whatever clime a congenial heart may beat, attuned to all the noble feelings which elevate and adorn our nature, there will the sigh of regret be heard, and the note of lamentation break upon the hour of its mirth. The meteor of heaven vanishes-the mountains of the earth may crumble away-but the genius of man lives for ever, imperishable, inextinguishable, indestructible. Though the body, like the mountain, may lie mouldering into dust, the spirit still lives amongst us; it has left behind it that which can never die—which will never perish, until all life and breath are swept from the earth, and power is given to the angel of destruction to blot the world from being. It is, however, a melancholy truth, verified by daily experience, that it is only after an individual, celebrated for his actions or his talents, has been enveloped in his shroud, and laid in the tomb of his fathers, that his virtues or his merits become properly appreciated. A host of enemies, conjured up by envy and malice, assail, whilst living, the fame and reputation of the man of genius, who, carried away by the power of his intellectual spirit, creates for himself an orbit of his own, and, scornful of the faint and feeble light emitted by the minor objects which surround him, dares, like an erratic star of heaven, loosed from an Almighty hold, to move in an eccentric course, and plunge into distant spheres, which the low and grovelling mind can never reach. To attempt the delineation of the life and character of a minister of state is at all times a difficult, delicate, and sometimes a dangerous task; for the passions of the majority of men are too much agitated to attend to the coolness of discussion, while they contemplate the immediate political situation of their country; and it must also be considered that we should be deviating too far from the aim and intent of this work, were we to enter into an enlarged detail of the private or political history of the two illustrious statesmen whose death took place within a few months of each other; that of Mr. Pitt happening on the 23d of January, and that of Mr. Fox on the 13th of September, in the same year. Of the former it may be said that his character early passed its ordeal. Scarcely had he attained the age at which reflection com mences, when Europe with astonishment beheld him filling the first place in the councils of his country, and managing the vast mass of its concerns with all the vigour and steadiness of the most matured wisdom. Dignity, strength, discretionthese were among the masterly qualities of his mind at its first dawn. He had been nurtured a statesman, and his knowledge was of that kind which always lies ready for practical application. Not dealing in the subtleties of abstract politics, but moving in the slow, steady procession of reason, his conceptions were reflective, and his views correct. Habitually attentive to the concerns of government, he spared no pains to acquaint himself with whatever was connected, however minutely, with its prosperity. He was devoted to the state; its interests engrossed all his study, and engaged all his care it was the element alone in which he seemed to live and move. He allowed himself but little recreation from his labours; his mind was always in its station, and his activity was unremitted. He did not hastily adopt a measure, nor hastily abandon it. The plan struck out by him for the preservation of Europe was the result of prophetic wisdom and profound policy. But, although defeated in many respects by the selfish ambition and short-sighted imbecility of foreign powers, whose rulers were too venal or too weak to follow the flight of that mind which could have taught them to outwing the storm, the policy involved in it has still a secret operation on the conduct of surrounding states. His plans were full of energy, and the principles which inspired them looked beyond the consequences of the hour. In a period of change and convulsion, the most perilous in the history of Great Britain, when sedition stalked abroad, and when the emissaries of France, and the abettors of her regicide factions, formed a league, powerful from their number, and formidable by their talent, in that awful crisis the promptitude of his measures saved his country. He knew nothing of that timid and wavering cast of mind which dares not abide by its own decision. He never suffered popular prejudice nor party clamour to turn him aside from any measure which his deliberate judgment had adopted: he had a proud reliance on himself, and he was justified. Like the sturdy warrior leaning on his own battle-axe, conscious where his strength lay, he did not readily look beyond it. As a debater in the House of Commons, his speeches were logical and argumentative. If they did not often abound with the graces of metaphor, or sparkle with the brilliancy of wit, they were always animated, elegant, and classical. The strength of his oratory was intrinsic; it presented the rich and abundant resource of a clear discernment and correct taste. His speeches are stamped with inimitable marks of originality. When replying to his opponents, his readiness was not more conspicuous than his energy: he was always prompt, and always dignified. He could sometimes have recourse to the sportiveness of irony, but he did not often seek any other aid than was to be derived from an arranged and extensive knowledge of his subject. This qualified him fully to discuss the arguments of others, and forcibly to defend his own. Thus armed, it was rarely in the power of his adversaries, mighty as they were, to beat him from the field. His eloquence, occasionally rapid, electric, vehement, was always chaste, winning, and persuasive; not awing into acquiescence, but arguing into conviction. His understanding was bold and comprehensive; nothing seemed too remote for its reach, or too large for its grasp. Unallured by dissipation, and unswayed by pleasure, he never sacrificed the national treasure to the one, nor the national interest to the other. To his unswerving integrity, the most authentic of all testimony is to be found in that unbounded public confidence which followed him throughout the whole of his political career. Of this part of his character a finer eulogium could not be passed than that which was pronounced by his great political opponent, Mr. Fox, in the House of Commons, on the motion respecting the erection of a monument to his memory, which came on to be debated on the 27th of July, 1806. But,' said Mr. Fox, when I see a minister who has been in office above twenty years, with the full command of places and public money, without any peculiar extravagance and waste, except what might be expected from the carelessness that, perhaps, necessarily arose from the multiplicity of duties to which the attention of a man, in such a situation, must be directed; when I see a minister under such circumstances using his influence, neither to enrich himself, nor those with whom he is by family ties more peculiarly concerned-it is impossible for me not to conclude that this man is disinterested.' To the disgrace of Mr. Fox, however, be it recorded, that he voted against the erection of a monument to a man, who, whatever might have been his political transgressions in the opinion of Mr. Fox, yet whose name will stand imperishable in the annals of his country as one of the most illustrious of its statesmen. The opposition which was shown to this measure by the party of Mr. Fox, was considered by the majority of the English people as captious and pitiful-but it must be remembered, that the memory of his great name depends not on the records of a British House of Commons, for long after they shall have been annihilated, when the constitution itself shall no longer exist, nay, when the venerable pile which contains his sacred ashes shall be crumbled into dust, the immortal name of Pitt will be found in the history of the world, when his great character will receive that justice which is due to his transcendent virtues and abilities. The death of Mr. Pitt brought Mr. Fox again into office, but his accession to power, whatever hopes it might have excited in political party, or in the great body of the nation, was a circumstance pregnant to himself with inconvenience and danger. In a life of retirement, which, comparatively speaking at least, he might be said to enjoy, before his summons to power by the death of his political rival, the consequences of his youthful eccentricities were capable of being palliated by cautious attention and remedial applications. But on his advance to office, the perplexities of intrigue, the collision of claims, the chagrin of submitting to arrangements which he most desired to preclude, but which it seemed requisite to adopt, the prolonged contests in parliament, the frequent summonses to council, and even the very convivialities. with which it was thought expedient to celebrate and cement a new administration, were but ill calculated for the preservation of that health, which was now more than ever desirable, |