The determination of the government to decorate the interior of the now houses of parlienieut with pictures opened a new and grand field before the imagination of Haydon lie had petitioued, written, and lectured in favour of so adoruing our public buildings, and impressed with a very high notiou of his own capacity for executing such works, his eauguino temperament never permitted him for a moment to doubt that he would be one of the painters selected for the task. Accordingly, finding that fresco was the vehicle in favour with the authorities, he set himself to acquire mastery over the use of that material, and when the cartoon competition was summoned, he addressed himself eagerly to the preparation of a cartoon. The judges gave in their award however, and his name was not among the successful competitors, even of the third class. It was a death blow to all his hopes ; and though be struggled bravely against the disappointment, he never really recovered the shock. His last works were Uriel and Satan ;" Curthis leaping into the Gulf ;" Alfred and the Trial by Jury;' ' The Burning of Rome,' and numerous repetitions of his ' Napoleon." Alfred,' and The Burning of Rome,' were exhibited in 1846 at the Egyptian Hall. The exhibition failed, and added to the embarrassment of his pecuniary affairs. Haydon's mind now entirely gave way under his misery. He
died by hie own hand, June 22, 1846. It should be added that a post mortem examination showed that there had been long standing disease of the brain. He left a wife and family, for whom a public subscription was immediately got up. It is not a little to the honour of Sir II. Peel, that, at what was perhaps the most busy and exciting period of his parliamentary career, he had found time just five days before the painter's unhappy death, to think of the artist, to whom he inclosed a cheque for 50/. Haydon's Lectures' are almost his only contributions to literature. Considerable difference of opinion exists as to his merits as a painter. The exaggeration and hardness, which it must be admitted disfigured his general style, are ascribed to his early Intimacy with and imitation of Fnseli, but unjustly ; they are Haydon's own, the result partly of insufficient study, partly of incomplete artistic education, more of his peculiar physical tempera ment, and habit of working. But he had many merits, and be did much to raise the character of English art, and to extend an interest in and a love of it. For a fair, and far from partial review of the character of Hayden as a man and en artist, the reader is referred to the concluding pages of the third volume of Taylor's ' Life of Benjamin Robert Hayden, 2nd ed., 3 vols., 1853.