deavour to state as accurately as my recollection will permit.

Travelling in Germany to the place of his destination, he was one day overtaken by the shades of night before he could reach the town where he had proposed to sleep. He therefore stopped at a solitary inn on the road. His bed-room was an inner chamber. He had the precaution, not only to lock his door, but also to secure it by some other contrivance. As he travelled armed, he put his sword and a brace of pistols, which he had with him, on the table. He kept a light burning in his chamber, and instead of undressing, he merely took off his coat, and wrapping himself up in his roquelaure, lay down on the bed. In the space of about two hours, he was roused by the sound of steps in the outer room, and a violent push at his door. He immediately started up, took his sword in one hand and a pistol in the other, and calling with a loud thundering voice to these disturbers of his repose to desist, he told them, "the first that entered was a dead man, and that he was prepared to encounter with half a dozen of them." Upon this they thought proper to with draw. He then made the door still more secure, and expecting another attempt, "gave neither sleep to his eyes or slumber to his eyelids," but sat down, waiting and preparing his mind for whatever might happen. In about an hour, he heard what appeared to him a greater number of footsteps in the outer chamber than before, and immediately an assault was made at his door with so much violence as would have forced it open in an instant, had it not been for the additional security which his prudence had devised. He again addressed them as before, when the villains retreated, some of them uttering the most horrid imprecations. 'As soon as the day began to dawn, he called his servants, and before he left the house told the attendant that he wished to speak with his master, who however excused himself from making his appearance by pretending he was very ill in bed. When Mr. Webb came to the next town he waited on the magistrate and acquainted him with the transaction, who promised that notice should be taken of it, and congratulated him on his deliverance from so imminent danger of losing his life; for murdering on the Couti

nent more generally attends robbery,
than in this country. Having fulfilled
the object of his mission he returned
to England, but how much time
elapsed before he was again employed
in a diplomatic capacity I cannot de-
termine. After the peace of Amiens,
however, in 1802, when Mr. Jackson
was sent on his embassy to France,
(Napoleon Bonaparte being then only
Chief Consul) Mr. Webb was ap-
pointed his Secretary; but the state
of his health obliged him to return at
the end of a few weeks. During the
short time he was in Paris, his office
leading him to frequent intercourse
with those persons who then made the
most conspicuous figures in the French
government, his penetrating genius
enabled him to acquire considerable
knowledge of their characters and po-
litical views, of which he used after-
wards to communicate to his friends
many interesting particulars.

From this period he retired wholly
from public life. His places of resi-
dence have been various within the last
thirty years. He took a house in the
neighbourhood of Crewkerne, where
he lived for a short time and attended
the religious services of his beloved
friend, and, if I mistake not, quondamn
fellow-student in the Daventry Aca-
demy, the late Rev. Wm. Blake, to
whom was peculiarly applicable the
character which the Apostle John gives
of a pious and amiable man, "Deme-
trius hath good report of all men, and
of the truth itself." For some years
Mr. Webb resided at Litchet, a plea-
sant village between Poole and Ware-
ham, and became an attendant on the
worship of the Unitarian Dissenters
(I use the term Unitarian in its most
extensive signification, as distinguish-
ing from Trinitarian) either in the
former or latter place. Quitting Litch-
et in 1809, he went to Norton sub
Hamdon, in the neighbourhood of
South Petherton. In 1811 he removed
to Lufton, in the vicinity of Yeovil, a
delightful retreat which Mr. Webb
would gladly have retained to the end
of his life. Whilst in this place he
joined the society of Unitarian Dis
senters in the town last mentioned,
under the pastoral care of my highly-
valued friend, the Rev. S. Fawcett.
His residence being a parsonage house,
and the clergyman to whom it belonged
giving him notice to quit it, his remo-
val to Barrington, in 1814, was the

Sketch of the Life, Character, &c. last stage of his eventful journey, which, as you have already announced, was terminated on August 2, 1815, in either the 80th or 31st year of his age. About two years before his death he became a member of the Western Uni tarian Society, and at its meeting in Yeovil in 1814, when the late venerable Dr. Toulmin preached, a respect. able company of gentlemen dined together, and Mr. Webb was requested to take the chair. This office he discharged with much propriety, and with more spirit than might have been expected in a person on the verge of fourscore. He declared, that " though he had often presided at different meetings, he never did it with so much pleasure and satisfaction, as on the present occasion."

No man ever possessed a more independent mind than the subject of these remarks. He never hesitated to think freely on all subjects of human inquiry, and to speak unreservedly on proper occasions what he thought. In political sentiments he was a staunch Whig, though this did not prevent him from esteeming a conscientious Tory; in religion, a Unitarian Protestant Dissenter, though of too liberal and enlarged a mind to confine his friendly regards, much less the Divine favour and future salvation, to those merely of his own denomination. He was a man of a delicate moral taste and strong feelings, which led him to perceive clearly and to expose forcibly the deformity and baseness of vice in whomsoever found. A mean, cringing, time-serving disposition his soul utterly abhorred; while he could not refrain from expressing, in terms of rapture, his approbation of noble, generous, disinterested actions.

Cui pudor, et justitiæ soror
Incorrupta fides, nudaque veritas.

HORACE.

of the late Francis Webb, Esq. 191 utile et jocundum. His stock of information seemed to be inexhaustible. There was in his conversation always something new and interesting.

