James Caulfield, Earl of Charlemont

From The Dublin Penny Journal, Volume 1, Number 33, February 9, 1833

To omit all mention of the name of Charlemont, (a name which must long be dear to every true lover of his country,) in what professes to be a series of national biography would indeed be most unpardonable. It would be a ground of just reproach to us, if we were to pass over unnoticed one of the purest patriots, the most accomplished gentlemen, one of the brightest ornaments whether of public life or private society to whom Ireland ever gave birth. Yet to attempt a memoir of the great and good man who last bore the title of Charlemont, such as will be suited to our pages, is a task not altogether free from difficulty. His most useful public exertions are so interwoven with the history of his country, and the date of his labours is so recent, that as

Incidit in Scyllam qui vult vitare Charybdim,

so we, endeavouring, as we have hitherto invariably done, to steer clear of the whirlpool of politics, fear we shall of necessity run upon an opposite danger; not only may our sketch appear meagre and uninteresting, but still further it must fail to do justice to its subject, for it must omit to show his character in one of its noblest points of view, when sacrificing the retirement and tranquil pleasures of private life, and those literary pursuits which there can be no doubt afforded to him the liveliest gratification, he devoted himself to the service of his country. Possessed as he was of all the influence resulting from the high esteem which his many excellent qualities, and the unquestionable purity of his public life, compelled irresistibly from men of every grade and party, he exerted it nobly during a long and tempestuous period, in guiding the country through the many difficulties and dangers of the times, so much so, that to him it was on all hands admitted the tranquillity of Ireland for a long series of years was chiefly owing.

Notwithstanding the anticipated difficulties of our task, we will however make the attempt, and such of our readers as desire to see more of Lord Charlemont in public life, and as an actor in the political arena of his day, we will refer to the memoir of his life which has been given to the world by his friend and contemporary, Mr. Hardy, which will be found particularly full and satisfactory in this respect, it being indeed in a great measure rather a history of the public transactions of the period, than the private memoir of an individual. To his pages we must confess ourselves indebted for much of the material of our following brief sketch.

James, Earl of Charlemont, was born in Dublin, the 18th of August, 1728, and succeeded to the title when but six years old, upon the demise of his father. He never was at any public school, and for some time his education was in a great degree neglected, although he was placed under the care of several successive tutors. At length Mr. Murphy, a gentleman of considerable classical attainments, and perhaps best remembered now as the editor of "Murphy's Lucian," was induced to take the superintendance of Lord Charlemont's studies; when placed under that gentleman's care it appears that he felt his deficiency so strongly that he read almost incessantly, and so much by candlelight, that his eyes were considerably weakened, in consequence of which for the last thirty years of his life he was totally unable either to read or write at night.

In the autumn of 1746 Lord Charlemont set out for the continent, accompanied by Mr. Murphy. He visited in succession Holland and Germany, and finally coming to Turin, he entered the academy for the purpose of prosecuting his classical studies. While there he received much attention from the Royal Family of Sardinia, the Prince (with whom he was on the most intimate footing,) being also at the academy. Lord Charlemont being, in some time afterwards at Turin, on his return from his travels in Egypt and Greece, was, by the Prince's particular desire, present at his marriage, which then took place with a Princess of Spain; and after many years had elapsed, when Lord Charlemont had been long settled at home, and the Prince had become King of Sardinia, he desired more than one illustrious English traveller to tell Lord Charlemont that if he returned to Turin he would find Victor Amadeus unchanged, except in station.

The winter of 1748 was passed by Lord Charlemont at Home and Naples, and in the April following he sailed from Leghorn, on his way to Constantinople, and visited in succession almost all the Greek islands as well as the Morea.

When he returned to Italy he became, after some time, so perfectly conversant with the language, that from the variety of his accomplishments and the elegance of his manners, his society was courted by most persons of rank and fashion, both at Rome and elsewhere. While at Verona, the Marchese Scipione Maffei, so particularly mentioned by Lady Wortley Montague, distinguished Lord Charlemont by every kind attention, and not only at the literary Society which met at the Maffei Palace, but in almost every erudite assembly in the great towns of Italy, Lord Charlemont held a principal seat; of many of them he was warmly solicited to become a member. At Rome he continued nearly two years. To enumerate the various persons of rank and estimation by whom Lord Charlemont's acquaintance was cultivated, would be but to give the names of the most respectable of the Roman and Neapolitan nobility, as well as of all the English travellers of worth and estimation. Some of the persons with whom he then formed friendships long continued to hold an affectionate intercourse with him. Among others we would instance Lord Rockingham, whose acquaintance he made at Rome in 1751, and whose regard for Lord Charlemont terminated but with his life; the French Ambassador, the Duke de Nivernois, a most eminent and accomplished nobleman, by whom he was greatly esteemed and regarded, and from whom he received many attentions when confined at Rome by long and severe indisposition, and by the amiable and excellent Pontiff who then filled the Papal Chair, he was treated with a kindness and benevolence that was almost parental.

