a portrait of his majesty, to be placed in the library; and on Wednesday he felt himself so much better, that he worked for some time upon this picture. It was the last effort of his pencil; thus verifying his motto-Loyal à la mort. His old and esteemed friend, Mrs. Ottley, and a part of her young family, spent the evening with him, when he appeared to be very cheerful. After their departure, however, he felt so much indisposed that he sent for his friend Dr. Holland, who conceived his case so dangerous that he even sat up with him the whole night. No idea of danger had been previously entertained. On Thursday he was so much better, that in the evening he received two of his friends; one of whom read to him an article in the New Monthly Magazine, written by Mr. Thomas Campbell, in answer to some observations in the Edinburgh Review upon Flaxman. After some easy and pleasant conversation upon this article, subjects of art, and general topics, the two friends left his chamber, and retired for a short time to an adjoining apartment. Presently they were alarmed by the servant's cries for assistance; and on running into the room, to their horror, they be held sir Thomas a corpse. The servant related that, when he was called in, his master's arm was bleeding (he had been bled on Sunday). He leaned back in his chair, seemed much oppressed, and exclaimed-"I am very ill-I must be dying!" These were the last words he uttered. A post mortem examination, made by Mr. Green, in the presence of Dr. Holland and Mr. Foster Reeve, ascertained death to have ensued from an extensive and complicated ossification of the vessels of the heart.

Sir Thomas's prices towards the close of his career were as follows:Three-quarter (or head size), two hundred guineas; Kit-cat, three hundred; Half-length, four hundred; Bishop's half-length, five hundred; Whole-length, six hundred; Extra whole-length, seven hundred. Half the price paid down at the first sitting.

Sir Thomas Lawrence was considered so handsome in his early youth, that Mr. Hoare is reported to have said of him, that if he had to choose a head for a picture of Christ, he would select Lawrence for that study. This character he retained in an eminent degree through life. He was thought to resemble Mr. Canning, and he was proud of the resemblance. His person and countenance, as well as his general deportment, gave him the appearance of one to whom dignity came by birthright. He derived his fine but pensive cast of features, with his manly form and graceful action, from nature; but the charm of his conversation and manners arose from that which can alone impress the stamp of true gentility-intellect and goodness of heart. In early life, he lived much upon what is called "the Town," and improved himself in all fashionable accomplishments. He danced with infinite grace. He was a fine fencer, and a capital sparrer. At the latter exercise his attitudes and action were extremely beautiful. He was also passionately fond of billiards, at which he was a most graceful and successful player.

Sir Thomas was well acquainted with the ancient classics, as far as that acquaintance can be acquired by the medium of translations; for of Greek he was entirely ignorant, and his knowledge of Latin was

not extensive or profound. With foreign literature he was also conversant; but it was principally through the same medium. In the writings of his own countrymen he was sufficiently versed. His memory was extraordinary, and he had a charming faculty of reading and reciting poems. His tone of voice was soft, but it was clear, distinct, deep-toned, and ad

mitted of every variety of expression. He was once to have married a daughter of Mrs. Siddons; but at that period his own income was extremely limited, and the father of the lady, who was then living, refused his consent. The object of his addresses died some years after of a pulmonary complaint.

Mr. Huskisson was born at Birch Moreton, in Worcestershire, on the 11th of March, 1770. He was the eldest son of William Huskisson, esq. who resided upon his patrimonial estate, called Oxley, in the parish of Bushbury, near Wolverhampton. His mother was Elizabeth, daughter of John Rotton, esq. In 1774, Mrs. Huskisson died suddenly and prematurely, a few hours after childbirth, leaving four children; namely, William, the subject of this notice; Richard, who has since died; Samuel, the present general; and Charles, who now resides near Birmingham. Mr. Huskisson, the father, married again, and had by his second wife several children, the eldest of whom is captain Thomas Huskisson, of the royal navy.

At his mother's decease, the late Mr. Huskisson was not five years old, and he was placed at an infant school at Brewood, in Staffordshire; when older, removed to Albrighton; and lastly, to Appleby, in Leicestershire.

