(BEING THE TWENTIETH OF A NEW SERIES.)

PART THE FIRST.

PRODESSE & DELECTARE.

E PLURIBUS UNUM.

By SYLVANUS URBAN, GENT.

London:

PRINTED BY J. B. NICHOLS, 25, PARLIAMENT STREET;
WHERE LETTERS ARE PARTICULARLY REQUESTED TO BE SENT, POST-PAID ;

AND SOLD BY JOHN HARRIS,

AT THE CORNER OF ST. PAUL'S CHURCH YARD, LUDGate street;
AND BY PERTHES AND BESSER, HAMBURGH

1827.
LIBRARY

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA
DAVIS

THE INFLUENCE OF RELIGION.

(Stanzas to a Lady.)

By H. BRANDRETH, jun. Author of "Field Flowers," "Sylla," &c. "TIS not that I love thee because thou art fair,

Since thousands the frail gift of Beauty may share;
No 'tis for a gift that has ne'er been subdued
By time or by trouble; - 'tis that thou art good.

For thou hast a goodness of feeling, of heart,
Time serves but to hallow, that ne'er may depart;
'Neath the blue sky of joy, 'mid the tempest of woe,
It sparkles around thee and gladdens thy brow.

And whence does that goodness of feeling arise,
The friend's admiration, the stranger's surprise?
It is that Religion, all goodness enshrined

As she watched o'er thy cradle-herself in thy mind.

She grew with thy growth, she increased with thy years,
Thy smiles were all hers, as all hers were thy tears;
Each virtue she strengthen'd with power from above,
Nor was there a failing she did not reprove.

But, oh! 'twas a feeling I never had known,
"Till writ, by thy hand, on my heart, as on stone;
And now 'tis a feeling, a knowledge, no strife
Can barish, can lessen, in death or in life.

And well I remember when, led by thy hand,
I marked the first dawn of her beauties expand;
I bowed down to earth, it so dazzled my sight,
For it came like the form of some spirit of night.

The dark mists of Error are passing away,
Already are past-lo! it bursts into day;
Unclouded, unbounded, one glorious whole,
The Sun of Religion beams full on the soul!
Well, too, I remember me,-can I forget?
When o'er me the waves of Adversity met,
Whose hand and whose presence, as madly still raved
Around me the tempest, supported and saved.

I prayed in my anguish, looked up, and an Ark
With a Noah rode high o'er the billows all dark,
And he smiled as he gazed on the bright token bow-
That Ark was Religion, its Noah wert thou!

And what is Religion? go, speed thee and ask
The captive that labours in chains at his task;
Go, ask of the orphan, the widow,-of alt

On whom the dark storms of Adversity fall.

They'll tell thee Religion is that which alone

Beams the bright ray of Hope when all other has flown;
That bids us no more for Mortality live,

But die, and its foibles forget and forgive.

'Tis the Olive of Peace 'mid the wide waste of War,

The shrine that the pilgrim has sought from afar,
The fair land of promise that gladdens the eye,

The found in the desert that never is dry.

'Tis that which upholds us, 'tis that which can sooth, In sorrow, in sickness, our pillow can smooth; That one mighty power which comes only to saveWhere, Death, is thy sting? where thy victory, Grave?" June, 1827.

PREFACE.

BIOGRAPHY has always formed a distinguishing feature of the Gentleman's Magazine; and in this First Part of our Ninety-seventh Volume we have devoted a considerable portion of our pages to the Obituary. The most prominent character is the late illustrious and lamented Duke of York-the zealous and noble-minded defender of the Protestant Church, and the uncompromising opponent of Popery. His loss will long be lamented by every friend of the Establishment, and his memory will remain embalmed in the grateful recollections of an admiring people.-Literature has to lament the loss of a Mitford, a Kitchiner, an Evans, a Jones, a Benger, &c.; and Science will long deplore the absence of a Brun, a Bode, a La Place, a Robertson, a Beethoven, and a Flaxman, whose talents and services to the community, individually, our Biographer has faithfully recorded. The memoir of Joseph Cradock, esq. (the associate of Johnson, Garrick, Goldsmith, and other distinguished members of the celebrated Literary Club,) occupies an ample space in our pages, and will be perused with feelings of interest by all the admirers of that particular æra in which he flourished. Amongst the gallant sons of departed worth are the names of Hastings, Stewart, Twiss, and Markham,the relation of whose manly virtues and heroic deeds will be read with the most lively emotions by the latest posterity. Many individuals, distinguished for talent and private worth, connected with the Church, the Law, or other respectable situations in life, have likewise received that tribute from our Biographer's pen which their respective merits demanded. As the Gentleman's Magazine has always maintained an acknowledged superiority over all cotemporary Publications in biographical literature, it has been, and always will be, our principal aim not only to preserve but to increase its reputation'in this important department. For this purpose we shall always thankfully receive, from our numerous friends and correspondents, every species of information relative to distinguished deceased individuals.

The successful progress which the Commissioners for the Building of New Churches have made in that grand national undertaking,-so important to the interests of the Establishment and the people at large, -has induced us to devote some portion of our pages to, the subject. In addition to the New Churches which were described and graphically illustrated in our preceding Volumes, we have, in the present Part, given Views of St. George's, Camberwell; St. Mark's, Kennington; St. John's, Hoxton; St. Barnabas's Chapel, Old Street; St. John's, Wa