his country, nor that the army has since achieved brighter laurels than ever before adorned it.

Mr Curwen's scheme of parliamentary reform was resisted by Mr Windham with his usual ability; but we cannot equally applaud his opposition to Lord Erskine's bill, for preventing cruelty to animals. The ground on which he mainly rested his disapprobation of the bill, was the unfitness of legislative interference. Considering in how very many instances the law permits the justices of the peace to exercise a discretion, by which human beings are subjected to heavy and unjustifiable evils, we cannot regard it as matter of alarm, that they should, in some instances, possess the more satisfactory privilege of preventing barbarity and alleviating pain. The lower orders of people, from the want of education to restrain their harsher passions, are naturally but too prone to cruelty and what an individual in that class may happen to want in original goodness of disposition, will seldom be compensated in him by that adventitious delicacy of nerve, which the habits of the higher ranks are apt to encourage. The heart which has become hardened against the mute sufferings of a dependent animal, will harden itself also against the distresses of humanity: the tears of a wife, and the entreaties of children, plead with diminished effect in ears accustomed to the sound of the lash: and the habit of slaking a bloody revenge is but too apt, when time and gratification have confirmed its rage, to hurry away the reason, without reflection upon consequences or distinction as to objects. Mercy to brutes, we are well convinced, will at last prove mercy to

man.

The death of Dr Laurence, which occurred in the year 1809, was a source of deep regret to Mr Windham, who had honoured him with a sincere and

zealous friendship. But this summer was lamentably fruitful in misfortunes of a more public interest: the triumph of France over Austria, and the failure of the expedition to the Scheldt. On both these subjects, Mr Windham had prophetic alarms; for, in a letter to Mr Amyot, written the 21st of July 1809, during one of his visits at Beaconsfield, he says, "I tremble for the event of the next Austrian battle : and I am not without my tremors for the fate of the expedition, which, whether successful or not, I am satisfied is a most foolish enterprize:" The latter part of this sentence, however, remains to be proved.

The failure of the expedition gave rise to disputes in the cabinet, which terminated in the resignation of Lord Castlereagh and of Mr Canning. And Mr Perceval, left thus alone in the House of Commons, proposed to the opposition to concur in the formation of a new ministry upon a comprehensive principle. Mr Windham was at this time in Norfolk. "I have had letters," says he, in one of his notes to Mr Amyot," with copies of the correspondence, both from Lord Grey and Lord Grenville. I should think that the ministers will contrive to go on, and I cannot but hope it; for, in the other event, I am sure I don't know what is to be done. I was enumerating, in my answer to Lord Grey, all' that I thought could be looked to in that case, and the amount was very limited and frightfully difficult. feel but little stomach to return to office, unless I have carte blanche as to my military plans: and, even then, the whole is so bedevilled that there is no restoring things to their original state."

I

The negociation terminated in the rejection of Mr Perceval's offer; he himself, on the Duke of Portland's death, added the post of first lord of the treasury to his former office of chancellor of the exchequer : Mr Can

The night was very rainy, and, in a few hours, he was attacked by a violent cold, which continued for some time extremely troublesome: In the mean time, the blow on his hip, which, at first, had been but little regarded, was beginning to engender consequences of a serious nature. A tumour arose, which gradually increased; and, about March 1810, Mr Windham found it necessary to consult Mr Cline the surgeon. In May he called in further advice, and four other eminent surgeons concurred in the decision of Mr Cline, that an immediate operation was necessary. Of the same opinion were Dr Baillie and Dr Blane: but Mr Wilson and Mr Phillips dissuaded the use of the knife.

Mr Windham, confiding in the advice of the majority, at once resolved to undergo the operation. But he communicated his design to very few persons; and, anxious to spare Mrs Windham the terrors which a knowledge of the event could not fail to excite in her affectionate breast, he took her to Mrs Burke's at Beaconsfield, with whom he left her on a plea of business, and arrived in London on Friday the 11th of May, when he made his last speech in the House of

Commons.

The operation was to be performed on the 17th. Meanwhile he employed himself in arranging his affairs, and writing letters to be delivered to friends in the event of a fatal result. He attended on Sunday the 13th at the Charter-House, and received the sacrament privately, from his old and intimate friend, the Reverend Dr Fisher. On the appointed day, the operation was skilfully performed by Mr Lynn. It was very painful; but Mr Windham endured it with his characteristic firmness, and, during a pause, when the medical gentlemen were deliberating upon the necessity of further incision, he even joked upon his danger.

The tumour proved to be schirrous, resembling in shape a turkey's egg, but larger still. The successful performance of the operation was immediately announced to Mrs Windham ; and sanguine hopes were entertained of his recovery.

But these hopes were soon overcast. The wound did not heal with what is called "the first intention ;" and a fever succeeded. On the tenth day after the operation it abated; but his constitution was too feeble to make any effort for its own preservation. Meanwhile the concern of the public was manifested by incessant enquiries from persons of all ranks and parties in the state: and we must not omit to mention, that his majesty himself was among the kindest and most cordial of them all.

On Sunday, the third of June, his dissolution was perceived to be inevitable. Mr Amyot, who saw him on the evening of that day, relates, that, "in his dying condition, none of the terrors, and few even of the milder signs of death, were visible: that his countenance retained much of its peculiar animation : and that, during about twenty minutes, he spoke many times, not without vivacity. Being placed by Mr Lynn in a favourable situation for sleep, he said, "I thank you, this is the last trouble I shall give you."-He then fell into a doze or stupor, and expired, without pain or emotion, the next morning, Monday, June the 4th, at about twentyfive minutes past eleven.

He was buried in the family vault at Felbrigg church.