Mr. Huskisson's mother was niece to Dr. Gem, a gentleman highly esteemed, as well for his medical skill as for his other scientific and literary acquirements. Dr. Gem had accompanied the duke of

Bedford on the embassy to France in 1762-3; and the society of the men of letters with whom he mixed, and the great facilities which Paris then afforded for the researches of science, decided him to fix his residence in that capital and its vicinity; paying occasional visits to his friends in England, and to his small family estate in Worcestershire. Dr. Gem always felt great interest in the children of his favourite piece, and having expressed a

wish, in consequence of the second marriage contracted by Mr. Huskisson's father, that the two eldest boys should be entrusted to his care, they were permitted to accompany him on his return to Paris in 1783. The late Mr. Huskisson was then between twelve and thirteen years old. It was his uncle's intention to make him a physician, with the view of introduring him as his own successor in the appointment attached to the embassy at Paris, but the circumstances of the time soon gave a different direction to his career. The other brother was destined to be a surgeon. Dr. Gem was a severely strict disciplinarian, and from the oddity of his notions and habits, ill-calculated to win a spirit but little predisposed to

the laborious study of a somewhat repulsive profession. With him, economy was ever the order of the day; and from this cause, perhaps, as well as with the view of preserving the elasticity of the mind during the hours devoted to study, it was his habit not to eat any thing until the usual time of dinner, about five or six o'clock in the afternoon. The observance of this rule he enforced upon his pupils; and the only mitigation they were allowed, consisted of a scanty portion of bread and fruit, with which they were sometimes permitted to break the miserable monotony of this diurnal penance. Such a system, it may be supposed, was by no means agreeable to the feelings, or suited to the constitution of youth; and it can excite no wonder to state, that William Huskisson, after a few years' experience of it, was so much reduced in flesh, that when he visited England, his family could scarcely recognize him, and it was only by great care that he was restored to his former vigour. This alone would have been sufficient to give him a distaste for medicine; but it was mainly to the exciting state of public affairs at the time that the alteration in his course of life was attributable. Situated as he was, it is scarcely matter of wonder, that young Huskisson caught the political contagion which was then abroad. With all the ardour natural to his years, of which he had then numbered but nineteen or twenty, he entered into the feelings of the revolutionary party, and became a warm supporter of principles and theories, which subsequent experience and a more matured mind, taught him to regard as visionary and dangerous. He was not, however, as has been as

serted, a member of the Jacobin club, nor did he approve of their violent and anarchical doctrines. He was one of those who sought only a salutary change in the government. The mistake on this point, which furnished his political opponents with apparent grounds for stigmatizing him as "an Ultra Liberal, and a furious Democrat,” arose from his being a member of a society in Paris, entitled "La Société de 1789," or "Le Club de Quatre-vingt-neuf;" but that society was established by seceders from the Jacobin club, and in opposition to it. Its object was, to protect and defend the original principles of the Revolution of 1789 principles which the Jacobin club had, by its founders, been intended to promote, in opposition to the more democratic views which that club afterwards adopted. In a collection of pamphlets, there is a speech which Mr. Huskisson, on the 29th of August, 1790, addressed to "Le Club de Quatre-vingt-neuf." The subject of it is the policy of an additional issue of assignats. The only evidence of liberalism in the speech is a recommendation to meet the wants of the state, not by an issue of depreciated paper, but by the sale of national property. The only other association with which Mr. Huskisson was at that time connected was "The London Corresponding Society;" but he did not long continue his connection with the club, and, indeed, he was soon, by circumstances, called upon to make a more profitable use of his time and talents.

