Mr. Bowes was born in 1758, but a complaint in his eyes, under which he laboured for the first twenty years of his life, and which frequently during that pe riod confined him for weeks together to a dark room, prevented him from making much progress with his education in the days of his youth. He was gifted, however, with good natural talents, which he afterwards cultivated, and one result of this cultivation was an undeviating attachment to our constitution in Church and State. He appears to have settled in Durham about the year 1780, after he had lost his father and mother, and from that time he became intimately acquainted with the principal families of the county, of all shades of politics, and was always a welcome guest in their houses. Mr. Bowes was the last survivor of three gentlemen who, in consequence, as it has been said, of a wager, made a tour through Sweden, Swedish Lapland, Finland, and Denmark, in the year 1786. His fellow travellers were Sir H. G. Liddell, Bart. the father of the present Lord Ravensworth, and Mr. Consett. A very interesting account of this tour was published by Mr. Consett, in 1789, in quarto, with engravings on copper by Bewick: we are not aware that that eminent artist has left behind him any other engravings on copper, and it may be remarked that in the frontispiece to the book, inscribed "Viewing the midnight sun at Tornao, in Lapland," the figure standing at the foot of the ladder, pointing to the sun half hid by the horizon, is said to represent Mr. Bowes. This book, which possesses considerable merit, has become scarce. The party left Ravensworth Castle on the 24th of May, 1780, when Mr. Bowes was in his 28th year, and returned to England on the 17th of August following. A list of subscribers is prefixed to Mr. Consett's narrative of their travels; and we believe we are correct in stating that in that list the only person now alive is R. J. Lambton, esq. Mr. Bowes's remains were buried in a vault in the churchyard of St. Mary's, in the South Bailey, Durham, near the grave of his grandfather, Thomas Bowes, of Bradley Hali, esq. who died in 1752. His pall was supported by the present and late High Sheriffs of the county, H. T. M. Witham and Edward Ship. perdson, esqrs., the Hon. Captain Liddell, and other gentlemen attached to him by long acquaintance and friendship. Having, before his death, presented to that church a handsome armorial window of stained glass, executed by Mr. Wailes, of Newcastle, a suitable inscription has since his death been inscribed in the glass, containing the name of the donor, JOHN HERMAN MERIVALE, Esq. F.S.A. Mr. Merivale was born at his father's residence in Exeter, the 5th of August 1779. His grandfather, the Rev. Samuel Merivale, was a minister of the Presbyterian denomination, and tutor in the theological academy in that city. He was well known and highly respected for his character and attainments among the Dissenters in the west of England. His only son, John Merivale, inherited from him the estate of Annery, near Bideford, and other property in the North of Devon. He married Anne, daughter of Mr. Katenkamp, of a mercantile house at Bremen, who came over to England and settled in business at Exeter in the middle of the last century. The John Herman Merivale received his early education from Mr. Burrington, the Vicar of Chudleigh. He went in his 18th year to St. John's college, Cambridge, where he formed an intimate acquaintance with several of those who became afterwards among the most distinguished ornaments of the bar. The theological views in which he had been brought up prevented his offering himself for a degree at the university, but he completed the usual career of academical study, and proceeded from thence to Lincoln's Inn, where he became a member of the Chancery bar. knowledge that the honours and emolu. ments of the University were closed against him as a Dissenter discouraged him from paying very close attention to the principal objects of study there, or rather it furnished him with an excuse for turning to other pursuits more congenial to his taste, and he became a desultory but very extensive reader of modern history and modern literature in various languages. A poetic temperament and great facility in composition, both in verse and prose, induced him to give a large part of his time during the earlier years of his professional career to the cultivation of literature. He was a copious contributor to the Critical Review, the Literary Gazette, and other periodicals; as at a later period to the Quarterly, the Foreign Quarterly, and Blackwood's Magazine. His principal poetical works were his contributions to Mr. Bland's Translations from the Greek Anthology, his Orlando in Roncesvalles, &c. of which, with various other pieces, original and translated, of which his