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To this class belong Black, Cavendish, Wollaston, Bergman, Scheele, Lavoisier, DALTON, and, if we include the living, and confine ourselves to our own country, Faraday, Graham, and Thomson. Thinkers of both these classes have done, and will yet do, excellent service to chemistry. We sum up their peculiarities in a word, if we say, with the late Dr. Henry, that the great object of the first class is to discover truth; of the second, to avoid error.

Dalton possessed, in an eminent degree, the characteristics of the class to which he belonged. He was so indifferent to the opinion of others, that he could never be persuaded to reply to the attempts which at one time were made to exalt Higgins above him; so self-reliant that, in the face of overwhelming evidence, he refused for a long time to put faith in Gaylussac's discoveries concerning combination by volume, because they contradicted a hypothesis of his own. To the end of his days he persisted in calling the atomic weight of oxygen 7, though all other chemists were unanimous in making it 8.

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Like Newton, he referred the discoveries he had made, not to the power of genius, but to the industry which he had brought to bear upon their elucidation. At the anniversary meeting of the Pinestreet Medical School, Manchester, he thus replied to a toast embodying his name: With regard to myself, I shall only say, seeing so many gentlemen present who are pursuing their Istudies, that if I have succeeded better than many who sur'round me, in the different walks of life, it has been chiefly, nay, I may say almost solely, from unwearied assiduity. It is 'not so much from any superior genius that one man possesses over another, but more from attention to study and perseverance in the objects before them, that some men rise to greater eminence than others. This it is, in my opinion, that 'makes one man succeed better than another. That is all I shall 'say concerning myself.' In all this there was no affectation. One who knew Dalton well, said of him during his life, ‘If led ' into a discussion on any branch of science or philosophy with 'which his name is connected, he never hesitates to explain 'where his own discoveries begin and end, and what portion of the ground has been trodden by others.' Neither did he hesitate to entitle his volumes on heat and atomics, New System of Chemical Philosophy.'

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He was very methodical and orderly in his habits. We have seen that the Thursday afternoon was spent in the bowlinggreen. He was equally regular in attending the meetings of the Society of Friends, at which he was present twice every Sunday. On the same day, he was in the habit, for more than

forty years, of dining at a friend's house; and even when the family were absent, he paid his accustomed visit.

His love for truth was very great, of which one striking example may be given. A student, who had missed one lecture of a course, applied to him for a certificate of full attendance. Dalton at first declined to give it; but, after thinking a little, replied "If thou wilt come to-morrow, I will go over the lecture thou hast missed.'

Such was Dalton; a simple, frugal, strictly honest, and truthful man. For the independence, gravity, and reserve of his character, he was, doubtless, much indebted to his birth as a Cumberland yeoman, and his long connexion with the Society of Friends. The individuality of his nature showed itself in his great mathematical capacity, his thorough self-reliance and power of patient, persevering work, the native clearness of his intellectual perception, and the extraordinary power of fearless generalization which he brought to bear upon what nature unfolded to him. In the latter quality, in particular, he excelled every one of his scientific contemporaries.

The inhabitants of Manchester have announced their intention of erecting a monument to Dalton's memory. We trust that the proposition of founding a chair of chemistry, especially for the exposition of chemical atomics, will take the precedence of every other, as the best means of carrying out that intention. Every one, we think, must feel that bronze statues, or other costly erections, would be altogether out of keeping with the character of the plain Quaker man of science. A 'Dalton' chair of chemistry, on the other hand, would be a fitting memorial, and in conformity with the wishes of him whom it is intended to honour. Dalton, it is well known, left the sum of 2000l. to endow such a chair at Oxford, but revoked it before his death, with the view, it is believed, of giving the money to friends, who had assisted him in his early days.

We would hint, moreover, that even the enduring brass and the everlasting granite crumble down under the tooth of Time, and are at best but dumb remembrancers of him whom they seek to save from oblivion. The living voice of the professor from his chair would keep in perpetual remembrance the name of Dalton, as the paid and appointed chantings and masses of the Roman-catholic priest recall, if but for a moment, the memory of the long-forgotten dead.

We offer these suggestions with all deference to those who seek, by some befitting token, to keep before us the memory of Dalton, because we should grieve to think that a great sum of money had been spent for this purpose in vain. So far as he

himself is concerned, we have no fear. Dalton will never be forgotten. He is the second Newton of English physics, and will go down to posterity along with the first. Men will think

of them together, and compare them to the double stars which a later astronomy has unfolded to our view-each a sun, shedding light on the other; both stars of the first magnitude, revolving round, and pointing towards a great centre, which they equally make manifest and obey: even Him who is the first and the last, the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end of all things.

ART. VI. (1.) An Essay on the History of the English Government and Constitution, from the Reign of Henry VII. to the Present Time. By LORD JOHN RUSSELL. 8vo. London.

(2.) Life of Lord William Russell. 2 vols. 8vo. London.

(3.) Memoirs of the Affairs of Europe from the Peace of Utrecht. 2 vols. 4to. London.

