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result of this application was his appointment, during the same year, to be a Commissioner for victualling the Navy. Upon the enlarged income thus produced, he took a house in Red Lion Square, and lived in a style which enabled him to attract the pleasures of a more social acquaintance. Though the duties of the situation were urgent for his years, he contrived to find leisure for other avocations, of which the more meritorious were the unsuccessful establishments of a Lock Hospital at the west end, and Marine Schools throughout the kingdom.

In 1783 his health began to decline, and he resigned his situation, but was, notwithstanding, permitted to receive his full salary. In this easy state of retirement, he still continued as active as usual in charitable concerns; until a disorder in the bladder superinduced a strangury, which put a period to his existence on the 5th of September, 1786.

The scriptures affirm that the death of the just is precious in the sight of Heaven, and perhaps the moralist may add that the last moments of the good are soothing to the hearts of the living. Hanway's biographer asserts, that nothing in life became him more than the dying, and certainly he seems to have met his end with very creditable sensibleness. He bore a tediously-painful illness without impatience or complaint: when assured by his physicians that a recovery was hopeless, he sent for his tradesmen, and paid them with his own hands, bade his friends in London adieu in person, and took leave of those in the country by letter. After receiving the sacrament, and offering his body to the surgeon for dissection, if any benefit could be derived from the operation, he discoursed upon the state of his affairs, heard his will read, gave his keys, and expired in a shivering fit at midnight.

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The life of Jonas Hanway presents to the reader no exhibition of signal talents or great deeds, but, notwithstanding, is far from destitute of a beneficial moral. Devoid of genius or learning, he had good sense, strong feelings, and a readiness of speech, which enabled him to discover, pursue, and exemplify many a valuable object in a manner as honourable to himself as important to others. That he had some vanity, and tinted his character with a few traits of the busy-body is evident; but if he troubled the world to prolixity upon some matters, he contributed to the good of his species in other respects, which are by no means to be

held despicable, because seldom favoured by more gifted minds. One prominent part of his character deserves universal imitation; all that he was able to do, he was always prompt to perform; and no man could indite a pamphlet, make a speech, or wade through those onorous labours of solicitation which have long been indispensably requisite to the getting any thing up in London, with more sanguine perseverance or happier address than he uniformly displayed. Most of the undertakings in which he took an active share have already been alluded to, and some idea of his indefatigability as a writer may be entertained from the fact that he began to print in 1753, and at the time of his death was the author of no less than sixty-four books and pamphlets upon one subject or another.

SIR THOMAS HARDY.

SIR THOMAS HARDY, knight, and a rear-admiral in the Royal Navy, is commemorated by a monument respectably executed, which stands contiguous to the great western door in Westminster Abbey. He is introduced reposing on a sarcophagus, which is supported by a lofty pyramid of bright purple marble. A boy is weeping over an urn at his side, the pedestal is enriched with various devices neatly wrought; and the inscription runs as follows:

SIR THOMAS HARDY,

To whose memory this monument is erected,
Was bred in the royal navy from his youth,

And was made a Captain in 1693.

In the expedition to Cadiz under Sir George Rooke
He commanded the Pembroke;

And when the Fleet left the coast of Spain to return to England,
He was ordered to Lagos Bay,

Where he got intelligence of the Spanish galleons being arrived in the Harbour of Vigo,

Under

convoy of seventeen French men of war.

By his great diligence and judgment he joined the English Fleet, And gave the Admiral that intelligence

Which engaged him to make the best of his way to Vigo, Where all the before-mentioned galleons and men of war were either taken or destroyed.

After the success of that action,

The Admiral sent him with an account of it to the Queen,
Who ordered him a considerable present,

and Knighted him.

Some years afterwards

He was made a Rear Admiral and received several other marks of favour and esteem from her Majesty, and from her Royal Consort, Prince George of Denmark, Lord High Admiral of England.

He died August 16, 1732. Aged 67.

This epitaph is a little biographical sketch in itself, and must be considered the more valuable, inasmuch as we know but a few unimportant facts concerning the subject of it, over and above those it presents to our notice. The name of Sir Thomas Hardy frequently occurs in the naval history of the period during which he lived, but was not connected with any incidents of greater interest than what are here recited. He was constantly employed, and generally upon occasions which required judgment, vigilance and courage. He must also be thought to have fully deserved the eulogy of his epitaph, for his conduct was at different times the subject of public observation, an ordeal which he regularly passed through with distinction. In 1707, he was subjected to a court martial, for not having pursued the French fleet with sufficient vigour, but honourably acquitted. He was soon after called before the House of Commons, and again before the Lords, but was at both times dismissed with praise.

578

RIGHT HON. WARREN HASTINGS.

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In the north cross aisle of Westminster Abbey is a plain marble tablet, surmounted by a bust, subscribed MENS ÆQUA IN ARDUIS,' which was executed by Bacon, and is said to convey a faithful likeness of the original. The purposes of its erection are fully explained in an engraved epitaph, of which the following is a copy:

Sacred to the Memory of

The Right Honourable WARREN HASTINGS,
Governor-general of Bengal,

Member of His Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council,
LL.D. F.R.S.

Descended from the Elder Branch

Of the Antient and Noble Family of Huntingdon.

years

Selected for his various talents and integrity, he was appointed by Parliament, in 1773, the first Governor-general of India, to which high office he was thrice re-appointed by the same authority. Presiding over the Indian Government during thirteen of a most eventful period, he restored the affairs of the East India Company from the deepest distress to the highest prosperity, and rescued their possessions from a combination of the most powerful events ever leagued against them. In the wisdom of his council, and the energy of his measures, he found unexhausted resources, and successfully sustained a long, varied, and multiplied war with France, Mysore, and the Mahratta States, whose he humbled, and concluded an honourable peace, for which, and for his distinguished services, he received the thanks of the East

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The

India Company, sanctioned by the Board of Control. kingdom of Bengal, the seat of his government, he ruled with a mild and equitable sway, preserved it from invasion, and while he secured to its inhabitants the enjoyment of their customs, laws, and religion, and the blessings of peace, was rewarded by their affection and gratitude: nor was he more distinguished by the highest qualities of a statesman and a patriot, than by the exercise of every Christian virtue. He lived for many years in dignified retirement, beloved and revered by all who knew him, at his seat of Daylesford, in the county of Worcester, where he died in peace, in the 86th year of his age, August 22d, 1818.

This Memorial was erected

By his beloved Wife, and disconsolate Widow,
M. A. HASTINGS.

Few readers would infer from the statements of these inscriptions, that the only claims which the subject of it has upon the memory of his fellow-countrymen, and the notice of these pages, rest upon odious foundations: such, however, is the case. As the glory of some names is preserved to fan the ardour of rising genius, and confirm the perseverance of future virtue, so must the darkness of other lives be durably pictured, to restrain the impetuous and criminal within moderate and inoffensive bounds. In this latter class stands Warren Hastings, a man infelicitously immortalised by the extraordinary talents called into action to prove him a public delinquent of capital enormity.- -Born in 1732, at Churchill, a village in Oxfordshire, of which his father was rector, he received his education at Westminster School, and went out to Bengal as a writer in the Company's service during the year 1750. An absence of fifteen years, during which he filled several stations of rank, and attained a creditable knowledge of oriental literature, sufficed for the acquisition of a fortune, which so happily equalled the extent of his hopes that he returned to spend a life of ease in England. Well had it been for him that his ambition had never again diverted him from his home. In the gentle avocations of private society, he was universally liked and respected; as his tastes were literary, his friends were scholars; he became intimate with Dr. Johnson

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