Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 31.djvu/342

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

9. ‘Personal Nobility, or Letters to a young Nobleman on the Conduct of his Studies and the Dignity of the Peerage,’ anon. Lond. 1793, 16mo; this was dedicated to Charles James Fox. 10. ‘Antipolemus, or the Plea of Reason, Religion, and Humanity against War; a Fragment, translated from Erasmus and addressed to Aggressors,’ anon. Lond. 1794, 8vo. 11. ‘The Spirit of Despotism … London, printed in the year 1795; Philadelphia, reprinted … Nov. 28, mdccxcv,’ 12mo; four editions, ‘dedicated to Lord Castlereagh,’ and ‘edited by the author of the “Political House that Jack Built”’ [W. Hone], were published in 1821, Lond. 8vo; another edition by the same editor appeared in 1822, Lond. 8vo, with Knox's name on the title-page; the 10th edition appeared in the fifth volume of Knox's collected ‘Works;’ 11th edition, with ‘A Preliminary Dissertation on Government, Law, and Reform, and the Life and Character of Dr. Knox, the Author, &c.,’ Lond. 1837, 8vo, with portrait; Hone states that the book was ‘first privately printed at London in 1795, during the war against France, in a duodecimo volume of 360 pages;’ it is said to have been shortly afterwards suppressed by Knox, and that only three copies were left in existence, one of which went to America, and another subsequently fell into Hone's hands; no trace, however, of the three copies is now discoverable, and in all probability the American edition was really the first one (Notes and Queries, 5th ser. xi. 43, 174, 6th ser. vii. 407). 12. ‘Christian Philosophy, or an Attempt to Display the Evidence and Excellence of Revealed Religion,’ Lond. 1795, 12mo, 2 vols.; 3rd edition, with an appendix on Mr. Paine's ‘Pamphlet on Prayer, on Psalmody, and a short List of Books for the use of the … unlearned reader,’ &c., Lond. 1798, 12mo; ‘First American edition, with a translation of all the … quotations annexed,’ Philadelphia, 1804, 12mo; another edition, with an introductory essay by the Rev. Henry Stebbing, appeared in vol. xix. of Cattermole and Stebbing's ‘Sacred Classics,’ Lond. 1835, 8vo; other editions, Lond. 1854, 8vo, &c. 13. ‘Considerations on the Nature and Efficacy of the Lord's Supper,’ &c., Lond. 1799, 8vo; 2nd edition, abridged, Lond. 1800, 12mo. 14. ‘Remarks on the tendency of certain Clauses in a Bill now pending in Parliament to degrade Grammar Schools. With cursory Strictures on the national importance of preserving inviolate the Classical discipline prescribed by their Founders,’ Lond. 1821, 8vo; the ‘second edition … corrected,’ in the ‘Pamphleteer,’ Lond. 1822, 8vo, vol. xix.

[Biographical preface to the first volume of Knox's Works, 1824; Memoir prefixed to J. G. Percival's edition of Elegant Extracts, 1842; Life and Character prefixed to the eleventh edition of the Spirit of Despotism, 1837; Rivington's History of Tunbridge School, 1869, pp. 124–38; Annual Biography and Obituary for 1822, vi. 350–63; Monthly Magazine, 1821, pt. ii. vol. lii. pp. 275–6; European Magazine, 1822, lxxxi. 195–9 (with portrait); Public Characters of 1803–4, 1804, pp. 519–30; Gent. Mag. 1821, vol. xci. pt. II. pp. 279–81; Annual Register, 1821, App. to Chron. p. 242; Boswell's Life of Johnson, ed. G. B. Hill, i. 222, iii. 13–14, iv. 330, 390–1; Georgian Era, 1834, iii. 569–70; Foster's Alumni Oxon. 1888, pt. ii. p. 806; Robinson's Register of Merchant Taylors' School, 1882–3, ii. 90, 126; Clode's Memorials of the Guild of Merchant Taylors, 1875, pp. 681, 682; Notes and Queries, 5th ser. x. 448, 503–4, xi. 306, 414; Dictionary of Living Authors, 1816; Halkett and Laing's Dict. of Anon. and Pseudon. Lit. 1882–8; Watt's Bibl. Brit. 1824; Lowndes's Bibl. Man. (Bohn); Allibone; Brit. Mus. Cat.; information from Mr. Alan H. Stenning.]

G. F. R. B.

KNOX, WILLIAM (1732–1810), official and controversialist, was born in Ireland in 1732. He received the rudiments of his political education from Sir Richard Cox [q. v.] Lord Halifax appointed him ‘one of his majesty's council and provost-marshal of Georgia,’ when Henry Ellis [q. v.] was made governor of the colony. Ellis and Knox arrived at Savannah on 16 Feb. 1757, and Knox did not return to England until 1761. Lord Grosvenor was then his friend and patron; they were at Paris together in 1763, and it was probably through Grosvenor's influence that Knox obtained his introduction to George Grenville. He became agent in Great Britain for Georgia and East Florida, and in the interests of the colonies sent a memorial to Lord Bute, recommending the creation of a colonial aristocracy and the inclusion in parliament of representatives of the colonies; but his services as agent were dispensed with by resolution of the Georgia assembly on 15 Nov. 1765, for two pamphlets written in defence of the Stamp Act, which he considered to be the least objectionable mode of taxation. In the same year (1765) he gave evidence before a committee of the House of Commons on the state of the American colonies, and from the institution of the secretaryship of state for America in 1770 to its suppression by Lord Shelburne in 1782, he acted as the under-secretary. His views formed a basis for the conciliatory propositions of Lord North in 1776; he suggested the creation of a separate loyalist colony in Maine in 1780, which was approved by the