COURTENAY. 31 his friend and faithful adherent Captain Courtenay, who was immediately appointed his official secretary. He was also brought into the House of Commons, being nominated to represent the borough of Tamworth, in the fifteenth parliament of Great Britain, which assembled 1st Octo ber, 1780. He was re-chosen three years after, and was made surveyor of the ordnance, a post of some im portance, on which a new writ was issued April 23d. In the sixteenth and seventeenth parliaments (1784 and 1790) of Great Britain, he sat for the same place; after which, at the general election in 1797, he was appointed a burgess for Appleby. In the first imperial parliament which met February 2, 1801, he was returned in conjunc tion with Mr. Adair, afterwards minister at Constanti nople; and in the second and third, he had his high-gifted countryman, Sir Philip Francis, for his colleague. He continued in parliament during 1802, 3, 4, and 5, in which year he formed one of the majority who passed a . vote of censure on Lord Melville. On the change of ad ministration in 1806, Mr. Courtenay became a commis sioner of the treasury, a place of 1600l. per annum, and after enjoying this place only for a few months, retired from public life. He died on the 24th March, 1816, in the seventy-fifth year of his age, and was deeply regretted by a l l who knew him. As a statesman, h e was the firm and uncompromising friend both o f civil and religious liberty; and his speech, delivered Dec. 21, 1798, o n the suspension o f the habeas corpus act, does infinite honour both t o his head and heart. As a poet, h e possessed i n a n eminent degree, a facility i n versifying the incidents o f the day; and a s a wit, was successful i n his replies and sarcastic observations. Of his bon mots the following may b e adduced a s a favourable specimen. The celebrated Gibbon happening one afternoon t o burst forth into a glowing eulogium o n that classical piece, “The Beggar's Opera,” a s tending .
