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OBITUARY.

HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS PRINCE EDWARD, DUKE OF KENT AND STRATHERN.

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Jan. 23. At Sidmouth, his Royal Highness the Duke of Kent. The com plaint which so suddenly terminated the life of his Royal Highness was an inflammation of the lungs, with cough, attributed to a neglected cold which he caught from sitting in wet boots after a walk in the environs of Sidmouth with Captain Conroy. In the morning of Thursday the 20th, his Royal Highness was reported to be in imminent danger; but towards the middle of the day he partly recovered, in consequence of a little refreshing sleep which he had been enabled to obtain. Towards evening, however, all the alarming symptoms returned again with increased vehemence, and continued so till towards Saturday morning, when a kindly remission of them took place. This, however, proved to be only that fatal relief which so commonly occurs before death ensues. Prince Leopold, Captain Conroy, and Generals Weatherall and Moore, were present to afford consolation and support to the Duchess, at the awful and trying event. The Royal Duke hore his afflictions and illness with the greatest composure and resignation. His amiable and afflicted Duchess was most indefatigable in her attentions upon her departed consort, and performed all the offices of his sick bed, with the most tender and affectionate anxiety. She did not even take off her clothes for five successive nights, and ail the medicines were administered by her own hands. The melancholy event was brought to town on the morning of the 24th by General Moore, who arrived in London at half-past eight o'clock, and drove to Carlton House in a chaise and four. Carlton House was soon after closed, as a token of respect to the demise of the Regent's brother.--General Moore then proceeded to York House and Clarence House, to communicate the death of their beloved brother to the Dukes of York and Clarence, and the Duchess of Clarence. The General soon after proceeded to Windsor, to communicate the dismal tidings to the Prin

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and resided successively at Luneburg and Hanover, until October 1787, when he removed, by his Majesty's command, to Geneva, and there remained until be had completed his twenty second year. In January, 1790, his Royal Highness re-visited England, but for a few days only, proceeding immediately, in a military character, to Gibraltar, whence, in May 1791, he went to Canada. From that station he proceeded, in December 1793, through the United States, to the West Indies, to join the army under the late Lord Grey, and was present at the reduction of St. Lucie on the 4th of April following. At the close of the campaign of 1794, the Duke of Kent, pursuant to his Majesty's commands, returned to British North America, and served at Halifax as Major General till 1796, and as Lieutenant-General till October 1798, when, in consequence of a severe fall from his horse, he was obliged to return to England.

In April 1799, his Royal Highness was created a Peer by the titles of Duke of Kent and Strathern and Earl of Dublin, and obtained a parliamentary establishment adequate to the support of his new dignities. The following month he was promoted to the rank of General in the army, and appointed Commander-inChief in North America, to which destination he proceeded in July; but ill health again obliged him to return, and he arrived in England in the autumn of 1800. In March 1802, bis Royal Highness was appointed Governor in Chief of the important fortress of Gibraltar, which office he held till the time of his decease. In May 1802, he went to preside there in person, and exerted himself very laudably to suppress the licentiousness and dissipation of the wine houses, which had been found highly prejudicial to military discipline. These regulations, however, occasioning great dissatisfaction among the soldiery, who proceeded to some acts of violence on the occasion, his Royal Highness was recalled to England in May 1803, where he continued to reside till August 1816, when economical views led him to the Continent. Here he continued, residing principally at Brussels, until May 1818, on the 29th of which month he was married at Cobourg, according to the Lutheran rites, to her Serene Highness Victoria Maria Louisa, youngest daughter of the late reigning Duke of Saxe-Cobourg,

