withstanding the persuasions of the physician. Next day finding its effects different from those experienced on former occasions, he became impressed with the belief that a spurious medicine had been substituted for the true, and exclaimed more than once to his servants, with hasty petulance-"D-n that Hawes! I ordered him to send me James's powder and he has sent me some other." A supply was in consequence sent for from Newbery's shop, and its administration intrusted by him to the servants in attendance.

On the morning of the 26th Mr. Hawes called, but on being told his patient was dozing, did not see him; in the evening he found him low, his pulse small and quick, and with great prostration of strength from disordered action of the stomach and bowels induced by the erroneous treatment to which he had subjected himself; he had now also it appeared lost confidence in the remedy by admitting to his adviser that "he wished he had taken his friendly advice last night." Dr. Fordyce also saw the critical situation of his patient, and feeling like Hawes considerable anxiety for the safety of one whose celebrity in public life and many good qualities in private, made him an object of interest, desired the latter to see him early the following day and persuade him if not better, to see Dr. Turton, whom he likewise knew and esteemed, in consultation.

At eight o'clock on Sunday morning he was accordingly visited again; he had passed a bad night; the vomiting and diarrhoea continued; and appearing much exhausted, Mr. Hawes proposed at once to call in Dr. Turton, a proposition immediately assented to by the patient, who now seemed conscious of his danger. From this time the physicians met twice daily in consultation. So strong however was his impression of having originally taken spurious fever-powder, although what was procured afterwards produced similar effects, that he took a dislike to his apothecary; he told his servants, as they stated to Mr. Newbery, to look for his bill which amounted to ten pounds, and pay him off; he likewise actually sent for another practitioner in the neighbourhood, who however declined at first to interfere where there was already ample attendance, or judging it only one of those hasty petulancies, increased by the disease, to which he was subject, and of which he was the first to confess the impropriety. The conduct of Mr. Hawes seems to have been unobjectionable; no time was lost in calling in Dr. Fordyce when further advice became necessary; and had his published statement varied from truth, the evidence of both physicians was at hand to point out the inaccuracy. During the following week the symptoms fluctuated; though never free from danger, so little apparently active disease was present, that Doctor Turton said to him, as Dr. Johnson related, "Your pulse is in greater disorder than it should be from the state of fever which you have; is your mind at ease?" Goldsmith answered, "it is not.” The functions of the mind however were very slightly, if at all, clouded by the disease, and arose less from the degree of fever than from want of sleep; he discoursed occasionally with great calmness, was sometimes cheerful, but being unable to take nourishment, his strength gave way. Recovery therefore, although doubtful, was not

even to the last at all improbable; nor was the fatal event in the least anticipated at the moment it occurred.

At twelve o'clock on Sunday night the 3d of April he was in a sound and serene sleep, perfectly sensible previous to falling off, his respiration easy, the skin moist and warm, and the symptoms altogether of a favourable description. A little before four o'clock the gentleman in attendance, Mr. Hawes not being then employed, was summoned in consequence of an unfavourable change; he found him in strong convulsions, which continuing without intermission, he expired about half past four on Monday morning the 4th April, 1774.

Thus terminated the life of an admirable writer and estimable man at the early age of forty-five, when his powers were in full vigour and much was to be expected from their exertion. The shock to his friends appears to have been great from the unexpected loss of one whose substantial virtues, with all his foibles and singularities, they had learned to value. Burke on hearing of it burst into tears. Sir Joshua Reynolds, as Northcote informed the writer, relinquished painting for the day; an unusual forbearance, it was considered, of one who under all common circumstances rarely permitted himself to be diverted from the exercise of his art. Dr. Johnson, though little prone to exhibit strong emotions of grief, seems to have felt sincerely on this occasion, for three months afterwards he thus wrote to Boswell

"Of poor dear Dr. Goldsmith there is little to be told more than the papers have made public. He died of a fever, I am afraid more violent from uneasiness of mind. His debts began to be heavy and all his resources were exhausted. Sir Joshua is of opinion that he owed not less that two thousand pounds. Was ever poet so trusted before?" And again; "Chambers, you find, is gone far, and poor Goldsmith is gone much further. He died of a fever exasperated as I believe by the fear of distress."

