronomical Society. He contributed various articles on astronomical instruments to the Penny Cyclopædia. He died of paralysis on the 7th of August, 1855. Eight days previously, and the day after he had received the paralytic stroke, the bill (18 and 19 Vict., cap. 72) fixing the standard of measure, and embodying the results of Mr. Sheepshanks' labours, received the royal assent. He was a liberal friend to all aspirants for astronomical honours, an agreeable companion, and a man of scrupulous honour and integrity.—R. H. SHEFFIELD, John, Duke of Buckinghamshire, an eminent English statesman, and one of our minor poets, was born in 1649. In consequence of the death of his father, when he was only nine years of age, and the second marriage of his mother, his education was greatly neglected; but on discovering his deficiencies he devoted a certain part of every day to study, and became distinguished for the extent of his attainments. In 1666, at the age of seventeen, he volunteered to serve at sea against the Dutch. On his return he was appointed to the command of a troop of horse. He again joined the fleet in 1672, and behaved so gallantly that he was appointed captain of the Royal Catharine of eighty-four guns. He afterwards made a campaign in the French service under Turenne. At this period he bore the title of earl of Mulgrave, and was one of the lords of the bed-chamber to Charles II. He was appointed to the command of the troops sent to defend Tangiers against the Moors. During the reign of James II. he held the office of lord-chamberlain, and was a member of the notorious ecclesiastical commission. He gave deep offence to the king by presuming to make pretensions to the hand of the Princess Anne, and sought by mean and abject servility to regain the favour he had forfeited; and though an avowed sceptic, who made the Romish faith one of his favourite subjects of mirth, he affected in private to be a convert to popery. At the Revolution he hastened to make atonement for his subserviency to James, by plighting his faith to William. He took a prominent part in the proceedings of the house of lords, spoke with great eloquence on the land-tax, on the place bill, against the censorship of the press, and the bill for regulating state trials. In 1694 he was created Marquis of Normanby, and named a cabinet councillor, with a pension of £3000 a year, as a reward for exerting his great parliamentary talents in favour of the king's policy. In 1702 he was sworn of the privy council, and in the following year was created Duke of Normanby, and soon after Duke of Buckinghamshire. In 1711 he was made lord-steward of the household, and president of the council. Queen Anne offered to make him lord-chancellor, but he declined the office. The duke died in 1721, in the seventy-second year of his age. He left an only son, a weak lad, by his third wife. On his death at Rome, in 1736, his family became extinct. Sheffield had some pretensions to the character of a poet, and his writings were lauded by his contemporaries. But his verses scarcely ever rise above mediocrity, and their preservation in collections of English poetry has done great injustice to his memory. He was a man of excellent abilities, and held a place in the foremost rank of the parliamentary orators of his day. Burnet says his speech on the land-tax was the finest that he ever heard in parliament. His prose writings, especially his historical memoirs, are lively and agreeable. Sheffield's moral character was stained by flagrant vices. Though a libertine, and so notorious for his pride and arrogance that the satirists of the age nicknamed him Lord Allpride, he was mean and niggardly in all his pecuniary dealings. His epitaph, written by himself, avers that he lived and died a sceptic in religion. His writings were splendidly printed in 1723 in 2 vols.,