For the dates, and many of the leading facts, in the foregoing sketch, we beg leave to acknowledge our obligations to Mr Amyot. For the other particulars, the writer of this memoir, who had the honour of Mr Windham's acquaintance, must be personally responsible.

pox.

Mr Windham's person was tall and graceful. His countenance was rather interesting from its expression, than handsome in its individual features; for, though his eyes were dark and penetrating, the face in general was somewhat disfigured by the smallHis manners were extremely elegant, and to women even fascinating. His taste was, for the most part, both sensitive and accurate; although he had no relish for any musical performance beyond a simple ballad. He was a skilful mathematician, and an accomplished scholar; but he had a great dislike to the interspersion of exotic words in any English composition. Above all other faults of expression, he reprobated any irreverent or careless use of the name of the Almighty. Indeed a strong sense of religion seems to have habitually guided and ennobled his understanding.

As a man of business he was not remarkable for regularity; for he was fond of rural pleasures, and especially of manly exercises. In these, his agility and personal intrepidity rendered him eminently successful. He was a great encourager of sports in general; and avowed the opinion, that nothing had contributed more essentially to form and elevate the spirit of his countrymen, than the masculine character of their diversions. He therefore regarded with great indignation the fashion, so prevalent among country magistrates, of suppressing the amusements of the poor. He was a kind friend, a charitable patron, and an affectionate husband and relation.

Of his political acts in their order, we have intimated our opinion at sufficient length in the course of our narrative. To preserve the honour of his country untarnished by the breath of foreign profligacy, and undisgraced by the inroads of foreign aggression, was ever the primary object of his public conduct, whether in or out of

power. On this general policy, and more especially on his improvement of England's military means, he rested his claim to reputation as a minister. Indeed he had so proud a conviction of the benefits resulting from his new constitution of the army, as to declare, that, "like the eminent Italian musician who had a piece of music inscribed on his tomb, or the Dutch mathematician who had a calculation for his epitaph, he should desire no other monument, as a statesman, than that system.”

But, in a country like Britain, where the liberty of the subject has given so extensive a power, and so high a value, to the talent of persuading the free-will of men, a statesman's importance cannot be duly appreciated, unless, to the knowledge of what he has done, be added the knowledge of what he has said, and of the manner in which he has said it. It is not the least instructive object of history and biography to display the means by which great ends have been accomplished, and to estimate the probable power and applicability, in future cases, of the more than Archimedean machinery by which master-spirits have moved the world.

The period in which Mr Windham shone was singularly fertile in rhetorical ability. It was no small glory to attain the rank of a first-rate speaker, in the days when the House of Commons boasted the contemporary talents of Fox, of Sheridan, and of Pitt; when Grattan, transplanted from his native soil, was flourishing with undiminished vigour; and the powers of Canning, though not fully developed, were already opening upon the country.

Nothing seems to be less understood by the generality of persons, even in the more enlightened circles of society, than the utility and operation of the eloquence exerted in the two houses of parliament. If we could agree with those angry politicians, who re

gard the debates as but stepping-stones for ambition, mere devices for factiously clogging the motions of government, and thrusting word-mongers into notoriety, we should disdain to blot the pages of this Register with a record of names, dishonoured by so scandalous a course of meretricious exhibition. But we are proud to hold a doctrine widely different. We view, in the freedom of legislative discussion, the firmest security for the freedom of the state. We gladly see the motions of every administration watched, proclaimed, and illustrated, in parliament, by opponents whom a union of public and private motives unceasingly stimulates to detect the latent errors of haste, inadvertence, or incapacity. And we find that, in the progress of almost every public measure, benefits are, by the agency of this vigilance, introduced and developed, which a less liberal process would have stifled in their embryo. Above all, we exult in this inestimable advantage, that nothing is transacted in secret; that our political, in common with our judicial administration, is open to the sight of all the people; and that there is a daily, nay an almost hourly, responsibility, for public actions, which meets each evil in detail, and while it is not yet too late to interfere with advantage, instead of waiting, as must happen under any other constitution, suntil the accumulation of mischiefs cry aloud for some hurried and violent cure. By this circulation of wholesome air, every joint and timber of the state is soundly and healthily seasoned, and she goes forth, like the maritime bulwarks of her defence,

"Whose flag has braved, a thousand years,

The battle and the breeze."

The benefit, however, which any speech in parliament can produce, by its influence upon the votes of the members in a single debate, is confess edly trifling. Those who are capa

ble of judging for themselves have generally settled their decisions before the day of discussion; and those, who have less confidence in their own abili ties, are generally determined by the authority of some accredited and accustomed leader. From these facts it has been hastily concluded, that whatever the effects of debate may be upon the people represented, it is at least a useless practice, as far as concerns the votes of the representatives. But, in truth, little as the influence of any single display of argument or rhetoric, however excellent, can be perceived in any single division of the house, a series of such attacks, briskly repeated, is speedily and powerfully felt.

The numerical strength of each party in parliament depends very greatly upon the general opinion of the ta lents which that party includes; and increases of course by the annexation of a speaker of paramount ability: For there is at least one large class of members, who, being by family interest, or by the terms of their purchase, independent of extraneous controul, can always afford to consult their own conscience in the choice of their side. Among them, the presumption will generally and justly be, that truth lies on the side of that party which enrolls the greatest number of men distinguished for ability. The mazes of public life are intricate and dreary; and when doubt and darkness lie heavily on every path, the bewildered understanding gladly follows the light of superior minds, the pillar of celestial fire that points the track through the desart.

Entertaining these opinions respecting the high rank and importance of parliamentary eloquence, we eagerly embrace the present opportunity to transmit some memorial of the styles of those great speakers who flourished in the time of Mr Windham. by their speeches alone, that the statesmen of this country can ever become

It is