To his native country, Lord Charlemont at length returned, after an absence of nearly nine years. Notwithstanding his protracted sojourn abroad, his character was in some measure established at home. It is certain that he was very generally talked of, and splendid hopes were early entertained of his being one day an ornament to Ireland. Yet it was no small effort of patriotism for a young nobleman, courted as he had been abroad, enamoured of the fine arts, and enjoying abroad and in England the society of those, whose taste and habits were congenial to his own, voluntarily to fix his residence in Ireland, actuated solely by the feeling, that he owed it as a duty to his country. Here too, he had comparatively no friends, or even acquaintances. Mr. Richard Marlay, afterwards Bishop of Waterford, was perhaps, his only intimate,--but he, as Lord Charlemont said, "was worth a million of others." About this time, a trial of strength between the celebrated Primate Stone, and Mr. Boyle, afterwards Lord Shannon, agitated Ireland. The Marquis of Hartington, son of the Duke of Devonshire, came over to this country at the instance of Mr. Fox, chiefly to endeavour to settle the dissensions of the rivals, but in vain. Lord Charlemont, though then as it were, a stranger to Ireland, not much experienced in the ways of men, and certainly not at all in those of old intriguing statesmen, was next solicited to be the mediator between them, and notwithstanding his youth and inexperience, he carried his point, and reconciled them, at least to all outward appearance, and the wheels of government moved on as before.

The outset of his political efforts, as Lord Charlemont himself said, thus gave room to suppose that his life would have been more courtly than it afterwards proved to be. His interest at the Castle was not inconsiderable, and perhaps if he had chosen to exert it, would have been more effective then than at any subsequent period of his life; but it lay dormant in his hands; he solicited nothing for himself or his connections. His brother had chosen a military life, and the Lord Lieutenant, without the intervention, or any request whatever of Lord Charlemont, presented him with a cornetcy, the only favour to which any stipend was annexed, which his Lordship received from government, in the course of a long life. At an early period, Lord Charlemont, although conscious that he did not possess the peculiar talents which are required to form a leader in a deliberative assembly, yet feeling, that from his rank and property, and situation in society, he was entitled to some degree of consequence, at once determined on taking a manly and independent position, and attaching himself neither to the Court nor to the popular party, to hold out a standard, to which, if emergency rendered it necessary, men of public spirit and honourable principle might resort. He was occasionally, perhaps, found to espouse the popular side of some questions, from an idea, that a liberal opposition was more necessary here than in England. The general depression of the kingdom, the neglect of ministers, and even the contempt of this country--contempt, not confined to them, but diffused through every class of society in England, made it more particularly incumbent, as he thought, for some persons here to display a vigilance in favour of Ireland, as patriotic as unsubdued.

In 1763, the Earl of Northumberland, having arrived in Ireland, as Lord Lieutenant, communicated to Lord Charlemont, that the King was so sensible of the important services he had rendered to the kingdom, not only upon the occasion of the descent of a small body of French under M. Thurot, upon Carrickfergus, in 1760, but repeatedly afterwards in exerting himself to preserve the peace and tranquillity of the country, especially in the insurrection which broke out in Armagh and Tyrone in 1763, he had graciously directed that an Earldom should be offered to him for his acceptance, Lord Charlemont, after expressing his gratitude to his Majesty, hesitated a little as to the proffered dignity, from an apprehension that it might be conceived his future parliamentary conduct was to be influenced by it, but receiving an assurance from the Earl of Northumberland, that no such thing was contemplated, and it being suggested that as the offer of promotion having proceeded directly from the King himself, any refusal of it might be construed as a mark of disrespect, Lord Charlemont at once acquiesced. It happened that soon after his sincerity was put to the test, for an address being moved in the House of Lords, returning thanks for the conclusion of the treaty of Paris, he voted against the address, though his patent was then passing through the offices. To this patent, Lord Charlemont some years afterwards, thought it necessary, "according to an ancient and honorable usage," to annex an engrossed testimonial, stating the manner in which it was granted, in consequence of his witnessing what he conceived to be an unwarrantable and unseemly profusion of the honours of the Peerage of Ireland; in this he touches, with great modesty, on his own services, which he says were too inconsiderable to be recorded, and recurs to "the merits of the first Peer of his family, and the remarkable circumstance of an Earldom having been intended for his ancestor so early as the reign of James the First."

