utation at a hazard in making them by ven- | England to contend for his prizes, solely turing out of his depth. He was content out of respect for the epigrammatic and with the fame of his "Lady Louisa Russell inimitable Frenchman. Fondling a Dove," a sweet little figure all tiptoe and delight.

In 1813, his charge for a bust was one hundred guineas; in 1814 and 1819, one hundred and twenty. He had one hundred guineas for Cline, and one hundred and twenty guineas a-piece for James Watt and John Rennie. In 1820, his charge was one hundred and fifty guineas, the sum he received from Lord Liverpool for the bust of the Duke of Wellington. In 1821, he had two hundred guineas for the bust of George IV., the highest sum he was ever known to charge for a bust.

Chantrey was at times a kind-hearted man-liberal with his purse, ready to hear and relieve distress. Prosperity blunted those better portions of his nature which adversity or a smaller share of prosperity had called into action oftener and with more effect. In his death, art lost one of its greatest ornaments; in the death of Allan Cunningham, literature a very able man.

THE LATE "DUCHESS OF SUSSEX."-As the fact the event of the death of the King of Hanover, and of is becoming a matter of general discussion, that in the Crown Prince, his son, the question of the title of Sir Augustus D'Este to the throne of that kingdom will create some controversy, the following letter from her Royal Highness (the Countess of Ameland) to Sir S. J. Dillon, will not be uninteresting. It is dated so long since as December 16th, 1811

"My dear sir :-I wished to have answered your last letter, but having mislaid your first, I did not lieve that I am delighted with your pamphlet; but know how to direct to you. I am sure you must be

For the Wellington statue he was paid the largest sum he ever received for a work of art, equal as it was in all, with bronze and money, to £10,000. For the equestrian statue of George IV., still unerected, he had nine thousand guineas; for the equestrian statue of Sir Thomas Munro, £8000. The Munro horse was the same horse as the George IV., and Chantrey would have thrust a third edition of the same animal upon the City of London but for the sturdy interference of Allan Cun-I must confess I do not think you have stated the ningham and Sir Peter Laurie. He would fact quite exactly, when you say (page 25), that certainly have had the Glasgow Wellington the question is at rest between me and the Duke of Statue to execute, but from his anxiety to Sussex, because the connection has not only been declared illegal by sentence of the Ecclesiastical supply a cast of the same horse to the fair Court, but has been dissolved by consent—that I City of the West. This was imprudent, have agreed to abandon all claims to his name,' &c. for the Glasgow people wisely wanted a Now, my dear sir, had I believed the sentence of horse of their own. Modelling horses the Ecclesiastical Court to be any thing but a stretch of power, my girl would not have been born. Lord gravelled Chantrey; he was at home with Thurlow told me my marriage was good abroad— men, but had to learn a new line of art religion taught me it was good at home, and not one when he came to manufacture horses. decree of any powerful enemy could make me believe otherwise, nor ever will. By refusing me a subsistence they have forced me to take a name not the Duke of Sussex's-but they have not made me believe that I had no right to his. My children and myself were to starve, or I was to obey, and I obeyed; but I am not convinced. Therefore, pray don't call this an act of mutual consent,' or say 'the question is at rest.' The moment my son wishes it, I am ready to declare that it was debt, imprisonment, arrestation, necessity (force like this, in short), which obliged me to seem to give up my claims, and not my conviction of their fallacy. When the bans were published in the most frequented church in London, and where all the town goes, is not that a permission asked? And why were they not forbid? I believe my marriage at Rome good; and I shall never feel the question at rest,' till this is acknowledged. Prince Augustus is now sent to Jersey, as Lieutenant D'Este, in the 7th Fusiliers. Before he went he told his father he had no objection to go under any name they chose to make him take; but that he knew when himself would see justice done to his mother what he was, and the time, he trusted, would come and sister, and his own birth."

His standing statues and sitting statues were well paid for. He had two thousand guineas for the George III. in Guildhall; £1800 for Spencer Perceval; £4000 for President Blair (with niche and pedestal); £3500 for Lord Melville; £1000 for Dr. Anderson at Madras; £1575 for General Gillespie in St. Paul's; £1800 for Francis Horner in Westminster Abbey; £2250 for Washington; £1200 for Chief Baron Dundas; £2000 for Grattan ; £7000 for Pitt in Hanover Square; £7000 for Watt in Westminster Abbey. For "The Two Children" he had £650; for "Lady Louisa Russell," £350.

