Jan. 19th, 1831. At sea, on board the Lady Macnaughton, while on the voyage from Madras to England, for the recovery of his health, Assistant-Surgeon Dr. Alexauder Urquhart, 46th Regiment, aged 28 years. Feb. 5th. Commander Henry Foster, R.N. of H. M. S. Chanticleer. It is with no ordinary feelings of regret that we have to record the loss of this meritorious officer. The unfortunate accident by which the Naval service has been deprived of an efficient and valuable officer, science of a gifted and devoted follower, and the officers and crew of the Chanticleer of a highly esteemed commander, appears to have occurred in the following manner. Having ascended the river Chagres, on his way to Panama, in a canoe of the country, from its being better adapted for such navigation, and succeeded in obtaining the necessary observations at this place, he re-embarked at Cruces on his return to the Chanticleer. In passing down one of the rapids, the awning of the canoe to which he had incautiously trusted, for the purpose of seeing a-head of her, gave way, and precipitated him into the river. Being unable to swim, he immediately sunk to rise no more. An officer who was in the boat, and one of the crew, instantly plunged after him, but in vain: the rapidity of the stream had carried him away, and it was with difficulty that they regained the canoe. His corpse was discovered by some Indians a few days afterwards, and conveyed to his officers, by whom it was interred at Chagres.-Much as the friends of Capt. Foster must deplore his loss, the hopes and expectations of scientific men will be no less disappointed. The celebrity he had gained among them by his indefatigable labours in the Arctic voyages with Sir Edward Parry, was an early promise of those valuable services to his country which he had so auspiciously commenced in the Chanticleer. The establishment of meridians, or, in other words, the correct measurement of the difference of longitude between the various places he had visited, is perhaps the greatest benefit which can at present be bestowed on navigation. Having extended his observations across the Isthmus of Darian to the shores of the Pacific, he had formed a connecting link in the grand chain of those observations, from which it would have been comparatively easy to carry them round the world. This object, we believe, was contemplated when the present voyage was commenced; and although, unhappily, he has not lived to execute such a magnificent undertaking, we hope not to see it abandoned. Thus bas one of the noblest efforts of Government for the promotion of science been, in some measure, defeated. For, although we are far from believing that sufficiently talented officers could not be selected from the Navy List to conduct the operations with which Capt. Foster was entrusted, it is but justice to his merits to say, that none could do so with more efficiency, zeal, or perseverance. By that zeal and perseverance in scientific pursuits, he had attained a proud distinction in the naval service, and had risen to a station among men of science far beyond his years within a comparatively short period. It must ever be regretted that he had not been spared to follow up the bright career which he had so successfully begun, and that by one incau tious step, he should have fallen ere he had completed his task and reaped its full reward. In the Fort of St. Lorenzo, at Chagres, situated at the mouth of the river, a tablet has been placed, with the permission of the Governor, in which is inserted a copper-plate, with the following inscription engraved on it : "This Tablet is erected by the late Senior Lieutenant and Officers of H. B. M. sloop Chanticleer, to perpetuate the memory of their late Commander Henry Foster, F.R.S. who was drowned in the river Chagres, on the 6th of Feb. 1831, while mea. suring the difference of longitude between Panama and Chagres. This talented and distinguished officer was employed in Nautical and Astronomical Science; having nearly completed his mission of three years' duration. He fell at his post-ripe in honours, but young in years. Etat 36." Feb. 17th. At Trinidad, Lieut. J. B. Gullifer, R.N. March 8th. At St. Lucie, Major Gen. George Mackie, C. B. Governor of that Colony. He entered the army in 1794, and served in the expedition to the West Indies under Sir Ralph Abercrombie, and was at the attack of the Vigie, St. Vincent's, 19th June 1796. He also served in Grenada the whole of the Brigand War. In 1802, he returned to England on account of ill health, and in 1805 again proceeded to the West Indies. In 1807 he again came to England, and the following year returned to the West Indies. He was at the siege and surrender of Fort Dessay, at the capture of Martinique, and in other important services. His regimental commissions were in the 60th Foot and West India Corps. April 8th. Near Dublin, Commander William Cobbe, R.N. aged 40. (1814.) April 22nd. Major-Gen. Sir George Adam Wood, of the Royal Artillery, Governor of Carlisle. In Wexford, Capt. Kelly, late of the 54th Regiment. In London, Capt. T. C. Watson, late of the 3rd King's Own Light Dragoons. April 24th. Lieut. W. H. Blount, R.N. aged 