Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

added that the Cortes, "faithful to their oath, and worthy of the people they represented, would not allow the constitution to be altered or modified but by the will of the nation, and in the manner and form prescribed by it." The ambassadors demanded their passports; they were handed to them the following day, the 11th of January, 1823, by San Miguel.

The French Government lost no time in entering on the task assigned to it by the Holy Alliance. Eighty thousand troops, under the command of the Duke d'Angoulême, crossed the Bidassoa, and opened the campaign which closed with the capture of Cadiz. San Miguel quit. ted Madrid when he could no longer be useful, and joined the bands of Mina in Catalonia. In the warfare of the mountain he greatly distinguished himself. He was wounded in almost every affair with the French, and in an engagement with the enemy's cavalry in 1826 he received a sabre cut in the head so deep that it astonished those who saw it many years afterwards how any one could have survived it. He was taken prisoner, but was soon after released, on condition of quitting Spain. The home that he sought was England; and in England, where he maintained himself by his daily toil, he resided until 1834, when the amnesty promulgated by the Queen Regent, Maria Christina, enabled him and others in the like circumstances to return to their native country.

San Miguel was some time after named by the Queen Captain-General of Aragon, and was elected deputy to the Cortes. He was appointed Captain-General of the Basque Provinces in 1812, under the regency of Espartero. After the fall of the Regent in 1843, and the triumph of the Moderados, he retired into private life, and resided chiefly in Madrid, unmolested even during the violent reaction that then set in against the Progresistas; for he was respected by all parties, and his popularity, never won by unworthy means, survived all political changes. He lived in the most modest manner, with no resources beyond what

his half-pay as Lieutenant-General supplied him with, and employed his time in writing the "History of Philip II.," which he published in 1847; this, though not remarkable for any very deep research, is a work of considerable merit.

The revolution of 1854 called San Miguel once more from his retirement. When, after a fierce struggle for existence, the Sartorius Ministry was overthrown, and Madrid left without a government, the Queen named San Miguel Captain-General of Madrid and Minister of War, or, more properly speaking, Universal Minister, until such time as Espartero, who had been summoned from Logroño, arrived in the capital. San Miguel, on the first breaking out of the Vicalvarist movement in July, had been named President of the Junta that met in Madrid to aid, and at the same time control O'Donnell, in case of success. Himself a soldier, no man was more averse from military rule than San Miguel, and both O'Donnell and Espartero were held in check by the Junta, which was the nucleus of the Union Liberal. On the success of the revolution, San Miguel was raised to the rank of Field-Marshal, and named Inspector-General of the National Militia. He was elected deputy to the Constitutional Cortes, of which he was for some time President; and he recorded his vote for the maintenance of monarchical government in Spain. O'Donnell, who had long been trying to get rid of Espartero and keep the supreme authority in his own hands, effected his coup d'état in 1856; and Espartero once more retired to Logroño. By the previous Government San Miguel had been appointed Commandant-General of the Halberdiers or Household Guard. By old usage, the post could not be held but by a grandee of the first class; and San Miguel was a plebeian. The Queen did not hesitate to confer on him the indispensable qualification. She raised him to the rank of grandee, with the title of Duke de San Miguel, and maintained him in the post. As a grandee and Field Marshal he sat by right in

[ocr errors]

the Senate, where he supported Liberal government to the last.

The merit of probity has been conceded on all hands to the Progresista party, and of those who were most noted for a virtue so rare in revolutionary periods, San Miguel stood among the foremost. In private life he was one of the most modest of men, tolerant. gentle, courteous, and affectionate, and he has died universally regretted.

THE VERY REV. J. H. COTTON. May 28. At the Deanery, aged 82, the Very Rev. James Henry Cotton, LL.B., Dean of Bangor, and Rector of Llanllechyd.

The deceased was one of the sons of the Very Rev. George Cotton, M.A., Dean of Chester, and of Catherine his wife, daughter of James Tomkinson, Esq., of Dorfold, near Nantwich. He was born at the Deanery, Chester, in 1780, received his early education in that city, and proceeded in due course to the University of Cambridge, where he took the degree of Bachelor of Civil Law.