In compliance with the restriction we have laid upon ourselves, we turn from Lord Charlemont's parliamentary labours to the scenes of his private life.

On the 2d of July, 1768, he was united to Miss Hickman, the daughter of Robert Hickman, Esq., of the county of Clare, of an ancient and respectable family, allied to that of Lord Windsor. In the midst of political contests, Lord Charlemont never lost sight of literature. He, at this time, meditated a history of the poetry of Italy, from the time of Dante to that of Metastasio; but a variety of occupations withdrew his attention from that work for several years. He, at last, resumed it in 1785, and left a most pleasing, accurate, and critical account of the best poets of Italy, during the period alluded to. With Horace Walpole (afterwards Lord Orford), he long corresponded on subjects connected with general literature, and the fine arts; and, when in London, much of his time was spent in the society of his friends, Sir Joshua Reynolds, Doctor Johnson, Goldsmith, and Mr. Topham Beauclerk.

In some years afterwards, it was Lord Charlemont's lot to sustain a severe domestic calamity. His brother, Francis Caulfield, a most amiable man, and to whom he was greatly attached, was lost between Parkgate and Dublin, in returning from England to attend his duties in parliament as representative of the borough of Charlemont. The vessel in which he sailed foundered at sea, and all on board perished. But how little do we know to-day what to-morrow may produce. This melancholy occurrence, which, for some time, covered Lord Charlemont's house with mourning, was destined, at no distant period, to be the source of much gratification to his feelings as a statesman. By the vacancy which Mr. Caulfield's death occasioned in parliament, the electors of Charlemont were enabled, under the auspices of his lordship, to return to the House of Commons a man who was destined to act a more conspicuous part than any one whom they had ever before deputed to serve there. This was the celebrated Henry Grattan, who took his seat, for the first time in the house, the 11th of December, 1775. Lord Charlemont afterwards spoke of this election as most flattering to himself, and as an event, among many others of the same kind, by which the dispensations of Heaven are peculiarly marked, extracting satisfaction from the bosom of misfortune.

The year 1778 furnishes not only ample, but even splendid, materials for the historian of Ireland. The national distress was indeed great, but the national spirit was still greater. Ireland, like Antaeus, the more depressed to the earth, seemed to rise still stronger in proportion to its depression. The Volunteer army now appeared; an institution totally unprecedented, totally unlike any thing which we read of in the annals of any other nation in the world. With the history of Lord Charlemont it particularly blends itself. It gave to him the justest celebrity, and, as he said himself, "to that institution my country owes its liberty, prosperity, and safety; and if, after her obligations, I can mention my own, I owe to it the principal and dearest honours of my life."

The origin of this singular association is, in general, pretty well known. About this time, and perhaps a year or so before, some detached corps had been embodied in different parts of Ireland, particularly the county of Wexford, by the public spirit of some gentlemen; but the Volunteer army of Ireland is indebted for its formation to a letter of Sir Richard Heron, who was then here as secretary to Lord Buckinghamshire. Little did that worthy gentleman, and most undesigning statesman, imagine that any part of his correspondence should give rise to hosts of armed citizens, self-paid, self-commissioned, which not only protected, but, for some years, spread a glory round Ireland, astonished England, and, there is much reason to believe, obliged France to pause in the midst of some of her ambitious projects. But if the presumption of man was not too untameable to be awed by any lesson whatever, an event like this might teach nations that, in in the hands of Providence, the slightest instruments are productive of the greatest changes; and that selfishness and injustice will eventually destroy their own objects. An embargo had, in conjunction with other causes, reduced the export, and more especially the provision trade of Ireland. As the South languished under that embargo, so did the North under the pressure of the American war, which, as far as it could commercially operate here, desolated the linen trade, and, with the falling off of whatever meagre supports it had, fell also the revenue. The reduction of the former produced a general discontent, and of the latter, an inability to pay for the necessary defence of the kingdom. In this state of things, the town of Belfast, which eighteen years before had been visited by invasion, applied to government for protection against the enemy who then menaced it with peculiar danger. Sir Richard Heron's answer was plain and candid--government could afford it none.

