To a

tion, their indecisive conduct,—their mistaken lenity; and attributed, in a great measure, all the miscarriages that had hitherto happened to a want of firmness, alacrity, and information. To soften this direct charge against the puppets in power, he attributed our disappointments more to wrong information than any thing else, and congratulated the house on the conversion of administration. In fine, he predicted two things that our arms would in the end prove victorious, perhaps without much bloodshed; but whether or not, they would prove victorious: the inevitable consequence of which would be, the obtaining a revenue towards easing the heavy burdens borne by the people of this country. "Mr Ellis," this writer continues, "as a parliamentary speaker, is certainly very able. He is well-acquainted with men and books, practice and speculation. Long trained to business, and the various details of almost every official board, he speaks on every subject connected with them with perspicuity, confidence, and precision. Few persons, if any in the house, either in or out of administration, can venture to contend with him in this line with any prospect of success. sound native understanding, he has united a close and judicious attention to business; the result of which is, that he is one of the best-informed men in the house of commons. His oratory is not shining or brilliant, but his discourses are all regular, correct, and finished. He delivers himself in the language of a gentleman and a scholar, and with an elegance and conciseness equalled by few, and surpassed scarcely by any. He never fails to close his speeches by proving his arguments on the clearest principles of logical deduction, allowing his facts to be true. In fine, he is no less dexterous at demolishing the arguments of his opponents, than in raising and judiciously constructing his own. On the other hand, when hard pressed, he suits himself to his situation; and is as ingenious in evading, palliating, explaining away, and straining precedents, as he is at other times persuasive, logical, and convincing. He then learns to magnify trifles, and trace similitudes where there never existed a likeness. He can promise, because he is not responsible; he can venture to predict, because he does not pretend to inspiration. He may deny, or assert, when the proofs are not within reach. On the whole, though he is one of the ablest speakers administration have to boast of, and much the ablest support they have in the moment of difficulty, yet he has a certain finicalness in his voice and manner, which is no less fatal to his pretensions to the rank of a first-rate energetic orator, than the necessity arising from his political views, emoluments, and pursuits, is often to his arguments, deductions, and abstract definitions." By another writer his oratory has been described "as a stream that flowed so smoothly, and was at the same time so shallow, that it seemed to design to let every pebble it passed over be distinguished." His manners, the same writer describes as so courteous, that "had he been a hermit, he would have bowed to a cock-sparrow."

In 1782 he took the colonial secretaryship at the king's express desire, but soon afterwards again resigned office. He supported the coalition ministry against Pitt until 1793, when he saw it convenient to secede from the opposition. Next year he was raised to the peerage by the title of Mendip. From this period he mixed little in public life. His lordship died without issue on the 2d of February, 1802.

Petty, Marquess of Lansdowne.

BORN A. D. 1737.—died a. d. 1805.

THE greater portion of this nobleman's political life was spent in the period we are now treating of, while earl of Shelburne. He had withdrawn from public life for some years previous to the French revolution, and although that crisis drew him from his retirement, and he saw it to be his duty to support the Fox party, yet he took no active lead in any of the measures of the day.

William Fitzmaurice Petty was the elder son of Baron Wycombe. He entered the guards in early life, and served some time abroad as a volunteer under the duke of Brunswick. At the termination of the seven years' war he returned to England, and was appointed aid-decamp to George III. in 1760. In the following year he entered parliament as representative for Chipping-Wycombe; and in the course of the same year took his seat in the house of peers on succeeding to his father's title of earl of Shelburne.

Lord Shelburne strenuously opposed the treaty of peace of 1762; and was rewarded for his exertions by the presidency of the board of trade, and a seat in the privy-council. Soon afterwards, however, he threw up his appointments, and joined himself to Pitt's party.

