that he did not affect a democracy. That he always thought any of the fimple, unbalanced governments bad; fimple monarchy, fimple ariftocracy, fimple democracy; he held them all imperfect or vicious: all were bad by themfelves: the compofition alone was good. That these had been always his principles, in which he had agreed with his friend Mr. Burke, of whom he faid many kind and flattering things, which Mr. Burke, I take it for granted, will know himfelf too well, to think he merits, from any thing but Mr. Fox's acknowledged good-nature. Mr. Fox thought, however, that, in many cafes, Mr. Burke was rather carried too far by his hatred to innovation. -Speech on the Army Efimates in 1799.

GRENVILLE, MR.

UNDOUBTEDLY Mr. Grenville was a first-rate figure in this country. With a mafculine understanding, and a ftout and refolute heart, he had an application undiffipated and unwearied. He took public bufinefs, not as a duty which he was to fulfil, but as a pleasure he was to enjoy; and he feemed to have no delight out of this houfe, except in fuch things as fome way related to the bufinefs that was to be done within it. If he was ambitious, I will fay this for him, his ambition was of a noble and generous ftrain. It was to raile himfelf, not by the low pimping politics of a court, but to win his way to power, through the laborious gradations of public fervice; and to fecure to himfelf a well earned raak in parliament, by a thorough knowledge of its conftitution, and a perfect practice in all its bufinefs.

Sir, if fuch a man fell into errors, it must be from defects not intrinfical; they muft be rather fought in the particular habits of his life; which, though they do not alter the ground work of character, yet tinge it with their own hue. He was bred in a profeilion. He was bred to the law, which

is, in my opinion, one of the firft and nobleft of human fciences; a fcience which does more to quicken and invigorate the understanding, than all the other kinds of learning put together; but it is not apt, except in perfons very happily born, to open and to liberalize the mind exactly in the fame proportion. Paffing from that ftudy he did not go very largely into the world; but plunged into bufinefs; I mean into the bufinefs of office; and the limited and fixed methods and forms established there. Much knowledge is to be had undoubtedly in that line; and there is no knowledge which is not valuable. But it may be truly faid, that men too much converfant in office, are rarely minds of remarkable enlargement. Their habits of office are apt to give them a turn to think the fubftance of bufinefs not to be much more important than the forms in which it is conducted. Thefe forms are adapted to ordinary occafions; and therefore perfons who are nurtured in office do admirably well, as long as things go on in their common order; but when the high roads are broken! up, and the waters out, when a new and troubled fcene is opened, and the file affords no precedent, then it is that a greater knowledge of mankind, and a far more extenfive comprehenfion of things is requifite than ever office gave, or than office can ever give. Mr. Grenville thought better of the wisdom and power of human legiflation than in truth it deferves. He conceived, and many conceived along with him, that the flourishing trade of this country was greatly owing to law and inftitution, and not quite fo much to liberty; for but too many are apt to believe regulation to be commerce, and taxes to be revenue. Among regulations, that which flood first in reputation was his idol. I mean the act of navigation. He has often profeffed it to be fo. The policy of that act is, I readily admit, in many refpects well understood. But I do fay, that if the act be fuffered to run the full length of its principle, and

be not changed and modified according to the change of times and the fluctuation of circumítances, it must great mifchief, and frequently even defeat its own purpose. Speech on American Taxation.

do

GRENVILLE (LORD.)

AN able, vigorous, and well-informed ftatefman. Letter to a Noble Lord.

GEORGE III.

His majefty came to the throne of these kingdoms with more advantages than any of his predeceffors fince the revolution. Fourth in defcent, and third in fucceffion of his royal family, even the zealots of hereditary right, in him, faw fomething to flatter their favorite prejudices; and to justify a transfer of their attachments, without a change in their principles. The perfon and caufe of the Pretender were become contemptible; his title difowned throughout Europe, his party difbanded in England. His majefty came indeed to the inheritance of a mighty war; but, victorious in every part of the globe, peace was always in his power, not to negociate, but to dictate. No foreign habitudes or attachments withdrew him from the cultivation of his power at home. His revenue for the civil eftablishment, fixed (as it was then thought) at a large, but definite fum, was ample, without being invidious. His influence, by additions from conqueft, by an augmentation of debt, by an increafe of military and naval establishment, much ftrengthened and extended. And coming to the throne in the prime and full vigour of youth, as from affection there was a ftrong diflike, fo from dread there feemed to be a general averfenefs, from giving any thing like offence to a monarch, against whofe refentment oppofition could not look for a refuge in any fort of reverfionary hope.

H H

The moft ardent lover of his country cannot wish or Great Britain an happier fate than to continue as fhe was then left. A people emulous as we are in affection to our present fovereign, know not how to form a prayer to Heaven for a greater bleffing upon his virtues, or an higher ftate of felicity and glory, than that he fhould live, and should reign, and, when Providence ordains it, fhould die, exactly like his illuftrious predeceffor.- Thoughts on the Caufe of the prefent Difcontents.

HENRY IV. OF FRANCE.

HENRY of Navarre was a resolute, active, and politic prince. He poffeffed, indeed, great humanity and mildnefs; but an humanity and mildness that never flood in the way of his interefts. He never fought to be loved without putting himself firft in a condition to be feared. He used foft language with determined conduct. He afferted and maintained his authority in the grofs, and diftributed his acts of conceffion only in the detail. He fpent the income of his prerogatives nobly; but he took care not to break in upon the capital; never abandoning for a moment any of the claims which he made under the fundamental laws, nor fparing to fhed the blood of those who oppofed him, often in the field, fometimes on the fcaffold. Because he knew how to make his virtues refpected by the ungrateful, he has merited the praises of those whom, if they had lived in his time, he would have fhut up in the Baftile, and brought to punifhment along with the regicides whom he hanged after he had famifhed Paris into a furrender.-Reflections on the Revolution, in France.

HERTZBERG (BARON.)

HERTZBERG, the King of Pruffia's late Minister, is fo much of what is called a philofopher, that he was

of a faction with that fort of politicians in every thing, and in every place. Even when he defends himself from the imputation of giving extravagantly into thefe principles, he ftill confiders the revolution of France as a great public good, by giving credit to their fraudulent declaration of their univerfal benevolence, and love of peace. Nor are his Pruffian Majefty's prefent Miniflers at all difinclined to the fame fyftem. Their oftentatious preamble to certain late edicts, demonftrates (if their actions had not been fufficiently explanatory of their caft of mind) that they are deeply infected with the fame diftemper of dangerous, becaufe plaufible, though trivial, and fhallow fpeculation.- Memorial on the Affairs of France in 1791.

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HOWARD, (MR.)

I CANNOT name this gentleman without remarking, that his labours and writings have done much to open the eyes and hearts of mankind. He has vifited all Europe,-not to furvey the fumptuoufness of palaces, or the ftatelinefs of temples; not to make accurate measurements of the remains of antient grandeur, nor to form a fcale of the curiofity of modern art; nor to colle&t medals, or collate manufcripts:-but to dive into the depth of dungeons; to plunge into the infection of hofpitals; to furvey the manfions of forrow and pain; to take the gage and dimenfions of mifery, depreffion, and contempt; to remember the forgotten, to attend to the neglected, to vifit the forfaken, and to compare and collate the diftreffes of all men in all countries. His plan is original; and it is as full of genius as it is of humanity. It was a voyage of difcovery; a circumnavigation of charity. Already the benefit of his labour is felt more or less in every country: I hope he will anticipate his final reward, by feeing all its effects fully realized in his own. He will receive, not by