physician, was no doubt, justly due to his skill and accomplishments; but how few are so fortunate as to have their worth allowed, much less blazoned to the world, by professional rivals for honour and emolument! Having transmitted to his friend Ray a great variety of seeds and plants from France, by the influence of that sedulous inquirer into nature, he was proposed a member of the Royal Society, and received with very flattering tokens of respect. The following year he was elected a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians; and his reputation was now so firmly established, that he might have realized any expectation which he could have formed. His ruling passion, however, overcame the love of ease, and the accumulation of riches. The duke of Albemarle, who had just been appointed governor of Jamaica, made proposals to Sloane to accompany his grace as his physician. This opened a new field to his inquisitive mind: Nature had not yet been unveiled in the West Indies; and he panted to be the handmaid of her charms, and to rifle her sweets without a rival. No representations of his friends could prevail on him to relinquish his design of accepting this offer; and during a residence of fifteen months in Jamaica, his industry in collecting plants was so indefatigable, that he accumulated more than the best botanists of the time imagined to be indigenous in that climate, or indeed in both the Indies. His curiosity being now fully gratified, and his repu tation crowned with new accessions, he returned to London, and resumed his practice; which was soon as extensive as his abilities were great. Being chosen physician of Christ's Hospital, he gave an illustrious proof of his philanthropy and disinterestedness, by applying the whole amount of his salary to the relief of the most indigent and miserable among the patients of the house. For restoring health to the poor, he thought it mean to reap emolument. Of this beneficent and noble disposition we find many instances in the medical profession, but few occur in any other. Being elected secretary of the Royal Society in 1693, he had the honour of reviving the publication of the Philosophical Transactions, which had for some time been discontinued: and greatly enriched the volumes, for many years, with his own original contributions. But an attention to this department of literature did not alone Occupy his pursuits. For some years he had employed his vacant hours in collecting whatever was rare and curious in nature or art; and his cabinet was so well filled, that it soon merited the inspection of the learned, Among others who visited this repository, and respected its ingenious author, was Mr. Couston; a gentleman of fortune who had spent his time, and a liberal share of his income, in the same objects. A congeniality of mind and taste attached him to Dr. Sloane. Anxious that his own collection and his name should be perpetuated, he thought he could not better provide for both than by adding his museum to that of Sloane; and accordingly he bequeathed him the whole. The Sloanean cabinet thus became one of the first in Europe; and the learning, skill, industry, and public spirit of the proprietor, seemed to claim some distin guished honour. Foreigners had duly estimated Dr. Sloane's high merit as a professional man and a naturalist, and his sovereign was ready to reward it. About the year 1720, George the First, to whom he had been first physician for some time, raised him to the dignity of a baronet. He was likewise appointed president of the college of Physicians; and filled the president's chair in the Royal Society, as successor of the immortal Newton. These honours at home were allowed by other nations to be well earned; sir Hans Sloane was elected a member of the Royal Academy of Paris, and his correspondence was courted by almost every learned society in Europe. From this period, doctors Sloane and Mead were the only physicians of distinguished reputation in the metropolis; and such was the extent of their practice, that they are said to have cleared each about six thousand pounds a-year. The one (as was mentioned before) was introduced by Sydenham, and the other by Radcliffe; who, during their own time, had also divided the medical honours in the capital. Borne down by the weight of years, and loaded with honours and opulence, sir Hans Sloane in 1749 retired to Chelsea, to enjoy in peaceful tranquillity the few moments of life that were yet to come. He did not, however, court solitude; but only an exemption from the toils of business. He was daily visited by persons of high rank, and distinguished literary attainments, whether natives or foreigners. A day was set apart weekly for a gratuitous exhibition of his museum; and another was devoted to the relief of the sick poor, to whom sir Hans was a liberal benefactor during a long and well-spent life. From the age of sixteen, this valuable man had been subject to pulmonary complaints; but by temperance and medicine he overcame this radical infirmity, and reached an uncommon degree of longevity. In January, 1752, he expired without a groan, in the ninety-first year of his age; possessed of all his faculties to the last, and crowned with honour. In person sir Hans was full and well proportioned, in manners polished and captivating, and in conversation sprightly and facetions. As a physician he was remarkably successful and deserves great credit for being the first who introduced the free use of that valuable specific the Jesuit's bark; tried by him, and found efficacious in a variety of complaints to which before his time it had never been administered. But the best part of his character was his genuine charity and philanthropy. As his abilities to do good A increased, so did his disposition. He was a governor of almost every hospital in London; and besides his lega cies, was a generous patron to them during life. He first laid the plan of a dispensary where the poor might be supplied with medicines at prime cost; he presented the company of apothecaries with their botanical garden at Chelsea, in the centre of which stands his statue; and he promoted the establishment of the Foundling-hospital, and communicated the best instructions for the nutrition of the children. These are some of his good deeds; which will speak his praise when the marble monument shall moulder into dust, and the statue no longer bear the similitude of a man. Nor was this all. His library and cabinet which he had been at so much pains to form and collect, he bequeathed to the public, on condition that the sum of twenty thousand pounds should be paid his family. Large as this sum may appear, it was not half the value of the legacy; and scarcely more than the intrinsic worth of the precious metals, stones, and ores, which the museum contained. This noble collection of curiosities, added to his library of fifty thousand volumes, laid the foundation of the British Museum; and parliament, with a liberality which reflects the highest honour on the nation, by subsequent purchases, gifts, and bequests, has been enabled to complete the establishment of an institution, whose utility will remain to latest times, and form one of the proudest monuments to British taste and science. Very lately (in the spring of 1805) parliament has granted the sum of eight thousand pounds for the sole purpose of enlarging the British Museum by additional buildings, to contain the inestimable curiosities acquired in Egypt by our victorious countrymen; the principal article of which is the large stone sarcophagus, generally, and with the greatest probability, supposed to be the very coffin in which the body of Alexander the Great was embalmed. The Museum is freely open to all persons, on their only taking the trouble to leave their names with the porter at the gate a day or two beforehand; and it may be presumed that there are few classic students in particular who will not now avail themselves of the opportunity of seeing some of the renowned wonders of Egypt without leaving their own country. MAJOR-GENERAL JAMES WOLFE. From 12th George I., to 32d George II. THE energy of a sovereign, or the virtue of a minister, is easily communicated to a whole nation. Like the electric shock, it is felt to the extremity of the circle. Each person in contact starts from the torpor of inactivity, and is inspired with resolution to emulate the qualities which he sees honoured and admired. When talents and virtues are sure of promotion, competitors. for the prize will never be wanting. Encouragement kindles the flame of genius, and the ardour of military enterprise. The immortal and revered William Pitt, the first earl of Chatham, whose eloquence flashed indignation on the corrupt and degenerate, and whose plaudits were ever paid to virtue; whose capacious mind embraced every object, and whose spirit proved the shield of his country and the terror of her foes; by his vigorous measures called a race of heroes into being, and fostered them with paternal care. He sought for merit whereever it was to be found; he discovered it sometimes under the cloud of neglect, and sometimes in the shade of obscurity. He brought it into action, for the honour and service of the public, and reaped a harvest of glory from its success. Among others whom this penetrating and sagacious statesman armed with the thunders of Britain, was the illustrious subject of the present article. It is to be deeply lamented that the span of life allowed |