Life of Mr. Perceval. It was observed on one occasion in the House of Commons, that there was indeed something of a trick-a contradiction of the appearance and reality, in a certain measure under debate. But it was argued, that its speciousness would operate a useful delusion. Mr. Perceval objected to this reasoning; that in political dealing, and in private dealing, he hated any thing that had the air of a trick, and that truth and directness were the best means to every useful end. Upon another occasion Mr. Per ceval seems to have acted peculiarly upon his own moral feelings; he stated, in Parliament, his full conviction that something ought to be 'done by the legislature to amend and alter the law, as it now stood, relative to adultery; and although a former motion to that effect had miscarried, he was well assured that the fate of the bill which had been proposed had given great concern to many serious and thinking persons who had turned their thoughts to the subject. It is indeed to be lamented, that something should not be done to protect the happiness of private life. It seems incomprehensible to a man of ordinary reason, that a crime, which is so productive of injury, should be considered only as one of those breaches of morality which concern rather the pulpit than the legislature. When Mr. Perceval entered parliament, he deemed himself to have entered upon a course of arduous duty, and such as required au intimate knowledge of every branch of the administration. Mr. Perceval, therefore, made it his study through all its detail; and, perhaps, no member (with the exception of the late Mr. Burke) ever sat in that House who had obtained that knowledge so early in life; and having obtained that knowledge, he employed it more for the public good than for any personal purposes. He was particularly eloquent in supporting the Bill for correcting abuses in the Navy; and when he afterwards became the head of an administration himself, no one did more, though with little ostentation, to reform, purify, and methodise, the practice of the offices. This was an effort of as much delicacy, and even danger, as of virtue and duty. It is unnecessary to mention, that the disease of the time is an excessive propensity to innnovation. Under such circumstances, the im plied acknowledgment of the existence of gross abuses, in the attempt to amend them, is a dangerous concession to the spirit of the day, and that hand must have more than common vigour, which, in the resolution of going so far, can stop itself, however impelled forwards, at the precise point. It is unhappily within the experience of the present day, that empires have been overtured by the effects even of the public spirit, and indulgent attempts of amelioration and change by their sovereigns and ministers, The origin of the French revolution was in the unseasonable reforms of Mr. Neckar, and in the precipitate goodness of Louis the Sixteenth. The Emperor Joseph lost the Netherlands in his attempts to divest their administration and constitution of the old esta Life of Mr. Perceval. blishments. It is therefore no small merit in the conduct of Mr. Perceval, that he preserved his footing even on this slippery soil; and that in removing what was rotten, and substituting what was sound, he did not bring the fabric about his ears. This was a merit no less of his virtue than of his wisdom-inasmuch as, by such gradual and temperate, amendments, he fulfilled every purpose of the public good, whiist, at the same time, he missed that popularity which a more ostentatious innovation would have procured. It would be unseemly, perhaps, to say, in a discourse of this nature, how much he differed, in this respect, from many other public men, who, in order to obtain an accession to their own popular reputation, and to strengthen themselves by popular influence, have filled our statute books with many specious, many rugatory, and many mischievous acts. Mr. Perceval had too much candour in his character, to give into any thing which he considered as a trick. It was one of his principles, as it was of the late Mr. Pitt, and of Lord Chatham, his father, that it was better to govern the people by their reason than by their errors; and that truth and honesty, and straight forwardness, were the best and safest policy. Mr. Perceval first appeared in opposition, on the occasion of Mr. Fox and Lord Grenville becoming the ministers upon the death of Pitt. I meddle not with the political questions, and different and contrary views of policy, which perhaps honestly divide the country; it is sufficient to the present subject to mention, that the conduct of Mr. Perceval in opposition was animated without asperity-earnest without ostentation-and attached to his own party, without an indiscriminate contention with his . adversaries. Upon the ministry of 1806 quitting office, which they did upon the special and personal repuguance of the King to some latitudinary concessions to the Catholics, Mr. Ferceval became Chancellor of the Exchequer, and therein, I might say, the first minister