"We find Lord Shelburne in the cabinet as one of Lord Chatham's secretaries of state, in the spring of 1767, when the American port-duties were devised elsewhere, but publicly supported by a faithless chancellor of the exchequer,' contrary to the sentiments of his colleagues in office This," continues a contemporary of these transactions, "is the prevailing opinion: he is not forthcoming to answer for himself; but as no man who knew him entertains a single doubt of his unbounded ambition, his versatility and want of system, charity obliges, and common sense urges us to suppose, that the duke of Grafton, and the lords Chatham, Shelburne, and Camden, be their faults what they may in other respects, would hardly have consented to a measure which would at once have emptied them of every pretension to public virtue or political value, if they had not been compelled by a power greater or as great as the king himself. Lord Shelburne, therefore, we may presume, pushed on by this sovereign irresistible momentum, gave way; the consequence of which was, that we were presented with that famous law for laying duties on tea, paper, painters' colours, and glass. The administration we have just been speaking of, the blackest and the most destructive this nation ever saw, was in its dissolution no less extraor dinary than in its formation. It was no sooner imbodied than its ruin was determined. The noble lord who was at the head of it, lost his senses, as well as his health and popularity. The chancellor of the exchequer, who always hated, envied, and feared him, profited of the glorious opportunity: he sowed, with the most wicked and able malignity, jealousies and animosities, that became impossible to cure or remove. He paid his court alternately in the closet, and to the house of

Charles Townshend.

Lord Chatham.

Charles Townshend.

Bedford: and when he had rendered every man in the cabinet hateful to the public, contemptible at the council-table, and despicable in parliament, he then rendered them hateful and despicable to each other. The last act of his life, more immediately relating to the noble lord who is the subject of this article, will serve as a specimen of the manner those mere ministerial phantoms, as they passed in succession, were treated and dismissed. In the summer of 1767 the views of France upon Corsica became too apparent to be longer permitted with indifference by an English administration. Lord Shelburne, as secretary of state for the southern department, with the approbation of the other members of the cabinet, gave instructions to our minister at the French court to remonstrate against the measure of making a conquest of Corsica. Choiseul-who knew the imbecility of those ministerial shadows that then occupied the several responsible offices of the state-treated the remonstrance with the contempt that was natural. The noble lord who made it could not endure this, and instantly, without leave or notice at either side of the water, returned to England. What was the consequence? The French ambassador here received the fullest assurances-and from an authority that could not be questioned-that Lord Shelburne acted entirely on his own head. The remonstrance was disclaimed by the other members of administration; his lordship was dismissed, and the very person who remonstrated appointed secretary of

state.

"His lordship from that instant commenced a violent partisan against the measures of the court, and on many occasions has proved a very powerful adversary. He joined the minister in the measure of new modelling the East India company, and some other matters of less consequence, which has given rise to several reports of his again returning into office, under the present court-system. This, however, can hardly be credited, unless by those who would wish to represent him as one of the most weak, as well as the most unprincipled men that ever appeared upon the public stage.

"His opinions delivered in parliament relative to the unhappy disputes which distract, divide, and indeed threaten the destruction, if not total dissolution, of this once glorious and envied empire, materially correspond, or rather seem to be copied from those avowed by his patron and confidential friend.5 And here we think it a part of our duty to give the fullest testimony in their favour, and at the same time to submit a short sketch of them to our readers. His lordship has uniformlyat least in his parliamentary speeches on the subject-contended for the supreme dominion of this country over all its members and dependencies, as exercised through that true constitutional medium, the exe

cutive power of the state. On this ground he has maintained the pre

rogative of the sovereign respecting the exclusive unconditional right he has to the ordering and directing the military force of the nation under the dernier control of parliament, and the inherent right of the legislature to enact certain laws that shall be binding on all the members of the empire. This general outline will be more fully understood by the following explanation. His lordship thinks that the sovereign of Great Britain may send or order his troops to America or Ireland,

'Lord Rochford.

Lord Chatham.

or withdraw them at pleasure; and that he can no more part with this grand prerogative, notwithstanding any promise, concession, or engagement he may have made, or may hereafter make, than he can with his crown; and that the parliament have a right to pass laws for regulating the commerce of Ireland and America, with all the necessary consequences of enforcing them by establishing courts of admiralty, and creating penalties for their due and just observance. On the other hand he is equally clear, that the parliament have no right to tax unrepresented America; that it is a principle in this constitution, that all its native subjects are entitled to equal privileges, the most important and leading of which is the granting their own money; and that the injustice of robbing the colonists of this sacred and invaluable franchise can only be equalled by the folly, madness, and inexpediency of the attempt.

