17 



I feel myself called upon to allude to the name of the venerable 

 Earl of Egremont, whose very recent loss we have to deplore. He 

 was a nobleman distinguished by his active yet discriminating be- 

 nevolence, and by his princely use of a princely fortune ; but it is as 

 a judge and patron of art that his loss will be most severely felt 

 beyond the precincts of his own family and the numerous poor who 

 were the immediate partakers of his bounty. He was equally ju- 

 dicious in the selection of subjects for artists to execute, and liberal 

 in rewarding them when done. 



Mr. J. D. Broughton, Surgeon of the Life Guards, had served 

 with great distinction as a medical officer during a great part of the 

 Peninsular war and at Waterloo. He was an eminent physiologist, 

 and devoted a great portion of his time and attention to the study 

 and improvement of the science of medical jurisprudence, and more 

 particularly to experiments on the effects of poisons, and to the best 

 and most unerring tests for detecting their presence after death. 

 His death, which followed a serious operation, rendered necessary 

 by a long-neglected accident, was deeply lamented by a large circle 

 of friends, by whom he was equally respected and beloved for his 

 great professional talents and for his honourable character. 



Mr. John Davidson, the last known victim to the cause of African 

 discovery, was formerly a partner in the house of Messrs. Savory 

 and Moore, the well-known chemists, but was induced to quit it 

 in 1826, partly with a view to gratify his passion for foreign travel, 

 and partly from other causes. He afterwards visited North and 

 South America, India, Palestine, Turkey, Greece, Italy, Germany, 

 and France ; and the lectures which he gave at the Royal Institu- 

 tion and elsewhere, after his return, on the pyramids of Memphis 

 and Mexico, on Thebes and the temples of Egypt and Jerusalem, 

 afforded a sufficient proof both of his activity and of his accurate 

 observation. The spirit of enterprise and travels, when once ex- 

 cited, is not easily allayed, and Mr. Davidson devoted himself, 

 almost from the period of his return to this country, to a course 

 of preparation for a journey to Timbuctoo, which had already 

 proved fatal to so many adventurers. He was accompanied on this 

 journey by Abu-Bekr, an enfranchised African slave, who had been 

 a prince in his own country when young, and was well acquainted with 

 the Arabic language. He had penetrated from Wadnoon to within 

 twenty-five days' journey of Timbuctoo, when he was murdered by 

 the El Hareb tribe, who were suspected to have been hired for that 

 purpose by Moorish merchants, who, from not being able to under- 

 stand or conceive the real motives of such an undertaking, con- 

 ceived that its success would be injurious to their interests. Mr. 

 Davidson was a man of great activity and strength, in the full vi- 

 gour of life and health, and able to endure the severest labours and 

 privations ; but personal accomplishments the most calculated to se- 

 cure success in ordinary attempts of this nature, serve only to aug- 

 ment the suspicion and to stimulate the cruelty of those savage 

 tribes, who tyrannize over these inhospitable and almost impenetrable 

 regions, and who are described by his companion, Abu-Bekr, " as 



VOL. IV. c 



