ligent mind, he employed that chaste, simple, but at the same time, nervous and impressive style of oratory which seemed admirably adapted to the elucidation and discussion of important business: it seemed to combine the force and precision of legal argument with the acquirements and knowledge of a statesman.
"Of his political opinions it is not necessary for me to enter into any detailed statement; they are sufficiently known, and do not require from me any comment or illustration. I am confident that his political opponents will admit, that he never courted popularity by any unbecoming or unworthy means; they will have the candour to allow, that the expression of his political opinions, however firm, manly, and decided, was untinctured with moroseness, and unembittered with any personal animosity or rancorous reflection. From these feelings he was effectually exempted by the operation of those qualities which formed the grace and the charm of his private life.
"But successful as his exertions were, both in this House and in the Courts of Law, considering the contracted span of his life, they can only be looked upon as the harbingers of his maturer fame, as the presages and the anticipations of a more exalted reputation. But his career was prematurely closed. That his loss to his family and his friends is irreparable, can be readily conceived; but I may add, that to this House and the country it is a loss of no ordinary magnitude; in these times it will be severely felt. In these times, however, when the structure of the constitution is undergoing close and rigorous investigation, on the part of some with the view of exposing its defects, on the part of others with that of displaying its beauties and perfections, we may derive some consolation from the reflection, that a man not possessed of the advantages of hereditary rank or of very ample fortune, was enabled, by the exertion of his own honourable industry—by the successful cultivation of his native talents, to vindicate to himself a station and eminence in society, which the proudest and wealthiest might envy and admire.
"I ought to apologize to the House, not, I trust, for having introduced the subject to their notice, for of that I hope I shall stand acquitted, but for having paid so imperfect and inadequate a tribute to the memory of my departed friend."
Mr Canning.—"Of all the instances wherein the same course has been adopted, as that which my Noble Friend has pursued with so much feeling and good taste on this occasion, I do not remember one more likely than the present to conciliate the general approbation and sympathy of the House.
"I, Sir, had not the happiness (a happiness now counterbalanced by a proportionate excess of sorrow and regret) to be acquainted personally, in private life, with the distinguished and amiable individual whose loss we have to deplore. I knew him only within the walls of the House of Commons. And even here, from the circumstance of my absence during the last two sessions, I had not the good fortune to witness the later and more matured exhibition of his talents; which (as I am informed, and can well believe) at once kept the promise of his earlier years, and opened still wider expectations of future excellence.
"But I had seen enough of him to share in those expectations, and to be sensible of what this House and the country have lost by his being so prematurely taken from us.
"He had, indeed, qualifications eminently calculated to obtain and to deserve success. His sound principles—his enlarged views—his various and accurate knowledge—the even tenor of his manly and temperate eloquence—the genuineness of his warmth, when into warmth he was betrayed—and, above all, the singular modesty with which he bore his faculties, and which shed a grace and lustre over them all; these qualifications, added to the known blamelessness and purity of his private character, did not more endear him to his friends, than they commanded the respect of those to whom he was opposed in adverse politics; they ensured to every effort of his abilities an attentive and favouring audience; and secured for him, as the result of all, a solid and unenvied reputation.
"I cannot conclude, sir, without adverting to a topic in the latter part of the speech of my Noble Friend, upon which I most entirely concur with him. It would not be seemly to mix with the mournful subject of our present contemplation any thing of a con
