FOUR GREAT MEN.

IN a small private chapel in Bristol, there is a marble tablet, on which there is the following inscription, to the memory of four of the greatest friends of humanity that perhaps ever lived. It was written by a late worthy individual, John Birtel, on hearing of Lord Nelson's victory off Trafalgar.

"John Howard,

Jonas Hanway,

John Fothergill,

Richard Reynolds.

"Not unto us, O Lord! but unto thy name be the

glory.

Beneath an ample, hallowed dome,

The warrior's bones are laid;

And blazon'd on the stately tomb,
His martial deeds displayed.
Beneath an humble roof we place
This monumental stone,

To names the poor shall ever bless,
And charity shall own.

To soften human woe their care,
To feel its sigh, to aid its prayer;,
Their work on earth, not to destroy;
And their reward, their Master's joy."

GEORGE THE THIRD.

AN application was once made to the benevolent compassion of George III. ou of the due order, by a person who was reduced, with a large family, to extreme distress. It succeeded far beyond his hopes. He was so overpowered by the graciousness and extent of the befaction, as, upon receiving it, to fall on his knees, and with a flood of grateful tears, to thank and bless the donor for his goodness. "Rise," said the condescending sovereign;" go and thank God for having disposed my heart to relieve your necessities."

When one of the Sheriffs of London, who had announced the formation of a fund for the relief of the wives and children of prisoners, was at a levee, the king called him aside; and after stating his pleasure at the plan, gave the sheriff a bank note of fifty pounds, de siring that it might be appropriated to the purposes of the fund, but that the name of the donor might not be suffered to transpire."

EDWARD COLSTON.

"He feeds yon alms-house, neat but void of state,
"Where age and want sit smiling at the gate;
"Him portioned maids, apprenticed orphans, blest,
"The young who labour, and the old who rest,"

POPE.

THE celebrated Edward Colston, who was a native of Bristol, and died in 1721, devoted his life and fortune

to the noblest acts of christian benevolence. On his monument there is recorded a list of the public charities and benefactions given and founded by him, which amount to £70,695; but his private donations were not less than his public ones; he sent at one time £3000, to relieve and discharge the debtors in Ludgate, by a private hand; and he yearly freed those confined for small debts in Whitechapel prison and the Marshalsea; he sent £1000 to relieve the poor of Whitechapel; and twice a week had a quantity of beef and broth dressed, to distribute to all the poor around him. If any sailor suffered, or was cast away in his employment, his family afterwards found a sure asylum in him.

"Your

How solicitous he was of doing good, and having his charities answer the design of their institution, appears from a letter- of his, dated Mortlake, 8th December, 1711, to Mr. Mason, the master of the Society of Merchants in Bristol, the trustees of his charity. letter was received by me with great satisfaction, because it informs me, that the Merchant's Hall have made choice of so deserving a gentleman for their master, by whom I cannot in the least think there will be any neglect of their affairs; so neither of want of care, in seeing my trust reposed in them religiously performed; because, thereon depends the welfare or ruin of so many boys, who may in time be made useful, as well to your city as to the nation, by their future honest endeavours; the which that they may be, is what I principally desire and recommend unto you, sir, and the whole society. Edward Colston."

During the scarcity of 1695, Mr. Colston, after relieving the wants of his immediate neighbourhood, sent

in a cover to the London Committee, with only these words, "To relieve the wants of the poor in the metropolis," and without any signature, the sum of £20,000. A donation almost past belief, but established on the best authority.

When some friends urged Mr. Colston to marry, he replied, "Every helpless widow is my wife, and her distressed orphans my children." What adds greatly to his character as a charitable inan, is, that he performed all these works of beneficence, great and splendid as they are, in his life time; he invested revenues for their support in the hands of trustees; he lived to see the trusts justly executed; and perceived with his own eyes the good effects of all his establishments. That his great

fortune might the less embarrass him with worldly cares, he placed it out chiefly in government securities; and the estates he bought to endow his hospitals, were chiefly ground rents. And notwithstanding all these public legacies, he provided amply for all his relations and dependants, leaving more than £100,000 amongst them,

THOMAS GUY. 1

BEFORE Thomas Guy had founded the hospital to which he gave his name, he had contributed £100 annually to St. Thomas's Hospital, for eleven years; and had erected the stately iron grate with the large houses on each side. Guy was seventy-six years of age when he formed the design of building his own hospital, which he just lived to see roofed in. The expense of erecting this hospital was £18,793, and he left £219,499 to endow

it; being a much larger summ than had ever been dedicated to charitable uses in England by any one individual.

The beneficence of Guy was not limited to the building and endowing of this hospital, be was a great benefactor to the town of Tamworth in Stafforshire, where his mother was born; and not only contributed towards the relief of private families in distress, but erected an almshouse in that borough for the reception of fourteen poor men and women, to whom he allowed a certain pension during his life; and at his death, he bequeathed the annual sum of £125 towards their future support. To many of his relations he gave, while living, annuities of twenty pounds a year; and to others, money to advance them in the world. At his death, he left to his poor aged relations the sum of £870 a year during their lives; and to his younger relations and executors he bequeathed £75,589. He also left a perpetual annuity of four hundred pounds to the Governors of Christ's Hospital, for taking in four children annually, at the nomination of the governors; and bequeathed £1000 for discharging poor prisoners in the City of London, and in the counties of Middlesex and Surrey, by which above six hundred poor persons were set at liberty within the bills of mortality.

CRUELTY PUNISHED.

AT Abo, in Finland, a dog that had been run over by a carriage, crawled to the door of a tanner in the town; the man's son, a lad of fifteen years of age, first stoned, and then poured a vessel of boiling water on the miserable animal. This act of diabolical cruelty was witnessed