With his fine genius, earnestness of purpose, and cultivated mind, Romilly's merits must have, sooner or later, attracted the attention of those in high places. But a man of far less conspicuous talent, under the auspices of some influential magnate, might have outstripped him in the race, but for this good fortune of being cordially received at the table of a distinguished peer. His success was now a mere matter of time. Soon after this introduction, Romilly published an anonymous pamphlet, which he called a "Fragment on the Constitutional Power and Duties of Juries." It created some sensation, and upon the author becoming known, raised him highly in the esteem of Lord Lansdowne. Indeed, the noble lord formed so high an opinion of his merits, that he soon afterwards offered him a seat in parliament, which Romilly would have gladly accepted if he "could have gone to the house of commons perfectly independent." His next tract indicates that his mind had taken a decided turn towards the study of criminal law. This was also published without a name, as "Observations on a late publication, entitled Thoughts on Executive Justice," and purported to be a refutation of Madan's reasoning in favour of invariably and literally carrying into execution the sentence pronounced in court. Though Mr. Romilly was making decided progress in high quarters, his professional business was not very considerable until some six or seven years after his call to the bar. His first mistake was to neglect quarter sessions. When Mr. Justice Heath pointed out to him "that there was no use in going a circuit without attending sessions," he forthwith acted upon the advice of the learned judge, and soon recovered his lost ground. In 1799 his practice had become so great, that he quitted the circuit and confined himself to the superior courts in London. Next year he was raised to the rank of counsel within the bar, and soon commanded the leading practice in chancery. The bishop of Durham conferred on him the chancellorship of the county palatine of Durham. In 1805 the prince of Wales, having formed a high opinion of Romilly from his ability in the conduct of a chancery suit, offered him a seat in the house of commons, a distinction which Romilly a second time and for the same reason declined. Romilly was not only a whig, but a liberal and advanced reformer. On the formation of the Grenville administration in 1806, his influence and merits could not be overlooked. He was accordingly made solicitor-general, received the dignity of knighthood, and was returned a member for Queenborough. A seat in the house meant for Romilly hard work, and independence of action. The bankruptcy act, 46 Geo. III., c. 135, was the first fruit of ids untiring industry in parliament; but the statute with which his name is best known to lawyers is the 47 Geo. III. c. 74, an act which, after an opposition of the most violent character, provided that the fee simple estates of deceased traders should be liable to the payment not only of debts to which their heirs were bound, but also of their simple contract debts, or debts arising in ordinary business. Romilly exerted himself to get this just liability extended to the lands of nontraders as well as traders; but he was borne down by an overwhelming opposition, and it was left for the parliament of 1833 to vindicate his superior judgment and sagacity, by adopting that very suggestion, and passing an act which is now universally admired for its justice. In March, 1807, the whigs went out of office. According to the loose political morality of that period, Romilly purchased the borough of Horsham from the duke of Norfolk, though he had the candour to admit that it was "a detestable mode of getting into the house." From the year 1807 to the close of his life, a period of ten years, his labours were principally directed to the reform of our penal code. In 1808 he brought in a bill which eventually became law (48 Geo. III., c. 129), whereby the 8 Eliz. c. 4, making the offence of stealing from the person a capital crime, was repealed. Two years later he failed in inducing parliament to abolish the penalty of death, for stealing privately in a shop goods to the value of five shillings; for stealing in private houses, or from vessels on navigable rivers, goods amounting in value to forty shillings. While making the reform of the criminal law his principal work, Romilly also took active interest in the political questions of the period. In a very able speech he opposed the proposal to declare war against Napoleon upon his return from Elba in 1815. He denounced the Alien act, and the bills introduced for suppressing the insurrections in Ireland, while he was one of the most eloquent and enthusiastic advocates of Roman catholic emancipation, and of an enlarged elective franchise. On the 29th of October, 1818, Lady Romilly expired at Cowes in the Isle of Wight. The powerful mind of the scholar, the statesman, and the judge, was laid prostrate by this fell calamity. With a temperament which even in the gay days of childhood became at times clouded, united to natural affections that grew with the waning years more exquisite and gentle; the bereavement from which the strong and less sensitive would have in time recovered, lashed the mind of Romilly into a delirious sorrow, in the madness of which he laid his hand upon his life, and expired on the 2nd of November, 1818.—G. H. P.