bourg, widow of his late Serene Highness
the Prince of Leiningen, and sister of
his Royal Highnes the Prince of Saxe-
Cobourg, the chosen husband of our
much lamented Princess Charlotte. The
Royal Pair, sbortly after the solemnity,
arrived in England, and were re-married,
according to the rites of the English
Church, at Kew Palace, on the 11th of
July 1818. Persevering in the economi- -
cal plan which he had laid down before
his marriage, the Duke, a few weeks
after this second, ceremony, returned
with his royal bride to Amorbach, the
residence of the Duke of Leiningen,
which the Duchess, who was left by the
will of her late husband guardian of her
son (a minor) and Regent of the Princi-
pality during his minority, had occupied
as her residence during her minority. It
was during their Royal Highnesses' re-
tirement at this spot, that the Duchess
proved to be pregnant; and as her Royal
Highness fully concurred in the senti-
ments entertained by her illustrious con-
sort, as an Englishman, that her child
ought to draw its first breath on English
ground, they both revisited this country,
where the Duchess gave birth to a daugh-
ter named Alexandrina Victoria, who
was born at Kensington Palace on the
24th of May 1819. His Royal Highness,
a very weeks ago, took his Duchess and
their lovely offspring into Devonshire, to
give them the benefit of its purer air and
milder climate; but unhappily fell him-
self a victim to a sudden attack of pul-
monary inflammation, produced by acci-
dental cold. At the time of his death,
besides the offices and dignities we have
already enumerated, his Royal Highness
was invested with those of a Knight of
the Garter, Thistle, and St. Patrick, a
Knight Grand Cross of the Bath, Keeper
and Paler of Hampton Court Park, Co-
lonel of the Royal Scots Regiment of
Foot, and since the year 1805, a Field
Marshal in the Army.

The public are too well acquainted with the zealous benevolence of the Duke of Kent to render it necessary that we should call to their remembrance the many noble instances of that virtue which he displayed. Scarcely a public charity in the Metropolis was known to him to exist, which did not, in one way or other, derive benefit from his ready patronage. To most he contributed, and over many he presided, delivering his sentiments on all public occasions with a dignity and propriety rarely to be met with. His Royal Highness was eminently distinguished as a man of business, carrying on an extensive correspondence, both on charitable and other concerns, with bis own hand, and writing

with an ease and elegance seldom equalled. Nor did his Royal Highness's private virtues less endear him to his family, and his numerous friends. His loss to society in general may truly be said to be great indeed.

FRANCES THOMASINE COUNTESS

TALBOT.

'Dec. 30. At the Phoenix Park, Dublin, Frances-Thomasine Countess Talbot, in her 38th year. Her Ladyship's disorder was an inflammation of the bowels. The rapidity of the progress of this dreadful visitation left scarcely a pause between alarm and despair. On Tuesday her complaint assumed a character of danger, and on Wednesday her Excellency's state was such as to preclude all hope of recovery.

Her Excellency was the daughter of Charles Lambert, esq. and sister of Gustavus Lambert, esq. of Beaupark, in the county of Meath. She was nearly connected with the Earl of Cavan, and her mother was the Hon. Miss Dutton, of Sherborne in Gloucestershire, sister to James Lord Sherborne. She was married on the 20th of August, 1800, to the Right hon. Earl Talbot. Viscount Ingestrie, the heir apparent to the Noble House, was born the 11th of July, 1802.

This illustrious Lady, the consort of the Nobleman who acts as the Representative of Royalty in that part of the United Kingdom, was regarded with the most affectionate veneration by the whole Irish People. She was their country-woman, their benefactress, the patroness of every useful undertaking, the courteons and hospitable exemplar of female dignity, and worth. To these public claims on respect, she added domestic virtues, which to the circle of her private friends endeared her still more while living, and rendered the stroke of her death tenfold more painful. It would be vain to attempt describing the grief, in which this sudden calamity has involved a ten-, der husband, or a fond and numerous offspring. The best consolation of their sorrows will be, the remembrance of her virtues; and these are unaffectedly but powerfully sketched in the following extract from a Dublin paper: "Her's was no common excellence. It was not in the pomp of grandeur and the parade of Courts that the Countess Talbot sought the felicities of our being. It was not to the gay scenes of the world, or to the splendour of her station that she looked for happiness. No. Though brightly and conspicuously she adorned the circle of the great; though affably and cheerfully she communicated delight to all

around

1820.] Sir T. Freemantle.-Prof'r Feinaigle.-Dr. G. Hill. 87

around her; though warmly she enter tained at her magnificent, frequent, and hospitable board; it was not, we say, in the exterior pageantry of her elevated rank, she courted enjoyment. It was in the sweets of social tenderness; in the affections of family, in the duties of a wife, the caresses and endearments of children, the love of kindred, the intercourse of friends. It was in the practice of rare, genuine, unostentatious benefieence in all the gentler agencies of goodness; in the luxuries of charity and the works of mercy; it was in these, the higher offices of humanity, that our departed Vice-Queen sought her chiefest pleasures; from these, it was, she drew her hopes of deserving the beaven that has this day unfolded to her pure and gentle spirit."