in Europe; at a time when Europe had no hope but in the ability of the English cabinet, and at a time when' a powerful party had sufficiently seated itself in government influence and connection, as to be enabled, by the oper ation of mere gratitude and decent returns for favours bestowed, to ar ray the influence of the crown against itself, and to oppose and impede ministry with weapons taken from its own armoury. We may all remember the time when the kingdom feared that it had passed into good-intentioned, but insufficient hands. The country, however, supported the man of the king's choice, and it was soon seen that his abilities were not unequal to the perils and difficulties of his station. He rose to the level of his duties and occasions. He called a new parliament-restored to the crown what belonged to it, and what, whatever may be its origin, or present shape, must so long continue to be necessary to it, as, in the private influence of families and individuals, it has to oppose and to keep its balance against an equivalent counter-weight. Life of Mr. Perceval. Having thus briefly narrated his rise to that eminent station which he filled so beneficially for his country, it remains only to give a brief summary of his general character, as exhibited in public and private life, and therein to enumerate some of those virtues which rendered him the bright example of his times, and which, investing a private individual, as it were, with a national character, have caused him to be honoured, wept, and mourned, as if with a family feeling, by a nation. Of his piety towards God, the spring of all other graces and virtues, it may be truly said, that it was sincere with modesty, and fervent without irregularity. It was not that enthusiasm which is kindled only on occasions, and burns with an unsteady ardour: it was not a thing of passion, or mere feeling, but a principle actuating the whole mass of the man, and diffusing a regular piety, and eutire devotion, throughout all his thoughts and actions. Above all, his religion was principally exemplified in the due care and government of his whole life; in exercising himself continually to have a conscience void of offence towards God and towards men. His conversation was affable and pleasant, easing the burthen of a full mind; and it was its rare perfection that it always disclosed the heart, and developed the man. He had a wonderful serenity of mind ́and evenness of temper, cousidering the great affairs in which he was engaged. He was hardly every merry, but always cheerful, and after a long and intimate acquaintance with him, he was upon all occasions and accidents perpetually the same. He was a friend and contributor to all those charities which had for their object the improvement of the condition of men, and the alleviation of their calamities. He was particularly a friend to the education of the poor, and to all those societies and schemes for instruction, which, by being brought under the controul of the church or the magistrate, did not inculcate any new fancies, dangerous either to our civil or eccle ́siastical establishments. He knew that the rudiments of Christianity were the best preparation for the cival man; and that it was peculiarly his duty, as a public officer, to carry discretion even in his charities, and prudence in his feelings. He assisted, likewise, in the propagation of Christianity, by a diffusion of the holy Scriptures: and in the change which he recently made, or rather contemplated, in the charter of a great body, it was his intention to have opened the most fertile part of the globe, not merely to 'the trade, but to the religion and morality of Europe. He never adinitted, for a moment, the principle, that the interests of commerce were to be preferred to the interests of religion; and that a Pagan and barbarous people were not to be civilized and christianized, least they should become more difficult to be governed, and less lucrative to their masters. He regarded religion and morality as positive goods, which It becanie him to communicate; with prudence aud reason indeed, bat Life of Mr. Perceval. certainly not to withhold them, under any apprehension of the public evils of innovation. If such introduction of the Christian religion into the East would introduce a new state of things, and a new condition of many millions of subjects, the superior reason and superior force of this country were still at hand to meet and provide for such new relations. It is, indeed, a sacred truth, that religion will both stand and proceed without our aid; but it is no less our duty to second the will and hand of Providence, and by becoming direct and voluntary, and not blind and compulsory instruments, to have the merit with our Almighty Father of discharging our duty, and doing and conveying good to all men. He extended his love of religion and virtue, of piety and goodness, to the love of the persons of good men, and to an anxious sympathy and effort in their fortunes and conditions. This was more particularly exhibited in the manner in which he