listened reluctantly, and supinely, at first, but still he listened, to the voice of his country, which told him, that the duties of public life should take their turn also, and had a predominant claim on those who, like him, to high birth and station, added, what was of far more consequence to the community, the powers of a strong and cultivated mind. Accordingly he, for some time, attended the House of Lords. But he soon discovered that, although he wished to engage in business, the Upper House of the Irish Parliament was, of all places on earth the most unpropitious to any such laudable pursuit. An ungenerous and unwise policy had withered almost all the functions of that assembly, and the ill. omened statute of George the First, hung on it like an incubus. He was much mortified at finding himself in the company of such august but imbecile, inefficient personages, who moved about, more like the shadows of legislators, than genuine and sapient guardians of the realm, or counsellors to Majesty. He soon grew weary of them. To an intimate friend of his, who often repeated the circumstance to me, he lamented that he was not born a commoner; and some time after, he proved that he was not affectedly querulous or insincere in the regret which he expressed, for he procured a seat in the English House of Commons. Whilst he sat there, he spoke not unfrequently; his speaking was much approved of, and he began to relish the new scene of life, into which, for the best purposes, he had now entered. But procrastination renders our best efforts ineffectual; a severe malady soon overtook him; he resigned his seat in the House of Commons, and after struggling with uninterrupted ill health for some time, he died universally beloved in the prime of life, having scarcely passed his thirty-fourth year. Lord Charlemont lived with him, as with the dearest brother of his heart, and to the close of his life spoke of, and lamented him, with the truest sensibility. EARL OF CARHAMPTON. Simon Luttrell, Earl of Carhampton, was descended from a long line of progenitors, who, for several centuries were seated at Luttrelstown, in the county of Dublin, where, as well as in other counties of Ireland, they had very large possessions. The immediate ancestors of Lord Carhampton, or some of them at least, followed the fortunes of James the Second. His uncle held a high rank in that prince's army, and was by him appointed a privy counsellor of Ireland on the same day with the celebrated Anthony, Count Hamilton. He was killed at the battle of Landen. Lord Carhampton was bred up in political principles directly opposite to those of his ancestors; and received the first part of his education at Eton, where he formed early habits of intimacy with Lord Camden, whose age corresponded exactly with his own. He was a distinguished member of the House of Lords in Ireland for many years, though by no means young when he took his seat in that assembly. Whilst he was there, he spoke with his accustomed wit and humour, great per spicuity, spicuity, adroitness, knowledge of mankind, quickness in perceiving, and rallying the foibles of his adversaries, stimulating, if it suited his purpose, a warm temper to warmth still greater, with a general vigilance and command of his own. To oratory he had no claim. He was well versed in the proceedings of parliament, as, for the best part of his life, he had sat in the English House of Commons, where, though he did not press forward as a constant debater, he was a most keen and accurate observer of all that passed. As a companion, a more agreeable man could scarcely be found. He was the delight of those whose society he frequented, whilst he resided in Dublin, as he did almost constantly towards the close of his life. His conversation (for I had long the honour and happines of partaking of it) was charming; full of sound sense, perfect acquaintance with the histories of the most distinguished persons of his own age, and that which preceded it; without the least garrulity pursuing various narratives, and enlivening all with the most graceful original humour. In many respects it resembled that species of conversation, which the French, at a period when society was best understood, distinguished above all other colloquial excellence of that day, by the appropriate phraseofl' Esprit de Mortemart. Gay, simple, very peculiar, yet perfectlynatural,easy, and companionable; unambitious of all ornament, but embellished by that unstudied and becoming air, which a just taste, improved by long familiarity with persons of the best manners, can alone beLord Carhampton was an stow. excellent scholar; but as the subjects which engaged his attention in general were either political, or such as an agreeable man of the world would most dwell on in mixed companies, his literary acquirements were only, or more peculiarly, known to those who lived in greater intimacy with him. skilful panegyric of this nobleman, To enter into an idle and unis not the part of these memoirs; but they can state with propriety, that he was friendly