"It is with deep concern we have to announce the death of Francis Horner, Esq. Member of Parliament for St Mawes. This melancholy event took place at Pisa on the 8th instant. We have had seldom to lament a greater loss, or to bewail a more irreparable calamity. With an inflexible integrity, and ardent attachment to liberty, Mr Horner conjoined a temperance and discretion not always found to accompany these virtues. The respect in which he was held, and the deference with which he was listened to in the House of Commons, is a striking proof of the effect of moral qualities in a popular assembly. Without the adventitious aids of station or fortune, he had acquired a weight and influence in Parliament, which few men, whose lives were passed in opposition, have been able to obtain; and for this consideration he was infinitely less indebted to his eloquence and talents, eminent as they were, than to the opinion universally entertained of his public and private rectitude. His understanding was strong and comprehensive, his knowledge extensive and accurate, his judgment sound and clear, his conduct plain and direct. His eloquence, like his character, was grave and forcible, without a particle of vanity or presumption, free from rancour and personality, but full of deep and generous indignation against fraud, hypocrisy, or injustice.—He was a warm, zealous, and affectionate friend—high-minded and disinterested in his conduct—firm and decided in his opinions—modest and unassuming in his manners. To his private friends his death is a calamity they can never cease to deplore. To the public it is a loss not easily to be repaired, and, in times like these, most severely to be felt."
In the House of Commons, on Monday, March 3d, 1817, Lord Morpeth rose, and spoke as follows:—"I rise to move that the speaker do issue his writ for a new member to serve in Parliament for the borough of St Mawes, in the room of the late Francis Horner, Esq.
"In making this motion, I trust it will not appear presumptuous or officious, if I address a few words to the House upon this melancholy occasion. I am aware that it is rather an unusual course; but, without endeavouring to institute a parallel with other instances, I am authorised in saying that the course is not wholly unprecedented.
"My lamented friend, of whom I never can speak without feelings of the deepest regret, had been rendered incapable for some time past, in consequence of the bad state of his health, of applying himself to the labours of his profession, or to the discharge of his parliamentary duties. He was prevailed upon to try the effects of a milder and more genial climate—the hope was vain, and the attempt fruitless: he sunk beneath the slow but destructive effect of a lingering disease, which baffled the power of medicine and the influence of climate; but under the pressure of increasing infirmity, under the infliction of a debilitating and exhausting malady, he preserved undiminished the serenity of his amiable temper, and the composure, the vigour, and firmness of his excellent and enlightened understanding. I may, perhaps, be permitted; without penetrating too far into the more sequestered paths of private life, to allude to those mild virtues—those domestic charities, which embellished while they dignified his private character. I may be permitted to observe, that, as a son and as a brother, he was eminently dutiful and affectionate; but I am aware that these qualities, however amiable, can hardly, with strict propriety, be addressed to the consideration of Parliament. When, however, they are blended, interwoven, and incorporated in the character of a public man, they become a species of public property, and, by their influence and example, essentially augment the general stock of public virtue.
"For his qualifications as a public man I can confidently appeal to a wider circle—to that learned profession of which he was a distinguished ornament—to this House, where his exertions will be long remembered with mingled feelings of regret and admiration. It is not necessary for me to enter into the detail of his graver studies and occupations. I may be allowed to say generally, that he raised the edifice of his fair fame upon a good and solid foundation—upon the firm basis of conscientious principle. He was ardent in the pursuit of truth; he was inflexible in his adherence to the great principles of justice and of right. Whenever he delivered in this House the ideas of his clear and intel-
