486 Learned Lady.--Biographical Sketch of the late Colonel Mellish. [VOL.2

it had been led, the Convention shewed more liberality to the sciences. Messier found in the Institute and at the Board of Longitude a comfort and independence to which he had been a stranger, and which he enjoyed undisturbed till the end of his life. After sixty years devoted to his profession he became blind like Erastothenes, Galileo, and D. Cassini.

One of his colleagues, the celebrated Lalande, has formed a constellation in honour of him--the only one that yet bears the name of an astronomer. But independently of this homage paid by friendship, the name of Messier will last as long as the science, as long as the catalogue of the comets in which his name has been so frequently and so honourably inscribed. The world is indebted to him for the discovery of nineteen comets from 1758 to 1800. Few astronomers more profoundly studied, or were better acquainted with the heavens than Messier; his name and his labours are conspicuous in the Memoirs of the Academy of Sciences since 1752, the Connoissance des Temps, the Ephemerides of Vienna, the Philosophical Transactions, the Memoirs of the Academy of Sciences of Berlin, and other collections. He edited in association with the learned Pingré, the Voyage of the Marquis of Courtenvaux, Paris, 1768, 4to.

FEMALE PROFESSOR.

At Bologna, to the great regret of her fellow-citizens, in her 58th year, the illustrious female. Madame Clotilde Tambroni, pupil of Don Manuel Aponte. Profoundly versed in the study of Grecian literature, she was placed in her youth by the Pontifical Government among the Professors of the Universityof Bologna, a place which she has always maintained. A monument is to be erected to her memory.

COL. MELLISH.

Every life contains some useful precept, and every human circumstance has its moral. This purpose cannot fail to be fulfilled in contemplating the life of Colonel Mellish. Very few persons in England have filled a larger space in the public notice than the above gentleman; and it was not coufined to one class or to another, but every part of society had known, seen, or heard of Colonel Mellish. There were few things which he had not attempted, and nearly as few in which he had not eminently succeeded. To him the words of the Roman Orator might well have been applied: "Nihil erat quod non tetigil: et quod tetigit,

non ornavit."

Col. Mellish was the son of Mr. Mellish, of Blythe, near Doncaster, in Yorkshire, from whom he inherited the large mansion and estate around it, situated at the village of Blythe. At an early age Col. Mellish was sent to a public school, where the ardency of his temper, and the uncontrolable nature of his mind, were found very difficult for a master to manage. His abilities, however, were such, that he had acquired a sufficient acquaintance with the classicks to qualify him for any line be might have chosen to adopt, and which he afterwards evinced in the different pursuits which he followed. He became an officer in the 11th regiment of Light Dragoons, from which he afterwards removed into the Prince's own regiment, the 10th Hussars.

Shortly after this period, Col. Mellish came into the full command of his property, before the attainment of years and discretion had enabled him to manage it. Nature, however, semed to have qualified him for taking a lead in every thing, and to have given him a tempe

rament so ardent, as made it impossible for him ever to come-in second."

He distinguished himself upon the Tarf; and the best trainers have declared that they never knew a man who so accurately knew the powers, the qualities, and capabilities of the racer, the exact weights he could carry, and the precise distances he could run, so well as Col. Mellish.

But it was not on the Turf alone he thas eminently distinguished himself; he was, in his day, one of the best Whips of the time; to man drove four-in-hand with more skill and less labour than he did; and to display that skill, he often selected very difficult horses to drive, satisfied if they were goers. As a rider he was equally eminent; he had the art of making a horse do more than other riders; and he accustomed them like himself to go at every thing." But at this period, it was not one line of expence that swallowed up his property. The high-bred racer, when winning every thing on the turf, is then satisfied: he is not at the same time a hunter, a hack, or a carriage horse. But Col. Mellish would be every thing at once; he was "at all in the ring;" till, by deep play, by racing, and expences of every kind, and in every place, he made it necessary to have his estate sold, to sa tisfy the demands which were made upon him.

Col. Mellish was at this time in the Prince Regent's own regiment, the 10th Hussars; and shortly afterwards Gen. Sir Rowland Fergsson appointed him his aid-de-camp, and with him he went to the Peninsula war, A circum stance somewhat whimsical happened at this period. Previous to the battle of Vimeira, as the General Officers were dining together, one of them observed to Sir Rowland Ferguson, that " if the thing were not impossible, he should have declared, from the similitude, be had left that gentleman a week or two ago in the Cockpit at York, and engaged in the mars there---his name Mr. Mellish."--“ The very same," replied Sir Rowland, "he is now my aid-de-camp; and I think you will say, when you have the opportunity of knowing more of him, a better officer will not be found."--Tae Duke of Wellington declared a better aid-decamp than Col. Mellish he had never observed. --.

After remaining some time with the armies abroad, Col. Mellish returned home, and after that period engaged no more in military duties.

Having married one of the daughters of the Marchioness of Lansdowne, who brought him a very handsome fortune, his circumstances became easy, and he was enabled to indulge in those rural pursuits which appear early and late to have been congenial with his disposition. He had very capital greyhounds, which, during his absence abroad, had been neglected or forgotten; but on his return,from his perfect knowledge in the crossing of breeds, he established a stud of greyhounds equal to any man.

Asa breeder of cattle of the improved kinds, he displayed very uncommon judgment; and, short as the time was that was given him for bringing them to perfection, he had done so most completely. At most of the great cattle shows in the North he had carried off the prizes, and sold some of his sort at as high prices as ever were known. In fact, in every thing he undertook, he had a nice and discriminating taste, an unwearied diligence in research, and a resolution to obtain whatever he saw was excellent in its kind. In addition to this, he was free from prejudice, that great enemy of knowledge; and was of all men the most ready to allow in others what was really good.