have been inherited from his father, and was perhaps greatly increased by his own manner of living and frequent recourse to stimulants, assailed a constitution never very strong. In addition to this, the total miscarriage of all his schemes, and the melancholy aspect of continental affairs, are said to have preyed upon his mind. He tried the Bath waters in December, 1805, but without effect. On the 10th of January, 1806, he returned to his seat at Putney, where his illness rapidly gained upon him. On the 19th he was able to give some little attention to public business, but he soon became so lethargic, that the awful intelligence of his approaching death had scarcely any effect upon him. On the return of consciousness he was solicited to join with Bishop Tomline in devotion. "I fear," replied the expiring statesman, "that I have, like many other men, neglected my religious duties too much to have any ground for hope that they can be efficacious on a deathbed. But," added he, making an effort to rise as he spoke, "I throw myself entirely on the mercy of God!" His death took place on the 23d of January, 1806. His last words, according to a statement made by Mr Rose, in the house of commons, were Save my country, hea ven !" 66 His death was considered as a virtual dissolution of the ministry. Every attempt to form an administration from the late cabinet having proved unsuccessful, his majesty called in the assistance of Lord Grenville, and on the 3d of February the new ministerial arrangements were finally settled, embracing the leading members of the three parties, designated by the appellation of the old and new opposition, and the Sidmouth party. The cabinet was composed of the following members: Earl Fitzwilliam, president of the council; Lord Erskine, lordchancellor; Viscount Sidmouth, lord-privy-seal; Lord Grenville, first lord of the treasury; Lord Howick, (late Mr Grey,) first lord of the admiralty; Earl Moira, master-general of the ordnance; Earl Spencer, Mr Fox, and Mr Windham, secretaries of state for the home, foreign, and war-departments; and Lord Henry Petty, chancellor of the exchequer. Lord-chief-justice Ellenborough was also admitted to a seat in the cabinet. The duke of Bedford went to Ireland as lord-lieutenant accompanied by Elliot as chief secretary. Ponsonby was appointed chancellor and keeper of the seals in Ireland, and Sir John Newport chancellor of the Irish exchequer; Lord Minto was appointed president of the board of control; Sheridan, treasurer of the navy; General Fitzpatrick, secretary at war; Sir Arthur Pigott and Sir Samuel Romilly, attorney and solicitor-general. 66 Pitt was the ablest debater that ever appeared in the British senate, though inferior to more than one of his contemporaries in mere oratory. His eloquence was of a kind peculiarly adapted to the situation which he filled so long:-he was stately and dignified in manner; clear and distinct in unravelling the details of the most complicated subject; declamatory at once and argumentative, so as to furnish the best pretexts to those who wished to follow him, while he cheered and encouraged those who might be in dread of his adversaries; but, above all, he excelled in the use of both topics and language with a view to produce the effect he desired, and never commit himself; he could balance his expressions so nicely,-conceal or bring forward parts of his subject so artistly, approach, and yet shun dangerous points so dexterously,- often seeming to say so much while he told so little, and almost always filling the ear more than the mind, and frequently leaving it doubtful upon reflection what had in substance been carried away,—that a celebrated contemporary was scarcely chargeable with exaggeration in saying, that he verily believed Mr Pitt could speak a king's speech off hand.' "To these qualities, so eminently fitting him for a ministerial orator, he added others of a higher description. His fluency of language was almost preternatural, and yet it never grew tiresome; for though it seldom rose to any great beauty, yet it was generally characteristic and appropriate; and from time to time it did contain expressions of more than ordinary felicity, if, at its common level, it too much resembled the diction of a state-paper. He was rather loud and vehement than impassioned; and appeared to declaim more from the head than the heart but then he reasoned closely, and arranged both quickly and accurately; or, at least, he seemed to be always arguing and distinguishing, and to address the understanding rather than the passions, over which he hardly had any other control than that which subjects the nerves of an audience to a sonorous and most powerful voice, itself under strict discipline. In one part of eloquence, and only in one, could he be deemed an orator of the highest genius: his sarcasm was at once keen and splendid; it was brilliant, and it was concise. In the rest of his speaking he resembled the Italian prose writers. In this he came nearer Dante, and could dispose of an adversary by a sentence or a single phrase; or, without stepping aside, get rid of him in a parenthesis, and then go forward to his object: thus increasing the contemptuousness of the expression by its brevity and indifference, as if his victim had been too insignificant to give any trouble." Such is the opinion of one who has shown himself no admirer of the minister's state-craft and general policy. On these latter points an eminent difference of opinion still divides politicians; but the same critic we have just quoted makes the following generous remarks on