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The remains of the Countess, attended by her widowed Lord, have been removed to this country for interment.

VICE-ADMIRAL SIR THOMAS FREEMANTLE.

Dec. 19. At Naples, after an illness of only two days, of an inflammation in the bowels, Sir Thomas Freemantle, ViceAdmiral of the Blue, late Commanderin-Chief in the Mediterranean, which appointment he had not held more than eighteen months.

The Neapolitan papers, of the 27th December, speak in terms of the utmost regret at the death of Sir Thomas. His remains were carried to the grave on the 23d with every demonstration of respect and military honour that could be bestowed on the memory of so istinguisbed an officer, by the Neapolitan Go vernment. On this occasion the whole garrison was drawn out, and lined the streets, and the hearse was preceded by a body of cavalry. The Neapolitan MiMister General, Count Nugent, with the British, Austrian, and Netherlands Ambassadors, attended. The Duke of Leeds, Earls Spencer and Wentworth, with all the English residing at Naples, forming a train of upwards of 60 carriages, followed the hearse; six Midshipmen in uniform bore on cushions the decorations and honours of the deceased, viz. G. C. of the Bath, G. C. of the Guelph, G. C. of St. Ferdinand and of Merit, G. C. of St. Michael and St. George, C. of Maria Theresa, and the Ribband and Badge of Trafalgar. Captains Pellew, Campbell, Hamlyn, and Baker, R. N. in full uniform, with Captain Green, and officers of the Roebfort, which had borne the Admiral's flag. Lieutenant Freemantle, R. N. chief mourner, supported by Captain Green and Mr. Munroe the Secretary. Tie pall borne by six Lieutenants

R. N. in full uniform, the seamen of the Rochfort, two and two, following.

He was a meritorious and distinguished officer, the friend and companion of our immortal Nelson in many of his most brilliant actions, particularly in the two last Copenhagen and Trafalgar. Sir Thomas has left a large family to deplore his loss, in which lamentation a numerous circle of friends participate: and as few men possessed a more kind and benevolent heart, and were ever more ready to assist their officers, many of these have to regret the loss of a friend and patron. The Rochfort, of 80 guns, Captain A. Green (the flag-ship on the station), has been ordered to return to England, with Lady Freemantle and her numerous family, and to take out Sir Grabam Moore to the command.

PROFESSOR VON FEINAIGLE.

Dec. 27. At Dublin, Professor Von Feinaigle. With feelings of the sincerest sorrow (says a Dublin paper) we have to announce the sudden death of this estimable character; to whose genius and talents Ireland is so deeply indebted for the great and salutary reformation which he effected in the education of her youth. His successful labours in that difficult department, by which the acquisition of knowledge was rendered both agreeable and easy, must ever be held in grateful recollection by the parent, the pupil, and the school-master. The day of ri valry has long since passed by; and all must join in 'unfeigned regret for the man, and in warm admiration of his estimable qualities. The parents of his pupils, and the public at large, look with some anxiety to the choice which may be made of a successor. Of the Institution itself, which has conferred so many benefits on the country, we cas devoutly say, "Esto perpetua.”

DR. GEORGE HILL.

Lately. The Rev. George Hill, D. D. F. R. S. Edinb. Principal of St. Mary's College, and Primarius Professor in the University of St. Andrew's, one of the Ministers of that City, and one of his Majesty's Chaplains in Ordinary for Scatland. This gentleman was born at St. Andrew's about 1748; educated at the University of his native city, where he first obtained the Greek Professorship in the College of St. Salvador. He was long one of the chief ornaments of the Church of Scotland, and was distinguished for his manly and impressive eloquence, both iu the pulpit and the General Assembly.

