"The following is the substance of a letter I had the honour of writing to His Majesty, when at Weymouth, by the conveyance of Mr. James Wyatt.

"To the King's Most Excellent Majesty.

"GRACIOUS SIRE,

Newman St. Sept. 26. 1801.

"On the fifteenth of last month Mr. Wyatt signified to me Your Majesty's pleasure, That the pictures by me now painting for His Majesty's chapel at Windsor, should be suspended until further orders.' I feel it a duty I owe to that communication, to lay before Your Majesty, by the return of Mr. Wyatt to Weymouth, a statement of those pictures which I have painted to add to those for the chapel, mentioned in the account I had the honour to transmit to Your Majesty in 1797, by the hands of Mr. Gabriel Mathias. Since that period I have finished three pictures, began several others, and composed the remainder of the subjects for the chapel, on the Progress of Revealed Religion, from its commencement to its completion; and the whole arranged with that circumspection, from the Four Dispensations, into five-and-thirty compositions, that the most scrupulous amongst the various religious sects in this country, about admitting pictures into churches, must acknowledge them as truths, or the Scriptures fabulous. Those are subjects so replete with dignity, character, and expression, as demanded the historian, the commentator, and the accomplished painter, to bring them into view. Your Majesty's gracious complacency and commands for my pencil on that extensive subject stimulated my humble abilities, and I commenced the work with zeal and enthusiasm. Animated by your commands, gracious Sire, I renewed my professional studies, and burnt my midnight lamp to attain and give that polish at the close of Your Majesty's chapel, which has since marked my subsequent scriptural pictures. Your Majesty's known zeal for promoting religion, and the elegant arts, had enrolled your virtues with all the civilized world; and your

throughout Europe, and spread a knowledge of the great work on Revealed Religion, which my pencil was engaged on, under Your Majesty's patronage: it is that work which all Christendom looks with complacency for its completion.

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Being distinguished by Your Majesty's benignity at an early period as a painter, and chosen by those professors highly endowed in the three branches of the fine arts to fill their highest station, and sanctioned by Your Majesty's signature in their choice; in that station, I have been, for more than ten years, zealous in promoting merit in those three branches of art, which constitutes the views of Your Majesty's establishment for cultivating their growth. The ingenious artists have received my professional aid, and my galleries and my purse have been open to their studies and their distresses. The breath of envy, nor the whisper of detraction, never defiled my lips, nor the want of morality my character, and, through life, a strict adherer to truth; a zealous admirer of Your Majesty's virtues and goodness of heart, the exalted virtues of Her Majesty the Queen, and the high accomplishments of others of Your Majesty's illustrious family, have been the theme of my delight; and their gracious complacency my greatest pleasure and consolation for many years, with which I was honoured by many instances of friendly notice, and their warm attachment to the fine arts.

"With these feelings of high sensibility, with which my breast has ever been inspired, I feel with great concern the suspension given, by Mr. Wyatt, to the work on Revealed Religion my pencil had advanced to adorn Windsor Castle. If, gracious Sire, this suspension is meant to be permanent, myself and the fine arts have to lament. For to me it will be ruinous, and, to the energetic artist, in the highest branches of his professional pursuits - a damp in the hope of more exalted minds, of patronage in the refined departments in painting. But I have this in store, for the grateful feeling of my heart, that, in the thirty-five years by which my pencil has been honoured by Your Majesty's commands, a great body of historical and

sion, in the churches, and in the country. Their professional claims may be humble, but they have been produced by a loyal subject of your Majesty, which may give them some claim 'to respect, similar works not having been attained before in this country by a subject; and this I will assert as my claim, that Your Majesty did not bestow your patronage and commands on an ungrateful and a lazy man, but on him who had a high sense of Your Majesty's honours and Your Majesty's interests in all cases, as a loyal and dutiful subject, as well as servant, to Your Majesty's gracious commands; and I humbly beg Your Majesty to be assured that

"I am,

"With profound duty,

"Your Majesty's grateful

“BENJAMIN WEST."

No. IX.

THE RIGHT HON. HENRY GRATTAN,

LATE MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT FOR THE CITY OF DUBLIN.

He

HENRY GRATTAN, a name second to none in the annals of Irish eloquence, was a native of the sister-kingdom. was born in Dublin, in or about the year 1750, and after receiving the rudiments of his education at a neighbouring school, soon evinced the most favourable presages of future celebrity. His father was a barrister, who obtained his promotion in life rather by the aid of industry and prudence, than by any blaze of oratory, or, indeed, shining abilities of any kind. Being a zealous protestant, he was patronised by the corporation of the capital, by which he was elected in the two-fold capacity of a representative in parliament, and recorder of the city. The emoluments of the latter office did not, at that time, exceed 500l. per annum. His mother, whose maiden name was Marley, was sister to Doctor Marley, who had been promoted to an Irish deanery during the viceroyalty of Lord Townsend. Being a man of great humour, that nobleman, himself a man of wit, was remarkably attached to his company: and, while thus honoured at the Castle, the Dean made himself known to the public by a work, called "The Bachelor, or, Speculations of Geoffrey Wagstaff;" a book much read at that time, but which is now scarcely known or heard of. After performing his schoolexercises, with a degree of reputation astonishing for a boy of fifteen years of age, in 1765 the subject of this memoir was entered a fellow-commoner in the university of Dublin: and, notwithstanding the great and acknowledged merit of his contemporaries, who afterwards became the chief orna

tained a premium at every public exhibition. To the honour of that establishment, the examinations there are not matters of mere form; the questions put to the youthful Tyro require infinite labour and study to answer: they consist of queries arising out of the principles of government and the circle of the sciences; while belles lettres are not forgotten. It was, at one time, the intention of Mr. Grattan to have studied for a fellowship; but the necessary application is so severe, that many candidates have actually died from intensity of application. Dissuaded from so honourable, but so perilous an attempt, other views, and those, too, of a more brilliant nature, now occupied his attention. Accordingly, by the persuasion of his family and friends, he removed to England, and entered himself as a student at the Middle Temple. After keeping the usual number of terms, our student returned to his native country, and in 1772 received a call to the Irish bar. At Dublin he remained for some time in the most complete obscurity, and was solely distinguished, if distinction it may be called, by carrying a blue bag, constantly empty, to the purlieus of the Four-courts.

Mr. Grattan is indebted, for his seat in parliament, for his early celebrity, and, perhaps, also, for his future fame and fortune, to a mere accident.

A number of gentlemen, some eminent for their rank, and others for their talents, were accustomed to assemble once a-week at a tavern in Dublin, for the laudable purposes of investigation and debate, as even at this period, the affairs of Ireland began to occupy the attention of the most distinguished natives; a circumstance which proved which proved a prelude to the emancipation and comparative independence that was soon destined to ensue. Among these was Lord Charlemont, a nobleman justly celebrated for his worth and patriotism; who, after spending a considerable portion of his life in Italy, returned to the beloved country that gave him birth, and became a patriot in consequence of its supposed wrongs. His brother, the Hon. Colonel Caulfield, was also a member,