and good-natured; and it is only doing bare justice to his memory to add, that the accounts which political writperiod of the Middlesex election, ers of the day, especially at the published with regard to him, are almost without exception to be regarded as the mere fabrications of party. EARL OF BEllamont. mont, was, I believe, descended Charles Coote, Earl of Bellafrom that Sir Charles Coote, who acted no inconsiderable part as a military personage, in Ireland, during that agitated period, which 1611. No portion of his warlike succeeded the calamitous æra of spirit was lost in his descendant, who, at an early period of his life, distinguished himself against the Oak boys, and other insurgents; for which services it was thought proper to reward him with a red ribband; and he was accordingly invested with the ensigns of the order of the Bath by the Duke of Northumberland, then Lord Lieutenant, at the castle of Dublin. He was a nobleman who possessed much quickness of parts, of real but but very singular talents, and most fantastic in the use of them. In his dress, his air, his manners, his diction, whether in common conversation, or debate, he was totally unlike any other man of his time. His person was well-formed, of a most advantageous height, and, when decorated with his star, or other emblems of chivalry, he moved along like a Lord Herbert of Cherbury, or one of those knights who "jousted in Aspramont or Montalban;" as lofty in mien as in phrases; courteous, or hostile, as the occasion required. His oratory cannot be at all adequately described. He must have been heard in the House of Lords, where the stately march of his periods, his solemn pauses, his correspondent gestures, his selection of words, so remote from common use, yet not always deficient in energy or point, sometimes excited the admiration, and always the amazement of his auditors. The politeness of his manners was certainly engaging, though ceremonious, and tinctured with that eccentricity, which pervaded his whole deportment. He had a just and becoming public spirit, which conciliated the regard of Lord Charlemont, who acted as his second in his celebrated duel with the Marquis Townshend; when, it is almost superfluous to add, he behaved with his usual characteristic gallantry and punctilious antique courtesy. He was most severely wounded, but lived many years afterwards. WALTER HUSSEY BURGH. Walter Hussey, who afterwards took the name of Burgh, and was advanced to the station of Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer, came at this time into parliament under the auspices of James Duke of Leinster. He immediately joined the opposition then formed against the administration of Lord Townshend. His speeches, when he first entered the House of Commons, were very brilliant, very figurative, and far more remarkable for that elegant, poetic taste, which had highly distinguished him when a member of the university, than any logical illustration or depth of argument. But as he was blessed with great endowments, every session took away somewhat from the unnecessary splendour and redundancy of his harangues. To make use of a phrase of Cicero, in speaking of his own improvement in eloquence, his orations were gradually deprived of all fever. Clearness of intellect, a subtle, refined, and polished wit, a gay, fertile, uncommonly fine imagination, very classical taste, superior harmony, and elegance of diction, peculiarly characterised this justly celebrated man. Though without beauty, his countenance was manly, engaging, and expressive; his figure agreeable and interesting; his deportment eminently graceful. To those who never heard him, as the fashion of this world in eloquence, as in all things, soon passes away, it may be no easy matter to convey a just idea of his style of speaking; it differed totally from the models which have been presented to us by some of the great masters of rhetoric in latter days. His eloquence was by no means gaudy, tumid, nor approaching to that species of oratory, which the Roman critics denominated Asi atic; atic; but it was always decorated as the occasion required: it was often compressed, and pointed, though that could not be said to have been its general feature. It was sustained by great ingenuity, great rapidity of intellect, luminous and piercing satire; in refinement abundant, in simplicity sterile. The classical allusions of this orator, for he was most truly one, were so apposite, they followed each other in such bright and varied succession, and, at times, spread such an unexpected and triumphant blaze around his subject, that all persons, who were in the least tinged with literature, could never be tired of listening to him. The Irish are a people of quick sensibility, and perfectly alive to every display of ingenuity or illustrative wit. Never did the spirit of the nation soar higher than during the splendid days of the volunteer institution; and, when Hussey Burgh, alluding to some coercive English laws, and that institution, then in its proudest array, said in the House