distributed his church patronage. The duties of one of the offices which he held, and which has erroneously been termed a sinecure, consisted, principally, in the distribution. of church preferment. And by virtue of this office, moreover, he deemed it to be particularly incumbent upon him to protect and encourage the clergy. Nor was this protection of a merely general kind; it extended to their families, and be frequently relieved a virtuous clergyman, by providing for such of his family as had attained to sufficient years. Some of them he put into the offices of government; others he sent to the colonies: others he assisted even with money from his own funds. To such as applied to him for relief there was usually but one question-is he a young man of integrity and industry; is he of a good stock-by which he intended not the splendour of birth, for'tune, or political influence, but the piety, the industry in good-doing, and the honest reputation of the father. There is no one, therefore, to whom the clergy are more indebted than to this excellent man. In times of scoff and jeering, in the days of the modern philosophy, he stood forth with a hand and countenance to cheer and support the preachers and advocates of our holy religion; and he lived with such virtue and simplicity as to prove that his profession was his faith, and that he profoundly believed, and most firmly hoped, in the truths which he seconded. Nor shall his belief or his hope deceive him; he shall receive that exceeding great reward which is prepared for the just made perfect; and having acknowledged his Almighty Father, and laboured in his service here, he shall be acknowledged by him, and receive his due reward where he is now gone. In this summary of his character, it would be unpardonable to pass. over the honourable abstinence in which he exercised that general patronage which belonged to his station. It is pardonable, perhaps, bècause it is natural for a man in high office to distribute some of the most lucrative appointments amongst his own family and immediate relatives Life of Mr. Perceval. and dependants, Such a preference is only culpable when it is made at the expence of the public good, by the preferment of insufficient men to important trusts or offices, or when it alienates the public means of rewarding merit and services into hands which are useless or worthless. Mr. Perceval, however, could fall under no imputation of this kind. No one in this respect was less benefited by his being in the family of Mr. Perceval. He appears to have observed in this respect a most important maxim; that the reputation of a minister for public spirit and disinte restedness was one of the most efficient means of enabling him to do good, and that therefore the public service would suffer in any suspicion of a contrary nature which should attach to his person; that it became him to cultivate this reputation in a most especial manner, and thus to meet the popular propensity of suspicion by a greater purity both of conduct and appearance. Having now spoken suficiently of his virtues, I shall conclude with a few brief observations upon his talents. ་ ་ The mere existence of talents, indeed, can make no part of a man' merit; but in the right use of them, they are, undoubtedly, the instruments of great virtues. A perfect reputation, therefore, is the concur→ rent fruit of great talents virtuously employed. Mr. Perceval, as I have before observed, succeeded to the public principles of the man to whom this kingdom is indebted for its safety and glory. He walked stedfastly in the line of political conduct which this great man pointed out. Mr. Pitt, a naine of which even the pulpit may speak with warmth, bad two prominent principles in his administration of public affairs; the one, the rigid and inflexible maintenance of the union of church and state; the other, the support of that public system amongst the European states, by which for so many ages they have been bound together in one community, and the effect of which was to unite them all in the support of the establishment of each. Mr. Perceval acted upon both these principles through the whole course of his administration. It is certainly not a sound principle either of religion or wisdom to assume success as an undoubted proof of merit or virtue. The battle is not alwasy to the strong, nor success to the wise. Human affairs are not, however, so wholly under the direction of chance, as in a long course of action to sever the natural affinity of cause and effect. In the computation, therefore, even of personal merit, what is termed fortune is not to be put entirely out of view. A long course of success, therefore, may be undoubtedly taken as no inconsiderable argument of well-planned measures, and of well-executed counsels. It was another unequivocal excellence in the mind of Mr. Perceval, that the mildness and moderation of his temper were carried into his actions and pursuits; and that even in the mid careeer of fortune and success, he could stop at the point of prudence and safety. Here again |