On examination, the thigh-bone was found to be carious about four inches in length, and at nearly the same distance from its head. The disease took its rise from the internal part of the bone, and had so entirely destroyed its substance, that nothing remained at the part where it was broken but a portion of its outward integument. And even this had many perforations, one of which was large enough to admit two fingers, and was filled with a fungous substance arising from within the bone. There was no appearance of matter about the caries, and the surrounding parts were in a sound state. It was apparent, that the torture which his Grace underwent during the gradual corrosion of this bone, must have been inexpressibly great. Out of tenderness to his family he seldom made any complaints to them, but to his physicians he frequently declared his pains were so excruciating, that unless some relief could be procured, he thought it would be impossible for human nature to support them long. Yet he bore them for upwards of six months with astonishing patience and fortitude; sat up generally the greater part of the day, admitted his particular friends to see him, mixed with his family at the usual hours, sometimes with his usual cheerfulness; and, except some very slight defects of memory, retained all his faculties and senses in their full vigour till within a few days of his death. He was buried, pursuant to his own directions, in a covered passage, leading from a private door of the palace to the north door of Lambeth Church; and he forbade any monument or epitaph to be placed over him. By his Will he appointed the reverend Dr. Daniel Burton, Canon of Christ-church, and Mrs. Catherine Talbot above-mentioned, his executors; and left thirteen thousand pounds in the three per cent. annuities, to Dr. Porteus and Dr. Stinton, his chaplains, in trust; to pay the interest thereof to Mrs. Talbot and her daughter, during their joint lives, or the life of the survivor; and after the decease of both those ladies, then eleven thousand of the said thirteen thousand are to be transferred to the following charitable purposes; viz. To the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, for the general uses of the Society To the same Society, towards the establishment of a Bishop or Bishops in the King's dominions in America To the Society for promoting Christian To the Society of the Stewards of the said £. s. d. 1,000 0 O 1,000 0 0 500 0 0 500 0 0 500 0 0 To the Hospitals of the Archbishop of ... ... To the Asylum in the Parish of Lambeth 1,500 0 0 1,500 0 0 400 0 0 tion Hospital, to each of which his Grace was a Subscriber, £300 each.. £900 0 0 To the Incurables at St. Luke's Hospital 500 0 0 Towards repairing or rebuilding the Houses belonging to poor Livings in the Diocese of Canterbury 2,000 0 0 £11,000 0 0 Besides these benefactions, he left £1,000 to be distributed amongst his servants; £200 to such indigent persons as he had assisted in his life-time; £5,000 to the two daughters of his nephew Mr. Frost ; £500 to Mrs. Secker, widow of his nephew Dr. George Secker; and £200 to Dr. Daniel Burton. After the payment of these and some other smaller legacies he left his real, and the residue of his personal estate to his nephew Mr. Thomas Frost, of Nottingham. Out of his private library, he left to the archiepiscopal one at Lambeth, all such books as were not there before, which comprehended much the largest and most valuable part of his own collection; and a great number of very learned MSS. written by himself on various subjects, he bequeathed to the Manuscript Library in the same palace. His Lectures on the Catechism, his Manuscript Sermons, &c. he left to be revised and published by his two Chaplains, Dr. Stinton and Dr. Porteus. His Options he gave to the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Bishop of London, and the Bishop of Winchester, for the time being, in trust; to be disposed of by them (as they became vacant) to such persons as they shall in their consciences think it would have been most reasonable and proper for him to have given them, had he been living. Such were the last bequests of Archbishop Secker; of which it is enough to say, that they kept up the noble uniformity of his character to the end, and formed a very proper conclusion to the life of a truly great and good man. His Grace was in his person tall and comely; in the early part of life slender, and rather consumptive, but as he advanced in years, his constitution gained strength, and his size increased, yet never to a degree of corpulency that was disproportionate or troublesome. The dignity of his form corresponded well with the greatness of his mind, and inspired at all times respect, and awe, but peculiarly so when he was engaged in any of the more solemn functions of religion; into which he entered with such devout earnestness and warmth, with so just a consciousness of the place he was in, and the business he was about, as seemed to raise him above himself, and added new life and spirit to the natural gracefulness of his appearance. His countenance was open, ingenuous, and expressive of every thing right. It varied easily with his spirits and his feelings; so as to be a faithful interpreter of his mind, which was incapable of the least dissimulation. It could speak dejection, and on occasion, anger, very strongly. But when it meant to shew pleasure or approbation, it softened into the most gracious smile, and diffused over all his features the most benevolent and reviving complacency that can be imagined. His intellectual abilities were of a much higher class than they who never had any opportunities of conversing intimately with him, and who form their opinion of his talents from the general plainness of his language only, will perhaps be willing to allow. He had a quick apprehension, a clear discernment, a sound judgment, a retentive memory. He possessed that native good sense, which is the grand masterkey to every art and science, and makes a man skilful in things he has never learnt, so soon as ever it becomes useful or necessary for him to know them. He composed with great ease and readiness; and in the early part of his life, the letters which he wrote to some of his most intimate friends, were full of imagination, vivacity, and elegance. But when he became a parish-priest, he found the graces of style inconsistent with the purposes of pastoral instruction; and willingly sacrificed the reputation he might easily have acquired as a fine writer, to the less showy qualifications of a useful one. From that time he made it his principal study to set every thing he undertook to treat upon in the clearest point of view; to bring his thoughts and his arguments as close together, and to express them in as few and as intelligible words as possible; admitting none but what conveyed some new idea, or were necessary to throw new light on the subject; and never wasting his own time or that of others, by stepping out of his way for needless embellishments. But though in general he thus confined himself to the severe laws of didactic composition, (in which indeed consisted his chief excellence), yet he could be, where the occasion called for it, pathetic, animated, nervous; could rise into that true sublime, which consists not in pomp of diction but grandeur of sentiment, expressed with simplicity and strength; of which his sermons afford several admirable specimens. It seldom happens, that men of a studious turn acquire any great degree of reputation for their |