“[ 620 J 
SUPPLEMENTARY OBITUARY. I 
DR. ABRAHAM REES. 
N the eighty-second year of his age, the 
Rey. Abraham Rees, D.D., the editor 
of the New Cyclopedia, &c. This emi- 
nent. man, who long held a distinguished 
rank in the literary and scientific world, 
Was a native of North Wales, where his 
father was greatly respected as a dissent- 
‘ing minister. After receiving the best 
elementary instruction the neighbourhood 
could afford, both in the classical lan- 
guages and in the mathematics, he was re- 
moved to London, and placed ina dissent- 
ing collegiate establishment at Hoxton, 
then under the direction of Dr. Jennings, 
the learned author of a work on Jewish 
- Antiquities, and Dr. Samuel Morton Savage. 
Here he passed through the regular course 
of five years ; at the termination of which, 
a vacancy being created by the death of Dr. 
Jennings, he was appointed mathematical 
tutor. This situation he held for upwards 
of twenty years, and only relinquished it on 
the dissolution of the establishment. On 
the subsequent formation of the New Dis- 
senting College at Hackney, he was chosen 
to fill the theological chair. This institu- 
tion lasted only a few years, and with its 
dissolution, about the year 1795, the la- 
bours of Dr. Rees, as a college tutor, ceased. 
During the time he held these appoint- 
ments he had under his tuition many gen- 
tlemen, who afterwards became eminent as 
preachers in their respective denominations, 
and not a few survive who are well known 
to the religious and the literary world. Dr. 
Rees was first settled, as a minister, 
inthe congregation of St. Thomas, in 
the borough of Southwark, and since re- 
moved to Stamford-street, Blackfriars-road. 
But, for more than forty years, he statedly 
officiated in the large and opulent congre- 
gation which met in the Old Jewry, but 
now assembles in Jewit-street, Alders- 
gate-street, and which had previously num- 
bered among its ministers Dr. Chandler 
and Dr. Amory. Dr. Rees was the author 
of several single sermons, preached on pub- 
lic occasions, or in aid of public charitable 
objects. He also published four volumes 
of selected practical discourses, which have 
been well-received and extensively circu- 
lated. For many years le was a frequent con- 
tributor to the Monthly Review, in conjunc- 
tion with his able and esteemed friend the 
late Dr. Kippis. But the works by which he 
is chiefly known to the scientific public are, 
his enlarged edition of Mr.Chambers’ 
Cyclopedia, in four volumes, folio; and, 
above all, by his New Cyclopzdia, in forty- 
five volumes qvarto. This was a truly 
gigantic undertaking for any individual, 
even with the able assistance he derived 
from distinguished contributors. He had 
the gratification, however, to liye to see it 
"A 
completed, and to enjoy the well-earned 
reputation which its able execution secured 
to him. His eminent attainments were 
at different times rewarded with appro- 
priate tokens of respect, by various public 
bodies. The University of Edinburgh con- 
ferred upon him the honorary degree of 
D.D. through the spontaneous recommen- 
dation of the historian Dr. Robertson, when 
he held the office of Principal. On the 
completion of his edition of Chambers’ 
Cyclopedia, which came out in periodical 
numbers, he was unanimously elected a 
Fellow of the Royal Society. Soon after 
its institution, he was chosen a Fellow of 
the Linnzan Society, and more recently 
was made an honorary Fellow of the Royal 
Society of Literature. He was besides an 
honorary member of some Foreign. Lite- 
rary and Scientific Institutions. In his 
own religious community Dr. Rees held a 
prominent rank. He wasa Protestant dis- 
senter upon principle, scrupling conformity 
to the Established Church on the ground 
both of its discipline and doctrines. In 
spirit he might be esteemed a Catholic 
Christian : for no sectarian prejudices kept 
him aloof from the society of men of other 
religious denominations, whose public or 
private worth entitled them to his esteem. 
He lived on terms of familiar intimacy 
with persons of all religious opinions, and 
reckoned among his most valued friends 
some of the brightest ornaments of the 
national church. He was an active and 
influential member of the principal dis- 
senting trusts in the Presbyterian con- 
nexion, and from his great age and early 
introduction into public life, had become 
the father of almost every institution 
to which he belonged. For several months 
his health had been visibly on the de- 
cline; but his life insensibly waned to 
its close without much bodily suffering ; 
and he sank, with the hope and patience of a 
Christian, into the repose of death, without 
a struggle. He died as he had lived, re- 
spected and beloved by all who had oppor- 
tunities of appreciating the various excel- 
lencies of his character ; and his memory 
will be long cherished and revered by a 
large circle of friends, who haye either be- 
nefited by his public, religious instructions, 
or enjoyed the pleasure of his interesting 
-conversation in the more intimate and 
familiar intercourse of social life. We un- 
derstand that memoirs of his life may be 
expected in the course of the present year, 
from the pen of his intimate friend, the 
Rey. Dr. Thomas Rees. 
TOMLINSON THE ENGRAVER. 
Tomlinson had long wished to visit. Paris, 
and a few months since an English gentle- 
man, 
