274 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
Marshall had selected, as the favoured individual, one of the judges of the Court
of Session ; but an incident occurred about two years prior to his death, which
entirely changed his views on the subject. In politics he had been, if any
thing, an adherent of Henry Dundas, afterwards Lord Viscount hlelville, and
felt very deeply the injustice of the charges latterly preferred against that distinguished
nobleman. While the impeachment against him was going on in
London, Mr. Marshall, although then in his seventy-fourth year, daily repaired
to the Parliament House, where the news of the day were generally discussed.
The all-engrossing topic was of course the impeachment ;” and the innocence
or guilt of Melville decided upon according to t,he political bias of the disputants.
Having one day paid his accustomed visit, old Marshall was astonished to
find the sentiments of his intended heir decidedly adverse to the fallen minister.
This appeared the more intolerable to Marshall, knowing, as he did, that
this individual entirely owed his elevation to the very person whom he now
vilified. “ 0 the ungrateful scoundrel ! ” exclaimed the old man ; and working
himself up into a towering passion, he strode up and down the floor of the courthouse,
cursing with more than usual vehemence-then grumbling through his
teeth as he left the Court-“ he shall never finger a farthing of my money ”-
he hurried directly home, ere his accumulated wrath should be expended, and
committed the “ will ” to the flames.
Mr. Marshall died at Greenside House on the 23d May 1807, in the seventysixth
year of his age. He married a Miss Janet Spens, who died in 1788.
No. CXII.
REV. JOHN WESLEY.
THE principal facts connected with this remarkable individuaI are pretty generally
known through the elegant “Memoirs of his Life,” by Dr. Southey.
A less attractive, but very valuable account of Wesley has subsequently
appeared from the pen of the Rev. Richard Watson, himself an active and
distinguished teacher of Methodism.
MR. WESLEYw as the son of a cleravan of the English Church, and was
born at Epworth-a market town in Lincolnshire, where his father was vicaron
the 17th of June 1703. His grandfather and great-grandfather were both
ejected from their livings by the Act of Uniformity j and died, the former in
consequence of frequent imprisonment and severe privation ; the latter, from
grief for the loss of his only son. John, along with his brother Charles (both
being intended to enter into orders), was sent, at the age of seventeen, to Oxford,
where he was entered a student of the College of Christ-Church. His attainments
at this period were highly respectable, especially in classical literature.