(4.) The Causes of the French Revolution. 8vo. London.

(5.) What have the Whigs done? 8vo. London.

IT has fallen to the house of Bedford to be conspicuously associated with the history of the religion and liberty of this country. In the times of the Reformation, during the civil war, and, above all, in the struggle to save the ark of civil and religious freedom towards the close of the reign of Charles II., the genius of that house was felt as a potent influence in public affairs.

Lord John Russell inherits most of the higher qualities belonging to his ancestors. In capacity, and in general culture, he is greater than the greatest of them. What he has done as an author, is overshadowed and forgotten by reason of the much greater prominence which he has obtained in the public eye as a statesman. His writings, however, warrant the conclusion, that, had he chosen to steer his course at a distance from the vortex of politics, and given himself to comparative ease and quietude as a man of letters, he might have risen to eminence in that department. His Essay on the English Constitution,' -the production of his early life, gave unequivocal token of the taste and capacity which might have led to such distinction. His Life of Lord William Russell' exhibited the same varied knowledge, the same disciplined intellect, and the same literary aptitude, but all in a higher tone of maturity. His 'Memoirs

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of the Affairs of Europe from the Peace of Utrecht,' relate to a section of modern history which interested men previously to the outbreak of the French Revolution, but which seemed to drop at once from their thoughts as that astounding event and its consequences began to develop themselves. The subject, accordingly, was not well chosen, except for persons of calm and aristocratic tastes, more disposed to meditate on the repose and tameness of the past, than to sympathize with the onwardness and energy of the present. But the execution of the work evinced a large acquaintance with European affairs subsequent to the death of Louis XIV., much political sagacity, and that greater command of language which comes as the natural result of greater practice in composition. His lordship's subsequent essay on the causes of the French revolution may be regarded as a supplementary chapter to the preceding work. It shows that the philosophy, the literature, and the state of society generally in France, which propelled affairs towards the crisis of the Revolution, were not only topics about which the author had read considerably, but matters on which he had bestowed some patient reflection.

In respect to literature, however, as in respect to some other things, his lordship's achievements would have been more conventional than natural; more correct than profound; evincing more of the caution which avoids great mistakes, than of the boldness which strikes out new path. He might have improved somewhat on the school of Addison and Pope, but, in regard to style, he would have been moulded by it, and in regard to compass of thought, he would never have ventured far in advance of it. With a considerable portion of the progressive spirit, he would not have failed to unite a stately worship of the old land-marks. In all his voyaging, he would have resembled those early mariners, who, wanting the compass, were distrustful of the frail bark beneath them, and always made their way within sight of land-men who might have continued to navigate the old world, but could never have signalized themselves as discoverers of the new.

With regard to that one quality of a statesman, without which every other must be untrustworthy, we deem Lord John Russell to be above fair impeachment. We believe him to be an honest man. No amount of popular misconception, no strength of party invective, has sufficed to produce in us the slightest misgiving in regard to his strict political integrity. We are glad to know that the gentlemen among the frequenters of St. Stephen's, of whom so much cannot be said, need no further instruction on that point. All parties of that description have

had proof enough that his lordship is not a man to their purpose. He does not touch the unclean thing. In some instances he has drawn the line between the conventional and the absolute in political morality, at a point which we should not ourselves have chosen. But the distinction made, we doubt not, has commended itself, upon the whole, to his own moral judgment. The casuistry of some state questions may be simple enough. Their justice or injustice may be seen at a glance. But the greater number of such questions are not of that order. In general, the wheat and the tares grow up strangely together, so that many an honest man-ay, and many a wise man, too-may be led to the conclusion, that to root out one without destroying the other would be found impossible. Leaving all fair space open to difference of judgment from this cause, we believe that the character left to posterity by Lord John Russell will be, in respect to integrity, of a high order.

It would have been, as we assuredly think, much better for him, and much better for his country, had there been more decision in his denunciation of some abuses; and had his comniendation of some great principles been more frequent and more earnest--such as would have carried more manifest heart along with it. Of course, if it were well that his lordship should have spoken more strongly on such occasions, it would have been well if his policy in relation to such matters had evinced greater promptitude and greater vigour. But if he has not conformed himself strictly to our moral standard at such times, we can believe that he has been obedient to his own.

To touch on religion, in its relation to a living statesman, may be to enter upon delicate ground. But Lord John Russell has not scrupled to favour the world with some expression of his views on that subject, and it cannot be amiss to scrutinize what is thus submitted to scrutiny. His lordship's views concerning the different sections of religion in this country, present one very material phase of his own character. The course of his policy also, has been much influenced by those views.

The last chapter in the second volume of the 'Memoirs of Affairs in Europe,' is occupied with a view of the state of religion in England during the former half of the eighteenth century. This retrospect embraces remarks on the condition of the church of England during that interval, and on the rise, progress, and character of methodism. According to the showing of his lordship, the great belligerent churchmen of those times, whose shades are made to pass in succession before his readers, were men so intent on their particular controversies, as to have left the body of the nation in a wretched condition of ignorance, immo

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