islands. This decided preference of national glory to mere acquisition of wealth or territory, may be considered as the key-stone which supported the whole fabric of his political opinions. "The part which he took on a subsequent question exposed him to much temporary unpopularity. In the prosecution of the inquiry which the house of commons instituted on the subject of the Scheldt expedition, Mr. Yorke thought it necessary to move daily the standing order for excluding strangers. This measure was reprobated by Mr. Sheridan, who proposed that the standing or I der should be referred to a committee of privileges. Mr. Windham, who had always professed to dislike the custom of reporting debates in the newspapers, not only warmly opposed Mr. Sheridan's motion, but used some expressions by which the reporters in the gallery considered themselves to be personally calumniated. Their resentment, as might be expected, broke forth in daily attacks on him in the public prints; and they soon came to a formal agreement that his speeches should no longer be reported. For these marks of vengeance, Mr.Windham had fully prepared himself, and he imputed no blame to those who inflicted them. To the honour of the conductors of the daily press, it should be remembered that a few months afterwards, they buried their resentments in the grave of their illustrious adversary, and joined with the public voice in lamenting the loss of his talents and virtues.. "By the temporary exclusion of Mr. Windham's speeches from the newspapers, some valuable ones have been wholly lost, while of others there have been preserved only a few slight and unsatisfactory fragments. Only one, and that a very short one, remains entire, namely, his eulogium on the character and conduct of the Roman Catholics of England. From that body (whose claims, it will be remembered, received his warm support in 1790) he now presented two petitions, praying, in loyal and respectful language, for the removal of the pains and disabilities to which they were liable by law, on account of their religious principles. Mr. Windham's speech on this occasion was preserved by Mr. Butler of Lincoln's Inn, in a late valuable publication, and has been obligingly communicated by him to the author of this narrative. "Another speech, which he made in support of Lord Porchester's motion, censuring the expedition against the Scheldt, is represented by those who heard it, to have been one of the most eloquent ever delivered in parliament. It arrested and fully recompensed the attention of the house for nearly two hours. He was urged by some of his friends to prepare it for publication in the form of a pamphlet, but his answer was, that as the subject was temporary, so was the speech, and he felt no anxiety to preserve it. A short and imperfect report of it was given some time afterwards in one of the newspapers, and will be found in the ensuing collection. On the result of the inquiry, the ministers were successful by a majority of forty votes. "In the proceedings of the house of commons against Sir Francis Burdett, for a breach of their privileges, Mr. Windham stood forward in maintaining what he conceived to be the rights of parliament, and concurred in the vote which was finally agreed upon, for committing Sir Francis a prisoner to the Tower. His speech on this occasion is said to have been a highly animated one, but no part of it has been preserved. "The practice of mutilating the printed reports of parliamentary proceedings continued but for little more than two months; after which Mr. Windham's speeches were again suffered to appear, as well as Mr. Tierney's, which had shared in the proscription made by the reporters. On the 1st of May 1810, we find Mr. Windham opposing the second reading of a bill which had been brought in by Sir Samuel Romilly, as part of his plan for reducing the number of capital punishments. This Mr. Windham considered as a measure of dangerous innovation, and in resisting it, he took occasion to avow his belief that the mischievous effects of the French Revolution had not yet ceased. That revolution, he said, had still an existence. it was above us, and beneath us;-it was without us and within us ;-it was every where round about us.' The bill was lost bya majority of two. "He spoke for the last time in the house of commons, on the 11th of May 1910. The question before the house was, the course which it would be expedient to take in relation to the actions which had been brought against the speaker aud the serjeant at arms by Sir Francis Burdett. Mr.Windham, it will be readily conceived, asserted the dignity of parliament, and the sacredness of its privileges. as "A painful narrative remains to be related. The calamitous event which caused Mr. Windham's last illness took place a few months previous to the period down to which the circumstances of his political life have just been carried. It was about midnight on the 8th of July 1809, that in walking home from an evening party, he observed a house in Conduit-street to be on fire. He hastened to the spot, to render his assistance, and found that the house in flames was so near to that of his friend, the Honourable Frederick North, as to threaten its destruction. Knowing that Mr. North (who was then on a voyage in the Mediterranean) possessed a most valuable library, Mr. Windham