man and the scholar. His general 'manner, deportment, and beha

viour, were amiable and prepossessing; his disposition was natu

CHARACTER OF JOHN HORNE TOOKE.

a desire to pay a due respect to persons in superior stations, and certainly contrived to move in a higher sphere of society than any other English artist had done before him. Thus he procured for professors of the arts a consequence, dignity, and reception, which they had never before possessed in this country. In conversation be preserved an equable flow of spirits, which rendered him at all times a most desirable companion, ever ready to be amused, and to contribute to the amusement of others. He practised the minute elegancies, and, though latterly a deaf companion, was never troublesome.

As to his person; in his stature Sir Joshua Reynolds was rather under the middle size, of a florid complexion, roundish blunt features, and a lively aspect; not corpulent, though somewhat inclined to it, but extremely active; with manners uncommonly polished and agreeable.

In conversation, his manner was perfectly natural, simple, and unassuming. He most heartily enjoyed his profession, in which he was both fortunate and illustrious; and I agree with Mr. Malone, who says he appeared to him to be the happiest man he had ever known. He was thoroughly sensible of his rare lot in life, and truly thankful for it; his virtues were blessed with their full reward.

Stephens, Esq.

In point of stature, Mr. Tooke did not exceed the middle size; but nature had formed him streng and athletic. His limbs were well knit, compact, and duly proportioned; and he might be said to have been comely rather than handsome, in his youth. His features were regular, and his hair, towards the latter end of life, was generally combed loosely over the temples, and cut close behind. His eye was eminently expressive; it had something peculiarly keen, as well as arch in it; his look seemed to denote an union of wit and satire. When he first survey. ed a stranger, he seemed to take a peep into his heart; and in argument it was difficult to withstand the piercing sharpness of his vision, which appeared but to anticipate the triumph of his tongue. No one was ever better calculated for colloquial disputation; or that duel-like controversy, exhibited by two disputants, when pitted together, with the breadth of a mahogany board only between them. In such an arena, he was invincible! wit, humour, learning, temper, genius,-all came in aid of argument, and when he made his most deadly thrusts, it was with a smiling countenance, and without any seeming effort or emotion. For a larger theatre, perhaps, he was not equally calculated. His voice was not sufficiently powerful for a tumultuous audience. He neither possessed the dignified majesty

majesty of the old, nor the amazing volubility of the new school. That flexibility of features which gives the power, and that rare but precious faculty, proceeding from art or nature, which affords the means of expressing all the passions in succession, appear to have been wanting. Yet, deficient as he might be in respect to those quali fications, he is said in the senate to have been listened to with attention, and on the hustings, at Covent Garden, he always experienced a marked and uniform degree of applause; for there he had recourse to that broad humour in which the multitude delights, and those bold, sweeping assertions, those daring and unmeasured charges, which are suitable to the genius of a popular audience.

The sarcastic remark of Mr. Wilkes, in early life, "that the parson never laughed," was, in some degree, verified in his latter years. It was evident, that no one could tell a story, or enjoy a joke better; but he seemed in general to keep his passions in abeyance, and seldom or never exhibited signs of that obstreperous and convulsive merriment which others so frequently display and enjoy. The character of his countenance seems to be admirable pourtrayed in the following lines:

In many parts of his character, he seemed to reconcile contradictions. In general he spoke as if destitute of feeling; and, for the most part, acted as if made up of sensibility; in fine, be united, in himself, what king William declared to appertain only to the Duke of Marlborough: "the coolest head with the warmest heart."

Gay, lively, and full of pleasantry in general conversation; on politics alone, he was bitter, vituperative, and inflexible. On those occasions, however, he seemed to be actuated solely by conviction; and it is no small praise, that, without regarding popularity, he was constantly on the side of liberty.