Chantrey's admiration of English sculpture did not get much beyond the bust of Dr. Johnson by Nollekens, and the statue of Sir Isaac Newton by Roubiliac. They were both, as he was wont to say, perfect. Such, indeed, was his respect for Roubiliac, that he has allowed foreigners resident in

Colonial Magazine.

MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF THE REV.

JOHN WILLIAMS,

From Tait's Magazine.

Williams so far to outstrip all his contemporaries, and to become the primitive Bishop of Polynesia. During his apprenticeship, his mind was forcibly directed to serious subjects, by accidentally hearing a sermon preached by Mr. East of Birmingham; and,

"Memoirs of the Life of the Rev. John Williams, Missionary to Polynesia." By Ebenezer Prout of Halstead. 8vo, with Por-after slender educational preparation, he trait, &c. London; Snow.

was sent out as a missionary, at a very early age, and when just married. The manner in which Williams, on landing at Eimeo, made the first great step, the acquisition of the native languages, goes far to establish the theory of Professor Blackie.* We are told,

THE terrible fate of "the Martyr of Erromanga," equally with his eminent missionary labors in the islands of the Pacific, have drawn the public attention to his career. His own remarkable narrative, his "Missionary Enterprizes," the accounts of him found in the Missionary Society's ReBy great diligence, he had acquired a suffiports, in the writings of the Rev. Mr. Ellis, cient acquaintance with the language while at and in the recent publications of Dr. Camp- Tahiti and Huahine, to be enabled to preach bell, have contributed to gratify the general intelligibly as soon as he reached Raiatea. The curiosity about an individual, who, if the ac- method by which he made this rapid proficiency complishment of actual good to his race is was his own. Instead of remaining at home, to be taken as the measure of a man's worth, poring over translations and glossaries, or deought to be ranked as among the first class. pending upon the assistance of his senior brethren, he constantly mingled with the natives, But the character and career of an individ-"hearing and asking them questions," and thus ual so eminent for the good he has done, acquired, as he considered with great ease, not deserved the most ample and complete merely the signification of words and phrases, record; and this is now found in these Me- but, what was quite as requisite, the correct acmoirs of the life of Williams, which are centuation of the language. Whether this plan evidently compiled by one who could truly admit of doubt; but there can be none respectwould be the most successful in all cases may and warmly appreciate the many happy ap-ing its suitableness to Mr. Williams, one retitudes and excellencies of his character, and also his peculiar-may we not say providential-adaptation to the work which was given him to do.

It is not until Williams is fairly landed on the Hervey Islands,-one of which, Rarotonga, re-discovered by himself, became the scene of his almost miraculous efforts in civilizing and evangelizing,-that the

memoir becomes of intense interest.

markable characteristic of whose mind was the power of exact and minute observation.

In ten months after he reached Eimeo, he preached his first sermon in the native language; some of his elder brethren affirming, that he had done as much in that period, as might have taken another three years. As soon as, with the approbation of the chiefs, and with the prospect of quiet. led at Raiatea, Mr. Williams laid a stable and permanency, the missionaries had set

foundation for his future usefulness.

Mr. Williams was the son of respectable parents of the middle class, and he was blessed with an excellent and pious mother. After receiving a very plain educa- Having selected a convenient plot of ground, tion, he was, at a suitable age, bound ap-he resolved to erect upon it a dwelling-house in prentice to an ironmonger in London, to the English style, and in all respects superior attend the retail-shop only; but being of to any building ever seen, or even imagined by "a mechanical turn," he, most fortunately not merely by a desire to obtain for himself and the people around him. To this he was incited, for the great cause in which he was after- his family a commodious and respectable resiwards engaged, lost no opportunity of dence, but by the hope of elevating the standstealing into the adjoining work-shop, ard and awakening the emulation of those whom where he obtained that practical know- he was anxious to benefit. Before this time, ledge and skill in the craft of the black- the best native houses consisted of but one smith, which enabled him, in after times, apartment, which was used by the whole family, and for all domestic purposes. This was coverwith more ease, to act as a self-taught ma-ed with a thatched roof, but open at the sides, son, plasterer, shipbuilder, farmer, weaver, and carpeted with dry, and too frequently, dirty and, in short, Jack-of-all-trades. It was grass. Mr. Williams perceived the unfitness of this "mechanical turn," together with his such abodes for the purposes he had in view. remarkable facility in acquiring the lan- He knew that domestic comfort, social morality guages of the South Seas, and his peculiar-and spiritual religion could never flourish, unly kind and engaging manners, together less the degraded habits, inseparable from such with his devoted energy, which enabled *See Tait's Magazine for November, 1842.

