"Wise and extensive plans of foreign colonization contribute essentially to keep a state like England in health; but we must not overlook the greater facility Would it not of colonizing at home. be desirable that tracts of waste land should be purchased with public money, to be held as national domains, and colonized with our disbanded soldiers and sailors, and people who are in want of employment, dividing them into estates of different size, according to the capability of the speculators; and allotting to every cottage that should be erected there a certain proportion of ground? man.' "A duty scarcely less urgent thau that of diminishing the burthen of the poorrates, is that of providing for the education of the lower classes. Government must no longer, in neglect of its first and paramount duty, allow them to grow up in worse than heathen ignorance. They must be trained in the way they should go: they must be taught to fear God, and keep his commandments; for this is the whole duty of Mere reading and writing will not do this; they must be instructed acording to the Established Religion; they must be fed with the milk of sound doctrine for States are secure in proportion as the great body of the people are attached to the institutions of their country. A moral and religious education will induce habits of industry; the people will know their duty, and find their interest and their happiness in following it. Give us the great boon of parochial education, so connected with the Church as to form part of the Establishment; and we shall find it a bulwark to the State as well as to the Church. Let this be done, let saving banks be generally introduced, let new channels for industry be opened (as soon as the necessities of the State will permit), by a liberal expenditure in public works, by colonizing our waste lands at home, and regularly sending off our swarms abroad; and the strength, weaith, and security of the Nation will be in proportion to its numbers. "It is likewise incumbent upon the Government to take heed, lest, in its solicitude for raising the necessary reve: nue, there should be too little regard for the means by which it is raised. It should beware of imposing such duties as create a strong temptation to evade them. It should be careful that all its measures tend, as much as possible, to the improvement of the people; and es pecially careful that nothing be done which can tend in any way to corrupt them. It should reform its prisons, and apply some remedy to the worst grievance which exists, the enormous ex pences, the chicanery, and the ruinous delays of the law. "How far the writings of Mr. Southey may be found to deserve a favourable acceptance from after-ages, time will decide; but a name, which, whether worthily or not, has been conspicuous in the literary history of its age, will cer tainly not perish. Some account of his life will always be prefixed to his works, and transferred to literary histories, and to the biographical dictionaries, not only of this, but of other countries. There it will be related, that he lived in the bosom of his family in absolute retirement; that in all his writings there breathed the same abhorrence of oppression and immorality, the same spirit of devotion, and the same ardent wishes for the amelioration of mankind; and that the only charge which malice could bring against him was, that, as he grew older, his opinions altered concerning the means by which that amelioration was to be effected; and that, as he learnt to understand the institutions of his Country, he learnt to appreciate them rightly, to love, and to revere, and to defend them. It will be said of him, that, in an age of personality, he abstained from satire; and that, during the course of his literary life, often as he was assailed, the only occasion on which he ever condescended to reply was, when a certain Mr. William Smith insulted him in Par liament with the appellation of Rene- Mr. URBAN, CONS Frier Walls, York, YONSIDERING that much injustice has been done to my Father's memory, in the Rev. James Dallaway's "Observations on English Architecture," I beg to request that you will be pleased to insert in your Magazine the following Letters; the former of which was written twelve months ago; and Mr. Dallaway not having answered, I cannot, in compliance with my feelings, permit my late Father's merits, which Mr. D. has so unjustifiably depreciated, to pass unobserved to the publick any longer. HARRIET PECKITT. T. To the Rev. James Dallaway, M. B. F.S. A. Heralds College, London. Rev. Sir, I yesterday perused your Book, entitled "Observations on English Architecture," published in the year 1806; and as a Daughter of that worthy and eminent Artist, the late Mr. Peckitt of York, my feelings were excited at particular parts of it, which also impel me to inform you of some egregious errors the work contains. I shall for the present principally confine myself to a few of those relating to him whose abilities you have depreciated. In the first place, page 282, those " Designs and arrangements of Mosaic," at Strawberry-Hill, done in the year 1761, 1762, and in February and September 1772, were all executed by my Father. In the second place, you speak of a School established at York; and how you came by such information I am at a loss to discover, never having heard or read of such an Institution in any age! My Father was not instructed by any one, nor assisted by any person except my Mother; he found out the secret by his own study and practice. You say "Peckitt's proficiency was inferior to that of his predecessors, and who produced only an extreme brilliancy of Colours." The excellency of his colours (particularly the Ruby) no one has ever excelled, or perhaps equalled; and even had his proficiency been really so inferior as you have been pleased to say-as a self-taught Artist, his merits might have demanded (I will not say indulgence, but) at least candour and impartiality from the severest Critic.You also err in asserting that "He was first known by the great West Window in Exeter Cathedral, which he stained in 1764 (the date upon the window is 1766). It consists chiefly of mosaics and armorial ensigns, which were well suited to his pencil." Sir, I must here observe, that window contains about six hundred square feet of Glass, and has very little mosaic in it; the lower part consists of seven full-length figures as large as life; the upper part and sides, I allow, are mostly Coats of Arms, Previous to that Window, others of large size were done by my Father; I shall only mention two in Lincoln Cathedral in the year 1762 (one of which measured about nine hundred square feet of Glass), and one for the Society of New College, Oxford, in the year 1764, measuring about six hundred square feet of Glass. Those Patriarchs which you term "Arbitrary Portraits of the canonized Worthies of the Church," were painted in the year 1774, from the coloured designs of Biagio Rebecca (a pupil of Cipriani's), who went down to Oxford with my Father for that' purpose. The Books of my late Father shew the names of near three hundred Noblemen and Gentlemen of the three kingdoms, evincing the patronage he received, and proving that he was not so inferior an Artist as you have thought proper to pourtray him. The patent he obtained was not "for taking off impressions from Copper-plates and staining them on Glass," neither were the Receipts and Utensils sold in the year 1802. They are yet in the possession of the Family, as the Prospectus I have sent will convince you. The serious event of my dear Father's death took place in the year 1795. I shall only trouble myself with one further remark. 2 The painting given by the Earl of Carlisle to York Minster is not the Crucifixion; the subject is a circumstance which took place prior to our Saviour's birth. Before I close this explanation, I must impart, that I consider myself and the family much injured by your Publication. I am, Rev. Sir, Your humble Servant, HARRIET PECKITT. |