He was ordained at Chester in 1803, and was soon after introduced to the diocese of Bangor by being appointed incumbent of Derwenfawr. He after wards made an exchange with the late Rev. John Kyffin for the junior vicarage of Bangor; and in 1810 he became precentor. In 1821 he was nominated to the rectory of Llanllechyd, in Carnarvonshire, value £470 per annum, which living he continued to hold until the day of his death. In 1826 Mr. Cotton married Mary Lawrens, eldest daughter of Dr. Samuel Fisher, of Bath, and niece of the then late Lord Bishop of Salisbury.

On the death of Dean Warren, in 1838, Mr. Precentor Cotton was elevated to the deanery of his cathedral, and on his appointment he was presented by his parishioners with a testimonial; this he, with characteristic disinterestedness, devoted to the erection of a richly stained glass window, which now adorns the cathedral church of Bangor.

What the late Dean seemed to have most at heart throughout his long and useful life was the promotion of the case of education. In the early part of his ministry he was struck with the paucity of parochial schools in the diocese, and he promptly devoted his active energies to remove the reproach. He lived to see schools built and established, mainly through his instrumentality, in almost every parish in the diocese. His liberality in this cause was unbounded, and many men now holding respectable positions in society acknowledge him as the benefactor who provided them with the means of education. He was also for many years the mainstay of the Bangor Dispensary, and principally instrumental in extending its usefulness by converting it into the present Carnarvonshire and Anglesey Infirmary. Of his philanthropy it would be difficult to speak without the appearance of exaggeration. He travelled over the diocese every year to hold meetings and encourage teachers. He often taught at the schools all day (sometimes alone), and then lectured in the evening; and he always considered it a part of his social duty to receive and entertain all visitors who came on any errand appertaining to the great work in which he was engaged.

For many years past Dean Cotton had suffered from an affection of the eyes, which finally deprived him almost entirely of sight. But when this grievous affliction overshadowed him, he set about, with redoubled energy, to accomplish the work that was appointed him to do. With an elasticity of step altogether foreign to one of his advanced years, he might be seen any day and every day for the last quarter of a century movi g about the streets of Bangor on some mission of charity or good-will, administering the consolations appertaining to his sacred office, or dispensing with no niggard hand the overplus of those earthly means with which God had been pleased to bless him.

THE REV. HENRY PENNECK, M.A.

April 24. At Penzance, aged 61, the Rev. Henry Penneck, M.A., an occasional contributor to our pages.

The deceased was the last male representative of a family which has long ranked with the gentle blood of Cornwall, and has numbered many of its sons among the clergy of the English Church. A great-uncle, the Rev. Richard Penneck, was keeper of the readingroom of the British Museum at the beginning of this, and for the latter part of the last century, when the readers did not exceed half-a-dozen in all. A memoir of him appeared in the GENTLEMAN'S MAGAZINE for Feb. 1803, vol. lxxiii. p. 189. The father of the subject of this memoir practised as a physician at Penzance, and was noted for some mechanical ingenuity; he was the author of several tracts on subjects connected with his profession, and with mechanics. He died in the year 1834.

Mr. Penneck was born at Penzance in the year 1801; he was educated at the Penzance Grammar-school, and his father intended that he should follow

his own profession: for this purpose he proceeded, after a course of study at home, to Edinburgh, then the first school of medicine in the United Kingdom. The son found that his constitutional sensibility was an insurmountable obstacle to his purposes as a medical student, and after a little time he resolved on preparing himself for a profession which must have been always more congenial to his own tastes. He went from Edinburgh to Cambridge, and entered at Trinity College. He migrated, in 1823, to Peterhouse, to which college he was probably attracted, partly because an uncle of his had formerly been Fellow of that Society, and partly because there had long been a connection between St. Peter's and one or two Cornish families to which he was related. He graduated B.A. in 1826 and M.A. in 1830, and afterwards retired to Penzance, where the remainder of his life was spent. He was ordained Deacon in 1826, and Priest in 1828, and

for a few years he was curate of Morvah, a neighbouring parish to Penzance, but failing health and an affection of the eyes, which presently deprived him of the sight of one of them, compelled him to resign this cure, and he never after sought any Church preferment.

He had not taken honours at Cambridge, but his classical reading was accurate and extensive, and he had acquired a good knowledge of the elements of mathematics. Henceforward his care was to add to his stores of learning. His range was not limited: he was an excellent botanist, and was acquainted with other branches of natural science; he was a most careful antiquary, and probably no one surpassed him in knowledge of his native county.

