CUMBERLAND, RICHARD, was born in the pariah of St. Ann, near Aldersgate, in London, on tho 13th of July 1632. He received the early part of his education at St. Paul's School, and went thence to Magdalen College, Cambridge, in 1649. After taking his Master's degree he thought of entering the medical profession, and accordiugly studied medicine for a abort time; but he soon relinquished this intention, and took orders. In 1658 he was appointed to the rectory of Brampton, in Northamptonshire, where he remained till 1667, when Sir Orlando Bridgman, who had been his contemporary at Cambridge, and had now become lord keeper, first made him his chaplain, and shortly afterwards bestowed on him the living of Allhallows, iu Stamford. In both places he performed the duties of minister with the most exemplary assiduity. In Stamford he regularly preached three times every. Sunday, having taken upou himself a weekly lecture ship io addition to his parochial duties. His Inquiry into the Laws of Nature,' which was written while he was chaplain to Sir Orlando Bridgman, appeared in 1672, the year in which Puffendorf published his 'Treatise on the Law of Nature and Nations.' His 'Essay on Jewish Weights and Measures,' a work of great learning and acuteueas, was published in 1686.
After the Revolution, Dr. Cumberland was raised to the see of Peterborough, in the room of Dr. Thomas White, who refused tho new oath. The manner of his appointment was highly honourable to him, and not less to King William. "The king was told," says Mr. Payne. his chaplain, to whom we are indebted for a brief, and that the only, memoir of Cumberland, "that Dr. Cumberland was the fittest man he could nominate to the bishopric, of l'eterborough. . . . Tho doctor walked after his usual manner on a poet-day to the coffee-house, and read in the newspaper that one Dr. Cumberland, of Stamford, was named to the bishopric of Peterborough; a greater surprise to himself than to anybody else." (Preface to Sanchoniathon's ' History,' p.
This was in the sixtieth year of him ago; but his health was still good, and he entered with great zeal on the performance of his new duties. Ile had commenced, some years before, a critical examination of San• ehoniathon'a ' Phoenician History : ' and this work still occupied him for some years after he was made a bishop. It led him to several cognate inquiries, the reeults of which were published some time after his death under the title of 'Originea Antiquiesimie, or Attempts for Discovering the Times of the first Planting of Nations.' Neither was the series of dissertations on Sanchoniathon's History published during his lifetime. They were both edited by Mr. Payne, and published, the latter in 1720, the former in 1724. At the age of eighty-three Dr. Cumberland, having been presented by Dr. Wilkins, with a copy of his Coptic! Testament, then just published, commenced, like another Cato, the study of Coptic. "At this age," says Mr. Payne, "he mastered the language, and went tlitough great part of thin version, and would often give mo excellent hints and remarks as he proceeded in reading of it." He died on the 9th of October 1713, in the eighty seventh year of his ego.
Dr. Cumberland's private character appears to have been a perfect model of virtue. Ho was a man also of most extensive learning. " He was thoroughly acquainted with all the branches of philosophy : he had good judgment in physic, knew everything that was curious in anatomy, had an intimacy with the classics. Indeed. he was a stranger to no part of learning, but every subject he had occasion to talk of, he was as much a master of it as if the direction of his studies had chiefly lain that way. lie was thoroughly conversant in Scripture,
and had laid up that treasure in his mind. No hard passage ever occurred, either occasionally or in reading, but be could readily giro the meaning of it, and the several interpretations, without needing to consult his books." The Inquiry into the Laws of Nations' (' De Legibue Nature) Disquiaitio Philosophies, in qua earum forma, summa capita, ordo, promulgatio, et obligatio, e rerun, nature inveatigantur; quinetiain Elements Philcaophito Hobble:He, cum mortals tun, civilis, conside ranter et refotantur') was called forth by the political and moral works of Hobbes. Hobbes is charged therein with atheism ; he is repre sented, as he is also represented in Cudworth's 'Eteraal and Immutable Morality,' as denying any standard of moral good and evil other than one fashioned by human law ; he is upbraided for the forms of expression that in a state of nature all men have a right to all things, and that the state of nature is a state of war. These differences b aween Hobbes and Cnmberland may be all traced to a mieappre heusion of tho former's meaning. As regards Cumberland's own views of moral science, they are substantially correct. Objections may be made to the phrases, 'law of nature' and right reason,' by which last he denotes the set of faculties employed in the determination of moral good and evil. But though in a science where the chief disputes that have arisen are verbal disputes, phraseology cannot be accounted unimportant; and though that phraseology, combined with clumsiness of style and arrangement, has prevented a general perception of the substantial merits of the work, we most, while we regret the defect and ita consequences, do justice to a really correct system. Tendency to frect the general good is made tho standard of morality. To endeavour to effect the greatest amonut of gonend good is the one great duty, or the one great law of nature; and we know, according to Cumberland, that it is a duty or law of nature, or law of God, because we know that an individual derives the greatest happiness from the exercise of benevolence, and that God desires the greatest possible happinces of all his creatures. Carrying out the fundamental principle, that the greatest general good is to be sought, he deduces the several particular duties or particular ' laws of nature.' He fouude government upon, and tests it by, the same principle.
The 'Inquiry,' as may be inferred from the Latin title which has been given, was written in Latin. It was printed in a most inaccurate way, and the innumerable errors of tho original edition have been in the several German and London ropriuts. Dr. Cum berland left an Interleaved copy with a few corrections and additions; in this same copy the whole text was revised by Dr. Bentley ; and thus enriched, the con was presented to the library of Trinity College, Cambridge, by Richard Cumberland, the great-grandson of the bishop, and grandson of 1)r. Bentley. An abridged translation was published by Mr. James Tyrrel la 1701, during Dr. Cmnberland's lifetime. Mr. Maxwell, an Irish clergyman, published a translation in 1727, prefixing and appending some original dissertations. M. ltarbeyrac published a translation into Fretah in 1744, having been allowed the use of the Interleaved copy oontainIng the author's and Dr. Bentley's correction', A third English translation by the Rev. John Towers, D.D., appeared in 1750.
(Psyne's Preface to Cumberland's Sanchoniathon's /Eatery; Hippie, Biographic Brita an tea.)