To the many suggestions (idle, as they only produced irritation), of the illegality of the Volunteer army, this letter might, perhaps, be opposed as a substantial answer. Government was, as to national defence, abdicated, and the people left to take care of themselves. But if thus abandoned, their spirit soon supplied the defects and imbecility of administration. Antrim, and the adjacent counties, poured forth their armed citizens. The town of Armagh raised a body of men, at the head of whom Lord Charlemont placed himself. Every day beheld the institution expand--a noble ardour was almost every where diffused, and where it was not felt, it was at least imitated. Several, who had at first stood aloof, now became volunteers from necessity, from fashion. No landlord could meet his tenants, nor member of parliament his constituents, who was not willing to serve and act with his armed countrymen. The "spirit-stirring drum" was heard through every province, not "to fright the isle from its propriety," but to animate its inhabitants to the most sacred of all duties, the defence of their liberties and their country. At this time commenced the most active part of Lord Charlemont's life. That man must be cold-blooded indeed who can look back to those days without a lively enthusiasm, and becoming elevation of mind. We allude more particularly to the years 1781, and 1782, when trade revived, the volunteer army became disciplined, and a general harmony prevailed throughout Ireland. They may be regarded as the brightest which this country ever beheld.

Early in the year 1780 began the acquaintance of Lord Charlemont with Dr. Halliday, an eminent physician of Belfast, which afterwards improved into the most ardent friendship on both sides, and only ceased with Lord Charlemont's life.

We will pass over in silence the history of the conventions, and of the transactions of 1782, an epoch in Irish history, which a modern writer, (borrowing a fine illustration from the sacred volume, which we confess the dignity of the subject seems to us hardly to warrant,) splendidly describes, as "that memorable period when the Irish Parliament, in the very grave of its corruption, heard the sacred voice of Liberty saying, 'Come forth;' and the same warning voice said to England, 'Loose him, and let him go." Every history of Ireland will furnish ample information as to the occurrences of a public nature which took place about this time, which led to the establishment of the short-lived independence of the Irish legislature.

Shortly afterwards the King, having determined to create a new order of Knighthood in Ireland, to be styled the Knights of St. Patrick, Lord Temple, the then Viceroy, wrote to Lord Charlemont, in the most complimentary terms, alluding to his public services, and requesting his permission to place his name on the list then being prepared, in pursuance of his Majesty's commands. Lord Charlemont, with many expressions of thanks, accepted the honour so kindly and justly proposed to him. In the beginning of the following year, the installation took place, and was conducted with great magnificence. Immense crowds attended the procession of the knights from the castle to the cathedral, and Lord Charlemont, as he passed along, was received with applause and acclamation by all ranks of people.

Early in 1786, Lord Charlemont was placed in a situation as new as it was agreeable to him. He was elected President of that learned body, the Royal Irish Academy, then incorporated under the auspices of his Majesty. When this honour was conferred on Lord Charlemont, he did not regard it as a mere honorary distinction, to add another title to the solemn enumeration of his dignities at the Herald's office, and nothing to literature. Not one of the members attended the meetings of the Academy oftener than he did; few so constantly. His contemporary Academicians were delighted with his urbanity, the graces of his conversation, and the variety of literary anecdote ancient and modern, with which he amused, and indeed instructed them, during the intervals of their agreeable labours at the academy. In such labours, he himself bore no inglorious part.

The greater portion of Lord Charlemont's life was now spent either at the house he had built in Palace Row, or at his elegant villa near Dublin, which he had called Marino, from its proximity to the sea, in the enjoyment of the society of his friends, or engaged in literary occupations. His house was uniformly open to all who had any claim on his attention, either from similarity of constitutional principles, or their cultivation of those pleasing and liberal studies, which in general employed his mind, and were his most agreeable, though too often only momentary refuge from severer labours. Every foreigner of taste congenial to his own, and every Englishman of rank and talent, who visited Dublin, made it a point to be introduced to him. As Edmund Burke once said of him, "he was indeed a man of such polished manners, of a mind so truly adorned, and disposed to the adoption of whatever was excellent and praiseworthy, that to see and converse with him should alone induce any one who relished such qualities, to pay a visit to Dublin."

