Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
The Freemasons' Magazine, Or General And Complete Library.
cases went perhaps rather beyond it . Never had such rewards been criven to the labours of literary men , as now were received from him and his associates in those purchases of copy-rights from authors * . - Having now attained the first great object of business , wealth ,. Mr . Strahan looked with a very allowable ambition on the stations of political rank and eminence . Politics had long occupied his
activemind , which he had for many years pursued as his favourite amusement , by corresponding on that subject with some of the first characters of the age . Mr . Strahan ' s queries to Dr . Franklin in th & year 17 6 9 , respecting the discontents of the Americans , published in the London Chronicle of 28 th July 177 8 , shew the just conception he entertained of the important consequences of that dispute , and his
anxiety as a good subject to investigate , at that early . period , the proper means by which their grievances might be removed , and a permanentharmony restored between the two countries . In the year 1775 , he was elected a member of parliament for the borough of Malmsb . ury in Wiltshire , with a . very illustrious colleague , the Hon . C . J . Fox ; and in the succeeding parliament for Wotton-Basset , in the same county , In this station , applying himself with that industry which was natural to him , he attended the House with a scrupulous
punctuality , and was a useful member . His talents for business acquired the consideration to which they were entitled , and were not unno-. ticed by the minister . ¦¦' ---. ¦ - '¦; : . _ In his political connections he was constant to" ' . he'friends to whom he had first been attached . He was a steady supporter of that party who went out of administration in the spring of 1784 , and lost his seat in the House of Commons by the dissolution of parliament
with which that change was followed ; a situation which he did not show any desire to resume an the return of the new parliament . One motive for his not-wishing a seat in the subsequent parliament ^ was a feeling of some decline in his health , which had rather suffered from the long sittings and late hours with which the political warfare . in the last had been attended . Though without any fixed disease ,
his strength was visibly declining ; and though his spirits survive ^ his strenu'th , yet the vigour and activity of his mind were also considerably impaired . Both continued gradually to decline till his death , which happened on Saturday the 9 th July 1785 , in the 71 st year of his age . Of riches acquired by industry , the disposal is often ruled by caprice , as if the owners wished to shew their uncontrolled power over that wealth which their own exertions had attained , by a whim-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
The Freemasons' Magazine, Or General And Complete Library.
cases went perhaps rather beyond it . Never had such rewards been criven to the labours of literary men , as now were received from him and his associates in those purchases of copy-rights from authors * . - Having now attained the first great object of business , wealth ,. Mr . Strahan looked with a very allowable ambition on the stations of political rank and eminence . Politics had long occupied his
activemind , which he had for many years pursued as his favourite amusement , by corresponding on that subject with some of the first characters of the age . Mr . Strahan ' s queries to Dr . Franklin in th & year 17 6 9 , respecting the discontents of the Americans , published in the London Chronicle of 28 th July 177 8 , shew the just conception he entertained of the important consequences of that dispute , and his
anxiety as a good subject to investigate , at that early . period , the proper means by which their grievances might be removed , and a permanentharmony restored between the two countries . In the year 1775 , he was elected a member of parliament for the borough of Malmsb . ury in Wiltshire , with a . very illustrious colleague , the Hon . C . J . Fox ; and in the succeeding parliament for Wotton-Basset , in the same county , In this station , applying himself with that industry which was natural to him , he attended the House with a scrupulous
punctuality , and was a useful member . His talents for business acquired the consideration to which they were entitled , and were not unno-. ticed by the minister . ¦¦' ---. ¦ - '¦; : . _ In his political connections he was constant to" ' . he'friends to whom he had first been attached . He was a steady supporter of that party who went out of administration in the spring of 1784 , and lost his seat in the House of Commons by the dissolution of parliament
with which that change was followed ; a situation which he did not show any desire to resume an the return of the new parliament . One motive for his not-wishing a seat in the subsequent parliament ^ was a feeling of some decline in his health , which had rather suffered from the long sittings and late hours with which the political warfare . in the last had been attended . Though without any fixed disease ,
his strength was visibly declining ; and though his spirits survive ^ his strenu'th , yet the vigour and activity of his mind were also considerably impaired . Both continued gradually to decline till his death , which happened on Saturday the 9 th July 1785 , in the 71 st year of his age . Of riches acquired by industry , the disposal is often ruled by caprice , as if the owners wished to shew their uncontrolled power over that wealth which their own exertions had attained , by a whim-