"His lordship, though a man of strong speculative abilities, was put into offices of great trust much too early. His youth and inexperience were not to be balanced by the mere raw efforts of a natural good understanding. A knowledge of business, and the habits that are acquired by an intimate acquaintance with it, are not to be compensated by any degree of speculative research, however ably or diligently pursued; and we are not backward in declaring this very important truth, that one of the greatest misfortunes of this present reign has been, that boys have been made ministers, and that closet-arrangements have superseded the just pretensions of long experience and official merit. This observation is by no means particularly pointed at the noble lord, nor, if it were, would it be at present properly applied.

His

"His lordship's talents as a parliamentary speaker are well-known. He abounds in information well-worthy the attention of his noble auditory, and of the very ministers whose measures he opposes. speeches bear the appearance of having been studied and arranged previous to their delivery; they are judiciously conceived, sententious, and correct; and never fail of impressing his sentiments in the most pointed and perspicuous manner. His general acquaintance with books, with the political history of Europe, the general interests of commerce, and particularly those of the British empire, are evident proofs of his industry and sound judgment. In fine, he is one of the most useful speakers in the house of lords, on the part of opposition; his absence or defection therefore would, at this important crisis, be most severely felt. On the other hand, his lordship's harangues, though delivered with facility, have too much the appearance of art and study; while his constant appeals to the candour and indulgence of his hearers are evidently mere traps for applause, and by their frequent repetition become tiresome and disgusting."

On the overthrow of the North administration in 1782, and the accession of the marquess of Rockingham to the premiership, Lord Shelburne, who had headed the opposition in the house of lords since the death of Chatham, became secretary of state for foreign affairs, while the home department was confided to Fox. But when, on the death of the marquess, Lord Shelburne was elevated to the premiership, Fox and his most distinguished colleagues threw up their offices, and by coalescing with North, drove Shelburne from office.

After the dissolution of the coalition ministry, Shelburne might have

resumed office, but not the premie.ship. He declined an appointment, but was rewarded for his past services with the titles of Marquess of Lansdowne and Earl of Wycombe. From this period, with the exception already noticed, the marquess retired wholly from public life, and devoted himself to the cultivation of literature and the fine arts, until his death on the 7th of May, 1805.

The marquess was twice married. By his first wife-a daughter of the earl of Granville-he had two sons. By his second-a sister of the earl of Upper Ossory-he had one son, the present marquess.

Fitzroy, Duke of Grafton.

BORN A. D. 1735.-DIED A. D. 1811.

THIS nobleman retired from public life at so early an age, that in his political character he belongs to the period now under consideration He was the son of Lord Augustus Fitzroy, third son of the second duke of Grafton.

In November, 1756, he was appointed a lord of the bedchamber to the prince of Wales; in the same year he took his seat in parliament as member for St Edmundsbury. In 1757 he succeeded to his grandfather's titles, and was called up to the house of lords.

66

Upon the arrangements proposed and carried into execution, under the patronage and interference of the late duke of Cumberland in 1765, commonly called the Rockingham administration, his grace was appointed one of the secretaries of state, and continued in that situation till after the conclusion of the session, when he thought proper to resign about the month of June, 1766. This resignation, or sudden desertion of his friends, is what has puzzled every man, who does not choose to form his opinions on mere popular reports, or party-misrepresentations, originating in vain surmises, in exaggerated anecdotes, or in spleen, disappointment, and personal pique. In this state of indecision we have nothing to do but to report facts, and leave the public to form their conclusions.

"Some time in the course of the session, finding a most formidable opposition to the measures of administration, he lamented its weakness, and said, for his part, he could not think of much longer remaining a member of it; because, with the best dispositions to serve their country, the present ministers every day experienced a want of support both in parliament and elsewhere. He added, though he positively intended to resign, that he would, if called upon again, cheerfully join in any future administration that should be formed upon a larger basis, particularly if a certain great man,' a leading member of the other house, were to be at the head of it. On this open declaration in parliament, two observations were made at the time by a few. In two months after, they were repeated with more confidence, and became more gen. erally believed. The first political conjecture was, that his grace had learned that his party had lost their power, and that a change of ministry was soon to take place, in the arrangement of which Mr Pitt was

Mr Pitt.