Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 02.djvu/273

Austin that he might speak upon better and surer grounds than some others who have written on this subject.' A second edition of the 'Treatise' with additions and improvements, appeared in 1657. Wood states that its sale was hindered by its association with the treatise on the 'Spiritual Use of an Orchard.' 'which being all divinity, and nothing therein of the practice part of gardening, many refused to buy it; but both Johnson and Watt mention editions in 1662 and 1667. The treatise on the 'Spiritual Use of an Orchard' was reprinted separately at London in 1847. In 1658 Austen published 'Observations on some parts of Sir Francis Bacon's Naturall History as it concerns Fruit-trees, Fruits, and Flowers.' Possibly through some misreading of the title-page, this work has been attributed by some to a Francis Austen, and there is apparently no foundation for the statement that it was published originally in 1631 and again in 1657. According to Wood, Austen was the author of 'A Dialogue or Familiar Discourse and Conference between the Husbandman and Fruiterer in his Nurseries, Orchards, and Gardens,' published in 1676 and 1679, and containing much of the substance of his earlier treatise. Watt erroneously attributes to Ralph Austen two books by John Austen. A work by a Ralph Austen appeared at London in 1676 entitled 'The Strong Man Armed;' but the fact that it was published at London, not at Oxford, and that it is entirely controversial, and contains no reference to gardening, militates against the supposition that its author was identical with the subject of the present notice. According to Wood, Austen died in his house in the parish of St. Peter-le-Bailey, Oxford, and was buried in the church belonging thereunto, in the aisle adjoining the south side of the chancel, 26 Oct. 1676, after he had been a practiser in gardening and planting trees fifty years.

[Anthony á Wood's Fasti Oxonienses, ed. Bliss, i. 453, ii. 174; Johnson's History of English Gardening, 93, 98; Felton's Portraits of English Authors on Gardening, 18, 19; Watt's Bibliotheca Britannica; S. D. U. K. Biog. Dict.; Burrow's Register of the Visitors of the University of Oxford, published by the Camden Society (1881), pp. viii, 84, 312, 357.]

 AUSTIN, CHARLES (1799–1874), lawyer, the second son of Jonathan Austin, of Creeting Mill, in the county of Suffolk, was born in 1799. He was educated at Bury St. Edmunds grammar school. He was for a time apprenticed to a surgeon at Norwich, but disliking that occupation he quitted it, and was sent to Cambridge, entering at Jesus College. In 1822 he won, much to the amazement of his friends who knew his heterodox opinions, the Hulsean prize for an essay on Christian evidence. In 1824 he graduated B.A. The late Mr. John Stuart Mill, in his 'Autobiography,' has described the immense influence exercised by Austin over his contemporaries at Cambridge in terms which might seem exaggerated but for the concurrent testimony of others. 'The impression he gave,' writes Mr. Mill, was that of boundless strength, together with talents which, combined with much force of will and character, seemed capable of dominating the world.' An ardent, brilliant, and paradoxical exponent of the doctrines of Bentham at a time when utilitarianism had the zest of novelty, a militant radical of a type new at Cambridge, he won admiration in debates at the union and in conversation with his most distinguished rivals. It is recorded as one proof of his influence that the opinions which Macaulay brought from his Clapham home were modified by converse with Austin. Austin was one of a brilliant group, including Macaulay, Praed, Moultrie, Lord Belper, Romilly, Buller, and Cockburn; and none of these young men who rose to distinction gave more promise than Charles Austin. Moultrie, who has sketched that group in his poem, 'The Dream of Life,' describes Austin as

Mr. Trevelyan, in his 'Life of Lord Macaulay,' tells a story which illustrates Austin's brilliancy as a converser, while on a visit to Lord Lansdowne at Bowood. Macaulay and Austin happened to get upon college topics one morning at breakfast. 'When the meal was finished they drew their chairs to either end of the chimneypiece, and talked to each other across the hearthrug, as if they were on a first-floor in the old court of Trinity. The whole company—ladies, artists, politicians, and diners-out—formed a silent circle round the two Cantabs, and, with a short break for lunch, never stirred till the bell warned them that it was time to dress for dinner.' Having chosen law as a profession, Austin entered as a student at the Middle Temple, read in the chambers of Sir William Follett, then in the height of his fame as an advocate, and was called to the bar in 1827. He joined the Norfolk circuit, and went the 