raging circumstances, Mr. Brown still pro- 
sectited his-art, and engraved a series. of 
portraits of illustrious, persons of , Great, 
itain, a part of which are in the posses- 
sion of his Majesty. _ His last great work 
was a cameo, on sard-onyx, for the lid of 
the box presented by the Light Horse Vo- 
Iunteers to Colonel Herries. ‘ 
__, BROFESSOR CHARLES-FERDINAND DEGEN, 
The university of Copenhagen has just 
sustained a great loss in the person of 
Professor Charles-Ferdinand Degen, born 
November 1, 1766. His merit and great 
knowledge had first caused him to be 
chosen preceptor to the two princesses and 
prince Ferdinand, the children of the late 
prince Ferdinand, uncle to the present 
ing. Since then M. Degen has filled dif- 
ferent offices of public instruction, all of 
which he is honourably remembered. In 
- 1798 he was created doctor of philosophy ; 
and, in 1814, appointed professor of ma- 
thematics to the university of Copenhagen. 
He published a treaty, in 1817; entitled 
Canon Pellizanus, sive Tabula simplicissam 
‘equationis, &c.; and many of his mémoires 
may be found in the Acts of the Society of 
Aris of Copenhagen. 
REV, JOSEPH COOK. 
*' The Rev. Joseph Cook, mM. a., Fellow 
éf Christ College, expired-on the 3d of 
March last, between Mount Sinai and Tor, 
on the Red Sea. After spending some 
years in the university, with the highest 
credit and honour io himself, he went to 
* fhe Continent in 1820. Having visited 
Holland, France, Germany, and Switzer- 
land, and resided four years in Italy, de. 
voting his time to the publie performance 
of his clerical duties at the English chapel 
at Rome, and that of the ambassador at 
Naples, and to the study and contemplation 
of the intéresting objects with which those 
. @lassical shores abound; and_haying quali- 
fied himself for a ful! and minute examina- 
tion’ of those regions—doubly interesting, 
as being the sources of both sacred and 
profane history—he set out from Malta in 
August last, on a tour to Egypt and the 
Holy Land, accompanied by Dr. Brom- 
head, of this university, and Mr. Lewis, of 
the navy. Haying penetrated beyond the 
second cataract of the Nile, the party re- 
urned to Cairo, from whence they pro, 
seeded to Mount Sinai. The fatigues of 
this journey, the inclemency of the weather, 
and the priyations inseparable from travel- 
ling in those countries, so weakened him 
pepe he left Cairo apparently in per- 
ct health), that after stopping a few days 
unable to reach Tor; and, under cir- 
Sips nab Sinai to reeruit his strength, he 
O54 
Gumstances fraught with the most deep 
_ and awful interest, expired on his camel in 
‘Pass Wady Hebram, near Mount Ser, 
- bal, to the inexpressible regret of his famil 
ha 
ad friends. His remains were deposite 
t companions in the burying-ground of 
Obituary of the: Month. 
83 
a Greek church, near the wells of Elim, a; 
spot which he had -expressed his’ most. 
anxious wish to yisit, and which,’ to 1se 
the words of his friend, Dr. Bromhead, 
‘* could he have foreseen his fate, he would, 
probably have selected as his last earchly, 
abode.” PW if 
LIEUTENANT COLONEL COWPER, yA 
Colonel William Cowper, of the -Bombay, 
Engineers, entered the Indian army in 1791, 
with the advantage of an, education at the 
Military Academy at Woolwich, which had 
previously been closed against young men 
destined for the East-India Company’s. 
service. He soon attracted the notice of 
Government, by the earnest he gave of the 
talent, which afterwards placed him, un- 
aided by. interest, in situations which it sel- 
dom falls to the let of an individual to fill. 
He was in consequence appointed Assist- 
ant to Capt. (now Colonel) Johnson, c.B., 
who was employed in surveying the coast 
and interior of Malabar, with whom he 
continued for several years, until obliged to 
relinquish the situation from ill-health. He 
then took the usual routine of duty, dis- 
tinguishing himself by the correctness and 
highly finished style of his plans and surveys, 
and particularly by the accuracy of his esti- 
mates, till 1804, when he was called to the 
field as Chief Engineer to the army, which, 
under the command. of Sir Richard Jones, 
effected a junction with the. Bengal army 
before Bhurtpore. A complete sutvey of 
that portion of Hindostan Proper, which 
was for the first time traversed by a British 
army, was the recreation of his active mind, 
and was gratuitously presented to the 
Government, as he had neither the esta- 
blishment nor the allowances usually grant- 
ed to officers employed in the Survey de- 
partment. ? 
Soon after the return of this force to 
garrison, he was sélected for the national 
work which will'perpetuate his fame along 
with that of the naval glory of Great Britain, 
with which it is so intimately connected. 
The commanding sea force which it was 
deemed necessary to keep afloat, during the 
late apparently interminable war, naturally 
turned the serious attention of Government 
to the means of securing an adequate supply 
of timber, for the enormous expenditure 
which threatened to desolate our forests, 
whilst the increasing influence of the French 
Emperor deprived us of the usual resources 
on the Continent. In this dilemma, the 
extensive regions of our Indian empire, 
with its inexhaustible stores of durable 
teak wood, appeared to provide an ample 
remedy. against the approaching evil; and, 
to avail ourselves of its magazines with the 
fuliest effect, it was determined to have 
ing-yessels of eighty guns. — “on nt 
The local advantages of the island of 
Bombay, pointed it out as the best’adapted 
for applying the resources of the East. to 
the ri pape of the parent state. “But 
the difficulties which attended the. com: 
M 2 mencement 
