Dr. Rotheram was far from being a mere theo logian. His attainments as a man of general science are understood to have been very considerable; and he enjoyed a high reputation as a teacher both of theoretical and of practical mathematics. His eminence in this particular department caused the academy at Kendal to be eagerly resorted to, not only by students for the ministry, but by many who were afterwards to fill various stations in civil and active life. And he not only instructed his pupils in the theory of mathematics and natural philosophy, but possessed a happy talent of illustrating them with great success by means of an extensive, and for that time a wellconstructed, apparatus.

"As a minister (says Mr. Daye, in his funeral sermon for Dr. R.), his abilities were great; his delivery graceful; his performances instructive, lively, and entertaining; his sentiments nervous; his arguments strong, his expression just. With these talents, together with great moderation, impartiality, and calmness of judgment, he became not only a popular preacher, but was equally applauded by the most judicious. As a tutor, his capacity was equal to his department. His public spirit, desirous to propagate useful knowledge, and his tender concern for the interest of young persons, inclined him to take on himself the direction of youthful studies, for which he was excellently well qualified, and therefore encouraged by great and good men, and chosen as the means of carrying on their worthy design of enlarging useful knowledge, and propagating rational and religious light among men. He was

a

ab

al

of a most communicative temper; and his lectures were rather the open informations of a friend, than the dictates of a master. As he was an impartial lover of truth, he encouraged the most free and unbounded inquiry after it, in every branch of science. To this may be chiefly ascribed his great success in this undertaking; which appears from the number of those who have been raised to a degree of eminence among the Dissenters, from the experience they derived principally from him.

"As a Protestant Dissenter, he was a credit to his profession; for he was a friend, a faithful friend to liberty, the distinguishing principle of that profession.

"As a member of civil society, he was a zealous friend to public happiness and tranquillity; particularly as a good townsman, his loss will be regretted. So much did he delight in its prosperity, wishing well to its liberties, studying its interests, and being ready to defend its just rights, that it is not strange his zeal for the good of the town, and his abilities to promote that good (being so well known and respected) should often meet with many considerable opportunities in which they were exerted with success. Thus he was a benefit to the public.

"And in his more private life, as the head of a numerous family, he was most tenderly affectionate in every relation. He was affable, agreeable, and friendly to all, and his conversation always afforded pleasure and satisfaction."

Dr. Rotheram's labours, though so valuable in their results, and highly creditable to his own

character and reputation as a scholar and a divine, were almost exclusively addressed to his congregation and his pupils. The only piece of his that we have seen in print, is a Latin inaugural Dissertation, "De Religionis Christianæ Evidentiâ,” which he published and defended in the usual forms of academical disputation, when he took his degree of Doctor in Divinity, in the College at Edinburgh, May 27, 1743. In this dissertation he ably refutes the notion strongly insisted on by many sceptical writers, and somewhat incautiously admitted even by Mr. Locke, "that the probability of facts depending on human testimony must gradually lessen in proportion to the distance of the time when they happened, and at last become entirely evanescent." With respect to traditional evidence, properly so called, it may be admitted that this is true; namely, when our knowledge of the fact attested is derived from the oral testimony of a single line of dependent witnesses; but it is not true of evidence arising from general notoriety; where the fact attested was seen by a number of original witnesses, each of whom communicates his information to many others, who, in their turn, diffuse it through a variety of channels; because, in this case it is probable that the number of witnesses may increase in the same, or even in a greater proportion than the credibility of each individual witness diminishes. Still less can it be admitted in the case of written testimony; where, if the original document no longer exists, copies taken from it may have been multiplied indefinitely, and versions made of it into a great variety of languages;

so that the evidence shall even increase instead of diminishing with the lapse of time.

In the latter end of the year 1751, Dr. Rotheram's health, which had received a severe shock from some very heavy family afflictions, began rapidly to decline. In the following spring, as soon as the season would permit, he undertook a journey to Hexham, in Northumberland, where his eldest son was then settled as a physician; and his friends were not without all hope that he might be restored to his former strength and usefulness. But his disorder returning, he died there on the 8th of June, 1752. He was interred in the Abbey Church of Hexham, where a mural monument bears the following inscription to his memory :

To the Memory of

Caleb Rotheram, late of Kendal, D.D.
Who successfully united

The force of Genius and Industry
In the Cause of

Religion, Truth, and Liberty.
The Holy Scriptures
Were his favourite Study,
The Doctrine which he taught
And the Rule of his Life.
With ardent Piety,
Extensive Knowledge,
Unlimited Benevolence,
And Rational Affection,
He adorned the characters

Of Minister, Tutor, Parent, and Friend.
He died June viii, MDCCLII.
Aged LVIII.

Dr. Rotheram left three sons, of whom the eldest, as abovementioned, was a physician, first at Hexham, afterwards at Newcastle-upon-Tyne. He was a man of high character and reputation in

his profession, and an eminent and successful practitioner. Another son went into the army; and the third followed his father's profession, and, after a short interval, succeeded him as minister of the Presbyterian congregation at Kendal. But the academy fell with its founder, on whose personal exertions, reputation, and influence, it almost entirely depended. During its brief course of eighteen years, fifty-six students derived from it their preparation for the Christian ministry; of whom a catalogue, accompanied by an interesting series of biographical notices, is inserted in the Monthly Repository, O.S., vol. v. Besides these, there were about a hundred and twenty lay students, of whom no more particular account has been preserved; but it is believed that many of them filled respectable, and some of them distinguished, stations in various departments of professional and active life.

Among the worthies who seem to require from us a place under this article, I cannot avoid including Mr. SAMUEL CLARK. Though he was not directly concerned in theological instruction, yet from his talents, and the acknowledged liberality of his views and principles, he was doubtless mainly instrumental in promoting the kindred spirit which is well known to have characterized both the academical institutions with which for some years he was successively connected; and which stand out in this respect as honourable exceptions from the plan on which other establishments under similar auspices have most commonly been conducted.