During his residence in France, Mr. Huskisson had become a perfect master of the French language; and the interest he took in public affairs had made him familiar with the

intricacies, condition, and general bearings, of the several parties in Paris. He had also turned his attention to the study of international policy and commerce; his thorough knowledge of which afterwards enabled him to take so distinguished and active a part in the affairs of his own country. These qualifications for office, so well adapted to the times, did not escape the notice of lord Gower (the present marquis of Stafford), the British ambassador, to whom he had been introduced by Dr. Warner, chaplain to the embassy. Dr. Warner was the friend of Dr. Gem, and had thus become acquainted with the promising talents and pleasing manners of young Huskisson; and having mentioned him in terms of high commendation to lord Gower, his lordship desired that he should be presented to him; and his lordship's private secretary being prevented by illness from attending to his duties, Mr. Huskisson was offered the situation. He readily embraced the opportunity, and, attaching himself to the establishment of the ambassador, relinquished totally the study of medicine. On being appointed private secretary to lord Gower, Mr. Huskisson occupied apartments in the ambassador's hotel, and became a member of the family. Upon the return of lord Gower to England, in 1792, Mr. Huskisson accompanied him, and continued to pass the greatest part of his time with his lordship, and in his society. Soon after, Mr.

Dundas expressed to lord Gower his wish to select some gentleman of abilities, who perfectly understood the French language, in order to assist in the projected arrangement of an office for the affairs of the emigrants who had taken refuge in England. fuge in England. Lord Gower immediately mentioned Mr. Huskisson as being highly qualified for the situation, which Mr. Dundas then offered, and he accepted, early in 1793.

The stirring scenes which he had witnessed, and the great expansion of his mind, had unfitted him for following the example of the former members of his family, who had for so many years resided upon their own property; and he felt disinclined to the quiet life of a country gentleman. His father had been obliged to alienate a considerable part of his property, in order to make provision for his younger children (of whom he left eight by his two marriages); and his eldest son inherited only the entailed property at Oxley, the adjoining lands and the advowson of the parish of Bushbury having been directed to be sold. This circumstance, combining with others, induced Mr Huskisson to take measures for cutting off the entail, to sell his landed property, and to devote himself to official life. From that time his biography became matter of history, into which we need not enter. His melancholy death is recorded in another part of this volume.

OSCOW, in 1828, is by no means the same as Moscow fifty years ago. Since the time of Peter the Great, Moscow has been the general rendezvous of the Russian nobles who are either in disgrace at, or do not frequent the court: here, before the French invasion, they were enabled to pass their lives in opulence and retirement; and if the different travellers of those times are to be credited, Moscow was the place to see Russian grandeur in all its magnificence. Its extent was immense, and its circumference, within the ramparts, estimated at thirty-nine wersts, or about twenty-six miles; but this amazing circle was never properly filled with buildings, and the population was much too small for so extended a city. Busching, who resided a long time in Russia, made the following estimate of the city and its population, in 1770:"It contained 708 houses built of brick, 11,840 houses of wood; 85,731 male inhabitants, and 67,000 females; making only 152,790." Some Russians, about this time, with a wonderful power of invention and multiplication, estimated the population at 500,000. Both accounts are most probably in extremes, for in a census taken by the police in 1780, the return

amounted to 250,000, which is most likely to be correct.

The city of Moscow, although vast in its circumference, and splendid in some parts of the interior, had yet a large waste, which suddenly struck the eye. From the magnificent palaces on the Terskoi, a very few steps led to dirty, miry, stinking places, here and there encumbered with a wooden hut, and showing inhabitants wallowing in all the filth and all the luxury of pigs. A short turn brought to view lofty churches, the domes of which, covered either with brass or copper, reflected the light of Heaven over half the town; above was the crescent, surmounted by the cross, which in all the churches of Moscow is still distinguishable. Dr. King gives the following explanation of this singular occurrence. "When the Tartars were the mas ters of Russia for nearly two centuries, they changed the Christian churches into mosques, and thereon fixed the crescent, the symbol of Mahometanism. The Grand Duke Ivan Basilowitsch having, in his turn, driven the Tartars from Russia, and restored the churches to their original use, planted the cross over the golden crescent as a trophy of his victory." To this day, on almost every church in Moscow, the crescent and the cross are to