successful instance. In those addresses he has pointed out, with admirable clearness, the pernicious tendency of measures of the kind we have just alluded to, and given a concise and perspicuous explanation of the general principles of life as

surance.

Of this we cannot have a more convincing proof than in the happy effects which they have produced. No one can read them in connection with the history of the Equitable Society without admiring at the same time the prudence and moderation which they have so successfully enforced upon those to whom they were addressed, and the ability, integrity, and wisdom which have guided this institution from one step of prosperity to another, and raised it from comparative insignificance, consisting, at the time of Mr. Morgan's appointment, in 1774, of about 700 members, with a capital of only 33,800%. stock in the 3 per cents., under regulations which must ever have retained it in a state of infancy and weakness, to its present magnitude and importance, consisting of many thousand members, and possessed, at the last investigation of its affairs, in 1829, of a capital exceeding 9,000,000l., an income of nearly 800,000l. per annum, and engaged in assurances for the most part intended as a provision for the surviving families of its members, to the amount of upwards of 19,000,000l.

In closing this summary, it may be added, that, as Mr. Morgan's financial abilities brought him into a familiar intercourse with some of the ablest statesmen of his time, so did his attainments with many of the most learned men. Such he was as a public man; nor was he less distinguished in all the relations of life, private and domestic.

Mr. Morgan's decease took place at Stamford Hill, Middlesex, on the 4th of May, 1833, in the eighty-third year of

his age.

Mr. Morgan was a Protestant Dissenter of the Unitarian school. In the earlier and the later years of his life he was an attendant at the Gravel-Pit Meeting, Hackney. The following tribute to his memory was offered in that place by Mr.

Aspland, on Sunday, May 19., at the close of a sermon from 1 Cor. x. 13. :

"The persuasion that this blessing (of immortality) awaits the righteous dead, is the best consolation of mourning survivors; and how often, alas! are we called upon to suggest and to urge the consolation!

"You are nearly all of you aware that this congregation has been recently deprived by death of another of its members, the distinguished head of a much-respected family. And I feel it right to allude publicly to the loss of our lamented brother in Christ, not only on account of his rank and estimation in society, and the excellence of his character, but also because he was earlier connected with this congregation than, perhaps, any other person now living, and because his connection with it was owing to his near relationship to one of its former pastors, a man whose name is an honour to this Christian Church, and to have been associated with whom was a distinction ever to be valued. I need not say that I refer to Dr. Price, one of the purest and best of men; a philosopher who had the humility of a child; a writer upon points that commonly inflame the angry passions, who was not more distinguished by the perspicuity and strength of his composition, and the force of his reasoning, than by his candour and charity, and whose whole character seems to have been modelled upon that of his Lord and Saviour. This eminent man eminent in science, and, I will add, eminent in morals and theology-did not escape the reproach of evil tongues; but posterity is doing him ample justice, and his name will, I doubt not, be lastingly enrolled in the better chapter of the annals of our country, amongst those patriots, philanthropists, and benefactors to their species with whom it was his honour and his delight to be united, and to whom (and to none more than to him) we are indebted for that happy change in the spirit of the people, and those important legislative improvements which are the true glory of the present age.

"Our departed brother justly prized the honour of his relationship to this great and good man. Under his fostering

care and almost paternal guardianship, his talents were called forth and turned into the right channel, and he was happily led to devote his scientific attainments to the most important of all practical uses the application of true political economy to the benefit of the middle classes of society. For more than half a century he was at the head of the greatest of those useful and noble establishments, which encourage and reward the provident care of the living for their surviving families; and the prosperity of that great institution is, I am assured by disinterested and competent judges, mainly owing to his science, application, integrity, and decision. In this relation, he has earned the gratitude of thousands of families -the reward of such as employ their talents in building up society and multiplying its comforts and enjoyments.

"In earlier life, our deceased friend distinguished himself as a writer upon public finance, showing, in this department of his labours, the same fearless independence of party, and reliance upon the power of truth, which had characterised the works of his revered relative and instructor. As was to have been expected from his education, he was the avowed friend of civil and religious liberty at a period when the avowal of such friendship was not without its inconveniences, and even dangers. He had the happiness, however, of the society and friendship of some of that ever-memorable band of philosophers and patriots, who, in the days of his youth and early manhood, set the example of free enquiry and bold discourse, which has produced and is producing momentous changes for the better in church and state.

"I need scarcely add in this place that our departed brother was a Christian believer, and attached great importance to the genuine Christianity of the New Testament. His views, I believe, for the most part coincided with those of the honoured relative whom I have named,- views alike honourable to our Creator, worthy of our Saviour, and tending to the improvement and happiness of the human race. He has been called, in the maturity of his years, to follow them from whom he learned wisdom and virtue; and I cannot

utter a better wish for his surviving family, than that they may be followers of him in his beneficial application of his talents to the public good, and in his incorruptible and fearless integrity, or offer a more suitable prayer for you, his remaining fellow-worshippers, than that you may be strengthened in every righteous habit, by seeing in his example a new illustration of the consoling, animating truth, that the memory of the just is blessed."

233

No. XIV.

THE RIGHT HON. JAMES GAMBIER,

BARON GAMBIER, OF IVER, CO. BUCKINGHAM; ADMIRAL OF THE FLEET; KNIGHT GRAND CROSS OF THE MOST HONOURABLE MILITARY ORDER OF THE BATH; PRESIDENT OF THE CHURCH MISSIONARY SOCIETY; VICE-PRESIDENT OF THE NAVAL CHARITABLE, MARINE, AND OTHER SOCIETIES; ALSO OF THE LOCK HOSPITAL, THE ASYLUM, AND THE AFRICAN AND BENEVOLENT INSTITUTIONS.

LORD GAMBIER was a member of a French refugee family, his grandfather, Nicholas having migrated from Caen to this country on the revocation of the edict of Nantes. His uncle, of his own Christian name, was a Vice-Admiral in the Royal Navy, and was father of Sir James Gambier, F.R.S., Consulgeneral in the Netherlands, and grandfather of William Gambier, Esq., who married the late Countess Dowager of Athlone. His aunt Margaret was the wife of the first Lord Barham, First Lord of the Admiralty in 1805-6.

His Lordship was born in the Bahama Islands, October 13th, 1756, the younger son of Samuel Gambier, Esq., then Lieutenant-Governor of the Bahamas, by Miss Deborah Stiles, of Bermuda. He went to sea at an early age; and, in 1778, was Commander of the Thunder bomb, in which he had the misfortune to be captured by the French fleet under Count D'Estaing. He was promoted to the rank of Post-Captain October 9th, in the same year, and appointed to the command of the Raleigh 32. In this frigate he was engaged in repelling the French attempt upon Jersey, January 6th, 1781, and aftewards proceeded to the coast of America; where, at the reduction of Charlestown in South Carolina, he served