his talents as a statesman: "The difficulties of his situation were of a nature wholly unparalleled in history; a person of great steadiness might well have faltered in his course through such a sea of troubles; and the resources of a very fertile mind might have easily been exhausted by the strange and novel exigencies of the crisis. Nor have we a right severely to blame him who met this demand, rather by extraordinary devices than happy ones. A minister may well be deemed able whom we must allow to have been equal to such novel emergencies; and much of greatness may be attached to the name of Mr Pitt, while we are compelled wholly to reject the extravagant praises which his followers have lavished upon him. In the policy which he pursued during the more ordinary times which preceded the Revolution, far less appears to censure; and, with the exception of the Russian armament and negotiation, his conduct in relation to foreign powers was firm, consistent, and pros perous. The able and successful measures adopted in the affairs of Holland gained the unqualified approbation of all parties, and the French commercial treaty was never impeached with any effect." All parties concur in representing his private character to have been unimpeachable; he acquired his power by no meanness, and he used it with perfect integrity. Barry, Lord Avonmore. BORN A. D. 1736.-DIED A. D. 1805. THIS distinguished lawyer was educated at Trinity college, Dublin, and was called to the bar in 1764. He rose rapidly into repute, and in 1776 was returned to the Irish house of commons, where he at first espoused the popular side in politics, but afterwards changed his sentiments, and was rewarded with the attorney-generalship. In 1795 he was made an Irish peer by the title of Baron Avonmore; and in 1800, a viscount. man: Sir Jonah Barrington has drawn the following portrait of this noble"It would be difficult to do justice to the lofty and overwhelming elocution of this distinguished man, during the early period of his political exertions. To the profound, logical, and conclusive reasoning of Flood; the brilliant, stimulating, epigrammatic antithesis of Grattan; the sweet-toned, captivating, convincing rhetoric of Burgh; or the wild fascinating imagery, and varied pathos of the extraordinary Curran, he was respectively inferior;-but in powerful, nervous language, he excelled them all. His talents were alike adapted to public purposes as his private qualities to domestic society. In the common transactions of the world he was an infant; in the varieties of right and wrong, of propriety and error, a frail mortal; in the senate and at the bar, a mighty giant; it was on the bench that, unconscious of his errors, and in his home, unconscious of his virtues, both were most conspicuous. That deep-seated vice, which, with equal power, freezes the miser's heart and inflames the ruffian's passions, was to him a stranger: he was always rich and always poor; but, though circumstances might sometimes have been his guide, avarice never was his conductor: like his great predecessor, frugality fled before the carelessness of his mind, and left him the victim of his liberality, and, of course, in many instances, a monument of ingratitude. His character was entirely transparent, it had no opaque qualities; his passions were open; his prepossessions palpable; his failings obvious; and he took as little pains to conceal his faults as to publish his perfections. As a judge he certainly had some of those marked imperfections too frequently observable in judicial officers: he received impressions too soon, and perhaps too strongly; he was indolent in research and impatient in discussion; the natural quickness of his perception hurried off his judgment, before he had time to regulate it, and sometimes left his justice and his learning idle spectators of his reasons and his determination; while extraneous considerations occasionally obtruded themselves upon his unguarded mind, and involuntarily led him away from the straight path of calm deliberation. This distinguished man, at the critical period of Ireland's emancipation, burst forth as a meteor in the Irish senate: his career in the commons was not long, but it was busy and important; he had connected himself with the duke of Portland, and continued that connection uninterrupted till the day of his dissolution. But through the influence of that nobleman, and the absolute necessity of a family provision, on the question of the Union, the radiance of his public character was obscured for ever; the laurels of his early achievements fell withered from his brow, and, after having with zeal and sincerity laboured to attain independence for his country in 1782, he became one of its sale-masters in 1800; and, mingling in a motley crowd, uncongenial to his native character, and beneath his natural superiority, he surrendered the rights, the franchises, and the honours of that peerage, to which, by his great talents and his early virtues, he had been so justly elevated." 