40, only son of Sir Charles Blount. April 27th. At Holly brook, near Killybegs, in the 40th year of his age, Lieut. Weiss, R.N. Inspecting-Commander of the Coast Guard for the last ten years. The life of this excellent and lamented officer fell a premature sacrifice to the barassing fatigues and anxieties undergone while searching out and defeating a deeply-organized plan of smuggling, which was in full operation along the north-west coast of Donegal when he was appointed to the district. Lieut. Weiss has left a wife and eight children to deplore his loss. April 29th. In Craven street, Strand, RearAdmiral George Sayer, C.B. a Memoir of whose services appears in our present Number. April 29th. At the Royal Naval Hospital, Portsmouth, Commander J. K. Kinsman, R. N. (1813.) April 30th. In Lower Connaught place, in his 76th year, Brig. Gen. Sir Samuel Bentham, K.S.G. late Inspector of Naval Works, and Civil Architect and Engineer of the Navy. May 1st. At Rivoli, on his way to Florence, At Bath, after a long illness, Vice Admiral the Right Hon. Sir William Johnstone Hope, G.C.B. A Memoir will be found in our present Number. At Speenhamland, Berkshire, Lieut. R. Cruise, R.N. in the 44th year of his age. May 4th. At her house in Harley-street, Viscountess Nelson, Duchess of Bronti, widow of the imm rtal Nelson. Her remains were removed from the above residence on the 9th, for interment in the family vault at Littleham, near Exmouth, followed by Lord Bridport, Gen. Egerton, and other relations and friends of the deceased. A long line of carriages also attended, including those of Lords Nelson and Vernon, and Sir Thomas Hardy. May 5th. Drowned in consequence of the upsetting of a yacht in Stoke's Bay, near Porismouth, Admiral Sir Joseph Yorke, K.C.B. for whose Biography, &c. see page 215 of our present Number. On the same occasion, Captain Mathew Barton Bradby, R.N. and Capt. Thomas Young, R.N. met with a similar fate. May 13th. At Shannon bridge, in his 26th year, after a few hours illness, Lieut. Richard Fitzgerald, 68th Light Infantry. May 15th. At Haslar Hospital, Mr. R. D. Mosbery, Purser, R.N. At Malta, Capt. George Mathew Jones, R.N. This very able officer commenced his naval services under the late Sir Joseph Sydney Yorke, and distinguished himself under the command of his friend Sir William Hoste, during his brilliant services up the Mediterranean. At the peace, Capt. Jones travelled through Holland, Denmark, Prussia, Norway, Russia, Turkey and Italy, and he published the result of his labours in two large volumes, which evince indefatigable research, acute sagacity, and a fine tact in estimating every thing which his industry brought under his cognizance. Capt. Jones received the greatest attention from the late and the present Emperors of Russia, and the Empress Mother. Shortly after his travels, this enlightened gentleman and able officer was suddenly affected by a paralysis of the limbs, and was obliged to repair to the South of Europe for the recovery of his health. In a very debilitated state he had the misfortune to fall down one of the precipitous flights of stone-steps at Malta, and broke three of his ribs, and dislocated his shoulder. He expired on the third day, after enduring great suffering. By this accident, the naval service has lost a brave, skilful and zealous officer a gentleman of enlightened mind, and whose kind and friendly nature, and honourable conduct, had endeared him to his brother officers, as well as to a very numerous circle of private friends. Capt. Jones was brother to Colonel J. T. Jones, of the Royal Engineers, the constructor of the lines of Torres Vedras, and the officer who led our troops at the attack upon Bergen op Zoom. The late Lieut.-General Sir William Payne Galway, Bart. Colonel of the 3rd. Dragoon Guards. was appointed Lieutenant in the 1st. Dragoons the 14th of July 1777, and Captain in 1782. He served in Flanders, and was in the principal actions in which the British were engaged. In 1794 be obtained a Majority and a Lieut.-Colonelcy in his regiment, from which he was removed to the 3rd Dragoons in 1796, and from thence to the 10th Light Dragoons in 1805. In 1793 he obtained the rank of Colonel, and was employed in the Staff of Ireland, as Brigadier-General, for three years, and as Major-General (to which rank he was appointed in 1805) for one year. In 1897 he obtained the Colonelcy of the 23rd Light Dragoons, and in 1811 received the rank of Lieut.-General, He served in Spain and Portugal, and was present at the affairs of Albergaria Nova, and Grijon, on the advance of the British army to Oporto, the 9th and 10th of May 1809; at the capture of Oporto the 11th of May; at the affair of Salamonde the 15th of May, and the pursuit of the French into Gallicia; at the battle of Talavera, and in several of the subsequent operations of the army in the Peninsula. In 1814 he was removed to the 19th Dragoons, in 1815 to the 12th Dragoons, and in 1825 to the 3rd Dragoon Guards. The late Lieut.