translations from Dante may be particularly mentioned, he published a collected edition in later life. At one period he was not less engrossed in a pursuit of a very different kind, being busily engaged during his spare hours for several years in collecting materials for a history of his native county of Devonshire. But the subject soon began to assume such vast proportions in his hands, that he abandoned all idea of ever effecting any thing of the kind which should be at all adequate to his views, and the increase of his professional business and opening of other prospects prevented his ever making even a more limited use of his acquisitions. In 1825 and the following year Mr. Merivale was employed upon the Chancery Commission, and he devoted himself with great assiduity to the prosecution of this memorable essay in legal reform, of which he was a zealous advocate. He was appointed by Lord Eldon to a Commissionership of Bankruptcy under the old system, and, when the court was remodelled in the year 1831, he was one of the reduced number who were selected to form its members. In the later years of his life Mr. Merivale returned with extraordinary vigour to the literary pursuits in which he most delighted. He entered with great interest into the theological questions which have excited so much of the public attention, and devoted himself more particularly to inquiries into the character and history of the dissenting bodies in the eighteenth century. He had himself long since renounced the peculiar tenets of the sect in which he had been brought up, and become a sincere member of the established Church; but his grandfather's voluminous letters and other remains* furnished him with stores of information on the history of dissent, and conferred additional interest upon it in his mind; so that he formed various plans for putting his materials in a shape in which they might present an important contribution to the literature of the country. Various circumstances, however, prevented any such design being carried into effect. * Mr. Merivale communicated to this Magazine the series of the Correspondence of Walter Moyle, esq. published in our volumes for 1838 and 1839. GENT. MAG. VOL. XXII. Mr. Merivale's last literary effort, contemporary with his acquisition of the German language in the few last years of his life, was a translation of the Minor Poems of Schiller.† He just lived to see this production issue from the press, and to be encouraged to augur its favourable reception. Having enjoyed for a considerable time uninterrupted good health, and being in full possession of his usual strength and spirits, he was suddenly cut off by a stroke of apoplexy, on the 25th of April last, and was buried in the family vault in Hampstead churchyard the 2nd of the following month. Mr. Merivale married July 10, 1805, Louisa-Heath, daughter of the Rev. Dr. Drury of Cockwood House, Dawlish, for many years Head Master of Harrow School. By her he had a family of six sons and six daughters, of whom all but two of the sons survive him. J. S. DUNCAN, ESQ. D.C.L. May 14. At Westfield Lodge, near Bath, aged 75, John Shute Duncan, esq. D.C.L. He He was a native of Hampshire, and at the usual time was adopted into Winchester College, where he formed, in early life, friendships which lasted throughout his existence, including the present venerable Archbishop of Canterbury, and a former prime minister, Lord Sidmouth. From Winchester he was transplanted to New College, Oxford, where, by his talents and acquirements, he commanded the respect, and by his overflowing goodwill to all around him he conciliated the affection, of his academic associates. obtained the degree of M.A. Oct. 27, 1794. Having fixed upon the law as a profession, he was called to the bar at Lincoln's Inn, Nov. 14, 1798, but never practised much as a barrister, his peculiar turn of mind impelling him to the cultivation of science, and more especially to the study of nature, of which he was a fond admirer. And herein he set an example well worthy of imitation, by making science, as in truth she should be, the handmaid of religion; by regarding religion as the Queen, and the sciences destined to be her attendant fellows, and in that capacity to bear her company; by exploring nature with a view of illustrat + This publication was noticed in our last Magazine. We have been informed that the pieces marked with the signature A in the volume are by Dr. Anster, the translator of Faust; those with the signatures H and C, by Mr. Merivale and his son the Rev. Charles Merivale, respectively.