THE LATE J. W. M. TURNER
Basil Montagu, an eminent philosophical and legal writer, was the illegitimate son of the well-known statesman, John fourth Earl of Sandwich, many years First Lord of the Admiralty, by the unfortunate Miss Margaret Reay, who was assassinated, in 1779, by her affianced lover, the Rev. Mr. Hackman. The tragic affair, which excited immense interest at the time, and which gave rise to various romantic stories, is to be found in most series of judicial investigations, and especially in a collection of celebrated trials recently published. It appears that Margaret Reay was the daughter of a stay-maker in Covent-garden, and served her apprenticeship to a mantuamaker. Having attracted the attention of Lord Sandwich, he treated her from that period until her assassination, with the greatest tenderness and affection. He introduced to her a young ensign of the 68th Regiment, then in command of a recruiting party at Huntingdon, in the neighborhood of the mansion of the Montagues. Mr. Hackman from the first moment was desperately in love with her, and his passion increased with the daily opportunities afforded by invitations he received to Lord Sandwich's table. With the object of continuing his attentions, and the hope of ultimately engaging her affections, he quitted the army, and, taking orders, obtained the living of Wiverton, in Norfolk. That Miss Reay had given him some encouragement, is proved by the tenor of their correspondence; but prudential motives induced her afterwards to refuse the offer of his hand, and to intimate a necessity for discontinuing his visits. Stung by this unexpected termination of his long-cherished expectations, Hackman's mind became unsettled; on the 7th of April, 1779, he was occupied all the morning in reading Blair's Sermons; but in the evening, as he was walking towards the Admiralty, he saw Miss Reay pass in her coach, accompanied by Signora Galli. He followed, and discovered that she alighted at Covent-garden Theatre, where she went to witness Love in a Village. He returned to his lodgings, armed himself with a brace of pistols, went back to the theatre, and when the performance was over, as Miss Reay was stepping into her coach, he took a pistol in each hand, one of which he discharged at her, and killed her on the spot, and the other at himself, but it did not take effect. He then beat his head with the butt of the pistol, to destroy himself, but was, after a struggle, secured and carried before Sir John Fielding, who committed him to Bridewell, and he was shortly after tried at the Old Bailey, before the celebrated Justice Blackstone, found guilty, and hanged at Tyburn on the 19th of the month.
Basil Montagu was born in 1770, and received his education at the Charter House. He was called to the English bar by the Society of Gray's Inn, the 19th of May, 1798, and soon obtained considerable practice as a conveyancer. It was, however, by his legal authorship and reporting that he became particularly distinguished in the profession. His various works and reports on the subject, principally of the Law of Bankruptcy, were of high estimation and lasting utility. In 1801, he produced his Summary of the Law of Set Off, with an Appendix of Cases, argued and determined in the Courts of Law and Equity, in one volume, octavo; in 1804-5, in four volumes, A Digest of the Bankrupt Laws, with a Collection of the Statutes and of the Cases, which reached three editions, and brought him into immediate notice and considerable practice; and, some time afterward, he printed a pamphlet on Bankrupts' Certificates. His fame in this branch of forensic learning procured him the appointment of a Commissioner of Bankruptcy. Mr. Montagu wrote also on philosophical subjects. Among his productions of this tendency were Thoughts of Divines and Philosophers; Selections from Taylor, Hooker, Bishop Hall, and Bacon. He edited an edition of Lord Bacon's works, in seventeen volumes. Another bent which his mind took, placed him by the side of Romilly and Mackintosh in the cause of Humanity. He had in his nature an abhorrence of depriving any living thing of life, and with regard to his own diet he totally abstained from animal food. This led him to bestow his active attention towards putting a stop to capital punishment. In 1809 he published Opinions of Different Authors on the Punishment of Death. The work was so well received, that he added a a second and third volume to it. In 1811, when the important question occupied Parliament, he edited The Debates on a Bill for Abolishing the Punishment of Death for Stealing in a Dwelling House. In 1815 he reprinted a tract originally published in 1801, called Hanging not Punishment enough for Murderers. Mr. Basil Montagu, who had some years ago been made a Queen's counsel, died at Boulogne on the 27th of November, in the eighty-second year of his age.
Rear-Admiral Henry Gage Morris, entered the navy at the early age of twelve, and served as midshipman throughout the French and American wars. He was promoted to the rank of lieutenant, April 2, 1793. He was engaged at the capture of the French frigate Sybille, in 1783, and at the attack on Martinique, in 1793. He was promoted to post rank August 12, 1812, and was made rear-admiral in 1847. He died at Beverley, 24th ult. aged eighty-two. Admiral Morris was younger brother of the late Captain Amherst Morris, being second son of Colonel Roger Morris, a member of the Governor's Council at New-York, by Mary, daughter of Frederick Phillipse, of this city. This family of Morris is one of great antiquity, deriving its descent from Elystan Glodrydd, a famed chieftain of Wales in the eleventh century.
