exhibits more grandeur of conception than any work of art of modern times. Unfortunately the marble of which it was cut was much discoloured, and the work was not entirely finished at his death. Amongst the finest of Flaxman's later productions, Mr. Cunningham enumerates his Psyche, the pastoral Apollo (also in the possession of Lord Egremont), and two small statues of Michael Angelo and Raphael. But the most remarkable of them is the shield of Achilles, designed and modelled for Messrs. Rundell and Bridge, the silversmiths. The diameter is three feet, and the description of Homer has been strictly followed. In the centre is the chariot of the sun, in bold relief, almost starting from the surface, surrounded by the most remarkable of the heavenly bodies; around the rim is rolled the ever flowing ocean. The intermediate space is occupied by twelve scenes, beautifully designed in conformity with the words of the poet. For this the artist was paid £620. Four casts of it in silver were taken, the first for the late King, another for the Duke of York, the third for Lord Lonsdale, the fourth for the Duke of Northumberland.

Flaxman died on the 7th of December, 1826, of an inflammation of the lungs, the result of a cold. In person he was small, and slightly deformed, but his countenance was peculiarly placid and benign, and greatly expressive of genius. His dress, manners, and mode of life were simple in the extreme: he was never found at the parties of the rich and great, and mixed little even with his professional brethren. His life was spent in a small circle of affectionate friends, in his studio, and in his workshops, where those whom he employed looked up to him as a father.

Amongst the different classes of his works, the religious and the poetic were those in which he chiefly excelled. The number of pure and exalted conceptions, which he has left sketched in plaster or

outlined in pencil, is quite extraordinary. "His solitude," observes Sir Thomas Lawrence, was made enjoyment to him by a fancy teeming with images of tenderness, purity, or grandeur. His genius, in the strictest sense of the word, was original and inventive." Among the most important of his works not before noticed, is his monument to the memory of Sir Francis Baring, in Mitcheldever Church, Hants, a work of exquisite beauty, both in design and expression, embodying the words "Thy kingdom come-thy will be done-deliver us from evil." He also executed, among others, monuments to the memory of Mary Lushington, of Lewisham, in Kent, to the Countess Spencer, to the Rev. Mr. Clowes, of St. John's Church, Manchester, and to the Yarborough family at Street Thorpe, near York. This last, and one to Edward Bulmer, representing an aged man instructing a youthful pair, Flaxman considered the best of his compositions.

He executed several historical monuments to naval and military commanders. These deal too largely in emblems and allegories, Britannias, lions, victories, and wreaths of laurel, to add much to the reputation of the artist: especially as his forte lay in the exquisite feeling and grace of his conceptions, not in manual dexterity of execution; the chief merit to which such cold and uninteresting productions can lay claim. He executed statues of Sir Joshua Reynolds; of Sir John Moore, in bronze, of colossal size, for Glasgow ; of Pitt, for the Town-Hall of the same city; of Burns; and of Kemble, in the character of Coriolanus. That of Sir Joshua Reynolds (one of his earliest) is perhaps the best. Many of his works were sent abroad: for India he executed a statue of the Rajah of Tanjore, and a monument to the celebrated Schwartz; two monuments in memory of Lord Cornwallis, a figure of Warren Hastings, and a statue of the Marquess of Hastings.

A good bust of Flaxman was executed by Baily some few years before our artist's death.

FROM the American Revolution of 1776 we may date the commencement of that struggle which has agitated and still agitates Europe and the two Americas. By whatever words the character of this struggle may be expressed,-whether under the name of popular rights against exclusive privileges, or self-government or the government of the people, against absolute government or the government of a few, or by any other terms more or less appropriate, the contest is still going on, openly and actively in those called fre governments, silently and languidly in those where the sovereign power is opposed to the extension or introduction of the new doctrines. The contest is between progress (not here considered whether as right or wrong) and standing still; between change, without which there cannot be improvement, and a desire to resist all change, which can hardly end in keeping things stationary, but almost necessarily leads to a backward movement. The contest is not only for the practical application of principles in government,

which are vigorously maintained by the one party, and either not denied or faintly opposed by the arguments of the other; but also for the free expression and publication of all opinions on all subjects affecting the moral and political condition of society.

There is no individual, either in America or in Europe, who by his actions and opinions has had a greater influence on this contest than THOMAS JEFFERSON. During long and laborious life, both in official situations, which gave him opportunities that his activity never let slip, and in private life, in his extensive correspondence and intercourse with persons of all countries, he constantly, perseveringly, and honestly maintained what he conceived to be the principle of pure republican institutions. In the ardour of youth, his zeal and energy mainly contributed to animate his countrymen to declare their independence on a foreign power. In his maturer age, when a member of the General Administration, he struggled, and he struggled at one time almost alone, against a monarchical and aristocratical faction, to maintain the great principles of the Revolution, and develop the doctrines of a pure unmixed popular government. His influence gave to these doctrines a consistency, and a form, and a distinctness, which the mass of the nation could easily seize and retain. He thus became the head of a party in the United States, which, whether always rightly appealing to his doctrines or not for the vindication of their acts, still regards him as the father of their school, and the expounder of their principles. By his plain and unaffected manners, and the freedom with which he expressed his opinions on all subjects, he gave a practical example of that republican simplicity which he cultivated, and of that free inquiry which he urged upon all. Such a man must always have many friends and many enemies. From his friends and