582 



out of the large number of portraits in which Mr. Phillips has 

 shown his just comprehension of character, his taste in arrangement, 

 truth to nature, and a fine eye for colour. 



Mr. Phillips's health had long been declining. His death oc- 

 curred on Sunday the 20th of April, 1845, in his seventy-fifth year. 

 He was greatly and most deservedly respected and esteemed by a 

 large circle of friends, whom his high talents, amiable disposition, 

 and gentlemanlike feelings and manners had drawn around him; 

 and his loss will long be sensibly felt ; especially in that profession 

 of which he was so distinguished a member. He married early in 

 life ; and has left, besides other children, a son who is following the 

 same profession as himself. 



The arts have sustained a serious loss by the melancholy death 

 of Mr. George Basevi, an architect of distinguished reputation 

 and of still greater promise. 



Mr. Basevi began his professional education under Sir John 

 Soane, and subsequently prosecuted it with great diligence and suc- 

 cess in Greece and Italy ; he was passionately attached to his art, 

 and there was no accomplishment or branch of knowledge bearing 

 upon it which he failed to cultivate or acquire. His Fitzwilliam 

 Museum at Cambridge, and the New Conservative Club House in 

 St. James's Street, not to mention his other works, wall be durable 

 monuments of his genius and taste. He was a man of excellent 

 sense and judgment, a scrupulous lover of truth, and singularly 

 upright in all his dealings : though his manners to some persons 

 might appear cold and unimpassioned, he was ardent in his affections 

 and exemplary in all the relations of domestic life. He was inspect- 

 ing the works in progress in the western tower of Ely Cathedral, 

 and whilst stepping backwards upon abroad beam, from the sides of 

 which the flooring for a short distance had been removed, his foot 

 tripped and he fell through the opening upon the timbers of the vault 

 beneath, and was killed on the spot. He was buried in Ely Cathedral 

 with every mark of respect, which was equally due to his private 

 virtues and to the affecting circumstances attending his death. 



Jaques Dominique Cassini, Compte du Thury, was elected a 

 Foreign Member of this Society in 1789, and at the time of his 

 death had attained the extraordinary age of 97 years : he was the 

 fourth in direct descent of a family which, during a period of nearly 

 two centuries, has been singularly illustrious in the history of the 

 sciences, and more particularly of astronomy. His great grand- 

 father, Jaques Dominique Cassini, one of the greatest astronomers 

 of his age, was born in 1625, and w^as invited by Louis XIV. 

 from Italy to France, to preside over the magnificent Observatory 

 of Paris, which was built under his directions : his first successor in 

 the direction of this establishment was his son Jean Jaques, an 

 astronomer not less eminent than himself ; the second his grandson, 

 more commonly designated as Cassini de Thury, so well known by 

 his great Geodetical Survey and Map of France ; and the third his 