Sir Joshua undertook to superintend his affairs until the arrival from Ireland of such of his relatives as should be authorized to arrange them. In the meantime Mr. Hawes was entrusted with the active duties of management, who soon discovered by the amount of debts, that no advantage was likely to accrue to his family from the little personal property that remained. In allusion to his pecuniary involvements, yet in a tone of tenderness, Dr. Johnson writes at this time" He had raised money and squandered it, by every artifice of acquisition and folly of expense. But let not his frailties be remembered; he was a very great man."*

As a means of showing their respect, his friends at first contemplated a public funeral, the pall to be borne by Lord Shelburne, Lord Louth, Hon. Mr. Beauclerk, Mr. Burke, Sir Joshua Reynolds, and Mr. Garrick. Further consideration altered this design to a subscription for a monument to him in Westminster Abbey; Sir

* "Here Fancy's favourite, Goldsmith sleeps,
The Dunces smile, but Johnson weeps.'

St. James's Chronicle, April 7...9.

Joshua, as was immediately announced, to draw the design; Mr. Wilton to execute it; and Dr. Johnson to write the epitaph.

A private interment was therefore adopted as most advisable under the circumstances. His remains were committed to the Temple burying ground in a spot which after being long forgotten has been recently ascertained by the inquiries of Mr. Bacon of the Temple, at five o'clock on Saturday evening, April 9th, attended as mourners by the Rev. Mr. Palmer, nephew to Sir Joshua Reynolds and afterwards Dean of Cashel in Ireland, Mr., afterwards Sir John, Day, the present Judge Day, Mr. Hugh Kelly, Mr. Etherington, and Mr. Hawes. After the coffin had been screwed down, it was opened in order to gratify a lady, an intimate acquaintance and an admirer of his talents and virtues, with a lock of his hair. His papers fell into the possession of Mr. Bott, his principal creditor.

Tributes in verse and prose to his memory appeared in the journals for several weeks; several of the number in a strain of lamentation evidently from such as knew him personally, for the loss of "the good, the ingenious, the honest (and this term was often applied to him in public as expressive of the candid and unreserved nature of the man) Doctor Goldsmith." "It should be remembered," says Mr. Hawes who felt a warm attachment to his late patient, "that he was as amiable as a man, as excellent as a writer. His humanity and generosity greatly exceeded the narrow limits of his fortune; and those who were no judges of the literary merit of the author, could not but love the man for that benevolence by which he was so strongly characterized."

"When I returned to town," adds another acquaintance, "after his death I had an interview with his nephew, an apothecary in Newman Street, and with the two sister milliners, the Miss Guns, who resided in a house at the corner of Temple Lane who were always most attentive to him, and who once said to me most feelingly, “O Sir, sooner persuade him to let us work for him gratis than apply to any other; we are sure he will pay us when he can."

Among the testimonies of esteem drawn forth by his death, in prose, the following just and not inelegant eulogium bearing some resemblance in manner to what was said by Burke twenty years afterwards when characterizing Sir Joshua Reynolds, appeared the day after his death, and was supposed to be from his pen. On reference however to the journals of the day, it is found to be dated from Salisbury Street, April 5th; and obviously proceeded from one, whether Burke or not, whose attachment was the result of an intimate knowledge of his character.

"In an age when genius and learning are too generally sacrificed to the purposes of ambition and avarice, it is the consolation of virtue as well as of its friends that they can commemorate the name of Goldsmith as a shining example to the contrary.

* Mr. Cradock.

Mr. Hodson already mentioned; he may have been there some months afterwards; but he was not in London at the time of his uncle's death. His relatives likewise say he never practised professionally in the metropolis.

"Early compelled, like some of our greatest men, into the service of the muses, he never once permitted his necessities to have the least improper influence on his conduct; but knowing and respecting the honourable line of his profession, he made no farther use of fiction than to set off the dignity of truth; and in this he succeeded so happily, that his writings stamp no less the man of genius than the universal friend of mankind.