determined, with the assistance of some persons belonging to a volunteer corps, whom he selected from the crowd, to make an effort for the preservation of it. After four hours labour, four-fifths of the books were saved. He did not quit the house till the flames, which finally consumed it, had spread so extensively as to render his further exertions highly dangerous. During the time that he was employed in this arduous undertaking, it happened most unfortunately, that, by a fall, he received a blow on the hip, but not of so painful a nature as to occasion any relaxation of his efforts. The next day the author of this narrative called on him, and found him complaining, not of the hurt he had received, but of a cold which was the consequence of his exposure to the weather, the night having been very rainy. He seemed to enjoy the whimsical association in the newspapers of Mr. Windham and the volunteers,' but lamented that two of the persons who had assisted him had received considerable injury. To those unfortunate persons (one of whom afterwards died) he shewed the most kind and unremitting attentions. His cold continued to be very troublesome to him for some time, but from the blow on his hip, he, for many months, appeared to suffer suffer no inconvenience whatever, though it occasioned a tumour which, in the following spring, had increased to a considerable size. "In May 1810, Mr. Windham found it necessary to give his serious attention to the tumour which had been thus collected. Mr. Cline (hom he had consulted upon it two months before) gave it as his opinion, that, in order to prevent dangerous consequences, an immediate operation was necessary;-and his advice was confirmed by that of four out of six eminent surgeons whom Mr. Windham separately consulted. The two who thought that an operation was not required were, Mr. Wilson, the anatomical lecturer, and Mr. Phillips, of PallMall, Dr. Blane (Mr. Windham's own physician) and Dr. Baillie coincided in opinion with the majority of the surgeons, so that, in fact, seven out of nine professional men recommended the operation. It is not at all surprising, therefore, that Mr. Windham, whose courage was on all'occasions remarkable, should have determined on submitting at once to the dangers of the knife, rather than linger on in doubt and apprehension. Before his decision was acted upon, he took pains to inform himself concerning some cases of persons who had died under operations or from the effects of them; and he requetsed this writer to make a particular inquiry respecting an instance supposed to be of the latter kind, which had recently occurred in Norfolk. He communicated bis intention to very few persons, besides the professional men whom he had consulted; and the deepest anxiety with which he seemed to be impressed, was that of sparing Mrs. Windham the terrors which a knowledge of the event could not fail to excite in a mind of extraordinary sensibility and tenderness. He conveyed her to Beaconsfield, on a visit to her friend Mrs. Burke, with whom he left her, on a plea of business, and arrived in town on Friday the 11th of May. On the following Sunday, he attended at the Charter-house, and received the sacrament, which was administered to him privately by the reverend Dr. Fisher, the master of that institution, with whom he had been intimately acquainted from his youth. The remaining days before the operation was to take place he employed in arranging papers, in making a codicil to his will, and in writing many letters, some of which were addressed to his nearest relatives, to be opened in case the event should prove fatal to him. The following letter has been obligingly communicated to the author by Colonel Harvey, of Catton, in Norfolk, to whom Mr. Windham addressed it the day before he underwent the operation. It contains an allusion, as the reader will perceive, to the question of parliamentary reform, which was intended to be brought forward in the house of commons in the course of a few days. "Dear Sir, "Pall Mall, May 16, 1810. folly now or in any subsequent year, there is an end, be assured, of the stability of this constitution, and we shall fall from confusion to confusion till we are either sunk into complete revolutionary anarchy, or are settled under Buonaparté. We shall probably enjoy the blessings of both; and after the taste of the former, namely of republican and revolutionary anarchy, or government as they will call it, there are many who will think even a government like Buonaparté's a blessing. "These are my first sentiments; -I may also say my last and dying sentiments, for though the operation itself which I am about to submit to, is not a dangerous one, there cannot be so great pain as must I fear be gone through, without some danger. It is, as far as I should collect, something of the same sort as that which poor Jobs Gurney underwent and fell a victim to. "I had thought, at one time to defer it till I might have entered my last protest against such madness, and have tried what I could do to satisfy men's minds that it was madness. But I found so long a delay could not be incurred; so I must only hope the best for the country and for myself. Yours, dear Sir, with great truth, &c. &c. W. WINDHAM." "On Thursday, the 17th of May 1810, the operation was performed by Mr. Lynn, in the presence of