a mode of living, were first destroyed. He Much of the civilization, the fruits of therefore resolved to show the people a more which may now be witnessed in these then excellent way. "It was my determination," he barbarous islands, resulted from this, and writes, "when I left England, to have as res

"It is a great advantage to me that I am able to turn my hand to any thing, and indeed it is very desirable that every missionary, sent to an uncivilized part of the world, should possess mechanical qualifications, as well as a missionary spirit.

pectable a dwelling-house as I could erect; for similar measures, to make civilization prothe missionary does not go to barbarize him-ceed hand in hand with evangelization.* In self, but to elevate the heathen; not to sink about eighteen months after landing, we himself to their standard, but to raise them to hear of a society established by Williams, his." for encouraging (among the natives) the Prompted by this enlightened and truly be-growth of the arts and sciences! the rewards nevolent motive, Mr. Williams prepared the being nails, a most desirable article to the plan, and commenced the erection of his new islanders. Within the same brief space of and noble dwelling-house. And this was an undertaking in which most of the labor necessa-time, we find this indefatigable missionary rily devolved upon himself. The natives, indeed, writing home :readily assisted in procuring the materials and placing them according to his direction; but all beyond what the most ordinary assistance could render, was done by his own hands. Yet although obliged to execute the work of many different artizans, whose divided labor and united skill are commonly considered essential to such an undertaking, he, relying solely upon "We have not only instructed the natives as his own resources, soon beheld, with pride and to the improvement of their houses, but also in pleasure, his future home rising up before him. sawing timber, carpentering, smith's work, and, The natives saw it too, and were lavish in their among other things, in boat-building. Brother expressions of astonishment and admiration. Threlkeld has now in hand a very large boat, The house was sixty feet by thirty, and consist-on which only the natives are employed. Reed of three front and four back rooms. French quiring a larger boat than that which I built at sashes, shaded with a green verandah and vene- Eimeo, that I may visit Tahaa, I have comtian blinds, gave an air of elegance to the sit-pleted one sixteen feet long. ting-rooms, which commanded a splendid view "When we came to this place, there were of the harbor. The frame-work of the building was wood, but the walls, both within and without, were wattled, and plastered with coral lime. From this lime, Mr. Williams made not only a whitewash, but a grey and orange coloring with which he adorned the interior. On either side and in front, he had enclosed a spacious garden, which was tastily laid out in grass-plots, gravel-paths, and flower-beds, where there flour ished a variety of ornamental shrubs and plants, some of them indigenous, and others exotics introduced by himself and his brethren. Immediately behind the house, there was an enclosed poultry-yard, well stocked with turkeys, fowls, and English and Muscovy ducks; while beyond this, lay a large kitchen-garden, which supplied their table with several British roots and vege"We are glad to be able to inform you, that tables, including cabbages, beans, peas, cucum- many have built themselves very neat little bers, pumpkins, onions, and pot-herbs. At a houses, and are now living in them with their later date, the bleating of goats, and the lowing wives and families. The king, through seeing of oxen on the hills, indicated that still more im- ours, and by our advice, has had a house erectportant additions had been made to their domes-ed near to us. It contains four rooms, wattled, tic comfort.

The furniture was in keeping with the house, and discovered in the Missionary an equal amount of taste and skill. Tables, chairs, sofas, and bedsteads, with turned and polished legs and pillars, quite in the English style, and carpeted floors, gave to the interior of this dwelling an appearance, equally inviting to the European visitor, and surprising to the natives. Mr. Wil. liams augured much good from the excitement which these novelties would produce in the too sluggish intellects around him, and was soon rejoiced to see that their imitative propensities had been so powerfully called into useful exercise by his example, as effectually to overcome their indolence.

only two native habitations, and it was difficult to walk along the beach for the bushes. But the former wilderness is now an open, clear, and pleasant place, with a range of houses extending nearly two miles along the sea-beach, in which reside about a thousand of the natives. We earnestly desire to see the moral wilderness present the same improved appearance. The king, who, we are happy to say, is one of the most consistent characters, resides very near to

us.

He is a very constant attendant both at the chapel and the schools. He will probably be one of the first whom we shall baptize in the islands. We are happy in being able to state that his behavior is circumspect, and that he is very active in suppressing crime.

and plastered inside and out, and floored. He is the first native on these islands that ever had such a house; but many others are now following his example.

We have been constantly exhorting the people to abandon their pernicious custom of living several families together in one dwelling, and have advised their separation. Several have complied with our request, and before six months more have elapsed, it is probable that there will not be less than twenty houses, wattled, plastered, with boarded floors, and divided into separate rooms for meals and sleeping."