"Such is the outline of his poetical character, which perhaps will be remembered whilst the first rate poets of the country have any monument left them. But alas! his noble and immortal part-the good man-is only consigned to the short lived memory of those who are left to lament his death.

"Having naturally a powerful bias on his mind to the cause of virtue, he was cheerful and indefatigable in the pursuit of it; warm in his friendships, gentle in his manners, and in every act of charity and benevolence the very milk of human kindness." Nay even his foibles and little weaknesses of temper may be said rather to show the simplicity of his nature than to degrade his understanding; for though there may be many instances to prove he was no man of the world, most of those instances would attest the unadulterated purity of his heart.

"One who esteemed the kindness and friendship of such a man as forming a principal part of the happiness of his life, pays this last, sincere, and grateful tribute to his memory."

CHAPTER XXVI.

Maurice Goldsmith.-Epitaph on the Poet.-His Character.-Rank as a Poet and Prose Writer.Members of the Goldsmith Family.

SHORTLY after the death of Oliver, his eldest surviving brother Maurice, arrived from Ireland in compliance with the summons of Sir Joshua. He was as may be imagined from his history, a plain unlettered man, too homely it seems in appearance and manners to command much consideration from his late brother's accomplished friends.

A lady alluded to more than once for her knowledge of the Poet, informs the writer, that being in a small party in the house of Sir Joshua when the latter was summoned down stairs, be returned after a considerable absence and whispered her, that he had been below with Goldsmith's brother, but thinking a little beer or spirits there, better adapted to his taste than tea in the drawing room, he entertained him in what he considered the most appropriate manner. She, with the

usual kindness of her sex, thought this behaviour scarcely becoming in the President to so near a relative of his departed friend.

No will having been left by the deceased, letters of administration were granted on the 28th of June in the usual law form and phraseology" of the goods, chattels, and credits of Oliver Goldsmith late of the Middle Temple bachelor, to Maurice Goldsmith natural and lawful brother and next of kin to the said deceased." In the bond, bearing date the 6th of the same month, he is described as of "Charlestown, county of Roscommon, cabinet maker," and the sureties are "Joseph Cruttenden of Surgeon's Hall in the Old Bailey, London, Esquire, and William Finch of the same place, Gentleman.” No pecuniary advantage it is to be feared accrued to him from the journey in consequence of the amount of his brother's debts. In July, arrangements were made for the sale of the furniture and library, described as being "a large, valuable, and well chosen collection of curious and scarce books," and the catalogue, a copy of which has been procured and will be found in the Appendix, bears out in some measure the latter part of the description. Maurice did not wait the result of the sale, but quitted London in June; and however homely and unpolished in manners, he appears from the following letter to Mr. Hawes written about the time of his departure, not to have been deficient in sense or gratitude.

"Mr. Hawes,

"London, June 10, 1774.

"In a few hours I purpose leaving town, and now return you most sincere thanks for your kind behaviour to me since my arrival here. I also am thoroughly convinced of your care, assiduity and diligence with respect to my brother, Dr. Goldsmith. I am also convinced that as his affairs were put into your hands by Sir Joshua Reynolds, he could have chosen no one who would have acted with more caution and disinterestedness to him than you have done, for which you have my sincere wishes for the welfare of you and yours. I am Sir, with thanks and respects to your family,

"Your much obliged humble servant, MAURICE GOLDSMITH."

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The spot chosen by Reynolds for the monument in Westminster Abbey was an appropriate niche fortunately found vacant in Poet's Corner between those of Gay and the Duke of Argyle, and though first intended to be given to Wilton, was executed by Nollekins, though not till after the lapse of several years. It presents a large medallion displaying a good resemblance of the face in profile, cmbellished with appropriate ornaments, beneath, which is a tablet of

"To be sold by auction; by Mr. Good; at his Great Room No. 121 Fleet Street on Monday next July 11th, 1774, at eleven o'clock by order of the administrator of Dr. Goldsmith deceased.

"His large, valuable, and well chosen library of curious and scarce books, household furniture and other effects; which may be viewed on Monday and till the time of sale. Catalogues may be had as above."