About this time, an event occurred which afterwards proved to be fraught with consequences of the deepest concernment to Ireland; it in fact led to the removal of the legislature from this country to England. We allude to the malady with which the King became afflicted, and by which the personal exercise of the royal authority being interrupted, it was deemed necessary to provide for the exigency. A motion having been brought forward by Mr. Pitt, in the British House of Commons, that a committee should be appointed to report precedents of proceedings in such cases, it was objected to by Mr. Fox, as only tending to create delay; who further urged, that the Heir-apparent to the Crown was clearly entitled, during the suspension of the exercise of the royal authority from incapacity, to the exercise of the kingly power during such incapacity, as much as if the Crown had naturally demised. This position Mr. Pitt utterly denied, and in a lofty tone declared, that "to advance such a claim or right in the Prince, or any one, without the concurrence of both houses of parliament, was a species of treason to the constitution." Thus arose the famous regency question, to follow which through its details, would quite lead us away from our subject; suffice it to say, that in England the exclusive right of parliament to make provision for the exercise of the royal functions during the incapacity of the monarch to discharge them, was asserted by considerable majorities, while in Ireland the results were totally different. In the proceedings in the Irish parliament, Lord Charlemont took a most conspicuous and honourable part. The meeting of the legislature was deferred as long as possible, and every effort was made to secure a majority for Government, but in vain. Most of the members who had always voted with opposition, and many, who, on this occasion, left the Viceroy, proposed to Lord Charlemont to call a general meeting of such as were adverse to the proceedings in the British parliament. A large party therefore of the members of both houses met at Charlemont-house, on the 23d of February, 1789. In two days after, the session opened; when it was quickly found there was a preponderance against administration, as well in the Lords as in the Commons. In the House of Lords an address to the Prince of Wales was moved by Lord Charlemont, supported by the Duke of Leinster, Lord Granard, Lord Moira, Lord Donoughmore, and other Peers, requesting his Royal Highness to take upon himself the government of Ireland, with the style and title of Prince Regent, and in the name and behalf of his Majesty, to exercise all regal powers during his Majesty's indisposition, and no longer. Both houses now waited on Lord Buckingham, with their address to the Prince, which his Excellency refused to transmit. The consequence of this refusal (for which a vote of censure on the Lord Lieutenant passed both houses) was, that the Commons appointed four of their members, and the Lords two of theirs, the Duke of Leinster, and Lord Charlemont, to proceed to England with the addresses. These proceedings terminated more happily than had been anticipated, by the restoration of the Sovereign to perfect health. The deputation, nevertheless, was received most graciously by the Prince, who particularly distinguished our good and venerable Earl.

On his return to Ireland, the health of Lord Charlemont began to fail considerably, he was now of rather advanced age, and his constitution had never at any time been very robust; he, nevertheless, continued to lead an active life, not only as a member of the legislature, but in forming the Whig club, which was established about this time, at whose meetings he often presided, and of which when his health permitted, he was the life and ornament. It consisted of the leading members of the opposition in both houses of parliament, with the addition of many gentlemen who were not in parliament, nor belonged to any party, but that of the constitution. At the same time, he was no less assiduous in forming the literary than the political character of his country; he attended constantly the meetings of the Irish Academy.

In the stormy debates of the House of Commons, in the session of 1790, Lord Charlemont took a deep interest, and spent so much more of his time in the lower house than in the upper, that it was said he should have been admitted ad eundem in the former assembly. It is true he never omitted his attendance in the Lords, but appeals constituted, at this time, the principal business of their Lordships.

Soon after this, the Bath waters being recommended as beneficial to the health of some of his Lordship's family, he prepared, at the close of April, to go there. The journey was undertaken by him with cheerfulness. "It is not pleasant to me," says he, "to give up Marino; it is still less pleasant to me to give up my library; but it is least of all pleasant to me to absent myself from that sphere of public life where my endeavours may possibly be of some small utility to my country; my absence, however, will be, I trust, but short; and if wanted I shall be ready and at hand."

