Sir William Drummond, a British author and diplomatist, born in Scotland about 1760, died in Rome, March 29, 1828. In 1794 he published " A Review of the Government of Sparta and Athens," and in the following year was elected to parliament. He sat also in the parliaments of 1796 and 1801, and was sent on diplomatic missions to Naples and Constantinople. He published a number of works, among which are: "Academical Questions" (4to, 1805), containing an attack on all kinds of dogmatism, embracing an exhibition of insoluble problems, and tending to show the weakness of the human intellect; and "Ori-gines, or Remarks on the Origin of several Empires, States, and Cities" (4 vols. 8vo, London, 1824-'9). A work written by him, printed for private distribution, and entitled "The OEdipus Judaicus " (1811), brought upon its author much censure and criticism, because of its attempt to explain away some of the narratives of the Old Testament as astronomical allegories. He was an accomplished scholar, and made an excellent translation of the satires of Persius.