GILLIES, JOHN, LL.D., was born on the 1Sth of January 1747 at Brechin, in the county of Forfar, Scotland. lie belonged to a respect able and enterprising family. One of his younger brothers became eminent as a lawyer, and was for many years • judge of the Supreme Court in Scotland. Dr. Clines was educated at the University of Glasgow, whore, before he was of age, ho taught the classes of the Greek professor, then old and infirm. Soon after this be removed to London, with the design of occupying himself in literary labour ; but before settling there lie paid a visit to the continent, and on his returu he was engaged by the Earl of liopetoun as travelling tutor to his second eon. This young man, while under his care, died at Lyon in 1776; and his tutors attention to him was rewarded by an annuity for life from his father.
Iu 17 73 Dr. Gillies published his translation of Lysias and !secretes. lie had by that time received his degree as Doctor of Law. ; and to this in later life he added other literary honours, being a member of several societies in our own country, and a corresponding member of the French Institute and the Royal Society of Gottingen. He next went abroad again with two other sons of the Earl of Hopetoun. Returning to England about 1784, Dr. Gullies published in 1786 the first part of his' History of Ancient In 1793 he was appointed to succeed Dr. Robertson as Historiographer Royal for Scotland, a sinecure place with a salary of 200/. a year. lu 1794 ho married. Enjoying a moderate competency, ho prosecuted his studies with leisure ; and his subacquent writings appeared at loug intervals. During his latest years he was very infirm, though labouring under no disease, and bad retired altogether from general society. In 1830 he settled at Clapham, near London, where he spent the remainder of his quiet old age; and died on the 15th of February 1836 of mere decay, having just entered his uinetieth year.
The following are his published works :-1. ' The Orations of Lysias and 'secretes, translated from the Greek, with some Act:omit of their Lives ; and a Discourse on the History, Manners, and Character of the Greeks, from the Conclusion of the Pelopounceiau War to the Battle of 1778, 4to. 2. ' The History of Ancient Greece, its Colonies and (afterwards entitled Part the First), 'from the Earliest Accounts till the Division of the Macedonian Empire in the East ; including the History of Literature, Philosophy, and Fine Arts,' 1786, 2 vole. 4to. This work had reached a sixth edition in 1S20, 4 vols. 8vo. There is a German translation of it, Geschichte von Altgriechenland,' 11 vols. 12mo, Vienna, 1825. 3. ' View of the Reign of Frederick II. of Prussia, with a Parallel between that Piiuco and Philip II. of Macedon,' 1789, Svo. 4. 'Aristotle's Ethics and Politics, comprisiug his Practical Philosophy, translated from the Greek ; illustrated by Introductions and Notes, the Critical History of his Life, and a New Analysis of his Speculative Works,' 1797, 2 vole. 4to. The 'Supplement to the Analysis of Aristotle's Speculative Works, containing an Account of the Interpreters and Corrupters of Aristotle's Philosophy, in connection with the Times in which they respectively flourished,' 1804, 4th, was iucorporated also in a second edition of the translation published in the same year, 2 vols. Svo. 5. ' The History of the Ancient World, from the Dominion of Alexander to that of Augustus, with a Preliminary Survey of Preccdiug Periods; 1807-10, 2 vol.. 4to; reprinted in 4 vols. 8vo as ' The History of Ancient Greece, its Colonies and Conquests, Part the Second,' 1810.
6. 'A New Translation of Aristotle's Rhetoric, with an Introduction and Appendix explaining its Relation to hie Exact Philosophy, and vindicating that Philosophy by proofs that all Departures from it have been Deviations into 1823, 8vo.
The first part of the ' History of Greece' appeared in tho same year with the first volume of Mitford's work, and, if inferior to it, is yet superior to anything of the sort which our language till then possessed. The plan is well digested; but the pompous verbosity of its narrative, and the general dulness of its dissertative portions, perhaps prevent it recovering its popularity, if newer views and wider and deeper research had not rendered it otherwise of little value. The translalioes of Dr. Gilliea, however meritorious their Mention, do not deserve high praise. They are everywhere at the very least paraphrastic, and in many places reprehensibly unfaithful. Those from the orators aro the least faulty ; and for Isocrates the translator's style, elaborate, diffuse, and thoroughly modern in its structure, was not on the whole ill calculated. But to Aristotle's works his mode of treatment does great injustice. His desire of popularising hie author has made him depart almost always from his manner of expression; and the same motive, aided not unfrequently either by mistake as to his nomen clature or by the wish to evade a difficulty in the text, has made him often misrepresent even the matter which the philosopher gave him. The Ethics and indeed be can scarcely be said to have translated at all, so much do his professed trauslations abound in inaccuracies, in omissious, and in unauthorised interpolation& GILL1tAY, JAMES, the celebrated caricaturist, was born about the middle of the last century. He was originally n writing engraver, and is said also to have been a strolling player for a short time. Ho had an acute perception of character, a strong sense of the ludicrous, and at the same time a great ability for drawing, and a practical skill in engraving. His great faculty was the burlesque; his works however often contain much wholesome satire. Social abuses and absurd con ventionalisms were often the subject of his ridicule ; but his pencil was more frequently directed against political abuses; • the doings and enactments of the Tory ministries and the events of the great war were his favourite themes. His first political satire was published in 1782, and in allusion to Fox and Lord Rodney's victory. The last of his caricatures appeared in 1809: it represented 'a barber's shop in assize-time,' and was from a design by H. W. Sunbury, who designed several other of the caricatures which were engraved by Gillray. This last plate was executed at intervals between fits of mental aberration, which terminated shortly afterwards in a total suspension of the intellectual faculties, in which state he remained until his death on the lot of June 1815. His works appeared singly: but they have been published in sets, genuine, and spurious or copies. An Illus trative Description,' with a complete set of his genuine works in 304 sheets, was published by McLean, London, in 1830. Many of them exceed the bounds of the burlesque, and are far in the province of the gross and absurd; he also frequently took great personal liberties. Gillray's caricatures, to be thoroughly understood, require a familiarity with the party history of the time; they are mostly mere works of the