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was instituted proved fatal to one of them, George Downing, Esq. of Lincoln's Inn, Barrister at Law. His death was occasioned by a cold caught as an officer of the Light Horse Volunteers, in being exposed to the rain, during a whole night, on account of some riots in London. Mr. Stevens, in a letter dated the 16th of October, 1800, to Mr. Frere, thus deplores his death:

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But, alas! this talking of Parr reminds me (not reminds me, indeed, for he is continually in my mind) of his pupil, our worthy friend, George Downing, who is be buried this day with military honours. The noble historian, in his character of Lord Falkland, observes, that the loss of that one man alone would make the Rebellion execrable to all posterity:' so we may say, curse on the riots that were the occasion of poor George's death.!"

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In another letter to Bishop Skinner, of the 9th of December, 1800, he says:

"As you suspected, we have lost good George Downing. He was much missed at the meeting of some friends to dine with Nobody, at the Crown and Anchor, on the 29th of November. I never knew a man more universally lamented: he was not only a loss to his friends, as the Archbishop (Moore) observed to me, but he was a public loss."

Of such a man, whom I well knew and much deplored, I thought it right to procure a fuller account; and from my excellent friend, the Rev. Dr. Gaskin, who long knew Mr. Downing and his family, and who with the affection of a friend, and the sacred solicitude of a truly Christian pastor, attended his dying bed, I have received the following particulars of this much to be lamented.

man, of whose example the world was deprived when he had only attained thirty-seven years.

Mr. Downing was the son of the Rev. George Downing, one of the Prebendaries of Ely; and the intimacy of this young gentleman with Mr. Stevens arose from a friendship of long standing between the latter gentleman, Mr. Downing's father, Bishop Horne, and Mr. Jones. Young Mr. Downing received his classical education under the care of the celebrated Dr. Parr, and his eminent proficiency as a scholar, together with his amiable qualities as a pupil, ever were acknowledged by his learned preceptor. He was afterwards articled to Mr. Alston, a respectable Attorney at Nayland, in Suffolk: and was there introduced to the more immediate attention and kind offices of the excellent Mr. Jones, (whose life we have lately been so much contemplating) who was at that time Minister of the parish of Nayland, and in the full possession of his intellectual vigour. Mr. Jones was well qualified to ap preciate classical accomplishments, and the qualities of a virtuous, unassuming, and well principled youth; and Mr. Downing ever considered his introduction to Mr. Jones as one of the most important æras of his life. They became attached to each other, and notwithstanding the disparity of years, Mr. Jones was rejoiced to witness such dispositions in the son of his old friend; and Mr. Downing spent all his leisure hours, whilst he remained at Nayland, in the society of Mr. Jones. Under such an in ́structor and guide, his religious and political principles were matured and firmly established, on a basis which never could be shaken, and his classical and philosophical studies were pursued with satisfaction and advantage.

Having completed the term of his engagement with Mr. Alston, and being eminently qualified for the higher and more important departments of the law, he entered himself as a Student of the

Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn, and for some time practised as a Conveyancer under the Bar, to which he was afterwards called. In this intricate and dry department of the law, his abilities soon acquired celebrity amongst professional men, and business pressed upon him. The social qualities, the variety of attainments, the benevolent, amiable, and attractive manners of Mr. Downing, could not fail to win the affections of a large circle of friends, amongst whom, many of the hours that could be spared from business were spent, and who were ever cheered and delighted in his society. His attachment to the Constitution in Church and State, and his high sense of loyalty, induced him to become a member, and soon after he was appointed an officer, of the corps of Light Horse Volunteers, in which corps he soon became a most popular character, and amongst whom he may be said to have lost his life. The pressure of professional business, intercourse with his friends, and frequent musters of his corps, began apparently to overpower his strength; and in an arduous service with the Volunteers, during a time of public alarm, in 1800, he caught a cold, which brought on an inflammatory fever, which in a few days terminated in his death, to the great concern of his afflicted wife, (the daughter of his old master, Mr. Alston, of Nayland) his venerable parents, and a numerous circle of greatly attached friends. Dr. Gaskin, as a friend and Clergyman, visited him on his dying bed, and happy to find in him the faith, hope, and charity of the Christian, engaged to administer, on the following morning, to him, his afflicted wife, and their common friend, Mr. Stevens, the dying Christian's most comfortable viaticum: but before the hour for this solemn administration had arrived, his soul had fled to the place of departed spirits. The corps of Light Horse Volunteers, as a testimony of their affection and regard for their deceased companion,

passed a resolution, requesting that his funeral might be a public one: his remains were accordingly buried with military honours, in the parish church of St. Paul, Covent Garden, attended by the whole of that highly respectable body.

The next member of Nobody's Club, whose death happened in the life of its venerable head, was the Rev. Jonathan Boucher, Vicar of Epsom, in Surrey, who died in May, 1804. Of him Mr. Stevens thus writes, in a letter to Bishop Skinner, June 5, 1804:

"I believe I mentioned in my last letter the precarious state of our good friend Mr. Boucher's health, so that you were the less surprised to hear, what you no doubt have heard, of his death. I saw him about a fortnight before the event, when I concluded he was not long for this world, though I did not consider it as the last time I should see him. His loss will be severely felt by his family, his numerous friends, and the public; notwithstanding the truth of Dr. Young's observation, that the mind turns fool before the cheek is dry. The widow has a large family to take care of, there being eight children, including one she had by her former husband, and all young. An anxious situation! Her grief is not rendered more poignant by being left in want, as her circumstances must be good; and so they had need be. His great work *, which might contribute to the shortening of his days, was far from being finished; and whether any one can be found to carry it on, and complete it, so as to make what was done beneficial to the family or the public, is very uncertain. Man proposes and God disposes. Either we must mourn for our friends, or our friends must mourn for us. Such is the tenure by which we hold; and happy

* A Glossary of Provincial and Archæological Words, intended as a Supplement to Dr. Johnson's Dictionary.

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for us when we can say ex animo, Not our will, but thine, O God, be done!' There was a meeting of Nobody's Friends, at the Crown and Anchor, on the 29th of May, when they had to lament, as they did most sincerely, the loss of an excellent member since the last meeting, our invaluable friend.”

The history of this gentleman was certainly most singular, and it were much to be wished that his own account of his sufferings in America, on account of his loyalty, had met the public eye. Mr. Boucher was born at Blencogo, in the county of Cumberland; and, after receiving his education at Wigton, under the Rev. Joseph Blayne, he went, at the age of sixteen, to North America. At the proper age he came home to England to be ordained, and afterwards faithfully and zealously discharged the duties of a Minister of the Church in America, till the year 1775, when the distracted state of the British Colonies obliged him, after his property there, which was his all, was confiscated, and himself proscribed as a traitor, to return to Great Britain. Of his exemplary conduct in the discharge of his ministerial functions in the Western Hemisphere, abundant proof is furnished by a work published by him in the year 1797, entitled, "A View of the Causes and Consequences of the American Revolution, in Thirteen Discourses, preached in North America, between the years 1763 and 1775.” In the very elaborate and interesting preface, prefixed to the Discourses, consisting of ninety pages, and containing anecdotes and observations respecting the writers, and most eminent persons, concerned in the American Revolution, he observes, page 88: "Cast, as my lot was, by Providence, in a situation of difficult duty, in such an hour of danger, it would have been highly reproachful to have slept upon my post. Investigations of the important subjects of religion and government,

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