-Gen. Lord Walsingham, (whose demise was recorded in our last number, and who was burnt to death at his house in Harley Street, on the 26th April last) entered the army in the year 1794 as a Cornet in the 1st Dragoons, and obtained a Lieutenancy in the same regiment. He received a troop in the 25th Light Dragoons on that corps being raised, and succeeded to a Majority. He was appointed Lieut.-Colonel in the 1st Dragoons the 6th of June 1799, and this appointment he held at the time of his most melancholy death. The 25th April 1808, he became Aide-de-Camp to his Majesty George the Third, with the rank of Colonel in the army; Major-General 4th June 1811; and LieutenantGeneral the 19th July 1821. In 1796 (then Major the Hon. George De Grey) he accompanied the 25th Light Dragoons to India; was landed with it on the passage out at the Cape of Good Hope, and did duty there during the arrival and taking of the Dutch fleet in Saldana Bay. He afterwards proceeded to Madras, and remained on that station until his return to England in 1800. He served with the cavalry of Gen. (afterwards Lord) Harris's army during the campaign of 1799, which ended in the capture of Seringapatam. He was present with his regiment at the battle of Mallavelly. On the breaking out of the war in 1803, he was appointed to the staff of the home district, as Assistant-Adjutant-General, and was employed in that situation till the beginning of 1805, when he returned to the command of the 1st Dragoons, and did duty with the regiment from 1806 to 1808 in Scotland and Ireland. He accompanied his corps to Lisbon in August 1809, and served with the cavalry in the Peninsula until the beginning of 1812, when he was compelled by ill-health to return to England. He had been appointed in the beginning of 1810 to the command of the brigade consisting of the 3rd Dragoon Guards and 4th Dragoons; he was present at the battle of Busaco, the battle of Albuera, and at the affair of Usagre. On his return home he was placed on the staff at Canterbury, where he continued till the peace in 1814. He succeeded to the peerage on the death of his father. METEOROLOGICAL REGISTER, KEPT AT THE OBSERVATORY OF CAPT. W. H. SMYTH, AT BEDFORD. BEING unable to return special answers to the very numerous communications of our Correspondents, a process which would engross the whole of our time, we request the latter, in general, will accept such brief notices as we may, when necessary, offer in this We farther request that they will at all times do us the justice to believe that their communications receive the attention to which they are entitled. corner. Will Captain "A B, R.M." be good enough to do as he proposes, and transmit to us the revised MS. of his paper which we shall insert, the first opportunity? "N. C." just in time to be too late. Next month. Meantime, there is an ample field for his lucubrations. "D. D." will do. We shall write the moment our present task is done. "Verax," "Medicus Senex," "An Old Talavera Man," "Miles Britannicus," "An Officer of the Line," &c. have reached us too late for the present month. We shall attend to "Captain G--'s" memorandum. -We fear the subject of "An Admirer of a Gallant Man" would be deemed invidious. To the query of "W. T." we beg to reply that the appointment of Major of Brigade is independent of the General Officer Commanding the Brigade, as far as not being liable to be changed or dispensed with at the pleasure of the latter. The Major of Brigade is appointed by Head Quarters, and is, strictly speaking, attached to the Brigade or Garrison, and not to the personal Staff of the General Officer. A great number of communications are under consideration. REFORM. "Was zieht ihr die stirne finster und Krans ? Ihr freien, ihr männlichen Seelen ? Jezt heult der Sturm, jezt braus't das meer, Jezt zittert das Erdreich um uns her, Wir wollen uns die noth nicht verhehlen."-KÖRNER. WE are reformers: and most officers of fortune who have in every gazette seen young men of rank and family, who had not left school when the war closed, promoted over their heads, are as decided reformers as ourselves. But, anxious as we may be for the removal of practices that, owing to altered times and manners, have gradually grown into abuses, as well as for such an improvement in our institutions, as the increase of knowledge and the general advance of society seem naturally to call for; we cannot, without sorrow and apprehension, contemplate the progress of Lord John Russell's bill, because we think it a measure that, under the salutary name of reform, threatens the complete overthrow of the constitution-of that constitution too, be it always recollected, that has tended to make these comparatively poor and barren islands the most beautiful spots of this beautiful world; that has placed the men of Britain at the head of all the arts of war and peace, and made them the dread and wonder, as well as the envy, which is never unmixed with hatred, of all surrounding nations. From this high station, the proudest to which any nation ever attained, the reform bill, if passed into law, will be the first, but irrevocable step downwards. Our descent may not be instantly perceptible, but like a mass loosened from the highest pinnacle of the cliff that moves slowly at first, till gaining strength at every bound, it