PRICE, Dn. Rtenitun, a celebrated author, was born at Ty-yn-ton, in Glamorganshire, on the 22d February, 1723. Having received the rudiments of his education at Neath, he was placed, in 1735, under the care of the Rev. Samuel Jones; and, with the view of being educated to the clerical profession, he went in 1739 to the academy of the Rev. Vavasor Griffith of Talgarth. After the death of his father and mother, in 1739 and 1740, he was sent to London, to his uncle, the Rev. Samuel Price, and was entered a stu dent in the academy, of which Mr. Eames was the head tutor. After studying mathematics and ethics, &c. at the academy, for four years, he became domestic chaplain to Mr. Streatfield, of Stoke, Newington. In 1757 he married, and in 1758 he became pastor of the congregation of New ington Green. In the same year he published his first work, entitled a Review of the principal Qdestions and Dffieulties in Morals, which added greatly to his reputa tion, and which went through several editions. The funda mental principle contained in this work is, that it is the un derstanding, and not the moral sense, which determines concerning actions.
In 1763, Mr. Price was chosen afternoon preacher to the congregation in Poor Jewry Street. In 1769, he gave to the Royal Society a demonstration of a rule in the doc trine of chances; and on the 5th December, 1765, he was admitted a member of that learned body. In 1767, he pub lished four dissertations, on Providence, Prayer, In is a large building, and the parish has three chapels of ease, Broughton, St. Lawrence, and the New Chapel. The town hall is a very large and handsome building, containing a pic ture of George II. The assembly-rooms, which were built at the sole expense of the earl of Derby, are elegant and com modious. The new prison, or penitentiary•house, near the entrance of the town from Chorley, by Walton Bridge, is constructed on the plan of Mr. Howard, and has, for its ob ject, solitary confinement and reformation only. The cha rities consist of two schools; one for 25 boys, and the other for 25 girls. Cotton goods, and other manufactured articles, are made here in great quantities, and are export ed by means of the river Ribble, which is navigable to the town for essels of considerable burthen, and for barges and boats ten miles higher. Preston likewise carries on
some foreign and coasting trade. The government is vested in the mayor, two bailiffs, recorder, aldermen, common council-men, and a town-clerk. The town returns two members to parliament, w ho are chosen by about 600 electors. Near the town there are many fine walks, but the fa vourite one is that of Haynum, from which Prince Charles is said to have viewed the town and the country below it, in 1745, with extraordinary emotions.
1769, he communicated to the Royal Socicty " Observa tions on the Expectations of Lives, the Increase of Man kind," &c. which was afterwards reprinted with corrections and additions in his work on Reversionary Payments, &c. which appeared in 1771. This valuable work went through several editions. The important topics of public credit, and the national debt, which were discussed in that work, were treated of in an " Appeal to the Public, on the sub ject of the National Debt," which appeared in 1778.
During the American war, Dr. Price entered into the political controversies of that period, and published seve ral pamphlets on the nature and value of civil liberty, which are now forgotten. The next work which he com posed was, " A Free Discussion of the Doctrines of Ma terialism and Philosophical Necessity," in a correspond ence between Dr. Price and Dr. Priestley.
When Lord Shelburne was prime minister, he was as sisted by Dr. Price, in drawing up a scheme for paying off the national debt ; but a change of ministry frustrated this scheme, and induced Dr. Price to communicate it to the public in a treatise entitled, " The State of the Public Debts and Finances, at signing the preliminary articles of peace in January, 1783; with a plan for money by Public Loans, and for redeeming the Public Debts." At a subsequent period Mr. Pitt is said to have received from Dr. Price three separate plans of a sinking fund, one of which formed the foundation of the system now in opera tion.