(which cannot be denied him) is so far from being simple, and is so little softened with moral affections, that I never could find in him any of the elements of heroism, according to my taste. Conceive me to hate Bonaparte as you do, but yet to wish (as I do fervently) for a successful resistance by France to the invasion of the Allies, and you are pretty nearly in possession of all my present politics. Could I make the future to my mind, "sponte meâ componere curas," I would balance the success of the war upon the frontiers of old France very evenly, and would keep up the struggle for power at Paris, between Napoleon and the constitutional party. For that there is something of a conflict and compromise, at the present moment, between the military chiefs and the partisans of civil liberty, seems undeniable; it may last only for the moment; but it is a glimpse of better days. I feel very happy at the distinction conferred on old Lanjuinais; particularly, if it be true, that Bonaparte wished the presidency to be given to that ruffian Merlin de Douay. Though not occupying a place in the foremost rank, Lanjuinais is found at every crisis of the revolution from the meeting of the states-general; ever moderate, rational, and intrepid. What an enviable old age! to have entered on the struggle for public liberty after fifty, to maintain his consistency through all the horrors and all the disappointments of six-and-twenty years, and when at last there comes another snatch of sunshine, to be honoured with the confidence of every one who thinks France still capable of freedom.

My kind compliments to Mrs. Jeffrey.

Ever affectionately yours,

FRA. HORNER,

23*

LETTER CCXXXIX.* TO HIS MOTHER.

My dear Mother,

Winchester, 4th July, 1815.

You

It seems a great while since I wrote to you, and it seems much longer since you wrote to me. have not given me the hearty pleasure of a long letter from yourself, for many a day. I won't pretend to rival the grand-children in your favour; for if that were possible, I would not steal from them any of your partiality, but I am a little inclined to scold you for forgetting the old solitary lawyer. I left town yesterday with Adam, who is remarkably well. From this place we must cross to Bridgewater for the sessions, which fall this time in the second week of the circuit.

We shall therefore miss the assizes in Wiltshire and Dorset, and shall go from Bridgewater to Exeter.

I was much concerned to hear of the death of Mr. Feltes, who seemed to be an amiable young man. The blow to his family is one of the severest that life admits of; the irreparable disappointment of all the hopes that gave enjoyment to their prosperity. How many tragedies of the same sort accompanying the triumph of the last great victory! Some of the deepest are in Scotland. Such as poor Lady Delancy's case. The person I knew best among those who have fallen was Sir William Ponsonby, one of the mildest and gentlest of human beings; but in the field always flaming with enterprise. One of the last times I saw him, and his cousin Frederick Ponsonby, who is also mutilated, I fear for life, by many severe wounds; it was at a dress dinner; they were both covered with orders and medals won in the battles of Spain. Sir William has left a widow and four daughters.

We have lost Jekyll from our circuit; he is made a Master in Chancery by the Regent. The Chancellor delayed the appointment in a manner the most disagreeable to Jekyll's feelings, and then wrote him a very fulsome letter, full of the pleasure he felt in conferring the office upon him.

The Duke of Cumberland's disappointment will give universal satisfaction. Never was the value of general character so proved. This conduct of the House of Commons makes an excellent contrast with their liberality to the Duke of Wellington. The old Queen is said to have been as eager against her son Ernest, as any of us of the opposition, who had an old score against him to pay off; I know that several of her old cats from Windsor were very busy abusing him all Saturday and Sunday.

Good night, my dear mother, and give my affectionate love to my father and all at home.

FRA. HORNER.

LETTER CCXXXIX.** TO THE HON. MRS. WILLIAM SPENCER.

Dear Mrs. Spencer,

Winchester, 7th July, 1815.

I do not much like your account of yourself, though you say you get strength; for sleep and eating are both necessary strengtheners, and you say you can do neither.

I am thrown into very low spirits to-day by hearing of Whitbread's death; I have passed so much of the last nine years of my life near him, that the rupture of this habit merely would be painful to me. But under his rough exterior, there were so many good and so many great qualities, that to the end of my own life I shall ever retain for him a feeling of affection, and much

reverence; he had a manly, large heart, fearless and generous and benevolent. There was an unbred vanity, that gave a look of rudeness to his virtues, and upon a few occasions even misled him into conduct that was not perfectly to be approved of. But there was a more constant magnanimity and justice in all his actions, than will be found in most of his latter contemporaries. He had a genuine admiration of great merit in other men, and passionately loved his country, as he most diligently served it. I have been expecting to hear of his death any day these last three months, though he was going about till the moment he expired; but there were symptoms that, compared with his habit and make, seemed to prognosticate apoplexy for certain.

You must direct your next letter to Bridgewater; for I am going off the circuit to sessions. God bless

Faithfully yours,

you.

FRA. HORNER.

LETTER CCXXXIX.† TO THE DUKE OF SOMERSET.

My dear Lord,

Exeter, 18th July, 1815.

I am much obliged to you for sending me Glasserton's note from Naples.

I knew enough of Mr. Whitbread to respect him and feel attached to him, in spite of his faults of manner; and I regard his loss in the House of Commons as a very serious diminution of the public strength. He was a man of intrepid justice and constancy as a member of parliament; and no one ever loved his country more cordially, or more prided himself in all its honours and glories. He was not qualified in any respect to be a political leader, and he was very far from being well informed either upon the foreign concerns of the coun

try, or thoroughly enlightened in the principles of domestic legislation. But as a single independent commoner, and a watchful guardian of constitutional rights for the people, he displayed, for many years, a force of character as well as talent, that, in the present dearth of men of genius or ascendency in parliament, made him the most conspicuous and the most useful man of his time. He cannot be viewed, properly speaking, as a statesman; but he was the very model of that sort of public man, bred in the House of Commons, and the native growth of that soil, whose proper function is to keep our statesmen to their duty.

No doubt is left as to the nature of the disease which led to his death. Some of those who lived intimately with him, now recall various instances that recently occurred in his conduct of a momentary aberration of mind; and since the examination of the head, I understand the medical people have pronounced, that he must have been soon in violent phrenzy.

I wished much to have been able to offer you a visit at Bulstrode before the circuit, but till the day I left London I was completely occupied. In the course of next month, I look forward to it with much pleasure. I beg to be remembered to the Duchess, and am ever, My dear Lord,

Your Grace's faithful servant,

FRA. HORNER.

LETTER CCXL. TO HENRY HALLAM, ESQ.

My dear Hallam,

Exeter, Saturday, 22d July, 1815.

I am very much afflicted to hear of Rose having had so serious an attack upon his feeble constitution.

William Stewart Rose, Esq.