-Edit. Dor M ing the power, wisdom, and the goodness of the Creator, as manifested in the animal, vegetable, and mineral kingdoms. Thus, whilst he found constant employment for his curious researches, he so applied his knowledge as to render it valuable in giving him true wisdom and understanding. Not only, however, in the pursuit of science was every thing made by him subservient to the religious principle, but it was this which was his guide in every department of social life, and which strengthened and enlarged those social obligations which bind man to man. Considering mankind as members of one body, as professing one faith, having one hope of their calling, united by one worship, and acknowledging one common Father-all this gave birth within him to a lovely train of beneficent virtues, such as humility, resignation, mildness, meekness, gentle ness, forbearance, which, while they adorn the scholar, are essential to the formation of the Christian character, and which closely tied him to the whole range of society in which he moved. In him Christian charity, rightly accounted the crown and consummation of all the evangelical virtues, shone pre-eminent. To this assertion the charitable institutions of Oxford and Bath bear ample testimony, aloud proclaiming him the poor man's friend, whose countenance never beamed brightly with the moral sunshine of benevolence as when, under Providence, he felt himself instrumental in advancing the welfare of the humbler classes,--as when be gladdened" the poor that cried, and the fatherless, and made the widow's heart to sing for joy." But amid this rare assemblage of intellectual and moral qualities, which procured for him deservedly from the University of Oxford the honorary degree of Doctor in Civil Law, no human being ever felt more deeply than himself the necessity and efficacy of an atonement for human imperfection; this was the sure anchor to which his soul cleaved unto the end. This consideration may serve to abate the sorrow of his mourning friends, who will never cease to venerate his memory with affectionate respect. May it be a balmy cordial to the surviving "wife of his bosom," to a brother to whom he has been "as his own soul," through a period lengthened beyond the allotted age of man. At a meeting of the Committee of the Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution, held on the 6th of June, J. H. Markland, Esq. F.R.S. and S. A. in the Chair, it was unanimously resolved"That this Committee, on their first assembling after the decease of John Shute Duncan, Esq. a Vice-Patron and Trustee of this Institution, are desirous of recording their feelings of deep regret at the loss which this, and every Institution in the city of Bath, devoted to purposes of charity and usefulness, have sustained by that event. By the Members of this society Mr. Duncan's memory must be especially cherished. By his liberality and judg ment this Institution has been fostered from its origin; and by the watchful care which he and his brother, Mr. P. B. Duncan, have exercised in protecting its interests, its existence may be said to have been preserved. To that excellent relative, allied not only by blood, but by kindred pursuits and virtues, this Committee would beg to convey these expressions of sympathy and respect. Resolved -That this resolution be transmitted by the Chairman to Mr. P. B. Duncan, and that a copy of the same be also transmitted to Mrs. Duncan." DR. JOHN GRANT MALCOLMSON. March 23. At Dhoolia, John Grant Malcolmson, M.D. His medical and scientific character stood high in India, and many interesting papers from his pen have appeared during the last fourteen years in Prinsep's Journal, the Journal of the Bengal Asiatic Society, the London Asiatic Society, the Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal, the British and Foreign Medical Review, and that of the London Geological Society, in which last-named science he was an ardent and successful labourer, and explored not only an inte resting portion of Scotland during a home-visit about four years ago, but also a considerable tract of Egypt, and a very wide sphere of Indian investigation. He was connected with the patriotic and liberal house of Sir Charles Forbes at Bombay, and contributed greatly to the establishment of the Museum, and the progress of literature and science which so honourably distinguishes that presidency. He left Bombay in the first week of February, and on his arrival at Surat immediately proceeded up the line of the Taptee into the jungles towards Dhoolia. On the 27th of February he was seized with the jungle-fever, and had a long journey before him with only Bheel attendants. On the 19th of March he wrote a cheerful letter, when about forty miles from Dhoolia, and represented himself as much recovered; but the symptoms were fallacious, and notwithstanding the cares of Dr. Hathorn, who attended him during the last four days, he sank on the evening of the 23rd, and thus closed a bright scientific career in the midst of its toils and dangers. SEBASTIAN