Mr. Sapio the once celebrated tenor singer, was born in London, in 1792. In his early life he was page to Queen Caroline, consort of George IV. He made his first appearance on the metropolitan stage at Drury Lane, the 1st December, 1824, as the Seraskier, in the "Siege of Belgrade," and he soon attained and long preserved a high vocal reputation. He died in obscurity, in London, about the end of November.
One of the most distinguished chiefs of the war of Greek independence, General Jatrako, is just dead at Athens. He was one of the primates of Marna; his family, as his name indicates, have for many generations back been famous for their hereditary medical talents, and the tradition exists among them that a branch of their family formerly passed from Sparta to Italy, translated their name into Medici, and gave rise to the celebrated family of that name.
Priessnitz, the celebrated founder of hydropathy, died at Graefenberg on the 26th of November, at the age of fifty-two. In the morning of that day Priessnitz was up and stirring at an early hour, but complained of the cold, and had wood brought in to make a large fire. His friends had for some time believed him to be suffering from dropsy of the chest, and at their earnest entreaty he consented to take a little medicine, exclaiming all the while, "It's of no use!" He would see no physician, but remained to the last true to his profession. About four o'clock in the afternoon of the 26th he asked to be carried to bed, and upon being laid down he expired! In early life he received serious injury in the chest from an accident, and he used to say himself that his constitution was bad; that nothing but his own mode of life and his own "cure" would have sustained him. It is not known what attempts will be made to carry on the establishment at Graefenberg, which was in full activity at the moment of his death. The most probable conjecture is, that his eldest daughter and her husband (a Hungarian of property) will carry it on, with the aid of some physician who has studied Priessnitz's method. This may succeed to a certain extent, for the place and neighborhood are admirably adapted for taking the water-cure, and the prestige of Priessnitz's name, as well as the tradition of his practice, will long survive him: but the attraction which brought patients, not only from the neighboring cities, but from the remotest parts of the world, is gone. It is not exactly known what amount of property Priessnitz left, but it is supposed to be nearly £100,000. When it is considered how small, compared to that given to other physicians, was the remuneration he received from his patients, and that thirty years ago, Priessnitz was a poor peasant, this fortune gives some measure of his immense success.
George Dunbar, the distinguished Professor of Greek Literature in the University of Edinburgh, died on the 6th of December, at his residence in that city. The natural decay attending even an otherwise green old age has been for some years aggravated by a virulent internal malady, which at the commencement of the present season compelled him to relinquish his academic duties. He was born at the village of Caldingham, in Berwickshire, in 1774. In early life he labored as a gardener, but an accidental lameness, which lasted throughout his subsequent life, incapacitated him from active bodily employment. His attention was then devoted to literature. He soon became a scholar, and in truth a ripe and good one. Going to Edinburgh, he readily obtained, on proof of his acquirements, a tutorship in the family of Lord Provost Fettes. Having been shortly after selected as assistant to Professor Dalziel, he was appointed, on that professor's death, to the Greek chair in the Edinburgh University, in 1805. The duties of this responsible position he discharged most zealously and ably. The published works of Professor Dunbar are well known. The Collectanea Minora, the Collectanea Majora, and the Greek Grammar, have all had great reputation. His chief production—massive in every sense—the main object of his life of learned toil, was his Greek Lexicon, which was given to the world with his name in 1840.
Mr. Henry Luttrell, one of the ornaments of a society of what may be termed conversational wits, died on the 19th of December, at the advanced age of eighty-six. He was the friend and companion, hand impari passu, of Jeckyll, Mackintosh, Jeffrey, Alvanley, Sydney Smith, and others of that brilliant school, and of which the Misses Berry, Rogers, Moore, and but a few others, are still left. A correspondent of the Times says: "He charmed especially by the playfulness and elegance of his wit, the appropriateness and felicity of illustration, the shrewdness of his remarks, and the epigrammatic point of his conversation. Liveliness of fancy was tempered in him with good breeding and great kindness of disposition; and one of the wittiest men of his day, he could amuse and delight by the keenness of playful yet pungent sallies, without wounding the feelings of any one by the indulgence of bitterness and ill-nature."
English journals notice with expressions of regret the death in Philadelphia of R. C. Taylor, on the 26th of October, aged sixty-two. Mr. Taylor emigrated in the year 1830, being previously well known as a Fellow both of the Antiquarian and of the Geological Societies. He had published a work of great care and research while resident in his native county, Norfolk, Index Monasticus for East Anglia; and had made some useful explorations into the fossil remains on the coast of Norfolk. In America he wrote for various philosophical societies, and published, in 1848, his work on the Statistics of Coal, by which alone he was much known to the public of this country.