In manners, Mr. Webb had the address of the polished gentleman. In stature, he appeared to be not less than six feet high; of an athletic make; well proportioned; upright in his gait, with a fine, open, manly countenance, expressive both of intelligence and good humour.

The writings of Mr. Webb which have appeared before the public, (few in number) evince a lively imagination, elegant taste, an enlightened mind, and rational, fervent piety. The best Greek and Roman classics were familiar to him, and his memory was so retentive as enabled him to make appropriate quotations from them on all subjects. His allusions to them and the heathen mythology indeed are so frequent, as to cast a veil of obscurity over some parts of his poetic compositions, except to those who are themselves well versed in classic lore. The same however may be said of his favourite Milton, and many other poets; but which I think cannot be justly ranked among their greatest excellences. Besides the two volumes of sermons already mentioned, in the year 1790 he published a quarto pamphlet of poems, on Wisdom, on the Deity, and on Genius, the two first in blank verse, and the third in rhyme, enriched with many valuable notes, containing the sentiments of the most celebrated ancients on these sublime and important subjects. In the year 1811, appeared from the same pen, a Poem, termed Somerset, written in blank verse, with the spirit of a young Poet, (though he says "time has pluck'd my pinions,") and an enthusiastic admirer of Nature, through which he delighted to look up to Nature's God. The following lines will illustrate the truth of this observation, and furnish a specimen of his poetic powers and devotional feelings.

Hail, Nature! in whose various works ap

A year or two before his death, Mr. Webb amused himself with preparing a curious work, which he terms Panharmonicon. It consists of a large engraved plate, (delineated by his ingenious friend, Mr. John Nicholetts of South Petherton,) with a quarto pamphlet, designed as an illustration of it. The author states it as his object, to prove that "the principles of Harmony more or less prevail throughout the whole sytem of Nature, but more especially in the human frame; and that where these principles can be applied to works of art, they excite the pleasing and satisfying ideas of proportion and beauty."

If it be true, as here maintained, that there is an harmonious connexion between lines of beauty in natural objects, and notes of music, it is evident that the latter, should the mode of application be correctly ascertained, would greatly contribute to exact proportions in the Painter's delineations. To prove that this is not a merely speculative idea, devoid of all utility to society, Mr. Webb makes his appeal to a well-attested fact. The ingenious artist, the late Giles Hussey, Esq. of Marnhull, in the County of Dorset, (who died suddenly in 1788,) an intimate friend of our author, used to correct and improve his drawings by applying them to the musical scale. His mode of doing it is particularly pointed out in a letter of this celebrated painter. Mr. Webb, it appears, adopted in younger life the sentiment which he endeavours to prove and

This letter, which I hope other readers can understand better than myself, is also inserted in the late edition of Hutchins's History of Dorset,

illustrate respecting the harmony of nature. "This work," says he, "was first undertaken merely for amusement, when the author, from bodily indisposition, was unable to exercise his mind by more serious study and closer application. The subject ever was, from his earliest days unto those of his present very advanced years, pleasing and attractive. He feels indeed at the present moment of recital, though with abated energy, the rapture which he experienced when, in the course of his juvenile studies, that beam of celestial light was first darted into his mind from the great luminary of science, Sir Isaac Newton, in the astonishing and beautiful discovery, that a ray of light transmitted through a prism, exactly answered in its differently refracted colours, to the divisions of a musical chord; or in other words, that the breadth of the seven original colours, were in the same proportion, as the seven musical intervals of the octave. And further delighted was he with the no less wonderful discovery, that if we suppose musical chords extended from the Sun to each Planet, in order that these chords may become unison, it will be fequisite to increase or diminish their tension, in exactly the same proportion, as would be suffi cient to render the gravities of the Planets equal." Webb's Parhon. p. 1.

As Mr. Webb was delighted in tracing out the beauty and harmony of the natural world, so he believed, and the persuasion afforded him still sublimer pleasure, that causes were in operation, appointed by the Sovereign Lord of Nature and Parent of Good, tending to correct the disorders of the moral world, and finally to produce! universal virtue and happiness, the beauty and harmony of the moral creation of God, almighty, all-wise, and infinitely benevolent. What indeed were his sentiments respecting the result of the gracious plan of the divine government, the final glorious

consummation devoutly to be wished," appears from the concluding lines of his Poem on the Deity. Nought can He will, but good-and what

He wills

Must come to pass. All creatures in degree,
Answering his great idea, rise to good
Through countless forms and changes; and
at last,
Looking complacent on his mighty Works,
As on creation's morn he lookt, and smil'd,

Copy of a Letter from Dr. Watts to the Rev. Mr. Alexander.

HE autograph of the subjoined letter, is in the possession of a lineal descendant of the gentleman* to whom it was addressed and I am permitted by its respectable owner to transcribe it for your pages. It's contents suggest many a reflection: I submit it however, without a comment, to the attention of your readers.

In the copy the orthography varies from that of the original, which otherwise is exactly followed.

JOHN KENTISH.
Cory of a Letter from Dr. Waits to
the Rev. Mr. Alexander.
REV. SIR,

I return you thanks for your Essay on Irenæus, wherein you have effectu

The Rey, John Alexander, of Stratford upon Avon, afterwards of Ireland, and father of the Rev. John Alexander, of Birmingham. A short notice of the elder Mr. A. will be found in the Biographia Britannica, (edited by Dr. Kippis), in a communication towards the end of the article Benson;

where also is a fuller account of the son.

1