to be sung twice. The whole went off à marveille, and we were glad that such a compliment was paid to so efficient a promoter as Mr. Waghorn has been of the transit to India, and of the accommodation and comforts of English travellers. I had the pleasure to receive your letter of the 30th of April, and Thomas's of the 4th of May. I wonder none of our Syrian letters have reached: this makes me uneasy. I wrote immediately to Mr. Watson of Beyrout, to make inquiry about the numerous letters we sent from Jerusalem, and I trust still that they have before this found their way home. As Thomas requested, I wrote to Andrew, at Calcutta, from Alexandria, by the last mail. I hope still to find some letters for me at Malta. In the hope that we shall with the Oriental reach England in a day or two after this letter, I shall add nothing further, and only venture to hint, that the house may be got into condition for my arrival. With best regards to Thomas and Margaret, and with assurance to Sir Peter and Lady Laurie, Mr. Collins, and all other friends, how glad I shall be to see them all, I am, my dear Sister, Most faithfully and truly yours, D. W. Your letter about the Exhibition, with Collins's excellent addition, was most interesting, and seems to inform me of every picture and its situation in the rooms. D. W. JOURNAL, continued. Malta, 27th May, 1841. Amongst the many pursuits of the human mind might it not appear a laudable one, that of forming a sect, an order, or an extended college for the dissemination of the knowledge of the localities of Scripture to the Christian world. Should not the commentators as well as the illustrators of Scripture be acquainted with the country whose history and aspect they profess to teach? The last letter which Wilkie lived to write is full of hope, and a subdued anxiety to be again at home, the last entry in his Journal of his own curious and inquiring spirit. In his letter he directs his sister to put the house in order for his reception, and to assure his friends how glad he shall be to see them yet once more. Though far from well, he is silent on the subject of his health, unwilling to awaken unnecessarily the sensitive feelings of an affectionate sister in his behalf; but writes of his friends, his art, and the Royal Academy, not of his own impaired and enfeebled constitution. The surgeon of the Oriental steamer and the Log Book must relate the end of all these hopes. In five days from the date of this letter, Sir David Wilkie was no more. There is something truly peaceful and pleasing in the very briefness of what follows: "Sir David Wilkie, aged 56 years, and apparently greatly impaired in constitution, came on board at Alexandria. On the voyage to Malta he suffered occasionally from affections of the stomach, but took no medicine, and appeared and expressed himself as having improved in his general health on the voyage. Whilst at Malta he indulged imprudently in drinking iced lemonade, and in eating fruit, and complained afterwards of uneasiness at stomach, with deranged bowels; by the aid of an emetic and aperient medicine, he gradually began to get rid of these ailments, was yesterday evening on deck, and appeared to have almost quite shaken off his illness. On going to his cabin this morning to pay him my usual visit, I found him incoherent in his manner of expressing himself; he became shortly afterwards nearly comatose; apprehended imperfectly what was said to him, and could not give distinct answers to questions put to him; the pulse was rapid, indistinct, and easily compressible; the breathing stertorous; the eyes suffused, and apparently insensible to strong light: a blister was applied to the nape of the neck; diffusible stimuli were administered, but without relief. In this state he continued, but gradually sinking, till about eleven o'clock, when he expired without a struggle. (Signed) "WILLIAM GETTY, Surgeon, "Gibraltar Bay, 1st June 1841." Extract from the Log Book of the Oriental Steam ship: "Tuesday, June 1. 1841. "8 A. M. Sir David Wilkie suddenly worse. "10. 30. anchor up. Received mails aboard, and at 10. 45 "11. 10. A. M. Sir David Wilkie expired. "11. 15. Put back, to ask permission to land the body. "11. 45. Anchored. "0. M. Fine clear weather. The authorities would not allow the body to be landed. Carpenter making a coffin. "0. 30. Anchor up. Full speed. "8. 30. P. M. In lat. 36. 20. and long. 6. 42. stopped engines, and committed to the deep the body of Sir David Wilkie. Burial service performed by the Rev. James Vaughan, Rector of Wroxall near Bath." CHAPTER XII. CONCLUSION. So lived and died David Wilkie, the most original, and vigorous, and varied of our British painters. When the tidings came to England, the public mind received such a stun as it received on the death of Byron. He was the darling artist of the people, learned or illiterate, for he spoke to all degrees of knowledge and to all varieties of taste. The Royal Academy, of which his works had long been an ornament, and his name a mainstay, was called upon by a large body of artists to express a sense of the genius of which it had been bereaved; but as Wilkie had not reached the highest honours of the forty, etiquette stood in the way, members were heard to cavil, and the Royal Academicians escaped the outrage with which their regulations were threatened by a vote of condolence from the Council to his family. All this looks petty and paltry enough, but Wilkie's honour was amply avenged by a public meeting to vote a public statue to his memory. Sir Robert Peel presided; and it deserves notice that it was on the day of his own triumph over the Whig administration, the very day on which the Whigs were overthrown. But to prove that art belongs to no political faction, Lord John Russell attended, and |