a celebrated satirist, the son of Mr Charles Churchill, curate and lecturer of St John's, Westminster, was born in February 1731. He was educated at Westminster school, and received some applause for his abilities from his tutors in that famous seminary. His capacity, however, was greater than his application, so that he acquired the character of a boy who could do good if he would. For want of proper skill in the learned languages, he was rejected from Oxford, whither his father had sent him; and probably this might have given occasion to the frequent invectives which we find in his works, against that university. Upon his return from thence he again applied to his studies in Westminster school, where, at seventeen years of age, he contracted an intimacy with a lady, to whom he was afterwards married, and their mutual regard for each other continued for several years. At the usual age of entering into orders, Mr Churchill was ordained by the late Bishop of London, and obtained a small curacy in Wales of L20 a year. Thither he carried his wife; they took a small house; and he passed through the duties of his station with assiduity and cheerfulness. Happy had it been for him had he continued there, to enjoy the fruits of piety, peace, and simplicity of manners. He was beloved and esteemed by his parishioners; and though his sermons were rather above the level of his audience, they were commended and followed. But endeavouring to advance his fortune by keeping a cider cellar, it involved him in difficulties which obliged him to leave Wales and proceed to London. But his father having died soon afterwards, he stepped into the church in which his parent had officiated; and in order to improve his income, which scarcely produced L100 a year, he taught young ladies to read and write English at a boarding-school, kept by Mrs Dennis, where he behaved with the decency and decorum which became his profession. His method of living, however, bearing no proportion to his income, he contracted several debts in the city; and being unable to pay them, a jail, the terror of indigent genius, seemed ready to complete his misfortunes; but from this state of wretchedness he was relieved by the benevolence of Mr Lloyd, father of the poet of that name. Meanwhile Mr Lloyd, the son, wrote a poetical epistle called the Actor, which being read and approved by the public, gave the author a distinguished place among the writers of his age. This induced Mr Churchill to write the Rosciad. It first appeared without the author's name; but the justness of the remarks, and the severity of the satire, soon excited public curiosity. Though he never disowned having written that piece, and even openly gloried in it, yet the public, unwilling to give so much merit to one alone, ascribed it to a combination of wits; nor were Messrs Lloyd, Thornton, and Colman, left unnamed upon this occasion. This misplaced praise soon induced Mr Churchill to throw off the mask, and the second edition appeared with his name at full length. As the Rosciad was the first of this poet's performances, so many are of opinion that it is the best. His next performance was his Apology to the Critical Receivers. This work is not without its peculiar merit; and as it was written against a set of critics whom the world was willing enough to blame, the public read it with their usual indulgence. But whilst his writings amused the town, his actions disgusted it. He now quitted his wife, with whom he had cohabited many years; and, resigning his gown and all clerical functions, he commenced a man of pleasure. To palliate in some measure the absurdities of his conduct, he undertook a poem called Night, a poem written upon a general subject, indeed, but proceeding upon false principles; namely, that whatever our follies are, we should never attempt to conceal them. When this and Mr Churchill's other poems were shown to Dr Johnson, and his opinion of them asked, he allowed them but little merit; which being told to the author, he resolved to requite this private judgment with a public one. In his next poem of the Ghost, therefore, he drew this gentleman under the character of Pomposo; and those who disliked Dr Johnson allowed it to have merit. The poems of Night and the Ghost had not the rapid sale the author expected; but his Prophecy of Famine soon made ample amends for their failure. In this piece, written in the spirit of the famous North Briton, he exerted his virulent pen against the whole Scottish nation, adopting the prejudices of the mob, and dignifying scurrility by the aid of a poetic imagination. It had a rapid and extensive sale, as had been prophesied by Mr Wilkes, who said before its publication that he was sure it must take, as it was at once personal, poetical, and political. Several succeeding pieces were published, which, being written without effort, are read without pleasure. His Gotham, Independence, and The Times, seem to have been written by a man who merely desired to avail himself of the avidity of the public curiosity in his favour, and are rather aimed at the pockets than the hearts of his readers. Mr Churchill died in 1764, of a miliary fever, with which he was seized at Boulogne, in France, whither he had gone on a visit to Mr Wilkes. Several editions of his poems have been published both in 8vo and 12mo.