descends at last with a degree of fury that sets resistance at defiance, and carries every where ruin and devastation before it in its way; so must a people constituted and situated as the people of Britain are at this day, when once fairly detached from their old laws and institutions, rush down the steep of moral degradation till arrested by some of those great revolutions of empires, or convulsions of nature, that are far beyond the bounded reach of human speculation. Anxiously as we always avoid politics, in order to devote our attention to the various branches of knowledge connected with the difficult duties of the professions to which this Journal is particularly dedicated, (and what branch of human knowledge is not more or less connected with the profession of arms?) we nevertheless cannot allow a measure so fraught with ruin, to pass unchallenged; and proceed, therefore, in the plain language of soldiers, who as such can belong to no party but that of their country, and must at all times be far above the influence of mere factions, distinctly to state the grounds of our belief in the pernicious tendency of the proposed bill. In the early stages of regular governments, the great advantage of popular representation is, that it makes the executive acquainted with the wants and wishes of the people at large, and infuses some part of their feeling into the administrative power of the country. But, in exact proportion as public opinion gains strength, and obtains other means of influencing the acts of government, in the same proportion U. S. JOURN. No. 32. JULY 1831. U must the popular or controlling branch of the legislature, amalgamate to a certain extent with the executive for its own preservation, acquire new powers from the strength of the power it represents, take upon itself the fulfilment of new duties, or fall to the ground as altogether useless. Because, being originally intended as the representative of public opinion only, its functions naturally cease as public opinion acquires sufficient strength to make its own way without the aid of such representatives. The representative branches of the legislature are the guardians of public opinion in its infancy, but as mere guardians their aid is no longer required when the ward has grown up to manhood. And exactly in proportion as popular opinion rose to its present gigantic height in England, so did the Commons, owing to the happy working of our constitution, acquire independent strength with the general progress of knowledge, till ceasing by degrees to be a mere controlling power, they gradually concentrated in themselves the whole power of government. Though, in some measure, dependent both on the crown and the people, they yet possess the power of arresting popular encroachments by the aid of the crown on one side, and of checking the crown itself by controlling the supplies on the other; the whole forming thus the most beautiful and perfect piece of government-machinery the world has ever beheld. To call this constitution that has grown with us from our infancy, has adapted itself with wonderful pliability to all the changes that centuries have produced in our strength and situation, as well as to that proud national character which it produced, the work of mere human hands, would be the very height of presumption; for what the present race of intellectual giants can achieve in such matters has been amply illustrated by the half hundred perfect constitutions manufactured in our own time; all of which, from those we ourselves bestowed upon Corsica, Sicily, and Portugal, down to the last French charte, fell to the ground amidst the universal scoffs of the very people for whose good government they had been devised. The salutary balance, held, as above stated, between the crown and the people, must be entirely destroyed by Lord John Russell's bill, because, by surrendering to the lower orders the power of electing an overwhelming majority of that House of Commons which already possesses the whole power of the government, we in fact surrender the government into the hands of the democracy; for a House of Commons returned at the pleasure of the mob, must ultimately be as subservient to that mob as any other agent must be to the will of his employer. Unless, therefore, the other branches of the legislature are strengthened in proportion, and rendered capable of balancing a reformed House of Commons, for which no provision is made in this bill, the present government of King, Lords, and Commons, is at an end, and a pure democracy, the real object of the radical party who are strenuous supporters of the measure, must follow as a matter of course, under whatever name and form it may at first be disguised. The consequence will naturally be, that, in total disregard of the first principles of government, which show that it is only by following a steady and consistent course of enlightened policy, often even very much at variance with public opinion and momentary benefit, the country ruled by democracy will be ruled as democracies invariably are, by the impulse of the moment, by the wild theories of the designing speculators, over whose |