Dr. Blanc, Mr. Home, and Mr. Pilliner, Mr. Windham's apothecary, The tumour was skilfully extracted, but having been very deeply seated, and attached to the ligaments of the hip joint, the operation was necessarily painful. Mr. Windham, however, bore the pain with the greatest resolution; and during a pause, occasioned by a consultation upon the necessity of making a further incision, he even joked with his perilous situation. The tumour proved to be schirrous, of the shape of a turkey's egg, but even larger. The successful performance of the operation was immediately announced to Mr. Windham's intimate friends by Mr. Edmund Byng (Mrs. Windham's nephew), of whose friendly offices he had taken the precaution to avail himself. Mrs. Windham, according to an arrangement which he had previously made, returned to town the next morning, and was informed of what had taken place. For a few days, appearances were not unfavourable, though the wound did not heal with what is called the first intention, and though Mr. Windham suffered greatly from, restlessness and an irritable state of the nerves. But the hopes even of his most sanguine friends, soon began to give way. A symptomatic fever came on, and upon the ninth day he was pronounced to be in great danger. On the following day the symptoms were judged to be less unfavourable, but others of an alarming kind soon succeeded, and the medical attendants (to whom were now added Dr. Baillie and Sir Henry Halford) no longer entertained hopes of his recovery. From this time, the fever abated, the pulse became firmer and better, and the patient even began to take and enjoy nourishment; yet in spite of these otherwise flattering circumstances, the state of the wound, which had never suppurated, and the total inability of nature to make any effort towards relieving it, were ymptoms that excited no feelings but those of despair. Mr. Windham himself considered his case to be hopeless very soon after the performance of the operation, and when when, at a later period, the attending surgeon, availing himself of some favourable circumstances, endeavoured to impress him with a less gloomy opinion, he said, Mr. Lynn, you fight the battle well, but all won't do. He perfectly well knew the feebleness of his own constitution. Though he had possessed great muscular strength, and had lived a life of temperance and activity, he had never overcome the internal debility left by the fever which had attacked him at the age of twenty-eight. The complaint too, affecting his hip, which he had laboured under in the autumn of 1808, has been supposed to be materially connected with that from which he was now suffering. So slight a contusion as that which he had received, could not have caused such disastrous effects, had it not met with a frame and constitution previously disposed to produce them. "While he lay in this hopeless condition, nothing could exceed the concern which was expressed by almost all classes of the inhabitants of London; nor was this sentiment narrowed by party feelings, for every man who spoke of him seemed to be his friend. From the commencement of his illness, the number of anxious inquirers who had thronged the door to obtain a sight of the daily reports of the physicians, would almost be thought incredible. The watchful solicitude of his professional attendants ought not to pass unnoticed; and in inentioning the unceasing anxiety of personal friends, it would be unpardonable to omit the names of Lord Fitzwilliam and Mr. Elliot. The latter was the kind and soothing companion of the sick chamber. It is gratifying to add, that, among those who shared in these feelings, was his majesty, who took every oppor tunity of making inquiries of the physicians concerning the progress of Mr. Windham's illness, pronouncing him (as he had done on a former occasion) to be a 'real patriot and a truly honest man.' "On the 26th of May, notwithstanding his debility, Mr. Windham was able to maintain a long conference with his nephew, Mr. Robert Lukin, during which he expressed himself on many topics with his usual felicity and spirit. Upon this occasion he pointed out to Mr. Lukin his mathematical manuscripts, explained generally the nature and object of them, and expressed his wish that they might be carefully examined, with a view to ascertain whether some parts of them might not be found worth preserving. "On Sunday, the 3d of June, his dissolution appeared to be fast approaching. It was on the evening of that day that the physicians and surgeons assembled in his chamber for the last time. Soon after they had left it, I had an afflicting opportunity of witnessing his dying condition, in which, however, none of the terrors and few even of the milder signs of death were visible. Though his articulation was a little imperfect, his voice was not deficient in strength; and though his countenance was slightly altered, it retained much of its peculiar animation. He was evidently free from pain, and cheered by feelings of tranquil resignation. During about twenty minutes, he spoke many times, not without vivacity, and when I was about to leave the chamber, he pressed my hand with a degree of firmness which seemed at variance with the intimation which he too plainly meant to convey to me-that I should see him no more. It was about half past ten o'clock when I left him, and after |