ROMNEY, George, historical and portrait painter, born at Dalton in Lancashire, in December, 1734. He was brought up by his father to his own business of cabinetmaking, but young Romney showed such a decided taste for drawing, that at the age of nineteen his father was induced to place him with a portrait painter of the name of Steele, then living at Kendal. Romney himself practised for five years as a painter of portraits and fancy subjects at Kendal, and with much success. In 1756 he had ventured to marry Mary Abbot of Kirkland, a young woman who had nursed him during an illness, and shortly afterwards imagined that as a painter he had taken a very imprudent step. This idea was the great mistake of his life. He sacrificed his own and his wife's domestic happiness to his selfish professional ambition. He looked upon his wife as an insuperable impediment to his success. In 1762 he carried out the great object of his ambition. He set out alone for London, leaving his wife with two young children under the impression that she was to follow him when he was settled. She was, however, never invited to join her husband. During the long period of thirty-seven years he visited her but twice, and ultimately joined her only when he required a nurse to administer to his wants, and bear with his weaknesses. Romney met with early encouragement in London, made many friends, and in not very many years became the rival of Reynolds and of Gainsborough as a portrait painter, besides ranking among the highest as a painter of fancy subjects. He started with charging two guineas for a head at Kendal. In London he commenced charging four guineas; then five, in 1763; afterwards, when he lived in Cavendish Square, fifteen; and eventually, in 1793, the same as Reynolds—thirty-five guineas for a head. Romney paid a short visit to Paris in 1764. At this time he exhibited with the Society of British artists, and he continued to do so until 1772, when he ceased altogether to exhibit. He never sent any works to the exhibitions of the Royal Academy, and could not therefore be elected a member. In 1773 he visited Italy, with a painter of the name of Humphry. They went by way of Paris, Marseilles, Genoa, and Leghorn, to Florence and Rome, and arrived there in June of that year. From Rome he went to Venice, where he became acquainted with Wortley Montague, whom he painted; and he returned to London by Turin, Lyons, and Paris, in the summer of 1775. It was after his return from this journey that he took the house of Coates, the crayon-painter in Cavendish Square, afterwards inhabited by Sir Martin Archer Shee. After many years of uninterrupted success as a portrait painter, even supplanting Reynolds in popular favour, he retired to Hampstead, there to devote himself with more leisure to fancy subjects. In 1799, however, he suddenly returned to his wife at Kendal, and broke up his establishment at Hampstead. His wife received him affectionately, notwithstanding the long years of neglect, and was a second time a careful and patient nurse to him; first in his early youth, and again in the closing years of his life, when he was afflicted with imbecility. Such was the end of his ambitious career. He died at Kendal on the 15th November, 1802. His daughter died young. His son entered the church, and afterwards published a life of his father. Some of Romney's portraits of women are admirable; they are solidly painted, but with the utmost freedom and effect. Some fine specimens were exhibited at the British Institution in 1862. Hayley the poet has left us an elaborate life of the painter, his intimate friend, published in 4to, 1809; and for this life Flaxman the sculptor, another of Romney's intimate friends, furnished a critique upon the painter's style. "His heads," says the sculptor, "were various. The male were decided and grand, the female lovely. His figures resembled the antique; the limbs were elegant, and finely formed; his drapery was well understood. Few artists since the fifteenth century have been able to do so much in so many different branches."—R. N. W.
ROMNEY, Henry Sidney, Earl of. See Sidney.
ROMULUS, the founder and first king of Rome. Though