Dr. Hill married a town's woman of his own, by whom he has a large family.

He has published "Sermons," Evo,

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JOHN STACKHOUSE, ESQ. F. L. S.

John Stackhouse, Esq. who died at his house in Bath Nov, 22, 1819, in his 78th year, as noticedin p.569, was the youngest son of the Rev. William Stackhouse of Trebane, in the county of Cornwall, D. D. and Rector of St. Erme in the same county, and nephew of the Rev. Thomas Stackhouse, author of the "History of the Bible," and "Budy of Diviuity." He was for a short time a Fellow of Exeter College, Oxford; but succeeding in 1763, by the will of his relation Mrs. Grace Percival, sister of Sir William Pendarves, to the family estate of that name, he vacated his fellowship, and after passing two or three years in foreign travel, settled at Pendarves, and resided there with little intermission till 1804, when he gave up the property to his eldest son, and retired to Bath.

Mr. Stackhouse was a Fellow of the Linnæan, and some foreign literary societies. His studies in Natural History, though not confined wholly to that department, were principally directed to Botany, and more particularly to that obscure and little understood part of it— the Marine Plants. In the study of those at present arranged under the genus "Fucus," and which are the product of, or are found on the shores of Great Britain, he was sedulously employed for many years; and whenever it was practicable in examining them in their places of native growth, for which purpose his residence in Cornwall, situate between the two seas, and at no great distance from either, offered him peculiar advantages.

The result of these observations he at length published in 1801, in a thin but large folio volume under the title of

Nereis Britannica," containing coloured figures of all the then-discovered British Fuci, with descriptions in Latin and English. This excellent work was slightly noticed in our 79th volume, p. 1042. The publication, as has hap. pened to many others, did not meet with the estimation to which it was justly entitled in the Author's own country, but was received with high approbation on the Continent, and introduced a correspondence between Mr. Stackhouse and some of the continental Botanists, who were engaged in the same or similar

pursuits. Amongst these must more particularly be mentioned M. Lamouroux, Professor of Natural History in the Royal Academy at Caen, Member of several Academies, and Author of an excellent work on the Zoophytes. With this gentleman Mr. Stackhouse was in correspondence to his death. They were both engaged in an attempt to methodize the heterogeneous mass at present crowded together under the genus "Fucus," and to separate the several species into properly-distinguished genera, according to their natural character and affinities. Each of these acute observers had made considerable progress in this arduous attempt, and though they did not entirely coincide in the detail, the general result of their conclusions did not widely differ. The sketch of Mr. Stackhouse's proposed arrangement was published in a second edition of the "Nereis," in quarto, in 1816, containing the same plates, but not coloured, and the descriptions in Latin only.

Although every Botanist who has studied the Marine Plants is perfectly aware of the necessity of separating them, widely as they differ in form and habit, into several genera, yet none (as the writer of this believes), with the exception of the two above-mentioned Authors, have ever made public any actual progress. This almost entirely arises from the very imperfect knowledge at present obtained of the fructification of these plants, and the consequently extreme difficulty of obtaining proper data whereon to form generic characters, whilst it is evident that such characters made out from form, substance, and habit of growth only, must be very uncertain and frequently erroneous. That Mr. Stackhouse had made considerable approaches to this desirable end must be acknowledged by all unprejudiced observers, and bad he been spared a longer life, it is probable he would have brought it as nearly to perfection as the subject will allow.

The pretensions, nevertheless, of Mr. Stackhouse to a literary character are not rested solely on his botanical pursuits. He was a very good classical scholar: many of his leisure hours had been devoted to the study of the work of Theophrastus on Plants. His proficiency in the Greek language, combined with his botanical knowledge, rendered him particularly qualified for the elucidation of this Author, as is evinced by his publication of a corrected edition of the Greek text, with a copious Glossary and Notes, in two volumes, crown 8vo, the first of which appeared in 1813, and the second,

1820.] Obituary; with Anecdotes of remarkable Persons.

second, with the Glossary and Notes, in 1814. He also published, in 1811, at the Clarendon Press, Oxford, “A Catalogue of the Plants of Theophrastus arranged according to the System of Linnæus, principally for the Use of travelling Botanists."

