l^S Royal Society. 



William Allen was the son of Mr. Job Allen, a silk-manufad*' 

 turer of Spitalfields, and was born in London on the 29th of August 

 1770. His father being of the Society of Friends, he was strictly 

 educated in the principles of that religious community, of which he 

 continued till his death an exemplary and distinguished member. 

 The early preference evinced by him for chemistry induced his 

 father to place him in an establishment of high repute, of which, 

 some years after, he became the proprietor. But happily for suffer* 

 ing humanity, neither commercial gains nor the love of science itself 

 could hold exclusive possession of his mind. From an early period 

 of his life he co-operated with Clarkson, Wilberforce and other philan- 

 thropists in their efforts for the abolition of the African slave- 

 trade, which were happily at length successful. 



Mr. Allen's connexion with the schools of chemistry and natural 

 philosophy in Guy's Hospital commenced in 1803, and continued till 

 1826 : Mr. Allen's ability and fitness as a teacher of science were 

 there amply attested. • m1 luuiJi.! j.< 



In 1804, Mr. Allen read his first course of lectures on mtiural yn'i- 

 losophy in the Royal Institution. The valuable researches on carbon, 

 carbonic acid, and the changes effected in atmospheric air by respi- 

 ration, made by Mr. Allen in conjunction with Mr. Pepys, are tdb' 

 well known to require remark. The results are to be found in ot^f 

 Transactions for 1807, 1808, 1809. Mr. Allen was in 1807 admitted 

 a Fellow of the Royal Society. He also became a member of other 

 scientific bodies of this country and of the continent. 



It was, however, to other objects of public utility that the greater 

 part of Mr. Allen's life was devoted. The education of the poor on 

 christian principles, and the circulation of the holy scriptures, were 

 among the first to which he directed his efforts ; and wherever he 

 went the moral improvement of his fellow-creatures occupied his at- 

 tention. He was at all times ready to cooperate with the good of 

 every creed whose aim was the happiness of mankind, and probably 

 no man of his generation lived to see nobler fruits of his labours*. 



Having been one of the founders of the British and Foreign School' 

 Society, he was, in 1808, elected its first treasurer, an office which he 

 held until his death. To this institution he liberally contributed not 

 only his time, but also large pecuniary assistance. At Lindfield, in 

 Sussex, he expended large sums in building schools of industry, and 

 laboured assiduously by other plans for bettering the condition of 

 the poor. Among these the system of allotments of land found him 

 a zealous patron. 



In 1818-19 Mr. Allen visited Russia, where, in the reign of thd^'^ 

 Emperor Alexander, he, in conjunction with two friends, compiled a 

 volume of scriptural selections, for the instruction of youth in the' 



7,>, , _ ' . -;i 



.^?, [Among the laudable objects to which Mr. Allen's efforts were devote^y" 

 and of which he lived to see the fruits, the abolition of capital punishments) 

 was one of the most important, although it has not been mentioned in th^ 

 notices which have been published of his useful life. 



For several years a committee, of which tlie writer of this note was a 

 member, for assisting Sir S. Romilly and otiiers in the pursuit of this object, 

 held its meetings regularly at Mr. Allen's house, in Plough Cojirt. — R.T.] 



