Shortly after his decease, a deputation from the council of the Royal Academy waited upon his sons and executors, requesting permission to honour his remains with a public funeral in St. Paul's cathedral, similar to that which had honoured the remains of Sir Joshua Reynolds. His Majesty, as patron of the Royal Academy, having sanctioned this proposal, the body was deposited in state in the smaller exhibition room on the ground floor of the Institution, being hung with black, and ornamented with silver sconces and escutcheons. On the morning of the 29th of March, the body was interred with great honours, the procession being attended by the several officers, members, and students of the academy, a great number of the principal British artists, many literary characters, and a great portion of the nobility, besides a vast concourse of people who witnessed the procession. The coffin was placed in the vault of St. Paul's, close by the coffins of Wren, Reynolds, Opie, and Barry. Mr. West has left two sons, but his property is nearly all included in his extensive collection of Paintings, the value of which is exceedingly great. His wife died about two years before him. The honour of knighthood, which his late Majesty offered to confer, was declined by him, from his attachment to the doctrines and principles of the Quakers, which followed him through life. The following inscription is engraven on his tomb. Here lie the Remains of BENJAMIN WEST, ESQ. President of the Royal Academy of Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture; Born 10th of October, 1738, at Springfield, in Pennsylvania, in America; Died in London, March 11, 1820. The works of Mr. West are numerous, perhaps not less than one thousand; but it is only from a selection that the decided superiority of his genius appears. To young artists he was particularly attentive, having frequently been known to drop his pencil, to give direction to the pencils of others, expecting no reward but in their improvement and success. He was long honoured with the liberal patronage of his late Majesty, and derived from an enlightened public that support which he justly merited. His works will long remain among the proudest embellishments of Britain. No. 17.-VOL. II. RIGHT HON. HENRY GRATTAN. Ir is with feelings of sorrow, that we announce the death of this distinguished and venerable patriot; an event which took place on Sunday evening, the 4th of June, 1820, at his house in Baker-street, Portman-square, London. Mr. Grattan was in the 74th year of his age, during the last five of which, he had been afflicted with a severe dropsical affection in the chest ; but in the midst of sufferings the most acute and painful, he displayed a calm and submissive resignation. It is well known that he was conscious of his approaching dissolution; and he was deeply sensible, that when he "made the last effort for the benefit of his country," by his appearance in Parliament, for the pious purpose of recommending to the House of Commons, the cause so near his heart, it must tend to accelerate that mournful sacrifice. His enfeebled frame did not. second the aspirings of his bold and fervent spirit; he was doomed to bequeath emancipation as a legacy-not to bestow it as a gift. The death of such a man, though for some time expected, cannot fail to excite a feeling of regret in the bosom of every individual, in whose estimation, public virtue and private worth are valuable. His last and most anxious wish was, that he might have died, like the immortal Chatham, in the immediate performance of his parliamentary duty, and in promoting the advancement of that cause in which he had so long "toiled, and shone, and suffered." His obsequies were distinguished with peculiar honours. His body lay in state at Richmond House. The pall was supported by the Dukes of Wellington and Norfolk, and the Earls of Charlemont and Donoughmore. vast number of nobility and gentry attended. His remains were interred in Westminster Abbey, near the tombs of Chatham, Mansfield, Pitt, and Fox. A Mr. Grattan was one of the oldest members of the Irish Bar; he came into Parliament through the interest of the late Lord Charlemont, in the year 1773, and in 1790 was returned for the city of Dublin. During the whole period in which the question of Catholic Emancipation has been agitated, Mr. Grattan has shewn himself friendly to the measure, It was either to advocate this cause, or to die in the attempt, that he left Dub20 lin, in a debilitated state of health. He reached Liverpool in the steam packet from that city, about five in the afternoon, on Monday, May 22, after a passage of 17 hours. On his landing, he was drawn by an admiring populace to the Waterloo Hotel, where he continued until Wednesday the 24th, when, about six in the evening, he proceeded to Runcorn, and from thence to London by inland navigation, the common mode of travelling being too fatiguing for his exhausted frame. While in Liverpool, he was treated with much attention and respect, an acknowledgment of which he has expressed, in the writing of which the annexed is a fac-simile. REVIEW.-The Methodist, a Poem. pp. 26. price 1s. 87, Bartho.-Close, Lon. THIS neat little Poem, which has just made its appearance, we doubt not will prove highly acceptable to the Wesleyan Methodists, without giving offence to any other religious sect. The author has concealed his name; but we gather from his advertisement, that he is not a Methodist, nor ever was one. This he has mentioned, that his readers may expect, in the delineation of character which he has given, that impartiality, which we, on the perusal, have found. He lightly touches on the progressive diffusion of light, from the dawn of the Reformation, until, in modern days, Wesley arose above the moral horizon. The Poem contains nothing of fulsome adulation, but speaks in a respectful manner of the progress of Methodism, of its general utility, of its influence on society, and of the tendency of its doctrines. We have only room to give the following specimen."Observe that cottage, in yon hazel copse, Round which the corn-fields wave their yellow crops; Green tufts of velvet moss adorn the thatch, Or bears the lambs of Christ, or gently leads; Exact, yet courteous, his demeanour meek, How knows he that?" I hear a voice inquire.