guished physician at Birmingham and its neighbourhood, and made
his first appearance as an author in a defence of his father's claim
to the first discovery of the disinfecting powers of muriatic acid gas,
which had been claimed by Dr. Carmichael Smyth. Though ear-
nestly attached to the study and practice of his profession, he re-
tained throughout life a fondness for classical literature, and lived
on the most intimate terms with some of the most distinguished
scholars of the age, including amongst their number the justly cele-
brated Dr. Parr, whose life and voluminous correspondence he pub-
lished, a work full of interesting literary anecdote and classical re-
search; and his Harveian oration, pronounced in 1819, and which
has been recently published, with a short memoir of his life, by his
friend the Bishop of Lichfield, is a model of spirited and correct
Latinity. Dr. Johnstone was a man of very warm affections and of
great independence of character, and he was universally respected
in the great manufacturing city in which he resided, for his great pro-
fessional skill and services, and for the active support which he gave
to every benevolent and useful institution.
Sir John Soane received his early architectural education under Mr. Dance and Mr. D. Holland, and was afterwards sent, by the especial bounty of King George the Third, as a student of the Royal Academy, to pursue his professional studies at Rome. After his return he gradually obtained extensive employment, both as an ar- chitect and a surveyor, and finally succeeded in securing almost every important and honourable appointment which is connected with the exercise of his profession in this country. In later life, when in possession of an ample fortune and public honours, he became a most munificent patron of public institutions, and more particu- larly of those which are connected with the advancement of the fine arts; and in 1835 he bequeathed his house in Lincoln's Inn Fields, and the magnificent collection of works of art which it contained, to the nation, and secured the accomplishment of this noble project by an Act of Parliament; he continued to pursue his usual course of public munificence until his death, which took place on the 20th of January last, in the 84th year of his age.
Sir John Soane was profoundly acquainted with the great prin-
ciples of his art, and many of the interiors as well as exteriors of
his buildings are remarkable for skilful construction and for rich and
harmonious effects; but he was unfortunately disposed, in some cases,
to seek for novelty rather in new forns and decorations of architec-
tural members, than for originality in the combination of those
which have been sanctioned by the concurrent voice of the most
cultivated of ancient nations and the greatest masters of modern
art; it is for this reason that many of his works appear somewhat
capricious and extravagant, and fail to produce that undefinable
feeling of pleasure and satisfaction which always attends the contem-
plation of those great productions of architecture which have been
celebrated for correct proportions, or for beautiful and appropriate
decoration
In connexion with this distinguished professor and patron of art,