PETHER. March 18. At York Cottage, Battersea Fields, aged 54, Sebastian Pether, Painter of Moonlight Scenery. The subject of this brief memoir was the eldest son of Abraham Pether, one of the original Society of Artists, out of which arose the present Royal Academy, of which, however, he was not a member. He is usually designated by connoisseurs and dealers as "old Pether." His works are not numerous: they consist, principally, of firelights, moonlights, and sunsets, and exhibit fine feeling and judgment, with admirable harmony of colour. Sebastian married young-" too young and too poor;" a large family followed rapidly; in the course of a few years he found himself struggling to maintain a wife and nine children by the sole produce of his pencil. Thus circumstanced, opportunities for developing his talents were very few; and he had no chances of properly exhibiting them. As a matter of course he soon fell into the hands of those harpies the dealers. When once they had obtained power over him they took care to retain it: he was their victim all through life. Under their sole guardianship he continued to "work, work." The eye of patronage never found him out. The only "patron ever had was Lord De Tably, who commissioned him-but not wisely-to paint a picture quite out of his line, the subject being a caravan overtaken by a whirlwind. This, and some occasional employment in painting birds, was, we are told, the whole of his "help" apart from "the dealers." "he In the spring of 1842, by the assistance of a picture-frame maker, he was enabled to paint three pictures, which he intended for exhibition, and they were sent to the Royal Academy for the purpose: the whole were rejected. It occasioned him deep despondency and great mortification. The reason he imagined to have been the enormous size and depth of the frames furnished by the person in whose hands he was placed by his necessities. During his career as an artist, although his works always ensured a ready sale, yet the low prices given by traders proved too small for the wants of so numerous a family; and he passed a life, short, indeed, but full of the most painful privations that any man ever endured. He had received a good education, which he continually cultivated, the bent of his mind being the mechanical arts: he first suggested the idea and construction of the stomach-pump to a surgeon, Mr. Jukes, who introduced it to the medical profession. His illness (of an inflammatory attack) was very brief; and death perhaps found his work more than half achieved by the previous assaults of adversity and domestic trouble. During the three last years of his life he lost three grown-up children by consumption; and, since the demise of the father, another son died in the Westminster Hospital of lockjaw, occasioned by an accident to the hand. The eldest son now living, William, is an artist in mosaic. A younger brother of Sebastian, Henry Pether, exhibits several designs of considerable ability at the Exhibition of Decorative Works. A subscription has been opened to help his surviving family out of their terrible state of distress-the appeal of their friends is the more touching, and will come home the more to the hearts of those who read it, inasmuch as it asks a fund to enable one good member of the family to procure tools and materials by which he might contribute to the support of the rest. Subscriptions are received by the Editor of the " Art Union," from which publication the present article has been abridged. THEODORE VAN HOLST. Feb. 12. In Percy-st. Tottenham-courtroad, aged 33, Mr. Theodore Van Holst. He was born in London Sept. 3, 1810, and was descended from a Livonian family. His father, about the close of the last century, settled in London as a teacher of music-a profession of which his elder brother, Gustavus, is a distinguished member. In early youth the musical taste of Theodore was remarkable; still earlier and still stronger was his bias for the arts. When a child he manifested much skill in drawing; and, having studied from the antique for some time at the British Museum, he was admitted a student of the Royal Academy, and became a favourite pupil of Fuseli. As a mere boy he was looked upon as a marvel; in his tenth year, indeed, he attracted the notice of Sir Thomas Lawrence, who, one day looking over his pencil sketches, gave him three guineas for one of them,-a circumstance to which Mr. Holst always referred with pleasure. It was the first emphatic encouragement to labour he had received. Subsequently, he executed many drawings for Sir Thomas Lawrence, several of which were supposed to be commissioned by George IV. As a painter he followed the bent of his own genius, which neither public direction, the offer of commissions, nor privations, could alter, He could not disengage his mind from