Originally open, communicative, and confiding, he had, in the course of time, become close, reserved, and suspicious. The experience of a long series of years had, doubtless, taught him caution, and even distrust, in respect to public men; for, in the bloom of youth, he had experienced the treachery of one friend, while, in the decline of life, he had nearly been cut off from society by the enmity of another; and yet, in behalf of the former he had sacrificed his fortune; while he had heartily embarked in the same cause with the latter, and fought in the thickest of the battle without any prospect of reward after the victory.

That he was devoid of guilt, in respect to his conduct at the com. mencement of the first American war, the general voice of the ration seems to have long since determined: that his conduct was meritorious, in attempting to stop the effusion of the blood of those con

nected

nected with us by every tie dear to a nation, will scarcely be doubted at the present day. To those who decide by events alone, it still remains to be proved whether the contest with France has been advantageous or injurious, and consequently, whether his opposition to it was politic or imprudent; but, as to his innocence, in regard to the charge of treason, this will not admit of any doubt, as it has been confirmed, not only by the verdict of a jury, but by the concurring assent of the whole nation.

That he who quarrelled with Mr. Wilkes for his bad faith; who attacked Lord Mansfield for his illegal decisions; who opposed Mr. Fox on account of his coalition; and boldly, but fruitlessly, urged the charge of apostacy against Mr. Pitt, should have created a multitude of enemies, cannot excite much surprise. This, perhaps, will assist in solving the paradox, by enabling us to discover why he, who was uniform in his politics, should be detested for double dealing; why one, constantly actuated by principle, should be termed a hypocrite; and why a man attached to the constitution in all its forms, should be branded with the name of a republican.

In point of disinterestedness, no man of his age can be put in competition with him; all that he obtained in the cause of the public, consisted of fines, imprisonment, and persecution. For opposing the fatal contest with America, he experienced a long confinement, and was obliged to redeem himself from protracted captivity, by a consider able mulct. For objecting to the subsequent war with France, he

was detained in different jails during the term of many months, araigned for treason, and finally tried for his life.

From the exercise of his profession, he was precluded by chicanery and oppression, originating in the petty jealousy of a great judge, and the servile compliance of the benchers of the Inner Temple; while, from a seat in parliament, he was actually cut off, by an act of political proscription, wholly unexampled in the annals of British legislation.

It could be no common man, against whom such extraordinary measures were recurred to! It could be no common man, to whom his greatest enemies, as well as his best friends, seemed anxious, before their death, to unite in paying a public and a private tribute to his worth; as was the case with Wilkes, who was eager to acknowledge his virtues in the face of the people; and Thurlow, who, after he had run the race of ambition, courted his acquaintance in the peaceful shades of retirement.

That he was somewhat intractable and unaccommodating as a politician, cannot fairly be denied; and in this, perhaps, he but too much resembled Fletcher of Saltoun, the celebrated Scottish patriot. In a free country, the solitary efforts of a single individual can effect but little; it is by a combination of means, and of efforts, alone, that any thing advantageous can be achieved for the commonwealth. Caius and Tiberius Gracchus had the laws and the constitution of Rome on their side; and yet, by neglecting this obvious maxim, they were sacrificed,

one

one after the other, to the jealousy of their opponents, without contributing any thing in behalf of the common cause, which was ruined by their injudicious exertions.

But notwithstanding all this, and even under a variety of disadvantages, in point of birth, fortune, and profession, much must be allowed to have been accomplished by the subject of this memoir. As an author, his work on the theory of language has stood the test of criticism, and will, probably, be esteemed, so long as the tongue in which it was written shall endure. In respect to the laws, from the practice of which he was unjustly precluded, he has, at least, confirmed that noble position in English jurisprudence, "That no man shall be obliged to accuse himself," by putting an end to interrogatories. And in regard to politics, if he proved unequal to the task of effecting any essential reform in the representation of the house of commons, yet by procuring the publication of the debates, he diffused a general taste for parhamentary investigation; and, while a new check was thus imposed on corruption, he, at the same time, enabled every man in England to sit in judgment on the conduct of his representatives.