It was, however, in private life, and in the bosom of his family, that the character of Mr. Stackhouse shone most conspicuous; as a husband and a father, as a master and a friend, none have exceeded him, and, above all, he was a Christian in the true sense of the word. The latter years of his life were constantly spent at Bath during the winter season, where he had a house in Edgar-buildings; and in that place he will be long remembered and regretted. Whenever any charitable institutions were to be formed, whenever any public improve ments were suggested, Mr. Stackhouse was amongst the foremost, and by his money, and his advice, was ever ready to promote the benefit of that city. The author of this feeble and imperfect tribute to the memory of this excellent man, and his long-known and highly esteemed friend, in conjunction with his sorrowing family, must long lament his loss.

Mullis ille bonis flebilis occidit.

EDWARD DOWNES, ESQ. Dec. 30. At Shrigley, near Macclesfield, Cheshire, in his 52d year, Edward Downes, Esy. Member and Graduate of the University of Oxford, one of the Magistrates of the county of Cheshire, and the last male branch of one of its most antient families. Of the active beneficence which eminently distinguished his life, of his zeal to promote the honour of God and the interests of true religion, of his devoted attachment to the venerable establishments of his country, both in Church and State, many will be ready to bear ample testimony. To the few, however, who witnessed the holy calm and cheerfulness, which a genuine heartfelt piety diffused around his dying bed; to those who heard his last faultering accents employed in grateful praises and thanksgivings to the God of all peace and comfort, the peculiar excellence of his character shone forth in its brightest lustre; and the regret which they feel for his loss can only be mitigated by the recollection of his peaceful and happy removal from a world of care and sorrow; and the fullest reliance on the truth of that scripture which says, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord." GENT. MAG. January, 1820.

ROBERT LOWNDES, Esq.

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Jan. 5. After a short illness of two days, at the Hotwells, Bristol, in his 86th year, Robert Lowndes, Esq. formerly of Lea Hall, in the county palatine of Chester, and of Chesterfield, Derbyshire, but late of Widcombe Crescent, Bath. He was the eldest male representative of the Lowndes's of Overton Hall, in Cheshire, from whom are descended those of Buckinghamshire and the county of Oxford. His assiduous endeavours to serve the public in a similar manner to the late Mr. Rose, whom he strongly resembled in his ardent wish to be useful to mankind, may be exemplified by two large boxes of manuscript papers, which he was several years in composing; the writing of them having been his principal amusement in a long solitary life. Indeed, his character as a writer shewed a kindred spirit to the well known Mr. Secretary Lowndes, to whom he was distantly related."

SAMUEL THORNDIKE, ESQ.

Dec. 25. At his house, in St. Lawrence, Ipswich, in his 61st year, deeply regretted by his family and the town in general, Samuel Thorndike, esq. In 1792, he was elected one of the Common Council of that antient Borough; and in seniority was the fifth of that loyal and respectable body. He served the important office of Bailiff six times: in the years 1795-6; 1798-9; 1801-2; 1804-5; 1808-9; and, lastly, in 1814-15; with the highest credit to himself, and the greatest advantage to the interests of the borough. He had likewise performed the duties of Coroner for five several times, and died in the discharge of that useful office. He was also Treasurer of the Corporation, and one of the Governors of Christ's Hospital. He had for many years carried on the trade of a watchmaker in Ipswich, his native town; having served his apprenticeship with the late eminent and ingenious Mr. William Mayhew, of Woodbridge, a self taught genius, and the constructor of a magnificent orrery, which, without having previously seen one, he made on the most simple principles, and finished in the most scientific manner. Mr. Thorndike had, in a great degree, imbibed the talent of his master, and among his valuable stock, has left a clock of his own construction, which, without winding up, performs its evolutions for the period of an ent re year.

DEATHS.

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