At Bath Lord Charlemont remained for nearly six months; and then returned to Ireland to resume his usual avocations. We find him during the succeeding years at his post in Parliament, though his health continued to decline. We have no particular event to record about this time, except a melancholy one, the death of his second son, James Caulfield, a fine youth of seventeen years of age, who died in September, 1793. His loss was long severely felt by his father. In 1796, the Government having determined to raise yeomanry corps throughout the kingdom for the internal protection of the country in case of emergency, infirm as Lord Charlemont was, he went down to his own county of Armagh, where he was of essential service in promoting this object. Upon the dissolution of Parliament in July 1797, the venerable Earl had the pleasure of seeing his eldest son, Lord Caulfield, elected for the county of Armagh, with the entire approbation and applause of those concerned in the election. Such marks of the esteem and affection of the people for himself and his family were always dear to him. The debate in which Lord Caulfield spoke for the first time, was on a motion of Sir Laurence Parsons (March 5th) for an inquiry into the state of the nation, and to suggest such measures as were likely to conciliate the people. Lord Caulfield was listened to with peculiar attention on both sides. He spoke with sound sense. Lord Charlemont happened to be present, and could not conceal his emotions. In writing to Dr. Halliday he thus mentions the occurrence; "You will see in the papers that Frank has broken the ice; an effort which gives me the more pleasure, as I feared that the sheepishness of the father might have been entailed on the son. For his first essay he was not deficient in matter, nor in manner; and he showed a bashfulness which indicates that sensibility without which no man ever yet succeeded as a speaker.''

In the beginning of 1798, the health of Lord Charlemont began rapidly to sink, he was now subject to continued indisposition, daily sinking under his disorder, but still anxiously employed for the welfare of that country which he so truly loved. His friends saw him constantly, but saw him on every visit with augmented and sometimes ill-concealed sorrow. His fondness for literature remained the same to the last. But his valuable life now drew rapidly to a close. He had attended constantly in the House of Lords during the discussion of the question of Union, and the first temporary defeat of that measure had given him some transient spirits; but his health declined every hour, his appetite had almost ceased, his limbs swelled, and it was evident to his family and his friends, that he could not long survive. He was visited in his last illness by his numerous acquaintances, till his strength becoming more and more exhausted, rendered him incapable of seeing but very few. At last, for some days previous to his dissolution, he sank into a species of stupor, and at length expired at Charlemont-house, in Dublin, on the 4th of August, 1799, in the seventieth year of his age. It was at first intended that his funeral should be public and, though finally agreed on that it should be strictly private, it was most numerously attended. His remains were conveyed to Armagh, and interred in the family vault, in the ancient Cathedral there.

Of the character of Lord Charlemont it is hardly necessary to say much; it has been in a great measure developed in the preceding sketch; it is difficult to say whether it appeared to most advantage at home, and in the bosom of his family, or in public, where he so unceasingly contended for the constitutional liberty, and laboured to ensure the tranquillity of his country. Other characters may be more brilliant, but can any be more entitled to our affectionate veneration? His life, when in Dublin, and not engaged by the Volunteers, was extremely uniform. He was on horseback every morning, and afterwards employed in various business till about one o'clock, at that time, or soon after, he went to his library, and remained there till almost dinner-time. His friends had then constant access to him, and considering the frequent interruption of visitors, it is a matter of some surprize, that he was able to write so much as he did; but it is a proof that not one moment of his time was unemployed. When Parliament was sitting, he regularly attended his duty there; and as the Lords, if not detained by particularly important business, rose rather early, he was constantly to be seen in the House of Commons, where from long usage, he was almost regarded as a member. Those who sat next to him during a debate, were often charmed by the justness of his remarks on the different speakers. As President of the Irish Academy, he constantly attended their meetings, and, when his health was interrupted, the Academy, from their respect to him, adjourned their sittings to Charlemont-house. As to his person, Lord Charlemont was of the middle size, or rather above it; but he stooped considerably, especially toward the latter part of his life; the effect, I believe, of ill health. His eyebrows were large and black. His features, when a young man, to judge of him from one or two portraits, were of a soft and delicate cast, but pain and indisposition soon perform the work of age, and even before he had reached middle life, had much changed his features; they became expanded, strong, and rather more expressive than handsome; but when he spoke or addressed any one, the amenity of his mind was diffused over his countenance, and rendered it peculiarly engaging.

To conclude, he was, in every sense of the word, an excellent man, of morals unstained, of mind and manners the most elegant; a patriot of the justest views, who kept his loyalty and zeal in the most perfect unison; his first object in life the good of his country.

His life was gentle, and the elements
So mix'd in him, that nature might stand up
And say to all the world, "This was a man!"

O'G.