of Commons, "That such laws were sown likedragons'teeth,and sprung up in armed men;" the applause which followed, and the glow of enthusiasm which he kindled in every mind, far exceed my powers of description. Never did the graces more sedulously cherish, and uniformly attend, any orator more than this amiable and elegant man. They embellished all that he said, all that he did; but the graces are fugitive, or perishable. Of his admired speeches, but few, if any, records are now to be found; and of his harmonious flowing eloquence, it may be said, as Tacitus did of an eminent speaker in his time, "Haterii canorum illud, et profluens, cum ipso extinctum est." He accepted the office of Prime Serjeantduringthe early part of lord Buckinghamshire'sadministration; but the experience of one session convinced him, that his sentiments and those of the English and Irish cabinets, on the great questions relative to the independence of Ireland, would never assimilate. He soon grew weary of his situation; when his return to the standard of opposition was marked by all ranks of people, and especially his own profession, as a day of splendid triumph. Numerous were the congratulations which he received on this sacrifice of official emolument to the duty which he owed to his country. That country he loved even to enthusiasm. He moved the question of a free trade for Ireland, as the only measure that could then rescue this kingdom from total decay. The resolution was concise, energetic,and successful. He supported Mr. Grattan in all the motions which finally laid prostrate the dominion of the British parliament over Ireland. When he did so, he was not unacquainted with the vindictive disposition of the English cabinet of that day, towards all who dared to maintain such propositions. such propositions. One night, when he sat down after a most able, argumentative speech in favour of the just rights of Ireland, he turned to Mr. Grattan, "I have now," said he, "nor do I repent it, sealed the door against my own preferment; and I have made the fortune of the man opposite to me," naming a particular person who sat on the treasury bench. He He loved fame, he enjoyed the blaze of his own reputation, and the most unclouded moments of his life were not those when his exertions at the bar, or in the House of Commons, failed to receive their accustomed and ample tribute of admiration: that, indeed, but rarely happened; he felt it at particular moments, during his connection with the Buckinghamshire administration; nor did the general applause which he received counterbalance his temporary chagrin. A similar temperament is, I think, recorded of Racine; but he had not Racine's jealousy. On the contrary, the best intellectual displays of his contemporaries seemed always to be the most agreeable to him; and I can well attest, that he hailed the dawn of any young man's rising reputation with the tribute of kindred genius. He died at a time of life when his faculties, always prompt and discriminating, approximated, as it should seem, to their fullest perfection. On the bench, where he sat more than one year, he had sometimes lost sight of that wise precept, which Lord Bacon lays down for the conduct of a judge towards an advocate at the bar "You should not affect the opinion of poignancy and expedition by an impatient and catching hearing of the counsellors at the bar." He seemed to be sensible of his deviation from this; to be convinced that security in our own opinions, like too great security in any thing, "is mortals chiefest enemy;" and that, in our daily converse with the world, we meet with others who are far wiser than ourselves, even on those points where we fondly imagine our own wisdom to be the most authenticated. His honest desire not to feed contention, but bring it to as speedy a termination as could reasonably be wished, deserves great praise. "He did not," says Mr. Flood, alluding to him in one of his speeches, "live to be ennobled, but he was ennobled by nature." I value the just prerogatives of ancient nobility, but to the tears and regrets of a nation, bending over the urn of public and private excellence, as Ireland did over his, what has heraldry to add, or, at such moments, what can it bestow? HENRY FLOOD: Mr. Henry Flood was by far one of the ablest men that ever sat in the Irish parliament. As he will appear frequently in the course of these memoirs, I shall not enter here into his character as entirely as I otherwise should. He came into the House of Commons, and spoke during the administration of the Earl of Halifax. Hamilton's success, as a speaker, drew him instantly forward, and his first parliamentary essay was brilliant and imposing. Hutchinson, who was at that time with the court, replied to him with many compliments; and, as has been already observed, he was almost generally applauded, except by Primate Stone. He was a consummate member of parliament. Active, ardent, and persevering, his industry was without limits. In advancing, and, according to the parliamentary phrase, driving a ques tion, |