66 66 He and Curran were to dine together at the house of a mutual friend, and a large party was assembled, many of whom witnessed the occurrences of the morning. Curran, contrary to all his usual habits, was late for dinner, and at length arrived in the most admirably affected agitation. "Why, Mr Curran, you have kept us a full hour waiting dinner for you," grumbled out Lord Avonmore. "Oh, my dear lord, I regret it much; you must know it is not my custom, but I've just been witness to a most melancholy occurrence." "My God! you seem terribly moved by it-take a glass of wine-what was it? What was it?" "I will tell you, my lord, the moment I can collect myself -I had been detained at court-in the court of chancery-your lordship knows the chancellor sits late." "I do-I do-but go on." Well, my lord, I was hurrying here as fast as ever I could-I did not even change my dress-I hope I shall be excused for coming in my boots?" Poh, poh-never mind your boots-the point-come at once to the point of the story." "Oh-I will, my good lord, in a moment I walked here-I would not even wait to get the carriage ready, it would have taken time, you know-now there is a market exactly in the road by which I had to pass-your lordship may perhaps recollect the market-do you?" "To be sure I do-go on, Curran-go on with the story." "I am very glad your lordship remembers the market, for I totally forget the name of it-the name-the name—” "What the devil signifies the name of it, Sir?-it's the Castle market." "Your lordship is perfectly right—it is called the Castle market. Well, I was passing through that very identical Castle market, when I observed a butcher preparing to kill a calf-he had a huge knife in his hand-it was as sharp as a razor-the calf was standing beside him— he drew the knife to plunge it into the animal-just as he was in the act of doing so, a little boy about four years old-his only son-the loveliest little babe I ever saw, ran suddenly across his path-and he killed!-O! my God, he killed-"-" The child!-the child !—the child !"—vociferated Lord Avonmore. "No," my lord, "the calf," continued Curran, very coolly—" he killed the calf-but-your lordship is in the habit of anticipating." The universal laugh was thus raised against his lordship, and Curran declared that often afterwards a first impression was removed more easily from the court of exchequer by the recollection of the calf in the Castle market than by all the eloquence of the entire profession. Amongst his other peculiarities he was in the habit of occasional fits of absence. One day, at a crowded dinner, the common toast of 'Absent friends' was given. Curran, as usual, sat beside Lord Avonmore, who was immersed in one of his habitual reveries, altogether unconscious of what was passing. He maliciously aroused him-"Yelverton, Yelverton, the host just announced your health in very flattering terms; it is considered very cavalier in you not to have acknow ledged it." Up started the unsuspecting Yelverton, and it was not till after a very eloquent speech that he was apprised of the hoax in which it had originated!-His unsuspiciousness and simplicity of heart were almost infantine. It was a saying of his that he would put no trust in a Kerry-man; giving, as a reason, the following anecdote: "Whilst attending the Tralee assizes I was employed in a single half-guinea case, in which I failed; and a day or two after, as I was travelling alone on the road to Cork, I was waylaid by my clients, reproached for my want of skill, and forcibly compelled to refund the fee!" Charles, Earl Grey. BORN A. D. 1729.-died A. D. 1807. THIS gallant officer, and first earl of that name, was born in 1729, and entered the army in his youth. On the breaking out of the American war he served under Viscount Howe, who conferred on him the local rank of major-general. He is represented as having on several occasions evinced as much blood-thirstiness as courage. "One of the most disastrous events which occurred at this period of the campaign," says Miller in his History of the Reign of George III.'" was the surprise and massacre of an American regiment of light-dragoons, commanded by Lieutenant-colonel Baylor. While employed in a detached situation, to intercept and watch a British foraging party, they took up their lodging in a barn near Taapan. The officer who commanded the party which surprised them was Major-general Grey: he acquired the name of the No-flint General,' from his common practice of ordering the men under his command to take the flints out of their muskets, that they might be confined to the use of their bayonets. A party of militia which had been stationed on the road by which the British advanced quitted their post, without giving any notice to Colonel Baylor. This disorderly conduct was the occasion of the disaster which followed. Grey's men proceeded with such silence and address that they cut off a sergeant's patrole without noise, and surrounded Old Taapan without being discovered; they then rushed in upon Baylor's regiment while they were in a profound sleep. Incapable of defence or resistance, cut off from every prospect of selling their lives dear, the surprised dragoons sued for quarter. Unmoved by their supplications their adversaries applied the bayonet, and continued its repeated thrusts while objects could be found in which any signs of life appeared. A few escaped, and others, after having received from five to eleven bayonet wounds in the trunk of the body, were restored in course of time to perfect health. Baylor himself was wounded, but not dangerously: he lost, in killed, wounded, and taken, sixty-seven privates out of a hundred and four, and about forty were made prisoners. These were indebted for their lives to the humanity of one of Grey's captains, who gave quarter to the whole fourth troop, though contrary to the orders of his superior officers. The circumstance of the attack being made in the night, when neither order nor discipline can be observed, may apologise in some degree, with men of a certain description, for this bloody scene. It cannot be maintained, that the laws of war require that quarter should be given |