In respect to political principles, he may be considered as a whig of the times of king William; never contending for a republic, like Milton; but, like Lord Molesworth, standing up for every thing, either aimed at or obtained by the revolution. This subjected him to no common share of obloquy, and seemed to involve his opinions in a chronological error; for they were not always fitted to the times in

which he lived, but appeared, by some anachronism, to have been transferred from the seventeenth to the beginning of the nineteenth century. Accordingly, the notions of government maintained by him, were said to be utterly impracticable. His extreme disinterestedness; his ideas of political perfectability; his personal independence; might be well calculated for a solitary, unconnected individual; but they were not deemed suitable to the genius of a luxurious and corrupt age. The machine of the body politic, it was said, could not be brought into action under such auspices, unless a new race of men was created for the express purpose of working it; while a single individual, however able, and however powerful, could not act with any effect in a government so constituted as ours, without the aid of a party possessing all the feelings, passions, and prejudices of men. It must, however, be allowed, that with a steady uniformity, of which Bolingbroke could not boast, Mr. Tooke possessed a better right than that nobleman, to style himself " the enemy of no national party, the friend of no faction; but distinguished under the cloud of proscription, by zeal to maintain the liberty, and to restore the ancient prosperity of Great Britain."

His reasoning faculties were pe. culiarly acute, prompt, and unclouded. During an argument, he usually heard his adversary with great patience, and, in his turn, pointed out the real, or seeming absurdity of his reasoning. If no opening was given for this, he then recurred to the Socratic method, and by means of pertinent and

well

well-timed interrogatories, artfully drew forth such replies as could hot fail to prove serviceable to that side which he espoused. After all, although truth was obviously the general aim of life, yet it is but fair to allow, that he sometimes contended merely for victory; the ablest and best of men frequently fighting, like gladiators, for fame, without troubling themselves much as to the justice of the cause. Let it be recollected, however, that when declared conqueror, which was usually the case, he did not plume himself on his acquisition, or exhibit any unbecoming airs: on the contrary, he generally contrived to say something handsome of his antagonist, and endeavoured to soften defeat by compliment and conciliation. On the other hand, when the ground occupied was no longer tenable, like a skilful commander, he shifted his position; and, while preparing to renew the combat on more equal terms, he skilfully covered his retreat by playing off the inexhaustible artillery of his wit, raillery, and humour, under the smoke of which he retired with all the air of a triumph.

Jn point of personal intrepidity, Mr. Tooke has never been excelled. No fears could appal; no threats could terrify; no sufferings could subdue him. He lived, as if he had existed solely for the purpose of maintaining his principles; and such was his enthusiasm, that he seemed only ambitious of some proper opportunity to vindicate them by his death. On one occasion, he prevented the progress of a private bill in its way through parliament, by his own personal interposition; at another, he dictated the only

reply ever made by a subject to a British sovereign; and even during the trial for his life, when the common herd of mankind are entirely occupied with the perils of their situation, his mind was so disengaged, and his conduct so dignified, that he seemed, at one and the same time, to overawe a minister, whom he examined as a witness, and prescribe the law to the judges on the bench.

CHARACTERS OF ALBERONI AND RIPPERDA.

[From Mr. Coxe's Memoirs of the Kings of Spain.]

"According to the description of his contemporaries, Alberoni was of low stature, rather full than thin, plain in his features, and with a head too large in proportion to his height and size. But his look was peculiarly quick and piercing, and perfectly characteristic of his aspiring mind, though tempered with an expression of sweetness and dignity. His voice was flexible and melodious; and when he endeavoured to conciliate or persuade, assumed a tone and accent which gave irresistible force to his language. Though habituated to courts and camps; though accustomed to the intercourse of polished and lettered society; and though, on occasions which roused his lofty spirit, he assumed an air and tone of dignity becoming his high situa tion, yet he never lost the original coarseness of his manner, derived from his mean birth and early connexions

ای

"In the endowment of his mind nature seems to have lavished

the