romantic and gloomy subjects, which may be attributed to his natural disposition inclining to melancholy. It is singular that, strictly speaking, his earliest and his latest patron was Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton. In 1831 he purchased a large picture of Holst, The Drinking Scene in Faust;' and the picture upon which he was actually employed just prior to his death was a full-length Fortrait of that gentleman. Of his other principal works the British Institution at the present moment contains two-the one a landscape, the only one he ever painted; the other The Appearance of the Spirit to Lord Lyttelton,' painted under great bodily suffering. He has left a large number of sketches, some unfinished pictures, and a large picture recently engraved, The Raising of Jairus's Daughter,' which, strange to say, was never sold. The genius of Mr. Holst was of a remarkable order. His peculiar style originated, no doubt, in his German descent, and in the visits he occasionally paid to the native land of his ancestors; for his works were essentially German in conception, composition, and execution, although with greater freedom and imaginative power than the artists of Germany usually exhibit. They were consequently unsuited to the general taste in England; and his popularity was not commensurate with his desert. Often be permitted extravagant licence to accompany vigorous thought and brilliant fancy, marring the great purpose of art by reckless indif. ference to the impression produced upon the spectator. Very few of his productions were altogether free from eccentricity. His defects, however, arose from a superabundance and not from a paucity of talent. In person Mr. Holst was tall; latterly be had a slight stoop. The upper part of his face was intellectual; the lower part was, perhaps, the opposite,—it was, however, hidden in a great degree by a large moustache which he always wore.— (Abridged from the Art Union). LUIGI CANONICA. Feb. In Milan, Luigi Canonica, the eminent architect. Nearly forty years have now elapsed since he began that great work of his at Milan-the" Arena," or amphitheatre, a work perfectly unique in modern times, being modelled after the similar structures of the ancients, and similarly intended for the exhibition of public games and festivals. It is an ellipsis in plan, whose longest diameter measures 780 English feet, and its shorter one 380; and is capable of containing 30,000 spectators. Among other buildings by him in the same city, those of most note are,—the beautiful Palazzo Belloni; the Casa Canonica, his own residence; and the three theatres-Teatro Rè, Carcano, and Filodrammatico. Besides these last mentioned he built two other theatres, at Brescia and Mantua; and designed a sixth, namely, the new theatre at Parma, which was executed by Bettoli. Very few architects, therefore, have erected so many edifices of that particular class. He has bequeathed 174,000 francs to the Primary Schools of Lombardy, and 87,000 francs to the Academy of Fine Arts at Milan, for the purpose of educating some deserving young men painters, sculptors, or architects; which two sums amount to upwards of 10.0007. sterling, much greater, in proportion, for Italy than it would be here in England. as DR. GEORGE SWINEY. Jan. 21. In Camden Town, Dr. George Swiney. Dr. Swiney was well known from his eccentric habits. He possessed a large fortune, but lived in the greatest seclusion, not going out of doors more than five or six times during an entire year. He had not shaved for the last two years, and his beard extended nearly to his waist. He was always most abstemious, but during the last few months, notwithstanding the entreaties of his housekeeper, he would scarcely partake of any food, and for the last month he peremptorily refused to allow the slightest nourishment to pass his lips, excepting small quantities of cider and water. On the morning of his death his housekeeper called in a surgeon, who found him in a state of stupor, and prescribed for him, but he refused to take the medicine, and expired shortly after. By his will, he desired to be interred in St. Martin's burial ground, Camdentown, and that his funeral should be on foot; his coffin to be covered with bright yellow cloth, and the pall and cloaks of the mourners to be of the same material. Three female children, clad in white, chosen by his chief executor, to precede the coffin, for which service he left to each of them a legacy of 207., and also 201. to be expended in providing their funeral dresses. He has bequeathed 5000l. to the trustees of the British Museum, for the establishment of a lectureship on Geology, and 50001. to the Society of Arts, out of which sum the first freeholder in the kingdom that should reclaim the largest amount of waste lands, was to receive |