386 
Sir—T he anecdote you mentioned refpeRting 
your father being the author and compofer 
of the words and melody of ‘* God fave great 
George our King’ is certainly true. ‘That moft 
refpetable gentleman Mr. Smith*, my wor- 
thy friend and patient, has often told me 
what follows, viz.—*‘ That your father came 
to him with the words and mufic, defiring 
him to correct the bafs, which Mr. Smith 
told him was not proper 5 and at your father’s 
requeft he wrote down another in correét har- 
moony.” ‘Mr. Smith, to whom I read your 
letter this day, June 13, repeated the fame 
again. His advanced age, and prefent infir- 
mnity, render him incapable of writing, or 
defiring to be written to, but on his authority 
I pledge myfelf for the truth, Should this 
information prove in the leaft advantageous to 
yourfelf, it will afford the moft fincere fatis- 
faction and pleafure to Sir; 
Bath, Your moft obedient Setyant, 
Sune 13, 1795- H. HarRInGTon. 
P.S. My curiofity was often raifed to in- 
quire after the author before Mr. Smith re- 
lated the above, andI was often mifinformed. 
Mr. Smith fays, he underftood your father 
intended this air as a part of a birth-day ode, 
or fomewhat of that kind. . However this 
might be, no laureat or compofer has furnifhed 
the world with any produétion more compli- 
mentary or more popular. es 
Io Mr. George Saville Carey, Gc. Se. 
. 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
\ Correfpondent, under the fignature 
Kot W. having, from a laudable mo- 
tive, requefted to be informed ‘* of the 
peculiar conftruction’’ of the Boat, very 
appropriately termed a Lire-soaT, I 
ean with pleafure refer him and your 
Readers to the following account of that 
ufeful invention, extra¢ted from a report 
made to the Royal Humane Society, in 
3800, by the philanthrepic Dr. Hawes. 
‘© THE-BoatT is thirty teet by ten, in 
form much refembling a common Green- 
land boat, .except the bottom, which is 
much fiatter.—She is lined with cork in- 
fide and outfide of the gunwale, about two 
feet in breadth; and the feats underneath 
are filled with cork alfo. 
“© She is rowed by ten men, double 
banked, and fteered by two men with oars, 
ene at each end, both ends being alike.— 
Long poles ave provided for the men, to 
keep the boat from being drove broadfide 
to the fhore, either in going off or land- . 
ing. About fix inches from the lower 
* This Mr. John Smith was many years a 
friend and afliftantof Mr. Handel. 
Defeription of a Life- beat. 
[ June 1, 
poles, it increafes in diameter, fo as to 
form a flat furjace againft the fand, other- 
wife they would fink into the fand, and be 
of no ule. The weight of the cork uled 
in the boat is about feven cwt.—She draws 
very little water, and when full, zs able to 
carry tweuty people. The Boar is able 
to contend againit the mof? tremendous fea 
and broken water; and never, in any one 
inftance, has fhe failed in bringing the 
crew in dittrefs into fafety.—The MEN 
have no dread m going off with her in the 
higheft féa, and broken water. Corx 
JacKETS were provided for them; but 
their confidence in the boat is fo great, 
they will not wfe them. 
‘She has furprifed every nautical man 
that has feen her contend with the waves. 
—Any further defcription I can give will 
not be equal 9 a view of the model of her, 
upon a icale now with the Duke of 
Northumberland.” : 
The fuccefs attending this expedient 
for diminifhing the number of unhappy 
individuals almoft daily loft in a watery 
grave, appears to have been more than equal 
to the molt fanguine expectations formed of 
its utility ; and the great objeét -in view, 
viz. the fafety of thofe perfons who hazard 
their own fecurity to preferve others, has 
been fully accomplifhed. The public muf 
be pleafed to learn, as they do from your 
Jai Magazine, under the article ** Pro- 
vincial Occurrences,’” that the ufe of the 
LIFE-BOAT is, fromits known efficacy, 
likely to become general on our coafts. 
Indeec, taking into view the. local fitua+ 
tien of our ‘* SEA: GIRT ISLE,”’ it is fur 
prifing that the experiment under confide- 
‘ration fhould have been referved for fo late 
a pericd. 
While the conflicting paffions of man 
feem to render neceflary the. exertions of 
ingenuity in erecting veflels for his DE- 
STRUCTION, it is matter of joy that-hu- 
manity has made her claim upon genius 
for the exercife of a portion of her ta- 
lents to effect his PRESERVATION. The 
patriotif{m of Englifhmen confecrates, with 
a juft veneration, the memory of thofe 
who fall on the ocean in defence of their 
country ; and in the relief of the widow and 
orphan, the deceafed may be faid to ex- 
perience from the kindne(fs of their furviving. 
fellow-citizens what a gveat poet calls ‘a 
charity which glows beyond the tomb.’” 
If, then, to fcaiter incenfe on the pile of 
the Dean be fo gratifying, how much more 
fo muft it be to fnatch the Livinc from 
impending deftruétion 3 to CONTINUE the 
means of fubfiftence to numerous. families ; 
an 