As long as his health allowed he took a short annual tour on the Continent, and he constantly studied on his journeys to obtain, and on his return to increase, a knowledge of the history of the places he visited in this way he became much interested in the Low Countries, the valley of the Moselle, and Brittany. He probably knew as much of the constitution and fortunes of the ancient University of Louvain as any one in Belgium, MM. de Ram and Van Even alone excepted. His researches into the history of the abbey of St. Mathieu, in Brittany, led to the publication of an elaborate paper in "Notes and Queries" (vol. xi., Second Series, pp. 281, 301), exposing an error into which Bishop Tanner, and the last editors of "Dugdale," had fallen.

Mr. Penneck's accuracy as a thinker, though less known, was no whit inferior to his accuracy as an antiquary. The independence of his character was shewn in his consistent opposition to the policy of the Russian war; during the course of which he contributed several letters to the "Guardian" on the subject. This independence and accuracy, joined to some caustic humour, made him a terror to careless talkers and writers; but no man was ever more ready to assist his fellow students, whether by guiding their efforts or bestowing on them the

[ocr errors]

fruits of his own researches. It is impossible not to regret that such excellent endowments and large acquirements have left so little to preserve their memory. He furnished the GENTLEMAN's MAGAZINE with memoirs of several Cornish contemporaries, but beyond these and such contributions to other periodicals as we have hinted at, he wrote nothing but a few pamphlets, mostly anonymous, and on questions of fleeting interest.

Mr. Penneck's infirmities had latterly increased: he attempted a short tour last year, but he had scarcely crossed the Channel when he found himself obliged to return to England. His failing eyesight was, however, the immediate cause of his death. This gave him an extremely uncertain step, and last autumn he fell whilst out walking, and received a severe blow on his head, from which he never recovered. In his death the Penzance Library loses a diligent secretary of more than thirty years' standing. He was never married: an only sister survives him, the wife of Richard Pearce, Esq., J.P., of Penzance.

DR. JOSEPH WOLFF.

May 2. At the Vicarage, Isle Brewers, aged 66, the Rev. Joseph Wolff, D.D., LL.D.

The deceased was the son of a Rabbi, and was born at Weilersbach, near Forchheim and Bamberg, in the year 1795. Being of a studious disposition, he learnt the Latin, Greek, and Hebrew languages, while still a Jew, in Halle, Weimar, and Bamberg. He was early converted to Christianity through his acquaintance with the Count of Stolberg and Bishop Seiler, and he was baptized by Leopold Zolda, Abbot of the Benedictines of Emaus, near Prague, in Bohemia, on the 13th of September, 1812. In 1813 he commenced the study of Arabic, Syriac, and Chaldean, and in that and the following year he attended theological lectures in Vienna, having for his friends Professor Jahn, writer on Bibli cal archæology, Frederick von Schlegel,

the poet Werner, and Hofbauer, the General of the Redemptorists. From 1814 to 1816 Joseph Wolff was, by the liberality of Prince Dalberg, enabled to pursue his studies at the University of Tübingen, which were chiefly directed to the Oriental languages, more particularly Arabic and Persian, as well as ecclesiastical history and Biblical exegesis, under Professors Stendell, Schnurrer, and Flatt. In 1816 he left Tübingen, and among others visited Zschokké, Madame Krudener, and Pestalozzi in Switzerland. He also spent some months with Count Truchsez and Madame de Stael-Holstein, at Turin, delivering lectures in their circle on the poetry of the Bible. He arrived in the same year at Rome, and having the patronage of the Prussian ambassador, Niebuhr, the historian, he was introduced to Pope Pius VII. He was first received as a pupil of the Collegio Romano, and then of the Collegio Propaganda, from 1816 to 1818; but in the latter year, his religious views having been declared erroneous, he was expelled from Rome.