Mr. Williams had not been long in these islands, when he perceived that tobacco

The indomitable spirit of the man is

and sugar might be successfully cultivated by the inhabitants, and prove lucrative ar- characteristically displayed in the followticles of commerce; and he accordingly ing passages from a letter to his father, and endeavored to acquire the arts of boiling another to his constituents, the Directors sugar and curing tobacco, that he might be of the Missionary Society :able to instruct the natives. Some small beginnings of a useful commerce were made; and, when at Sydney, on the secular business of his mission, about four years after he commenced his labors, we find him writing home :

"I am taking with me to the islands, clothes for the women, shoes, stockings, tea-kettles, teacups and saucers, and tea, of which the natives are very fond, and which, I hope, may prove an additional stimulus to the cultivation of sugar. And, moreover, when they have tea, they will want teacups, and a table to place them on, and seats to sit upon. Thus we hope, in a short time, that European customs will be wholly established in the leeward islands."

In the same year he writes:

"With respect to civilization, we feel a pleasure in saying that the natives are doing all we can reasonably expect, and every person is now daily and busily employed from morning till night. At present, there is a range of three miles along the sea-beach studded with little plastered and whitewashed cottages, with their own schooner lying at anchor near them. All this forms such a contrast to the view we had here but three years ago, when, excepting three hovels, all was wilderness, that we cannot but be thankful; and when we consider all things, exceedingly thankful for what God has wrought.

"In a temporal point of view, we have every thing we can possibly desire to make us happy. We have a good house, plenty of ground, an abundant supply of the productions of the island, cows, ducks, geese, turkeys, pigeons, fowls, &c., and a regular communication with the colony. But above all these things, we have the hearts and affections of the people, and the prospect of great usefulness in our Saviour's

cause."

66

Under the date of November 13th, 1822, Mr. Williams informs the Directors that "the Endeavor" was then nearly ready for sea with a cargo, the proceeds of which and of another cargo which the people were preparing, would, he believed, complete the purchase-money of the ship. Every thing," he adds, "is succeeding beyond our most sanguine expectations. The natives have prepared from 120 to 150 large plantations, and I am perfecting myself in the art of curing tobacco, and boiling sugar. The people have also learned to boil salt, three or four tons of which they have recently prepared. You would be delighted to survey the scene of industry which our island presents. Even the women are employed in cultivating little patches of tobacco, in order to purchase European clothing, and we are most anxious to introduce these articles without expense to the Society."

"I bless God that my heart is as much alive to missionary work as it was the first day I set my foot on these shores; and in this work of my Lord and Saviour I desire to live and to die. My highest ambition, dear father, is to be faithful to my work, faithful to souls, and faithful to Christ; in a word, to be abundantly and extensively useful. Our own station flourishes, and the people improve. I am fully occupied. I have lately made several lathes and a loom; and am intending to try to weave cloth. I am hoping we shall succeed, as the people have many grasses and barks of which they make cord, &c. My dear Mary is a good spinstress, and knows how to dress flax. But of course our principal attention is devoted to their spiritual improvement; although I have no great opinion of the missionary's labors who would neglect those minor matters."

"It is our duty to visit the surrounding islands. You have fourteen or fifteen missionaries in these islands, missionaries enough to convert all the islands of the South Seas, and every one of these within a thousand miles of us ought Now to be under instruction. Six good active missionaries, united in heart, mind, and plan, could effect more, if you would afford them the means, than you either think or expect. A missionary was never designed by Jesus Christ to gather a congregation of a hundred or two natives, and sit down at his ease, as contented as if every sinner was converted, while thousands around him, and but a few miles off, are eating each other's flesh, and drinking each other's blood, living and dying without the gospel. Upon this subject it is my full determination to have some decided conversation with the deputation. For my own part, I cannot content myself within the narrow limits of a single reef; and, if means are not afforded, a continent would to me be infinitely preferable; for there, if you cannot ride, you can walk; but to these isolated islands a ship must carry you."

This sanguine and enthusiastic spirit precipitated the lamented fate of this admirable and devoted man. On the death of his mother, Mr. Williams received a considerable sum of money, which enabled him to prosecute, with greater effect, commercial objects for the advantage of the natives, though always in subservience to his principal duty as a missionary. his hopes were destined to be harshly, and, as we cannot help thinking, unwisely,

checked.

But

Through the intervention of some interested merchants at Sydney, the governor had been persuaded to impose a prohibitory duty upon

aid of the people whom it would be necessary to teach, before he could employ. What, then, must have been the skill and self-reliance of the man who, in these unfavorable circumstances, could form and execute the design which he has thus described ?-" After some deliberation, I determined to attempt to build a vessel; and although I knew little of ship-building, had scarcely any tools to work with, and the natives were wholly unacquainted with mechanical arts, I succeeded, in about three months, in completing a vessel between seventy and eighty tons burden."