- On Selling pernicious Books. MR. EDITOR, SIR,-Should the following lucubration, in answer to the inquiries of T. Y. of Oakmoor, col. 278, on selling pernicious Books, meet your approbation, its insertion in your excellent Miscellany, will oblige 66 E. USHER. Sir, your's, &c. London, April 13, 1820. IF by a Christian" your correspondent means a believer in, and an imitator of Christ, then certainly the negative side of the question must be taken; for, how can a Christian, believing the Bible to be a revelation from God, the precepts of which have such salutary effects on the life and character when cordially embraced, and the doctrines of which have such a tendency to promote the best interests of man; how can such a Christian sell publications, which have a tendency to invalidate the truth of Scripture, to estrange the mind from God, and finally to injure the soul? Would not such persons, "owing all their enjoyments to Christianity, act the part of those brutes, which, when they have sucked the dam, turn about and strike her." Dr. Beattie justly said, "If I one soul improve, I have not lived in vain." But persons in the habit of selling pernicious publications, live to injure others, by giving circulation to works of an immoral and irreligious nature; and by spreading them among the various gradations of society, they are instrumental in diffusing vicious habits, and infidel principles. Such a line of conduct is repugnant to the genius of the gospel, and diametrically opposed to those benevolent sentiments with which Christianity inspires the mind. We are to frown at vice, and smile at virtue. We are to “abstain from all appearance of evil," and to endeavour to do good in every possible way, by suppressing vice and immorality, and spreading truth and virtue in every direction. The conduct of the Ephesians, recorded Acts xix. 19. was therefore highly proper, and is worthy the imitation of Christians in general. The Rev. Mr. Wesley pertinently remarks, in his comment on that scripture,-" To burn them, was far better than selling them, even though the money had been given to the poor." For, how can we present to others, works which we have proved to be injurious to ourselves? Thoughts on the Knowledge of Angels. SIR,-The volume of inspiration is to certainly plunge into the gloomy and fathomless gulf of scepticism. I mean not to assert, that there is no ground for certainty, in the nature of things; this would be to undermine the foundation on which the proofs of revelation rest; but that, in divine things, we know little but what is derived from the scriptures of truth. And were the Author of our being to annihilate every Bible, and every book containing a single principle from that source; and were he to erase from every mind every vestige of knowledge obtained from his word; it would, probably, leave a blank in the intellectual world, greater than imagination can well conceive. Were this done in religious matters, we should, in all probability, be in a similar condition to those heathen nations whose language contains no name for Him who filleth all things, and who is God over all, blessed for ever. I have been led to these reflections, by a question asked by F. Hopkins, in No. 12, col. 97, of your valuable Magazine. It is as follows: "Do the celestial intelligences derive their knowledge of the wisdom of God, from the church militant, or the church triumphant?" If your correspondent means, whether they derive all their knowledge of the wisdom of God from one of these channels? I am of opinion that they do not derive it from either. By the celestial intelligences, is meant angels; and of the angelic host, we know no more than what is contained in the pages of inspiration. From these we learn, that there are beings of a higher order than ourA laborious writer of the last cen- selves;-that they have on particular tury, whose mind was richly stored occasions been visible;--that they have with almost all that man e'er knew," been employed as messengers of mercy and in whom were united, the ac- and of judgment ;-and that their precomplished scholar, the profound phi-sent office is to minister to the heirs losopher, and the genuine Christian; in his old age, expressed himself in nearly the following language: In my younger days, when I had finished my studies at the university, I thought that I knew almost every thing; but now, I scarcely know any thing, but what God has told me in his word." And such, Sir, will be the experience of every scholar who believes sincerely in Divine Revelation, and who, in natural things, endeavours to penetrate beneath their surface; while men of strong, polished, and inquiring minds, who reject revelation, will almost as 66 of salvation. But beyond these particulars, the scriptures contain little to gratify curiosity; and hence we should be very cautious in what we advance on a subject which is so far beyond the ken of mortals. When treating of the objects of the heavenly world, too many writers have been governed by their imagination, instead of their judgment; and perceiving that the different species of beings in the visible world, admit of being arranged into various classes according to their relative perfections and defects, and fancying that similar |