JAMES, Esq. an English gentleman of very uncommon parts and learning, was the son of James Harris, Esq. by a sister of Lord Shaftesbury author of The Characteristics. He was born in the Clofe at Salisbury 1709; and educated at the grammar-school there. In 1726, he was removed to Wadham-college in Oxford, but took no degree. He cultivated letters, however, most attentively; and also music, in the theory and practice of which he is said to have had few equals. He was member for Christchurch, Hants, which he represented in several successive parliaments. In 1763, he was appointed one of the lords commissioners of the admiralty, and soon after removed to the board of treasury. In 1774 he was made secretary and comptroller to the queen, which post he held until his death. He died Dec. 21, 1780, in his 72d year, after a long illness, which he bore with calmness and resignation.—He is the author of some valuable works. 1. Three Treatises, concerning Art; Music, Painting, and Poetry; and Happiness, 1745, 8vo. 2. Hermes; or, A Philosophical Enquiry concerning Universal Grammar. 3. Philosophical Arrangements. 4. Philological Inquiries, 1782, 2 vols 8vo, finished just before his death, and published since. These Inquiries show much ingenuity and learning; but being the amusement of his old age rather than an exertion of genius, they have not the philosophic tone of his former productions.

one of the Hebrides or Western Islands Harris, of Scotland. It is about 25 miles in length, and from 6 to 8 in breadth. Upon the east side it is rocky; but on the west there are some tolerable farms, and the population in 1801 was estimated at nearly 3000. It has Lewis on the north, and North Uist on the south, from which it is separated by a channel of four miles in width, called the Sound of Harris. This channel is navigable for vessels of burden, but it requires a skilful pilot. It is the only passage between the Butt of the Lewis and Bara for vessels of burden passing to and from the west side of the Long Island. The sound is generally encumbered with rocks and islands, some of which are considerable, as Bernera, Pabay, Ensay, Killegray. These, with Scalpay, Taransay, and Scarp, compose the inhabited islands on the coast of Harris. Some of them produce good crops of grain, and all of them good pasture. Harris and its islands fell from 400 to 500 tons of kelp annually; it abounds on the east side in excellent lochs or bays, and its shores on both sides form one continued fishery. The fish on this coast, and along the whole shores of the Long Island, are more numerous, and of larger dimensions, than those on the opposite continent; on which account, two royal fishing stations were begun in the reign of Charles I. one in Loch Maddy, and the other in the Sound of Harris.