South Sea tobacco, and to make other fiscal regulations which materially reduced the value of all Polynesian produce. This severe and unexpected check to the newly-created industry and enterprise of the leeward islands, burst like a tornado upon their inhabitants, and proved a source of extreme embarrassment and distress to Mr. Williams. Not only did it contravene his benevolent plans for the social improvement of the natives, and deprive him of the means of more extended usefulness, but it involved him in serious pecuniary responsibility, from which he could not now expect to extricate himself without loss. To complete the calamity, and con- Of the various expedients by which Mr. Wilsummate his own disappointment, Mr. Williams liams supplied the deficiencies and surmounted at the same time received a letter from the the difficulties of his position, that which, perDirectors, in which the speculation was con-haps, has been regarded with the most lively demned, and his conduct censured. But his interest was his novel substitute for a pair of spirit, though bowed down, was not broken. bellows. This contrivance was perfectly oriThus beset with difficulties, he summoned a ginal. It was not, however, a happy guess, but meeting of the chiefs to whom the Enterprise the result of reasoning. "It struck me," he belonged; and, after ingenuously explaining to observes, "that as a pump threw water, a them the exact position of affairs, it was resolved machine constructed upon the same principle to send her immediately to Sydney, laden with must, of necessity, throw wind." Acting, therethe most marketable produce they could collect, fore, upon this suggestion, he constructed his with an order to sell both ship and cargo. Great new "air-pump." But although to him this as was the trial of parting with a vessel in which contrivance was new, he subsequently ascerhe had already done much missionary work, tained that he was not its sole inventor; for, and by which he expected to accomplish still during a missionary tour in our manufacturing more, and keenly as he felt the censure of the districts, he discovered with surprise and delight Directors, he was comforted and cheered by the a similar machine in use there, and learned that conduct of the chiefs and people, who clearly it was deemed superior to the bellows. understood the whole case, and neither attributed the failure to their missionary, nor evinced towards him the least diminution of confidence and esteem.

To the Directors he wrote:

"I am sorry that my conduct meets your disapprobation, and acknowledge the justice of all you say respecting a missionary entangling himself with the affairs of this life. But the benefit of others, not my own, was the sole object I had in view. Yet, should I get free from this perplexity, I shall in future avoid any similar entanglement. But although I have thus expressed myself, do not conclude that there is no need of a vessel in the islands. Even as a means of preventing other vessels from trading with the people, it is invaluable; for with few exceptions, they are the very arks of Satan."

Some time subsequently, he formed the bold idea of building a vessel himself, and he accomplished his object by plans, and processes, and pains, which, in the detail, are as vividly interesting as the building of Robinson Crusoe's famous boat. Of this

vessel, named the "Messenger of Peace," Mr. Williams's biographer fitly says, it was one of the most remarkable incidents in his life.

When he formed this purpose, he did it with the full foreknowledge that, in order to its accomplishment, he would be compelled not only to invent some things, but almost to create others, (for may not his new combinations truly bear this name?) and all this, moreover, by the

But the exemplification of Mr. Williams's genius will be found, not so much in any single invention, as in the circumstance, that it proved equal to every exigency, and enabled him to answer every demand. "None but a Williams,” writes Mr. Pitman, "would have attempted such a thing as to commence building a vessel, not having wherewith to build her. I have often been amazed to astonishment to see with what coolness he met the difficulties as they successively arose in his undertaking." The cordage, the sails, the substitutes for nails, oakum, pitch, and paint, the anchors and the pintles of the rudder, made from a pick-axe, an adze and a hoe, are all striking illustrations of this remark. Nor should the fact be overlooked that, within the same limited period, Mr. Williams constructblocks, the machinery which spun the ropes and ed the lathe which turned the sheaves of the cordage, the forge and its furniture, as well as all the numerous smaller tools required by himself and his native assistants in this remarkable undertaking.

In a letter to the Rev. Mr. Ellis, he says of this nautical masterpiece,

and seventy tons for missionary purposes. She "I have built a little vessel of between sixty

was not four months in hand, from the time we cut the keel until she was in the water. I had every thing to make, my bellows, forge, lathe, &c.; but I cannot enlarge on my numerous and all the iron work, out of old axes, iron hoops, would be interesting to you no doubt. Suffice manœuvres to overcome difficulties, though they it to say she is finished!"