386 WATT. 



minster Abbey, by the genius of Chantrey, at the 

 expense of the Sovereign and of many Peers and 

 distinguished Commoners, who held a meeting in 

 honour of this illustrious man and great public bene- 

 factor. The Ministers of the Crown, and the chiefs 

 of the opposition in either House of Parliament, the 

 most eminent men of science, the most distinguished 

 cultivators of the arts, assembled with this view, and 

 the account of their proceedings was made public in an 

 authentic form. The Prime Minister, Lord Liver- 

 pool, presided ; and it was none of the least remarkable 

 passages of that day, that his successor, the present 

 Premier, was anxious to declare the obligation under 

 which he lay to the genius of him they were comme- 

 morating, the fortunes of his family being reared by 

 manufacturing industry, founded upon the happy 

 inventions of Arkwright and Watt. It has ever 

 been reckoned by me one of the chief honours of my 

 life, that I was called upon to pen the inscription upon 

 the noble monument thus nobly reared. 



The chisel of Chantrey, whose greatest work this 

 certainly is, has admirably presented the features of the 

 countenance at once deeply meditative and calmly 

 placid, but betokening power rather than delicacy and 

 refinement. The civilized world is filled with im- 

 perishable records of his genius, and the grateful 

 recollection of the whole species embalms his memory. 

 But for this, the author of the epitaph might well feel 

 how inadequately his feeble pen had performed its office 

 in attempting to pourtray such excellence : how much 

 more inadequately when its lines are traced in most 

 disadvantageous contrast with the signal success of the 

 sculptor ! He who has ever made the attempt to write 