Joseph Wolff now retraced his steps to Vienna, where, after advising about his scruples with Frederick von Schlegel, Dr. Emanuel Veit, and Hofbauer, he was prevailed upon to enter the monastery of the Redemptorists at Val-Saint, near Fribourg; but he did not remain there long, and not being able to convince himself of the truth of Romanism as taught there, he left Val-Saint, and came to London to the late Mr. Henry Drummond, M.P., whose friendship he had formed at Rome. He soon avowed his conversion to Protestantism, and placed himself for the study of Oriental languages under Dr. Lee, of Cambridge, and for theology under the late Rev. Charles Simeon. After a suitable preparation he commenced his travels for the purpose of proclaiming the Gospel to Jews, Mahomedans, and Pagans, and of making researches among the Eastern Christians, thus preparing the way to missionary labours for the conversion of the Jews and Gentiles. He was thus occupied from 1821 to 1826, in Egypt,

Mount Horeb, and Mount Sinai, where he was the very first missionary who gave copies of the whole Bible to the monks and Bedouins. Thence he went to Jerusalem, where he was the first missionary who preached to the Jews in Jerusalem. He afterwards went to Aleppo and Cyprus, from the latter of which he sent Greek boys to England to be educated, and continued his travels in Mesopotamia, Persia, Teflis, the Crimea, where he visited the Caraites, near Baghtsche-Serai, preaching to the German colonists, as well as to Russians, Mahomedans, and Jews, returning through Turkey to England, a journey that occupied him from 1831 to 1834.

In 1826 he formed the acquaintance of Lady Georgiana Mary Walpole, a daughter of the second Earl of Orford, and was married to her in 1827 by the Rev. Mr. Simeon. Shortly after the marriage they went to Jerusalem, when, leaving his wife at Malta, Wolff proceeded to search for the len Tribes. He went to Alexandria, Anatolia, Constantinople, Armenia, and Khorassan, in which place he was made a slave, but was ransomed by Abbas Mirza. Thence he pursued his journey to Bokhara, Balkh, Cabool, Lahore, and Cashmere. He then went by land from Loodiana to Calcutta in a palanquin, preaching on his progress at 130 stations. From Calcutta he went to Masulipatam and Secunderabad, and was seized by the cholera near Madras. On his recovery, he left Madras in a palanquin for Pondicherry, visited the successful mission in Tinnevelly, went to Goa, Bombay, Egypt, and at last returned to Malta. In 1836 he journeyed to Abyssinia, where, at Axum, he found Dr. Gobat, the present Bishop of Jerusalem, who was very ill, and brought him back to Jiddah. There leaving him, Dr. Wolff proceeded to Sanaa, in Yemen, where he visited the Rechabites and Yahabites. He next proceeded to Bombay, and afterwards visited the United States of North America, where he preached before the Congress, and was made doctor of theology. He was ordained deacon in 1837 by the Bishop of

New Jersey, United States, and priest in the following year by the Bishop of Dromore. He made a second journey to Bokhara, in order, if possible, to effect the liberation of Col. Stoddart and Capt. Conolly, the particulars of which are fully detailed in his "Mission to Bokhara." In 1845 he was presented to the Vicarage of Isle Brewers, and he held that benefice up to the time of his death.

Lady Georgiana died Jan. 16, 1859; and on the 14th of May, 1861, Dr. Wolff married his second wife, Louisa Decima, youngest daughter of the late Rev. James King, of Staunton Park, Hereford.

Among the writings of the deceased may be mentioned, his "Journal of Missionary Labours, 1827-1838;" his

Mission to Bokhara, 1843 - 1845;" a second series of "Researches and Missionary Labours;" and his most recent work, an "Autobiography," which attracted much attention when first issued, and has been since reprinted.

An eloquent estimate of the character of Dr. Wolff has recently appeared in the "Church and State Review," a part of which is as follows:

"Joseph Wolff died, as he lived, a poor man; because, though continually before the public as a collector of money, no part of what he collected went to enrich himself. His last public act was an appeal on behalf of Paul Pierides, whose young life he saved in Cyprus. That life, after many years of active usefulness, has been visited with great distress. The same voice which saved it has made an appeal for aid. About £80 has been received, and much more, it is hoped, will be received. But it is not so much what he has done for others that makes his name great, as the spirit in which he has done it. Few men, indeed, have left deeper traces-few men so deep-of a beneficent life; but there disposition to see nothing in others so was in this man, what is rarer still, the much as the better side of their nature, and all such things as gave them a claim to sympathy and assistance. The foundation of all this was his simple and childlike faith. No man knew his Bible better; no man accepted it more implicitly. An intellectual power and a varied knowledge rarely equalled were never found employed upon foolish and

« ZurückWeiter »